I originally wanted to mash "Girls" with "She Said She Said", but it they didn't gel quite like I hoped. So my friend John started messing around with singing Girls to the melody of Taxman and we both decided those were the two that we should use. It was a lot of fun... my voice was froggy for a couple days after all the shouting tracks were done. Anyway, I'm excited to hear the rest of the songs... this contest was a great idea.
On a side note, I was full-time self employed in 2004 for the first time in my life and my taxes this year SUCKED. Actually, they're still sucking. And they will suck until there's nothing more of my money to suck on. So my song is for all the broke ass self employed people that STILL owe the government more of their hard earned cash. Happy listening. :)
CREDITS AND STUFF: The mash up was done at my home studio set up... my friend John from my band (www.thelightboxexhibit.net) helped write the mash up thing and I did the instruments and vocals.
The two samples used:
Beastie: the glockenspiel sample
Beatle: "there's one for you nineteen for me" (in the beginning of the song)
haha. i'm not sure if my crank is turning or not, but it doesn't make me mad or anything. :) my friends tell me my voice reminds them of that guy. didn't think it would come through all the silliness of this song though.
This really is good... but instead of Gin Blossoms dude, I hear Toad The We Sprocket vocals. Not identical by any means, you have a very unique voice.
I like that ya made this song <i><b>totally</b></i> your own and I especially like the switch from laid back to harsh. It's like dressing Barbie up real nice then taking her head to a cheese grater.
Good luck with this song.
~VT
http://www.virgilturtle.com/
thanks... and good ears! i learned to play guitar and sing by learning tunes off of toad the wet sprocket 'dulcinea' when i was growing up. the barbie doll cheese grater part came from my days listening to morbid angel, sepultura, meshuggah and stuff like that. toad and a few other bands kind got me listening to stuff other than metal. never been much of a gin blossoms fan though. glad you like the song!
As a fellow competitor in this contest, I wanted to let you know that I think your song is all-around the best. It has the best production, one of the best ideas, and great execution. Bravo.
I think "Ode to Todd" is my second favorite, partly because he really tipped his hat to Odd Todd's web site in an interesting way.
But if I average out all the categories in my head and put them together, your song comes out on top any way I do it. Plus, it's just fun to listen to. :)
I just thought I'd let you know.
Sincerely,
Ben Travis
("Hey Jude, Fight for Your Right to Party!")
Yeah, I think your song's the best, too. "Ode 2 Todd" then would be second place and "Get Back to Fighting..." would be third. After all this, go out and buy yourself a new guitar--you deserved it.
It actually sounded like you put some decent work into this song. As a starving musician/music teacher myself, i can fully appreciate all that went into this. It actually sounded like "real" music.
Great job guys!
glad you like the song! i do have a couple projects right now...
the one i write and play guitar/sing for is 'The Lightbox Exhibit'. http://thelightboxexhibit.net We're working on a new record right now and hope to finish it this summer. Before that band I released a solo cd you can check out here. http://www.scotthaskitt.com if you're interested in a copy just let me know.
i also play drums for a band called 'the churchills' out of new york. we're releasing a new record in june. that site is http://www.thechurchills.net
Not to fond of the churchill one since your only playing drums. Nothing wrong with drums but I liked the whole piece, vocals and all. I'll probably be getting that CD, I gotta let my girlfriend listen to this, I'm sure she'll love it. I still say your band's and Revolver's piece should be the top two. If you don't mind, please e-mail me if you have the new CD out. Thanks again.
i'm going to put up a few more mp3s of stuff that i've been working on with the lightbox exhibit... i'll email you when that's finished. so glad you liked the song!
Damn man, your song freakin rocks. I can't believe I missed it before. Had to see what all the hubub was aboot. Good shouting tracks, good guitar work, love the drums...will you have my baby or at least be its deadbeat father?
Hey, loved your song! It got my vote hands down (before voting ended that is). But hey, I liked this song so much I was wondering if I could get an mp3 of the full version. Is it online anywhere? I looked at your website and couldn't find it. Let me know if I can get a copy somehow. And, again, great work!
hey... i'll put up a full version of the song at http://www.thelightboxexhibit.net/taxgirls. there you can do the whole right click save target as routine. glad you enjoyed it!
Hey, thanks for letting me know about the direct link - I was totally unaware of it. I just downloaded your song and it's already on my mp3 player! I'm seriously blown away by how good the whole thing sounds; truly professional. Anyhow, thanks again for the heads up about the direct link.
Alright, I erased the first version of this. Starting over...
I got tired of "Uncle My-Hand-Is-Constantly-In-Your-Pocket Sam" and decided to start a corporation about seven or eight years ago. Except for the excessive paperwork burden, it seems to be saving me lots of my hard-earned "mon-AY" (as Todd would say). I did the self-employed thing there for maybe a year and it sucked rocks. You have all these expenses and that 1040 long form pretty much laughs at you.
I can't honestly recommend doing the corporate thing unless you or your wife is an accountant. But if you don't mind something like twenty forms per year as a way of saving some of your money then you might consider it.
Nolo Press has a set of books with titles like "How to Form Your Own California Corporation with Corporate Records Binder & Disk". You buy the book, fill out the forms, drink the Cool-Aid and there you go. The big thing is that the corporation is not taxed on income, it's taxed on profits. And if your money reality is that you are sort of barely making it, then this might be something to consider.
Off topic? Probably, but Scott brought it up and it's apropos of that "Taxman" theme. I was thinking up some new lyrics to Taxman in light of our current country's administration:
I hope you're proud as you can be.
That gas you pump it wasn't free.
Iraqis died repressively
So you could drive that SUV. (Gasman!)
[chorus]
'Cause I'm the Gasman. Yeah, I'm the Gasman!
We wage war so you can drive your SUV.
Don't tell me you don't like this war (Gasman! George Dubbya)
Unless you want to pay some more. (Alaska! Drill it deep!)
You can't have facts and keep the score
If Fox News does what we pay them for. (Gasman!)
[repeat chorus]
If you want your rights, you're S.O.L.
Don't believe in God? Then you go to hell!
If you're Muslim we will make you tell
All your secrets from a prison cell. (Gasman!)
Yeah, I have all kinds of spoof songs like that. I taught Weird Al Yankovich everything he knows.
I had a "sole proprietorship" before the corp. That's what sucked rocks. It means the same this as working for yourself. It doesn't matter if it takes you 50 cents to make a dollar, the IRS taxes you on the dollar. You can deduct some of your expenses but not all of them.
In a corp, the lowest rate (and it's based on profit not income) is 15% and that's a whole lot less than 35% if you're making some money. You'd just wrangle it so that you wouldn't be seen as a "service corporation" since this *is* taxed at 35%.
In an LLC, the income of the corporation flows into the principle's W-2 and sure enough, it's taxed as income. (sad face)
Well, thank you for your encouragement but--as I'm not in the run off competition--for me to win now would take some kind of "Act of Todd" or something.
<<<<<Well, thank you for your encouragement but--as I'm not in the run off competition--for me to win now would take some kind of "Act of Todd" or something.>>>>>
http://www.ChooseOne.com (If you've got IE and can play RealAudio files check out the music thing I added there a couple of days ago. I must have been in a humorous mood--check out the names of the links themselves.)
I do custom software development mostly for financial companies (Schwab, myCFO, Patelco, Nationwide Funds) and schtuff like that. I've got a bank that keeps me fairly busy when I'm not playing the guitar.
I did this same stuff for other companies for years and finally got mad when my boss (V.P.) wouldn't make me Director because of my long hair, presumably. So I gave them the "one finger salute" and started up my own company (I had lined up a good contractor gig before the kiss off). Four years into *that* fulltime consulting gig I dumped them when the angel investor started renegging on some of the pertinent details of the CTO position I was offered there. It was a good time to go anyway, the recent Russian hire was trying to outsource all the engineering positions to Russia and eventually succeeded after I left--go figure.
I'm enjoying myself, working just as much as I want. Got me a datacenter now. I buy used server equipment from dead dot com auctions and do hosting, that sort of stuff. I got an eNom.com reseller agreement going and now have a few hundred domain names registered for peeps.
I'm supposed to be writing an XML interface right now for a smaller client. I guess I'll get on that and finish it up so's I can bill it for this month.
