Let's Get It On (Marvin Gaye cover)

This is a mostly shitty one-off I did to check how well my iPhone's camera could do audio, but just for funsies here it is.

Don't Think Twice It's All Right (Bob Dylan cover)

I've been practicing lately exclusively in D-A-D-F#-D-D tuning; the idea is that by restricting myself to an unfamiliar tuning, I will be forced to change my own perspective and find new ways of voicing chords and moving melodies around the neck. On this particular video, I have a capo on the second fret--making this the key of E--mainly to make that Richie Havens thumb wrap fingering of the F#7 on that second fret a little easier on myself. Anyway, there're admittedly a lot of mistakes in this video, but it is what it is and you get the idea blah blah blah...

Couple of VERY old covers from a life ago

The first "video" is a super old--as in, 2004ish--cover I made of one of a long-time FSE of mine: "A Lack of Color" by Death Cab For Cutie. I made it in what used to be my bedroom, which I used to share with Jenny, who used to be my girlfriend, in what used to be the apartment I used to share with my friend Brad while we all used to attend GMU. I don't have a particularly good reason why I've never put it on the net before; nor do I have a particularly good reason why I'm doing so now, other than the fact I'm still kinda proud of the way it sounds.



And this second one is from the same time period: my bedroom-recorded take on "In Circles" by the seminal emo band Sunny Day Real Estate.

If anyone, for whatever reason, would like the actual MP3s of (one or both of) these, for your iPod or whatever, shoot me an email or leave a comment.

Ryan Koriya - Blood Bank (Bon Iver cover)

My friend Kat asked me a while ago--I haven't forgotten!--to work up a cover of this Bon Iver song. With dudes playing it this well on youtube already, I hesitate to fulfill her wish.

I Want You Back (Jackson 5 cover)

This is from this past summer; I'd just purchased a loop sampler pedal for my guitar, and I'd just got the new iPhone, the one that could record video...I'd recorded this for kicks and then forgot it was there.



Goofy, I know...

Adam Temple - Jerusalem (Steve Earle cover)

(Me doing Steve Earle's 2002 song "Jerusalem")

Adam Temple - My Back Pages (Bob Dylan cover)

Yesterday I got a harmonica rack and a couple (G & C) Big River Harps. Two days in, this is my attempt at doing the Bob Dylan tri-fecta...

Adam Temple - Intervention (Arcade Fire cover)

So starting soon, I'll be teaching guitar at this place called Bach 2 Rock. I'm super hyped about the fact that I'll finally be making a living just off of being decent at guitar, and plan on writing up a more detailed post about all that jazz--getting paid to help kids learn cool things again, the unique curriculum, the fantastic wages(!), the cool young bosses, and the perks (can anyone say free studio time?!)--whenever the spirit moves me to do so in the near future. For now, though, this is a video of yours truly playing my own hybrid slack fingerstyle arrangement of "Intervention" by The Arcade Fire in the key of B, or open DADF#BE, tuned back 3 half steps. It's what I played at the interview/audition and what got me the job. Besides my devastating charm and good looks, of course.

Easy Does It

I bumped into last call and didn't get to play but half of my intended setlist at Firehouse Grill tonight. If I'd had the chance, I'd have done this song, "Easy Does It" by the ever fantastic Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, off of his very highly rated 2008 release, Lie Down in the Light. FSE for cereal.



In other entirely true news, I haven't actually said this since 9-12, but: I'm proud to be an American today.

Obama-Biden '08.

Adam Temple - Any Love (Cassandra et Lune) (Ken Stringfellow cover)

I just figured a half-decent (I reckon, at least) version of the FSE I just blogged, (former member of the Posies and R.E.M.) Ken Stringfellow's "Any Love (Cassandra et Lune)". I'm tuned a whole step down (DGCFAD) and playing in the key of C:



What say you??

Adam Temple - Skinny Love (Bon Iver cover)

I've been trying to figure out the correct way to play Bon Iver's "Skinny Love"--my favorite-est favorite song of the year!--and I think today I finally did it. As far as I can tell, Bon's using a really kooky tuning (GCCGCC!) to get his uber-cool acoustic drone going... Here's my attempt:

ZOMGZ, NEW MUSICS!!!!!!!!!!!

Turns out my friend Andrew D. went to film school. And was drunk. Had him use my little digital camera to record a couple jams that Jeremy and I have been playing at the spot for about a week or so...I think they went ok, no?

First one is a Waylon Jennings tune called "Must You Throw Dirt in My Face" in C with me on the 12-string and Jeremy on the Danelectro:





Second one is an original I'm working on in a very rough state where I play in DADF#BE on the Martin and Jeremy jams out on the Danelectro:



Hahaha...I really wish I hadn't broken that string there. Oh well. Well we're trying to come up with a band name...The Peanut Butter Solution? Sneez-It? The Angeldust Zombies?

Any suggestions??

Bored, waiting for the party to arrive.

Apparently me making shitty videos of myself playing acoustic covers will join the Saturday Mix Series as another shittily regular--and regularly shitty--feature on this blog. Deal.



(song is: "Chinese Translation" by M. Ward)

I'm off to do this at Jimmy's...

Go easy on me, ironically I'm kinda drunk--gotta pregame--as I record/post this one...I'm off to play @ Jimmy's, wish me luck.

[*edit: scratch that, the roads are too bad to even try making it to Herndon, let alone navigating back after a night at the bar...next week, then]


(song is: "Hit the Switch" by Bright Eyes)

Oh yea: I suck.

I was bored and hadn't done so in a while so I video-ed myself playing a song...don't laugh. Too hard...


(song is: "I Will Follow You into the Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie)