Two girls. Two mics. By Artist. By Title.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Live & direct Brooklyn-based karaoke

As two south Brooklynites, V & G have often lamented that a quick roke fix always calls for a subway ride into Manhattan. But luckily the calling is usually far stronger than the strain of the subway ride & the destination is always a familiar pleather sectional couch. The only time that The Creators of EO have ever roked in Brooklyn to date was on a stage in the lobby of the Brooklyn Museum, as a part of last February's free First Saturday event. The true anonymous audience live roke hits the self-conscious places that private room experience only toys with, & often returns us to the big wrong questions of who is a real or worthy performer/musician. That said, it's an inevitable curiosity for a frequent roker who has fortified some personal style, which is how we found ourselves chasing words to Since You Been Gone on a screen under bright lights & opposite Eastern Parkway for random Brooklyn families & thankfully a first row filled with our favorite cheerleading friends. We weren't entirely comfortable with the experience, & felt like the Brooklyn bro who rocked an amazing rendition ofShout with a roving performance through the aisles of the folding chairs made us & several singers in the surrounding lineup feel duly sheepish. But the sheer singing & local factor felt appropriate & fun, & something we said we'd repeat with the right variables.

Last week Brooklyn Based published some great preliminary research work for EO's perhaps forthcoming frontier. This wonderful week-round karaoke calendar lists live DJ (or KJ) as well as actually live instrument roke spots - forums that could equally be the apex or beside the point of your personal karaoke career. Depending on the place & crowd, there could be a case for pure audience time & singalong at these events. Stay tuned as EO drags some friends & giggles through some nerves to try out a few of these locations. The Williamsburg spots on the list don't necessarily favor for proximity over our old seated strongholds in Manhattan, but it's quite a well-compiled list that we hope will touch some of our followers.

Thanks Karen A. for the tip to the list.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Happy Birthday Valerie!!! ..and Marcelo.

A dedication! There are only four words in this song & today, insert the name of the greatest friend & karaoke queen, dear Val. Unfortunately the only YouTube video I could find to illustrate this dubs the name "Marcelo" into the fill-in-the-blank portion in a very off pitch, so be sure to sing real loud right there. P.S. Why did someone make this video for Marcelo & did he appreciate it.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Let the choir sing: Boyspeak megamixes Madonna

A great artist & friend of Empty Orchestra will be stealthly operating under generic pop sensation handle "BoySpeak" for edited epics of pop songs amalgamating all the best-worst YouTube covers into one continuous performance. Today BoySpeak gives us Like A Prayer which as we've already discussed is in the top list of borrowed & butchered & celebrated songs by roke patrons. Not far behind are Internet special snowflake performers not limited to do-rag hillbilly, depressed diva, bro jam session, untuned guitar posse. !eNJoY THiS! megamix, & try not to let some of these amazingly self-unaware rising stars in front of the webcam deter you from showcasing your own talent behind the mic.

Follow BoySpeak on Twitter!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Achievement-roke!

Val's middle school students are 1000% roketastic!!! Best use of recess ever!!!!

Congrats Val on being a great roke model to these young minds, hearts, & voices.

Love-to-hate lyrics

Often our first time having to come to terms with what a song is actually describing or espousing or ineffectively rhyming through the tragedies of the English language is in a forum like roke. Here's a great list of lyrically challenged pop melodies, often of the radio overplay variety, Love the song, hate the lyrics from the Onion AV Club, my favorite team of pop crit geeks.

-G