Dabbling in Video
Posted by David | Filed under Artwork, Music, My stuff, Video
Christmas toys have given rise to the opportunity to make a few videos to accompany some of my music. Early days of testing the Kodak Zi8. I hope to have some more story driven videos and better recordings come January.
Tags: david michael shanks, HD, lo-fi, Music, nightowlers, Video, Zi8
Digital Dust & Souvenirs of Barefoot
Posted by David | Filed under Music, News
Taken In
from the Boss Tuneage Album Only Souvenirs
While blowing the digital dust of my music library recently, I stumbled across many songs and rarities from my previous punk band Barefoot – songs mostly confined only to memory. I had a great time and a lot of laughs playing, recording, gigging and touring the UK with the Glasgow-based band between 2003 and 2007 .
It was on listening to these songs again recently for the first time in ages, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: band, Barefoot, Barefoot (Glasgow), download, free, free mp3s, Melodic Punk, mp3s, punk, scotland
Spring Clean, Summer Upgrades and Some New Music
Posted by David | Filed under Music, News, Web
Summer is in the air, the ironic melodic synth pop of The Magnetic Fields‘ appropriately titled album Holiday is on the jukebox album and shanx.co.uk is upgraded with a new look.
The summer weather and Norway’s “Light at Night” at 1 in the morning allowed for some outdoor low-fi (because we know no other way) music with Stefan as part of our “David and Me” project. It was a beautiful evening – “one for the mind and not to be recorded” as a wise man once said. We were visited by a curious beaver, some deer, jumping fish, a skunk (we think) and passers by.
Musically speaking for “David and Me”, melody and simplicity take precedence with bedroom noises from melodicas, ukuleles, glockenspiels and rhythm eggs also making appearances. Magnetic fields and Herman Dune are strong influences. Mostly though, the driving force is some sort of ode to our favourite, sadly departed all-too-young St.Thomas. We hope summer will be kind and give us some recordings of our songs to put out. For now, some roughness (we like roughness!)
Sulking
- The Willow Tree -
While on the music front, Billy Spring Band have been busy in the studio recording rough demos for a full 8 or so songs. We have quite a mixture of songs now ranging from a “skrangly” Neil Young rock sound to a smooth jazzy tune all the way to a waltz! Check back here in the upcoming weeks for some rough demos. BSB now have, in addition to our Myspace, an online home with the kind collective of bands @ Snotpope with whom we share practice rooms, studio and equipment. Find it by clicking my banner design below.
Digitally, I’ve been particularly impressed with Wordpress 2.8 publishing platform’s features that make running a blog a LOT easier and much more intuitive. Plugins, themes and widgets can all now be installed and activated directly through the Wordpress Online Site Admin interface. The sidebar widget housing your e.g. Twitter, Flickr and Last.fm feeds can be adjusted seamlessly using drag and drop thanks to AJAX. Gone also are the cumbersome days of downloading your plugins/upgrades as zip files, unpacking them and uploading them via FTP. One standout plugin is the Wordpress InstantUpgrade plugin by Zirona. Once set up, Wordpress is upgradable in one click – no more worries about file permissions or overwriting important files.
Watch this space for more music from David and Me and BSB. And, above all, god sommer!
Tags: Billy Spring Band, David and Me, InstantUpgrade, Music, Outdoor Music, Summer, Upgrade, Wordpress
Billy Spring Band: on Myspace and Demo in the mix
Posted by David | Filed under Music, Personal
Billy Spring Band and we are now active on Myspace! Have a listen and become our friend @ www.myspace.com/billyspringband
We are currently finishing up a 2 song demo that we will be giving away very soon. Just get in touch for a copy and Ill be happy to send you one. The sound is in and around the indie rock/country genres. Possibly somewhere between Neil Young and Bonnie Prince Billy with some special female vocals in there. The 2 demo songs are definitely on our rockier, less laid back side. I play guitar on the tracks and have designed the demo’s artwork. Let us know what you think.
Tags: Artwork, Billy Spring Band, Demo, Myspace
A Sunday Evening Ditty – Reaction to…
Posted by David | Filed under Artwork, Music
“Reaction to the things that have recently come before”
click play below to listen
A short, first-takes, Sunday-evening song
mp3 download
Tags: David Shanks, download, free, mp3, Music, postrock, reaction, Reaction to the things that have recently come before, song
Revivalist Music
Posted by David | Filed under Music, My stuff, Video
I found some videos of my old band Barefoot from Glasgow . Head over to the my music section to check them out. You can also find more Barefoot songs at our Myspace
Tags: band, Barefoot, glasgow, Music, punk, revivalist music, scotland, scottish punk, Video
A new gallery….
Posted by David | Filed under Artwork, Music, Photography
You can peruse my photos in this nifty flash gallery by Airtight. I am now using a new webhost, so will get around to cleaning things up here shortly.
and in the meantime, some good old Scottish indie/folk/miserablism
Foxface – Last Waltz
http://www.myspace.com/thetwilightsad
http://www.myspace.com/frightenedrabbit
David & Johnny Demo Track
Posted by David | Filed under Music, Personal
David & Johnny: The highly original (thus far) name of the acoustic “home studio” project of David Shanks and Johnny Fulton. Hailing from sunny Larne, Northern Ireland and based in Glasgow, Scotland. Lo-fi melodic acoustic. Influences including Iron & Wine, Great Lake Swimmers, Turin Breaks, Bright Eyes, Daniel Johnston, Moutain Goats etc…
Listen to “Please Don’t Die”
(right click and “save target as” to download)
or simply click play below
Please let us know what you think by posting in the comments section at the bottom of this page.
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