The Tortured Poets Department ILX Pre-Cover Planning Thread

Ah yes, my bad.

Give me Clara Bow… I just need two weeks to learn how to make music but I think that’s more than enough time.

Hahah do what you must! It's yours. So updating, three left to ask for, a hoy hoy has expressed interest in one of them, so can we have two more folks step up? Or emil.y and one more, maybe?

Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)
* The Tortured Poets Department
* My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
* Down Bad
* So Long, London
* But Daddy I Love Him
* Fresh Out the Slammer
Florida!!! (feat. Florence + the Machine)
Guilty as Sin?
* Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
* I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
* loml
* I Can Do It With a Broken Heart
* The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
* The Alchemy
* Clara Bow

* Bonus Track: The Manuscript

Put me on the reserve bench for if there's any songs left over

Give me Clara Bow… I just need two weeks to learn how to make music but I think that’s more than enough time.

Post of the week.

Gotta embrace the possibility. H.P., got it!

Put me down for Guilty plz

Moka is already dissing the art of Taylor Swift, the beef is real, a feud is coming

Okay all that's left are "Fortnight" and "Florida!!!" -- WHO IS BRAVE ENOUGH TO CLAIM THE DUETS?

maybe we hire a ringer, like Jedward

I nominate Neanderthal to give us a metal epic

LJ lured me here and I just recorded a draft of "Fortnight" (more of a post tonality feat than a Post Malone feat tho). I can send a recording if it counts and is still available.

Very much available, it's yours!

"Florida!!!" is the last one left!

I'm going to officially state that I'm out. I do like the excessive exclamation marks of 'Florida!!!' but I don't think I can take it on. Somebody else jump in and make the album complete.

Voting that whoever takes it should have to collab up with Alfred for vocals/spoken-word

little dog was so good

Truly

it's really nice to for me to be able to hear Dottie's bark again, she gave it her all

Already wondering if my initial idea for my track isn't completely stupid and impractical.

I have never knowingly heard a TS song so I feel unqualified to approach this one, as much as I enjoy our covers projects, but if anyone needs any help with mastering or the like hit me up on this thread.

You don't have to have heard anything by the artist or even be interested in their work though? Believe me I have less than zero interest in latter day U2 and Morrissey and I did tracks for both those projects. I just go on whether the titles give me any ideas. For instance I did a cover of a Morrissey track called Mountjoy, which I assume was named after the prison on Dublin but made me think of the snooker player, Doug Mountjoy. Doug Mountjoy's claim to fame was he was the first player to perform a maximum break on television, so I found some audio of the commentary (Ted Lowe of course!) and built the track around that.

Also doing something that sounds nothing like the artist you are covering seems the ideal approach.

Well, the last point is a given with my contributions for sure, and I do see what you mean, but I'm trying to think if I've ever done one of these when I haven't liked or at least been pretty familiar with the artist.

If Alfred reads this (or if someone wants to give him a nudge) and wishes to do his thing, I will happily provide the music.

He's been nudged

hi!

If MaresNest and Alfred are up for it, we have our roster complete.

Alfred, I ilx webmailed yer

Okay just to confirm the overall roster -- make sure to update your artist name if you want to change it, otherwise that's the credit.

Fortnight -- sund4r
The Tortured Poets Department -- sarahell
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys -- Florin Cuchares
Down Bad -- Acoleuthic
So Long, London -- Mfktz
But Daddy I Love Him -- kurt schwitterz
Fresh Out the Slammer -- Tom D
Florida!!! -- Maresn3st/Aflred, Lord Sotosyn
Guilty as Sin? -- a hoy hoy
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? -- Chris Irregardless
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) -- Beer Swan
loml -- Elvis Telecom
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart -- HI DERE
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived -- Bo Jackson Overdrive
The Alchemy -- ShariVari
Clara Bow -- Moka
Bonus Track: The Manuscript -- Renegade Priests

Plus we have H.P. on backup if someone has to step away, thanks for that -- if anyone else wants to be a backup too, just post!

Repeating myself from above: Files MUST be sent to me by March 15th via ned at kuci dot org, preferably AIFF format, mp3 acceptable but please PLEASE, do not send it as a WAV. Release date will be April 1.

Per my initial post, we need cover art but I am not an artist. That said, I have created a placeholder. By all means if someone has a better one, share it! Anyway:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53520763611_2af0838dd6.jpg

Also my current plan is to make it available for basic download only somewhere like mediafire or whatever -- I *could* place it on Soundcloud as I have with all the other ones and may still do but I also remember how Grady's YouTube account got completely nuked after LULU was up for a little while there and the amount of fame-driven fever pitch around the runup to this one tells me that floating it a little too publicly before release may be disastrous even for my basic SoundCloud setup, so. (I may place it there after the actual album itself is out.)

How do we feel about Bandcamp for these now?

IIRC Bandcamp only accepts files at full rate, so if we want to do that, no mp3s, just AIFFs please. We could set it up as a free download easily enough but again (even with the relative Wild West of the place in re actual covers) I kinda only want to put somewhere formal AFTER the actual album comes out.

Wait hold on, I have a better cover placeholder:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53521191716_63bf07f6c4_z.jpg

how did Ned hack my Grindr account

"Password, password...I know: JakeGyllenhallsThighs."

wondering if anyone would like to share their writing process some weeks out from deadline

not super familiar with the swift discog beyond the singles, I gather that isn't really important but it sounds kind of fun to anticipate what the record might sound like

does she move towards "country" again with this record? or is that maybe a decade or so on

Ultimately you shouldn't feel limited to actually sounding like her -- the goal is not to necessarily do a specific parody or pastiche of a 'typical' Taylor song, however defined. The pre-cover efforts certainly have contained many examples doing that for its various subjects over the years but it's not universal. If you want to hazard a guess with what it might all be like, though, feel free!

ok I think my song is ready. I think I nailed it.

sending it your way, Ned. I don't know if it's mixed too low... I don't know what I'm doing lol.

at least it's brief so I it's relatively painless.

First time trying to play guitar too so I don't know if I should so a second attempt lol... there's still time to learn and send a better thing before the deadline... I tried doing a sample based song but I had no idea how to do it properly and kept crashing garageband after a pair of frustrating hours without saving any progress and didn't feel like paying for ableton, so I asked a friend for a keyboard controller and a guitar instead.

I'm sure it sucks and not in an interesting way like idk, The Shaggs... which seems apt for a Taylor Swift pre-covers project so I might just leave it at that.

Good thing it's the last song, tho. There's no track to skip to.

Ach, missed this! One for the reserves bench, plz

You’re on it!

Anyway Moka's track is in as mentioned so the countdown begins for the rest of you. You have a month from today!

Mine's is finished, Ned, haven't got round to sending you it yet. Can my artist name be changed to Tom D (ft. Norman Stanley Fletcher)?

I’ve never done one of these and it sounds fun. Any room left?

Answering Tom: sure! Send when you can.

Answering Heez: no room, and you'd be I think third in line as a sub, but we'll see what shakes down. Keep an eye out for next time!

Below is the list with artist names -- the asterisk shows I have the file.

* Fortnight -- sund4r
The Tortured Poets Department -- sarahell
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys -- Florin Cuchares
Down Bad -- Acoleuthic
So Long, London -- Mfktz
But Daddy I Love Him -- kurt schwitterz
Fresh Out the Slammer -- Tom D (ft. Norman Stanley Fletcher)
Florida!!! -- Maresn3st/Aflred, Lord Sotosyn
Guilty as Sin? -- a hoy hoy
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? -- Chris Irregardless
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) -- Beer Swan
loml -- Elvis Telecom
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart -- HI DERE
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived -- Bo Jackson Overdrive
The Alchemy -- ShariVari
* Clara Bow -- Moka

Bonus Track: The Manuscript -- Renegade Priests

Update! A little under two weeks to go! Tracks in hand marked with asterisks.

* Fortnight -- sund4r
The Tortured Poets Department -- sarahell
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys -- Florin Cuchares
Down Bad -- Acoleuthic
* So Long, London -- Mfktz
But Daddy I Love Him -- kurt schwitterz
* Fresh Out the Slammer -- Tom D (ft. Norman Stanley Fletcher)
Florida!!! -- Maresn3st/Aflred, Lord Sotosyn
Guilty as Sin? -- a hoy hoy
* Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? -- Chris Irregardless
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) -- Beer Swan
loml -- Elvis Telecom
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart -- HI DERE
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived -- Bo Jackson Overdrive
The Alchemy -- ShariVari
* Clara Bow -- Moka

Bonus Track: The Manuscript -- Renegade Priests

Have next week off work, was hoping to spend some time coming up with some… thing

uh oh

On February 16, 2024 at The Eras Tour show in Melbourne, Australia, Swift announced a second version of the album featuring a new bonus track "The Bolter."[3]

On February 23, 2024 at The Eras Tour show in Sydney, Australia, Swift announced a third version of the album featuring a new bonus track "The Albatross."[4]

On March 3, 2024 at The Eras Tour show in Singapore, Swift announced a fourth version of the album featuring a new bonus track "The Black Dog."

Okay final final track listing -- if you want to change or update your artist name, you gotta let me know now!

--

Fortnight -- sund4r Subramanian
The Tortured Poets Department -- matthew mathieu
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys -- La Lechera
Down Bad -- Acoleuthic
So Long, London -- Mfktz
But Daddy I Love Him -- kurt schwitterz
Fresh Out the Slammer -- Tom D (ft. Norman Stanley Fletcher)
Florida!!! -- Maresn3st (feat. Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)
Guilty as Sin? -- a hoy hoy
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? -- Chris Irregardless
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) -- Josh in Chicago
loml -- Josh in Chicago (feat. Ned Raggett)
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart -- HI DERE
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived -- Bo Jackson Overdrive
The Alchemy -- ShariVari
Clara Bow -- Moka

Bonus Track: The Manuscript -- Renegade Priests
Bonus Track: The Bolter --The Misunderstudd
Bonus Track: The Albatross -- Heez
Bonus Track: The Black Dog -- front tea for two

Done and dusted, just sending them back to you Ned.

Neanderthal, there was a little bit of clipping on the original recording close to the end of the tune, that I just couldn't totally pull out, sorry about that.

Got 'em, thanks!

Oh wait -- I still need DJP/HI DERE's track!

(From Maresn3st that is, not DJP himself.)

Just sent!

And we're good!

Exciting!

No worries, Maresn3st, appreciate you doing your best to clean up my mess :)

Can't wait to hear this

It's still April Fools Day in California for the next 2 minutes ;)

We're live!

"I Want To Say Thank You To The Fans By Telling You A Secret!" -- ILX Pre-Covers The Tortured Poets Department

And this thread is locked!