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Category: Movies and Music

2 New David Bowie cover song video premieres on Performer Magazine

  • July 18, 2016
  • Chris Robley
  • · Blog · Movies and Music · News

Oh! You Pretty Things…

Performer Magazine premiered a video (and David Bowie song) that Tim Huggins and I recorded recently.

Here’s what I said about the track:

Every February I go to Kansas City for Folk Alliance International. It’s a really special event, and it’s always inspiring — but after four days and nights of un-amplified acoustic music you kind of need a palette cleanser.

So for the past two years, on the last night of the festival, my buddy Tim and I have gone late-night to a local studio and recorded a bunch of 70’s pop and rock covers. We only have a handful of hours until dawn to get the takes, so we try to keep it un-fussy: put down the basics live, throw on some extra guitar, sing the vocals, mix the song, go eat breakfast. This year we did “Oh! You Pretty Things” and a swampy version of Badfinger/Nilsson/Mariah Carey staple “Without You.”

By next year we might have enough of these sloppy cover songs to release a whole record, but for now I at least wanted to put this video out there, since Bowie’s passing was still very heavy on our hearts when we went into the studio. It’s a song I’d covered live a few times, but we’d always done it the faithful way, with the drums only coming in on the choruses.

That night Tim got his friend Mike Patrum, who plays with Kerry Livgren, to come and record drums, and I figured if he’s gonna be here, we might as well have him play on the whole song… thus the bigger arrangement.

As for the song itself, the chords kill me. So good. Not sure Bowie gets enough credit for how genius his harmonic changes were. And the lyrics, so bizarre, with the Ubermensch starman stuff amidst the cozy domestic details…

I just watched the preview for Werner Herzog’s “Lo and Behold” and started really obsessing over the obsolescence of mankind. Gotta make way for the Homo Superior!

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0 Pop Matters premieres music video for “1973”

  • July 18, 2016
  • Chris Robley
  • · Blog · Movies and Music · News

The venerable PopMatters.com was kind to feature my new video for “1973” on their site.

Here’s what they said:

I’m firmly of the belief that a certain brand of nostalgia — that ever-present nag that music stopped being good when the ‘rents stopped being young enough to enjoy the new stuff — is toxic and has no place in our music community. Thankfully, Chris Robley’s “1973” is of the more pleasant sort, genially sepia-toned instead of acid-stained. It’s a self-admitted “fantasy”, a pleasant scene of how two folks met and made a kid that doesn’t actually exist in Robley’s true life, but oftentimes fantasy is compelling too. And “1973” certainly is compelling, charming wordless harmonies preceding a folk-rock stomp and killer psychedelic guitar solo. It might be a fictionalized portrait of the year it attempts to illustrate, but that fiction is a genuine joy—if a slightly depressing one—nonetheless.

And here’s what I said:

“‘1973’ is one of the songs on the record that has absolutely nothing to do with me. It’s complete fiction, a mix between ‘1941’ by Nilsson and ‘That Was Your Mother’ by Paul Simon,” says Robley. “It’s sung from the point of a view of a deadbeat dad returning after too long away to rationalize his absence. I have a great dad. I wasn’t born in 1973. But I had the chord changes, and when I started to write a melody those were the words that came.”

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0 Ghettoblaster premieres lyric video for “Silently”

  • July 18, 2016
  • Chris Robley
  • · Blog · Movies and Music · News

Ghettoblaster recently premiered the lyric video for “Silently.”

Here’s a few words about the song:

The first thing I always think to say about ‘Silently’ is that it features a guest choir of chickens. Well, not real chickens. Just… the band, doing our best chicken impressions. Because why not? Second, this was definitely my attempt to write something in the vein of the Great American Songbook, back when it was okay to use phrases like ‘quite remiss’ in a pop song. It was a ton of fun to record. Anders (the drummer on the rest of the album) had to leave early, so Rob Stroup, the producer, sat in for this last song, assembling a drum kit out of boxes and kitchen utensils. And the drunken barbershop call-and-response vocals were handled by Rob Stroup and Naomi Hooley hilariously holding their nostrils closed while they sang.

Chickens. Mouth trumpet. Kazoo. Nasal and inebriated backup singers. All fun ways to dress up a sad song about ‘How the heat of desire is akin to a warm winter fire that burns bright, then expires, silently.’ Even though I live in Maine now, I’m usually back in Portland, Oregon every three months or so. On my last trip I went up to Mt. Tabor — an old extinct volcano that overlooks Southeast Portland — and used Hyperlapse to shoot the sky at dusk for this video.

Video Premiere: Chris Robley, “Silently”

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0 Premiering the lyric video for “Veterans Day”

  • July 11, 2016
  • Chris Robley
  • · Blog · Movies and Music · News

Wicked kind words about my song “Veterans Day” from Nooga.com, the website premiering the lyric video for the tune:

There’s something mercurial and surprising about the graceful ebb and flow that washes over you as the song progresses. It’s alternately comforting and riveting. He manages to instill a sense of momentum and weight to these experiences without sacrificing the ebullient swagger that clings to this kind of inclusive pop music.

Listening to “Veterans Day,” it’s easy to forget just how hard it is to fashion this specific pop aesthetic without losing a sense of your identity. But Robley easily draws back the sentiment to showcase the heart and earnest soul of his work. The song’s complexity is subtle—it doesn’t call attention to itself but merely expresses an ocean of feeling with the simplest rhythmic passages. As the song fades away, you’re left with the feeling of having fully lived within another person’s life, even if only for a short while.

Check out the video above.

 

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0 “Fisher King” live from the 23rd floor (new video)

  • March 15, 2015
  • Chris Robley
  • · Blog · Movies and Music · News

Here’s a video of me performing the song “Fisher King” (which will be on my new album) a few weeks ago while I was in Kansas City for the International Folk Alliance Conference:

That window looks out from the 23rd floor of the Sheraton Crown Center: small victory in my battle against a fear of heights!!!

Another, more dramatic victory from my trip to Kansas City would be… well, … this:


(photo and ridiculous dare courtesy of Tim Huggins & Sheryl Hampton)

Hope you enjoy the song and the video. More details about that new album soon, so stay tuned — and thanks, always, for listening.

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0 New lyric video for “Premiere” w/ NYC skyline

  • February 28, 2015
  • Chris Robley
  • · Blog · Movies and Music · News

I’ve been having a ton of fun playing around with video stuff lately, so here’s a new lyric video for my song “Premiere” from way back in 2009. (I swear I’ve got a bunch of new songs coming later in 2015!)

If you like the video, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube.

This lyric video of the Manhattan skyline was made with images from Unsplash.com, licensed under Creative Commons Zero.

Thanks to the following photographers for the free usage of their beautiful images:

1. Greg Shield — photo of One World Trade Center with blue sky

2. Matt Wiebe — intro photo of NYC skyline

3. Jonas Nilsson Lee — Manhattan skyline with MetLife Building

4. Carli Jeen — concluding photo of NYC skyline with blue sky and clouds

5. Björn Simon — coin-operated viewing machine photo and wide black & white NYC cityscape photos

6. Philipp Henzler — wide NYC skyline by daylight photo

7. Anders Jildén — stark B&W of Empire State Building

8. Wojtek Witkowski — photo of daytime NYC skyline longwise down Manhattan, w/ Flatiron Building

I made the various title cards with WordSwag.

The song “Premiere” was recorded at Rob Stroup’s 8 Ball Studios and was released on my album MOVIE THEATRE HAIKU.

It was produced with Rob Stroup, mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman, and features:

Rob Stroup – Drums, background vocals
Rachel Taylor Brown – background vocals
Benny Morrison – clarinet
Steve Keeley – violin
Chris Robley – guitars, bass, piano, vocals, theremin

You can purchase it on CD or hi-quality download at CD Baby.

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0 New video for “User-Friendly Guide to Change”

  • February 19, 2015
  • Chris Robley
  • · Blog · Movies and Music · News

Be gone, shaggy mop-top!

My mother really hates whenever my hair gets long. I thought I could sport the grizzly Mainer look through winter (ah, the small pleasures of defying parents even when you’re in your thirties), but it really wasn’t working for me… so this video is kinda like an early birthday present for my mom.

Special thanks to Nancy Breau for the last minute trim, and Lauren Breau for womaning the camera.

The song “User-Friendly Guide to Change” was recorded at Mike Coykendall’s Blue Room Studio, and was released on my album MOVIE THEATRE HAIKU. It was produced with Mike Coykendall, mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman, and features some sweet playing from:

Arthur Parker – Bass
John Stewart – Drums
James Gregg- Trumpets

Hope you enjoy the song and high-speed haircut. If so, please give the video a thumbs up and subscribe to my YouTube channel!

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