Carnival of Space-The Musical!

On 9/27/07 the traveling "Carnival of Space" will be pitching tent at www.wanderingspace.net. I've made 3 pieces especially for the carnival. The first two have been combined with a little expositionary dialogue to make a radio drama we'll call "Carnival of Space-The Intro." Play it in the embedded player below, why don't cha?

If I get around to it or if I have any requests I'll be putting up the two musical parts separately for folks to also use as they please in podcasts, film, blogs, etc. I also made a funky lil' space jam we'll call "Carnival of Space-Funky Fresh" because that's what it is. Dig it in that funky embedded player below.

To some folks "Space music" is a sort of sub-genre of ambient music (for more see Wikipedia "Space Music)." I'm not sure how many sub-genres should be made of ambient music, which is fairly minimalistic with not a lot happening, but I do like some of this stuff. And it is fun to make. Back when I was first discovering the joys of listening to podcasts and when I used to operate a machine on a factory floor I discovered and enjoyed a particular space music podcast made by a groovy dude in the Netherlands. Here's a link to his latest website :http://spacemusic.nl/Podcast.html

Some people like to have this type of thing just playing in the background as they relax, meditate, enter data in spread sheets, make sweet sweet space love, or launch into actual outer space. Of course space music also serves a purpose in space films, whether they be fictional of non-fiction.

I've made a bunch of music I think people could describe as space music. Below are a few examples. You may need to "allow pop-ups" to play these songs, and you might want to open the player in another window or tab. As always these songs are available for free through Soundclick.

1. Science Nature Space 23


2. Space Music Boot Strap 2nd Draft


3. Gonna Be Swell


4. Hillbillyspace


5. Openended


6. Space Age Theme


7. Undertow

Oh yeah, if you want to hear some more music you can go to my website PodcastTroubadour.com where I've got most of my recent and not so recent stuff. A wide range of music that could be described as Funky, Quirky, Ambient, Pretty, Silly, Soundtrack, Instrumental, and stuff I've made for specific purposes like podcasters. You'll see below I've recently been having some luck and fun making songs for the Tom Green Show, but if you go back to the older posts you'll see I've made music for a bunch of different podcasters.

New Video for "Shiny Shiny Tin Foil"

This is a video I made using clips from the Tom Green show, The song is by me. If you vote for it, I think it actually counts at "Funny or Die", which blows my mind. I'd like to make another video with clips from Tom Green Show viewers, and maybe this will inspire folks to film some cool tin foil shenanigans.

I'm thinking marchers, runners, swimmers, skiers, skaters, bikers, bartenders in tin foil. Tin Foil people working at McDonalds. Tin Foil army in the night with shiny lights on them. Tin foil people on the streets. Mothers yelling at their fully grown children not to wear tin foil (acting please). Etc Etc. If you make clips to include in the viewers video leave a comment here and include how I can get your video.

Year of the Mustache - The YouTube Video

Tom made this video of the song I made for the show. He made the video live during his show. My wife Michelle and I edited the video and put it up on Youtube. Tom sorta told me to. So here it is. For all the national internets to enjoy.

So now that we know how to edit video and post video we'll soon make a new video for another song I made for the show, "Shiny Shiny Tin Foil." Anyone with Tin Foil footage, please leave a comment below or email me at JeffShields@PodcastTroubadour.com.

Also, If anyone would like the MP3 of the song you can also email at JeffShields@PodcastTroubadour.com and I'll send you a copy.

Completely Different Tin Foil Song

Deputy Alsoknownas made a video using my first tin foil song. I think the video is pretty dang cool but I thought I could do better in the music department. This morning I made a better tin foil song called "Shiny Shiny Tin Foil"

"Shiny Shiny Tin Foil"
You can click on the Player to hear the song. I hope he can use the new song. Anyone is welcome to use the song in video. You can download it from Soundclick for free.

It has been a very exciting and happy week for me. It's very inspiring to make music that I'm pretty sure someone will hear. It was super cool having Tom be nice to me on Skype and seeing him play the heck out of my "Year of the Mustache" song. I woke this morning farting around making a slower acousticky version of "Year of the Mustache." Anybody got any extra lyrical suggestions?

Year or the Mustache song getting played

Wowsers. Tom Green is having some fun with the song I made on his show and he has said he likes the song. It's a little mind blowing. I'm going to make some more music this weekend. It's very encouraging to be heard.

The Song - "Year of the Mustache"

Anybody looking for more of my weirdness can go to www.podcasttroubadour.com and listen to the Grodzki songs and the songs I made for Podcasters. Other than my outright goofy music, a lot of my music is instrumental(no vocals) that might work behind video.

I did not get enough sleep last night. I stayed up to Skype into the Tom Green show. Last night I played music that no one but my wife, Michelle, heard. The playing music that no one but Michelle heard is no different from many a night here at our house, only this time I thought I was making music live that people were hearing. I don't know if the Skype crapped out, the mic levels were wrong on my Skype computer, or if someone at the Tom Green Show heard my awful noodling and turned the rotten level down on that racket. When Tom asked me "what happened to the music?" I didn't understand what he was asking. At the time I was thinking maybe he thought my music playing was not so good but today after playing some of the show back I hear that I could not be heard.

It's probably better to not be heard, than to be heard and considered lousy. At least in the case were maybe hundreds of thousands of folks possibly listening is concerned. That's why I like recording music at home on my computer, because I can record over and over again till I get it acceptable.

Could someone make a comment.

I'm used to making music that almost no one hears. It's still fun. But writing something like someone is actually going to read it but not knowing if anyone is going to read it feels a little nutty. I know at least one person read this blog. Say hi to me, one person, please. This way I feel a little less loopy writing this.

Crazy people with company may not be much less crazy but at least they don't feel as crazy. I think that's partially what the Tom Green Show is about. Something about crazy people keeping company with crazy people. It's a beautiful thing man.

I wonder how much I should be concerned about my lack of sleep?

Tin Foil - the first song

I made this song right before Tom Green's Tin Foil Show. Interstingly enough he used my mustache song instead. I made it after a long day of work and I made it quickly. It sounds like it.

One new song, One Remix

I made a quick little ditty of a song today that might work nicely as background to some fun video goodness. Members of the Tom Green freeky deeky video making crew are more than legally welcome to use the tunage.
The song's name is Quirky and you can click on the name of the song and a pop up player should let you hear it, although you need to sign up for Soundclick to download the song.

I also uploaded a heavier remix of Year of the Mustache which might suit some video makers needs nicely.

09-05-07 I've now made the "remix" the main mix, which means folks looking for the the song will be hearing the "remix" not the original. The original levels were sorta low and I think Tom played the "remix". I hate the idea of people being forced to play with the volume on their computer just to hear the song so I've made the louder mix the mix. I think this is the best thing to do for all of us concerned.

Use my music, it's cool by Tom

Here's an email I sent to Tom Green and his response
As a member of the Tom Green fan club I recently got an email from Victor who was giving a bunch of useful tips on how to make and submit a video for your show. Included in the list of steps to follow was "4. Don't use any music, I know it might seem like it'll make the video better, but you'll have a better chance of having Tom pick your video if you don't put any music in it.".
While you were on holiday I started a deputy blog http://tomgreen.com/blogs/podcasttroubadour in the hopes that someone might like to use my songs and music in a video for your show. I wrote a song "Year of the Mustache" and another song "Positivity Tom Green" and I figured they might go well with video shenanigans. So what's your policy/preference/inclination/fear of litigation regarding music in videos? Am I barking up the wrong tree asking strangers to collaborate with me in an effort to make something for the show?

Sent by Podcast Troubadour, North Carolina

okay, put music in... but only if you made the music yourself. how about that. That's cool.
Tom Green