Hello. I was arrested for stupid things before (playing a piano)

I want to remaster the old mountain goats albums for a few reasons. The songs are great, first of all. The recording is terrible and I want to show people that hire audio engineers that I'm a genius with audio software. I also might be able to make some mean green. If I can get written permission to remaster these songs, I'll give 85% of any money I make to charity and 5% to The Mountain Goats. I don't think it'll be much money because I will put the files up on tindeck for free downloading. You never know though, I might be able to sue a commercial that uses my work for a lot of money. If you are for this, please reply. If I can't get permission, I won't share anything publicly and I won't sell anything. If you want to work out something else, I'm open to ideas. Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,
Matt Roman



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2011 06:34AM by MindoverMattjr.

John isn't around here anymore you may want to try contacting him some other ways, maybe his agent or twitter.

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MindoverMattjr
The recording is terrible

actually the recordings are how john wanted the recordings to sound, it was an aesthetic choice. personally I prefer the old sound. you could certainly email his manager / agent to ask, but I don't think they'd be in favor of this...

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Reed

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MindoverMattjr
The recording is terrible

actually the recordings are how john wanted the recordings to sound, it was an aesthetic choice. personally I prefer the old sound. you could certainly email his manager / agent to ask, but I don't think they'd be in favor of this...

Many of us are into the whole lo-fi/bi-fi scene, y'know

If you want to remaster them, you'll need to master them first.

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Reed

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MindoverMattjr
The recording is terrible

actually the recordings are how john wanted the recordings to sound, it was an aesthetic choice.

I thought it was as much due to him not being able to afford fancy recording equipment or time in a studio? I know I've seen / read / heard him talk about how recording on a boombox today wouldn't be like it was back in the day, that today it would be a self-imposed limitation rather than something you'd do out of necessity.

I like the lo-fi sound as much as the next guy, though.

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Why's everyone in this thread a f***ing Mountain Goats fan?!

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[www.mountain-goats.com]

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Johnp
If you want to remaster them, you'll need to master them first.

BAM

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EvilEivind

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Reed

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MindoverMattjr
The recording is terrible

actually the recordings are how john wanted the recordings to sound, it was an aesthetic choice.

I thought it was as much due to him not being able to afford fancy recording equipment or time in a studio? I know I've seen / read / heard him talk about how recording on a boombox today wouldn't be like it was back in the day, that today it would be a self-imposed limitation rather than something you'd do out of necessity.

I like the lo-fi sound as much as the next guy, though.

i think it was more of an aesthetical thing, he mentions using different kinds of shitty tape recorders in his songs and liner notes, if it was purely a cost thing, he probably wouldn't have taken the care to record songs on several subtly different shitty tape recorders

Well let us recall that certain songs on certain albums as time went on were actually recorded in studios or on other equipment-- I know parts of NFJ were recorded by Bob Durkee and a significant portion of tCG was recorded on an actual two-track, not to mention the more studio aspects recorded with Simon Joyner's band. So it's not like JD was being forced to use the Panasonic if he didn't feel like it was working.

I like that you conveniently eschew the remaining 10%, which would go to you, but you'd only be willing to give half of that to the person who wrote those songs.

This is all around a bad idea, John doesn't even like most of those songs these days so I'm sure he'd rather not resurface them unless there was a charity drive that JD wanted to contribute to, but not to be some earmark on a dudes resume who's interested in lawsuits and copyright to the point of discomfort.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/25/2011 09:03PM by Mr Glass.

If John was at all interested, he would have done this himself a long time ago. He wants people excited about his new albums, not his old ones.It is especially unlikely that he would be willing to let you make money off of this.

You would be better off if you just released your versions for free, and simply took credit. If they are as good as you claim, this project could help you build a reputation that results in a job that pays. But go ahead and try it your way. When that doesn't pan out, then drop your seeds, and let them grow. You have already done the work, so why not?

Ah, here's one interview where he seems to be saying that using boomboxes was the easiest way to record as soon as possible back then (which was why people was doing it), but today it's easier to use your laptop so people have switched to that. From which it seems to me using the boombox was less of a choice based around wanting to get that lo-fi sound, and more about convenience.

But I'm sure it's a bit of both and not just one or the other. He recorded and released All Hail West Texas, after all.

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Why's everyone in this thread a f***ing Mountain Goats fan?!

Kirkeby Kritikk • Kvitter

I don't think that if remastered versions came out that I would even bother listening to them. There's something obscenely perfect about the old recordings and they shouldn't be touched.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2012 05:20PM by butter.

I like how people on this board can't even agree to disagree about why John used a particular device to record. No wonder JW left.

To OP: Yeah, I'd check that contact info. I'm not going to act like I have any idea how John would respond, but I will say don't think you'll get a response by posting it in the forum. I would send a very polite, professional email to... let's see... Alyson West probably. I think you should offer John a bigger cut if you want to have any chance though. After all, he wrote, performed AND recorded the songs in question. That means, at the very least, under your general framework of the arrangement he should get a ten percent cut for EACH of those (totaling 30%, since only the "remastering" would be your work there doesn't seem to be any reason why his cut should be half of yours... that would be like the person who masters an album getting twice the combined cut of the artist, songwriter, producer AND engineer... not bloody likely in other words). Another proposition that might be reasonable is to give all proceeds to charity (I'd recommend Farm Sanctuary since John seems to be particularly fond of them). To tell you the truth, since you are the one proposing the offer and he is not calling you to contract you for the work, I'm not even sure what grounds you have to ask for a cut. This is to pad you resume and the idea is yours. You should be offering to do it for free and probably expecting John to retain all rights over the end result. I admit I'm no entertainment lawyer and you may know more about the business than I do, but if this were offered to me (and I were in a position similar to his in my music career), I would most likely not consider it a serious offer and would probably have my lawyer, agent or manager respond with a form letter.

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i do like some of the mastering you did on these classical pieces. [www.youtube.com]

but i don't think your description on those dating sites would win over many Asian women.

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Yeah, the one I listened to was pretty cool. I'm partial to Liszt though.

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simonfox
I like how people on this board can't even agree to disagree about why John used a particular device to record. No wonder JW left.

Not exactly a heated debate though! Personally I think it's an interesting thing to discuss, and trying to dig up evidence the lends credibility to the one view or the other. Could probably make for an interesting essay.

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Why's everyone in this thread a f***ing Mountain Goats fan?!

Kirkeby Kritikk • Kvitter

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EvilEivind
Could probably make for an interesting essay.

yes it could.

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The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone. - Martin Amis

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EvilEivind

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simonfox
I like how people on this board can't even agree to disagree about why John used a particular device to record. No wonder JW left.

Not exactly a heated debate though! Personally I think it's an interesting thing to discuss, and trying to dig up evidence the lends credibility to the one view or the other. Could probably make for an interesting essay.

Oh, don't worry, I was totally joking.

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