strangetomato: (shiftingparadymes)
Strange Tomato ([personal profile] strangetomato) wrote2009-07-19 03:25 pm

Strangetown Extras: The Shifting Paradymes

One of the things that bothers me most about having the story worked out far beyond what I've written, and also being pretty far from getting there (even if I picked up the pace considerably), is wanting to jump ahead to parts of the story that I'd like to do RIGHT NOW. One of these is when The Shifting Paradymes reform, in at least one sense of the word, and get themselves out there as a band. If you read my RR legacy entry, you got a little sneak preview of that, but I'm really wanting to write more about it now, because it'd be fun. For now, I'll have to be content with using them in projects.

Since I wanted some album artwork for a CD clutter cc project (yes, I'm still working on it, on and off), I took some photos of the band.










I like this one, except for Helena's goofy pose. I wanted her to be all hyped up and cheering, but it doesn't quite work for me (also I want to update her with her newer look). Ripp and Jaxy came out exactly as I wanted them to, though, so that makes me happy.

Remember how I said I always think of The Shifting Paradymes as sounding like the band, Royal Trux? No? Well, I do. I especially like to imagine Jaxy's voice as Jennifer Herrema's, because she sounds like she could chew you up and spit you out, and Neil Hagerty works pretty well for Ripp too, in my opinion. He has a sort of nasal and "too lazy to really bother" quality to his singing, which suits Ripp.

I'm been wanting to link to versions of the songs so you can hear them, but not much is available on youtube, etc., and I'm not really sure about how to upload them somewhere to url so I can use them in one of those embedded players, like Muzicons. I need to upload them to a direct link, and you need to upgrade box.net to pro to do that. Does anyone know of a good site that would allow that? For now, I can link to the box.net player in a separate window.

This is one of the ones I've really wanted to share. I'm going to use it at some point in the story (spoiler: they might play it at a wedding). It's a cover of Money for Nothing, and it's probably the greatest thing I've ever heard. You can listen to part of it here (I converted the file to MP3 and it cuts off before it's over, so I apologize for that). Also, the second file is Dr. Gone, which is the song I wanted to include with that song lyrics challenge entry, concerning Jaxy's overdose (but argh! it cuts off before the song cuts back in all epicly after the drum solo... I need to find an mp3 converter that doesn't have a time limit *grumble grumble grumble*). But anyway, you get the idea.

Just thought I'd share some of my nerdly thoughts on the band.

ETA: The links don't work, but I have an embedded widget, thanks to Grooveshark:






 

[identity profile] ikichi.livejournal.com 2009-07-20 03:41 am (UTC)(link)
I like it, but it seems weird to me that Ripp's in front (I expected Jaxy). Especially since he's the only guy.
ext_122042: (shiftingparadymes)

[identity profile] strange-tomato.livejournal.com 2009-07-20 09:09 am (UTC)(link)
Hmmm, yeah. He's not supposed to be any more prominent than Jaxy. They're supposed to be about the same, since they both sing. It's more about the way she's posed, with her arms angling back.

I was actually aiming more for a back-to-back sort of thing.

[identity profile] ikichi.livejournal.com 2009-07-20 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Another reason he seems more prominent is because he's pale/the palest, and everyone's wearing black with a dark background- your eye is always drawn to the lightest/brightest area. I love her pose, but it really looks like she's behind him. (Isn't he back up and occasional lead? Wow, I can't believe I just asked that).
ext_122042: (shiftingparadymes)

[identity profile] strange-tomato.livejournal.com 2009-07-20 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I see it now that you've pointed it out. I'll play around with it the next time I shoot some pics. They're supposed to be about the same. Jax is more of the frontwoman, when it comes down to it, but their stage pressence is all about playing off each other on an equal footing (or will be, when I get to it).

Jax is definitely the lead vocalist (though, like I said... they both sing together a lot of the time), but she plays rythmn guitar. Ripp is the lead guitarist, and does the soloing, when there is any soloing to be had.

I think I'm going to try the same poses on them with her in front to see how it goes. It seems like it'd be more interlocked that way, anyway. I just need to nip my inherent Ripp bias in the bud. :P

And you're so right. Jaxy would never let Ripp stand in front of her.