VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

ChrisMezzolesta

This is my latest production, in which I painstakingly tried to emulate the entire membership of Steely Dan by myself...The track is by Carrie Dahlby of Chicago who wrote the parody, and sings lead and backgrounds. Another comedy colleague, "the great Luke Ski" (currently the most requested artist of the 21st century on the Dr Demento Show) plays the drunk guy, and "DJ Particle" of Minnesota plays the security guard (aptly named Joan, after the Donald Fagen solo track "Security Joan"). I play all the instruments and sing all the male parts. Hope y'all get a chuckle or perhaps dare I say, the odd guffaw...thanks for listening.

http://thefump.com/fump.php?id=1084

(looks like embedding doesn't woik....ok then)
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

roger · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:45 am Post subject:

Chris,
All I can say is WOW! The best "cover" of Steely Dan I've ever heard. There are some pretty sophisticated changes in that, man. Great job.
-roger
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ChrisMezzolesta · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:33 pm Post subject:

Thanks very much for the kind words Roger, that's sort of my "other life"; another FuMP I was heavily involved in was played on last week's Dr Demento Show (http://thefump.com/fump.php?id=1079), and one of our own Power Salad recordings was played the week before that (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrB01AVlWEU)...

Shows what can happen when two people who love Steely Dan put their minds to something...Tho I don't work professionally as a musician anymore since I moved from my old home (no scene here), I still welcome the opportunity to put my 25 years as a pro and probably 10-15 years before that practicing in school, to good use.

Thanks again for listening, and come back often to The FuMP, we have 2 free comedy songs every week. I am slated for a new Power Salad recording (tentatively a James Bond-flavored piece called "Table Near The Band") on 9/12...IF I can get the music written and recorded all by myself in that time. Nothing like pressure.

Cheers....
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

Mandy Nelson · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:31 pm Post subject:

That was funny. And wait! Dr. Demento still airs?!!? OMG, I used to stay up - but pretend to be sleeping - so I could listen to that show at night. I've sadly taught my children "Shaving Cream" and "They're Coming to Take Me Away" because I had taped that episode and listened to it over and over and over and...I'm so glad to find a place I can hear more parody and strangeness!

(please don't judge me so harshly for my enthusiasm!)
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Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

Too funny!!!!!!!!!
Great arrangement Chris!

ChrisMezzolesta · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:29 pm Post subject:

Thanks again, glad it's being enjoyed. Yes absolutely, the good Dr has never left the airwaves! Of course with "narrowcasting" it's a lot harder to find him on terrestrial radio, but he now offers his show for streaming on demand as well as an online club with extras, in fact the newer shows have an extra set or 2 in the online version. Dr Demento bean berry berry good too me. Check him out at www.drdemento.com, also there's an info site on Demented music at www.dmdb.org, and there's the Usenet newsgroup rec.music.dementia. Honestly, the whole comedy music thing has grown exponentially since the advent of the Internet and of affordable home recording. I learned on big ol' 10.5" reels and Teac 4 tracks etc., but now the playing field has really leveled and there are more people in the game. Some are better than others, but I've been lucky to have had a number of "hits" on his show over the past 23 years Smile

By all means, hit up The Funny Music Project (the FuMP), there are pages and pages of archives of songs going back to January 07, at least 2 a week, and many have been played by the Dr on his show without even being submitted to him, he seems to be just finding them there!! I have 4-5 other songs in there somewhere.

Oh, and I also do voiceovers. Laugh

Thanks again very much!
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

ChrisMezzolesta · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:39 pm Post subject:

And just in case any one was wondering: No idea what setups the other vocals were recorded on, I was sent wavs of their vocal parts which I synced up with my tracks in Nuendo. I played electric guitar (Fender Stratocaster) and bass (Tune 5-string), and an Alesis QS6 synth also driving Korg Polysix and other VST plugins - the drums also came from this keyboard with a few acoustic crash cymbal samples thrown in for good measure. My vocals were recorded on the same AT4040 I use for VO. Bit o'tech notes there, I guess...Always fun to be able to create, whether it's a song or a really good read, whoever it may be, hope everyone else has their fun factor in their creative conquest....
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

ChrisMezzolesta · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 9:15 pm Post subject:

And more good news along these lines...another song from my new album, which had been on Dr Demento's monthly Top Ten a couple of times this year (making it at one point the top rated song of the year so far) has returned to the Top Ten this month (on this weekend's show)!

You can hear my ELO style parody "Hold On, I've Got To Take This" at

http://thefump.com/fump.php?id=1006

Keeping this somewhat on topic, it has a ton of overdubbed voices, all by yours truly, one or two leads, a 3 voice group on the choruses, and a 15 voice choir throughout...now THAT's "voice over"!!! (and over....and over...and over...)
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

craigcrumpton · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 3:32 am Post subject:

Hey, Chris. You know that Steely Dan song sounds a lot better live?

I saw Carrie Dahlby perform it at Dragon*Con Sunday night--she opened for The Great Luke Ski.

I also had an opportunity to perform a duet with Luke doing another song you worked on--Cartoon Planet's "Crazy Lovesick Fool"--doing my Brak and Zorak impressions.

Luke said to say hello. He and Carrie both had nothing but glowingly wonderful things to say about you and your production skills.

Singing a duet with Luke would've been the highlight of my entire weekend, except that I also got to perform some impressions on stage with legendary film/TV actor James Hong. Luke may be "great," but he's no legend.

Luke also strongly encouraged me to get involved with The FuMP, and said I really need to come join you guys at MarsCon next year. I can definitely do the former. The latter kinda depends on how my job situation goes for the next month. But I'll at least put it on the calendar.