Noraebangers, Vol. 1

I myself am usually too embarrassed to do karaoke. The last time I saw karaoke in a bowling alley in Santa Fe, my friend pulled me out by the arm, too pained to even sit in the same room as a 40 year old mustachioed Mexican singing 'She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy' in front of 5 other people. So I really think these Koreans have got it right with their Noraebang idea - a bunch of friends rent a private room together, drink too much soda beer (as Scott would say) and slaughter the classics without slaughtering the audience. These places are on like every other block too, people just love this shit here. Apparently some Noraebangs let you record, since my friend Ben found this tape on the street. It's simply labeled "sound" and WOW, it's a gem. Sounds like it was just a girl and a guy in the room, and the only thing worse than their singing is the quality of this grit covered tape. Actually, I take that back, the songs themselves are worse too. I mean, I would find these songs campy enough by themselves and what's better is this guy is SO feeling it and totally hogs the mic. I like to think that he is trying to impress this girl with his vocal prowess. I also like to think she found someone better real soon. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that at some point a friend showed up to rap. PERFECT. To add to the glory, the tape hisses, slows down, cuts out and generally adds appeal for your average ironically disposed noise geek.

Tape Cuts In | Awwwwwww Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh | Ooooooooo....Alright | This Is My Jam | Rap Cameo | No, I Mean THIS IS MY JAM | Another Crappy Song | Rap Cameo | Tape Craps Out | Tape Overdrives | Dude Tries To Rap and Decides To Sing a Ballad Instead | An Emotional Moment | Her Special Moment In The Sun

Comments

[crees]

No matter what time I go into one, I seem to walk out at 6am. They are like very picky time machines or something.

[noizedemon]

in Hongkong, you can even "rent" a female karaoke companion. I haven't done this since the late 80's. no thanks. ;-)

[Ken]

The tape, or at least the mp3s, are all out of phase, I'm playing it right now on my home theatre set to pro-logic mode and all the sound is just coming out of the back speakers, the fronts just have static and a tiny bit of vocals

[Nash Roads]

Ken, I would recommend you toss those speakers in the trash and invest in some $5 buds. Sounds fine on mine.

I've actually been curious about phasing issues, so I'll look into fixing this.

[Advantus]

The king of weird karaoke recordings will always be Nondor Nevai's
"A Capella Cantata", but the world certainly needs more in general.