The Garden EP & Rise Options

[sellingthdrama]

MP3 of I'm the Proof can be downloaded from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?6ppd9amrj3ch4rh

I seem to never be able to download from mediafire. What do I need to do? Can I just download the song, or do I need a special download manager or account?

[+AllOverMe+]

Ed's moving in the good direction. It's not rock what he's making, but i like this one. It reminds me of WITR.

Eva sounds really great.

Didn't really like The Garden to be honest, but i liked the sound of Rise.
This is the best song so far.

[+AllOverMe+]

Ed's moving in the good direction. It's not rock what he's making, but i like this one. It reminds me of WITR.

Eva sounds really great.

Didn't really like The Garden to be honest, but i liked the sound of Rise.
This is the best song so far.

Dangum, thanks for your amazing work.
Do you also have an mp3 of Rise? i only have mp4, but to be honest i prefer MP3.

[Hoodstock]

Dangum, thanks for your amazing work.
Do you also have an mp3 of Rise? i only have mp4, but to be honest i prefer MP3.

All three songs are right in this thread.

[dangum]

Former Live Frontman Ed Kowalczyk to Release New Solo EP

Live lead singer Ed Kowalczyk has announced the impending release of some new music. An EP called The Garden will be available as a digital download November 19. The collection will feature five original songs and five alternate versions of those songs, remixed by other artists. Kowalczyk says he's working on another full-length solo album, to be released in spring of next year.

"As a touring and recording musician, I've been amazed over the years at how much my songs develop and evolve from the original studio recordings," Kowalczyk said in a statement. "With the remixes on The Garden EP, I wanted to try to hyper-speed that process a bit and deconstruct my versions of the songs by handing them off to other creative people right at the beginning."

The singer is currently on his I Alone solo acoustic tour performing solo material and Live hits. Kowalczyk left Live in 2009. Last summer, as previously reported, his former band mates sued in an attempt to get Kowalczyk to stop promoting himself as "Ed Kowalczyk of Live."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

http://www.wedg.com/rssItem.asp?feedid=166&itemid=29935614

[PurdueSteve]

I think it's awesome Dan posted mp3s of Eds tracks. Copyrights don't mean anything. I think we should fully share the EP when it comes out.

[SinfulEyes]

I think it's awesome Dan posted mp3s of Eds tracks. Copyrights don't mean anything. I think we should fully share the EP when it comes out.

It's alright. None of us were planning on buying it anyway.

[dangum]

I seem to never be able to download from mediafire. What do I need to do? Can I just download the song, or do I need a special download manager or account?

No, you don't need to do anything special.

Try these instructions.

1. Click on the Mediafire link. Here's one for an MP3 of "Rise"
http://www.mediafire.com/?juiisweomyhe69y
2. Click on the big green button in the middle of the screen that says "Download (6.72MB)"
3. A windows box will appear asking whether you want to "Open with" or "Save". Choose "Save" and press the "OK" button.

Do you also have an mp3 of Rise? i only have mp4, but to be honest i prefer MP3.

Here you go: http://www.mediafire.com/?juiisweomyhe69y

I think it's awesome Dan posted mp3s of Eds tracks. Copyrights don't mean anything. I think we should fully share the EP when it comes out.

I don't think I've done anything wrong by uploading MP3s. The files were made available by Ed Kowalczyk on his Facebook/YouTube sites. I just converted them into a format so that fans could listen to them without having to visit the aforementioned sites every time.

That being said, there will be no sharing of the official releases from Ed's EP on this board.

[jayda]

It's alright. None of us were planning on buying it anyway.

I wasn't even planning on listening but Dan goes to so much trouble that guilt overcomes me and I listen as a result.

This version of Ed is so far removed from the band LIVE and it's not anything that I like or can even appreciate. Just switch stations crap to me.

[sh4rpz]

Gave the songs a listen again... and Fish's post still sums it up for me:

I haven't posted here in quite a while. I just don't feel like getting near any of this Ed stuff and the toxic soup this place has become. It also took me over a week to even make the effort to go to Ed's Facebook and listen to that song because frankly I am not a fan of Ed anymore and I really don't care what he does. I finally did, and if this message board is here for people to share their views and discuss Live and off-topic subjects, like Ed Kowalczyk, then I will share my opinion about this songs.

I HATE it. I am embarrassed for him, for me, for Live, for anything associated with what Ed is doing now. If I could un-listen to it, or at least wipe my memory and forget I ever heard it, I would do that. This is more Alive drivel. I am glad for the people who like it. I just don't understand how or why.

What.THE.f*ck.

[PurdueSteve]

I don't think I've done anything wrong by uploading MP3s. The files were made available by Ed Kowalczyk on his Facebook/YouTube sites. I just converted them into a format so that fans could listen to them without having to visit the aforementioned sites every time.

That being said, there will be no sharing of the official releases from Ed's EP on this board.

Dan, I personally have no issues with what you've done, but technically/legally speaking I disagree.

Ed made the songs available in a streaming format, not in downloadable form.

For example, Netflix and Hulu make video content available for streaming access but users are not permitted to download/archive and have an offline copy of the content. Its this reason that Youtube doesn't have a "download" button and you have to resort to other measures to rip the content.

Moreso, it's presumably the album versions of these songs, so I'd imagine Ed would probably be very much against having the album versions of his songs in MP3 form distributed.

This post has been edited by PurdueSteve: Nov 7 2012, 8:30 am

[dangum]

Fair enough.

[sellingthdrama]

Thanks, I chose just to go to the facebook page and listen to the versions streaming there. Here's my handful of cents:

• I still hear the faintest of echoes of the Ed of old. I still think it's there.
• As for these EPs, I think he's very stuck creatively. Instead of being led by creativity, he's forcing it into a pigeon-hole. He's saying "here is my message, and I'm going to say it a thousand different ways - but it's the same message".
• Too much re-use of metaphors such water, dirty water, deserts, people being thirsty, people down on their luck, etc. Same theme, same metaphor. It feels very limited and I think the music illustrates that.

I would still put money on the fact that Ed can still produce great music (I don't think this EP is it). He's stuck - his creative "river" (ha! Another overused metaphor) is blocked. I'm happy to wait patiently for the day he gets flowing again. I think he still can.

It's just that this music feels so forced, it feels so produced. It doesn't at all feel authentic. I almost feel like Ed needs to reconnect with himself so he can let his real creativity come forth.

This post has been edited by sellingthdrama: Nov 7 2012, 12:16 pm

[FishOutaWater]

Thanks, I chose just to go to the facebook page and listen to the versions streaming there. Here's my handful of cents:

• I still hear the faintest of echoes of the Ed of old. I still think it's there.
• As for these EPs, I think he's very stuck creatively. Instead of being led by creativity, he's forcing it into a pigeon-hole. He's saying "here is my message, and I'm going to say it a thousand different ways - but it's the same message".
• Too much re-use of metaphors such water, dirty water, deserts, people being thirsty, people down on their luck, etc. Same theme, same metaphor. It feels very limited and I think the music illustrates that.

I would still put money on the fact that Ed can still produce great music (I don't think this EP is it). He's stuck - his creative "river" (ha! Another overused metaphor) is blocked. I'm happy to wait patiently for the day he gets flowing again. I think he still can.

It's just that this music feels so forced, it feels so produced. It doesn't at all feel authentic. I almost feel like Ed needs to reconnect with himself so he can let his real creativity come forth.

I am not sure he ever had a broad range of creativity - at least not after Throwing Copper. If you go back and read the lyrics to the entire Live catalog, it is not unreasonable to conclude that Ed always had limited abilities after he got Mental Jewelry and Throwing Copper out of his system.

In fact, maybe it is being too generous to give him Mental Jewelry and Throwing Copper. The ideas on Mental Jewelry were not his own - they belonged to Krishnamurti. Ed read a bunch of his books and tried to regurgitate the exact same concepts in lyrics on that album. I could have easily done that too. Throwing Copper is a little different and has a more socially subversive message, but it is not necessarily the most brilliant set of lyrics in the world. "The Weavers live up the street from me. The crack heads live down the street from me." "Come on baby leave some change behind. She was a bitch, but I don't care.... wore a funky barret in her hair." I mean seriously... what is that really?!?! How would "Everybody's here, puke stinks like beer" be received if it wasn't encapsulated in a decent song?

And it is clearly the music that saves some of that marginal stuff from suffering under its own mediocrity. And who can we credit for that? What happened to the msuic when CCP no longer had a hand in it? We got songs like: " In the country the farms and the orchards swell, with oranges and peaches, a little bit of truth as well" without the protection of any good music to help it out.

And now look at Ed. Left to his own devices, he writes redundant songs that all sound alike about Jesus and water and his urgent conversion message to non-believers. Meanwhile, CCP are writing diverse and interesting rock songs, as they always have, and now Kevin Martin and Chris Shinn are providing the vocals and the creative collaboration.

Was Ed always overrated in our mind? Helped out by the inflated opinion he received due to CCP's stellar contribution?

Maybe Ed was never all that we thought he was. I am not saying that is necessarily true. It is a reasonable thesis, though.

This post has been edited by FishOutaWater: Nov 7 2012, 1:15 pm

[sellingthdrama]

I am not sure he ever had a broad range of creativity - at least not after Throwing Copper. If you go back and read the lyrics to the entire Live catalog, it is not unreasonable to conclude that Ed always had limited abilities after he got Mental Jewelry and Throwing Copper out of his system.

In fact, maybe it is being too generous to give him Mental Jewelry and Throwing Copper. The ideas on Mental Jewelry were not his own - they belonged to Krishnamurti. Ed read a bunch of his books and tried to regurgitate the exact same concepts in lyrics on that album. I could have easily done that too. Throwing Copper is a little different and has a more socially subversive message, but it is not necessarily the most brilliant set of lyrics in the world. "The Weavers live up the street from me. The crack heads live down the street from me." "Come on baby leave some change behind. She was a bitch, but I don't care.... wore a funky barret in her hair." I mean seriously... what is that really?!?! How would "Everybody's here, puke stinks like beer" be received if it wasn't encapsulated in a decent song?

And it is clearly the music that saves some of that marginal stuff from suffering under its own mediocrity. And who can we credit for that? What happened to the msuic when CCP no longer had a hand in it? We got songs like: " In the country the farms and the orchards swell, with oranges and peaches, a little bit of truth as well" without the protection of any good music to help it out.

And now look at Ed. Left to his own devices, he writes redundant songs that all sound alike about Jesus and water and his urgent conversion message to non-believers. Meanwhile, CCP are writing diverse and interesting rock songs, as they always have, and now Kevin Martin and Chris Shinn are providing the vocals and the creative collaboration.

Was Ed always overrated in our mind? Helped out by the inflated opinion he received due to CCP's stellar contribution?

Maybe Ed was never all that we thought he was. I am not saying that is necessarily true. It is a reasonable thesis, though.

Wow, good points. I never thought of it like that... I'm serious, you have me re-thinking my evaluation of Ed on this one. I've always just assumed he provided his fair share or more of the Live power, but I'm re-considering that.

Though you did point out some examples of bad lyrics, especially that "puke stinks like beer" one - I never liked that. But you have to give him credit for AOY, I Alone, and some of the other hits from TC. I'm assuming here he wrote those, correct me if I'm wrong. And I have no idea what a lot of those lyrics mean, but they work really well. In fact, I've always assumed his lyrics were over my head - perhaps they're just bad.

But like you pointed out, how much of bad lyrics was covered by good music? I had just never broken it down like that and you provided good examples. Very interesting.

This post has been edited by sellingthdrama: Nov 7 2012, 2:04 pm