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The Pillows - Little Busters [English Translation Cover by @Carls Manager ]

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I’m reaching the final stretch of songs I have planned for this series of English translations of songs by the Pillows from FLCL. You have to do this one, right? RIGHT?! Since it had a lot less to translate than the others I decided to go a little extra on the video production which took an extra month or so longer than necessary to get done and published. The end result is that I finally made the thing I wish I’d made when I was 22 but lacked the skills and resources. (Granted, it’s still all shot with an iPhone 11 and plain old overhead lighting. Would anyone like to donate to a “get me some nicer gear” fund so I can really get on my Bo Burnham shit?)

I always loved this hook since I first saw FLCL at 18 years old. But I especially liked tweaking the line “Their days are numbered, counting down.” Revisiting the song after all these years I’m letting myself get a little more emotionally involved in it than necessary. As I worked on it amidst all of uhhh… this chaos, I made it a sort of personal mantra and battle cry against the gerontocracy refusing to do anything to stop the planet from being uninhabitable for the younger generations. One of the themes of FLCL is questioning the seeming absurdity of adults and authority when you’re coming of age. Turns out as you get older, those early suspicions were right.

Anyway, I have one left in the chamber to produce. I feel like it’s also an obvious choice. Shoutout in the comments if you know…

All performance, recording, mixing, mastering, video production and editing by CarlsManager

If you like my work and have any production needs visit: elstroproduction.com

Original song and arrangement by The Pillows

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Vocal Tuning and Editing in Logic Pro - Tutorial

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This video covers my personal process for fine tuning pitch and timing of vocals using Logic Pro, as well as some tips using the new MetaTune app from Slate Digital if you have that. If you're here as a subscriber who just likes my cover song recordings, this is a slight behind the scenes look at the production of my English cover of "Last Dinosaur" by The Pillows!

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The Pillows - Last Dinosaur [English Translation Cover by @CarlsManager]

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ITS THE CLIMAX! The most requested Pillows song for me to cover on YouTube and Reddit! This one was a bit odd to produce since I like to match as close as possible to their original production and the quality of the original recording is uhhhh... Not great by 2022 standards. (Google "Loudness Wars" if you want to get nerdy about this.) It can honestly be a little grating to listen to, but that's also kind of the nature of the song itself. It grabs you on the first beat and doesn't let go except a tiny bit in the half time sections. Its exactly what makes it so great for the frenetic pacing of FLCL. Lyrically, it's pretty close to translations I found on the web. As always though, I took some artistic license here and there for both the sake of English cadence and rhythm and infusing a bit of my own personal feelings into it. But like I said, the overall theme of the lyrics is about the same: a sense of "burn it all down", destructive nihilism in the face of hopelessness... which uhhh, really changed the vibe of the song for me when I started sifting through translations. Always thought it was the complete opposite based on the uplifting C-Major bounce of the music and how its used in FLCL. But perhaps a great anthem for us Millenials and Gen Z! Also, I got to make a William Gibson reference without bending the original lyrics much at all. Shout out in the comments if you can spot it.

The Sopranos Two Decades Later - Reckoning With The Ghosts of Masculinity's Past Present and Future

Exploring how The Sopranos challenges us to reckon with our patriarchal indoctrination and why modern media fails to do so in spite of trying so much harder.

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Twitter: @JoshElstro

Instagram: carlsmanager

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My dude and fellow writer shouted out in the Epilogue: ronnysalerno.com