New Song

Chili

Chili

Site Moderator
haven't put anything up in quite a long time. Too much time on the road, problems with the PC, unfocused, new job, many different reasons. I finally got something close to listenable: Bordertown. It's a dreary slow tune about a dreary slow loser. Feel free to skip to the end.

All comments are welcome...

View attachment Bordertown.mp3

Bordertown

I sit back in my booth
And I pull another breath
Through that long and numbing habit
I call a cigarette
Juanita’s sitting across from me
She hasn’t stopped talking yet

I watched the smoke risin up
And disappear out of reach
We’re waiting on the late great Charlie
Gonna head down to the beach
Throw a line out in the water
Try to catch something to eat

(Chorus)
I crashed and burned here I don't know
It must be twenty some odd years ago
Got no life and I lost my soul to the pain
Watch the people come and go
Like ocean tides ebb and flow
Now I'm waiting to be made whole once again
In this bordertown

Juanita complains about the Mexicans
It’s not the same with them around
Her voice edged with whiskey and smoke
“god, I hate how they take over this town
Remember the good ol days"
Her voice trailed off and her eyes almost drown.

Chorus

Bridge
This bordertown is where the lifeless come to stay
And like this bordertown, we slip into decay
Like some old abandoned amusement park
We're left here cold and dying and in the dark.

Been here longer than I care
Longer than I can remember
Stumbled in a drunken mess
And have yet to leave sober
Not that I’m ready to go
Just ready for it to be over….
 
Sounds really good to me Chili. Only had a quick listen on a cheap set up.....will have another tune in later in my studio/room :thumbs up:
 
I think it's tracked and mixed really well. Really good guitar sounds. I like the crunchy electric in the left channel and the tremolo git in the right later on. I think the vocals are unfortunately the weak link. The timing, phrasing, and pitch is off to me in many spots. I think there are times when you kind of rush to fit the words in, and others where the line ends with space for more. Then some of the high notes don't quite get there and the lows don't get low enough. There's some wongo soloing starting at 4:30. I don't know what happened there but it really jumped out at me. Good mix though.
 
Pretty much what Greg said exactly. Could have ripped those words out of my brain if he wanted to. Weeeird!
 
Mr Clean said:
Sounds really good to me Chili. Only had a quick listen on a cheap set up.....will have another tune in later in my studio/room :thumbs up:
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Thanks!! Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

jiff 41 said:
YEP i LIKE IT!
It's got loadsa character & ambience, very good,,,, MORE :guitar:
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Character and Ambience is what I was shooting for. Thanks!!! :)

Greg_L said:
I think it's tracked and mixed really well. Really good guitar sounds. I like the crunchy electric in the left channel and the tremolo git in the right later on. I think the vocals are unfortunately the weak link. The timing, phrasing, and pitch is off to me in many spots. I think there are times when you kind of rush to fit the words in, and others where the line ends with space for more. Then some of the high notes don't quite get there and the lows don't get low enough. There's some wongo soloing starting at 4:30. I don't know what happened there but it really jumped out at me. Good mix though.
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Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughts. Truly appreciated. Glad you liked the guitar tone. Spent quite a while tweaking that in. I'm surprised you didn't mention the drums. I used the EZD Americana pack for the first time. I found them dark and kinda flat, but sort of in an appealing way. Fit the dirty feel of the song.

I am not concerned too much with the vocal take. I wanted it to feel loose and careless. The timing and phrasing kind of works towards that goal. The pitch?? eh, it wasn't an easy song to sing and I don't have a tenor voice that I hear should be on this track. It was at the low end of my range and I actually capo'd up a few frets. Ha!!

Is wongo a good thing?? There was a finger flub or two in between phrases. I thought they weren't too noticeable, but guessing I am myopic about it. Will definitely look at that. Thanks again.

midget said:
Pretty much what Greg said exactly. Could have ripped those words out of my brain if he wanted to. Weeeird!
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What's even weirder is my comments are going to be the same, too. Coincidence?? I think not!! Thanks much for the listen and to take the time to post a reply!!! :)
 
Hey Chili. Glad to hear another track of yours after what seems like a real long time.

I actually really liked your choice of drums here. Kinda dark and mellow, but they work well for this. I thought the clean rhythm guitar off to one side sounded excellent. While the distortion on the guitar on the other side wasn't necessarily what I would've chosen, that sounds pretty good too.

For me, the wongo part was 4:30 - 4:33. That actually stood out as kind of sour. I liked the relaxed feel of the solo though.

I will check back in case you offer any new mixes and hope it isn't so long before the next offering. Thanks.
 
I feel like the vocal take is the weak part of the song too. The rest of the song has this relaxed, world-weary vibe, but the vocals sound like you're trying too hard to give a good delivery.

Otherwise, the mix is good. The song's mellow. Nice work.
 
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heatmiser said:
Hey Chili. Glad to hear another track of yours after what seems like a real long time.

I actually really liked your choice of drums here. Kinda dark and mellow, but they work well for this. I thought the clean rhythm guitar off to one side sounded excellent. While the distortion on the guitar on the other side wasn't necessarily what I would've chosen, that sounds pretty good too.

For me, the wongo part was 4:30 - 4:33. That actually stood out as kind of sour. I liked the relaxed feel of the solo though.

I will check back in case you offer any new mixes and hope it isn't so long before the next offering. Thanks.
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Well, you're welcome... and Thanks to you for listening. :)

I've been listening to artists like Justin Townes Earl and Lucinda Williams lately and they've got the acoustic-on-one-side-distorted-on-the-other thing going and I like that arrangement. I know it's not new, but without much else going on in the mix, I think it sounds good.

VomitHatSteve said:
I feel like the vocal take is the weak part of the song too. The rest of the song has this relaxed, world-weary vibe, but the vocals sound like you're trying to hard to give a good delivery.

Otherwise, the mix is good. The song's mellow. Nice work.
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Thanks much Steve. I'm not crazy about the vocals either, but I'm leaving it alone. World-weary, rundown, tired and out of hope is what I was going for.

I messed around with the snare to brighten it up and make it snap more and also redid the guitar solo so there's no wongo. I learned that wongo is bad. It's a more lame solo, but cleaner.

Here's a new version.

View attachment BordertownV2.mp3
 
I listened to this a few times, it's unlike anything I've heard before. It has a lot of feeling, and I can kind of see this has been town with tumble weed and stuff when I'm listening to it. Like the start of a spaghetti western with Clint. I really like it. It's the sort of tune I'd put on a mix tape for a road trip. :)
 
Thanks for listening, Frist!!! I'm glad you like it. It's written about several different places I've been to in Florida and Texas. Most recent was South Padre island here in Texas. We went there last year to celebrate my 50th. We must have picked the worst weekend of the year to go. :(
 
When the drums first start to really throck, they swamp the vocal a bit. I'd ease them off a bit at that point. Toward the end, when the guitar solos for a bit, it's too quiet - it needs to come up a bit. If I was gonna play with this one, I'd try out heavy lashings of reverb on just about everything, starting with the vocal - this tune could support it.
 
Chili said:
Thanks for listening, Frist!!! I'm glad you like it. It's written about several different places I've been to in Florida and Texas. Most recent was South Padre island here in Texas. We went there last year to celebrate my 50th. We must have picked the worst weekend of the year to go. :(
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What happened?
 
Hey Chili, I really like this song. I like that it is not perfected and sanitized. It seems to me that in the last few years artist try to hard to perfect every pitch in the vocal, optimize the frequencies in the instruments and make each drum beat sound perfect. In effect what comes out much to often is what we used to call elevator music where all the harsh frequencies and little errors are removed. This song sounds like a real person singing a real song, if you know what I mean. It's the kind of performance I heard in the 60s and 70s.
 
dobro said:
When the drums first start to really throck, they swamp the vocal a bit. I'd ease them off a bit at that point. Toward the end, when the guitar solos for a bit, it's too quiet - it needs to come up a bit. If I was gonna play with this one, I'd try out heavy lashings of reverb on just about everything, starting with the vocal - this tune could support it.
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I'll look at the conflicts between drum and vox. Thanks for pointing that out. As for reverb, i purposely like it dry like this. There is reverb all over the place, just short reflections or duration or whatever they call it. I used to be a reverb junky, but i am trying to kick the habit.

fritsthegirl said:
What happened?
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Well, the mexicans took over the town. Im not racists or intolerant, but they brought a culture that didn't fit. Hard to explain, but the biggest factor was they, as a whole, were very rude.

Illsidgus said:
Hey Chili, I really like this song. I like that it is not perfected and sanitized. It seems to me that in the last few years artist try to hard to perfect every pitch in the vocal, optimize the frequencies in the instruments and make each drum beat sound perfect. In effect what comes out much to often is what we used to call elevator music where all the harsh frequencies and little errors are removed. This song sounds like a real person singing a real song, if you know what I mean. It's the kind of performance I heard in the 60s and 70s.
Click to expand...

Thanks much. Most times i try to gt a song as good as I can. But this one i really wanted to feel loose and tired, but still valid. All the comments so far suggest that I got it pretty close. :laughings:

Thanks again.
 
Man, when those drums kick in.... it sounds great! They introduced themselves nicely.


I like your snare sound. It seems like the electric guitar on the left was not in tune with the rest of the instruments when that one chord was played around 3:00. The wongo part was only noticeable to me because people pointed it out. I honestly don't think I would have noticed if no one said anything.


I really like this. :)
 
Hey Dave, great to hear something of yours. Very very sweet, those acoustics at the beginning....full bodied, well tracked. Took me a couple listens to settle into the vox but I'm really warming up to the weariness...fits the mood. This is not a very happy song is it? It's beautiful out man, step away from the tequila bottle and get out of that dusty dive bar while you still have all your teeth! I hear the left git thing that CoF mentioned- it's a little flat around and after the 3 minute mark. Low in the mix though and not too noticeable (to me at least). Heaps of guitar. Sometimes a little swimmy with multiple guitars playing the same part, but overall a real effective song. Good job.
 
I always like Chili's tunes. Simply for the fact he put's thought into his lyrics. Not that everyone doesn't. Obviously one has to think to come up with lyrics.

It would more to the point to state his lyrics always seem to have substance to me.

I like this song.

The lyrics are a little weak in spots. Almost forced rather than flowing.

The guit on the right sounds hot to me? not sure if it was intentional? And also at 2:58 - 3:00 Almost sounds like some tuning issues or maybe some string bending issues?? And again at 4:28 - 4-30

Your ezdrummer skills are getting friggin fantastic!!! I wish i could sit with you for an afternoon to see how you do it! IS that JUST exdrummer or have you added any plugins to them ? So interested to know.


Thanks Chili!!!!
 
Nice to hear something new from you Chili. This sounds a little different from what I've heard from you before. It made me think of Steve Earle in the style and air of world-weariness.

I don't think I can add anything on the critique to what's already been said by others, but it was an all round enjoyable listen.
 
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