My GLAM ROCK side project, check it out

[Yammie072]

I wrote 6 songs for a glam album and I'm in the process of demoing them. I want it to be a total party album, mixing shitty 80s pop with fun retro 60s pop, and adding in some twang and blues.

I want it to sound like it was recorded in a garage... like 4 guys got in a room without knowing each other an recording an album in 2 hours. I want it to sound sloppy, loose, cluttered, drunken, and fun. In a good way. Almost crunchy. So i compressed the shit out of everything... I think I got kinda close to what i want. Think Butch Walker's 'Hot girls in good moods' for recording sound... but not necassarily style.

www.purevolume.com/thelately

did i succeed?
the songwriting decent?

[bendbones]

I like them, but I don't think I'd call it glam rock...sounds too good to be glam rock (when I think of glam rock, I think of David Lee Roth type stuff and Kiss - Big Hair and makeup etc)...Come and play - this sounds more close to The Arctic Monkeys...

Its all well produced imo and couldn't hear anything wrong with it through my headphones. I like the song writing, and it very much to me sounded like you succeeded in what you set out to do.

DoDoDo - this sounds like 80s pop rock in a way, I guess...Especially with the drums - are those sequenced/drum machine produced. They sound like they could be in places.

Maybe if anything at all, the drums are a little tinny in this second track and the crash seems to come through a little loudly at 227. I'm not sure though on second listen so def don't take my work for it.

All very party sounding... nice one mate!

Ben.

[Yammie072]

Thanks. By glam i was more meaning David Bowie type stuff... big trio harmonies doing block chording and stuff (which I havent had a chance to add in yet... sadly).

Good ear! The drums for these demos i did digitally using Acoustica Beatcraft (heavily EQed and Compressed). This is kinda the sound i'm going for... not exactly pristine but still discernable... I think i'll be able to get a more organic sound when we go in to do it for real with my drummer. Suggestions for getting a more... tape distorted drum sound? Maybe let the mics bleed through more or run the skinned drums through an amp... then mix that tone in with the normal mic'ed drum sound. I dont know... could be fun!

What do you think of the vocal sound? Too compressed? Should I bring out the midrange a little more and maybe get some mic overdrive happening?

[Greg_L]

Lol. This is not Glam.

This is pretty garage-ish with a poppy-punk vibe. I like the mixes. Songs are pretty decent too. They sound pretty trashy and wild and mega-compressed like you'd expect from what you're going for. You're on your way.

[joeym]

Yes it is Glam! Not 80's though....
This is Bowie, Marc Bolan, Sweet, Slade etc. all pressed into one!
Today it's called alternative, but anyway....who cares? It's either good or bad, and this is very GOOD in my opinion. Nice and raunchy stuff! I've always been a big Bowie fan up until Scary Monsters and this sounds a bit like him around the Ziggy Stardust period. Great!

Joe

[Nightfire]

Great stuff!

I cant get my Beatcraft drums to sound like that. What kit are you using in Beatcraft? Im having a very hard time with that program, cant say I like it.


Mike

[rayc]

Glam was Bolan then Bowie then Slade, Wizzard, Gary Glitter, The Glitter band, Mud et al. Lots of stomping and handclaps added to big, simple choruses and a huge wall of sound.
You've tapped garage hair metal which was infamous for doing covers of glam.
Kiss and Van Halen were NO WHERE near the essentially pommie musical form except that they all dressed up.
What you've done does seem fun though.

[Yammie072]

Thanks guys. Yeah, most people associate glam with 80s pop metal - and for good reason; I think the Ziggy Stardust type is much more musically appealing.

About Beatcraft:
The trick is not to try to do anything too fancy with it. Make sure to keep the cymbals down - the stock kits and mixes are terrible. I usually have my kick and snare at like 160 and my cymbals at around 40. I start off using the Rock and Blues kit, then EQ the hell out of it until I get it sounding like a drumkit I'd actually play. When you go to program, make sure to use the volume control of each hit to emulate the way a real drummer plays - this is much easier if you'd had some experience drumming. Play around, my first songs sounded terrible too. Its really my only alternative when I'm recording in my apartment.

[Yammie072]

Ok I added a tango-ey new song called Shoe Stains. This one is slightly darker.

Its about my girlfriend. I met her in the commons at UW Madison and thought she was really hot so I found her residence and serenaded her with Edwin Mccain (my friend knew her - not as creepy as it sounds). HAHAHAHAH The second I ever hung out with her after that, I got really drunk and puked on her friends in an elevator. This is about that.

I feel sick, dont want to move, need you to take me home
Least you could do is pass the booze and put your name in my phone
I gotta go - reach for the door - get to the elevator
And now your friends are wearing shoes covered in dinner