Scrape Yourself Off The Floor

Picking up what sounds like some unintentional distortion in the first few chords. Sounds like something in the signal chain was clipping (either in hardware, or maybe in the mix).

Loved it when the main groove kicked in. The first minute and a half flew by. Good job controlling the mood of the listener with the melodies, the progressions, the licks and the variations in intensity. I would love to be a club watching a band jam this out.

Mix wise, everything sounds really great. Sounds like instruments in the room with me. Excellent recording and reproduction here. Really great guitar tones, man. I would love to get guitar tones like this "on tape".

You definitely held my interest for the full 10 minutes. I never got the slightest sensation that I wanted to fast forward to another section.

The instrument at the end (I am sure I'll find out what it is if I read through the thread - music box? glock? xylophone?) seemed like it was maybe a bit high-endy. I wouldn't even go so far as to say harsh, but I think it would fit the overall vibe and still stand out as a really cool element if it was brought down by a couple dB and dulled down a touch.

Outstanding to my ears, thanks for this.
 
Cool jam. The melodies and progressions became more engaging as the tune went along. I can't sing to save my life so not qualified to criticize, but the vocals aren't doing it for me -too unintelligible
 
fat_fleet said:
Thanks Rob, I'll look at those la-la-las next time I work on this.

I posted a rougher demo-y version of this awhile back when Chater used to do those "songwriting contests". The whole shebang's about 22 minutes long, basically an album side. The section that follows slows down even more and trickles almost to a stop, then kicks back up into an altered reprise of the intro jam and then melts into a 2-minute bed of layered guitar feedback. I chopped it halfway through to make it more radio friendly. ;)
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Yeah, this one's definitely almost ready for radio play now - commercial radio stations play this kind of stuff all day right?

I think the first time I ever heard your stuff was in one of those songwriting contests years ago. I remember a song of yours called Whales (I think) that was about 20 minutes long. Is it that one by any chance? :cool:
 
mjbphotos said:
Not Dead, but a heavy jam-band feel to the first half. Only nit would be the toms which have a high frequency component to them, but little low end. You don't use them a lot, so its easy to miss.
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Cool, thanks Mike. Yeah, "heavy jam" sounds close to what I was going for with the first section.
I use a 4-piece setup on the drums with only a rack and floor tom. That's probably the rack tom you're hearing, since I play the floor tom almost incessantly. I retracked the drums a couple nights back and I'll keep your comments in mind when I bounce out a new mix.


jimistone said:
Great rock groove. Very creative I must say. I can't believe some say 10 minutes is long. One of my favorite tunes is "Whipping Post" off the Allmans Fillmore East album and it went over 20 minutes.
great effort!
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Right? When I was coming up with music, we used to put on a band's album and listen to the WHOLE THING from beginning to end, though that may seem inconceivable to modern internet clickers. But to be fair, I always got a strong feeling that the folks complaining about the length are actually just bent out of shape about the ambition of my stuff. Some people tend to tolerate it from famous people, but not in their peers.

Anyways thanks Jimi. I've checked out your JLL tune a couple times and it's a total blast. Hopefully I'll get to type up a proper response later tonight.
 
GONZO-X said:
ok, you lost me.
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Ha, that's awesome. :D Appreciate the listen nonetheless Gonzo, although I'm sure it wasn't your ball-o-wax.
And the lack of mix crits feels pretty good, considering mix/sonics seems to be your area of expertise.
 
kindafishy said:
Picking up what sounds like some unintentional distortion in the first few chords. Sounds like something in the signal chain was clipping (either in hardware, or maybe in the mix).

Loved it when the main groove kicked in. The first minute and a half flew by. Good job controlling the mood of the listener with the melodies, the progressions, the licks and the variations in intensity. I would love to be a club watching a band jam this out.

Mix wise, everything sounds really great. Sounds like instruments in the room with me. Excellent recording and reproduction here. Really great guitar tones, man. I would love to get guitar tones like this "on tape".

You definitely held my interest for the full 10 minutes. I never got the slightest sensation that I wanted to fast forward to another section.

The instrument at the end (I am sure I'll find out what it is if I read through the thread - music box? glock? xylophone?) seemed like it was maybe a bit high-endy. I wouldn't even go so far as to say harsh, but I think it would fit the overall vibe and still stand out as a really cool element if it was brought down by a couple dB and dulled down a touch.

Outstanding to my ears, thanks for this.
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Hey Fishy, thanks for that. Great detailed comments, most of them good.. can't help but like that.

Yeah, that's a glockenspeil and a plastic toy recorder at the very end and I did notice I got kind of a piercing transient with the glock. With it and other percussion-y things I know to have that spikey transient, I often use an LDC with the capsule facing away from the instrument, and that usually helps tame the spikes. I'm thinking I actually aimed the capsule at the glock this time around, instead of away from it.

Anyways, thanks for the listen and the kind words. Looking forward to checking out your tune later on when I get a chance to sit down for a minute. :)


Bulls Hit said:
Cool jam. The melodies and progressions became more engaging as the tune went along. I can't sing to save my life so not qualified to criticize, but the vocals aren't doing it for me -too unintelligible
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Thanks BH, sorry the vox didn't do it for ya. :)
Looking forward to checking out your new one too!
 
robgreen said:
Yeah, this one's definitely almost ready for radio play now - commercial radio stations play this kind of stuff all day right?

I think the first time I ever heard your stuff was in one of those songwriting contests years ago. I remember a song of yours called Whales (I think) that was about 20 minutes long. Is it that one by any chance? :cool:
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Yep! New skin for an old ceremony..
 
fat_fleet said:
Ha, that's awesome. :D Appreciate the listen nonetheless Gonzo, although I'm sure it wasn't your ball-o-wax.
And the lack of mix crits feels pretty good, considering mix/sonics seems to be your area of expertise.
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heheh, well, what i was trying to say with my dry british wit (sic),
was that you've got something really going on with this one,
you just need to 'produce' it,
meaning,
mercilessly hack it down, with extreme prejudice,
to just the very best stuff,
and then nail a real heartfelt vocal across it,
keep down to about 4:30, and you might have a winner.
 
Hey I'm a paid up member of the long song fan club... but I guess not everyone is. I don't think it drags at all, and I liked the completely different sound that comes in shortly before the vocals start. Mirror what fishy said about the distortion on the first couple of chords. I also agree with whoever said the music box thing was a bit harsh sounding... but I like the anarchy thing that's going on in that section... should have posted the rest of it as it sounded like it was heading back into interesting territory.

Nice...:D
 
GONZO-X said:
heheh, well, what i was trying to say with my dry british wit (sic),
was that you've got something really going on with this one,
you just need to 'produce' it,
meaning,
mercilessly hack it down, with extreme prejudice,
to just the very best stuff,
and then nail a real heartfelt vocal across it,
keep down to about 4:30, and you might have a winner.
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Hi again Gonzo.

I think you may misunderstand my intentions in making music. I'm more of an immersive synesthesist in both what I listen to and make. I try to paint pictures of oceans, canyons, geological time etc. with sound. I don't really care about "winning" because I don't think there's anything to "win". :) I have no interest in writing songs by taping parts together like you suggest, and like I know many do. My songs are done in my head before I even pick up an instrument to figure them out. Occasionally they have things that resemble the "verses" and "choruses" more conventional songwriters use, but for the most part they start in one place, drift through interconnected parts which dovetail into each other, and end somewhere else. For me to cut it up and start gluing disparate parts together so it more closely resembles Zep or even Mastadon would be ridiculous and, I imagine, sound totally unnatural.

About the vocal, I've heard the vocals in your stuff and, although well-executed, I personally don't find that careful over-emoting to be that expressive. In general, that approach to singing sounds a little cheesy and commercial to me, but to each his own. If I tried to emulate it, it would probably cause me to not like my own song.

And just so you know for the future, what I'm doing in this song isn't "cookie monster" vocals. Cookie Monster is a very specific vocal style.. it has a different thrust and timbre to it, but it's immediately recognizable. It has more to do with using low vocal registers. What I'm doing here is outright screaming, which is a completely different thing. It's an easy mistake to make if you don't follow much heavy music, so I initially wasn't even going to mention it.

Here's an example:



Hope this helps.
 
Armistice said:
Hey I'm a paid up member of the long song fan club... but I guess not everyone is. I don't think it drags at all, and I liked the completely different sound that comes in shortly before the vocals start. Mirror what fishy said about the distortion on the first couple of chords. I also agree with whoever said the music box thing was a bit harsh sounding... but I like the anarchy thing that's going on in that section... should have posted the rest of it as it sounded like it was heading back into interesting territory.

Nice...:D
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Thanks a lot Armistice. Seems pretty unanimous about that intro guitar bit and the music box thing. At this point I've started retracking the rhythm section and it's turning into a Pandora's Box type deal where one thing leads to another and now most of the instrumentation's getting retracked.

I'll might actually post the whole thing if I ever fricking finish it (big if). If I can get anyone to listen to the full version, I might post my 40 minute Can homage. :p

And anyways, what did you mean by "it sounds like it's heading back into interesting territory"?? :mad:
 
fat_fleet said:
And just so you know for the future, what I'm doing in this song isn't "cookie monster" vocals.
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sorry, sounded cookie monster to me.

i just mentioned mastodon because they are so popular...
not to suggest you should sound like them..
more of a production value approach, that's all.



i don't have any problem with folks writing rambling songs.......
as for myself, i'm trying to write songs that do not necessarily 'Have' a hook, to me that is to much like writing 'by-the-numbers',
so i'm trying to do something different, by 'telling stories' rather than looking for hooks...
but i'm aware of my listener's patience quota.
at least, partially aware.


but in your case,
i think very few people are ever going to sign on to listening to long rambling songs that don't necessarily cop a style,
or even tell a story,
i know this from writing long rambling instrumentals!
LOL

so my suggestions were ONLY to help bring your composition into a area of songwriting where i believe you would reach 99% more people than you would as it is.

so, just like grains of salt,
take it for what it's worth,
more of a 'production' opinion than anything else.
 
GONZO-X said:
i think very few people are ever going to sign on to listening to long rambling songs that don't necessarily cop a style,
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You'd be surprised at what people out there listen to. ;)

GONZO-X said:
i know this from writing long rambling instrumentals!
LOL
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Hm, don't take this the wrong way, but I'd suggest your lack of listener interest might have nothing to do with song length.

GONZO-X said:
where i believe you would reach 99% more people than you would as it is.
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You know, you could probably accomplish this with your own music if you did more slo-jams and rap breakdowns. Thank me later. :)
 
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