I-40 Holiday Inn Lounge Lovers

[StephenM]

40 because this was preset 40 (harmonizer) from my Boss ME-25 guitar multi effects box.  Also Interstate 40 is close by and I drive it alot.  Holiday Inn lounge because years ago I had some gigs in one in Charleston (a band I was in called Over You). 

I tried to get in folks heads and sing about various reasons folks go into these places, in one song, as if one person could occupy all those motives at once.

Then there was the comedy of this... and that harmonizer makes so much harmonic content it is hard to imagine this is one rhythm guitar and one lead guitar (Epiphone Firehawk).  The bass was my Shecter also played through a distorted setting on the guitar processor so it is not as strong on the bottom end.

Drums, I am waiting my new Tama Imperialstar kit to arrive next week so these are from the Casio Privia keyboard. 

I did quite a bit of work mixing this.  I had 3 vocal tracks that I thought were garbage.  Trashed them, then dug them back out, and cut and pasted pieces of each throughout.  At least they are interesting. 

Overall this is a pop rock tune with a fair amount of shine on it... kind of overproduced and self engrandized....

I was going to cut it to 3:36 but I got laughing too hard at the rest of the absurdity of it.

recorded on Zoom L-20, mixed on Band Lab (tried Reaper, didn't like the effects), mastered with Masterdesk

[Zoltan]

This really sounds like you're driving thru the tunnel of love!
The kind of tunnel where there's danger, lust and deception. People with different reasons for being there.

Good guys, bad guys and those who fall in the middle. Bodies and nobodies. Voices and ideas intermingled like a radio station stuck between the channels.

I have to take a breather and then get back to this "thriller disguised as a song" production.

[Ted]

"Tonight we're getting it right" is a brilliantly misleading cliché – like the beginning of a confident and romantic rock love ballad. But that deception doesn't last long. Within seconds we are pulled into the empty desperation of someone looking for human connection – or a rough facsimile. Your trademark panned vocals on the left and right are like the protagonist's inner dialogue and pre-tryst chit chat at the same time. It's unsettling and exhausting. Wow.

I recently wrote about life on I-40 in response to Jean Pierre's cover of "Route 66" – and how in Arizona some of the cities with exits off of the interstate have almost nothing going for them but truck stops selling Route 66 souvenirs – beef jerky, knives, energy drink. Sex work is so prevalent at truck stops that truckers don't want to be solicited buy special "No Lot Lizards" stickers for their door windows.

[StephenM]

It's unsettling and exhausting. Wow.

gosh, I totally agree... and I cut a good bit out of this... exhausting...
my brother was a truck driver and would talk about Lot Lizards... I almost used the term Lounge Lizards in here... I have driven 40 pretty much from east to west at one point or another.  It can be beautiful scenery or boring depending on where one is...

[Zoltan]

This talk about Lot Lizards caught my attention! Carry on and i'll take notes...

[StephenM]

"Tonight we're getting it right" is a brilliantly misleading cliché – like the beginning of a confident and romantic rock love ballad. But that deception doesn't last long. Within seconds we are pulled into the empty desperation of someone looking for human connection – or a rough facsimile. Your trademark panned vocals on the left and right are like the protagonist's inner dialogue and pre-tryst chit chat at the same time. It's unsettling and exhausting. Wow.

I recently wrote about life on I-40 in response to Jean Pierre's cover of "Route 66" – and how in Arizona some of the cities with exits off of the interstate have almost nothing going for them but truck stops selling Route 66 souvenirs – beef jerky, knives, energy drink. Sex work is so prevalent at truck stops that truckers don't want to be solicited buy special "No Lot Lizards" stickers for their door windows.

I think you could be a high level detective Ted... you don't miss much...
some highly intelligent comments... I sometimes wonder if you aren't an outpost of some high level intel agency, but masquerading as the cozy home body...husband, father... isn't this site fun? 
or at least interesting?

[Mike_S]

Well that was fun, my brain is remarkably unscrambled for a Christmas Day night, but this did it's best to scramble it. But I remain unscathed! Great fun, hard rocking and trippy too. Great tune and some great lead in there too.

Mike

[Ted]

some highly intelligent comments...

Maybe the word you're looking for is "pretentious."

I try to be substantive when I can. Sometimes I try too hard. For me, I'm appreciative when somebody remarks a detail in one of my songs; an indication that they listened carefully, possibly more than once. I try to offer the same with honesty.

[T.C. Elliott]

I'm surprised at how well the Casio drums work. That harmonizer is golden. You use interesting panning, too. I like how you use all of these elements to create a sonically interesting track.

[des0free]

Patented panned psycho rambling dialogs (Plato would be proud?), set to awesome music, that I seriously doubt anyone else could come up with. Or it could be random phrases one might hear as they walk randomly through a crowded bar?  And you carried a notepad to write them down?  I just catch little phrases and a deep laugh sets in.  Out of the left speaker I think I heard a guy say:

"My nipples stick out and look really weird"

Then a moment later he says

"We can't have these kind of words ... my goodness .. what's wrong with you, man? .. Oh, that's awful ... pathetic..."

Am I hearing that right?

This all comes as flowing vocal improvisation from your subconscious?  And subconscious is influenced by prior life experiences?