Last Day/First Day

We're finally free and clear.

It was my kids' last day of school a few days ago, which inspired me to write something about the liberating feeling of leaving something shitty behind, at least for a while, and starting something new.
I wanted it to be more universal than a 'last day of school' thing but then I couldn't resist going to the school and recording the bell ringing at 3.30 on the last day...so I guess I brought it way back to less universal.

I'm channeling some strange kind of teen pop here or something, I don't know what happened.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by chococat (13 comments total)

This is really cool, you've got a nice laid back thing goin on in this one, for some reason I was picturing this song to be playing in a movie during some kind of reflection scene, like with someone riding in a car and staring out the window thinking about stuff, I could also hear it being played at the end of a Pete and Pete episode.
posted by BrnP84 at 10:11 PM on June 27, 2008

Very charming, chococat. I dig the middle eight accordion-y bit, and the school bell/kid's voices intro/outro was a ice touch.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:25 PM on June 27, 2008

that is, a nice touch.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:26 PM on June 27, 2008

Just thinking... y'all wanna turn this into a "school's out"-themed linkfest? Hey, no reason we can't do that here at MeFi Music, right? Okay, there's...

Alice Cooper's School's Out. Dig that big silver double-kick kit the drummer's pounding on, and Alice is wielding a fencing sword! (Musta been an upper crust school...) And of course, there's his version with the Muppets.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:01 PM on June 27, 2008

the school bell/kid's voices intro/outro was a ice touch

Screw your corrections, I like this quote better. Because it's true, it was a ice touch.

Funny about Alice Cooper...I was a Cooper fanatic in the late 70's when I was a kid, which is weird enough, but before that my brother and I shared a bedroom and I had a shitty plastic record player (first record was Elton John's Greatest Hits Vol. 1, bought by my really conservative dad) and on the last day of school my brother would take the speakers and put them in the windows of our suburban bedroom afterschool and blast School's Out to everyone making their way home past our house (we were on the main route home.)
I played School's Out to my kids the other day and told them that same story, trying to convey the sheer joy and "fuck you, school!" kind of feeling that song gave us as kids, and the cool ending where it sounds like your record player has been shut off, which of course involved explaining how a record player works.
posted by chococat at 1:24 AM on June 28, 2008

ice, ice, baby!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:41 AM on June 28, 2008

This is a beautiful song.

"I'm channeling some strange kind of teen pop here or something"

I can see why you say that, but the melody/chord progression, while lovely and simple, isn't predictable enough for that. It's more honest and less contrived than what I associate with teen pop.
posted by nthdegx at 4:28 AM on June 28, 2008

Yeah, I agree it doesn't bring to mind any of the bad stuff that one associates with teen pop. And within the context of your songs, it sounds fresh and different. You have a knack for that, despite having a very distinctive voice and style, your songs don't sound repetitive and boring. But I've told you all of this many times before, I am afraid. It will be my comments that end up sounding repetitive and boring.

Who played that accordion?
posted by micayetoca at 10:53 AM on June 28, 2008

Thanks!

Who played that accordion?
Me, but it's a Moog.
posted by chococat at 4:52 PM on June 28, 2008

This is a beauty chococat, and I love your intro/outro. That is one of the best sounds in the world!
posted by snsranch at 10:05 AM on July 1, 2008

Yeah, this is a beauty. Great job. Are those real drums or, uh, nonreal?
posted by sleepy pete at 11:01 AM on July 1, 2008

Just got a chance to listen to this (I was saving it to savor). Sweet track, bgm--in both the "sweet, dude" and "aww, sweet" senses of the word. Thanks again.
posted by maniactown at 12:28 PM on July 1, 2008

No, thank you!

sleepy pete, they're real. I'm never happy with the way my drums come out. Instead of miking everything this time I just stuck a room mic far away. Karlos the J made a comment on one of my songs a while ago that the drums sounded like "sensitive white boy drums" or something like that (I'm too lazy to look it up) and it crushed me. He was totally right and now I hate the drums on that song. I've recovered, it's okay.
Also, I mastered this one really quick and I hate that too. The whole thing was really uneven and really middle-y, so, (typical of me) I just looped one part that bothered me, brightened it up a bit and mastered the whole song that way. As a result it's way too high-endy and the string noise in the left side became crazy loud, which I didn't notice until after posting and now it's unbearable to me. Live and learn.
posted by chococat at 7:19 PM on July 3, 2008