School Bus

July 2, 2008 6:54 PM

A new song this summer. I had a postable semi-instrumental version of this, but decided to wait until I fleshed it out. Thus, this is a pretty fleshed-out version, with vocals and about 12 tracks.

To be honest, I associate tracks with layers in Photoshop, so I'm anal about keeping them nice and neat

posted by tmcw (5 comments total)

Are the verses in...5/4? Nutty!

This is pretty cool. I especially like the high guitar part (first heard at :45) and the banjo part (2:06).

There's a lot of of giving us things and then taking them away -- things build up and then drop back down again -- which I find a little frustrating; it was harder to "get into" the song. It may just be me...?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 8:37 PM on July 2, 2008


Hey, yeah - the first and second verses are in 5/4. I hope it doesn't sound unnatural that way - it's just the way I initially came up with the riff, and the melody relies on it pretty seriously.

Thanks a ton for your comment: it does sort of thin & thicken out a lot. I like the choruses being a big contrast, but the second verse could probably benefit from some of those parts (clapping, maybe a second guitar) keeping on.
posted by tmcw at 9:14 PM on July 2, 2008


Oh man the 5/4 part is good. I think its really hooky the way it is. Sufjan Stevens uses 5/4 all the time and it works just fine for him. I think the build up and back down thing that Karlos the Jackal mentions wouldn't be so jarring with drums and bass backing things up throughout and/or maybe a bit of compression (my guilty pleasure) so that things don't pop out so suddenly.This is really good songwriting dude.
posted by dobie at 5:41 PM on July 3, 2008


Irregular meter is one of my favorite musical features, so kudos for that!

My only suggestion would be to make the vocals more present -- they seem to hide behind the guitar parts a bit. The high guitar part in the chorus especially seems to dominate. The contrast is nice, but it's a little jarring to my ear.

That said, this is good stuff. Keep it up!
posted by danb at 8:04 PM on July 3, 2008


I like this song. You blended the nonstandard time signatures well -- it flows well.
posted by spiderskull at 11:03 AM on July 11, 2008


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