That Guy In That Room

Theme song for an imaginary TV series called "That Guy In That Room".

There's this guy
Who sits in a room.
He doesn't do anything
But just stares at the wall.
But every week towards the end of the show
He gets up
And takes a pratfall.
Sometimes he lands on his face.
Sometimes he lands on his butt.
But afterwards he's always a little confused
Like he don't know what from what!
He's that guy in that room!
And every week you'll get a sense
Of your own impending doom
From that guy in that room.
In that room.
In that room.

Copyright 2008 Samm Bennett/Directional Music

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by flapjax at midnite (13 comments total)

flapjax, this is absolutely brilliant! And totally twisted. The show idea is like if Samuel Beckett and Andy Warhol had teamed up and landed a prime-time TV series in the 1980s.

The execution of the theme is pitch-perfect. Someone should make a video to accompany this.
posted by umbú at 7:32 AM on November 9, 2008

Holy cow, who's on horns?

The production is quite spectacular. What brought this all together?
posted by ageispolis at 1:47 PM on November 9, 2008

Really well-produced. Every element is so crisp/clean-sounding.
posted by wastelands at 1:52 PM on November 9, 2008

Is there a tag for silly mouth-bass-percussion? There should be. Cos it's neat.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:03 PM on November 9, 2008

Thanks, y'all, your comments are much appreciated.

Someone should make a video to accompany this.

I'd like that a lot, if it was a good video.

Holy cow, who's on horns?

All samples, my friend, all samples. Some are short phrase samples (two or three note riffs) and some are single-note multisamples that I played on keyboard. Alto sax, a couple of different muted trumpets, and one basic trumpet sample. The sampler I'm using is the onboard (running with Logic) EXS24.

What brought this all together?

A combination of this month's Challenge and, I suppose, my own absurdist leanings.

Every element is so crisp/clean-sounding.

The vocals (both the lead and the mouth-bass-percussion bits) are recorded with a really good mic, which always helps things to sound crisp and clean, and each track (vox and samples) gets some compression, which helps bring them out and define them. Also, it's not a very thick sort of mix: there's no drums, no bass, no thick guitars... so with that kind of space for parts to breathe, it's not that difficult to get, as you say, a sound that's crisp and clear.

Is there a tag for silly mouth-bass-percussion? There should be.

There is now.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:44 AM on November 10, 2008

Oh man! This was my favorite show! I was really mad when they cancelled it and replaced it with Ow! My Balls!
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 3:14 AM on November 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is the first time I've felt the need yo use an emoticon in Metafilter Music, and it would be that emoticon that is really, really impressed. This is fantastic, flapjax, truly fantastic.
posted by micayetoca at 5:29 AM on November 10, 2008

What's the really good mic?
posted by umbú at 8:28 AM on November 10, 2008

What's the really good mic?

It's a Microtech Gefell, from the East Germany days: it's an earlier version of this one. I picked it up used from a NYC studio more than 20 years ago and I've been using it continuously ever since. For vocals, all sorts of instruments, whatever.

Interesting what happened to that company, splitting off from Neumann as a result of the Berlin Wall going up in 1961.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:51 PM on November 10, 2008

Hey, this is great! If people wrote shows around theme songs, you would be signing contracts right now!
posted by snsranch at 3:50 PM on November 13, 2008

WOW. Just heard this. Bears repeating: wow.
posted by ORthey at 10:01 AM on November 17, 2008

This is just brilliant, I was giggling right up to the end.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 11:43 PM on November 18, 2008

And the award for the academy's Best Television Program Theme Song Of The Year goes to....Flapjax at Midnight for "That Guy In That Room!"
posted by AppleSeed at 3:44 AM on November 24, 2008