Comments on: That Guy In That Room

That Guy In That Room

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:17:28 -0800

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

By: umbú

umbú — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:32:38 -0800

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.

By: ageispolis

ageispolis — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:47:05 -0800

Holy cow, who's on horns?

The production is quite spectacular. What brought this all together?

By: wastelands

wastelands — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:52:49 -0800

Really well-produced. Every element is so crisp/clean-sounding.

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:03:55 -0800

Is there a tag for silly mouth-bass-percussion? There should be. Cos it's neat.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:44:13 -0800

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.

By: Karlos the Jackal

Karlos the Jackal — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:14:59 -0800

Oh man! This was my favorite show! I was really mad when they cancelled it and replaced it with Ow! My Balls!

By: micayetoca

micayetoca — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:29:51 -0800

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.

By: umbú

umbú — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:28:59 -0800

What's the really good mic?

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:51:18 -0800

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.

By: snsranch

snsranch — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:50:59 -0800

Hey, this is great! If people wrote shows around theme songs, you would be signing contracts right now!

By: ORthey

ORthey — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:01:45 -0800

WOW. Just heard this. Bears repeating: wow.

By: theiconoclast31

theiconoclast31 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:43:53 -0800

This is just brilliant, I was giggling right up to the end.

By: AppleSeed

AppleSeed — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:44:25 -0800

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!"