Getting a Tan

Music for Spring. Another oldie from the 1980's. The Beat Meters was my 7-piece Pop-Dance orchestra with 2 girl singers in front, bass, drums, guitars, keys & sometimes 2 drummers/percussionists. We spent a crap-ton of money on a 4-song demo, but due to a revolving door of personnel, never managed to really get the thing off the ground.

We played a few really great gigs in & around Austin, but got passed on by label after label, and in the end, there were more than twice as many ex-Beat Meters than there were current members. We gave it up in '88 and formed Hurlo Thrumbo, which I've posted songs by previously. Funnily enough, this band existed simultaneously with my punk band, The Whore$, who were basically the same band, minus the keys & girls. The guitar solo (2:30 to 2:54) is just us Whore$ -- probably the best 24 seconds of recording I ever paid for. The feedback was a happy accident that Morgan re-worked into the solo while cutting takes. He had to turn his stool *just so* to get the feedback, and we spent an hour with him missing the spot by an inch halfway through, and having to start over. Mixed by John Viehweg on Wink Tyler's SSL console -- the first of its kind in Austin. The faders really moved by themselves! Mark Hallman kicked me & Morgan out of the vocal booth and sung all the guy parts himself, because we were sucking. Love that guy. As usual, I'm playing bass.

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posted by Devils Rancher (8 comments total)

Wow this is a true artifact of the 80s, what with the keyboard voices, and the drum sound, and the guitar solo . . . the production is pro and I could totally imagine having seen this on Pop-Up Video! Makes me wonder if anyone could recreate that sound today, with the right equipment and settings, or if there was just something in the air.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 8:57 PM on March 30

This is definetely 80's but in a totally awesome way. That's some funky bass work, I kinda got a Zappa feeling from this (it sounds like your drummer listened to a lot of Terry Bozio) and as a band you guys were pretty tight.
posted by BrnP84 at 9:35 PM on March 30

Yes, that's an actual Prophet 5. I wanted to do something synthy and poppy, but without going all OMD or Ultravox -- we did a few drum machine recordings, but they never worked out like the live band thing. We did cook the songs until they were pretty much stew. We put waaay more work into writing/arranging fort his band than the Whores. The Betamax tape (digital master) with the other three songs is out in Llano -- I need a betamax player & time to go get it -- I haven't heard a couple of them in 20 years.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:51 AM on March 31

There is not NEARLY enough of this kind of amazing 80s rockery on MeFi music. The bass, as BrnP84 said, is FUNKAY.
posted by ORthey at 10:45 AM on March 31

Holy god this is great.
posted by cortex at 10:58 AM on April 10

Holy god this is great.

I used to be an actual musician, you know. It didn't pay for shit though, and I had to get a job. Then the first kid showed up, and the idea of being stuck in an Econoline van with 5 people I didn't really like so much after all began to lose its luster, so I hunkered down and turned the job into a career. Now, I just post my old shit. Glad you liked it.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:49 AM on April 10

Not bad. Not bad at all! Playlisted! Thanks Devils Rancher!
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:00 PM on April 30

This reminds me of the band Christmas, before they turned into Combustible Edison. I like this a lot!
posted by not_on_display at 1:20 PM on June 15