Seventeen Below (Electric Version)

Someone suggested I re-record this with a heavier treatment. So I threw the kitchen sink at it. Guitars, guitars, more guitars, a cello section, some HEAVY guitars, harmonies and a bonus weather forecast. Don't let the quiet beginning fool you.

I think I prefer the original for its icy quality, but this was kind of fun to do.

Also, I wish I could sing.

• play
• pause
• min volume
• max volume

posted by unSane (7 comments total)

You can sing.
I also prefer your original but I always like first things better.
This is still a nice recording, however.
posted by chococat at 3:42 PM on June 10, 2010

Yeah, I'm not really happy with this. I like the idea of a heavier version but this veers too obviously between jangle and thump. I tried doing a more power-pop version today which I think was more successful. I also changed the key up a tone which really helped out my range. I sort of feel there's a perfect version out there which is why I keep fiddling with it.
posted by unSane at 6:14 PM on June 10, 2010

In my experience it's really hard to compete with old 4-track demos. It's like they simmer in their warm, cassettey, lo-fi awesomeness and get better; becoming representational of a moment you can never re-create.
It's fun to try, though. But I always seem to kill the song when I try to remake it.
posted by chococat at 6:25 PM on June 10, 2010

That's true. I always found that when we had to record for an album or CD... never really matched the feel of the original demo. I can remember the last real band I was in, we recorded a single which was quite successful, but didn't set the world on fire, and then one day I put on the demo which I had recorded on my 4-track for one of my friends, and he jumped up and yelled NOW I GET IT!
posted by unSane at 6:30 PM on June 10, 2010

(That original 4-T demo was not really meant to be a definitive version of the song AT ALL. I can remember just wanting to get the song on tape with all the main ideas intact and I had just discovered that banging it out on an acoustic really simplified the recording process, so I did it like that. I suppose that's the charm really... it just sticks to the point.)
posted by unSane at 6:34 PM on June 10, 2010

I haven't listening to the first version -- I'm working my way backwards -- but I was going to call this Matthew Sweet-y and then read your comments on the original post. Heh.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 2:28 AM on June 15, 2010

It's hard to compete with the really sweet and natural sounding distortion of the original. They are both good, but from my angle, the first one feels more like what the song is about. I would not discourage a recording with some sweet, barely clipping drums, though.
posted by Corduroy at 12:10 AM on June 16, 2010