Goner

An unapologetically moody ballad, aspiring to describe the intersection between Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Radiohead, and the Band. Any excuse to use a pedal-steel guitar and brass, really. Site, cd, myspace.

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posted by fingers_of_fire (6 comments total)

Hey, that's a hell of an intersection there, FOF! I hear you on the pedal steel, that's one of my fave axes, too. Nice to hear it snake its way into the mix. Are you playing it? Sounds good, and lord knows, that's a difficult instrument, pedal steel. I like the line "all smoke and no fire", that's a good 'un. If I was to make any suggestion, it would be that I think the first big dynamic blasts (at bar 12 and bar 16) could've been toned down a couple of notches. I know that having a HUGE power chord kick in and the volume hitting the roof is a popular device (Nirvana certainly scored big with it), but somehow it seems a little out of place in this song, at least, so early in the song. As ever, of course, this is just my humble opinion. Oh, and your guitar playing is cracking, as expected! Nice solo. Nice use of tremolo here and there, too.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:00 PM on January 16, 2007

Wow, I'm impressed. Arrangement: 10, Execution: 10+. I LOVE how this powers up and back down again.
posted by snsranch at 5:43 PM on January 16, 2007

Great day for MetaFilter Music. Man, this is good stuff. Great production. How many people played in it?

Also, I checked your site. Great, clean design. Congrats, man. Looking forward to more of your music.
posted by micayetoca at 7:18 PM on January 16, 2007

Thanks for the notes, everybody. It's not me, I'm sad to say, playing pedal steel - it's Gerald Menke. This tune had the most tracks on my recent album - I don't remember the exact count, but it was in the 30s. I'm playing 5 tracks of guitar and singing 4 tracks of vox. There are drums and bass, of course. There's a Rhodes (that's a REAL Rhodes, too, I'm proud to say!). There's pedal steel. And then there are about 12 horn tracks - if memory serves, I had one guy play 3 tracks each of trumpet 1, trumpet 2, flugelhorn, and valve trombone. So that'd make, what - 6 people altogether. As you can imagine, it's a bitch to pull it off live!
posted by fingers_of_fire at 6:45 AM on January 17, 2007

PS - wish I could take credit for the site design, but a friend did that. I coded it, though...
posted by fingers_of_fire at 6:45 AM on January 17, 2007

I finally got around to listening to this after downloading it the day you posted it. (it was buried in my downloads folder -- duh) and really enjoyed the song. I appreciate detail work, and it's obvious you sweated the details.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:35 PM on February 23, 2007