"Reaction"
For some reason the title of this song reminds me of another song, which is going to be stuck in my head for the next week. Thanks a lot, me. (More words later)
UPDATE 6-3: First of all sorry I haven't been doing more of these. It's been harder to make time then I thought it would be; I keep sleeping weird hours-- Monday I went to bed at 1 AM and woke up at 4 AM; Tuesday I went to bed at 1 AM and woke up 4 PM; four out of the last six days I've still been up when the sun rose (it's 5:35 AM as I type this). So figuring out a time to make a lot of noise when you won't be waking people up requires a small amount of planning & a much larger amount of luck.
As for the song itself, here's what I like:
-The contrast between rough heavy metal and shimmery shoegazey textures. The guitar somehow manages to switch between sounding really clean and really distorted and back again almost within a single note. Part of this was accomplished by setting my Expensive Whammy Pedal to harmonize a fifth below; mostly it was just raw natural talent. The drums are really cymbal-heavy, but then there's that breakdown at the end with all the off-beat hits (originally I was going to make the guitar part go crazy here too, sort of like "I [spade] Noise" or the end of "22 Minutes," but I like that it stays into that three-chord pattern). The vocal part is ragged and shouty, but it's mixed so low that at barely registers that way. Speaking of which...
-The low-mixed vocals. I wasn't going to do vocals at all, but my instincts suggested listeners need something to sing along with here. The words are pointless--they actually make sense and are internally consistent, but mostly I just needed something with "Reaction" in it, since I had already figured out the title (those instincts again). So I sort of shouted them away from the mike, almost like someone was just listening and started singing along. Plus that way you (hopefully) focus on the melody and emotion of the singing, which is more important than the words anyway. I seem to be doing this trick a lot-- see also: "Toybox," the aforementioned "22 Minutes"-- so my next song will probably have to have really loud vocals so I don't look like a one-trick miniature horse.
-I forgot what I was going to put for this one.
-Another contrast: the simplicity of the arrangement vs. the complexity of how it fits together. I used the White Stripes band setup, plus a clone of the guitar track so I could add a phaser (phasers are cool. They make me feel like I'm living in what people in 1975 thought 1999 would be like. For more cool phasers, see "Taps"). So there's no bass, no keyboard (speaking of which*), no cowbell. On the drum part a I don't even use the high-hat. The guitar is just three chords (Cb, A, and G, but the harmonic effect makes it a little more complicated). For almost half the song all you hear is that rapid bass drum pedal. But at the same time it's an insanely fast tempo, a weird key**, the rhythm is constantly shifting around (at one point the guitar rhythm is identical to "Duel," which is, sadly, unintentional), and at any moment it might stop or start up again.
-Which is the thing I don't like. This song is hard to get into. Once I finished it I wasn't sure if it was actually a good song or just one that was fun to record. It only after two or three listens that the groove of it made sense, and I was sure that it was worth doing. And I wrote the damn thing. Of course, once I got into it, I really got into it, and now I've listened to it maybe more than any other song of mine I've recorded in the last two years (though there are some unfinished songs that get stuck in my head a lot). So give it a few chances. And if you still hate it, lie and tell me how right I was.
*And speaking of that, between the bass pedal, the simplistic guitar part, the atonal singing, and all the empty lpace, I think I've written the least fun Rock Band song ever.
**It's possible I just don't understand key signature, but I believe it's played mostly in G but resolve on A.
DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: This one's exactly the same.
UPDATE 6-3: First of all sorry I haven't been doing more of these. It's been harder to make time then I thought it would be; I keep sleeping weird hours-- Monday I went to bed at 1 AM and woke up at 4 AM; Tuesday I went to bed at 1 AM and woke up 4 PM; four out of the last six days I've still been up when the sun rose (it's 5:35 AM as I type this). So figuring out a time to make a lot of noise when you won't be waking people up requires a small amount of planning & a much larger amount of luck.
As for the song itself, here's what I like:
-The contrast between rough heavy metal and shimmery shoegazey textures. The guitar somehow manages to switch between sounding really clean and really distorted and back again almost within a single note. Part of this was accomplished by setting my Expensive Whammy Pedal to harmonize a fifth below; mostly it was just raw natural talent. The drums are really cymbal-heavy, but then there's that breakdown at the end with all the off-beat hits (originally I was going to make the guitar part go crazy here too, sort of like "I [spade] Noise" or the end of "22 Minutes," but I like that it stays into that three-chord pattern). The vocal part is ragged and shouty, but it's mixed so low that at barely registers that way. Speaking of which...
-The low-mixed vocals. I wasn't going to do vocals at all, but my instincts suggested listeners need something to sing along with here. The words are pointless--they actually make sense and are internally consistent, but mostly I just needed something with "Reaction" in it, since I had already figured out the title (those instincts again). So I sort of shouted them away from the mike, almost like someone was just listening and started singing along. Plus that way you (hopefully) focus on the melody and emotion of the singing, which is more important than the words anyway. I seem to be doing this trick a lot-- see also: "Toybox," the aforementioned "22 Minutes"-- so my next song will probably have to have really loud vocals so I don't look like a one-trick miniature horse.
-I forgot what I was going to put for this one.
-Another contrast: the simplicity of the arrangement vs. the complexity of how it fits together. I used the White Stripes band setup, plus a clone of the guitar track so I could add a phaser (phasers are cool. They make me feel like I'm living in what people in 1975 thought 1999 would be like. For more cool phasers, see "Taps"). So there's no bass, no keyboard (speaking of which*), no cowbell. On the drum part a I don't even use the high-hat. The guitar is just three chords (Cb, A, and G, but the harmonic effect makes it a little more complicated). For almost half the song all you hear is that rapid bass drum pedal. But at the same time it's an insanely fast tempo, a weird key**, the rhythm is constantly shifting around (at one point the guitar rhythm is identical to "Duel," which is, sadly, unintentional), and at any moment it might stop or start up again.
-Which is the thing I don't like. This song is hard to get into. Once I finished it I wasn't sure if it was actually a good song or just one that was fun to record. It only after two or three listens that the groove of it made sense, and I was sure that it was worth doing. And I wrote the damn thing. Of course, once I got into it, I really got into it, and now I've listened to it maybe more than any other song of mine I've recorded in the last two years (though there are some unfinished songs that get stuck in my head a lot). So give it a few chances. And if you still hate it, lie and tell me how right I was.
*And speaking of that, between the bass pedal, the simplistic guitar part, the atonal singing, and all the empty lpace, I think I've written the least fun Rock Band song ever.
**It's possible I just don't understand key signature, but I believe it's played mostly in G but resolve on A.
DOWNLOADABLE VERSION:
Rerelease Notes: This one's exactly the same.
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