Face The Music, new tune by Distant Towers

Hi Tony,

You know I'm a big fan of your songs, and boy, you're crankin' 'em out lately! This mix sounds fantastic through headphones (too early for speakers here), drums and bass are kicking through perfectly.

It's an interesting one this - on first listen it seemed a lot more accessible than your other songs, more straightforward.. on my 2nd listen now and all the little things that I like are revealing themselves, like that weird little vocal effect under the power chords before 'knocked off your feet'. You guys have boundless creativity, hats off to you.

0.0000000000002 cents:
You animal!

Alternative genre is not my personal genre preference. Ah, ELO will never be the same (an old title by them too).
Not a cuddly-kiddy song, but easy to drift into, especially for those into *occasional* self-medication use.

I love the widened telophonish pan a 1:00.
Vox is louder and clearer at 2:45; I suspect this was intentional. 'Sort of building the vox up incrementally.

Somehow you've made music out of *artifact* noises: That is extremely interesting for me. I would love to know how you did it.

While the kick belongs centered, I'd probably prefer it a just a little off-centered and 'verbed back a little. (Please note my disclaimer, though).

For a 'quicky', I'm envious. This is probably 95% there. It takes me months to get 80%.

Oh, the hook is hauntingly catchy: "You gotta pay the price"

James: Thanks for stopping in and taking a listen with the "cans". What you said about hearing things on the 2nd listen is just the same type of thing I pick up on too. Tom puts all sorts of little "nuggets" in our tunes and sometimes I don't pick up on the more subtle ones until weeks later. The wierd little vocal thing is something that got me too. Thanks for the kind comments and the feedback. We have been getting more comfortable working together and we really don't get too hung up on making every one a masterpiece. We like to have fun first. This one seemed a little "schizo" to us but that's okay with us.

Michael: Thanks for taking a listen to our tune and for the great feedback. Some of what you are saying may stem from the fact that the idea for the tune was originally just the verse and chorus parts. I added a 45 sec intro to it and Tom pulled some areas apart to add space. We filled those up later. So really the tune was very simple at the start and then got pulled apart and had these offshoots put into it. I am going to listen with your comments up so I can hear the things you have specifically mentioned. Thanks for the specific info, we appreciate it. Thanks for the kind comments too.

Philip: Thanks much for taking the time to listen. Your comments are great and Tom is going to love them. I say that because he is the one where all these little nuances come from. The artifacts, the building of the vox and other things such as that. Drums are one area that Tom is always interested in getting comments on so we appreciate that. Tom is a real workhouse when it comes to Sonar and I try to keep pace with adding parts and some initial arranging so really it is a tag team effort and then Robbie will come in and just blast the drums off. So really we got a lot of hours coming together quickly to make a tune. It would take a lot longer if not for Tom's ideas for rearrangement and such. I would get stuck easily but Tom thinks nothing of doing a radical rearrangement to see how it will work.

Larry: Thanks for checking out the tune, we appreciate. Thanks for the nice comments. That intro was not much until Tom added those rock style vocals to it but it definitely felt straight up rock during that time. This one even seemed a bit strange to us as we worked on it. It might be the song equivalent of bed head, you know parts sticking out everywhere. Thanks for the guitar kudos but the varied sounds are just me being too lazy to document the patches or write them to a file so I can go back to them after the initial sessions. I hope to become a little more regimented in that way but sometimes it is too much fun just to start playing over stuff.

Thanks for all the other listens too! Don't be afraid to post any negative comments if you listened but didn't want to post. If someone posts something negative I'll try not to get to crazy about it. I won't take a handful of Flintstone chewable vitamins and chase it with Nestles Quik

Great as always.

My only crit is I find parts of the vox need a bit more processing, but I am not sure if its echo or delay. They just seem a tad dry (normal) for some parts of the song where they could be a bit more extreme.

Cheers
Shad

This is a cool tune, and there's lots of wild twists and turns. When I listen to your songs, I never know what's coming next.

You guys write some groovers though, no matter what's going on, my head is bobbing to the beat. Lots of dirty guitar tones and excellent vox.

Only crit, maybe spread out the synth that kicks in around 0.50, JMO.

James- Thanks for the listen and feedback! Glad you picked up on all the lil goofy efx..lol

Michael- I'll go back in and listen a bit...but if you wanna mix her I'd be glad to shoot you the cwb. Just let me know!

Phillip- Thanks for the feedback and listen...I wouldn't even know where to start as far as the making sounds into music..I just push and pull and bend and twist...and then just toss'em in!

Larry- Thanks again brudda and I was really impressed by your last work also...loved it!

Thanks Mountainman! We appreciate the listen and are glad you liked it.

SoulPuppy,
Thanks for stopping in to check out the tune, we appreciate it. I am glad you dig this one. Thanks for the kind assessment of the work. The attention to detail is all Tom. He really digs deep when we do a tune and puts in a lot of hours doing meticulous magic with Sonar. Tom puts so much little stuff in that I hear things weeks later that I missed.

You know screw ups are just a part of the fun, there is a particularly nice example of one from me in this tune. This is great fun even when it is less than perfect.

ORIGINAL: thepogue

James- Thanks for the listen and feedback! Glad you picked up on all the lil goofy efx..lol

Michael- I'll go back in and listen a bit...but if you wanna mix her I'd be glad to shoot you the cwb. Just let me know!

Phillip- Thanks for the feedback and listen...I wouldn't even know where to start as far as the making sounds into music..I just push and pull and bend and twist...and then just toss'em in!

Larry- Thanks again brudda and I was really impressed by your last work also...loved it!

Tom I would love to have this to try and mix. Not that I could do better or even as good- I just love the tune and would have a blast - I've never mixed anything other than what Jeff and I have done.
I didn't even know it was possible...that would be many "big" files wouldn't it?
But if possible and you guys don't mind..I'd be honored.

Thanks Tom,
Mike

Thanks for the input guys...

Taylor-Fox-Notnat, Glad you guys got a kick outta it...we sure had fun putting her together!

Soul-Cliff-M.Man, I know our stuff can be quite odd....but glad you found something your liked! Thanks again for taking the time.

Spacey - Sure bro...I'll shoot you a cwb if ya want! Of course we'll 'prolly be missin some plug ins. Shoot me an email @ thepogue@yahoo.com

Drumstixkev - Hey man thanks for the good words...I can tell from your posts in the past and your tunes we think along the same lines...nice to see another nut-case in the house! Thanks again!!

You guys have a finely polished tune here. Superb mix and balance as far as my ears can go. Great guitar tones (as always) and nicely groovin rhythm.

+1 on the overly compressed snare.
Interesting tune...kinda of all over the place.

JonBouy, No How, Maxprizm, jamesyoyo:
Thanks very much for taking the time to listen and comment. Thanks for the good feedback and for the kind comments.

Yeah after about 0:50 it starts sounding like classic Distant Towers! Can you have "classic Distant Towers" after 7 songs?? Yes you can!!! As usually really love the creative changes in the arrangement and the little nuances. Really cool guitar tones and the synth parts really add to the texture and the BGVs are really cool. Nice job again guys!!

Dave

www.soundclick.com/steakbone