http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/State%20Of%20Texas%20Belt%20Buckle.mp3

Garda goes indie? Nothing much to it. A 3 minute pop song. It's only a rehearsal room demo, so it's really rough. But we thought it was catchy and I'm really enthused and want to see what it turns into. Essentially unmixable as it's a Rode NT5 hanging over the kit and I think Chris's in-ear monitor feed? (Which would explain why his guitar is so loud...)

Shockingly, no synths on this save for some drum samples. I think my guitar could be replaced with keys and would work. No vocals yet.

It's covered in fuckups, but we just made it up.

hmmm, this is not a Garda I am familiar with. I like this for a change up. I want to hear where it goes.

I can dig it. I really like the main riff, simple and catchy.

That's where we're going with this. I actually wrote lyrics earlier; snarky goth-pop poking fun at oh-the-tragedy stereotypes. If my voice does not feel like hammered hell I will record later.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13184331/beltbuckle_crapvocaldemo2.mp3

I'll be frank: this sucks. I was totally afflicted with The Brachiosaurus here and buried the vocal in effects. I'mma re-cut them and fix up the programming.

Oh, the megaphone vocal, it's a toy megaphone joey sent me; I'm holding it up to a Beta 58.

'S a songwriting demo, take it for what it's worth. It went over live well enough though.

Through my laptop, the ghoulish gang-vox in the chorus bit reminds me of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah in the weirdest way.

I dig it actually. The jaunty guitars and zombie ghoul backup vox makes for a nice Dracula Party type vibe.

In some ways it reminds me of Voltaire(the musician dood, not the philosopher or the MIA raverlass). That flavour of bouncy combination of light and dark.

That may be one of the more unusual comparisons I've ever gotten. (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) But hey- whatever works.

I was sorta going for a theatrical thing with the harmonies; easy enough to pull off live with three singers in the band. It's definitely a change of pace though; we've been rocking the minimalist as of late.

Re: the Voltaire thing- that works. The whole deal is sorta a goth-pop song ripping on scenepeople.

It's really that one bit, but it is the the dragging slurred-style singing that nailed it.

Second listen and I am still diggin' it. Pretty interested to see how this turns out.

This is sounding pretty righteous, mang. I dig the riffage mucho.

What I dislike the most is just hearing SD2 in all its glory. I thought the vocals sounded fine, though maybe they could use a bit more 'air'.

Yeah, I didn't bother doing anything with the drums; I just halfassedly copped the realdrum parts making no attempt to make it sound good, assuming it would get replaced later. I just needed to know where the changes were.