The Smiley Smile Message Board

This morning I wrote most of--I had a bit of it already--and recorded this demo of a new song, "Wonder Wonder When." It's a girl-group thing, or is at least envisioned as such. This is piano, bass, tambourine, a couple acoustic guitars, and three vocal parts (each doubled). Hopefully it's sufficient to get across the idea, anyway.

https://soundcloud.com/the-beau-mondes

I like it. It reminds me of some Neil Sedaka demos where he's intending songs he's written to be recorded by women, so he doesn't change the gender.

Thanks for the kind words.

The lyric actually could go either way, but I just preferred the sound of "boyfriend" to "girlfriend." The rest of the song is pretty much ambiguous, gender-wise.

Sounds Great.  Glad you are on SoundCloud now.  On "Wonder Wonder When" and one I was listening to last week ("The Better Part of Valor"), I hear lots of influences.  Ben Folds on these piano numbers.  Even early Todd.  Sondheim - then you referenced West Side Story in "Waste Not, Want" - so a fan, right?  Rundgren is a big Sondheim fan.  Your vocals also sound a bit like Folds.  Do you play all the instruments, or is Beau Mondes a band?  The steel is nice on the country track.  I got to head off to dinner, wait...one more starting up.  I like "Go Back To The House" too.  

Thanks, I appreciate that.

I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of several of the people you referenced, but that's fine. (When I used to play out a lot that would happen constantly. Spoon? Cake? Ween? Nope, nope, nope...) I can see where plenty of things can come out even if I didn't intentionally put them in. In fact, I'd rather not have things be either intentionally written or heard as XYZ. I do like (but not love) Ben Folds--and ok, occasionally I love him. I like musicals in general.

Beau Mondes was going to be a real band until the keyboard player left the state. This is six or seven years ago now. From then on, I just recorded my own things with that name. There are other people playing in plenty of spots; other times, it's just me. Depends on who was around and interested or available at the time. Any good drumming you hear is by someone else: I think three different people are audible in the tracks I have on Soundcloud. At least two are. There are two other guys sometimes playing bass, though most of that is me. Good keyboards (e.g. solo in Go Back to the House) are someone else; I do the vast majority, though. All guitars and probably 95% of vocals are me (a few bg vox are shared). The pedal steel is not me, that's actually Bob Parins, now with Of Montreal, who was kind enough to do that. So, that's what you're hearing, in a nutshell.

Sounds great!

Another of my 18-month-old batch completed (whatever the word means in the context of a hobbyist). This is my "girl group" sort of song, "Wonder Wonder When." Another one with Zach doing drums. I arranged and recorded the track yesterday: tambourines, bass, synth bass, piano, synth flute-organ, acoustic guitar, two electric guitars in octaves ... I think that's it. Then this morning I did the vocals: doubled lead and two doubled harmony parts.

Hope you like it. (And if you don't, I hope it didn't ruin your day. I am not legally responsible if it did.)

https://soundcloud.com/the-beau-mondes/wonder-wonder-when

Nice work! 8).       Got that 1960s girl group vibe down!

Thanks, much appreciated.

Oh, some excellent chords here! I'm getting a Love You vibe (which I hope and assume you'll take as a compliment as intended!), particularly in the feel of the percussion, and the quite unique vocal arrangement. Really nice.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

I got more of a "Busy Doin' Nothing" vibe at times----must be the chord changes eight bars in, and the flutes. Cool song, lovely arrangement. :=)