The Smiley Smile Message Board

Here is a song I wrote and recorded the basic track and vocals for about 21 months ago. Today I bit the bullet and tried to drum it. (I'm not a drummer, as you shall soon learn.) Also mixed. Enjoy "Miserable Gray." http://www.sendspace.com/file/j8ou4r

Very cool track Luther.  I dig the song a lot, I like the fact that it goes off in various directions with neat chord changes.  The drumming really wasn't that bad either; my only small complaint is the snare sound itself, but that's just my taste I guess.  Well done!

No, the snare sound is truly terrible. I first mic'd the way I had done the other (better drum-sound) tunes, which were not drummed by me. Different kit, though, and more importantly, different drummer. So I messed around a little to try for a better sound, and failed. Then I gave up and just recorded the damn thing. Might try it again today, might not. But that sound is definitely not acceptable. I'm OK with rudimentary parts, and I'm OK with mediocre or not-spectacular sound ... but terrible sound is a stretch even for my lazy ass.

Quite an interesting song and quite different from a lot of your other stuff vibe-wise. It sort of sounded a bit Beatle-ish to me, sort of White album era perhaps, it has the same sense of 'coldness' that I get from those songs and also a bit Elliott Smith-ish. i liked the fuzz guitar stabs that come into it. Backing vocals are nice too.

Thanks. It was one I entirely wrote on an autumn walk a few years ago, then recorded I believe the same day. Obviously, the drums and as I said, some mixing were new. I REALLY liked the fuzz guitar, too. That was my favorite part. But it's actually an acoustic: me just beating the hell out of it. (You can hear the percussive aspects of it, strings being really tugged off and then slapping back onto the neck.) I added the overdrive artificially afterward.