Mind = Melted.

June 11, 2009 4:33 AM

Mind-Melting Demo Disasters. An independent record label posts some of its more....interesting submissions.

He Had a Meth Lab

Patsy Cline + Autotune = FRESH

Keep Your Cooter Clean

"Making Love"

?!?! Also, the demo version(I think)

MeFi Music, it ain't.

posted by Dr-Baa (62 comments total)

Is that Stevie Nicks on the vocals on the meth lab song?
posted by availablelight at 5:25 AM on June 11

Metafilter: "Enjoy."
posted by jbickers at 5:28 AM on June 11

I don't know whether to love these songs ironically, or wholeheartedly. I'm leaning toward the latter, but in either case, I do love these songs and the unknown artists that so obviously put their hearts into them.

Thanks for this.
posted by not_on_display at 5:32 AM on June 11

Holy shit methlab rules.

I'm going with wholeheartedly.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:46 AM on June 11

AAAAHHHH THE AUTOTUNE IS SO. GOOD.

Problems I have with this:

1. What label is it? Why is it a secret? (I'm guessing Merge).
2. I want to buy all of them or at least DL them.
3. The comments seem to indicate that they don't think these are the best songs in the Universe. Shame on you, anonymous indie blog writers. Shame.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:52 AM on June 11

Honestly, that methlab song has potential. It's got a certain je ne sais quoi.
posted by vernondalhart at 5:56 AM on June 11 [1 favorite]

This is some reverse psychology viral marketing thing right? Because these songs are awesome.
posted by onya at 5:56 AM on June 11

I was actually enjoying the I'm going to Kill YOu
posted by mary8nne at 6:03 AM on June 11

I actually kind of dig that meth lab song. The guitar/bass/drums are every bad garage band ever, but the lyrics are pretty clever and I like the female singer.
METH
...
AMPHETAMINE!!!
posted by DecemberBoy at 6:04 AM on June 11 [1 favorite]

Why is there a song about keeping a character from "Dukes of Hazzard" clean?
posted by tommasz at 6:05 AM on June 11 [2 favorites]

Does it say more about me or the state of music that I wouldn't have been surprised to hear any of these on radio or at a club?

Perhaps years of music festivals and open-stage nights have ruined my ear.
posted by outlier at 6:09 AM on June 11

"She Don't Like Clowns" could very well by the South Park boys, really.

Reality, she is a funny one.
posted by gcbv at 6:10 AM on June 11

Cut about a minute and a half, switch out the male singer, give it a slick new recording, and that meth lab song could be a gin-u-wine hit. And "Making Love" is actually great. I'm calling shenanigans on this whole thing.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:13 AM on June 11

I think the saddest trend in appreciation of music or popular culture or art is having to decide whether to love something "ironically" or "unironically". I love some of these songs because they're catchy (like the Patsy Cline autotune one) and some because they make me laugh, but I can't tell if the ones that make me laugh are ironic or not, and it's making my head hurt.
posted by xingcat at 6:18 AM on June 11 [1 favorite]

I want to know who the Making Love band is, because I would so buy their album.
posted by headspace at 6:19 AM on June 11

Oh nah, this has to be real. There's just reams of this stuff out in the world. Check out some of the worst ones that are just very bad covers with karaoke backdrops.

Many years ago while recording my old band, the engineer brought out a DAT of his favorite insane vanity recordings. The best being one guy who would stop by after his shift at McDonalds every day for 1 hour of studio time. Which is of course not enough to do anything, so the engineer would just set up a keyboard and the dude would freestyle sing over the same simple chords every time (wesley willis style). The gem was the sexy slow jam which consisted of every line ending with the word clitoris. "Touching yor.... CLIT-OR-EEEEEHS" So hot.

And that man's name was Tomas Pain, or...T-Pain for short. True fact.
^^a lie
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:20 AM on June 11 [9 favorites]

Yeah, I clicked expecting some truly terrible stuff, but aside from some questionable singing styles none of these even venture into the total realm of shit you would expect from a collection of bad demos. I don't know if I should be disappointed or not. I probably would have enjoyed some really bad stuff more, but there are definitely a few novelty gems in here!
posted by palidor at 6:21 AM on June 11

Meth Lab def needs to on the sound track of the next Tarentino / Rob Zombie film
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:22 AM on June 11 [4 favorites]

Oh, come on, this is awesome!

This is real Country and Western, it's fun, it's catchy, it's honest, it's musically accomplished, why the hell didn't they sign them to a record deal on the spot? Does not belong on the list.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:33 AM on June 11 [1 favorite]

"He Had A Meth Lab" is so inspired by the Jon Spencer side project, Boss Hogg.

I dig.
posted by sourwookie at 6:40 AM on June 11

Do bands license their music for republishing when they send in demos? If not, seems like there's a lot of potential here for copyright infringment claims. I can't imagine most people would be happy to find their recordings on this blog.
posted by scottreynen at 6:47 AM on June 11

scottreynen - most copyright infringement claims don't go beyond the "cease and desist" stage, and the blog says at the top that they'll take down the stuff of anyone who complains.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:50 AM on June 11

These are actually a lot better than I thought they'd be. I was expecting more unintentional trainwrecks and fewer tongue-in-cheek novelty tracks.
posted by echo target at 6:56 AM on June 11

The cooter song,

"Hey girl, mind the flaps!”

This just can't be serious... if it is, I really, truly don't know what to say...
posted by sundri at 7:00 AM on June 11

Okay, some of these rock, hitting my exact sweet spot for awesome oddball boldness, but I have to agree with the blog on most of them being hilariously awful. A true box of bad demos would be unlistenable, yes, but that makes for a pretty shitty blog, so they took the most fascinating tracks out of the "rejection" pile, because hey - those are interesting, it turns out.

That said, some of them are like the 7-years-past-relevance 9/11 tribute, or the sprak-sprak guy, or the "I'm gonna kill you" or "she don't like clowns," which are trite standard generic shit aside from eyebrow-raising lyrics. So yeah, interesting, but still bad, for the most part.

The Autotone is fantastic, though, and actually makes the song feel fresh again to me (and I hate autotune most of the time.) Meth Lab isn't great, by my estimation, but it ain't bad either. And while Making Love creeped me right the fuck out, it also made me laugh and was accomplished.

And yeah, the song Slap*Happy links to is amazing, and I can only think that the only possible reason they didn't call that band down to the offices and sign them right then and there was because they simply don't traffic in country.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:00 AM on June 11

The country & western stuff is pretty great. I'm Gonna Kill You could have showed up on that Ween Golden country greats record, or any fun authentic late 60's C&W album. What bar wouldn't warm up to a band that could pull that song out. Great pedal steel too.
posted by JBennett at 7:12 AM on June 11

MeFi Music, it ain't.

I have to concede that I, personally, have uploaded worse-sounding stuff than this to MeFi Music.

Please don't ban me.
posted by escabeche at 7:27 AM on June 11

WTF that autotune Patsy Cline is the best cover of that song I've ever heard. Suck it Caution Horses.
posted by spicynuts at 7:29 AM on June 11

MeFi Music, it ain't.

We can only dream of being this good.
posted by chillmost at 7:29 AM on June 11 [1 favorite]

When I posted this at MonkeyFilter, my focus was on the non-okay of material. Is that okay?
posted by tellurian at 7:42 AM on June 11

most copyright infringement claims don't go beyond the "cease and desist" stage, and the blog says at the top that they'll take down the stuff of anyone who complains

Besides, why would a record company care about something as silly and harmless as sharing copyrighted music on the Internet?
posted by burnmp3s at 7:42 AM on June 11

I'm calling shenanigans on this whole thing.

I agree. These songs are all the work of a small group of people. The productions all sound the same, and they're all too blatantly ridiculous. Real disasters have a much more subtle sorriness to them.
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 7:46 AM on June 11

Well, I'll bet it's Decca then.

Fascinating stuff.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:48 AM on June 11

Dr-Baa that site is a riot. Thank you - bookmarked with extreme prejudice.
posted by metagnathous at 7:51 AM on June 11

The blog points out:

"...the lyrical gem, “bury you in a box half your size” absolutely slays our faith in humanity"

That must be the most graphic image describing the disposal of your ex's dead body ever. When the songwriter hears that line used in a movie he's going to be pissed.
posted by Hammond Rye at 7:52 AM on June 11

Skimming and listening through them again, I am now leaning toward the "shenanigans" call, too; the singer sounds like the same person trying on different vocal cliches, the drum programs sound similar, etc. I'd be willing to bet it's not just a small group of people, but even only one person.

I still like the songs, though, and don't know why they're being marketed as "suck" -- except for understanding the embarrassment one can have about one's own work, but still loving it and wanting for it to be heard.

Someone should invite this guy over to MeFi Music, where he wiull be truly appreciated for the cheesy freakazoid he is.
posted by not_on_display at 8:00 AM on June 11 [2 favorites]

Not bad, but also not quite as good as The Annoying Music Show.
posted by SteveInMaine at 8:09 AM on June 11

Yeah after listening to all of them several times, I agree, it's possible it could be a hoax. Kinda weirdly executed since it could have backfired and everyone could have ignored it, but either way, that auto-tuned "Walkin" is worth any amount of shenanigans.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:10 AM on June 11

I expected these to be a lot worse--song-poem bad, maybe. As I usually tune out after the first few seconds of most songs, crazy lyrics don't really impress me all that much. Though, I do appreciate a catchy hook. That being said, "Front to Back" is my new favorite song; I want to listen to it, like, a hundred times in a row!
posted by walrus hunter at 8:29 AM on June 11

Heh if you look at the URLs for the mp3 files they all end in ?plead=please-dont-download-this-or-our-lawyers-wont-let-us-host-audio.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:58 AM on June 11

if this guy thinks methlab is a disaster, then he has ears of tin and i'd hate to hear the shit he signs
posted by pyramid termite at 9:14 AM on June 11

My Avast claims that JPG:MS04-028 [Expl] malware exploit tried to run via this site.
posted by Xoebe at 9:14 AM on June 11

Wait how can Front to Back not be the greatest song ever? A guy pretending to be Cat Stevens telling me to keep my cooter clean, using a hook which featured as a minor comic subplot in a Kevin Smith film, and including the line, 'try to train your digits deftly not to go against the flow'. When I'm dictatrix of the world, this man shall be honored with a knighthood and his own line of hygiene wipes.
posted by Sova at 9:17 AM on June 11 [1 favorite]

I'd probably like it even better if it was fake.
posted by metagnathous at 9:19 AM on June 11

meth lab is by a band called shotgun kitchen
posted by pyramid termite at 9:22 AM on June 11 [3 favorites]

If we're in that particular mood I would also recommend Fatty Jubbo.
posted by metagnathous at 9:30 AM on June 11

Ah, disregard the Avast exploit warning. Possibly like a bad jpg came via iGoogle, which may have been up at the same time - I have a photo display applet.
posted by Xoebe at 9:34 AM on June 11

You know, at least some of these aren't really bad so much as completely inappropriate for some labels. The meth song isn't perfectly executed, but it's catchy and mildly amusing. And the cooter-cleaning song is brilliant from start to finish. And it's clearly meant to be amusing.
posted by ErWenn at 9:39 AM on June 11

Ok, so maybe "?!?!" is amusingly bad, but most of these are amusingly awesome. I kinda wish I could download some of these songs. I might even pay for one or two...but not much.*

*Mostly because I'm a cheapskate.
posted by ErWenn at 9:48 AM on June 11

meth lab is by a band called shotgun kitchen
posted by pyramid termite at 12:22 PM on June 11 [1 favorite +] [!]

Oh hell yeah.

(Hundred Dollar Habit is pretty sweet too.)
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:57 AM on June 11

I'm willing to bet money that every person here who likes a good percentage of these songs that are supposed to suck are huge Ween fans. I think Ween has the ability to break down walls we have inside and allow music to be whatever it wants while we just love on it, nowhatimean?

Japanese Cowboy.
posted by Bageena at 10:13 AM on June 11 [2 favorites]

meth lab is by a band called shotgun kitchen

There's a lot healthier looking than I imagined... I'm actually a bit disappointed.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:16 AM on June 11

Pretty narrow musical tastes, indie record label. I bet you would have passed on "Lucille Are You A Lesbian?" too.
posted by queensissy at 10:56 AM on June 11

These are gems! "Making Love" is my favorite, reminding me of "Man Piaba" (in subject, not style).
posted by notashroom at 10:57 AM on June 11

If you like the Autotune one, you might like Owl City. I actually kind of wonder if it's him!
posted by peep at 11:14 AM on June 11

"Front to Back" sounds like classic Frogs, with a little more polish.
posted by Bookhouse at 11:23 AM on June 11

I think "making love to a drag queen" ... "and I didn't even know her name" would be a fantastic MuFi challenge.
posted by boo_radley at 12:24 PM on June 11

"Making Love" is awesome. Great song.
posted by taliaferro at 12:25 PM on June 11

I think "making love to a drag queen" ... "and I didn't even know her name" would be a fantastic MuFi challenge.

her name was lola - L-O-L-A, lola
posted by pyramid termite at 9:09 PM on June 11

I'm calling bullshit on this one, too. It's funny, but not from an indie label. Some of these are way over the top, which makes it pretty obvious. "Sigh-just-sigh" was compelling. The guy who made these is talented, and probably a big fan of Ween.
posted by livingdots at 12:03 AM on June 12

You keep telling me that you don't care
I keep on telling you that I love you
You keep on telling me that you want to leave
I keep on telling you, I want you to stay
I need not be with you, to know your heart is mine
Angelica with the golden hair
Golden hair like the rising sun
Angelica with the deep blue eyes
Deep blue eyes like the storming sea
This her beauty, if you ever looked away
This her beauty, if you ever looked away
posted by livingdots at 12:50 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]

This is why I love Metafilter. You guys have tracked down the meth lab band and deciphered the slurred sea scrolls.

Well done!
posted by Dr-Baa at 4:21 AM on June 12