Paranoid (Kanye West Cover)
(L I C K E R)
October 07, 2010
Kanye West
This is actually my second attempt at working on a hip hop song, the first being Mickey Avalon's "My Dick" (don't expect a recording of that any time soon...). I've been working on a lot more electronic and pop influenced music lately, so it only made sense to start dipping my hand into some hip hop (the influence could already be seen in tracks like "Pregnant Brain" and "Stupid Girl"). This is also the only song I've recorded that I've relied solely on programmed parts, all of which designed to mimic Kanye's version as closely as possible. The only major difference here is in the audio samples, all of which came from Garageband. I don't have the resources I used to from programs like Abelton Live, but these got the job done here. The vocals turned out as good as I could have hoped. I haven't been regretting leaving in as many vocal flubs as I had been on past recordings, and for such a leap in style change here, they came out better than I was expecting. T-Paining was done using Auto-Tune Evo, which I just got and is very very complicated.
I've always had an adoration for this song. Though I feel like the rest of 808's is a bit of a wash, "Paranoid" blended the perfect amount of pop, sentiment, and auto-tune into a very catchy and enticing song.
Hope you enjoy.
-Vanguard
Believe it or Not (Joey Scarbury Cover)
(L I C K E R)
May 07, 2010
Post/Geyer
This is the first cover I've recorded in over five years. This is the theme to the 80s sitcom, "The greatest American Hero." I recorded this for an internet TV show to use as a guest theme song, but has yet to be picked up.
I'm actually really proud of how this song turned out. Kyle Benson, my engineer, had just gotten a huge bundle for Protools and this song was kind of a guinea pig to try out a lot of it's features. The most notable being auto-tune, which in our hands got a little out of control, since it was the first time either of us had really tried to use it. In the end it's definitely noticeable, but we decided that it fit in with the context of the production and kept it in.
This song is also what really sparked my interest in doing covers like this, by taking the idea of the song and contorting it into a fairly original product. I hope you guys enjoy this one; I plan on doing several more in the next few months.
Worked and performed by Gordon Vanguard who used the Playboy Guitar and BOSS DR-880 Drum Machine. Recorded and mixed by Kyle Benson, with additional mixing by Gordon Vanguard.
I'll Not Contain You (Microphones Cover)
(JET-SET STEREO)
December 11, 2010
Elvrum
This was a really fun song to record cause it involved recording many layers of the same guitar and vocal parts. I didn't know entirely how the vocal part went, so I muted each layer as I progressed the recording, allowing each one to be similar yet stand out amongst each other, causing a very natural and pronounced dissonance. If you listen to The Microphones version, he uses a very similar effect. Props Phil.
-G. Vanguard
