This imagined story is based on a series of true life occurrences involving someone who stood tall and was not afraid to dance to the beat of his own drummer despite significant adversity.

Dance # 4

This is a song I wrote many years ago after reading a biography about Lou Reed where the author had a sort of love hate relationship with Lou. Some fascinating descriptions of scenes and dialog and such.  And I was inspired to write this song for a then band member who it turned out was afraid to sing on stage. Ah well... 

With Lou Reed's passing yesterday I felt oddly compelled to pull together a demo of this song with me singing (if you will) it. This was done in a few hours work so its far from a finished thing.  But perhaps you will enjoy it. It has helped me get through some of the sadness of Lou's passing.  While I only got to see him live once, I feel very fortunate to have seen him in an amazing venue that was preserved for eternity on video (the Montreux 2000 DVD -- I was there!).  

Anyhow, here's my little tribute to Lou. This is perhaps appropriately an old Mr. Bojangles style folk song, with a viola part, strings and a Fernando Saunders inspired fretless bass part I cobbled together in there (those of you who know Lou's music know Fernando's fretless bass sound on those later period Lou albums). And of course, there are these somewhat cinematic lyrics inspired by a book I read about Lou Reed.  I can sort of hear in my head Lou singing this, actually...

Rest in Peace, Lou. 

With love

Mark Smotroff
www.ingdom.com
www.dialthemusical.com

------------------------------------------------------

Ray Is Running At The Sound of The Gun
By Mark Smotroff
Copyright (c) (p) 2002 Sonic Gloo Tunes (ASCAP)

Running down the corridor
Chasing dates 'neath the dinosaurs
Jesus, she looks just right.

Running from a vision of
What he might or not become
Got watermelons in Wyoming
or running the streets of Rome

Rolling and tumbling
Proper and correct
He admires Burt Reynolds
And looks like an insect

Flying without papers
A blister of a son
Sister, or brother, Ray is running at the sound of the gun

Rather than admit defeat
Selfless love you can't repeat
She slapped his pity face
Lost at 4 a.m.

And brother Lou he came to me
Said I'm not the person I'd go see
If I was going out
So, relax, and have it out

Rolling and tumbling
Proper and correct
He admires Burt Reynolds
And looks like an insect

Flying without papers
A blister of a son
Sister, or brother, Ray is running at the sound of the gun

Ray Is Running At The Sound of a Gun (demo)

Wishing you #happy #holidays and a cornucopia of color and good grooves, Here is the soundtrack (a home demo) to this year's video trip inside the 2013 Holiday Record Tree (see photo).  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5FjFgZQOoA
Please visit this YouTube link to see the video and a making-of mini documentary (warning: trippy surreal images of too many records!). And of course, if you like the song and  the video, please be sure to hit "like,", comment on it, reshare it and generally spread around the love within. Peace to you all. Thanks! Mark

Xmas Needle Drop (demo)

This is one of the two original acoustic demos we did of a song that ended up on our 2nd and 3rd albums (different incarnations of the band). This version features guitar, bass and a massively reverbed smashing of a cheap old guitar with a tambourine. It was my low budget way of approximating the monster drum sound on Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Waters. For what it is, I think I did pretty well. Hope you like the song. The fast version can be found on our album Stagger & Belligerence (available on iTunes, CDBaby and many other online stores)

Springfield Avenue (Slo Bomb version)

Miracle Song

Happy Valentines Day! This was the first song when we were just starting out as a duo that people really liked when we played live.This is a very early track from our first CD of home demos, made entirely in Mark's bedroom on an 8-track cassette recorder with one stage mic, a couple guitars, a synth, a Mac based MIDI rig ... and whole lot of dreams.Someday it might be cool to re-record these tracks but these have their own lo-fi charms. Copyright (p) (c) 1996 Sonic Gloo Tunes (ASCAP)


My Strongest Weakness (1996 demo)

New Math

This was an earlier version of a song later recorded a whole lot better for our second CD "Liberty." However, this version has some ideas on it that never made it to the Liberty version. Maybe someday there will be a Dance #5 that combines all the ideas into one definitive whole.. Dance #3 was recorded in Mark's old bedroom studio on rapidly deteriorating 8 track cassette with MIDI, one stage mic and a couple of guitars. If you listen closely you can hear the sound of the shedding tape stock.   I wonder what happened to Dance #1 and #2?  Copyright (p) (c) 1996 Sonic Gloo Tunes (ASCAP)


Dance #3 (1996 demo)

From ing's second album "Liberty," www.ingdom.com

Inside Out

a sampling of tracks from the San Francisco band called ing, this track is from their debut album of home demos called "First Version of the Wheel" www.ingdom.com

8 Ways Down (1996 demo)

Look Down In Mercy (1996 demo)

Hey There!

Thanks for stopping by to check out our music. This page has a sampling of tracks our band called "ing." These include tracks from our earliest disc of home demos to later recordings made at The Plant (formerly The Record Plant, in Sausalito) up through songs from our new musical called  "Dial: an Operock." 

http://www.dialthemusical.com   

Thanks for listening!
Peace out.
Mark and Sean
www.dialthemusical.com
www.ingdom.com
www.facebook.com/ingdom
www.twitter.com/abandcalleding
www.twitter.com/dialthemusical
http://www.last.fm/music/ing
www.myspace.com/ingdom
www.youtube.com/sonicgloo
www.myspace.com/pushbuttonfor

ingthingsandmore

Popular tracks