From The Vault 11 – ERP Plays ‘Midnite Cruise’

It seems that when I dig around in our back files I’ll often come across a new song we never finished, old studio songs by other bands or a live version of a song that we’ve already released. In this the case the song I found was ‘Midnite Cruise’ which was released on Electrostatic Rhythm Pigs EP ‘Celebrity Prostitution’. This was a live version of the song we recorded in the studio. We were all in the main studio room with amps placed in other rooms to stop the live bleed through. If you’re in a band that plays out live a lot (which probably means you’re in a city that that has a decent live original music scene) you’ll often come up with new songs and work them in to shape in front of a live audience. You can try different guitar tones, tempos or vocal deliveries to see what sounds best or if a version of the song connects best with an audience. Unfortunately ERP was never usually in a position to work out songs that way – we often did not have a full band and did a lot of our writing/recording by overdubbing parts in the studio. The good part of recording in the studio is you can try a lot of different approaches and can do a decent recording of them to hear what works and what doesn’t. This version we kept as a ‘live’ lineup version – no overdubs or secondary guitar parts. It also play a little slower than the final EP version. It’s interesting to hear how it differs from the final recorded version. It’s also fun to be able to share alternative versions with everyone who follows our blog.