Radio Nowhere - Spyboy (director: Mike Baker)
(For fans of: Counting Crows, Wallflowers, Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, and Elvis Costello.)
Another flood descends on New Orleans, but a Mardi Gras spyboy arrives to save the day. In a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade, "The Spy Boy is first in the front: he is the baddest of all the Indians...he is ahead looking for trouble. Only a chosen few can be Spy Boy." (in the words of a famous parade leader)
This song is a little about Hurricane Katrina, and the Great Flood of 1927, and it imagines the Spyboy as someone who arrives to help shield the city from the worst of the rising waters. Be sure to stick around for the crazy synth break in the middle, and the slow-building lyrical explosion that follows.
Get more info at www.radionowhere.net
Here are a few other geeky details about the song/video:
- Main guitar: my 1987 Fender Strat Plus
- Keys: Fender Rhodes Suitcase 73
- Mic: Bock 195
- Pre/Comp: Empirical Labs EL9 Mike-e
- Acoustic: Guild (with Venetian Cutaway)
- Monitors: DynAudio BM5A
- DAW: Logic Pro 9
- Key Plugs: Universal Audio Neve 1083, Slate Audio VCC and VTM, Kush Audio UBK-1
- Cameras: Panasonic Lumix Gf6, iPhone 5
- Apps: Instagram, Hipstamatic, Photoshop
- FCPX plugins: a4d/Alex4d Light Rays
- Shoot Locations: Holt, CA; Stockton, CA; Isleton, CA; Rio Vista, CA; Walnut Grove, CA; my basement
- Cards: one aged Loteria deck
- Backup face: iPad 3
LYRICS
black horn blowin in the summer heat they're trimmin' the lamps down on Frenchman street some chariot is swingin' low tonight
polish your shoes / cut off your hair don't you take too long sayin' your prayers praise the lord / thank the devil for the second sight
oh but here come the spyboy / takin' his time ain't no hurry to the end of the line seven black horses in mother of pearl turn the corner to the end of the world
out in the fields, in the sugarcane there's too many good people prayin' for rain so all you sinners help me drink this dry levee is broke / i don't know where but the old man is rolling through congo square he come for you and then he's comin' for mine
oh but here come the spyboy / takin' his time ain't no hurry to the end of the line seven black horses in mother of pearl turn the corner to the end of the world
oh but here come the spyboy / takin' his time ain't no hurry to the end of the line seven black horses in mother of pearl turn the corner to the uh. One Two, I said
oh but here come the spyboy / takin' his time callin' Cuba Libre with Bacardi & Lime here come the spyboy / breakin' it down just grab what you can carry better get out of town / all right
here come the spyboy / whaddya know? he's comin for his people and he's lettin em go here he come now coming over the hill shotgun rider in yo mama's devillle
city of darkness / town of the damned radio say we goin down with all hands riverboat gambler / you better believe dealin off the bottom / got your card up his sleeve
here come the water / yes it's thicker than blood all the way from Memphis I been riding the flood
