Shakedown

Album: Maximum Balloon (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a track from the self-titled debut solo album from producer and TV on the Radio guitarist Dave Sitek, which he recorded under the guise of Maximum Balloon. The song features TV on the Radio bass guitarist Kyp Malone. Sitek recalled to The Guardian: "I remember the day I started this track. For some weird reason I woke up at 7am and the sun was coming up. I went into my studio and started messing around with all these horn sounds and crazy little guitar parts. Before long it became really intricate and complex. I thought, 'Oh s--t, I'm going to have to give this to Kyp because who the hell else can do this?' And, man, did he reach for it."
  • Sitek explained to The Guardian why he included a major key change on this song. "The key change at the end comes from a time when Kyp and I stayed up all night at the Columbia Hotel in London getting drunk with an English guy who made a really convincing argument for the most important song in the history of music being Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. Ever since then we've been wanting to put a key change on a song. It's hilarious: Kyp's already in this high falsetto range and then he just steps up even higher. It's a crazy vocal performance."

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