Gonads (Song)

Gonads is a song by Mapleview Lounge released as the lead single for Half-Off-Pigs-In-A-Blanket-Every-Thursday.

Composition, Recording, and Production
Gonads was written on May 17, 2014 by Mr. Sharp and an initial acoustic guitar and vocal demo from him was recorded on June 5, 2014. The final version of the song was recorded that summer starting with a drum track and electric guitar. Mr. Sharp recorded a vocal track immediately after and upon Mr. Bjorndal's suggestion, overdubs on the word "gonads." A bass track was recorded using Mr. Bjorndal's Jazz bass after he had finished production on the electronic drums. The lead guitar was added last and was recorded with the Red Stratocaster with autotune added for a subtle panning effect.

Music Video
The music video was shot on Friday, October 10, 2014 in various locations of the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities East bank campus. The primary location of shooting took place in Community Room, a room in the same building where Mr. Bjorndal and Mr. W Bjorndal reside. The b-roll footage was taken around the East Bank Mall. All footage was shot using Mr. Bjorndal's Blackberry Z10 smartphone with a clip on fisheye lens originally meant for an iPhone 4s. Mr. Bjorndal and Mr. W Bjorndal alternated operating the camera during b-roll filming and all footage shot in Community Room was taken by Tabitha Nelson. The video was edited by Mr. Bjorndal over the next two days and uploaded to YouTube the following Monday but was not made public until November 4th.

Trivia

 * After Mr. Sharp sings the acronym "AIM," a pinging sound can be heard similar to AOL's Instant Messenger but the two notes are reversed.
 * While Mr. W Bjorndal is seen in the music video playing a Casio SK-1 and a Roland SP555 but was never involved in the making of the song.
 * There is an ascii art picture of Mr. W Bjorndal's gonads in the bonus content folder of the floppy disk.
 * The music video's original theme involving unicycles had to be cut because the University of Minnesota Unicycle Club was just leaving by the time filming was ready to begin.