Hopefully this is a tab most people will be able to follow,
the majority of it is just 1 finger riffs, with some moderately easy bar
chords although
they can be made easier but more of that later on. This tab is based on
the album version not any live versions. this song is the 7th track on
hot chips 2010 album One life stand, which, in my opinion is they're
best album yet and currently my favorite album ever, so naturally, i
suggest you buy it.
In This song there are many different synths, guitars and other
random instruments. So, for the purpose of this tab, I will just call
each instrument, instrument 1, instrument 2 etc. Simply because this is
on ultimate guitar so your unlikely to take this and then go onto piano
and play it although you could because the parts are inter changeable
to many instruments.
So
Instrument 1 and kick drum come in
e|--------------------------------------------||
B|--------------------------------------------||
Instrument 1 G|--------------------------------------------||
D|--3---------------------1-------------------||
A|-------4----1----------------4----3---------||
E|--------------------------------------------||
Repeat for about 2 minutes
Instrument 2 fades in with vocal
e|------------------------------------------------||
B|------------------------------------------------||
Instrument 2 G|------------------------------------------------||
D|-3-3---3-3---3-3---3-3---3-3---3-3---3-3---3-3--||
A|----4-----4-----4-----4-----4-----4-----4-----4-||
E|------------------------------------------------||
Repeat instrument 2 with the vocals
Instruments 1 and 2 over vocals and then Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor
sing in harmony
"Do you dig germs, the germs"
This is where the bass comes in
Instrument 3 G|------------------------------------------------||
D|------------------------------------------------||
A|------------------------------------------------||
E|--4-4---4-4-4--4-2-2---2-2-2-2-6----------------||
Repeat this bass
At this point there is also a strange arppegiated chord that would
be impossible to replicate on guitar and you would definatly need a
synth. fortunately its not a massive part and can just be ignored.
both instrument 1 and 2 continue at this point also a hi-hat comes in
on the off beat.
Then Joe Goddard comes in for a solo vocal without Alexis Taylor.
around this time there is also an actual guitar that comes in with
odd fills roughly based around these notes although to get it perfect
you would have to spend a lot of time working out the exact details
e|------------------||
B|------------------||
Instrument 4 Fill 1 G|---------8--8-6---||
D|--6h8--8----------||
A|------------------||
E|------------------||
These fills get played through most of Joe Goddard's singing until he
sings "when we lie alone" when instrument 4 changes the fills to
something more like this, although again when you play it you will need
to mess around with it
[ Tab from: https://www.guitartabs.cc/tabs/h/hot_chip/alley_cats_tab.html ]
e|--4--4---2--||
B|--4--4---2--||
Instrument 4 Fill 2 G|------------||
D|------------||
A|------------||
E|------------||
Throughout this time instruments 1 - 3 are still repeating. Once Joe
Goddard has sung this depressingly morbid lyric "and we die alone"
instrument 5 comes in. Easily the most complex instrument of the song, it
is my suspicion that this instrument (probably a synth) is played in
5/4 time or 7/8, although naturally when everything around it is in 4/4
its quite hard to tell so the only thing i can say is that it isn't in
4/4. although it is roughly played like this
e|-----------------------||
B|-----------------------||
Instrument 5 G|-----------------------||
D|-4-4-3-3---------------||
A|--------4-4-1-1-----4-4||
E|----------------4-4----||
And then that is repeated for ages over the next verse. note that all
the other instruments are still looping under this. the changes in the
next verse are the drum beat suddenly gets a clap on the 2nd and 4th
beat. Instrument 5 is looping and there are slightly different fills
played by the guitar of instrument 4. once again you are just going to
have to improvise, they are very similar to the fill 2 but with some Bb
top notes in it.
e|--6--6--2---||
B|--6--6--2---||
Instrument 4 Fill 3 G|------------||
D|------------||
A|------------||
E|------------||
then after Joe Goddard sings the Lyric "In the song my mother said" it
goes almost purely top Bb stabs;
e|--6--6--6---||
B|--6--6--6---||
Instrument 4 Fill 4 G|------------||
D|------------||
A|------------||
E|------------||
Then the beautiful harmony comes in of "oh there is no pain i know"
which has fill 2 on instrument 4. This is sung twice which marks
the beginning of the amazing (and quite long) bridge.
The bridge is basically every instrument (including a piano that comes
out of no-where) playing this chord sequence;
F# major
Eb minor
C# major
F minor
having rated this tab as novice i understand they could be quite
difficult bars for a beginner. so there are two alternative ways of
playing it that are easier.
Alternative way A).
You can put a capo on the 6th Fret and then play the following chords;
C major
A minor
G major
B minor
Alternative way B).
You could also de-tune your guitar 1 semi-tone DOWN (lower) on every
string so it would read;
eb/D#|-----|
Bb/A#|-----|
Gb/F#|-----|
Db/C#|-----|
Ab/G#|-----|
Eb/D#|-----|
then you could play the following chords
G major
E minor
D major
F# Minor
After repeating this for ages with a quiet part in the middle you then
stop and play instruments 1 and 2 to fade out. the only difference being
is that instrument 2 has a mountain of chorus on it.
So That as far as i can see is about as much detail as i can or want to
go into with hot chip's alley cats, I hope i have been of use. If you
have any questions or thing any bit of it is wrong email me at madpanderfish@yahoo.co.uk
P.s if you haven't already got it, buy hot chips one life stand, its amazing
Thanks,
Paul Anders
