I don't comprehend this death toll. I am going to look the other way for a second and make a list of 10 albums that strike me as super important to my development as whatever it is I am when I'm trying not to look, unrelated as it may be.
1. Catherine Wheel Chrome - I bought happy Days for the single on mtv at the time way down I liked that track and maybe two others but the rest did not grab me. Later I found Adam & Eve used so I decided to give them a second chance. Adam & Eve hooked me, within two weeks I had purchased their entire catalog. Chrome gets me still the hardest. All the energy of their second album with the skill they acquired on the first tour, and the writing is just beautiful. I feel this album.
2. Local H Pack Up The Cats - Music was basically dead for me for a little period of time and this album brought it back in a big way. I had drifted over to softer acoustic based music and apparently it wasn't filling all my need, Pack up the Cats totally brought back the rock.
3. Blind Melon Soup - The words, sounds and melodies on this album are all stuck forever in my head. "And I can't tell you, just how many ways that I have sat and viewed my life today, but I can tell you; I don't think that I could find and easy way. So if I see you, walking hand in hand in hand with a three arm man, I'll understand, but you should have been in my shoes yesterday. "
4. Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine thru The Downward Spiral - Trent could do no wrong for me from about 1991 until 1999. Music that took adjusting, my ears actually had to hear the songs for a while before they even made sense, once the frame of reference was established the genius was obvious. This is the music that made me want to create sound.
5. The Refreshments Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy - I bought this album for the song Banditos, which totally appeals to my inner boy. I liked to listen to it while driving around in western Kansas... Then I started to use it as a cleaing cd. As I started to learn to accompany myself on guitar as I sang I found that songs of this alum worked very well for me. I met Roger and Thanked him, and told him that I learned to play guitar from his songs and he said that it's because they are easy. Great guy that Rog....
okay, that was distracting but I'm not doing 10 today...
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
2004?
It's almost over and done, I have no huge reflections. I liked it. It was hard.
Devin, Amy, Dylan, Robbie and I all traveled to Kansas for the Christmas Holiday. It was very nice. I saw many people I have not seen in a year or two. We drank and ate, we were merry and at times crabby. I love Kansas, I like to see it and remember it.
We played A show that a friend of mine booked for us @ the hurricane. It was fab. Devin hit the internet with a mission and got a great many people to come out. At first we were a little thrown by the sound factor but soon we hit our stride and the people loved it. The biggest moment for me was looking out into the crowd and seeing my friend Jason, who does not dance, dancing!!
I love it all.
Devin, Amy, Dylan, Robbie and I all traveled to Kansas for the Christmas Holiday. It was very nice. I saw many people I have not seen in a year or two. We drank and ate, we were merry and at times crabby. I love Kansas, I like to see it and remember it.
We played A show that a friend of mine booked for us @ the hurricane. It was fab. Devin hit the internet with a mission and got a great many people to come out. At first we were a little thrown by the sound factor but soon we hit our stride and the people loved it. The biggest moment for me was looking out into the crowd and seeing my friend Jason, who does not dance, dancing!!
I love it all.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
I am Under it
K. I am feeling pretty all correct today. I have been focusing on eating better. I have had Five banana's and Two apples in the past couple of days. I have had absolutely no candy. This is important, and you pretend reader will just have to sit there and enjoy these simple facts as this is my blog. And while I am at it, Goddamn it, you just wipe that smirk off your face. Ass Hat!
I have been having a great deal of fun making progress on new songs and on the recording of the album as a whole. It's really amazing how if you keep doing something, in this instance, making recordings, you slowly but certainly get better at it. To date I have made Nine recordings and since I have already played all my online turn based games to the full extent of their daily allowance, I shall list here, my selected discography with special evidence of the advancements in the art of production and technique from recording to recording.
1. The Singe/Plaything Years - These years do not really count for my actual production credit, they mark my learning of the principals of band politics and the basics of playing guitar and writing songs. During this time I had the privilege of being around a very economical, efficient guitar player Joe Lanning. Joe Tried to impart some of his guitar good sense to me, I'm not sure if any of it took. Devin was also in Singe so he was adding to my rather limited knowledge of musical theory at this time also. In addition to Devin & Joe, it was during the Singe years that I came to develop a relationship with my Uncle Ronnie Hendershot, who was responsible for Production on the Singe and Plaything Recordings.
A. Untitled Singe E.P. - This little cdr was my first ever experience with recording in a studio type situation. Our young band all headed to Ronnie's house one afternoon and set up in his basement studio. We played together live with no click. The end result was less than stunning, but when I last heard it about a year ago I was not as embarrassed as I would have expected to be. I did learn in that instance how bad of a bass player we had and how much room I had to improve as a singer and a guitarist.
B. Singe "Transformation Through Decay" - A lofty and mainly un-finished project for the band Singe. This recording contained something like 8 songs which we recorded track by track in Ronnie's studio, Big Sound. This was my first ever opportunity to build an album from the ground up. We began with Devin tracking the drums on his trusty controller, triggering sounds and samples contained in his Alesis DM5. Next, possibly that same evening but I think occurring over at least one other brief session Devin recorded his keyboard parts. I recall Devin, Joe and I being present for the session. After Devin, Joe Expertly tracked his guitar parts with some overdubs for the solos, there was one disappointing moment where I recall Joe really nailing a solo, only for us to realise we had not actually recorded it, Lesson learned about making sure the record button is engaged. We still talk about the solo we lost between Ronnie, Joe and myself. After putting off the un-avoidable as long as we could we had Mike our bass player come in a do a session. He was horrible. I remember looking at everyone else in the room and being certain we were all feeling the same thing, that Mike was done in our band and that it was blatantly obvious. We rushed Mike through every song, One or Two takes each song. If he made a mistake we lied our asses off and told him it was a good take and that the little mistakes could be fixed later with copy and paste. No sooner then we could get him out the door we had Joe hook up one of Ronnie's basses and we re-cut his parts. Sometime around the time Joe did his guitar parts I recall doing a couple, one I remember actually being proud of, a rhythm guitar part on the song cellophane, having never really played or recorded with a tube amp it was a revelation for me to use a small fender that Ronnie had. The vocals were done In a few sporadic sessions. There were several attempts made to get final mixes that we were happy with, and I'm sure somewhere a cdr exists of these sessions, but I have not heard them since the year they were completed, and memory does not even allow me to pin point which year that may have been. While we were mixing the album things came to a head with our bass player, ending with him leaving the fine state of Kansas.
On a fine and spectacular suggestion of Ronnie we replaced Mike not with a bass player, but with a live drummer, and thus Plaything was born. The drummer came in the form of a sweet gentle man named Chris Leon. I recall being really quite nervous when calling his phone number, which Ronnie had given me. I still get nervous when speaking with musicians, like I'm some pretend player always waiting to be un-masked. Chris turned out to be a swell guy and we all loved playing with him. Sadly no recordings were ever made with Chris, other than some rehearsal cassette tapes, one of which I'm sure I have somewhere. Much was learned in that line-up, I learned to let Joe have the room with the guitar, because he could command it where I could not, and I needed to focus on my voice...Which needed all the attention I could give it. Many a great times were had with the Plaything line-up, but huge differences in musical taste led to a the dissolution of the group.
2. The lost years - After Plaything fell down round itself I was left with nothing but college to keep me occupied. Fort Hays Stat University in scenic Hays, Kansas did not hold my attention for more than a semester and a half, but the week I quit the "Harvard of the Plains" did manage to pass onto me something that thus far has shaped my future, and my life. In a local paper I saw an add for a used cassette 4-track for sale. Having just received my tax return from the government I decided to go for it. I was rather surprised to learn that the person selling the machine was a professor who worked at the very school I had just decided to stop attending. When he asked me if I was student I didn't have the balls to tell him I'd quit.
My first recording with the four track was a cover of The Troggs "Wildthing". Joe played the drums on a keyboard and recorded a couple of guitar parts while I tried to scream the vocals.
All the recordings from this period have been lost or mis-placed. I do recall one song entitled "+ Nothing" I used a drum machine given to me by Ronnie, and a distorted keyboard. All my songs at this point were very basic verse and chorus structure, lacking in fills and bridges. I think at the time I lacked the ability to see the end of a project, so I really never got motivated. I didn't realise that I could reach a point with a group of songs that I had written and recorded, and at that point say, "this is done. I am done with this recording in this form. I do not need to have any help from a huge company or anyone more talented than myself. I made this and I am happy with it." It seems really pretty simple but at the time I could not make that leap.
I floated around for a little under two years making bad quality recordings in the basement of the house Devin and I shared. I began to make a little progress, I started making drum loops from records I really liked and I found them to be more inspiring than a drum machine at that point. Four songs recorded in that basement would later see light in the next phase of my development as an artist/producer.
Time in Hays Kansas finally came to an end. Devin finished school and we packed up all that we could fit into our two cars and headed to Los Angeles. I continued my free form floundering in Los Angeles, and I found myself facing yet another obstacle, One that I still deal with more than any other today. The rigors of apartment recording. I hated recording in our tiny apartment in the far west valley. I didn't even feel like I could play the acoustic guitar at a reasonable volume. During this time I learned more about drum machines and keyboards and direct guitar. Anything that could make noise through headphones became an often used tool. A good five songs total came from this period, they would be culled together with the four songs from the basement in Hays, together they formed a foundation for my first realization of a DIY release.
3. S no S (or how I learned to stop dicking around and love mp3.com)
California ended for me the same day dubya wormed his foot into the door of America. I crashed my car and lost the ability to pretend I was enjoying life in the edge of the valley. While not directly caused by Dubya, I'm pretty sure all thinking feeling people will be able to see the connection. And now back to the current de-railment of my blog.
I stuck it out in California for a spell, but soon I decided to pack it up and move to Kansas City. I chose KC because my parents had just moved there and I had no money, it turned out to be a very good thing that I did.
In addition to living in a house where I could be loud, I soon found a job as an activities person in a nursing home, which meant that my job would call heavily on my ability to play my guitar, and would demand that I become better at playing it.
When the box with my recording gear arrived from California I began to go through the master tapes of several years of recording. I was shocked to find out how much I liked them all. I compiled the songs to cassette, but my car at the time only had a cd player, therefore I was only able to listen to my creations at home. My wish to hear my songs on cd lead me to the internet. My parents computer had a cd burner but it was broken, this lead me to MP3.com, which really only attracted me at first because it was a simple way to get the songs I had recorded onto a cd. As I read more about what I needed to do in order to get my cd from mp3.com my interest grew, Mp3.com acted as an all loving record company who would put out my music, but not promote or fund it, which was just fine with me, as I was at least pretty certain that no one else wanted to hear it anyway.
A. Green Light Dim - I think there are something like fourteen songs on the first S no S release, but I really can't be sure since it is not here in front of me. I had roughly 20 recordings to choose from. I chose the recordings that sounded best first, then I chose the recordings that, while I was not completely happy with them, I felt done with them. Several songs I really liked, but I felt the recordings did not do them justice, this feeling would drive the next S no S album , and begin make refinements in my technique.
B. Roary May-in - Where did I come up with that title? I do not have any idea, I imagine it has something to do with the fact that I was really enjoying the band at the drive-in at the time. Roary May-in consisted completely of recordings made fresh upon the release of Green Light Dim. As a whole I think the recordings show more density and a slightly better regard for mix, but the main improvement for me came from re-recording songs for the first time ever. Prior to this album I was under the impression that I did not have the skills necessary to duplicate what was good about any of my recordings, and prior to this time I may very well have not had that ability. With Roary-may in I set out to improve on several of the songs that I cut from GLD, while still staying true to their actual form. Having to re-transcribe the drum and guitar parts pushed my ear and my ability to program toward a new level. I began to flex these tiny little muscles that prior to this album I didn't believe I had. My understanding of drum machines at this point began to allow me to see the limitation to using drum loops made from other people's beats, and this album contained the last drum loop used in an S no S song.
C. These Things (limitation adds...) Marked by many equipment problems, These Things came about in ways that surprised me. My electric guitar bit the dust at the end of recording Roary May, I was left with just the nylon string acoustic. I had also just required a five string bass guitar, which had the top two tuning pegs broken off, so it was actually a 3 string bass guitar. That bass guitar gave These Things a much fuller low end, and the bass more than anything shows my improvement in playing. I was lucky to focus on the nylon guitar, It had a very nice sound that recorded well to tape through my sm58. The biggest equipment problem that plagued the sessions for These Things was the motor of the 4-track, it was not functioning consistently at all. Towards the end of the recordings I would often have to take the cover off the fourtrack and kick start the motor with my finger. Eventually during mixing the motor gave way. Luckily I had Mixed all the songs I cared to mix from the 4-track, but I was still left with one more song I wanted to close the album with. I resorted to using a program called power tracks which Ronnie had given to me. It has been my first and only attempt at computer recording.
Through out the first Two albums I had communicated back and forth with Ronnie about the state of the process. As I began to record These Things Ronnie and I had worked out the bugs in our video conferencing software, it was amazing and helpful to be able to dial Ronnie in at all hours of the night and see and speak with him while transferring files for mix critique and general advice. Prior to These Things I was not really confident in my abilities and therefore I was not as open to listening to what someone would have to say about the recordings. Being able to share the process with Ronnie helped immensely, and eventually paved the way for me to develop further as a musician and a producer.
**Upon release of These Things (and boy am I getting full of my self here...But it is STILL my blog so deal...) I had a huge learning experience, I traveled to California to visit my brother. When my life in Cali crashed and I left, Devin sucked it up and grew. While I was in Kansas City singing to old folks and recording songs by myself, Devin was in Los Angeles, joining Shitting Glitter. While visiting I got to play bass with them in rehearsal. I have never been so touched by inspiration as I was during that trip. So many first experiences, and waiting for me at home was a newly purchased 16-track digital recording studio.
I remember getting hives for the first and only time of my life the day I finished These Things. I have always felt that it was such an important recording to me that it effected my body physically, I think I was having a very hard time for the first time since I had started recording because I had made something of which I was extremely proud, and I actually began to develop the expectation that it would be positively received, and It wasn't really received at all. That was hard for me.
D. Restless - My first chance to use 16 tracks, and the return of my electric guitar. This was a fun album for me to make, coming back from L.A. feeling so inspired by Shitting Glitter and life and wanting with all my heart to get backto California. I made some pretty silly mistakes on some of the songs, and really in a lot of ways it feels really hazy to me and off the cuff, which I think I was trying to do, and I actually needed to just fly through it to learn the 16-track. I'm pretty certain this album was finished in the shortest period of time that any of the S no S albums were finished in, which is funny because it's the longest. I think I could probably do a whole blog on the last two S no S albums, and maybe I will, but for now I'm tired.
E. May April - I knuckled the fuck down on this album. I really tried to write all the songs on the acoustic guitar first, I wanted to be able to play them live as solo acoustic pieces before I ever recording them. I wanted to make it as real of an experience as I could because I knew it would be the last album I would make in Kansas, in the sprawling comfort of my parents house. I had also just discovered Paul Simon's Graceland, and the album was just on fire in my mind the entire time I was recording. That album more than anything derailed my attempts to come at May April from the single window of the acoustic song. Thank god, the album is better for it, with the exception of Mie Dei, which I wish I had not put on there, I was such a sucker for the stupid ebow part in the beginning.
The greatest part of May April for me was feeling confident enough to let other people become involved in a collaborative way. Ronnie was very involved, in many ways I felt like Ronnie and I were in a band together making that record, even though he was four hours away from me. We got together for a couple of sessions at his house and we sent countless numbers of files back and forth. The two sessions we did together were great and a good deal of recording got done. I am so glad to have some of his playing on that record. Caitlyn sang with us on Timiner, and that is so precious for me, I loved it when she got bashful in the studio. Adrienne sang some oohs and aahs on paper see, I think it's fun to hear her because to me it sounds so very her. I really get a bang out of the fact that she is singing a lower vocal part than me.
A huge factor for me, that I think really impacted and influenced me and this album in particular was Jason Rucker, my great friend picking up guitar during this period. It was so inspiring to watch him learn so very fast. We spent a great deal of time playing and singing together. I hadn't connected with someone on a musical level for sometime, it really enabled me to collaborate on May April, and helped me realise that I was ready to play in a band with other people again. I also love the fact that Courtney Paulsen painted the cover.
The whole album for me was closure. The first time I left Kansas it was abrupt and I was scared, and I was disappointed in the town I was living in. I think being the age I was didn't help, I just had so much growing up to do. I had to rush to finish mixing May April before my plane ticket date came up. I knew that I wanted to save the master tracks and that I was going to need to have a good amount of hard drive for shitting glitter's record, which was my intention in going to California, producing their debut, not playing on it. During the year and half I lived in Kansas City my life had become so much richer, I felt very inspired to document it and the record did that for me. From the artwork to the subjects and to the people who were around me when it was in process. I am a sucker for myself sometimes.
4. Shitting Glitter - Upon completion of "May April" I once again packed up my clothes and recording equipment and boarded a plane, this time I was heading back to California. My plan was pretty hazy, I had just walked a turn at a christian nursing facility and completed five albums. I intended to arrive in Los Angeles and produce Shitting Glitter's debut album, "Post No Bills". I assumed at the time that recording and mixing would take One to Two months, I guess I was a little naive about the distractions Los Angeles has to offer. After this golden period of producing a record with out playing on it, I had a notion that I would leave all my stuff in storage with my brother and walk to Florida.
I was picked up from the airport and immediately taken to SG's rehearsal studio in the San Fernando Valley. I guess I was a little unprepared for the state of the band. There was obviously some internal tension.
A. "Post No Bills" - It took a few months before we even recorded the first note of "Post No Bills", and eventually that note would be scrapped. The band was having major conflict centered around all sorts of things, none of which are really my right or concern to explain here. Suffice to say that I did finally get a few people into the apartment studio version of Vincent Free Sound, but the most that amounted were scratch keyboards and scratch guitars. I was beginning to realise that this was not a band that was going to be capable of producing an album under my timid production. I lacked many qualities essential in taking charge of a situation out of control, so I for the most part backed off and let the world at large run it's course, which it did in many odd ways, including many that threw me into the mix.
After some major jostling and smoke clearing it became apparent that the backbone of SG was still very much intact, and finally ready to record an album. A slight problem, they had no guitar player nor drummer. I probably broke a golden rule of producing when I joined Shitting Glitter, but their guitar player had recently left, I happened to play guitar, and completely believe in the band. What else was I to do? I do not regret my decision, the more producing I do and the more playing I do the more I know I wish to do both. I met a drummer named Eddie one evening while singing karaoke in a lesbian bar, we made tentative plans to jam andin short time a new line up was in place.
Weeks of practice went into the live version of SG, there was a lot of room for improvement , and much improvement was made. Devin and Amy, with a new line up ready to go were eager to prove to the naysays that SG was in fact, not finished, and studio work with a drum machine got under way. The first song that I was able to make progress on for SG was "Makes Sense". I sat down with the scratch bass and keyboard tracks which Devin had recorded and pulled up a software drum machine I had used frequently with S no S. I programmed a very basic drum track and had Devin Re-record his keyboards. I then added acoustic guitar. Being as the song used two big S no S elements, hammerhead drums and my acoustic guitar, this recording is the most S no S like of any Shitting Glitter song released (othar than Guerilla - see below). Amy's vocal take weas absolutely stunning, I remember listening too it, and being in total awe over the fact that anyone could make that shitty microphone sound good. When the recording was completed we went to our favorite karaoke bar with a rough mix. It was such a change to go from finishing a song and having no one hear it, to finishing a song and heading straight to a bar for a great deal of positive feedback. I was really beginning to see the benefits of recording with other people, how nice it is for a good voice to sing, and for keyboards to be played with more than one finger.
The next recording we attempted to tackle was Ariana, we did a verion that used a lot of strings but for some reason it couldn't fall together so we moved on and tried again, getting closer this time, but I am still a little embarrassed to hear the final mix that appeared on the album. We had decide that the album would have some songs with live drums, but in the hopes of bridging the gaps to get closer to the things we had been listening to, we decided to adapt some of our songs to use drum machines. The drum machine allowed us to record in the apartment, and to have songs with a steady tempo, a problem that we had been developing with our drummer, a problem I was soon to face as I set about the task of producing the tracks on "Post no Bills" that contain live drums.
Of the 11 songs on PNB, 3 were produced by Mary White, 1 was a remix of a Mary white recording, 3 were recorded by me using a drum machine and 4 were done with live drums. When it came time to record the drums Devin and I laid scratch parts to a click and then we packed up the studio and headed to Amp rehearsal studios in North Hollywood where we booked two hours time for Eddie to lay down tracks on Short Haired Girls Club,
Mustache Rides 5 Cents and Mechanically Separated Chicken. Given that Eddie really had no experience playing to a click, and some of the scratch takes had errors, Eddie did about as well as can be expected, which was not very good. I had never worked with live drums, my microphones were really not up to the task, and the bleed through the walls was a factor. I Generally feel a bit put off by these two recordings, but I have at times been able to step back and see them for what they are, which was the best we could do and an accurate reflection of where we were at the time as a live band.
The other song with live drums I produced for PNB was "Backdoor Jesus", this recording I enjoy a great deal. I developed an idea in my mind that I wanted the recording to sound very old gospel lo-fi, with everything really bleeding through to everything else. We recorded the song one day in rehearsal, I used maybe three mics on Eddies drums, one on the bass drum, one on the snare and an overhead, all shitty dynamic mics. We did the song maybe twice but it seemed like only once, my guitar was being played loud in the studio, and Amy and Devin were singing through a P.A. in the same room. My guitar and the scratch vocals are rather apparent on the drum tracks, which while not only the easy way, was exactly the way I was thinking I wanted it to sound. after that I did some pretty heavy overdub layering using a bunch of different guitar sounds. The vocals were double tracked, then in addition to that I had one track of Amy and Devin singing into the same microphone together, all of that blended in to sound basically how I wanted. Because it's such an odd song and a lo-fi recording I think it works that Eddie really flubs several beats.
Of the Post no Bills album the thing I am most proud of is the title track. I have always been so moved by the lyrics, I think Amy really summed up a certain feeling you get when living your life in close proximity to her, really summed it up elegantly, I am forever impressed by it. The song started as a very major key acoustic guitar folk song, and Amy always complained and wanted it to be more hardcore, I fought her a little on this because I loved the original, but in the end I relented and Amy was right, this song needed what happened to it. Many great choices and ideas went into this recording, beginning with Devin's complete re-working of the beat and keyboards. I really have to applaud myself on the track for not playing, at the time I tried a few things and they seemed to take away from what was working, so rather than muss it up, I sucked it up and decided not to play any guitar on it. I was feeling pretty good about the flanger decision on the drum track anyway. Amy had wanted to do some speaking type vocals on this track, and once again I think I fought her, because I love the melody to the song, but in the end the compromise to do both was stunning. The vocal takes themselves were pretty impressive, particularly Amy's lead and Devin's harmony are striking to hear played back without the mix. Another reason I love Post No Bills the song more than any other song on that album, is because it was by far the easiest to mix, I think I only did basically one mix and a few tiny adjustments.
I remember we really wanted this album done prior to our playing L.A. Dyke March, I think we finished all recording the weekend before, giving me one week to mix. Devin left town at some point so I mixed and Amy helped, I was so not happy that Devin did not have to deal with that debacle.
In the end the album was done in time for Dyke march, we burned them ourselves and Devin did some great art work. I was really unsure of the CD for a long time, I really magnified in my mind how bad some of the songs were, and really I just didn't listen to it for a long time. The last time I did hear it I realized that I was intensely proud of the record, and that it had to be that hard to make in order for us to gain the momentum we would need to keep working.
B. Sexy Clown Circus - I am probably most pleased with this E.P. out anything that I have done to date. I firmly believe that we accomplished almost exactly what we set out to do with S.C.C., which is certainly a good feeling. There is for me a completeness of character of the E.P. that really gives it it's very own place in the world.
During the recording we were in a rather delicate situation with our drummer, he simply didn't have the desire to commit to the band on the level that we needed. We continued to utilize him for live shows, but from the very beginning we intended to use a drum machine for the entire EP. This allowed us a Consitincy and continuity that PNB lacked. Adding to the continuity of the whole was the shorter length, 6 songs as opposed to 11 greatly narrow the window. Perhaps the largest factor in the identity of SCC is the fact that the line-up had not changed for an entire year, which was a definite first for SG. Also the three of us; Devin, Amy and myself had been listening to basically the same music for the first time ever. Devin had decided to dive headlong into loving electro music, and the music carried us along with him. Mount Sims' Ultra Sex and the first Fischer Spooner album were very much favorites within our tiny circle. We certainly set out to make music like we liked to listen to at the time, while still maintaining our identity as a band, something I'm rather certain we could not shirk even if we tried.
Of the six songs on the e.p. only three were brand new originals, and they all came about in very different ways.
Guerilla is basically an S no S vs. SG Song, even more so than Makes Sense (which I refered to earlier in this massive pile of words), because the actual recording that was on the EP began life as an S no S song, perhaps it's the lost S no S song, becuase it was never mixed. I do recall that the chorus was "even you could grasp the contradiction, the joke that stole the plot, the error in your reason, a fundamental flaw..." I mention that here because I'm not really sure what this thing I am writing is anyway, and I happened to remember it. In the S no S version the song had bass, drums and vocals, and a guitar part that didn't work. One Sunday afternoon/evening, when Amy and I were particularly lubricated for the creative process Amy asked if I had anything that didn't have vocals that she could write to, I quickly lied and let her have a crack at the track, she banged the whole thing out in the amount of time it takes to play the song twice, I was rather impressed. Devin added the finishing touches and I followed the bass line on the guitar in two octaves.
"Slut Buffet" was pretty much Devin on his own, he had a demo from a long time ago that he'd given Amy, and when it came time to actually record it a year and change later we used that as a reference. Amy for her part had a hell of a time writing words for the song, Devin not only handed her a demo with a lot going on, he also handed her the title "Slut Buffet". What Devin thought a "Slut Buffet" was I'm not certain, but I do know it took Amy over a year to figure out what it meant to her. Upon completion of the lyrics it still took a long fight to figure out the melody and phrasing. My guitar part basically copies the keyboard with a few rhythmic flourishes thrown in on the chorus, once again I made use of octaves.
"The Curse" was dreamed up initially as a demo instrumental called "fucker tits". I one day made a production of saying I was going over to Devin's to write the music for a hit single. I didn't really have a great idea, just a chord progression for the verse. I played it a few times and then Devin picked at it and came up with the basic keyboard part. I abandoned the chords and let fly with the silly little lick that I play, then I figured out the little thing that I repeat, which is basically the baseline with a funny thingy. The vocals came from yet another evening when creation was lubricated, and Amy and myself were up looking around the apartment for something to make. The first verse is actually from a painting, that Amy and Yvonne had created one night, naked, in the early portion of their relationship. It is still probably my favorite melody of all time SG.
Devin pretty much commanded the two remixes. We used a tiny little toy keyboard for the drum beat on "goddess room", and added the rest. I am amazed at how well that recording turned out. In the beginning you can hear an ice cube chinking around in a cocktail glass, the drink was a gin and tonic if your curious, and yes, Amy drank and played it. "Mustache Rides" Mosey was fun, we all were left feeling like this song got the shaft on "Post no Bills" due to someones less-than-stellar drumming, so we re-worked it here. It fell together rather easily, and the final mix is the only mix I ever did of it, I was wasted off my ass but for some reason it worked.
The cover of "Words" was an after thought. Amy had always sang it particularly well in karaoke, so it seemed really natural. Devin's idea of copping the "My Sharona" baseline added a great element. From start to finish that song fell together in about a day and a half.
Mixing of SCC was a bit of a process, involving many late night drives to the driveway of the Sharon Tate House. It was a combination of connecting with the victims and the killers, and of consulting Trent Reznor, as I feel certain he made that drive many times blaring rough mixes of "The Downward Spiral".
When finally the mixing process was done and I prepared to mix down to a pc it was discovered that our sound card was fucked. We had planned on a record release party on Dec. 27th, as my parents would be in town and they had yet to see us perform. Luckily a friend of ours came through and allowed us to mix down at his loft. It was done, and only one more leaf waited to be turned. Our drummer Eddie informed us that he would be out of town the night of the release party, which was initially un-nerving, but after thinking about the CD the party was for, and that he didn't play on it, our course became obvious. We decided we'd use my 16-track studio and just use the actual drum tracks for the songs on the CD as the drum parts for the live show. We quickly scheduled a practice gig at the Joint to test the theory. Eddie was on the way out, replaced by a machine.
C. R.S.O. 7" The Song R.S.O. had tried many times to begin life, but it was not until one night when the three of us were drunk off our asses in our old apartment on Larrabee that it clicked. I just recall playing what I think is a funny funny little lick on the guitar. Devin picked up on it really soon and then he tossed out the chorus chords. Amy for her part belted out a quick rough draft of the vocals, but they were revised almost completely by the next time we rehearsed. Devin's keyboard line in the chorus solidified it for me. The bridge after the first chorus came from the Murmers, Amy was playing their CD one day and they threw a bridge in after the first chorus and I said, that is a cool place to do that, we have to try that.
The actual recording had to come together really quiet fast. Devin found a place that was pressing 7" on colored vinyl at a really special price for South by Southwest. We had about a week and a half from when we wrote the song to get it recorded and mixed as well as the new version of mechanically separated chicken. The recording seemed to go pretty well, and the only thing I'm not happy with is the fact that the vocals distort on the chorus too much for my liking. That had to do with a pre-amp that I had just purchased and did not yet no how to use. Sheesh. The guitar sound was probably a new high for me, I was left feeling very dis-satisfied with the way the guitars sounded on SCC for months after it was finished, now I'm cool with them and I think they work, but at the time they didn't have the life I wanted out of them. I had been basically going straight from the direct out of my amp into the 16 track and recording it that way, but with R.S.O I miced the back of the amp and covered the entire thing with pillows and blankets, I'm sure it was loud as fuck for the neighbors but it turned out well for me. I love the way the notes in the beginning echo off the amp walls.
Chicken came together without problem, this was another song that really didn't get it's due on post no bills so we gave it the drum machine treatment, the mix is a little unsteady but I'm happy with it.
The other two b-sides were taken directly from SCC and not changed at all.
D. Soundtrack to the Amnesty party - For a while we tried to do a b-sides and rarity album, we probably will still do it, but it didn't take the first time.
E. The Incomparable White Six (single) - Our first recoding made with our new sampler/sequencer the korg electribe esx1. A learning project. I knew that to take the mixes to the next level I was going to need individual control over each sound, this single was a failed attempt to do this. After looking at the manual I decided to separate everything I could by using the four separate outputs. This proved to be the wrong way to go as the auxiliary outputs remove all effects. You live and you learn.
The title track was a new experience also in the fact that it is the only time I've had a piece of work mastered by an outside source. It took nearly two weeks of going back and forth with the mastering engineer until the mix was deemed proper. In the end I like it and I like the mastering but I'm a tiny bit unhappy with the mix. This song is just complicated, it was like slut buffet in that Devin had worked out the music long ago and had to press hard to get it written. The title itself comes from an old car.
A wonderful piece of luck that came our way for this recording was borrowing a Neumann u87, which we took to our friend Christopher's house to do the vocals with in his closet.
The song calendar girl was originally intended to be a remix of guerrilla, Amy instead took it to the next level and created a brand new song out of it. How she found a way to sing over that track I'll never know, but it works and sounds way different then anything else we have ever done.
Short Haired Girls Club - None of us felt that the PNB version of this song lived up to it's potential. For those of you keeping score that is all but one recording that eddie had played on that we have since gone back and re-done, and the one that we havn't re-done Backdoor Jesus, has been left alone because we like it flawed. This one was a bitch to mix, and I still want to go back and do it with a real drummer.
Makes Sense (Electro Spy mix) - One Night Devin, Amy, Bett Williams and Myself all had stolen tickets to get into the premeir of The L-Word, we went and Devin and I were not allowed in, so we went back to my apartment and Devin banged out this remix. We had never attempted to do a remix without re-recording the original vocal, but we were always so impressed by the quality of the original vocal take on this song we decided to really give it our best shot. There was no computer sync, Devin played the drums on the keyboard using an arpeggiator, releasing his finger and pressing back down every so often to keep on track with the original bass drum. How it worked I'll never know.
The Incomparable White Six (Acoustic) - Devin had to play this song a great deal in order to make this work. I like it.
I'm going to wrap this up. Wow. The new album is coming along nicely. I have several new techniques, and I can't wait to see them come to fruitation. I'll probably babble about it at length here...
The oral history of Brandon as a musicain and a producer, as told to a computer when I probably should have been doing other things.
I have been having a great deal of fun making progress on new songs and on the recording of the album as a whole. It's really amazing how if you keep doing something, in this instance, making recordings, you slowly but certainly get better at it. To date I have made Nine recordings and since I have already played all my online turn based games to the full extent of their daily allowance, I shall list here, my selected discography with special evidence of the advancements in the art of production and technique from recording to recording.
1. The Singe/Plaything Years - These years do not really count for my actual production credit, they mark my learning of the principals of band politics and the basics of playing guitar and writing songs. During this time I had the privilege of being around a very economical, efficient guitar player Joe Lanning. Joe Tried to impart some of his guitar good sense to me, I'm not sure if any of it took. Devin was also in Singe so he was adding to my rather limited knowledge of musical theory at this time also. In addition to Devin & Joe, it was during the Singe years that I came to develop a relationship with my Uncle Ronnie Hendershot, who was responsible for Production on the Singe and Plaything Recordings.
A. Untitled Singe E.P. - This little cdr was my first ever experience with recording in a studio type situation. Our young band all headed to Ronnie's house one afternoon and set up in his basement studio. We played together live with no click. The end result was less than stunning, but when I last heard it about a year ago I was not as embarrassed as I would have expected to be. I did learn in that instance how bad of a bass player we had and how much room I had to improve as a singer and a guitarist.
B. Singe "Transformation Through Decay" - A lofty and mainly un-finished project for the band Singe. This recording contained something like 8 songs which we recorded track by track in Ronnie's studio, Big Sound. This was my first ever opportunity to build an album from the ground up. We began with Devin tracking the drums on his trusty controller, triggering sounds and samples contained in his Alesis DM5. Next, possibly that same evening but I think occurring over at least one other brief session Devin recorded his keyboard parts. I recall Devin, Joe and I being present for the session. After Devin, Joe Expertly tracked his guitar parts with some overdubs for the solos, there was one disappointing moment where I recall Joe really nailing a solo, only for us to realise we had not actually recorded it, Lesson learned about making sure the record button is engaged. We still talk about the solo we lost between Ronnie, Joe and myself. After putting off the un-avoidable as long as we could we had Mike our bass player come in a do a session. He was horrible. I remember looking at everyone else in the room and being certain we were all feeling the same thing, that Mike was done in our band and that it was blatantly obvious. We rushed Mike through every song, One or Two takes each song. If he made a mistake we lied our asses off and told him it was a good take and that the little mistakes could be fixed later with copy and paste. No sooner then we could get him out the door we had Joe hook up one of Ronnie's basses and we re-cut his parts. Sometime around the time Joe did his guitar parts I recall doing a couple, one I remember actually being proud of, a rhythm guitar part on the song cellophane, having never really played or recorded with a tube amp it was a revelation for me to use a small fender that Ronnie had. The vocals were done In a few sporadic sessions. There were several attempts made to get final mixes that we were happy with, and I'm sure somewhere a cdr exists of these sessions, but I have not heard them since the year they were completed, and memory does not even allow me to pin point which year that may have been. While we were mixing the album things came to a head with our bass player, ending with him leaving the fine state of Kansas.
On a fine and spectacular suggestion of Ronnie we replaced Mike not with a bass player, but with a live drummer, and thus Plaything was born. The drummer came in the form of a sweet gentle man named Chris Leon. I recall being really quite nervous when calling his phone number, which Ronnie had given me. I still get nervous when speaking with musicians, like I'm some pretend player always waiting to be un-masked. Chris turned out to be a swell guy and we all loved playing with him. Sadly no recordings were ever made with Chris, other than some rehearsal cassette tapes, one of which I'm sure I have somewhere. Much was learned in that line-up, I learned to let Joe have the room with the guitar, because he could command it where I could not, and I needed to focus on my voice...Which needed all the attention I could give it. Many a great times were had with the Plaything line-up, but huge differences in musical taste led to a the dissolution of the group.
2. The lost years - After Plaything fell down round itself I was left with nothing but college to keep me occupied. Fort Hays Stat University in scenic Hays, Kansas did not hold my attention for more than a semester and a half, but the week I quit the "Harvard of the Plains" did manage to pass onto me something that thus far has shaped my future, and my life. In a local paper I saw an add for a used cassette 4-track for sale. Having just received my tax return from the government I decided to go for it. I was rather surprised to learn that the person selling the machine was a professor who worked at the very school I had just decided to stop attending. When he asked me if I was student I didn't have the balls to tell him I'd quit.
My first recording with the four track was a cover of The Troggs "Wildthing". Joe played the drums on a keyboard and recorded a couple of guitar parts while I tried to scream the vocals.
All the recordings from this period have been lost or mis-placed. I do recall one song entitled "+ Nothing" I used a drum machine given to me by Ronnie, and a distorted keyboard. All my songs at this point were very basic verse and chorus structure, lacking in fills and bridges. I think at the time I lacked the ability to see the end of a project, so I really never got motivated. I didn't realise that I could reach a point with a group of songs that I had written and recorded, and at that point say, "this is done. I am done with this recording in this form. I do not need to have any help from a huge company or anyone more talented than myself. I made this and I am happy with it." It seems really pretty simple but at the time I could not make that leap.
I floated around for a little under two years making bad quality recordings in the basement of the house Devin and I shared. I began to make a little progress, I started making drum loops from records I really liked and I found them to be more inspiring than a drum machine at that point. Four songs recorded in that basement would later see light in the next phase of my development as an artist/producer.
Time in Hays Kansas finally came to an end. Devin finished school and we packed up all that we could fit into our two cars and headed to Los Angeles. I continued my free form floundering in Los Angeles, and I found myself facing yet another obstacle, One that I still deal with more than any other today. The rigors of apartment recording. I hated recording in our tiny apartment in the far west valley. I didn't even feel like I could play the acoustic guitar at a reasonable volume. During this time I learned more about drum machines and keyboards and direct guitar. Anything that could make noise through headphones became an often used tool. A good five songs total came from this period, they would be culled together with the four songs from the basement in Hays, together they formed a foundation for my first realization of a DIY release.
3. S no S (or how I learned to stop dicking around and love mp3.com)
California ended for me the same day dubya wormed his foot into the door of America. I crashed my car and lost the ability to pretend I was enjoying life in the edge of the valley. While not directly caused by Dubya, I'm pretty sure all thinking feeling people will be able to see the connection. And now back to the current de-railment of my blog.
I stuck it out in California for a spell, but soon I decided to pack it up and move to Kansas City. I chose KC because my parents had just moved there and I had no money, it turned out to be a very good thing that I did.
In addition to living in a house where I could be loud, I soon found a job as an activities person in a nursing home, which meant that my job would call heavily on my ability to play my guitar, and would demand that I become better at playing it.
When the box with my recording gear arrived from California I began to go through the master tapes of several years of recording. I was shocked to find out how much I liked them all. I compiled the songs to cassette, but my car at the time only had a cd player, therefore I was only able to listen to my creations at home. My wish to hear my songs on cd lead me to the internet. My parents computer had a cd burner but it was broken, this lead me to MP3.com, which really only attracted me at first because it was a simple way to get the songs I had recorded onto a cd. As I read more about what I needed to do in order to get my cd from mp3.com my interest grew, Mp3.com acted as an all loving record company who would put out my music, but not promote or fund it, which was just fine with me, as I was at least pretty certain that no one else wanted to hear it anyway.
A. Green Light Dim - I think there are something like fourteen songs on the first S no S release, but I really can't be sure since it is not here in front of me. I had roughly 20 recordings to choose from. I chose the recordings that sounded best first, then I chose the recordings that, while I was not completely happy with them, I felt done with them. Several songs I really liked, but I felt the recordings did not do them justice, this feeling would drive the next S no S album , and begin make refinements in my technique.
B. Roary May-in - Where did I come up with that title? I do not have any idea, I imagine it has something to do with the fact that I was really enjoying the band at the drive-in at the time. Roary May-in consisted completely of recordings made fresh upon the release of Green Light Dim. As a whole I think the recordings show more density and a slightly better regard for mix, but the main improvement for me came from re-recording songs for the first time ever. Prior to this album I was under the impression that I did not have the skills necessary to duplicate what was good about any of my recordings, and prior to this time I may very well have not had that ability. With Roary-may in I set out to improve on several of the songs that I cut from GLD, while still staying true to their actual form. Having to re-transcribe the drum and guitar parts pushed my ear and my ability to program toward a new level. I began to flex these tiny little muscles that prior to this album I didn't believe I had. My understanding of drum machines at this point began to allow me to see the limitation to using drum loops made from other people's beats, and this album contained the last drum loop used in an S no S song.
C. These Things (limitation adds...) Marked by many equipment problems, These Things came about in ways that surprised me. My electric guitar bit the dust at the end of recording Roary May, I was left with just the nylon string acoustic. I had also just required a five string bass guitar, which had the top two tuning pegs broken off, so it was actually a 3 string bass guitar. That bass guitar gave These Things a much fuller low end, and the bass more than anything shows my improvement in playing. I was lucky to focus on the nylon guitar, It had a very nice sound that recorded well to tape through my sm58. The biggest equipment problem that plagued the sessions for These Things was the motor of the 4-track, it was not functioning consistently at all. Towards the end of the recordings I would often have to take the cover off the fourtrack and kick start the motor with my finger. Eventually during mixing the motor gave way. Luckily I had Mixed all the songs I cared to mix from the 4-track, but I was still left with one more song I wanted to close the album with. I resorted to using a program called power tracks which Ronnie had given to me. It has been my first and only attempt at computer recording.
Through out the first Two albums I had communicated back and forth with Ronnie about the state of the process. As I began to record These Things Ronnie and I had worked out the bugs in our video conferencing software, it was amazing and helpful to be able to dial Ronnie in at all hours of the night and see and speak with him while transferring files for mix critique and general advice. Prior to These Things I was not really confident in my abilities and therefore I was not as open to listening to what someone would have to say about the recordings. Being able to share the process with Ronnie helped immensely, and eventually paved the way for me to develop further as a musician and a producer.
**Upon release of These Things (and boy am I getting full of my self here...But it is STILL my blog so deal...) I had a huge learning experience, I traveled to California to visit my brother. When my life in Cali crashed and I left, Devin sucked it up and grew. While I was in Kansas City singing to old folks and recording songs by myself, Devin was in Los Angeles, joining Shitting Glitter. While visiting I got to play bass with them in rehearsal. I have never been so touched by inspiration as I was during that trip. So many first experiences, and waiting for me at home was a newly purchased 16-track digital recording studio.
I remember getting hives for the first and only time of my life the day I finished These Things. I have always felt that it was such an important recording to me that it effected my body physically, I think I was having a very hard time for the first time since I had started recording because I had made something of which I was extremely proud, and I actually began to develop the expectation that it would be positively received, and It wasn't really received at all. That was hard for me.
D. Restless - My first chance to use 16 tracks, and the return of my electric guitar. This was a fun album for me to make, coming back from L.A. feeling so inspired by Shitting Glitter and life and wanting with all my heart to get backto California. I made some pretty silly mistakes on some of the songs, and really in a lot of ways it feels really hazy to me and off the cuff, which I think I was trying to do, and I actually needed to just fly through it to learn the 16-track. I'm pretty certain this album was finished in the shortest period of time that any of the S no S albums were finished in, which is funny because it's the longest. I think I could probably do a whole blog on the last two S no S albums, and maybe I will, but for now I'm tired.
E. May April - I knuckled the fuck down on this album. I really tried to write all the songs on the acoustic guitar first, I wanted to be able to play them live as solo acoustic pieces before I ever recording them. I wanted to make it as real of an experience as I could because I knew it would be the last album I would make in Kansas, in the sprawling comfort of my parents house. I had also just discovered Paul Simon's Graceland, and the album was just on fire in my mind the entire time I was recording. That album more than anything derailed my attempts to come at May April from the single window of the acoustic song. Thank god, the album is better for it, with the exception of Mie Dei, which I wish I had not put on there, I was such a sucker for the stupid ebow part in the beginning.
The greatest part of May April for me was feeling confident enough to let other people become involved in a collaborative way. Ronnie was very involved, in many ways I felt like Ronnie and I were in a band together making that record, even though he was four hours away from me. We got together for a couple of sessions at his house and we sent countless numbers of files back and forth. The two sessions we did together were great and a good deal of recording got done. I am so glad to have some of his playing on that record. Caitlyn sang with us on Timiner, and that is so precious for me, I loved it when she got bashful in the studio. Adrienne sang some oohs and aahs on paper see, I think it's fun to hear her because to me it sounds so very her. I really get a bang out of the fact that she is singing a lower vocal part than me.
A huge factor for me, that I think really impacted and influenced me and this album in particular was Jason Rucker, my great friend picking up guitar during this period. It was so inspiring to watch him learn so very fast. We spent a great deal of time playing and singing together. I hadn't connected with someone on a musical level for sometime, it really enabled me to collaborate on May April, and helped me realise that I was ready to play in a band with other people again. I also love the fact that Courtney Paulsen painted the cover.
The whole album for me was closure. The first time I left Kansas it was abrupt and I was scared, and I was disappointed in the town I was living in. I think being the age I was didn't help, I just had so much growing up to do. I had to rush to finish mixing May April before my plane ticket date came up. I knew that I wanted to save the master tracks and that I was going to need to have a good amount of hard drive for shitting glitter's record, which was my intention in going to California, producing their debut, not playing on it. During the year and half I lived in Kansas City my life had become so much richer, I felt very inspired to document it and the record did that for me. From the artwork to the subjects and to the people who were around me when it was in process. I am a sucker for myself sometimes.
4. Shitting Glitter - Upon completion of "May April" I once again packed up my clothes and recording equipment and boarded a plane, this time I was heading back to California. My plan was pretty hazy, I had just walked a turn at a christian nursing facility and completed five albums. I intended to arrive in Los Angeles and produce Shitting Glitter's debut album, "Post No Bills". I assumed at the time that recording and mixing would take One to Two months, I guess I was a little naive about the distractions Los Angeles has to offer. After this golden period of producing a record with out playing on it, I had a notion that I would leave all my stuff in storage with my brother and walk to Florida.
I was picked up from the airport and immediately taken to SG's rehearsal studio in the San Fernando Valley. I guess I was a little unprepared for the state of the band. There was obviously some internal tension.
A. "Post No Bills" - It took a few months before we even recorded the first note of "Post No Bills", and eventually that note would be scrapped. The band was having major conflict centered around all sorts of things, none of which are really my right or concern to explain here. Suffice to say that I did finally get a few people into the apartment studio version of Vincent Free Sound, but the most that amounted were scratch keyboards and scratch guitars. I was beginning to realise that this was not a band that was going to be capable of producing an album under my timid production. I lacked many qualities essential in taking charge of a situation out of control, so I for the most part backed off and let the world at large run it's course, which it did in many odd ways, including many that threw me into the mix.
After some major jostling and smoke clearing it became apparent that the backbone of SG was still very much intact, and finally ready to record an album. A slight problem, they had no guitar player nor drummer. I probably broke a golden rule of producing when I joined Shitting Glitter, but their guitar player had recently left, I happened to play guitar, and completely believe in the band. What else was I to do? I do not regret my decision, the more producing I do and the more playing I do the more I know I wish to do both. I met a drummer named Eddie one evening while singing karaoke in a lesbian bar, we made tentative plans to jam andin short time a new line up was in place.
Weeks of practice went into the live version of SG, there was a lot of room for improvement , and much improvement was made. Devin and Amy, with a new line up ready to go were eager to prove to the naysays that SG was in fact, not finished, and studio work with a drum machine got under way. The first song that I was able to make progress on for SG was "Makes Sense". I sat down with the scratch bass and keyboard tracks which Devin had recorded and pulled up a software drum machine I had used frequently with S no S. I programmed a very basic drum track and had Devin Re-record his keyboards. I then added acoustic guitar. Being as the song used two big S no S elements, hammerhead drums and my acoustic guitar, this recording is the most S no S like of any Shitting Glitter song released (othar than Guerilla - see below). Amy's vocal take weas absolutely stunning, I remember listening too it, and being in total awe over the fact that anyone could make that shitty microphone sound good. When the recording was completed we went to our favorite karaoke bar with a rough mix. It was such a change to go from finishing a song and having no one hear it, to finishing a song and heading straight to a bar for a great deal of positive feedback. I was really beginning to see the benefits of recording with other people, how nice it is for a good voice to sing, and for keyboards to be played with more than one finger.
The next recording we attempted to tackle was Ariana, we did a verion that used a lot of strings but for some reason it couldn't fall together so we moved on and tried again, getting closer this time, but I am still a little embarrassed to hear the final mix that appeared on the album. We had decide that the album would have some songs with live drums, but in the hopes of bridging the gaps to get closer to the things we had been listening to, we decided to adapt some of our songs to use drum machines. The drum machine allowed us to record in the apartment, and to have songs with a steady tempo, a problem that we had been developing with our drummer, a problem I was soon to face as I set about the task of producing the tracks on "Post no Bills" that contain live drums.
Of the 11 songs on PNB, 3 were produced by Mary White, 1 was a remix of a Mary white recording, 3 were recorded by me using a drum machine and 4 were done with live drums. When it came time to record the drums Devin and I laid scratch parts to a click and then we packed up the studio and headed to Amp rehearsal studios in North Hollywood where we booked two hours time for Eddie to lay down tracks on Short Haired Girls Club,
Mustache Rides 5 Cents and Mechanically Separated Chicken. Given that Eddie really had no experience playing to a click, and some of the scratch takes had errors, Eddie did about as well as can be expected, which was not very good. I had never worked with live drums, my microphones were really not up to the task, and the bleed through the walls was a factor. I Generally feel a bit put off by these two recordings, but I have at times been able to step back and see them for what they are, which was the best we could do and an accurate reflection of where we were at the time as a live band.
The other song with live drums I produced for PNB was "Backdoor Jesus", this recording I enjoy a great deal. I developed an idea in my mind that I wanted the recording to sound very old gospel lo-fi, with everything really bleeding through to everything else. We recorded the song one day in rehearsal, I used maybe three mics on Eddies drums, one on the bass drum, one on the snare and an overhead, all shitty dynamic mics. We did the song maybe twice but it seemed like only once, my guitar was being played loud in the studio, and Amy and Devin were singing through a P.A. in the same room. My guitar and the scratch vocals are rather apparent on the drum tracks, which while not only the easy way, was exactly the way I was thinking I wanted it to sound. after that I did some pretty heavy overdub layering using a bunch of different guitar sounds. The vocals were double tracked, then in addition to that I had one track of Amy and Devin singing into the same microphone together, all of that blended in to sound basically how I wanted. Because it's such an odd song and a lo-fi recording I think it works that Eddie really flubs several beats.
Of the Post no Bills album the thing I am most proud of is the title track. I have always been so moved by the lyrics, I think Amy really summed up a certain feeling you get when living your life in close proximity to her, really summed it up elegantly, I am forever impressed by it. The song started as a very major key acoustic guitar folk song, and Amy always complained and wanted it to be more hardcore, I fought her a little on this because I loved the original, but in the end I relented and Amy was right, this song needed what happened to it. Many great choices and ideas went into this recording, beginning with Devin's complete re-working of the beat and keyboards. I really have to applaud myself on the track for not playing, at the time I tried a few things and they seemed to take away from what was working, so rather than muss it up, I sucked it up and decided not to play any guitar on it. I was feeling pretty good about the flanger decision on the drum track anyway. Amy had wanted to do some speaking type vocals on this track, and once again I think I fought her, because I love the melody to the song, but in the end the compromise to do both was stunning. The vocal takes themselves were pretty impressive, particularly Amy's lead and Devin's harmony are striking to hear played back without the mix. Another reason I love Post No Bills the song more than any other song on that album, is because it was by far the easiest to mix, I think I only did basically one mix and a few tiny adjustments.
I remember we really wanted this album done prior to our playing L.A. Dyke March, I think we finished all recording the weekend before, giving me one week to mix. Devin left town at some point so I mixed and Amy helped, I was so not happy that Devin did not have to deal with that debacle.
In the end the album was done in time for Dyke march, we burned them ourselves and Devin did some great art work. I was really unsure of the CD for a long time, I really magnified in my mind how bad some of the songs were, and really I just didn't listen to it for a long time. The last time I did hear it I realized that I was intensely proud of the record, and that it had to be that hard to make in order for us to gain the momentum we would need to keep working.
B. Sexy Clown Circus - I am probably most pleased with this E.P. out anything that I have done to date. I firmly believe that we accomplished almost exactly what we set out to do with S.C.C., which is certainly a good feeling. There is for me a completeness of character of the E.P. that really gives it it's very own place in the world.
During the recording we were in a rather delicate situation with our drummer, he simply didn't have the desire to commit to the band on the level that we needed. We continued to utilize him for live shows, but from the very beginning we intended to use a drum machine for the entire EP. This allowed us a Consitincy and continuity that PNB lacked. Adding to the continuity of the whole was the shorter length, 6 songs as opposed to 11 greatly narrow the window. Perhaps the largest factor in the identity of SCC is the fact that the line-up had not changed for an entire year, which was a definite first for SG. Also the three of us; Devin, Amy and myself had been listening to basically the same music for the first time ever. Devin had decided to dive headlong into loving electro music, and the music carried us along with him. Mount Sims' Ultra Sex and the first Fischer Spooner album were very much favorites within our tiny circle. We certainly set out to make music like we liked to listen to at the time, while still maintaining our identity as a band, something I'm rather certain we could not shirk even if we tried.
Of the six songs on the e.p. only three were brand new originals, and they all came about in very different ways.
Guerilla is basically an S no S vs. SG Song, even more so than Makes Sense (which I refered to earlier in this massive pile of words), because the actual recording that was on the EP began life as an S no S song, perhaps it's the lost S no S song, becuase it was never mixed. I do recall that the chorus was "even you could grasp the contradiction, the joke that stole the plot, the error in your reason, a fundamental flaw..." I mention that here because I'm not really sure what this thing I am writing is anyway, and I happened to remember it. In the S no S version the song had bass, drums and vocals, and a guitar part that didn't work. One Sunday afternoon/evening, when Amy and I were particularly lubricated for the creative process Amy asked if I had anything that didn't have vocals that she could write to, I quickly lied and let her have a crack at the track, she banged the whole thing out in the amount of time it takes to play the song twice, I was rather impressed. Devin added the finishing touches and I followed the bass line on the guitar in two octaves.
"Slut Buffet" was pretty much Devin on his own, he had a demo from a long time ago that he'd given Amy, and when it came time to actually record it a year and change later we used that as a reference. Amy for her part had a hell of a time writing words for the song, Devin not only handed her a demo with a lot going on, he also handed her the title "Slut Buffet". What Devin thought a "Slut Buffet" was I'm not certain, but I do know it took Amy over a year to figure out what it meant to her. Upon completion of the lyrics it still took a long fight to figure out the melody and phrasing. My guitar part basically copies the keyboard with a few rhythmic flourishes thrown in on the chorus, once again I made use of octaves.
"The Curse" was dreamed up initially as a demo instrumental called "fucker tits". I one day made a production of saying I was going over to Devin's to write the music for a hit single. I didn't really have a great idea, just a chord progression for the verse. I played it a few times and then Devin picked at it and came up with the basic keyboard part. I abandoned the chords and let fly with the silly little lick that I play, then I figured out the little thing that I repeat, which is basically the baseline with a funny thingy. The vocals came from yet another evening when creation was lubricated, and Amy and myself were up looking around the apartment for something to make. The first verse is actually from a painting, that Amy and Yvonne had created one night, naked, in the early portion of their relationship. It is still probably my favorite melody of all time SG.
Devin pretty much commanded the two remixes. We used a tiny little toy keyboard for the drum beat on "goddess room", and added the rest. I am amazed at how well that recording turned out. In the beginning you can hear an ice cube chinking around in a cocktail glass, the drink was a gin and tonic if your curious, and yes, Amy drank and played it. "Mustache Rides" Mosey was fun, we all were left feeling like this song got the shaft on "Post no Bills" due to someones less-than-stellar drumming, so we re-worked it here. It fell together rather easily, and the final mix is the only mix I ever did of it, I was wasted off my ass but for some reason it worked.
The cover of "Words" was an after thought. Amy had always sang it particularly well in karaoke, so it seemed really natural. Devin's idea of copping the "My Sharona" baseline added a great element. From start to finish that song fell together in about a day and a half.
Mixing of SCC was a bit of a process, involving many late night drives to the driveway of the Sharon Tate House. It was a combination of connecting with the victims and the killers, and of consulting Trent Reznor, as I feel certain he made that drive many times blaring rough mixes of "The Downward Spiral".
When finally the mixing process was done and I prepared to mix down to a pc it was discovered that our sound card was fucked. We had planned on a record release party on Dec. 27th, as my parents would be in town and they had yet to see us perform. Luckily a friend of ours came through and allowed us to mix down at his loft. It was done, and only one more leaf waited to be turned. Our drummer Eddie informed us that he would be out of town the night of the release party, which was initially un-nerving, but after thinking about the CD the party was for, and that he didn't play on it, our course became obvious. We decided we'd use my 16-track studio and just use the actual drum tracks for the songs on the CD as the drum parts for the live show. We quickly scheduled a practice gig at the Joint to test the theory. Eddie was on the way out, replaced by a machine.
C. R.S.O. 7" The Song R.S.O. had tried many times to begin life, but it was not until one night when the three of us were drunk off our asses in our old apartment on Larrabee that it clicked. I just recall playing what I think is a funny funny little lick on the guitar. Devin picked up on it really soon and then he tossed out the chorus chords. Amy for her part belted out a quick rough draft of the vocals, but they were revised almost completely by the next time we rehearsed. Devin's keyboard line in the chorus solidified it for me. The bridge after the first chorus came from the Murmers, Amy was playing their CD one day and they threw a bridge in after the first chorus and I said, that is a cool place to do that, we have to try that.
The actual recording had to come together really quiet fast. Devin found a place that was pressing 7" on colored vinyl at a really special price for South by Southwest. We had about a week and a half from when we wrote the song to get it recorded and mixed as well as the new version of mechanically separated chicken. The recording seemed to go pretty well, and the only thing I'm not happy with is the fact that the vocals distort on the chorus too much for my liking. That had to do with a pre-amp that I had just purchased and did not yet no how to use. Sheesh. The guitar sound was probably a new high for me, I was left feeling very dis-satisfied with the way the guitars sounded on SCC for months after it was finished, now I'm cool with them and I think they work, but at the time they didn't have the life I wanted out of them. I had been basically going straight from the direct out of my amp into the 16 track and recording it that way, but with R.S.O I miced the back of the amp and covered the entire thing with pillows and blankets, I'm sure it was loud as fuck for the neighbors but it turned out well for me. I love the way the notes in the beginning echo off the amp walls.
Chicken came together without problem, this was another song that really didn't get it's due on post no bills so we gave it the drum machine treatment, the mix is a little unsteady but I'm happy with it.
The other two b-sides were taken directly from SCC and not changed at all.
D. Soundtrack to the Amnesty party - For a while we tried to do a b-sides and rarity album, we probably will still do it, but it didn't take the first time.
E. The Incomparable White Six (single) - Our first recoding made with our new sampler/sequencer the korg electribe esx1. A learning project. I knew that to take the mixes to the next level I was going to need individual control over each sound, this single was a failed attempt to do this. After looking at the manual I decided to separate everything I could by using the four separate outputs. This proved to be the wrong way to go as the auxiliary outputs remove all effects. You live and you learn.
The title track was a new experience also in the fact that it is the only time I've had a piece of work mastered by an outside source. It took nearly two weeks of going back and forth with the mastering engineer until the mix was deemed proper. In the end I like it and I like the mastering but I'm a tiny bit unhappy with the mix. This song is just complicated, it was like slut buffet in that Devin had worked out the music long ago and had to press hard to get it written. The title itself comes from an old car.
A wonderful piece of luck that came our way for this recording was borrowing a Neumann u87, which we took to our friend Christopher's house to do the vocals with in his closet.
The song calendar girl was originally intended to be a remix of guerrilla, Amy instead took it to the next level and created a brand new song out of it. How she found a way to sing over that track I'll never know, but it works and sounds way different then anything else we have ever done.
Short Haired Girls Club - None of us felt that the PNB version of this song lived up to it's potential. For those of you keeping score that is all but one recording that eddie had played on that we have since gone back and re-done, and the one that we havn't re-done Backdoor Jesus, has been left alone because we like it flawed. This one was a bitch to mix, and I still want to go back and do it with a real drummer.
Makes Sense (Electro Spy mix) - One Night Devin, Amy, Bett Williams and Myself all had stolen tickets to get into the premeir of The L-Word, we went and Devin and I were not allowed in, so we went back to my apartment and Devin banged out this remix. We had never attempted to do a remix without re-recording the original vocal, but we were always so impressed by the quality of the original vocal take on this song we decided to really give it our best shot. There was no computer sync, Devin played the drums on the keyboard using an arpeggiator, releasing his finger and pressing back down every so often to keep on track with the original bass drum. How it worked I'll never know.
The Incomparable White Six (Acoustic) - Devin had to play this song a great deal in order to make this work. I like it.
I'm going to wrap this up. Wow. The new album is coming along nicely. I have several new techniques, and I can't wait to see them come to fruitation. I'll probably babble about it at length here...
The oral history of Brandon as a musicain and a producer, as told to a computer when I probably should have been doing other things.
Monday, December 13, 2004
News is bad news
Today I learned that a friend of mine took his own life. I had not seen Kevin in over two years, but I loved him and I am sad to know that I won't see him again. He had spirit, and an appreciation for points of life that make it worth living, in the end I guess the checks and minus didn't add up right at the critical moment.
Monday, December 06, 2004
From the Ground-up
An actual restful productive weekend has passed. There was sleeping every night, and a lot of work going on.
Devin and Coco came to the apartment on Saturday and we worked up a demo for a new song: "Mondo di Corpo", It's really good. It has a section that is very Electric Six.
We also laid down tracks to record our cover of AC/DC's "Let Me Put My Love Into You". We fixed the song "Grady" which had been incorrectly recorded in the wrong key. We even laid down the basic tracks for the Album version of "Mondo Di Corpo".
Devin programmed the drums and bass for another cover "Time" by the Culture Club. We were all getting a little tired of the old songs so we decided it was time to lay some new songs out there and see how they sound.
Devin and Coco came to the apartment on Saturday and we worked up a demo for a new song: "Mondo di Corpo", It's really good. It has a section that is very Electric Six.
We also laid down tracks to record our cover of AC/DC's "Let Me Put My Love Into You". We fixed the song "Grady" which had been incorrectly recorded in the wrong key. We even laid down the basic tracks for the Album version of "Mondo Di Corpo".
Devin programmed the drums and bass for another cover "Time" by the Culture Club. We were all getting a little tired of the old songs so we decided it was time to lay some new songs out there and see how they sound.
Friday, December 03, 2004
I forgot I had a Blog
Well, too late now. I'll have another good week of blogging about jack dick sometime soon. I've been tapped playing dope wars on the internet, and being sick, and being really out of hand in many ways. Amy and I did not really sleep but maybe two nights out of four over the holiday. It was fun and beautiful, and hard, and long and all those things that I moved to L.A. for.
Playing the joint sick as hell was a real trip. I really did try and rock.
Playing the joint sick as hell was a real trip. I really did try and rock.
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