Studio Time

Sunday, June 10, 2007
Worked on Mongos drums for about 2.5 hours, since he is the primadonna of the band (not really). Dan Maier, engineer extradordinaire, got some great tones but Marks new yamaha kick sounded a little flubby so we switched it out for the studio (Audio Design) DW kick. Sounded way better and more punchy. Then we traded out his snare cause it was a little reverby, even though it’s a killer live snare it wasn’t attacking as well on tape. Oh yeah, Dan had a reel of 2 inch he graciously donated to the Cabrones for our 7 song EP. Man, I forgot how amazing tape sounds from studio monitor speakers, like a wool blanket in a Denver blizzard with a raging fire and a cup of Irish Cocoa. Running through the Otari MTR 90 Tape Machine and a API 2488 Board. Fast forward a few hours and we set up the vintage Ampeg V4B (1973), pushing through a 68-69′ 8×10 cab, with a Fulltone Bass Drive for extra grit, I used my slightly moded Fender Jazz Bass. It was super gritty at first but I scaled back the drive cause we didn’t want it to sound like another guitar, which was a good thing. Bob ran through his classic set-up; a musicman 2×12, a 100 watt 80’s Marshall JMP and a Morely signal splitter, using a Gibson Faded SG for rhythm and a G&L ASAT Classic for lead(s). We started with “Learn” and ended with “Silencio” and in between we ran about 3 takes per song, with the exception of “Silencio,” yeah we nailed that in one. I punched in twice and so did Bob. Late in the night after a few beers and winding down we decided to dump the tape to digital so we could do more in post. Today it seems to be working a lot better but with all that room for mistakes we’re taking too much time redoing vocals. Leo sounds rad though. Nailed all the songs so far. We’ll have to come up with a different title for the current song. Its kind of obnoxious and doesn’t really work with the actual lyrics of the song. Hope Leandros voice holds out. more later…

So Leo was fucking blasted while trying to lay down vox for “The Searchers,” and his chorus sounded like Kurt Cobain on the nod. A Mexican Kurt Cobain on the nod. He’s got a good style though, sort of sloppy and pissed but good tone. I dig it at least. I did my vox for “The Letdown” and pulled the cajones out and blew out my chords pretty quick. I drank a lot of honey though and it seemed to get me through the rough spots. I tried to channel my inner rage and push it into the song as much as possible. We did the triple threat, “The Searchers,” “The Letdown” and “My Dear Colleagues.” Here are the lyrics I wrote in full, as Leo changed some of them to fit the songs and I’ll have to repost my revision to “The Letdown” but is on my new home computer since The Man is taking his computer back once I leave this cold cube on Friday;

The Searchers
We are the searchers.
Architects of semantic infrastructure
Coded in concrete
Not paper that’ll tear easy.
Men of our word
We commit to the betterment
Of society as a whole
Our subordinates write copy
Boilerplate mission statements
Distributed to all the right folks
And conflict resolution
Is our diplomatic mantra

Memorizing tag lines stepping deftly over razor wire
We communicate, oh we communicate
a message of fire
Shaking hands and kissing babies

My Dear Colleagues
Have you ever worked
a 60-hour week,
At a job you despise,
with every fiber of your being?
Do you ever stop to think
that you’re not alone?
Yeah, you’re not alone
We’re all crumbling
toward the same ending,
Thankless and dying

But you’re not alone man
Sister we’re with you
In the factories and fields,
toiling away
Just to get a sense
of something real

Carve out an existence
To stand tall amidst the giants
One voice to rattle the tyrants

You’re not alone
We’ll be waiting at the end
When the credits role and curtain closes
And the last whistle blows
We’ll be there
You’re not alone.

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Buy These Records!

Another list of sweet ass records you should buy!
Like any self respecting aging hipster I call them “records” because while I’m too young to actually have used a ‘Record Player’ as my main mode of music playing while in high school [Tapes, yeah, member those – they used to mean something when you put a bunch of Sunny Day, Cadillac Blindside and Morcheeba/Portishead songs on one then gave it to your best girl or boy – whatevs’] I did catch mid wave of tape trading days and dove in head first to that dinosaur of music delivery called ‘CeeDeez.’ there used to be a joke that went with that but damn if 10 years of soda and pizza hasn’t wiped my memory clean as a jewel case. Its Halloween again, always a sad time of year because I realize I can’t eat a whole freaking pillowcase full of candy without getting some sort of blood clot or worse I’ll finally get diabetes.

enough blah blah blogging right? I see from our views of how many people actually read this stuff its pretty small. This myspace thing, once so vibrant and useful has really just become a way for uber shitty emo/screamo bands to get all the skankiest stripper/underage girl in a really obnoxious photo to post on their pages, or heck if their lucky one of them will go to their show with some other band with a poorly chosen name like Death In Autumn, Black Line Mouth Garden or something really stupid, I’m not that clever to think of one I guess. [Actually BLMG is a pretty cool name if you are into shrub eating trolls from Norway]

Couple of good records came out recently that I’ve had the pleasure of actually having to buy instead of wait for the F***ing retard publicity people to send me good music and stop sending me really bad music [hence the abhorrence towards anything with black mascara]

This is the best few for the past few weeks.

Converge – No Heroes: Just read the amazing interview/feature in the Dec. issue of Decibel, it explains it all. Then go out and buy the record, they are PUNK ROCK.

The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America: Yeah, that’s right, combine Elvis Costello, Cheap Trick and Thin Lizzy and you’ve got a juicy piece of American rock that makes the strokes look exactly like their namesake in motion

Trail Of Dead – So Divided: These Austinites [neh, austonians?] are back with their pissed off fist in the air Sgt. Pepper epic songs. It’s way better than their last record, of which I can’t even recall the name. Pick it up and check out “Wasted State of Mind”

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – Fear is on Our Side: another band of Austinites that make Interpol look like Coldplay. This is some moody stuff. Great for rain.

Planes Mistaken For Stars – Mercy: okay. I know I’m a huge PMFS fanboy nerd. My home town is Denver and at one time during a serious Jack Daniels Drinking party I used a vegetable bullion cube I thought was frozen coca-cola in an ice tray in my jack and coke when hanging with the bearded Denverites one summer eve a year ago, nevertheless, this band, with all its lineup changes (Guitarist Matt was replaced by Chuck, chuck was replaced by Neil from Red Cloud and its their third bassist) and subsequently horrible press representation and little coverage is one of the years Best! AGAIN. Up in Them Guts was their career high but Mercy ranks up there as well, being a consistent smash your face rock record (Produced by the skillful Matt Bayles no less). We’ll have them featured on the site soon.

Constants – The Murder Of Tom Fitzgerril: This is so freaking massive and amazing I can’t stop listening to it. Mostly instrumental, these dudes have been on the road for two years in a vegetable fueled school bus. I think I already ranted about this but their album is really remarkable.

Music Exists in the places we expect. At the mall, in the car next to you at the stop sign with the dudes in backwards baseball caps that have replaced Limp Bizkit with Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold or even in the grocery store. The key is, look deeper, buy music from the record store where the clerks don’t wear uniforms and no one talks about MARKETS or BRANDING or ‘STREET CRED.” Case in point, look for music and don’t let someone serve it to you like a McSandwich. (That means don’t listen to me either)

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