Dr. Frank's What's-it

Recording Status Report

Here's a kind little review of "eight little songs".

We're going in to the studio on Tuesday, and as always, I can't quite tell the excitement from the dread. Most of the first day will probably be devoted to setting things up, "loading" things, testing things, figuring out if anything essential is broken, etc. If things go well, we may even be able to work on "getting sounds" (as it is always referred to): the drummer hits various drums for hours and hours while we move the mics around and try different configurations of this, that and the other. That's the part that can make a grown man cry, especially if he's hung over. I don't plan to be, but I'm just saying.

We had what is most likely to have been our last rehearsal before the recording last night. This line-up (me, Jym, Bobby J. on bass and Ted Angel on guitar) is by far the most "together" group I've played with (perhaps that may not be saying much, but really these guys are very good.) Half the battle is understanding the music and the songs, and that kind of understanding can be hard to come by when you're an oddball like me, but being able to play is nice, too. I'm really getting a kick out of some of the "chiming" stereo effects of the dual guitars-- Ted's really good at aping my guitar lines, but also at inverting/subverting them so they sound interesting when laid on top. I've been told my rhythmic sense is a little unconventional and hard to play to. A lot of that may be down to my own unavoidable retardedness, but a bit of it is intentional, as I like to have certain parts play against each other (e.g., straight-time drums/rhythm cum shuffly stereo guitars which try to fill in each other's "spaces," that kind of thing-- the demo arrangement of "Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer" is sort of a low-key, low-fi version of that particular oddity.) We've been able work out in advance that kind of rhythmic/texture stuff way more than usual this time around, and it will mean a greater flexibility in the studio and a halfway decent chance of having some of it come out as intended this time around.

Anyway, the twelve "band songs" are sounding pretty good "live," though only a few of them will end up being recorded that way. The thirteenth, "She Runs Out when the Money Does" is still up in the air-- it's too new to be comfortable and I'm not sure we're playing it well enough yet. (Sometimes, springing a song on the band at the last minute can result in a cool energy-- and/or an appealing awkwardness-- all its own. That was the case with "She's My Alcatraz," which we ended up playing almost live after not much more than a brief explanation. I don't know about other folks, but I've often had the impression that there's something special about the first time you play any song that you can't always recapture. However, "She Runs Out..." is one of those tunes that just has to sound natural, as it's so sparse.) It's on the back-burner at this point, to be pulled out only if things are going so well that we feel we have the time to fool around with it. (Fat chance of that, but never mind.) Since I've put up the lyrics, and as there's been discussion of it, I still might cyberbusk an mp3 of the demo over the next couple of days, just to complete the experiment (see how it compares to how people thought it might sound, see if anything interesting falls out when people shake it, etc.)

If "She Runs Out..." ends up getting jettisoned (or rather, saved for later-- that's a better way of putting it) that means we still have to cut at least one more "band song." We could end up putting off the decision and recording the extra song, deciding what to cut when we hear how they come out. (That's the usual way of it, but we're trying to minimize recording stuff we're not going to use this time, since the budget is so tight.) Or we may end up with more leeway than we think and just go ahead and put 15 songs on the album. Or cut one of the acoustic-y ones. There's one rather difficult one that I think we'll save for last, and if things get tight we might end up "saving that for later," too. This particular song will probably be the most time-consuming and challenging to record, edit, and mix and eliminating it would free up quite a bit of time and money to devote to the others; yet it would leave a gap (another regret) in the album that would burn like a morgul blade. Forever. Of course, not doing it properly would burn like two morgul blades. I realize we're going to have some morgul blade effect in operation whatever happens, but I'm trying to keep it to a minimum. I suppose what I'm saying is: I want to put on the ring, but maybe I shouldn't.

I'm still planning to blog from the studio when I can, maybe post some pictures, and (who knows?) maybe even some sounds if it seems appropriate.

So....

don't go back. We'll be right away.

Posted by Dr. Frank at July 20, 2003 04:12 PM | TrackBack