Looks like a quiet weekend in store, but I know better. It's those weekends with no plans that sneak up on you and leave you a Monday-morning-wreck.
We'll see.
Will hopefully spend some time on Sunday working on background vocals in the studio... we're getting so damn close to being done, but we don't want to rush it. We want to make sure we have everything exactly where we want it.
Some of the "clean up" stuff will include: a couple of bass overdubs, one drum part we'll retrack, a low-fi version of an old BRB tune to be used somewhere on the album, some string quintets... that kind of stuff.
The fact that we started tracking last year has obviously been weighing on us... we'd have liked to have the album in hand for all these summer festivals. But when you read how a band like Coldplay, with nothing but resources and time, spends a year and half recording an album, you realize that the great bands take as long as they need to get the record right.
For a band like The White Stripes, that's 3 weeks.
For a guy like Peter Gabriel, that's 8 years.
For Burn Rome Burn, it's looking like it'll be about 8 months of weekend recording sessions.
jbg
Friday, June 10, 2005
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Get Behind Me Wednesday
Midweek blues.
So little sleep.
Hot weather.
Had a brief, hot, but good... rehearsal (is that what you thought I was going to say?) last night. Worked on a new song, entitled "Bright Dark Times." I wrote it earlier this year and we just haven't had time to really dig in and start putting it together. By the end of rehearsal, we had a reasonable working version of it to play through, and had already added a few nice variations to the arrangement, something we're getting a lot better at. In this tune it came out of something as simple as both Doc and Barret hearing my phrasing in a different way than I intended, changing their parts, and everybody liking the resulting "mistake" better than the original way I wrote it.
BRIGHT DARK TIMES Things are looking up but you said that yesterday Then it all blew up, then it all went away And in its place, the smoke's a memory The punchline to a joke that's on you Chorus: What you gonna do when they turn their backs on you? What you gonna do when they turn their backs on you? What you gonna do when they turn their guns on you? What you gonna do? And now the days turn into more than you can stand And every midnight lamp you burn marks you with a brand The ashes fall in time, the nausea comes in waves But if music's mercy than we'll all be saved Chorus Bridge: Hey Don't fade away Hey The night will turn to day Hey Don't slip away Hey Chorus
I like these lyrics... the chorus looks really stupid when written out, but it works much better when sung. I kind of pinched it from a Magnolia Electric Company tune. The song's about hope in dark places I guess...
To paraphrase David Byrne and a bunch of others: the greenest grass grows by the shithouse.
jbg
So little sleep.
Hot weather.
Had a brief, hot, but good... rehearsal (is that what you thought I was going to say?) last night. Worked on a new song, entitled "Bright Dark Times." I wrote it earlier this year and we just haven't had time to really dig in and start putting it together. By the end of rehearsal, we had a reasonable working version of it to play through, and had already added a few nice variations to the arrangement, something we're getting a lot better at. In this tune it came out of something as simple as both Doc and Barret hearing my phrasing in a different way than I intended, changing their parts, and everybody liking the resulting "mistake" better than the original way I wrote it.
BRIGHT DARK TIMES Things are looking up but you said that yesterday Then it all blew up, then it all went away And in its place, the smoke's a memory The punchline to a joke that's on you Chorus: What you gonna do when they turn their backs on you? What you gonna do when they turn their backs on you? What you gonna do when they turn their guns on you? What you gonna do? And now the days turn into more than you can stand And every midnight lamp you burn marks you with a brand The ashes fall in time, the nausea comes in waves But if music's mercy than we'll all be saved Chorus Bridge: Hey Don't fade away Hey The night will turn to day Hey Don't slip away Hey Chorus
I like these lyrics... the chorus looks really stupid when written out, but it works much better when sung. I kind of pinched it from a Magnolia Electric Company tune. The song's about hope in dark places I guess...
To paraphrase David Byrne and a bunch of others: the greenest grass grows by the shithouse.
jbg
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Blog, blog, blog
What day is it?
Don't you hate it when that happens?
Kind of ran myself into the ground this weekend... shows on Thursday and Saturday, a full day of teaching on Saturday as well, and a studio session on Sunday. Add to that some nasty insomnia Sunday night, and I didn't manage to make it into work yesterday.
Instead, I slept with the hope of heading off fatigue-related illness, and watched the movie Sideways. Sideways was good. Maybe not as good as I expected, but still very enjoyable. It was one of those movies that frustrated me because I felt it could have been even better than it was. Paul Giamati was great, giving a very internalized performance similar to that of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. One of the things I liked most about Sideways was that the director relied on showing the audience rather than telling the audience (Attention: Mr. Lucas!).
Plus, it really makes you want to go out and get drunk on wine. Our show Saturday at Double Door was good. The crowd was a bit lean, but I thought we played really well, and it was fun sharing a bill with our management-mates Buddy Nuisance, who are very cool people and a great band. Saturday felt like a nice transition point for us... we don't have any club shows booked for the summer, but have a lot of great festival dates. It'll be a chance to really dig into new material, play some outdoor shows, and regroup for a record release party in fall.
Sunday's recording session was another transition point in that I finished the last lead vocal for the album, the song Mermaid. I saved Mermaid for last because I felt like it was the hardest tune and would benefit from what I learned from cutting the rest of the album. It's also got the biggest range both dynamically and melodically of any song we recorded, which makes it doubly difficult.
MERMAID I opened my eyes to slumbering stars The wind wept with laughter, the ocean dreamt from afar Dreams of my trembling hands, your sweet mermaid face Framed by the lightening of this island place Chorus: The light from my window is brighter Than the light of the moon The light on your hair makes me a fighter But you're gone too soon You're the flame flickering in my heart Keeping hourglass time from the start Since you left there's been nothing by rapture and regret When darkness was spent, the night spirits gone We tripped over warm sand and cursed the new dawn It's calm to the west, and it's clear to the east But there's a storm in my heart as you crash into the sea Chorus I'll make my home where the water meets the land I'll plant my weary heart in the sand But I don't know where you've gone Taken by the sea's sweet song I'm out of touch, I'm out of place I've lost my head, I lost my face
And I can't be alone
Mermaid is by far the oldest tune on the album... written in 2001. It's the only holdover from Blue New World that gets played regularly. It's probably the most important song to me because it was the first song that I wrote where I knew I had something special. I had written really good songs before I wrote Mermaid, but nothing quite as heavy, nothing as immediately and permanently effective (and affective).
The lyrics, I think, are both direct and poetic in a way I've never really been able to capture again. The structure is complicated but accessible. It's really a song about desire above all else. I knew we needed to get something special vocally for this song. It's my baby. So Dave and I really dug in and were persistent.
My voice was a little ragged from so many rehearsals and shows this weekend, but it translated well, and soon we were well into the tune and getting some great stuff down. It was funny because we worked in a circle for most of it. My first take was really simple and natural and Dave liked it a lot, but my voice just wasn't warm yet. As I warmed up, I also started overthinking and thus oversinging a bit, so we worked on getting back to the spontaneity of the first few takes.
When we got to the outro of the song, we faced some choices. The last passages have some really high notes I usually hit in my falsetto (or head voice) which packs a lot less punch than my normal chest voice. We weren't sure how this would translate onto the recording, if it would be too weak, etc. So I went for it full voice and actually hit the notes (high B-flats for those of you scoring at home).
Dave's response: "I didn't think you could hit those notes." Neither did I. But the full voice stuff sounded too strained. So I went back to falsetto and we thought we might double or triple up the parts for depth. But that sounded to fabricated to me.
So finally we settled on one track of me in my normal falsetto. I kind of think it's a little... daring to leave it like that. I only really have the confidence to do it after hearing some of Chris Martin's vocals on the new Coldplay album. He takes melodies into his falsetto (which is similarly airy to mine) with a gusto and I figured if he could do it, I could too.
It's interesting how sometimes somebody has to show you what you can/can't do... give you the confidence to do something you thought impossible or wrong. I guess that happens in all walks of life.
Anyway, the lead vocals, pending final listening, are done. All that's left is some background vocals, a few little additional instrumental clean ups, and Doc's string parts. Then we mix and master and send it off for pressing. I think this whole weekend may have contributed to my insomnia the last few nights. Wrapping up the vocals, playing our last club show for awhile... it really feels like the "end" of all this material we've been working on for the last year and the beginning of a new direction.
So I've been awake, writing, trying to figure out what that new direction is. I think lately I've been overthinking my writing, trying to get too clever. I'd like to get back to what I captured in Mermaid. I'd like the band to work on playing simpler (not boring, just simple), on better and stronger melodies that are really the centerpiece of the songs, on words that connect emotionally without being butt-clenchingly simple or trite, on tight arrangement with cool subtle variations and savvy playing.
Of course a lot of this is already in our material and on the album. So I guess I'm really just talking about staying the course, continuing the try to write honestly and directly.
Let me just open up this bottle of Pinot and I'll get started.
jbg
Kind of ran myself into the ground this weekend... shows on Thursday and Saturday, a full day of teaching on Saturday as well, and a studio session on Sunday. Add to that some nasty insomnia Sunday night, and I didn't manage to make it into work yesterday.
Instead, I slept with the hope of heading off fatigue-related illness, and watched the movie Sideways. Sideways was good. Maybe not as good as I expected, but still very enjoyable. It was one of those movies that frustrated me because I felt it could have been even better than it was. Paul Giamati was great, giving a very internalized performance similar to that of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. One of the things I liked most about Sideways was that the director relied on showing the audience rather than telling the audience (Attention: Mr. Lucas!).
Plus, it really makes you want to go out and get drunk on wine. Our show Saturday at Double Door was good. The crowd was a bit lean, but I thought we played really well, and it was fun sharing a bill with our management-mates Buddy Nuisance, who are very cool people and a great band. Saturday felt like a nice transition point for us... we don't have any club shows booked for the summer, but have a lot of great festival dates. It'll be a chance to really dig into new material, play some outdoor shows, and regroup for a record release party in fall.
Sunday's recording session was another transition point in that I finished the last lead vocal for the album, the song Mermaid. I saved Mermaid for last because I felt like it was the hardest tune and would benefit from what I learned from cutting the rest of the album. It's also got the biggest range both dynamically and melodically of any song we recorded, which makes it doubly difficult.
MERMAID I opened my eyes to slumbering stars The wind wept with laughter, the ocean dreamt from afar Dreams of my trembling hands, your sweet mermaid face Framed by the lightening of this island place Chorus: The light from my window is brighter Than the light of the moon The light on your hair makes me a fighter But you're gone too soon You're the flame flickering in my heart Keeping hourglass time from the start Since you left there's been nothing by rapture and regret When darkness was spent, the night spirits gone We tripped over warm sand and cursed the new dawn It's calm to the west, and it's clear to the east But there's a storm in my heart as you crash into the sea Chorus I'll make my home where the water meets the land I'll plant my weary heart in the sand But I don't know where you've gone Taken by the sea's sweet song I'm out of touch, I'm out of place I've lost my head, I lost my face
And I can't be alone
Mermaid is by far the oldest tune on the album... written in 2001. It's the only holdover from Blue New World that gets played regularly. It's probably the most important song to me because it was the first song that I wrote where I knew I had something special. I had written really good songs before I wrote Mermaid, but nothing quite as heavy, nothing as immediately and permanently effective (and affective).
The lyrics, I think, are both direct and poetic in a way I've never really been able to capture again. The structure is complicated but accessible. It's really a song about desire above all else. I knew we needed to get something special vocally for this song. It's my baby. So Dave and I really dug in and were persistent.
My voice was a little ragged from so many rehearsals and shows this weekend, but it translated well, and soon we were well into the tune and getting some great stuff down. It was funny because we worked in a circle for most of it. My first take was really simple and natural and Dave liked it a lot, but my voice just wasn't warm yet. As I warmed up, I also started overthinking and thus oversinging a bit, so we worked on getting back to the spontaneity of the first few takes.
When we got to the outro of the song, we faced some choices. The last passages have some really high notes I usually hit in my falsetto (or head voice) which packs a lot less punch than my normal chest voice. We weren't sure how this would translate onto the recording, if it would be too weak, etc. So I went for it full voice and actually hit the notes (high B-flats for those of you scoring at home).
Dave's response: "I didn't think you could hit those notes." Neither did I. But the full voice stuff sounded too strained. So I went back to falsetto and we thought we might double or triple up the parts for depth. But that sounded to fabricated to me.
So finally we settled on one track of me in my normal falsetto. I kind of think it's a little... daring to leave it like that. I only really have the confidence to do it after hearing some of Chris Martin's vocals on the new Coldplay album. He takes melodies into his falsetto (which is similarly airy to mine) with a gusto and I figured if he could do it, I could too.
It's interesting how sometimes somebody has to show you what you can/can't do... give you the confidence to do something you thought impossible or wrong. I guess that happens in all walks of life.
Anyway, the lead vocals, pending final listening, are done. All that's left is some background vocals, a few little additional instrumental clean ups, and Doc's string parts. Then we mix and master and send it off for pressing. I think this whole weekend may have contributed to my insomnia the last few nights. Wrapping up the vocals, playing our last club show for awhile... it really feels like the "end" of all this material we've been working on for the last year and the beginning of a new direction.
So I've been awake, writing, trying to figure out what that new direction is. I think lately I've been overthinking my writing, trying to get too clever. I'd like to get back to what I captured in Mermaid. I'd like the band to work on playing simpler (not boring, just simple), on better and stronger melodies that are really the centerpiece of the songs, on words that connect emotionally without being butt-clenchingly simple or trite, on tight arrangement with cool subtle variations and savvy playing.
Of course a lot of this is already in our material and on the album. So I guess I'm really just talking about staying the course, continuing the try to write honestly and directly.
Let me just open up this bottle of Pinot and I'll get started.
jbg
Friday, June 03, 2005
Sloth
I had this plan to do a big post on the state of popular music as I see it.
Alas, sloth has reared its heavy, deliberate head.
Actually, it isn't so much sloth as the fact that we played a show last night and I'm really dragging.
We played at Subterranean for the Barristers Battle of the Bands, a charity show featuring bands that have at least one member in a legal profession. I guess I sort of count. It was a fun show, albeit a little sparsely attended. We played well. And it was nice to have a "live rehearsal" in advance of our show Saturday at Double Door.
The Saturday show is shaping up to be kick ass. It got some good write ups in the local papers. It's four really good bands full of good people. We have a great slot. And I have this feeling like we've been building towards a colossal show for a bit. Our last group of shows has been really strong. Even the weaker shows have been good. And we rehearsed twice this week and had the show last night, so everything should be pretty tight.
Of course now we'll probably bomb. Speaking of Double Door, there's this article in the Sun Times today. I've been hearing rumors about this situation for awhile, so it's good to finally get it out into the press with all the real information. I hope the owners are at least able to get their extension for four years. Given time, they're smart enough and well-connected enough to come up with a contingency plan for the inevitable. Heck, the name Double Door is so big they could probably move the club almost anywhere and have success.
Of course I would have said the same thing about The Lounge Ax.
jbg
We played at Subterranean for the Barristers Battle of the Bands, a charity show featuring bands that have at least one member in a legal profession. I guess I sort of count. It was a fun show, albeit a little sparsely attended. We played well. And it was nice to have a "live rehearsal" in advance of our show Saturday at Double Door.
The Saturday show is shaping up to be kick ass. It got some good write ups in the local papers. It's four really good bands full of good people. We have a great slot. And I have this feeling like we've been building towards a colossal show for a bit. Our last group of shows has been really strong. Even the weaker shows have been good. And we rehearsed twice this week and had the show last night, so everything should be pretty tight.
Of course now we'll probably bomb. Speaking of Double Door, there's this article in the Sun Times today. I've been hearing rumors about this situation for awhile, so it's good to finally get it out into the press with all the real information. I hope the owners are at least able to get their extension for four years. Given time, they're smart enough and well-connected enough to come up with a contingency plan for the inevitable. Heck, the name Double Door is so big they could probably move the club almost anywhere and have success.
Of course I would have said the same thing about The Lounge Ax.
jbg
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
To Sleep or Not to Sleep
Been a strange, bumpy few days.
Sunday, we went to a wedding. A second marriage for both participants. Very very bizarre. A good time though, which involved Heinekens, cigars, a limo ride, me singing "I've Got You Under My Skin" with an old school standards band, and a, uh, hurried cab ride home.
After we got back to the house, we met up with our tenant Dave in the backyard and sat around the fire. At some point, we noticed that Hendrix was limping really badly, not putting any pressure on his right rear leg. Not good. Alas, we weren't in any state to deal with it, so I carried him upstairs and we went to bed.
In the morning, we did a closer inspection and found a bloody contusion on his thigh. He still couldn't out any pressure on it, so we decided to go to the Emergency Care Vet Clinic to be safe. The Emergency Care Vet Clinic is a pretty horrible place. Injured animals, frantic owners... bad sounds, bad smells, people coming in with pets and leaving without them. Not nice.
But the staff was very good and professional. They took X-Rays, found no break, and found no evidence of any torn ligaments. They shaved his leg by the contusion, and found a pretty sizable bruise, so I suspect that he accidentally ran into the corner of the deck, or the stairs, or a stone. They also gave us an anti-inflammatory to help with the swelling.
Luckily, Hendrix is scheduled for his regular vet checkup tomorrow, so they said as long as he improved we could wait until then to have him inspected further. And he has improved every day, which is good. But the last few days have been spent worrying about him.
With a couple of rehearsals this week, two gigs this weekend, and a studio session, I could really use some sleep.
Alas, it looks like it's back to Insomnia-ville, a place I know well.
jbg
After we got back to the house, we met up with our tenant Dave in the backyard and sat around the fire. At some point, we noticed that Hendrix was limping really badly, not putting any pressure on his right rear leg. Not good. Alas, we weren't in any state to deal with it, so I carried him upstairs and we went to bed.
In the morning, we did a closer inspection and found a bloody contusion on his thigh. He still couldn't out any pressure on it, so we decided to go to the Emergency Care Vet Clinic to be safe. The Emergency Care Vet Clinic is a pretty horrible place. Injured animals, frantic owners... bad sounds, bad smells, people coming in with pets and leaving without them. Not nice.
But the staff was very good and professional. They took X-Rays, found no break, and found no evidence of any torn ligaments. They shaved his leg by the contusion, and found a pretty sizable bruise, so I suspect that he accidentally ran into the corner of the deck, or the stairs, or a stone. They also gave us an anti-inflammatory to help with the swelling.
Luckily, Hendrix is scheduled for his regular vet checkup tomorrow, so they said as long as he improved we could wait until then to have him inspected further. And he has improved every day, which is good. But the last few days have been spent worrying about him.
With a couple of rehearsals this week, two gigs this weekend, and a studio session, I could really use some sleep.
Alas, it looks like it's back to Insomnia-ville, a place I know well.
jbg
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