As we left the studio Saturday, I told Kelly that it felt weird to have the vocals finished. He said it didn't feel like he had actually done it. In fact, it sort of creeped up on us, but we did in fact leave on Saturday with all of them finished. Some effects need to be placed on them and there's still some editing work, but we've got it. They are done. This vital piece turned out to be much more tedious than we had planned, so we hadn't budgeted the hours that we ended up spending on them. All in all, the record is better because we put the time into it. I swore during that session that I wouldn't come to the studio for any more vocal tracking sessions anymore because they are so very tedious, so it was also a bit of a surprise that things finished up as neatly as they did.
We did a very little bit of instruments and hand claps, and we did all the backing vocals that hadn't been done yet.
It feels funny. It feels weird. But when I think about it, it feels good. That leaves so little to be done for the record I can hardly stand it. Daniel Cat is on deck to finish up tomorrow night. Barring any crazed lunatics driving through his yard, he should be able to knock out all that he has left in one swoop.
My excitement has been waning in the inevitable set-backs of making this record, but knowing that we are finally finishing the tracking is helping me to build steam to hopefully finish the artwork so it will be ready for the final push to pressing once the mixing and mastering are finished.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
FAQ
Here are the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions:
1. I don't know when the album will be out. Mostly because its not finished, but after this week it will be.
2. Tha D used every guitar he owns.
3. As far as I'm concerned, there isn't a single track with a Big Muff pedal. But don't let that discourage you.
4. There will be 13 songs.
5. There will be a bonus EP.
6. There will be a massive tour of Tennessee following the release of the album.
7. Unfortunately none of pets appear on the album.
8. We are self-releasing the album. Hopefully someone will pick it up and make it available to millions.
9. I'm not a Free Mason.
I hope this helps!!!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
2 Hours and 40 Mintues In The Studio
SLOWLY....HACKING....AWAY....AT.....THE......LAST.....PART......OF.......THE........ALBUM.....
I went to the studio today. Peach was there too. I did vocals. Peach watched. I sang. Peach nodded. Daniel Rice moved the nobs. We finished "CIA."
Productive and satisfying.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
We Came, We Rocked, We kicked Ass!!!
Saturdays show at the French Quarter Cafe was great!
It was cool playing nothing but the new record during the initial portion of the set and I felt as if we were a more "seasoned" or "veteran" band when we saved what are now considered "old" songs til last! The set flowed! Real well. I don't think we had any down time.
It felt good to play out again after a few months. We are trying to do another show before Xmas and then it will be show-less until January 15th @ The Rutledge. Atleast there is nothing as of now but that can all change!
The album is almost dome. A few things here and there. Tha D felt that the triple practice and the show last week was enough to get his brain rolling and what to do with some of his remainder guitar work. I've got to finish Gold Rush and then do Let's Go To War and CIA. Hopefully this thing will finished by the end of next week. In the meantime, we are still being productive. The mixing stage is happening as we speak. So far we have been given 4 songs and they sound great!! The album just keeps getting better and better!!
Also, we are trying to put together a bonus disc or EP for the album. I think we may just hand it out for free or put it as a digital only download. We'll see. But for now, I'm polishing some demos of songs that never made it, and listening to some live tracks for inclusion. A little audio clean-up and some extra time, we should have an interesting bonus EP. I'm leaning towards a free giveaway. But we need money. Badly!
More news to come! To stay tuned!
It was cool playing nothing but the new record during the initial portion of the set and I felt as if we were a more "seasoned" or "veteran" band when we saved what are now considered "old" songs til last! The set flowed! Real well. I don't think we had any down time.
It felt good to play out again after a few months. We are trying to do another show before Xmas and then it will be show-less until January 15th @ The Rutledge. Atleast there is nothing as of now but that can all change!
The album is almost dome. A few things here and there. Tha D felt that the triple practice and the show last week was enough to get his brain rolling and what to do with some of his remainder guitar work. I've got to finish Gold Rush and then do Let's Go To War and CIA. Hopefully this thing will finished by the end of next week. In the meantime, we are still being productive. The mixing stage is happening as we speak. So far we have been given 4 songs and they sound great!! The album just keeps getting better and better!!
Also, we are trying to put together a bonus disc or EP for the album. I think we may just hand it out for free or put it as a digital only download. We'll see. But for now, I'm polishing some demos of songs that never made it, and listening to some live tracks for inclusion. A little audio clean-up and some extra time, we should have an interesting bonus EP. I'm leaning towards a free giveaway. But we need money. Badly!
More news to come! To stay tuned!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Hallowed Practice
There's always something about coming back together for practice after not playing together. There was something even more about practicing again after focusing so hard on the new songs and going back last night to bash through some Whimsical tunes and the rocking history songs. It was absolutely cathartic to get together to play last night. There's so much of a release in rocking out to those tunes. We're all excited about returning to the stage on Saturday, and we're glad that this week will yield 3 practices to help prepare us. We certainly need it, and we'll be in fine form if we have two more anywhere near what we did last night.
Saturday will be the first time we play a complete set of only history songs, relegating the older songs to the encore. We're even talking about not playing covers, which is certainly a departure from what we've always done up to now.
Daniel Reekay made a visit to give us a CD with four completed mixes. We once again piled into Daniel's car and listened to "Eli Whitney" and "Dear Abbey" before rocking out to "Commodity" and "Know It All." We are so excited. We're about to lose control, and we think we like it.
We rounded out the night with a few more tunes that needed more rust knocked off of them. There's something other-worldly about playing "Gold Rush." It doesn't sound like it's even our song. It feels like a cover. If we can bring it on Saturday like we did on the second run through, we'll certainly have an instant hit.
I was glad my brother was there to make videos of us hanging out and practicing for the documentary I've been preparing. I've got 3 hours and 45 minutes of footage without that, and I have a feeling I'll shoot some more in the coming weeks.
Practice is good. It was so good last night that even Daniel went home and advertised it on Facebook. It's good to know that we'll be practicing sets again after so long of focusing on new material. I think we needed that kind of low stress setting for a while after working so hard on this new stuff. When was last time we had it so nice? Leading up to the Whimsical release? I'll have plenty of other things to blog about for us other than practice in the near future, but it sure is nice to be through the thick of things in making the record to where we can enjoy the fruits of our earlier labors much more. Back to the stage!
Saturday will be the first time we play a complete set of only history songs, relegating the older songs to the encore. We're even talking about not playing covers, which is certainly a departure from what we've always done up to now.
Daniel Reekay made a visit to give us a CD with four completed mixes. We once again piled into Daniel's car and listened to "Eli Whitney" and "Dear Abbey" before rocking out to "Commodity" and "Know It All." We are so excited. We're about to lose control, and we think we like it.
We rounded out the night with a few more tunes that needed more rust knocked off of them. There's something other-worldly about playing "Gold Rush." It doesn't sound like it's even our song. It feels like a cover. If we can bring it on Saturday like we did on the second run through, we'll certainly have an instant hit.
I was glad my brother was there to make videos of us hanging out and practicing for the documentary I've been preparing. I've got 3 hours and 45 minutes of footage without that, and I have a feeling I'll shoot some more in the coming weeks.
Practice is good. It was so good last night that even Daniel went home and advertised it on Facebook. It's good to know that we'll be practicing sets again after so long of focusing on new material. I think we needed that kind of low stress setting for a while after working so hard on this new stuff. When was last time we had it so nice? Leading up to the Whimsical release? I'll have plenty of other things to blog about for us other than practice in the near future, but it sure is nice to be through the thick of things in making the record to where we can enjoy the fruits of our earlier labors much more. Back to the stage!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Recording Vocals #2
On saturday I went back to the studio to work on more vocals. The plan, as always, was to finish all of them in one sitting. But as usual, this did not happen but in a good way.
I'm glad the vocals are coming together slowly because this is one aspect of the album that has not been put into any perspective. Even with me, I have not put a whole lot of thought into the performance of some of these things, mostly because for the first time ever I have the opportunity to do WHATEVER when it comes to singing. Daniel Rice has pretty much told that whatever I want to do, we can find a way to do it. How cool is that? The feeling of endless possibilities is nice, and time consuming.
Saturday I did all the lead and back-up for Groomed To Lead. The lead vocals were done rather quickly. I did three full takes, and then 2 full takes singing the song piece by piece. After some cut and paste, we moved into the back-ups. The "bops" didn't take long. We did one track with the root note and the other with a high octave. So the fused low and high sounds pretty smooth up against the lead vocal. We also did some nice three part harmony. This was a task that required some thought but once we figured out a way to have a guide while I sing, the takes we done fast and easy. The "ah's" inbetween the chours are smooth! I didn't know I could sing like that!
We then moved back to Gold Rush. The only real serious problem with doing the high three part harmonies on the chorus is the last note is too high for me to reach. But its ironic that without the backing trakc splaying, I can do it every time. The more relaxed and chilled I become, the easier I can do it, but the song itself is so intense, its hard to relax! Being that it was towards the end of an already 5 hour day, we decided to stop and call it a day. Next time, I think I can finish out Gold Rush with no problem. All this stuff is just practice as well. The performance is set in stone, I just need to get it down.
All is coming along very nicely. The mixing has begun and will continue throughout this week. Tha D is planning on using the two practices and the show this weekend as lubricant to go and finish all his guitar. I think after next week, everyhting under the sun will done. Not bad I should say. Not bad at all.
I'm glad the vocals are coming together slowly because this is one aspect of the album that has not been put into any perspective. Even with me, I have not put a whole lot of thought into the performance of some of these things, mostly because for the first time ever I have the opportunity to do WHATEVER when it comes to singing. Daniel Rice has pretty much told that whatever I want to do, we can find a way to do it. How cool is that? The feeling of endless possibilities is nice, and time consuming.
Saturday I did all the lead and back-up for Groomed To Lead. The lead vocals were done rather quickly. I did three full takes, and then 2 full takes singing the song piece by piece. After some cut and paste, we moved into the back-ups. The "bops" didn't take long. We did one track with the root note and the other with a high octave. So the fused low and high sounds pretty smooth up against the lead vocal. We also did some nice three part harmony. This was a task that required some thought but once we figured out a way to have a guide while I sing, the takes we done fast and easy. The "ah's" inbetween the chours are smooth! I didn't know I could sing like that!
We then moved back to Gold Rush. The only real serious problem with doing the high three part harmonies on the chorus is the last note is too high for me to reach. But its ironic that without the backing trakc splaying, I can do it every time. The more relaxed and chilled I become, the easier I can do it, but the song itself is so intense, its hard to relax! Being that it was towards the end of an already 5 hour day, we decided to stop and call it a day. Next time, I think I can finish out Gold Rush with no problem. All this stuff is just practice as well. The performance is set in stone, I just need to get it down.
All is coming along very nicely. The mixing has begun and will continue throughout this week. Tha D is planning on using the two practices and the show this weekend as lubricant to go and finish all his guitar. I think after next week, everyhting under the sun will done. Not bad I should say. Not bad at all.
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