2013 Journal
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01/11/13 - We are nearing the completion of our 3rd collection of recordings, is it too early to have a Band Cause yet? What hasn't been taken? I'm not going to wait in the Darfur line.
01/08/13 - The My Wing Bass Part Session. Listened to Patrick's original demo (which is beautiful) and decided to try to use the guitar part/tone and tamborine bits from it for a future session. While I was listening to Steven play along with the song through the headphones I kept hearing vocal parts that weren't there so hope to add those soon too. Patrick broke his 2nd pair of headphones. In defense of the dear boy these are the super tight variety and you have to pull them off like a football helmet.
02/12/13 - I haven't written in a while because we've been developing and recording the bass parts for My Wing for the last month. Moved on tonight, I recorded a tamborine part ("because you're the drummer") and Patrick added some backing vocals. Most of the parts we did were aping his beautiful demo. Did some fun things with vocals during the melodica part.
02/19/13 - Patrick strung up the Smith strat and added some guitar tinkles (from the demo) to My Wing. Talked a little about a back cover photo for Harriet.
03/05/13 - Had to download some software updates before we could start tonight. How long did the downloads take? Patrick decided to tune up the Conrad 12 string while waiting. That's how long they took. We couldn't remember if we had used it before so we checked the past journals and found an occurrence in 2011 when it was used on Harriet. Once we were up and running we started again on making a chaotic section in My Wing. Itemized in step number format:
1) Patrick added flange to the drums
2) Patrick added chunky one-note-per-chord guitar parts using Les Paul and Gibson amp
3) I recorded some honk, squeek and flutter guitar parts using same rig
4) I added some straight Ringo ahhhs following the one-note-per-chord parts
5) Patrick added some vibrato Ringo ahhs following the one-note-per-chord parts
I'm wagering next week's session is all mixing and stirring. Will the reaction to the result be mixed or stirring?
03/12/13 - I had a notion about just using the drum overheads for My Wing and Patrick, always willing to entertain notions, gave it a try and it seem to work. Spent much of the session arranging the chaos section in the song. Used Phil's DigiTech to add some additional shrieking. Declared My Wing finished, minus vocals.
Listened to the four songs we thought we had ahead of us and were surprised to hear that they all have parts! A blip here, a blop there, some vocals and this dog is groomed. Maybe late Summer/early Autumn?
03/19/13 - Played with mixing My Wing after the noisy part. Decided to let it simmer and moved on to How Do You Sleep? Set up the Fender Blues, Jr. and the Strat for the Oh Darling! parts.
03/26/13 - Patrick and I both added guitar noodling to How Do You Sleep? I with a Rickenbacker 370 and Patrick with the Les Paul.
04/16/13 - Uh oh, mellotron patch.
04/23/13 - Still working on tripping out the outro of How Do You Sleep? Highlights or otherwise - Patrick and I shrieked into a 1968ish Sekova 6-pickup guitar plugged into a Blues Junior. We also did a track with me on the Juno 106 and Patrick on an effects pedal. It came out remarkably well. Steven watched over us wisely in the lovely way that he does.
05/07/13 - Ran through everything with Thomas to see what we have left to do before we start tracking vocals. Recording How Do You Sleep solo using the Smith strat next week.
05/14/13 - Thomas played around with the How Do You Sleep? outro in search of some direction. He found it in Patrick's scratch guitar track. I am obligated to go on record as having decided to remove that track at an earlier point in the song's history. Thomas made it a little dirtier and gave it a touch of "atmosphere" and it now makes the outro. Added the 2nd verse guitar solo using the Les Paul. Starting on Gander next week.
05/21/13 - Thomas added his guitar noodles to Gander using the Parkery Fly. We are considering doubling the bits with the bass.
05/28/13 - Thomas recorded a bass part for Gander using the Precision. He also added some B3 parts to the chourses and outro.
06/04/13 - We added Patrick's bongo parts. Clipped them with a gate to cut the reverb and Gander (I gave up on the Sulfur argument) is done. Starting on Follow Me next week. That session will be spent searching for a guitar tone.
06/18/13 - Spent last session searching for amps/guitars/tones for Follow Me. Tonight we tried the Rickenbacker 370 with the Blues Jr. and liked it. Got a good take on the primary guitar part. Started looking through old rehearsals to find a complimentary part and found some gems that we'll try next week. Patrick got loads of demerits for missing the session.
06/25/13 - Very productive evening. I heard an soap opera-y organ in Follow Me and Patrick slapped that down. Patrick slapped that down while standing like Johnny Ramone. I even called him on it and he kept doing it. I'm assuing that he was adjusting his body to the height of the keyboard. Thomas put down guitar parts in Follow Me and Wrong Star. Note - have a vocal follow his primary line in Wrong Star.
07/02/13 - Thomas added his guitar hooks to Follow Me. At the end of the session we took pictures of bats sleeping. Will post on FB.
07/06/13 - Finally whacked the Girl's MySpace account. Sorry strippers.
07/14/13 - A very special weekend session. Thomas added organ parts to Mary. Patrick added some especially wristy tambourine and then aped the organ parts with the Rickebacker 370. I added some wood block parts saluting David Byrne's brilliant staccato guitar solo in Al Green's "Take Me To The River."
Posted the pictures of the bats from 7/2/13.
Addendum to 7/2/13 session: Thomas responding to a rude question with a "Yeah?" that implied "I'm not opposed to it but it doesn't sound promising."
07/16/13 - This should be the last session spent tracking instruments. Starting on vocals on the 27th. Spent most of this session trying to emulate a sound in Kill Bill. Finally aborted after exhausting a pile of keyboards. Things we actually tracked - Thomas eggshaking through a section and Patrick banging on a Blues Jr. to get the reverb tank to roar for a small build.
Thomas was musing over the potential difficulty of a process and I suggested that it would be as easy as popping bubbles with a penis. Patrick, who was working on a keyboard at the time, absent-mindedly asked "What kind of bubbles?"
07/27/13 - Another weekend session. Mostly Thomas mixing Mary, Follow Me and Blacktop for vocals while the balance of Girls chatted. Patrick wanted to have our faces on the first album and, horrified, I suggested that the only way I would do it is in Steven's pond amongst the lily pads. This came up again and Steven seemed very positive about it.
07/30/13 - One of the engineers (Thomas was absent this evening) was faced with this question this evening while trying to finish up and go home for dinner:
Are you sure you want to delete your whole album? It's too big for the Recycle Bin.
Yes.
OK. I mean, you're almost done. You only have vocals left to track, so, whatever.
Last backup was in May so we scrambled off to find software to restore the folder. Software worked. Folder restored. Checked 2 songs and they were fine. Many lessons learned.
08/06/13 - Thomas got the balance of the songs (with the exception of Stupid Cloud) ready for tracking vocals. I pulled some wandering Threadleaf Coreopsis out of Steven's patio.
08/13/13 - Patrick mixed Stupid Cloud and My Wing so next week we'll actually start recording vocals. It's a milestone and requires no colorful additives or supplements.
08/20/13 - Patrick sang several takes of Gander and some nice ideas for backing parts.
Steve has an open box full of copies of "12" sitting in the studio. A friend was over with a 6ish year old girl and upon seeing them she exclaimed "Wow! They all look the same!"
I'm suddenly convinced that all of our songs need to be available on YouTube. It's where I go to listen to music so I'm assuming it's a good trick to have our catalog up. I'm going to assist Patrick by listing the songs that are currently up here so that he can see which titles still need to be posted.
12
Flap
Hey Paul
Terry The Pirate
Sleepnovox
Careful
Blunderbuss
The Great John Doe
We Are All Frank Sinatra
MPC
08/27/13 - Paris (Patrick) had a few gos at the vocals for Live and Let Die (Domino) until we started having problems with a tube in the Manley. Tubes ordered and now we play the waiting game.
Regarding last weeks note about having our songs pop up in YouTube searches - I actually searched for "Follow Me" (John Barry) yesterday. Next year we'll show up in that search.
09/03/13 - Installed the new tubes in the Manley. Paris was feeling poorling so Thomas sang the verses for Follow Me tonight. I sang the bridge and Paris summoned up the strength to add harmonies. Dr. Brown served La Croix.
09/10/13 - Paris still wasn't feeling well and neither Thomas or I were ready to record vocals for anything so we pursued a dream of mine - to de-construct Follow Me. We cut out the rhythm tracks and Patrick cut several ambient guitar tracks. Thomas added some nice recorder parts - using the same instrument made famous on Flap. At 7:15 while Thomas was playing the recorder Paris took a suggestive picture and sent it to me. He titled the image "Please Please Me." I had my phone with me but did not notice the message. at 7:25 while Paris was playing an acoustic part I was thinking of backing vocal parts and just started humming "Please Please Me." Paris sent the message before he heard me hum and I hummed before receiving the message. I love that shit.
09/21/13 - A very special Saturday session. Whole session spent on a dreamier feel for Follow Me. Paris recorded a kick drum/mallet part and then loads of backing vocals. Steven and I argued over the difference between a bag and a sack.
10/22/13 - Added cello, viola and vocals to Follow Me. Strange computer issues that may be related to a Belkin switch.
10/29/13 - I added a snare drum and cymbal washes to Follow Me. Paris raked a heavily rosined bow across the bottom edge of a cymbal for some wonderful trippy tones. She also found a solution to some computer performance issues. Thomas is back up and running with his mixing equipment.
11/05/13 - Thomas had a go at the verses on How Do You Sleep? We determined that the only songs with completed vocals so far are Blacktop and Follow Me.
11/19/13 - Paris and I added chorus vocals to How Do You Sleep? which finishes the song. Starting on Blacktop next week.
11/26/13 - Paris recorded several main vocal takes. The Manley gate kept kicking in during the 2nd verse so had to go without.
12/17/13 - More Manley struggles. Paris managed to get several vocals takes on My Wing.
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