6.24.04

THE BEST STUFF, EVER ... FOR THE MOMENT
1. P. J. Harvey
2. watching "House of Sand and Fog," immediately followed by "Splash"
3. thinkin' bout recording the Life and Times
4. the intense feeling of relief upon realizing I've successfully cooked a good meal ... usually happens about 2 & 1/2 minutes before serving; up til which time it's a white-knuckle Hell on Earth all the way. Yet I still love to cook. Hmmm.
5. CONTINGENCY theory
6. the Drunken Bakers
7. alright, the iPod. Which today, set on "shuffle," played Cat Power every other song 6 times in a row.
8. crossing things off the list
9. Travis Morrison's song "Any Open Door"
10. the total subjectivity of "sounding good"
11. anyone who gets married on September 11th

Oh, yeah: ENOUGH about Ronald Reagan already.

6.13.04
Crazy how weeks can go by seemingly in a heartbeat. Been working at Phase with Apollo Quartet from Gaiinesville FL, a nice bunch of lads, they arrived VERY prepared to make a very cool record ... last weekend I spent three long but rewarding days with Tone, tracking their 5-guitar, bass and 2-drummers wall of instrumental rock. I took some pictures; not as many (or as good) as I had thought though. I wanted to document the experience because it's such an extreme challenge recording these guys, it's like tracking two bands at the same time. Just getting enough headphones together and having monitor mixes that work for everyone is a huge challenge unto itself. Tone is often billed as "the guitar ensemble" and it is pretty cool that they have 5 electric guitars, each with a distinct sound, all weaving in and out of each other (it sounds almost like a Bruckner symphony at times). But anyone who knows me knows how fanatical I am about recording drums, and the drummers Andy and Gregg are both amazing, so when I got to take the rare deep breath and just listen to them playing together (rather than me having to run around chasing something or other down) I was in heaven. For his kick drum, Gregg has mounted legs and a kick pedal to a giant marching drum. It's got to be like a 30-inch closed drum and it sounds incredible. I was hoping to get a good picture of the drum micing because the two drummers set up in the small room at Phase, facing each other, and in addition to the usual close mic coverage I did a M/S stereo thing between them ... and you know, I guess I felt kind of clever and thought it looked cool.
Regardless, here are some pictures:
tone at phase.jpg
Mr. Hudson rocks the bells.jpg

I owe a big debt of gratitude to Bruce at Phase for helping make this session run a smoothly as it did.

We're going to do a little bit more tracking to ProTools at their rehearsal space and then mix at Inner Ear at the end of June. Great music - I think they get more inventive, and more cinematic, the more new music they write.
I have to say also that every time I get to track something to 2" tape, it kills me. Nothing sounds better. No-one is more glad than I am that the tedious "analog vs digital" debate is pretty much over, but when I get to go back to 2", I am always a little bit sad that digital seems to have won.

top things of the moment:
1. Blur "The Great Escape"
2. Ray Bradbury
3. "kill him, fuckin' kill him, kill him already, kill him"
4. the guy at the Dunkin' Donuts who looks and talks exactly like Borat
5. Coast to Coast conspiracy-nut talk radio
6. Oktava ML-52 ribbon mic on guitars (if you can get your hands on a good one)
7. Beck "Mutations"
8. cheap mics in general, if you make a good sounding recording with them
9. Bill Skibbe, for being gracious when bombarded with questions about studio construction
10. anyone who's heard of Fun Boy Three
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