thebrotheregg recording studio notes Part I.

The weekend of August 22, 23. Very fortunate to spend the weekend at the fabulous DIG studios here in Portland. A great way to spend two solid days in doors while the summer weather is beautiful outside. Thebrotheregg recorded some eight songs very quickly and efficiently, but these songs are hardly done; they will be requiring all sorts of final singing, fancy guitars and general treatments, not to mention mixing.

We spent two days immersed in what we were doing and for me, it’s difficult to come back to any sort of a “normal” life afterwards. I didn’t expect that the world would still exist after this weekend. I try to put my 150% into this process of capturing hit songs to “tape” and such effort leaves one emotionally drained afterward. This is the immersion process. It’s very much like going into a sweat lodge and seeing visions. Given the summer temperature, the studio on the sixth floor was much like a sweaty sweat lodge. Hopefully in the process we realized visions of pop excellence.

Grilch

Recording this weekend was also an opportunity to work closely with thebrotheregg’s new bass player, Grilch (David). He had recently joined our ranks just as the bulk of new songs were being born into this world, so we are just now actualizing this new chemistry.

The story of how we connected with Grilch is actually quite amazing. One of the few miracles I would consider that we’ve experienced along the way. I answered an ad on Craigslist posted by someone who sounded like the music world’s obsession with handsome twenty year olds had put him out to pasture, and that he wanted experimental rock or something to that effect. The reply I received was something like, “Hey Adam, it’s me Dave.” Weird, it was Dave whom used to play with Kaitlyn ni Donovan and her other group, the High Violets. We shared a practice space with those two groups and he had been over numerous times for these projects. It was a strange coincidence that he should be posting this ad when he did and that I should be responding to it then as well. Needless to say, we set the wheel in motion and Dave’s been a great addition to thebrotheregg. He likes old Genesis, odd time signatures, and gutter humor. What a great fit! Anyhow, Dave was a great inspiration to work with in the studio. What an effortless, organic process capturing music can be when you have the right people to work with.

Additionally, Tofer and Jairus were in top form conjuring a perfect pop think tank of rhythmic assessment and guitar tone governance. Together, we worked through different arrangements with drums and bass in the spotlight. Everyone was quite articulate in communicating individual abstract envisionings of how the process should play itself out.

Well, insofar as how I tend to enjoy the process as much as I do, it seemed interesting to post a little something about recording in the studio again. It’s such a weird science of psychology in certain regards to convey this live music feeling using multi-track recording. The idea that individual instruments might not all have been recorded at the same time or even in the same place initially blew my mind the first time I learned about recording. This idea is one I’ve been known to preach, that one is deflowered when the veil of magic is lifted from the sound coming from the stereo. Casually listening, we hear a group performing and we tend to dismiss the music as live as it would be on stage. I’m just saying, the reality behind this live feel was the rude awakening I went through many years ago. Multi-tracking is about separation where every instrument and voice is given it’s own unique space, it is not just about putting a mic in the right place to capture a whole room full of musicians just right. In this fantasy stereo field, a classical guitar can drown out a loud drum kit. A quiet snare roll can be heard over a wall of guitar sludge. Whispering words can actually be heard and understood with maybe a nudge of the fader or with some processing. In the end though, we close our eyes and pretend we are wherever, listening to the band stick it to us.

The Fifth Member

One of the things you may often read about Syd Barrett and the original Pink Floyd was that they treated the recording studio as the fifth member of the band. They were likely not the first by any means, but as deliberate outsider artists they were identified as using the recording technology of the day as almost it’s very own instrument. I think that after all these years of listening to Piper at the Gates of Dawn, I tend to still return to it as a replenishing revitalizor because of this innovative interpretation of recording that was so freely utilized in the album’s creation. I think with thebrotheregg, we have always enjoyed the studio for its power to help re-invision and transform the music with all it’s filters, effects, and happy accidents, not to mention the blatant illusory fantasy world that a recording projects from our speakers in general.

Always up for some of the more odd quirky aspects of the process. The gear discussion alone doesn’t reach me; that’s a different facet of the science. I like the twangy guitars, the rough overdriven sounds, and the tape compression just as much as everyone else for sure. I’ve just been considering the psychology of listening lately, the suspension of disbelief we enjoy as music is read through stereo speakers. I just thought I’d say a few words about it is all. Thanks –a.

PDX Misfits Project

Well, what’s the manifesto on this subject? Perhaps to keep it short would be best. Overanalyzing rock ‘n roll never quite works for me, but sometimes it makes a bit of sense when read as a ‘process of discovery’, or perhaps as a rant.

This brief discussion is about The Misfits and for those of you who don’t know, the Misfits are a greatly celebrated punk band from the late ‘70s, mid ‘80s that defined a subgenre of rock known as Horror punk. Shit, I might need the Wikipedia article at hand to fill in some of the details. The quality of the Misfits that warrants their continued perseverance of legacy throughout the ages is not only their downright earworm sing-along perfection of pop, but also the strange and, I would argue, sincere substance that underlies every song ever published under their name. Singer and main visionary, Glenn Danzig’s obsession with the dark subject matter he writes about is downright honest.

Danzig went on to diversify his music after the aforementioned biblical incarnation of the Misfits, becoming more artful and maybe credibly musical in his later projects Samhain, and Danzig. That’s all fine and good; it’s not fair to expect anyone to be a one trick pony for all eternity. HOWEVER, in 1997 the rest of the Misfits decided to reform without him, and this time with a lucrative record deal (I’m guessing). Regardless of what I’ve ever felt about this, the threat of a new Misfits without Danzig inspired *an idea*. I would describe this idea as silly and maybe academic in the same way that writing about the Misfits in this particular way is both silly and maybe academic.

Contemplating these songs for a near lifetime, I have decided that there’s an unspoken formula to what the Misfits did back then. The cannon of Misfits songs have a simplicity about them and a mystery about the personnel that performed them. The unique stage appearance of the band and the subject matter of their songs were both very contained in a singular organized vision. The bizarre marriage of seriously dark imagery and quick and simple pop took itself very seriously but had an unmistakable sense of humor.

When Geffen announced the reformation of one of my all time beloved groups without the main visionary that originally fueled them, my heart sank. I envisioned the new group would likely have to consider the same discussion about formula that I just mentioned. A consideration of this discussion of formula is my reason for writing about the Misfits.

For one thing, the reformed Misfits did not share the original vision of the band. They clearly do not embrace the subject matter as did the original architect, whatever ineffable quality made the Misfits songs so heart-felt.

An apt comparison of this heresy (in the language of Reagan-era punk rock) would be the reconfiguration of another classic American group, the Dead Kennedys without iconic spazmo Jello Biafra. Jello is a passionate thinker of politics, and you know, sort of a shaman of political realities and he brought a unique passion to the Dead Kennedy’s songs. Without him, the grouped lacked something timeless.

So, I was thinking back at the time that I could just sit a spell and write a Misfits record of my own for my own amusement. I mean, it’s hilarious to say out loud, but it’s that formula I referred to earlier that makes the Misfits an interesting exercise in song writing. Not many bands can be contained in this way. I’m saying, it makes sense to me that someone could sit down and say, “I want to write a Misfits song,” and that would make perfect sense. You can’t sit down and write a Beatles song because those guys were not only all over the map, but across the universe as well! So, here I am… it’s 2009, twelve years after I thought of this idea to write my own Misfits songs and I feel I’m hitting a personal stride in how I do things. Interesting song-writing challenges are what I’m all about at this precise second.

Our group, thebrotheregg, has recorded all sorts of reinterpretations of songs based on similar logic. Sometimes I’ll record a basic guideline of a song and have the band flesh it out without them having even the benefit of hearing the original! If you search, you can find our interpretations of Magnetic Fields, the Bevis Frond, and the Art of Flying. We also have done tribute events in which we have performed live sets by bands that are not us, Galaxie 500 and Guided by Voices most notably.

So without blathering about this forever, I must conclude. I want to get in touch with my own inner well of anger, my own brutality and write some satisfying pop in the theme of the Misfits. It’s for fun and so if it doesn’t work, oh well. I mean, how do you top “Die Die My Darling” or “Angel Fuck”? You don’t. But if you read the account of Danzig’s replacement by Michael Graves, a 19 year old kid that never had even heard the Misfits before auditioning for the band, my proposal makes perfect sense. What difference does it make?

So, pretty soon you can laugh as we bulk up on our evil and do the task of recreating the Misfits for our own amusement. You may observe, as those who have heard preliminary demos, that I am still lacking in anger and evil as a singer. Not to worry, this will all be taken care of later as the songs flesh out. I will post a very preliminary demo just to put it out there right at the bottom of this post. Very rough first attempt of writing a Misfits song. Maybe we can get a group to actually hit these songs and make them a bit more cohesive, who knows? This one is called “Feast” and I’m playing guitar and singing, Jairus is playing bass and drums (not at the same time mind you.)

If the demo process is going well, I know it because I usually start laughing uncontrollably during the recording process. A few “Whoah-ooo’s” and aggressive “Hey’s” to support lyrics about dismemberment and blood orgasms make me giggle if all goes well. On one interview I saw with Danzig on Youtube he talks about his hatred of humanity or something in that ballpark and I suspect that perhaps this misanthropic sentiment “keeps it real” for him and offers constant renewal. Maybe he doesn’t laugh upon the discovery of a particularly awesome shout chorus, or the articulation of some especially brutal images, but I do! I can tell already that this project will be the therapy I so desperately need for my anger and God knows what else.

Please let us know if you have any clever song titles or graphic imageries that we can maybe incorporate. It's totally fun to sit around and come up with titles like,"Blood Flood" for example. Watch this space for more later....

-adam

Feast (shitty demo)