When is your next show?
There isn't one.
Hey guys whats up??? You guys down to play ____ on ____??
Probably not. But can't hurt to ask.
Will you dudes ever play again?
Time will tell.
Are you guys still together?
No, but we're not not together either.
Come to ____!
If the price is right, okay.
Will you ever do a European Tour?
We did two, plus a couple UK ones. So, already did.
How come I can't find tour dates anywhere?!
Because there aren't any.
Give me new music!
It doesn't work like that.
Where can i find the lyrics of your songs?
They're out there. There used to be a downloadable Word doc of the 2 lyrics on our old label's website, which must be floating around somewhere. If you want the Alive As You Are lyrics, buy a physical copy.
Jared please call me.
No.
Where's the best place to buy 2 on vinyl?
The 2 LP sounds like shit. Buy the CD, and just get the vinyl for the bonus track.
Where are you guys??
California. We all do stuff. You might particularly like White Fence.
Please don't say you've broken up.
Okay.
All questions derived from real questions asked by real people, over the last few years. Sorry we didn't answer sooner.
Showing posts with label vinyl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vinyl. Show all posts
08 May 2014
26 July 2010
Alive As You Are is out in the UK
And that calls for a few words on the record, how we made it, and on the product we're flooding the marketplace with, o informed consumer.
The LP bears a AAA code on the back (and when I say LP, I'm talking vinyl). You used to see these codes on CD's back in the 80's and 90's. It was designed to tell you how the CD was recorded (first letter), mixed (second letter) and mastered (third letter). For instance, AAD would mean a record was recorded analog, mixed analog, and mastered digitally (of course if it's on CD, it's digital and therefore the third letter would always be D). But those codes more or less vanished by the turn of the century. Fast forward to present times, when every band and their grandmother presses vinyl and touts it as the ultimate listening experience. In our neighborhood alone, two record stores have opened in the last year or two that only sell new vinyl. It's poppin' off. Except there's one caveat. If you recorded your album digitally, then it's meant to be listened to digitally (although someone on some message board somewhere might argue that this point is arguable). Once you go digital, it's always digital, and regardless of if it's on vinyl or not, your brain will be fed discrete little bits of data that sounds a lot like music instead of the continuous sound that is music. This vinyl revival hasn't been accompanied by renewed use of SPARS codes (as it's called; although it was never intended for LP's in the first place), so we usually don't know how these records were actually recorded, mixed and mastered; but I reckon that at least 95% of that new, shrink-wrapped $18 vinyl was recorded on a computer. Which means, at least in these eyes, your money might be better spent on the CD. But maybe you have a DJ night, and it's important to you to spin vinyl, who knows.
Anyway. Back to the AAA on the Alive As You Are LP. What this means is that we recorded the whole thing onto tape, mixed it onto another tape, and took that to Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Sound, whose very special needle etched grooves into what is now the vinyl platter you can hold in your hand (or, simply, he mastered it). Without any digitalia in the way, what comes out of your speakers is essentially a direct transfer of energy from us to you. All vibration and impulses. A more human listening experience. When we thought about our favorite records and what kind of record we wanted to make, we realized the common thread is they were pretty much all made this way. And here we are.
Why doesn't everybody do it like this? Well, it's easier to do every step of the process digitally, it's cheaper, it's more forgiving, you can "fix" mistakes and poor performances, studios are set up that way, people can't really tell the difference... and the list goes on and on. Digital production is insanely compelling, and it takes a lot of practice and discipline to lay it down, warts and voice cracks and all, on tape.
So yeah. After we were done tracking at Hyde Street in SF, we packed up and went an hour north to Prairie Sun, in Sonoma County and mixed for the next 10 days. It was our engineer Drew, our producer Nick, and us all crammed in this fishbowl of a control room around a mixing board turning knobs and moving sliders. Which is not textbook mixing, by the way, and was tense and not fun more often than not. But it worked - we mixed it on our own the way we wanted to do it, onto tape, and that is what's on the record.
The CD's different. When we turned the record in to our label, they said "hey, some of these mixes sound wack, let's have a professional remix em." So we transferred all the tapes onto a hard drive and got a guy named Jason Lader to mix it over a couple weekends at Rick Rubin's house in the hills on the days Kid Rock wasn't there, and I'm pretty sure he broke into it, because he made it out like we weren't supposed to be there and swore us to secrecy (oops). Since these mixes were bound for the CD (and iTunes/etc), to hell with all that analog self-righteousness; song by song, we picked the better mix, and five of his mixes are on the digital version.
All that said, what's so very nice is that when you buy the vinyl, you get a download code. Which gets you the digital version too. Best of both worlds. So there. If your neighborhood general store doesn't have it, you can order it here or here, or if you want to drop some Sterling on the CD here.
*** note: if you can't find the vinyl in the UK, order it from Dangerbird and they'll ship it straightaway ***
The LP bears a AAA code on the back (and when I say LP, I'm talking vinyl). You used to see these codes on CD's back in the 80's and 90's. It was designed to tell you how the CD was recorded (first letter), mixed (second letter) and mastered (third letter). For instance, AAD would mean a record was recorded analog, mixed analog, and mastered digitally (of course if it's on CD, it's digital and therefore the third letter would always be D). But those codes more or less vanished by the turn of the century. Fast forward to present times, when every band and their grandmother presses vinyl and touts it as the ultimate listening experience. In our neighborhood alone, two record stores have opened in the last year or two that only sell new vinyl. It's poppin' off. Except there's one caveat. If you recorded your album digitally, then it's meant to be listened to digitally (although someone on some message board somewhere might argue that this point is arguable). Once you go digital, it's always digital, and regardless of if it's on vinyl or not, your brain will be fed discrete little bits of data that sounds a lot like music instead of the continuous sound that is music. This vinyl revival hasn't been accompanied by renewed use of SPARS codes (as it's called; although it was never intended for LP's in the first place), so we usually don't know how these records were actually recorded, mixed and mastered; but I reckon that at least 95% of that new, shrink-wrapped $18 vinyl was recorded on a computer. Which means, at least in these eyes, your money might be better spent on the CD. But maybe you have a DJ night, and it's important to you to spin vinyl, who knows.
Anyway. Back to the AAA on the Alive As You Are LP. What this means is that we recorded the whole thing onto tape, mixed it onto another tape, and took that to Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Sound, whose very special needle etched grooves into what is now the vinyl platter you can hold in your hand (or, simply, he mastered it). Without any digitalia in the way, what comes out of your speakers is essentially a direct transfer of energy from us to you. All vibration and impulses. A more human listening experience. When we thought about our favorite records and what kind of record we wanted to make, we realized the common thread is they were pretty much all made this way. And here we are.
Why doesn't everybody do it like this? Well, it's easier to do every step of the process digitally, it's cheaper, it's more forgiving, you can "fix" mistakes and poor performances, studios are set up that way, people can't really tell the difference... and the list goes on and on. Digital production is insanely compelling, and it takes a lot of practice and discipline to lay it down, warts and voice cracks and all, on tape.
So yeah. After we were done tracking at Hyde Street in SF, we packed up and went an hour north to Prairie Sun, in Sonoma County and mixed for the next 10 days. It was our engineer Drew, our producer Nick, and us all crammed in this fishbowl of a control room around a mixing board turning knobs and moving sliders. Which is not textbook mixing, by the way, and was tense and not fun more often than not. But it worked - we mixed it on our own the way we wanted to do it, onto tape, and that is what's on the record.
The CD's different. When we turned the record in to our label, they said "hey, some of these mixes sound wack, let's have a professional remix em." So we transferred all the tapes onto a hard drive and got a guy named Jason Lader to mix it over a couple weekends at Rick Rubin's house in the hills on the days Kid Rock wasn't there, and I'm pretty sure he broke into it, because he made it out like we weren't supposed to be there and swore us to secrecy (oops). Since these mixes were bound for the CD (and iTunes/etc), to hell with all that analog self-righteousness; song by song, we picked the better mix, and five of his mixes are on the digital version.
All that said, what's so very nice is that when you buy the vinyl, you get a download code. Which gets you the digital version too. Best of both worlds. So there. If your neighborhood general store doesn't have it, you can order it here or here, or if you want to drop some Sterling on the CD here.
*** note: if you can't find the vinyl in the UK, order it from Dangerbird and they'll ship it straightaway ***
10 June 2010
PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF THE SONIC CATHERDAL OUT NOW
Guess what: Roky Erickson/13th Floor Elevators tribute album The Psychedelic Sounds of the Sonic Cathedral - which includes our cover of "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)" - is out (as the subject so subtly implies). Now that we've held it in our hands, we can say it looks, feels and sounds badass, and you should buy it here:
17 June 2009
Studio Tan
Hellz yeah, no kiddin’, that’s right, as promised, we hit the studio and cut some track last week. 3 songs in 3 days. Just like they used to do in the old days! Also just like they used to do when they were on a real tight budget. Apparently they still do it that way. Anyway.
We got some real exciting seven-inch plans for these, all of the split variety. Which means, go ‘head and notch out some space in your collection for three more pieces of vinyl.
One of these is a cover of a 13th Floor Elevators song called “She Lives (In a Time of Her Own),” from the Easter Everywhere record. We’re hoping it’ll come out on a split with another pretty first-rate band (ahem) doing a different Roky cover. Turned out pretty smokin’.
Then there’s a song of ours called “A Lovely Game” (once a tentative title, and perhaps still so, but probably the eventual title by default), which we’ve been kicking around for about a year now. Played it live a lot last year, so if you saw us round then, you’ve probably heard it, albeit way too fast. Planning on putting that out as a split with our buds All the Saints. I wonder if they’ve recorded anything yet. Shit.
Song number 3 is for the I Hate Rock N Roll corporate empire, the braintrust behind the release of 2007’s “Hair Decisions” 12” split with Moccasin. We’re doing this split with Audacity, who might be the best band going in L.A. now, even though they’re from Fullterton or something. So we’re covering one of their songs, and we’re covering one of theirs. Neat, huh? Buy it, because we still haven’t recouped on that other split, and the man’s really breathing down our neck. Kind of an indentured servitude situation. Proceeds go to a fucking great cause.
And oh yeah, we got Bob Mustachio from The Warlocks to play drums on these too. We were all kinda starstruck most the time. Pretty amazing.
So who knows when this stuff’s gonna come out. Later this summer, I guess, if we can all keep it together until then. We being makind. Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you. In the meantime, look, it’s us:
We'd just gotten the bad news. Rob was particularly distraught.
Our old (I mean, young!) photographress/band mother Malia came back from this band she went and joined and took these! She's good to have around.
We got some real exciting seven-inch plans for these, all of the split variety. Which means, go ‘head and notch out some space in your collection for three more pieces of vinyl.
One of these is a cover of a 13th Floor Elevators song called “She Lives (In a Time of Her Own),” from the Easter Everywhere record. We’re hoping it’ll come out on a split with another pretty first-rate band (ahem) doing a different Roky cover. Turned out pretty smokin’.
Then there’s a song of ours called “A Lovely Game” (once a tentative title, and perhaps still so, but probably the eventual title by default), which we’ve been kicking around for about a year now. Played it live a lot last year, so if you saw us round then, you’ve probably heard it, albeit way too fast. Planning on putting that out as a split with our buds All the Saints. I wonder if they’ve recorded anything yet. Shit.
Song number 3 is for the I Hate Rock N Roll corporate empire, the braintrust behind the release of 2007’s “Hair Decisions” 12” split with Moccasin. We’re doing this split with Audacity, who might be the best band going in L.A. now, even though they’re from Fullterton or something. So we’re covering one of their songs, and we’re covering one of theirs. Neat, huh? Buy it, because we still haven’t recouped on that other split, and the man’s really breathing down our neck. Kind of an indentured servitude situation. Proceeds go to a fucking great cause.
And oh yeah, we got Bob Mustachio from The Warlocks to play drums on these too. We were all kinda starstruck most the time. Pretty amazing.
So who knows when this stuff’s gonna come out. Later this summer, I guess, if we can all keep it together until then. We being makind. Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you. In the meantime, look, it’s us:
We'd just gotten the bad news. Rob was particularly distraught.
Our old (I mean, young!) photographress/band mother Malia came back from this band she went and joined and took these! She's good to have around.
29 July 2008
Tew
Oh, shit. We never posted, like, any information whatsoever about our album. Since there's still ONE WEEK until this piece "drops," here tis:
2
Dangerbird Records
Release Date: 5 August 2008
1 Northern Soul
2 Blue Day
3 Two Ways Out
4 Pale Sun
5 White Composition
6 Add One To the Other One
7 Even In Your Lightest Day
8 All the Hurry & Wait
9 Waves
10 Talking Words
11 Immediate Undertaking
If you wanna know more, then maybe you should suck it up and buy it. There's lotsa text in there, including essays by Jon Landau, David Leaf, and Peter Buck*. But that's just the CD version. Pre-order that one here.
On the other hand, the vinyl release is totally different. Different sequence, different feel (it's like 180 grams and a double gatefold heavier), and a bonus track called "Pharoah Sanders' Tomb." Get it here. And with both the CD and LP, you get a free 7". Of course.
ALSO.
How bored are your ears? Like, what do you do once you've memorized Tha Carter III? Well. Thru this Thursday, you can listen to our whole-ass album on MySpace. So go, listen to it, think about it, try to decipher the lyrics, smoke weed, party, eat, cry, think, work, or even party. Send it airmail or something.
* factually incorrect. but you get the point. or do you?
2
Dangerbird Records
Release Date: 5 August 2008
1 Northern Soul
2 Blue Day
3 Two Ways Out
4 Pale Sun
5 White Composition
6 Add One To the Other One
7 Even In Your Lightest Day
8 All the Hurry & Wait
9 Waves
10 Talking Words
11 Immediate Undertaking
If you wanna know more, then maybe you should suck it up and buy it. There's lotsa text in there, including essays by Jon Landau, David Leaf, and Peter Buck*. But that's just the CD version. Pre-order that one here.
On the other hand, the vinyl release is totally different. Different sequence, different feel (it's like 180 grams and a double gatefold heavier), and a bonus track called "Pharoah Sanders' Tomb." Get it here. And with both the CD and LP, you get a free 7". Of course.
ALSO.
How bored are your ears? Like, what do you do once you've memorized Tha Carter III? Well. Thru this Thursday, you can listen to our whole-ass album on MySpace. So go, listen to it, think about it, try to decipher the lyrics, smoke weed, party, eat, cry, think, work, or even party. Send it airmail or something.
* factually incorrect. but you get the point. or do you?
08 July 2008
some things, Tuesday edition
Good morning. I'm assuming it's morning when you're reading this. If it's not, come back when it is.
Just a couple updates:
Just noticed that we somehow never got around to mentioning this... We recorded a cover of Lee Hazelwood’s (via the voice of Sanford Clark) “The Fool” back in February for this neat lil promotion by shoe-people PF Flyers. The concept was a buncha Dangerbird artists record songs from 1956 to commemorate the reissue of those sweet-ass ’56 Bob Cousy kicks. So we did this song, knocked it out in a day, and got one Bob Mustachio (of The Warlocks) to pitch in too, since it was a Sunday and, y’know, it was an excuse to get out of the house. Also, FYI, BTW, CMYK: “The Fool” is the first song Lee Hazelwood ever wrote, or something like that. And, of course, the last song was “Claws & Paws.” Alright alright, go get it here.
Here’s Rob at Tim’s birthday soiree, reflecting the too-prevalent misconception that Rob is Tim. This outta confuse things even more.
Just a couple updates:
Just noticed that we somehow never got around to mentioning this... We recorded a cover of Lee Hazelwood’s (via the voice of Sanford Clark) “The Fool” back in February for this neat lil promotion by shoe-people PF Flyers. The concept was a buncha Dangerbird artists record songs from 1956 to commemorate the reissue of those sweet-ass ’56 Bob Cousy kicks. So we did this song, knocked it out in a day, and got one Bob Mustachio (of The Warlocks) to pitch in too, since it was a Sunday and, y’know, it was an excuse to get out of the house. Also, FYI, BTW, CMYK: “The Fool” is the first song Lee Hazelwood ever wrote, or something like that. And, of course, the last song was “Claws & Paws.” Alright alright, go get it here.
Here’s Rob at Tim’s birthday soiree, reflecting the too-prevalent misconception that Rob is Tim. This outta confuse things even more.
 |
photo by W.P. Canzoneri |
You may have noticed our ¡¡¡NEW VIDEO!!! over there on the right in our patent-pending Blogspot Video Bar™. Assuming it hasn't been removed. It's called "This Song's History, Dude."
Finally... go pre-order our new record from Insound!
Get the CD here... or...
Get the vinyl here!
AND either way, if ya pre-order it, you’re ALSO gon’ get a free limited-edition mystery 7”! Don't delay! Supplies are limited! Act now!
05 May 2008
Eyes feel so comfortable
Well. Everything’s kinda kicking into high gear now - or at least the non-musical part of releasing an album is. You’ll be thrilled to know that yes, Virginia, we will have stickers, we will have buttons, we will have window clings for your local record-store-that-you’re-not-gonna-go-to-anyway, and yes, we will have assorted DML-themed tchotchkes, all for your stockings. More practically, the album itself will be a wonder to behold. There will be a compact disc pressing, complete with artwork and songs, that you can buy, and/or if you’re so inclined, there will also be a really really nice 18,546-gram vinyl pressing, double-LP-style, with a sick-ass bonus track. And then there are also some 7”’s in the works. So there.
We know we should really write on here more often, and put up the occasional non-business post, y’know, like where we make political endorsements and publish a weekend what’s-up-in-LA-and/or-SF calendar and talk about baseball and girls and recount tales of promoters fucking us over. We know. But that’s gonna have to wait:
Our “official” website is now darkermylovemusic.com. You can look at it if you want, but for now, it’ll only take you our glorious MySpace page. I guess the assclown that’s parked at darkermylove.com wants an actual treasure chest in exchange for his booty, and don’t even ask about our old official website, which evidently was snatched up after we stopped paying for it (and whose URL we will not provide here, but which you’re welcome to seek out at your own peril. totally NSFW).
Let’s see, what else. We burrowed ourselves in a studio for a whole week and got better at playing our own songs, and threw a Charlie O’s gig in the middle. You should check out videothing.com for a recap of said gig
(just ignore the part where we’re actually playing, thanks). This guy’s managed somehow to document pretty much our entire year so far. I don’t think we’ve played a single show without Crystal Antlers this year. But hey, the odds are pretty good that’ll happen when they play 5 shows a night. And here’s to many more with those sweethearts.
So then we made a music video. Like, a real one. It's for our first single "Two Ways Out." This boy wonder Toben Seymour did it. As you can see, the video will be a 3-1/2-minute paraphrasing of Eraserhead.
Which leaves only shows and such:
Thursday June 5. Troubadour. West Hollywood. with the Black Angels.
Saturday July 26. Capitol Hill Block Party, at Neumo’s. Seattle.
and then...
Saturday September 13. Monolith Festival. Red Rocks. That’s in Colorado.
Look out for a flurry of shows preceding and surrounding the release. In other words, keep your Julys and Augusts open.
We know we should really write on here more often, and put up the occasional non-business post, y’know, like where we make political endorsements and publish a weekend what’s-up-in-LA-and/or-SF calendar and talk about baseball and girls and recount tales of promoters fucking us over. We know. But that’s gonna have to wait:
Our “official” website is now darkermylovemusic.com. You can look at it if you want, but for now, it’ll only take you our glorious MySpace page. I guess the assclown that’s parked at darkermylove.com wants an actual treasure chest in exchange for his booty, and don’t even ask about our old official website, which evidently was snatched up after we stopped paying for it (and whose URL we will not provide here, but which you’re welcome to seek out at your own peril. totally NSFW).
Let’s see, what else. We burrowed ourselves in a studio for a whole week and got better at playing our own songs, and threw a Charlie O’s gig in the middle. You should check out videothing.com for a recap of said gig
(just ignore the part where we’re actually playing, thanks). This guy’s managed somehow to document pretty much our entire year so far. I don’t think we’ve played a single show without Crystal Antlers this year. But hey, the odds are pretty good that’ll happen when they play 5 shows a night. And here’s to many more with those sweethearts.So then we made a music video. Like, a real one. It's for our first single "Two Ways Out." This boy wonder Toben Seymour did it. As you can see, the video will be a 3-1/2-minute paraphrasing of Eraserhead.
Which leaves only shows and such:
Thursday June 5. Troubadour. West Hollywood. with the Black Angels.
Saturday July 26. Capitol Hill Block Party, at Neumo’s. Seattle.
and then...
Saturday September 13. Monolith Festival. Red Rocks. That’s in Colorado.
Look out for a flurry of shows preceding and surrounding the release. In other words, keep your Julys and Augusts open.
11 August 2007
split open and melt
so our dear friend Matzah is putting out a split 12 inch with us and denver's mocassin (who recently signed with buddyhead) on his i hate rock n roll imprint. we recorded it last october up in san francisco at the soon to be decommissioned hyde street studios . john webster johns produced it, and and played some trumpet and bass, as well as backing vocals. the song is called "hair decisions" and is our most experimental to date. It was created with a tape collage that was done over two 18 hour sessions. you can pre-order the record or listen to "hair desicions" by clicking on the i hate rock n roll link.
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