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 ***

where the water tastes like wine

In which we commuted to Prairie Sun, up in Cotati, about 45 minutes north of San Francisco in Sonoma County, to finish our record. We were still staying in the city (except for our last 3 days) and driving up and back down every day. Our van's accelerator requires an inordinate amount of quadricep strength to operate, and after a few round trips, we got tired and caved in and rented a Chevy Cobalt, whose factory stereo proved invaluable in listening to mixes. Will's aunt came up to play oboe and English horn and brought a bassoonist friend, and thus, some class to the whole thing. Tom Waits sang about Red's Recovery Room down the street, but they lost their lease last summer and now there's nowhere to drink. So we stuck to playing cards and watching every episode of Celebrity Rehab.




we got to drive thru this twice a day, which means we got to cross the Golden Gate Bridge twice a day, and did you ever realize what a badass bridge that thing is?


there was an In N Out, and it was time to eat.








told you




actual musicians!









these Minimoogs once were the property of Michael Jackson, whose keyboard player ran it through a keytar on stage. until the keytar was stolen from his car.






photos by will

Hyde Street Heyday

look, ma, no computer




Dan, after the drum machine showed up


big rods












Maria Taylor spent a day with us. they decided to sing, standing, by the corner of the piano. protocol, I guess.




there has to be a morning after


photos by will, except for the out-of-focus one of him.
all rights reserved, et cetera et cetera.

Cabin Fever

The last song is being mixed right now. We're in exile out here, and we spend our quote-unquote downtime playing gin rummy (what else) in this unpleasantly-lit waiting room. There was another band here from the area last week, but I'm not sure they actually recorded anything, onaccounta all the beer-shotgunning and and dry-humping in the parking lot and all. They did bring in a sax player one day though to lay down some cool SNL party sax. So that happened. There are white horses in the pasture beyond the the window, and a maroon McMansion on the gleaming green hill beyond that. A lot of this part of California can look like another planet, or at least like Scotland, and I keep half-expecting to see Teletubbies bouncing over the hill.




Today we get the brakes checked on the van and put air in the tires, and tomorrow we drive home. Friday, we start looking for jobs. Peace be with you, and also with you.

Maple Day Getaway

It’s time to make a record again. Tomorrow we’re driving* to our once-and-future home of San Francisco and recording at Hyde Street Studios thru the end of the month. We're throwing longtime Friend of the Band Nick Huntington in the van to produce, who has a colorful enough track record** to con the proverbial suits into trusting him with their investment, and engineer of yore Drew Fischer will turn the knobs. Drew did “Hair Decisions,” which might be the most special thing this band’s ever done (a re-listening to which, in the van, on a dreary day in Germany, cosmically revealed that he was The One), and 4 tracks on the first record, all at Hyde Street. “One Toke Over the Line” was recorded here (the least among many, at the former Wally Heider Recording). There’s a burrito place around the corner. We spent the better part of 2009 writing and rinsing and spin-cycling and line-drying 20+ songs, and we’ve democratically whittled it down to 13. Strangest thing is, we feel this creative empowerment this time around that previous recording experiences rendered foreign to us, so much so that we still feel like we’re scammin' the record label, who somehow someway are actually letting us do it our way. It's like they like us or something. Anyway, we're all abuzz about making something we love so much that you'll love it too. Oh, and happy 2010.


look, ma! it's just like when you wuz a kid!

* Tim, who refuses to ride in our van after years of comically negative experiences, will, in the style of Seal, follow the van in a sports car, accompanied by his manager (or, in this case, Rob).
** cough cough Britney Spears
† We were Blog o' th' Day, or something like that, the other day. Thanks Blogger! And greetings, people of the world.

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.

here is the information you requested, round two

We went back to Sunset Sound last week to re-record all our parts (just kidding! hahahaha!!!).
Actually, we recorded a second batch of songs, which gives us puhhh-lenty, which means get ready for some killer B-sides. Whatever comes out of this, you'll be surprised.







I love you, Mr. Jones.




Andy had no idea.






Next time you book time at Sunset, make sure it coincides with one of the staff's birthdays.








Another Joe Cocker re-enactment.





Photos courtesy of W.P. Canzoneri, whom nobody took any photos of, and may not be reproduced without the express written consent of Major League Baseball. That's right - Will may not be reproduced (the photos are like, whatever).

here is the information you requested, round one

In this series of photos, we are recording:








Yes, Buffy St. Marie also recorded here. Guess she didn't want the tapes.




There was that time Jared got his ass chewed the fuck out.






Still recording.








A facsimile of Jim Morrison's voice was once routed through a speaker on the other end of the room into these very microphones. Also, Michael McDonald.




In this series of photos, we are at a Dodger game. The Dodgers hit back-to-back-to-back home runs on as many pitches, and we spent a lotta money drinking and not publicly kissing Richard Lewis in the parking lot:






Finally, in this series of photos, we are at a recording studio, but are not recording:








* Will doesn't appear in any of these photos because he was probably untangling some cables or some shit.