mr|ten Originals and Covers, Part 4

mr|ten has inspired some of you to go back and check out the original versions of the songs we covered for our 10th birthday.  In this series I’ll put the originals and covers side-by-side with commentary.  (Part 1Part 2Part 3 – Part 4)

My Blood My Bones

Original by Bike:

  • I love Bike so much and wanted to make sure they were covered for mr|ten, so I ended up taking it on with Cory.  It was hard to find a song that seemed cover-able; Bike’s stuff is pretty unique to Bike.
  • Originally we were going to punk this up, but no rhythm felt like it worked.  Then I started playing with the delay pedal :-)
  • The simplicity of this recording is unusual for Bike; typically there are many more layers of drums, synths, etc.

Sneaky Sneaky Snakes:

  • Note some lyric changes, if you like
  • We re-created what I could fathom of the time signature changes in the introduction, but play it straight in four after the vocals enter.
  • We recorded this as a field test for future Sneaky Sneaky Snakes recordings to a 4-track tape machine that can only take 2 tracks at a time.  Track one is drums; kick (RE320) and overhead (NT1) mics mixed down to one channel.  Track two is guitar; amp mic (e609) and bass synth DI mixed down to one channel.  Track three is the lead vocal (which went through overdrive and delay pedals), and track four is a barely-audible low octave and double at the end.  It turned out OK, I think, and I learned how to do it better in the future.
  • Cory played an unbelievably steady drum track (no edits!), and it’s even more impressive when you know he hasn’t played drums much.  This is his first recorded and released drum track, I think.
  • My voice ended up sounding closer to Nate’s than I would have guessed.

International Sign for Goodbye

D-Rockets’ original:

  • Just a regular old slice of typical melodic brilliance from Derek.
  • More overdubs than you might realize at first; the chorus has both an acoustic guitar arpeggio and electric slide guitar, used perfectly.  Harmonica, of course, and it plays underneath the vocals on a few parts.
  • Nate asked for some recommendations, and I sent them, but didn’t think of this; he found it and chose it on his own.

Cover by Bike:

  • I heard an early mix that was just Nate’s voice and rhythm guitar, and had a moment of vertigo, unable to imagine how that Bike sound would emerge from what I was hearing.  With the addition of the second voice, really subtle guitar arpeggio, and simple synth – bam! – it was there, like magic.
  • This was the last cover to be sent in for mr|ten, I think.
  • Nate hadn’t released any music in a long time, and I couldn’t be happier that he did this for us.

After the Countdown

Once more from h&s’ signs.comets:

  • I’ve always liked the call-and-response vocals, especially the first verse, that put Scott and I on equal footing in front of the mic.
  • There were some specific dynamic things I either liked and wanted to re-create, or wanted another shot at, for the cover.  These include “I’ve never walked in darkness…” before the second verse, the “Listen for the countdown / Any second / Now…” pause, and the ending.
  • The craziness at the end is three separate drum takes.  Nothing like rock & roll excess :-)
  • This sort of sounds better than it has any right to, given how I remember recording it…  eesh.  Learned a lot since summer 2003 in that un-air conditioned Sunday School room.

Sally Ride’s cover:

  • Rob had the idea for this cover.  The concept was that I’d do the basic track and post it for others to add their own voices and instruments, and we’d have a giant, weird, asynchronous collaboration.  People ran out of time for that, so it sounds a little empty, but still works.  That’s what all the space in the arrangement is there for, though.
  • I practiced up and did the drum track and two main guitar tracks in one day, at Drew’s, in about six hours.  Gear and mics were already set up for Mars Lights.  It’s the only time I can think of putting myself in that much of a pressure recording situation, and I’m pretty proud of pulling it off.
  • So happy Scott reprised his vocal role!
  • The drum parts bite what I loved about Scott’s orginals, with some tweaks to make them mine and better track the guitar rhythms.
  • The guitar parts break out what had been one guitar part into separate rhythm/root and arpeggio/chord parts.
  • I’m pleased with the guitar tone; this is what the electric howie&scott tones were always like in my head, but I didn’t have the gear or knowledge yet to make them.  It’s a heavier, fuller sort of Clarity-era Jimmy Eat World sound.  The two tones used different pickups, different EQ settings on my ES-345, different pedals (one was just a boost into my amp, the other was the Apocalypse, I think), and because of all of that they sit together in the mix with hardly any EQ.  I don’t say this often, but I feel like I nailed those two tones.