Category: News

Scott recorded a bunch of sax the other weekend; it felt like more sax-per-minute than anything we’ve done previously, so i decided to revisit near and far, comets, signs, and the b-sides to see if that impression was accurate.  Here are my notes.

near and far

• Through “Nexus” sax has only appeared twice, I think; “Well” (a long, really good solo after “Cornerstone”) and the pop solo in “Fourbee.”  This might have been a function of time; we tracked and mixed in 4 days, with a second round of mixes later, and they weren’t long days
• “The Broken Anger” – I’d forgotten about the vocal processing in the outro.  Hearing it makes me feel better about some of the studio production trickery planned for V for Voice, like it’s not a new thing
• At the time we recorded this I definitely thought just playing cool chord progressions (no lead voice) was interesting.  I’ve learned to put more sounds over those; the ear needs a hook to guide it along
• I’ve unintentionally re-created some of the tracklisting flow of near and far on V for Voice; a down-the-middle opener, then a strummy follow-up, rocker at #3, experiments in the back half… for V we moved the genre exercise to the b-sides at least
• It would appear from iTunes I haven’t listened to near and far in its entirety since 2010, at least.  That’s about halfway between its release and today
• Interesting choice on the final note of “Constellations,” had forgotten that
• The chorus effect on “Staircase” and “Under My Protection” makes interesting bookends to the record.  I don’t recall that being intentional
• <Egregious drum jam>

comets

• The intro to “Wait… You’re Where?” marks a huge stylistic shift, bigger than I remembered, especially going straight into it after “Under My Protection.”  I wonder if that’s how people heard it at the time
• Much more interesting dynamics and textures here, though the songs still might benefit from some lead lines (“The Bridge” has some and sounds better for them, for example)
• The musical ideas are holding up for me – there’s a palpable jump in excitement and interest from near and far (nothing against it) – and part of me wishes we’d had the time/money/experience/knowledge to execute the technical aspects of these records better and present them in more direct, even light
• Five songs into comets, I think the only sax has been in “Major & Minor.”  There’s been lots of cool Scott drumming though
• Listening to all the GK bass on comets, I realize for the first time that V for Voice will be the first time we actually use a real bass guitar
• I’ve probably said it elsewhere but Scott deserves major credit for performing these songs as he learned them.  On many tunes, when we’d sit down to start recording, he might have heard a rough idea at practice months earlier, the guitars would have already been recorded to a click, and he hadn’t had much or any time to just practice drums and build his chops.  That all adds up to a really tough situation to drum in
• Pretty decent Who’s Next tribute on “What Sounds Are Real?”
• I’m noticing a more marked shift from chord progressions on near & far to riffs on comets than I’d heard before

signs

• Signs and comets are really separate records to me, combined in one package just to get them both out at all.  Comets was largely written first and the songs stand alone, where the signs songs share a vibe (and, largely, a key and scale)
• I still would like to re-record some of this heavier, in more of a Kowloon Walled City style, crushing and brutal but with space to breathe, at some point
• The mastering sessions for signs.comets were a Friday/Monday, comets first.  Signs sounds better as a result; at Doug’s suggestion I put some body back in the snare and guitars over the weekend in between sessions.  Not knowing much about mastering I’d been referencing these mixes to “A Praise Chorus” (insane, in retrospect) and had kept trying to make things brighter and more aggressive to match
• There’s sax on first song, unlike near & far or comets!
• I like and appreciate “Choose To” and its place on the record more and more with time
• The “Easter III” theme riff, while I love it, is a shadow of a weirder, better riff that came to me in a dream that I could never nail down

b.sides

• It’s forever weird to me that “Hymn for our TMD” became a fan fav, but I dig it
• Hey, “Say Something” is super catchy!
• <Is reminded of Bush-era political concerns, when the wars we were against we were at least sure the President would start on purpose and not with a misunderstood tweet>
• Some of this is really open and raw, lyrically
• I’m not sure if the “Snow in the East” vocal is a demo I just decided to keep or what.  The outro might indicate that to be the case
• “Was I In Bon Jovi…” from Furious Instance basically counts as a b.side here, being recorded at the same time as the rest of it (and the back half of it is really raw, too, for me at least)

Look who’s in Lawrence, recording sax!

Update: CAN HAZ ENGNEER?!

(She’s been there since 9 AM.  It’s 4:00)

Hey gangarang, we’re testing cross-posting from mrfuriousrecords.com to our minty new fasebork prrrge!

Here’s Drew playing Howie’s new fuzz design: https://t.co/SJfTG6QASv

If you’ve already seen it… play it again?  Or nah.  Thx 4 ur eyeballs & ear… balls.

My next pedal design, the Mohs Fuzz, is finished and ready to draw up, order parts, and build.

For the Mohs I started with a silicon Fuzz Face, not knowing if it would lead to a finished idea, and experimented broadly from there.  The key to its range of fuzz tones is the “Hardness” control, which affects the softness-to-hardness of the signal clipping and gives the pedal its name (for Friedrich Mohs and his scale of mineral hardness).

Update: Here’s a short clip of Drew playing the breadboarded Mohs: https://www.facebook.com/darksatellites/videos/1302218346514629

I plan on building at least three, but if you’re curious and/or interested in obtaining one, email me or leave a comment with your email address and I’ll get in touch about it.  I may do a quick video before ordering parts for the run to help determine interest.

Doing some experimentation today.  Early results from #1, below.  I’m sure something like these will find its way onto a cover, handmade packaging, or the like.

Scott’s 73-key Rhodes, a Mark I with the Janus amp like to the one below, has been with me in Lawrence for about a year now.  I’ve been recording with it this week; two h&s songs where the Rhodes is the primary pad & rhythm sound (instead of guitar), and one Night Mode piece where the Rhodes plays counterpoint to a main synth track.

I’m taking the stereo headphone output of the Janus direct into my Scarlett interface, with some guitar pedals in the Rhodes’ “Accessory” loop for the Night Mode part.  This has a nice, clean, clear sound.  I’ll probably experiment with analog re-amping and/or digital amp and cabinet simulation, but it isn’t required and I’ll try to keep a light touch with any further processing.  Some amount of compression/saturation will sound good, however it’s achieved, as you’d naturally get playing through the Janus, another amp, or a PA.

The instrument would certainly benefit from a tune-up by an experienced technician (who are harder and harder to find).  I tuned the tines’ pitches pretty well myself, but the action varies widely.  Some keys hardly sound when played, and overall it’s tricky to control volume and play expressively; the range from sort of piano to mezzo-piano is good (below piano there’s not much sound at all), and above mp it’s kind of straight to forte and then nothing further beyond forte.  To some extent this is the nature of the Rhodes, but a tune-up would improve things.

It’s a very cool piece of gear to have in the house.  I’m grateful to Scott for the loan and excited to share the work I’m doing with it.

Forgive the photo quality; I played in the poorly-lit garage out of deference to our neighbors.

We don’t have a Dark Satellites show booked, but when we do, EDIT: The next Dark Satellites show is Thursday, July 20, in KC at minibar and I’ll be bringing this guy – a three-piece Ludwig Vistalite in smoke – and I’ll be a lot louder.

The snare is a stand-in Slingerland marching snare (not the one I’ve been using live.  I did use this one recording Ventura); Matt’s working on some custom hardware that will let me use the middle Vistalite tom as a snare.

The garage is reflective as all get-out of course, so while it sounds good I want to play it out before I make decisions about a resonant kick head, second cymbal stand, and heads generally.

It sits higher than the other kit (which, you may remember, is a tiny jazz kit) due to both the rack tom mounted on the much larger kick, and the enormous snare.  Felt good, though.

I plan to loan Cory the gold sparkle Slingerland kit for a while to see if it’s of use to him.

Twenty-year anniversary pieces in Stereogum and The AV Club this week reminded me that the Foo Fighters’ sophomore album reached that milestone recently.

I remember the excitement of seeing the video for lead single “Monkey Wrench” on MTV for the first time; the red room, Dave’s short hair, the impossibly high level of energy captured in the recording, and then the third verse hitting and taking it from 11/10 to 12.  It overwhelmed every pleasure center in a rock kid’s brain.  It was like switching to color TV from black and white.

Bear and Matt have been my super-geek-out fellow Foo Fighters fans.  Bear and I traded links any time there were singles out for upcoming albums, news of tours or recording sessions, or random Dave or Taylor interviews and videos.  I watched “The Pretender” video on repeat with Matt for the first time together (itself 10 years old in August) at his old house before Five Star Crush practice one night.

It’s not cool to be a big Foo Fighters fan and hasn’t been for a long time.  I think that too-cool-for-Foo take is pretty tired; they’re the best mainstream rock band of the last 25 years and it’s not really close.  Criticizing them for not being what the critic wants them to be – noisier, less popular, more arch, whatever – says more about the critic than anything else.

I don’t listen to The Colour And The Shape very often because I don’t need to; I know it by heart.

• All five Falcon Heavy Drives are built and tested; the final two should be delivered this week.  This has been a successful run on both fronts I was pushing on: I broke even, and I learned some methods for making multiple pedals more efficiently and reliably.  Three of the five required zero troubleshooting, and a fourth had one tiny, easily fixed issue.  (The fifth is the one I’m keeping.)
• Both Night Mode shows were successes musically and in terms of attendance, in my book.  The concept is proven and we’re now a fully functioning recording and performance collective.
• Cool internet uncle, actor Wil Wheaton, has a good ambient EP out (embedded below).

With the Falcon Heavy and Night Mode projects hitting these milestones I get to transition to some other things.  For fun I’ll be working on my next solo-ish Night Mode recording and some new pedal designs, with no particular deadlines for either.  I should edit howie&scott drum tracks, which is kind of tedious work but necessary for us to have fun later.

It’s also time to release the EP Cory and I made last fall ;-0