Category: News

When you listen to as much music as I do, you acquire your preferences.  Preferences that, in turn, can become annoyances when they’re not met.

Here are two of mine.

1. Double albums that aren’t long enough to need the second disc

Example offenders:

Baroness, Yellow and Green (runtime: 74:59)

Arcade Fire, Reflektor (runtime: 75:12)

Hammers of Misfortune, Fields/Church of Broken Glass (runtime: 70:53)

I like all three of these albums.  But, why?  Why are these double-disc releases, when all of the music would obviously fit on one 80-minute CD?

Art, schmart; vinyl LPs were sequenced to sound good around the break required to flip the record over, and we do just fine when they’re on one disc.  (Hell, my copy of Exile on Main St. is a single disc for a double-LP! Four whole sides!!)  Your sequencing is not too good or too special or too important or a damn CD.

Baroness, you’re the worst of this bunch.  Not only is the second half of your project on a separate disc, it has a four-and-a-half minute introduction to boot!  If you’re going to do this, at least do us right, like Foo Fighters, who put more than 80 minutes of music on In Your Honor I & II.

There must be some industry rules or accounting that explain this.  I hope so; otherwise, the level of artistic pretentiousness required to put a completely unnecessary second disc in everyone’s copy of the record is just too irksome.

2. Songs that fade out

I know some of you love fade-outs.  One person told me that when a song fades out at the end, they feel like it “goes on forever.”

Not for me; it goes on my list of bands who were too unimaginative to come up with an ending that added something to the song.  There are so many options: have a tight ending, an outro with a new part, a solo, everybody back off playing and fade naturally, or fade just some instruments (the drums, or everything but lead guitar) and let that instrument end it.  Those are just off the top of my head.  Do something, don’t just give up 90% of the way through your song!

You want something that goes on forever?  Put a locking groove at the end of your side of vinyl.  (Expo 70’s done a great job on this.)  That is cool, and it does something interesting in that it makes you, the listener, actively stop the record instead of it coming to a stop on its own (cassette, digital, vinyl) or starting over at the beginning (CD).

What gets your goat musically?

The three I’ll talk about would be great for all kinds of recording.  I have plenty of experience getting the most out of a few affordable mics, and if I were starting over building a home recording rig, these would be my first three.  Let my experience save you some time, money, and headaches.

Electro-Voice RE-320 – This go-to dynamic mic sets a solid baseline sound for almost any sound source – vocals, amps, acoustic instruments – and is my favorite kick drum mic (with the EQ switch engaged) to boot.

 

 

 

Sennheiser e 609 silver – Drew and I love this dynamic mic on guitar cabinets and snare drum.

 

 

 

MXL R144 – I confess; my experience with ribbon mics is limited.  However, it’s the bang-for-your-buck on the R144 that vaults it onto this list.  It provides a detailed, live, balanced sound, and the figure-8 pattern is handy in the studio.  There have been some concerns about quality control regarding the affordable, mostly Chinese-manufactured ribbon mics that have come onto the scene, so while my experience has been really good, be aware of that.

Here’s how I’d typically use these mics for all kinds of sounds:

Vocals – Set up the RE-320 and R144 side-by-side at the singer’s mouth level (standard positioning) with the diaphragm and ribbon in line (i.e. the mics in phase), with a pop filter and the singer 12-18 inches away.  In the mix I’d start with the levels about equal, though I’d experiment with bringing one or the other forward to see if that worked better.

Drums – RE-320 on the kick opposite where the beater strikes the batter head, 6-18 inches from the resonant head.  e 609 on the snare, however you like your snare close-mic’d.  R144 in a drummer’s shoulder, overhead, or front-of-kit position, whatever sounds best and gives you the level of ambience you want (shouder = least ambience, front-of-kit = most ambience).  You’ll be amazed at the full, detailed drum sound you can get with just these three mics; much better, I think, to spend your money on the EV and MXL mics than get one of those sets of six or more cheaper drum mics that let you close-mic everything, but with lower quality.

Electric guitars – e 609 close up on the speaker cabinet in your favorite position, R144 three to six feet back, centered on the speaker configuration.  This combination will give you a great guitar sound, and you can mix the R144 up or down to affect the presence and space of the guitar in the mix.

Acoustic guitars – Play with a combination of the RE-320 and R144 in different positions (watch phase!), though either one on its own will do a good job, too.  Emphasize one or the other in the mix.

Bass guitar – Put the RE-320 on the speaker cabinet, and also take a direct line in from the bass.  I use the 320 as my main sound in the mix, and bring in just enough of the direct line to support the mic sound.

“Wait, what about the Shure SM57?!!”

It’s a workhorse, I agree, but both Drew and I prefer the e 609 for the classic ’57 applications; snare and guitar cabinet.

“Not a single condenser mic?!?”

I love condensers.  My go-to is a Rode NT-1 that I’ve had for a long time and am happy with, so I’m not super up-to-speed on what’s out there now, and I might make a different choice today if I were buying a first condenser mic.  But for a small, affordable mic locker to do the best job possible on all the applications above, I’ve found the RE-320 + R144 combination to be superior to anything we can do similarly with our condenser mics from the same price range.

Ventura is recorded, with the tiny exception of some gang vocals that I’ll be reaching out to KC folks to help with in a few weeks.  As I’ve been finishing up the guitar leads, I’ve been mixing one song, creating a template of sorts that I’ll use as a foundation for the other tunes.  That’s coming along nicely, too, so while there’s a lot of mixing to do, I expect it to go smoothly.  I just need to give it the time.

Jill’s been giving me hell about whether it will ever be finished, but I feel like we’re still on track for a summer release (which is perfect for the album).

Did you know that both of my library systems, the Kansas City Public LIbrary and the Mid-Continent Public LIbrary, provide access to a music streaming and download service called Freegal?  Your local library may, too, or subscribe to a similar service.

Freegal lets users download up to five DRM-free songs per week, so as a patron (and taxpayer) in both systems, I can just about get a free album every week.  Not bad.  It seems like the Freegal library focuses on more recent releases, and only from specific record labels, but I’ve found plenty of music I wanted: Nine Inch Nails, The Twilight Singers, Phoenix, High on Fire, and Baroness, just for a few examples.  All I need is my library card number and PIN.

I’m sure services like these came about in response to Napster and piracy in general.  Does anyone know if they have a measurable effect in reducing piracy?

Log in to Freegal with your KC Public Library card / Log in to Freegal with your Mid-Continent Public Library card

Check your library’s website for details.

I saw Fugazi in Lincoln on April 17th, 2001 – great show! – so since the band announced the live series a little over two years ago, I’ve had a browser tab open on that show’s page, waiting for it to go live.  (I even scanned and submitted my ticket stub, which you can see if you click on the poster, then click “Next.”)  A couple of weeks ago, it finally did.

Was it worth the wait?  I knew it would be.  It didn’t bring back specific memories of particular moments, like some of my bootlegs do, but it’s a blast to listen to.  Listening reinforces the image in my mind of standing in the middle of the crowd, the band on stage in the wide room with the low-ceiling, Guy’s SG, the tendons in Ian’s neck, and how happy I was not to have to worry about any moshing.

I had only been checking the page every few months, and even had done so in early January, but checked back again the other week after a conversation with my colleague Julie.  She’d asked what Mars Lights sounded like and I cited Fugazi and the Stooges as major reference points.  She turned out to be a Fugazi fan who had seen several KC-area shows, so I told her about the Live Series, we looked up her shows (one of which is available), I checked back on mine, and – ! – there it was.

Did you see Fugazi?  Is your show up on the Live Series, and if so, have you checked it out?

Tim‘s been making flutes for a couple of years.  This week he finished his first ukelele and put it up for sale in his Etsy shop, and it looks amazing.

The body is a cigar box; how rad is that?!

I’m impressed by Tim’s attention to detail and the amount of time and energy he spends on his instruments.  Take a look at the flutes for sale; he’s spent hours and hours experimenting with how to size a piece of bamboo to play in a certain key, the size and spacing of the finger holes for precise tuning and playing comfort, and learning how to make them sturdy.

Whether you’re a potential buyer or just checking out the photos and details of how these instruments were made, spend a minute at his shop.  You’ll learn something cool.

I’m halfway through recording lead guitars for Ventura, and hoping to finish, or get close, this long weekend.

The tone is:

• Epi ES 345 bridge pickup into
• Fulltone GT 500 boost/OD channel, flat EQ, drive dimed, volume/boost at 2 o’clock into
• The old Hot Rod Deluxe clean channel, set for the magic sixes, no reverb, into
• Sennheiser e609, 45 degrees off-axis, pointed at the center of the speaker cone (marked on the grille in duct tape), probably 3-4 inches from the cone center

I’m using the distortion channel of the GT 500 for a bass boost in a couple spots, and I’m using the Apocalypse pictured for one riff in “…Flyover Country.”  The TimeFactor might find use as an auto-wah for bits of “Market Stress.”

Since the 345 runs in stereo, I’m taking the neck pickup’s output and recording it directly into ProTools via an ART preamp, and will re-amp it later through the same pedals and amp settings, except with the reverb up high.  I’ll mix that in, and am going to experiment with pre-delaying that wet signal a bit; might be kind of interesting with the tone of the amp’s own reverb, but the clarity of a little pre-delay.

I’m not sure if this tone will work for “E Harbor Blvd,” so I may try something different – a bit more distorted – there.

Beyond the hits CD — and Christmas In LA, the Killers’ eighth festive charity single — the band will take a breather. Brandon is working on a solo album, but he assures me that he will return to the group when the time is right.

“This is the end of something,” he says. “Maybe we have become too comfortable. I’ll do my solo stuff and then come back to give The Killers a kick in the pants.”

– Interview by Adrian Thrills at The Daily Mail

Two words; Steve Albini.

The Killers are a fantastic live band.  Their hits shake stadiums, and even their deep cuts, which can be weak on record, sound great and earn a response.  They have never made an album that captures that energy; the band has made good albums, but they haven’t maxed out their potential.

Steve Albini tends to record bands live, all at once.  His straightforward approach pushes bands to write and play their best.  He’s a kick in the pants, embodied.

(Wouldn’t this be worth it just to hear Ronnie as recorded by Steve Albini, if nothing else?  Even if the songs weren’t good?  Yes is the correct answer.)

I’d love to hear a lean, raw, aggressive Killers album.  Let the rhythm section wail, lots of guitars, only the keys that Brandon can play while singing, minimal overdubs.  I want to hear the Killers album that Drew could appreciate.  I think they have it in them.

Killers & Albini in 2014!  USA!  USA!

One of the year-end lists I’ve seen – can’t recall which… maybe one of the AV Club’s individual ballots – described Tricot’s album The in a way that sent me straight to Youtube.  Results below; I love the physical joy this band takes in their music.

That was the gist of what she said, anyway.

There’s not a lot of middle ground with metal; most people either love it, or stay as far away as possible.

My taste has gotten heavier over the years, but it’s hard to remember when I really started listening to metal. Not in school, though I loved Deftones and some other borderline stuff. Then five years ago (which is when my iTunes library basically starts) I was ripping Mastodon, Back When, and DragonForce CDs, and reading Pitchfork’s Show No Mercy column (Sunn 0))), Hammers of Misfortune, Kylesa) (sac)religiously. I went back to the beginning, and worked my way through Sabbath. So I came to metal as an adult, mostly on my own, through reviews. I’ll guess that’s an atypical initiation.

Nothing else feels like a great riff. Hearing one is a direct route to egolessness. It’s a creative destroyer; it can stop me short, ending my train of thought, and it may show me a new way to look at time, pitch, and timbre, too. It can give pain a voice or be cathartic, but the best are actually joyful. They communicate the experience of overflowing. They are too much – too much awe, too much saturation, too heavy, too loud, too fast or slow – so they point toward something beyond themselves.

I listen to it because it speaks to me. Because it challenges me (how did they make that sound? Write that riff?) Because it feels great, and at its best, better than anything.

If it bugs you, that’s just because I haven’t found your gateway band yet.