thistlewired

8.21.07 & 8.22.07 - Charleston, SC

2007-08-24T13:30:00.000-05:00

Mike is driving and has given me his blessing to take on the role of the narrator for a bit.

We made it to South Carolina and pulled into Charleston in the wee hours. Rick couldn’t sleep in the van and drove straight through. Mike and I are getting quite adept at sleeping in hot cramped spaces (the secret is copious amounts of alcohol). We pulled into Rick’s sister’s residence 6:30 AM and we are greeted warmly. Sarah has made quite a life in Charleston working as a chef at a prestigious restaurant. I met Sarah’s boyfriend Logan and immediately hit it off with the big teddy bear. He is a kindred spirit bass payer and we talked a little shop. He, too, is a master chef… lucky for us. Sarah had to work, but before she left she packed us a cooler full of beers and lunch. Mike and I sought out to discover if we could surf. Rick doesn’t really like the beach because the sun constantly assaults his Irish skin. He enjoyed a much needed nap, shower, and watched the movie “300.”

Meanwhile back at the beach, Mike and I get confused looks as we frequently apply sunscreen to each other and commence embarrassing ourselves on the surfboard. Later Sarah and Logan join our surf safari. We return to Sarah’s house to a massive feast and we all enjoy Kurt Russell in “Big Trouble in Little China.”

Next morning we again assault the beach, ripping and shredding, sticking our surfboard all up in the scene off Folly Beach. Our board practically had training wheels, but it was still a hell of a challenge just popping up. Great waves though… thanks hurricane Dean.

We loaded in to Cumberland’s that evening in a cool part of Charleston. The room was great with a wonderful staff and a great PA. Thanks to our gracious hosts, there was a pretty good crowd their to see our early set. Stage sounded very good, and we had a great set. A band called Dewey Muggles played after us for like three hours making our 35-minute set seem even more brief than usual. Onwards to Florida.

- Toby

8.20.07 - Athens, GA

2007-08-23T15:07:00.001-05:00

Drive into town wasn’t bad at all. Rick drove the whole time. I read ‘The Kite Runner’, the doctor read “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.’ I also stared out the window a lot. Man it’s fucking hot in the South in August. One of these years we’ll start routing our trips around the migratory patterns of birds. For now, we burn.

We pulled into a little place called ‘Nuci’s Space’. Hadn’t been there in years; since a Mock Orange tour ages ago. This room was established as a non profit practice, recording and performance space for Athens’ local musicians and artists by a female benefactor whose son killed himself about ten years ago. They provide medical care, counseling and an on-call mechanic for touring bands. We had coffee and relaxed in their overstuffed chairs. After a bit we began to make lunch. We cooked beans and rice with fresh tomatoes and eggplant. Some local punk rockers were taking a break from practicing so we invited them to join us. It was pleasant. We cleaned up and headed towards the club.

Little Kings was a cool place that has recently started having shows. Very relaxed atmosphere. Toby and I played Yahtzee then loaded in and set up. There was some confusion with the booker; the locals thought the show was on Tuesday night instead, so we were the only band. We tore through about 35 minutes of songs then packed up and left.

Goodbye to Athens; see you in another eight years! On to Charleston, SC.

- Mike

8.19.07 - Asheville, NC

2007-08-23T15:06:00.000-05:00

Well, the drive into town from Johnson City was even shorter than expected, only an inch or so on the map, so we had more time to kill than we thought. Captain was tuckered out from the night before. Sleeping in the van in August is tough after the sun comes up. Even with the windows down the sun bakes you like a flour tortilla on a rock in Mesa Verde. Late to bed, early to rise makes everyone grumpy. We parked on a side street around the corner from the club after taking a short driving tour of downtown Asheville. The college seems nice; cabin-like residences tucked in amongst the trees and mountains; quite different from the concrete sprawl of complexes for higher education back home.

Asheville reminded me of Yellow Springs for some reason. Maybe it was all the hippies and rich dudes on Harleys they could barely ride.

Rick tried to sleep, but I had us parked outside a store that sold all sorts of over-priced African drums. Not bad in and of itself, but Sunday was lessons day at the store. I only heard the retched, off-time nonsense in short bursts as I walked to or from the van throughout the day. We left him in peace and walked around town a bit. The place we were playing seemed alright, although they kept talking about having the show outside in their little concrete and glass courtyard. Hard, reflective surfaces make the music sound tinny and harsh, so no one was looking forward to that. Plus, there aren’t too many places where we can play a whole set outside without the cops coming. The bar was having ‘build your own bloody Mary’ day, so the doctor and I took advantage of that. I couldn’t stop thinking about Kris Kristofferson for some reason.

After a while we began our walking tour of the town. Checked out a couple record stores and one of those weird comic book/fascination role playing game boutiques. I thumbed through a few ‘WarHammer’ books to reaffirm my groundedness in reality. I spotted a kid skating down the street and after a brief exchange, I was on my way to the Team Pain built Foodlion Concrete Skatepark. It was a marvelous creation. The only downside was the city ordinance enforcing full pads and helmets. There was a snake run, some banks and quarterpipes, ledges and pyramids, but the real prize was the bowl at the far end of the place. No one was riding it, so that’s where I set up camp. Toby read a book while I exhausted myself over the course of the next two hours.

Back to the van and onto the next mission; groceries to restock our chuckwagon. The only place we could find within walking distance was an organically grown food coop. What a bunch of overpriced bullshit. Who the fuck can afford 5-8 bucks for a loaf of bread? We bought al the cheapest shit possible to get through lunch and had ourselves some nice tomato and cheese sandwiches on the sidewalk. After a while we loaded in and set up. We were playing first of three on a absurdly diverse bill. We were followed by a bluegrass band; they were followed by three Djs with computers. Strange town.

We loaded out and drove right outside town to the promoter, Elias’ house. This dude was super nice to us. He lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere. His two roommates are in touring bands I guess, so he said it was fine to make noise. He had drums and amps set up all over the main room, so we dicked around until the notes stopped making sense. Captain took the bed in the AC, the doctor and I took the van. Woke up early to the blazing sun and broke camp. On to Athens.

- Mike

8.18.07 - Johnson City, TN

2007-08-22T12:06:00.000-05:00

In the van and driving by 9:15 am. Left sleepy Somerset behind on our way to the mountains of Tennessee. The tires chewed up plenty of road as we wove our way East across Kentucky. With nothing but time to kill we crossed state lines and made it to David Crockett’s birthplace. We walked into the visitor’s center right as some noted Crockett historian was giving an annual presentation on the life and times of Tennessee’s most famous congressman. Two little numbnuts gingers in full buckskin suits slammed the goddamned door a hundred times as the sweaty professor and historian animatedly carried on. Quite entertaining.

Back in the van and back on the road. We made our way deeper into the black heart of the TN mountains. We wound around and around , climbing higher and higher to the top of Buffalo Mountain State Park. Why they called it ‘Buffalo’ Mountain I have no idea, as I saw two black bear cubs rummaging for food while preparing our feast of rice and fresh tomatoes. The Captain scrambled to the van to grab his hockey stick; I donned by trusty Gerber in case mom was near by. The doctor just laughed. With all of David Crockett’s Bear hunting stories fresh in my mind I didn’t want to chance it. We finished eating.

Back on the road.

We arrived at the Hideaway with an early all-ages show in full-swing. Bunches of cookie monster axe-wielding guitar heroes posturing in feigned emotional frenzy. I’ll have a tall can of beer please. Back to the van to wait for the nonsense to clear out.

We loaded in around 11:00pm. We played first, and it felt good.

Next was Angels of Meth. First time we ever played with those guys. I recorded their album, and I’ve seen ‘em a bunch, but never gotten to actually play with them. They were loud, tight and rocking. It’s heavy, groove oriented stoner metal with licks and chops out the wazzoo from a bunch of scary looking men. Appropriate that they should close the night. We loaded out and then helped them load out. The Reverend Jim grabbed me by the head and kissed me right on the lips. I ran to our van as quickly as I could, squirted hand sanitizer all over my face and then set my skin on fire. No idea if those efforts were enough to kill his germs, but so far, so good.

We fired up the engine and headed out of town. Made it into North Carolina around 3:00am and pulled into the first rest stop we could find. Nestled snuggly in the foothills of Big Butt Mountain we drifted off to sleep.

- Mike

8.17.07 - Somerset, KY

2007-08-22T12:02:00.000-05:00

We arrived in the historic business district of Somerset around 8:00pm, a little later than we would have liked, but what can you do. The van purred like a kitten all the way down 75 to Renfro Valley with her $1K worth of brakes and ball joints. It was a smooth sail. She feels tight again like the first day the Captain brought her home from the dealership.

Somerset’s always been a great place for us to play, from our first days there at Roll Skatepark to the now-defunct Amp Space to the almost defunct Riverstone Gallery. The hands-down core of the town’s music scene is a fella named James Vitatoe. We’re lucky to call him our friend. With a customized vanity plate reading ‘Fugazi’ on his sporty little 300 hundred dollar car that he’s been driving for the last few years, it’s easy to see where he got his undying sense of DIY and community centered-ness. He is the glue of this sleepy town, and it’s through his selfless efforts that we’ve been lucky to meet a talented new crop of musicians that are only getting better and better with each return visit.

We are Pompeii were already set up and ready to go by the time we started loading in. I felt like an asshole opening and closing cases while they were playing a stripped down acoustic set, but we tried to be as quiet as we could. They were cool, bass player trying his hands on acoustic guitar for the first time live… one of ‘em couldn’t make it I think, so they pulled it together as a two piece. Kind of Bright eyes meets…. I can’t think what else.

With fresh strings and thickened blood from our hours in the van, we set up to go next. Couldn’t quite get the amps sounding right for the first couple songs,, couldn’t really hear Toby too well either. His stuff’s heavy enough, it should be loud enough. That’s how it works, right? I think the room may not have enough AC to properly power all the tube gear, but regardless, it was good to shake off the first night jitters. We did ‘Coffin Notes’, ‘Crest Nursing’, ‘Send the Owls’, ‘Among the Quiet People’, ‘Conifer’, ‘In Multiples’, ‘The Departure’, ‘Ribbons’ and ‘Thinning Herds’.

Our old buddies in the Colour out of Space went third. Very nice of them to play on such short notice. They were ripping it up as usual. Jason’s guitar has quite a zing to it. He led the band through myriad sounds and styles, from surf to jazz to metal to funk, all in the course of one song! Absolutely effortless, fluid, mesmerizing guitar playing, and the bastard’s only 20!

End of the night, loaded out, Colour out of Josh asks us to stay at his place. Cool house about 200 yards away from the club. Rambonxious little pug named Dakk. I would have called him Pugsly, but he was a fucking ball of energy none the less Josh is a fucking Star Wars and comic book nut. We stayed in his upstairs room which he had to clear of action figures and light sabers so we could spread out. I cooked beans and rice with a light salad of cucumbers and home grown tomatoes Dry county means apple juice and water. His wife was about ten months pregnant, says she can’t sleep anyways so didn’t mind that we were there. Very kind of them both, plus they had to work early the next morning, so the pancakes were an extra treat!

Sometimes you meet some of the nicest people in the world. They went out of their way to make us comfortable and we truly appreciate it. Day one complete.

- Mike

September 5th, Covington KY

2006-09-06T23:24:00.000-05:00

We haven't had many show/tour journals in the last year, but we've got a good excuse.
We have been amazingly busy getting our new record finished, and ready to release. But, now we finally have a show update.

Last night we played on a great bill at the Mad Hatter. The amazing Smoking Popes, with Criteria, and Louisville's Black Sunday.

Black Sunday opened the show. They were super nice guys that played a tight set of dark, punk rock songs. They played a really short set, but they were good at what they were doing.

We played second. Weird how strange the stage felt after not having played a real show in a few months. You could say we're getting our "sea legs" back, but we're definitely not there yet. Set was pretty good...not our best, but pretty good. I don't think anyone was nervous, but everyone was feeling a bit of tension. All in all it was a blast, and felt good to play in front of people we didn't know again.

Criteria was up next, and I didn't know what to expect from them. I hadn't heard much/any of there stuff prior to their set. Steve, Chris, AJ, and Aaron were all super cool guys, and they really threw down. Very cool stuff. Loud, tight, cool songs. Definitely check them out if they come to your town, and pick up their latest record...I know I will.

After Criteria's set, the legendary Chicago rockers Smoking Popes were up next. I really dig these guys and was psyched that they were back together. They came out of the gate clicking on all cylinders and didn't let up for about an hour. Song after song, each one tighter and catchier than the last. I haven't seen a band that has such catchy and melodic songs play such a ferociously tight set in a L-O-N-G time. Hopefully they'll be back.

Next up...Somerset KY.

Fun, Fun, Fun.

All things new...

2006-08-02T16:56:00.000-05:00

So,

Our new record is done. It's been done for a while actually. We are busy at work trying to figure out all of the release details for it. While we don't really have any "real news" to report on that front, we hope to very soon.

Good news is, we have almost (finally) finished the new thistle website. This is LONG overdue. Hopefully it will go live in the next week or so...

Lots of shows coming up in September and beyond. You'll get to look at our new website soon to keep up to speed on all our new shows.

Talk soon,

thistle

New record...

2006-06-20T13:41:00.000-05:00

After tons of work our new record is finally done. I know you're going to say, "but you've been saying that for weeks now?" but this time we really mean it. We recently completed the final mixes, mastered the album, and finalized a sequence for it. The new record is called The Small Hours, and contains 10 tracks. The track listing is as follows...

1. Conifer
2. Send the Owls
3. Among the Quiet People
4. Crest Nursing
5. The Ground Begins
6. Year of Frozen Limbs
7. In Multiples
8. The Distant Talk of Brothers
9. Ribbons
10. The Departure

We are now getting the artwork ready, and working on the release plans. While none of those details are in place, we will certainly make a very public announcement once the time is right. Until then we have a few shows booked, and are working on getting out of town much, much more in the near future.

Stay tuned...

A Brief Sigh Of Relief...

2006-05-16T20:51:00.000-05:00

We finished mixing the new album a few weeks ago. Last week Mike renting some gear to master the album. Quite an amazing process really. It was very interesting to see it all come together.

My own bias aside, I think the mastered version sounds pretty sick. I'm not sure if it will be the final version just yet, but it's a step in the right direction. We posted a new song on our myspace page. The song is called "Send The Owls", and it ended up sounding incredibly good. But then again, I feel that way about all the songs.

This weekend we will be playing our first show since last year. We purposefully held off from playing shows until we finished the record. So, it's going to be really fun to finally get on a stage again and play these new tunes. The Cincypunk Fest is always a blast, and this year's line up looks like it may be the best one yet.

Beneath The Antlers

2006-03-22T16:14:00.000-05:00

So, we are back from our Ampline tour. Now we can get down to going over the working mixes Mike put together before we left of the new record. So far, I love what I'm hearing. It sounds big, aggressive, yet melodic, and clear. Good, good.

Got together last night, and went over some notes T had. Trying to make sure everyone goes over every aspect of the songs with a fine tooth comb.

We just got footage of this video that an Israeli video company made last year of an Israeli skateboarder. It's kind of just an account of what his day is like, and the skateboarding/youth culture in Israel right now. Our good friend Adam Rosenfeld (Men Of Israel Records) hooked us up with the good folks at Black Sheep TV. They ended up using "New Christ Killer" as the music in the video piece. It's pretty cool. You can check it out HERE.

That's all that's going on now. Just a few more sessions away from signing off on the mixes, then we'll get the beast mastered. Looks like we are going to start playing again in May, with the BIG Cincypunk Fest at the Poison Room. That should be an amazing time. Lots of great bands, and it's in a slightly smaller venue, so it'll be killer.

Talk soon.

The Golden Door - 2/06

2006-03-22T15:58:00.000-05:00

Well...it's been quite a while since anyone has posted anything on here. So I'll do a little "update" on our recording process as of late.

This last week of February we had a very productive late night session where we put together a few "segues" for the record. Very incidental, non-song-like, pieces of music that are intended to serve as quick interludes between songs. I think they worked out pretty well.

One of the pieces was a guitar piece that Toby wrote a while back. He played it on his little Fender amp, with some cool tremolo, while I did a really simple rythym with just ride/kick/rim shot. Mike just needs to mix it to the appropriate level, and I think it'll be a cool addition.

The second piece we worked on was completely off the cuff. Mike wanted to have a sort of "intro" for "Ask The Dust" and suggested we play a part of the chorus in a unique way. After briefly tossing some ideas back and forth, I suggested we try to use that but stretch it out and make it a more dark, ambient, swelling, piece of noise that crescendoed into those notes he was looking for. I was really happy with the way this turned out. Mike was doing some cool ebow/feedback through his marshall head on his jazzmaster, and I did a weird ride/tom pattern on my practice kit. It's REALLY slow, spooky, and sludgy sounding til the end where Toby plays those notes on this weird dulcimer type instrument. Not sure what it's called. I think my description of this is just vague/abstract enough that you probably won't get what it sounds like til you hear it. Ha ha ha.

The last thing was another piece that Toby came up with on his acoustic guitar at home. Very cool little ditty. I suggested he try to track it in the ENORMOUS wherehouse outside the studio walls. It's just a monsterous concrete cavern, so I thought it'd give the music a killer natural reverb sound. He said he had some trouble tracking it since it was a thing he just made up on the fly one night, recorded as he thought of it, and never played it again. Not sure if we'll use it or not...we'll have to see how it get's mixed.

All in all, a very productive session. These types of things have worked out very well for us lately. We seem to come up with good ideas when we do things in a spontaneous way like this. We never used to work like this, but now having the studio I guess we can afford to try things in this way.

Fun, fun. Can't wait to hear the mixes. Now we have a little break while Mike and I head on the road with Ampline for about two weeks. Should be great.

November 19th Covington, KY

2005-11-29T14:53:00.000-05:00

Big night.

This show was the record release show for Covington's new album, Devised Without A Plan, which hit stores on November 15th. Turned out to be a really great show...mainly because we were playing with three other really good bands.

First up was Alone At 3am. They have been working with Mike at Candyland on their new record, which so far sounds AMAZING. Very excited to hear the finished product. These guys get better/tighter/more fun to watch each time I see them. Probably because you find yourself getting "into" their songs more and more each time you hear their music.

Next up was Humans Bow Down. A band that I also find myself enjoying more and more every time I see/hear them. They seem to take great pains to make sure their sound/tones on stage are very good, which makes a band sound that much better when they play. Very good stuff.

We played third, which was cool. Our set started off well enough I thought, but seemed to lose some momentum as it went on. Partially due to things within our control, and outside our control. Ahh well, what can you do. The new songs feel great to rock out on stage, which is a good sign.

Our old friends in Covington were up next. By that time, there was quite a good crowd of people there to see them. They hadn't played a show in over a year, so there was definitely a lot of anticipation for their set. They opened with a new tune, and proceeded to rock out most of the songs off of Devised. The set was going great until at one point, a scrum seemed to break out in front of the stage. It looked a lot like this:

After some very fancy footwork, a brief stoppage of play, and some smooth taking by Kevin Schmidt, the band was back at it. They seemed to pick up right where they left off. The guys sounded very tight, clearly they were ready for the show. Hopefully this show served as a catalyst to motivate them to play out more.

My head hurts...

Pumpkin Pie

2005-11-01T02:27:00.000-05:00

I will argue here that it is still Halloween even though it's technically the next morning. Whenever I get home and it's really fucking late, I just consider it the end of the night of whatever day i started working on rather than the beginning of the day I'm actually in. This day ( the next day, or the current day) won't officially start until I've gone to sleep and then woken back up again.
the spirits of all my dead ancestors watched from the corners of the room as I poured half a bottle of raw honey down my throat and tried to coax it back out onto tape for the lead vocal track of "ask the dust". around 9:00pm I believe the ghosts lost all hope and began rattling the pipes disguised as a hot water heater. quitters; fuck 'em. so it took me a total of four hours to do one vocal track, who cares? it's my party and I'll sing if I want to.
I'm happy so far with the results, so that's the important thing. although I gotta admit, I really don't want to spend this long singing the rest of the songs for the record. I don't want to use any of that pitch correction stuff like cher does though, so i'm gonna really try and get it as close to good as possible this time around. since I like the majority of the words this time out, might as well try and make the delivery of them not make me want to turn off my radio every time I hear a particular tune.
around midnight I started putting down a lap steel part on the same song. toby and I were looking for something creepier sounding in certain parts of the verses and his bowed bass wasn't the timbre we wanted on this tune, so I think this slide stuff might actually work. it really flushes out the verses and the chorus and especially the outro nicely. I know what you're thinking captain, but don't worry; it'll be a subtle addition to the rest of the intstruments that serve only to prop up your hi hats and tambourine!
speaking of raw honey, my folks knew these dudes when I was real young who somehow qualified for government assistance, so one time they gave us a whole bottle of this G.I. honey they got. man it was fucking tastey! it had big giant clumps in it like it had just been puked out of a worker bee's belly. uncle sam may not have his finger on the pulse of the nation all the time, but his honey and his blocks of cheddar cheese are alright by me.
oh yeah, I sang through a shure sm7 into a UA 6176 with a little bit of compression into the adl compressor/limiter straight to tape. very little eq.
the guitar went through a hafler hellrazor preamp into a marshall power amp through an orange 4 x 12 cabinet miced with a shure ksm 44 into figure 8 mode, ran through a vintech 1272 into one side of the fatso compressor then to tape. fascinating.

night night.

-Mike 2:45 am

Shake, ring, click, etc...

2005-10-25T03:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight we all met at the studio to work on some of the odds and ends we need to put on the record. Toby got their first, and did some weird/crazy sounding bass swells with his stand up bass. He's been telling us how he could do these crazy swells if he bowed his stand up bass, and man, was he right. That thing is a monsterous instrument, capable of so much. I thought my 26" kick drum moved some air...yikes.

When I arrived, we talked about all of the guitar tracks that Mike had completed. After a short debate regarding some of the tones on "In Multiples" we agreed it was best to let Mike work all that out on his own, and move on to laying down some percussion.

I hadn't had that much time to "prepare" what I wanted to do like I usually try to. But I thought I'd give it a go since I felt like these songs didn't require too much in the way of percussive highlights, aside from the initial drum tracks which I'm quite proud of.

Mike and I agreed to just rock through each song one at a time laying down the tambourine, since that's the first thing I thought was necessary. I think there are about 5-6 tunes that I actually played something that we'll keep/use.

The other elements of "honey" we put down was some cool sleighbells on "The Departure" and "Among The Quiet People Of The Frost".

I also threw some maracas on "Among The Quiet People..." and "The Departure" for some chick-chick effect. We thought the tambourine just wasn't right for those songs.

I finally got the chance to finally lay down that elusive clave part I've always wanted to do on "Among The Quiet People..." which actually sound pretty sweet.

I'm very anxious to hear how Mike mixes all the cool stuff we've contributed. This record is interesting. We've spent more time than ever before writing/arranging each song as a group. So we each had a very good idea of what needed to be done prior to actually recording, so that process has been quite quick & efficient. It's all the "bells & whistles" that we add on top of the basic tracks that take time editing/mixing down.

Should be killer when it's all said and done.

Thanks.

no I lay thee down to rest

2005-10-22T21:30:00.000-05:00

fortunately and unfortunatley, the guitars are finished for the new thistle album. while we haven't been keeping a day-by-day account of our studio activity, a lot has been going on.
over the course of the last two months we've completed all the bass tracks and now all the guitar tracks. today, saturday, saw the last notes comitted to tape, so unless we hear something that sucks later down the road, we'll move on to vocals and percussion and other ancillary noodlings.
the songs for today were "conifer", "in multiples", "the departure" and "send the owls." I did some electrics on "send the owls" which were actuclly the only ones done on that tune to this point. the typical set up is a les paul through a marshall jmp 100 through a fender 2 X12 cabinet, miced with a combination of a sennheiser 421 and a shure 57 or beta 57 depending on the tune, bussed together to one track. I usually run them through the vintech 1272's then through the empirical labs fatso compressor then to two line inputs on the console so I can blend or eq or whatever before bussing them to one track on the tape machine. I also sometimes mix in a shure ksm 44 which is a little further back in the room if I want a little more 'space' in the sound. for a double I'll hook up a telecaster through the same amp/mic set up. it usually gets the sound I'm looking for.
in addition to the guitars and amps there's any variety of pedals to go through. from the classic standby big muff to the tech 21 xxl distortion pedal to wahs and tremelos and delays and flangers and the super secret prescription electronics experience pedal (the hidden weapon).

quite an arsenal, I'll agree, but it's necessary to achieve a variety of tones from song to song.
today the good doctor and I also ran his martin acoustic guitar through an amp and combined that miced sound with a di from the acoustic's pre amp to do the beginning of "conifer", "the departure" and the break in "in multiples".
somehow, despite our relatively late start, we got a lot done. the dosctor left around 6pm and I listened through to each of the tunes and did a little mock mixing to make sure I had enough stuff to whittle down for the final product. I think we're there.
I apologize for the hap-hazzard ordering of the words on this page, but my head is too full of notes and ringing to make much more sense at this point.
tonight we ride, as always.
-mike

Kracked, etc...

2005-09-17T02:32:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a while since anyone has posted on here. We've been very busy lately, although it may not seem like it.

Man oh man, what a night July 21st was. I finally got to see the original line up of Dinosaur Jr. play. Not only that, but they only played material off of their first three records. I honestly thought I would never, ever see those three on a stage together again. Let alone tearing through all those amazing songs, tighter & louder than ever. This show totally made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Easily the best show I've seen all year, maybe even best show of the last 3 years?!?!

Played some shows at the end of August, which was a much needed change from our recent bout of hibernation. Sometimes we get a little "lost" in the studio when we focus on writing/recording. So, it was VERY good for everyone to get back in the habit of packing the gear, loading the van, playing shows, etc...

Now that Mike has wrapped up the mixing of the new Light Wires' album, we can focus on the new thistle recording. Toby and I pretty much wrapped up all of our basic tracking duties 4th of July weekend, so now Mike is holding the reins. Very excited to hear what kind of honey he's going to pour all over these new rockers. Lots of dates scheduled at Candyland for late September, October, so hopefully we'll have something to share soon.

Saw our old buddies Miranda Sound tonight at the Viper Room. They're so cool. They keep getting better, and better every time I see em. Can't say that about everyone ya know. Great guys to boot, go see them when you have the chance. I'm anxious to hear their new record that they just finished recording with the almighty J. Robbins. I'm sure it sounds AMAZING.

That's all for now. Rockin the Mad Hatter tomorrow night. It's the first time playing there with Mike & Toby, should be a blast.

Studio Journal: circle the wagons

2005-07-02T16:44:00.000-05:00

7/2/2005
back from a good day at candyland. we met around 10 this morning ready to start the day.
by the end of last night we were only really sold on our drum takes for "ask the dust," so we knew we had a full work load ahead of us. well, maybe I should re-phrase that; Rick had a full load ahead of him. he's the one that has to get his drums down right while Toby and I can slack off and ooze all over the strings, knowing full well we can re-track our parts later.
we started with "Me in Print," and did about three takes. Brian Edwards came down to work the machines for us, so we were able to all stand out in the room together and just play. It was very nice of him to do and it helped a lot. next up we did "conifer," which rick had some good takes on. I think we ended up using our second take of almost every song, except for a new one, "alphabet of trees," which we used the first take on.
we cut a total of 8 tunes; one last night and seven today. I made a mix of all of em for each person so we could listen to the drums some more and we left for the day. we'll be back in tomorrow morning, so if there are any we want to re-track, we'll do that, and if not, we'll start layinjg down bass. so far, so good!
-Mike

Studio Journal: First Night Jitters

2005-07-02T04:30:00.000-05:00

7/1/05

Well, quite an eventful first night.

I got to the studio at 7:30pm to meet Mike, Toby, and this guy named John Parker who is going to interview us for this film he is making about the Cincinnati music scene. When he got there, he notified us that he actually wanted to get footage of us playing, so we set up our gear to run through a couple tunes. While setting up my kit, I realized a serious problem -- the spurs for my kick drum were missing. This is a critical part of a 1973 Ludwig super classic drum set, the spurs help keep the kick drum from rolling on it's sides. The Ludwigs of that era were outfitted with telescopic, curved, metal spikes. The flaw in the design is that they retract inside the drum shell...which can pose some problems for packing and/or traveling. So I always would completely remove them, and keep them in my tool box so I don't lose them...or so I thought. Somehow I had in fact lost them, nearly rendering this monster kit useless. Bonehead move #1.

After John filmed us playing, asked us some questions, then split, I spent a frantic hour and a half running back and forth from the studio to my house combing every possession I had to see if I had misplaced the spurs. Sadly, I was unsuccessful. Bonehead move #2.

I should have just cut my losses an hour before and not wasted everyone's time. So, at about 10pm Mike suggested we figure out a way to secure the kick drum to keep it from moving so we could begin tracking. He grabbed some sound reinforcing foam from the storage room, and got some gaff tape, and 5 minutes later, it was all set! I don't know what we'd do without Mike's resourcefulness. He really is much like his hero MacGyver, great at problem solving, especially when you're short on time and the proper supplies. Once again, he's saved my ass. After getting the kick drum secured, we were readu tp roll. Here's the specs of the gear I had at my disposal:

Ludwig Super Classic (1973), Black Oyster Pearl
14" x 26" Bass drum
16" x 16" Floor tom
9" x 13" Rack tom

Snares to choose from:
6.5" x 14" Ludwig Supraphonic (early '70's, green/olive badge)
6.5" x 14" J & J Custom
6.5" x 14" Gretsch (early '80's, stop sign badge)

Cymbals:
22" Zildjian A Ride (VERY old, guessing late '70's, has no markings)
20" Zildjian A Custom Crash
19" Zildjian A Medium Crash
15" Zildjian A New Beat Hi-Hat Top (early '70's model)
15" Zildjian A Mastersound Hi-hat Bottom

The kit sounded great, but the Ludwig Supraphonic snare was giving Mike an annoying buzz. I tried tuning it differently, but it just wasn't cutting it. Mike suggested different heads, but my patience had grown thin with the old girl, so I thought I'd try the J & J Custom snare Jeff Rowekamp had built me about 4 years ago, which I hadn't used in a while. It's a beautiful drum...gorgeous green stain, 10-ply, with 5-ply reinforcement rings. I had it outfitted with an Aquarian "Hi-Energy" batter side head, but that wasn't really doing it for us either. I decided to just take that head off and threw on the old faithful, a Remo coated emperor. With some minor muffling, and some tuning, it sounded pretty good. So we had the kit ready to go.

We started by running through "Ask The Dust" a few times. Some of the takes were ok, but many were mired by some timing miscues, blown fills, and/or broken sticks. I was just thinking too much about what we were playing...the takes just lacked any feel. So, after calming down a bit we got a solid take of the tune. Next I thought we'd give "Crest Nursing" a shot, but those takes really seemed lackluster, and sloppy. After 2-3 stabs at that tune, I suggested we just call it a night since we were all very tired (it was after 1:30am), and I was pretty pissed about losing those bass drum spurs and wasting so much time earlier that night, so I didn't want everyone to feel like banging our heads against the wall.

Home by 2:15am...get some sleep and we'll try it again at 10am Saturday morning.

Studio Journal: Cherry Bomb

2005-07-01T17:05:00.000-05:00

Friday July 1st, 2005
We've officially cracked the seal on the commencement of the recording of our next album. I have a tentative title which I'm trying to convince the other fellers of, but I'll save it for now.
7:30pm was to be our official start time, but we waited to set up a bit cus this dude jim roder was coming down to do a little interview. he's an independent filmmaker who was out in santa fe for awhile. I met him about ten years ago I guess when he still lived in town. he had this batch of songs he was recording at an old studio I used to work at. I can't remember how any of 'em go right now, but I remember he was always cool to work with. It was different sounding and definitely his own thing. anyways, he showed up with jerry from WAIF 88.3's kindred sanction. Man, that guy's great. he's been doing that local music show for so fucking long. he tells stories about people as if we're all in the same boat, but he knows so much about local music and the family trees of bands... I don't know, half the time I can't even keep up cus he's way before my time... always a pleasure though...
right, so those guys came down and we did a couple songs live for this film that mr. roder is making, and then we answered some of his questions and then they packed up their gear and left. Then the work started.
We tore down everything we had set up and put rick's drums back together, then moved all the guitar and bass cabinets out into a different room. that way they wouldn't bleed too much on the drum room mics.
I put all the microphones in place and ran a bunch of wires all over the floors, then set up the headphone system and went back to the control room to bring up tones. I was psyched because I had gotten a new shure sm7 and I wanted to try it on the front of the kick drum, but it ended up sounding kind of shitty. we took some time on the snare drum, even trying different drums and didfferent heads until finally settling on that pretty green one the captain has. all in all, I ended up with fifteen basic tracks. kick, front of kick, two top snare mics, rack tom, floor tom, two overheads, two drum room mics, a bass direct and a bass cabinet mic, and four guitar mics on the two different 4x12 cabinets all bussed to two separate tracks for one full stereo pass of guitar. scratch vocals took up a track as well... almost forgot about that.
I think we're all pretty happy with the drum sounds. we only cut two songs ("ask the dust" and "crest nursing"), and we might do them again tomorrow, but the real goal was just to get loaded in and set up and get the sounds, so I think we've at least accomplished that much. we'll meet again at 10am saturday morning and really start plowing through the songs. This record is going to be a straight forward rock album.. no filler and no sparkle... just try and make it sound loud like a live show.
more to come as it comes to us.

goodnight.

3:05 am

-Mike

Everywhere Snakes...

2005-06-28T20:31:00.000-05:00

It's been entirely too long since we've had really good, new things to talk about. We're finally going to start tracking the songs that will become our 6th album this Friday night. I'm personally VERY excited. I think we've worked very hard to get these tunes as airtight as possible, so I'm officially antsy about getting to finally lay em down.

Not sure what kind of magic Mike has in mind, but if the last two records we've been working on recently are any indication, it's going to be sick. Each project we've worked on seems to get better, and better. Can't wait.

Now I just have to nail down the right head configuration to put on my new favorite kit, the '73 Ludwig super classic, black oyster pearl finish with the 26" kick drum...

God Damn.

So new it hurts...

2005-05-18T14:00:00.000-05:00

Well, we've been slaving aways writing new songs for a while now. Luckily, the process has been very beneficial. Normally we don't work well when we're confined in the practice space for long periods of time, but I think we've all adjusted to it very well and that's causing us to have some very pleasant results. The new songs are great, and a big step for us as a band. Can't wait to record them. Hopefully that will start soon...

Start playing again in late August...counting down the days, hours, minutes...

- Rick