Busy busy busy. I got married, Evan’s getting married. Woof town. Anyways, here are some things I noticed about these records that may be informing are music soon:

Ry Cooder – Self titled

This is Ryland’s first record, made under the supervision of Lenny Waronker/Brian Wilson collaborator Van Dyke Parks. Cooder had played with Taj Mahal in Rising Sons, and helped arrange and played on Captain Beefheart’s magnificent debut “Safe as Milk”.

Cooder is known as a guitar virtuoso, but what amazed me about this record is his remarkable restraint. He’s obviously gifted, but there isn’t a wasted guitar solo to be found. The instrumental pieces, such as Cooder’s lone compositional contribution “Available Space”, offers slippery slide guitar dueling with Van Dykes’s piano for less than two minutes time. “France Chance” is a rampaging rhythm guitar stomp that the Velvet Underground wished they’d copped, and “One Meatball” pits Cooder’s tentative baritone against a wall of orchestration that somehow manages not to completely swallow the dark humor of the song.

Continuing the theme of economy, Antony and the Johnston’s debut record is mostly piano and vocals. Whether it’s Rufus Wainwright, Boy George, Lou Reed or Antony’s warbling operatics, the voice and words are the centerpiece of this record. The drums and bass that accompany the record are expertly recorded, adding a gritty punch and bottom that such a muted experience demands.

The balance is perfect, as the occasional murmurs of synthesizer and orchestral swells accompanying the sparse arrangements are give room to color the rather somber environment the songs inhabit.

Neither of these records are particularly long, probably averaging at 40 minutes. Each artists knows their strength and play to it, but don’t give in to ambition’s sometime suffocating grasp.

This was a collection of songs written before The Clops entered the studio to record their first record, which can be downloaded for FREE here. All of them were recorded on my awesomely funky 8-track or hurriedly applied to Mike’s Pro Tools rig while the neighbors downstairs pounded on the ceiling.

When I first started writing words for Clops, I wanted to create a world, a network of beings, monsters, and childhood memories. Huge Days represents an essential peak to that writing process. Granted, we wrote a lot of music after this EP, but I’m not so sure this music will see the light of day. For now, take whatever Clops the Clops will give ye.

ENJOY.

The first time I heard of Chrome was when a friend told me that Pavement had ripped them off. I had recently been introduced to Pavement by my friend Jarek. Amongst other things, their first release “Slanted and Enchanted” is nothing if not a cross-genre love letter to the 80’s, through the lens of their hyper-literate leader Stephen Malkmus.

The shaky, warbly vocals of Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr, the lyrical puzzles of R.E.M., the sonics of The Television Personalities with occasional Mark E. Smith caterwauls. All this held together with what I now view as an apparent homage to Chrome’s industrial metal shards and song structures.

Now, Chrome at the time of “3rd” was comprised of Damon Edge and Helios Creed on vocals, guitars, and keyboards while the Stench Brothers held down the bass and drums. Not many 80’s guitarists can hold a candle to Creed’s electric manglings. He has an epically melodious sense, even when his guitar sounds like it will actually destroy the very tape the band is trying to record on.

The mix is dense, the drums and bass mixed loudly in with the vocals. Only the lead guitar manages to over-power them. Tape loops, rhythm guitars and keyboards fill in the mid-range. Newer recording clarity aside, this ain’t Steely Dan. Don’t expect to hear the kick drum pedal squeak.

The songs. Forgoing the Faustian cut-and-paste collage style that dominated their earlier records, 3rd is rooted in a strange marriage. Somewhere, on a planet far away, the heavy metal of Black Sabbath, the industrial sludge of Throbbing Gristle, motorik swerve of Neu! and the unbounded energy of the Swell Maps collided to form the sound of this album.

Songs like “Firebomb” and “Heartbeat” mercilessly plow ahead, mixing in quasi-funk bass/drums with brain-damaging guitar runs. Damon Edge’s keyboards slink along, quietly adding sinister counter-melodies to the bass guitar’s foundations.

The lyrics are dark and incredibly hard to decipher. Yes, certain nouns and verbs can be occasionally gleaned from the chaos, but they are fragmentary in nature, all doom and gloom with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

If you have 20 bucks, buy the Chrome Box. Four complete albums, as well as the Inworlds 12″ among other odds and ends. Essentially amazing.

This topic is wonderfully relevant to my current struggles. I have always had a looming problem in my recording history: too much too soon. I begin the process of writing songs for a full-length or EP, and before finishing the first project I begin writing for the next one. It’s especially confusing when one project or persona bleeds into the next.

That Zappa book’s pretty good, but preachy as all heck. Yeah, Zappa, you were right, the Christian right-wingers got their way and ran the country to almost two decades. Yeah. Now, explain why “Broadway the Hard Way” was such a piece of bland garbage with stock-Zappa arrangements? Politics do belong in music, but not when it’s so overt. But you knew that, didn’t you Zappa? You smug bastard.

That’s a separate conversation for a separate post.

I can easily be accused of listening to my own recordings, as I’m working on compiling The Attics Demos. Some of these songs are 3 years old. Some are barely months or weeks old. I’ve incorporated several Attics songs into other bands: Edgy Citizens, even Multiple Cyclops was supposed to be an Attics album until I convinced myself I needed a band proper to record and play with.

Multiple Cyclops was probably the first proper band I’ve ever been in. Mike and Mischa were incredible musical partners, willing to play any song I offered up and arranging parts of their instruments (guitar and keyboards, respectively) on the spot. You couldn’t ask for better band-mates. Those were incredibly focused songs, and the first batch of 14 proved to be enough to fill a whole album. As I played gigs and rehearsed, more songs came at an even quicker pace. As it stands, there are still almost 35 unreleased songs in the Cyclops vault. As of right now, those songs will never see the light of day.

I still talk to Mike and Mischa, but I’m separated by half a country. Every once in a while I’ll pop in the album to give it a spin, which is rough considering that it’s still basically unmixed. Nevertheless, you do transport back to not only the recording sessions, but the afternoons of invention that led to the songs. What I may have been eating (giant sandwiches) or drinking (giant coffees) at the time, or which episode of Law & Order was on in the background come to mind.

With the Attics, the writing has spanned over the course of all the bands and records I’ve worked with/on. Now that I’m finally getting the hang of Pro Tools (PS-I still hate you Digidesign, for putting out a product that was not ready for consumers. Apple, I slightly dislike you for the incompatibility issue, but I enjoy your interface so all is forgiven between us!), I’m ready to find the cream of the crop and try to create a definitive recording of these songs.

This of course means trudging through nearly 35 songs, actually 40. I finally recovered five “lost” songs from a scratched up data CD, with aborted Pro Tools sessions as well! Fantastic! Luckily, Evan is helping me slog through them all. There is a wonderful range of quality:

1. Embarrassing minimum- guitar part, maybe 1:00 long, with disjointed sections, sounds like it was played by an 90-year-old woman

2. Bare Minimum – guitar, voice, guitar part is almost complete but lacks any hooks, the vocals range from terrible to hilariously awful

3. Minimum – guitar, vocal, possible synth, guitar and vocals are remarkably coherent, keyboards probably involve minor dabbling before feeding back and cutting out awkwardly

4. Neutral – guitar, vox, keys, elec. drums, arrangement is fleshed out in miniature, lyrics are almost completed, drums are electronic but give a good template

5. Surprisingly decent – most of the arrangement finished, vocals are multi-tracked, bass gtr appears, and actual Pro Tools tracking can commence

Poor Evan. He has to slog through almost 40 songs of that! Psychologically, it lifts me up. After so many years of writing, one tends to lose perspective. What sounded like a great song to me two years ago now sounds like garbage. Hopefully Evan will be able to convince me not to throw everything out.

In the meantime, check out this rough transfer of Gilgamesh’s latest track, Destroy All Honda Elements. It has to be severely edited down, but check out the 19 minute track length. Everyone has a place in their heart for a little prog, no?

Yes. Yes you do.