Brent Amaker and the Rodeo recently recorded in Renton’s Spectre Studio. Spectre has the Quad Eight 20-channel console that recorded and mixed Steely Dan’s Countdown to Ecstasy and KISS’s ALIVE. It’s a natural progression: Steely Dan, KISS, Brent Amaker and the Rodeo.

Guitarist, Mason Lowe, took pictures and notes of the Rodeo in record mode. Mason says:

Spectre has a Missile Command video game. Brent got ALL the high scores. That’s not just talkin’ about it, that’s DOIN’ it!

Now for some gear porn - this here is an Ampex 440 4-track ½” tape recording device, belonging to Mr. Tim Harmon. I wish you could get a whiff of this thing. It just smells great – serious electronics slow-cooking decades worth of dust.

Question: Is the Rodeo in town?

Answer: Yes, and they’re feeling more sadistic than normal. This classy modification to my boots (above) came to me in a dream. The boys got a kick out of it. The ladies, less so.

Here’s the mixing desk. This is the same desk used on Steely Dan’s Countdown to Ecstasy LP, which is so hot with the kids these days. If you squint you can see Sugar McGuinn in the background.

Jeff Saltzman came up from Portland to record the album. He’s the man who suggested that we wear the Rodeo outfits while recording. There are so many choices to make when recording: digital vs. analog, track live or overdub. It’s all a series of snap decisions each with their own set of benefits and liabilities. It’s rare to feel that you’ve made the 100% correct choice. Well, wearing the cowboy outfits was one of those rare moments where you just know you’ve done the right thing.

Here’s the view from where I sat during tracking. We recorded all the guitars, bass, and drums live. We didn’t use headphones, which was a total revelation for me. Jeff used a lot of ribbon mics which looked like electric razors. Being a competent recording engineer myself, I brought along the best, most cherished microphone from my personal mic locker. Did it make the cut? You bet. It’s even visible in the shot below. That’s my best microphone in the black suitcase, being used as a weight for a mic stand.

Workin’ with tape! Here’s an insider tip: 99.956% pure isopropyl alcohol packs a mean punch. Mix it with Diet Coke.

Of course, we had other kinds of alcohol on hand as well. Brent bought a half rack of Steel Reserve, the strongest beer on the American market. Here’s Louis O’Callaghan, trying to shake his ‘beer snob’ image.

Here’s Tim’s Collins mixer in the foreground. What does it do? How does it work? It’s basically an awesomizer, let’s leave it at that.

Checking in with Louis…

We burned through 12 songs from tracking to mix-down in 4 four days. Here is a shot of Brent pretending to operate some gear. Brent writes country hits and saves fictional cities from fake missile attacks. That’s why we love him.

Despite the wealth of interesting gear and personalities in the studio, this photo journal ends with a picture of a cat that was licking the brake dust off my hub caps. This cat appeared to be semi-feral and smelled like awful. But we all know Brent loves cats – he’s the quintessential cat person. So ending with the cat. Gotta keep Brent happy.