Ryan Trudell of Truckasauras displays his new Ebay find – a Korg MS20 analog synthesizer. Machine and man have fallen for each other. Hand in duel-oscillator monophonic hand. The MS-20 is portable and patchable. Ryan likes it because you can run other things through it such as guitar, beats, or samples, and tweak them into next week:

In Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin’s character takes off his watch, plops it on a table, and says, “This watch cost more than your car.”

Yeah, Alec? Well this microphone costs as much as your watch.

Meet the Telefunken Ela M 251VAC. Put your watch back on tough guy.

London Bridge Studio’s Jonathan Plum spoke about it:

Why is the Telefunken so funken expensive?
Plum: A top-condition original Telefunken Ela-M 251 can actually sell for up to $20,000. They stopped making them in the late 60's. Similar to vintage tube guitar amps, they just don't make them like they use to. The vacuum tubes this mic uses were from WW2 and simply don't exist anymore. The Elektroakustic Microphone is one of those "golden voice" microphones. Less than 3,000 were manufactured.

In non-geek language, describe why it’s so good.
It's clear, present, and warm without sounding too bright. And they were made by hand. I recorded a test for you. Listen to a guitar recorded with an Ela-M - here. Compare that to a U-47 – here.

Now in geek language, describe why it’s so good.
They’re based on a diaphragm tube condenser. It comes with a NOS Telefunken AC701 tube, an original Austrian made AKG CK12 dual membrane capsule, custom wound Haufe transformer sourced from the original European supplier, vintage style Ela M 950 power supply, 10 meter Gotham Audio cable, locking leather bound flight case, wooden microphone box, owners manual, and a fully transferable lifetime warranty.

Lifetime warranty?
In early 2006, Telefunken USA acquired over 50 original Austrian made CK12 capsules from a private collector in Europe. These capsules have been reserved exclusively for the Vintage Series Limited Edition mics including the Ela M251V, Ela M251VAC and Ela M12V.

You can’t get any geekier than that? This is a $10,000 mic. Come on, let your tech flow. Let it out.
Ok. Lets see, AKG, which stands for Akustische und Kino-Gerate (Acoustic and Film Equipment) was formed in 1947 in Vienna, Austria. AKG developed the C-12 condenser microphone in 1953 based on a dual backplate/dual-membrane idea patented by Kalusche and Spardock in 1951. The modified version of this idea became the basis for the CK-12 capsule. AKG was the first to manufacture a split electrode microphone. The original capsule membrane was 10-micron-thick PVC, which was later changed to 9-micron-thin Mylar. The amplifier design was based on the 6072 tube, and the C-24 stereo edition of the mic with two CK-12 capsules utilized this dual triode to its full extent. The C-12, like the M49, had a remotely controlled pattern selection from omni to bi-directional via the selector switch located in a box between the microphone and the power supply. The C-12 remained in production until 1963. In 1964, the C-12A appeared with a 7586 Nuvistor tube amplifier and a physical shape foreshadowing the design of the 414 Series. In 1959, after the U47 had been withdrawn from Telefunken distribution, Telefunken commissioned AKG to develop a large-diaphragm condenser microphone. This became the ELAM 250. This design incorporated the CK-12 capsule in a wider body with a thicker wire mesh grille. A two-pattern selector switch (cardioid to omnidirectional) was placed on the microphone. The ELAM 251 added a third bi-directional pattern to the switching arrangement.

Thank you. I needed that.

A loop is a sample or section of music that repeats seamlessly when played end to end. Loops can made and edited through the use of delay effects, looping based software, pedals, tapes, and record players. Looping is used, featured, and heard so much these days that it has practically become its own genre. Creating and playing with loops live is a beast. You have to be able to play, hear, execute the parameters, start, and stop the loop in time with what you’re playing.

Seattle cellist Gretchen Yanover (Built to Spill, KD Lang, KJ Sawka, Northwest Sinfonietta) uses a Line 6 Loop Sampler. She steps on the looper for a starting point, plucks a melody or staccato feel on her cello, and steps on the looper again for the stopping point of the loop phrase. Once that loop is going, she modulates down a third or a fifth, plucks the same melody in harmony, and loops that. Then she bows the original phrase legato, loops that, then bows the third or fifth that was modulated to, and loops that as well. There are four cello’s going at this point. Then she plays freely over the quadra-loop for twenty seconds and loops that for a fifth loop. Finally, she puts the bow down and plucks freeform notes and rhythms. It’s aquatic, layered, scenic, and incredibly beautiful. She can go ten loops deep and make her own symphony right before your eyes. Seeing her construct the loops live is like watching Edward Scissor hands trim the hedges. You’re like, “How is she doing that?” But she’s doing it right in front of you, so you see exactly how she’s doing it.

There is one Dan Paulus who is looking for a looper. I asked him which one he was thinking of going with:
Paulus: Seems the Red Boss unit and the green Line 6 are the loopers of choice.

What will you be looping?
I'll mainly be running guitar in, but also synths, toys, drum machine, vox, whatever. Expanding the parameters.

Yes. Parameters. And toys. Expand them.
I saw Katharine Hepburn's Voice at the Blue Moon and their bassist/drummer was using an Akai Headrush. Talked to him a bit about it after. Looked pretty solid and easy. Maybe not as many bells and whistles as some of the others. Researched it online. Some reviewers loved it, some hated it.

Another Dan, Dan Rapport (Blue Scholars, Red Eye Flight) is a loop master. I asked him to talk loopers:
Rapport: Loopers are cool! I've been doing a lot of stuff down at the Triple Door just with and acoustic and a looper. They definitely take some practice to use (getting the loop to work in time) and I think it’s a lot easier to get a short loop that works over a longer loop. Long loops have more of a chance to get out of synch. I use the Line 6 Delay, which only has 12 seconds or so of loop time but it works well enough for me. I did notice when I saw Battles (who’s entire sound is based on looping) that they all used the Echoplex Digital Pro which apparently is the best and it’s midi synchable so there’s no way to get off on your timing.

No way to get off? Get off, Dan, get off on your bad self.

Kevin Suggs is with us today to talk about slap back delay. Kevin is KEXP’s in-studio live performance engineer, and has spend two weeks alone with Cat Power’s Chan Marshall recording her for You Are Free.

Delay is an effect that can bolster a mix and widen an instrument’s sound. Basically, delay takes your audio signal and plays it back after the set ‘delay time.’ The delay time can range from several milliseconds to several seconds. Delays can be echo-like, see reggae dub: it’s like this MON-mon. SEE-see? JA-ja. Delays can mimic loops if set to repeat, or they can wash out longer like abstract ripples.

When the delay time is very short (40 to 120 milliseconds), it’s called a slap back delay. The term slap back refers to the use of a single echo. The slap back is just loud enough to be heard as a discrete echo, right behind the instrument or voice it’s put on. Slap back is very popular in 1950s-style rockabilly recordings.

Mr. Suggs, can you slap dat ass for me? I mean, talk some slap back delay? What do you think of when you think slap back?
Suggs: I think of early Elvis and all the Sun Records stuff from the 50’s. Sounds like Elvis is singing in a cave. They were using tape delays back then so getting a longer delay was a bit trickier. John Lennon loved it as well, but his were a bit shorter, almost a doubling effect. I’ve done a few rockabilly records and I just keep the vocal delay time set at somewhere between 140 and 150 milliseconds. Seems to work great for most of those up-tempo tunes. Keep the feedback or repeats down. You just want one quick slap and that’s about it. I find it can work well with more modern rock vocals too, but set the delay at around 160 or so. That takes it out of that rockabilly place yet still has the same effect. Try it on instruments as well. It can put a little bounce into a track that needs to jump.

What’s the trick when you use it on instruments? I’ve heard you use slap back on keys, and it totally makes the song. They sound so full, so rad.
The trick there is to get the delay time right. To do that I solo up the snare and put the delay on it till I find the correct subdivisions that don’t mess with the rhythm. Then I put it on the keys. It’s probably a bit longer than a slap but not much. More like quarter notes rather than eighth or sixteenth notes. Also I think it’ll have a few more repeats to it. When I put slap on vocals I don't always go for an exact subdivision, I just use my ear. Vocals are a lead instrument and don't always follow closely to the rhythm of the rest of the group.

A pickup is what captures vibrations from stringed instruments and converts them into an electrical signal that can be amplified and recorded and slayed like a beast if you solo in a particular way.

There are two basic pickup types, magnetic and piezoelectric. Piezoelectric work for all kinds of strings. Magnetic pickups work only with steel strings, and are made of magnets and coils. Single coil pickups are so sensitive, they’ll hum with interference from transformers and fluorescent lamps. Dual coil or "humbucking" pickups use two out of phase coils to cancel this interference.

Acoustic pickups are tricky. Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes talks about the trickiness:

What kind of pickup do you use for your acoustic guitar? What are your pickup thoughts?
Robin: I think all acoustic pickups sound pretty bad. I've never heard one that sounds anything close to the natural sound of a guitar. So much of an acoustic guitar's sound is dependent on the room you are in and the resonance of the guitar's wood and most pickups seem to just capture this rubbery weird Dave Matthews Band sound. Also when you are playing an acoustic guitar live, with some bad sounding pickup, and then running it through a thin sounding DI box straight into the main speakers, there's really no way in my opinion to make that sound good.

So what do you do to get a decent acoustic sound?
The best way would be to just put a nice microphone on the guitar but that is never loud enough if you are playing with a band. I am currently using a Sunrise brand pickup that you attach inside the sound hole. I bought it because I didn't want to drill a hole in my guitar like most other pickups. They also sell this Sunrise brand pre-amp that you plug the guitar into which seems to make it sound a little better or maybe just makes it louder. Then instead of running the guitar into a DI box, I run it into this 1967 Twin Reverb that I got for really cheap because it was non-operational and needed to be fully rebuilt. It still doesn't sound like a normal acoustic guitar, but it gives it a lot more depth and "bigness," and you can adjust the settings on the amp to better suit whatever room you are in. It's not a perfect solution but I don't think there is one, that's why the invented the electric guitar!!

Some music needs to be loud. Played loud, heard loud, and felt in your chest. Sometimes ears need to bleed. Volume is like fire. It can greatly enhance, but it can also greatly damage. Ringing ears are an audio-society’s double-edged rite of passage. Ears ring like a battle wound. The allure and strength of volume is what draws many to turn it up and or listen without earplugs. That same allure and strength can also ensure your hearing will never be the same again. Cranking it up is a sacred right of empowerment, but you’ve been warned.

I consulted audiologist Tamara Phelps at Virginia Mason:

How do you know when a concert is too loud? Is Metallica too loud?
Phelps: We can safely listen to sound at 85 decibels for about eight hours. If volume gets up to 88 decibels, our safe listening time drops to four hours. Music pumped directly into the ears on headphones at 94 db is only safe for one hour. I’m not sure about Metallica. The average level of a rock concert is 103.4 decibels. A dog barks at about 85 db. A busy street can get up to 75 db.

I saw Metallica in Atlanta and I think it was too loud. They went into “One” with the “Darkness imprisoning me” part and the double-kick. My ears rung for days. Do you know that “Darkness imprisoning me” part?
I’m sorry to say I don’t know that part. It does get dark in Seattle though. It's not so much the high decibel level that causes the damage as it is how long you listen to those high levels. Chronic exposure to excessive noise causes tinnitus.

You should totally check out Metallica’s And Justice for All. At the concert, this statue crumbled to the ground. It was fake, but it still ruled. Can you explain tinnitus?
It’s pronounced ti-NIGHT-us. Tinnitus is that ringing in your ears. Sometimes it can be debilitating. Most tinnitus comes from damage to microscopic endings of the hearing nerves in the inner ear. The health of these nerve endings is important for acute hearing. Loud noise is the leading cause of tinnitus.

Do you think I could sue Metallica for being too loud?
You could but I don’t think you’d win. Clubs get sued sometimes too.

And the Ipod? I crank my Ipod.
People don’t think about that a lot. The portable music devices are doing just as much damage. People listen to their Ipods for hours and hours, you know? I’d say limit your listening time or be more conscious of the volume. I read a study that said a maximum permissible noise dose would typically be reached within one hour of listening with the volume control set to 70% of the maximum. Also everyone should GET EARPLUGS.

Yeah, but rock isn’t rock if it’s quiet.
Well, how rock is rock if you’re deaf?

Since the Crocodile’s closing, champion sound engineer Jim Anderson has been active – watching Sumo wrestling and making quilts out of band t-shirts. I asked him about it:

Have you always sewed?
Jim: I’ve just started actually sewing, but I’ve been around it my whole life. My mother had a job doing production sewing during WWII and both of my sisters sew. I’ve absorbed it.

How long have you collected t-shirts? How many do you have?
I’ve been collecting since 1981. I’d say I have around 700. My first quilt, the one in the picture, of all black t-shirts was just from one trip into my closet. One is from a “Wake Up & Smell the Pavement” skate punk fest in ’87 that was up on 18th and Jackson. Cat Butt played. My next quilt will be with colored shirts.

700 hundred shirts? You have some Seattle music history right there.
I think so. These shirts are very special to me. One of the reasons I started collecting them is that it’s an ephemeral thing. These shows happen, then they are over. What do you have to show for it? Not a lot. These shirts are a way for me to connect to the bands and the memories. A lot of the bands aren’t around anymore. I was watching a sewing program on T.V. where they showed how to make quilts out of t-shirts. I was like, I have to do that.

Any other favorite t-shirts from your vaults?
I do have a particularly cool and rare Mudhoney shirt. There’s a New Pornographers one, the Ventures, Guided by Voices, and Megababe from Tokyo.

Have you ever thought about having your own t-shirt?
Actually, I’d like to come out with a line of Hawaiian shirts. With cool colors and patterns.

You should totally do that. The Hawaiian Jim shirt. Yes. You can call it ‘Megaloha Jim’.
I don’t know about ‘Megaloha Jim’.

Have you been staying sharp with your sound engineering? Or have you just been watching Sumo and sewing?
I’ve been running some sound at Slim’s Last Chance in Georgetown. It’s a great place. 5606 1st Ave. S. Come on down!

Seattle three piece pop-rock sentinels Tennis Pro are releasing their third album this Saturday at King Cobra. The album is entitled Are You There God? It’s Me, Tennis Pro. Ice Age Cobra, the Whore Moans, and Bad Love Sessions are also on the bill.

The album was recorded at local studio The House of Breaking Glass and mixed by Greg Williamson (Sunny Day Real Estate, Jeremy Enigk). Tennis Pro is: Sean Lowry (drums), David Drury (guitar, vocals), and Philip Peterson (bass/vocals). Produced by Phil Peterson.

A Line Out exclusive listen to the song “Kimberly” - is here.

Phil Peterson also plays with Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground and has been sitting in with Nada Surf. He’s a busy man, who appreciates breakdancing. We spoke:

How was the recording?
Phil: Lots of Sparks filled nights for about a year.

How does this record differ from the first two?
Better songs, more fun in the production, also Greg Williamson from Sunny Day Real Estate mixed it, AND will be mixing sound at our CD release show at King Cobra.

I love the title. I wouldn’t take you all to be Judy Blume fans.
We’re huge Judy Blume fans. It all pretty much comes back to Judy. Actually, we had tons of problems getting these CD’s printed. Duplicators kept rejecting the order because of the artwork we wanted printed on the CD’s.

Nudity?
Kind of. The image in question was from a pencil drawing entitled "Nice Rack (for Two Kinds of Hunters)," which juxtaposes a deer with antlers above the image of a woman pulling up her shirt. The artist, Dawn Cerny, is currently showing at the Henry Art gallery with her collection "We're All Going to Die (Except for You)." We really scrambled to get the CD’s printed in time.

The thing is, a CD already looks like a boob. CD duplicators print boobs every day, all day long. So the fact that those duplicators wouldn't print a boob on another boob just makes them look like hypocrites.

Dream Session: Barfly from the Saturday Knights

Barfly, do you remember your dreams? Do you dream about edible floating cities of rap? Like gangster but with sprinkles?

Barfly: I don’t know about the sprinkles, but for over ten years I've suffered from a recurring dream: Being pursued by the Police. Often they capture me and incarcerate me. Sometimes not. The dream has never, ever been pleasant and it doesn't go away but recently it took a turn for the hilarious.

Here’s the dream: I'm going about my business, whatever that may be (can't really remember). A black and white rolls up and two cops get out of the car and approach me. They try to apprehend me but I don't cooperate. I end up kicking their butts and running. Throughout the rest of the dream I'm evading one squad car after another and one foot chase after another until finally I run into this uniform cop who has this sort of elder statesmen, kind but authoritative air about him. He puts a hand on my shoulder and says, "Hold up player, what's the hurry? Man, if you'll just relax I can get you 29 days for the two counts of assault on an officer. Does that sound cool to you?"

"29 days? Seriously?" I say.

"Fo'shizzle Flizzle," the disarmingly personable patrolman replies.

"Word. I can live with that. Let's go," I say. Then I turn around and see that the cop is Snoop Dogg. I woke up laughing my ass off. When Officer Calvin Broadus is on the beat, the streets of my dreams are safe. Sleep tight y'all.

Why do you think you have that recurring dream? Did cops mess with you?
I grew up down in LA like any other fuckup. I used to get in a little scrape with the law every now and then. It’s been a long long time since I misbehaved, but I still have dreams of screwing up and ruining everything I've worked for.

What do you think of Snoop? When you saw him in the cop suit, what did you think? And would it have been a Snoopified prison? Like a prison version of his Snoop DeVille Cadillac? Fur on the iron bars, wet bars, and jacuzzies.
Snoop had the two braids in his hair like the "Murder Was the Case" video and he was as skinny as always. He was alert (not stoned) and he had on a spotless, military creased, official LAPD uniform. It was weird. I don't think he was taking me to a luxurious Snoopified jail but he was understanding enough to assure me that I'd do no more than twenty-nine days. If you assault a couple cops in real life, you get much more than twenty-nine days.

Let us analyze:
Barfly has police anxiety due to his past scrapes. That worry filters through into his dreams via images and scenes of running, altercation, and incarceration. Not surprisingly, Snoop, an LA rap authority, lives in Barfly’s subconscious. Snoop is an ally. Snoop knows the game. Snoop is rap law.

There’s a dream exercise you can do where you take anything in the dream, a person or a thing, and role play by becoming that thing. It breaks the dreamer out of their viewpoint by offering different perspective and slant.

I’ll be Officer Snoop in this dream: “Hey, there’s that Barfly cat. His flows have gotten so gold, they catch my attention. I gotta take him in.”

(New Saturday Knights out in June.)

Boredoms’ Eye & Senju Spend a Day in Seattle

The day after Yamataka Eye of Boredoms sacrificed Neumo’s to the eardrum God, he ate Halibut and eggs at Pike Market’s Athenian Diner. Drummer Muneomi Senju had the Salmon. With Mt. Rainier in the distance, they looked over a sun-glared Puget Sound at Safeco Field and spoke of their respect for Ichiro. Eye said, “I am not a good baseball player. I can not catch.” He can jump though, high. That’s how he hurt his foot. He’s been in a cast since LA. During their show there last week, he jumped and came down on it wrong. “I didn’t think it was broken,” he said, “But it swelled and puffed and then I knew it was broken.”

We finished eating and I said, “Now I must take you to the shoes. A collection of the World’s Largest Shoes.” Seriously, when epic future paving sonic minds are in town from another country, forget the Space Needle, forget SAM, get them to the shoes. I put 50 cents in and the maroon curtain parted behind the oval glass. Eye said, “I am glad you have taken me to see these shoes. Seattle has many giants.”

For a man who conducts such torrential hurricanes of sound, Eye is soft-spoken. Senju too. They are both thoroughly intelligent, level headed, and gentle. I thought Eye would be aloof or crass, but he’s the opposite. They did teach me how to say “Damnit” in Japanese though. And bees. “Hachi” is Japanese for bees.

Boredoms are in the middle of recording in Japan, and nearing completion of their next self produced record. Eye said they’ve been experimenting with aquatic drum sounds by putting water in drums and on drum heads. “Yoshimi got angry about some of the water,” he said. “We damaged some of her drums and the sounds we got were not that good. We will use a little of it, but it was sort of a mistake. I told her I am sorry.”

This coming August 8th, in New York, Boredoms will be heading up a sequal to the 77 Drummer Boadrum concert that was held under the Brooklyn Bridge. This year, 8/8/08, there will be eighty-eight drummers. Numerology aligns expansion. Eye and Senju also have other projects. Eye recently released a remix album called "Re: Remix?" Senju is in two other bands called PARA and Urichipangoon.

Continue reading "Eying Seattle Sh∞s" »

The Croc’s Jim Anderson talks about electricity and grounding and how to safely check a mic to see if there is current running through it.

Ever get the shit shocked out of you when you touch the mic?

Something’s not grounded. When you touch a microphone plugged into a PA that’s not properly grounded, you complete the circuit. Voltage passes through you. It’s unpleasant and can wipe your mind. It can make you wish you were in diapers. It can also be lethal.

Electrical current can come through the wall, through the plug, into your amp, through the metal quarter inch cable, and into your guitar or bass with its metal strings. Then it goes through you, until you touch something else metal, like the microphone. The human body is made up of lots of water and salt and therefore is highly conductive.

The term "ground" refers to a connection to the earth, which serves as a reservoir of charge. A ground wire provides a conducting path to the earth which is independent of the normal current-carrying path. This protects against electric shock. Electricity is always trying to find that ground. Sometimes you become the path of least resistance.

Older guitar amps with two-prong plugs like the Airline are notorious. That missing third prong is the ground. The Airline also doesn’t have a polarity switch. There you are at the club, excited to use your vintage Airline which is pulling 120 volts. The chorus pedal you’re playing is pulling 110 volts and everything is plugged into the same ungrounded circuit. Can you say unstable? It’s mic check time:

Testing, testing, Z-BAM! A shock is delivered to those gentle lips. Shock the monkey. Flash of white. Surge of current. You jump back, can’t remember any of your songs, and sing the Kermy version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” over and over for the rest of the night.

Jim Anderson says:
The ground is there to dispose of, relieve, and neutralize any excess current in case there’s a fault. You want the current to ground so it will blow a breaker or a fuse, before it blows through you. In Europe the 220 volts will knock you on your ass. Here, the lower voltage is sometimes even worse, because people can become stuck there and defibrillate. I’ve seen people put their wet full cocktail on top of an outlet. That’s a frustrating thing to see.

Is there any safe way to check the mic to see if there’s any current running through it?
Jim: Yes. Set the guitar down, hold guitar chord between your thumb and forefinger, wrap the cable through your other fingers, and touch the back of that hand to the mic. The skin on the back of the hand is more sensitive. Also if there is current running through that mic, the natural muscle contractions of the hand and arm will pull you away if there’s a big shock.

Who needs music conferences and stages to rock? The Nord Micro Modular is a four knob video-tape sized interface that lets you twist and tweak your way into rock, right there in the comfort of your very own bedroom.

Dr. Heavy (a.k.a. Mike Todd) is an engineer / tech / musician who knows the internal workings of gear and systems. He’s a synth specialist who isn’t afraid to go hard and loud. The band in which he uses his Nord Micro Modular is called Phase 3.

Before you kick my ass, can you talk about something small in your world of sound that brings you joy?
Dr. Heavy: Yes, I can. And it’s the Nord Micro Modular. I use it as a sound generator. It’s four knobs, it’s small, and it’s affordable. It works like a modular synth. You pick a filter or an envelope, choose your programming option, and go. The Micro Modular can make up to 99 patches. You can use it as efx unit, a stand alone sound generator, or hook a keyboard up to it and play it with MIDI.

And it’s tiny right?
Yeah. About the size of a VHS tape. I go direct into the mixer, run it through an efx pedal and a looping pedal, and have all the gear in a backpack. Get your Nord Micro, a couple cables, a pedal, and you can do a whole show. It mimics what a modular synth would do. You create how the patches will sound. Instead of having the normal synth rules, you can come up with your own.

What’s the Phase 3 set up?
We’re a Turntable DJ who runs stereo out, two Kaoss pads, a Micro Nord, and a Boss RC-20XL looping pedal. One other person uses actual modular synth, an electro harmonics looper, and a Kaoss pad. It’s more ambient sounding. We do have some beats, but they’re glitchy and electronic sounds. The DJ messes with kid’s records and medical records, and educational records.

Did you say educational records?
Yeah, you know, stuff about fog and anatomy. He puts two needles next to each other, and plays two grooves on the same record at the same time. It sounds really twisted. He puts pieces of wood under the record to create skips on the vinyl and does rhythmic things with those.

All this gear talk, I knew you’d be talking about wood at some point. Is it good wood? What kind of wood does he use? Tell me about his wood.
No, actually, this is where I kick your ass.

Here’s a video of Dr. Heavy in action with his Nord Micro Modular:

The Duke Spirit is a band from England. They are in Seattle to play at Neumos tomorrow, Friday, March 8th for John in the Morning’s Birthday Bash. They are two guitars, bass, drums, and singer Leila Moss. It’s rhythm and garage. It kills. Leila hunts you like a pack of melodic wolves.

Drummer Olly Betts and I spoke in the sauna at their hotel:

Man, it’s hot as hell in here. I guess I should take off my parka.
Olly: Yeah. Have a seat. Sweat some toxins out.

(De-parka’d) So your new full length Neptune is finally out. It’s gotta feel good to be touring on this record.
Actually, Neptune's not out physically in the US until April 8th but it’s available on Itunes, It came out in the UK a few weeks back. Yeah, it feels great to have an album out, playing every night, meeting new people, seeing old friends, and being, how you say? – a rock and roller type.

You all played in Seattle before, right?
We have indeed. We played the Crocodile Cafe two years ago, and also an in-store at the great Sonic Boom. It was a busy day. We even managed to play a session for KEXP. We like Seattle a lot. We’re all caffeine fiends, and Seattle is a coffee mecca. Your air is impressive too. So is Puget Sound.

How does the Duke Spirit get over jet lag? Any tricks?
Don't go there. The rest of the guys seem to get over it but I find it particularly hard. I was going to try Melatonin this time, but I forgot it. I went with peppermint tea and a couple of sleeping pills. Usually, we stay up as long as possible and intake alcohol. And feel like shit on the other end.

Who do you all want the next US president to be?
As long as it’s a Democrat, that's enough. An American friend of ours has always maintained that George Bush will work a way into getting a third term. That would of course be a travesty. Policies aside, I think it would be great to see new ground broken with the first Woman or African American President.

What kind of drums do you play? For the Seattle gear heads, bequeath for us now talk of those drums.
I can do that. I'm a diagnosed drum geek. I love vintage drums and have a few prized snares that I use for recording with like a 60's 400 and a Slingerland Radio King. I’m hooked up with Premier drums and love them. The Premier Series kit I have sounds great. Really thin undersized maple shells. They're made like the best vintage kits and sound as good but have the guts for the road which so many great old kits can't hack (which is a shame). I'm a Paiste man through and through. If you were to snap me in half, there would be Paiste juice in there.

We should get out of here now, huh? And get some water. Maybe you all should change the name of your band to the Duke Sweat-it.
That sounds good. We’ll change it immediately. Cheers.

Here's the video for Neptune's "The Step and the Walk":

An Outbound As In

There is an intersection. A maroon Buick LeSabre with a cracked windshield pulls to a stoplight. A man named Herman crosses the street in front of the car. He has a cane for no reason. Count Chocula is Herman's favorite breakfast cereal, he never learned to swim, and he has a phobia of ice sculptures, especially when in the shape of swans.

As Herman passes the LeSabre, he hears Miles Davis' "Black Satin" playing on the car's stereo. The earth tilts. On another side of the world a music student in Seville, Spain charts notes to the same Miles Davis piece. A mailman knocks on her door with a package. In the mailman's teeth she sees the keys of the piano she learned to play on. Chipped identically. The package is from a cello player who won't leave her alone. The third vase he's given her this week.

The collection of vases on the music student's 5th floor sill makes her uneasy so she throws them out the window. She sits on the sill and looks off toward a Ferris wheel in an amusement park nearby. Vases crash, calliope stirs “Black Satin” notes around her head, and the spinning carnival ride churns a peristalsis of the scene. It's late afternoon. From the view, she traces lengthening shadows into the sunset they latch onto. She doesn't even like the piano anymore, schooling ruined it. Marine biology is what she really wanted to study - undersea life, starfish, sharks, tiburones.

On the Ferris wheel, car nineteen, a little shit of a boy named Esto has eaten too much cotton candy. He vomits, and it splatters past the hand of a nun in car three below. Exiting the ride, the sister looks to the ground and sees the face of Jesus Christ in the puddle of the boy’s pink throw up. News of the sighting spreads quickly. The cement spot is soon a massive center of worship and the destination of holy migration. Esto becomes a relic. He is quoted in the paper as saying, "I could tell it was something special when it was coming up." There are mouse pads, coffee cups, and napkin sets displaying the quote in multiple languages. Cotton candy is served. Car nineteen is bronzed. You can get a picture of yourself sitting next to a life size cardboard cut-out of Esto. A real must have. And if you listen closely enough there, Miles Davis can be heard, playing away. Tilting the Earth.

Searching for a synthesizer can be trying. There are so many different types and models and price ranges. Wading through the specs, tech talk, and vernacular sometimes makes the synth quest un-fun.

What are the best ways to find a synthesizer? How do you make sure you get the right one, at the right price?

Jeffrey is a man who is looking for a synth. He’s become a bit overwhelmed with the techie aspects of the search. We spoke:

How’s the search for your synth? Have you decided which one you’re going to get?
Jeffrey: I don’t know, I can't cut through all the gearhead hype and talk.

Don’t get down, young synth quester. There is a synthesizer out there for you. When in doubt, go Casio, yo. You’re looking at Casio’s, right?
I’m looking at the MicroKorg which has an arpeggiator, a vocoder, etc, but NO drums.

And the Alesis Micron, which has arpeggiator, vocoder AND drums. For the most part they seem to be the cheapest and give the most bang for your buck.

These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. I mean, so which one are you leaning toward?
Well, they both have vocoders and arpeggiators, but the Micron has a sequencer and drum sounds. The MicroKorg has a little bit better sound, but no sequencer or drums. So I don’t know.

Dan Rapport, from Blue Scholars’ band and Red Eye Flight is a synth guru. He says:

The Microkorg is the only synth of the two I've messed around with, and it’s a very nice sounding, flexible, easy-to-use, and portable synth. I've heard good things about the Micron though but have had no experience with it. I guess it really comes down to whether or not he needs a drum machine as part of his synth.

My personal opinion is that a drum machine should be a self-contained unit or a computer program, just like any other piece of equipment. Usually when I start seeing things like a guitar amp that also has built in bass line generator or a effects pedal that does five-million different sounds I get a little worried, cause a lot of those sounds on that effects pedal aren't going to sound that great and that amp isn’t going have the best basslines that you could get. Usually the less things that a synth tries to do the better.

Thank you, Gear Dan.

Tell us, oh great Line Out gear masters, which synth should Jeffrey get? It’s in your hands.

Ouch My Eye Gallery had a show this past summer called Muppet Rawk. Artists muppetly interpreted album art and paid tribute to their favorite music. Lawrence Ruelos and Dev Madan guest curated the event.

The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry. Painted by Paul Whitehead:

Beaker as the Cure’s Robert Smith. Similarities: Hair and high pitched vocals. Robert Smith says, “Kiss me kiss me kiss me.” Beaker says, “Mee mee mee.” Differences: Beaker is Dr. Bunsen Honeydew’s assistant. Robert Smith is no one's assistant.

Van Halen – 1984:

Track five on the album is “Drop Dead Legs.” Kermy, when fried with flour, salt and pepper, and dipped in egg batter, could make for tasty legs.

The Police – Ghost in the Machine:

Animal, Piggy, and Kermy as the red digital read out. "We are puppets, made of material (world)."

The 1984 and Pig in the Machine artist's names are forthcoming.

These Arms Are Snakes play El Corazon’s 3rd Anniversary show tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 22nd with Mouth of the Architect, Past Lives, and Helms Alee.

These Arms Are Snakes are a road band. They’ve made multiple trips to Europe and tour constantly. When they play, they bring it all, full bore. They dive and bleed. They’re tough, like their guitar lit music. (Lit as in fire.) There is no getting around their toughness.

These Arms bassist Brian Cook took time to have story time. Then he slapped me around. I mean, I asked him to slap me, but still, he slapped me:

I’m sure you all have a story or two from the road. Can you give these readers some These Arms stories?
Brian: In Hollywood, Steven (singer) snuck into Anna Nicole Smith's birthday party after our set at some douchebag venue. He showed up later with her lipstick smeared all over his face and her birthday cake all over his sweater.

For a Halloween show in Connecticut we dressed up as the Nativity scene. I was Joseph, Ryan and Chris were wise men. Steve was Mary, though he wound up stripping down to women's underwear. We had a baby Jesus in a manger at the front of the drum set. Chris had rigged an elaborate tubing system through the baby Jesus doll that caused it to projectile vomit bright green puke at a particularly dramatic point in the set. Good times.

For my 27th birthday, I tried to drink 27 drinks in 27 hours. I snuck out of the bar we were hanging out at and my bandmates later found me wandering the streets out of breath and incoherently babbling about "chasing the animal". I wound up trying to punch Erin from Minus the Bear, who was drumming for us at the time, when he was trying to help me go to bed.

In Detroit we wandered through an abandoned Catholic school at night. We walked through the empty classrooms and up to the roof and watched several blocks of the ghetto burn to the ground.

What is the secret to touring?
Alone time and independence. The first bit of wisdom I ever got from anyone regarding touring was to spend at least ten minutes alone everyday. Go for a walk, grab some coffee, whatever. But get away from your bandmates before you go crazy. I don't know how the hell I toured before the age of cellphones. That shit is like a lifeline away from the weird insular biosphere of the van. More and more, I’m beginning to recognize the beauty in eating alone. Everyone in the van has a pretty different diet and attitude towards food, and it's kinda interesting how big of a factor it becomes. I've definitely learned that touring gets easier when i'm willing to eat alone in a restaurant.

(photo at top of post: Ryan Russell)

Continue reading "These Arms Are Telling Stories" »

Kirk Huffman sang barefoot to a sold out all ages Triple Door last night as Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground let fly their entire full length album’s worth of songs in order from front to back. Kay Kay producer, Tom Pfaeffle ran the board and rendered a pristine and crystal live sound. Surprised by the turnout, Huffman said, “I thought we’d be playing for ten people. This is the greatest night of my life.”

The players sliced out the orchestration of the songs and delivered a show. The set cut and sprang. Parts of songs modulated and reappeared later. The pop cantata was performed. Thomas Hunter’s solos struck with calculated boiling points and Phil Peterson’s falsetto was so laser on in the epic “Birds (On a Day Like Today)”, it sounded like a moog synth. The sing along chorus cycled with horn runs and the band of eleven fired unified shots, “Gotta get out, gotta get out today.” They extended a couple sections instrumentally and the reggae influence was definitely etched.

Josh Tillman opened with a warm but chilling acoustic set a la Nick Drake.

A grand evening of (self) release it was. The four-sided vinyl was available with a special limited edition silk screened cover. (This one signed):

Kay Kay Players (left to right in picture at the top of the post):

JJ Jang – violin, Phil Peterson – electric cello, Victoria Parker – violin, Robert Parker – trumpet, Jacob Hoffman – French horn, Kirk Huffman, Garrett Lunceford – drums, Racheal Huffman – backing vox, Nate Mooter – bass, Kyle O’Quin – keys, Thomas Hunter – guitar.

The new Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground record took a year to make. Lives and times were invested and intertwined. Story – here. Some of the songs had up to a hundred tracks. Name an instrument, and there’s a chance it was recorded. Horns, strings, banjo, and of course theremin. I spent some time in the studio with the band:

The record was tracked at Phil Peterson’s House of Breaking Glass then mixed and mastered by Tom Pfaeffle at his Tank Studio in Black Diamond, WA.

Pfaeffle has worked with and for Nirvana, Queensryche, Aerosmith, the Black Crowes, UB40, Alice Cooper, and BB King. He’s also taught audio production at the Art Institute of Seattle for thirteen years and he likes kaleidoscopes. We spoke about his process and approach to Kay Kay. There are vinyl and digital formats available:

How is mixing and mastering for vinyl different than for CD?
Tom: Vinyl tends to be more dynamic. The digital mixes for Kay Kay are louder and more compressed. On a record, the first tracks (closer to the outer edge) have larger grooves. That means more bass response and dynamic range. Toward the center, the grooves shrink and it tightens the frequency. Highs and lows get choked. We definitely kept this in mind when we mixed and arranged the song order.

When you were on the Nirvana sound crew, did you ever touch Kurt Cobain?
What?

Nothing, please forget I asked that.
OK.

Continue reading "Kay Kay in the Tank" »

Genesis made $47,600,000 from touring in 2007. (Rolling Stone 2/7/08.)

I did not know there was that much crack in the world.

I made the mistake one time of falling asleep after watching the video for the Genesis song “Land of Confusion”. It’s the one where Nancy and Ronald Reagan are in bed with a monkey and at the end Ron accidentally hits the ‘nuke’ button.

That night I dreamt I lived in the orangutan cage at a zoo exhibit on the planet Tralfamadore (from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five). The only thing they would feed us was shark meat with boysenberry syrup on it. The only thing they would give us to drink was Tab cola.

The orangutans spoke English with Latino-Mexican accents and played the board game Chutes and Ladders for like 10 hours a day. They constantly cheated. They also swung on ropes.

I don’t like boysenberry syrup anymore.

When you are listening to the radio, would you rather listen to a commercial or a shitty song?

Which of the following would you listen to?

And which of these would you listen to if there was nothing else on?

And finally:

A media and market intelligence company called Navigauge did a study of radio station audience behavior in and around commercial breaks. Over 46,000 commercial breaks were examined in roughly a three month period. They have GPS and analysis systems that can tell you where drivers are, what they are listening to, and for how long.

Navigauge CEO Tim Cobb says:

People listening to radios within an arm length of the tuning buttons are the most discriminating listener that can be studied. The results show that premium pricing for commercials early in the break is justified.

The study shows the longer the break, the lower the percentage of audience that makes it through the entire break and back to station programming. Less than 2/3 of the audience that tuned prior to the start of the first commercial break is retained after four commercials. Just under half the qualified audience is retained when six or more commercials run. First position 30 second spots retain more audience than the first position 60 second commercials.

Thanks Tim. No shit. How much money do you make a year?

What about the discriminating Foreigner listener? Where’s that study?

Skerik is a bi-coastal man who plays the saxophone. He is a sax lord, a cyclone of skill and activity. His musings are flashpaper origami bulls. Skerik has many musical incarnations. He is Les Claypool’s sax player. He’s toured and played with Roger Waters, Ivan Neville, Medeski Martin & Wood, Mad Season, Stewart Copeland, Screaming Trees, R.E.M., Funky Meters, Bonnie Raitt, the Coup, Shock G, and Corrosion of Conformity.

On his sax, Skerik is a psychic Salman Rushdie. He plays things you knew he was going to play, but it boggles you just the same.

Four of Skerik’s more active Seattle creations are Critters Buggin, Crack Sabbath, Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet, and McTuff. McTuff plays tonight at Egan’s in Ballard and Crack Sabbath plays tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 1st at High Dive.

Skerik also has a band called the Dead Kenny G’s. We spoke:

What do the Dead Kenny G’s sound like?
Skerik: Like a free-jazz version of the Melvins.

Does Kenny G know about it?
I played the Carson Daly Show with Warren Haynes and wore a Dead Kenny G’s t-shirt designed by Les Claypool. It’s got a dead Kenny G with a soprano sax stuck up his ass. When I was introduced, I pointed to the shirt on camera. Carson was amused and mentioned the shirt, and my strange behavior. I later received the following letter:

After I saw your recorded performance on the Daly show, I contacted my lawyers. They embellished information that relinquished my thoughts of not punishing your possee(sp?) You are not Jewish. So as it would appear, consider your ass sued. You are not my friend.

Dutifully,

Ken Goerlik

P.S.... I am mean.

After reading this threat, I forwarded it to the other two band members. One of them became extremely concerned. I decided to take advantage of this and had an actor friend call this concerned band member and threaten him with a lawsuit to cease and desist. The band member became highly agitated and scared. The actor did a very good job. Maybe too good. We still receive emails from this person which are highly prized.

We want Kenny G to produce our first record. I don’t know if anyone would survive the first day though. I smell a reality show. The Making of the Dead Kenny G’s with Kenny G. It would be like Henry Rollins marrying Ann Coulter, live on TV.

Could you talk about your sax for me?
My saxophone is black, and made of metal, and I only play STRIBORG saxophones and reeds.

Where does all the saliva go?
It goes into a special de-humidifier that is attached to my soul, I rent it at the tool rental place in White Center. It needs to be emptied regularly.

Continue reading "Skerik: Psychic Rushdie Saxophone" »

Tonight at Showbox SODO, Wild Orchid Children play and are releasing a four song Elephant EP. Portugal The Man is also on the bill.

Wild Orchid Children is Kirk Huffman, Kyle O’Quin, Thomas Hunter, and Garrett Lunceford from Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground. This past summer, they ventured an hour south to Black Diamond, WA and recorded in Tom Pfaeffle’s Tank Studio. Wild Orchid is openly louder and more out there than Kay Kay. It’s solid and rattled in a psychedelic rock modality. They’ve stripped down and expanded from their core.

Keyboardist, Kyle O’Quin spoke:

What was recording at the Tank like?
Kyle: Most of it was live. We spent a majority of the time setting up and getting tones. It was nice to wake up and just play. We wanted it to be more of live thing and did one song a day. The Tank is amazing. Tom has really constructed a space down there to create. It’s away. You separate from the city surroundings and get outside yourself. You’re closer to the stimulus. The instruments practically played themselves.

Stimulus seems key for you all. What provoked the most activity during the sessions?
The goat hoof. Tom had this goat hoof full of Mexican liquor. He said people go to this old woman’s house in Mexico and fill up their containers for like a dollar. He’d had it for ten years. It was powerful. That old woman put us under her spell and gave us her power.

What the hell are you talking about?
Just kidding. I was pretty buzzed though. There was Absinth too. And other things. It was crazy and fun and that’s how we wanted it to be. We were there together and stepped fully into the songs. My fingers turned into spiders. Thomas was nude. Kirk was in the vocal booth with all these lights and candles. Phil from Kay Kay, who produced it, was lighting stuff on fire. We kept the song “Where the Mexican Boys Go” all acoustic. No amplification. See? Mexico, the witch.

What music were you all listening to at the time?
We were listening to a lot of Cee-Lo and Rick James and old blues.

Rick James, as in “Superfreak”?
Exactly.

The Spits play punk like pissed off puppeteers. They have no qualms about jumping down from their puppet-operating platform and totally cutting up the show. They land on the little fake Camelot set, crush the cardboard castle, tear up the puppets, and say, “Don’t you kids know this isn’t real? These are puppets! We were just up there controlling them with this stupid string. Mr. King Arthur Pants is fake.” The Spits’ gear is there and they break into their song “Suzy’s Face.” The kids think it’s part of the show and every puppet on hand is destroyed. Cotton stuffing flies and the kids roll around in tangled string. The Spits play and pulverize. There is unison. Lighting strikes the roof of the children’s theatre, the power goes out, and the kids finish screaming the song in darkness. Then they turn on flashlights and eat Kit Kats.

I spoke to the Spits guitarist and singer Sean Wood via hot tub. They are currently in the studio recording a full length with Swami Records’ John Reis.

Sean plays a Gibson SG and uses a 150 watt 1978 Peavey tube amp and a Carvin 412 cabinet. Sean loves his Pro Co Rat distortion pedal too. He got it in his hometown of Kalamazoo, MI.

Talk about your Rat pedal for me.
Sean: The Rat has a raw raw sound. It’s not real fancy, but it has the crunch I like. Ted Nugent plays with one. And that’s really all I needed to know. The Nuge is great. The Spits got to open for him once.

You opened for Ted Nugent?
Yes we did. In Jackson, MI. It was his annual Hunting Bash. He had heard one of our CD’s and invited us to play.

Did you hunt?
There was wild game everywhere. Boars and turkeys and shit. Nugent gave us some of his homemade jerky. We didn’t hunt, but we fired off a bunch of guns.

What kind of guns?
AR-15’s. And you know Nugent is big into the crossbow.

Does Ted Nugent have good aim?
Oh yeah, the dude’s a dead-eye. Great aim. He’s a killer.

Do you have good aim?
I’d say I have OK aim. I’m a naturally gifted hunter. I know scents and can track. Now that I think about it though, I could probably work on my aim.

** The Spits play tonight at the Funhouse with Meepers, Android Hero, and Tv Coahran.

UK band the Duke Spirit have an album coming out February 4th called Neptune. The album named for the God of the sea was recorded in the desert at Joshua Tree’s Rancho de la Luna Studio. The godfather of desert rock and Masters of Reality man, Chris Goss produced. (See Queens of the Stone Age, Soulwax, and UNKLE.)

Guitarist / pianist Dan Higgins said, “We thought it would be perverse to take these songs written in England and drop them in the middle of the desert.”

Neptune races and coils. The band is honed but free swinging. Singer Leila Moss sticks a sugared blonde knife in your heart. She has a prowess of the ages. So does the band. Elemental pieces of the 60’s have shuffled back into the puzzle and they’re firing off.

Listen to Neptune – here. (Drag the note you’ll see to the side.)

The Duke Spirit have shows in New York on Feb. 13th & 14th. They'll be at SXSW too.

Here’s the band in Joshua Tree talking about the recording and the album:

Jesse Sykes and her Sweet Hereafter guitar player Phil Wandscher play an acoustic set tomorrow night (Friday) at Tractor Tavern.

Phil’s left handed playing summons western country, tumbleweeds, and the gold rush. It’s 107 degrees on a dry riverbed, whisky only makes you more thirsty. Jesse says Phil’s solos are songs within the songs. Torched dry and bright. He’s more about melody and touch and imagery.

Phil spoke about his guitar and his playing:

Where do your solos come from? How do you write them? Is there a process?
Phil: I play the song over and over. What comes to mind first, I think, is what everyone would do. I try to dig through layers and get to what normally wouldn’t be played. It’s almost like I have to learn it myself and teach it to myself. I think the more you play something, the further you can take it.

Does Jesse have input?
Yeah, usually she’s right there and gives me her feedback.

What’s it like playing these songs every night? Do the songs get tired?
It’s definitely challenging to stay inspired. But I get into every song and section. It’s not something I have to make myself do. Autopilot for me isn’t just mailing it in and going through the motions. Autopilot for me is being comfortable enough with the song or the section to take the solo different places.

What kind of guitar do you play?
I play left handed so it kind of limits my options. My main guitar is a DeArmond Starfire Special. Fender made them in the 60’s. Jerry Garcia played one in the Warlocks. They were sort of cheap when they came out, then Fender bought Guild and killed the line. Now they are sought after. I’ve been looking for another one, but can’t find it.

You don’t have another one? You must baby the one you have.
When we travel, I keep it with me at all times. Flying is hard because sometimes they try to tell me I have to check it in as baggage. We were flying America West one time, seated all the way at the back of course, and the flight attendant told me I couldn’t have it in the passenger cabin. I told him I wasn’t getting rid of it. He took me and the guitar all the way up to the cockpit to talk to the pilot. We were delaying the flight. Everyone on the plane was so appalled and saying, ‘You should get rid of the guitar.’ ‘I can’t believe he’s not getting rid of his stupid guitar.’

I told the pilot the seat next to me was open and I could put it there. And when he saw that this was why the flight was being delayed he was so pissed. He said, ‘Strap that fucking thing into the open seat and let’s go!’ We were flying to Austin, TX too, a music city. I thought people would have been more understanding.

Continue reading "Nothing Mailed In But Gold" »

Brent Amaker and the Rodeo have a new video for the song “Sissy New Age Cowboy.” In the video, Brent gets his ass branded. We discussed:

Where did you all shoot it?
Brent: The video was shot at Manray during mornings and afternoon. (RIP Manray.) We had wardrobe people putting us in over stylie hip clothes. And we wore make-up. They gave me a girl’s hairstyle. This was for the Sissy Rodeo, mind you.

What was it like having your ass branded?
I had a stunt ass. The climax of the video has the real Rodeo band holding down the sissy me and branding my ass. Troy from Black Daisy came down with his nice taut ass and stood in as my stunt ass. I think he woulda been bummed if we’d gotten someone else to do it. He does squats on a regular basis.

Who else is in the video?
Chicks. It was kinda checking off a box from a boyhood dream. Actually, we didn’t get as many girls from the casting call as we wanted so the women from the crew had to do double duty and put on costumes and dance for the band. They worked really hard and dominated it.

What’s the concept of the video?
A bunch of cowboys battle themselves on a space station while the singer is fed a delicious steak and then brands his own ass.

Continue reading "Stunt Ass: The Rodeo in Space" »

A Gun That Shoots Knives is releasing a six song EP called Love on Seattle's Bad Horses Records. The CD release show is Saturday night at Sunset Tavern. They’re playing first and last with the Resets doing the middle set. Your $6 cover gets you a free copy of the EP. A Gun That Shoots Knives is Stubby Abbot, Jimmy LaRue, Jeff Greenwood, and Kurly Sorbel. They play deranged pop that touches into metal, groove, and soul balladry. In Love they sing of sushi and making you wet. If Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a band from Seattle it would be A Gun That Shoots Knives. They’re odd, they fly, and they have the power to make dreams come true.

AGTSK has toured four times. They have collected and worn over a dozen wigs, eight jumpsuits, five false moustaches, one chicken suit, one cow suit, one horse head, six mexican wrestling masks, several pieces of lycra, twelve two-dollar thrift store suits, a jetpack, and one pair of knee-high six-inch tranny boots.

I met the band at the McDonalds Playland in Ballard to speak about the making of Love. We sat waist deep in the Pac-Man plastic ball pit:

How was the recording? Where did y'all do it?
AGTSK: Well, Trent More-man, it was great. And we don’t mean that to sound sarcastic. We recorded at Titan Studio, with our dear friend Scot Michael. It's a classic basement studio environment, complete with spiders, spiders everywhere.

Did you do any pre-production? (They are throwing the little plastic balls at my head.)
Yeah, we started by practicing the shit out of the songs we were going to record. I'm talking at least twice a week. We pre-recorded everything as if we were going to be mixing it ourselves so we didn't have to dick around a ton once we got there. We're all vaguely capable of playing each other's instruments and have a lot of input on each other’s parts. More of that comes out when we listen back to a multi-tracked version of a song and we can hear the individual notes/beats we’re playing. Scot uses Nuendo, and has an awesome collection of newish and vintage mics. (His condenser that we used for vocals is a trippy, old, and Russian.) We ended up throwing all six tracks down in three afternoons, five the first two days and one on the third, which was pretty fast for us. We took the better part of two years trying to record a full-length on our own. It was nice to hand most of the board work off to someone who's a lot faster and has a better ear than you.

Talk for me now about any drum pad type gear you might have used. PLEASE do this, and do it now.
Drummer Kurly says: I used a Roland sampler that has nine indivdual trigger pads. That sampler then gets run threw anlog and digital effects that can be minipulated manulay by my own damn hands. The idea is to incorporate all that crap with an acustic set and keep it real. Also, it (the sampler) allows me to fill "sonic gaps" as well as being able to perform songs live the same way they are done on recordings. Eventually there will be more crap.

Continue reading "The Making of Love" »

I ate a burrito at Chipotle on University Avenue. The burrito was large, fresh, and well wrapped. The rice had cilantro in it. Peppers were sautéed and crisp. Guac burst with sunned in green creaminess. There was corn. I practically had a sombrero on. I imagined a life south of the border on a family farm, hanging sheets on a clothesline in the wind to dry. Adobe structures were all around and we made our own wine. I sat in the shade of a dusty porch there. A grandmother sliced cucumber. There were spurs on my boots. A Chihuahua puppy named Guillermo scurried around, tinkling in his fidgety happiness.

My Morning Jacket was being played on the speakers in the Chipotle. Somehow, it was the perfect soundtrack to my bountiful, earthen scene. I looked at the paper the burrito was wrapped in. Words swirled around in a circle. I figured they were the names of spices and natural ingredients. Perhaps they were names of Mexican cities, such as Ecatepec de Morelos.

But the words were Aimee Mann, Leonard Cohen, Massive Attack, and Cowboy Junkies. Wait, Aimee Mann is not a spice. Upon further review, all the names on the wrapping paper were bands and singers. The burrito was wrapped in the names of popular musical entities.

There was David Byrne, Beck, Tori Amos, Shuggie Otis, Reverend Horton Heat, Lucinda Williams, G. Love & Special Sauce, Blind Boys of Alabama, Morphine, Aretha Franklin, Warren Zevon, Wilco, Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Galactic, Roxy Music, Emmylou Harris, and Zuco 103. Zuco 103? (And cool that Shuggie Otis made it in there.)

It’s all branding. A bit subliminal as well. That burrito was pop culture. It’s hip. It’s popular. That Burrito was Beck. Quickly my Mexican adobe fantasy was dashed. I became a paperweight in the shape of a monkey on an LA executive’s desk. He’s taking a two-hour lunch break and booking a flight to Barbados for a rum tasting getaway. I long for my Mexican farm and want to protect the grandmother there. I wish I could take a paperweight shit on his mahogany desk.

It was still a good burrito though.

Instrumental Oppression

Muzak, the famous instrumental background music, was founded in 1934 by inventor Major General George O. Squier. The corporate offices were here in Seattle before they moved to Charlotte, NC. Squier took the words ‘Kodak’ and ‘music’ and made Muzak. He also cited research that said his background music improved productivity in the workplace.

Major General Squier said, “Buy my Muzak, and your employees will work harder.”

Billy Squier said, “Stroke me, stroke me.”

I say, “Horse shit.”

Muzak conducted its own psychological research and came up with “Stimulus Progression”--a formulated pacing and style of music that supposedly maintains productivity in the workplace. The music is played at low, almost subliminal volumes and places sections of silence between blocks of music. The style of music is purposefully bland so it won’t intrude.

Say it with me now, “HORSE SHIT. Mountain ranges of horse shit.” Let me tell you something, Major General Billy O. Squier: Bland music puts people to sleep. Drool fills keyboards worldwide because of your subliminal raping. You want to inspire your workforce? Play T. Raumschmiere, or Motor. Or let Mr. TJ Gorton program your sounds.

I did some research of my own. I ventured undercover into Muzak and took a look into one of the recording studios. What I saw was ugly. There were starving 80 and 90 year-old men chained to oboes and French horns. A black leather-clad dominatrix man stood over them with a whip eating an éclair and pouring sprinkles on their heads. The dominatrix man was screaming, “Play the score! Then you can eat, old man! And you better not miss the change this time!!”

Former Seattleite and Muzak employee John Amiga says:

Stimulus Progression is supposed to give people a psychological lift, a subconscious sense of forward movement achieved through programming sound in 15-minute blocks. The music is ordered from least to most stimulating, based on tempo, rhythm, instrumentation, and orchestra size. The last, most upbeat tune is followed by 15 minutes of silence. This relates to attention curves and prevents the sound from becoming a distraction.

According to the Muzak corporation's literature, music alone cannot achieve the same results as their product:

Music is art, but Muzak is science. When you employ the science of Muzak in an office, workers tend to get more done, more efficiently, and feel happier. In an industrial plant, people feel better and with less fatigue and tension, their jobs seem less monotonous.

Feel happier? When you’re in the dentist’s chair and one of your teeth is getting drilled, does that instrumental version of “Proud Mary” make you feel happier? Does it make you less afraid of the drilling sound? Does it take away any of the shooting pain?

I’ll go one further on the psychological tip and say that due to association, Muzak invokes fear and stress. When I hear that instrumental “Proud Mary” I think of drills and dentist bills and I want to run like Marathon Man to the land of real music. A land where all 80 and 90 year-old musicians are free to eat éclairs and sauna if they want to. A land where the dominatrix Muzak man is chained like an ox to a plow and he's tilling my cavity-free field.

Welcome back to work. Welcome to the new year.
Now color Rob Halford from Judas Priest:

Here are some low impact exercises that will help ease brain cell flow back into normal functioning. Don’t rush:

These are samplings from the Heavy Metal Fun Time Activity Book, which came into my possession during the last moments of consciousness on New Year’s Eve. The scene is recurrent. You’ve been there, on that sofa you staked claim to. No way you were driving home. You’re immobilized by sleep and substance and joy that you won’t be crashing on the floor. The sun is set to rise. Chips are crushed into the carpet. Remnants of streamers moisten in a beer spill. A full plate of baby carrots sits on the table. The unmanned CD changer is playing some sort of “Darling Nikki” way too loud. You’re too sleepy to get up and turn the Prince off, so you take it, knowing you will soon fade. A coffee table is within arm’s reach. You think you see something called Heavy Metal Fun Time Activity Book, so you pick it up and graze the pages. There are Spinal Tap mazes and Lemmy’s moles. You’re unable to fully express your excitement at finding the book. On the thirty-fifth page, there’s a dot-to-dot of King Buzzo’s fro. And that is the image you end your year on. Buzzo’s dot-to-dot fro. You’re dizzy. The dots are moving. You’re lost in it, almost asleep. You wonder if the book is even real.

London Bridge Studio’s Geoff Ott doesn’t describe himself as an audiophile, but he likes his vinyl. And he likes his vinyl’s warmth and dynamic range.

Geoff says, "I prefer listening to music without having to get a computer involved. I know it sounds stupid, but the ‘experience’ of vinyl is what listening to music is all about for me. You know, taking the record out, going through the physical motions of putting it on the turntable, and setting the needle. Holding the artwork on the album, the whole deal. It gets you closer to the artist or