Here's a rough mix of the song "Hipster Turns 30" from our forthcoming Palace Amusements. It's a playful jab at a fictitious uber-trendy character who goes through a sort of "quarter life crisis" when he wakes up on his 30th birthday. Some of the lyrics are exaggerated for comedic effect (can you even buy books on tape anymore?), but you get the idea.
What I always liked about this song is that the bridge is taken from the point of view of the main character who longs for a time when he was younger and "the days would always seem so long". I remember sitting in middle school and watching the clock tick. The hours just seemed to drag on and on. Now they just fly by. You blink and another year has passed.
Hipster Turns 30 (Rough Mix 2) by The Brixton Riot
Signal To Noise // The Brixton Riot
Friday, July 22, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
This is DIY
After posting about our low budget recording setup, I took some quick photos around our "studio". Polaroid effect added for...um, effect.
This is our DIY vocal booth. It's basically two microphone stands in a "V" with a blanket and Lightning McQueen sleeping bag draped over them. We stand in the center of the V when we track vocals. The wall directly behind this setup is covered with a large blue comforter, held up by painters tape. Vocal cheat sheet visible on the left. It gets a little tight in there and since the air conditioning vent rattles, it has to be closed when we track.
One advantage of recording at home is that I get to hoard all of the amps. Not just mine, but all the amps owned by the other band members. I'd like to be on Hoarders one day, surrounded by nothing but amplifiers and guitars. My wife has the same recurring dream, only she wakes up screaming.
More amp and geetar porn.
Finally, here's our computer and the ridiculously small screen. Note the size ratio of said screen with the studio monitors.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Baby (Elephant) Steps
It's been a ridiculously long time since this we've given any type of update, so I thought I'd check in and give an accounting of how we've spent the last 9 months.
As we had previously mentioned, all non-album related band activities came to a halt while we finished up Palace Amusements. I'm sorry to say that this meant passing on some wonderful show offers and that always sucks. We made two exceptions for our January 2011 shows with The Seldon Plan as part of their farewell (or hopefully just "see you later") tour. It's weird looking back at the first half of the calendar for 2011 and seeing only two dates. It's our least productive year by far (performance wise, anyway). But the good news is that all of that self-imposed solitude actually worked. We've finished the overdubs and we're halfway through the vocal tracking and a third of the way through mixing. The mixing is being handled by Frank Marchand who has worked on the last few Bob Mould records as well as The Seldon Plan's The Collective Now. The artwork for Palace Amusements is being handled by our good friend, Mr. Chris Gash. Unfortunately, my idea to feature a baby elephant on the cover (partially as a reference to their gestational period and partially as a reference to this album cover) was overruled. We're very excited to have Chris and Frank (and their amazing talents) on our record. On our end of the record needs to wrap by the end of July and it will wrap on time. I say that with certainty because a) we have no other option and b) we are all ready for this thing to come out. Very ready.
We're looking at an early November release date on The Beechfields record label which means that when all is said and done, Palace Amusements will have taken us a ghastly two years to finish. I could write volumes as to why this happened and what we would have done differently, but I won't bore you with these things. There isn't one right or wrong way to make a record, but we definitely discovered one of the wrong ways. In contrast, we knocked out Sudden Fiction in two weekends, but that isn't exactly the right way to go about it either. In the end, most of this comes down to money or a lack of it. All we really want to do is make records and if that means tracking in the spare bedroom and using your son's Lightning McQueen sleeping bag as a vocal booth, then so be it.
Now that we are on the back nine, we are resuming our normal band activities. We had all four members together in a rehearsal room last Tuesday for the first time in six months, which felt kind of like the first day of school. With Chinese food. We're also booking shows again starting with two dates with those fine chaps The Anderson Council (7/29 at Crossroads and 8/26 at Asbury Lanes) and we've got some things in the works for September and beyond but I'm probably getting (way) ahead of myself again.
So that's the update for now, but we'll be around a lot more often.
And I'm back to the makeshift sleeping bag vocal booth.
- Jerry
As we had previously mentioned, all non-album related band activities came to a halt while we finished up Palace Amusements. I'm sorry to say that this meant passing on some wonderful show offers and that always sucks. We made two exceptions for our January 2011 shows with The Seldon Plan as part of their farewell (or hopefully just "see you later") tour. It's weird looking back at the first half of the calendar for 2011 and seeing only two dates. It's our least productive year by far (performance wise, anyway). But the good news is that all of that self-imposed solitude actually worked. We've finished the overdubs and we're halfway through the vocal tracking and a third of the way through mixing. The mixing is being handled by Frank Marchand who has worked on the last few Bob Mould records as well as The Seldon Plan's The Collective Now. The artwork for Palace Amusements is being handled by our good friend, Mr. Chris Gash. Unfortunately, my idea to feature a baby elephant on the cover (partially as a reference to their gestational period and partially as a reference to this album cover) was overruled. We're very excited to have Chris and Frank (and their amazing talents) on our record. On our end of the record needs to wrap by the end of July and it will wrap on time. I say that with certainty because a) we have no other option and b) we are all ready for this thing to come out. Very ready.
We're looking at an early November release date on The Beechfields record label which means that when all is said and done, Palace Amusements will have taken us a ghastly two years to finish. I could write volumes as to why this happened and what we would have done differently, but I won't bore you with these things. There isn't one right or wrong way to make a record, but we definitely discovered one of the wrong ways. In contrast, we knocked out Sudden Fiction in two weekends, but that isn't exactly the right way to go about it either. In the end, most of this comes down to money or a lack of it. All we really want to do is make records and if that means tracking in the spare bedroom and using your son's Lightning McQueen sleeping bag as a vocal booth, then so be it.
Now that we are on the back nine, we are resuming our normal band activities. We had all four members together in a rehearsal room last Tuesday for the first time in six months, which felt kind of like the first day of school. With Chinese food. We're also booking shows again starting with two dates with those fine chaps The Anderson Council (7/29 at Crossroads and 8/26 at Asbury Lanes) and we've got some things in the works for September and beyond but I'm probably getting (way) ahead of myself again.
So that's the update for now, but we'll be around a lot more often.
And I'm back to the makeshift sleeping bag vocal booth.
- Jerry
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
A Year Ain't Enough
A year is a long time. A lot gets crammed into those 365 days.
But for us, it turns out that a year is not enough.
A brief pass through the blog posts shows that right around 12 months ago, we we're getting excited about tracking our first record at Arcade Audio. With the tracking behind us, it sure felt like we were "almost done", or at the very least, pretty close. Oh, how wrong we were. And now that we're getting close for this dubious "anniversary", it's hard not to feel at least a little...I'm not sure what the word is - lazy? Guilty? Perhaps a bit of each.
I originally intended not to update this blog until the overdubs were finished. They're not done, but we are close - of the 15 original songs, 10 are in the books and three are in progress. Getting to this point has taken a lot more work then I expected. We have been fairly active tracking at my house for the last four months. My three-year old asks "Is Mark coming over?" on a nightly basis now. I think he has enjoyed this process more than we have, probably because our "studio" is one corner and one wall in his playroom (allowing for rousing games of Don't Break The Ice between takes).
Tracking usually takes place after work on weekdays, between the hours of 7 PM and midnight. Some nights, we start a little later and go until around 1 AM. Then it's back to work the next morning until the whole cycle starts over again. Getting motivated after working all day is difficult. There are a lot of distractions, including the always popular options of sleep or even just crashing on the couch. Fortunately, we've had some help - thank you to the New York Yankees for their rapid postseason exit and Cablevision for blocking Fox 5 during the World Series. You kept me focused, and I'll keep checking my mailbox for those refund checks.
I've gotten to the point where I'm no longer making predictions on "when" it will be done, at least not in the form of firm calendar time. The short answer is soon - later then Christmas, but earlier than spring training...oh please, let it be earlier then spring training.
We've started making preparations for our first shows of 2011, including two very optimistic dates in January. We're playing back-to-back shows in Baltimore and Hoboken with the Seldon Plan (MINI TOUR!!!). We'll be posting more about these dates in the next few weeks in all of the usual places.
For those of you who are have been asking about where we are at with the record, thanks for your patience. We think you're going to like it.
- Jerry
But for us, it turns out that a year is not enough.
A brief pass through the blog posts shows that right around 12 months ago, we we're getting excited about tracking our first record at Arcade Audio. With the tracking behind us, it sure felt like we were "almost done", or at the very least, pretty close. Oh, how wrong we were. And now that we're getting close for this dubious "anniversary", it's hard not to feel at least a little...I'm not sure what the word is - lazy? Guilty? Perhaps a bit of each.
I originally intended not to update this blog until the overdubs were finished. They're not done, but we are close - of the 15 original songs, 10 are in the books and three are in progress. Getting to this point has taken a lot more work then I expected. We have been fairly active tracking at my house for the last four months. My three-year old asks "Is Mark coming over?" on a nightly basis now. I think he has enjoyed this process more than we have, probably because our "studio" is one corner and one wall in his playroom (allowing for rousing games of Don't Break The Ice between takes).
Tracking usually takes place after work on weekdays, between the hours of 7 PM and midnight. Some nights, we start a little later and go until around 1 AM. Then it's back to work the next morning until the whole cycle starts over again. Getting motivated after working all day is difficult. There are a lot of distractions, including the always popular options of sleep or even just crashing on the couch. Fortunately, we've had some help - thank you to the New York Yankees for their rapid postseason exit and Cablevision for blocking Fox 5 during the World Series. You kept me focused, and I'll keep checking my mailbox for those refund checks.
I've gotten to the point where I'm no longer making predictions on "when" it will be done, at least not in the form of firm calendar time. The short answer is soon - later then Christmas, but earlier than spring training...oh please, let it be earlier then spring training.
We've started making preparations for our first shows of 2011, including two very optimistic dates in January. We're playing back-to-back shows in Baltimore and Hoboken with the Seldon Plan (MINI TOUR!!!). We'll be posting more about these dates in the next few weeks in all of the usual places.
For those of you who are have been asking about where we are at with the record, thanks for your patience. We think you're going to like it.
- Jerry
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
It's Not Political, Just Genetics
Every once in a while, we get a nice little surprise. Like flipping through the pages of Q Magazine and finding this (thanks for the heads-up, John)...
TBR
Thank you for the kind words, Mr. Niven.
We now return to our self-imposed exile in the studio. We are slowly inching our way towards the finish line...
TBR
Sunday, August 8, 2010
I Love The Smell of Amplifiers In The Morning
Getting setup over hear at SilverBEAT (a.k.a. my house...I borrowed the name from The Bats record) to track some guitars. It's an interesting setup with no microphones - the guitar amps are patched directly into the board, along with a clean signal direct from the guitar (no pedals, no amp). This allows us to mic a guitar amp up after we capture the performance. It also means Mark and I can sit in the room with the monitors blaring and crank the amps, without having to worry about microphones picking up our conversation - making it feel much more like a live recording with the band then overdubbing parts.
My new neighbors are moving in today. Welcome to the neighborhood.
Jerry
UPDATE: We did alright today - finished Mark's guitar parts on "Canvas Shoes", "Signal To Noise" and "Carmelita", which was a bit tricky. Not a bad day's work.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Another Fine Mess (1994-1998) Vols. 1 & 2
After going to see the Feelies this past weekend and running into an old friend from college, I started feeling nostalgic about my old college radio show. Another Fine Mess aired on 91.7 WLFR from 1994 to 1998 on various days and timeslots. This was way before the Internet was a viable music research tool (or even the file swapping heyday of Napster), so most of these songs were discovered by combing through WLFR's CD and vinyl catalog and previewing tracks (and also through the help of some knowledgable DJs who helped steer me in the right direction). Some of these songs are still among my favorites, others I haven't heard much since the mid-90's.
I tried to keep this as "true to form" as possible; I not only picked the artists and albums that I specifically played on the show, but also the tracks that were featured most often - even if there are tracks on these records that I now prefer more. I was also careful not to "revise" the lists - I liked Pulp and The Stone Roses, but didn't discover them until after college, so they aren't on either list.
Jerry
I tried to keep this as "true to form" as possible; I not only picked the artists and albums that I specifically played on the show, but also the tracks that were featured most often - even if there are tracks on these records that I now prefer more. I was also careful not to "revise" the lists - I liked Pulp and The Stone Roses, but didn't discover them until after college, so they aren't on either list.
Jerry
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