Without further ado – here is our latest release of the music video for Acetone… gotta love trains.
You can also listen to the song here on SoundCloud:
Messin’ With The Music Part 2 – The Lovecats
As we work with more acoustic instruments and try different techniques to record, we want to take you all along on the ride with us. Our first installment was in the post ‘Start At The Beginning’ where we worked our way through an acoustic version of Ween’s ‘It’s Gonna Be A Long Night’. In this post we take a similar path with The Cure’s ‘The Lovecats’.
We’re starting our recording journey with the most basic recording steps. Each instrument is recorded with one microphone (sometimes using the same mic and setup for multiple instrument tracks) and we’re recording one take for each instrument (other than vocals where we’ll usually have more than one track). We do some punch ins, but for the most part keep it as ‘live’ sounding as possible. In other words we’re not going to edit or digitally fix every string squeak or change in dynamics. It’s an attempt to see what we get if you go back to a time when studios couldn’t digitally enhance or ‘fix’ every little blip. What you play is what you get. As we go along through the songs we’ll describe the changes and additions to the recording process (adding electric instruments and multiple takes will come in to play in future recordings).
As you listen to ‘The Lovecats’ see if you can pick up the instruments that were tracked: acoustic six string guitar, five string banjo, six string banjo, mandolin, twelve string guitar and fretless bass guitar. Hope you enjoy our version. In the meantime, we’re already working on the next song.
– ‘The Lovecats’ by The Cure:
A Couple Of Things….
Just wanted to throw out a few thoughts on some items I think deserve some ink. The kind of wonderful distractions from the ‘real world’ that keep me going.
First,
Always a great pleasure to drop in a new track from The Record Company. For your listening pleasure, ‘Life to Fix’:
Second,
An introduction to some of the invaluable staff at ChurchHouse Productions. I’d like you to meet our ‘in-house’ Public Relations staff:
Bonnie Blue
She’s been a wonderful greeter and is a 24/7 studio pup. Bonnie loves to spend time in the mixing room.
And never hesitates to let me know what she thinks of a mix.
I believe the feedback was “I’m outta here…”
Samantha
Besides being the owner of the famous ‘hound howl’ she’s a fanatical lover of David Lynch movies.
Although the aftermath of her watching a movie puts her in a bit of a ‘Lynchian’ mood (“this bed belongs to me now”).
Love them both and ChurchHouse wouldn’t be the same without them.
Third,
Shout out to a wonderful, old fashioned record store in Jim Thorpe, Pa, Soundcheck Records. The kind of place I grew up with and sadly are hard to find in today’s world. Let’s cross our fingers that vinyl and stores like this make a big comeback. If you’re up in Jim Thorpe it’s a must to check out.
Finally,
We’ll be rolling out another song at the end of September. We’ll keep the title a surprise until then but as with the last song, we sort of broke it down and did some rebuild. Gotta have some fun.
Messin’ With The Music Part 1 – It’s Gonna Be A Long Night
Time has a way of passing us all by. Blink and another year passes. Close your eyes and who knows when you’ll wake up…… I felt that I was in the creative equivalent of neutral for a few years. Lots of ideas, not a lot of execution. So at the end of 2017 we decided to try something new for both the writing and recording process. Americana, bluegrass and ‘old time’ country have added a lot to our listening lists for a while now, so the idea of using more acoustic instruments made sense.
The voicing of the variety of acoustic instruments makes all of them very audible in a song mix. Two acoustic guitars might step on each other, but add mandolin or banjo and they stand out. Hand percussion. Twelve string guitar. Fretless bass. Whatever’s laying around. Oh, we’re not abandoning loud, reverby feedback guitars. Just stirring it all in. You might associate the acoustic instruments with bluegrass music but we’re not looking to work in that style. Or maybe yes. Anything’s possible.
So to learn how the instruments sound together, how to arrange the songs, how to do mic placement, what pre-amps to use, what effects, etc, etc, we decided to re-imagine some cover songs we like. Some of the songs will be quickly recorded, some will have more production. We’ll also be starting to work more with video, both ‘live’ and produced. In the mean time we’re writing and recording new original material. Stick around, it should be interesting.
First song up: ‘It’s Gonna Be A Long Night’ by Ween. Did you ever know one of those “I can drink anyone under the table” types. Ween evidently did. Times 100.
We encourage you to listen to the original versions of the songs we cover. Always good to check songs out, especially if you’ve never heard it before. Hope you enjoy it. Back at you soon.
Larkin Poe – Preaching Blues and Mad as a Hatter
Found these two by happenstance – was on my phone cruising around online and this video was a recommendation, so I checked out other videos. I love the laid back, fun loving attitude they have and their spin on cover tunes that range from Black Sabbath to of Little Richard. It is inspiring to see a younger generation just have fun with the stuff they create, whether it is original or cover material. I also am digging the range of decades in music… in short, they are really cool and fun to watch. I happen to also really like the slide guitarist who plays a unique way – anyway – enough babbling.
Preachin’ Blues – Larkin Poe
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