And so it begins... again

Today is the first day of the official "Falling Over Backwards" sessions. We got together last night (St. Patrick's Day) to set up and get basic levels so we can jump right into recording this afternoon. We've experimented with our new Yamaha digital 16 track for the past few months and after some minor setbacks last night (shared faders?!) we think we've got it all worked out. We're gonna start with "House Lights" ("Haüslichter") and hopefully work on getting basic tracks for "A Safer Hiding Place" and "Know".

I personally prepared by getting new drum heads and cleaning my cymbals. I also switched the front head on the bass drum from the nifty "CG" logo the fellas got me for my birthday last year to the Pearl one the kit came with. It's got a buffer ring in it to help with... well, the ring. It gives it a nicer, warmer "thud". I am also preparing by watching/listening to the new Black Crowes live at The Fillmore DVD. Is it strange to get inspired to play music by listening to music? I admire bands that do this for a living, and not in an "I wish that was me" way (although...). Knowing there are musicians out there that aren't trying to get chicks or get rich... just doing it for the love of the song... and able to make a living at it! As a fellow musician, it makes me proud.

But I digress. We're meeting for breakfast in a few hours, then it's "roll tape"... or at least "press 'record'"... at high noon. Wish us luck.

Beer consumed last night:
Amstel Light
Becks Premium Light
New Castle

8 Demos and the End of an Era...

...no, not the end of the DP -- we will live on infinitely in some form or another. I'm speaking of the possible end of the Analog recording era at Big Ed's Audio Farm. It appears that our Tascam 388 may have seen its final recording session at Big Ed's. To give it a proper send-off, and in celebration of the Memorial Day weekend, we demo'd eight songs, most of which will probably appear on the 'Carlos is A Jive Turkey' project.

During the course of our surprisingly sober five hour session, we were able to record "live" demos of 'All Being Equal' (an old song which appeared on our first demo sessions back in 1998 and can be found on the first Main Man Studios Compilation CD), 'Know', 'Comfort', 'House Lights' (another older song), 'Friends I Wish I Knew', 'Plastic' (a brand new song which is a work in progress), 'This Song' (this demo version could wind up being the final version that appears on the 'Carlos is A Jive Turkey' project), and 'B-Movie Queen'. All in all a full day's work that will allow us to tear down and rebuild these songs -- getting them ready for their real day in the studio.

The demise of our Tascam 388 is leading us to the somewhat familiar world of digital recording -- and we are hopeful that we will be back in business sooner rather than later. In the meantime, we may let some of these demos out via our website, www.diggerphelps.net, keep an eye on this Blog for further announcements.



Beer recently seen around Big Ed's Audio Farm:

St Pauli Girl
Labatts Blue Light
Smithwicks
Amstel Light
...and a brand new emergency six-pack of Schaefer


CT
DP

Mikey likes us.

This is not a recording post, but just a nod and thanks to our friend Mikey for playing the DP on his online podcast show. He has a radio podcast called "The Music Mikey Likes Show" and he happens to like us. So, he plays us.

He airs Monday through Friday, from 11 am to 1 pm, and Sunday replay marathons from 6 am to 2 pm.

Click the newly added link over on the right over there and get all the details, few as they may be, for Mikey's show over on Radio BBQ. You can listen by clicking the big flashing LISTEN button.

There's a lot of other stuff on that channel. Most of it far too weird for people to find funny or interesting, which in turn makes it somewhat interesting, and then just weird. But Mikey likes some good music and we're glad he likes us.

We're a very appreciative sort in the DP, so thanks Mikeyboy.


MM
DP

My New Favortie Song

[pui disclaimer]
Last week Big Ed's was closed for renovations. Back to business this week... we decided, after a days worth of email volleys, to forego a visit to the Globe Hotel/Bar/Restaurant and head straight to our rehearsal space and just fuckin' rock (my suggestion). We dusted off some old gems ("Nightingale", "Warm December", "Know" and "A Safer Hiding Place") before Charlie showed us a new song he'd hashed out during our hiatus. Actually, it began with me playing a rhythm on the drums that Charlie thought would work for a song he'd written. After all, we've got that sympatico, he and I. We've played together for over 25 years... we'd better have a chemistry by now. Anyway, the new song in question is called "Plastic" and it's my new favorite song. I think it's got an Afghan Whigs feel, but the other 75% of DP may disagree. We're off again next week, so hopefully it'll all come back to me/us when we get back together. Until then...
[/pui disclaimer]

That's What I'm *Bleeping* Talking About!!!

Brian, Michael and I got together on Friday for a little bit of recording. After a couple of hours, we were able to get a nice bright and highly spirited acoustic guitar track down for 'Stars of Mendecino'. It was a difficult track to nail down, mainly because we were trying to get a better take than the original track -- but unfortunately there was no click or rhythm track for the first eight bars or so, so getting it to match exactly to the original took quite a bit of work and patience.

An exhuberant Charlie can be heard in the outtakes after finally nailing the track down.

CT
DP

Once More... With Feeling

So tonight, Brian and I got together without Charlie and Clint (they eat all the pizza and drink all the beer anyway) to work on some recording. It wasn't a clandestine rendezvous or anything, it's just that there's work to do and why wait 'til Thursday? So we worked on finishing up the mopey-shoegazer version of A Safer Hiding Place. The only part I had to do was a solo. I honestly had no real idea of what I was going to do when we started tonight, but I had a basic construction of where to play around since the song already has a solo on the regular version. So it gave me a starting place, but it finishes differently. Which is good since the other solo is by Charlie, so it's cool that the two are slightly different.

Well, sometimes recording is like fishin'.

You gotta keep throwing 'em back in the water when they're just not right until you catch a good one.


Recording a solo that you haven't even really figured out yet is a pain in the ass normally. I usually fuck it up time after time and get all pissed off, but tonight I didn't. It took several takes before we got something that was good, but I didn't get all cunty. It all went nice and easy. Each take had minor differences since I was still making it up on the fly, but the problem was, I would throw a clam in there and go to some minor note when I shouldn't or just not catch the right fret when I wanted it, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....

We just went at it figuring, we'll get something eventually, and if not... oh well.

And we got it.

Plus I got to mess around with sound.

I used THE SELECTOR! to have two amps playing. I put the Marshall and the Line6 facing each other about 3 feet apart mic'd dead center. I put the Marshall on my regular hi-gain setting, and the Line6 on hi-gain with a Matchless setting and a chorus effect. Then I ran my Les Paul through some additional distortion from Brian's Line6 Bass POD into the Marshall. So one amp was distorted and phased in contrast to the straight hi-gain sound out of the other amp. Nice and full blend.

We dones good.

You'll hear it eventually.


MM
DP

You Down With OPT?

It's Thursday again, which means another DP get together. As mentioned earlier, we have been rehearsing for our Comeback Special. We'll be doing 8 originals, mostly "new". "All Being Equal", the very first song written by Charlie for this band, will be included, as will "Warm December" from our first official album "See You In May". The remaining 6 have been written since the release of that record and will all appear on our as-yet-untitled sophomore effort. The second part of our set will consist of covers. Our first rehearsal of these songs went surprisingly well... so well, in fact, that we added another the following week. Tonight we'll make sure the covers are still fresh in our alcohol-drenched brains, then we'll run through the actual set a couple times.



Until now, we've only dabbled into other people's tunes. If I had my way we'd do a new cover every show (like Charlie's and my former band, Count 210, used to do). We'd even record one once in a while... well, we actually have... KISS' "C'Mon And Love Me", The Posies' "Please Return It" (both of those for tribute CDs) and Wilco's "Already In Love". I just mean that since we got the 8-track, I was hoping we'd bang out a cover now and then to throw up on the website. There's still time.

It was Charlie's idea to add some covers to our set this time out. As with everything else in our little democracy, we all had a say in what songs were picked for rehearsal. It just turned out that they all worked. Go figure. [sarcasm]It's not like we're a good band or anything.[/sarcasm] I'd like to think that at some point (soon) we can record any or all of these songs. We have a Beatles tune to record in the next few months, but there doesn't seem to be a rush on that at the moment. I know the rest of the band will point out that we have an album to finish, but sometimes working on someone else's guitar part or drum fill or vocal style can be a nice diversion. Plus you could learn something.

I realize I've kinda been all over the place with this post, and I apologize if it was hard to follow, but it's been too long since this blog was updated. Somebody had to step up.