Friday, May 16, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Rained out and maxed out.
Dear readers,
Michelle, a dear friend of ours allowed us access to her Brooklyn rooftop for our final location in New York. Forboding hints along the way indicated rain but as we were so lucky on weather conditions most of the trip, we kind of took in in stride and Marcin the DP was quite set on making a tent up there so as to get the rain and some instrument shots. As a backup plan, Michelle gave us free reign of her space should the rain continue. We soon realized the rain would not only make things uncomfortable, but could result in possible electrocution. As non-cinematic as this was, the crew set up some lights in the room and we went to town with Toby's brother Christian. En route, we had picked Christian up the prior day at Princeton and he is an eager player on this inclimate day.
Christian's story is interesting in that he basically had to make the decision between music and baseball as he is about to be drafted into the minor league as a pitcher. As it turns out, his window for baseball is even slimmer than the one for music so he will be getting back to music perhaps later in the game. He is a good well rounded collaborator and seems interested in the process that we go into, having a small home studio in his dorm.
The tune today seems to fall squarely into the eighties sort of New Order world so we roll with it. Clark and I are into it but find out that the elaborate setup on the roof has managed to piss off the building supervisor who is now blaming us on an elevator no working. As none of our equipment weighs that much, there is a collective suspicion that he is trying to extort us. This is the same man that Michelle informs us found her missing iphone and not only demanded money, but followed her to an ATM so he could further collect. New Jersey politics . Anyhow, Clark paid him off the next day and we all said our goodbyes as Toby and Jason are singlehandedly driving the RV back to Los Angeles before the insurance runs out.
I am happy to be finished with stage one. It was an exhaustive process to have been involved with. There will be more work to do on the songs back in LA and a hell of a lot of editing.
It has been an amazing adventure! We've managed to develop some really cool new songs with greater texture, variety and scope than before. We hope you enjoy listening to our efforts in a couple of months when it's finally unveiled!
Finit,
Nathan
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Gina Rocks
The Philadelphia branch of Paul Green's School of Rock answered our SOS by recommending a sixteen year old prodigy named Gina. We find the school mid block by a pizza restaurant. Muso rugrats running through the halls were pretty brilliant to behold. We played this day with a young genius.
That said, we had little time to spend with her. Her mom was impatiently waiting for her so we got some good licks and a stand up bass run through but that was all the time she had. I was not happy with my contribution this day lyrically which means I will have to fix it in LA.
We are now off to New York city!
Nathan
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
The Ohio State University
Dear Readers,
We were intending to go straight through to Pennsylvania when it struck Clark that perhaps we should hit a University in Ohio and break the drive day up. This also meant we could approach total strangers at a better hour.
After stepping off the bus at the Columbus' Ohio State, we immediately ran into this cool looking student Stephen and his girlfriend and sprung the question of collaboration. He mentions that his twin brother Shaun plays trumpet and entertains the idea of working with us the following day.
As this was a last minute decision, we had to do this without faculty permission at the start so we found an ampi-theatre by the man made campus lake to potentially setup.
As Clark and I sat there on the steps with the mobile recorder coming up with musical ideas, we sat through a jazz dance class (hysterical) and then an apparent stare-down with two academic looking people on the opposite side of the stage. Clark runs over to quell a potential wildfire and finds they both are hosting an Aztec dance on the stage in the next hour or so. Of course that precludes our usage of the space, but they like the idea of what we are setting out to do and are under some sort of impression that we'll be able to help populate the audience. They talk to someone in the Honor's department and before we know it, we have permission to set up in front of the tudor style Honor's building and can pretty much work through the night.
The brothers eventually meet up with us after classes let out. They are identical twins distinguishable by Stephen's beard and borrowed saxophone. Shaun is studying genetics, a subject he's very excited about. They turn out to be a good players and what starts out as cacaphony eventually graduates into an understanding of how they fit and counter into the song we've began.
It's lovely when we open up our process to the company of strangers and show them how good they can sound. Both brother's faces illuminated as they watched what appeared to be fragments tun into a mosaic. All the time they're playing their horns, there is another kid who has been sitting around in the sidelines kind of waiting for his turn to join in who's name is Markus.
After we are finished with the twins, Markus gets onto the electric piano and blows us all away with his effortless chops. Having played since he was four, this talented and handsome kid is going to be a success story. He is studying social work at the school.
We wrap up around one with no interruptions save the occasional drunken frat herd wandering by.
The song we created has a bit of a nostalgic seventies vibe, especially after the wurlitzer and horn application. It is a fairly optimistic tune with Merritt singing the chorus. The mood in the RV is alright considering the fact that some are feeling worn down and sort of sick. We have only two stops left on this journey.
Next stop is Philadelphia with a young, multi-instumental girl that the School of Rock has hand picked from a large list for us.
Well napped,
Nathan
Monday, May 5, 2008
Southern Hospitality
Dear readers,
Our contact in Louisville Kentucky is none other than our good friend Adrian Grendier (The Man Responsible for Everything) who is meeting up with us one night to make music and then we are all going to the Kentucky Derby the next day due to his association with Budwieser company. The hotel we are staying in is right across the street from the manufacturer of the Louisville Slugger baseball bat and in case you miss that fact, there happens to be a forty foot statue of one leaning against it's exterior. The 21c Hotel is fantastic as it's owner Steve Wilson is a pretty big collector of modern art and basically decks out his hotel with his auspicious trophies. We are treated with fine accommodations at the hotel and then later on we learn he has kindly opened up the barn at his magnificent bison farm for us to record with Adrian.
When we first get out to the property, we are amazed by how large and beautiful his land is, and we share the stable with a beautiful pregnant mare and Steve's seven year old grandchild, Avery, who is quite eager to play his electric guitar with us.
Steve is ridiculously well dressed and manicured gentleman who informs us that his barn's foundation is a remnant of the civil war and survived the fires that consumed the original walls. Steve then provides catering for us and splits for parties surrounding the Derby. We are waiting on Adrian who's flight from Chicago is massively delayed due to storms so he has to drive five hours to make our date. By the time he arrives, we have an idea or two but choose to begin something fresh so Adrian plays a bit of guitar with Clark on bass/drums and me on Moog. The ideas start to take shape and then.... Adrian is forced to go on into town to the Budwieser parties he's obliged to attend. So Clark and I continue to work on the several parts we came up with plus vocal trial. The rain here is torrential and throughout the night, a river basically flows through the barn which Tammy the horse tender and a couple of children are kindly battling for us.
We wrap up around three to find ourselves rained in at the ranch so Clark sleeps in the barn while the rest of us stack up like sardines in the RV. Good thing we all get along...
The next day is Derby day, so outfits are in order. We find some exceptional vintage digs at a store called Nitty Gritty, settle into the hotel and make our way to the race. There's a fair bit of headache involved with finding parking for the RV so we basically parked miles away and somehow convinced this ice-cream man to stuff us into his van and get us close to the track.
The Derby is fun. We get the surreal experience of walking everywhere with Adrian who has to stop every second to sign autographs. We were taken to the paddocks to follow the horses in posed with jockeys etc. Such a change in situation. One minute we are hanging out with a guy like Guidry or Clarence and the next, we're rubbing elbows with tycoons and debutants in big hats in box seats at the Derby. Sometimes you win.
The race itself was great fun to watch and a couple of us won a little, but a very sad event was about to take place. Phillies are apparently quite a rarity on the track, finding it hard to keep up with the other sex. At the races end, the one mare to have competed since the eighties broke both front ankles and had to be put down. This made me very sad and I wondered about the ethics of entering mares into such competitions.
Steve's hotel was in full swing when we arrived with guests steadying themselves against sculptures and after we're fed, again complementarily, we are asked to play some music so Adrian, Clark and I do three songs which everyone is drunk enough to enjoy.
Writing from Columbus,
Nathan
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Daddy Mac
Readers,
As we roll into Memphis, we meet up with our impromptu host, a really nice guy named Tad invites us into his strange kitchy world on indoor airstreams which he shares with his adorable crotch nipping dog Howdy and fish, Murkey. He lets us park the bus and we seek accommodation for the night. Stepping out onto Beale for some food, I find it's a bit of a cuisine nightmare for me as everything is deep fried and meaty. There are a lot of beggars in Memphis, but it's cool to see this vibrant birthplace of rock. We are near Sun studios and the projects where HE was brought up.
When we arrive the next day at Tad's space, another man steps out of one of the trailers that sit here within the large warehouse space. Like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, you kind of forget you're indoors. Tad runs a tour of ELVISLAND in a 55 caddillac, the same model THE KING bought his mother after scoring his record contract. He takes a few of us the next day to meet up with our collaborator, a blues man named Daddy Mac. We wait for mac at his garage, a dark place where he squeezes out a living between spots at local juke joints and touring. He arrives and is a nice guy, but it becomes pretty clear that his interests in our process are more financially related then anyone else we worked with. That said, we come to an agreement even though he seems reticent and has to leave by dusk to visit his hospitalized father. So we quickly get to Tad's to start with the limited time given.
An hour later Daddy gets there and we jam a bit on blues. I know nothing about what I'm doing, but Daddy takes it in stride, soloing without apparently ever tiring of it. I try and show him the chords we quickly came up and he doesn't seem too interested in this so he feeds me some chords he'd rather solo over and we play a while. We decide the lyric should be based on things Daddy is talking about, primarily places around the world he's been. It's an interesting thing, being thrown into the salad bowl with someone so hardwired to a specialty. Getting him to sing the part as written was really a chore, but he was a good sport about trying. And trying . And trying.
When he left, we were a little saddened that he had so little visible interest in what we were doing. It may have well been a cultural thing, or that Daddy Mac has been screwed over by people for some time now, but he really was the least enthused partnership to date. Still, the man could play the guitar like a bad ass. We will undoubtedly be using some of his licks in the song.
When he left, Clark and I had our work cut out for us and were up until three thirty turning our crap attempt at being bluesmen into something a bit more Wilburys and GLish.
I wish we had a bit more time here to see Graceland, but Louisville Kentucky awaits. We have been invited to the Kentucky Derby by our good friend Adrian. Time to bone up on the horses. God, that sounded awful.
Nathan
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