Compiled by Jackie Lam
Wow, it’s hard to believe that our fourth month of weekly showcases at LaBrie’s is coming to an end (yes, it has already been four months). We’ve had such great bands play in February, such as WALK and Judson half of Judson and Mary, and tonight is sure to be stellar with The World Record and Andrew Lynch joining our residency band The Western States Motel. There will be more energy and talent within the walls of LaBrie’s tonight than on the soundstage of Star Search. And our March headliners, George Glass, is sure to be fantastic. The doors open at 8:30 pm and the first set starts at 9 pm. Booze is cheap and bountiful, and it’s 21+. Here are a few free mp3s and back story on the making of each respective track:
Andrew Lynch on “Hello Villains”:
It started with the dubby drum loop that I took from an old breaks disc, and then I played acoustic guitar into my hardware sampler. Internally in the sampler, I truncated one of the riffs and made it play backwards, which I then assigned to all the keys, so I could play full jazz chords (of the original guitar riffs) on the keyboard. That way you get the texture and harmonies of the original instrument, and then you can make the chords even weirder by adding to them with the keys.
The rest of the song relies heavily on the incidental ambient sounds that happened while it was being recorded. When my pal Karim Atalla from The Poor Excuses came over to play some bass for this, someone walked into the room and he said "Hello," which is a sample you hear throughout the whole song... and on its own at the very end. I really like how cordial he sounds.
From there, I decided it needed more rhythm. I made a beatboxing track of my own vocals, but I forgot to close the window before starting. So about half way through them, you hear a fire truck driving past my window, sirens going off. And at about the point in the song where the major-sounding jazzy chords devolve into minor chords, I stretched out my breaths and twisted my mouth while still beatboxing, because I wanted it to sound like a record slowing down and breaking.
The last element is from a phone call with a political telemarketer. She called me one night while I was working on the song, and she would rant in bursts of 10 minutes, hardly ever taking a breath or letting me speak. I really wanted to hang up but her stories were pretty good, so I switched to speakerphone and held it up to the microphone. I ended up using the bit about Nixon being drunk and talking to pictures of presidents on the wall. I guess she helped me write the song, and I could probably get in trouble for recording her.
Call me?
Free Download: Andrew Lynch – “Hello Villains"
Andy of The World Record on “Get Up, Star”:
This is a tune off of the Guitars Forever CD. It was born while picking away on a friend's guitar on their couch. I was in search of a bluegrass-y sounding thing, and got onto a little riff which morphed around for a few minutes till it settled into what it is (the main verse part). The accompanying lyric came out at the same time. I was excited about the riff, less so about the lyric, but it fit together all right which is rare enough so it went into the "contenders" pile, to be worked on later in a safe, private place.
Eli (from The Monolators) was recently talking about how much easier it is to write words for a song if you have a title figured out already. That was the case here with the initial lyric providing a decent title, and when I got working on it again, the words did indeed come easily--not the usual state of affairs for me. In this case I had in mind some of my friends who write great songs but seem to lack the confidence or drive to do anything with them. So the lyric became a little message of encouragement to people in that predicament. The middle part of the song was a point of mild contention with some of the folks in the band; they felt the song got a little off-track at that point. They were probably right, but I defended it using the "it just came out that way" clause. It's too late now anyway.
Originally the main riff was in 5/4, but as we practiced it, our then-guitarist Aditya Rao said it felt awkward so we cut a beat out. Now it alternates 5 and 4 and feels pretty natural. I had a drummer friend years ago for whom that was an obsession - getting odd times to feel natural. So I mark that up as a tiny victory.
This is the recording on Guitars Forever that I'm happiest with. The main electric guitar has a nice slightly dirty sound, and I'm really happy with the harmonies. The "uh-huh" phrasing was Aditya's suggestion, inspired by what is hands-down my favorite ABBA song, "Knowing Me, Knowing You." The bass sound is an electric guitar going "direct" - that is, plugged straight into the board with no amp. The percussion is a lap being slapped. It all comes together to form something really nice.
Free Download: The World Record – “Get Up, Star”
Carl of The Western States Motel on “The Cilff”:
OK, so here is a song called "The Cliff." It was released as a single about a year ago. At one point it was going to be on the upcoming album, Freeway Freeway Riverbed, but it just seemed to work better by itself than as part of this particular group of songs. A few people have told me it that it reminds them of The Cars, which makes some sense, because I am a huge fan. I used to work at a record store, and at one point I mentioned to the manager that we didn't have any Cars music in stock. He just looked at me and said, "So?" Anyways, hope you enjoy the track.
Free Download: The Western States Motel – “The Cliff"
Related posts:
Interview: The Western States Motel
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