The other day I spent a lot of time mixing down my vocals and Jeri’s vocals for our cover of the Hank Williams song Long Gone Lonesome Blues.  It was the last thing I needed to do before I could have the song “in the bag.”  All the tracks would now be ready for final mixing and mastering.  

While I’m putting the vocals together for a rough mix with all the other instruments I notice something doesn’t sound right.  What was that?  Is there a guitar playing a wrong chord for a second or two?   I isolate the tracks.  It’s not the bass or the acoustic guitar.  But my electric guitar plays the wrong chord in the third verse for a couple of seconds.  

Nooooooo.   

Right away the following thoughts came  in my head.  Can I just forget about it?  I didn't notice at first, maybe no one else will either.  Maybe it’ll get buried in the mix.  It’s only a couple seconds.  Hmmm.  Nope, I need to re-record the thing.  Crap.  How  am I supposed to beat Dave Grohl if this  sort  of thing keeps happening?!

Once I get past the initial frustration, I realize it’s a good thing because I thought the guitar sound was a little thin anyway.  And since it’s the only instrument playing at the beginning of the song I was going to have to ask the audio engineer to see if he could fatten that guitar sound up a little bit.  But maybe if I record it right in the first place I won’t have to do that.  So I’ll use this opportunity to experiment with a new technique for me, and that’s using more than one microphone to record the guitar track.  I think I’ll use the Peavey tube amp as well.  I’ll mic the cabinet with an SM57 and then I’ll put a condenser mic up in the room somewhere.  Since I’m doing all that, I can use a ribbon mic I have as well to mic the cabinet.  That way I’ll have at least three tracks for the same guitar, each one sounding slightly different.  The room mic will give some natural reverb as well.  Those three tracks can then be mixed into one gutiar track when the time comes, or even used separately for a stereo effect to help fill out the sound.  Ooh yeah, I’ve got a good feeling about this.  I even made a video for those interested in that sort of  thing. I'll post the rough  mix of the song soon!

Dave Grohl has been busy the past few weeks...

Performing a secret show in LA :

Finishing recording:

Finding a new favorite guitar:

And playing a role in the new Muppets Movie:

Well, I’ve been busy too:

Working:

Yodelling:

And playing the ukulele!

Don’t look back Dave, I’m chasing you down.  Gotta catch up! 

Brian Regan is one of my favorite comedians and today I thought of his bit on being bad in school (at 3 min 30 seconds):

I think the worst day was the day that the science project was due.  Waking up that morning, that was fun, huh?  Your head would pop off the pillow, “Oh no...That’s due today...I had nine months to work on it and did nothing...I have a cardboard box.”

Yesterday Dave Grohl tweeted this: “Last vocal on the record! http://yfrog.com/h2qourj”

Oh, no...

It hasn’t been nine months and it’s not like I haven’t done anything. But at this point, Dave Grohl is ahead. He is beating me. Poop mouth.

We have drums recorded for three more songs.  We have guitar tracks and vocals done, but lo and behold, we are nowhere near complete to recording the basic tracks for the album. Today I recorded two guitar tracks and a ukulele track for Pete’s sake, but it’s never enough!  How, oh how, can I live up to this man?  I can’t and that’s just what I’ll have to live with won’t I?  

But there is still hope.  The new Foo Fighter’s album will be out in the spring hopefully, so I’ve still got time to beat Dave Grohl.  All is not lost yet, however.  I will prevail in the end!

Check out our drummer wailing away on some awesome drums!  Take THAT Dave Grohl!  Hoowah!

So you know how I can’t seem to escape Dave Grohl?  Well, I’m reading a book right now called “So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star” by Jacob Slichter.  He’s the drummer from Semisonic (remember Closing Time?).  Anyway, I read this book a few years ago on the recommendation of Brian Vander Ark from The Verve Pipe (the recommendation of his blog anyway).  It’s a hilariously insightful look at the music industry and mirrored a lot of The Verve Pipe’s career, who have always held special interest for me as they made it big and are from West Michigan too.  

Semisonic (at the time called Pleasure) were courting various record labels.  The author hasn’t been through this process before and is describing the various record labels and the personalities at them, at which point Dave Grohl climbs out of the pages, leering at me.  Direct quote from the book:

“Next up was Geffen, perhaps the dominant label of the day.  Its roster - which included Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, The Counting Crows and Sonic Youth - was an impressive list of either massively successful or super-cool bands, espcially in the case of its best-known band, Nirvana.

Nothing triggered my panicked feelings of inadequacy as much as Nirvana and Dave Grohl’s monstrous drumming.  Grohl pounded a permanent change into the radio; in the wake of Nirvana’s success, the airwaves were crammed with bands whose drummers tried to play the larger-than-life fills that thundered around his drums.  None, however, could match his huge sound and hypnotic groove.  Grohl, eight years younger than me, set the impossible standard by which all drummers were now judged.  To hear Nirvana blasting out of Brad’s speakers at ten in the morning - it sounded like the soundtrack to a nightmare.”

Yup, welcome to my nightmare Jacob Slichter.