Sorry it has been some time since I posted last, but an attempted graduation and HF2 have swamped me for the past few months. Consider this a bid to be a bit more disciplined, as there will be a lot to say in the next few months, and not all of it about factor.
Speaking of...
Yesterday Robinowitz, F and I spent the evening on Long Island (out of necessity, not choice) for what will be our second-to-last session of live drum recording. Ash dropped off the gear, made a run to Wendy's and trashed some '80s music before taking his leave, although we begged him to stay. After a whirlwind setup, we tackled four tunes: "The Morning After The Life Before," "Our Faith," "Theme From Propaganda" and "Leningrad" (formerly known as "Two Basses," and there's a free drink at KGB in it for anyone who can figure out the origin of the new title.)
F wrote extensively here about the devolution of our earliest drum sessions into logistical nightmares, the worst of which was the electrical blaze that temporarily retired Ash's mixing desk. Honestly, the first five or six sessions were total pains in the ass, between moving gear out to Long Island, moving ourselves out to Long Island, scheduling idiocy, incompetent parts suppliers and missing gear.
But yesterday's session (and the two previous - one with Ash and Robin and one with Robin alone) was, in a word, effortless. For the first time, we made it through the full schedule of songs for the evening (with time to spare for homemade biscuits.) Robin's playing was spot-on; I spent this morning at the Cage listening to her playing without any EQ or compression, and it was striking to hear how few edits would be required on the tracks. "Theme From Propaganda" is now a storming funk tune - house music played by a live band (which just might be disco, right?) - while "Leningrad" is Gustavo Cerati's Ocio project playing folk music. Nice stuff.
"Creation Phase" is undergoing a major overhaul at the moment thanks to prodding from Robin and Ash, although it probably will not be complete until well into April. During a tracking session for this tune and "Solar" in mid-February, we ran into problems with a rhythm arrangement for the bridge, and Robin and Ash basically said the song's second half was shit. I do not always agree with Ash, but he was dead-on right; I'd had reservations about the bridge for some time myself, and they validated that. The next week Robin and I tracked a drum part for the "new" bridge that, when complete, will mark the first time this band has written around the drummer, rather than loops. When this tune emerges from maintenance, expect it to be leaner and meaner. The meanest song on the LP, in fact, when F's vocals are complete.
A slew of gigs are coming up that I am hoping will be brilliant: Death Cab For Cutie at Irving Plaza, Squarepusher at Irving and The Rapture and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in a double headlining bill at Roseland. And, were that not exciting enough, The Twilight Singers return for a Warsaw gig at the beginning of April. More on that later.
I know this is a few weeks late, but... Danny: I'm sorry about Scarlett. Benicio's a douché.
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