Just got home from Vegas doing a fantasy baseball draft. I know... Not very rock n roll. We started bass late on Wed about 11 pm and got three tracks done. Went really fast. Thursday got another late start and did five or six tracks. 9 out of the 10 jams are done. My current bas rig is my Laney Guitar Combo Amp. I think it is a 2x8. And the Boss Blues Driver. It sounds pretty amazing.
Bass: a beautiful instrument, the heart, the soul, the balls, a PAIN IN THE ASS TO RECORD; especially when working with myself, cupie.
I've always battled anxiety when the day comes to playing bass on albums. Am I gonna play the parts as well as how I hear them in my head? Or is it going to sound like that dude at Guitar Center trying to jam on the bass for the first time? I am kind of like NASCAR on Sunday. Could be a wreck on the first turn or be Jeff Gordon wearing his Technicolor Dream Coat at the winner's circle. Every take is exactly the same it is either the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.
Overall i am pretty stoked, playing bass very different for the first time in about 10 years. Kind of like when i started back in 85. Energy, Energy, Energy, and note holding. Like ACDC meets Echo and The Bunnymen.
c
The drums turned out great, and now it's time for the bass.
The weird thing about recording demos or rehearsal tapes for an album is that sometimes you get used to hearing the songs that way. Then when you're in the studio and it sounds really clean, it's an awkward adjustment at first.
However, we went into this album thinking that it needed to be much cleaner than our other albums. And now, instead of having a slight touch of anxiety about the new sound of the songs, we're actually getting more and more excited about it.
Drums: a beautiful instrument, a hip shaker, a heart beater, a zen tool, a PAIN IN THE ASS TO RECORD.
I've always battled anxiety when the day comes to playing drums on albums. Am I gonna play the parts as well as how I hear them in my head? Or is it going to sound like that dude at Guitar Center trying to show off the licks he learned from that Neil Peart instructional video? It's kinda like getting over the horror of hearing your recorded voice for the first time, except with drums I hear that every time I record.
But when we went to the rehearsal/recording studio on Wednesday to begin recording drums, much of that fear wasn't there. I'm not sure why, but not being in a fancy recording studio probably helped. So did Andy's excellent engineering, that helped make the drums sound so good in the phones. So did the drums themselves, which I borrowed from our friend Joel, who has them sounding AMAZING! All the exciting power and energy that we felt in rehearsals seemed to easily transition to the tape (or hard drive--whatever). It was a good feeling.
Wednesday evening we set up all the equipment that Andy had stuffed into his Toyota (I had jury duty that day). Then Andy applied his signature mic-setup scheme, and he got some sounds. By the end of the night we had one song done.
Thursday I got out of jury duty by 11:30am, so we were at the studio by around 12:30pm. For the next 14 hours we rocked our pants off, getting nine more jams down. I started freaking out because we were making almost every song faster from the scratch versions. By around 11pm I wondered if that one afternoon coffee (I'm not a huge coffee drinker) did something very wrong to my sense of time and space. Andy agreed, though, so maybe it'll be all right. Eric was there helping out on Wednesday night, and Jeff came by for a while yesterday.
My guess is that this coming Wednesday night, we'll get together and see if everything really sounded as good as it seemed to Andy and me.
LA indie band with top-notch management seeks new lead singer. Must be 20-25 years of age with strong image and excellent stage presence--no baggy pants, please. Must have own PA! Influences: Velvet Underground, the Stooges, T-Rex, early Bowie, Mott the Hoople, 60's garage rock. We ask that you send a photo with your bio and demo. Send all materials to email@lassiefoundation.com.
Here is the first submission. What do you guys think? I'm not sure he's skinny enough.
Bassists are often overlooked. Their contributions to music don't receive nearly the attention they deserve. In the studio the other night, we were discussing the possibility of multiple bass parts on one of the songs. Naturally, we took that conversation to a ridiculous extent and decided that EVERYONE has to play a bass part. Then we took photos.
As fans of the proverbial "big bottom," we thought we'd create a fun photo contest to help spread the word about the value of a healthy bottom. Here are some quick photos of us showing our support for the long-necked low-end machine!
Eric, bassist of The Lassie Foundation
Jeff, bassist of Judas Priest
Wayne, bassist of Impellitteri
Andy, bassist of 98 Degrees
Bass, not Lance
Join us in our celebration of all that is low-down and bassy! Send your bass photos to email@lassiefoundation.com, and we'll post the best ones here.
-Wayne
P.S. For anyone who doesn't get the Impellitteri thing, it refers to this and this and this and this and finally this one from '97.
UPDATES:
3/9/04 - Our first submission! He likes to rock.
3/10/04 - That first gig look.
3/10/04 - Another famous fan. Definitely the best bass player in "The Matrix." (Wait...Was Billy Sheehan in that?)
3/13/04 - Looks like my man is trying out for Def Leppard
3/13/04 - A shout-out from the sender: "this goes out to justin, lance, andy and the boyz."
3/15/04 - Bassist for a new band from Aspen called "Sweet Snow Sister". He's just authored a self-help book, too, called "Chicken Soup for the Snow."
3/15/04 - This guy needs to spend less money on his tattoos and more money on his drywall.
3/15/04 - If it was Adam Clayton on the cover of "Rattle and Hum" instead of The Edge, it probably would have looked like this.
3/21/04 - Another bassist for Impellitteri--on a futon.
Last night we were without Jeff because of his commitment to being called "Dr. Shredder" someday. Can't argue with that.
Wednesday night we finished the scratch guitars and most of the bass, so last night we recorded scratch vocals.
A very scientific microphone-testing experiment conducted by The Doc yielded interesting results: those super-expensive microphones that come in the fancy packages with big logos emblazoned in wood--they aren't necessarily the best ones for recording this singer's voice. We A-B'ed about 7 or 8 mics, and some of the cheaper ones fared quite well.
So the lesson here is to go out and buy the most well-respected microphone available, because you never know when you'll need a nice paperweight.
Next week's plan is to start recording drums, which could pose some problems. First, the Cuckoo's Nest (as I call the padded, whitewalled Northern Rec's office where we've been recording so far) has a concrete warehouse for a performance room. Unfortunately, we're not recording a cover of "Kashmir", so that won't do. Our best option is to record them at the rehearsal studio, where the room sounds good for drums--even on those crappy rehearsal tapes.
The problem there is the other bands--a lot of 'em. The studio is one of about 40 on the same floor of a government office building, and at night it's teeming with the sounds of the next Strokes, the next White Stripes, the next Darkness, and the next Bob Marley. So we're gonna try to get in there during the day and hope that nobody's there.
Our method of "guerilla recording" is this:
Since I live about 3 minutes away from the studio, I will go there in the morning and scout the building. I'm looking for: bands bumping the big bass in close proximity to our studio, big SUVs loading bass rigs of 8X10 cabinets or larger, and any flyer posted on the cluttered message board indicating a need for "professional bass player--serious players only." It would be bad news for our session if the next Billy Sheehan and the next Flea were to compete in a bass-off next door to us.
If everything looks good, and the next 200 Linkin Parks haven't arrived yet, then I'll call The Doc, who will then grab his Emergency Studio Recording kit, slide down the Docpole, and speed up the freeway in the Docmobile. Hopefully we'll be able to get a couple of songs done before the hackeysackers, Julian Casablancas look-alikes, and Reefer Madness All-Stars take over the building.
While not exactly in line with our original idea of making this recording the most pro yet, at least we don't have a leaky roof this time around...