Author: Paul

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recording with weaklazyliar

I went out to Jeep’s studio to do some backing vocals for weaklazyliar on Saturday. They’ve kept most of the music on this new CD secret, they haven’t played much of it at shows. I wish I had that much material to not be playing my new stuff at shows, I like the idea of it all being new when the CD comes out. Anyway, the one song they wanted me to sing on I had heard a few times, so I was relatively prepared when I got there. Got those done in a couple of takes, and then they asked if I wanted to do any more. Of course, the answer is “yes” because I love to sing and harmonize, and I love being on other people’s records. So I did some work on another song, whose title I will keep silent because I’m not sure how much info I’m allowed to reveal. They didn’t make me sign any confidentiality agreements, but you never know.

So, now seems as good a time as any to talk about weaklazyliar. The first time I ever played with them was at this very strange club in Marietta. This is early on during the Radiant City days. Gerlinda actually was playing solo that night, because at that point the band name was wholly accurate and she’d book shows that then she’d end up having to play solo because she couldn’t get the band to play. I remember she played “Rocketpop” that night and I was very jealous.

Weaklazyliar are an amazing band, and a group of great people. I really like the idea of our names being sort of intertwined as far as recognition goes. We’ve played a lot of shows together, I’ve sung with them at some of their shows, and we had a really great show last December where we just swapped songs, sang on each others stuff, and in general had a really comfortable time on stage. In my perfect utopia of a pop scene in Atlanta, where it’s a community that really strengthens each band involved, it always begins with our two acts, because we’ve been doing it for a while now.

Yeah, if I’m a little goofy right now it’s the pain medicine, people. Just bear with me. Years from now I’ll be able to read these and remember those wacky days in the late summer of ’01 when I was totally incoherent.

Go to amazon.com and get a copy of weaklazyliar’s “Yesterday Night.” It’s very good, very delicate (in a not at all annoying way) stuff, and you deserve it, you know you do. The work they’re doing now on the new CD is not only amazing and another step forward, but is also balls-y as hell, because of how they’re going about it. You can visit their site to get a sense of what they’re trying to do and how they’re doing it, and I suppose at some point they’ll really spell it out for everyone, but it really seems to be coming together in an amazing way.

Yeah, yeah, I’m shutting up now.

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13 Aug: studio

OVERTURE
me – guitar

HITCHCOCK BLONDE
me – guitar

This is the worst point in recording a song for me. I don’t consider myself to be an accomplished guitarist, although I have improved over the past few years, and I can play a song well. I don’t know theory or any of that, I know the names of some chords and the rest I’ve simply stumbled onto and tried to figure out what they were later. On acoustic guitar my hand cramps badly if there are too many barre chords. But I think, in general, I am a dependable guitarist. Recording acoustic tracks usually means doing it a few times for each song, even assuming you nail it the first time, just for double tracking and making a fuller sound. So the process for me can become very painful. Plus, the song at this stage sounds the most bare, usually just the drums and a scratch guitar track and a scratch vocal. So, you don’t get a feeling of accomplishment very often at this point, because even when you’re done the song sounds pretty weak, although you can see the vague shape of what it might become.

Luckily, tracking on these went well, and there aren’t any overdubs for the acoustic on either, so both were one take with a punch-in on one song at the end.

We were all sort of lackluster overall. Rob was tired, I think, and of course there’s me. I will be on Percocet for the entire week because of the kidney stone. Which amuses me to a certain extent, because it means at least part of this CD will have been recorded under the influence of strong depressants. Maybe I should put that on a sticker on the outside.

An added bonus was talk about more rehearsing for the band, so clearly the feeling across the board is that this is a real band and a going concern.

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11 Aug: Atlanta

Dark Horse (Atlanta, GA)
w/ Chain Poets, Johnny Hyde

Another show involving medical treatment. Friday I was at the hospital with a kidney stone, doped up with Demerol. X-rays, CT-scan, the works. It was a whirlwind of fun. The stone is still with me and was able to enjoy the show, which I performed under the influence of Percocet (administered every four hours to keep the pain at bay).

This show Michael Lorant filled in admirably on the drums, particularly considering we only rehearsed for an hour on Tuesday before it was cut short by the first visit of this particular stone. We started the show at 10pm sharp, and burned through 35 minutes in 35 minutes. This show was somewhat tighter than the last, as could be expected, but still rough. I felt much more in sync with this show compared to the last. With some time between now and the next potential band shows it’ll be nice to actually pick apart the songs we’re doing and really work them up, and add a few more. I miss more backing vocals, which is something we’ll have to figure out, too. We did these two shows from three rehearsals (one with a different drummer) so I think, to have pulled them off as well as we did, I really have pieced together something good here. All of them seem to be looking at this as a BAND, too, from what they say to me. Things could be very good in the coming months.

Chain Poets were up next. I had rehearsed with them on Thursday since we had talked about doing a song together during their set. In the end at the show we did “Telephone Line” and “No Matter What.” I couldn’t hear my vocals on “Telephone Line” (I was doing the very high falsetto stuff and playing guitar while Greg played the keys) but “No Matter What” came off great and sounded tight. They seemed to enjoy their set, as well, and it was great sharing the stage finally. I got to know them just as RC was splitting, so we’d never played together before. Plus, being on stage with them during their set was an added bonus. A blast and I hope we manage to do it again soon.

What the show did for me, though, was solidify my desire to put together some sort of monthly package show featuring local pop bands. The only problem is figuring out where it can be done on a Friday or Saturday and how to get people out to see it. Pop fans don’t seem to make a regular trip out to see local music, so the trick is how do I let them know such a thing exists and get them out? Because, even if I manage to put this together once (and I think I can pull that off somehow), if I can’t pull a crowd they won’t have us back.

Once again people were there who I never really got a chance to talk with to my satisfaction. I suppose a room filled with live music is not exactly the best place to try and talk anyway, and then hopped up on goofballs doesn’t help, either. Thanks to Lee and Greg from Gentle Readers who made it out, and two of the Ether Family Presents… (who introduced themselves by their Ether names, which I thought was great, except that I was drugged and now can’t remember which was which), and Andrea from Daemon Records. Thanks to everyone else who made it out, I really do appreciate it. Write me some time and we’ll chat. Really.

Up next, I’m finally back in the studio, all next week.