22 Mar: studio

HEY, CALIFORNIA
me – lead vocal

LITTLE PLUM
Michael Lorant – clarinet

Another day where it just doesn’t feel like I accomplished much. The vocal for CALIFORNIA was one take, with the exception of the falsetto at the end. For some reason, everytime I would start in I immediately got a tickle in my throat and would start coughing. Michael showed up around that time so we stopped while he did the clarinet for LITTLE PLUM. He hadn’t heard the song yet so it took a few passes to work it out, but it sounds great, sort of a raspy undertone to it, really nice. Then we stopped for lunch, came back and I did the falsetto bits from before. Not much, really.

Nevertheless, Rob doesn’t seem to think we’ll have trouble finishing up with three more days to go. It’s harder for me to judge.

This morning I remembered that I forgot how hard it is to find baritone ukulele strings. I may have to break down and go to MARS. The last time I was there for strings I stood around for about ten minutes waiting for someone to come to the counter, and finally I gave up and went behind it and got them myself. Went to the front register to pay, and then out the door, where they had TWO people checking receipts. Nice.

29 Oct: studio

FINALE (FINALLY)
Paul – guitar
Michael Lorant – drums
Tim Delaney (Swimming Pool Q’s) – stand-up bass

Jeff Calder (Swimming Pool Q’s) loaned the vibes.

laid down drums & bass with scratch guitar and vox.
made separate pass on bass, added bow to bridge.

Rob suggested Linda Bolley (Gentle Readers) for drums on other songs. Jeff showed up with the vibraphone, set up and tweaked to get them to work. They’ve been used in famous songs, apparently. Then sat and talked with Jeff, Rob, and John Cerreta about music, studios, the Black Crowes (who we’ve all known), etc. Told Rob the title of the CD (Camera Obscura), he mentioned story he read saying DaVinci may have done his paintings using a camera obscura.