“Run Towards the Warmth of the Sun” video

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This video was put together by Chris a couple of years ago. It features our first drummer, Leesa Harrington, who is currently the drummer for Lez Zeppelin, and former violinist, Amy Price. This is the first track off our first disc, Another Lame Semi-Tragedy, which is available on iTunes. Enjoy.

Loud Rock Band Seeks Drummer for Gigs, Rehearsals and Long Walks on the Beach in the Moonlight

Ok, maybe not that last one so much, but still.

We have recently parted ways with our drummer of nearly 3 years, Steve Salazar. Steve is a phenomenal musician and an even better person. We had a great time working with him and wish him nothing but the best.

That means we are on an all out search for a new drummer. So, if you fling the sticks - no that is not a euphemism for sex - here are some things we’re looking for.

• Live performance experience - circus performing doesn’t count
• Solid rock music skills - i.e. big foot on beat 1
• Reliable Transportation - preferably a 1970’s Kustom van with shag carpet, but we’re not picky
• Quality gear - that Wal-Mart kit you have in your garage won’t cut it
• Personal reliability - make us wait and we start to cry because we’re sensitive like that and clearly you don’t love us any more 
• Good attitude - well, as much as can be expected from a drummer (I keed!)
• Availability for minimum 1 rehearsal per week and average a couple gigs per month - mostly biker bars and tupperware parties
• Ability to travel - mostly short weekenders in state, but the occasional small tour (1-3 weeks) - willingness to sleep on the roof of a van a PLUS!

We don’t need someone utterly dedicated to what we do. This isn’t Single White Female. We just want a rock solid, reliable musician who is willing to rehearse enough for us to learn new material and have some fun.

We’re serious about what we do, but we want to have a good time too.

Also, if you can play this, that would be awesome (the fun starts at the 3:10 mark). Kthxbye!

New Pre-Production Videos

Monday night was another big night of pre-production, which has been great overall. As usual, we shot a bunch of goofy video, so here you go:

First up is what is destined to be our next big hit, “Soft Green Leaves.”

Jeff works on drum programming. It’s tedious.

…from the Greek. Chris and Jeff try to explain what quantizing is with not much success.

My favorite. George tries to explain to Chris the kind of drum beat he wants.

The Kovacik Family Singers

George and his kids got together to make some videos. The first is he and his son, Andrew, performing at the 2nd grade talent show. Check out the awesome drum skills.

The second is George singing Run Towards the Warmth of the Sun with his daughter, Julianne. Andrew plays his part by singing Chris’ guitar solo while playing the guitar from Rock Band.

To quote Tom Petty, “You guys are gonna put me out of a job.”

“Sticky Finger” Video

This is our official video for the song “Sticky Finger,” the first track off our second CD, Come and Take It. It chronicles our weeklong tour of the Northeast in October, 2008. The disc, along with our first one Another Lame Semi-Tragedy, are available on iTunes.

“The First Single”

As we begin to record a new CD, we are looking for the “breakout” hit. The song that will send us into the stratosphere of wine, women and financial bliss. While we’ve written 10 good ones, I think this tune from the 1970s is going to be the tune that will finally get us some “groupie love” like my boy “Fitty Cent” say. Imagine this colorful tune on your iPod and let us know what you think.

The Gods of “Something” Continue the Pre-Production

The act of practicing things that you are going to record soon is a pesky part of the recording process known as pre-production.  It’s sorta like a football team doing a walkthrough the day before the game - kinda like practice but without the pain and blown knee tendons.

In our case, pre-production involves going through each song we want to record and making decisions about style, groove, sound, tempo, etc.

Last night, we worked on one of the songs and put together a couple videos with my new handy dandy little iFlip video recorder. It’s sweeter than winter molasses covered in sugar, gumballs and crushed angel wings.

The first video is some random drum stuff with a very stylish Star Wars theme intro. George Lucas directed and by George Lucas, I mean my cat, Dexter.

The second video is about how we have decided to name ourselves The Gods of “Something” with the “something” part being a variable like the X in an algebra equation or the speed of a drill. In short, we are awesome to the square root of X.

The truth is, this “pre-production” is really just time to goof off and pretend to be recording engineers. When we do this, I call Chris “Steve Albini” and he refers to me as “Daniel Lanois” because I’m dark, dirty and mysterious. George is “Bruce Dickinson” and is constantly yelling for more cowbell, which is sweet and sad all at the same time since George doesn’t know that was just a character on SNL and the real Bruce Dickinson is the singer from Iron Maiden.

As far as we know, unlike the SNL character played by Christopher Walken, the real Dickinson doesn’t put his spandex pants on one leg at a time like everyone else. He has them held in place by groupies while he leaps from a table directly into them. And THAT is why we call George “Bruce Dickinson,” not because of the cowbell thing, but don’t tell him because he thinks it’s HILARIOUS.

Pre-Production, Schmee-Production

When I was significantly younger than I am today, I used to wonder what the fuss was all about when it came to pre-production.  I thought, “Hey, we’re a band and we play this music all the time. Why do we need to rehearse specifically for the studio?”

Today, I saw the benefits of pre-production for a band like ours and didn’t question it for one second.

For the uninitiated, pre-production is basically the act of preparing your music for the studio. This usually entails going over the songs, working on how they feel, coming up with references (other songs by other artists) and making simple demos if necessary.

Tonight, we worked on a song called “Georgie,” that we’ve been playing for over a year.  The feel for the song was just never right.  On Monday, we played through it acoustically and decided we needed to change the groove. I played the guys a song by Paul Thorn called “Lucky 7 Ranch” and it was right on the money for what we wanted in terms of the overall feel for the song.

We went through the song this evening and put together a drum sample groove we could use to make a very simple demo.  We can then use that as a reference when rehearsing the song with live drums.

Our goal is to have a groove or “feel” reference for every song we intend to record as well as a sonic reference.  In essence, one reference that gives us an idea of how to play the song and one reference for how we want it to sound.

Now, the sonic references will be much more limited. Feel references could be anything. It doesn’t have to sound right or even be recent. Every song could have a different artist for a reference.  On the other hand, the sonic references need to be limited to just a few artists and recently released albums so that our record has both consistency and a modern sonic palette.

This is the most organized I’ve ever felt before starting the actual recording process and I can really see the value of pre-production of this kind.  I have no doubt it will make a big difference when we start actually cutting tracks.

Houston Press Awards Nominations 2009

It’s that time again. It’s starting to get hot outside and the Houston Press Music Awards nomination ballot is out.  Like all years, you get to choose who you think should be the finalists on the ballots.

We would like to respectfully make a few suggestions. We don’t want to be greedy, so we’ll just go with the following:

Male Vocal: George Kovacik
Guitar: Chris Rogers
Bassist: Jeff Balke
Drummer: Steve Salazar
Roots-Rock/Americana: orange is in

You only have to fill out the parts you know, so don’t worry if you don’t have any idea who the best Bulgarian flautist transplant is because we don’t either (ok, it’s some guy named Stanislov, but still).

Reference Material

If you are a journalist, you might consult the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. Kids today often use Wikipedia. Those of you who have been around a while might actually remember the many volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica sitting on your parents shelves going up. All of these are reference materials and, when it comes to making records, musicians use references too. We just happen to use other people’s records.

Tonight, George, Chris and I got together at Chris’ house to listen to music and make a sonic plan for the recording of our new album. This doesn’t mean copying the sounds of others. It just means that you listen for sounds and general ideas that help you to shape the sound of your own record.  It is common practice for artists, engineers and producers.

Like usual, Chris went for classics and I went for more modern recordings. This is perfect for us because we both end up in the same place while coming from different angles and it introduces both of us to music the other may or may not have heard before. Also, like usual, we had some common songs on our lists.

Because Chris and I produce everything, we tend to take the lead with stuff like this, but George is quick to throw his $0.02 or $0.10 into the mix.  By the end, we were all on the same page.

Tonight, the consensus was we liked a pretty wide range of modern and classic stuff and we have a good starting point. The Raconteurs, Wilco, Tom Petty, Drive-By Truckers, Radiohead, Lucinda Williams, Kings of Leon, Guster and The Hold Steady were all on the list. There were of other artists too, but those seemed to be the general favorites.

They all have their own character and, sonically, they are very different. But they each have elements that are attractive to us musically and seem to appeal to our collective personality.

We also put together a list of musicians we’d like to call about playing on the record as well as a list of instruments and accessories we wouldn’t mind borrowing or renting when the time comes. We start putting the first pieces together next week and we’ll work slowly for a month or so before getting into the meat of the process.

We have no real timelines, but my guess is you’ll see a new record from orange is in by the end of the summer.  We’re really excited to get started.