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.

South by So Tired

Let’s just get it out of the way - we had a blast at South by Southwest last weekend. Thanks to all the folks at Guero’s and Live Music Records for putting us on the showcase as well as all the folks that showed up to catch our set.  We had a great crowd and we played pretty damn well.

SXSW is so nuts. It’s a really interesting thing to see streets closed down and so many musicians pushing gear around.

George, Chris and I all got to Austin Friday. Chris and I shared a room both nights we were there, so we hung out early evening in Austin getting some pizza at Home Slice and eventually making our way to Jo’s Coffee where we met George and caught the set by the Jayhawks. It was a simple acoustic set, but they were phenomenal.

Chris and I bailed on Alejandro Escovedo in favor of the Arc Angels right on Town Lake. We did hear Escovedo warm up on a George Jones song we had stuck in our heads the rest of the weekend. I refuse to name it for fear it may end up back in there. Arc Angels were fantastic as usual. Doyle Brammel Jr. is such a ridiculous musician although it was interesting that bassist Tommy Shannon was not with them on this gig. He and drummer Chris Layton form one of the best and most underrated rock rhythm sections (Double Trouble) of all time.

We were pretty burnt by the time that was over and decided to make our way back to the hotel and crash.

On Saturday, Chris and I headed down to Guero’s around noon. We people watched. I can personally say I girl watched - everyone else in the band is married, so they would NEVER eyeball another woman…ahem - and sweet hairy monkeys of fire there were some hot women in Austin, but I digress.

We caught a couple of bands before us - all from Houston - and then went on right around 1:30pm. It was nice to see some of our friends in the audience! The band before us was acoustic and at SXSW, you really have to be loud to draw people into a venue - or onto a big open patio like where we played next door to Guero’s. Once we got started, the place started to fill up and we got a really warm reception from the crowd.

We did out 40 minutes or so, including a ridiculously awesome long guitar solo at the end of Suzanna to close out the set. We hope to have some audio and video available soon.

After the show, Chris, his wife and I went back to the hotel to drop off gear and get some lunch. We had an excellent lunch at Kerbey Lane. If you’ve never been, go. It’s teh awesome. I don’t remember our waitresses name, but she was great too.

Once we got back down to South Congress, we split up and I headed down to 6th Street while Chris stayed back to catch a few bands on Congress including Fastball. I wandered around on 6th and 5th for a number of hours, hanging out with some friends from Houston.

I also caught the set of an excellent pop/rock band from Baton Rouge called We Landed on the Moon. I had exchanged emails with the guitarist last year and he sent me their music. I took a bunch of pictures and talked with him afterwards about exchanging some gigs, so hopefully you’ll see them on a bill with us sometime this summer.

My friends and I went back to Kerbey Lane for late night breakfast - yum - and then it was off to bed.

Overall, a really fun and productive weekend for the band and for us as individuals. We hope to be back and playing even more shows next year. Oh, and you can catch some of my photos from the weekend here. Enjoy!

George Gets Inverviewed by LMR

Live Music Records, who invited us to perform their showcase at Guero’s at 1:30pm on Saturday, interviewed George this week. In it he reveals:

• Where our name came from
• Our most interesting gig
• That he is not a studio musician

It’s enlightening, engaging and, most importantly, really short for those of you with ADD or just a short attention span.

Houstonist Pimps Us

Adam P. Newton over at Houstonist.com was kind enough to interview us prior to South by Southwest and maybe not terribly smart in letting us go willy nilly with the answers, but, hey, we’re musicians so you know there will be cursing…and tacos.

Go over and check it out and make sure to leave comments or we will be sad and Baby Jesus will cry.

And, let’s be honest, no one wants that.

Full of Twitter? Follow Us and Be Fabulous!

If you are on the micro-blogging service, Twitter, like seemingly every other uber cool, pseudo cool and not really all that cool at all person who spends time on the interweb, what are you waiting for? Follow us already!!!

We promise really dumb Tweets to help you wasted lots of time at work.

SXSWTF!

It’s the most festivalst time of the year. There’ll be inide bands playing and hipsters a-swaying to music and BEEEER! We’ve never played in Austin during the crazy, cluster**** that is the South by Southwest Music Festival, but that will change this year.

We were invited to play as part of the Live Music Records Houston Showcase at Guero’s on Saturday. We go on at 1:30pm. This is one of the MANY day parties going on during the festival though not part of the “official” festival.

We’ll be playing at 1pm and you should come early and get some of Guero’s excellent tacos - 1412 S. Congress Avenue.

Nearly as much fun as playing will be going to catch all the shows. Several of us are going up early to hit some of the other day parties going on. Some of the bands we’ve talked about wanting to see include The Hold Steady (GOT to see them), Alejandro Escovedo, The Decemberists, Superdrag, Ra Ra Riot, Lucero, Gomez, We Landed on the Moon and a TON of others.  I missed the Damnwells who are playing tonight, but there are plenty more great acts to see.

If you are in Austin, swing by Guero’s and say “hi.” Should be loads of fun.

Recording: New songs on the way

It’s been a while since we’ve gone into the studio and recorded some new music. It seems like yesterday, but the last time we put anything out was our six song EP, Come and Take It, in July 2007. But that’s all about to change. Since last summer we have been playing three new songs live pretty regularly. “Georgie” is the tale of a nice, young boy who loses his soul as he grows up, “Let It Flow” talks about the perfect girl and trying to figure out how to keep her and “Time Is My Enemy” is about trying to do all you can before time runs out. We’ve received great reviews on all of these tunes and they will definitely be recorded.

About a month ago melodies began flowing into my head at a rapid rate. This usually happens when artists I admire put out new material. I don’t copy them mind you, they just inspire me. This is what happened when Bruce Springsteen began releasing tracks from his excellent new CD, Working On A Dream, back in November. From the batch of 12 songs (some are just pieces of things that are not quite songs) I have on my mini tape recorder that I take everywhere I go, we’ve worked out three; “My Town Is Gone,” “The Last Night of My Life,” and “Lipstick Smile.” The first two are rockers and the third is a ballad about a “cougar” who leaves her older mate for a “a guy with jeans down to his knees and a gangster’s backwards hat.”

There are also a few tunes that are on the fence. One tentatively called “I’m Alive” is one that we started working on last year that still needs a bridge after the second chorus. Jeff is also not a big fan of the way the groove of the verse sounds, so we’ll also have to work that out. It’s a cool tune and in the end will probably see the light of day. Another possibility is “Please Don’t Cry.” It’s a catchy litle ditty with a cool guitar part and a hook reminiscent of Seal, but it might not fit musically with everything else we are recording. It could be one those “bonus” tracks at the end of the CD. We’ll see. Jeff also brought in a folky, country-esque tune that sounded cool, and I have another one that started out sounding like a Righteous Brothers song, but has since been turned into an all-out rocker.

We will have more information on all of these tunes as they begin to grow. In fact, we are going to begin taping rehearsals, both audio and video, and if we get a good take, we’ll put it up for you all to hear and critique, so keep checking back.

We plan on going into the studio in a couple of weeks to begin recording what we hope will be our best effort yet.