Mon./Tues. Rock history

Monday night Rock history was a nose to the grindstone, business-like event that, once we stand back and turn off the lights and the deadbolt on the door, might actually be an important night for the record. A lot got done just between Jon and myself. He has a lot of realy good harmony ideas and we eventually got to those but the first thing we had to do was use Dave’s drums while they were still set up. The toms were kickin’ my ass, especially the floor tom and I really wanted to right the ship once and for all on the songs that the drums kinda bugged me on. (does that count as ending a sentence with a prepostion? sorry!) “Lost your Number” had a couple of slippery moments from the first (playing along with the loops and not the bass) drum performance so I really wanted to try to re-do that one, and luckily, this time…I pulled it off. It must have been the papery cool snare sound that allowed my inherent stick drag to shine and make the song feel like I had originally heard it in my dumb brain. The other song we replaced the drums on was “Willie Mayes”. I admit to being a sucker for the Steve Jordan snare sound but I also plead ignorance on how he gets it to work. There’s and EQ that allows him to crack that high pitched piccalo snare and get a way with it. I’ve got 2 piccalos, one of them we can find that EQ on and the other one…hmmm…not so much…seems the $100 Pearl 13” usually makes the grade. It ain’t always the expensive shit that sounds good, yo. Of course, you gotta be able to afford new heads and shit too…but that’s another story. (“I’d kill myself but I can’t afford the rope!” I forgot who said that…but it surely wasn’t failed banking and insurance CEO’s.) So once the drums were done, we set up the the Polluso (I’m sure I’m mis-spelling or pronouncing the name) mic and began singing “About You”. Thankfully, we re-cut the song a step down to the key of C so hey! I could actually sing it without straining to hit the note. The beautiful part about this was that once I was done with the lead vocals and sang hamonies with it, I could actually sit there and listen to it! Uuugh! I hate it when I have to sit there and little listen to myself and put up with my ATTEMPT at hitting the note. With the new key though, I was actually able to sit there without squirming. Hey! Maybe we’re getting somewhere! It almost had a Traveling Wilberrys, Willbarries, Willbries (Help! What is it?) kinda a feel to it. Tuesday night’s Rock history recording did nothing to debunk that feeling. Dave came in and got it done with his beautiful sounding Gibson acoustic and Tele slide playing. The song almost took on a radio (GASP!) friendly attitude..even with me singing it! Watch da hell out!

Keith gets in on Friday! Wish me luck!