Generation TV studio sessions
Well last night was the first night back at our beloved Stealth Studios recording once again with Philmore. After our traditional stop for "noorishment" at the Wawa we headed on over. The first night is always the most tedious one especially for me. Sitting down there in the stifling heat of the basement hitting each drum is akin to Chinese water torture. Cripes, It had to at least take an hour and a 1/2 to do it. Yeah, I'll bitch and moan about it, but I do realize it's to get the best drum sound possible. This isn't no 48 track digital recording studio, this is an 8 track analog reel to reel home studio. I still use the old decrepit drumkit Phil has down there. And thanks to his patience and mike placements, I feel we get a pretty damn good sound.
Lord, it did take even longer than usual though. tuning and re-tuning the drumheads. Winding up having to dampen the toms using paper towels and duct tape. Anything to get the sound. The end result will be all worth it.
Getting Andy set up took almost a 1/4 of the time. The main problem there was a buzz we couldn't get rid of. Wound up being Phil's guitar so Andy had to go back to his main guitar, the telecaster. The first step of recording at least for us is getting down the main rhythm guitar track and the drums. We use dummy vocals and hell we even had Penny down there playing "dummy bass" just to guide us. A lot of the songs feature cues from him so it was a neccessity.
So we were all down there in the heat of Phil's basement wearing the headphones ready to go. We've been playng the majority of these songs now live and in practice for almost a year now. So we are pretty damn tight. Of course Phil was ribbing us a bit because some songs did take a few takes. That really stemmed from having to click songs in with my sticks than just the usual countoffs we do in a live setting or just playing straight thru. We did get most of 'em in one take though.
the song "Generation TV" ended up being a bitch at least for me that I knew it would. Then again I was literally exhausted by that point. It was almost 10 by then so Phil wanted to stop anyway. I was drumming for over 3 hours so I was a sweaty mess. Saved by the bell! At least we did get down the rhythm guitar and drums for 10 of the 14 songs on the "Generation TV" CD. We'll get back and get the last 4 done on Saturday. Hopefully Phil will have the drums mixed by then. We may even begin to sneak in Penny's bass tracks if that happens.
We decided just to concentrate on the 14 songs of "Generation TV" for now so the rest of them will have to wait for the next project. We do basically have another album ready to go after this but we'll keep it one step at a time. Here's what the track list will look like...
The Sheckies - "Generation TV"
1. Girls With Boyfriends
2. (She Needs A) Psychotherapist
3. Never Feel Alone
4. Idiot For You
5. I Saw Her At The Graveyard
6. Jonny, Jonny, Jonny
7. Gonna Be Bad
8. Breathe In
9. Shelly's A Poseur
10. Corey's Getting Pierced
11. Generation TV
12. No Cranium
13. Steak Knives
14. She's A Demon
The other main news of course is the disaster in the gulf coast. I lived in Maneville, LA for 4 years. Martha lives in Slidell, LA so I am familiar with the area. My first thoughts of course were with Martha and the kids. They've been living in her Father's old house which is on stilts right on a canal off Lake Ponchartrain. I first tried to call Sunday but couldn't get thru to her. I did reach her friend and he told me they had left the night before for her sister's up near Birmingham, AL. That was the same place we evacuated to in '98 for Hurricane Georges. I had a feeling she would do that so I breathed a sigh of relief. Of course hearing of the aftermath just left me sick to my stomach. No way her house could've survived. She did call me Tuesday night so I was basically looking stuff up for her online to read to her. Just hearing the pain in her voice was killing me. New Orleans is getting all the news, but Slidell was pretty much wiped out. There was still water in town to from the lake. All she really wants now is some kind of closure to see what's left of her property but she can't even do that due to the situation. Thank God she does have her sister. She was toying with the idea before of moving there and now thanks to Katrina looks like it will be a very real possibility...
Well last night was the first night back at our beloved Stealth Studios recording once again with Philmore. After our traditional stop for "noorishment" at the Wawa we headed on over. The first night is always the most tedious one especially for me. Sitting down there in the stifling heat of the basement hitting each drum is akin to Chinese water torture. Cripes, It had to at least take an hour and a 1/2 to do it. Yeah, I'll bitch and moan about it, but I do realize it's to get the best drum sound possible. This isn't no 48 track digital recording studio, this is an 8 track analog reel to reel home studio. I still use the old decrepit drumkit Phil has down there. And thanks to his patience and mike placements, I feel we get a pretty damn good sound.
Lord, it did take even longer than usual though. tuning and re-tuning the drumheads. Winding up having to dampen the toms using paper towels and duct tape. Anything to get the sound. The end result will be all worth it.
Getting Andy set up took almost a 1/4 of the time. The main problem there was a buzz we couldn't get rid of. Wound up being Phil's guitar so Andy had to go back to his main guitar, the telecaster. The first step of recording at least for us is getting down the main rhythm guitar track and the drums. We use dummy vocals and hell we even had Penny down there playing "dummy bass" just to guide us. A lot of the songs feature cues from him so it was a neccessity.
So we were all down there in the heat of Phil's basement wearing the headphones ready to go. We've been playng the majority of these songs now live and in practice for almost a year now. So we are pretty damn tight. Of course Phil was ribbing us a bit because some songs did take a few takes. That really stemmed from having to click songs in with my sticks than just the usual countoffs we do in a live setting or just playing straight thru. We did get most of 'em in one take though.
the song "Generation TV" ended up being a bitch at least for me that I knew it would. Then again I was literally exhausted by that point. It was almost 10 by then so Phil wanted to stop anyway. I was drumming for over 3 hours so I was a sweaty mess. Saved by the bell! At least we did get down the rhythm guitar and drums for 10 of the 14 songs on the "Generation TV" CD. We'll get back and get the last 4 done on Saturday. Hopefully Phil will have the drums mixed by then. We may even begin to sneak in Penny's bass tracks if that happens.
We decided just to concentrate on the 14 songs of "Generation TV" for now so the rest of them will have to wait for the next project. We do basically have another album ready to go after this but we'll keep it one step at a time. Here's what the track list will look like...
The Sheckies - "Generation TV"
1. Girls With Boyfriends
2. (She Needs A) Psychotherapist
3. Never Feel Alone
4. Idiot For You
5. I Saw Her At The Graveyard
6. Jonny, Jonny, Jonny
7. Gonna Be Bad
8. Breathe In
9. Shelly's A Poseur
10. Corey's Getting Pierced
11. Generation TV
12. No Cranium
13. Steak Knives
14. She's A Demon
The other main news of course is the disaster in the gulf coast. I lived in Maneville, LA for 4 years. Martha lives in Slidell, LA so I am familiar with the area. My first thoughts of course were with Martha and the kids. They've been living in her Father's old house which is on stilts right on a canal off Lake Ponchartrain. I first tried to call Sunday but couldn't get thru to her. I did reach her friend and he told me they had left the night before for her sister's up near Birmingham, AL. That was the same place we evacuated to in '98 for Hurricane Georges. I had a feeling she would do that so I breathed a sigh of relief. Of course hearing of the aftermath just left me sick to my stomach. No way her house could've survived. She did call me Tuesday night so I was basically looking stuff up for her online to read to her. Just hearing the pain in her voice was killing me. New Orleans is getting all the news, but Slidell was pretty much wiped out. There was still water in town to from the lake. All she really wants now is some kind of closure to see what's left of her property but she can't even do that due to the situation. Thank God she does have her sister. She was toying with the idea before of moving there and now thanks to Katrina looks like it will be a very real possibility...