So our manager e-mails us all 15 minutes ago and nonchalantly makes mention of this:
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Guys,
Wording for website and e-blast:
The Elms' new single "Back To Indiana" from their highly anticipated album "The Great American Midrange" (due August 25, 2009) will premiere on ABC-TV during the national broadcast of the Indy 500 this Sunday, May 24. Race starts at 1:00 p.m. EST.
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We'll take it.
-- Thom
08.25.09
-- Thom
ATTENTION: If you're here for a studio re-cap, please click on "The Great American Midrange" over there in the list of Categories to the left. Should return you all of the pertinent recording blog entries.
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I keep my word.
Nathan Walker from North Carolina (currently attending Appalachian State in Boone, NC) sent this video of him taking a crack at BMYT, sort of. Not exactly a full version, but I'm impressed that he even gave it a shot.
I consider Nathan my honorary little brother, so maybe this video is way more hilarious to me than it will be to you.
Enjoy 'er.
-- Thom
A quick word: the record has been sent off to the mastering lab, and should be tackled on Thursday. I've been waiting on the official word before revealing who's doing it, but for now, I'll only let out two things:
1) Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd get to have something I've played on mastered by this guy.
...and...
2) If you like anagrams, try this one: Bub Old Wig.
There you go.
Rehearsals resume this weekend. We gotta figure out how to translate the stuff live, you know?
My car's transmission blew up this past week, so I'm a-hoofin' it until I can find something else to drive. Been doing my research, trying to figure out what I need/want. I think I'm zeroing in, but if you've got any suggestions/testimonies, feel free to leave a comment. The most important thing is fuel mileage in the high 30s / low 40s. Avoiding Ground FX this time around. Probably staying away from rims and rubber-band tires, too.
-- Thom
Alright... in the BMYT Tab blog, I made a subtle suggestion that some of you should take a crack at it, record it, and upload it to YouTube. None of you jokers have taken me on yet. What gives?
Let's give credit to this girl though - somebody alerted me to this. I would fully support her going on American Idol and showing all of those chumps what the score is.
Social Justice has never sounded so sexy.
If you've covered a song of ours, shoot an e-mail to thomas[AT]theelms[DOT]net with the YouTube link and (maybe) I'll post the sucker here.
Owen promises pictures from Seattle. We'll put them up here, too. Stay tuned...
-- Thom
Owen is in Seattle for two weeks with mix engineer Adam Kasper. Kasper is my favorite mixer, and a hero, so to know that he's the one tweaking my guitar tracks is a huge honor. He's worked with a lot of my favorite bands including Pearl Jam, Queens Of The Stone Age, Foo Fighters, and R.E.M.
I believe Owen will be shooting us an MP3 tonight of whichever song they decided to tackle first. I'm always nervous about the mix phase, because what you spent weeks crafting in a studio can come back sounding completely different than how you thought it would, but again... having Adam onboard makes this quite a bit less unnerving. I've always felt that there's a real sense of purity and danger in the work of those Seattle types. I know we're Midwestern, but sonically, I've a feeling that Kasper rides a similar philosophical bent.
If you want to stay abreast (heh) on how things are going there on the NW coast, Owen's twittering quite a bit about it. Follow his updates at Twitter.com/TheElmsOfficial. It's funny to me that I'm watching my own band's Twitter like a London CCTV camera. I'm excited!
Let it rock. Let it roll. You can't stop a fire burnin' out of control.
-- Thom
At long last, here is a finished guitar tab for the left and right sides of "Bring Me Your Tea" from The Chess Hotel. This is the album version, so it doesn't include the outro section that we play live. That will be quite an undertaking, but I do plan to tackle that someday, too.
Also, this doesn't include the intro from the video, which was recorded separately later. But as has been requested by others already, I hope to also finish and offer that at some point in the near future. If you're using the video (posted below) as a reference, the tabs start at about the 2:34 mark.
I wish you guys could hear the MIDI Playback on this file (Guitar Pro 5 - tab software). Hilarious! Sounds like a really bad 1st Generation Ringtone.
Files are absolutely free - links posted below my signoff as downloadable/printable .pdf. If you feel adventurous, record a video of yourself playing this and upload it to YouTube. Or tell your guitar-playin' buddies to come take a shot at it. If there are any takers, I'll gladly post your video here on my blog.
Note the unorthodox tuning, and enjoy.
-- Thom
-Bring Me Your Tea (Acoustic Left)
-Bring Me Your Tea (Acoustic Right)
Last day, just before shaving it off.
Side view. Not bad, Nate. Not bad.
Before shaving clean, we both had to participate in a little silliness.
He's French. He's a cowboy. He's a pornstar. He's a French Cowboy Pornstar.
Last day for me. Can't decide if the world ever needs to see a furrier Thom again or not.
Sideview. I look exactly like my dad from this angle. I'm definitely my father's son.
Youth Pastor Thom invites you to our X-treme Back 2 School Lock-in this Friday. Free Pizza, Coca Cola, live music, and games! Bring all of your secular rock CDs, and we will burn them in the bonfire. (Then you can go out and buy those records again in 2-3 months when you realize it was stupid of you to participate in the exercise.)
Friday was the last warm glow of the tube amps. Only thing left to be recorded were vocals, aux percussion, and B-3 Organ. Nate arranged to have a B-3 w/ Leslie Cabinet shipped to the studio on Saturday, and Owen arranged for our good friend Dave Alan to come out and lay down some wicked wickulatory wickulation.
B-3 Organ, along with Nate putting out a little vibe for you. Both equally disarming.
The Leslie - rotating speaker cabinet. Gorgeous sound.
Dave Alan.
We're a pretty hands-on band; very opinionated. Dave was a good sport, listening to everybody's input, and then executing it perfectly.
I think the tracks we cut this time around are the perfect marriage of Rock & Roll grit and class. Dave's work on Saturday added yet another layer of class. Especially what he played on "A Place In The Sun" - took it up a notch. While he was playing, my soul welled-up with Hallelujahs.
After Dave took off, Owen had plenty of singing to do, so Nate and I kicked-back on the couch and watched college basketball all night. That is, until we got sick of having hair on our face, deciding we could justify offing it at that point.
Stayed at the studio that night till 1:45AM, and then came back the next day at 9AM. Ouch. Not recommended.
Owen re-sang the lead vocal for "Strut" while Caleb (intern) and I chased down a LaCie hard disk drive to back everything up to, and Nate sussed-out some details for our trip to SXSW.
Eventually Nate, Caleb, and I started wheeling out all of our cased-up gear and loaded it back into the trailer. Kind of a sad thing to do. This is the mode that we've been fully entrenched in for the past 3 weeks, and shutting that trailer door finally brought on the realization that it was over. The other side of this is that we're proud to have finished the work, and to walk away from the process knowing that it's the best we've ever done. A triumphant feeling, for sure.
After helping Brent load a few things of his to take home, we hopped into the van, drove back to our friend Jim's place in Bellevue, grabbed dinner at Cancun Mexican Restaurant, picked-up a case of Shiner Bock to bring back to the house, and indulged in mindless TV all evening (i.e. Rock Of Love.) I now love this show after figuring out that the right reason to watch it is to do so for all of the wrong reasons. Once you have that revelation, it gets way hella-better, SRSLY.
Today, we were all able to sleep-in for 12+ hours. Nate did some cycling. I walked to a Starbucks a few miles away. Owen was able to go for a walk with Jim, but had some things re: mixdown to take care of. I wish I could say who is 99% lined-up to mix the record. There is one certain guy who, for the past 3-4 years, we've often said to ourselves, "What would it be like if _________ got his hands on one of our mixes?" But it seemed like something that would never happen...
... that is, until Owen Thomas, who generally refuses to take "no" as an answer from Life, tracks down the guy's number and leaves him a message about what we're doing. _______ called Owen back the next day and talked to him for about 45 minutes. Said he loved the songs, loved the band, and was willing to figure something out so that we could work together. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS TO ME. We'll disclose the info when that 99% officially becomes 100%. But if not him, whoever ends up mixing this will do more than ok, because, just like us, for them... it ain't a hobby.
-- Thom
On Day #16, Nathan was suddenly suspect of everything.
Me on Day #16. Look at that face. I am nothing if not a sweetheart.
Apologies for the lack of activity here the past few days. Here are the guitar/amp combos for the last couple of songs, as well as that day's progress board and some more Brent Milligan console artwork supplemented by some inspired art from engineer Andrew Bazinet.
I Don't Want To Kiss You
1. Tele through Marshall + Fender Super Reverb (trem+springreverb) +slapbackdelay
2. Sheraton through Fender Deluxe +keeleycompressor
A Place In The Sun
1. LP Deluxe through Marshall + Super Reverb (trem+springreverb) +slapbackdelay
2. Goldtop through Princeton +slapback (SOLO)
Kickin' Like A Mule
1. LP Deluxe through AC30 +EchoPlex
2. Goldtop through Marshall +FuzzFactory
3. Goldtop through Princeton +FuzzHead (INTRO+PRE-CHORUSES+SOLO)
She Never Let Me Down
1. Sheraton through Vox AC30 + SuperReverb (+tremolo +springreverb)
2. Goldtop through SuperReverb
3. Goldtop through Princeton +slap (doubled on CHORUS)
Lily
1. Goldtop through Tonemaster and Deluxe Reverb +EchoPlex
2. Goldtop through Tonemaster +longdelay
On Thursday and Friday, I finished guitar tracks for "She Never Let Me Down" and "Lily." Tried my best to channel Adam Levy on the latter. A guy wrote in via Twitter to say, "Adam Levy and Norah would be proud to hear this guitar track," so... mission accomplished? Who knows.
Owen did a lot of singing on Day #16. Owen... can... sing. Nate and I sat on the couch in amazement. And the thing about Owen Matthew Thomas is that he's never really considered himself a singer before - only a songwriter who sang because somebody needed to do it. If I could think of a cooler way of saying "he's found his voice," I would say it. But since I can't, screw it.
After posting this, I'll work on the final blog for TGAM Sessions. Appreciate everybody's patience.
Much love,
Thom
Brent manning the board / producing while Owen cuts a vocal.
Aristotle's Golden Mean meets TGAM.
"Ring for service - or to be obnoxious."
Who's the idiot who removed the bell before realizing it was an intrinsic part of this message? Oh. Crap... sorry.
We saw an ad for a new record label in a local magazine. At first, it seemed to suggest that Dennis Haskins (Saved By The Bell's Mr. Belding) had been signed and was releasing a record, but upon further scrutinization, we realized he was just the keynote at a convention (which, is actually still sort of funny.)
But if he did make an album, any idea what it would sound like?
The Neanderthal-like tendencies of 4 guys who haven't seen girls in 3 weeks. Necessity is...
The Elms' studio vernacular for a perfectly played performance.
Mugshot-y enough for ya?
Today, we start off with a special message from our good friend and co-writer, Jim McCormick:
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It's been a great couple of weeks watching the band make this record. And by that, I mean watching them get up way too early with enthusiasm (hi, Thom) and grogginess (hi, Chris), and come in much too late and chatty (hi, Nathan and Owen.) You see, they've been staying in my condo with me. Seriously, the bits and pieces that I have heard have sounded transcendent and expansive beyond anything I've heard from the band before, and I can't wait till they let me listen to rough mixes -- (hint hint hint). And since I'm not twitterpated with Twitter just yet, let me use this opportunity to say: "Jim is 'stoked' to visit The Elms in the studio later today... posted from TwitterFon 2 seconds ago."
Our guest-blogger, Jim McCormick.
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Now that that's overwith...
Yesterday kicked my butt, but had a few welcome surprises.
A fantastic mix engineer named Dave Way stopped by the studio and hung out with us for a couple of hours. Dave is responsible for some really stellar-sounding records from the past 15-20 years. Cool guy.
After putting Dave in a cab back to the airport, we grabbed lunch and started in on "Thunderhead." This one sounds cinematic, like you're driving through The Painted freakin' Desert. No conceptual problems with this one, but since we're tuned down to F#6 tuning (tune the guitar down a half-step, and then drop the "A" to "F#" and the "E" to C#"), I had some serious tuning issues. I compensated for the lower tuning by putting on thicker strings, but didn't bother doing a quick intonation job. The new tuning and string gauge changed everything.
So an embarrassing thing happens when, in the midst of fighting these issues (one chord would be "in", but another would sound "out"), I see Gary Louris of The Jayhawks walk into the Control Room with Owen. We were punching specific chords, where I would tune the guitar especially for that particular chord beforehand. Not exactly the ass-kicking experience you hope to be providing when the frontman of one of your favorite bands steps in to check things out, but Nate tells me he said he was really impressed with the guitar tone.
While Owen and Nate hung out with Gary in the lounge, we started in on it again, but eventually Brent stops me and says, "You know... these punches just don't sound as cool as what we had before, even though the tuning might've been a little out. The original unfixed track sounds like Pearl Jam." Milligan obviously knows how to speak my language. I was more than happy to move on at that point.
Owen ripped that song's vocal track a new hole. If you didn't hear them over the webstream last night, you missed out on a stellar performance. I was sitting there on the Control Room watching him work, while noticing on my laptop that 90% of all the people I'm following on Twitter were live-tweeting about American #Idol. All I could think was, "What the f*ck is wrong with all of you people?!"
Alright. Gotta head to the studio in a few minutes and play this one to the nines. If I get finished today, I get to watch UNC play tomorrow at 11 CDT.
-- Thom
If you were a Les Paul stop tailpiece, this is what you'd be forced to look at all of the time.
Oh so close.
