HOPE
My experience with blogging so far has been hit-or-miss, sister-kiss. The best blogs stay constant, and interesting, I go hot and cold. Jackson and Chrispy (before he went Rip van Winkle) do an excellent job.
But for some reason, neither of them were compelled to talk about the fact that Smoke & Mirrors and Via Skyway are losing their recording spaces on July 31st. I've recorded here with three bands. Why aren't we talking about this? Is this a taboo? It's possible that everyone's playing an elaborate 'we're moving' trick on me so I won't see them again. My parents did this to me when I was 11.
I now have three weeks to take the news badly, go into shock, emerge, get outraged, talk myself down, and then offer up loving tributes to these places. So let's get started.
-------------------------------
(thud)
Where am I?....ow....my head......
This is outrageous!
If they have to move...i mean, it sucks, but...oh god! muhhhfff....that smell...was that me?
-------------------------------
uh, let's get to the loving tribute.
I've spent hundreds of hours at these communes, ever since Rob Machold suggested we record the Microdot record there in 2003. Since then, I've been through the 11 hope street door like a whore in a condom store, bringing two other bands into the fold, playing in George's band, or giving Ted his keys back at 2:30 after he'd given them to me 5 hours earlier to buy beer and chips, cabbing home, and finding them in my pocket.
I can't make sense of it all right now, but here are five memorable 11 hope moments. (If I number them 1-5, you'll think they're of equal importance. But if I number them 5 to 1 you'll think they increase in importance. Humans are sheep.)
5. Jeff records the guitar part on 'Ripped Open'. Misanthrope had dropped in, and he, Chrispy, me and John van Atta simultaneously experienced what electric guitar can do for the human experience. It was transcendental--if there's a heaven, we're all in it*.
4. Recording the vocal for 'Vera' on the Smoke & Mirrors tribute to Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'. After 6 years of piano lessons that I really need to get around to thanking my parents for, I parlayed them into playing "Nobody Home" into "Vera" over and over.** Side 3 has always been my favorite.
("VERA! VERA! What has become of you? Does anybody else here feel the way I do?" are the most visceral lyrics of all time. I mean, for the British.)
3. I get in a fight with George about (a) my guitar part (b) my arrangement idea (c) my bass line (d) my vocal performance (e) his arrangement idea (f) his guitar part (g) the fact that he's playing guitar in my band (h) the fact that I'm playing bass in his band (i) tuning (j) the lighting (k) which keyboard sound to use for the ambient part that no one will hear. I *love* fighting with George. Even better, I called him an asshole over a firetruck of beer at Spuyten Duyvil, and now he's eerily respectful. It must've been the crocodile tears. I share two things in common with Whitney Houston: I get so emotional, and I forget the other one.
2. The vocal session for 'No U-Turn'. After a late night of tracking, George and Chris urged me to record a scratch vocal for this song, which is about my marriage ending and deciding to pour all that energy into music. I didn't really know these guys at this point, but George plied me with whiskey, put me in the live room, and talked me through the take like I was a jumper. I don't even know if this is the one on the record, but this is the lyric I'm most proud of.
1. There is no #1. half because my friends were kicked out, and half because it's going to get better at their new digs in greenpoint.
Hail, hail, Smoke & Mirrors. Hail hail, Via Skyway.
*there is no heaven.
But for some reason, neither of them were compelled to talk about the fact that Smoke & Mirrors and Via Skyway are losing their recording spaces on July 31st. I've recorded here with three bands. Why aren't we talking about this? Is this a taboo? It's possible that everyone's playing an elaborate 'we're moving' trick on me so I won't see them again. My parents did this to me when I was 11.
I now have three weeks to take the news badly, go into shock, emerge, get outraged, talk myself down, and then offer up loving tributes to these places. So let's get started.
-------------------------------
(thud)
Where am I?....ow....my head......
This is outrageous!
If they have to move...i mean, it sucks, but...oh god! muhhhfff....that smell...was that me?
-------------------------------
uh, let's get to the loving tribute.
I've spent hundreds of hours at these communes, ever since Rob Machold suggested we record the Microdot record there in 2003. Since then, I've been through the 11 hope street door like a whore in a condom store, bringing two other bands into the fold, playing in George's band, or giving Ted his keys back at 2:30 after he'd given them to me 5 hours earlier to buy beer and chips, cabbing home, and finding them in my pocket.
I can't make sense of it all right now, but here are five memorable 11 hope moments. (If I number them 1-5, you'll think they're of equal importance. But if I number them 5 to 1 you'll think they increase in importance. Humans are sheep.)
5. Jeff records the guitar part on 'Ripped Open'. Misanthrope had dropped in, and he, Chrispy, me and John van Atta simultaneously experienced what electric guitar can do for the human experience. It was transcendental--if there's a heaven, we're all in it*.
4. Recording the vocal for 'Vera' on the Smoke & Mirrors tribute to Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'. After 6 years of piano lessons that I really need to get around to thanking my parents for, I parlayed them into playing "Nobody Home" into "Vera" over and over.** Side 3 has always been my favorite.
("VERA! VERA! What has become of you? Does anybody else here feel the way I do?" are the most visceral lyrics of all time. I mean, for the British.)
3. I get in a fight with George about (a) my guitar part (b) my arrangement idea (c) my bass line (d) my vocal performance (e) his arrangement idea (f) his guitar part (g) the fact that he's playing guitar in my band (h) the fact that I'm playing bass in his band (i) tuning (j) the lighting (k) which keyboard sound to use for the ambient part that no one will hear. I *love* fighting with George. Even better, I called him an asshole over a firetruck of beer at Spuyten Duyvil, and now he's eerily respectful. It must've been the crocodile tears. I share two things in common with Whitney Houston: I get so emotional, and I forget the other one.
2. The vocal session for 'No U-Turn'. After a late night of tracking, George and Chris urged me to record a scratch vocal for this song, which is about my marriage ending and deciding to pour all that energy into music. I didn't really know these guys at this point, but George plied me with whiskey, put me in the live room, and talked me through the take like I was a jumper. I don't even know if this is the one on the record, but this is the lyric I'm most proud of.
1. There is no #1. half because my friends were kicked out, and half because it's going to get better at their new digs in greenpoint.
Hail, hail, Smoke & Mirrors. Hail hail, Via Skyway.
*there is no heaven.
posted by stinkrock at 12:16 AM
4 Comments:
Yikes! Four posts in nearly as many days! Our lucky week!
Great post - evokes the feeling like I've been there once in my lifetime, even though I haven't.
All this is news to me (shows where I rank in the world order). I was so shocked at this revelation (I only got through your first paragraph, guess I should have read the whole thing) that I called Jackson and woke him from his 9:30 AM slumber and yelled in the phone, "S&M is closing?!!"
11 Hope St. is where I discovered how far the recording arts had zoomed by me like a comet making it's way towards the sun. It's also where I learned that there's a hell of a lot more to making a record sound good than I had ever previously known.
I'm confident that the new digs will be a good move for the fellows and in no time at all it'll have that same S&M "Cheers" like atmosphere.
The real question is how will Buck like the new place?
Thank you for the eulogy. I am particularly proud that I wasn't around for any of your memorable moments, only the key fiasco.
Thanks, no, really....
We were discussing it plenty at 11 Hope street. I didn't blog it, becuase the particulars of the move were still being worked out, and indeed still are.
Chris didn't blog it because Chris doesn't care about blogging.
Can I go back to bed now guys?
I've spent the last six weeks or so (since I heard the news, secondhand, like a rumor).
I haven't been compelled to talk about it... or much else. A week into my new life as "full time studio slut" and the rug was yanked out.
There are a lot of memories, and I promise I will write about them.
dfactor, you'll be here someday, even though you record at home.
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