Feed Us A Live Insect

The Wallaby Does Not Impress

As promised, here are some pics from our recording sessions over the last few months at Raymond Richards's Red Rockets Glare studios:


Red Rockets Glare is a converted garage. Unlike our garage, though (which, come to think of it, isn't all that converted), it's nice and comfortable and sound-treated inside (those sideways square things next to our heads are acoustic treatments to help control soundwaves--I don't undertand how they work, possibly by divine providence, and there's not much chance I'll understand soon) and, oh, it doesn't leak when it rains and form large patches of mold on the floor. That is fortunate. In the corner, underneath the lamp there, there's an odd phonograph that works by sliding a record in through a slot or something--Raymond says it's meant to hang on a wall! Of course I neglected to take a picture of that.


Recording with the mighty Univox viola bass. That thing on the wall above Mary's head is an electric sitar--which we swore we would stick on a track somewhere should the opportunity arise, but never got around to it.


Mary records a vibraphone part for "Medium High." It was tempting to put vibraphone on everything, even where it would be totally inappropriate, but it only appears on that one track. We discovered that if you play back vibraphone recordings on fast-forward with the tape recorder, it sounds really really cool, a kind of fluttering, warbling sound, like water or birdsong. I just remembered that I think I wanted to add a second or two of fast-forward vibraphone noise to the end of the record--but of course we forgot. Or maybe that was one of those ideas of mine that Mary and Raymond nodded to politely before rolling their eyes and moving on to something actually useful.


Maestro Tom Bogdon, who played all (or almost all) of the guitar parts on our record. We were reeeeaaaallly lucky to get him...at the moment he's playing solo with his own band, Shirley Rolls. In fact he's going to play with us at The Cocaine on the 18th!



In other news...young master Ivan attended a birthday party yesterday that, instead of clowns, featured a "hire-a-menagerie" service consisting of a gentleman and his wife with their massive collection of repulsive tropical vermin. Well actually, only a couple were repulsive (the huge, shapeless toads and the violent-looking scorpions) but there was also a wallaby which, if you're not familiar with them, is basically a miniature kangaroo and thus astonishingly cute. It doesn't walk, it goes 'boing.' Ivan, however, was a little more taken by...the toy trucks in the front yard. Tarantulas? No interest. Giant monitor lizards? Couldn't care less. Huge apes grunting Cole Porter tunes in close harmony? Well actually they didn't have any of those, but you get the idea: Ivan would look at the fauna for a while and say "trucks," and that was that.

You're a boy of peculiar tastes, Ivan.

posted by Eli Monolator @ 8:06 AM