Austin Again & Again

Last Wednesday Televators played with three other bands at Red Eyed Fly in downtown Austin.
Hooka Hey from Paris France was really good. (Their video is NSFW, in case you look it up)


We played well, and debuted our new song 'Sonetto' which features acoustic guitar, a more melodic bassline than usual, and Led Zep-ish vocals and drums.


My favorite moment was when we finished our set with the driving 'My Paradigm'. After the thunderous ending there was 3 seconds of silence, then a member of another band on the bill yelled "How the hell do you follow THAT?!?!"
Exactly how it should be done, my friend. Take no prisoners--go out and kill.
We cracked up.


Still deeply in love with my new-ish Ibanez Iceman bass and Peavey MAX tube pramp. Great tone inspires me to play better.


Just two days later we were back in the State Capital to return to Wire Recording studio and get down to work mixing the 3 unfinished songs recorded last April.



Our producer Lee Popa spent too much time and called-in all his favors mixing 'Milk Run' on his own, delivering a fine final product. Then he dropped the rest of the project, violating our contract and exposing himself to a nice lawsuit, but instead we chalked it up to lessons learned and we're still going to attach his name to the final results since that's all we have left of any value.


We used Wire engineer Joey B for mixing last Friday, in a marathon 7pm to 7am session.
Joey really knows his way around the studio, and is a cool relaxed cat to hang with.


It's interesting that we get to combine the convenience and speed of recording digitally with ProTools, but get to enhance and warm up the sound with piles and piles of vintage tube audio gear culled from famous studios world-wide. My bass might get run through a compressor used by The WHO while Bex's vocals are catching a vibe from something that the Beatles or Stones once used.


The rest of the band went back to re-do vocals and stuff on Sunday, but I missed that trip.


Not to fear, because I just went back up to Austin for the third time in a week for more mixing this Wednesday.
10pm-7am this time, and we finished 'The Visitor', our next release. The other two should be done in a few days, hopefully without my help.


Mixing is a tedious and exacting process, and we found the perfect engineer for us. Joey and Televators plan to work together from now on. But man, after hearing the same song again and again and again all night long, I'm so burned out on it that listening to the results is the last thing I want to do.
No wonder many artists never listen to their own recordings.


Some of you might wonder why I didn't mix it myself, given my 25 years of experience mixing live shows.
Well, the studio is a totally different animal and the results will be heard for years on all different kinds of sound systems from iPods to car stereos, home theaters to REAL theaters (SHHH--it's a secret for now).
I just don't have the gear or experience to do it justice, and that's cool.
Besides, live sound is more like playing an instrument.
It can be creative, spontaneous, and fun.
Plus, if you make a mistake people often blame it on the band and forget about it two seconds later.


Once 'The Visitor' gets mastered (yet another engineer performs final tweaks to make it fully compatible with all playback environments and CD pressing) I will post links so y'all can hear it for free (before you buy it on iTunes).
Once the final two songs are mixed and mastered, we'll be approaching record labels to try for a recording contract as well as looking for opening slots on major tours.

Again I ask: "Why didn't all this happen when I was younger?"
But hell, if bands that I grew up listening to can still do it...

Toys For Musical Boys

Just posted over at 'thew's Reviews.
Check it out if you need a dose of my bad writing.

Pearl Brewery Decorations

Finishing off the post before last, I followed the river to the Pearl Complex because I had heard that there were Christmas decorations for the first time since the restoration/re-purposing of the old brewery.

The tallest of the remaining buildings holds promise, but without a cherry-picker or very tall ladder it will have to wait.
A construction office, fence, and storage container kinda ruin the scene.
I do like the idea of a brewery on my Christmas cards, so maybe next year.

These next two are from the breezeway in the big building that contains most of the new activity.
I really like the lights above, and the ceiling fan below is by far the biggest I've ever seen in my life.



The former stables are a favorite building of mine.
Re-named the Lily Langtry Saloon for years, after Judge Roy Bean's mistress, it's available for events of all kinds.
I worked here twice back when the brewery was still in operation, and found that the bartenders could pull a draft beer like nobody else. Probably because they had been doing it for 40 years.
Charming old fellows!

I remember that we had several electrical issues the first time, which I tried to remedy on our next visit.
Everything went well until the Bride/Father dance.
She requested a certain Shania Twain song (on a CD) but halfway through their dance my mixing board suddenly went nuts with blinking lights I had never seen before, then shut off.
After a very quick re-sourcing of AC power (I was ready, just in case) we tried it again. Halfway through, same result.

I went to the bride and suggested that since they had danced for the total length of the song, albeit the first half twice, perhaps we could try moving along.

After that, everything worked perfectly!

My own theory, for what it's worth, is that the ghosts of the stable didn't approve of ultra-modern country music that sounds like Def Leppard. Or they just hate Canadian singers.
All I know is that there was no logical explanation for what happened, and I have never seen the same behavior from a mixing board in almost 30 years. The same unit worked fine for years afterwards.

Project Ornament

The fine-ass John Lennon Rickenbacker guitar ornament from my last post got me thinking, and there's lots of time for that since I've not been sleeping worth a damn this week.
Swine Flu? Allergies? Rock&Roll Fever? Food Poisoning?
Doesn't matter--my mutant healing powers are back so all is well again.

Anyway, I decided that it might be cool to make my own ornament to honor 2009 as the year when I not only got back on-stage again but also bought myself a new instrument for the first time in over 20 years.
So last night I took a suitable photo of my 8-string bass and got it printed a few hours ago.
Used Krylon photo spray adhesive to mount it to some quality cardboard then hand-cut the outline with an ExActo knife. Sandpapered to taste.


Almost looks like a real bass got hit with a shrink-ray.

Work = Play

I got called onstage to play with Bliss again tonight, and it's always a fun surprise.
Glad I have a friend who knew where my camera was hidden and also knew that I would like a shot of this.

I have great affection for Rikk's Ibanez bass.

More Marathon

The people on the far side of the metal barricade are about to finish the half-marathon. The guy with wheels on this side just rolled for over 26 miles!

A familiar face in the crowd. Yay, Meredith!

I was a little surprised that Sylvia spotted me in the crowd, but we've been together for so long that our ESP is synched-up very well.
We even finish each other's sandwiches.
Sentences.
Whatever.

We're all very proud of Sylvia, but a bunch of fake Elvii make for a more interesting picture than one of Selma trying to get her to eat a banana and some chips at the same time.



The medal is much nicer this year, if you can overlook the font size error.

Syl's recovery was much better this year--a short nap and we made it to the concert, unlike last year.
Always wanted to see Grand Funk Railroad, and even without Mark Farner they were solid and fun. Drummer Don Brewer was amazing--I guess all the years he's played with Bob Seger haven't turned him into a pussy.
Bruce Kulik, who usually wears Ace Frehley's makeup in KISS these days, played lead guitar.
Mel Shacher was as cool as could be on bass.

Los Lonely Boys were terrific until they started taking long jams with some random harmonica player, then trotted out cover tunes.
The best moment of the show was during a long intro to their 3rd song.
The drummer turned to the local crew's monitor mixer and asked for some bass guitar--his request was clearly audible out front.
I guess he didn't get any bass, because 20 seconds later we all heard "You ever done this before?!?!"
Hilarious!

I feel bad for monitor mixers because it's the hardest job in rock.
They get a lot of abuse, including beer bottles thrown at them by weak lead singers.
(Cough cough Don Dokken cough!)
Whenever I've been on a big show I always play dumb and "confess" to having no clue how to run a monitor board, which bumps me up to the main house mix.
It works out for the best, since I usually have the best ears on the crew.

Sylvia is a running machine!
13.1 miles would kill me.
And so would the dirty looks from the other runners when I stopped for a smoke break.

Love Is In The Air

Brought my 8-string bass home today!
She's SO pretty, and like I suspected is brand spanking new.
This was the score of the century--no shit.
Whoever bought this bass and then pawned it soon after is either an idiot or just didn't know what to do with it.
His loss is my gain, because stringed instruments hold no mysteries for me.

I got a cramp in my left hand from the first 10 minutes of playing, but after several hours of careful adjustments to the neck's truss rod she's playing smooth and sweet.
It'll probably take 3-4 days before I get everything perfect because a pro-level instrument setup needs to be done slowly to allow the wood and steel to become accustomed to what you've done. Like a big meal with meat and onion rings, everything needs time to settle down and play nice.
Hopefully it'll rain soon so I can also account for extra humidity.
Instruments are like living things in that they can react to their environment in unusual ways.
When I lived in Upstate New York, taking my 6/12-string Ibanez Doubleneck guitar into a heated nightclub after driving through a blizzard was the ultimate tuning nightmare. 18 strings on 2 necks that were all freaked-out by sudden temp and humidity changes was the worst-case scenario, but I learned a LOT.
At least here in Texas most rooms are between 68 and 78 degrees farenheit year-round.

Sorry, but there aren't any pictures yet.
See this post for my first impressions and some sneaky photos taken while making the down payment in September.

I'll probably take a few pics tomorrow, and might even shoot some video so y'all can see and hear the difference between a regular 4-string bass and this sexy beast.

Champagne And Caviar?

It's finally Thursday, which means we'll be attending a private reception at the San Antonio Museum of Art.
Those of us featured in this weekend's "Museum Reach" RiverWalk Photography Show are being honored in a little after-hours event.
Two of my camera club friends are in the show and two more are on the guest list, so it should be a good time.

Of course I'll be taking pictures and will post them here along with a food and drink review.

In other news, Loud Nine will be at Oasis on Saturday night, so come out and watch me forget a few bass notes.
At tonight's rehearsal we managed to find a few minutes for a portrait session:

Instead of champagne and caviar Loud Nine is more into beer and tacos, but we'll settle for lipstick and bruises...


Don't forget that BLISS will be at Rebar on Broadway Friday night.

Antique Agua

Around 15 or so years ago the band I was in got an unusual booking: to be the opening act for The Village People at whatever Tiffany Billiards on San Pedro was calling itself back then.
We played rock and pop hits and original Texas blues/rock, so the whole idea was pretty silly but money is money.
All I remember about that night was that as soon as our last note died I was unplugging my sound gear and hauling it out as fast as I could.
My goal was to be drinking a Bud at Rocky's by the time the Villagers hit the stage, and I made it, too!

Was informed later that one of our members was lingering in the dressing room and during their set, stole one mineral water and one towel for each of the six VPs.
He made a little shrine with his treasure, displaying the 6 bottles with a white sweat towel wrapped around it.
A funny band story that I have told many times over the years.

Fast-forward to July 2009:
Through the unpredictable twists of fate and circumstance I am suddenly in possession of five bottles of Topo Chico™ mineral water, a product of Monterrey Mexico. Ingredients: Water, Carbon Dioxide.
Inside the same carton are photos of the band member who raided the Village People's backstage supplies, as well as tapes of him playing and writing songs at home and in the studio if the labels are accurate.

I'll be passing these items along to him eventually, but at the moment I'm laughing my ass off. The story I've been telling has come full-circle and I now have some of the evidence in-hand.
Sure, I always believed the tale but never saw any part of it for myself.
Now, I know!

In my mind I always pictured it being Perrier™.
I'm curious if this water still has any fizz after 15 years.

For $100 cash I'll drink one.

Bass Portraits

A lot of work went into getting her cleaned-up.
I didn't remove the neck, but all else was fair game down to screws and springs.
Boiled the strings with a little baking soda to get the gunk out of the windings and bring back some brightness and sustain.
Adjusted the neck's truss-rod to get it straight and at the same time lower the action.
After that you have to re-do the intonation unless you like to play out of tune.


Installed StrapLocks so she doesn't ever leave me before I decide to let her go...

After all that work I spent only a few minutes gazing at her with lust before pulling out the camera gear and going to work capturing how I felt--while she was still fresh and clean.

Before I got my hand around that slender neck and used her.


It's a shame we can't stay together forever.
But she isn't truly mine, except in my heart.