Mastering Engineer at Chicago Mastering Service Bob Weston (Shellac, Mission of Burma) discusses what made the reissues of the Jesus Lizard’s Touch & Go records, Pure, Head, Goat and Liar sound better and louder.
Chad Radford: Did you have any reservations about whether or not the Jesus Lizard’s records should be touched-up?
Bob Weston: Well, “no” is the simple answer. But the question is wrong. We didn’t “touch them up.” That implies that we took the mastered versions from the original mastering jobs and made some changes to those. Instead, we did an entirely new mastering job from scratch… Like the records had just been recorded and mixed the week before we started.
There have been major improvements in analog to digital conversion quality, and in digital audio level metering in the years since these records were first mastered. Simply playing the stereo master tapes back through modern mastering-grade analog to digital converters will immediately make the CDs sound a lot better. And then the ability to properly meter the digital audio as it is being converted allows us to take advantage of all the headroom allowed in the digital audio domain. Whereas in the past, engineers needed to be more conservative with digital audio levels in order to prevent any digital “overs” (which would cause the Master CD to be rejected by the pressing plant).
Even if we had done nothing different from the original mastering sessions in terms of processing the sound with equalization and compression, these new masters would immediately sound better and louder.
Chad Radford: You’re a local guy, or you used to be.
Mac McNeilly: Yeah, I grew up in Atlanta and have a lot of really fond memories of hanging out there, but ever since ’89 I’ve been making Chicago and the Chicago area my home.
How did you make the jump from playing in Atlanta bands like 86 and Phantom 309 to the Jesus Lizard?
Well, 86 played a show in Austin, Texas, and I met David Yow. He and David Sims were at the club where we played. We introduced ourselves to each other and I said ‘I like the way you sing and I like Scratch Acid,’ and he said ‘I like the way you play drums.’ So we both said something like maybe some day we can do something together musically. It was one of those things where you say something that would really be a great thing to do, but don’t think anything will come of it. We traded numbers anyway and I got a call from David Yow a couple of years later. He said ‘we’re putting this thing together in Chicago and we have an EP that we’ve done with a drum machine. I can send you a tape because we want to put a live drummer in there and actually be a band.’ When they did the EP it was just a recording project. I don’t think they had any plans to make a rock band out of it, but they changed their mind and I went up in the summer of ’89 to try out. I was playing bass in Phantom 309, but I’m not a bass player and it was a way for me to get back to playing drums. David sent me a tape of the EP and I really liked what I heard. It was the kind of music that I could really adapt drumming to so I went up and it clicked right away. Continue reading “Interview: Mac McNeilly of the Jesus Lizard” »
Best considered as a warm-up for U2’s next album, the classic The Joshua Tree, 1984’s The Unforgettable Fire finds the quartet retreating from the overt commerciality of War and, with the help of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, gradually shifting to a more ambient sound. The Eno-Lanois production team would later be the key that pushed U2 toward experimental waters. Although that approach is apparent on a bonus disc of B-sides, non-album rarities, live tracks and extended remixes, songs such as “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “Bad” still aim for the stadium back rows. An accompanying DVD includes all the album’s videos as well as the band’s performance at Live Aid. A half-hour documentary shows the group and its producers laboriously recording “Pride” with all the repetition, second-guessing and sheer boredom of piecing together the song, practically guaranteeing you’ll never want to hear it again. (Mercury/UME) 4 out of 5 stars
The almighty MASTODON returns to its old stomping grounds to cap off a lineup of extreme metal mayhem. Converge and High on Fire also play blistering sets of soul-crushing riffs. But these are all paltry mortals who have been summoned to simply clear the stage for DETHKLOK, stars of Adult Swim’s “Metalocalypse.” Animated metal madmen William Murderface (bass), Nathan Explosion (frontman), Skwisgaar Skwigelf (lead guitar), Toki Wartooth (rhythm guitar), and Pickles (drums) will appear live, in the flesh — led by creator Brendon Small — to shred through such classic originals as “Bloodrocuted,” “Murmaider,” and “Hatredcopter,” as well as some new cuts from their latest, Dethalbum II. $34.50. 6:30 p.m. Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. 404-659-9022. www.livenation.com.
For the purposes of this interview Brendon Small did most of the talking, but I was allowed one question with each member of the band.
Chad Radford: What goes in to putting on a live Dethklok show?
Brendon Small: We have a gigantic LCD screen behind us and we play to an hour-long animated show, and that’s the real star of the live show. Me and the musicians are kind of like the pit orchestra. The drummer has a click track running through his headset and he counts us in to all the tracks. The end result is that we’re supposed to sound like Dethklok, but we’re not supposed to look like Dethklok. We’re pretty much in the shadows so you can’t really see our faces, but there’s a really cool light show going on at the same time and we’re playing to picture. It’s almost like live scoring but every single downbeat is coinciding with a cut. It’s very systematic and very integrated.
You’re playing with real metal bands; Mastodon, Converge and High on Fire. I imagine that most metal heads have a good sense of humor, but have you encountered anyone who just doesn’t think that the show is cool or funny?
They usually don’t get as far as me — they usually don’t show up. If metal heads don’t get it, that’s cool and I’m fine with it. But honestly there’s nothing much to get, because we’re not making fun of metal with the show, that’s the big thing. If they don’t get that then I’m just confused. If they just don’t like the show that’s something that I can understand. If they don’t understand the joke than they probably don’t have much of a sense of humor at all — not that I’m saying our show is funny. We’re trying to be funny, and if it isn’t, I get why people don’t like it.
Before there was grunge, there was Bleach, Nirvana’s harsh, ‘89 debut that dragged punk’s contemptuous sneer through the mud to churn out one damn fine album. Bleach isn’t the voice of a generation that came two years later with Nevermind, but it’s an infinitely better record. “Blew,” “School,” “Love Buzz,” “Negative Creep” — they’re all raw classics that were too visceral for the masses. Cobain’s half-baked yowls still sound like they’re going to fall apart every time he opens his mouth, and the remastered job makes the album’s highs higher and lows lower. It’s a dirty album, and the production needed to be touched-up. A booklet of photos and a live show from the era are nice add-ons, but it ain’t the bells and whistles that matter here. The songs themselves make Bleach a ramshackle work of perfection. (Sub Pop) 5 stars out of 5
with David Dondero and Brainworlds. Call for price. 9 p.m. Sat., Nov. 7. 529, 529 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-228-6769. www.529atl.com.
David Matysiak jokes that if Bruce Springsteen’s brooding Midwestern odysseys Nebraska and The River were meant to be part of a trilogy, the third installment is Coyote Bones’ Niobrara. Along with Jordan Noel (drums) and Heather Kemp (percussion), the former Jet By Day singer/guitarist has crafted an album that flows with unnerving tales about death, stifling religion, lost love and change. “It’s a really personal record for me; one that I had to make,” Matysiak says. “I was going through so much at the time that I became possessed. The record wrote itself.”
Songs such as “Piece of My Spine” and “Out at the Bar” are the ruminations of a damaged man coping with the death of his father and a crumbling relationship amid a new sense of self-discovery.Niobrara is a far cry from the clumsy, basement art party that Matysiak spearheaded with Coyote Bones’ 2007 debut, Gentleman on the Rocks.
Please note that the Wilke Family will be performing tonight at Eddie’s Attic.
Maverick string band the Wilkie Family singers (lead by King Wilkie) are playing at Eddie’s Attic tonight (Wed., Nov. 4).
According to the Wilkie Family’s Boston-based label, Casa Nueva:
The disk is a beguiling concept album, purportedly written and recorded by the dysfunctional Wilkie family as part of a music therapy program spearheaded by the mysterious Dr. Art… musically, it mixes early American stringband styles (from parlour ballads to old-time and bluegrass) with more contemporary influences — chamber-pop, brass-band music, and much more. Special guests on the disk include Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Rowan, David Bromberg, John McEuen, Abigail Washburn and Sam Parton (of Be Good Tanyas)… Their music has slowly evolved from hardcore traditional bluegrass to something quite undefinable.
Athens’ psychedelic indie rock outfit Twin Tigers have made their latest release, titled the Automatic EP, available as a free download.
In the meantime the band recently completed work on its debut full-length, Gray Waves, which is due out on the Brooklyn-based Old Flame Records in 2010.
The second full-length from U.K. duo Fuck Buttons is an impressive shift toward accessible melodies without sacrificing the experimental grit of their ‘08 debut, Street Horrrsing. As such, it’s inappropriate to call Fuck Buttons a noise group, per se. Sure, they shun the verses, choruses and whatever else goes into what most people call songs. But the drifting rhythms and crystalline sounds in “Surf Solar” and “Space Mountain” lay out a blueprint for the group’s restrained ears. There’s nothing harsh about the album’s modernist industrial and math rock structures. Even as the buzz and mutant cut-ups on “Rough Steez” morph into obtuse beats, there’s a soothing quality to the clutter that reaches in through your brain, grabs ahold of your guts and tugs you along ever so subtly. (ATP Records) 4 stars out of 5
AN ODOR OF SANCTITY: David Yow (second from left) and the Jesus Lizard, reunited
The Jesus Lizard
with All the Saints. $20-$25. 8:30 p.m. Sat., Nov. 6. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. 404-524-7354. www.variety-playhouse.com.
The first time I saw the Jesus Lizard play was Oct. 22, 1989. I was going to see the Rollins Band play at a scary little dive called the Lifticket in Omaha, Neb., in what was then a scary little neighborhood called Benson. These days, the Lifticket is a cleaner, bigger venue called the Waiting Room, and the neighborhood is a trendy bar district with a farmer’s market open on Sundays. But it was a rough part of town in those days, hardly a place for a 14-year-old kid on a school night.
Tim Moss was the record store guy at a local punk rock record shop called Drastic Plastic. He sold me my first cassettes by Dinosaur Jr., Bauhaus, the Pixies, Big Black, Minor Threat, the Minutemen, etc. — all gateway drugs. These days, Tim plays in the band Porn, and is the road manager for bands such as the Melvins and Faith No More. Back then, he sang for Ritual Device, the scheduled show openers. He was cool and said he could get me in despite me being a solid seven years underage.
Atlanta gospel preacher Rev. Johnny L. “Hurricane” Jones, has assembled a band of young musicians from the Atlanta rock community including Bradley Bailey (drums), Cameron Stuart (guitar) and Dan Beauregard (stand-up bass) to play a free show at Park Grounds in Reynoldstown on Thurs., Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. Those Kids (DJs Jacob Blaisdell and Josh Feigert) will be spinning rare gospel records before and after the show.
Jones has been the minister at The Second Mt. Olive Baptist Church for 53 years and hosts a radio show on WYZE-AM (1480) on the first and third Saturdays each month.
Jones has been recording his sermons every week since 1960, and on Dec. 8 Dust-to-Digital will release the first of two projected LPs of Jones’ sermons, called Jesus Christ from A to Z.
Atlanta write-in mayoral candidate Dr. Tiffany Brown has released her official campaign song, by Alpharetta hip-hop artist Tazuh.
Call me a cynic, but something tells me that this song isn’t going to catapult her into the office of Atlanta’s highest elected official.
Key piece of lyrical poetry: “She’s the one in your town. Puttin’ it down — walkin’ around. Hand-to-hand, politicking, tryin’ to meet our every demand. So don’t forget to vote ’cause time is ticking, man.”
FIXED GAZE: Alela Diane looks to a simpler place and time.
Alela Diane
with Marissa Nadler and Laura Methvin. $10. 9 p.m. Sat., Nov. 7. The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Ave. 404-522-3950. www.badearl.com.
When not on the road, folk singer Alela Diane splits most of her time between Oregon and California, and a sense of place and geography plays a defining role in her lush songs. Her sophomore album, To Be Still, released earlier this year on Rough Trade Records, depicts the songwriter’s surroundings as vividly as it depicts the songwriter. “[My songs are] definitely informed by geography and where I am,” says the 26-year-old Portland, Ore., resident. “I definitely write about the things that are happening in that time of life, or reflecting back on dreams. Wherever I am, my songs will be shaped by the places I am.”
“Dry Grass & Shadows,” for instance, is one such tune. The gorgeously lilting song hopes for a return to a lost yet still attainable countryside, and Diane coos and keens over light banjo and guitar. And on To Be Still, Diane expanded her musical palette, growing beyond the basic acoustic guitar-and-vocals of her 2006 debut album, The Pirate’s Gospel. She credits the album’s recording process with influencing the sounds.
The most popular male duo in music history (easily besting Simon & Garfunkel and the Everly Brothers, at least in terms of sales) Daryl Hall and John Oates get the belated yet extremely comprehensive box set tribute they deserve. There have been plenty of other blue-eyed soul men, but none have tapped into the zeitgeist with as much pure pop savvy as H&O. They effortlessly captured the smooth soul of their Philly hometown and even though over the years (this set starts with material recorded back in 1966) the twosome dabbled in folk, harder-edged rock, and schlocky ’80s synth-heavy rock, they kept the R&B current bubbling underneath the other trappings. Four discs, packed with 74 tracks — including 16 previously unreleased rarities, about half of them live — and a glossy 60-page book with track-specific information, details Hall & Oates’ crossover appeal, longevity and somewhat unexpected resurgence in recent years. (RCA/Sony Legacy) 5 stars out of 5
It’s that time of year once again, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t seize the opportunity to go all fanboy on y’all and turn Crib Notes, for a moment, into a total geekfest. After all, this is a music blog, and film and music have long been recognized as natural complements to one another. Actually, the truth is that quite often, the music makes the movie. Nowhere is this more evident than within the horror genre, which has given us some of the most haunting and iconic scores of all time. With that in mind I present a rough smattering of a few of the best spooky film themes, because really, who doesn’t love scary movies, especially at Halloween?
1. The absolute king among horror movie themes is, of course, Bernard Herrmann’s iconic score to Hitchcock’s breakthrough 1960 film Psycho. The main theme is creepy enough, but nothing compares to the horrifying, shrieking music heard during the infamous shower scene. This score would go on to heavily inform another great theme, the one to 1985’s Re-Animator.
2. Interestingly, the spooky theme to 1973’s The Exorcist wasn’t written for the film at all, but rather by composer Mike Oldfield for his album Tubular Bells. Nonetheless, it would become legendary, serving as inspiration for countless horror scores to come, including… Continue reading “Top 5: Spooky film themes” »
In the liner notes to Vic Chesnutt’s ’07 full-length, North Star Deserter, Jem Cohen writes, “I make films, I’m no record producer. But I needed to bring these particular people together in this particular place… I thought they might hit it off.”
Cohen’s instincts served him well. North Star Deserter added wholly new dimensions to Chesnutt’s already vast body of songs, and by joining forces with Guy Picciotto (Fugazi) and members of A Silver Mt. Zion and God Speed You! Black Emperor, Chesnutt’s grim, avant-folk tendencies were pushed to maximum overdrive in squals of distortion and dramatic, symphonic majesty. But North Star Deserter was very much a construct of Jem Cohen — a personal vision of what Chesnutt’s albums should be, where songs, musicians and arrangements were put together like actors in a film. Chesnutt’s latest album, At the Cut, finds the same players who made North Star Deserter so bold and beautiful returning, this time to operate as a band sans Cohen’s direction.
Chad Radford: Was the lineup for North Star Deserter really all part of Jem Cohen’s grand plan, or were you playing together before the idea for the album came about?
Guy Picciotto: That’s really how it all came together. I’ve actually known Vic since 1988. He was playing bass in a band that opened for the band I used to play in, Fugazi, at The 40 Watt Club. And actually, the other three guys in Fugazi played with Vic — maybe 10 years ago. They did an Olivia Newton-John cover together for a tribute project. They played “Have You Ever Been Mellow,” but I was out of town at the time, so I wasn’t part of that.
Before the North Star record I had never actually played with Vic, but I knew him and saw him every time we played in Athens. I was a huge fan of his records and always saw him when he came through town.
Vic Chesnutt (w/ Guy Picciotto of Fugazi and members of A Silver Mt. Zion, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Witchies, and Clare & the Reasons play the Earl on Sun. Nov. 1 $15. 8:00 p.m. 488 Flat Shoals Rd. 404-522-3950.
CL’s Chante LaGon and Chad Radford chat about upcoming shows around Atlanta, including Hand of Doom at 529, Why? at Lenny’s and Vic Chesnutt at the Earl.
Check out Sound Menu for a more comprehensive list of local concerts.
Air Loaf is broadcast weekdays on 1690 WMLB-AM at approximately 8:10 a.m., 12:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.
Kid Rock and country artists Joey+Rory have been added to the lineup for the Georgia Theatre benefit at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, spearheaded by the Zac Brown Band on Fri., Oct. 30. Little Big Town, Shawn Mullins, Oliver Wood (of Medeski, Martin and Wood) and Aslyn are also scheduled to perform.
Tickets are available for $100 through Ticketmaster, by phone at 800-745-3000, or at the Fox Theatre box office located at 660 Peachtree St.
Proceeds will go directly to The Georgia Theatre Rehabilitation Fund, handled by The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, to rebuild the decommissioned Georgia Theatre after it caught on fire earlier this year.
… It seems like an awful lot of money to pay to have to suffer through a Kid Rock show, but hey, its for a good cause.
Best considered as a warm-up for U2’s next album, the classic The Joshua Tree, 1984’s The Unforgettable Fire finds the quartet retreating from the overt commerciality of War and, with the help of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, gradually shifting to a more ambient sound. The Eno-Lanois production team would later be the key that pushed U2 toward experimental waters. Although that approach is apparent on a bonus disc of B-sides, non-album rarities, live tracks and extended remixes, songs such as “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “Bad” still aim for the stadium back rows. An accompanying DVD includes all the album’s videos as well as the band’s performance at Live Aid. A half-hour documentary shows the group and its producers laboriously recording “Pride” with all the repetition, second-guessing and sheer boredom of piecing together the song, practically guaranteeing you’ll never want to hear it again. (Mercury/UME) 4 out of 5 stars
Before there was grunge, there was Bleach, Nirvana’s harsh, ‘89 debut that dragged punk’s contemptuous sneer through the mud to churn out one damn fine album. Bleach isn’t the voice of a generation that came two years later with Nevermind, but it’s an infinitely better record. “Blew,” “School,” “Love Buzz,” “Negative Creep” — they’re all raw classics that were too visceral for the masses. Cobain’s half-baked yowls still sound like they’re going to fall apart every time he opens his mouth, and the remastered job makes the album’s highs higher and lows lower. It’s a dirty album, and the production needed to be touched-up. A booklet of photos and a live show from the era are nice add-ons, but it ain’t the bells and whistles that matter here. The songs themselves make Bleach a ramshackle work of perfection. (Sub Pop) 5 stars out of 5
The second full-length from U.K. duo Fuck Buttons is an impressive shift toward accessible melodies without sacrificing the experimental grit of their ‘08 debut, Street Horrrsing. As such, it’s inappropriate to call Fuck Buttons a noise group, per se. Sure, they shun the verses, choruses and whatever else goes into what most people call songs. But the drifting rhythms and crystalline sounds in “Surf Solar” and “Space Mountain” lay out a blueprint for the group’s restrained ears. There’s nothing harsh about the album’s modernist industrial and math rock structures. Even as the buzz and mutant cut-ups on “Rough Steez” morph into obtuse beats, there’s a soothing quality to the clutter that reaches in through your brain, grabs ahold of your guts and tugs you along ever so subtly. (ATP Records) 4 stars out of 5
The most popular male duo in music history (easily besting Simon & Garfunkel and the Everly Brothers, at least in terms of sales) Daryl Hall and John Oates get the belated yet extremely comprehensive box set tribute they deserve. There have been plenty of other blue-eyed soul men, but none have tapped into the zeitgeist with as much pure pop savvy as H&O. They effortlessly captured the smooth soul of their Philly hometown and even though over the years (this set starts with material recorded back in 1966) the twosome dabbled in folk, harder-edged rock, and schlocky ’80s synth-heavy rock, they kept the R&B current bubbling underneath the other trappings. Four discs, packed with 74 tracks — including 16 previously unreleased rarities, about half of them live — and a glossy 60-page book with track-specific information, details Hall & Oates’ crossover appeal, longevity and somewhat unexpected resurgence in recent years. (RCA/Sony Legacy) 5 stars out of 5
