Crib Notes

Bob Weston Self-portrait

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.

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AN ODOR OF SANCTITY: David Yow (second from left) and the Jesus Lizard, reunited

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.

Continue Reading “20 years after getting a face full of the Jesus Lizard, the sweat of Yow returns”

(Photo Courtesy Joshua Black Wilkins)

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