PLUMP in the recording studio Part II

This is a continuation of PLUMP in the studio. For the uninitiated, I have been in the process of providing a chronological history of all the songs we are recording. For the first four songs, as part of Part I, please scroll down below.

5. Alright - This song was written in the summer of 2008. Alright was representative of a conscious effort on our part of write an upbeat, funky number. We put together a couple of groove heavy parts. Next, Al came up with a written out section where he does certain riffs on the guitar which is doubled with Jason's sax, which sounds really cool. It seemed like when we were writing this song that we kept on adding part after part after part - it never seemed to stop and each part was funkier and funkier. Until the last part which is kind of a hybrid funk/metal type of thing that we love. For the lyrics, we had the idea of writing a song about the mythical funk master superstar of the 1970's who in the current day has resorted to playing smooth jazz. This song clearly takes these people to task, with a heavy metal chant at the end. This song also represents the start of a practice of having multiple vocal parts for multiple singers, and the trading off of lines by different singers. Alright is really the first time we started doing it, and now PLUMP has multiple singers in pretty much every song we write. Alright has not yet been played since Jody left the band. Previous to this, the song was in primary rotation. Now, Jason is the primary singer (while I have always sung the second vocal parts), and once he gets nice a comfortable with it, I am sure it will be back in primary rotation.

6. Superfan - This song was written in the fall of 2009. Superfan was written at basically the same time as Reggae #2, and was really the first song we wrote with Jody in the band. The genesis for the music for this song springs from a particular show we were playing in College Station, in which the crowd was huge and loving everything, and Jody implored us to play a reggae riff to which he could sing some free-form fun timelyrics. The crowd wanted to dance to some reggae, Jody read the crowd, so that's what we gave them. Our next practice, we tried to remember what we did, and instead came up with about 3-4 reggae riffs. One of them became Superfan. We mixed some reggae with a middle eastern sounding part and an afro-beat part, and presto: a song. The lyrics spawned from a particular show we played at Last Concert Cafe. We were playing with a band from Denton called Fatty Lumpkin, and I was standing out by the gate as we were setting up the equipment and I was talking to one of the Lumpkinites. All of a sudden, this van comes to a screeching halt. The driver starts yelling and motioning wildly at what appears to be someone in the crowd. Then, after a minute, it becomes clear that he was yelling at us. Neither the Lumpkin nor I had any idea who this guy was or what we had possibly done to provoke this yelling. I don't even remember what he was saying - he was extremely unclear. 10 minutes later, this guy is in the patio area of Last Concert yelling at us, saying we didn't do what he told them, and that he was a marine, and that he got shot in Iraq, and that he is perfectly happy fighting us, and that he is pure muscle. He also quickly reminded us again that he had been shot (in Iraq). That part was no baloney--I saw the bullet holes. The guy kind of maniacally wavered between being a nice guy and harassing, insulting, and threatening us. Then he tried to sell us drugs. Next, he showed us pictures on his phone of himself in Iraq in camouflage, pictures of an M-16 machine gun, some pictures of him holding an M-16 machine gun, and some pictures of him shooting said M-16 machine gun. After picture time, he reminded us that he was perfectly willing to fight us. Jody said he was watching him real close the whole time, and was holding a real heavy microphone stand, so that in case the guy attacked, Jody could hit him. Eventually, the guy somewhat settled down, but it was a strange evening. So strange, we were inspired to write a song about him. Hence - The Superfan. I remember Jody and myself and Josh writing lyrics (and laughing) in the practice room for this one. Note: I will never know for sure whether he liked PLUMP's music. Now that I think about it, I think he requested us to play some AC/DC during our set. That could be either a good sign or a bad sign--as far as his true fandom is concerned. We play Superfan at I would say half the shows. Jody used to sing it, and now Jason sings it.

7. Reggae #2 - As stated above, we wrote this song at the same time as we wrote Superfan (i.e. Fall of 2009). The song was aptly titled Reggae #2 because it was the second of the reggae songs we were actively working on. The song is a bit more straightforward than Superfan, with less complex transitions and such, so this one we learned relatively quickly and started playing live almost immediately. There is a nice jam section where we change the tempo a bit that I like very much. Jody pretty much wrote all the lyrics for this one, and said lyrics really follow the laid back reggae party vibe. The music on Reggae #2 very closely resembles the original jam we played in College Station where we made up some reggae on the spot (see Superfan description). Jody used to sing this one (with some second and back-up vocal parts sung by yours truly), and now little Jason Jackson sings it.

FEB 26 in Recording Studio (Part I)

PLUMP has been plotting and scheming to get back into the recording studio for some time. We typically wait until we have about 10-12 good original songs, and then we look to go in and record. The time period between June 2010 to the present represented months of change for the band because we had Jody as the primary singer, and then he left the group, and as a result PLUMP decided to go with Doug (myself) and Jason as the singers (as opposed to bringing in someone new), and as such we had to re-learn the songs we had with Jason and myself singing them. Also, at the same time, we were writing some new songs. AND, at the same time, we are playing gigs every weekend. That's a lot of work. BUT, we did it.

As of the end of 2010, we had a batch of 12 songs we were looking to record. We took January and February 2011 as time to really work on those songs so that the songs would sound as good as can be.

A listing/history of the dirty dozen can be seen below (I have tried to document these songs in the chronological order in which PLUMP wrote them):

1. Sauce - This song was written in 2007 not long after we finished recording "I Like the Idea of Chance" - (this song is old enough that James was still in the band when we wrote it). I want to say we used "Sauce" as the opener at our cd release party (at Dan Electros in Houston) for "...Chance". The inspiration for the lyrics for "Sauce" was the show when we were the opening band for Dr. John at the Warehouse Live (in Houston), when we strategically positioned ourselves for an unavoidable 30 second audience with the good doctor, which proved to be a sublime 30 seconds indeed. The music in Sauce was attributed to several different jams PLUMP would play together in practice. In particular, I remember the opening section to "Sauce" was based on a riff/pattern that Josh and I would play all the time when getting warmed up at the beginning of practice. "Sauce"was played regularly for a year or two, then less regularly when Jody was in the band, and has subsequently not been played live since Jody left PLUMP in July 2010.

2. Gonzo Says - This song was also written in 2007-2008 while James was in the group. The music within the verse and chorus were based on PLUMP jams--at least the first part. Then we would work together to come up with additional sections that work with the firstpart. The "jam" sections of the song with the guitar and saxophone solos were sections we came up with together, with Al coming up with the ideas and rationale for subtle riffery in within the solo areas. The lyrics for "Gonzo Says" are based on the love of another good doctor (that is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson). But, as background--PLUMP has a whiteboard in the practice room on which we list all of our songs, chord structure and changes for songs we are working on, and other markings representing random musings and mindless blather. We are also known to "graph" songs - by which we will graph volume/feel/etc. (The graphing process may sound kind of dorky, but the process is actually kind of helpful for us, and also serves of a never-ending source of amusement, laugheter, choking, gagging, and crying.) Al had graphed what we were looking to do in the jam for Gonzo Says, and I swear the graph looked like the face/nose of "Gonzo the Muppet". So, Gonzo was identified as inspirado, but Dr.Gonzo was utilized as content of the song as opposed to Muppet Gonzo. Like "Sauce", "Gonzo Says"was played regularly for a year or so, less regularly with Jody in the group, and has not been played live since around July 2010.

3. Violent Pussy (Funk of Heaven) - This song was written in 2008. VP(FOH) is primarily the brainchild of little Jason Jackson, the subject matter of which is near and dear to him. I remember in 2008 we were driving out to an early evening show in the Woodlands area at Townhall (which is a huge privately owned property with a little lake and cabana area - the owner lets people have shows on the lake and its really cool) and while in the car Jason is singing us this song he wrote a couple hours earlier. All the lyrics and back-ground vocal parts were all there. Almost all the music was all there. The only thing the band added to the song is the jam part where Al does his guitar solo. VP(FOH) is probably one of the shortest in duration songs in our catalog, and it was probably the quickest song for us to write, learn, and deliver live. Due to the somewhat explicit lyrics of VP(FOH), we are capable of playing a "Rated G" version of this song titled (Violent Kitty) when we play afternoon/early evening shows for which the audience potentially includes more pre-adolescent individuals (i.e. kids). Violent Kitty is no less amusing, and I daresay PLUMP has as much fun playing VK(FOH).


4. The Sixer - The music for this song was written in its entirety in early 2008. PLUMP didn't get around to start playing this one live until 2010, due to a variety of factors, which definitely allows me to present The Sixer with the award for "Longest Duration Between Writing the Music and Actually Playing the Song Live in Front of a Real Audience"! The Sixer is a kind of mesh between two ideas. Al had come up with a couple parts written in 3/4 time, with the concept that the chords would move slightly different than the time signature,but would come together again after a certain number of times. It sounded really cool, and also kind of "heavy" and "dark" - really "heavy" and "dark" from my perspective. At the same time, Jason had come up with this crazy blues that has really crazy timing, starts, pauses, etc. So we took some time to learn this crazy blues thing. At some point we decided to put Jason's and Al's collective riffs together--in song form. Next, we spent a long time coming up with how we would do the transitions to fit everything together, which took a long time. Unfortunately, "The Sixer" was on the backburner for a couple years due to the transitions of the band, and also due to the lack of direction on how to put lyrics to the song because it was heavy and complicated. At the time, I remember Jody and I were of a mindset that we should let the song stay instrumental (without vocals), but Al kept insisting we put vocals to The Sixer. The song always sounded like circles and cycles to me (really here I am talking about the part of the song Al came up with), so I tried to make the lyrics sound like circles or to be connected, especially in one particular section where the last word of a line become the first word of the next line. Josh had the idea of repeating some of the lyrics 3 times to go with the 3/4 time, which also lends itself to "circles" and "connectedness". Finally, having a song celebrating the 16 ounce perfection of a Lone Star beer was a subject matter the entire band could really sink its collective teeth into. The lightness of the lyrics really provides a nice juxtaposition to the heaviness of the song. Jason, Al, and myself all sing on The Sixer. The song went from one where I wondered if we would actually play it live much to a song that is one of my favorite songs to play in a show.

This is actually taking a lot longer than I originally thought, so I am going to split up this pre-studio/studio entries into a couple sections. Please stay tuned for (Part II).

FRI FEB 18 at Revolution

Surprisingly enough, the weather was warm enough for PLUMP to play outside over at Revolution in Bryan/College Station, TX. This was an unexpected, yet welcome, scenario - given that a mere two weeks before the southeast Texas region was covered in a deep freeze. Such are the delights of Texas weather. I had selected a special cd for the band to listen on to during the drive to College Station. The cd was "Histoire de Melody Nelson" by Serge Gainsbourg. Many of you may be very familiar with this wonderful cd. BUT, as some of you may not be quite so familiar, I will take a moment to provide background and color. Serge Gainsbourg was a kind of French Frank Sinatra; he was a superstar, and by the early 40's was starting to become a famous actor/singer/womanizer/drunk. This cd is a duet with Jane Birkin, who at the time was a teenage English model (who incidently spoke very little French). The cd is basically Serge doing spoken word talking about sex, love, and having sex with ladies; basically spoken word sex and moaning between Serge and young Jane. Now, I am not the type of person who gets all excited and obsessed by spoken word French sex talk on cd. Rest assured, my cd collection is not filled with this type of music. However, in the case of "Histoire de Melody Nelson" the spoken word is "spoken" over some bad ass led zeppelin/mahavishnu orchestra type music. A couple of the songs are just completely awesome. Jean-Luc Ponty plays the violin over it, which really and truly gives it that mahavishnu orchestra feel. The band (PLUMP) loved the music, and by loved I mean at least they tolerated it. I believe Al bought the itunes version of the album while we were listening during the the drive to Bryan/College Station, which should at least tell you something. (Incidently, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin apparently turned their spoken word sex-play into the real word sex-play, as they had a child together: Charlotte Gainsbourg. Charlotte, as many of you I am sure know, is an actress/singer. Two movies in particular I both remember her from and recommend are the Bob Dylan-based movie "I'm Note There" and Lars von Trier's "Anti-Christ". )

We finally made it to Bryan, TX. San Marcos' favorite son's Kabomba was opening for us over at Revolution. This was actually the band's first show with us with the moniker "Kabomba", as previous to this show (and to us) they were known as Helix. Apparently, somewhere out there in the wild blue yonder is another band named Helix, and this other Helix felt it had more of a claim to the name "Helix" than San Marcos "Helix" had to the name "Helix". Thus, San Marcos Helix felt it was more prudent to be "Kabomba". I think that we can all agree that the change from "Helix" to "Kabomba" was the clearest and most logical choice. Well played lads.

When we named the band "PLUMP", we looked around to see if there was another band with the same name. There was "Plump DJ's", but no PLUMP. A couple years ago, we noticed a band from San Diego named "Plump", but we didn't take any action - plus I don't think they played too much. We did once get a "hate" letter from one of their "fans" stating that we were "stealing San Diego PLUMP's vibe and good works by calling ourselves Plump" (His exact words). He's right--we noticed that there was a band thousands of miles away called PLUMP that played 2-3 times a year, and we collectively saw a golden opportunity to steal their vibes and good works) for our own PROFIT. Well played us!!! Just kidding. This San Diego superfan implored us to "be cool". What a maroon! I kindly invited him to "go fuck himself". (Actually, I didn't respond at all. I only typed the "go fuck himself" invitation above because it made me laugh, and hopefully it made you chuckle!!)

The show at Revolution never really got cold at all (thank God). PLUMP (Houston-PLUMP) played a nice tight set. We started with a little bit of the old "Ear Ache My Eye", with that patented heavy metal riffery that rocked Bryan, TX to it very core!!! The, we funked out the join. I think we had the crowd dancing the whole night. Ahh Revolution--thank you!

Please note: If PLUMP were ever forced by some other party to change the name of the band, we have a quick and easy fix all prepared, filed away, and notarized. The plan is really quite simple (and obvious)-- we would just add a "p" to the end of the word "plump", with the realized effect being "PLUMPP".

Why "PLUMPP" you might ask? Duh--the extra "p" is symbolizes the band's collective love of PALEONTOLOGY!!! Did you know that the diplotocus was the largest dinosaur of all time?

FRI FEB 4 in Houston

We were all excited for our first show of 2011, which was to be held at Last Concert Cafe in Houston, TX. We were going to be playing with our friends in Strawberry Jam. PLUMP was also quite pleased to be playing early (i.e. playing at 10 pm) in experiment and response to our Houston friends and fans who like to see us start prior to midnight when we play in Houston.
Of course, then mother nature took over.

I have lived here in Houston for about 12 years, and I can count on 3 fingers the number of times that it has snowed or sleeted in an ice storm-like fashion. (in a random sidenote/digression, if you have never seen Ang Lee's movie, "The Ice Storm" you should really really really check it out. Now that is a great movie. And, it really does feature an ice storm. You should also know that I pressed "pause", just prior to sitting down in front of the computer, on another of Ang Lee's many movies, "Lust, Caution", which half-way through has proved excellent--so I was dying to make some sort of Ang Lee-based reference. Mission accomplished.) As any resident of the greater Houston area will tell you, one of those 3 times happened on the evening of Thursday February 3, which flowed over to the Friday of February 4. The roads were deemed "not recommended" for travel. Josh was required to drive to work, and said drive took him 3 hours, and then of course hardly any of his co-workers had made the similar periolous journey, and he soon left to take a similarly long drive back to his house. 80% of Houston (including everyone else in the band) did not go into work, and stayed home--off the roads relative in safety. I had called the LCC to verify their thoughts for postponing of the evening's entertainment. They were hoping to be open and were also hoping that the roads would be improved by evening (though the temperatures were still in the upper 20's.) PLUMP was really thinking this would be a good evening to postpone. LCC is known as an outdoor venue, so any people showing up would be accurately labeled as EXTREMELY HARDCORE. Also, we would be required to pull a trailer on iced roads in order to transport equipment, PA, etc. Also, any load-in and load-out would require about an hour/hour and a half outside in sub-arctic temperatures. That's cold, man. (OK, I will grant that upper 20's is hardly sub-arctic, but please know the "upper 20's" is extremely cold for anyone who lives full-time in southern Texas). So, we called Strawberry Jam at 1 pm and reported that we were out for the evening. Strawberry Jam, bless them, were still (as of 1 pm) willing to drive from College Station/Austin, with a trailer to pull their PA, across ice-strewn highways and roads, to play the gig. So, we said, "Good luck and be safe." We told the Cafe that we were out, but that SJ was still thinking of coming. We hated cancelling the gig, but it was just dangerous enough to make us not want to risk it. We were actually jonesing to play, as we hadn't had a gig in about 2 months--which for PLUMP is about 1.7 light years. Al literally had the shakes.

I contacted Strawberry Jam the next day to see how it went, and they told me they aborted trying to come to Houston just a little bit into their journey. I think that was the right move.