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.