PLUMP in the recording studio Part VI

This is Part VI of PLUMP in the studio. For Parts I-V, please scroll down below.

As stated earlier, Jason and I are quite new to extensive lead vocals singing. Jason is a really good singer, and is much much better than I am at hitting specific notes in harmonies and such. We had some fun the first night in the studio--we had been sampling the lone stars and ended up staying later than Al and Josh as Jason sang the vocal tracks on "Loose Tight". We were really having a good time with it, but by gawd, the next day we could hear the drunkenness in his voice, and he re-recorded some of them. For the chorus of Loose/Tight, we each sang multiple tracks, all tracks with deep vocals, and the resulting chorus, to me, resembles a chorus sung by a posse of tough guys -due to the low notes we were hitting and the scratchiness we were getting from our throats. At first, I thought it might sound too tough, but after listening to the song many times I must admit that I have really warmed up to it--the chorus sounds really good.

Another fun song for the vocals was definitely "The Sixer". For this song, Jason, Al, and myself trade off singing, almost "row, row, row your boat" style where one of us sings the same line as the singer immediately before, but where the line is sung before the earlier person is finished. The three of us are each singing a different note, so it sounds pretty darn cool. The song is in 3/4 time and the verses have a way of spinning around, so I swear the chorus of the song could possibly make the listener dizzy. Since the song features a sub-theme of drinking lone star beer, we thought it appropriate to start the song with the sound of popping the top off a lone star tall-boy. I quickly volunteered to perform the "cracking open" a can of lone star in the vocal booth--and I wasn't even nervous. The resulting recording--glorious.

While in the studio, we also took the time to record some of the covers we like to perform. I don't think we will overdub anything on them, as we basically gave these songs the treatment of "live in the studio". I sang while drumming, and I tell you, Mark did a great job of setting up the microphones, as there is little bleed from the drum tracks into the vocal track and vice versa. The covers we recorded were: Uncle Remus (Frank Zappa), When I Paint My Masterpiece (Bob Dylan), Gimme Some More (The JB's), Memphis Soul Stew (King Curtis), and Corrina (Taj Mahal). I truly doubt we will ever release these songs, but the recording will both be nice for us be able to listen to for us and will serve as a living document that we were actually capable of learning these songs. We spent probably about 1 hour recording these, near the end of our second 12 hour day in the studio. Once we were done recording these tunes, I was completely wore out.

Prior to heading to the studio on Sunday, Al, Josh, and I frequented one of our favorite taquerias in Houston (Guadalupana - on Dunleavy). The tacos are small, but delicious, and they have some of the best cinnamon coffee I have ever had. Some bands will postulate that if you are hanging out all day for two straight days in the studio, then perhaps you might want to find different schoolyard chums with whom to eat your breakfast. Not us. Some of other favorite pre-studio or pre-Sunday practice breakfast places in Houston include 11th Street Cafe, One's a Meal, Tepatitlan 2000, Cafe Bieniet.

So at the end of the weekend, we had recorded 12 songs, one 12 minute jam, and 5 covers. We had recorded the vocals for at least half the songs. We still had not recorded the majority of the guitar solos and saxophone solos, and any extra tracks we might like to put on. What we like to do is take a couple weeks to give all of the songs a good listen, and then we go back and add tracks, change tracks, delete stuff, etc. After a couple weeks listen, we will definitely have a better idea of what we like, and definitely the sounds we want to change.