Drewcifer's Tone Zone

APOLLO ‘12!

“Shut My Mouth,” by Digger

Year: 1994

Writer: Daryl Frazier

Engineer/co-producer: Drew Townson

Studio: Blue Jay, Carlisle, MA

Notes: Recorded and mixed 100% analog using 2” Studer A800 24track at 15ips w/ Dolby SR, and mixed to Studer A820 1/2” 2-track at 15ips w/ Dolby SR. Console, SSL 6000E.

I’ll shut my mouth now.

Lila Downs’ music is like a Mexican tapestery - or better yet - the perfect mole; made up of dozens of ingredients blended together to create one mind-blowing taste. She infuses the beauty of folklorica Mexicana in to her music, dance and dress. And what a voice! I discovered her in about 2005 from her appearance in the Frida film and soundtrack. Even if you are not a fan of Mexican music, or have perhaps never explored it, you owe it to yourself to check out Lila Downs. ¡Savor!

Lila’s web-site

THREE BAGS

20 Years ago I was in a band called Digger - a punkish, garagey, power-poppy, devil-rocking mess. Playing guitar in Digger was the most fun I’ve ever had in a band. We were brothers, bad boys and rock-star posers with hair down to there. We just loved hanging out with other, getting stoned out of our gourds and playing really loud. Our reheasal-space exploits at Boston’s Sound Museum were up-all-night epics.

Digger actually came as close to getting a real major-label record deal as I’ve ever come.

This song, called “Three Bags,” is by our bassist/singer Daryl “Billy Nightshade” Frasier. I just remastered it today. I love this song so much it hurts. It’s about a very earnest and hard-working fellow who collects bottles and cans and cashes them in to make money. Refusing all handouts, he considers this an honest day’s work. Just when we get to really respect him, we learn that he is scraping up the dough to buy “a bottle of the good stuff,” the favorite of bums and winos everywhere: Night Train Express.

Priceless.

Literally one of my favorite one or two tracks I’ve ever been involved in.

Daryl Frasier, bass & vocals
Chuck White, vocals
Mark Frasier, guitar & vocals (Stratocaster, right channel)
Drew Townson, guitar, vocals (Les Paul, left channel)
Mark Mastrella, drums

Written by Daryl Frasier
Recorded circa 1992 by Drew Townson at Squid Hell Studio, Jamaica Plain, MA

This vid reminded me of my best studio story.

Back in ‘88 I worked with Roger Waters on one session as he passed through Boston for a couple days. He was mixing some live stuff for a Westwood One radio broadcast. I worked on “Money,” and on the live tracks, only two tracks of the four-track cash-register sounds had been recorded. Why? Because the live show was tracked in stereo, but the cash-register sounds were in quad, meaning the two rear surrounds had not been recorded.  So we had to replace the missing ones.

We had an Otari 4-track, and Water’s assistant brought a half-inch 4-track tape of the sounds. Handling the hallowed tape with that legendary Pink Floyd loop on it was, as you can imagine, a breathless moment for me, and one of the highlights of my life in the studio. I had to manually fly-in the sounds, in-synch with the intro on the live performance. We did it basically one sound at a time, punch in, rewind, play it again, punch in again, etc. It was a  royal pain and it took a long time.

This was all before Roger showed up to hear what the assistant and I had done. After about five hours, Sir Roger glided (as if floating on air) in to the control room for a listen. He was wearing sunglasses indoors and overall exuded the elegance and grace of a real British gentleman. Aristocratic. Monied. Rock Royalty in the flesh. I noticed the Rolex on his wrist - it was worth more than my car. As we played back the track, he nodded his head and said, “Right, lads. Good work. Sort of grand experiment but this proves it CAN be done. Work in-progress and all that.” He was really polite.

And here’s the best part: At the end he asked me, “Drew, would you fancy a beer?” “Well, sure,” I replied, “but this is Sunday and you can’t get beer in Boston.” He said, “Ah, no worries,” and with that he called the hotel he was staying at, The Four Seasons, which was several miles from the studio,  and had ROOM SERVICE BRING OVER SIX HEINEKENS! YES! The guy showed up at the studio wearing the white hotel jacket, and delivered the beers on a tray. Did I say Rock Royalty? As I was motioning to hand a beer to Roger, he said, “No, those are for you. Nice work today.”

Then he spirited off into the night. I sat there, alone and basically dumbfounded, drinking a Heineken that Roger Waters from Pink Floyd had bought me.

What an unforgettable day that was.

Meek The Maverick with machines in 1960

 45 Years ago today, the year 1967 was just getting started. It was a year which would explode into radical cultural change, driven in great measure by new music. By the time ‘67’s “Summer of Love” was in full blossom, Jimi Hendrix’s “Are you Experienced” had been released in May, followed in June by the Beatles’ psychedelic masterwork,”Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” These were records with mind-bending sounds that had never been heard before (or had they?). Suddenly, the world was splashed with Day-Glo paint. The new hippie counterculture and it’s music were everywhere. Psychedelia had been TURNED ON and TUNED IN - in stereo!   

And Joe Meek missed it.

In an ironic true-crime tragedy, he had taken his own life on February 3rd 1967, in an apparent double murder/suicide. Why the irony? Because Meek was the British recording engineer/pop-music producer who absolutely and undeniably paved the way for how the groundbreaking records by Hendrix, The Beatles and others were recorded. Meek was one of the first producers to grasp and fully exploit the possibilities of the modern recording studio. His innovative techniques comprised a major breakthrough in sound production. Among these methods were physically separating instruments, treating instruments and voices with echo and reverb, processing the sound through his fabled home-made electronic devices, the combining of separately-recorded performances and segments into a painstakingly constructed composite recording.

At a time when many studio engineers were still wearing white coats and literally recording “by the book,” Meek, ever the maverick, impudently bucked the norm. He produced everything on the three floors of his “home” studio - which in itself was a radical concept - and was never afraid to distort or manipulate the sound if it created the effect he was seeking.

He pioneered studio tools such as multiple over-dubbing on one and two-track machines, close micing, direct input of bass guitars, innovative use of the compressor, and effects like echo and reverb, as well as sampling. Unlike other producers, his search was for the ‘right’ sound rather than for a catchy musical tune, and throughout his brief career he single-mindedly followed his quest to create a unique “sonic signature” for every record he produced.

Meek is credited with coining the phrase, “If it sounds right, it IS right!”

Responsible for many “firsts,” at least in the U.K., Meek was: 

• One of the first to experiment professionally with sound-on-sound overdubbing techniques (1951)

• The first to put microphones directly in front of and sometimes inside sound sources (1954)

• The first to intentionally overload preamplifier inputs and print “hot” signals to tape (1954)

• The first to use compressors and limiters in creative rather than corrective applications (1954)

• The first to build a compact spring reverb unit (1957)

• The first to “flange” sounds using two synchronized tape recorders (1958)

• The first to employ tape loops on commercial recordings (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Meek

Hello, I’m Floyd, your 12412 unit. 

What’s so special about this gray, utilitarian box with knobs on it? Well, it is an EMI mastering EQ that was once at a place called Abbey Road. And some pretty famous signals passed through it. I asked our head technician what it sounds like. He said, “Mid ‘70’s Pink Floyd? That’s what it sounds like.” So, it’s going to play “Wish You Were Here?” when I power it up? He went on to describe it as focused, tight and musical. All the meat - very little pudding.

METAL ROCKER TURNED COUNTRY GYPSY: I know little to nothing about the band Tesla. I know that the historical Nikola Tesla was a pioneer in electricity and radio, inventing the vacuum tube. Apparently, that’s where the ’90s metal outfit got it’s name. Recently I discovered that Tesla’s former leader, Frank Hannon, has ventured in to a country-rock thing. His sound has more in-common with an acoustic Lynyrd Skynyrd (or when Kid Rock does Lynyrd Skynyrd) than it does with Merle Haggard, but I kinda like it. At least I like this song, “Gypsy Highway.” Reminds me of a tune I would have liked during my southern rock-loving heyday, and I tip my hat to Frank for dropping the pointy guitar and shred-ly riffs in favor of a bottleneck slide. (Plus, the kid’s got a major mane!)

The original Fleetwood Mac plays the original version of Black Magic Woman live at the Boston Tea Party in 1970. As always Peter Green’s voice and guitar-playing are otherworldly. Or should I say “spell-binding?” Check the fade-out at the end! Happy Solstice. 

A “deck” of Helios 760 Compressor Modules. Now if that is not sexy gear-porn I don’t know what is! (And yes, you guessed it, this is a teaser for the soon to arrive reissues).