Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Recording "Crying Town"

Joey and I went to the studio today ostensibly to continue work on the tracks we put down last month and specifically to work on one particular song, "Crying Town" which was co written by me and Tommy Byrnes.

Tommy (a ridiculously talented guitarist, songwriter and producer) took charge of the session (at my request) and decided that what we had wasn't worth him adding his two cents to and suggested (strongly) thtat we scrap the existing track and start from scratch.

Which is exactly what we did! Working seamlessly along side Josh (the engineer) I watched (with my jaw dropping further and further to the floor) as he built up a fantastic rhythm track (sans bass and drums!) and then coaxed an emotional and touchingly believable performance from Joey, taking the song somewhere I never would have thought of on my own. In fact, I made a point of not interfering with his vision because he knew exactly what he wanted from beginning to end and knew how to get it, from himself and from us.

Now I always knew he was extraordinary but I have never seen him working like this and had the privilege to observe and (hopefully) learn from him. I guess that's why he earns the big bucks, cause he totally knows what the fuck he's doing!

When we reconvene with him (next month or so) we'll add bass, drums, 12-string and slide guitar and strings along with background vocals and then this will be (as far as I'm concerned) a REAL LIVE READY FOR THE RADIO ADULT CONTEMPORARY POWER BALLAD!

In the meantime, we will continue recording the other songs using our "almost live in the studio" method and I'm sure they will come out sounding fine but this experience has taught me something which I should have known all along and that is; small details are more important to the overall effect of a song than you would think and the only way to control those details is to spend alot of time listening, doing and redoing a track till you get something awesome, and that's exactly what Tommy has begun for us with this one.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Recording continues...

After listening to the rough recordings and experimenting with overdubs in my home studio, we are going back in to do some REAL recording this coming Tuesday, to work on the song "Crying Town" which was co-written by me and Tommy Byrnes who, incidentally, will be producing. (run on sentence!)

Tommy has also been listening to my experiments and has a few ideas of his own which include slide guitar, string synth and acoustic overdubs.

This will only be my second experience with a REAL producer, the first way back in 1979 when Don (Buck Dharma) Roeser of Blue Oyster Cult produced the unreleased ManKazaM Goes Surfin' album, so I'm really looking forward to having someone with experience tell me what to do for a change!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Hugh "Sudsy" Carroll FOUND!

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Hugh “Sudsy” Carroll

April 3rd, 2009 Hugh "Sudsie" Carroll, bass player and vocalist for Buddy Love during 1983 and 1984, missing since January 2006 has been found! Said Sudsy, "I woke up after what seemed like a long, very intense dream and found myself playing bass in a Steely Dan cover band. The funny thing is, I didn't even know I knew any of these songs!"

Knicknamed "Sudsy" for his extensive beer drinking, he is ironically not famous for his propensity for pounding down the pilsners but for being heir to Madge's (the Palmolive Liquid spokesperson for three decades "You’re soaking in it") television fortune.

His inherited millions which vanished with him have never been recovered. Said Carroll, "I'm just happy to have my life back and the love a good women."

In 2006, after not reporting for a proposed reunion rehearsal, and after an exhaustive search of his home, known hangouts and beer distributors, there turned up not one clue as to his whereabouts. Police at the time had no leads WHATEVER to his sudden and complete disappearance and are equally mystified to find him not three miles from his Freeport Long Island home.

Authorities (local police, the IRS and the FBI) continue to investigate...