I took so much footage and so many piccies I'm going to break this down over a blog or two, or three. We'll work it out.
So where was I?
Oh yeah, when we last left our heroes, they had embarked on a Bat Guano Insane 'let's get this finished' mission to get The Curious Assembly completed.
So we organised a schedule:
Wednesday - Everland Studios
Thursday - Vienna People Studios
Friday - St Rok Studios
Saturday - Free Energy Devices
Sunday - A sharp studios
Of course, this was more of a set of guidelines.
Whose idea was it to do all these songs at different studios? What a maroon, what a...oh...hang on. Right.
With my new fangled way of doing the vids, i'll post some pics and then an edited vid (if I have one) . Here we go.
Wednesday-
Studio: Everland
Song: Looking Glass
I was under the impression that we were going to record vocals, harp and do the mix. due to a scheduling error (and a transposed phone digit) we only had enough time to do the vocals and harp. It was at this point that I realised that the Great Finishing-ening was going to take longer than first thought. In fact I'm going back in today to keep mixing. Right.
Thursday
Studio: Vienna People
Song: Slipping through these blues
Once again, Vocals and Harp were the last items on the menu and a mix
Once I had done my bit I was unceremoniously ejected to the street for Interfering In Vocal Editing. I took my tea out into the rain :-)
Now we have to find a date to finalise the mix...
Friday
Studio: St. Rok
Song: Give me something I Want
St Rok is n Peakhurst and we had the place to ourselves for the day. Brendan and Ivor made us feel very much at home with comfy couches and a coffee machine. What more could you ask for?
Brendan at the helm
Mr Wizard wearing his mustang jerx T shirt
Rosie prepping for recording
Spotted this massive mirror ball in the car park next door, put a car in shot to show you the scale. that's one big mirror ball.
Now there were a lot of guitars to record, so we were grateful for the comfy couches.
I present a short play entitled, " the three stages of Theo waiting for Mr Wizard to finish his tracking".
Act 1 - Ah, this is the life
Act 2 - Is he still going?
Act 3 - I shall escape through a worm hole in the couch.
What does Gordon have to say about it?
That reminds me. Lunch.
And reviewing.
We made such good progress that we decided to break the rules of the Curious assembly and record two tracks inone studio. OMG!
As evening fell it was clear we were going to be there a while.
Here's part 1 of the vid from the session.
I have to head off to mixing now and will post the next section later on.
Update - Poster art.
Howdy Folks.
Friday night we're playing at the Town Hall Hotel, Newtown, with special guests 'Low down dirty shame'. The show runs from 9pm until 1am.
Sunday we'll be at Shady Pines in Darlinghurst from 6pm.
Meanwhile, I'm off to record vocals and mix.
Ok, that was a busy few days.
More mixing to come, but the main vocals and harp have been recorded for all of the songs on the album.
I have blogged the heck out of everything and will post some excerpts, but first....
'Night.
Howdy Folks, gotta keep it short, on my way to the next recording sessions.
Ye gods.
Wednesday was tracking for 'Looking Glass',
Thursday 'Slipping through These Blues'
Friday we did 'Give me something I want' and a version of 'Low Low'
Yesterday we did 'sun shines on' (EPIC day, epic song)
Today we have 'downward bound' and maybe another version of Low Low.
and just when I thought it was all over/ Nope now we need additional mixing on ALL these suckers and the Great Finishing-ening is extending-ening into next week.
I have oodles of pics and blogs and vids but I must fly, I'll post as soon as I get a clear moment.
Oh yeah plus we have two shows next week.
ARGH!!!
Stay tuned!
Firstly, we send a big shout out to The Bondi Cigars; for my money, Sydney's premier Blues act.
They're doing a series of 20th Anniversary shows and one of them was at The Bridge in Rozelle on on Saturday night, whilst we were playing Down The Road at The Bald Rock.
I was expecting it to pretty much drain the entire audience of Sydney, after all, it's the original line up.
Trivia for ya - Al Britton from the 'Cigars played Bass on 'That Smile's not for me' on our album Nuevo Retro, so we have 1 degree of separation. AWESOME! Borrowed Glory indeed.
Right, so where was I? Oh yeah. Mr Wizard had suggested that I not mention the 'Cigars gig in case everyone left ours to go there, but he needn't have worried. There;'s enough love in Sydney to go around
How did the night start?
Typical Stormcellar weather
)
The Bald Rock has had a decor update, a change of hands and a change of the guard. We are glad to have made the cut...
There's even Art on the walls.
Sort of.
So the night started with the usual weather pattern, but how did it end?
Well...
Savane was having a birthday and was...'tired and emotional', as the euphemism goes..
Mr Wizard asked him to not slobber on the car.
How good a night?
Now this picture below is slightly misleading. he's on the floor because he was wrestling (for fun) with two friends. I kind of mistook it for some argy bargy and went to step in before this very lovable chap got into trouble, but it turned out that they were playing Mock Kidnap (I kid you not) including putting a bag on his head and holding him at Ray Gun point.
Now that's having a night out :-)
I'm having some technical problems with my in ear monitors at the moment (loose connectors) and I couldn't get comfortable for the first set.
By the second set I'd replaced them with my backup pair, complete with Lawnmower Earmuffs, which worked wonderfully well. The boys are horrified that I appear to be onstage with Fire Arm level hearing protection but if it works for me, I am not going to worry so much about the aesthetics.
By set two, things clicked and we lifted our game to our preferred level, much to our satisfaction. It's ok to have to work at it, it's worth it.
Big cheers to Elsa on sound, first time we've had to deploy our own kit in...err....yikes...a while. Thanks to GC for providing it (love ya bro).
Big crowd on Saturday night, typical Australians, needed a few beers and a little prompting before they danced, but dance they did. Therefore we win.
Cheers to the regulars and irregulars from the night, Sue C, Jen, Jill and all the folk who spent the evening with us.
We're recording from mid week until Sunday night as we push to finish The Curious Assembly, stay tuned for updates.