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Author Topic: A song for Breathe.  (Read 5415 times)

J.J. Blair

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A song for Breathe.
« on: August 15, 2010, 12:09:47 PM »

Can't Sit Still

When I'm not watching Carter win Grammies by recording Rod Stewart, I like taking bands and recreating the sounds of 1977.  I'm posting this because the first line is ... well ... you'll get the humor.
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They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

Seb Riou

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2010, 12:18:04 PM »

aaahh ... a little tendernes in this cruel internet world
Sounds pretty amazing Mr Blair

(even if I expected a punk rock explosion regarding the 1977 quote)
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J.J. Blair

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2010, 12:31:01 PM »

Thanks.  No.  I was working off the 10cc template.
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They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

GaryR47

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2010, 03:15:11 PM »

Whichever template used, I like it.  Hey, what preamp did you use for the slide guitar sound?................just kidding Laughing   It does sound good though.
Gary

breathe

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2010, 07:58:10 PM »

It's not a production style or style of music I would record, but the production is excellent.

Nicholas




J.J. Blair wrote on Sun, 15 August 2010 09:09

Can't Sit Still

When I'm not watching Carter win Grammies by recording Rod Stewart, I like taking bands and recreating the sounds of 1977.  I'm posting this because the first line is ... well ... you'll get the humor.

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J.J. Blair

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2010, 10:36:46 PM »

Thanks.  I don't think many people would produce it that way in this day and age.  I just found the first line humorous.
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studio info

They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

Fletcher

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2010, 02:02:43 AM »

FWIW - the first line of the song, in this context was about all I found amusing about this song... probably just me.  

Some of the lyrics were amusing beyond that... but it went on way too long while going nowhere.  It wasn't even that the song was annoying, its more that had about as much reason to exist as a tub of margarine [which might emulate butter to some and make them feel better about their failed attempts at some form of "health"... but in my world is absolutely worthless as its not making life "better" -- the way butter so often does!!].
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CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid


"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch.  
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm

Edward Vinatea

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2010, 10:21:37 AM »

Fletcher wrote on Mon, 16 August 2010 01:02


Some of the lyrics were amusing beyond that... but it went on way too long while going nowhere.  It wasn't even that the song was annoying, its more that had about as much reason to exist as a tub of margarine [which might emulate butter to some and make them feel better about their failed attempts at some form of "health"... but in my world is absolutely worthless as its not making life "better" -- the way butter so often does!!].


Aren't you being a bit harsh, Fletcher? I don't know what the logic is on 70's music, and also I am not even sure if Mr. Blair mixed this song {I am sure this band has better songs he has produced} but, trying to sound like the way music was mixed in the 70's would be, in my view, a step back in audio engineering not forward. Most of the drums mixed in the 70's lack the 'bigness' I like in music. Speaking of this 70's band 10cc, and ironically, one of my most favorite rock songs 'I'm not In Love' is to me one of the biggest recording accomplishments in an era when multi-track production had serious limitations. There is hardly any drums in the arrangement, but the depth and richness of the voice layers are until today mind boggling to me.

Regards,

Edward

Fletcher

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2010, 10:45:52 AM »

I don't think it was all that "harsh"... I was talking about songwriting and arrangement more than sonics... and when I think of the 70's, frankly most of the stuff that comes to my mind had great songwriting and arrangement ["I'm not in Love" being an excellent example].

Then again, I'm sure I've forgotten a LOT of the absolute dog shit that masqueraded as music from that period much like a woman forgets the pain of child birth after a while [which is remembered instantly upon the birth of subsequent children].

These are probably personal observations... and I do get bored exceptionally easily, and have the memory capability of an Alzheimer's patient.  If a song doesn't grab me by the bollocks in the first :10-:15, it will have a hell of a lot of catching up to do to get me interested... and with out my being interested, there is no way in hell I would have been heading to the local drug store to buy the single.

While the 70's were "album centric", I still bought a whole bunch of singles during the period as I could cobble together the necessary 99
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CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid


"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch.  
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm

Edward Vinatea

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2010, 11:01:57 AM »

No argument there.

To me, some of the best songwriting if not the best, took place in the 70's {both in quality and quantity}. I think I consider that era as the zenith of songwriting, but the quality began to gradually slope down after that.  And yes, I was mainly referring to sonics.

Edward

Daniel Farris

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2010, 01:34:32 PM »

I'm a big fan of seventies recordings, and while I have a passing interest in the "AM Gold" genre, my real fascination is with things like "Another Green World," "Here Come the Warm Jets," "Red," "Lust for Life," "Low," and "Heroes" and Gang of Four, even early Bondie, and things like that.

Instrumentally, this track has a bit of a Hall and Oates vibe, which I like. The recording is really excellent, but the lyric and the singer annoy the shit out of me. I wish I was as bored as Fletcher. I can just hear the blazer and the fedora... and I can smell the shiny hair products lurking just under the fedora.

It's definitely a really good approximation of one particular seventies sound, just not my favorite one.

But I certainly dig the Solina. And the backing vocals are nice.

I know you're not interested in critiques, but there mine is anyway.

DF
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breathe

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #11 on: August 16, 2010, 01:40:23 PM »

Daniel, you and I have like the same music taste!

Nicholas




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Daniel Farris

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #12 on: August 16, 2010, 01:42:47 PM »

Someone needs to take away this lead singer's Soul Coughing records.

DF
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J.J. Blair

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #13 on: August 16, 2010, 03:43:29 PM »

A couple notes:

The singer's singing was even more annoying before I worked with him on it.  He's not being derivative.  He's literally just trying to best he can.

I am not responsible for the lyrics, and found them to be a little too cute sometimes, and some of them I really liked, but that's not my department.  I only asked him to change stuff when it was really fucking stupid, which was twice, and the original band name, which was horrific.

"I'm Not In Love" was not my template.  Deceptive Bends was.  The hallmarks I took from that were the Rhodes 88 through the MXR Phase 90s, and the background pads, which I did myself.  The Crumar through the phaser is pure Gary Wright.  The band was kind enough to leave me alone with the tracks, and do whatever the hell I wanted, and so all the little ear candy things, like the slide, the acoustic, the string ensemble, the glock in the chorus and the solo were all me.  They liked everything I did, so it all stayed.

The solo was actually a scratch, hoping a sax would later do it, but they wound up liking it.

It's ironic that Fletcher gets bored easily, and can't pay attention long enough, to a song that is exactly about that.  BTW, one of these days, I'm dying to hear a song that Fletcher has produced, engineered and mixed.  I'm curious to know what his aesthetic is.  Will you please post some?

For those that found that too boring, here's something up tempo, that I got to vomit 1977 all over.  Maybe you can pay attention long enough on this.

Steady Diet of Nothing
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They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

YZ

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Re: A song for Breathe.
« Reply #14 on: August 16, 2010, 05:01:21 PM »

J.J. Blair wrote on Mon, 16 August 2010 16:43


Steady Diet of Nothing


Cool!

I particularly like the bass drum sound.

What did you have across the 2-buss?
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regards,

YZ
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