Monday, August 29, 2011

The Faptrabulous Riffoonery of Tone-Deaf and Jar-Tard


Just got home from Walter's house, where Tony and I were given the opportunity to listen to what's been recorded so far for Hexlust's first album (meaning all drums, bass, and rhythm guitars). After giving five of the songs a listen, on quality speakers instead of the grainy floor monitors in the studio space, it pleases me to report to you folks that so far I am quite the happy camper!

See, our true purpose was to troubleshoot the tracks to see if there were any horrifying mistakes that may have escaped us up to this point. From what we listened to tonight there are just a few sloppy hammer-ons or painful dead notes from the guitars, so Tony and JT will both have a little extra rhythm work to do when they go in for the leads next week. Granted, we know that little mistakes add "character" to a recording, give it that "human element" and whatnot, and we accounted for that; what we were searching for tonight were the extra bad flubs that could reach out and slap us in the face after it's too late to do anything about it.

As for the recording of the rhythm tracks themselves, I was present for one day of recording for each guitarist. Tony's was an inspiring but rather frustrating day, his last of maybe three sessions. At one point he was having trouble with a riff where, when recording drums, I had suddenly and inexplicably slowed down (oops), which threw his concentration off and badly affected his playing. Walter tried omitting my drums, then tried phasing out Tarzan's bass, even tried telling Tony to just continue playing in spite of what he was hearing, all to no avail.

Finally, it was suggested that Tony simplify his picking style for that section, which did the trick stupendously. He was now able to just go with the flow, and the best part was that him matching my sudden slow-down made it sound deliberate and even gave the whole thing a kind of eerie feel. It's truly amazing what magic can happen when creativity is applied to a mistake!

As for the J-Tizzle, the one day I was there turned out to be the only day that mattered. How so? Because this fool somehow pumped out all his rhythm tracks in one seven-hour session! Were we letting him get away with first takes and sloppy runs? Hells to the no, JT was very good about policing himself but we also let him know when we spotted something he needed to do over again. It got a little tense in some places, and at one point he even asked that Tony and I leave on account of how scrutinizing we were. He got it done, though, and so far it all sounds great.

I also just want to say real quick that I love the sound of two different guitars from two different players. It may not be as perfect as the time-honored method of having one player track all the rhythms, but what matters is that the parts mesh well and they get the point of the song across. As long as that goal is attained, then it's a lot of fun listening in for the little stylistic ticks and foibles that distinguish each contributor. Some good examples of this are Cannibal Corpse's first two albums, before it was decided that Jack Owen would record all the rhythms for "Tomb of the Mutilated." I think Megadeth's early albums are the same way, though I have no proof of this and am surprised those dudes got anything done considering how constantly blitzed they were.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Thrash Til Death at the Dirty Dog!

Date: Friday, August 12, 2011
Venue: Dirty Dog, Austin TX
Bill: Hexlust, Numb Skull, Legion, Warbeast, Blunt Force Trauma

PRE-SHOW
Ahh, Sixth Street. That legendary haven of hedonism in downtown Austin, where Texans can pretend they have their own Sunset Strip, on which the venue hosting this evening's shenanigans rests. Sure the sidewalks are crowded, the traffic's perpetually congested, and one can't help but feel like they're choking in a miasma of empty-headed party-hardy escapism mixed with a particularly delusional brand of holier-than-thou snootiness seemingly exclusive to the "live music capital of the world." (*Inhale*) On the plus side, though... Umm... Hmmm...

...

Yeah, fuck Sixth Street.

Since Tarzan now also lives in San Antonio, he and JT had already arrived and loaded in by the time Tony and I got there. We parked in an alley out behind the Dirty Dog and loaded in through the back door, which was insanely preferable to the option before us merely ten minutes prior: Park the truck in the sketchy lot on Red River and then take forever lugging all the drums and stands a little bit at a time two blocks away to the club.

The venue itself impressed me; considering its downtown location and the fact that it's not Emo's, I came into this prepared for a small club with a tiny stage, barebones sound equipment, and almost nowhere to set up gear. Looking at its front exterior, about as long across as an average house, I figured it would be a little bigger than expected, but not much. However, the Dirty Dog surprised me with its interior that, deeper than it is wide, stretched far back enough to allow space for two full bars, a comfortable audience floor, an area by the back door for gear storage, and a comfortably-sized stage with a full P.A. system (my hi-hats got mic'd; that has never happened, ever).

As I've mentioned in previous posts, being the first band of the evening has the awesome perk of being able to load directly onto the stage and take a little more time setting up and getting comfortable. It also allows for more time to deal with small issues, like Tony forgetting his foot switch that changes his tone from rhythm to lead, and JT discovering a short in his own pedal. Normally something like this creates tense apprehension for the performance ahead, but the mood was eased with the sudden (first ever) presence of Tony's flashlight headband, which awarded him a high-five from Tarzan "for just not giving a fuck!"

HEXLUST
In honor of our twenty-five minutes of actual play time, a leaner and meaner set list was devised for this evening. We stripped away such excesses as the intro and our lumbering groove-hemoth "Baphomet Dawn," and emphasized our faster, more concise songs, including the re-entry of "Toxic High." This would have been another perfect night to bring back "Imminent Retardation" but, alas, the lack of full-band rehearsal. Also, I'm still wrestling with the fear that playing that song and "Meganecropolis" back-to-back at "live speed" may kill me. Soon, though, I promise!

I must say, for this having been the first time all four of us have been playing our instruments at the same time in one place since our show in June, we did pretty damn well. Still as vicious and off-the-wall as usual! Just a couple hiccups on our behalf: Tony broke a string in the middle of "Fucked By Fire" (the first song), but had his back-up guitar plugged in and ready to go by the time he had to sing again; and my remote kick pedal came disconnected from the main one right before the big double-bass part in "Meganecropolis." It didn't drastically affect the tune itself, I was able to soldier on single-footed and then reconnect the pedal after the song was over, simply making sure to super-tighten the screw on the connector rod.

We got a sweet audience response, too, considering it was nine o'clock and there was nobody present except for friends, other musicians, and a handful of early birds. This show was taking place the same evening that Macabre were destroying San Antonio, so we were surprised and very grateful to have even that many people there at such an early hour. Nobody really noticed our small blunders, and everyone was full of enthusiastic praise. Particularly remembered are the words of Jeff A.D., who offered that our sound this evening was much fuller than when he saw us a month ago at Headhunters, which made a huge difference in the impact of our songs. Grateful are we to the Dirty Dog's awesome sound equipment and the guy running it, who was patient and clearly-spoken during our sound check.

Setlist:
FBF
Toxic
Conjure
Meganecropolis
Tombs

NUMB SKULL
D.R.I. worship fronted by a vocalist who looks (and performs) like Phil Anselmo circa 1990. Not my bag musically but a group of really nice guys who play with big smiles on their faces, and I can always be won over by a band who are clearly having a good time doing what they do. I especially enjoyed watching their drummer from off to the side of the stage; he uses a very unorthodox style in which he sometimes leads off with his left foot despite playing right-handed, and for certain passages eschews riding the hi-hat or ride cymbal in favor of just punching the accented notes on the crashes. Overall a decent performance, one that was not captured on video (at least none posted online), so I give you a vid shot at one of their more recent gigs.



LEGION
Since our last show with these guys, the third Night of the Thrashing Dead back in February, Legion have been doing a good job of playing as often as possible in as many places as they can, really "getting their name out" and building up a reputation wherever they play. They have also said goodbye to that one guitarist who looked more bro-sy than thrashy and picked up a shredder who looks like one of the former guitarists for Bonded By Blood, the short one who never smiled. Hell, for all I know it's the same guy, Legion's Facebook profile doesn't list the name of their newest member. [EDIT: I recently found out the dude's name is John.]

I was more impressed with their playing than I was last time, as they have gotten tighter and faster, leaving out some of those breakdowns that raised so many eyebrows in favor of more "traditional" mid-paced sections. That or they have a rotation system on their set list to cater to particular crowds, either way it really works. Vocalist/guitarist Drew played fewer leads than last time, limiting himself to tunes which required trade-offs or multiple solos. Their new guitarist John, bearer of the lion's share of the lead work, pulled out a decent selection of tasteful shred solos, notable for Hammett-esque wah-pedal manipulation.

The highlight of the show was their well-known cover of Slayer's legendary "Angel of Death," to which the audience responded with loud enthusiasm. The best part of this performance, though, was watching from the side of the stage as drummer Brian dropped one of his sticks right before that famous initial scream. Having to go into that section with only his snare-hand going, he looked confused for a second and then looked at us off to the side for help. My initial thought was "Well, grab your spare, dude!" before seeing that he had no spares available. Yikes. I actually turned to go grab one of my sticks for him, trying to remember what size he played and hoping it wasn't something like super-light 5A that would contrast heavily with my own thicker 5Bs, but one of Warbeast's crew beat me to the punch and had a stick in Brian's hand before I could take a step.

Even better: dude dropped a stick again before the song was over! Not that I'm ever one to make light of another musician's faults, it's just one of those things I'm able to laugh at because I've been there myself. Talking to him after their set, he expressed dismay at his slippery grip, as he had been playing a whole string of shows lately without ever dropping wood, and then it happened twice tonight. I knew exactly how he felt; just a month ago at the Music Vault I was having a frustrating time dealing with my own sudden onset of butter fingers. Just one of them inexplicable freak flukes that comes with being a musician.

Oh, and as if me talking about it wasn't bad enough, here's a video of that very song, thanks to Victor "Montopolis Thrasher"!


WARBEAST
After loading the guitar gear up and saying goodbye to JT and Tarzan, Tony and I went back into the Dirty Dog to catch the evening's most anticipated band in action: Warbeast, a crushing super-group comprised of Texas metal veterans from such acts as Gammacide and Rigor Mortis. So no, this is not "TEXAS FUCKIN' METAL," that abomination of a phrase I hear shouted out at too many Killeen shows that makes me want to tear out my eyelashes in shame, used in reference to acts like Hellyeah and Texas Hippie Coalition (or just anything with an overly strong Pantera influence). This is some truly heavy headbanging material, played through ginormous amps which, even without the assistance of the P.A., had this music rumbling in my tummy and pulsing in my brain.

I've never listened to Rigor Mortis and am not a big fan of Gammacide, but I really dug this act. The tunes were quite catchy and expertly played, singer Bruce Corbitt strode all over the stage (as a vocalist with no instrument should) and struck a variety of picture-worthy stances while screaming into his mic, and the drumming was tight yet frenzied, with a huge emphasis on "linear" fills involving interplay between the toms and kick drums. Best part were the guitar solos, though. Each guitarist put in an equal share of leads, all of which were lengthy and well-developed, with a lot of wah pedal use and even some much-appreciated whammy-bar abuse. A huge hit with the audience, which filled the whole dance floor with headbangers and moshers, definitely an act I would consider seeing again, after taking some time to become more familiar with their music and the work of their "original" bands.

This, the only video I could find of tonight's performance, doesn't really capture the immensity of the band's sound, but you can really get a feel for how the crowd reacts to them.

"Tonight, Hexlust! ...Hexlust, right?" I un-sarcastically loved that.

BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA
We didn't stick around for the entirety of Blunt Force Trauma's set. Tony and I were both pretty tuckered out by this point, ready to load up our gear and get out of Austin, so he left to get his truck while I stuck around to catch a couple songs. Very impressive straight-up thrash, with a large lyrical emphasis on social and political issues, backed by hands down my favorite drummer of the whole evening. This man played high-speed beats and fills with an assured ease, and though he possessed a double pedal, he demonstrated an ability to pull off many double-kick patterns with just one foot. My only regret of this evening is that I didn't take more time to say hi and talk to him, maybe dissect his brain for some useful advice, but these guys got to the venue kinda late, and I didn't want to interrupt his process of setting up his kit and warming up. Hopefully we get another opportunity to play with these guys.

It's a shame that they didn't have more of an audience. A goodly-sized chunk of the crowd left after Warbeast, who undoubtedly were the true headliners of the evening, relegating BFT to being more of a "cool-down" act to entertain their own fans and those of the audience who didn't feel like leaving yet. As this video of this evening's performance demonstrates, they are a truly relentless band, hardly taking a break between songs and keeping their momentum going for long periods of time.



POST-SHOW
As if trying to load into any club in downtown Austin isn't annoying enough, matters get further complicated as later in the evening Sixth Street is closed off from those parallel to it, turning traffic into one long line with no hope of cutting in or out. When loading the amps and guitars into Tarzan's Jeep, he was able to park on Fifth Street and we simply took a couple trips to wheel the shit down the block, no problem. For the drums, however, we wanted to be as close to the venue as possible. Thankfully Tony found a way into the back alley we used at load-in, which was also being used by Legion's vehicles.

The process was going smooth until some meathead showed up and chastised us for our parking situation, doling out a "hey, you guys can't park back here!" Rather than argue that we were given permission to use the alley, or tell him that he was more than welcome to gripe as long as he was willing to help lug this shit back to a distant lot (and pitch in eight dollars for the parking fee), we simply told him we were working as efficiently as we could and focused on our task at hand. Between the two of us we had everything strapped in and were taking off just as his vehicle pulled back into the alley.

He didn't announce any affiliation with any club or seem to have any official authority at all. Not that it mattered; if this guy really was a designated enforcer rather than just some douche who wanted to use the alley as his own through-way, then it just adds to my belief that this lauded entertainment district in the "live music capital" actually hates musicians. Get your shit together, Austin; things like this are the reason my buttcheeks clench when we get booked in your city, whereas I sport a big goofy grin when we get a gig in San Antonio.

AFTERTHOUGHTS
Thanks to: Tristan Spears, who set up a great show, was super-friendly, and did his best to scrounge up whatever money he could to pay us; Jeff and Erika, for not only the constant support but also the willingness to hold extended conversations with us and make us feel cool; Victor, sans Tony this evening for the first time that I've seen, for always being around and always documenting shows. Many of the videos I post in this blog are from his YouTube channel, go check it out for more awesome videos!

Monday, August 1, 2011

PROGRESS!


The month of August begins with all drum and bass tracks and half of Tony's rhythm guitar tracks completed for Hexlust's first album. There were a couple casualties along the way, the most obvious being "Sodomy and Lust." Though it was decided beforehand that we would lay down both our Sodom covers as bonus tracks or possible compilation material, I was so focused on rehearsing our originals that I put absolutely zero practice into "S&L". The result was a take so sloppy that we decided to just scrap the song entirely. Interestingly, it wasn't so horrible that Tarzan couldn't lay down a bass track.

Not long after this photo was taken, we also lost "Agent Orange" to accidental deletion. Not that I care too much, it was just an extra cover, nothing worth dragging my whole kit all the way back up to Temple (thank the gods). My only heartache comes from the fact that I put so many takes into "Agent Orange," the most for any song in these sessions, which admittedly is due to my own lack of preparedness for these covers, but still! Just about all of my fourth and final recording session was devoted to laying down both of those covers, and the fact that they're gone for good makes that whole day feel like so much dead effort. Thankfully I still had time to do a re-take of "FBF," as I wasn't satisfied with what I had laid down during my first session.

I was there for the recording of a few of Tarzan's bass tracks: smooth, fluid, and with an awesome tone! Walter set it up to where Tarzan's effects pedal/pre-amp thingy (I don't know things good...) was plugged directly into the computer, and also had a microphone positioned in front of his amp. The pedal result was like miking a bass drum's batter head, with a very "attack-based" sound, more high-end, where you could actually hear his fingers plucking the strings; the amp sound brought out the qualities of miking the resonant head, pure low-end "boom." By combining the two sources into one result, we got a bass sound that was sharp, yet punchy, able to be heard through the guitars while still providing the deep bulk for their frequencies.

Due to work schedules and Tarzan moving to San Antonio, nobody has been able to shoot footage of Tony as he lays down his guitar parts, so I'll try to get in there with him sometime soon to capture some of the action. While I'm at it I'll probably have Walter demonstrate Tarzan's bass sound, with the two parts separated and then together, which hopefully translates to the camera well. Speaking of which, I should have Tony post his footage of Tarzan's sessions to Facebook so I can slap it on this blog.