Week 9, Solace

The ninth song is called Solace. YouTube link for iPhone

Officially the longest song so far – it also has the fewest lyrics coming in at three lines.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Seam lately, and though this song probably sounds a little bit more like a Bedhead or The New Year song, I would attribute it to my recent Seam obsession. If you’re not already a fan of Seam, Bedhead, or The New Year, then I would recommend checking them out. Seam and Bedhead have been defunct for a good while, but The New Year is still alive, well, and cutting records.

Speaking of Seam, I have a couple degrees of separation from Seam’s last drummer, Chris Manfrin. Chris is my wife’s second cousin, and happens to be the current drummer in Bottomless Pit. Bottomless Pit is the completely amazing band of former Silkworm frontmen Andy Cohen and Tim Midgett. Chris and I have crossed paths as Bottomless Pit and the Karl Hedricks Trio have played several shows together here in Pittsburgh and on the road. The reason I bring it up is because the Trio will be playing a show with Bottomless Pit in Chicago in a couple of weeks at the Hideout on November 14. We’ll also be playing in Bloomington, IN on the 13th, Columbus, OH on the 12th, and right here in Pittsburgh this Thursday. The Kyle Sowashes, another fantastic band, are kind enough to play all of these shows with us (and book them, thanks Kyle). I hope to catch up with some of my Pittsburgh friends at Howler’s for this week’s show, and would love to see anyone else who is in reasonable proximity to the other shows.

Enough about that stuff, here’s the deal with the song:

It gets pretty huge-sounding thanks to seven guitar tracks. The vocal tracks and the three main guitar tracks were recorded into the iPhone using the Blue Mikey. I really wanted to capture the clean tone of my Fender Twin – you can hear that the Mikey captured the Twin + Telecaster sound pretty well as illustrated in the first section of the song. I added a couple more guitar tracks using my Rode NTK tube condenser straight into the laptop since I already had everything set up to record the drums. The next day I added a couple more guitar tracks and the bass track using the custom break-out cable (from Week 2) to mic my Orange practice amp. I wanted a nice full drum sound for this song, so I went back to the four mic arrangement from weeks 4 through 7 but with the Rode NTK out in front of the drum set. I like how they ended up sounding, and for once I’m not miserable about my performance (I don’t fancy myself a drummer). I also managed to work in another DopplerPad track. I created a 16-beat loop which I wanted to sit lightly in the mix and then imported it into Reaper. The loop plays throughout the song, but you can only really hear it during the first and last sections. DopplerPad is really a great iPhone app. I’m looking forward to what they have planned for the next update. I used the fantastic MultiTrack iPhone app again to record everything with the exception of the drums and a couple guitar tracks.

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Don’t forget to come out and see Bottomless Pit, The Kyle Sowashes, and The Karl Hendricks Trio on our tiny whirlwind tour (which is about the right size for us dudes with kids).

8 Comments to Week 9, Solace

Jenny
November 2, 2009

Yeah – I hear the Seam! Sounds like the old Corey coming through

dave b
November 2, 2009

nice – I think this i my favorite one so far!

Fred
November 3, 2009

Another good one. Corey, can you fill us in on what you think of Mikey? Some people have reported clipping with louder music. Did you sing into the phone with the same technique you described last week? Maybe we should take this to the Multitrack forum–pretty geaky.

ChristopherJ
November 5, 2009

sweeeeeeeeet!

Seth Madej
November 6, 2009

Hey Corey, I’m finally catching up on your blog. I listened to all nine tracks in my hotel room in Copenhagen today, and they sound terrific — really beautiful stuff. Please keep them coming. I hope you’re doing well, and enjoy your mini-tour.

Jen O-P
November 14, 2009

I really like this one! Definitely Seam-influenced. I’ve also been on a Seam kick lately — it is the time of year I think. Keep the music coming. Jenn reminds me to check this every week with her FB links.

robert
December 16, 2009

this is really great. i’ve been wanting to start a slowcore/seam/bedhead like band.

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March 2, 2010

I enjoy your site and I have bookmarked it, Kind Salutations.

Bernice Johanson

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