klickitat band camp

For my birthday my parents gave me a stack of Sergei Prokofiev's ballets and operas, and I gotta say, when I started listening to Cinderella, Op. 87, I was immediately blown away. I can't say enough about the orchestration. You just must get a copy of it a hear for yourself. Finished in 1944, it's in three Acts comprised of 50 different pieces. My immediate feeling was that as a young lad, Danny Elfman locked himself in a room with this (and only this) recording and listened repeatedly for 20 years - and then emerged to form Oingo Boingo and write program music for things such as The Simpson's, Batman, and Nightmare Before Christmas - except that Prokofiev beat him by about 60 years. I loved it so much I bought both the orchestral score and the piano transcription, and I plan on stealing from it as soon as possible myself!

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A lot of times Mondays just seem so blah. Here you've come out of a great weekend of non-stop fun, entertainment, and excitement - or maybe a weekend of chillaxing, doing absolutely nothing - and boom, you're back at work. And here in Puddletown it's typically dreary and overcast with a light rain. Nothing like a Monday to pick up your spirits! So years ago I made a rule with myself - Never make important decisions on Monday. Never make life changing decisions on a Monday. Never quit your job on a Monday, or break up with someone, or send a nasty letter, or do anything that can't wait until Tuesday. Most of the time, by the time Tuesday rolls around, your insight isn't so clouded by the baggage that often comes with a Monday. So I call that my Monday rule. It's my day to procrastinate. And you know, I've never done anything on a Monday that I later regretted. So far so good. Try it.

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Next time you're in a book store, try and find this cool green hard-cover with an Octopus on the front. It's the Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities (July 2009). This is such a fascinating book to thumb through. It has over 1,500 wood engravings that originally graced the pages of Webster's dictionaries in the 19th century. You'll see everything from Acorns to Zebras. Once you pick it up, it's hard to put down.

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This past year we had a really great line up of bands and artists. I was continually thanking my lucky stars for how nice and down to earth all the musicians were. Most of the time I was just so happy to be working with genuinely nice talent. A lot of good people to hang with and create. Really and truly.

But -- cue: tympani roll, lightning storm, and Tannhäuser (imagine Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, too, if that helps) -- with all the good apples, I gotta say, the studio had a few "challenges," too; artists that really put the good times in perspective. I call this Good Versus Evil. Most often I react just like any other engineer - don't take it personal, let it roll off you, and just deal. Artists vibing out a session and bringing a lot of bad energy can take myriad forms, but it is typically people yelling in the talk back mic (not realizing it's more of a creative, organized exchange than a conversation), new additions to a band that completely lack studio protocol, hyped-out singers that are just evil b!tch#s at their core and can't help it, and those that are disingenuous and manipulative. Twice this past year I crushed evil. It felt good. Going forward, I am resolved to crush it every chance I get. I work with too many cool, awesome people not to! Why let jerks vibe the session out? Just say no to evil!

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I love a good kick drum just as much as the next person. In fact, once I went to a rehearsal of The Herkemer just so I could lay down in front of Hans Wagner's kick drum and listen to the beater pound three feet from my head. As an aside, I had my hearing checked in mid-2009, and my hearing is perfect in all frequencies (even I was shocked). Anyway, yeah, I know the engineering tricks. I've learned, I've asked questions, I've made it happen. Head on, head off. u87, u47, u47 fet, d12, d112, re20, boundary mic, two mics, three mics, eq in some 6k8 or 1k and or 100hz or 56hz or mix and match. Overcompress, undercompress, run a mult out with the bass through a Sta Level. Yeah, snap snap snap. You want that beater? You want the Kinks? You want Motown? Ibiza - "toonce . . . toonce . . . toonce . . . toonce . . . ?" I'm listening, and yeah, I'm fairly kick drum savvy.

But here's what I am really getting annoyed with: spending loads of time getting an accurate and exciting snapshot of the kick drum in the mix - one that the band, the drummer, and label all like! - finishing basics, and then - a month later when mixing - having the drummer want to fundamentally change the sound of the kick. I mean, really? I can understand this happening once in a great moon or for musical reasons, but it has become so commonplace with Drumagog and SoundReplacer, which I have but shy away from. And I know technology permits this, but c'mon drummers, let's start with the basics. If you want a better kick drum, bring a better kick drum to the studio! At least START there!

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Welcome to my new category - useful mischief. I wanted a new category that could capture my occasional need to rant, give unsolicited and completely useless advice, and a forum for practical jokes that demonstrate ingenuity and courage. Unfortunately, you will find none of that here, but you will find a bunch of random thoughts and, as the blurbs get posted, more pages to sift through and waste your time. For now, let me tell you about one of my all-time favorite records:

Skylarking is XTC's eighth studio album, released late in 1986, and to me it is the band's finest album. The record was produced by Todd Rundgren, and according to Wikipedia, it was recorded to a single reel of two inch tape! A single reel? How was that possible? A two-inch reel at 15 ips only spins for 31 minutes, and Skylarking is 45 minutes! Mix as you go, I guess? Bigger reel? But who am I to challenge Wikipedia. I actually disliked the record the first time I heard it, but upon the second and third listening, it grew on me like nothing I had ever heard before, and I've been in love with it ever since. I've cranked this record through so many sets of speakers and shaken so many houses with Earn Enough for Us I've lost count. Go check it out. You won't be sorry. I love XTC, and I especially love Skylarking.

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