Tuesday evening and the vocals are DONE! Well for now at least. Tonite we have a lot of work ahead of us mulling over the rough mixes to see what is missing, what’s too much and what’s simply not working. Basically T2 has a week before he heads back home, so he (we) have to make sure that anything he needs to do, gets done. B and I are gonna hang for another week or so. This will insure we’re here for most of the mixing process and that we’ll be around to see what Francis thinks when he gets back from tour.
We’ve learned a few things during the vocals. One is that B’s voice is far beyond what it was the last time she recorded. Gregg still complains that he can’t always tell what she’s saying, but from my point of view, that’s nothing I’ve ever concerned myself with when it comes to listening to music. I don’t know the actual lyrics to many songs, no matter how much I love the artist and anyways, isn’t that what the liner notes are for?!
The second thing we’ve learned is that Jesus can fuckin sing! How handy has that been!? Instead of me harmonizing everything, it was fun to be able to pass off some of the work onto him. Three solid voices are always better than 2 and when the 3rd voice is more than capable, all the better. Sucks to be him though. He gave up his secret. Now he’s going to have to sing those parts live as well.
Lets see… what else. Well Happy Canada Day for sure… Congrats to Spain on their Euro Cup victory… Oh we’ve had some better success with iTunes lately, mind you we’ve had to go into the past to find some gems. Sinatra’s, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers, and Wilco’s, Being There, helped us to get over the hump… I’ve been reading more Klosterman which always makes me happy. I’m sure his opinions echo many people’s my age, but he’s one of those writers that even when you don’t agree at all with what he says, you still laugh your ass off (at yourself) and at least see his side. Its funny because I don’t think I would ever feel star struck around any musician (aside from possibly Eddie Vedder, Ian MacKaye or John Frusciante), but I think I would be nervous as hell if he was interviewing me.
I’ve got to point out that TV here has some serious advantages to home. I know I’ve poked fun at the British TV shows, in the past, because they’re even more ghetto than Canadian ones, but there are way less commercials and I think I’ve found more interesting things to watch on 5 fuzzy stations at The Glade than I usually do on 200 stations at home. For one, they play concerts on the BBC. The CBC needs to get their act together. I’ve been watching footage from Glastonbury for the last few days and if you have interactive TV you can even select who you want to watch. And I know you’re saying that we get concerts on Much’ all the time but that coverage is awful in comparison. Here they play mostly the bands (wow think about that), with the hosts only coming on to prep you for the next band. They even had people performing acoustically in the studio. Other than that, there were interviews with the artists that were to the point and not cheesy like a Much interview.
TV, TV, TV… Oh, the Wimbledon coverage has also been amazing here. I suppose it should be considering it is their Grand Slam. But still, once again the interactive TV lets you select the match you want to watch, both BBC1 and 2 have matches on during the day and there is great behind the scene’s coverage that you don’t see at home. Plus, listening to Boris Becker commentate in his thick German accent is hilarious. It doesn’t hurt that a Brit is doing well also.
Today I also stumbled across something that I don’t know what to make of. Everything that is probably Canadian here is called “American Style”. That may not be clear but here is the best example and its what I came across today. I’m walking towards the studio and on the ground is some litter. “5 Doughnuts – American Style”. “American Style”?!?! Who wants to eat an American doughnut?!? Now I never got to try one of these “American Styled” doughnuts, but if you’ve ever been to the ‘States, the doughnuts there are horrible in comparison. Unless, of course, you are one of those boarder towns lucky enough to have a Timmy’s… Mmmmmm Timmy’s…
Donughts = ‘Fried Dough’ in the health conscious state of Buffalo (Darrien Lake specifically). The candy sprinkles are probably buck shot. Effing yokles.