Inside a wharhouse on the northeast side of Minneapolis, Minnisota is a gem of a studio: The Pearl. Aptly named, this studio is the creation of our most recent engeineer Zach Hollander and his brother Noah. The space has been used for 40 years as a recording/rehearsal space. Soul Asylum rehearsed here in the 90's, Tweedy from Wilco has played here with the Jayhawks, and many other talented Mineapolis artists have expressed themselvs between these walls.
We are mixing....which means we take all of the stuff that was recorded and determine the volumes of everything....from guitar, bass and drums....down to the strings, shaker, and other tidbits of layering. It's tedious, but the best part of the whole process! Essentially we are finishing the project....finally. Woo! So hold the showering....we're sleeping here and gettin 'er done.
This is a 2-part blog:
8/17/10(again, probably 8/18 already)
We just finished mixing "My Way" which was the last track we had to mix....woo! The album sounds so good, kids, its unbelievable. We are so happy with how everything turned out and The Pearl is truly going to make its name as a world-class studio....and likewise will Zack Hollander go on to do amazing things (starting with our project ;-). So here are a few sneak preview items about the album:
1. The track listing will be as follows: Epic, Heaven Can Wait, Not the Right Catch, Crucial Tactics, Undersexicized, Enemy Lines, Cougarville, Chump, My Way, To Life, and Turn the Light On. We chose to leave Shoe String Fox off of the album....many of you may wonder what Shoe String Fox is since we don't play it live too often, but it's a song of ours and there is talk of releasing it for download only or as a B side to a future single...who knows, but its ready to go when the time is right. I may even be willing to share it soon, we'll see.
2. The CD RELEASE PARTY is SEPTEMBER 25th at THE BRINK LOUNGE! Be there in case I never mentioned that :-)
3. Album Cover: (you will have to wait until the CD RELEASE PARTY on SEPTEMBER 25th at THE BRINK LOUNGE to see the rest)
It's a self-titled album for a few reasons....i guess most simply is cause we couldn't agree on a great title....but honestly it's nice because this is the Lucas Cates Band. We have a new line up since the last album (the addition of yours truly), and this is the music that you are used to hearing. Self titled really says it all....and so do the pictures.
4. We slept at The Pearl every night of mixing.....no showers....it got real........kenny didn't even change......its cool though, he's right next to me and he smells terrific.
5. We are the first band to work at The Pearl. Zack and his brother Noah along with the intern(soon to be on the payroll) Jordan built this space from the ashes....finished the hardwood floors....built the control room and made it awesome....we are honored to be the first of what i'm sure will be a long tradition of making music sound great.......kenny just said, by the way, "how much does it take to make me sound awesome? About four grand...thats how much." Awesome.
So, your music listening assignment: In the spirit of a set of studio monitors that we are using(the same monitors Quincy Jones used to produce all of Michael Jackson's stuff)(also, we are using other monitors so all you engineers out there don't scoff) I want you to check out Michael Jackson, "Billy Jean" from Thriller (Produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson)....and really listen to it....listen to everything in it....skip the voice....check out the shaker, or the claps, or the back up guitar, or for the more experienced listener.... listen to the room......................i'll be proud of you.
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