Announcing New, Improved, LIVE: Our Exclusive Studio Session with Deerhoof
April 30, 2009
TheBayBridged.com and New, Improved Recording are proud to announce the launch of New, Improved, LIVE, a monthly series of live studio sessions with top indie bands, recorded at the New, Improved Recording studio in Oakland, California. Our first session features the Bay Area’s own Deerhoof, with free high-quality mp3s, photos, and videos from the session exclusively available right here.
With a rich history in the Bay Area scene, it seemed only natural to invite Deerhoof in for the first New, Improved, LIVE session. The group is, after all, known worldwide for its unconventional indie rock sound and consistently excellent albums, like last year’s Offend Maggie (Kill Rock Stars). Their N,I,L set below includes highlights from their rich catalog alongside an exciting cover of “Let’s Dance The Jet”, an obscure song from the 1967 film The Day The Fish Came Out. As you’ll hear in the mp3s, the session captures the energy of the band’s live performances as expertly engineered, mixed and mastered by the New, Improved Recording team.
For even more, check out photos and video from the session, along with an interview with Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier at our New, Improved, LIVE page!
New, Improved, LIVE, featuring: Deerhoof
1. Deerhoof – “Giga Dance” (originally from Milk Man)
Giga_Dance_160.mp3
Download: 160kbps mp3 / 320kbps mp3
2. Deerhoof – “The Great Car Tomb” (originally from Holdypaws)
The_Great_Car_Tomb_160.mp3
Download: 160kbps mp3 / 320kbps mp3
3. Deerhoof – “Let’s Dance The Jet” (cover; originally by Mikis Theodorakis for The Day The Fish Came Out)
Lets_Dance_The_Jet_160.mp3
Download: 160kbps mp3 / 320kbps mp3
4. Deerhoof – “Milking” (originally from Milk Man)
Milking_160.mp3
Download: 160kbps mp3 / 320kbps mp3
We’d like to thank the band for the excellent performance. A number of exciting artists are lined up for future sessions, which will be published at thebaybridged.com/new-improved-live/ on a monthly basis. Acclaimed performers and a top notch studio means great free music that redefines the studio experience: New, Improved, LIVE.
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May 2009: Deerhoof
April 30, 2009
With a rich history in the Bay Area scene, it seemed only natural to invite Deerhoof in for the first New, Improved, LIVE session. The group is, after all, known worldwide for its unconventional indie rock sound and consistently excellent albums, like last year’s Offend Maggie (Kill Rock Stars). Their N,I,L set below includes highlights from their rich catalog alongside an exciting cover of “Let’s Dance The Jet”, an obscure song from the 1967 film The Day The Fish Came Out. As you’ll hear in the mp3s, the session captures the energy of the band’s live performances as expertly engineered, mixed and mastered by the New, Improved Recording team.
New, Improved, LIVE, featuring: Deerhoof
1. Deerhoof – “Giga Dance” (originally from Milk Man)
Giga_Dance_160.mp3
Download: 160kbps mp3 / 320kbps mp3
2. Deerhoof – “The Great Car Tomb” (originally from Holdypaws)
The_Great_Car_Tomb_160.mp3
Download: 160kbps mp3 / 320kbps mp3
3. Deerhoof – “Let’s Dance The Jet” (cover; originally by Mikis Theodorakis for The Day The Fish Came Out)
Lets_Dance_The_Jet_160.mp3
Download: 160kbps mp3 / 320kbps mp3
4. Deerhoof – “Milking” (originally from Milk Man)
Milking_160.mp3
Download: 160kbps mp3 / 320kbps mp3
Studio Sessions Video
Deerhoof – “Let’s Dance the Jet”
Interview with Greg Saunier of Deerhoof
TBB: How long have you known Eli Crews and New, Improved Recording?
GS: Ooh, I’m embarrassed to say. I’ve known Eli for about 10 years which is longer than he’s had the studio. We met at Mills College. I remember thinking he was so far ahead the rest of us in the gear department even then. He was playing a nice Rickenbacher bass through a SansAmp pedal while I was trying to figure out how to play a pair of cracked hi-hat cymbals with my house keys.
TBB: What have you recorded there?
GS: We’ve done quite a bit, all different kinds of things. Three songs from our EP Green Cosmos began their life at N,IR. We did the drums, guitars, and bass there, and you can also hear one of his organs and his marimba on there.
Next time I came back was when another local band called Sholi decided they wanted to record there and have me as a producer. That was my first time being exclusively on the “control room” side of a recording project. In a way that made it all the more clear how good the studio was.
Then when Deerhoof was almost done with our album Friend Opportunity I was talking to Eli about recording some of his organs – what a collection he has! He had a free morning so he said to come over. That record is extremely organ-heavy and most of it was recorded that morning. Also one of the organs had “rhythms” on it, you know how old organs often have those little drum beats. The electronic drum sounds on there were so wonderful, I sampled them and have been using those sounds ever since.
Then we came back again when we were doing our last record, Offend Maggie. In the same building as N,IR is a gear rental place. Eli has a truly amazing collection of instruments, effects, microphones, amplifiers, and control room gear. But if there’s ever any microphone that you particularly want that he doesn’t have in his collection, he can easily get it from next door. So we recorded all the vocals there with a special microphone, and had other microphones around the room catching the excellent “room” sound while Satomi was singing, plus a mic in the piano with the pedal taped down (making all her notes reverberate like an echo chamber), and the sound of her voice put through a guitar amp with a spring reverb, plus a little Walkman cassette machine that had a little condenser mic in it. When we blended all these sounds together we had the perfect vocal sound!
TBB: Can you think of an especially memorable or ridiculous moment from your time recording at New, Improved?
GS: I can’t remember any moments that weren’t ridiculous because Eli always makes the experience fun. It can be a very stressful experience, paying money to go into a recording studio and pray that you’ll be able to recapture the magic that you get in the practice room or in a concert. Eli has such an easygoing attitude that really helps people relax. At the same time he has a lot of energy, so like if you get an idea like “we need a more trebly sound for this part”, he’s already getting a new mic set up for you practically before you’ve even finished your sentence.
TB: What inspired you to select the songs you played in the session?
Well we’ve taped a lot of stuff for various websites and radio stations so we just wanted to play songs that we hadn’t ever done before for any tapings.
TBB: Could you talk a little bit about the covers you guys performed at the studio?
GS: We played “Let’s Dance The Jet” which was written for a 60s Greek movie called The Day The Fish Came Out. The song is by Mikis Theodorakis, a composer I’ve started to get quite interested in. He’s done a lot of soundtracks, as well as classical works. He also became very active in left-wing politics in Greece, and has a very interesting website filled with essays against war, or about dissolving NATO. Check it out: http://en.mikis-theodorakis.net/
Studio Session Photos
Credits
Audio: Eli Crews, John Finkbeiner, Chris Cline
Photos: Vice Cooler, Michael Zelner, Christian Cunningham
Videographers: Greg Serpa, Kevin Woodruff, Christian Cunningham
Video Editor: Greg Serpa
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Weekend Picks 04/30-05/03
April 30, 2009
Thursday April 30th: Music for Animals, Please Do Not Fight, Winter Gloves@ the Rickshaw Stop
Thursday at the Rickshaw Stop is the place to start the weekend early. Winter Gloves will be dropping what’s sure to be the most electronic cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to date. Local rockers, Music for Animals, was a Noisepop favorite at Benders in February, and Please Do Not Fight will be keeping the crowd alive.
01-worry.mp3
Music for Animals – “Worry”
The show starts at 8pm with a $10 cover.
Embrace the End, All Teeth, Not To Reason Why, History, Heavy Hills and Strike To Survive @ the Casbar (Santa Rosa)
Sacramento’s Embrace the End is heading to Santa Rosa’s Casbar before taking off on May 15th for a non-stop sixteen day tour through California and up the west coast, ending in Seattle. With a new album recently out, Ley Lines, as well as a recent line-up change, these guys are ready to get on the road and share the intensity reflected in their live performance.
Also performing are All Teeth, Not To Reason Why, History, Heavy Hills and Strike To Survive, all hailing from the Santa Rosa area). This will be a great night of local music and all ages are encouraged to come!
Embrace the end: Denim on denim hate crime (Long intro) from Jourdan McClure on Vimeo.
Read more about it here
Friday May 1: The Hot Toddies, Tempo No Tempo, Battlehooch @ The Uptown in Oakland
Those looking for a good time on the cheap might want to make there way over to Oakland to check out The Hot Toddies. The wildly popular Oakland foursome are sure to get the crowd moving and singing along with their unique brand of infectious indie/pop.
Bay Bridged favorites Tempo No Tempo will be supporting on this one — get there early and be sure to see these guys do their thing…which is rocking socks off!
medicines.mp3
Tempo No Tempo – “Medicines”
Opening up the show is BATTLEHOOCH, who’s experimental, layered sound results from many disparate elements and will be familiar to fans of Captain Beefheart and The Residents , but all together original and new as well.
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The latest on the ABC and local venues: why promises of change aren’t enough
April 29, 2009
A Bay Bridged reader tipped us off to this post over at the Chronicle‘s City Insider blog, the latest in the paper’s coverage of the ongoing conflict between the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and some of the City’s best venues, including Bottom of the Hill, Cafe Du Nord, the Great American Music Hall and the DNA Lounge.
You can find our previous posts about this issue here and here for more background, but here’s a quick recap: the ABC, charged with issuing and enforcing alcohol licenses throughout the state, has been challenging the liquor licenses of a number of historic City music venues, either by attacking technical or otherwise insignificant discrepancies in the licenses, or by imposing new, unreasonable conditions on their continued use. These licenses allow these venues to hold all ages shows, something already in too-short supply in the City.
The last we had heard, State Senator Mark Leno had a “positive meeting” with ABC chief Steve Hardy that resulted in a “commitment to working toward a resolution,” including ideas to draft new legislation to clarify venue licensing requirements or the creation of a new type of license specifically for music venues. All of this, tentatively, sounded like progress. [More...]
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Black Lips play GAMH tomorrow; support local record stores
April 29, 2009
The Black Lips are back in town performing at the Great American Music Hall tomorrow night with Flowers Forever and local act Bridez and this time your ticket will do more than just get you into the show.
In an effort to support great local record stores, The Black Lips giving a bunch of Short Fuse 7â€s to local record stores of the cities they’re performing and offering the vinyl up to anyone who comes in AFTER the gig with a ticket stub. You can pick up your copy over at Amoeba SF starting Friday – I’d recommend doing it sooner then later before supplies run out.
black_lips-short_fuse.mp3
Black Lips – “Short Fuse”
Bridez-Rolling_Stoned.mp3
Bridez – “Rolling Stoned”
Doors are at 8pm and tickets are $15. Advance tickets can be purchased here.
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Horny Goat Weed: Floating Goat at Annie’s Social Club
April 29, 2009
The crimson warmth of Annie’s was a welcome respite from the bluster of Saturday night, with high winds pushing put-upon smokers into the nooks and crannies of the facade. Bodacious women of all hues stared down from their black velvet boudoirs on the wall, and the charmingly intimate Folsom Street venue prepared for another night of rough-hewn independent metal. As oblivious karaoke enthusiasts flitted through to the back room, bands laid out their humble merch, bathed in the blue glow of Battlefield Earth on the TV, Travolta casting a dismissive eye on us man-animals below.
Floating_Goat-Bad_News.mp3
Floating Goat – “Bad News”
Glitter Wizard were first on stage, running through a shoddy, shaky set involving a broken string, some lame jokes, and a number of unnecessary vocal and synthesizer effects. Lying somewhere between punk, metal, and ham-handed psychedelia, the band seemed preternaturally young, singer “Wendy Stonehenge”‘s 70′s-style soupcatcher nurtured by that little-known patent medicine, Ironic Tonic. Keyboardist Doug Graves was the odd man out, both in age and in the mix, deploying some decent but inaudible keyboard licks and trippy-lite oscillations from a transistor-rich device next to his keyboard. With a little more rehearsal, the world’s fifty-seventh band with Wizard in its name might have some potential, developing their retro sound into something coherent. Maybe they need a new wand? 13 inches, with a basilisk-pubic-hair core? But I digress, magically. [More...]
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Boy In Static (Podcast #161)
April 28, 2009
Stream the episode:
Subscribe to the The Bay Bridged weekly podcast to get each new episode downloaded free to your iTunes the moment it’s published!
This week’s podcast features Boy In Static, the San Francisco-Boston indie pop project of Alexander Chen (viola, vocals, assorted instruments) & Kenji Ross (drums, beats). The band’s origin story is not exactly an oft-heard one: a classical musician (Chen) with an interest in computer audio begins writing pop music with electronic elements and gets the interest of The Notwist’s Markus Acher, who released Newborn on his Alien Transistor label before he ever plays a show. Over the past five years, Chen and Ross have released three albums and toured the US and internationally with bands like 13 & God, Freezepop, and Lymbyc Systym.
Candy Cigarette is Boy In Static’s third album, and it represents significant and exciting developments for the band, both in terms of sound and Chen’s approach to songwriting. While 2007′s Violet drew more heavily from shoegaze influences, the new record is considerably brighter, fusing bubbling Notwist-esque electronic pop with layers of viola and toy instruments. It also marks new levels of collaboration, between Chen and drummer Ross who road-tested these songs while touring, and with outside collaborators like Liz Freezepop, Ulrich Schnauss and Her Space Holiday. Freezepop’s vocal contributions are particularly notable; her and Chen have some beautiful melancholic duets that mesh wonderfully with the beats and textures. All told, it’s a very strong release that indie pop fans will greatly enjoy. [More...]
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Ticket giveaway: Garrett Pierce @ Cafe du Nord 5/3
April 28, 2009
This Sunday, local singer-songwriter Garrett Pierce presents to San Francisco his second full-length on Crossbill Records, All Masks, with a record release show at Cafe du Nord. Check out our recent podcast with Pierce for several cuts from the celebrated release, which centers around mythological journey and mystical instrumentation (he’ll be supported by a few of these musicians on Sunday, such as Jen Grady, pictured above).
02-running-from-the-face.mp3
Garrett Pierce – “Running from the Face”
He’ll be joined by Window Twins (members of Black Fiction) and Agent Ribbons (Sacramento), a sassy femme duo known to squeal and shred among other exhibitions of theatrical stage presence. This July, expect a new 7″ from Agent Ribbons out on Acuarela Records (Madrid), entitled “Your Love is the Smallest Doll.”
To win a pair of tickets to the show (which happens Sunday at 8pm with a $10 cover), send an e-mail to contest[at]thebaybridged.com by Friday at noon with your name and mailing address. Make sure to tell us which musician is best to stalk on Twitter, and why.
