OH HAPPY DAY / SP ALBUM UPDATE
Came in and after a brief shakedown/stare-down/tea kvetch, I demoed out what we’ll call the slower version of ANAIS (sort of at the ‘TODAY’ tempo). That took an hour, and though we all felt the song was strong, no one was hi fiving either. “I still like the riff from last night,” Howard said. By that he meant ANAIS, but the fast (or original) version. But previously I’d declared the songs rhythm ‘moldy;’ as in 1992 d.e.a.d. So my exposition here would be: ‘hey, if we could find a new under groove, I’m more than happy to play the riff. ‘Cause Lord knows the figures I write a’int changing.’ I say this to you (as I said to them) because the man I learned the most from in the riff dept. was Tony Iommi, and as he has shown repeatedly is a good riff last forever; though the groove may change with the times. Hence a disco version of ‘War Pigs,’ etc, or the Ministry version of ‘Supernaut.’
This thinking turned the feel we working for/against enough that it started to have more of a James Brown/MC5 street noise, and within the hour I had the song I was looking for all along. I can’t yet attest to whether or not it can be great, but at least now what we have feels vital and deserves consideration. Howard too was shocked when I said with ANAIS in the fold SOLARA deserves back in, as I’m not as worried about it if there are 4 other rock songs to compete against. And what is the worry? Well, like the occasional song that comes up, it has a dare I say 90’s vibe. The argument against being been there, done that and comfort is rarely progress. But it is a killer hook, and those don’t grow on plum trees. (Also refer back to Iommi comments). Argument for is Howards: ‘Hey, it might be a single;’ which raises an eye from Jeff and I; as we’ve heard these Oh Sussanahs before; mostly from non-creative music biz types who have typecast what the ‘Pumpkin Sound’ is despite my having had success with acoustic songs, electronic songs, goth songs, you name it, plenty of puffinstuff not similar to that roar. Anyway…
Spent the rest of our time going in circles re: discarded songs, songs not lively for this record, and so on (meaning we didn’t get jack sparrowshit done). Ended night with another punch through ANAIS; slightly improved.
New album list: ANAIS/DORIAN/DRUM AND FIFE/RUN TO ME/BEING BEIGE/ONE AND ALL/TIBERIUS/SOLARA/ANTI-HERO
W.P.C.
