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Saturday studio session. For my background vocals, we had to close the windows and doors in Henning's room to lock out any extraneous sounds, which also served to seal in the heat. That's alright, I'm part reptile so the heat actually feels good to me. Nothing suits me more than to walk out of some insanely air conditioned building, like, say, a Barnes & Noble (if it was that cold inside the store in November, customers would be complaining) and into a parking lot wobbly with ripples of heat and have my body bathed in a humid sauna of sweaty heat and humidity. Delicious. Anyway, I don't fancy myself much of a "singer" but one thing I have going for me that I've found is that my voice(s) sounds much better if doubled. Without exception. So we did the little background bit I came up with for "Martha" and then I sang a harmony Henning wrote for "Uncomfortable," which didn't give me much trouble because I kinda heard the same thing in my own head. Then it was onto guitar for "One Lady Dancing," which is starting to coagulate into this woozy, slightly inebriated groove. Max's bass sounds a tad out of tune on certain notes because of a conflict with something Henning does on guitar but the effect is almost like a tuba. Then I realized while playing my rhythm guitar part, it seems Brian speeds up the beat at the beginning of some of the verses. It's subtle but enough to throw me and then I don't land on the downbeat exactly but again, the result is a boon. In other words, rather than perfect and antiseptic, the groove of the song and its attendant harmonics is slightly off and therefore, it has more of an exciting live feel that's hard to get when everything is overdubbed separately.
Lastly, Henning and I stacked heaps of guitars on "Omnivore." Debate is still up in the air about an ARP part Ken did. My vote is keep it in. For someone who's not as wild about this tune as I am the others, this tasty element to the instrumentation gussies the song up with unexpected squealy tasty bits. Try to imagine "Up On Cripple Creek" without the jew's harp going through the wah-wah pedal. That sound instantly defines the song. Can't lose it, Ken. Andy had to trust Todd and we got Skylarking rather than The Big Express Part 2. It works, ol' boy.
Sign-in sheet for the Saturday night cookout: Henning, Lesa, Brian, Max, Anya, Ed, Zeke, Dan, Laura, Tony, Shelly, Hannah and Danny.
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