Thursday, November 20, 2003

 

So I played mixes of the songs for a bunch of people this weekend up in Mammoth, and they seemed to like it. Ken blogged some real nice things. This project has been created in such a vacuum, it's hard to have any perspective on it. Playing it for people is very helpful because I can get their reactions, even if they are non-verbal. Plus I hear it differently when people are there. Plus the mixes always sound different on different stereos. So it's helpful at this stage.
In the end I recorded 16 songs, but the finished product is only going to be 12 songs. "Memory Street" is cut for sure because I never really was satisfied with the words, plus it is the only one which has computer drums on it. "Pause-Record" will be cut because even though it's a good song it just really doesn't fit with the others thematically or musically. Another song called "Your guess is Better Than Mine" is probably going to be cut because while it's pretty good it's just a novelty song, and the novelty song slot is already taken up by "Race Day in the Garden." Plus I'd like to save it and record it again with some kind of gang vocals on the choruses, and changing singers for each verse. The last song I've decided to cut it "Mr. Berry," a song that everyone really liked but which is a bit too melodramatic and again doesn't fit with the mood of the album. I'll probably post the cut songs as MP3's when the record is done.
I also decided to edit out one verse of an as yet untitled song. It was going to be called "Box Full of Pictures," a line from a verse I wrote for it but didn't use, but then I was reminded that Wilco has a song called "Box Full of Letters." The similarity is too much, considering that the line isn't even in the song. Now I'm thinking of calling it Carton of Photos, or Collection of Snaps, or Tonight I'm Dreaming, or Email from Seattle, or Holding You.... Anyway, I hope to be able to edit the verse out on the computer. I wrote it with three verses before the chourus, and it just isn't working that way.

So, with those songs eliminated, the album should have a strong underlying theme and a relatively coherent sound, considering the range of a full-band sound to acoustic/voice folkyness.
I'm very excited to have it finished, but there are a couple more things to do. I am going to re-record the lead vocals on two songs, and record Molli and her sister doing backups on one more song. I could keep futzing with it forever, but I really want to get it done and move on so I'm going to stop myself. The thing about recording this slowly is that there's always one more song brewing that you could wait for. But alas, it'll have to wait for the box set.
posted by Greg McIlvaine 8:53 AM