The Unpronounceable Sound of . . .

So, we had this great idea, see . . .

The goal was to capture the most natural and �real� sound of the band on record, and we all feel quite vindicated by the fact that we have accomplished that goal, if nothing else. The means by which we had initially planned to achieve that goal were fairly simple as well. We would lock ourselves away for three days and concentrate primarily on writing, composing, and recording this album. When the arrangement to attain lodging at the Block household (thus the original album title: �The Dave Block Experiment�) became complicated, the vote was cast to remain in our own home (the Osborne abode, that is) and complete the project in that location.

And so we did . . .

On the morning of December 27, 2001, we three embarked to Perkins for a preparatory breakfast and much discussion. Concerning the December 27th breakfast: it was somewhat overindulged, with Mike ordering the Tremendous Twelve, myself dining on the Buttermilk Five (no longer available in a stack of three,) and Owen satiating his gastronomic repast with pigs in a blanket. Many great musical minds were spoken of, such as Robert Zimmerman, James McCartney, and Yoko Ono . . . okay, well not Yoko Ono. Following our breakfast, we returned to Monroe St. to begin our work at approximately 12:30 PM. We would not call it a day until 12:30 am, the next morning.

Thursday, December 27, 2001:

Our first endeavor was what would be the album�s penultimate track, �Bad Time Stories.� Mike had previously shown us his outline for the song a few months ago. For the track, he played his old Yamaha acoustic (otherwise known as �Mike�s Buozis�). Owen provided accompaniment on his Ibanez 12-string acoustic (Lydia). I myself played Mike�s Yamaha keyboard as a harp sound for the lead instrument. Owen later dubbed on some drums through a processor to get that �guy-beating-a-trash-can-in-a-large-warehouse� sound. Then both Mike and I recorded vocals. By the by, that little bell sound you hear at the end of the track is Owen playing a broken phone with a drumstick and, subsequently, dropping it on the floor. It was all recorded in the attic.

Second, Mike and Owen began undertaking the coordination of programming to coincide with Mike�s guitar part for �Painted Sun.� Owen managed some spectacular work here. Again, Mike played his Buozis. Then for each break section, Owen played drums on the Yamaha keyboard, to change up the feel. All of this was done in my room. Thereafter, I recorded the organ track downstairs in the front room on an old organ we happened to have found on the side of the road a few years ago. Mike and I both recorded vocals separately, but two days later, they were discarded and redone simultaneously, only for Mike to once again re-record his vocal for the main body of the song a few days after the sessions. (Yes, we know that�s cheating, but we don�t care.) The remarkable result was that this caused the verse vocals and the break vocals to sound wholly different from each other, further establishing a dichotomy between each part. The chimes keyboard part came to me in a dream the next morning, and we recorded it on the third day, in the attic.

�Miscellaneous and Random (T.A.O.L.G.)� was the next track to be recorded. I recorded the basic guitar track on my Fender acoustic (Jamie), and then added the lead guitar with my Epiphone SG Junior (Suzanne). It later became obvious that Suzanne had not had her strings changed in a long while, and as a result, had gone out of tune in the middle of the song. So, I re-tracked the part using Owen�s Guild X-82 Nova (Veruca), leaving from the first take only the harmonics played over the opening phrases. Mike then set to work at adding a superb bassline, using my Fender Jazz Bass (Louise). There had been plans for Owen to add a piano track, but we found the song to be to our satisfaction, and deemed it unnecessary. So, sadly, Owen does not appear on this track. Oh, and just to clarify, this song is NOT an instrumental. There are lyrics. Veruca is singing them.

Next came one of three songs whose lyrics were penned in whole or in part at a Chili�s in Exton on December 8, 2001 during a marathon writing session (made possible by my good friend and server at said restaurant, Lee Anne Applegate). It was �The Tale of Tom Thumb.� Owen happened to go into the bathroom for a moment with Mike�s Buozis and the Chili�s receipt that had the �Tom Thumb� lyrics scrawled on the back. When he came out of the bathroom, he had devised a blues riff in B around which the song could be structured. (He assured Mike that he had not used his guitar while on the toilet.) We immediately went up to the attic to lay it down. Owen was to play both the rhythm and lead guitar parts, but he was having a bit of trouble with the rhythm part. Instead, I tracked it using Veruca, and then tracked the bassline on Louise. Owen then recorded his drum part and after that, the lead guitar. Finally, Mike sang the lyrics through his processor and Owen and I added some choice �shooby-doo-wop�s� to top it all off.

Lastly for the evening, was to be the album�s closing track, entitled �That Old Song.� The redundant lyrics of this piece were also composed at Chili�s on December 8th. This one was extremely enjoyable to record. In order to recreate the feel of a bar room chant in the attic, we had to track a total of fifteen of us. First I played Mike�s Buozis and sang the song the whole way through, with Mike and Owen chanting behind me. Then, the three of us sang loudly, and obnoxiously in front of a very �hot� microphone, all the time making miscellaneous and random noises and shouts that you might (or might not) hear in a bar. We did this several times until there were enough distinct voices to sound realistic. (One of the tracks was to be saved for Dave Block, but he was never able to make it to the sessions, so we recorded that one ourselves on the third day.) If you listen closely you can hear subtle references to Dylan, Fallon, Boyd, and many others. The most satisfying part to listen to, though, is the applause at the conclusion of the track, if solely because it�s funny to think that that�s only three guys clapping!

Friday, December 28, 2001:

After we had been served a hearty breakfast by the lady of the house, Owen set to work on transposing Mike�s song �Looking for Jack� (from our first album, �Solitude, Baby!�) on the computer so he could sing his own version. This was then sent directly to the recorder while I played Mike�s Buozis along with it from my bed. Afterward, Owen added his vocals, marking his debut as a lead vocalist! Instead of titling the track �Looking for Jack (remix)� or �Looking for Jack (version 2.0)� we decided the moniker �Still Looking for Jack� would be more appropriate. There has been discussion of playing it live as a punk song entitled �Perpetually Looking for Jack,� as well. (It should be noted that, although Mike wrote the original version of this song, he does not play a single note on this one! Oh, the irony!)

�La la la . . .� so called because of the rambling inscription above the lyrics in my notebook, was the next to go. Similar to the session for �There Is An In� on the previous album, all three guitars were recorded simultaneously in my room. For some unknown reason, however, we each ended up playing each other�s acoustic guitars. I played Mike�s Buozis, Owen played my Jamie, and Mike played Owen�s Lydia. Also, Jamie was plugged into the effects processor with an echo effect, producing some �U2-esque� lead guitar from Owen. After doing the guitar tracks, I recorded my vocal, and Mike his (which, by the way, is one of his finest vocal performances to date, in my humble opinion.)

At this point, we were all a bit fatigued, and slightly loopy from almost twenty hours of recording during the last two days. The result was the most confusing track on the album, �Opposite Day.� Mostly improvised in the attic, Owen performed a human beat-box through the processor to provide the rhythm track. I then did a slightly distorted bassline on Louise over top of that. Then we plugged Mike�s keyboard into the processor, selected an effect, and he recorded a part. Owen contributed a guitar line that alternated between several different effects, and Mike sung some poetry he had written through the processor, as well. We titled it �Opposite Day� from a joke Owen made later that night, which for some reason, caused me to laugh almost painfully. He simply blurted out, �Yo, when is opposite day? You guys know?�

In order, perhaps, to balance out the inaccessibility of �Opposite Day,� we then set to work on the last track of the night, �You (K)need Me.� Half of the songs lyrics came from the December 8th session, the other half were written a few minutes prior to the recording. We then composed music for it and moved to the attic to record. Owen and I played drums and electric piano keyboards together, respectively. Then I laid down the vocals. At this point, Owen and I vacated the attic so Mike could work on the guitar part. He was very meticulous and took his time in doing so. After completing it, he added the �Ahs� as back-up vocals on the second stanza. We were all very impressed with his work on this song.

Saturday, December 29, 2001:

Once we had made the aforementioned adjustments to the nearly completed songs, we decided we wanted one more to round out the album. The consensus was that it would be an instrumental blues jam. �Marmalade� is the result of that jam. The only song on the album recorded entirely live, it features Owen on his Tama drums, myself playing bass (Louise, of course), and Mike on lead guitar, using Veruca. Once we completed the song and listened to the playback, it was noticed that it somewhat resembled the style of a certain famous late 60�s rock trio . . .

The after-album celebration was held at Borders in Allentown.

On Monday, December 31, 2001, Mike and I convened at his home in the study to mix the tracks on his computer. Afterwards, we rang in the New Year with some wine and cheese, while watching �2001: A Space Odyssey.� Excellent film. Excellent album. Mission accomplished.

Officially,
Graham W. Osborne
for
The Fantastic Spastic Elastic Band