THICK OIL, day twelve - The Matics/Duvall

"There is plenty of mudslinging in Chicago between North Siders and South Siders. That goes for the inner city, as well as, the suburbs. South Side is synonymous with The White Sox, Blue Collar pride, and a hard, straight forward approach to life without ever mincing words. On the other hand, The North Side is know for its' art, culture, college trained business minds, and the Chicago Cubs. Of course, this is all a generalization, but you get the point. Yesterday, The Matics representing the South Side and Duvall coming from the North entered the factory."
Thus begins the twelfth in a series of journal entries by THICK Records kingpin Billy Spunke documenting his label's newest compilation, "OIL". To read the full entry, click on READ MORE, to see pictures from the sessions click here, and keep coming back here every day for the latest installment.

There is plenty of mudslinging in Chicago between North Siders and South Siders. That goes for the inner city, as well as, the suburbs. South Side is synonymous with The White Sox, Blue Collar pride, and a hard, straight forward approach to life without ever mincing words. On the other hand, The North Side is know for its’ art, culture, college trained business minds, and the Chicago Cubs. Of course, this is all a generalization, but you get the point. Yesterday, The Matics representing the South Side and Duvall coming from the North entered the factory.

The Matics don’t where fancy clothes, they speak in thick Chicago accents, they are dirty, they are tough, they will kick your ass if act like one. The Matics sound is the same; gritty, loud, and uncompromising. Everyone is late today, and we don’t get the tracking started until 4PM. No need for long days with The Matics though, they finish the song, complete with overdubs and vocals in a record breaking 2 hours! That is 2 hours faster than the Rise Against 4 hour session and previous record holder. The song clocks in at 4 minutes and brings to mind the sound of Naked Raygun without being a rip off. The band uses all of their own gear, except for the bass rig which gives them a sound unlike any other that we have recorded thus far. The Matics also have home court advantage seeing that the factory is and has been a place of employment for The Matics boys.

DUVALL are a pleasant bunch of fellas. Soft spoken, articulate, well dressed and clean. The Caterer brothers survey the surroundings and pick what gear they want to use. Josh uses his signature Fender. Something is missing though, as DUVALL is in the process of some line up shuffling, so tonight we will hear Eli on bass, and Rob of Slapstick and Tuesday fame on drums. We sort out the mics and sounds, and like magic Duvall nails the first take. The energy in the room is amazing. The Caterer brothers are perfect, and seem to move in and out of each others space with ease. They are a joy to watch and listen. The boys sit down to hear take one and decide to have Rob pick up the tempo a few notches to hear the song a bit faster on take 2. Suddenly, Lance is in equipment hell, and we lose the next two takes to mechanical difficulty. This would be the first time this has happened during Oil. Duvall is noticeably bummed having performed very, very well. Regardless, Lance gets his head straight and remedies the problem in quick time. The next take is astounding and we have both takes on tape, one fast and one slow. Duvall decides on fast and moves on to overdubs. They nail everything in one take. They never miss a fricken note! They are so smooth and confident it makes me sick to think they are that good. Pure naturals.

I think about both bands at the end of the session and their opposite approaches to music. If both bands where to come to a door and its opening was to small to fit through what would each band do? The Matics would lower their shoulders and pound the opening larger in one square move. Duvall would turn side ways and slide through without a sound. Tomorrow is Alkaline Trio.