"The first news we get from The Detachment Kit is that Ian, D-Kits singer has come down with the stomach flu and may or may not make it to the session. Regardless, the other three are here, and are wide eyed at the factory. They all take off running through the boiler, barrel storage, oil vat, and laboratory rooms. From the get go it is obvious, that the band enjoys the surroundings more than any band yet."
Thus begins the fifth 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, and keep coming back here every day for the latest installment.
The first news we get from The Detachment Kit is that Ian, D-Kits singer has come down with the stomach flu and may or may not make it to the session. Regardless, the other three are here, and are wide eyed at the factory. They all take off running through the boiler, barrel storage, oil vat, and laboratory rooms. From the get go it is obvious, that the band enjoys the surroundings more than any band yet.
They enter the studio, and decide to use our drums, and bass rig, but Charlie, the guitar player, brings his own rig, which sounds amazing. Charlie would set the tone of this session with the majority of time spent on guitar sounds and overdubs. The result is extraordinary. As the band gets accustomed to the room and instruments-they noodle, and experiment for what seems like hours. It's cacophony. The guitar grinds, grunts, shrieks, and slices with great precision. The rhythm section spars with each other, throwing lefts and rights, body blows and shots below the belt. Suddenly, the chaos is interrupted and the song forms like a vicious and unexpected weather system blowing off doors and roofs, shutters and windows. The song pounds you and then stops on a dime for a 36 beat break, that puts any false ending to shame. As Lance sorts out the sounds and puts them in proper place, we are ready to push the big red button. Just then D-Kits' fearless captain, Ian, swoops in-full of color and style-giving the space a much needed feeling of, well, "eccentricity". Ian jumps up on an oil drum, and complete with marching band uniform conducts the band through the track. He waves his arms frantically, snaps fingers, kicks and pierces the room with dagger flying eyes. Things settle down after a few takes, and I get a chance to survey Ians' health. The plan is that he will not sing tonight, which means we will have track his vocal at a later date. This in turn will make scheduling even more difficult than it already is. Not a problem we can't overcome, but still I hope to convince him to track tonight. Afterall, it's the spirit of the project.
The band eventually gets a keeper and we move on to guitar overdubs. Charlie and Lance work through distorted and clean sounds. Each matching to extremely loud, or extremely quiet sections of the song. The end result is big, and I mean really BIG. The sound also benefits from an ambient room mic that captures the sound of our 1000 square foot/20 foot ceiling room. It is bordering on Led Zeppelin sound. With guitars done the focus turns to Ian, who we finesse into doing his vocal. He opts for an SM57, and wants to hold it. The song begins and he reaches deep and screams for at least 15 seconds straight, and howls, breathes and screams to the end of the song. The result it poor, and the microphone is to blame. Lance suggests a condenser mic, the AT4050. The next take is right on the money. Ian takes a quick listen, and just as quick as he entered, he was gone. Brilliant!
The rest of us head out at just before Midnight. Tomorrow we entertain The Dishes, Tom Daily and Haymarket Riot; beginning at 10AM. Tomorrow will be an endurance test for sure.