Monday, March 23, 2009

stuck in NC w/ a sick transmission


got some time on my hands, so i figured i'd bring everybody up to speed with what's been happening in the world of the tire fire. currently we a dropping a bunch of cash into a sick transmission in Asheville, NC., but i'll get back to that bullshit. first i wanna fill you in on the new album. a few weeks ago matt and tim and i flew out to portland, OR with guitars and a snare drum and some cymbals to make a record with Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.

we booked a couple of weeks at a saloon/venue/hotel called the White Eagle a few blocks from the studio. this i believe is the oldest bar in portland. the upstairs hotel used to be a brothel. 15 rooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 showers. matt and i on bunk beds and old blue on an air mattress. tiny room that had a foul smell by the time we left. the first night there the White Eagle had an open mic. Berlin came out, had some drinks, we talked about the record and what tune we'd start with and eventually we played the open mic. i assured steve we wouldn't get too sloppy as he departed, but that didn't really work out. we were all so excited to be there in the situation, the Rainer beers were flowing. needless to say matt and i weren't feeling very well the next morning heading into the studio. we worked about 12 hours and realized what we were in for.

joining steve behind the board engineering the record was Jeff Saltzman. he's worked with steven malkumus, death cab for cutie, the decemberists, etc. both steve and jeff have phenomenal ears and rode us hard. not many takes were acceptable on the first crack. or the second or the third. i left that studio exhausted and elated every evening. it was hard work, but worth every second. anything could be changed at any time. "tune the guitar a step lower and relearn it and let's roll again." "this song needs a bridge." "play with 5% more aggression." "how about a key change at the end?" "can you tune up again?" this went on for about two weeks and the result is fantastic. those guys really helped shape this record and it's the best thing we've ever done, easily. not sure when it comes out, but i can't wait for folks to hear it.


so every night after the session, we'd walk back to the white eagle and drink Rainer. in fact they ordered an additional 10 cases after our first night in town. then we'd get up and do it all over again. got into a real routine you know. knew every bartender at the eagle, the housekeeper, cooks. it was an ideal set up for us. shit, they'd even let us listen to the rough mixes at the bar late night to hear what we'd done all day. hung out with our friend justin a good bit, helped him move on our off day. thanks to him for all the rides and everything like that. matt and i got a chance to catch up with our cousin and her husband and baby and ate delicious indian food and homemade chocalate cake. charles is a hell of a cook.

worked real late the last night. berlin was hearing something and he wasn't gonna quit until he was satisfied with a certain guitar tone on something we had listened to hours before. pretty amazing really. all the gear is put away. we've loaded up his van. the studio has been cleaned. headsets put away. and late into the evening he's unloading amps and carrying them up two flights and setting stuff back up. one of the coolest cats i've come across. he cares a lot about the records he makes and that shines through in these sessions. so a big thanks to Steve Berlin and Jeff Saltzman for all of their hard work. and thanks to tim and matt for making adjustments on the fly and being so easy to work and live with. berlin picked us up in front of the white eaglethe next morning, drove us to the airport, saving us a $50 cab, we exchanged hugs and were on our way.


okay. back to the van bullshit. we've just finished a short tour through the southeast which included stops in macon, savannah & athens, ga, asheville, nc, and greenville, sc. the last three nights with our good friends Bloodkin. great to see and hear those guys. i first got hip to them when i was down in athens. i used to work with Eric Carter at the Georgia Bar. eric plays guitar (like keith richards). he was in bad shape when i was around. he's cleaned up and is a different person and is playing better than ever! unreal. night and day. so those guys are on it these days. they'll be playing before us at a number of shows coming up in the midwest. not to be missed.

anyway, while traveling between athens and asheville we noticed a smell and some "check engine" stuff had been happening for a day or so. pulled off and nick deducted it was transmission related. rented a mini van for the next show and played bloodkin's gear (thanks again guys) and headed back to asheville to pick up the beast. put Scott Tipping on a 20 hour bus trip so he wouldn't miss any gigs and here we sit. we're told we'll be moving by tomorrow afternoon. we'll see.


regular season baseball begins in 2 weeks and i couldn't be more excited. baseball is back. go cubs. see you all at a show...cheers,Ed

p.s. my email was down while we were in the studio, so if i didn't email you back, it wasn't on purpose :-)
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)