I think a central element of the back-to-basics album is press material where a band member says something along the lines of "back to basics", "four guys in a room", "real music", etc., rather than what it actually sounds like.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 07:29 (five years ago) link
Yes, with the subtext that it's somehow more authentic.
― Non, je ned raggette rien (onimo), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 08:59 (five years ago) link
been meaning to bump this thread for the new Interpol album:
We tend to go to the studio with the songs very much complete, for the most part. Maybe there's still some vocal moments where Paul's still figuring out our lyrics and so forth. But from hearing these rehearsal recordings, I think he could see, OK, here’s an opportunity that we could use two-inch tape to record this record.We’ve always used two-inch tape to some capacity in making our records. We usually only do it with drums and maybe bass before moving into Pro Tools just for more expediency and ease.But by doing two-inch tape and committing to that way of making a record, it sort of limits your options, but also it can be limiting you in a good way, where it’s going to be about you making a very in-the-moment kind of record.So, you have to say what you want to say in one or two tracks.It forces you to be less precious about . . . making the perfect record.Consequently, I think where we came out . . . the record sounds like us playing together. It has a liveliness to it, an urgency to it, but it’s also kind of minimal throughout. There’s not tons of things in that record. It’s kind of a minimal, just an honest human kind of record, in that sense.-It’s like — It’s human.-Old fashioned. No, I’m just kidding.It’s old fashioned.
We’ve always used two-inch tape to some capacity in making our records. We usually only do it with drums and maybe bass before moving into Pro Tools just for more expediency and ease.
But by doing two-inch tape and committing to that way of making a record, it sort of limits your options, but also it can be limiting you in a good way, where it’s going to be about you making a very in-the-moment kind of record.
So, you have to say what you want to say in one or two tracks.
It forces you to be less precious about . . . making the perfect record.
Consequently, I think where we came out . . . the record sounds like us playing together. It has a liveliness to it, an urgency to it, but it’s also kind of minimal throughout. There’s not tons of things in that record. It’s kind of a minimal, just an honest human kind of record, in that sense.
-It’s like —
It’s human.
-Old fashioned. No, I’m just kidding.
It’s old fashioned.
https://www.salon.com/2018/08/24/interpols-daniel-kessler-on-recording-marauder-on-tape-it-forces-you-to-be-less-precious/
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 19:28 (five years ago) link
?? 2 inch tape in a pro studio is at least 16 tracks and probably 24
― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 19:31 (five years ago) link
Yes, but in pro-tools you can edit every microsecond of any take, while that's nearly impossible with tape, so you have to commit to playing good/right takes, and not having to fix it in the mix afterwards.
― Marty8501 (Marty Innerlogic), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 20:05 (five years ago) link
yes i know i have recorded albums on 2 inch tape
just saying there have been amazingly complex albums, hundreds of them, made on 2 inch tape
― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 20:12 (five years ago) link
yeah I think mentioning two-inch tape in the context of these kinds of records is part of the whole thing, it's a signifier, same with "no protools / very little protools"
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 20:31 (five years ago) link
incidentally that album sounds like shit
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 20:54 (five years ago) link
The Interpol one? Yep, one of the worst-sounding records I’ve heard this year.
― michaellambert, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 21:07 (five years ago) link
the equivalent for 90s nu-metal bands being interviewed in kerrang and metal hammer was always that the next album was going to be their "heaviest ever"
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 21:10 (five years ago) link
which usually involved a bit of "going back to basics"
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Tuesday, November 13, 2018 2:54 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― michaellambert, Tuesday, November 13, 2018 3:07 PM (twenty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
boy y'all ain't kidding!
recorded on 2 inch tapemastered in GarageBand
― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 21:29 (five years ago) link
especially galling since the previous one sounded pretty great
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Tuesday, 13 November 2018 21:29 (five years ago) link
yeah Marauder sounds awful, I really noticed it after watching this radio session of "If You Really Love Nothing." can anyone hear the bass on the album version?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q52YORZ3lrc
I mean this isn't a good song, but still. wtf guys
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 21:34 (five years ago) link
― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, November 13, 2018 2:12 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The original Pro Tools
https://www.hardwareworld.com/files/pi/lI/Z/10KA.jpg
― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 21:46 (five years ago) link
Frankly I think the issue with the Interpol record is that it was recorded by Dave Fridmann - there’s nonrecording format that could have saved it.
― michaellambert, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 21:57 (five years ago) link
lol true
I'm still dumbfounded why they haven't worked with Peter Katis more.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 13 November 2018 21:59 (five years ago) link
Also, wondering about artists with a very strong and long back catalog but who NEVER did the "back to basic" move : Prince (I'm not too sure about his 90s output) ? Bowie ? Stevie Wonder ?
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, March 8, 2018 6:35 AM (eight months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Musicology is Prince's.
― Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix), Friday, 16 November 2018 12:35 (five years ago) link
The Next Day was Bowie's "return to form"
Tin Machine was his "I'm just a guy in a rock band" move
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 13:36 (five years ago) link
is that a move?
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:12 (five years ago) link
yes
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 15:17 (five years ago) link
examples?
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:27 (five years ago) link
Move like Bowie
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 16 November 2018 15:28 (five years ago) link
see also Dogstar
― |Restore| |Restart| |Quit| (Doctor Casino), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:32 (five years ago) link
Music legend Keanu Reeves finally got sick of his chart topping pop hits and went back to the basics of grunge
I guess maybe...Johnny Marr w/Modest Mouse?...but I feel like he'd slowly turned himself into a jobber anyway
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:34 (five years ago) link
Derek & the Dominoes but I still feel like that was more just a naming conceit I think most ppl think Layla is an Eric Clapton song
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:35 (five years ago) link
Mudcrutch
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 15:35 (five years ago) link
Dave Grohl seems to like the "guy in a rock band" move
― twin sinema (voodoo chili), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:36 (five years ago) link
a lotta "second bands" that might as well have been called solo projects are halfway one of those - Wings and Zwan come to mind (should have just called it Zwings tbh). Tin Machine definitely distinct tho in that he was already a solo act and so the gesture of now appearing in a "band" is its own thing. D-12 I think notionally predated Eminem's solo career but it definitely felt a little like "he's a superstar by day, but here he'll be just a regular rapper who's part of a posse," with "My Band" existing to send up said premise.
― |Restore| |Restart| |Quit| (Doctor Casino), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:36 (five years ago) link
but in terms of "back to basics" i think the new-band move is less about back to basics in sound and more a lifestyle thing centered on the artist's persona/narrative - "I was feeling trapped and overwhelmed by the identity of (band), it was going to my head, I had to get back in touch with how it was when I first started out and was just a guy like any other, playing in a band." that COULD come along with promises of a back-to-basics sound but it doesn't have to, and in the cases discussed so far it really didn't.
― |Restore| |Restart| |Quit| (Doctor Casino), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:40 (five years ago) link
you could argue Clapton took this the furthest by becoming a sideman for Delaney & Bonnie
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 15:42 (five years ago) link
Primal Scream's "Give Out But Don't Give Up" is surely an archetypal example of this, especially as they later stripped it down even more and released it again because the original didn't quite capture the full essence of just-some-guys-playing-in-a-room. Here's Bobby G:
"This Original Memphis Sessions sounds like six guys playing in a room together, playing live, and the album sounds more cohesive – it’s all-of-a-piece. It sounds like a classic album, in that sense, where the mood is kinda like the same throughout every song. It sounds like it was recorded in the same place, during the same sessions, and, yeah, it’s more cohesive and all-of-a-piece."
― Position Position, Friday, 16 November 2018 15:45 (five years ago) link
I think what he's trying to say is it's more cohesive and all-of-a-piece.
― ROCK MUSIC (Tom D.), Friday, 16 November 2018 15:55 (five years ago) link
Grinderman as Nick Cave's "just a guy in a rock band" move?
― emil.y, Friday, 16 November 2018 16:01 (five years ago) link
Grinderman is definitely the closest to Tin Machine for sure
Dave Grohl is a weird case because he literally just was a guy in a band
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 16 November 2018 16:07 (five years ago) link
Dave Grohl is a singular case, being a bland Jimmy Fallon-esque meme factory whose product's mediocrity is covered by the fact that everyone seems to like him (i'm a skeptic on the supposed inherent likability of Grohl tbh) and he's everywhere.
― omar little, Friday, 16 November 2018 16:40 (five years ago) link
No one is going to say "we're going back to the basics of being guys in a rock band because we know this album isn't going to sell as well as the previous ones so it doesn't make sense to spend millions on something that's going to sell as well as an album we only spent thousands on. Anyway, we need something to tour on so why spend a lot of time."
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 16 November 2018 16:53 (five years ago) link
I was thinking about whether Sugar was a guy-in-a-band return to older sound move for Bob Mould when I instead found these URLols:
https://flagpole.com/music/music-features/2016/11/09/bob-mould-gets-back-to-basics
https://wgnradio.com/2016/04/09/musician-bob-mould-is-getting-back-to-basics/
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/arts/music/bob-moulds-advice-keep-it-simple-and-avoid-streaming-music-services.html
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 16:56 (five years ago) link
The term “taking it back to basics” tends to get overused. Any time a musician subtracts a couple bells and whistles from his sound, the spin immediately becomes that he wanted to strip it down, and stick to the essentials of the songs. With Paul Westerberg, now, as ever, there is no spin.
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:00 (five years ago) link
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/devendra-banhart-gets-back-to-basics-on-new-album-121546/
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:01 (five years ago) link
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/yg-the-architect-of-fuck-donald-trump-is-getting-back-to-the-basics-706184/
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:03 (five years ago) link
Sugar is a good one!
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 16 November 2018 17:06 (five years ago) link
Primal Scream's "Give Out But Don't Give Up" is surely an archetypal example of this
the credits for this album are three times as long as for screamadelica.
― visiting, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:07 (five years ago) link
Just the sound of 83 guys in a room
― omar little, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:17 (five years ago) link
uncomfortable with donald trump being named "the architect of fuck," by rolling stone no less
― |Restore| |Restart| |Quit| (Doctor Casino), Friday, 16 November 2018 17:50 (five years ago) link
many xps but The Next Day wasn't so much a "return to form" for Bowie as simply a return after 10 years w/o an album.
― flappy bird, Friday, 16 November 2018 18:27 (five years ago) link
https://slate.com/culture/2013/03/david-bowies-the-next-day-reviewed.html
The Next DayDavid Bowie’s excellent new album is a return to his high ’70s form without being a retread.
By Geeta Dayal
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 18:44 (five years ago) link
amazed that bill wyman managed to refrain from naming that album pictured upthread 'back to bassics'
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Friday, 16 November 2018 18:45 (five years ago) link
xp there's a difference between critics evaluating an album as a "return to form" vs. an album being promoted as a return to form. also, that subhed uses "return" as a qualitative judgment and not as a description of the music or Bowie's approach.
― flappy bird, Friday, 16 November 2018 18:51 (five years ago) link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0brzps8
... just try to stop me watching (anything else but) this. I suppose I should watch it for more Boaby G material.
― ROCK MUSIC (Tom D.), Friday, 16 November 2018 19:00 (five years ago) link