Good Afters Hussettes !

From Wednesday's blog concerning the new album.

All sounds good !

Jack


Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Getting our heads together in the country


"We trundled off on the road up north last Wednesday morning to the recording studio near Inverness. In the car with me was Jimmy Neilson, the chap who is recording the new album for us together with a couple of bass guitars, amps, quite a bit of recording gear, microphones etc. Chris went up with James together with a drum kit, 6 different snare drums and about 362 different cymbals.

We didn’t even get half way there when the road ahead was closed due to a bad accident, resulting in us having to find alternative routes – not the easiest thing to do in the Highlands of Scotland. James & Chris won the race in finding the shortest one, getting there about 2 hours ahead of Jimmy & I, although I found the best rally-driving roads much to Jimmy’s dismay as he tried to get some kip in the passenger seat next to me.

We arrived at the studio, set up and soundchecked the drums, then headed off to the Chalet to meet Rachel & Fili who were looking after our dietary requirements for the duration of our time there. A hearty meal and some light refreshments later we retired for the evening in anticipation of entering drum world bright & early the next morning.

Drum World

For anyone who has never recorded drums before, drum world can be a scary place to inhabit. Constantly listening to ‘Beep bop bop bop’ in your headphones or in the control room and concentrating so hard you think your head may explode is not always a fun place to be. By the end of the sessions however we had all the drum parts for the songs in the bag. Good work.

Save Me

We managed to escape from drum world for a couple of hours when we recorded Save Me, an aptly titled song for the occasion. We played this live, with Chris drumming, James on bass and me on Wurlitzer piano. After a few takes it was sounding great so the rest of the guys went on their merry way down the road. Jimmy & I stayed behind for a couple of hours and recorded some tracks using the old Hammond Organ that was squirreled away in a corner of the studio.

Jimmy told me that it is the holy grail of recording engineers to record a real Hammond due to the revolving Leslie speaker cabinet and the ongoing debates about microphone placement when doing so. I think I missed the nuances of this as my brain shut down, but Jimmy seemed pleased about it and will no doubt enjoy a long conversation with Alan about this at some point.

The Rock Bible

Alan, our live sound engineer, decided to join us for a jolly in the countryside for a couple of days. With him he brought a book called ‘The Rock Bible’ which had some very apt quotes for those who play in bands, such as

“If an album is described as having an ‘unswerving sense of purpose,’ it means that it is a self important, holier-than-thou piece of tired, regurgitated cud that only has one song played in ten barely noticeable different ways.”

“Those who figure they will play bass because it has two fewer strings than a guitar and is therefore easier to learn should probably just hold cases that hold guitars and basses.”

Thankfully our album is missing a certain unswerving sense of purpose so far... "

Steph








Hot Electronics
Library Lovers
Save Me
Bryan Ferry Look
Japanese Graffiti
Aftershave
Pick A Love Heart
Shop Dummies
Life’s A Cow
Is This What Love Feels Like?
The Greatest Living Actor

Eve Hussettes !!

See the past couple of blogs mentioned the recording process for the new album, so once again have stuck excerpts here.

Seems as though the recording of the new album is being fitted in between little tea parties ?

Was a wee bit perturbed by the following statement though !

" Steph started playing the bass fractionally better after he’d gobbled his log up."



Jack



Thursday, April 09, 2009

Forfar bridies and a B string

"We were doing guitars on a few songs the other day in the studio. It’s a bit like the Grand National. One of the songs you don’t expect can suddenly grow wings and sound amazing. “Is This What Love Feels Like?” seemed to be coming in at 100/1. The original demo of Fili’s words and me singing is totally underwhelming but there's something there.
Still, we’ve turned it into something great by the sounds of things."



Sunday, April 12, 2009

Tunnocks bass wafers

"On Friday we were tracking some bass guitar. It was Good Friday so I suppose it was the 12 stations of the bass. I was just watching and commenting on the sound of the bass guitar- a little bass goblin in the corner. This was a reasonably easy job, which included changing a plug at one point. I was sent out for some milk and biscuits as my head was deep in Jimmy’s bookshelf reading whatever obscure book or manual I could get my grubby hands on. I was faced with lots of choices in the corner shop but for some reason I plunged for the Tunnocks Caramel logs. For anyone outside Scotland, these are a delicacy made from coconut and they come in a quite attractive golden wrapper but there’s only 4 wheras there’s 6 of the wafers. To be honest anything Tunnocks make is delicious. Steph started playing the bass fractionally better after he’d gobbled his log up. I toyed with the idea of getting some Tunnocks Snowballs and Wafers to see if it would improve the performance level even more.

At one point Steph overdubbed a funny little bit of John Entwhistle bass on Aftershave which was suggested for a joke but which sounded great when we rolled the tape back. Maybe the best bit of the day was when someone said that brilliant US band “Dr Dog” are currently touring around ....America.... on 6 mopeds with their gear in trailers. How much RSI would you get on your wrists? It would be fun though. "






Hot Electronics
Library Lovers
Save Me
Bryan Ferry Look
Japanese Graffiti
Aftershave
Pick A Love Heart
Shop Dummies
Life’s A Cow
Is This What Love Feels Like?
The Greatest Living Actor







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Pump Up The Volume

Eve Hussettes !

Again today's little blog concerns the recording process of the new The Hussy's album, so once again it's stuck here.

Am intrigued to here of all things going through pedals, and "melding Slade with techno" ?


Jack



Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Safari parks and castles

"At one point on Monday I looked at the floor and counted 24 guitar pedals. They aren’t connected to each other- its not like we’ve turned into a shoegazing band. Instead, to try and give everything on the album a texture, we’ve been running the guitars, bass and the synth through pedals. I suppose the pedals are like herbs with only a few main flavours like basil, coriander, mint and so on. Actually that would make some more sense- “put some mint and parsley on the bass”.

It was a long and productive day. While people were going to safari parks and castles we were beavering away in our underground bunker.
“Japanese Grafitti” now sounds like a swaggering Audi Quattro. The difficult task of melding Slade with Techno which is “Life’s a Cow”also seems to be working really well and only now needs Rachel’s quasi classical harpschicord-synth.

At one point we all went up to the shop for some Irn Bru. The shopkeeper seems completely obsessed with girls in a totally pervy way. I pointed to the “Commando” magazine, which is a kind of WW11 comic strip and said “I haven’t seen that for years”. He said “Just read that and then jump in to bed with your beautiful girl and you’ll be at it all night”. I just laughed and left. Apparently he said the said the same thing to Steph and pointed to an empty Sauchiehall Street outside his window. “All those beautiful girls out there ”. There was a couple of buses and some crisp bags blowing down the street.

I was joking about some record company guy I’d read about who has tinnitus so bad that he has to tune in a radio to static at night to get to sleep. A lot of these guys have bad tinnitus because they have a combination of mental problems and going to too many gigs in tiny rooms and then they stand in front of a Fender Twin at full blast for 45 minutes just so that they can “feel it”. Jimmy’s become spooked by this and is refusing to turn the speakers up, even a little bit to sharpen up the ears."




Hot Electronics
Library Lovers
Save Me
Bryan Ferry Look
Japanese Graffiti
Aftershave
Pick A Love Heart
Shop Dummies
Life’s A Cow
Is This What Love Feels Like?
The Greatest Living Actor





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I dream in color. I'm American. Bigger than life and all that crap.

I would love to hear Seaside Glamour re-recorded without the James Brown guitar bits. Normal guitar will do just fine.

It's still one of the Hussy's best tunes ever written.

Eve Folx !

Today's blog?

Like before, because it concerns the making of the new album, thought I'd stick it here.

Like always it's excellent to hear The Hussy's professional approach to the recording process and how they think things are shaping up.

Had me thinking back to when CDs were first introduced.

Had a certain album on vinyl which I'd played thousands of times over the years, but when the CD came out, and I inserted it in the new sound system put headphones on, when I played it you could actually hear the chair that the singer was sitting on as he strummed his acoustic guitar creaking which I'd never heard before.

Wonder If when we eventually get to hear the new The Hussy's album, we'll be able to hear James flicking through all those books that he reads endlessly at the recordings or Rachel falling through ricketty chairs?

Jack


Currently Listening ..









Thursday, June 04, 2009

Singings and things

We were getting the vocals done on “Hot Electronics”. I was doing my backing vocals and my voice was very high, like a big tabby cat. I said that all the mice in the tenement block would be running for cover when they heard me. Jimmy turned round from his computer and said “miaow” as a way of telling me to go for another take. Fili suggested I should get my face painted like a cat for the next time I come in.

There’s 3 chairs in a line and in front is a microphone with a shield and behind that some mattresses to deaden the reflections. There’s a tatty map of the world on the wall but I’m sure it serves no technical purpose. I keep meaning to get up and look at it and see what the red bits are but I never do. What could the USA, Mali and Kazakhstan have in common?

It’s kind of like X factor judges but there’s only 2 auditionees- Fili and occasionally me on backing vocals. Rachel so far has declined despite some invitations which are either curious to hear if she can sing or “let’s have a laugh then”. Steph is banned from singing. He sings on stage but I’m at the other side of the stage from him and don’t hear it. Apparently it’s quite low like a 1940’s Soviet tractor factory worker singing a victory song after reaching 10,000 units built in a month. I did say “You know. That’s’ the best vocal performance we’ve had on the series so far” in my best Simon Cowell accent but everyone was concentrating on Fili’s actual performance. One of the chairs has a loose seat cover and of course Rachel fell through it. Jimmy has a Frank Sinatra book which he dug out after the last blog and I’ve been sitting reading that and looking at the suits and hats.

Although it all sounds ramshackle it’s a quick and relaxed way of getting the singing down and there’s none of the barriers you get in a studio where the singer’s in a different room.

So far we’re not doing a huge amount of harmony singing. Fili did a great vocal on “Japanese Graffiti” and we stuck a few bits of wallpaper coloured backing vocals onto it but in the end they all came off- it didn’t need it. There’s all sorts of tricks you learn about keeping it simple in one place and complex in others and double tracking but really it always comes down to a couple of people saying either “Nah that’s crap” or “that’s great”. Anything in between isn’t worth bothering with. At least the crappy bits raise a laugh in the room.

Eve Hussettes !

'All Apologies ' as Nirvana would say for being a wee bit a.w.o.l. as of late from the forum ( Yeah ! like you didn't all enjoy the peace and quiet ? ) but had an argument with a car and the car won !!

Anyhoos ..

The latest blogs ?

As they speak about thoughts on the recording process of the new The Hussy's forthcoming album, they shall once again be inserted in this little space.

See that 'The Greatest Living Actor ' has rightly mutated into 'The Greatest Living Actress'.
(See kids? This little forum does have it's plus points as you wouldn't know little Hussy details such as this from anywhere else ! )

Def get the Foreigner thoughts and am sure when most Hussettes hear the finished product, it'll all make sense.

The stylophone used on 'Japanese Graffiti' was indeed used on the early version of Bowie's 'Space Oddity'.
( early ads for the stylophone were endorsed by Rolf Harris, but when 'Space Oddity' was released, Bowie took over the endorsing of this neat little bit of futurstic technology (Well it was 1969 ) of which I have a little picture somewhere on my PC and will add when found ? )

If anyone wants to hear what a stylophone sounds like, then go to Spotify and download Bowie's 'Slip Away' from his 2002 album 'Heathen'.

And the picture of James 'giving it laldy' on a tenement staircase in 'a Foreigner fashion' paints a very disturbing picture in one's head.

But bodes well for what is forthcoming.

Suffer for your art as some wise bugger once said .

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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Greatest Living Actress

" “Greatest Living Actress” needs a crowd in the chorus. Ideally it should sound like "I want to know what love feels like" by Foreigner but hey it's The Hussy's we're talking about.We’ve tried layering it up with multiple Fili's and Jameses but we need more. Jimmy suggested going into the stairway of his tenement and running a microphone out. I don’t really want to be singing at the top of my voice while some guy walks past me on the way home from his work sending funny messages on his blackberry. We need a church preferably with.some statues of serpents.

Fili and me are trying to get the Rachel girl to sing but she keeps saying “I don’t feel like singing today” which is well inside the diva 18 yard box and is a pretty good excuse.

I played a little stylophone on “Japanese Graffiti”. This is an instrument which is forever associated with an Australian cartoonist/wooden horseman/swimming instructor called Rolf Harris. I don’t know if he’s ever been heard of in France or the US or even Malaysia. Rolf endorsed the stylophone in the 70’s. Pulp used one on “Sorted for E’s and Whizz” and I think there’s maybe one on “Space Oddity”. Seemed to work for the Hussy’s.

Fili rewrote the words to “Aftershave” but we were looking for another line using Jimmy’s map of the world. What she came up with really worked- something about San Diego zoo. To amuse ourselves we were singing backing vocals in the style of other bands. In my head I was trying to sing “Life’s a cow” in the style of Lou Reed but by the time I’d got the inflections right everyone had gone home.


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Thursday, June 18, 2009

A whole bag of sexy

I think Jimmy was quite cynical about a talk box pedal on “Library Lovers”. The song needed a little something on the 3rd verse that wasnt singing and I dug into my workman’s pedal bag. There’s long plastic tube that stretches from the pedal to your mouth and I looked like a broken formula 1 driver being carried to the ambulance. Frampton comes alive in Maryhill but just for a half hour. The pedal is a Danelectro and looks like a child of 3 painted it with his airfix enamels. The whole backing track was coming up this 10cm plastic tube into my mouth and I did feel like some weird gulliver character eating the Hussy’s.

Rachel and Fili came down later. Rachel finished her keys on Bryan Ferry and when I thanked her for her input there was a tumult of sarcasm directed at me by her and Fili. We’d been missing her synthesiser on the chorus of Bryan Ferry and it just shook hands with the track when she played it. Fili then did some backing singing on Shop Dummies and we then sat and listened to the 10 nearly finished tracks and got mildly excited while Fili and Rachel ate some Maryland cookies."

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As always, maybe it's only moi who gets excited and interested by little snippets from The Hussy's blogs, to actually be *rs*d having a wee opinion about their thoughts and thus commenting on said thoughts (and even although some folx think that posting The Hussy's little blogs here to open them up to discussion and feedback is negative,which of course is an opinion ) but rightly or wrongly, isn't this forum all about posting thoughts and opinions about anything Hussy related ?


Like ..

How can thoughts on 'Library Lovers' with talk of "Frampton comes alive in Maryhill but just for a half hour" with it's little helium voiced 'talk box' inflictions ala the Peter Frampton ('76?) album 'Frampton Comes Alive', not have anyone passing comments and opinions ?

The Hussy's blogs usually only receive about four or five comments each on their site, which is why I post them here, so that maybe The Hussy's may get a proper feedback to their blogs from proper The Hussy's fans, which is rightly or wrongly the whole point of blogs, No? .... to receive feedback ?



'It's 1969 Okay ... All Across The U.S.A "

And I'm "Sorted For E's And Whizz ".



Jack







Current listening ...

Hey Jack, where is the cover to the Eels "Shootenanny" CD?

Their absolute best record by far, if you don't have it you soon will...

Best tune from Shootenanny? A four way tie...

1) The Good Old Days
2) Dirty Girl
3) Wrong About Bobby
4) Somebody Loves You

Eve K!

Must admit that I haven't got 'Shootenanny' in my collection to date.

Listened to 'The Good Old Days' and 'Dirty Girl' on Spotify but couldn't find the other two.

On searching heard a couple of live tracks "from the town hall" off the recent box set of oddities and such, and sounded like they were recorded in a Scottish town hall, going by the announcer ?


Back on topic, hear those Hussy's are listening to the mixes of the songs for the new The Hussy's album.

Hopefully it wont be long before we hear news and thoughts of the mixes, the artwork for the new album etc etc etc.


Jack



Japanese Graffiti
Aftershave
Bryan Ferry Look
Pick A Love Heart
Life’s A Cow
Library Lovers
Shop Dummies
Hot Electronics
The Greatest Living Actress




Currently Listening ....























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And fantastic it is too. Love it

Nice one Jack! Well done. How many copies of Japanese Graffiti will you be able to buy now?

And yeah, love 'Aftershave' too Further and deeper praise to follow soon

At first listen I thought the singing and music were at odds with each other but after 3 or 4 times I finally got it. I love this kind of music.