In case you missed it, last week I released a new song, a cover of Magnolia Electric Co.’s Leave the City from their 2005 album What Comes After The Blues. This was recorded at the same time as the Little Death EP featuring Jake Brahm on drums, Ben Clarkson on bass, and Nolan Treolo handling the engineering.
Everyone forgot about this song. When I sent a rough mix to Ben he asked where I recorded it and I had to remind him that he played bass on it. The main guitar part (the one with the solo) was recorded live with the drums. It was supposed to be a scratch track, but when we set up to record the guitars I realized I wasn’t going to play the solo any better so I added a rhythm part to fatten things up and left the rest alone.
I have this ribbon microphone (a Beyer M160) that I bought from the bass player of Disturbed. Oh wah ah ah ah. I bought it broken thinking I could easily have it repaired and it took 17 years to get around to fixing it.
After I had it repaired I wanted to try it out on vocals, so I sat in an office chair holding the microphone in one hand and a pop filter in the other and ran through this song once and said good enough. At that point I figured I should finish mixing it and share it. Shout-out to my wife, Jessi, for telling me when to stop mixing and not over produce it. Let’s not forget that rock and roll is supposed to be dirty.
What else? What else? Oh, the cover photo is a Polaroid I took years ago when I was on a road trip from Atlanta to Yosemite. It was taken in Texas, or New Mexico, or maybe Arizona. It’s tough to say. I didn’t write the date and location on the back because I am not a grandma. Did you spot the train in the picture?
Have a listen at the link below and follow Bad Luck Benson and the Doomed at the new Bandcamp page and on Instagram if you haven’t already.
badluckbensonandthedoomed.bandcamp.com/track/leave-the-city-magnolia-electric-co
Appreciate ya,
-andrew
