I am managing “Band A” for one year, because I want to understand the current music eco-system, post implosion of the larger music industry, where we now have this mass produced corporate kick-in-the-balls awfulness (oh but I do like Taylor Swift’s Shake-It-Off) and then a post-apocalyptic landscape with all the cockroaches creating basic communities to survive. Well, us cockroaches are making the greatest music ever, greatest art explosion ever, greatest music scenes ever.
I’ve been kinda successful at getting Band A played on college and indie radio stations: if I send out 20 emails to stations then Band A will get played or put on rotation somewhere. And then I had the idea that there are tons of great online radio stations – also flopping around in the wilderness and dust and ashes. I started digging around and found Karen’s Indies and Belter Radio over in Scotland. Sure enough “Band A” got played…
In other “Band A” news – they headed back to El Rancho Morbido Studios for another morning with engineer/producer Edward Madill to finish their cover of Suicide’s “Johnny” for the Kafadan Kontak Records compilation release. Somehow “Band A” has turned the original 2-minute electronic blues drone about “Johnny” into a 4-minute blues drone about “Johnny.” Well, it doesn’t sound like musical soup and the vocals are catchy as all hell. Still working out with Ed how much we want the vocals in the foreground. But I love early REM and Nirvana when the vocal’s aren’t so clear… But maybe that is dumb because Band A is like early Blondie, that punk/new wave/garage rock, and those vocals are way in the front of the mix…
Also, “Band A” just played The Grey Eagle and the singer is real excited about being on their TV sets…

I am miss-managing “Band A” for 1-year. They have been asked by their label Kafadan Kontak Records to record a Suicide song for a tribute album. 
So, taking a step back: 1) It’s fun as hell to be given a crazy creative assignment from KK Records, 2) Suicide are great – you probably know them because Springsteen covered their song “Dream Baby Dream,” and 3) this is totally like Project Runway and “Band A” has to make the best cover song on this compilation album, cause I am a competitive fucker and a Project Runway fanboy. 
The song is “Johnny” by Suicide, their first ever single. A couple of members of “Band A” sat around last week and came to agreement on the chords (E, A, 😎, and the structure, which is very close to classic blues. The original has droning electronic drums, a simple bass riff, and the repetitive snarled story of Johnny looking for love and trouble. 
“Band A” played it over and over and over on Sunday afternoon. Then on Monday morning “Band A” showed up to El Rancho Morbido Studios to work with producer/engineer Edward Madill. 
The bass player couldn’t figure out the original bass part, so a new bass part had been added – a repetitive take on the Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart” synth riff. A concluding narrative was added by the singer. So Johnny wasn’t just being a bad-ass – he was looking for her, and she was with someone else, and she was gonna make Johnny weep. The drums were stripped back to sound more Velvet Underground and less like an early electronica beat.
And this is how “Band A” recorded the track. First, they recorded a scratch track. They played the song over and over and over until the rhythm guitar player said “can we try it a little faster?” And the faster take was the scratch track. And that was about it, really. The singer tried vocals two more times – but decided the scratch vocals were the best. El Rancho Morbido studios have an organ and the singer played organ over the song – and that was pared-down to accent the chorus turn-around. A slide guitar was added and that was pared-down too. Some chanting was added to the end. And that was it.
Does it sound like a winner? You know I’m trying to be honest with this blog: it sounds interesting if you have headphones on and like musical soup if you don’t. The vocal melody is a lot more catchy. It’s definitely interesting. Don’t bore the judges. And “Band A” is heading back to the studio on Friday morning to clean it up.

Possibly the coolest song we’ve played all year long. Epic cool swagger. These creatures from Andromeda stalk the underground music scene, thin, pale, clad in black. This reminds me of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, grabbing pieces of psychedelic late sixties rock and post punk gloom and creating something totally new and strange and wonderful. Featured on our #68 podcast at www.hlycrp.com.