Thursday was Rebellion Day last week. We’re sharing Richard Lloyd’s rehearsal space in the Music Building for the next month or two – Richard is producing our next record – and we jammed for the first time under his watchful eye.
Richard’s album The Radiant Monkey is, to Mike and me, one of the coolest, dirtiest, most listenable pure rock and roll records ever made – excellent songs; desperately energetic performances; thoughtful, almost virtuosic arrangements; and just the right combination of hi-fi punch and lo-fi crunch. Richard recorded it mostly by himself in his Music Building space. We feel like the Rebellion can, given the same conditions and the benefit of Richard’s ear, make a very different but no less enjoyable record.
We kinda stalled out of the gate, though. The band was rusty – we haven’t played together since the Jeebus tour last summer – plus we had to work up five brand new songs on the spot. We were all about woodshedding. Richard was a good sport, but I tell you what: it’s a good thing the Rebellion is incapable of feeling collective embarrassment.
I came in hoping to get some mileage out of a keyboard called the Korg RADIAS, which I picked up a couple years ago but haven’t yet found the right use for. This particular synth is handy for lead playing, with nasty sounds that are abundantly tweakable. I thought using it exclusively on this record might mesh well with Richard’s approach; The Radiant Monkey consistently features three tracks of guitar – a rhythm take, a lead that kind of never stops, and a third, all-purpose track that does whatever else is needed at any given time. The arrangements are spartan, raw and rocking, but they end up containing everything the song should have. I figured Alex and I could divide up those three tracks between us in a way that would serve each song.
We may yet do that, but the RADIAS probably isn’t the answer. The sounds just don’t seem appropriate for this band, this album, these songs. They’re not organic enough. Sometimes you want to hear a plain old piano… arbitrarily cutting myself off from that option is just stupid. So for our next rehearsal, which is tomorrow, I’ll be bringing my Jeebus rig: Korg M3 sound module with the Roland AX-1 keytar.
One great thing about the keytar is that it forces me to think about my left hand more – as in, whether a left-hand part is even worth playing. Unless a keyboardist is careful, or has mapped his synth to repeat octaves, his busy left hand is usually in danger of invading the bassist’s space. Years of solo piano gigging has left me kind of careless about my left hand… I take it for granted that I’ll need it to drive the song, which is not often the case in a full band. But many of the keytar’s expression controls, including the sustain and patch changes, are worked by the left hand (not to mention that there’s a strap in the way), so unless you really need it, lefty’s off the board.
I spent the day practicing the new Rebellion material with the AX-1, and it felt right. I’ve never used a keytar for recording before… it has no built-in sounds of its own, and if I’m gonna use an external synth module I’ll generally hook it up to a juicy full-length keyboard instead of something that can only accommodate one hand. Plus the keytar’s a bitch to program – you have to set up the unit’s expression-control parameters for each sound individually. But in this case, all that seems worth it.
I’ve also decided to not be afraid of canned sounds here. Since we aren’t recording in a studio, I have no access to the acoustic keyboard staples – piano, B3, Wurlitzer, Rhodes. I’ve traditionally gone great lengths to use the real thing as opposed to synthesizer patches. But the newer synth samples do sound pretty good (particularly softsynths), and as much as I hate to think about it, the rebellion is here. features canned piano and organ in all its shitty glory… so let’s say the precedent has been set. If the sampled sounds really bug me, I will rent a fucking piano and have it carted up to Richard’s space.
The Hanslick Rebellion has been an important part of my life, and Mike’s, and Alex’s, for 15 years. (Kearns I’m not so sure about; he hasn’t made himself available for this project, so Joe Abba is sitting in on drums.) Even though we’ve all got other (not necessarily better) things to do right now, we know we need to give the Rebellion the shot in the arm – or at least the magnificent Viking funeral – it deserves. You might see the four of us (plus Reeves!) on the road next summer as Jeebus, with the Rebellion finally resting in the past. But even if that’s the way things end up, we are gonna go out at the top of our game, raging and roaring!
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