I know a lot of people are putting together lists of their favorite songs or albums of 2014. I love digging through those lists and finding stuff I may have missed or things to judge (mostly kidding). Instead of doing that, I decided to share a few music related things that made an impression on me this year. Part one featuring Benjamin Booker here.
Photos courtesy of Daniel Jackson.
Pete Tijerina of the band Young Girls asked if I wanted to hang out at Sugarhill Recording Studios and take some photos, the closest I had come to a being in a recording studio was Grandpa Prasek’s bluegrass dungeon. My friend’s Grandpa had the coolest single-wide trailer behind his house FILLED with recording gear and instruments of every kind. For a while I would visit that trailer every week to practice guitar and sometimes watch the bluegrass guys play country hits. The walls of the trailer were sound-proofed with hundreds of grocery store egg cartons, the carpet worn down from years of toe taps and the air always smelled like chewing tobacco and magic. In some ways, visiting Sugarhill Recording Studios for the first time brought me back to those years when I sat and watched people create music together in that bluegrass dungeon.
This year I ended up spending time with three VERY DIFFERENT bands at Sugarhill Recording Studios. It might surprise you that none of these bands sound like ZZ Top, Geto Boys, Kenny Rogers, Destiny’s Child, or any group you may know that’s from Houston. Here’s a little bit about each band and the experience of watching them create music together while pointing a huge camera in their faces…
Young Girls are a fierce three-piece garage pop indie whatchamacallit you might dig if you like Surfer Blood, Cloud Nothings, or Japandroids. Great energy, infectious hooks and songs that are really flipping easy to jump around to. They recorded together in a room. Live, raw, and for the most part one or two takes per song. They worked similarly to the fast-paced way I shop for new jeans: Go to a Sears, grab four pair, try nothing on and peel out in the mall parking lot.
The Beans do this thing where they create a warm, bluesy funk groove and then TOTALLY tear through it like a sword from the heavens with high-pitched, gravely vocals. If you’re already listening to Heartless Bastards, The Raconteurs or heck even Led Zeppelin, this might be up your alley. I’ve been to a handful of their live shows and there’s always a great crowd response (screaming women). The recording process was very different for this go round…Bass, guitars, drums, and vocals all recorded separately then layered together by the sound engineer. Seems to impatient me like a much longer process. I guess you can probably pay a lot more attention to the details like adding extra guitar wah-wah-chugga-chuggas, wild guttural sex noises, and whatnot. Excited to hear the results of this one.
BLSHS have a secret weapon. No, it’s not the beautiful vocals, chill synthesizers, or rad keytar riffs…it’s that they are having more fun with this project than should be allowed. Add BLSHS to your mix of Phantogram, CHVRCHES, or Braids tunes and your hair will continue to toss from side to side. I got pretty lucky that I showed up on the day Michelle was doing vocals…super strong voice. She rattled the door of that singing booth for dang sure.
Find this studio all over the Internet
Quick parting thoughts on Sugarhill…
Sugarhill Recording Studios has a rich history of recording everyone from George Jones, Clifton Chenier (heck yes!) Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Destiny’s Child.So walking in you kind of think…Hey Beyoncé, when you gonna record a Tejano album with Little Joe y LaFamilia? Come on, Bey… There’s plenty been written about the studio itself you can find on the internet, or you can watch this educational video on the history of Sugarhill here.
Find these bands all over the Internet