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I was listening to the “Lovesucker” record tonight. I fucking love it. It’s the best-sounding Bomb release, IMHO.

It’s our lowest-selling album ever. It probably sold 500 copies (I never saw any accounting), mostly because the label, the aptly named Wingnut Records, went out of business…But not before the owner, Josh, received mail orders and never filled them. To his credit, he didn’t cash the checks, so it wasn’t stealing, but it was very flaky, and pissed off our fans. But hey…without him, this CD never would have happened, so I can’t be too mad. Also, this record was recorded in 1999 during our three-gig reunion, we never played or toured after that, and touring helps sales. A lot.

I was thinking tonight about the recording processes of our complete discography:

* To Elvis In Hell, Boogadigga LP, (1987)
* Hits of Acid, Boner Records LP & Cass, (1988)
* Happy All The Time EP, Boner Records, LP & Cass (1989)
* Lucy In The Sky With Desi, Boner/Revolver CD & LP, (1990)
* Personal Jesus single (Raid Records, 7″), (1991)
* Hate-Fed Love, Reprise/Warner Bros. Records, LP, (1992)
* Lovesucker, Wingnut Records, CD EP, (1999)

To Elvis In Hell was engineered by Dave Bock. He’s a good engineer, but was less experienced at the time. He had mostly been assistant engineer on other sessions, not the main engineer. The session was sort of an experiment for Dave.

Bomb was new and hadn’t toured much (touring makes bands TIGHT). The studio (Hyde Street in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco) was one of the best in the world, but we were working late at night, often on short notice when a paying client canceled. And the band members were all drunk and doing speed throughout the recording. Was recorded and mixed in about five nights, spaced out over about a month.

Hits of Acid was recorded too quickly. (All our albums were. A review in UK’s “The Face” magazine said of Lucy In The Sky With Desi: “…given 10,000 pounds and an extra week in the studio, this would have been one of the best records of all time.”) Hits of Acid was recorded on tour. Touring does make bands tight, but that’s best exploited by touring, then resting, THEN recording. And there was speed and too much drink (and some pot, I think) in the studio.

Hits of Acid was engineered by Eli Janney of Girls Against Boys. I kinda felt gypped by that. I’d booked the time with studio owner Don Zientara, who had done great things quickly when engineering my work with Baby Opaque and The Beef People. (He also did Minor Threat and most of the rest of the Dischord stuff.) But when we arrived at Don’s very adequate home basement studio in suburban Arlington, Virginia he said, “My new assistant Eli will be doing your record. I’ll be upstairs hanging out with my wife if you need anything.” The session was sort of an experiment for Eli. He’s a nice guy, and is NOW a good engineer, but he was not nearly as experienced back then. It felt like bait & switch to me. But we were troopers, so we worked, and worked hard. We recorded and mixed in about three long days.

The “Happy All The Time” EP was done in three nights at a small studio (Razor’s Edge in San Francisco….It’s in the house where Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice takes place. The studio is now owned by Fat Mike of NOFX.) Jonathan Burnside engineered “Happy All The Time”. He did a decent job, and Doug Hilsinger actually helped a lot with the producing, which made it better, but the gear was merely adequate, I was on heroin, and again we were in a hurry to beat the clock of our budget.

The “Personal Jesus” single (us covering the Depeche Mode song on one side, and doing the acoustic version of our song “Nineteen” on the flip) was the first recording with both Jay and Doug on guitar, so they were still working that out. We weren’t on drugs, but we were on tour, and it was recorded and mixed by an inexperienced engineer in six freezing hours in a very minimal 8-track studio at an unheated warehouse in Berlin. And Tony and I were arguing about some thing or another the whole day. (We argued a lot in Bomb, but we were professional enough to usually check that shit at the studio door. But not this time.)

(Lucy In The Sky With Desi is simply a best-of CD made from Hits of Acid and “Happy All The Time”.)

Hate-Fed Love, the major label record, was engineered by Bill Laswell, one of the most renowned producers in the world, in his high-end Greenpoint Studio in Brooklyn. It’s the disc we spent the most time on (a month), but Laswell didn’t really care (he told me this), and turned it over to his engineers to do much of the producing. Also, we “trusted the process” too much by letting Laswell bring in a “drum doctor” who tuned Tony’s rented drum kit like a normal drummer, which didn’t work. (Tony always tuned his drums really LOW.) And Laswell isolated the guitar amps in big soundproof boxes, which reduced the bleed (I think bleed actually helped Bomb’s other records), reduced the vibe, and eliminated Jay and Doug’s feedback interplay and sustain. (All the feedback guitar on the record was overdubbed later.)

And Laswell was still setting up his studio. Boxes everywhere and stuff laying out all over. The session was sort of an experiment for him and his engineers.

And again, there may have been heroin involved with me and Tony. Not in the studio (at least not me, I don’t know about Tony, but at least one assistant engineer was high). We copped after the sessions, at night, and when you’re mind’s “already out the door”, it’s hard to work. Also, I got mugged copping in Alphabet City, got a knife held to my throat, which kinda made me sing badly the first day.

A month should have been more than enough. Laswell finished the mix by the end of week three, we thought it sucked. Tony and I flew back to San Fran to do drugs and fuck women. Jay and Doug, ever the consummate professionals, stayed in NYC for a week, went into another studio and tried to fix some of Laswell’s dead mix, doing what they could with the hand we’d been dealt.

The “Lovesucker” EP was recorded and mixed in one 24-hour session at Toast studios in San Francisco. (The studio is currently known by its original 1960s name, Coast). Despite it’s smallish size and skid row address (8th and Mission streets), Toast is great. Nice live drum room, comfortable environment, vintage Neumann microphones and a Neve console. Toast is the studio where bands like REM, who have done many multi-platinum records at 1000-dollar-an-hour places, go when they get to that point where they feel like “Let’s get back to our roots for the next record. But not TOO far back…we still want it to sound great.”

This record was engineered by the truly excellent Jason Carmer, who has twiddled the knobs for records by Third Eye Blind, The Donnas, Mark Eitzel and more. (Jason also played guitar in 9353.) Again, Doug helped out on the production. So did Jay.

“Lovesucker” sounds amazing. The four tracks recorded at this session, “Painglorious”, “Die” and “Head in Hands” and “Whore Love Song” sound glorious to my ears. (The three “fill out the length” cuts on the album, “No Color in Utah” “Personal Jesus” and “Nineteen”, were recordings from previous albums. We took all of them directly from the vinyl, on a turntable at Toast.)

Sure, some of the vocals on “Painglorious”, “Die” and “Head in Hands” are mixed a little low for my taste (they’re fine on “Whore Love Song”), but everything else sounds huge, tight as a nun’s cunt, and hot as the Devil’s whore. Playing is inspired, guitars are bright, full and swirling. The drums sound hella live, the bass throbbing, and the vocals are creamy yet hard.

Plus, I was completely sober and the band wasn’t wasted. Well, Tony did get drunk and step outside to cop heroin, but not until AFTER the drums were all tracked. He tried to get really pushy with the mixing, as usual, but something I’ve never seen happen happened. Doug basically said, “Tony, go lie down on the couch and nod out”, and Doug, Jay and Jason did magic with the mix.

Also, we were older, had more experience playing together (and apart), the two guitars were more gelled than ever, and the vibe was nice. I think there was a feeling of “This is the last time we’ll ever do this guys, let’s make it fucking wonderful.”

So, in my humble opinion: “Lovesucker”: BEST-SOUNDING BOMB RECORD, EVER.

Download Bomb’s “Lovesucker” EP free, HERE.

This entry was posted by Michael W. Dean on Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Gear porn, MWD's Cool Stuff, Other people's cool stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.