In the current downtime between collecting critical accolades for last September’s New Monastery: A View into the Music of Andrew Hill, touring with Wilco and playing upcoming gigs with ROVA: OrkestRova, Toshi Makihara, Scott Amendola AND Glenn Kotche, our wandering axeman Nels Cline dropped by Crypto studios in his blue Volvo station wagon for a snow-flurry of recording sessions for the next upcoming Nels Cline Singers CD, tentatively due out on Cryptogramophone sometime in May 2007. As always with Our Man N., there was a healthy does of manic energy, creative sparks, reservoirs of angst, bizarre references to Dick Tracy characters – and of course, cosmically brilliant playing. We realize that we work at the label and all that and OF COURSE WE'D SAY THAT but seriously, dudeman, we're not just blowing smoke! We even phoned our Main Squeeze and held out the receiver towards the recording studio. “Are you standing next to a jet engine?” she inquired. “No,” we said. “That’s Nels.”
Recording sessions took place Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (January 7-9) at Castle Oaks Studios in Calabasas, with Crypto engineering extraordinaire Rich Breen and our own Fearless Leader Jeff Gauthier standing over him wearing huge Phil Spector sunglasses and waving a pistol… (No, no, just kidding, Jeff doesn’t wear sunglasses.) Anyhoo, present at the sessions was Mr. Cline on guitar, Devin Hoff on bass and Scott Amendola on drums and percussion. Mr. Hoff brought his acoustic bass and Mr. Amendola brought his brand new Craviotto drumset to the sesh (and they SOUND REAL GOOD.)
All told, the sessions were around 30+ hours spread out over the three days. Nels arrived on Monday feeling a bit shagged after just getting over a cold, so he was a bit concerned about his energy level. But as soon as the downbeat started at around 12:30pm, his Fender Jazzmaster lit up like a soldering iron. Other guitars used on this record were: Jerry Jones electric 12-string, Jerry Jones baritone guitar, Eko X27, Electar lap steel, Taylor acoustic 12-string, Martin 00-17 acoustic 6-string and Hofner Galaxie. Adds Nels: “It may be worth mentioning that the chief non-musical presence at the Singers session was my copy of Jack Hirschman's new 900+ book of collected works under the title THE ARCANES...That and my supply of Gerolsteiner sparkling mineral water (thank you, Jeff!)”
Tuesday was even better, as the boys got an earlier start and were joined by a trio of top local percussionists: Danny Frankel, Brad Dutz and Louis Conte. “They made a great recording of a tune called ‘Revenge of the Pinata,’ which was a reference to a tune on Instrumentals, the first Nels Cline Singers CD called ‘Ghost of the Pinata’,” says Jeff Gauthier. “They also ran down a Thelonius Monk tune called ‘Jackie-ing’ [first featured on Monk’s 1959 Riverside album 5 by Monk by 5] – just before ruining our excitement by adding: “Unfortunately, we probably won’t be able to fit it on the [upcoming] CD.” Jeez-Louise, Fearless Leader, tickle our arse with a feather whydontcha! “We’ll probably release ‘Revenge of the Pinata’ as a MP3, or something like that,” Jeff said. Ahh. That’s better.
Other songs that came out of the Castle Oak sessions include (tentative titles, all) “An Evening at Pops’,” “The Angel of Angels,” “Attempted,” “Caved-In Heart Blues,” “Confection,” “Mixed Message,” “Recognize I” & “Recognize II” (both acoustic pieces) and “Squirrel of God.” As an added bonus, Castle Oak Studios is also where one wise blonde jazzy goddess Joni Mitchell is recording material for her new album. You have to understand: Most of the musicians in Nels’ and Jeff’s generation have Joni fixations, musical or otherwise. Nels’ percussionist brother Alex Cline named a song after her. Nine Winds poo-bah Vinny Golia once told me about his first trip to LA (in a car) in 1971. Vinny actually marched straight up to Joni Mitchell’s Laurel Canyon boit to present her with an original painting—after stopping by Frank Zappa’s house to ask directions. “You could do that in LA in those days,” he sighs. “Unfortunately, Joni wasn’t home.” Fearless Leader Gauthier even commented on the fact that the recording process “really benefited from the studio redecoration as well as the cigarette smoke we could still smell from Joni’s session.” Then he got this faraway look in his eye. . .even more so than usual.
No matter, because the Castle Oak sessions yielded not one but TWO album’s worth of material. The real fun started when Nels found – and subsequently fell head over boots in love with – an old (1977) Howard Roberts model Gibson guitar model at Truetone Music in Santa Monica. “Vintage,” Nels added. “Just like its owner.” He brought it back over the hill and he, Devin and Scott simply turned on the tape and bashed out an entire album’s worth of improvised jazz using the newfound guitar, of course. And here’s the catch: all present played with no overdubs, no effects, no techno-frippery. The 13 (!!) tracks that resulted don’t even have names yet. Fresh-baked art – hot from the oven!
Nels embellishes: “I would ideally use about 10 of those 13 improvisations and release it on vinyl, dedicated to the late great Howard Roberts and provisionally titled THE NELS CLINE SINGERS GO TANGENT. Many thanks to Ken at Truetone Music!”
Mixing will take place at Rich “The Man Behind the Curtain” Breen’s studio in Calabasas. Now the only thing that remains is to decide whether we’re going to release this “bonus drop” on CD or even vinyl. Then there was talk of Glenn Kotche adding some percussion overdubs at Wilco's loft in Chicago. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions…
Speaking of decisions, there is the prickly one of album titles – torturous, even, by some’s standards. Nels heard our suggestions — “Reposado,” “Cream Cheese Driveway Death,” “The Return of Mumbles,” “Circus Insurance,” “Wisecracking Trauma Nurse” — and then immediately yelled out, “Unacceptable!” Well, that was that.
Nels seemed to have some sort of ephiphanic fever-dream, because when he stalked back into the studio 1pmish (along with Crypto pianist David Witham, whose own solo album of funkified post-Bitches Brew space jazz also drops on Crypto in May 2007) to do some last-minute overdubs this last Wednesday (the 17th), he had compiled his own list of “gnarly wacky/bad album titles”:
KNOTTED FINGER NESTS
ANGELS LOOK AWAY
CANTILLATIONS, CALLS
LASHES LIKE WINGS
CANTICLE OF TRUST
CANTICLE OF GLUE
DRAW BREATH
FREQUENT NIGHT
SCARLET STAR
PALMS FACE OBLIVION
SKULL BALM
NEIGHBOR DEMON PATCH
SUSTAIN
STUDENTS OF THE SPIRIT
MORE SOUNDS FROM...
LAMP OF HAIR
FORM, DISHEVEL
KNIFE MOON SONG
BLACK MOUTH
THE LUMINOUS AND THE ABANDONED
DRAG THE CLOUDS
Oy vey. Anyway, the overdubs continued for about an hour or so, with screams of “FUUUUCK!” breaking up crescendos of stunningly gorgeous noize. “It’s a clusterfuck in here,” Nels admitted wearily. Then, during a brief break before heading back into the belly of the beast, he remembered an old Dick Tracy character — “Mr. Bribery.” “One of my most vivid memories as a kid – and my brother Alex will corroborate this – is when Mr. Bribery finally died by being boiled in oil, him yelling out: ‘Ow! Ya!’”
As Jeff and David fiddled with various cords and gadgets, Nels seemed excited about a session he was involved in West LA on the following Thursday (the 18th) with ex-Oingo Boingo frontman-turned-Hollywood film composer Danny Elfman. “Apparently, he wandered in one night during my solo set at [L.A.'s] Largo [club], where I ‘sang’ a bunch of songs by Neil Young, Joan Jett, Low, the Mama and Papas and Sonic Youth.” Nels seemed amazed. And so did we – not so much that Elfman liked it as that we think Nels just came up with the PERFECT album title.
“Ow! Ya!”
Stay tuned, Cryptophiles, for news on THAT one. Signing off.
Hell yeah, bonus drop!
Make mine vinyl, please!
I vote "Knife Moon Song"...but "Skull Balm" has a delicious rhyme, even though the two words share but a single letter (and a consonant, at that). Tricky.
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