Happy Christmas '15

Hey all!  Man, I do hope things are good with every last body out there.  It's been Crazy Go Nuts on this end, but hope springs eternal for peace, love, and downtime.  Hopefully we'll be seeing one another very soon, each and all.

In the meantime, head over to SoundCloud for a smooth stream of the accumulated (and, yeah, in need of some remixing) holiday hits.  Christmas this and Christmas that!:
           https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs

Or deal with things via individual Box links:
     Christmas Parties:                
           https://app.box.com/s/t6ft5otduha7h09pul7byzcini5gu92s
     Christmas Ain't for Family:
           https://app.box.com/s/7yxnvgzu77w5artg0ezb4oj8fg2esuz6
     Time for Christmas:          
          https://app.box.com/s/ttjzioccw17zqd74wh4r
     Old Fashioned Christmas:  
          https://app.box.com/s/ttjzioccw17zqd74wh4r
     Everyday Christmas:          
          https://app.box.com/s/mvendmdnbfdzejhpamjm44vm6vhypv8j


Or stream here on the widgets below:




 

Tollstock '15, part 4

Figured I'd start this Tollstock '15 segment off with the anarchic drums/ space portion of the program that the kids dove into while the rest of us were finishing the post-Sautrday-supper clean up.  So commenced the general slide into the late-night portion of program when, as Levon Helm said, "the songs would get a little bit juicier and the jokes'd get a little funnier, and the prettiest dancer would really get down and shake it a few times."  Well, I dunno about all that, but the heading for the ditch can be darned fun.

The Expanded Honcho (i.e., with Charlie on actual lead guitar) then dove into a version of "I've Changed" that we probably could've stretched out quite a bit longer.  It was sounding pretty good in the afternoon but definitely improved after the sun went down, as usually happens when everybody's lost all self-regard and is pulling in the same direction.   After that follows an extremely loose version of Taj Mahal's "She Caught the Katy" (a song I actually learned about via the Blues Brothers, for what that's worth, and which Roady may not have previously heard at all).  Anyway, Roger was on board and in fine hollerin' form, and the song probably could also have gone on for a bit more.  Ah well... next time, I guess.  The only question is where's that horn section when we need it!?

jk

Children's Time:
https://app.box.com/s/f2v7hbrudxdccmt3kvyeq7m7f4fs55cb


I've Changed:
https://app.box.com/s/lbbuuip7182wllgr8bs3g7f7i8yy43nq


She Caught the Katy:
https://app.box.com/s/dnwdm6flt8yfbp1j90envgz0ksukd2ng

Tollstock '15, part 3

Now THAT is getting to be one alluring barnspace, no?  Somewhere I'm sure we have actual pics of it being populated and rockulated, so maybe those'll surface at some point.  Lordy, I was too busy just trying to hold my musical parts together, and maybe get some stuff on audio "tape", to take any photos. Living in the moment, wasn't live-tweeting nothin'.

So these next few posts occupy Saturday afternoon.  You've got three Keating and Co. originals plus a cover of the Byrds-via-Little-Feat-and-a-touch-of-Son-Volt "Truck Stop Girl".  Charlie comes along for the rocky runs through the Honcho tunes with me and Roady and Adam, and takes the wheel on the tragic tale of truckstop love gone wrong.

After this we decamped "up yonder" to the pond for some sitting around and social time and acoustic picking, then got down to suppertime, red wine and the evening part of the program.

JK
  
She's Lighting Up:
https://app.box.com/s/g7jtq1hbg097y464gcnqgxaul8bn6mvg



Truck Stop Girl:
https://app.box.com/s/qhohhete7778zmm28vz9kepvusqiaf22



Angie's Emerald Eyes:
https://app.box.com/s/5dw5923t1g5pej0lxfcx9fj1v4qymxg3



Dreaming I'm Fine:
https://app.box.com/s/mg8hcixzzhaojv9728428z97womna6hp

Tollstock '15, part 2

So that's the inside of the barn.  The set-up was incomplete at that point, lovers of cymbals and cables and mic stands and all that jazz, but you get the picture.  Also, it's the inside of the barn by daylight, you lovers of twinkly lights.  And it's a bit of a close-up, lovers of all the space to left and right and up and (on the right anyway) down.

Anyhoo, this batch of songs rounds out the cream of the crop from Friday, which was a short go of things to begin with.   We've got other stuff on "tape" but it's strictly for the professional archivists and humble self-flagellators.  The cuts below, though, are for public consumption, so long as you listen with gentle ears and kind hearts.

The major upside, evident upon dropping needle into groove, is that Charlie and Roger had arrived, thus kicking us up out of the gutter and bringing some focus and, y'know, quality and actually planned "notes" and such.  Witness a really quickly thrown-together "Drive My Car".  As for all these, Roady is on drums and Charlie on guitar.  For this one, I can only guess that it's Adam on tambourine, possibly Dirtbike Richard on guitar, Roger on bass, and me on some rudimentary piano

Next is a solid stab at the blues classic "Key to the Highway" (which I learned from Eric Clapton's Derek and the Dominoes, but which dates back electrically to Little Walter and further back acoustically to Big Bill Broonzy).  Man, but we need to do this more often! That's Roger on second guitar and me on the bass. 

From there we backslide into Honcho-plus-one-town with a run-through of our own "Jenny Everyday", with Charlie gamely along for the ride and making things so much better and kind of Chris Isaak-y now that I listen to it again.  Then it was time for young Oliver Sorkin to head to bed or wherever hisself had to go, so out came a hot-rodded "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" and Roger sang and danced around.

Thus was Friday, as far as the Tiny Robot was concerned.

jk


Drive My Car:
https://app.box.com/s/b61d9jigbjj6h3m77rbpsgw6zdgy1mct



Key to the Highway:
https://app.box.com/s/sfjijzywem3gsw3nvrgg18s47zy79vx4



Jenny Everyday:
https://app.box.com/s/vtrmqo5z3svrhb6r4tnp9j7tcc6f9l6o



She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain:
https://app.box.com/s/04convflcq5ldjw2v8xtgf26jbfhe6kc

Tollstock '15, part 1

That, of course, is the barn. Or part of the barn, anyway, because that thing is gargantuan.  Man, but in short order it became my favorite place to play, on account of the acoustics and the company and the casual vibe and everything else.  What was conceived as an practice/ recording session for three of us gradually picked up momentum and complexity until, by "go time", it had become a long-overdue multi-day Hudson River Valley getaway for friends and families, music, cooking, beer-slaying and generally hanging out and having a grand old time.  Thus was "Tollstock 2015", with unending thanks to Adam and Malinda and Kay and Maynard.

We set up the gear Friday and gradually got to working on things, with people arriving and then drifting in and out.  Roady was usually on drums, and Charlie on the good and fancy and funky guitar.  Adam most often on bass.  Roger on guitar or bass.  Me playing guitar or trying to keep up on whatever slot was open.  Mysterious guests like "The Man Known Only as Beez" or "Richard from the Dirt Bikes of Brooklyn" appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into the shadows.

So these first cuts are early on, from Friday daytime .  Roady, Adam and I got the sound up and running and shook off the dust with some Honcho tunes.  That's the three of us on "St. Mary, Star of the Sea".  We then got to a rough 3-piece run-through of "Steep Starts" (not posted here), after which you hear Richard ask "You guys don't need a rhythm player, do you?"  And thus we were off to the races!-- That's the much improved 4-piece version here, after which we tried to get a contract inked, as you you can hear.  Then our newly constituted quartet took a stab at "Mary Mary", even as a few more people arrived....  More on that next....

JK

St. Mary, Star of the Sea:
https://app.box.com/s/sx652635gxpbkzklb77pznwwdpk99g0j




Steep Starts:
https://app.box.com/s/q6slu4ggoi6dabtcak6xgeezo0zmo6rg




Mary, Mary:    
https://app.box.com/s/j27fhdx373z37qeg2e5ubdryf8snud0q        

"Grey Gardens" preview, part 2: "The Suitors Turned Away" / "All In the Stars"

OK folks.  Just wanted to follow up on the last post, "David Darling", which debuted the "Grey Gardens" material for You, the Listening Public.  Here are two more cuts from the Jan 2014 sessions, down in Sei's basement in Station North, Baltimore.  Roady, Dillo and I knocked out the backing tracks there, after which there was some overdubbing done back in the northlands.

"The Suitors Turned Away" comes from relatively early in the story, as "Little Edie" Beale has to face up to the fact that her marriage options aren't panning out for one reason or another in the big city, and back she goes to live with her mother on the Island.

"All in the Stars" pretty much wraps up the whole thing in uplifting fashion.  The Beales, and Little Edie in particular, were a superstitious lot and, wrapped up in tarot cards and stars and dream interpretation and all, it's Edie telling everyone that she knows what's up and that everybody else has it "aaaawwl wrong!"  Roll credits.

jk


"The Suitors Turned Away":    https://app.box.com/s/zcwd2fcqb21r55oqy0twd3magjh1r6sr



"All In the Stars":                   https://app.box.com/s/nmxy98yn5m9c3nplceh4edc6zh2dry0s

"Grey Gardens" on the way: 3 versions of "David Darling"

Hey all-

Well, there are a few new, old and perennially delayed things on the docket, as ever.  Likely next up will be a multi-part posting from "Tollstock '15", but this posting was in the chamber already, so listen away if you're interested.

The posted song ("David Darling") is from a fairly recent and big bunch of thematically related songs, which...  I dunno... comprise a "cycle" or something?  Nothing linear as a rock opera, that's for sure.  Anyway, the parties involved are Roady and Dillo, and the songs are based on the fairly famous "Grey Gardens" history, as largely lifted from the two Maysles brothers documentaries as well as the fictionalized HBO version.  You may know the story: Wealthy mother and daughter, of the Bouvier family, retreating many years from society and living in squalor amid the remains of their Hamptons estate?  Abandonment by husband/ father, mental and physical deterioration, legal troubles, at least one financial rescue by Jackie (by then Onassis), famous documentary ensued?

So, yeah, this particular song is directed from "Little Edie" Beale to David Maysles.  Just to give an idea of how the sausage is made back at the Great Island Music Works, you've got the initial acoustic demo I recorded for my partners in crime (Roadkill, Dillo).  Second is a version in which the backbone (bass-drums-guitar) were recorded a month or so later in quasi-studio demo format at Sei's place in Penn Station North (or whatever the designation is), Baltimore, with subsequent overdubbing of the usual nonsense.  Third is a live-in-studio version with only the three of us from a year or so later, at the newer practice space in  Butcher's Hill, Baltimore.

jk

David Darling (acoustic demo):        
https://app.box.com/s/bj5g9tf21733u3y2e7fcs5cwtd72u65n



David Darling (full electric/ studio):  
https://app.box.com/s/8e3xoap6n3bs6sz94edqadgodz42nkl2



David Darling (3 pc rehearsal):          
https://app.box.com/s/g62pcft3nfcw3f8dvc0wh4anmssakfvl

Basement Shakedown 2014: Warren Zevon and Cheap Trick covers

Hey alls--  I've no new news for you on the production front, except for these here couple of recent covers that've been sitting around in the can, waiting on getting posted.  They're from the same basement test-drive sessions as the Stones covers from the other week, and similarly off-the-cuff but packed with lovin'.

Keeping it brief, first off is one of my perennial favorite Warren Zevon tunes, "Mohammed's Radio", off his self-titled debut from '76. Second is "Oh Candy", the first Cheap Trick single, off of their self-titled debut from '77. Total pop heaven, far as I'm concerned.  No idea what "Mohammed's Radio" is about.  I used to think "Oh Candy" was about an ingenue lost to drugs and heartbreak.   Then I realized that they were singing "he" and not "she", and it turns out (via the Wiki and Cheap Trick bio) that it's about the suicide of a friend of theirs with initials M(&)M.  Still learning about life, we are....

I'd hoped to a/b the Cheap Trick song with a cover of the weird, boxy, non-anthemic, guitarmonied, piano-laden, finger-snapping version of "I Want You to Want Me" off their second album "In Color" (a.k.a. one of the versions they probably hate).  Also maybe a/b the Zevon song with a version of "Tule's Blues".... or maybe I'll save that one for some Jackson Browne-ian action... dunno....  A million possibilities and only 168 hours in a week....

jk

Mohammed's Radio:  https://app.box.com/s/rpyzsrpsunk61sz2i7d44m595vceo67a


Oh Candy:  https://app.box.com/s/0km4hw3lpc6u3ocj6z0jdjzzrba8h3ns

Basement Shakedown 2014: Stones covers

Hey Friends!  So, yeah, the slow RKBS Industries output lately has been on account of two unrelated factors:

First off, and most exciting, is that we've been continuing to work on a couple projects that may or may not eventually dovetail to a small extent: A set of new "Grey Gardens"-based songs with Our Man Dillo , and a mixed bag of older "Honcho"-style songs with Our Man Adam.  More on this later or hopefully sooner...

The second Gummer of the Works, now fairly long resolved, was last year's basement renovation at the Harpswell Estate.  All the gear was packed and stacked at the other end of the basement for a few months, and it took forever to get everything up and running again, but last fall or so found Roady up in the Midcoast and we were finally able to take things out for a test drive.  Things are sounding even better now, but the room sounded quite nice from the get-go. It was a last-minute thing and the session went down really fast, necessitating a lot of audible calls, relentless eye contact and such, but it was good fun to knock out a couple pairs of old classic rockers. 

The others'll go up next week or so, but I figured we'd start you off with some Stones, both off of my still-fave "Exile On Main St.": a good stab at "Torn and Frayed" and a pretty rough go at "Tumbling Dice".  Enjoy!

JK

Torn and Frayed:  https://app.box.com/s/jdcdyi0ekqi8k3yu1vdxgumayb628927


Tumbling Dice: https://app.box.com/s/iufebomzig5byoqj08kqddsuiltw9u6q

Happy St. Pat's! Another round of Pogues covers on me!

Hey alls--  Yeah, as I've mentioned before, St. Patrick's Day is not one of those holidays that I go out of my way to celebrate.  Too much of the ol' fake cheer and hollow commercialism, same as most other aspects of public life?  Maybe.  But I remain a sentimental bastard and I do note St. Pat's when it rolls around. It brings back some very good memories from across the vast spread of years, and lately I've been trying every year to bang out at least one cover song for anyone who's interested.   For instance, here's last year's post, with links to a Pogues cover and one from Great Big Sea:

http://roadkillbuttsteak.blogspot.com/2014/03/happy-st-pats-rum-and-whiskey-covered.html

This year, mid-March snuck up alarmingly fast among all the work and winter and all, and I almost dropped the ball but managed to get things recorded over a couple sessions, mostly last Sunday.  It was again good fun and a great excuse learn these songs, to dust off the banjo and bouzouki and, lord help us, accordion and such, and to work on my even dustier skills on those instruments.  Strangely, the hardest part is probably when laying down the vocals, trying to stifle the impulse to mimic Shane's slurry brogue, but these sound pretty American to me.  You be the judge.  As usual, I mixed things down far too rapidly, and on headphones, but I'm hoping the fidelity is passable.  There's a cover of the Pogues own "If I Should Fall From Grace With God", and a meta-cover of their definitive version of Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town".

Anyway, please do read James Fearnley's recent Pogues memoir Here Comes Everybody.  It's really unbelievably evocative stuff, and in the running for best music writing I've come across this year (and I read a lot of music writing).   Like St. Patrick's Day itself, there's a lot wrong with the rigamarol that's become associated the Pogues, and especially Shane MacGowan, over the years, but there is so much right as well.  Before he really revved up his slow-motion public suicide in earnest, the man wrote the ugliest and funnies and most achingly beautiful songs, and the band was a wonderful aggregate of individual personalities and contributions.  To me, "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" and "If I Should Fall From Grace with God" are absolutely perfect albums, and the ones on either side no slouches either.

As a dear, departed friend of mine would say, "Slàinte y'all"!

jk

If I Should Fall From Grace With God:  https://app.box.com/s/kt1zlyeyjtqqyqcvh2wo489ogm2jh17k


Dirty Old Town:                                  https://app.box.com/s/eng240gfxs0g0xbhdp707xqew2scqh2c

"It Could Be Rock n' Roll" b/w "Your New Thing"

Ah, sweet recidivism!  Though coming from the same recording session,s these here songs are the flipside of the previous sensitive and introspective post.  Whatcha got is two rock songs.  First one is the self-referential "It Could Be Rock n' Roll", yer typical paen to the curative powers of Rock.  Second is "Your New Thing", in which I call into question the recent vogue of bass-lass combos... because somebody had to.  And... go!

https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs

JK

It Could Be Rock n' Roll:        https://app.box.com/s/5nvx40u9wj74642m4kn7


Your New Thing:            https://app.box.com/s/weom03ng3bqj88s2ir2n

"Mercator Projection" b/w "Give Me a Sign"

Hey alls-

First off a reminder that you can stream goods over here if you want:
https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs
And also can revisit the first post from this session here:
"Mary, Mary" b/w "Wrung Out"

Otherwise, yeah, we're back to a couple solo efforts from the basement.

First one is a nice, sweeping instrumental called "Mercator Projection".  This one could've gone about a hundred different ways, but it ended up in the kind of Giant Sand/ Calexico soundtrack territory that takes me back to my Tucson days.  The drums are brushed.  The Gretsch is heavily delayed and as heavily panned right and left. As part of the obligatory Ennio Morricone nod, the baritone guitar is in there, sometimes run through the Hummingbird super-fast tremolo (a combination that I've come to really like and will no doubt run into the ground in short order).  As another nod to spaghetti westerns (and simultaneously to the Zombies) I dialed up some Mellotron strings on the keyboard.  Anyway, I'm fond of these type of numbers.  Maybe should dig up a couple of the old ones and lend them a new gloss with all my mod production skillz and fancy gear....

"Give Me a Sign", on the other hand, is cinematic more in the sense that it kept managing again and again to crawl off the scrap heap.  I dunno.... I still don't feel I've arrived at the right destination but didn't want to sweat it out any more.  Maybe I'll look back in a few months and the right hook/ riff/ melody/ etc will spark to mind...  In the meantime, that's what they made B-sides for!  Just figured I'd include it with the post to see what anybody else thought of it in the current state.

Yers,

JK

Mercator Projection:   https://app.box.com/s/okdfkm70bid0mzj5ktgc  


Give Me a Sign:  https://app.box.com/s/87luf4lt7dee6qutnmmr