Thursday, December 9, 2010

Rob Crow EP and home recording question



Rob Crow is the main singer/guitarist of Pinback. I saw him do a little acoustic set recently in LA and it was pretty nifty. He knocked out something like 30 songs in about 45-50 minutes, mostly playing them all back-to-back-to-back with a few hilarious stories and personal anecdotes woven in for good measure.

One thing that's really cool about Crow and the Pinback guys in general is that they tend to bring a lot of random home recording projects and "tour-only EPs" to sell as merch when they're on the road. But it's not just throw-away shit; the quality level is usually pretty damned high.

Case and point, here is a 6-song tour-only CD that Rob Crow was selling, that I've put on yousendit for anyone who's interested:

https://www.yousendit.com/download/cEd0ZFhqSEJRYTljR0E9PQ

This one is all cover songs that he recorded himself. Here's the tracklist:

1. Fear - I Am a Doctor
2. Snake Finger - Man in the Dark Sedan
3. Devo - Deep Sleep
4. Wall of Voodoo - Call Box
5. Captain Beefheart - Click Clack
6. Samhain - Archangel

If you're into any of the above artists/bands, I hope you'll check it out, b/c these are some pretty great little covers.

Which leads me to my question about home recording..... I know that Rob Crow recorded all of these tracks himself, and obviously the guy has a lot of recording experience. But one thing I'm trying to figure out is how he might have recorded the drums on these tracks.

If anyone has any ideas on that, please post them here or email me at: ator_iv AT yahoodotcom

3 comments:

DC said...

Are you talking like mic type and mic placement and so forth?

Sounds like he's using 2 15's through an SK-220, Just kidding, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to shit like that.

ator said...

nah, I don't think it's live drumming, that's the thing. The guy recorded all of these tracks by himself at his house.

I think the drums are programmed/sampled somehow, and Im trying to figure out how he might have done it, b/c it's got a nice organic sound to it IMO

Im just wondering if maybe he recorded certain fills/beats and then sequenced/overlaid them, or just in general how you might go about assembling drumbeats like this for a "rock" type of sound

Pardon my ignorance, Im just curious, and thought someone her might know more....... Im kind of kicking myself too, b/c I actually talked to the man himself at the show I just went to, but mainly just shot the shit and didn't really think to pick his brain a bit on this type of shit

ator said...

I guess I should have also emphasized the fact that when I said he recorded all the tracks "by himself", I meant that he not only recorded them, he also played all the instruments.....