Mark's thoughts on the whole gig/miscellaneous notes

I, Mark O’Connor will now attempt to transcribe shit from the Tape Op conference for (say next bit in a russian accent) de good of my country and all de poor artists whom I travel 7000 miles to listen to dese great men.  The arts council gave me 1000 euros.  I paid the rest.  I thought this was one of the greatest meeting of minds of shit that I dig the most, so actually attending it was fucking great.

They made a big deal about it at the conference.  John Bagiccaluppi said, “And I believe we’ve got someone here from Ireland, where are you man?”  I wave.  “Man, you get the award!”  By the third day they were presenting me with a microphone.  I was chuffed.  I was really fucking chuffed.  It made my fuckin day to be honest.  But I really didn’t think it was that big a deal.  I got to a thing that I really wanted to get to.  Like going to any of the music festivals I have ever gone to…

Getting the funding was the main task.  The travelling was easy, missed planes and all.  I think Tape Op is still coming to terms with how great a magazine is, or how they are hitting the nail on the head for so many passionate people.  Passionate about getting the music recorded.  Recording music is so important.  To a society it is a snapshot of the arts/culture of the time.  To the artists it is their thing, the capturing of their artistic goals at that time in their lives.  To the ‘recordist’ (new word derived from the tape op conference), it is the thing that makes them go ‘mmmmm’.  The honour of helping a band bring their babies into the world, the pooling of knowledge they’ve built up over the years with the new directions being aimed at by the artist.  The capturing of a recorded event with the artists at the steering wheel and the engineer/recordist pedelling like mad.

The above was written with expectations winding up beneath my wings, with my plane boarding in 3 hours.  I’ve since missed that plane due to my being a fuck up and the TV screens confusing me with conflicting details of my flights.  I’m faced with a 12 hour here at Gatwick wait for the next flight.  I’m visiting the darker side of my soul.  It’s not the end of the world but it’s close.  Tired, fucked up.  Wanna go home.  Girl in bed without me.  Couldn’t give a shit about recording.  I wish I had my guitar.  I’d be grand.  Or would I?  I always thought if I ever went to jail I’d be grand as long as I could have my guitar...

 

TIME WARP

 

TAPE OP CONFERENCE REPORT

 Thursday, 30 / 5 / 02

 Fly out of Dublin.  Shitloads of Aer Lingus planes on the ground like a via apia of Shamrocks or a defeated country.  (during the Aer Lingus strike)

 

London

Miss my plane to San Fran via Houston.

Get on the next plane standby which stops over Newark.  I see Manhattan without the World trade Centre.  It sort of hits you when you see it in reality.  I ring Justin my brother.  Leave a 4 minute (4 quarters) message on his phone. 

 

San Fran.

Check into hostel.  Die of exhaustion.  Wake at 6AM (2 PM Irish time).  Ring Nancy.  Fugazi have cancelled their tour.  Fuck.  Fugazi were coming to Limerick...  

(note Fugazi are now playing Limerick rescheduled date on October 26th, alright alright alright (see www.theamc.net) 

Friday. 

Go to Sacramento on a Greyhound bus.  Cool to see San Fran from going over the bay bridge.

Sacramento heat kicks me in the head as I get off the bus.  A guy in a red car drives past with Jimi Hendrix blasting out.  I love this fucking town.  

Leave bag in hostel.  

Go to Crest Theatre.  Meet Amie.  Check in.  Look around at gear.  Meet Steve Mack from That Petrol Emotion/Marfa Lights.  Chat.  Talk to another guy about ribbon mics and pre amps etc.

 

Opening session.  Hilarious video opens.  Dirk Digwood ‘You’ve got the touch’, I can smell a single, Top 40.  

Welcome from John Baggiccialuppi.  Speaks positively.  Amazed at how many people came.  “I believe we‘ve even got somebody here who came from Ireland, where are you man?”

I wave. 

Claps.  

“Dude, well done, you get the award.”

Larry Crane comes on.  He states his hopes from the conference:

 

 

Brief recollection of different recordists’ approaches to recording

Albini - 99% of the work happens before going to tape.  Mic choice and mic placement around the musicians in his electrical audio studios in Chicago, is most important in making a ‘record’ of any particular band he may be recording.  Manipulating the sound after it goes to tape is changing the sound of the band.  Making them something which they are not.

Dated records sound dated due to egoengineers/producers piping up during the 80's saying, "Hey let's put 5 tracks of DX7 shit in there to please our overlord McSatan."  The most unpolishable of shiny turds... 

Mark's/devil's advocate thought/point he regrets not making on the mic at the conference - Is it not fair to say that engineers who work the 'albini way' is in itself a style of production, which may itself become dated, i.e. records made in this way will be associated with this time?  

Also, is Steve or Tony Visconti or whoever afraid of becoming a brand?  It is the case that records recorded by Albini will now be bought by fans of Albini's style, not due to the quality of the band, but the quality of the recordist.  Is it worrying to think that a crap Albini-recorded band will sell more records than a great non-Albini recorded band?  Has Albini ever thought of recording under an alias, just to throw the public off?  

Sorry to keep singling you out Steve, but you did go around in blue overalls with an 'e' on the back the whole weekend.  Will set up a message board soon, if you ever surf on by and want to post something...

Lest I sound disrespectful, Steve Albini rules cos he brought the following excellent babies into the world:

Seamonsters (the wedding present), The Owls (can't remember name of album, Victor Villoreal for pres!!!), In Utero (some seattle band) and he called Jimmy Page and Robert Plant 'Jim and Bob'.  Nice guy.  Legend.  

 

Mario C - Hang out with the Beastie Boys all day.  Smoke weed, shoot basketball hoops, cycle to the studio, lay down some tracks.  Try out freaky mic placements.  Whatever you record, try Eqing and compressing the shit out of it.  Just fuck around with it.  Whatever sounds good will work. 

Thought - Check your head blew my mind.  One of my most favourite albums.  Fair to say that the style of Beastie Boys music lends itself more to 'eqing the shit' out of something?  e.g. verse 2 of Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' is just fine without Bob Dylan samled singing 'I'm going back to New York city etc...

Mario, since reading yer interview in tape op I tried recording a drum kit upstairs in the 100 year old cottage I live in by sticking a shitty mic into a metal dustbin outside the door of the drum room, thereby picking up some real drum sounds and some vibrations/bouncing of the frail ceiling / floor.  Results = Finger lickin good y'all!

 

Andy Hong - Technology is advancing faster than we can keep up.  Hence the ligitimate call for immediate implementation of his READL system.  READL is - Record Everything All Day Long.  Soon we’ll be talking no longer about Gigabytes, but Terrabytes.  So why not record every take of every session that you do with a band.  Why not have the mics recording the studio an hour before the band arrives.  Record the crickets outside.  Never let ‘not pressing the record button’ be the reason for not capturing a great recording.  To Andy,  a piece of technology, analog or digital, is just a box that does something.  If that box can help out in the recording process, then it merits getting used.

Thought - I've been to a few conferences.  There's always one guy who seems like the eistein of the gang.  An unassuming, ultra coherent, bright, witty, laid back 'here's 17 revolutionary/mind altering thoughts, I just thought I'd lay on you'.   Andy was one such soldier...  Whizz kid.  He kindly forwarded me his powerpoint presentation.  Check it out here.  Oh yeah, he also recorded Karate!  Enough said.

Mitch Easter - “Where’s the Swagger?”  Mitch is sick of bands approaching music like a business.  Bands saying they want to make a really commercial record.  If they don’t make it in the next year, they’re going to split up.  What the fuck is that about?  Music is supposed to be exciting, emotive, moving.  Not a commodity (tell that to major lables).  Bands need to be confident about what they are doing, self belief that they are doing something real, new, or kickass.  If a band is worrying about their market value, then maybe they shouldn’t be making records...

Mitch’s methods of ‘let’s try it this way cos this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be done’, was an approach which lead to the making of many of REM’s great early albums. 

At the after conference party and kept playing 'Perfect Circle' on the piece of crap piano in the corner, along with loads of Neil Young.  

Everyone Else - Everyone at the conference was fucking A.  Although one guy was involved with recording 'Train', but otherwise everyone was cool.  Larry did the Go Betweens, Oz did Primus, J did J, J did Shiner, Roger did Yo La Tengo.

Like most music scenes, the Limerick music scene is full of talent and great bands which I can hopefully bring to everyones attention, but strangled by a community that couldn't give a fuck about them.  Going to the Tape Op Conference, I met many equally (or more) talented musicians/recordists.  Confirming my suspicions that there is a crust to be made by artists which doesn't kill their minds and actually helps them thrive and create new shit (as long as money doesn't fuck it up too much).

I think many of my mates deserve worthwhile existances rather than periods in underappreciated bands. 

Limerick needs a fucking music centre.  A place where all this magnificent mojo can come together and do the fucking things, make the myths, shoom the love.  Anyone who knows what I'm talking about, or knows how to make shit happen, forward ideas/criticism onto me. 

Thanks for dropping by.  I'm travelling to South America and Australia soon.  If anyone knows anyone involved with studio/music shinnanigans in these places, please mail me their details.

OK, more soon.

 

 

 

INSURANCE – TIM LAKE, Zurich Insurance.

WHY get Insurance?

Protection of your business against lawsuits.

 

Transferring risk to a larger pool of resources.

It’s a money protector.  For a little money you can protect a lot.

 

Types of Cover

General Liability – 3rd party – someone you do business with.

Protects you if you:

Destroy original master work of a client

Violation of copyright and you get sued

False advertising / slander.

Someone trips over a cable at a live gig recording.

 

Property coverage

All Buildings / equipment up to 100 yard vicinity. 

 

Off premises coverage – Recording live gigs.

 

EDP Coverage – Against computer viruses.

 

I can't believe I actually took all that boring shit down...