baby champ record #2 listening party

[jvstin]

for bob loblaw:

the point of illoee was to get away from anything high concept. keep it simple. after working on too many records in a row where people wanted strings, horns, choirs, etc i just wanted to play my version of simple rock. i hadn't really played guitar in about 6 years and bob had never played bass. i wanted it to sound nasty and raw. i think we accomplished that, although now i find some of the sonics a little hard to deal with. we recorded illoee in 2 weekends after practicing together for 3 weekends.

for the new record, faya, we expanded the pallet quite a bit. this time around we actually wrote most of the songs together on some level and tired many ideas before recording them. 5 songs give or take from each member, and a lot more time spent on lyrics and arrangements. we also got ourselves a huge rehearsal/recording space that inspired me to try to get some more roomy and natural sounding drums. i got a real guitar amp and some decent mics. i became a real guitar player again. pianos, trumpets, trombones, organs, female choirs, mangled spanish, pseudo rapping, lots and lots of guitar solos (it's kinda embarrassing to play solos when ryen slegr is a friend. dude is nuts.). the record is 50 minutes and divided into two parts. the first 10 songs all stand alone... what we consider to be pop songs. i dont think we have any clue what that really means. the last 7 songs are all connected to make one big 17 minute concept track. the album is musically and lyrically meaty as fuck. way way better than illoee. i think musicians will like it and girls will hate most of it. we shall see.

thanks, man! i'm looking forward to this more than anything else (musically). and i've got a super hard-on now that i know for sure that ryen plays a solo on it. he's high up there amongst my top ten favorite guitarists.

i actually really dig the guitar tones on illoee. but mainly because it's so grungy and raw.

too repetitive?? if anything, illoee is all over the place. 

[jvstin]

so, faya/maya is a lot to digest. but, so far, it's really paying off. i think it's genius stuff. and i can't stop trying to crack the whole thing.

hipsun, ftw!

[hipsun]

so, faya/maya is a lot to digest. but, so far, it's really paying off. i think it's genius stuff. and i can't stop trying to crack the whole thing.

hipsun, ftw!

god damn... a lot to digest. tell me about it... at the listening party, i wanted to take a break after the first ten songs. way too much info. while kenn and i were playing ping pong after, we decided to split it in two... hence faya and maya.

[jvstin]

which song does ryen play a solo in?

i've also been listening to illoee lately. 'you don't think so' is the tits, man. love the lyrics in that one.

[hipsun]

which song does ryen play a solo in?

i've also been listening to illoee lately. 'you don't think so' is the tits, man. love the lyrics in that one.

ryen shreds over the ending of heavy sorry. it's not quite as loud as i intended. sorry ryen. i know you slaved over it for months only to have me cover it up with trumpets.
kenn plays the first half of the solo.

i fucking hate "you don't think so". fuck that song. thank kenn and bob for the lyrics on that one.

[jvstin]

which song does ryen play a solo in?

i've also been listening to illoee lately. 'you don't think so' is the tits, man. love the lyrics in that one.

ryen shreds over the ending of heavy sorry. it's not quite as loud as i intended. sorry ryen. i know you slaved over it for months only to have me cover it up with trumpets.
kenn plays the first half of the solo.

sweet! i forgot that ryen's so godlike in his guitar playing that he can mimic a computer glitching.

[Speck]

holy shit, baby champ i love you guys! too bad this has been sitting dormant for a while. i love iloee for how raw it is, although at first i hated it for that too. and yes its so stripped down to pure rock, i cant believe you recorded it so quickly and after such little practice. and faya/maya was the expansion of that initial statement. i love how songs seem to go through different movements and statements. baby champ, i love you so much. and i'd totally do both faya and maya in the ass