Bands let down by their recordings (1 Viewer)

[Jerry Twig]

Meaning you can hear they have decent songs but their album(s) sound like shit

Thee Oh Sees are the biggest offenders I can think of right now. I know they're going for the whole lo-fi schtick, but there's good lo-fi and there's that shit.

Which brings me to a bigger question - is it right to charge the same for an LP that took 8 hours work and cost a lot less to record than one that (justifiably) took longer? If you lash it out, sell it for less, no?

 

[washingcattle]

Every band I've ever been in.

 

[ann post]

Which brings me to a bigger question - is it right to charge the same for an LP that took 8 hours work and cost a lot less to record than one that (justifiably) took longer? If you lash it out, sell it for less, no?

I suppose if you are prince or someone and you know a few hundred thousand people are going to buy the first run, a spending a million or so on it isn't overkilling it financially.

thing is, if he charged proportionally it'd be about 100 quid for a cd in comparison to a euro for a garage tape from band x.

so basically its not really simplifiable, by me anyways.

 

[pete]

Carcass - Reek Of Putrefaction

Reek of Putrefaction was recorded in four days at a small studio in Birmingham. According to Bill Steer, the studio's engineer "ruined" the record, especially its drum tracks. Carcass had only had a few hours available of mixing, so they had to release the LP as it was to meet the label's deadline. The band were "everything but happy" with the end result, declared Steer.[5]

When the master recording was first sent to the pressing plant, the original vinyl LP had to be pressed at lower volumes, because the bass frequencies were so low (sometimes reaching 25 Hz) that they were in danger of rendering higher frequencies inaudible.

16 songs from it were included on Earache's original 1989 CD release of Symphonies of Sickness, and at the time the story was that the Reek Of Putrefaction master tapes had been left in a car which was subsequently stolen, so they mastered the CD versions from vinyl. I have that CD, and they sound appalling. Absolutely unlistenable. I've no idea what the reissues sound like.

 

[washingcattle]

I nominate The Dirty Three,

Not that their albums are bad. They're not I like their recordings, they set a certain mood and the recordings sound great. But as anyone who has seen them live will tell you they are a completely different animal, and they've never really captured that on a full length album.

Same can be said for The Necks (from what I've heard) and Grinderman

at a stretch you could add The Strokes and The White Stripes actually.

 

[Jerry Twig]

thing is, if he charged proportionally it'd be about 100 quid for a cd in comparison to a euro for a garage tape from band x.

so basically its not really simplifiable, by me anyways.

I agree with you, but I was kind of thinking more the other way, ie that there;s an upper limit standard and it's a bit cheeky to be charging full-whack for thrown together songs slung down on a 4 track tape recorder in one take. They might be good tunes (might be), but they sound shit. You could argue that the band think it sounds best that way, but sometimes I wonder if they're just being lazy and prolific for cash.

 

[Jim Daniels]

I nominate The Dirty Three,

Not that their albums are bad. They're not I like their recordings, they set a certain mood and the recordings sound great. But as anyone who has seen them live will tell you they are a completely different animal, and they've never really captured that on a full length album.

Yeah, Dirty Three are amazing live. Their album Horse Stories comes close....

I feel the same about PJ Harvey - possibly my favourite live performer ever.
And the Handsome Family who played many great gigs in Whelans, but sounded hokey enough on record.

 

[Unknown Convict]

Same can be said for The Necks (from what I've heard)

studio necks and live necks are two different things, but even the live albums are only a decent approximation of the live show.

 

[washingcattle]

I agree with you, but I was kind of thinking more the other way, ie that there;s an upper limit standard and it's a bit cheeky to be charging full-whack for thrown together songs slung down on a 4 track tape recorder in one take. They might be good tunes (might be), but they sound shit. You could argue that the band think it sounds best that way, but sometimes I wonder if they're just being lazy and prolific for cash.

I strongly doubt that any of those type of bands make decisions based on expectations of sales to be honest but maybe I'm being niave there.

The theory is of course, that art is priced based on the "artists worth" not the price of the production.

Personally, as an aside to all of this I think there's a case to be made that most Irish musicians grossly undervalue their own work.

 

[parx]

Every band I've ever been in.

 

[ann post]

I strongly doubt that any of those type of bands make decisions

QED

 

[Lili Marlene]

Any of those bands who are highly skilled in a particular style, Pokey La Farge, Punch Brothers, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, every Irish trad band, etc

Some music is primarily live music.


Otherwise I always felt Blur's punkier stuff was way over-recorded to the point of being really dull, specifically all of Modern Life is Rubbish.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I think Thee Oh Sees are one of the best bands around at the moment. Solid albums and great live shows.

Bo Ningen. Deadly live band, dull on record.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Thee Oh Sees are great live but I could literally play their music all day and not realise anything is on.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Pharaoh Overlord.

 

[dudley]

The Husker Du major label releases. Just awful mixing

 

[GO]

Every band I've ever been in.

I used to be this.Not any more though

yeehee

 

[washingcattle]

Heh heh heh

 

[Jerry Twig]

The Husker Du major label releases. Just awful mixing

The barrel drums are shite, but the guitars are good on some of that stuff.
Zen Arcade on the other hand....

 

[egg_]

Saw Flume the other day at Longitude and they were fucking deadly. Pretty dull on record