The present could not be a better time for students interested in purchasing new Baton Rouge music.
Bones, Harlan and Man Plus Building are just a few of the local bands releasing new albums this year.
As co-owner of Northgate Tavern and previous active member of Baton Rouge’s own Judge Genius, Sam Terito has seen both sides of the coin for the past four years. Now, instead of being in one of a hundred bands trying to make a buck, he has witnessed the Baton Rouge music scene as a venue owner.
To him, the scene is growing well because bands are pounding the concrete for gigs, recording albums and getting a crowd for live shows.
“I haven’t heard an all-around bad album,” Terito said. “Bands are doing what they need to do to drum up a scene and local fanfare.”
BONES’ MICHAEL MILLER ON RECORDING ‘SOUNDS FROM THE ID’
Bones has just released its new album, “Sounds from the Id.” The album features a title taken from Freud’s pleasure principle and expands on the dirty lyricism of the EP – “Disconnected.”
Unlike the EP, lead singer Michael Miller said he wanted the new album to capture the chemistry between him and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Scott Campbell.
Though the EP was recorded with producer, mixer and engineer Fred Weaver, the new disc was produced by the band.
“Anytime you record with a guy like that who has so many ideas, he becomes a part of the band,” Miller said. “The new album is about Scott and me.”
For the full-length, Miller and Campbell built their own studio and used different methods of recording such as reel-to-reel tape recording for the drums and four-track recording.
With these techniques, the band utilized space and openness, Miller said, which helped the album’s main goal.
“I wanted this record to have more of an album feel,” Miller said. “It has more instrumentals, more swamp-blues country but also the rocking songs.”
For those worried that the band lost its sex-fueled/devil-on-your-left-shoulder edge, take a look at the song titles. “Get Religion,” “Go Down” and “Hot Sexy Video” are a few of the tracks.
The latter was created entirely by Campbell with the exception of the lyrics, Miller said.
“Scott is an incredible musician,” Miller said, claiming he is an amateur compared to Campbell. “He played a majority of the instruments, but we created the songs together. It’s nice to have him in the band – it allowed to me to sit back and think about the lyrics.”
“Sounds from the Id” is available now at www.myspace.com/bones.
HARLAN TO RELEASE ‘FIRST RECORD’ – SPIDERETTE’
Harlan will release limited edition copies of its new album, “Spiderette,” at a release party show at Chelsea’s on May 10. A regular version of the disc will be released at a later date.
John Norris’ career has been a backward process until now.
His first record, “The Still Beat,” wasn’t an album written for his band – it was a thesis project for graduate school, made by recording and overdubbing various instruments.
The thesis was impressive enough that a number of musicians encouraged Norris to get a backing band. From then on, Harlan received consistently strong responses from Baton Rouge. Now, a couple of years later, Norris has a first-rate band and his “first” record, “Spiderette.”
“The title refers to a card game,” Norris said. “I came across it in a book. With the references to card games in the lyrics, it clicked.”
For “The Still Beat,” Norris said recording was “pretty basic and straightforward,” but for the new album, the band went through a “heavier editing process.”
“First we made a demo, then we tried different arrangements,” Norris said. “We developed a lot more ideas and sounds for this record.”
Credit the new process to the use of the new band featuring Scott Campbell on drums, John Bossier on bass and Britt King on guitar, synthesizer and backing vocals.
Blame Norris for the long wait for the follow-up.
“It’s really a slow, half-assed process,” Norris laughed. “Lyrics come in fragments for me. I’ll have a melody and lyrical fragment. I usually come to recording with a handful of half-lyrics.”
But judging by the initial 100 copies of the album, “Spiderette” will be worth the wait.
“[The first 100] are limited edition, handmade silkscreen versions of the album that will only be at the release party,” Norris said.
MAN PLUS BUILDING GETS NAKED, TALKS ABOUT “… BECAUSE MY NAME IS LION
Man Plus Building’s debut album,”…Because my Name is Lion,” was just released and is available now at www.myspace.com/manplusbuilding.
A rule for Man Plus Building is that one of the members be naked during a phone interview – every time.
Gimmicky? Maybe. What’s not a gimmick is the instrumental bands’ live show.
At its April 25 release show at Spanish Moon, the venue was packed with about 200 people, drummer Josh Nee said.
“The response has been better than we thought it would be,” Nee said, noting the release party and house shows have been successful. “House shows have been super-attentive.”
The band, which features Nee, Jesse Kees on guitar, Rory Ventress on guitar and Mitch Wells on bass, is in its second incarnation. Though the band had trouble in the beginning with Kees moving to California and Nee quitting school for a while, the pasts four months have gone by quicker than a NASCAR driver on a children’s go-cart track.
“When we got back together, we cranked out six songs in the first month,” Nee said.
One reason for the quick production rate is a non-grueling, structured songwriting process, Kees said.
“It starts with someone writing a song part in their room,” Ventress said. “And then we come in and play that riff and build a song on it. It works because everybody in the band listens to each other and is encouraging.”
Ventress credits the fast climb and songwriting process to the chemistry of the members.
“We’re just a bunch of dudes playing music,” Ventress said. “I think we get a response because the stuff we write evokes emotion and doesn’t suck.”
For recording “…Because my Name is Lion,” the band enlisted Fred Weaver for engineering help.
“He guided us and helped us out during recording,” Nee said, noting that they weren’t on Weaver’s label, Apocalypse the Apocalypse. “It’s a loose affiliation, really. He’s a great engineer, and bands that record with him get a sticker on the album.”
For touring, the band is trying to reach across the South to Athens, Ga., and networking with out-of-state bands through MySpace.com to find gigs.
Terito thinks the band has staying power.
“They bust their ass to get shows,” Terito said. “They could be on to something.”
THE BLOOMING SCENE AND ADVICE FROM SAGAS
Along with Bones, Harlan and Man Plus Building, a plethora of other bands are releasing new albums.
The New Orleans Bingo! Show, Thou, We Need to Talk, Fred Weaver, Mrs. Dorothy and the Shaky Egg Band and Flatbed Honeymoon are just some of the new albums.
With the wealth of new albums coming, this could be a breakout year for the Baton Rouge music scene.
Fred Weaver is a 10-year music veteran of Baton Rouge and head of Apocalypse the Apocalypse. Weaver said this year could be a good one,but is reserving his opinions for now.
“Some good records are coming out,” said Weaver. “In 2006, you had Terror of the Sea, Slobot, Otasco and Reception is Suspected coming out with great albums and getting good response. It’s just hard to duplicate that time.”
Terito also has his apprehensions about the scene because of the combination of the four-year turnover with University students and because some bands pop up briefly, then disappear.
“Every four years, you get a new crop of students and a new audience that don’t know much about local bands,” Terito said. “Too many bands just mail it in. They’ll release something and then stop playing. And when you go dormant, stop playing, people stop paying attention.”
Norris said that the scene will always grow as long as independent music is released.
“Anytime there’s original, independent music coming out, the scene will grow,” Norris said. “As long as people are committed to recording, the scene will grow gradually. But when you’re in a band, you can’t worry about it too much.”
Terito said the current scene is built on a hard-work ethic.
“The success of the scene comes from the bands that are willing to go out and get success,” Terito said. Though he thinks the scene should be bigger, Terito said Baton Rouge is always evolving.
“You never know about bands and staying power,” Terito said. “The good thing about Baton Rouge is that it’s always growing. There’s always room for you, for a new band, for a new publication, for a new Web site.”
—-Contact Matthew Sigur at [email protected].