Find What You Love And Let It Kill You (cover art and record release)

Posted on June 12, 2013 by LP4
Find What You Love and Let It Kill You (art by Michael C. Rodriguez)

Find What You Love and Let It Kill You (art by Michael C. Rodriguez)

Well folks the artwork by artist Michael C. Rodriguez is done,  the covers are at the printers, the acetates arrive today from Dallas, and we even finished a video for “The Road” early this morning.  In short, everything is winding up and we are on track to not only have the digital copies available for sale on July 8th but the vinyl should be in by then as well.  Even if it’s not, it will be soon after – definitely in time of our record release show.

Seems like a good enough time to announce the details on the record release show, huh?

So here are the some more details:

Saturday 20 July 2013
Find What You Love and Let it Kill You Record Release Show


7pm at Vinal Edge
239 W. 19th St.,
Houston, Texas 77008

FREE!

We will be playing tracks from the new EP and this will likely be the only time we play these songs live.  Accompanying us on a few songs will me Hearts of Animals’ Mlee Marie.  Copies of the 7″ will be available at the show for $5.  Keg for attendees?  It’s possible.

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EP Release date! Record Release show date! Oh yes, the “Find What You Love and Let It Kill You” EP is now off to the pressing plant!

Posted on May 30, 2013 by LP4
931163_10151497509199081_1538184701_nSteve Mastering with Reel-To-Reel 

It’s been a pretty fast paced recording session but this Tuesday we wrapped it up with a bow and sent it off to A&R Pressing in Dallas.  It took a lot of work because I have a personal deadline that I am trying to keep to for the release date but we got it done somehow.  Oh sure, we could arguably spend more weeks tweaking this or tweaking that but there is a certain ramshackle quality of having to work within constraints that I love.  ”First thought, best thought” as Allen Ginsburg would say or  ”Han Solo shot first!” as any Star Wars fan will tell you.

OK so what are the details at this time?  Well, we’re still waiting on the front cover art by local artist Michael C. Rodriguez (which we should be getting back soon) but, if the test pressings come back fine in a few weeks, we should be set to have at least a partial order of the vinyl back from the plant by the release date and definitely in time for the record release show.  So here is what all this means:

EP Release Date: 07/08/2013

The EP will definitely be available for download on that date.

We will begin taking orders for the 7″ and ship them off once we get them.    The nice thing is that with the purchase of a 7″ you will also get the added bonus of an HD download of the audio from our website.  No, not an MP3 file but a full 24bit audio file just like what we hear in the studio.  The price of the records will be $5 + S&H.  The run will be limited to about 200 (I say “about” because pressing plants often have under or over pressings)

EP Release Show: 07/20/2013 at Vinal Edge

You’ll notice that this is at Vinal Edge Records and not a club.  That’s because this is a small personal release and, as such, I really didn’t feel like doing a big to-do about the show.  I wanted something more intimate and Chuck Roast’s record store is a wonderful place to do just that kind of show.

Because these songs are kind of personal and all that junk, barring one exception, I’m kind of thinking not to play these again after this show.  I dunno, we’ll see.

More deets on all this soon.

Next week, we return to work on “C is for Cthulhu”-  our Winter EP.  The heaviness of this  Clinton Heider homage to the old one is ungodly and should be a stark contrast to the lightness of the summer EP.  Should be a lot of fun.  Ahead warp factor ten, Mr. Sulu!

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Penultimate Studio Session for the Summer EP

Posted on May 23, 2013 by LP4

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I won’t lie to you. We used auto tune on one song. I’m no professional singer (Clinton and Charlie usually handle the vocal duties for good reason) which is why, despite my practicing the vocals all weekend and even doing a preliminary working session with Clinton at his house, I still couldn’t peg it perfectly. Sure, I was able to get a lot closer to where Steve’s work a lot less difficult but there are notes that are pushing the limits of my vocal range on “The Road” that are hard for me to hit with the level of consistency necessary for doubling vocals. (Funny enough the one harmony tossed in that I figured I’d screw up, I hit in one take. Go figure.) So, for this and other reasons, just don’t expect any of these three tracks to be played live beyond the release show.

As for the rest of the session… Well, Clinton threw in some wonderfully doubled Beatles style guitar leads on “The Road” while Charlie, coming in largely cold to the idea, managed to toss in the sweet little keyboard line on “La Jetée” that was right on the money. Then it was mixing until 2:30 am and by and large we are done. We’ve all been listening to the mixes and the consensus is that, barring a few minor tweaks, we should be good to do mastering next Tuesday and then send off the masters to A&R in Dallas for the pressing.

If the timeline holds, then we should see the EP released on July 8th with an EP release show not long after (possibly that following weekend). The tracks will be available through the usual Internet places (iTunes, Emusic, Amazon, etc.) at the standard amounts but on that date we will also begin taking orders for the 7″ as well. It will be sold for $5 and the vinyl will include a download code for the tracks in the highest possible HD audio quality we can muster. 

If you think $5 for a 7inch is a bit high for three songs, consider the economics of small runs of 7″.  It’s not a format that really is geared for making money and that’s why we are bumping up the run of 100 to 200.  Simply put, at 200 copies we will be losing a lot less money in the long run. At 100 copies, the per unit cost was around $8 and that didn’t even include the cost of jackets and art.  So, 200 hundred it is. 

As for an EP release show. Well, we’re not looking at doing a big to do over at a club. Instead we’re planning on a small, chill, and relaxed release at a local record store. Once we get the masters over to Dallas, we will announce a date. Hope you all can make it out.

More deets soon as they arrive.

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Hell Yes! Doctor Who!

Posted on May 20, 2013 by LP4

The-Name-of-the-Doctor

 

[Note: Charlie would like me to forewarn you that there maybe some spoilers in here.  So watch the episode first.]

So, we’re on hold from recording until tomorrow’s final session so not much to report but if you know us, you should know that we’re a pretty pathetic group of geeks and I for one am a huge fan of Dr. Who.  Many a Saturday was spent watching Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor on the local PBS station battling Daleks, Cybermen, The Master, and a host of other baddies across space and time.  In fact, Dr. Who is part of the great trifecta of Sci-Fi dorkdom (aka – Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who) that so oddly shaped our view of the world.

For quite a few years I’ve been happily engaged by the rebooted Dr. Who and particularly Steven Moffet’s reimagining of the doctor and his world.  The production values are greatly improved and the writing has been by and large stellar.  So, for those of you who were unaware, Saturday night’s season finale was quite the mind blower that threw a lot of assumptions we Whovians may have had about the Doctor out the window and left as many questions open as it revealed.  It also rescued Clara’s character from what appeared to be a future of being marginalized as just someone along for the ride. As a fan that was particularly frustrating given that she started off so brilliant and engaging in the Asylum of the Daleks and The Snowmen episodes then seemed to get lost in the writing for a few episodes this season.  But with Neil Gaiman’s amusing Cybermen episode, she seemed to finally regain her place as an equal to the Doctor and the final Moffet season closer had her not simply being treated as this plot point to be smugly manipulated but as an active character with some real choices to be made – choices upon which the future of Doctor’s and the galaxy’s depend.  Of course, Richard E. Grant’s return as the Great Intelligence is pitch perfect as a baddie.  It’s always great to have River Song in an episode and the little bit between her and the doctor was sweet.  Then of course, Vastra and her companions are always fun particularly Strax whose “This planet is now property of the Sontaran Empire!  Surrender your women and intellectuals!“ is right up there with some of Conan’s finest quotes.  In short, it was likely one of the series’ best episodes and the big reveal at the end had me caught between WTF and wanting to applaud the creator’s cleverness.

So, yeah, this has nothing to do with our music (well at least not directly, though Dr. Who inspiration is hidden in our music if you know where to look).  I was just pretty excited about the season finale and just wanted to say that if you are too cool for Dr. Who, then you’ve missed out on one of the best sci-fi dork-out experiences out there.

So, well done Mr. Moffit, Mr. Smith, Miss Coleman and the rest of the creators!  It’s nice to not be talked down to like some other big budget sci-fi movies I could mention that happened to open this last weekend.    I plan to revisit the entire reboot over the summer and yes, already have my DVR set to record the series’ return in November.

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A belated recap of last week’s recording session.

Posted on May 18, 2013 by LP4

Good gravy but were moving along well on this recording thing.  Last Saturday we put in nearly 12 hours in the studio.  We had expected to maybe get in just the basic tracks but instead we plowed through not only the songs for the Summer EP but also got the basic track down for the lead track for the fall EP. Then on Tuesday we got another 5 hours of work done to put us at nearly done and likely being able to mix the EP this upcoming Tuesday.  Pretty impressive by Linus standards.

Running through the tracks here… let’s see… we got most of “The Road” done.  It’s an upbeat poppy psychedelic number that left another band who heard us asking Steve if we were working on a Beatles cover.  I’ll take that as a compliment.  The tracks came together wonderfully and we even got Mlee to add this very nice keyboard part to it on Tuesday that added this sweet quality to the song. The only problem we had was my vocals.  The melody line tends to bend notes up and down in some ways that are somewhat tricky for me.  The problem came in doubling the vocals as my phrasing would never be exactly the same.  Steve went into producer mode and really took me to task commenting that “If you’re gonna Edie Brickell that shit, you gotta hit it right or not at all.” Well, I never got it right that night so this weekend I’ve been having to do something I’ve never had to do and that is actually planning out with a lot more care about how to approach my vocals.   Screaming a Stoner Rock or Punk song is easy; singing, on the other hand, is hard.  Go figure.  With a little help from Clinton and his home studio, we’ll hopefully have it down in time for Tuesday’s final session.

“USA” went pretty smoothly.  It’s an straight-up punk song but the ending was a little tricky for us so we had to do quite a few takes to nail it but we finally got it.  Kudos on Clinton’s Bob Stinson-like solo which still has me cracking-up.  Charlie has to add to the backing vocals and wants to try to add some sax to it but it’s largely in the bag.

“La Jetée” also went pretty well.  It’s a chill number that leaves a lot of space and relies a lot on how we approach the feel.   It turned out pretty swell.  Steve added his dirty John Wetton bass, Charlie added multiple e-bows, and Mlee was kind enough to add in some backing vocals.  Steve or Charlie will be adding some electronics sounds next week but that one is pretty much done as well.

Things went so well that we even got in “C is for Cthulhu.”  Well, maybe not the whole thing but the basic track of Clinton’s guitar, Larry’s drums, and even a scratch vocal track.  The one challenge was to get it under 6 minutes for a 7″ and, as luck would have it, it tracked at 5:50 – just under the wire!  Once we tie up the summer EP mastering in a couple of weeks, we’ll be able to start work on this and whatever we choose to add for the B side.

So there you go.  A lot of hard work but very productive.  Cross your fingers folks and hopefully we’ll have mix-downs done this Tuesday so that we can send off the masters to United Record Pressing before the end of May.  If so, this EP should be out in July.

Cheers until next week and here is a slide show from the two sessions…

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The LP4 announces the “C is for Cthulhu” Contest

Posted on May 8, 2013 by LP4

chtulhu1

I thought about posting a bit of video I took of Clinton running over his new Stoner rock epic in drop-C, “C is for Cthulhu”, which we will be recording this Saturday but then figured, bah, I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you guys. There is an urge to share what you are working on because you are pretty excited about it but, ya know, you put all this effort into writing, arranging, and recording so why just sluff out some sketchy sketch for folks when in a few months down the line, they’ll get a completed, definitive version?  Helk, I remember listening to Neko Case on NPR not long ago going through some song that was incomplete and remember how, even as someone who owns all her albums and enjoys her work, I was just all “No, that’s OK, Neko. I can wait.”

cthulhu2So, instead, I figured we’d have a little fun here and ask you guys to imagine what you think the song will sound like.

No, We’re serious!  Send us your lyrics and ideally, if you are musically inclined, a demo mp3 of your version of the song.  If we like yours the best, we’ll give you a copy of the 7″ along with a T-Shirt when it comes out in the fall, include you in the video, and maybe, if we are bored enough and have enough time, even record your version of the song for shits and giggles.

So what will you have to work with?  OK, well, you have the title already.  I mean C’mon, “C is for Cthulhu” just writes itself doesn’t it?   Oh and don’t feel obliged to stick with the Stoner Rock style; if you want to do a Country song or a Rap song, that’s cool too.   Just go for it.   Also, you have a pic of Clinton singing and Charlie working the keyboards to inspire you.  And here below is a poorly Photoshopped image of Cthulhu taking a dump that I made last week when I was bored.  Oh and below, though you shouldn’t feel bound by this structure, is page three of my tablature of Clinton’s song showing the structure of the song to help you guys imagine what the song will be like.  Nope you don’t get the first two pages showing you the chords and notes (that would be cheating) but I will tell you that IR = Intro Riff, VR = Verse Riff, CR = Chorus Riff, BR = Bridge Riff, and C = Coda.

Anyhow, have at it and send your entries to hellokitty2399 (at) Gmail with the subject line ”C IS FOR CTHULHU CONTEST”

chtulhu_dump

 

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One week until we hit the studio

Posted on May 3, 2013 by LP4

20130503-114958.jpg Yup, next Saturday, under the influence of beer and Star Pizza, we start recording the basic tracks for the Summer 7″ as well as hopefully the lead track for the Fall 7″. We rehearsed this past Tuesday and everything was sounding pretty good.

Steve, who was out the rehearsal before, added some amazing distorted, feedback-laced bass on “La Jettee” which really helped round that song out and “Road” and “USA” have been largely worked out for some time so I would expect with one more rehearsal on our plate before next week’s session, we should be able to knock these tracks out pretty easily…at least the basic tracks. Meanwhile, “C is for Cthulhu” is coming together pretty well. It was raining last Saturday so I took some time to transcribe all of Clinton’s riffs (see pic). The one issue I see right now is that the demo runs 6:30 but a 7″ can only really handle 6 minutes so we may need to trim it by 30 seconds. Luckily, Clinton already trimmed a bit of it on Tuesday after we ran through it with vocals so we’re on our way and, hopefully, we’ll get it down to the time we need.

It should all be a lot of fun. Stay tuned. We’ll update you guys next week on how it all goes.

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Some deets on the 7″ EPs coming out this Summer and Fall

Posted on April 26, 2013 by LP4

Well folks, if all seems somewhat quiet in the LP4 world from the outside, I can assure you it’s all quite busy here at LP4 central headquarters. We’ve been busy rehearsing and arranging new material and we’ll begin recording basic tracks on May 11th which is just around the corner. Since now we have enough details that we can share, we figured we’d share the current info with y’all.

imageFirst off, fans of our heavy stoner rock fare will have to wait until the fall for the heavy to drop but meanwhile this summer, we have a 7″ EP coming out called “Find What You Love and Let it Kill You” which will be lighter fare. The title, for those of you wondering, comes from some advice I got from Texas legend, Kinky Freidman and he was kind enough to not only let me quote it for the EP title but also gave his blessing to quote it in the lyrics of one of the songs. So, thanks Kinky. The tracks will consist of three short songs – a garage/punk track called “USA“, a poppy psych track that had the working title of “George Harrison” for a while but currently has the name “The Road” which may change, and a mellow folky track called “La Jetee” which takes the Chris Marker French film classic as a kind of jump-off point. (We hope to have Mlee contribute backing vocals on this track which would be pretty cool.) If you’ve not seen the film, you can see it on Vimeo.

This 7″ will have a limited run of only 100, will be pressed on red vinyl, and (while I had hoped for a first week of July release date) United Records said if we get the masters to them by the end of May, then we’re really looking at the end of July. Not sure if we will have a video for this project. More than likely, we will save that when we pull out the stops in October.

October 31 that is. That’s when we drop “C is for Cthulhu” which will be our second 7″ EP of the year. This one will have a larger run of 200 and will definitely have a video with it. Stevie Sims, of Burn the Boats who you last saw in the “Assault on the Vault of the Ancient Bonglords” video will take over on lead vocals. It’s (appropriately enough) a monster of a Clinton Heider track and has so many parts that I myself plan to hunker down this weekend and rehearse all the changes until I go stark raving mad. Not sure yet what the other track or tracks will be for this one but we’ll let you know as we go along.

Oh yes and we will make these available as digital tracks as well a vinyl.

Until next time
Keep on rockin’ in the free world!

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In Praise of the Great Larry Lyska and Stephen Finley

Posted on April 25, 2013 by LP4

StreamImageBassists and drummers always seem to get the short end of the stick.  Well maybe not drummers (everyone knows they get all the girls) but, broadly speaking, they aren’t front and center when performing live which puts them at somewhat of a disadvantage.  We have never taken Steve or Larry for granted.  Steve is the brains behind the band and Larry is the band’s Yoda.  Without Steve or Larry, we six-string toters would never know how to get from point A to point B without dying or at least coming out heavily maimed.  That’s no secret.

Our last two practices were perfect examples of what they bring to our music.  In one practice, I had a new song I had written out for the upcoming EP.  It’s a pretty chill song written on an acoustic guitar which was arguably somewhat dour and so it needed some balance.  I actually couldn’t imagine it with drums but Larry started playing and when he hit the bridge he added this beat that really added this lovely hopeful feel to the song that was exactly what was missing.  Not only did Larry move the song in a different direction but it also helped shape the lyrics for the bridge which I had been having trouble with.  Genius!

In the other rehearsal, Steve was out because he was busy closing on a new home (congratulations Steve & Shelly).  That meant no bass and while we were able to run through the songs, his not being there made the songs sound… well… stupid.  Without his frequencies filling in the low-end and without his notes playing off of what we were playing, everything sounded thin, incomplete, and hollow.  Also, the feel that Steve adds to the songs are just so critical to what’s happening that the material loses all its heart without him there.

So that’s the thing about truly working as a band.  Each member is essential to the band and who we are.  You couldn’t take away Steve or Larry and expect us to function any more than if you were to rip out your heart and brain.  So, here’s to our bassist and our drummer – Steve and Larry – without whom we’d be lost. Skål!

 

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That elusive LP4 Sound…

Posted on April 2, 2013 by LP4

soundThere was some article in the Houston Press today about Pink Floyd and Kiss’ dance with disco where the basic thesis was that Kiss experiment failed because they didn’t sound like themselves while Pink Floyd still sounded like Pink Floyd.  That’s neither here nor there but it reminds me of a constant question we get as a band – this idea of a band’s “sound.”

If you ask  any one of us, we’ll likely just shrug at the idea of what our “sound” is.  We really have no clue.  We just kind of do it.  Our albums seem to have a feel to them sure but that feel can vary from album to album.  Put “Ashes in the Bong of God,” “Horns of Ammon”, and “Bag of Hammers”  side by side and they are quite different in tone.  People who may enjoy the lighter fare of HOA may find the heaviness of BOH off putting and the stoned out jams of ABG may just confuse both of the other two fans.

Lately though, because of BOH, we’ve found ourselves in the Stoner Rock category in many people’s minds.  I love Stoner Rock, so that’s totally cool but it also puts us in an odd place when we veer from that.  Take the upcoming summer release.  That’s gonna be as far away from Stoner Rock as you can get then, only a few months later, we’re gonna release a brain crushing heavy track about C’thulhu in drop C.  Will the Stoner Rock crowd abandon us in the summer?  And then, when we return to the heavy stuff in October, will it come off as calculated and/or be referred by this same group of fans as a “return to form?”  Will the folks who may like the summer release be off put by the fall release?  Etc.

In the end, it’s a moot point because we just kind of do stuff and see where the chips fall.  We don’t tour, we lack a cohesive easily marketable sound, and we sure as hell don’t have any plan to conquer the world (with the exception of Clinton’s obsession with Alien Arena). Locally speaking, we’ve been in Houston for 20 years now and everyone has seen us so many times that it’s no surprise that we hardly draw these days.  So, in the end, it’s kind of simple curiosity to wonder how people react to our amorphous nature because it’s not like we have people pounding on our door waiting for the new material.

Who we are is reflected in what the band is and what are we?  Just a bunch of dorky dudes from Houston with day jobs and that’s what we’ve always been – dorks.  That’s a point of pride.   We’re not rock stars, just dorks.    And even if we were total calculating business obsessed douchebags in the Gene Simmons mold, we’re frankly too stupid and stubborn to do things any other way but to follow our whims and be what we are.

So to get to the original question of what is our sound? The answer is it’s the sound of dudes getting together once a week, occasionally with friends, drinking beer and other mind influencing substances, and playing music together for fun.

 

 

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