upmine-dated: 4 September 2008
breetles.com
Knitting Factory August 08 w SenatorRSM
The Breetles
model24 / SOUND RECORDINGS
Producer’s Note
My dear listeners:
The Breetles mission is to take music back from the computers, the sequencers, the drum machines, the squeaky clean, auto-tuned, quantized, over-compressed, human-free “product” that so many producers and artists seem to strive for – “perfect” production. Well, us scientists here at NoFault Records want to bring human beings back into rock’n’roll – an honest presentation of what got us senior rockers going in the first place – the garage/ basement experience. You picked up an instrument and played your heart out with your pals or musicians met through newspaper ads or postings on music store walls. Some of the greatest records sound like they were taped in a garage or back room at some very modest studios.
6degrees / 10AM Jan 11, 2004/
19 Christopher Street, Greenwich Village/
drinking champagne w Elyse, Devin & Greg
My particular problem is no one likes playing with me because I am such an unpredictable wanker, writing songs with too many chord changes. Over time, I learned to play the other guys’ instruments so I didn’t have to depend on anyone else to show up. This began when I was about 16, in a band we actually did call: Jumpin’ Jack Jazz and the Fabulous Grasshoppers -spring 1969, sophomore year high school, practicing and recording at Jim Parker’s house in the Little Rocky Hill part of South Brunswick. We did our “Theme” song and “Robert Cobb”, not too cleverly perhaps, but we had the Farfisa organ, a groovy light show in big wooden boxes and Jim’s 1964 red Chevy station wagon to get us to gigs. But it was always easier to play Chicago’s version of “I’m A Man” and let Rob Dickson do a 20 minute drum solo. Even then, I had a small backlog of songs (“Under LsD”, “2 Million Leagues Under the Sea”, “You Got Me Broken Hearted”, “Please Somebody”, etc.). No matter what band I played with, The RoadApples, Shot In The Head, the Rockin’ Bricks, there were always more songs then any band ever needed. Throughout the 20+ year existence of The Breetles, I always tried to include a “golden oldie” on each record to try to flush out the pantry to make room for new compositions. Some songs were part of never-released albums like Breet To The Beat (1979) and Chris Breetveld Goes Too Far (1990). CBGTF had virtually all tracks re-recorded in 1993 for the Pop Go! The Breetles release, three others were re-recorded here with one coming on board as it was (this still leaves one…). SOUND RECORDINGS is my closet spring cleaner, even though a few more still remain unrecorded (v.2 anyone?), some of these tunes have been buzzing in the brain for ages, and I thought it would be fun to get them the hell out of the house. I always try to add something new to the oldies: re-writing bad lyrics, a more interesting chord here or there, add a new bridge to a long-unfinished song or compose backing parts not part of the original.
In the early days, a recording would start with a guitar or piano track first then add drums to establish the groove then layer on the rest. This technique tends to restrain the drummer’s natural sense of pocket, or groove, and I always found it hard to sound natural while being tethered to a pre-recorded basic track. Then somewhere along the line, I tried doing drums first, letting the drummer lead the band – the way is should be. Everything changed from then on; the only trick is that the drummer (you) has to know the song inside out in your head, then do a performance with an imaginary band. The Breetles always tend to go with the first take unless something truly heinous occurs. If the drummer makes it through with maybe one and a half “tiny” mistakes, then I bring in the other guys and each of “them” gives it their best first take and so on. This method may make for more unprofessionalism but to me it’s the heart of garage-rock: slap it on and make a joyous noise. And fuck the computers.
The instruments listed are in order of when they joined the song, to give you a sense of construction on each track. No click tracks were used at any time. horns, strings and a lot of sounds were made on keyboard / sampler workstations, so a small amount of computer was used and the multitracks were recorded onto a MacG4 with DigitalPerformer4 software – but it was used merely as a recorder / mixer. The recorders, percussion and harmonica were real for the most part.
model24,
is newer material with older
recordings (2004-2007) and fave covers where SR is newer recordings of older
material (2007-2008). I think they make a great pair for a double album.
My humble thanks goes to the brilliant guest musicians and to my studio host,
FatJogger.
-Breetsky Korsikov February 2008
press here
hear some
MUSIC TO HEAR RIGHT NOW DEPARTMENT:
Hear five
great Breetles tracks HERE click little Stevie
Hear
nine
more BREETLES songs to listen to or download.
Thanks to breetle-Al, we now feature video!
Watch two 1996 videos from the SPOOJ album
Directed & Edited by Al DiGiacomo, Greg Shuss, Chris Breetveld
FART
new improved version!
Directed by Al DiGiacomo
Breetles single ELECTED sleeve- hear NOTHING here.
ATOMIC PEACH BOY click to hear some APB songs
Breet is now performing with guitarist/keyboard David Biglin and drummer Dave Bartell in ATOMIC PEACH BOY, just for the fun of doing ridiculously difficult pop songs from the 1960s thru 1980s (Mr. Blue Sky, Things We Do For Love, Bitter Fingers, Old Brown Shoe, Living In The Plastic Age, Captain Fantastic, Sometime In The Morning, etc.) with a power pop trio.
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TAKE The BREETLES TRIVIA QUIZ for no prizes, just the knowledge that you KNOW
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See how you rank immediately!
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thank you for checking back with this site and from now on, things should be getting back to abby normal. -CB
KENDALL PARK at 50
Everyone's talking about the 50th
anniversary of George Washington Alva Kendall's "dream village,", the site where
he crossed the light bulb with a cabinet for his clothes and invented the
cross-dresser. (let the laughter subside)
We pioneers of KP, the ones who are still around to sob about it, remember farmlands everywhere when the Breetvelds moved into Palmer Road on March 16, 1957, straight from Greenwich Village-Manhattan. The house still stands, in fact, every now and then it does a little "Irish jig" type of a thing. Of four families on Palmer Road mentioned in one question, three are in fact still in residence, or have returned (even stranger) after moving out and renting their houses for a period of time. The first VW Bus ever seen in America, lived next door to us at #19, a 1957 green-on-green Type II. The first, easy quiz is below. Check back for more.
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NEWLY ADDED QUIZ!! K.P. Quiz #2!!!
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RECORDINGS:
The Breetles
albums
buy them now at
****CD BABY.com****
Attention all persons who ordered DON'T SMILE through CDBABY or elsewhere, don't forget to follow directions inside the CD and send for the free BONUS DISC!
Some
of this goes waaaaay back
The RoadApples and earlier stuff (1973-1980)****UNDER CONSTRUCTION****
Duf Davis+The Book Club (Produced by Tim Korzun and then some)****UNDER CONSTRUCTION****
Duf and Tim will be performing most Monday nights in Trenton, (don't forget to leave off the last "t" for savings) call the Duf hotline for details. The video for "f" hits the wireless waves this month - not to be missed (much).
My Dad: 5 years, still missing him
say cheese: breetles@comcast.net
who cut thecheese
©2008 theBreetles worldwide
