The Raccoon Tour Diaries - Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Did you know that some people claim to have feelings every single day?
Production Notes from March 1, 2025
On Saturday, I spent the day recording. We got two songs done. I love them. I love how we got them to sound. I went down to Atlanta because a friend from way back has a wonderful studio built out in his basement, and I wanted to record, for the first in a professional setting, with people I knew and trusted. I always thought highly of Kris after I briefly ran in the same circles as him in Atlanta years ago. Kris was, and still is, way cooler and way sweeter than just about anyone you’ll ever meet. Sampson Sound is his music production operation. We were lucky to be joined by the masterful Kyle Gordon, who was an all-day hero and did great work on the drums and bass. We even jammed our way into a song written and recorded that day—in addition to a fully realized version of “Raccoon Tour.” I’ll write more later about how great it was working with Kris and Kyle. For now I wanted to share more of the notes I wrote to develop my thinking about how to record the song in advance of the session. We didn’t exactly follow what’s below—because we figured out where the song needed to go, and part of being able to do that was having drawn this map in advance, even though we ended up going somewhere else. Maps have lots of roads on them, right?
There are links in what’s below to a few different versions of the song, but not the one we just did. Not yet. I’m not sure what happens to those recordings. They’ll definitely be on the next album (working title: the Beatles), maybe a 7” too? I did art for a single cover for the song a long time ago. It’s shared beyond the paywall.
Oh! And it was an added treat that another old friend from Atlanta days, Cyrus, hung out and recorded an excellent bass track for “Raccoon Tour.”
The notes:
I’ve never attempted to re-record a song, and I’ve never recorded in a professional setting. I feel both deeply opinionated, and simultaneously at least partially aware of the limitations of my knowledge and ability to articulate what I can imagine the song sounding like. Candidly, while I very much want to try recording in a “real studio” with a “real producer,” I’m also intimidated.
I’m open to trying things, but I wanted to do my best to document my thinking and ideas as a starting point for re-recording—which is to say, I’m open to input and advice at every level, from writing to rhythm to instrumentation—even if that advice goes in a different direction than what’s below. Part of the reason I feel comfortable trying things is that a) otherwise what’s the point of working with other people? and b) even if I can’t live with what we do together (which I think is unlikely) I’ve thought this through enough that I could attempt to re-record at home and improve on the previous home version. All that is to say, I’ve gone through the mental gymnastics of convincing myself the stakes are low, which is a prerequisite for me being in a place to take some swings.
If on 3/1, we track and mix this song, I would consider that a really successful day. If we also have time to work on anything else, even better.
After performing this song pretty frequently since I wrote/recorded it in April last year, both solo acoustic, and amped up with a drummer, I have a better understanding of what the song is supposed to be, and I’m hoping to capture that in this recording.
Production references - The production on these songs is basically perfect in my view, and they’re, to varying degrees, helpful examples for this song in particular.
Lilys - “Ginger” (cymbals are a little too prominent, otherwise perfect)
Previous versions for reference
What my home-recorded version gets right
The overlap of fuzz and clean tones
The vocal doubling on some lines—the ones in bold below should be doubled or otherwise enhanced with echo or something
The tempo is about right, though I tend to play it faster when performing
What my home-recorded version gets wrong
The drums are in from the beginning and don’t change, when they should either come in at the * below or at least go from minimal to much more prominent at that point
The little roll fills in The Gerbils’ “Sunshine Soul” are kind of right for this moment of kicking in (see 0:45), but the drums should be more explosive like when they kick in at 0:34 in “The White Sky.” In any case, Jeremy Barnes is the model.
Not what the the drums are doing, but the sound of them is just right in this Breeders song.
Eb
Ab Bb Eb
The world is all…that’s the case
The world is all...there is
Ab Bb Eb D Gm
The melody goes…
[*drums tumble in here]
How you think it’s going to go
I’ll be right here
Eb
‘Cuz it’s a…
Ab Bb Eb D Gm
Long way to the top
If you wanna eek out a living
It’s a long way to the top
From here
Eb
Ab Bb Eb D Gm
Started in the middle
And I went nowhere
Started in the middle
And I, I stayed right there
I’m not wired for this fight
I’m not wired up at all
I’ll be right here
Off-kilter builder
I get devastated all the time
I’ll be right here
More yammering beyond the paywall.
Collage of the Day: Cold Ones
Subscriber Collage: Raccoon Tour 7” Cover
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