endless summer institute of sound

Hot, Hot, Heat

2007-11-18T17:35:00.000-05:00

hey everyone, kevin here. things are heating up around ol' Endless Summer Institute of Sound HQ, hence my not posting here for a couple of weeks. the best news is that we have a new member of the ESIS "family" and that is aaron rogers, the new assistant at the studio. he's only been here for a week or so and already has made himself damned near indispensable. it's really great news though, in so much as we're working like 4 or 5 days a week down in the studio and that means more music made, etc. i'm very happy to be so busy.

so, anyway,the first thing coming out of ESIS, it turns out, will be the rmx me and the torrey canyon collective did for axe riverboy ( who, you will recall is xavier from tahiti 80 in solo mode ). it's coming out on JVC in japan, which is a big major label. kinda surprising they would put out rmx album but maybe japanese major labels are just cooler! check out the track listing here.

alos continuing work on the bertrand burgalat rmx feat. vocals by robert wyatt. it's coming laong quite well so far. also doing a song i wrote for french singer jean-emmanual de-luxe that features vocals by bertrand burgalat!

also got a nice message from sean o'hagan the other day on myspace. very cool guy and as i mentioned before, i'm working on a song sean wrote for jean-emmanual de-luxe. hopefully, sean and i can doing something together in the future? keep your fingers crossed.

anyway, we'll be fixing up the torrey canyon collective website in the next month or so and put up a myspace page as well, now that something is actually coming out by us. we also should be finishing up the orange cake mix record soon too. in fact, by the new year, we should have quite a bit done. we've also been working on our own songs and they're coming along quite well so far. we will probably post a demo or two on the myspace page in a few weeks. watch this space for further details!

let your freak flag fly...oh yeah. one more thing! kevin from the chamber strings e-mailed me the other day saying our old friend, liam hayes aka plush has a new video out for a new song from new forthcoming album. kevin thinks it's the best thing he's ever done and while i'd still say that "found a little baby" is better, check out this great song and video.

Music with the seasons?

2007-11-07T10:16:00.000-05:00

Now that cold weather has begun its rapid descent upon us here in Northeast Ohio, I've been thinking about how my music choices are affected by the weather, specifically the hunkering down for the dark, cold days of winter.

Some people probably load up on cheery music, the kind of bright, summery sounds that remind you of warm times and being outdoors. Everybody's got their own favorites, but classics like the Beach Boys and even newer pop stuff like Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, or Archer Prewitt just screams summertime to me.

For whatever reason though, I go the opposite route. I go with the winter, embracing the darker, mysterious, dense sounds. I put away the Nonesuch music from Africa, Johnathan Rice, and anything bright and cheery. I dig out dense, dissonant stuff like Godspeed You Black Emperor, Low, or albums that are just melancholy like The Wind by Warren Zevon, the last thing he put out before his death. Why does darker music fit the days? I don't know, but it works for me.

What does everybody else listen to this time of year?

Links Fer Breakfast

2007-10-24T10:42:00.000-04:00

mornin', everybody. well, it's finally getting "fall-like" here. temp's dropping, leaves dropping, etc. my favorite time o' the year...

anyway, got a couple of blog links for ya. first off, my friend bella, from elephant stone records, blogs on her site about attending a gig up in michigan of which adam franklin, the lead singer from swervedriver, was the headliner. it is both very funny and very sad, as it illustrates in a microcosm what's wrong with so much of the music scene today. i swear to god, gigs in library's and churches from here on out, ok?

the second link is a great new blog called "the optigan project." as many of you know, i have an optigan. and i love it. if you don't know what an optigan is go here. anyway, this "optigan project" blog is chronicling the efforts of the author to make new opitgan discs or to at least make copies of the existing discs. this is funny to me, as we have been talking about trying the same thing in the studio the last few months. evidentially, mark linkous of sparklehorse, has successfully made copies of optigan discs, or so he claimed in an interview a while back. pea hicks, the guy behind the band optiganally yours, claims in a e-mail to the "optigan project" blog that he has tried and found it nearly impossible to copy optigan discs or make new ones. anyway, head to the blog and read more, if you are so inclined...

ty was all set to come by to help me finish up the orange cake mix record yesterday but then his car wouldn't start. the gods, as always, are against us...but we shall prevail...

and no, i do not want to talk about the indians historic collapse, thank you very much!

more later...

Flippin' Yr Lid!

2007-10-21T16:31:00.000-04:00

ok, to sorta continue the kroft riff from the previous post, here's the intro to what i consider to be sid & marty kroft's finest creation: LIDSVILLE!! yes, it was a freaky as the intro makes it seem. both frightening and calming to my young senses back then. and how about the androgynous billie hayes playing a guy genie in "lidsville" after being a female witch in "h.r. pufnstuf??"

is there any doubt the 70's were a strange time to be a kid?

enjoy, true believers!

Sunday Morning Cup 'O Blog

2007-10-21T10:27:00.001-04:00

mornin', everybody. just a few things this morning to let ya know about...

great post by eric yesterday about our little "tube shootout" we had the other day. as eric stated, the valve jr. is a perfect amp for a test like that cuz it's got one preamp tube and one power tube, which makes it really easy to tell tonal differences between the different pre-amp tubes. now, we gotta find some vintage EL84's to swap out the power tube and see what kinda changes, if any, might happen. one slight correction from eric's post and that is that the telefunken tube was one i had lying around and not part of the magnatone's stunning array of vintage tubes. the damn thing has like 15 tubes!! and is a complete rat's nest of point-to-point wiring, as well! but whatta amp...

ty and i have been working the last week on drums quite a bit. the rmx for bertrand burgalat's "this summer night" was on the docket early in the week and so far the rmx has taken a very interesting turn. so far, it's sounding like a dub mix by trevor horn, if one can imagine such a thing...

we also did some drums to a song written for french artist and general renaissance man, jean-emmanuel de-luxe by the highly esteemed sean o'hagen of high llamas fame. it's a really interesting track that JED asked me to add some extra stuff to. it had some cool drum machine stuff, so i decided to add some live drums to it and it made a nice addition, for sure...look for an E.P. from JED in the next few months featuring songs written by me, the aforementioned mr. o'hagen and some guest vocals by the aforementioned mr. burgalat. watch this space, as they say...

oh, i finally have heard from my west-coast friend, mr. jarond gibbs, the man behind the band frequent flyer. jarond's "day job" these days is being one of the music writer's for the cool nick kids show, "yo gabba gabba." check it out, it's kind of a throw back to the sid and marty kroft shows of the 70's like "h.r. pufnstuf." anyway, jarond, who's a fantastic songwriter and i have collaborated on a couple of songs and they might be coming out on a 7" some day in the not-to-distant future.

speaking of sid & marty croft, here's the late, great "mr. show" doing a parody of h.r. pufnstuf. hi-larious! " i declare this pizza to be...awesome!"

Preamp tubes in the Epiphone Valve Jr. head - Is There Tone in Holland?

2007-10-20T20:47:00.001-04:00

The Epiphone Valve Jr. Head , or simply "Valve Jr" as we like to refer to him, is a wonderfully scrappy little guitar amp. Originally $99, but now $129, the Valve Jr. head is a 5 watt, Class A, all tube guitar amplifier. It has one knob - Volume (Steve Jobs would be proud), and two tubes, a 12ax7 as the preamp tube and a single EL84 for power. There are 3 speaker outputs, 4 ohms, 8 ohms, and 16 ohms; which is an amazingly nice feature to have. This simple little beast is great fun, and Kevin and I decided to do some tube swapping the other night. We've always been skeptical of the real differences in tube sound, and we wanted to test it out ourselves. Although obviously built to a price point, the Valve Jr is a surprisingly noise free and quality guitar amp, and its simple circuits and design really highlight changes in tubes.

For our tests, we used the Valve Jr plugged into the speakers from Kevin's Silverface Super Reverb - 4 10 inchers. We used the same guitar, a nice Stratocaster built from AllParts parts. The pickups are Fender 57/62, and the neck is maple, strings are .11 gauge.

First up was the stock tube, a shiny new Sovtek 12Ax7. It has only had probably 10 hours of use, so it's almost new for all intents and purposes. The Sovtek has a wooly sound, with a pronounced lower midrange. It gives the amp a decidedly "British" tone, being forward with the mids, and laying off some highs and lows. It was medium-hi gain. Overall it was ok, but not exceptional. It certainly has a "tubey" sound, almost as if Epiphone put it in to ensure the Valve Jr sounded nothing like the solid state and digital amps it competes with price wise.

Next up was an Electro Harmonix 12ax7. This had been used some, but exact age and mileage are unknown. Surprisingly, this played and sounded almost identical to the Sovtek. Same pronounced midrange, wooly low-mid, and medium high gain. I know some tubes are manufactured in the same place and simply rebranded, and I wouldn't be surprised if these two were brothers, or maybe cousins.

Following was a G.E. 12ax7. This was snagged from an old Magnatone amp, so it had plenty of use, but displayed no microphonics. The first thing we could tell with this tube was that it cleaned up and shined the Valve Jr's wooly midrange. Gone was the midrange forwardness, and replaced with lots of high end. With the single coil, vintage strat pickups we were using, it really brought out the highs and gave us a shimmery sound. It wasn't hard or shrill, just very clear and open. Given the Class A operation, we weren't surprised to notice this tube gave the Valve Jr a bit of the Vox vibe. Vintage, but clear. Gain was lower than the first two; medium gain.

Next up was a Telefunken 12ax7, also stolen from the Magnatone (that bastard has like 15 tubes or something). The midrange stood out as very clear and buttery. It was not as brilliant or shimmery as the high end of the GE, but still clearly better than the E.H. or Sovtek. It was medium gain, and displayed a nice round tone, but it simply didn't have the harmonic overtones or detail of the G.E.

Following the Telefunken was a Mullard 12ax7 from, you guessed it, the Magnatone. Kevin and I didn't really expect much, assuming all the hype around Mullard tubes was just that; hype. Wow. First thing we noticed was high gain - it was significantly louder than any of the other tubes. But, it seemed to breakup later than the Sovtek or E.H., which was interesting. The sound was phenomenal; it didn't have the crystalline highs of the G.E., but bettered every other tube in nearly every way. Single notes rang out with harmonics and overtones, sustain was great, high notes were buttery and clear. Chords were fat, but retained definition. It was simply exciting to play, subtle dynamics and playing just brought out more and more. Excellent tone for "hot" sounds, like blues or rock. Seriously impressive.

Lastly, we found a Real Life 12dw7 in the Magnatone. Now, this isn't a 12ax7 like the others, but we gave it a go anyway. First impression was that this made the Valve Jr. an almost bona-fide jazz amp. It was much lower gain than the other tubes, and had a very hifi sound -- clear strong highs and lows, and less midrange push than the more guitar oriented tubes. Very smooth and rounded on single notes, and a fat thunk to chords. Almost no break up, even cranked up. Very interesting, and a great tube for coaxing cleaner tones out of the Valve Jr.

So, what we discovered was that we were plain wrong about tubes being inconsequential in the overall amp tone. Different tubes made a huge difference. As far as a favorite, the Mullard probably wins overall for plain excitement and tone. The G.E. had a beautiful high end that gave a gorgeous vintage tone, and was a close second, and a little more restrained than the Mullard. The Real Life 12dw7 was a clean tone monster, giving a surprisingly jazzy and clear tone to the Valve Jr. The Sovtek and EH were simply outclassed, and sounded cheap and forced in comparison. The Telefunken was somewhere in between the "top 3" and the "bottom 2", but wasn't as impressive as we were expecting.

Notably absent from this test were a couple tubes. For one, we used high end old tubes, and cheap new tubes. A newer, higher end tube like a JJ is a must-test. We also want to test the new reissue Mullards, just to see if they capture any of the magic. We'd also love to try Bugle Boys, as they're fabled as much as Mullards and Telefunkens for tone.

The Valve Jr. is simply great fun, and a great way to try different tubes and options with your gear setup. At $129, or less used, it's worth it to pick one up. You'll have fun.

Mark Twain + Claymation = Nightmares

2007-10-18T04:16:00.000-04:00

Whoa...

I'll blog about music sometime in the near future... when I stop crying.

Regards

,TL

As Easy As Falling Off A (B)Log

2007-10-09T13:44:00.000-04:00

so, hey ho, how ya doin'? kevin here, back with some amigos in tow, to try and get this blog back on it's feet and that's no mean feat with me! hehehe!

yeah, so i fell off the blog wagon for a few months and in the interim i've been working on getting things more together. as you may have guessed, if you followed me and my "career" in the least, i take a long time to finish things. some of that is the way i am/work, some of it is circumstances thrust upon me, blah, blah, blah. anyway, i waited until i got my new "groop" together before i would re-start my blog. and luckily pour moi, the fellas ( and one groovy chick ) are as smart and funny as bloggers as they are damn fine and tasteful musicians! so that means many more blog posts and that's good, right?

you've already heard from ty and eric so let me fill in, just a little bit, their bio's for ya. ty is a classically trained percussionist who has already, in the short time we've been playing together, become invaluable to me and all the projects we're working on. equally comfortable behind a kit pounding out a super-funky jazz beat or laying down an amazing vibes riff or even wigging out on the wurly with a hot electric piano solo, the dude is vers-a-tile with a capital "WOW!" he has even done some nice string arrangements for me when i feel like i'm writing the same part over and over again! plus, he brings a solid grounding in the avant-garde, which is something i love! to me, mixing the avant-garde with the "pop" is nirvana and i don't mean the band, squares! did i mention he's also learning the theremin?? somebody pinch me, i must be dreaming...

eric, on the other hand is a hack! no, of course not! i keed! the guy is an amazing player who's playing exudes T-A-S-T-E. never intrusive, he always plays the right thing and seemingly has no ego. yeah, i know, a guitar player with no ego! yes, he is an android we created in the studio.

anyway, eric comes from a jazz background and has a great sense of humor and fits this collective like a glove really pretentious guitar players wear to shred. or something like that. he and i have, as he mentioned in his post, been doing some experimenting and mods to guitar amps and effects to come up with the "tone" that the norse god loki stole from humanity in the mists of creation! and we will find it and bring forth guitar ragnarok ( google it )!!

their are other members of the collective that we will talk about in the future esp. vocalist vocalist extraordinaire, kat and resident hipster, ryan s. but more on that soon...

so, as ty mentioned the first release for the Torrey Canyon Collective will be a rmx for the song 'follow me' by axe riverboy, who happens to be xavier boyer, lead singer of the fab french groop, tahiti 80! the tahiti boys and i "met" in myspace and it turns out they were fans of the WHS back in the day. so, from that thw rmx came. xavier has assured me that he will return the favor on some upcoming Torrey Canyon Collective release, so stay tuned and all that jazz...

oh, yeah, so far that rmx will only be coming out on a special rmx album ( feat. fugu, eric matthews, ben's symphonic orchestra, etc. ) that, as of now, will be released in japan in the next month or so. obviously, we'll let ya know as soon as we know were you can purchase that if you are so inclined...

I should tell you all that while the blanket name of this collective is, in fact, The Torrey Canyon Collective, we will appear on different releases under different names and monikers. par example, the axe rvierboy rmx is credited to "Kevin Coral and The Torrey Canyon All-Stars" cuz it's a very "jazz" rmx and, hence, called for a very "jazz" moniker. the orange cake mix album, which we've almost finished ( finally! ) will come out as 'Orange Cake Mix feat. The Torrey Canyon MelloTronic Orquestra & Chorus.' got it? good...

so, there's a lot more to tell ya, including a rmx of a new bertrand burgalat track featuring vocals by robert wyatt ( !!!! ) but that will have to wait 'til next time. we'll also be putting up a blog log of other blogs we like, etc.

oh, some days we'll talk about studio gear and stuff and sometimes about music and sometimes about books and well, you get the picture, right?

ciao,
kevin

currently listening to: the free design - "heaven/earth"

p.s. - the website will be fixed and updated post-haste as well, i promise!

Another Introduction

2007-10-01T07:47:00.000-04:00

Hello, I wanted to join in and smash the bottle against the ship for this reawakening of the blog. This is Eric Browning, guitarist with Kevin and all his various projects and ideas. As Ty mentioned, we're a little slow getting started, but I think we're all hoping to get together soon and get some music moving forward.

Kevin and I have also been experimenting with some new and old amps, speakers, and modifications. We'll keep you posted about our adventures.

It's an exciting time; we're really looking to get involved in a variety of projects and put our own little stamp on the music we create. There are some great people and some great ideas, so stay tuned to find out what's going on.

The Ty Landrum Trio?

2007-10-01T01:42:00.000-04:00

Hello and Salutations to all who read this. I am Ty Landrum, percussionist for Kevin Coral's new brainchild, Torrey Canyon Collective. Be glad that I'm here.

For all of you Witch Hazel Fans out there, (there are still some of you, right?) I think that you'll be pleased with some of the sounds that come out of Kevin's dark, dark basement over the next few months. For those of you reading this who have never heard of WHS, I urge you to stay tuned as well. We may just blow your fucking mind.

As of late, progress on our debut has been slow, but significant. I had the immense pleasure of laying down some drum kit, tambourine, djembe and vibraphone for Xavier of Tahiti 80's upcoming remix album, which will coincide with his latest solo effort. I have listened to his album and I will say that it is very good. As I understand, this track (and the record on which it appears) will be limited to a Japanese release. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.

Also, Kevin and I, along with the rest of the Collective have been working on our own material, which is, as of yet, undefinable. The shared influences of this group are diverse and challenging, which will make for some interesting developments. I'll shed more light on our sound and my personal musical background in my next late night blog. There's a lot to tell, I promise.

In the meantime, please check back often, as I'll try to get Kevin blogging again. For those of you still with me, with us, thank you and don't lose hope. It was nice talking at you.

Regards,

TL

Once a month

2006-06-15T16:55:00.000-04:00

well, i'm back. i've had a crappy month! ha! "what's new," you might be thinking? the worst part is that me and my wife and child all got *really* sick a few weeks ago. we got a really bad virus that knocked us essentially out of commission for a week. i still am not all the way back. i've gone to the doctor three times in the last month. not cool...

so, needless to say, this has pushed back my work. actually, april march and i are trying to figure out a time to ge together to do a song for a new french label but it's been impossible with me being sick and her busy schedule. i swear, it's hard to be a rock star when you have small kids! and she has two! but hopefully we can get together soon. i will give ya all the details when it happens, and hopefully have a few pics to share as well...

oh, yeah, i have put up a witch hazel sound myspace page. i had resisted for the longest time cuz it seemed so trendy and kiddie but it's actually kinda cool. i've been able to catch-up with some people i haven't talked to in years. anyway, go to the page and become our friend, if you wish!

i bought a new laptop with some tax return money so i can work on music in places *other* the studio. i'm hoping it will make me more effective in my work, since i can work most anywhere at any time.

i've been listening to some newer stuff lately that friends have burned for me or stuff i've found on the internet. i listened to the new shack and it ain't bad but not as good as some of their early stuff. my friend burned me the scott walker box set that came out a while ago and it's good but i don't think they did a great job of picking songs...it coulda been a lot better. i *have* but have not *listened* to the new scott walker disc but i have it. the reviews make it sound like it might be a tough go. i actually liked "tilt" and can't believe that came out over 10 years ago...sheesh...

i did like a record called "lucky dog recordings" by former tindersticks singer, stuart staples. it's very good and quite similar to the tindersticks, as you may've expected. i loved the tindersticks...

here's the records i didn't like: the new my morning jacket pretty much stunk, IMO. it sounded like another band...a rare john leckie production i didn't like...i didn't like the rilo kiley album either. wayyyyy too slick and she *clearly* thinks her lyrics are wonderful. this is so irritating to me and why i am a bit concerned about the new scott walker record because he talks about how the music is there to support the lyrics. and the rilo kiley feels the same way. i really hate that...it should be a partnership with the music. sounds obvious but it ain't to some folks...the espers record ain't too bad for a nu-folk record but it ain't as interesting as the banhart record...that may be do the interesting production on the banhart record by thom monahan...i've only ever met thom once when he was in a band called monsterland, and i met them because they had the same lawyer as i did, mr. matthew kaplan. and he also produced the last chamber strings record. i hope to meet him one day...he's good...

speaking of the chamber strings, i talked to kevin via e-mail and he's still trying to get his living situation together and re-emphasized to me that he really wants me to produce the next record. i told him i wanted to and hoped we could get started on it as soon as possible. watch this space, as they say...

i've been missing having a band lately. i would like to have one again but i can't imagine finding people in this area who would be into what i'm into. maybe i'm being too pessimistic?

btw, i'm really into politics and i thought i might share with you those sites in the "blogosphere" that i frequent: dailykos, firedoglake, talking points memo, the huffington post, and hullaboo. those are the best, IMO...

well, i guess that's all for now. i'd tell you i'll write more but you wouldn't believe me anyway...

Deep Thoughts

2006-04-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

man, i have GOT to have the lamest header's ever...

anyway, i have to say something about Gene Pitney who died last week. i wrote about how cool he was in a earlier post on this here blog, so i was really quite sad to hear of his passing. i was lucky enough to catch most of a show on XM that featured them playing all of the Gene Pitney Anthology with commentary and stories about the songs from Gene himself. the program originally aired back in August but they re-ran it on the occasion of his passing. it was great and it really struck me that while i dislike over-emoting in singers, i am sucker for really emotional singers like Gene who go just to the edge but never over it. he will be missed...

i was listening to the new Stereolab and Flaming Lips albums yesterday and i must say, on first blush, i'm pretty dissapointed in both of them. the Stereolab is almost by the numbers it seems, which is too bad as i have enjoyed the last couple of records. and the Flaming Lips just sounds...half-baked and i mean that in all ways, really.

it's finally been warm here the last few days. today it was almost 70 degrees! yay! it's about damn time. anyway, that means i can begin joggin again. i have been on a diet since the new year and have almost lost 30lbs so far. and yes, that means i look less like Brian Wilson at his mid-70's worst than ever before!

ok, well that's all for now. i am tired and i want to go to bed...hey! didn't Morrissey say that once???

ciao,
kevin

Oh, the times they are a changin'

2006-04-07T22:23:00.000-04:00

i know, i know, i haven't done any entries in over a month. i apologize to the 10 people who might read this blog but i have been busy doing other stuff but who hasn't, right? a pretty crappy excuse all the way around...

so, i've been working a LOT on the studio trying to get it up and running. my studio has been in a constant flux since i moved here in the new place 4 or so years ago. i have changed and remodelled rooms in the studio almost constantly since i moved and have added gear all along as well. it's been a bit of a struggle, really, because i've had to record as all this other stuff is goin' on. case in point was this past saturday when Amy Rigby, who now lives in cleveland, came down to record a song for a Clash tribute album. she brought along her very cool daughter, Hazel, along to play bass and Tin Huey/Waitresses all-around genius dude, Chris Butler to play drums. now, Chris is awesome and as we were getting his drums all set up and mic'ed he was blowing our minds with a story about how he got to spend 4 hours on a plane sitting next to, and talking to, Hal Blaine!!! well, needless to say i was awe-struck and wished we could've talked more but there was work to be done...so, anyway, getting back to my original point. the studio was half done, so of course, the headphones were only working in mono, so poor Chris had to drum with that and the guitar amp was acting up right from the start but we got that sorted out but i still wasn't thrilled with the sound we got, but these things happen. it was kind of a quick session, so i had to kinda do it all on the fly. but overall it sounds good. very rock n roll...the best thing was Chris brought along his Neumann U47 mic. the greatest mic in the history of man. it sounded good when we used it as distant mic on the guitar amp and really shined in figure-8 mode on backing vocals going through my Helios vintage mic-pre but when it came to doing Amy's lead vocals, we were getting too much of a "boxy" tone. i was able to improve it a bit with the eq but in the end we tried a vintage $21 and then settled on another 60's-era mic, a Shure 545 (which some of you may know was actually a favorite vocal mic of Brian Wilson's. in fact, i'm pretty sure Mark Linett mentioned in an interview that they used it on the new "Smile" album) and that worked out well. so, the $10, 000 mic lost out to the $100 mic but that happens...

also continuing work on the Orange Cake Mix album. it's going very well. Jim and i are pretty kindred spirits musically, so it's been really fun to comke up with stuff for his songs. his stuff is so varied as well, so it's been keeping me on my toes to come up with new sounds and not keep repeating the same sounds. though i do have a few "pet sounds," like Mellotron strings, ARP and Moog synths, etc.

i've also continued to work on songs of my own. April March was in the studio here last week as well, picking up some demos of hers we recorded a few months ago and also taking about 9 songs that i have written to see if she likes any of them for possible use for her next album. she brought along her oldest son, Lucian along and it turns out, April tells me, that Lucian is a HUGE Witch Hazel Sound fan! well, actually a fan of our last album. April says he plays it all the time and has fun picking out the different instrument sounds. he also calls me "Mr. Witch Hazel," which it too cute...

i am also going to be doing a remix for a french band called Signal Electrique. they are a really eclectic dance/electronica group whom i met through my old french label. i am really excited about the track i am remixing and i will give you more details about when it will be released, etc. soon...

i was told that Kevin Junior of the Chamber Strings in down in New Orleans now. he's really depressed as he's good friend Nikki Sudden just died. i have tried to contact Kevin through his myspace page but he has not responded as of yet. he has one of the demos we did here at the Endless Summer Institute of Sound last year on his myspace page if any of you would like to hear it. keep in mind it's a demo but it does have some nice sloppy rock n roll charm to it...

ok, that's all for now but i promise to write more soon. more politics next time maybe???

cheers,
kevin

BAD NEWS AND WINTER BLUES

2006-01-27T14:47:00.000-05:00

this is starting to be the most depressing blog out there, eh? what with headers like this on! hehehe...

the bad news is rather just MORE bad news in relation to my chosen profession, music. check this out from Yahoo.

now, i would argue- and *have* been to any poor schmuck who, say, gets caught in a elevator with me or whatever- that music has been devalued in america for sometime. really for about 30 years or so. how, you may ask? well, by having music EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME, people naturally won't value something they get all the time. i mean, i'll be in some shitty store and over the bad p.a. will come some great song say like Nilsson's "everybody's talking." now, this is one of the best songs of all-time, really. and so poignant! but it loses all of it value to people cuz they've heard it a thousand times thanks to oldies stations and
and dept. stores, etc. i KNOW nobody really cares about his kind of stuff but me, but hell, that's what a personal blog is for, right?

by the way, i am thrilled the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the super bowl because i have been a fan since i was 6 years old and i love their running back, Jerome Bettis because he went to notre dame, my favorite college football team for all my life, and because he's such a cool guy. i hope they get "one for the thumb" for Jerome.

nothing much to report on the music front...except that i will soon have an announcement to let people know that soon ALL my songs will be on iTunes. it will soon be the ONLY place to get "Landlocked"as it's been out-of-print for a few years now and i'm not sure when it's gonna be re-issued at this point.

cheers,
kevin

new year, same old crap...

2006-01-09T14:40:00.000-05:00

Ha! how's that for a header title? anyway, i hope everybody had a great holiday time (take that, Bill O'Reilly) and happy new year to y'all...

here's a interesting link to my friend Mattias from sweden's website. he is a super talented musician and producer who has his own studio in Sweden and he has GREAT gear like 2 or 3 Mellotrons and an Optigan and it's rarer cousin, the Orchestron and here is great link to a movie of him playing with what is probably the world's first drum machine, the Chamberlin Rhythm-mate

Mattias is in a few bands but i first learned of him via his band, Nanook of the North. Mattias sent me a cd-r of this album and, pretty much unlike anything else i've ever had sent to me, it was great! so, i forwarded it on to Parasol records and they flipped and put it out. i was happy to help bring them together. i actually did something like that once before when back in the mid-90's i got to know Liam Hayes a.k.a. Plush and helped him hook up with Flydaddy records for his single "No Education/Soaring and Boring." the downside is i lost contact with him in, like, '98 and haven't talked to him since. he ended up going back to drag city after that single anyway...

so, everybody and their brother does a "Best Of..." list this time every year but since i can't remember much about what i listened to new this year, i'll just say for now that i really liked MOST of these albums last year:

SFA- "Love Kraft"
Sufijan Stevens- "Illinoize"
Devandra Barnhart - "Cripple Crow"
Broadcast - "Tender Buttons"
Paul McCartney - "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard"

and no, i haven't hear the new Burt Bachrach record yet...i'll let ya know...

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

2005-12-21T11:40:00.000-05:00

today is our daughter's brigid 1st b-day! by far, she was the best thing about this past year. yes, i am still feeling sorry for myself about the howard project dying! but things are looking up, as i am an optimist by nature. actually, doesn't EVERYBODY say that?

ok, i haven't talked about politics in a while here on the blog, and since there's nothing really new to report on the music front (though i may have a new song coming out on a japeanese comp. soon. i'll let you know when i have more info...) i have to talk about the CLEARLY illegal wire-tapping the Bush administration is using. ask yourself this question, dear reader; why would Bush not go to a court that has only rejected 4 gov. requests in over 4,000? it's starting to come out in some media that despite what the Bush said, they have monitored purely domestic calls. in other words, calls that are not coming in the the USA from outside or from the USA to other countries but rather, inside the USA calls! that's why they didn't go to a rubber stamp court for approval. because they knew even the FISA court wouldn't approve spying on domestic calls! and then it comes out that the FBI is spying on a whole bunch of groups that have one thing in common; they are on the other side of the poltical fence from republicans!!

this is the nixon admin. all over again except these guys are even more arrogant.

let me just leave you these two quotes and think about what this all REALLY means:

Sen. John Cornyn(R): "None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead."
Sen. Russ Feingold's(D) retort: "Give me liberty or give me death."

The Winter of My Discontent

2005-12-15T11:44:00.000-05:00

well, things are not going well for your old narrator here...

the john howard/witch hazel sound album is kaput. non-payment by the label is the main reason for it's death but it's also a little bit of back-stabbing by the various parties involved who are NOT members of the WHS. i think you will be able to figure it out...and yes, this marks ANOTHER project that looks like it won't be released, joining a Bill Fox
record i recorded back in '96 and the Laura Watling sessions from a couple of years ago...such is this business...

btw, i would also ask any of you who may not have already ordered the french version of the last WHS album, please DO NOT do so now. the record co. who put it out has changed management and i am not on good terms with them at all, so please boycott that release...

the good news is i am still at work on a new Orange Cake Mix album, supplying my usual over-blown arrangements on his songs. it's going quite well, actually and just a few days ago we added some great backing vocals to one of the songs. the singer was a new participant in the kevin coral universe by the name of Elizabeth Kelly. she's a VERY talented vocalist and keyboard player and we have just begun working together on
this project and have tenative plans to work on more things in the future for my Torrey Canyon collective. i'll keep you posted...

The Chamber Strings project has sort of taken on some new life lately, as kevin junior is back in the states and has expressed a desire to re-start the album sessions with me. things have been moving at a stop and start pace on this one but i will keep you updated. watch this spot, as they say...

happy holidays to everyone and here's hoping the new year is better for yours truly! ha! how's THAT for a self-serving greeting?!

-kevin

Why i hate the music biz, chapter 742

2005-12-06T14:49:00.000-05:00

oh, good god! why, oh, why does the music biz suck soooo badly? look at this story at the huffington post!!

so, the record companies don't have any production costs, except the cost of recording the album- and let's remember that on 'greatest hits' collections there is absolutely NO cost- and now they want to charge as much as they do for cd?? oh, how i wish the indies and itunes would get together and have albums for $9.99 and itunes will just tell the majors to go to hell! then the majors would all go to their own download systems and charge more per album and they would fail miserably! we must destroy this system/paradigm. it screws the artist and it screws the consumer and smarter people than i need to come up with a new model and put these bastards out of buisness...and the record co.'s wonder why people do something wrong like download music! when they do wrong to both artists and consumers. and yeah, sure, 2 (or 3) wrongs don't make a right but damn, i can understand while people do it!

working in the studio today some more on the john howard album. i really hope this record comes out soon and gets some good distribution because john's songs are great and people who've heard the rough mixes, including john himself, have been really over-the-top in their praise. and, since i'm not feeling humble today, i'll say that it's my best production overall; if for no other reason than the songs and arrangements are so varied...from glam rock (like bowie not like poison) to pure pop to electro-avant stuff... and i owe a lot to people like craig lisik, henry james and jason richardson for their help along the way of the recording of this album.

anyway back to work... oh yeah, i changed the settings so now you don't have to be a registered user to leave a commnet. so let the flaming begin!

-kevin

TEMPUS FUGIT

2005-12-02T16:27:00.000-05:00

i'm fairly sure no one is reading this blog, but on the off-chance someone is, i apologize for not posting in a month. it's gotten crazier than usual around here recently...

sent john howard new rough mixes and he loved them, so we're 75% done with that album. there has been some record co. weirdness as of late, so i don't have anything to tell you about a possible release date, but watch this space for further updates...

also, the chamber strings project seems to be back on after kevin junior has now returned from europe. he had been over there for almost a year, intially playing with nikki sudden on some dates, then doing his own shows in germany and italy and then meeting a girl, etc. but he is back now and ready to re-start our work on his new album. we had done some demos last fall that neither of us we're super-thrilled with; the songs are very good, it's just the performances weren't quite what we'd hoped. but hopefully we can get cracking on it soon. again, watch this space.

i've been reading this book on the brill building writers called "Always Magic in the Air : The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era and it's pretty good but not all that well written. it's not bad but doesn't have much flow...anyway, i was reading it last night and was struck by how cool gene pitney was. this a guy who wrote 'he's a rebel' for phil spector, sang many hits written by bacharach and david ( one of which, 'the foolkiller,' is a totally under-rated gem) and hung out and played with the stones back in the 60's. what a cool dude..

speaking of brill building stuff and spector, i have been listening to a new compilation called Phil's Spectre II: Another Wall of Soundalikes and it's pretty cool. i think i liked the first volume a little better but this one has some great stuff like: No Room to Cry - Dobie Gray,Habit of Lovin' You Baby - April Stevens, Nino Tempo and You Gave Me Somebody to Love - The Dreamlovers. the funniest thing about this comp. is how many people tried to rip off the righteous bros. and 'you've lost that lovin' feelin!' there's one song by a group call kane and abel that is complete knock-off of '...lovin' feelin'

ok, that's all for now but i'll be posting again soon so keep on checkin' back!

ciao!

Old Stuff

2005-11-01T12:19:00.000-05:00

well, we finally have got some of our equipment listed on the website (www.torreycanyon.net). it's a list of some of our cooler pre-amps first.

and that brings me to today's topic, old stuff. a great deal of our equipment at the studio is 30 years old and older. so, the internet has been an invaluable resource for finding out info about a lot of this stuff. in fact, thanks to newsgroups and forums, you can even talk to the people who worked with this stuff back in the day!

anyway, while reading things and in some instances, actually talking to these 'old-timers,' we have been struck by how dismissive they were of most of this old equipment. and that struck me because i've seen this tendency from other people of the pre-baby boomer generations. my parents have been antique collectors and dealers for over 30 years and they too have run cross this dismissive attitude towards 'old stuff.' well, we've come up with a generalized opinion that that is because they lived through the full-bloom of the 'space age,'so they were conditioned to get rid of the old and celebrate the new. now, all generations suffer from this to varying degress but it is most pronounced in the 'greatest generation,'IMHO...

so anyway, that my dime store psych study for today, kiddies! and yes, i maybe completely full of shite...

oh, the one thing that always seems to come up when talking to old-timers about this equipment is how come those records they made with this 'crap' sounded GREAT?? i get different answers to this one, as you might imagine...oh yeah, and my favorite dismissive comment about a piece of gear was a guy describing an EQ as 'the ringy type liked by people who read Tape Op.' haha! i loved that one...

Wingnut judges and new studio stuff

2005-10-31T13:32:00.000-05:00

ok, check this out about Bush's new supreme court nominee.

this is from the CNN site and the great blog, Dailykos.com:

"In Doe v. Groody, Alito agued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home."

isn't that great? i can't wait for more of the republican's vision for america. how 'bout you?? please learn more about this guy and tell your friends, famliy and neighbors so they'll learn about what this white house and their wingnut friends are doing!!

on the plus side, we've bought a new pre amp for the studio. it's a early 70's vintage mic pre/eq made by audix. audix was a company formed by ex-neve employees in the late 60's. the designs were VERY neve-like. so this is a great new 'color' for us to add to our projects! if you don't know who neve were, well, they are about the most respected and used gear label in the audio world.

we've had people asking for pics of the studio and such and were working on that but it'll be a little while as we are doing some remodeling to the control room. but soon we'll have some shots!!

Random Stuff

2005-10-28T13:45:00.000-04:00

wow, the vice-prez's chief of staff just got indicted on 5 counts and has resigned! woohoo!!!

i guess rove is still in trouble, too...

and dig this from a fox news(!) poll: Of those that say they voted for Bush in the election, 86 percent say they would still vote for him today and 6 percent would switch their vote to Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry .

that means, of course, that kerry would've won quite easily...

but i think this might turn out for the best, though it's hard to say that when 2,000 u.s. soldiers and countless iraqi citizens have been killed...

staying on the downer tip, i was reading Uncut (www.uncut.co.uk) last night and it had a big cover story about the murder of john lennon. and in the article they had many musicians' memories of that fateful day. it's amazing how many of them said they cried. i was 12 then and i remember the night very vividly. my father was a HUGE beatles fan and i grew up hearing them and believing them, esp. john, to be heroes. my dad just listened to his music on WMMS all night. even at 12, i remember thinking the world had changed. i also remember how excited my dad was about 'double fantasy' coming out and how john was back in the charts and radio. it boggles the mind to think about the beatles and their impact...sorry i don't have anything profound to say. i think it would probably come off as trite, anyway...

TGIF!!!! hehehe...

cheers,

kevin

Oblique Strategies

2005-10-27T13:45:00.000-04:00

here's a cool link to you MAC users out there. http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/reference/oblique.html

it's a freeware program of all of brian eno's 'oblique strategies' card decks. an ingenious idea, really!

if you don't know about these cards, they were designed to be used by a musician or producer when they've reached a deadspot during recording or mixing, etc. so, to jumpstart the session again, one would pick a card out the deck and follow the 'strategy' written on it. it's really great but in my experience, most artists/producers don't usually have the guts to follow the first card they choose! hehehe...

but either way it can be a really good little tool to use around the studio.

Welcome to our silly blog!!

2005-10-26T13:32:00.000-04:00

hi folks,

this is the blog of the studio we like to call the endless summer institute of sound. we're a personal studio in lovely kent, oh. if you're here and reading this, you probably know us anyway, so let's move on...

this picture is of our lastest addition to the studio, a early 70's vintage helios mic pre/eq module. these babies are rare. helios was the name of a console company started by dick swettenham who worked at abbey road, then built a console for olympic studios (rolling stones, beatles, hendrix, etc) and then started to build consoles for other UK studios and then started to branch out the the U.S. each console was custom built!

for more of the helios story go to:http://www.helios-electronics.com/The_Story/the_story.html

so, anyway, we're so thrilled to add this 'weapon' to our already pretty damn good arsenal of vintage gear. we'll start talking about our other gear and post pics here too in the next few weeks. jason, my partner in the studio, will also post here as well. this blog will be mainly about what's goin' on at the studio but might also be about music, politics, etc. we hope you enjoy it...

cheers,

kevin