Screaming Mimes Blog

Today Randy & I laid down my guitar bits for "Twister" & "Superdave" - loads of fun. Yesterday (my birthday!) I spent a few hours putting together 12-string parts for "Superdave", particularly the "ride-out" ending. Awesome, indulgent fun. Used setting 5a on the POD with a treble boost. Betcha glad you know that.
So we stuck the Vox amp in a booth and cranked it up to the unholy volume levels of hell. Seemed to be holding up. Best amp purchase I've ever made. I think it was $70 back in '99. Heh heh...
For "Superdave" we ran a mic cable allllll the way down the end of the hall in front of the audio booth and opened the door just to catch a little extra natural echo. We'll mix 'em together and see how it all comes out.
"Twister" was tough for me. I can play that song backwards and forwards but playing it ABSOLUTELY perfectly took a little doing. It was so easy to mess up little chords here and there... but eventually we got it all down. Struggled with the 16th note solo Em run - yikes... but with some gentle encouragement from Randy we finally got it down. I'll never play it cleaner.
Next week we'll try and record some more. New Year starts this weekend!

Dave

WOW! What a difference a week makes. After a quick ceremonial breeze through "Christmastime" we started work on "Three Cheer Cincinnati", the Reds song. We nailed it. Changed the chord progression a bit in the verse (from a straight A to an A/D/A/D rhythm) and it made all the difference. Jim attacked it hard, Preston drove it all the way. Randy and I banged out the guitars like a couple of punk poppers. This song went from code blue to "a million jillion billion times better" immediately. Thank goodness. I had a new bridge to throw in as well which seemed to work well. We'll record this very soon here and get a sample available to the public - can't WAIT for you to hear it!
Next was refining "Big Show" - even better. Jim worked hard to keep it at the arm-busting tempo. If we can get the bridge the way we want it (secret overdubs) then it will ROCK! I did a lot of crazy wanking on the solo - great song to cut loose on. I almost hear some piano banging on this one... hmmm....

Have a great holiday. I know Christmas came early for us - we got these songs DOWN!

Dave

Just a rehearsal on the 15th... which was actually pretty tough! First we went through "She's Waiting" and reaquainted with it. Been a LONG time since that one - maybe June. We picked up where we left off and tweaked a few things. This song has a nice Beatles/Byrds vibe and I think Randy is going to knock it outta the park on the album. I wrote this one for him last year in a time of strife... I can't wait to hear it on record and show off some more 12-string Rickenbacker licks!

Next was our first Reds song, "The Big Show". I wrote this the day before (Wednesday the 14th) in a fit of creativity after working on a demo for "Three Cheers Cincinnati". Fast rocker about the moment of acheiving the dream of reaching the Majors. All the players I talk to pinpoint that moment as the greatest of their career. The work and sweat that leads up to that moment where you step up to your first Major League at-bat. We dove right in and had it pumping right away. Came up with some great ideas for a bridge too... can't wait for this one.

"Three Cheers Cincinnati" turned out to be much harder than we originally expected. The song has a moderate "bouncy" feel that we'll have to tweak. The song was written by me from lyrics by Jim Farmer, the resident baseball nut. They tell the story of the Reds championship ways from the beginning to the future... it's a long song and different from most of our tunes. This will be a challenge but we're all game.

Dave

Last night we tackled a couple of the newer, less familiar songs, "Suddenly" & "Happening". Suddenly is an unusual song for us - cool 6/8 groove, almost latin in it's feel. Preston & Jim discussed possible percussive additions to the song. The chorus was a bit of a struggle - recording it with the basic four piece arrangement left it kind of flat, but we've got plans to add some interesting layered guitar parts or guitars... just some textures and colors.
We did about 4 takes (I think) then moved on to Happening, last attempted the previous session. This song is going to be a a great rock song. Doesn't need a lot of flash to the arrangement - once that groove gets going, the song just rides it all the way.
Afterwards we stumbled a bit through "She's Waiting" then listened back to some of the best takes of the previous weeks work. Sweet. Preston & Jim are really stepping up and laying down some great beds.