BRAIN, BOC: what a piece of work Piece of Work is

[John A. Swartz]

> AS to everything that follows its remarkable in that the guitars are
> even
> more integrated than what had earmarked Box of Hammers and the other
> Pete/Billy performances on albums of yore.  Albert's voice plays a
> neat
> role on the songs he sings the main lines-- it's like a whisper out of
> the
> night that threatens your doorstep - but in a good way ("ON the Road
> (Again)").

Yeah, there appears to be a bit of vocal modulation on a few of the
songs - maybe Albert could elaborate a bit on what vocal effects were
used.  What is that distortion used on the vocals in "Confession #9" for
example?  I've been hearing this effect on a number of modern recordings
- it seems to be a popular thing these days.


>
> "Rock and Roll is Dead"'s bass (imm assuming thats a bass anyways)

Yes, I think what you are referring to is the bass - a Q for Albert on
this as well -- it almost sounds like 2 bass lines going on - did Dave
double-track for this one, or did he pull off playing the root note down
low while playing that little lick on the upper strings at the same time?


> I could go on for each and every song in a drooling fanboy frenzy of
> sheer
> unadulterated glee about how much I like everything I hear..

Well, do go on...


> As to other comments made before on the list about beefed up bass
> sound,
> heck yeah! The funkiness  the dead on right fills are NICE. Oh yeah,
> Albert
> does a fair job on the drums as well (Yes, that's a bloddy big
> understatement).

I think the word Torgo used was "funkitude" - it's definitely prominent
in the bass, but its the combo of bass and drums that make it work for
the most part.  Dave and Albert have obviously "locked in" together real well.

> I think for me, it
> puts another nail in the coffin of BOC (contemporary BOC).   Heaven
> Forbid
> just didn't have the "ooomph" of hearing the band in the throes of
> relishing the fun of  music that the Brain Surgeons have always
> exhibited
> on disc, tape, onstage and off.

Well, at this point I don't think the intent is to put nails in the BOC
coffin.  I like HF, but the differences are I think more due to the
stylistic differences between Albert/Deb and Buck/Eric musically, and
the fact that tBS have a degree of artistic freedom that an established
band such as BOC doesn't - case in point - you would probably never
catch BOC putting a song like "Biloxi" on one of their albums for the
simple reason that it is not a "BOC song".  tBS don't have that problem
- they can play whatever they want.

Makes you wonder what BOC would sound like if Albert had never left?  On
one extreme, it might sound a bit more like tBS, on the other extreme,
it might sound not too different at all -- in either case, we would have
been deprived of a lot of really great tunes.

"Grab your waders, let's find the gators -- we're gonna do the swamp thing..."

John