Showing posts with label mark neill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mark neill. Show all posts

Friday, January 14, 2011

GIVE THE PRODUCER SOME



Following yesterdays post about the Evasions' "Lost Studio Sessions", this morning I received a message from David Doyle, who I know from years ago as the bass player of the Unknowns, a San Diego band from the early 80s. Back then, his band mate, Mark Neill, was just starting to record other bands, with equipment that was considered dated, though Neill's template was studios of the past, and his get-up intentional. That was a long time ago. After years of plugging away, recording scores of bands, Neill is finally getting his due recognition. You see, now Neill is officially recognized as hot shit, having produced the Black Keys' "Brothers" LP (of which, I presume, you've heard a song or two).



Doyle asked me if the Evasions' sessions were the same sessions that Neill recorded in a garage of band friend, Chris Davies (guitarist for another local band, the Penetrators). So, I asked about the type of tape Neill preferred back then, and after speaking with Neill, he answered that the tape reel would be either Ampex, or Radio Shack. The Evasions tape was indeed in an Ampex box, and Neill also confirmed recording one song ("Exodus") that was on the tape, but wasn't posted yesterday. So, the Evasions songs in yesterdays post were recorded by, I'll say it, hot shit producer Mark Neill. The songs are from roughly 1980 or 81, so they are some of Neill's earliest work. But, really, just a blip for Neill, who has recorded a fuckload of names you may or may not recognize: Deke Dickerson, Big Sandy, Rip Carson, the Paladins, Billy Zoom, Carl Rusk, the Tell-Tale Hearts, Los Straightjackets, Ricky Nelson, and his own band, the Unknowns. Oh yeah, he also helped Liam Watson set up Toe Rag Studio, which was where the White Stripes "Elephant" was recorded.



Recording notes about the Evasions songs in the previous post, and "Exodus" below, from David Doyle (added 1/15/2011): "In a conversation today, Mark mentioned he had never heard these tracks on actual speakers and only had a pair of David Clark headphones that I had loaned him at the time to listen and mix these tracks on! Also he is grateful to have the opportunity to hear them after all these years and sends his regards. I thought it was a Fender reverb unit he was using but it was the reverb in the Kustom PA head he was using to mix with! He also remembered only having enough mics for the drums and guitars and took the bass direct..."

Here's a sampling of Neill's work. A few notes: Doyle also said that Neill remembered the bass amp blowing during the recording of the Evasions' "Exodus", but there were a couple takes on the master, so the one below is most definitely not the final amp-blowing take. And the two Tell-Tale Hearts songs were recorded by both Doyle and Neill. To learn a whole lot more about Neill, I recommend the interview, and partial discography (extensive as it is), both completely honorable time sucks. Finally, a big fat thank you is due Doyle, for being invaluable in connecting the dots.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
The Evasions - Exodus mp3
The Tell-Tale Hearts - It's Not Me mp3 at Mr. Suave
The Tell-Tale Hearts - I Get Up In the Morning mp3 at the Che Underground
The Unknowns - Flip Your Switch mp3 at the Che Underground
Dan Auerbach - Heartbroken In Disrepair mp3 at Giant Panther
Dan Auerbach - Trouble Weighs A Ton mp3 at Quiet Color
The Black Keys - Next Girl mp3 at Jonk Music
The Black Keys - Chop and Change mp3 (via Box.net) at JP's Blog
The Black Keys - The Wicked Messenger mp3 (via Box.net) at JP's Blog
Read:
Interview with Mark Neil, producer at The Black Keys Fan Lounge
Soil of the South Recording Studio
Mark Neill - Incomplete (but exstensive) discography with song snippets
Mark Neill's Facebook
Previous post (1/11) about the Evasions
Previous post (12/09) about Neill and the Black Keys
The Unknowns at the Che Underground
The Tell-Tale Hearts at Che Underground
The Black Keys official site
The Black Keys Breakthrough Year: Here's How They Did It at the Chicago Tribune
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Thursday, December 31, 2009

2010 PREDICTION: THE NEXT ALBUM WON'T STINK


Flipping through Rolling Stone at the drug store about a week ago, I saw a short article about the Black Keys recording at Muscle Shoals, the legendary Alabama recording studio (Aretha, Wilson Picket, Stones, etc.). I made a mental note to check out the details online (Rule #143: Never buy a magazine with a teen heartthrob on the cover), but before I got a chance to, I was told by an old acquaintance, Dave Doyle, that his ex-band mate Mark Neill was producing. I got all sorts of worked up, for a few reasons. Number one is that the Black Keys shit don't stink. Number two: neither does Neill's. There's two right there. And Muscle Shoals studio has produced some epic shit in the past, so it seems like it could be the perfect storm for a landmark album.

When the first Black Keys album, The Big Come Up, came out in 2002, there were all these stories of guitarist Dan Auerbach honing his chops and blues cred hanging out with T-Model Ford for an extended length of time (not something your everyday guitarist would bother doing). Their sound was extraordinarily full for a two piece, more so than the White Stripes, the "other two piece" band that they were often compared to. The production, by drummer Patrick Carney, was awesome and meaty. They referred to it as "medium fidelity" ("equal parts broke ass shit and hot ass shit") and had somehow tapped into that missing link between distorto-blues and the heavy thud seventies guitar sound of bands like Mountain, Cactus, and raunchier Led Zepplin. It was an impressive debut and, other than producers, they've pretty much stuck to the same formula in their subsequent releases. That's not to say they don't branch out; they do. But they do so with other projects.

A year or so ago, Auerbach released a solid solo album (mixed by Neill), and Carney followed that up with his side band, Drummer (self described as shoegaze on the MySpace page...blech). And recently, as Blakroc, the two teamed up with a hip hop A-listers, which has probably brought unfair comparisons to other hip hop/rock collaborations. It's a bit more significant, to team up a primarily roots type band with rappers doing new material, than, say, Aerosmith and Run DMC teaming up for "Walk this Way." Time will tell if it carries the weight of some sort of groundbreaking fusion, but as a concept it clearly kicks ass.

How the Black Keys know Mark Neill, I've got no idea. He's familiar to many of the old San Diego punk rock/retro crowd through his work as guitarist for the Unknowns. One of the few local bands in the early eighties that could actually play well, they somehow managed to mesh a sixties reverb drenched sound with a little organ and, surprisingly enough, actual singing. To call them a punk band is inaccurate at best, but that's the crowd they were lumped with, such was San Diego's sad state for non-cover bands at the time. Singer Bruce Joyner was studied, and really into good singers (Del Shannon and Roy Orbison come to mind). Neill was all about Mosrite guitars and the Ventures/Semie Moseley lineage, showing a keen interest in sound, not just songs. It was that interest, and his disappointment with the production of the Unknowns early output, that led him to open his own studio (in '82 or '83).

Neill's studio, Soil of the South, is, at this point, very well known for it's retro sound and vintage equipment. Not unlike Liam Watson's Toe Rag Studios in the UK, bands record there to get that stamp of authenticity. Neill's recorded the elite of the pomade army, notably Deke Dickerson, Big Sandy, Rip Carson, and the Paladins, along with Billy Zoom, Carl Rusk, the Tell-Tale Hearts and surf stalwarts Los Straightjackets. Suffice it to say, with Neill's equipment, the Black Keys sensibilities and the walls of Muscle Shoals, there's every reason to expect good things to come out of the ten day recording session. That Neill's been quoted as saying that the album would be "their biggest statement...the equivalent to Radiohead's 'OK Computer'" not only raises expectations, but begs the question: Mark Neill was cognizant of Radiohead?

Mark Neill's Soil of the South studio (with excellent in-studio photography by Dave Doyle)
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