In The Studio: December 2017 – February 2018

Tony went to Muscles Shoals and did the studio trifecta!  FAME Recording Studios / Muscle Shoals Sound 3614 Jackson Highway / Muscle Shoals Sound Cypress Moon.

Tony and Warren had two great sessions at Q Division in Feb. Shout out James!

In The Studio: October / November 2017

In The Studio:

New Releases:

In The Studio: December 2016 / January 2017

Megan Wolf (Electric Factory X)

Megan Wolf (Electric Factory X)

Jon Butcher produced. Josh Richard mapped cities and states. Megan Wolf mastered. Telamor stormed the barricades. Ally Doody started writing. Tae Kwon Flo chopped some lines. Mike Francis rebelled. Kinetik Dialekt dialed it in. Renee and Joe started LP3. The Marconis transmitted electricity. St0ker stoked it. Lisa Manning tracked some stanzas.

New gear alert!!! Bang-A-Song is proud to announce the arrival of their new 130 year old 1886 Steinway A1 grand piano! It’s got 85 keys and plays better than a piano 1/10th is age! The bass is deep and tight and the highs have it all. Feel free to come check it out!

Good N’ Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story

EggsOverEasy_GoodNCheap_cover-350x350In this day and age it’s rare to find any further unreleased records from the heyday of the rock era, let alone one from a unknown band that is at the absolute root of a giant rock family tree…but Yep Roc has, and it’s a doozy.   

Have you ever heard the band Eggs Over Easy?  They are the American group who inadvertently jump started a UK music revolution that culminated in the British punk of The Damned, Elvis Costello, The Clash and Rockpile.

If you admire The Band but wish they weren’t so damn serious, The Eggs are the band for you.  Their criminally forgotten Link Wray produced LP “Good and Cheap” released on A&M in 1972 opens: “We’re gonna have a little party/It’s gonna last for a week or two”.  Welcome to the pub!

Gigging the Tally Ho, their Kentish Town local, in 1971, their punchy songs, soulful singing and stripped down effect/affectless sound were a breath of fresh air in the land of Yes and Pink Floyd.  A whole flock of players, writers, producers and managers that came to dominate pub and punk rock first had their heads turned ’round witnessing the Eggs’ anything-goes mastery and their rapidly swelling audience of punters.  Just listen to Nick Lowe testifying how he never truly got over the effect Eggs Over Easy had on him.

I’ll never truly get over the effect the Eggs have had on me, either.  In 2006, I learned that original member Jack O’Hara gigged regularly at BB King’s in Times Square.  I looked in the paper.  There he was.  I drove down to the gig and was seated for dinner.  There he was.   I said hi and there was that same beautiful bass voice I knew from the “Good and Cheap” song “Arkansas”.  He said we’d catch up after the show and went up on the stage and proceeded to lay down three subtly smoking hours of Jimmy Reed, Jimi Hendrix and Santo and Johnny.

After the gig I got to hang with Jack and he confirmed it.  He’s a lifer who’d never stopped.  Eggs Over Easy were a great time but he wrote tunes every day, and had a new CD filled with moving songs and performances (“Selected Shorts”).   He’d been mixing monitors at the world famous Blue Note for the last 10 years.  He’d helped friends cut records, booked clubs and mixed front of house at venues around the world.  His life was filled with music before, during and after The Eggs.

But my life wasn’t filled with anywhere near enough Eggs Over Easy music.   “Good and Cheap” had been reissued on CD once in the UK but there was so much more that so few had ever heard:  the unreleased Chas Chandler debut record “London ’71”,  “I’m Gonna Put a Bar In My Car and Drive Myself to Drink” b/w “Horny Old Lady”, a punk-as-fuck single released on Buffalo Records in 1976, and 1981’s “Fear of Frying”, a record that ranged from home recorded madness to Big Star/Steely Dan shimmer.  I knew that someday some smart record company would set the record straight and get this largely unreleased/unheard trove of music on the shelves. 

That day has come.  Today Yep Roc is righting the wrongs of forty years of music business oversight with one big, beautiful package (double CD or triple vinyl).

Do yourself a favor, check this release out.   It’s some of the greatest American music I have ever heard.  It’s funny, it’s sad, its reverent, it’s irreverent.  It’s the whole ball of wax.  It swings and stomps.  It is stripped down and dressed in the richest harmony three fellas could create.  I love it.  It’s spare, it’s snappy, it’s straight ahead.   It’s good and cheap.  It has a warmth of spirit that radiates inclusiveness so open that anything could happen and everyone was invited……even Sid Vicious.

a href=”http://yeproc.11spot.com/eggs-over-easy-good-n-cheap-the-eggs-over-easy-story-pre-order-6-24.html” target=”_blank”>Good N’ Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story (Yep Roc)

Bang-A-Song Holiday Jam / January Open Studio Kickoff Party

Please join us Monday, December 15th from 6pm-9pm for the Second Annual Bang-A-Song Holiday Jam/January Open Studio kickoff party!  (Location, directions, parking, RSVP can be found in the Facebook Event link.)

We’ll have pizza and beer for jamming, instruments and amplifiers for eating.  Come meet Tony and Warren, sign up for a January open studio slot, and perform your best version of “Jingle Bells”, “Christmas with the Martians” or  “Santa’s Got an Airplane”!!!!   Kids are welcome.   After 9pm we’ll head to the The Rhumb Line Monday Night OPEN JAM to continue the merry making.  (Please help us get a head count by RSVP’ing via Facebook or via email to tony@bangasong.com).

Our Holiday Jam will also serve as the kick-off for January 2015’s “Bang-A-Saturdays”. Every Saturday in January (starting January 3rd, ending January 31st), from noon-5pm, we will open up our doors for slots of free studio time.  We’ll have Pro Tools on and drums, guitars, keys and vocals all mic’d up and ready to go.

Whether you’re a band that has never recorded before or an artist that has made numerous records, a songwriter who wants to record a demo or a beat maker who wants to cut a rap, a track producer who needs a top line or a home recordist that wants to hear their tracks mixed on a board to analog tape, please schedule a free session at Bang-A-Song.

Feel free to share with other musicians, and then email tony@bangasong.com or warren@bangasong.com to book a session any Saturday in January!

Best, Tony & Warren
Bang-A-Song

In The Studio: Aug/Sep/Oct 2014

Satch Kerans is mixing another great collection of songs.  Telamor is already at work on LP3.  Mary Lou Lord is this close to finishing her next record.  Kenny Chambers and the Electric Ears have finished their debut LP and sent it out for mastering. Pocket Tanya is keeping it unreal. Renee and Joe are warming our hearts out. The A-Train Orchestra are getting there fast. Susan Waller transferred tapes taped at the legendary Cameron’s. Pray for Mojo had their prayers answered. Mike Francis of Soul Rebel Project did some extracurricular overdubs for Mr. Babson. Scout did tracks on his own. Alien Psychology featuring Scout are working on tracks together. Jason Carpenter worked on his mixing skills. Chelsea Berry is recording her “living room” record. Megan McKenzie is making SAFETY happen. Jon Butcher is teaching us a thing or two about tone!

And then, right in the cracks between “In The Studio: July 2014” and “In The Studio: Aug/Sep/Oct 2014“, came this guy: Linwood “Woody” Becker Goddess.  We’re happy to have him!

photo 1

 

In The Studio: June 2014

Tom Hauck and Telamor are wrapping up LP 2.  Jon Butcher is overdubbing on masters and demos.  Mary Lou Lord is kicking her Kickstarter album.  Kenny Chambers and the Electric Ears are rocking and popping throughout their first record together.  Ken Steiner is recording upright for Robert Allen down in FLA.  Renee & Joe are growing another album. Satch Kerans is wrapping up another batch of hits.

Silver Ages / Goddesses on The Key (and Fleetwood Mac)

Thanks to Maureen Walsh for the nice review of the Silver Ages / The Goddesses performance in Philadelphia a few days ago, and for capturing some great photos and great videos!

You can read/see the full story here.

“The highlight of the evening was a version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Save Me a Place,” performed by the Goddesses, the Silver Ages, and Buried Beds’ Eliza Jones. It encompassed everything Pat Berkery enthused about in his introduction: a love of music, a sense of community, and making beautiful harmonies together.”