The Mooninites, yes The Mooninites. Ah the follies of youth, naming one's band after silly cartoon characters from a silly cartoon show for stoners. You can really only do that with credibility before you are of drinking age, which is okay because when this track was recorded on the day after thanksgiving 2003 the members were 19 (Travis and I) and 18 (Zach), so I hope you will forgive our frivolities.
Anyhow, this track was recorded on that day because, since we all attended separate colleges, it was the only day we would all be in Fayetteville to record. We had already recorded our (as yet unposted) first record over the previous summer and planed to record our second album that Christmas. This track was a sort of preview/single or something and now, six years later I think it is one of the best things I've ever worked on.
Back then we were fully trying to sound something like a post-rock, experimental, Yes meets Neu! supergroup. The songs were neither collectively improvised nor pre-composed and each part was recorded separately on one of those old Boss digital eight-track recorders(I think it was this one). I mixed it that day and burned it to CD and what you hear now is exactly as it has always been.
Note the three distinct movements, we were really psyched about that.
Note all of the additional and perfunctory post-rock "knob twiddling" that we all thought was so avant garde at the time.
Note how sloppy my drumming is in the first part (we never used a metronome and drums were always recorded first) and yet Travis still plays his bass to it perfectly.
As far as what everybody played and/or what exactly all of the sounds are, I can't exactly tell you that but as best as I remember:
Zach Smola: plays most, if not all of the guitars and probably the wammy-pedal stuff and some of the percussion.
Travis Knowles: plays bass, probably some kind of keyboard and delay pedal or something as well as percussion.
Ben Collins: plays drums, sounds like theremin, probably some other kind of pedals
Produced by: The Mooninites
Or download HERE
Post Script: the photo is from the only Mooninites live show to ever occur, at WUOG is Athens Georgia. There is a recording, but I will need to clean it up a bit before I can post it, someday I swear.
6 comments:
I actually have a copy of that WUOG recording and possibly a polaroid, but not sure on the latter. After reviewing this Mooninites CD for WUOG and adding it to local rotation, I knew Zach and could be friends. ;)
If you find a polaroid, you should scan it for me. I didn't want to get my facts wrong, but you were there right? I want to say Miles recorded the session but it was yr show we on, I think, but it was a while back so I could be wrong...
those were the innocent days of music... recording something on mike's 8-track, burning it to a cd and then riding around listening to it in that little green truck...
This is probably my favorite thing the mooninites ever recorded. With the possible exception of the "louder than jet engines" session at UGA. Really, this is really great stuff that I still listen to on occasion.
Joe
Yeah, I feel you Joe. I'm working on mastering the UGA thing now, it will be tough to get it up to the level it was at live because the recording is what they broadcast and sadly much much quieter than I remember it being. At least you were there to witness it and vouch for its power. I'm on a Moon kick now though, I'm trying to reign in all of the old stuff and get it posted but it's tough considering how many random live jams and remixes and stuff we recorded over the years.
Yeah, bring it all out into the light of day, man. On the topic of the UGA show, I remember being bewildered at how the show live was actually joyously painful to experience but then the recording sounded really mellow, just as good but shockingly different. Anyway, would love to have it so post it already!!!
Joe
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