New Monday #29
Happy Monday! And Happy Labor Day if you’re in Northern North America!
Listen to this!
A weird song off a great album, Nick Lowe's 1979 album Labor of Lust.
I had to get “Labor” in here somehow.
Nick Lowe
In the 70s Lowe was the bassist and singer with a group called Rockpile. They played stripped-down rock ’n roll, sometimes verging on rockabilly, with the attitude and energy of punk, but full of country and pop overtones. In the US, The Cars were harbingers of what came to be known as New Wave. In England, it was Nick Lowe and Rockpile.
Lowe was, and still is, a wonderful writer and performer, but in the 70s he was also a busy and highly influential record producer. Lowe produced the first five Elvis Costello records, The Damned, The Pretenders, Graham Parker, Dr. Feelgood — a veritable who’s who of early New Wave in England. Lowe also wrote a bunch of hits: I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass, (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding, Cruel to Be Kind, and I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock ’n’ Roll).
Rockpile
I Knew the Bride was a hit for guitarist/singer Dave Edmunds, who was also a member of Rockpile, along with guitarist Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams.
Rockpile put out a total of five albums, but only one, Seconds of Pleasure, has the Rockpile name on it. The rest are Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds solo albums. Lowe’s Labor of Lust was recorded at the same time as Edmund’s Repeat When Necessary, with the songs divided up by lead singer into two different albums. Both are great records.
In the studio, Lowe was nicknamed "The Basher," because he wanted to smash through songs as quickly as possible, not worrying about perfection and instead going for feel. It’s hard to argue with the results.
Eden Studios
Ground Zero for all this early New Wave activity was London’s Eden studio, sadly now out of business. Eden was a top-notch studio, known for having a great vibe and acoustics as well as the best equipment available at the time. Eden hosted Rockpile of course, and Elvis Costello, The Bay City Rollers, Tom Jones, The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, Joe Jackson, The Killers, George Michael, The Darkness, Oasis, The Smiths... the list goes on.
Here’s a promo video for Eden Studios showing off its adjustable acoustics and two SSL consoles.
Eden during the 70s featured a hand-made custom console, built by the owners and some of the staff to save money. The Rockpile sessions were cut on that custom console, with evidently a lot of smoking and drinking...
Albert Lee
I turned up this video of country guitar ace Albert Lee cutting a lead track for Sweet Little Lisa, one of the songs that wound up on Edmund’s Seconds of Pleasure. Lee played one amazing take, no punches. Edmunds, no guitar slouch himself, was blown away, and while listening to the playback, a drunk Nick Lowe jokes to Lee “You obviously read my pamphlet on this...” Also look for Thin Lizzie’s Phil Lynott in the video, as well as Huey Lewis, who contributed harmonica to a few tracks.
You’ll see Lee push the neck of his guitar down throughout his playing: what he’s doing is activating a device built into it called a Parsons/White B Bender, which allows one to get pedal steel effects out of a regular electric. It’s become a fairly standard guitar modification for country players. Lee’s a total master. Here’s a clip of him live in 1982, cued up to his solo on Sweet Little Lisa. Watch for the B Bender action.
Roger Béchirian
While all the Rockpile recordings were happening, Nick Lowe was also producing absolute classic albums for Elvis Costello, with much of the work done at Eden by a wonderful engineer named Roger Béchirian. The real turning point in Costello’s career was the very political “Armed Forces” album, released in 1979 (damn busy year for Nick Lowe!). Béchirian contributed a very detailed reminiscence of working on Armed Forces. He covers EVERYTHING, from mics to miking to mixing. This is one of the best things I’ve read on production. Read it here (very worth it).
What’s Old is New
New occasional feature: we’ll pull up a recording technique from the past and see if we can’t use it now.
Ever hear of a Mixback? Find out about it here.
Thanks to everyone for doing our survey. We really learned a lot from you all and we’ll apply it.
Also, we have a plug-in birthday coming up... look for a flash sale very soon!
Y’all rock!
Luke
