New Video Documents Joe Barresi “Tracking Rock” With Zico Chain

Working with artists such as Queens of the Stone Age, Tool, The Melvins, Bad Religion and Kyuss, producer/mixer/engineer Joe Barresi has had a hand in some highly influential modern hard rock recordings. And a new feature-length video, Joe Barresi: Tracking Rock, takes viewers into Barresi’s process of producing and tracking a song in his private LA studio, Joe’s House of Compression (JHOC).

Shot in high-definition video over three consecutive days at JHOC as Barresi works with UK alt rock band Zico Chain, the documentary takes viewers through the entire process of recording a song — from first track to final take.  It also documents the signal chain of each instrument recorded and details the usage of Barresi’s expansive collection of amplifiers, cabinets and audio processing gear.

Produced by On The Mark Media (OTM), Joe Barresi: Tracking Rock has a run-time of two hours and 44 minutes. The video is available for on-computer viewing as well as for the iPad, iPod and iPhone 4 formats. In addition, the complete Pro Tools session, OMF and raw audio tracks accompany the video documentary for personal critical listening and analysis.

Joe Barresi: Tracking Rock is priced at $95.00 USD and available for online purchase at http://techbreakfast.com.

Purchasers can also correspond with Barresi via email regarding any questions related to the video or recording in general.

A subsequent release of Barresi mixing Zico Chain’s song on his SSL 4000 console will be made available in Q3 of 2011. Discount pricing will be offered to purchasers of the tracking video.

Music Seen: Music Supervisor Hot Picks * Electric Six “Countdown to the Countdown”

Artist: Electric Six

Song: “Countdown to the Countdown”

Why I Luv It: As my loyal readers already know, anytime I get an opportunity to push high quality American rock n roll, I’m gonna’ do it, so you shouldn’t be surprised that this week I’m getting behind a brand new song from a band that ain’t so brand new.

The song is “Countdown to the Countdown” by Detroit, Michigan rockers Electric Six, and it’s hot off their yet-to-be-released 7th studio album entitled “The Zodiac” (out September 28th).

This song is an absolutely inspiring and balls-to-the-wall hard-charger of a rock song, and Dick Valentine (vocals), The Colenol (guitar), Johnny Na$hinal (guitar), Smorgasbord (bass), Tait Nucleus? (synths), and Percussion World (drums) have yet again proven that great stage names and veteran skills are all it takes to write and record a hit song. (Smiley Face) OK, just kidding! These guys can write and arrange a song with the best of them too!!!!!

If you’re not aware, Electric Six rocks as hard as MC5 or The Stooges while having the comedic sensibility of Les Claypool or even Weird Al Yankovic. If you like Queens of the Stone Age, Pink Floyd, Ween, and everything rock-n-roll in between, you’re gonna’ love this song, and furthermore, you’re gonna’ love their whole catalog. Make it a point to pick up “The Zodiac” when it comes out in September because it’s one helluva’ rippin’ super-dynamic sonic journey my friends!!!

Scene I Can See it In: “Countdown to the Countdown” by Electric Six must have been tailor made for NFL Football because this tune harnesses the raw power and fierce energy of the sport just as well as any other tune I’ve heard used for similar purposes to date.

Specifically, I think this song would be a great sonic-branding tool for the coverage leading up to and on the day of the NFL Draft. NFL Network and ESPN cover collegiate NFL Draft prospects throughout the off-season and right up until the day of the draft every April. For the last couple years, NFL Network has chosen and licensed songs to support their coverage of The Draft, and one winner of a song ends up being the main sonic-brand or theme of that years draft.

For example, “Dreamer” by K’Naan was used by the NFL in 2009 for limited Draft coverage, and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” has been extensively used by NFL Network over the past few years for Draft sonic-branding. “Under Pressure” plays more to the child-like emotion and nervous sensitivity in the hearts of young aspiring pro-atheletes. That’s a far cry from the pure rock fury exuded by Electric Six on “Countdown to the Countdown”, but that does not take away from the song’s undeniably strong instrumental emotion and obvious lyrical relevance to competitive professional sports.

The title “Countdown to the Countdown” (which is also the hook of the song) accurately exudes the tense, competitive emotion that every aspiring pro-athlete experiences on a daily basis. Furthermore, those words (especially the way they’re sung) put on display the immeasurable focus and hard work that each athlete puts in every day in preparation for the Draft. It’s not just the countdown, it’s “The Countdown to The Countdown”, and that is a perfect example of the serious commitment that each player makes to his sport, talent, and craft. The full song lyrics (at the end of this article) do the same just as well.

Vocal and instrumental performances are stellar on this track and they collectively hit the bulls-eye from the start of the song right up until a soaring psychedelic break at :47 in. I can see the beginning of the song being used as a backing track underneath exciting game highlights of perspective NFL Draftees. Right when the break comes in at :47 would be a perfect time for intense sweaty facial close-ups of these potential Draftee’s in a dark locker room, sitting on benches staring in to the camera lens as it pans by each player’s passionate yet stone cold face. These dramatic shots are meant to express the heart and soul of each of these players as they each individually Countdown to the Countdown of this year’s Draft.

As the break in the song builds back up to the intense rock fury of the verses and the hook, video footage could blend back in to highlight footage mixed with last year’s NFL Draftee’s having success on the field at the pro level in their rookie seasons.

Finally, I think this song is great fit for NFL Draft coverage because of the fact that it has a few distinctly unique sections that can be edited in to shorter-form chunks and used for different purposes (show bumpers, stingers, short-opens, etc) similar to my scene descriptions in the paragraph above.

Let’s all give a collective 2010 “WELCOME BACK” to NFL Football, and don’t forget to run out and buy Electric Six’s 7th studio album “The Zodiac” this September. Go Big Blue!!!!

Countdown to the Countdown

Where you gonna be when they can t control ya?
See you coming round and they gonna roll ya
Sell you in the ghetto like Detrola Cola
They start the countdown

Now you wish somebody would throw you a bone
Looking for a conflict to call your own
Well here s another song about the danger zone
It s about to go down!

35 seconds til the countdown starts
25 seconds til the countdown starts
94 seconds til the countdown starts
It s the countdown to the countdown

Time elapses
Love collapses
Over and over
Come over red rover
Our ship sails from Dover
Its cargo is time

Hey good looking with the helmet on!
Driving real fast on the autobahn
Staring at yourself up on the jumbotron
They start the countdown

35 seconds til the countdown starts
25 seconds til the countdown starts
94 seconds til the countdown starts
It s the countdown to the countdown

Can t stop listening
Can t stop watching

I need a product to use

Can t stop listening
Can t stop watching

It s called paying your dues!

Can t stop listening
Can t stop watching

Vampire movie on TV!

Can t stop listening
Can t stop watching

It s called paying your dues!
It’s called paying your dues!

Dave Hnatiuk of Autonatic Entertainment is a Music Supervisor / Sound Designer for MTV On-Air Promotions, NYC. Visit him at Autonatic Entertainment, Music Supervision Central or The Song Hunters. To be considered for a “Music Seen,” submit your track or link to Hnatiuk at submissions@sonicscoop.com.

Tamar-kali Breaks Out of Brooklyn with “Black Bottom”

MIDWOOD, BROOKLYN: Aggression, experimentation, elevation – need more of that? How about emotion and the thrill of creation – as in the completion of Brooklyn rock strongwoman Tamar-kali’s long overdue full length debut, Black Bottom.

A Catholic school survivor who found herself drawn to the notorious noir of the Brooklyn club  L’amour in her formative years, Tamar-kali eventually rose out of the audience and onto the stage with underground NYC punk acts like FunkFace and Song of Seven. She’s also on an elite short list of performers, including Bad Brains, Cipher and Ten Grand in the award-winning James Spooner documentary “Afro-punk”, which explores race identity in the punk scene.

But Tamar-kali is tired of trying to make her point in someone’s band, and of being tucked neatly into a category (“I believe that the ‘Black Rock’ label is another obstacle for artists like myself,” she says). Instead, her music is doing all the talking with the just-released Black Bottom, and it’s a mondo statement: Tamar-kali’s uniquely powerful and versatile voice drives an ambitious new adventure into metal, classical, and progressive styles. Ferocious grooves, string experiments, and daring vocal explorations propel Black Bottom into a most welcome realm of uncharted territory.

You evade quick definition — what molded you?
I came up in the hardcore local punk rock scene. It was a blend with ska, hardcore…at the time in the mid-90’s it was all fringe. I grew up in a two-parent home, in an apartment in Midwood, Brooklyn, very close-knit and tight, and I didn’t get to start going to shows until I was older.

In high school L’amour in Brooklyn had national metal, punk, and goth acts coming through. I’d heard about the shows from my friends, and when I did finally get to go out, I became someone who witnessed the scene, as well as expressing myself by playing in bands like FunkFace and Song of Seven.

How did you go from being stuck on the sidelines to coming into your own within this extremely alternative musical dimension?
Part of it was because of the frustrations of being a girl in the scene. I had known those guys from Song of Seven forever, and when their frontperson Israel left to do the album Rise with Bad Brains, I said I wanted to do it. ME! ME!

Sounds like a bold move – like Henry Rollins becoming the singer for Black Flag after he had previously been a fan. How did it turn out?
Every band you hear of has issues with the frontperson. The frontperson speaks for the band. If the band is writing the riffs, and the front person is writing the lyrics, the band has to stand behind the lyrics. And for them, having to stand behind my words as a woman – they were difficult for them to stand behind at the time. So we ended up breaking up.

I tried to develop myself as much as I could after that. I had a four-track, and I was writing anything, stuff I would do for me or maybe another artist. I had funk or soul in mind, but when I sang my voice was very dark and intense. So I started playing out, and identifying slowly but surely.

So flash forward, and your new record Black Bottom is your debut full-length album as your own artist. What are you expressing with this record?
A journey. I have definitely gone through some highs and lows, like anybody. But I really got to a place where I kind of was second guessing myself, doubting myself, and I had to find my way out of it. I think what happens to a lot of people is when you come to a place where you make a transition from just doing music because it’s fun, to doing it as a means of supporting yourself. That can be a difficult transition.

Maybe it was an issue to me, coming out of a punk rock, DIY, anti-establishment mindset. When you come up from the subculture, the underdog, you get addicted to fighting. It’s the only thing you know how to do.

I have to stay honest, staying underground and staying true, but if something is really good, why don’t we want t to have as big a platform as possible? I started realizing that in a certain, way, this was another level of the same mentality, keeping yourself in the box. There’s a punk rock uniform, just like a corporate one. Often when trying to be an individual, you don’t realize you’ve swallowed the pill yourself.

I wanted to break out and be authentic, and I realized I had broken out of thinking I only wanted certain people to hear my music. I decided that everyone who would benefit from hearing me should hear me.

On this record, you hear my rage and frustration of being in a band in NYC, which is the most difficult place in the world to have a band. My space for rehearsal used to be in NoLita, which is where Blonde Redhead came up, and now it’s gone to condos and all that bullshit. The song “Pearl” starts the album going from a place of rage and depression into determination and resolve – to dig myself out of the black bottom that I’m in.

You recorded and mixed the album upstate a ways, in Syracuse at at More Sound Studios. What were you trying to achieve sonically?
I got in touch with a friend working in John Brown’s Body, a thrasher named Jason “Jocko” Randall, and basically he has a studio in Syracuse that he built with his own hands. It’s an amazing studio with a floating live room. He’s an attention-to-detail sound nut, and an amazing human being. We tracked the band in four days, and then I stayed to do my vocals.

In terms of the direction for the album, I had three references in mind. The Mars Volta’s De-Loused in the Comatorium, the Deftones sound, and Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf. I wanted the seeming abandon of the Mars Volta, the starkness and thickness of the Deftones, with the starkness and clarity of the QOTSA recordings. I wanted a marriage, and for my voice to be the nucleus within this womb of the music.

You described earlier vocal recording experiences as “traumatic”, but you sure sound comfortable on the mic now. Did doing vocals get easier on this record?
I’m still learning. You have to just get over it, and do it anyway. I have a classical music background – I grew up in Catholic school, learning chorals in Latin and Italian. At a certain age I was concerned my singing wouldn’t be soulful. I have a bigger range now, and I’m looking for soulful vocals in aggressive rock and roll music. I want to make sure I’m singing in the voice that the song requires, really representing the spirit of the song and not going too clean, or pushing too hard. But I can go a little OCD with it.

Now that it’s out there, what are your objectives with Black Bottom?
It would lift a huge weight to at least be a part of new sounds and new voices in aggressive rock. We’re comfortable with a woman being a pop princess, but the instances of women in rock are few and far between. Hopefully my voice is one people will get used to hearing and want to hear more of.

You’ve been NYC through and through. Is it still a priority for you to stay based out of here?
Not so much! The city is changing in a way that I can’t necessarily relate to. I won’t tuck my tail and run or anything, but in terms of fighting the good fight just to fight — I’ll keep myself open to other opportunities and other ways of living. You know? When you get a little older you realize: It’s not where, it’s what.

– David Weiss