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Funny how song arrangements (and sometimes songs themselves) are changed, or
even written within days, weeks, hours or minutes of recording.
As far as XKE & Solaris Stomp are concerned - XKE features not just any surf
beat, but the quintessential Astronauts beat made famous by then 19-year old
James Gallagher on their classic surf tracks like "Surf Party" "The Pier," "Hot
Doggin'" "Surf Softly and Carry a Big Board" and "Banzai Pipeline" (although
the Boss Martians drummer puts a little more emphasis on the "&" of "4"). I
think in order for that beat to be most effective, the rhythm guitar (or a rhyhm
guitar) should play straight 8th notes - or in the case of the Martians, a
constant, steady keyboard presence (holding notes down instead of frantically
playing like Billy Preston near an elementary school at recess). And that's
one tough beat to play correctly, too. I still don't think I play it right - or
at least to my own satisfaction
In Solaris Stomp, I think the traditional surf beat is much more appropriate for
the song (regardless of who made the final decision) as it still accomplishes
the goal of driving the song, but doesn't get in the way of the rhythm guitar,
which is obviously doing a little more than playing straight 8th notes. The
space between the "&" of "2" and the backbeat on "4" in that song is nothing
short of musical precision - I don't think squeezing the extra Astronauts beats
in there would have yielded the same results & probably would have gotten in the
way of the rhythm guitar. The Astronauts beat really puts the focus on the
4-on-the-floor bass drum figure & minimizes to some degree the backbeat on the
snare, especially on "4," which as I said before is an essential component of
"Solaris Stomp."
the end
-tfj-
PS- That Dano's really good at filling holes.
----- Original Message -----
From: ipongrac
To:
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 5:37 PM
Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Re: Rhythm Guitar / Chords / Chunking
Excellent stuff, Dano!! You really filled out all the holes I left
off. I couldn't add anything else.
> The song I think emphasizes this in the most incredible way is
Solaris
> Stomp by The Space Cossacks. To me that rhythm part at the
beginning is just
> unbelievable. JUST the right amount of subtlety but the right
amount of "sack" to drive the song. AWESOME!
Thanks, man! Very nice of you. Just to tie this in with my earlier
points, we recorded Solaris Stomp within a month of the first time we
played with the Fathoms. We've been playing around with the song for
a while, and it used to have an arrangement that sounded similar
to "Neutron Sabre" - so, more of the Dick Dale/Miserlou/Hava Nagila
beat. I grew quite dissatisfied with it, and after seeing the
Fathoms had an epiphany. As I mentioned, I bought the Jazzmaster,
and rearranged the song, basing it much more on the smoother sound of
the Jazzmaster with flatwounds (and playing it in lower registers
than I did originally, I think). Changed the syncopated beat to the
steady, smooth surf-beat - in fact, I remember playing "XKE" by the
Boss Martians to Doug (drummer) when we first tried playing the new
arrangement to explain to him what I wanted - I just loved how that
song moved along - though I think he played a simpler part than on
XKE. And the last thing I did was add that intro which was TOTALLY
Fathoms - at least in my mind. There's a lot to be said about
ripping off... err, I mean, being INSPIRED by other bands. Yeah,
that's it! :) We recorded that in January of '97, on the same date
that yielded Neutron Sabre and Shark Attack from that split EP with
the Penetrators. We rerecorded Neutron Sabre when we were recording
the first album in September of '97, and we tried to rerecord Solaris
Stomp, too - but the new version just lacked that special something
that the original recording had, so we just used the original for the
album, too. It was just a beautiful confluence of factors. The
first time that I used my (Jap) Jazzmaster on a recording session,
too. Oh, and my reverb tank was a reissue, but BEFORE I made the
usual mods, so it was completely original. Oh yeah, the pickups in
the Jazzmaster were also the original Jap pickups! Go figure.
People still point to that song as my best recorded authentic trad
tone - and I was using crappy pickups AND an unmodded reissue reverb
tank! It can be done, apparently... (Soon after that session, I
switched to Seymour Duncan pickups and had the mods made, including
the NOS tubes - and never again sounded as good! :)
Postscript: if you will please indulge me while I brag for a second.
We were really interested in having Deke Dickerson produce our first
album, cause, well, cause Deke is God! That man knows sound, and
knows guitar. I got in touch with him, and he wanted to hear what we
sounded like, so I sent him those early tracks. I was so proud when
I heard back from him - paraphrasing, he said something like "Solaris
Stomp is an ultimate surf song"!! (he wasn't as thrilled by the
other two, but no need to talk about that. :)) You could have
knocked me over with a feather. That was cool. If he only knew -
Jap pickups and unmodded reissue reverb tanks! It would have been
quite costly to have him come to Washington to produce us, so he just
told us to try to make the album sound like Solaris Stomp, and we'll
be fine. A great guy.
Ivan
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