402 Productions

09th Nov2009

NW Reviews: Weezer – Raditude

by nickwan

What do Avril Lavigne, Bowling for Soup, Pink, Lindsay Lohan, Lit, Simple Plan, Sevendust, The Donnas, Hot Hot Heat, American Hi-Fi, Default, Midtown, Pete Yorn, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, SR-71, and The Academy Is… have in common? They’ve all had hit singles or albums produced by Butch Walker. As such, Butch Walker has put Weezer’s latest single, “I Want You To”, through the charts. It’s really catchy, which isn’t too different for Weezer (writers of Buddy Holly, El Scorcho, Hash Pipe, Dope Nose, and a zillion other sing-a-longs). The biggest difference seen on their latest album, Ratitude, is actually the opposite of Weezer and producer Butch Walker… the slew of other rap-artist-producers who are also on this album.

And this rap-produced thing seems to be working wonders. It’s nothing new, though. Technically, Rick Rubin has his fare share of rap productions with LL Cool J… oh yeah, he also produced Slayer and Metallica. And that was in the 80s. Today, Timbaland has produced Fall Out Boy’s latest album, and we can all see the obvious success of FOB if you’ve ever walked by a magazine rack and peeked into the tweenie section. Weezer has also been produced by Rick Rubin before, on their “green” album, however they have never seen the likes of Jermaine Dupri (So-So Def y’all) and Polow da Don (worked with 50 Cent, Justin Timberlake, Nas, TI, etc). The only other guy that balances out this production team are these dudes named Jacknife Lee and Dr. Luke. Combined, they’ve produced artists like Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears, Bloc Party, Snow Patrol, and a slew of other chart toppers. So, with a team of hit-writing surgeons, how could Weezer possibly fail at writing their best album since Pinkerton?

Well… they didn’t.

Raditude is definitely Weezer’s best effort since Pinkerton, albeit a different Weezer sound. No longer plagued with the nerd-rock label in today’s terms, Weezer has done more path paving for bands in the past decade than most. Rivers and club have tried to show that you can balance shredding on the guitar with hit alternative rock songs. Raditude has been their holy grail on an everlasting quest from what it seems. Their musical scope changed dramatically with the departure of Matt Sharpe (founding bassist, featured on “blue” and Pinkerton). Why? Maybe because Rivers had lost his Harvard-educated mind between the years of Pinkerton and “green”? Who knows. I do know that since Sharpe took off due to writing issues with Rivers that the song writing went from quirky to more… emo (sigh).

Anyway, the album. Raditude is loaded with potential hits. You’ve probably already heard the lead track off the album, “I Want You To”. Aside from that song, some other potential hits are “The Girl Got Hot” and “Put Me Back Together”. This might see as much long-lasting love that the somewhat successful “green” album has seen, with tons of replays of their weak single “Island in the Sun” and some movie replays of “Hash Pipe”.

Pros: production is choice. If you don’t like this music but want to know what a seemingly perfectly produced album sounds like, this might be it for the year. Weezer’s sound hasn’t been tampered with, and the flourishing of hits produced seem to be blooming, which is usually a hit for the producer.

Cons: it’s not Pinkerton.

People who’ll like this: it’s pretty much across the board for people who would like this album. Mostly those into mainstream rock, or at least those who have a taste for it. It’s a little more glossy than I personally like, but I do like having it mixed into a playlist on shuffle. It’s also not so bad for studying if you just want some clean music coming through your speakers.

Album of the year though? Not likely. Strong, yes. But reinventing the rock wheel? It’s hard to say that Weezer is doing that. They seem to have filled their own niche created from their nerd rock days, and expanded by lame reenactments that have seemed to fail (e.g. The Reunion Show, etc). Since so many copycats have failed, it turns Weezer into a king of their own domain. But outside of that domain, what is happening? Not many would cite Weezer as a scene changer this decade, even though many will state their 90s releases as some major influences. Other than the legendary “blue” and Pinkerton, their past efforts don’t stack on top of that — even though Raditude is their best post-Sharpe album. And although Morrissey and An Horse have made the list, Weezer is a little too shiny and not as strong as the other two releases that occupy the similar subgenre they all fill. So, with that, sorry =w=. Good album, but not great in comparison.

Category : Record Reviews

Tags : good album, Raditude, weezer

0 Comm

13th Jul2009

Erik Schau in The Shed — Day 1 and 2 (and sort of day 3)

by nickwan

Erik Schau (pronounced “shh-ow” ["ow" like ouch]) [www.myspace.com/erikschau] has been a regular in The Shed and Shedaluma since his campaign to take over the singer/songwriter world. Ryan Tamborski (aka Tambo) and sometimes myself have ventured into the production of Erik Schau’s music ever since his first songs, Dreams of Driftwood and Most of All. Since then, Schau’s done some maturing — musically and mentally. His newer songs are less like the campfire songs of a few years ago and more along the lines of some heavy shit that a lot of us real people go through.

Schau has about eight or nine songs he’d like to record in the next few weeks. Tambo is somewhat busy with his own endeavours, but will most likely be in the fray of this album sooner or later. But until that day comes, Schau and I recorded a song called Back Home over two days. The original demo, which will hopefully see the light of day, had this Hawaiian/tropical vibe to it that everyone but myself pointed out. I saw this song as more of a way to introduce something Schau hasn’t really been backed by: a band. We’ve done a bunch of not-so-traditional drums on all of his recordings in Shedaluma, which usually turned out great, but never have we crossed into the realm of just some four-piece kit with some cymbals and only one guy behind the set. Of course, we couldn’t necessarily do that either so we went with some machine drums instead… but it’s a start.

Another aspect of the song we recorded is the slowly developing idea of whether or not Schau wants to stay on the side of what the song means and how it feels altogether… or if he wants to bounce to the side he’s very familiar with musically, just having some good fun with a mic, a recording machine, and no one to tell you not to. Except me of course. The line is very fine at the moment, but maybe when we lay a few more tracks down we can gather up what the album should actually sound like… a party? or something more serious?

Since the song was recorded at The Shed (and parts in my own room) it’s hard to say how different the quality would be if we also recorded some tracks down in Shedaluma. The quality of mics and space shoot through the roof in Shedaluma, whereas here at The Shed we’ve got very very very limited space and equipment to work with. Engineering a tasty hit out of this place is kind of like trying to build a skyscraper with toothpicks — it’s possible……. but it’s a very very long way before it will actually happen.

If you’ve ever followed my production blog [nwlikesmusic.blogspot.com] then you probably know about the only mic that is owned by The Shed. It’s an Audio-Technica PRO24, which is a really cheap condenser mic. There are a few Sony mics in The Shed but no phantom power to use them, unless we run it through the Korg D4… but then it’d be way too much of a hassle and recording wouldn’t be as fast as it would be annoying. So we’re stuck with some shitty mic here but we’re making it happen.

Another thing that we’re doing is using the old school Fender Bassman with… dun dun dun! An actual BASS guitar!! We’ve also used it with my electric guitar as well. Luckily for this song, it’s kind of got that beach vibe so the Fender tone isn’t too much… which it could be at times.

We did vocals in both my bedroom, which gives a better acoustic sound and doesn’t sound as cramped of a space either, as well as The Shed. The difference in the ceilings really helped out for differentiation in the double tracked vocals. We also recorded all of the acoustics in my room since hardwood gives off better vibes than carpet does. Electrics were all done in The Shed.

During the mixdown, Felisha Gonzalez helped me out with the ending of the song… whether it should be more Weezer or more Mason Jennings. Turns out, the mix of the two was her decision: the vocals from the first mix and the solo from the second mix. She also would like to add that she “perfected it”. Also, Schau asked her prior to the mixing that he “demands perfection”. Great job editing team, you’ve appeased each other. As for the song itself… it’s in the link below! Check it out!