He's not exaggerating. In January the Apples began making preparations for their upcoming CD, tentatively titled Tone Soul Evolution. Shortly thereafter, the musicians headed to Hartford, Connecticut, to begin recording at Studio .45, a facility located in the most unlikely of places. "It's an old Colt factory," Schneider divulges. "It used to be the national armory, where they made most of the country's weapons between the Civil War and the Korean War. It was shut down in the Fifties or Sixties, but more recently they built this studio there, and it's amazing. It's one of the biggest buildings I've ever seen. It's so big it's almost inconceivable."
That the Apples were interested in recording anywhere other than their home studio in Denver comes as something of a surprise. After all, Schneider has made virtually all of the Apples' platters--as well as critically lauded long-players by Olivia Tremor Control, Chocolate U.S.A. and the aforementioned Neutral Milk Hotel--using his own gear. But for the followup to the act's Funtricknoisemaker, a CD showered with compliments by numerous national publications and artists such as Beck, Schneider was determined not to take any shortcuts. "We had been working here with our eight-track, but it was sort of a scattered effort," he admits. "There just wasn't as much passion in it as I wanted. Besides, in the last couple of years we've gotten better live, and the recording just didn't measure up. We did a live four-track tape, and it sounded fifty times better than the one we'd been working on."
As a result, Schneider and company began to cast about for somewhere new to record. They settled on Studio .45, in part because of the impressive full-lengths that have been made there by the Lillies and the Silver Jews, among others. But the real selling point was engineer Michael Deming. "He's a great guy," Schneider says. "And he was just what we needed, because I really wanted to work with an engineer on this album. It's hard for me to produce, engineer and play at the same time--I can't do justice to all three things. And I wanted things to sound on tape the way they did in my head. The previous recordings have been somewhat muddy because we've put so much on top of the original tracks that they sort of got drowned out. But with Michael helping us and the 24-track they've got at Studio .45, I knew we could sound the way I always wanted us to."
This process was slowed considerably by several pleasant interruptions. In February the Apples were invited to tour with Sebadoh. Then, a few weeks later, the outfit was invited to open a string of dates for Pavement. "We were right in the middle of things, and by doing that, it knocked two weeks out of our recording schedule," Schneider says. "But they're one of our favorite groups. We just couldn't turn it down." The case was much the same for a June jaunt with the Push Kings, a Boston-based buzz band on the independent Sealed Fate imprint that Schneider describes as "really amazing--like a cross between Gerry and the Pacemakers and Badfinger."
Now, however, the Apples are home, and Schneider could hardly be more enthusiastic about the material that will make up the new CD. "Most modern records have a certain gloss to them, but not this one. It's very warm and natural: modern minus the gloss. There's a lot of piano, horns, percussion and stuff on it, but there are also tons of guitars; it's a much more guitar-oriented record than we've made before. And best of all, it sounds really hi-fi. I wanted it to sound like a real record so that nobody could say, 'Well, it's good for the kind of record it is,' or 'It's good enough.' I wanted it just to be great--and I think it is."
The album is scheduled to be issued under the spinART insignia on September 9, but the Apples won't simply be sitting around waiting for the disc to drop. "We'll be doing a lot of practicing--tightening up our vocal harmonies," Schneider says. "On other records, I did most of the singing, but this time everybody sang, and we want to make sure that we'll sound as good live as we do on the album." Schneider will also be spending most of July and August recording the next Neutral Milk Hotel offering for Merge, a firm that's home to Superchunk. And there's a full slate of releases set to come out on Elephant Six, the Apples' own label. In the past, Elephant Six has been as much an idea as an actual company, but that should change given the avalanche of material Schneider is readying. "We're putting out an album by this really cool San Francisco band called Beulah--they're sort of like a combination of the Plastic Ono Band and the Velvet Underground. And we're going to do a Minders album and a bunch of singles"--including seven-inches by Marbles (a Schneider solo project) and Von Hemmling, put together by the Apples' Jim McIntyre.
In addition, the Apples will be touring behind Tone Soul Evolution--but Schneider is already tossing around ideas for the combo's next album, which will fulfill its contractual commitment to spinART. (At least one major continues to be interested in signing the band, but Schneider declines to go into details.) "I've been thinking that we might do it on eight-track again. Very rock, very sparse, very simple--something that won't take that long," he says. "But who knows? The main thing is, we never want to make a record that's not perfect."
LD-50 is no more; its July 11 date at Seven South was its final live performance. According to the group's frontman, Clark ov Saturn, "many unforeseen events have led LD-50 to disband. Clark is pregnant with his second child. Recone Helmut is leaving to tour with Ted Nugent as his personal gun-cleaner. Gobo inexplicably became Japanese. And Melville is moving to France to join a monastery."
Pause for an outburst of hysterical laughter.
Actually, Melville truly is heading to France (for non-religious reasons), while Clark and Recone have put together a new project dubbed pH10; Clark describes it as "bigger and better than LD-50 ever was or could have been." That remains to be seen, but in the meantime, LD-50 boosters have one more chance to catch the act: A film of the band is scheduled to air at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 19, on DCTV/Channel 57.
Tune in, turn on, drop out. On Friday, July 18, Jux County gets together with Albuquerque-based Venus Diablo at City Spirit; Old Bull's Needle pokes the LaDonnas at the 15th Street Tavern; and singer-songwriter Pierce Pettis appears at Corona Presbyterian Church, 1205 East 8th Avenue. On Saturday, July 19, Laughing Hands, Quixote and the Zukes of Zydeco appear at the Boulder Band Shell for what's described as "a celebration of six years of activism for wolf restoration"; the Emirs tout the release of a new CD, Trick Six, during a free show at the 15th Street Tavern that also features Bile Geyser and Sizewell; Three-Fisted Lullaby drops by Penny Lane for a no-charge, one-night-only reunion; Preston Poe finds Common Grounds; the Perry Weissman 3 counts off at City Spirit; the Otter Pops can be licked at Cricket on the Hill, with Aaron Garcia and Cosmic Pond; the Czars rule at the Bluebird Theater; Insane Clown Posse makes a mess at the Ogden Theatre; and Tenderloin is on the menu at the Lion's Lair. On Sunday, July 20, Backspackle, Register and Plop Squad lead an assault on the Lion's Lair, and Five Iron Frenzy is one of the combatants in "Ska Wars" at the Bluebird. And on Tuesday, July 22, United Future Organization, a dance trio from Japan that's also known as U.F.O., will land at 9th Avenue West, 99 West Acoma Street. It's the final frontier.
--Michael Roberts
Backbeat's e-mail address is: [email protected]. While you're online, visit Michael Roberts's Jukebox 2.0 at www.westword.com
