SUN - 2012

Nicolaoua wrote: My record player works with a laser that is supposed to detect the size of the LP. With the clear vinyl, the laser detect nothing.

Cool, what model is that? I have heard about these record players and I'd like to hear one in action one day.

Cokelike wrote:

Nicolaoua wrote: My record player works with a laser that is supposed to detect the size of the LP. With the clear vinyl, the laser detect nothing.

Cool, what model is that? I have heard about these record players and I'd like to hear one in action one day.

It's a Technics SL-7. I wrote laser but it could also be an infra-red thing. The laser only detects the record, it doesn't play the music.

(this isn't mine but it's similar)

Cat Power Sun 2xLP on a clear rainbow splatter vinyl

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=26015115

Aha! So thats what Chan posted a picture of before. I was wondering why my clear vinyl didnt look like that. So there are at least 3 different pressings now. I just have to tell myself I dont need this.

Nicolaoua wrote:It's a Technics SL-7. I wrote laser but it could also be an infra-red thing. The laser only detects the record, it doesn't play the music.

And the sound?

Cokelike wrote:
Aha! So thats what Chan posted a picture of before. I was wondering why my clear vinyl didnt look like that. So there are at least 3 different pressings now. I just have to tell myself I dont need this.

Can you believe that in France we still aren't able to buy the vinyl standard version...

How does my turntable sound? Perfect, at least to my eyes.

Nicolaoua wrote:Can you believe that in France we still aren't able to buy the vinyl standard version...

I wonder why. I still have to do more listening to the vinyl, but I think I'll probably like the CD the best.

Cokelike wrote:

Nicolaoua wrote:Can you believe that in France we still aren't able to buy the vinyl standard version...

I wonder why.

They probably expect some of us to buy the LP twice... but i would be surprise if it has any impact on the album sales. i know at least 2 persons that are still waiting the standard version to buy the album!
Anyway, it's a poor way to deal with your customers...

Just found this really cool interview with Brian Lebarton, who engineered some of "Sun". The interview was for the Marfa Public Radio program, Indie Kitty, aired 10/9/12. You can download the 32 minute interview here:

http://marfapublicradio.org/

Some paraphrased quotes/notes:

"Always On My Own" played.

"Always On My Own" - "It was recorded August/Sept 2010 at the Malibu studio. A true representation of her natural rhythm. I recall her writing the entire song on a piece of paper next to me as we were recording the song. She did all the instruments in a few hours."

"Manhattan" - "I recorded the majority of the 'bed track' for this song."

Comments about Chan and her moods in recording and live performance. "You hang out with anyone long enough and you just get to know about them. And it was a very rewarding experience."

"Manhattan" played.

"Manhattan" - "The hiss from the tape is very soothing. If you listen again, listen for the hiss of the tape. That was a fun moment for me. The bed track was done while I was present but the lyrics and melodies and live drums were done later. I brought in a drum machine and that beat just sort of appeared, waiting for us. I recorded it, made a loop out of it and she just starting playing these chords over it."

Comments about working with female musicians.

More comments on "Manhattan" and engineering - "It was a big house but it was a spacious place. You would get a great room tone coming into the microphone. It was blind faith that she even asked me... It was really fun. You really get to understand how much work is involved in being an engineer. We she asked me I was pleasantly shocked, and almost thought that I shouldnt do it because I didnt want to ruin a Cat Power album."

"Silent Machine" played.

"Silent Machine" - "That was heavy! I dont think I had any hand in there, I think that was done later. There was another version I recorded that her band did that was very good. It dont think any of that made it to the album version, but possibly. It's hard to tell."

Do you have the outtakes? - "No, no, no, no way. I actually wish I did, but truthfully I dont have any of them. I wish I did."

Phillpe Zdar talks for about a half minute about working with Chan on Sun at the 4:20 mark.

Does anyone else still want to hear the "depressing songs" besides myself?
(I enjoy Sun more than i did originally, but the depressing songs just have a special space in my heart)

silent-machine wrote:Does anyone else still want to hear the "depressing songs" besides myself?
(I enjoy Sun more than i did originally, but the depressing songs just have a special space in my heart)

I love all of her music. But I understand where you're coming from. One of the things I love about her is that doesnt repeat herself. She keeps on reinventing her music and sound. I dont want her to go back to doing what she did before. We have all the records and concerts if we want to listen to them. And you know more stuff will pop up through the years to listen too. Lets say she goes back on tour and changes up the setlist and plays a bunch of the old stuff on piano solo. Would that bother me? No, of course not. But I wouldnt want her to just play the same stuff forever. She is so good at changing it up and suprising us all (especially this year), it would be a crime for her to just play "depressing songs" over and over. That said, I would love to hear the studio versions of "Brave Liar", "Woman Of My Word", "Let Me Go", et al. Assuming they exist.

silent-machine wrote:Does anyone else still want to hear the "depressing songs" besides myself?
(I enjoy Sun more than i did originally, but the depressing songs just have a special space in my heart)

It depends what you mean by "want to hear": do you mean in concerts?
The reason why i love Cat Power, apart from her astounding talent, is that she puts soul into her music. But soul doesn't mean that it has to be depressing.

Anyway, unless you are faking it, you can't create "depressing songs" without being depressed and being depressed is not a state of mind that i wish for someone i care for.
So no, i don't miss the depressing stuff but i'm ok with it. I love "Bully" as much as i love "Peace and Love".

Nicolaoua wrote:

silent-machine wrote:Does anyone else still want to hear the "depressing songs" besides myself?
(I enjoy Sun more than i did originally, but the depressing songs just have a special space in my heart)

It depends what you mean by "want to hear": do you mean in concerts?
The reason why i love Cat Power, apart from her astounding talent, is that she puts soul into her music. But soul doesn't mean that it has to be depressing.

Anyway, unless you are faking it, you can't create "depressing songs" without being depressed and being depressed is not a state of mind that i wish for someone i care for.
So no, i don't miss the depressing stuff but i'm ok with it. I love "Bully" as much as i love "Peace and Love".

I was rewatching that Belgian documentary (again) earlier and she mentions how she had all these songs recorded for Sun and her friend said that all the songs were too depressing, so she started from scratch and recorded what is now the official version of Sun. I am just talking about all that material. By no means am I saying that I want her to be depressed or anything, I just wish that all of that material could have been released.

Oh, i would be delighted to hear the "alternate Sun" or the "Sun sessions" but we might have to wait for a very long time before such a thing happen, if it ever happens.

silent-machine wrote:

Nicolaoua wrote:

silent-machine wrote:Does anyone else still want to hear the "depressing songs" besides myself?
(I enjoy Sun more than i did originally, but the depressing songs just have a special space in my heart)

It depends what you mean by "want to hear": do you mean in concerts?
The reason why i love Cat Power, apart from her astounding talent, is that she puts soul into her music. But soul doesn't mean that it has to be depressing.

Anyway, unless you are faking it, you can't create "depressing songs" without being depressed and being depressed is not a state of mind that i wish for someone i care for.
So no, i don't miss the depressing stuff but i'm ok with it. I love "Bully" as much as i love "Peace and Love".

I was rewatching that Belgian documentary (again) earlier and she mentions how she had all these songs recorded for Sun and her friend said that all the songs were too depressing, so she started from scratch and recorded what is now the official version of Sun. I am just talking about all that material. By no means am I saying that I want her to be depressed or anything, I just wish that all of that material could have been released.

I would have loved too, hope she kept all those songs for later.
I found that this Sun is not as emotional as the others albums but still excellent in its own style. Knowing that for me, emotion just requests Chan' s voice (with no effects) and few notes on guitar or piano.

kakismash wrote:Knowing that for me, emotion just requests Chan' s voice (with no effects) and few notes on guitar or piano.

Yes. The Covers Record is all that comes to mind.

A french band called "NEIMO" did a cover of RUIN on Radio Le Mouv the day before yesterday.

You can listen to it here, around 88' http://www.lemouv.fr/player/reecouter?play=42800

Did you guys see this one?

http://web.stagram.com/p/333969584738236189_25016756

And she writes:

#stoked #happy #fulfilled #"RUIN"STEMS #JAYZ #shawncarter #"PEACE&LOVE" #catpower #patience

"Ruin" stems? As in, the music track stems? As in She sent Jay-Z the music tracks for "Ruin" so he can add a part on it for a new remix?? And the same for "Peace And Love"? Thats how I'm reading this. What do you guys think?

Cokelike wrote:
Did you guys see this one?

http://web.stagram.com/p/333969584738236189_25016756

And she writes:

#stoked #happy #fulfilled #"RUIN"STEMS #JAYZ #shawncarter #"PEACE&LOVE" #catpower #patience

"Ruin" stems? As in, the music track stems? As in She sent Jay-Z the music tracks for "Ruin" so he can add a part on it for a new remix?? And the same for "Peace And Love"? Thats how I'm reading this. What do you guys think?

I didn't know the word "stem" until now! You could be right on this one and this could be a huge boost for the album.

Nicolaoua wrote:I didn't know the word "stem" until now! You could be right on this one and this could be a huge boost for the album.

Yeah, sometimes they call the individual music tracks of recorded song, "Stems". I really didnt hear this term used much until the last couple of years. If you've heard of the video game "Guitar Hero" or "Rockband", all of the songs in these games use what I've seen refered to as "music track stems".

Like in the game, Rockband, you can play guitar, bass, drums, or vocals. Often the song you are playing will have multiple guitar tracks. For instance, The Beatles' song "Come Together" was recorded with a basic guitar track doing rhythm, and the lead guitar was added. In the game you mostly play along to the rhythm guitar part, and when the lead parts come in to the song the game has you playing those parts (because its more fun to play lead, of course). In this case someone involved in making the game mixed all the guitar tracks of the song to one "Stem". So if you extract all of the music files from the game for that song, you'll end up having 4 isolated tracks or "Stems", typically something like this:

1 - Drums
2 - Bass
3 - Guitar (all guitar complied as one track)
4 - Vocals (all vocals complied as one track)

The Beatles obviously used more than 4 tracks when they made "Come Together" but for the purpose of the game the tracks have to be mixed down to 4 "Stems".

This is how we are able to hear stuff like this:



------------------------------------------

I doubt Chan is making a Rock Band song or anything like that. But her use of the word Stems indicates to me she sent over the individual tracks of "Ruin" and "Peace And Love" to Jay-Z for him and his music guys to re-work how they want to for him to add a part to it and essentially make a "remix" of the song. Thats what it seems like to me anyway.

And it would fit perfectly with one of her interviews where she said that in the near future she would like to release a remixed version of SUN (the album).

It does. I wonder what else could be in the works? She seems to love Kanye West. Wonder if she'll hook him into this project? She also loves Madonna. How about a Madonna version of "Real Life". That song always makes me think of Chan doing the pseudo-Madonna dance moves in the "Cross Bones Style" music video.

Ten years ago, i would have answered "impossible", but nowadays, it could be a blessing for Madonna to work with such a "cool" act like Cat Power! Am i looking forward to that? Not exactly, but it would be fun!

From the 10/29/12 Milwaukee Concert: