Audio Archives 12: Honey White Rehearsal Tapes Vol. 2

Okay, for Round 2 of the archive-trawl through these things, I've found some of my very favorite stuff. Skip to the audio or endure my blather. Fatal Flaws, here from a Seville St., Isla Vista rehearsal on 4/17/04 (where Brian and Bill are in the photo above), is an impromptu instrumental jam (though you can hear my voice waaaay in the back) that Bryn got to go crazy on with the guitar again, and it's even got the terrible butt-rock ending. On the other end of the spectrum, there's an instrumental jam of Sweet Oblivion from the very next night that is one of the goddam sweetest things we've ever improvised. I liked it so much I tacked it onto the end of our third live album as a bonus hidden track. For these two songs, and the speedy take of Heart On A Platter that follows, we were practicing for our second appearance at the Wildcat Lounge in downtown Santa Barbara. We pulled thirty people on a Monday night and, as surely everyone knows by now, it was the most-documented HW show ever, with video, photos, and audio recordings.

We were recording in San Francisco for most of the rest of 2004, but we did find time to get together at Table Salt on November 20 and 21 for some shambling affairs. At one point, we blasted through a series of Mojo Wire songs, and after a brutal take of Long Black Leather Boots, Bryn had no choice but to tell the rest of us to SHUT UP. We then did exactly that, pulling off a good version of our new quiet-arranged One Last Hallelujah. Well, not really- Hallelujah was from our first practice at the Milpas St. art gallery of Bill's parents. It's a great place to play, just as inspiring as Table Salt in terms of being surrounded by visuals, but at the gallery, the exhibits change, of course, so our mood often switched with them too (one time, Bill, Brian and I were surrounded by abstract works, and spend three hours making all sorts of weird sounds with the instruments). The take of Blacking Out here is from 3/27/05, as we practiced for our Ventura debut at Nicholby's.

The next three tunes are sort of a continuation down the line we'd started when we rearranged Hallelujah and Lightning Rod into slower and/or mellower versions. In fact, the take here of Lightning Rod, from 7/3/05, is one of my absolute favorite versions of the song- but Bryn's not even on it! Brian, Bill, and I eased out a cool quiet-surf instrumental of the song that day. Bryn was there on 10/23/05, however, for our similar initial re-workings of both So Cold (here as a strutting, slow funk take) and Shivering Sand (a reggae-ska take!), and though they're both mostly unformed and jammy, they're worth a listen to see how Honey White improvises together to change songs we've played a million times into newer, fresher things. After a small show in Santa Barbara, a big one in LA, and a canceled LA repeat, we sort of lay low for most of 2006 until resurfacing for a small show in the OC. We did manage to meet up in Ventura at the Lounge Pop studio on March 18, though, and I've taken versions of Nightfall, Let Go, and Green Hills from that session. Both Nightfall and Green Hills were new tunes of Bryn's (the former having been well received at gigs for months) and we pulled them off pretty well that night.

After that, there was the Dana Point gig, and...not much, until a few weeks ago when we met at the gallery again to see Brian off to D.C. Bryn, Brian and I played at Table Salt the night before (5/26/07), and the semi-acoustic take of Island Fever is from that practice. For the final gallery stuff, I'm gonna be selfish here and add one of my new ones called Hold Still, which obviously needs work, but has potential. Last but not least is a Queens of the Stone Age cover, This Lullaby, which Bryn had taught me when we played as the Scuppers on the deck of his ship.

There's much, much more where all this stuff came from, but I figured it would be overkill to subject everyone to more than 30 songs, so that's it for the HW practice tapes. I'll be back... sometime... with maybe some more interesting audio/video/writing. We shall see. Til then, thanks again for listening, everybody.

Audio:

Audio Archives 11: Honey White Rehearsal Tapes Vol. 1

The major reason Honey White was a creative and artistic success for Bryn, Brian, Bill and myself was that we practiced like mad for almost all of the first year of the band's existence (that would be 2002). We got together at Earl's Table Salt room in downtown Santa Barbara usually twice a week, and did this pretty much straight from March until December. We drove each other crazy by the end of that run, but the great advantage of that first year of frenzied rehearsal was the fact that we had not only got along well personally and musically right from the start, but had also become so used to the unique characteristics of each other's playing styles that we were easily able to go out and play a gig with relatively little practice. Most of our shows from then on were spaced further apart, but we could get it together pretty well in preparation for them because of how much we practiced together at the beginning. I recorded lots of these practices (in addition to most of the shows as well, obviously), and I've had fun in the past few days collecting what I think are some of the more unique and/or representative songs from our rehearsal tapes into two relatively concise volumes for posterity's sake. Some are messy, some are funny, and some I don't know what the fuck we were thinking, but I think it's all worth a listen, especially since there's so goddam much of it that got left out. So, lemme splain (or you can skip my blather and go right to the audio player):

The first two songs here, Wayfaring Stranger and My Second Shipwreck, were recorded very badly by me on two 4-tracks wired together, hence the mono and overloaded sound. I included them here because they date from the first recorded practices I made of Honey White, 3/8/02 and 3/14/02 respectively. Well, I'm guessing those songs go with those dates. I can't be sure, actually, because of the conflicting info I get from the different CDs they were on, but whatever- they're the beginning. I put Wayfaring Stranger at the front because it was the first song Bryn did solo that got lots of people interested (indeed, he and Brian and I once opened a Mojo Wire show back in 2000 with this cover). When Billy answered our want ad for a drummer, he loved it right away too, so off we went.

Shipwreck and the next tune, Windward Mark (this version from 5/20/02), were both Mermen-inspired surf instrumentals Bryn had recorded with ten other songs for his solo album of instrumentals, also from 2000, and also called My Second Shipwreck. Honey White needed tunes to pad our short sets, so we were more than happy to take a shot at both of these. This take of Windward was also actually used by a guy I used to work with named Keith Kie as a soundtrack for his "Hi, I'm traveling in New Zealand and you're not!" video email not long after we recorded it. The Lightning Rod is also from the May 20 tape, which was one of our first attempts at it, I think. We used it as a reference when recording our debut My Band Rocks CD later that summer.

For guys who disliked jam bands, we did a lot of jamming. Inevitably, songs emerged from those jams that we solidified and made into real compositions, and a perfect example of that was this early version (9/23/02) of a song that became Let Go, my favorite Bryn-written Honey White tune. The other track included from that date never got lyrics added, but it changed titles from "The Happy Stoner Song" to Polarity (because of the shifting moods). The version here is about a minute longer, I think, then the one we ended up recording two years later in the studio.

The next two songs on the list, You Let Me Fall and Water Into Wine, come from one of the burned-out practices (specifically 12/12/02) where we still played well, but it seemed pretty clear that something needed to change, so we decided after this to only practice when we needed to, such as for upcoming gigs. Water Into Wine was actually an old Mojo Wire song that we tried to learn to give the gig setlist some fresh tunes, but it never turned out as well as we'd hoped, so we bailed on it. We still hadn't really shaken the general funk by April '03, though (despite one great gig at UCSB) and still sounded sorta exhausted on the take of Fatal Flaws from 4/9/03 included here. I used to do this thing in this song where I'd sing lyrics from another more famous song in the open 12-bar; I'd tossed in lyrics from BRMC, U2, and Wilco during shows, and here on this take I guess I tried to pick everybody up by being funny and sang some lines from Strong Bad's immortal anthem about Trogdor.

Honey White was pretty much inactive for the latter half of 2003, what with Bryn jetting off to Europe for three months and Bill drumming and recording in Texas with the punkers of Futureman, but we did get together twice, and naturally I recorded it. Before that, though, Bryn, Brian, and I had a jam session on 8/15/03 with erstwhile Mojo Wire frontman Adam Hill, and the four-piece we made (with Bryn on drums as in Mojo days) bashed out some fun takes of the Mojo Wire songs Long Black Leather Boots and Margarita, with Adam here taking on vocals and guitar. The next Honey White practice, from 9/12/03, was the first we had at the Seville Street practice rooms in Isla Vista, where Billy also did double duty with Futureman. That room was small and could get suffocatingly hot, but we managed to squeeze in some good work there, and I've highlighted that first date with takes of Wayfaring Stranger (here with Bryn on keyboards) and Dead Man.

The last two songs I've got for Volume 1 are also from the Seville St. room. We were often unable to record vocals using the P.A. system there, and in the take of So Cold I've included here, it's hard to hear Bryn's vocals over the noise of the band, but this take is pure gold for his absolutely blistering guitar solo that charges in halfway through the song. It's really fantastic- one of Bryn's finest musical moments in my opinion. Finally, there's an early version of Bottlerocket from 1/24/04, quieter and surfier and actually without Brian (he was in Tokyo at the time).

So that's Volume 1. I'll be back with a collection of our more recent practices (i.e. 2004-2007) in a few days. As always, thanks for listening.

Audio:

Video Slideshow: Dead Man

As promised yesterday, Honey White's studio take of Neil Young's soundtrack tune. Brian owns it all the way through.


There's actually a story behind this version of the song that's the best one from our Take Root experience (where there were so many, of course). Brian's guitar is dominant in the mix of this song because it literally dominated the studio. Jon the engineer cranked Brian's signal through 3 huge speaker cabinets, set up way across the room from where Brian actually stood and played. The microphone behind him caught a whole room's worth of ambient air too.

But the volume. I mean, the VOLUME, dude. It was SO LOUD. How loud? Jon wore rifle range earphones when he went out to make adjustments to the amps. Brian's own sound-muffling earphones were small help too, but it was so worth it to get this take.

Now, there was a body shop for motorcycles next to the studio, and its proprietor was a big, big man who liked to play classic 70's soul, and play it loud enough to rumble through the walls to the room where we were recording. Jon asked him to stop several times, and when he finally did, we got the take of Brian's part, but not before Jon cranked it up even more and said something like "hope the guy next door has a change of underwear after we're through with this!"

So that's "Dead Man", the Honey White version. And yes, the Youtube audio sucks. How about an mp3 link, then: Honey White: "Dead Man". It never made it on the album because I was too intimidated by copyright law and correct citation for Neil, so it ended up on our gig demo and as a free download.

Audio Archives 10: It's Over When We Say It's Over

I'm inaugurating a new way of going about this sort of thing (which will be retroactive, too): instead of simply listing the tracklisting and making it exclusive to MySpace, why not let everyone hear it? Well, duh. Here we go, then...

Honey White concert from the vaults: Giovanni's '04
So in light of the recent enforced hiatus that Honey White will have to endure, for this week's concert from the vaults (yes, it's baaaack) I thought I'd be optimistic and post our first concert of 2004, the last time that we came back after a significant hiatus (which had been the latter half of 2003). I think instead of commentary, I'll just re-post what I said of the show at the time:

"Hang on- did I say the show would go from "9:30-11pm"? Ah- well, turns out that translates as "whenever the Lakers/Kings game is over" until "closing". Brian said post-show that this was the weirdest gig we've ever played and I think I have to agree with him. Having the NBA as an opening act was only the beginning. "Mercy Rule" was a good, high-energy, LOUD thing to start the set with, and I think "Oblivion" went well too. We debuted 4 new songs tonight: "Sean Goes To Africa", "Bottlerocket", "Let Go", and "Keep Moving", and for the most part they went over great. Things were kind of claustrophobic and sometimes there were some nasty vibes, but surly basketball dudes were matched pound for pound by our legions of fans, and the place was quite packed. Thanks so much to everyone who came to see us. Conversely, a big middle finger goes to the drunk guy who kept yelling at us to play Zeppelin. Hey man, this note's for you."

Here's the audio:


Mojo Wire Archive:The Mojo Wire material I've got this time is sort of Barrel-Scraping, Part 2. The rare stuff here is from the looooong stretch between the April '99 release of "Seaside Hamlet Skids" and when the band fell apart at the end of 2001. Again, proceed with caution, or else with a patient sense of humor.


Random Bedrock Recordings, 1999
The last gasp of the Mojo Wire at the Bedrock was two rehearsals in June '99, with one recorded as the Adam/Bryn/Keir trio, one recorded as the full lineup with Joe. "The Worst Way" comes from the trio, and "Joe's 2nd" (I don't think he ever gave it a name) came from the full lineup session ("Joe's 1st" being the tune that ended up as "You're On Your Own"). "Bleak" was Bryn's first stab at the song which would become Honey White's version of "So Cold", but this version is notable as Joe's first appearance on a Mojo Wire recording, with his guitar solo. "Jetski" is the abomination of me playing guitar and bass, and Bryn playing drums, and its boring G-C chord changes never went anywhere special. "Breathe" is a song of Adam's that he recorded at the same time as "Blue Lantern Cove", "Happy Birthday", and "Anywhere But Here", the first two of which ended up on the "You're On Your Own" album.

Random Penthouse Recordings, 1999-2000
Bryn and I did lots of work at the Penthouse, where we all lived as next-door neighbors (Bryn and I in #24, Adam and Joe in #25) after leaving the Bedrock building. "Happy Birthday Part 2" is actually a tune from the last Bedrock gasp, but Adam's, erm, "vocals" are from later that year on Bryn's birthday, when we'd all moved to the Penthouse. "Water Into Wine", "You're On Your Own", and "Heart On A Platter" are all demos of the songs that ended up on the final Mojo Wire album, but here it's only Bryn and I playing on them. The versions here of "Shivering Sand", "Margaritaville", and "Margarita" are from the same early 2000 practice that the B side "Broken Nail Blues" comes from, played by the Adam/Bryn/Keir trio. The last two songs are Bryn's first demos of "Sandman" and "You Let Me Fall" which saw belated release on the first Honey White disc, "My Band Rocks".

Random "House of the Lord" Recordings, 2000-2001
I spent most of the summer of 2000 taking over Bryn's room for recording demos, at the house where he lived on Sabado with Adam, Joe, Brian, Sean, and Owen. Sean named this place, for some unknown reason, "The House Of The Lord", and it was known as such forever after. "The Peak Of My Career" is a demo of mine that was built off yet another instrumental track from back in June '99 at the Bedrock (and was also used in a track called "Saturation" for the Low Tide side project). The live takes of "How Far Away" and "Hallelujah" are from the Mojo comeback gig of December 2000, and are thus appropriately messy. "Mercy Rule" and "Bleak" are from a late 2001 session at Earl's Table Salt room with only Joe, Bryn and I. No idea how they would have ended up as Mojo Wire songs, but of course "Mercy Rule" went on to be a big Honey White song. The take here of "Sunset Down" was a solo take of mine, begun in 2001 when Bryn and I were plowing through a remake project, and I finished it a year later, right before Honey White began.

...and the audio:



So that's it for the Mojo Wire barrel-scraping stuff. That's all for now. Thanks again for listening...

-Keir