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Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed Wednesday’s deep-dive into the songs and production for Smile Pretty Make Nice. Now we’ve come to the fun bonus leg of this first trip. On a lark, I sent some questions out to Adam via email, and he in turn passed them on to Chris and Shawn. And then they all answered, which was awesome of them and great for us. Each of them sent their responses separately, so I’m laying them out in that format. These are all thoughtful, smart guys, so I did very little editing, with the intent that what they wrote is what you get. I’m thrilled with the results, and I hope you will be, as well.

Details:

• Artist – The Glad Version
• Release – Smile Pretty Make Nice (2004)
• Buy: iTunes • Amazon mp3 • CD Baby
• Stream: Rdio • Spotify

When I first met Adam, you guys were called Boy With Stick, and you were kind enough to include me on the bill for a show at the 400 Bar – can you give us a little history of those days and how you came to start this record?

Adam Svec (AS): If my memory serves me right, Shawn, Michael, Chris, and I (e.g. Boy With Stick) moved up to Minneapolis from Iowa in one big clump at the end of May in 2002. The four of us lived in a house together at 4305 29th Ave. S. The first week of June, I took a temporary position at a law firm downtown. As fate would have it, I trained both Erik Appelwick (Vicious Vicious, Tapes n’ Tapes) and Johnny Solomon (Friends Like These, Communist Daughter) into the call center during the year that I worked at the firm. I met John Hermanson through Appelwick (via Alva Star), and we began having conversations about making a record in Solomon’s studio. Hermanson and Solomon came to see Boy With Stick at The Lab (now Station 4, or 4th Street Station, or Metal-Blast-Ass-Smash, or whatever it’s called this year) in Lowertown, St. Paul, some time during the Fall of 2002. Solomon’s studio was just down the street in the Northwestern building, so they took a break from mixing the first Friends Like These record and came down to see us. I believe we were opening for VooDoo Glow Skulls that evening (which is another story). After some date-sorting and dollar-bending, Hermanson figured he could make room for us to record during the Winter of 2003.

After the sessions were confirmed, we had to narrow down our list of songs. As I remember, we set up a whiteboard in the living room of the house. We listed every song we had written since the album we recorded in Decorah, IA in 2001/2002. We drank about 700 beers (because it was Wednesday) and began crossing off song titles. After all was said and done, 18 titles were left on the board. We could really only afford to record 10-12 songs, so we decided we would just sleep on it for a while. We never really did consciously choose, we just started wailing away at whatever we had time for in the studio. Shawn and Chris had been doing the lion’s share of songwriting, so only one of my songs ended up on the board. I actually wrote ‘Sand’ very late in the game, and it only seemed appropriate to add to the process during the last week of recording.

An elephant in the room, so to speak, was our name. I had disliked the name, Boy With Stick, since the inception of the band. I had been away on vacation when the boys had picked the name, and my response was, “Are you fucking serious?” Anyway, during late Fall of 2002, the four of us started gathering band names on small pieces of paper and putting them in a hat. We headed over to the Lake Inn (now Busters… or something like that) one evening, ordered 700 beers, and started pulling names out of the hat. After some voting and arguing, ‘The Glad Version’ won.

Chris Salter (CS): Smile Pretty Make Nice was originally going to be an EP (we couldn’t afford to record a full length album). After start dates were rescheduled a few times due to other projects John was working on, he agreed to record a full length for the price he quoted us for an EP. We were very excited and had plenty of songs that were itching to be recorded. For the most part the songs were written privately by their respective authors (Adam wasn’t yet the prolific songwriter that he’s become, and had only completed a handful of songs), and shared with the group when finished, but a few were more collaborative. Shawn emailed me the lyrics for Empty Houses during my senior year at Luther College (he graduated a year before the rest of us). He had set the lyrics to music but wanted me to take a stab at it as well without hearing his version. I wrote the music that ended up on the record, but I later got to hear Shawn’s version, and I remember how strange it was to hear the song performed as a jaunty piano song with the verses and chorus inverted. [Author’s note: Chris was kind enough to share many demos with me, and in the case of this song I had both demos to play with. I pared both down to just the initial verse, to illustrate how different the two versions are.]

Hit and Miss was a song that I had started in mid-college, and I couldn’t finish the lyrics. Adam completed them, but I don’t think either of us were completely happy with the final product (at the time we had pretty different lyric writing styles). I remember sitting in my car waiting for John to show up to the studio on the day that Adam was going to record vocals for Hit and Miss, frantically re-writing the lyrics to the second halves of the verses. I still don’t think I got it right.

As for Boy With Stick, It was the title of a b-side from the band Hum. I sure did like them at the time, and this song in particular demonstrated the type of big dynamics that I thought were the hallmark of good rock songs. I pushed for the name in Adam’s absence, and won. Young name for a young band, and we eventually outgrew it.

Shawn Neary (SN): We all moved to the city after college. I was one year older than everyone else in the band, and spent an ill-advised and expensive year at the University of Iowa Law School. I played guitar more than I studied, and performed at open mics, blues jams, and drove back up to Decorah to rehearse with the band on a weekly basis. I’d often miss my Property lecture the next morning. It wasn’t for me. After everyone else graduated, we moved to Minneapolis and lived in the same house, by Lake Nokomis. We first played the Red Sea on Cedar Avenue – and when we made it to the 400 Bar we had made it, for real. We played a show there with Adam’s co-worker, John Solomon and Friends Like These. They had recorded their record with John Hermanson, and suggested we get in touch with him. We went to Luther College, and maybe on the first day of not even class, but moving in, I heard Chris and Johnny or Storyhill, depending on when the record was made, coming from no less than four dorm rooms. We knew who John was, and it was a dreamy thing for us to possibly work with him. Not to suggest there was an even split, but a few of the songs came from college time and a few came from our new urban reality. Of Standish-Ericsson. And riding a bus. Not exactly 8 Mile, but a change from Decorah, to be sure.

I’m an addict of studio stories. Can you talk about the process for recording this record and share any stories about those sessions?

AS: Holy shit, that was a crazy Winter. Recording with Hermanson in Lowertown was what made me fall in love with making records. The creative process that happens behind the curtain is such a magical, indescribable thing. It’s tiresome, relentless, and maddening, but it’s terribly worth it. Trying to get each tone ‘right,’ was a learning experience. Although I’d done some recording in a radio station previously, I hadn’t considered the importance of microphone placement when it came to capturing the right timbre of each instrument (including vocals). We had all come out of college as fairly well-rehearsed musicians; however, we weren’t particularly good at letting go. Collectively breaking the rules, to great rewards, on the seventh floor of that building felt like it breathed new life into the band.

Many of the takes that eventually made the album were initially scratch tracks. We’d hash out ideas, record everything at least four times, and then conclude that the scratch track conjured the best image, so we used it. You’ll notice that my voice is a little rough on a number of the songs. Johnny bought a bottle of scotch at the beginning of the session, and we were constantly sipping on it for the majority of the tracking. Apparently, the scotch made the record, too. It also didn’t hurt that we were listening to the ‘new’ Cursive album (The Ugly Organ) almost every day as priming for the pump.

One fond memory: The Northwestern building used to be a hospital, so there always seemed to be the chance that a person might run into a ghost on their way to bathroom. Somewhere near 2:00 AM one… morning, Chris had to stand in the hallway by himself to play a guitar part. We had all recently watched The Ring, and all of us were a little creeped out by that particular hallway, anyway. Johnny said (through the playback), “Hey Chris, some chick just called and said something about seven days.” That put Chris over the edge, and we had to call it a night.

Our friend, Nick, actually died in a car accident on his way to the twin cities shortly before we started recording Smile Pretty Make Nice. I think his passing really deepened some of the darker moments in our performances. You can hear a lot of the hurt that accompanied that experience in ‘Options and Absolutes.’ After Nick passed, we decided to finish out the album with ‘Sand.’

CS: There was a lot of experimenting and many “happy accidents” that made the final cut. The air horn sound at the beginning of my solo on Empty Houses came from my guitar (a sweet Reverend Rocco now owned by Bobby from No Bird Sing) being put through multiple distortion pedals – that was the sound when I wasn’t touching the strings, and I found I could change the pitch by turning the tone knob! Options and Absolutes was a blast to record – John played lap steel with tremolo, the crunchy sound of Shawn’s bass came from us threading a piece of paper through the strings, and the acoustic slide guitar you hear was tuned down an entire octave. We were finished recording drums before we discovered that something wasn’t working with the drum take on Empty Houses. It was too late to re-record, so John ended up frankensteining together the drum track from just a few measures of the original performance.

John was working on the second Alva Star record during the same period that we were making SPMN, and I hear some similarities between the two (primarily in the keyboard sounds – he overdubbed a lot of keys on our record to flesh it out).

I’ve been a superfan (like, BIG superfan) of John’s since High School, and the whole experience of working with him and getting to know him was an absolute dream come true. My favorite experience was singing three-part harmony with him and Adam on Life of It and Options and Absolutes. I still love listening to that.

SN: We worked in a studio in Lowertown St. Paul. It was in the Northwest Building, which overlooked/looks the St. Paul Farmer’s Market. We were given access to a whole range of instruments that we didn’t normally use, and we went kind of nuts. In point of fact, I went kind of nuts. There was a theremin, so of course we had to use that. With no semblance of technique. We should use a keyboard all over the place, despite the fact that no one played it in the band. And an acoustic guitar tuned down an octave with, if I recall, a piece of paper flapping near the headstock? You’re goddamned right that HAD to be in the mix somewhere. I also remember Chris’ solo that sounded like an air horn really really well.

It’s been 10 years since you made this record (!), and you’ve all continued to make more great music and add more to the scene around here. From this perspective, what are your reflections on this record? (Favorite songs? Anything you initially hated but have grown to accept or even love?)

AS: When we finished the album, my favorite song was ‘Options and Absolutes’ by a landslide. I still think that is the case. To me, this song sounds like it has the “oldest soul” of all the tunes on the record. Plus, the crackling that you hear in the outro is the last breath of a National guitar amplifier that quit working immediately after Chris finished playing that take. We tried to revive it, but there was nothing to be done.

‘Hit and Miss’ makes me cringe a little. It was a song from a by-gone era, and we probably should have trusted our guts to include a different tune… it’s just so damn catchy, it seduced us!

Otherwise, I’m content with how these songs have held up over time. It’s pretty clear that the album was made by young writers trying really hard to sound like they knew what they were doing. We didn’t know what we were doing, but it worked out all right anyway.

Sidenote: I love the playing of Mike Michel, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Jake Hanson, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and Geoff Farina, but I would still choose Chris Salter as a guitar player any day of the week. He has a gift that surpasses my imagination. Shawn Neary is a magnificent songwriter, and I hope he continues to do it until his fingers don’t work anymore. I was fortunate enough to play in his band, The Wapsipinicon, for a number of years after he moved on to play with Tapes n’ Tapes and Cloud Cult.

CS: I really miss how melodic/busy Shawn’s bass playing is. I think it worked really well with this group of songs and interplayed nicely with my melodic/busy guitar parts.

In hindsight, Taking Stock was recorded too slow and sounds like we maybe, just maybe were listening to a lot of Death Cab for Cutie.

I agree with Adam that you can hear the youth in a lot of the songwriting, but a number of the songs have stood the test of time for me – I especially still enjoy listening to Empty Houses, Options and Absolutes, and Your Ghost Tonight – I’m still really proud of writing the latter, and it was always a blast to play live, too.

Hit and Miss… I wish we would have picked a different song in it’s place. Musically, it made sense to me at the time, but it sounds pretty lame to these 33 year old ears.

SN: I don’t spend too much time with the records I’ve made in the past, for one reason or another. Maybe passages here and there, but not full records. This one’s no different – though maybe, with the ten year approaching, I should make an exception.

After this record, the next Glad Version was done in-house with new drummer Tor Johnson also serving as engineer and the band producing. Can you talk about the differences in those ways of recording and your decision to move in that direction?

AS: After we released Smile Pretty Make Nice in the Winter/Spring of 2004, both Shawn and Michael moved on to bigger and better things during that Summer. Shawn joined Tapes n’ Tapes and took over the world for a year. Michael got a job with Hello Booking and decided that he needed to focus his efforts on getting his new career off the ground, which was completely understandable. Chris and I were at a little bit of a loss, as far as what the band was going to look like after Shawn and Michael left. My friend, Tor Johnson, got in touch with me and let me know that he was planning to move to the cities. He read some interview or something about the fact that we were losing a drummer, and he asked if he could join the band. Fortunately for Chris and I, Tor was (and continues to be) a masterful drummer and engineer… just what we needed.

The Glad Version lineup, post-’Smile Pretty, Make Nice’

While recording Lights Out North Star, I definitely missed everything about the recording process from the previous album. We recorded the second album quickly and mercilessly. We didn’t spend much time on second takes, editing, or re-writing. Somewhat ironically, the album we spent the least amount of time on (Lights Out North Star) charted significantly better on national college radio than either of the albums we labored over for months (Smile Pretty Make Nice, Make Islands). The song ‘Tin Soldier’ had a lot to do with that, I think. WOXY (Ohio) really loved it, and that sparked more interest within the CMJ community.

We drove out to the East coast for the first time during the Fall of 2005. I think we only played three shows (169 Bar – New York, NY; Staccato – Washington, DC; Nite Owl – Dayton, OH), but at least we got our feet wet.

CS: Yeah, two totally different experiences.

Make Islands ended up being more similar to SPMN, in the sense that we recorded it in a real studio and labored over it, while we recorded LONS guerilla-style. I still think it’s crazy that all of the electric guitars on LONS were recorded through a POD and without an amp. Adam’s songwriting really took off at this period (and mine began to slow down) – all but 3 of the songs are his. I was less checked-in with some aspects of the recording process than with our other 2 records (and my work with Adam since), and I regret that. Life is short and I missed some of it. Tor is a stellar drummer/producer/human, and he was absolutely what Adam and I needed to keep making music.

SN: I was up and out of the Glad Version when that record was made, though I can tell you it seemed to be a much more comfortable and familiar process when I’d go observe the sessions. We were really young when we made the first record, and more than a little intimidated/ starstruck. John’s a wonderful guy, but working with friends you’ve known for years, as Adam was doing in making the second and subsequent records, is a beautiful and different process entirely.

Unreleased The Glad Version track: ‘Lipstick Hit’

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Welcome back! We’re at it a little early this week, since we’ve got the bonus interview section for you on Friday. Last week I talked about my own history with The Glad Version and touched a bit on the legacy of this early incarnation of the band. This week it’s all about geeking out over the record itself. As such, I sincerely invite you to use the comments section below and let me know what you think – let’s geek out together. Best case scenario, this becomes a fun group-share. Worst case – well, we all know what that looks like. Let’s get to it, then.

Details:

• Artist – The Glad Version
• Release – Smile Pretty Make Nice (2004)
• Buy: iTunes • Amazon mp3 • CD Baby
• Stream: Rdio • Spotify

Songs:

Empty Houses and Proximity: Empty Houses deserves inclusion for any number of reasons and it blends seamlessly into Proximity. It’s as good a first one-two punch on a record as I’ve ever heard. Quick breakdown: Empty Houses is just a perfect mission statement, as it really shows every facet of the band and lays out the sound of the record. Also, we get a fantastic guitar solo. At this point it seems a good time to call out Chris Salter. Adam: “I love the playing of Mike Michel, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Jake Hanson, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, and Geoff Farina, but I would still choose Chris Salter as a guitar player any day of the week.” I can’t argue with that. And I can’t think of a more underrated guitar player in this scene than Chris. He’s the author of many of my favorite leads in the past decade or so. Easily. Returning to the record itself, the transition to Proximity is deftly handled, and we’re rolling along with a really great, angular power pop song, like the best one of those you’ve heard in a really long time. And then it decays out and you get…

Cruelty Of Modern Life: Which is really the best any sort of power pop song you’ve heard in like forever. It’s got everything, really – the sudden, compelling rhythm, sharp catchy melodies, and a very clever arrangement. First off, it’s that rhythm guitar – slightly fuzzy and full of restless energy. The drums and bass hop into the mix, and we’re rolling. And that bass may be the key to what makes this such a compelling tune. It’s all over the place, with Shawn essentially playing another, almost accidentally complimentary song altogether. Which is just another example of why this record stands by itself. It’s the only one with Shawn on it. Chris: “I really miss how melodic/busy Shawn’s bass playing is. I think it worked really well with this group of songs and interplayed nicely with my melodic/busy guitar parts.” Again, I’m going to agree. Shawn Neary plays bass the way I want to play bass. Add in some really well-conceived and even better-executed vocal harmonies, and – depending on the day – this is my second favorite track on the record.

‘Cruelty of Modern Life (Demo)’, The Glad Version

Options and Absolutes: I’ll let Adam start this off. “When we finished the album, my favorite song was ‘Options and Absolutes’ by a landslide. I still think that is the case. To me, this song sounds like it has the “oldest soul” of all the tunes on the record.” Personally, I have other favorites, but this is first a fine track and second a wonderful break after the three-song volley that started the record. As with the record as a whole, I’m struck by the attention to detail and all the various little flourishes and bits of ear candy. Chris elaborated on some of those bits: “Options and Absolutes was a blast to record – John played lap steel with tremolo, the crunchy sound of Shawn’s bass came from us threading a piece of paper through the strings, and the acoustic slide guitar you hear was tuned down an entire octave.” This record was lovingly fussed over, and you can hear it. And while I doubt I know what accounts for a soul in a song, I can tell you it sounds absolutely beautiful.

‘Options and Absolutes (Demo)’, The Glad Version

Elisabeth: Damn, I do love this song with a deep part of my soul. I don’t really know why, but I’ll go ahead and start with the chorus. So great. The intro’s fun, as well. But really, it’s that chorus. I’m not a lyric junky by any means, but from structure to content I just love the lyrics to this chorus, and the music and vocals carry them perfectly. And obviously the band and producer knew what they had, as they had the good sense to serve that chorus to us at least three ways. As I now know, Chris wrote this one – so thanks, Chris. I really love this song.

Hit and Miss: I wasn’t going to touch on this one until Adam and Chris both singled it out as the one “miss” on the record. And in one sense they’re right – while it isn’t easy to nail down specifically, there is an aspect to this song that barely prevents it from sitting in comfortably with the rest. However, when Adam says “it’s just so damn catchy, it seduced us!” I absolutely know what he’s talking about. It doesn’t quite fit, and it hasn’t aged as well as the others, but damned if some days that thing isn’t stuck squarely in my head. Regardless, if this is the worst a band has to offer, sign that band.

Sand: This one has always toggled back and forth with Cruelty Of Modern Life as my second favorite of the record. Mind you, I didn’t know that it was almost the only song Adam wrote on the record, and I sure as hell didn’t know that a friend of the band had been killed in an auto accident before they started the recording. I did know that it, from the very first time I heard it, felt huge to me. It’s not the lyrics – they’re great, but as I said I’m just not really a lyrics nut. Honestly, I don’t know just what it is. It just roots up under my skin and I somehow I can almost sense the grief that I now know they were working under. A lot of this can be credited to all that fussing over and caring I mentioned earlier – so let’s get to that.

‘Sand (Demo)’, The Glad Version

Process:

The band worked with John Hermanson (of, at that point, Alva Star and Storyhill fame) at Johnny Solomon’s (then with Friends Like These) studio in the Northwestern building in Lowertown, St. Paul. Adam says “Recording with Hermanson in Lowertown was what made me fall in love with making records. The creative process that happens behind the curtain is such a magical, indescribable thing. It’s tiresome, relentless, and maddening, but it’s terribly worth it. Trying to get each tone ‘right’ was a learning experience. Although I’d done some recording in a radio station previously, I hadn’t considered the importance of microphone placement when it came to capturing the right timbre of each instrument (including vocals).” Chris adds “I’ve been a superfan (like, BIG superfan) of John’s since High School, and the whole experience of working with him and getting to know him was an absolute dream come true.”

They worked with ProTools, though they had plenty of outboard candy to work with, and a nice big 700 square foot space to work in. Per Adam, “They’d built a control booth, probably 6′ X 8′, that was isolated from the rest of the space. The rest of the room was filled with empty beer bottles, old art, miscellaneous instruments (e.g. multiple hammond organs, guitars, etc.), and instrument/recording cables. We built a little temporary booth for vocals, but we ended up ditching it after a while because it sort of ‘swallowed’ some of the natural reflections of the room. Towards the end of the sessions, we tried to get that room in the recordings as much as possible… it was such an interesting space.”

The many and varied guitar tones came primarily from a couple amps. Adam: “For amps, we primarily used Adam Switlick’s Vox AC30 and Hermanson’s Top Hat (King Royale?… 30 watt, Class A).” That variation in tones came from savvy use of mic placement and again taking advantage of that interesting space. Adam says, “While tracking guitar, most of the time we’d set up the amplifier and the microphones so that the cone of the speaker was ‘facing’ the open space in the room.”

I love the production on this record. It hits my happy place on several fronts. First off are the guitars. This is one of those records where there are very few heavily-distorted individual guitar parts, but there are all sorts of big, heavy sounding parts overall. They achieved this with terrific, tight performances by the players and good old-fashioned recording techniques by the engineers, with some chaotic ear candy to round out the bill. Chris provided a nice example of that ear candy: “The air horn sound at the beginning of my solo on Empty Houses came from my guitar being put through multiple distortion pedals – that was the sound when I wasn’t touching the strings, and I found I could change the pitch by turning the tone knob!” Shawn explains things more succinctly: “We were given access to a whole range of instruments that we didn’t normally use, and we went kind of nuts. In point of fact, I went kind of nuts.”

This is a very “studio” record, in the sense that while the songs could certainly be played live, there was extra care and love involved in the process of making the record itself something special. My kind of record, and I think records are important. Killer live shows are great – killer records can change your life.

As for the role this particular killer record played in the lives of the guys who made it, I sure hope you’ll come back on Friday and hear it from them in the interview. See you then!

The Breakfast Club:
Rent: Amazon • iTunes • Netflix Disc
Buy: DVD • BluRay • iTunes

Actors/Actresses Discussed

• Paul Gleason
• Paul Giamatti
• Ally Sheedy
• Alia Shawkat
• Anthony Michael Hall
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse
• Emilio Estevez
• Aaron Taylor-Johnson
• Molly Ringwald
• Ellie Kemper
• Judd Nelson
• Paul Dano
• John Kapelos
• Crispin Glover

Movies Discussed

• Superbad
• Diner
• St. Elmo’s Fire
• The Legend of Billie Jean
• Some Kind of Wonderful
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower
• Bumped

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I’ve thought a lot about where to start with this first Chartered Trip. Do I go chronologically or do I choose some other sort point? But as I worked on the piece you’re about to read it became clear that this was the place to begin. With a band I knew, and a record I dearly love: The Glad Version, ‘Smile Pretty Make Nice’.

Details:

• Artist – The Glad Version
• Release – Smile Pretty Make Nice (2004)
• Buy: iTunes • Amazon mp3 • CD Baby
• Stream: Rdio • Spotify

Talk to anyone about Adam Svec. They’ll tell you how much they love what he’s doing these days and how he’s such a great guy. And then after a beat they’ll quietly add something to the effect of “but it was really cool when he used to rock a little more – you know?”

I hereby contend that they’re talking about ‘Smile Pretty Make Nice’. And that’s because when we all first met Adam he was presiding over this glorious, noisy record. If you haven’t heard it, or haven’t heard it lately, I strongly recommend that you take the time to put it on your favorite listening device, sit down, and listen. It’s more than worth it. And gliding beautifully over all that wonderful din was Adam’s clear tenor. It’s a heady mix.

Three caveats:

1. I count Adam as a friend and collaborator. While I feel confident that I can assess his musical output through an objective lens, when it comes to the man himself I am unashamedly subjective. He’s a pal.

2. This record is by no means the last time Adam rocked. His catalog is littered with great rock tunes. How this group of songs differs from what would follow is hopefully among the things I’ll illuminate as we go along.

3. For this Trip, I’m thrilled to say I have the advantage of also getting the story from the lads themselves. Adam, Chris Salter and Shawn Neary were all kind enough to share their memories and reflections about making this record and what led up to its creation, so at times I’ll be quoting them. And we’ve added a third segment to this Trip devoted to the interview in its entirety, because honestly it’s as fun as the rest all on its own.

So buckle up, and let’s get going.

History

When Adam Svec showed up at my day job in 2003, I was pretty sure he’d sized me up and not liked what he saw. Which was a shame, because I could tell immediately that he was someone I wanted to get to know. Luckily, my apprehension was unfounded and after a while we started to chat about our various musical endeavors, which chatter led eventually to him inviting me onto a bill for a show with his band, Boy With Stick. Despite the fact that the gig was maybe nine days away and I hadn’t even contemplated how I would do a solo show let alone tried it, I immediately accepted – it just seemed like a bad idea to turn down any opportunity, and if they were nice enough to give me a shot I was damn well going to take it. I managed to pull a set together and practiced about six hours a day for the following week, and the night of the gig I showed up with a 50-watt head and 2X12 speaker cabinet in tow along with my acoustic and a few pedals. The sound guy wasn’t thrilled with my amp and I was a bit worried I’d already botched the operation, but we came to an understanding and Adam and the guys seemed amused, at worst.

I got through my set and every single member of Boy With Stick made it a point to come up to me and compliment it. And damn if they didn’t seem really pretty sincere about it, too. Then they went up on stage and just crushed the joint. Nice guys, and much, much better at this thing than I was.

The Glad Version – Hit and Miss (Live Acoustic)

As it turns out, that was not long before the band would change significantly. Prior to Smile Pretty Make Nice being released, they would change the name of the band to The Glad Version. And shortly after the release, bass player Shawn Neary and drummer Michael McGregor would both leave the band to pursue different opportunities.

Truly, the band that made this record was markedly different than the band that would go on to record Lights Out North Star and Make Islands. Perhaps the easiest way I can illustrate that is to mention that of the 10 songs on the record, only two (Life Of It and Sand) were written by Adam. As I stand here in 2013 with the benefit of five records full of Adam’s songwriting at my disposal, that’s kind of a mind-blower. Not only that, but Sand is also the only one he played guitar on. I mean, if there’s one thing he and I have discussed more than songwriting it’s guitar playing and guitar gear. Crazy stuff.

This is in no way to disparage the work of Shawn and Chris, who wrote the rest of the record – I mean, it’s one of my favorite records and I’m writing about it, so obviously I’m a big fan of what they did. What I’m trying to say is that this is a product of a unique combination of talent that was about to stop combining in this particular way, and an era that was coming to an end. These guys got together in Iowa as college students, and this really was the culmination of that original lineup. Which would be pretty sad if we didn’t know that Shawn would go on to be part of Tapes ‘n Tapes and Cloud Cult (not to mention founding The Wapsipinicon) and Adam and Chris would continue to make fantastic records – two more as The Glad Version and another three (and counting, if life is at all fair) under Adam’s regular old name.

And really, that’s why we won’t ever get that thing we all quietly wish for in this case. It’s not that Adam hasn’t rocked since then, it’s that what we’re wishing for is a much more complicated thing that’s related to the folks involved, the time it happened, and the events that occurred at that time. It’s a pretty piece of amber that nobody can ever recreate. But we can sure as hell listen to it. That’s the beauty of recorded music, really – we can pop this on our sound source of choice and go right back to that moment.

The accompanying interview with Adam, Shawn and Chris should give you a fantastic view of the band’s history and the making of the record, so I’ll end this section with one last thought about how they relate to my own history. First, they were the first act I met in the Twin Cities who just offered me a spot on one of their bills. No questions about whether I knew anyone, just hey do you want a spot on this bill? And they along with another band, Cathode Rae, were the first to treat me as another musician rather than some guy from Illinois who seemed a bit old to be trying to do this whole music thing. Put more succinctly, they were kind. That means something in my book.

And they haven’t grown out of it in any way. When I was at a dead end with the final song for my band’s second EP, Adam strolled in and not only saved the song but made it far better than it had been. Then he happily submitted to being filmed for the video of the song, and even put some time into talking it up around town and on the internets.

So, yeah. I’m a fan. Here’s the deal: You all go get your copy (or if you don’t have it, buy it already), give it a good few spins, and we’ll all meet up here next Wednesday and talk about it. Deal. And since it’s a three-parter, we’re going to add a bonus entry on Friday devoted solely to the interview. See you then!

Items Discussed

• Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Microphone
• Blue Yeti Microphone
• Rode Podcaster Microphone
• Audacity Audio Editing Software
• Apple GarageBand Audio Editing Software
• Adobe Audition Audio Editing Software
• Apple Logic Pro Audio Editing Software
• Skype
• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Pop Filter (NADY 6 Inch Clamp-On)
• Desk-Top Mic Stand (OnStage DS7200B)
• Floor Mic Stand (OnStage MS7701)
• Boom Arm (Rode PSA1)
• Two input USB Mixer (Behringer Xenyx802)
• 12 input Mixer (Mackie 1202)

Podcasts and Apps Discussed

• 43f Podcast: John Gruber & Merlin Mann’s Blogging Panel at SxSW
• Remaker’s Mark Podcast
• Nerd Nite MN Podcast
• This American Life
• Radiolab
• Filmspotting
• Back to Work
• KCRW Guest DJ
• Intelligence Squared
• Sound Opinions
• Unprofessional
• You Look Nice Today
• iTunes
• Instacast (iOS)
• PocketCasts (iOS)
• PocketCasts (Android)
• Stitcher Radio (cross-platform)

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Hello everyone, Math Is Hard’s humble narrator Kyle here, and I’m very proud to announce the newest addition to the Math Is Hard family – ‘Chartered Trips’. (Subscribe via RSS)

Chartered Trips is written by my good friend, musical compatriot, and local music nerd Colin Kerns, and focuses on Minnesota-centric albums that he loves. Colin can describe it much better than I can, so without further ado, here is Colin with a great description of what to expect in Chartered Trips. Enjoy!

Welcome to Chartered Trips.

You’re thinking it’s yet another music blog – it is! Now you’re wondering why you would want to read yet another music blog, and that’s fair – only so much time in the day, and it’s covered to death already. True enough. That said, I hope my particular approach will prove interesting to you.

If you’ll indulge me, I think it’s helpful to begin with a little history. First personal, and then more, well, historical.

Colin, headbanging on the left, in his formative rocking years.

That went reasonably well – we opened for all sorts of super-cool bands in our time, and even got to record in a real studio with the guy who made Liz Phair’s first couple records. But in the end it didn’t really fly, so by the mid 90s I was in Madison, WI, going to college and teaching myself how to record everything on my own – all the experience playing drums and bass really started to pay off at this point. I eventually moved up here to Minneapolis and continued to write and record my own music, while very occasionally playing live as a solo act.

Eventually technology opened the door to my being able to not only record my own music but release it as well, which led me to create my current band, The Futiles. To date we’ve released two EPs, a video and a single, with another single and full-length on the way. None of it has sold much or received any airplay, but at this point in the game that isn’t nearly as important to me as the opportunity to do it. Ten years ago I couldn’t even imagine being able to do anything more than write and record my songs without a bunch of money or luck or both. I have no interest in quitting the songwriting and song-recording business, whether or not my output is appreciated or even acknowledged, because just being able to put it together and release it all on my own – to participate – is pretty much the coolest thing ever. Also, if I could have stopped writing songs I would have done so a very long time ago.

‘Dissonance’ by The Futiles

So that’s me. I’m 43 years old and doggedly pursuing my preferred avocation in a (fantastic) scene full of kids, half of whom I could – theoretically – have fathered. And I like it.

And like a lot of musicians, I’m a fan first. I will never tire of hearing a new, awesome band for the first time, and I have an ever-growing mental library stuffed full of favorite acts, records and songs. Now I’ve decided to try my hand at writing about this thing I love so much, which leads us to this blog. Let’s keep moving, shall we?

There have been far more musical acts that nobody will ever hear than there have been those who became famous to any extent. That’s simply how music works. Many musicians are happy to simply play and compose for their own satisfaction, as has been done since the first time someone decided they’d like to write a song. Many more strive for commercial success and simply fail, be it because they weren’t good enough or just unlucky. Again, that’s just the game – music has always been a far better hobby than a job. But there’s another category that interests me: those bands who managed some achievement but were deprived of a larger audience by outside circumstances.

As I write this it’s 2013, and I need but enter something like “Bandcamp” into a search engine to be presented with a plethora of music made by people whose work wouldn’t have been accessible to me just ten years ago. Or I can turn on a stream from a station like The Current that will curate things a bit more for me, if that’s my thing. It’s hard to remember that prior to, say, 2000, access to recording and distribution wasn’t within the reach of all but a few musicians. Local music stayed local, absent the intervention of large chunks of the music industry.

In the early 90s, Nirvana’s success prompted the Industry to pluck scores of scruffy young acts from all over the country, to an extent not common previously, and not seen since. It was a big move by an industry that didn’t yet realize how near its downfall was. And while it paid off handsomely for the Industry, it was a bitter lesson in business for all but a few of those acts. This came from a combination of two novel events being brought to bear by the oncoming digital age: hastened declining interest in the Grunge genre and its offshoots due to the ever-shrinking attention span of the Industry and audience, and the onset of the decline in the Industry’s influence overall. With a not very rosy future looming, the Industry contracted and jettisoned acts that weren’t likely to make much money – the time of developing an artist or band was truly over. As a result, only a small percentage of these acts ever had anything released, let alone properly promoted. What was left was a sort of black hole, consuming any product that the Industry deemed not worthy. Your hometown knew, and you probably played a wicked cool record release show and everything. And you maybe even toured, though coming across audiences that had ever heard of you was unlikely. Without an alternative means of getting those records out, though, they effectively never happened. And that sucks for us as much as those acts.

Not surprisingly, a lot of great Twin Cities musical acts got stuck in that black hole – if you were here you likely know all about them, but for those of us who weren’t lucky enough to be here they might as well not have existed. There was the Prince/Replacements/Hüsker Dü period throughout the 80’s and early 90’s, and Soul Asylum snuck in in toward the end of that, and then nothing. As a kid down in northern Illinois, there wasn’t much output we were made aware of beyond that point. Sure, we might see Run Westy Run playing openers for Soul Asylum when they came through on tour (one of Rockford’s few blessings is its prime placement right on I-90 between Chicago and Wisconsin and northward, including the Twin Cities – as a result, we got to see and occasionally even open for a lot of regional and national acts), and maybe you knew a guy who had a friend up here, but otherwise the Twin Cities music scene kind of disappeared for all we knew. Which sucks, because it never stopped being awesome. I moved here in 2000, and it still took a few years for me to be exposed to anything local and new.

My goal with this blog is to discover some of the awesomeness I missed and to share it with you. At very least I hope to add one more useful link for the next person to find. I also hope that some of you will help point me to more hidden or underrated gems, or perhaps just convince me to put one of your personal favorites under the knife.

So now you know why I’m writing the blog. Here’s a rough idea of how I hope to put it together:

Overall, I don’t intend to address any records that I don’t like. I’m not saying I won’t have a gripe here or there when it comes to specifics, but I’m not trying to critically review these records – they’re favorites and I’m just appreciating them. The plan is that I’ll do my best to adhere to what I’m calling a Process. Beyond the basic information (which will always include a way you can buy the record if at all possible), I’ll break things down into some general categories that will hopefully advance the narrative of these records and inspire some new ears to check them out.

First, each entry comes in two parts. The first part is for the section I’m calling History, which will serve both as a place where I can lay out my own reasons for writing about the record in question and as a repository for any interesting odds and ends I may be able to unearth from Twin Cities music history. I very much hope to connect with others in the process of researching each of these records, and hope to increase my own knowledge along with yours as we go along. I get talky in this part, so it’s best to put it where you can skip it if you’d like.

The second part of each entry will be a little more regimented and will discuss the following:

Songs will cover, well, the songs. Not necessarily each and every song, but anything essential to the record will be addressed.

Production will address the overall sound and sequencing of the record and any specifics that I feel are important to highlight. I am a recording engineer and a long-time liner notes junky, so this will often be the nerdier part of the proceedings. Apologies in advance (or, if you’re like me, you’re welcome). In my own best-case scenario, this section will be really long and technical – in reality, it’ll be either simply factual or the best guess I can muster.

Finally, while I’m starting with acts from the Twin Cities and older releases that I think are unknown or underrated, I’m not at all ruling out noting acts from other areas that I think are deserving or writing about a current release. If I want to write about it, I likely will. I’m not a big rules guy.

So that’s the idea. I hope to see you soon for our first Chartered Trip: The Glad Version’s Smile Pretty Make Nice.

The Breakfast Club:
Rent: Amazon • iTunes • Netflix Disc
Buy: DVD • BluRay • iTunes

Actors and Actresses Discussed

• Paul Gleason
• William Zabka
• Kevin Spacey
• Judd Nelson
• Colin Farrell
• Paul Giamatti
• Ally Sheedy
• Selena Gomez
• Ellen Page
• Alia Shawkat
• Emma Stone
• Anna Kendrick
• Anthony Michael Hall
• Logan Lerman
• Maestro Harrell
• Christopher Mintz-Plasse
• Jay Baruchel
• Emilio Estevez
• Liam Hemsworth
• Jaden Smith
• Donald Glover
• Aaron Taylor-Johnson
• Alexander Ludwig
• Molly Ringwald
• Emma Watson
• Carey Mulligan
• Sarah Hyland
• Emilia Clarke
• Ellie Kemper
• Judd Nelson
• Darin Brooks
• Fran Kranz
• Paul Dano
• Mark Salling
• John Kapelos
• Christopher Meloni
• Crispin Glover
• Jason Bateman

Movies Discussed

• Goon – (IMDB • Amazon DVD – BluRay – Instant • iTunes • Netflix Instant)
• Superbad – (IMDB • Amazon DVD – BluRay – Instant • iTunes • Netflix Disc)
• The Cabin In the Woods – (IMDB • Amazon DVD – BluRay – Instant • iTunes • Netflix Disc)

Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope):
Rent: Netflix Disc
Buy: DVD • BluRay

In Part Two of our discussion of Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope), we dive into some listener feedback, reveal our casting choices for Obi Wan, Leia, Han, and Luke, and talk about filmmaking and plot changes we would make to this most sacred of films. We touch on the simplicity and universality of terms and language used in the Star Wars universe, agree to use as little green screen (and as many practical sets and elements) as possible, and each list one thing that’s always driven us just a little crazy in the original movie.

(PS: You may have noticed the intro theme music sounds a little…old school. If you aren’t familiar, this was the theme music to ‘Siskel and Ebert At The Movies’ from the 1980′s, and is in tribute to Roger Ebert, who we lost to cancer earlier this week. Roger was an inspiration to me, as a film critic, as a writer, as a husband, and, most of all, as someone who persevered through the loss of his actual voice by embracing the internet as his new voice. Here’s to you, Roger. You will be sorely missed by me, and millions of others. – Kyle)

Actors and Actresses Discussed

• Alec Guinness
• Gabriel Byrne
• Carrie Fisher
• Chloe Grace Moretz
• Harrison Ford
• Andrew Lincoln
• Mark Hamill
• Emile Hirsch
• William Hootkins
• Oliver Platt

Movies Discussed

• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace – (IMDB • Amazon BluRay • Netflix Disc)
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones – (IMDB • Amazon BluRay • Netflix Disc)
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – (IMDB • Amazon BluRay • Netflix Disc)
• Star Wars Episode IV: The Empire Strikes Back – (IMDB • Amazon BluRay • Netflix Disc)
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – (IMDB • Amazon BluRay • Netflix Disc)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV Series) – (IMDB • Amazon • Netflix Disc)
• The Breakfast Club – (IMDB • iTunes • Amazon BluRay – DVD • Netflix Disc)