© 1996 Michael A. Bedrosian ℗ 1996 Plutonian Music (ASCAP)
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The Left Hand Set
- Michael Bedrosian – Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Percussion
- Chris Schmandt – Drums
- Dan Horowitz – Piano
- Chuck Koch – Backing Vocals
- Nancy Wzontek – Backing Vocals
- Jon Schug – Bass
Songs
- Riding in Glory (Harmonica: Michael)
- I Met Him in the Service
- Do You Want Me?
- You Are There (Backing Vocals: Chuck and Michael)
- Burn Me Out (Bass: Jon)
- Under the Bed (Drums, Piano: Michael)
- Goddess Looking for a God (Claps: Chuck and Michael)
- Written In Stone
- Tiny Piece of Metal (Backing Vocals: Nancy)
- Southern Land (Backing Vocals: Nancy / Banjo: Michael)
- Behind My Smile
- Family Man
- The Back of the Bar (Backing Vocals: Chuck and Michael)
- Take Me Home (Backing Vocals: Chuck and Michael)
- I Closed the Ring (Piano: Michael)
Recording
- Room – the basement at Montier Road
- Multitrack – ADAT (8 tracks)
- Mixer – Mackie 1604
- Stereo Mix – Tascam DA30
- Mastering – Discmakers
Notes
Original title: “Pluto In My Life”. Yikes. The first CD, the first digital recordings, tracked on the once-mighty ADAT. Rewind and Fast Forward were fairly speedy, but you always wondered whether that whining sound was the death cry of your 8-track master. Keep cleaning that transport, and cross your fingers . . .
The biggest problem in those days was about getting a sound without the help of tracking to tape. Like a lot of other folks, I was used to hearing something more than what I heard in the room when playing back a take. In other words, the goal wasn’t accuracy; it was a sound. Tape had a sound: when you recorded hot, it rounded off the peaks like a compressor; and it boosted the low end while rolling off the high end.
My attempt at a sound involved two tricks: using a cheap compressor whenever possible, and using an old tube preamp whenever possible. Of course, this didn’t get the tape sound – it got the sound of a cheap compressor and an old preamp. The main problem at this point was that I wasn’t using the room to get sounds; I was trying to use “magic boxes” instead. Sometimes I got something I liked, but mostly I’d end up looking through Modern Recording or RE/P craving a piece of gear I couldn’t afford, thinking “If only . . .”
Every song has at least one story. “Burn Me Out” has a good one. In 1983, Chris and I went to a football game at Franklin Field – Penn hosting Harvard for the Ivy championship. One of us managed to bring a bottle of Tennessee sippin’ whiskey into the stadium; we consumed this during the game (“Drink a highball!”). To everyone’s surprise, Penn won. Chris and I followed the crowd down the stands and onto the field, where we watched along with a few alarmed security people as the goal post was taken down, carried to the Schuylkill river and dumped. We walked out the west end of the stadium with the others, blocking traffic on Spruce Street all the way to 42nd where I lived. After a side of “Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out” we made our way to Chris’s place on 43rd. The Tone Controls rehearsed in his basement in those days, so I plugged in my LP Special and he snapped on the snares. The beat and the main riffs came naturally, compromising between the adrenaline and the whiskey starting to take hold. We just locked in, playing in a kind of trance for I don’t know how long until we had an arrangement. Later, I went home and wrote the words (usually, they come first). Thank you, brother, for being there.