Codename "Tribute" - The Delivery (part 2)

Last time, I talked about how "Tribute" came together and how we went from over a 100 potential songs, down to the 9 that made the album. Today, I want to fill in some of the details about the song treatments and the recording process.

As I look back on the process, recalling that it took many months to kick into gear, it still came together more rapidly than most of my music projects. It helped that the songs were already written. In a way, I think was part of the magic; it allowed us to focus all of our energy on picking the songs and then arranging them so that they lived up to our "Heavy" expectations. It was also a very satisfying recording process. All of the drums and rhythm guitars were tracked at once, plus some scratch bass parts. Many of the songs were arranged on the fly, as a band, although "I Think We're Alone Now" was one that I arranged on my own and Steve S. brought in the complete treatment for "Generals & Majors". Oddly enough, that phase of tracking went by so quickly (3-4 sessions over a month or two) that we were then left with my usual question, "What the heck are we going to do about vocals?"

Well, that's where Scott Adler, another comrade from Apple, stepped in. Steve R. and I had worked with Scott and his a cappella group, "One of Each" on a holiday spoof of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" called "Christmas Rhapsody". Scott did all the low parts in the vocal arrangements and had never sung even as much as one phrase of heavy rock or metal in his life. I think all of us were initially imagining someone with a higher range, a more stereotypical metal voice, but Steve R. and I had such respect for the way Scott had handled the vocal arrangements and tracking on "Bohemian Rhapsody" that we knew it was worth a shot. Looking back, I can't imagine it playing out any other way. Scott's voice and his approach are unique and helped pull together the songs, giving them cohesiveness as an album. For a guy who hadn't done any metal before, he added a dark, scary component to the arrangements and really helped define the sound.

Somewhere along the line, we finally dropped the "Tribute" moniker in favor of "Danger, Ltd." It took me a good part of another year to get all the tracks mixed, mastered and released. Still, something about the way the project played out has left me with mostly good memories. Unlike some other projects, overall this one went from start to completion fairly quickly, at least quickly enough that it didn't feel like it was dragging. I also like the way the band, the album and the songs all have a very clear vision and stuck with it throughout. I think that vision is strong enough that it could carry over to another album or two. Really, it's a question of logistics now that we're spread out across the country one on the East coast, three in the Bay Area and yours truly in Bozeman, Montana. But with the right motivation, namely a collection of great songs to tribute, you never know.

Got any songs you'd like to hear Danger, Ltd. cover?

Codename "Tribute" - The Motivation (part 1)

At this point in 2012, the band has been called Danger, Ltd. for longer than it carried the "Tribute" codename. Even so, there was quite a long period where we simply referred to it as "Tribute". That codename was a direct reflection of the band's mission, which grew and evolved over quite a few years before a single note was played.

For many years, covering almost the entire span of my collaboration with Steve Rosenthal, we often found ourselves discussing the difference between the typical cover song performance and the real works of art. I think that our first example of masterful cover versions was Van Halen. There was something special about the way they covered a song with such conviction. They infused cover songs with so much of the Van Halen flavor that they really feel like they belong right next to their original songs. We also rambled on about Nazareth's cover of "Love Hurts", Cheap Trick's version of "Ain't That A Shame" and The Lemonhead's treatment of "Mrs. Robinson". We've all been to parties where there's a cover band; they play for hours and every song sounds like a weak knockoff of the original, without any real life or special treatment. Steve and I were always fascinated by the bands that could grab a cover song by the throat and take full control of it, making it their own song in the process.

Sometime in the 2000s, my friend Steve Sicular and I got together to talk about guitar, amps and gear in general. We'd always said, "We should play together sometime." We spent quite awhile in that mode. At one point considered starting a software venture related to music publicity but that never quite gained solid traction.

Meanwhile I'd bounced around a bit between software development jobs, eventually finding a position at Apple, working closely with my friend, Mike Hay. Though we regularly talked "tech" over lunch or coffee, the conversations often meandered until they landed on the idea of a concept band. Initially, I was interested in a band that covers relatively unknown but great songs, sort of acting as a "tribute" to great songwriting, with a nod toward under appreciated composers and performers. I don't really remember how we transitioned from talk to action but, at some point, the two Steves, Mike and I ended up getting together in my Redwood City studio, polishing up the "Tribute" idea.

Pretty quickly, it was clear that I was in the minority on the under appreciated artists concept. The overall consensus was leaning toward picking reasonably well known songs, so that listeners would have some familiarity with the material. We put together a Wiki as a place to collect song ideas and developed a points scheme that allowed us to all vote for the songs, with point totals clearly distinguishing the ones that stood out from the rest. I'm pretty sure we had almost 100 songs nominated, maybe 20 that got voted up and when it was all said and done, 9 songs made it to the album.

In my next blog posting I will talk about how we went from a list of 9 songs to a finished album release. While you're waiting, how about sharing your thoughts on some great (and interesting) cover versions of songs...