Bubbles&Gutz

Brian, being of an experienced ilk when it comes to being in a band, what advice would you give to someone dealing with a wayward band member? Not answering texts, showing up drunk, not showing up, very defensive, not much creative input, yet gets a pass for being an awesome player and general lack of any replacement. I ask because I realize this type of behavior does not simply stop once success or bigger things come a long and having heart to hearts seem to render fruitless. Thank you kind sir

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:44:53 -0400

That’s a tough one. I’ve never asked a bandmate to leave.

I will say this—no band is a utopia. We all know about famous rivalries between band members (Fleetwood Mac, Husker Du, Spinal Tap, etc.) but there’s a tendency to assume that if there isn’t any public friction between band members, then their relations are idyllic. That’s not the case. Bands are like marriages or workplaces: even the most functional arrangements have some issues.

Except for Russian Circles, of course. We’re like Ozzie & Harriet.

But you’re absolutely right: success does not cure behavior problems. A musician friend of mine once noted that the bigger bands he toured with always seemed more miserable around each other, while the opening bands always seemed to enjoy each other’s company. If you’re having issues with someone now, those issues are sure to get worse as you spend more time around each other and as your art/careers/lives become further entwined.

Honestly, if the guy isn’t showing up, not responding to texts, and not offering input, it sounds like he’s not interested in the band anyway. That’s not the kind of person you want to make big commitments with.

What happened to the rest of the "Empros Live Studio Sessions" videos? There is one part online that says "1 of 3". (Also, you guys were great in Glasgow Stereo on the Empros tour)

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:57:00 -0400

We did three songs in the studio: Schiphol, 309, and Mladek. Unfortunately, the process wasn’t really thought out thoroughly. We did a couple of passes of each song, picked the version where we played best, and did a proper mix of the audio. When it came time to edit the footage, we realized that none of the video had been timecoded to sync up with the music. We don’t play to click, so the tempos from the different takes didn’t always match up. It was a long process just to get one song where all the components matched up. Hopefully we’ll get around to wrapping up the other two songs at some point.

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully we’ll be back to Glasgow in the fall.

King Snake Roost.

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:05:51 -0400

King Snake Roost.

Hey Dude! Just wanted to say nice job at RC's recent show at Northeastern. It was a good time, I enjoyed Native's set as well. My band is about to officially release our first full length (currently without a label) we have a few tracks from the album up on our band camp currently -- sparhawk_bandcamp_com , I was just wondering if you had any tips or pointers on the best ways to interact/get noticed by labels in the early stages of a band. Take care!

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:14:00 -0400

Thanks for the kind words. Most labels I’ve worked with sign bands based on the strength of their live shows. Sending demos doesn’t really do a lot these days. Labels receive too many of them and recordings aren’t always a good indication of a band’s strength anymore. As a small time freelance writer I still wind up with at least a dozen emails with mp3 links in my inbox every day; imagine how it must be for a label. My advice would be to play out as much as possible and allow your band’s reputation to grow organically. I know it’s a slow path, but that’s the best advice I have in the label department.

I saw Ian MacKaye do a Q&A thing years back and he mentioned that Dischord only picked up bands that had already self-released a record. I thought that was a pretty smart tactic. Self-releasing a record gives the band a good idea of what they can reasonably expect out of a label. I imagine it also shows labels that the band is motivated and willing to invest in themselves. Don’t rule out the option of releasing that full-length on your own!

Since everyone is in the business of nostalgia these days, can Botch get together and do a summer tour in the future? You don't have to write new stuff if you don't want to, but at least just bbq it up and play some new towns. I have the suspicious feeling people would attend and drink a lot of beer considering we're all 30+ now.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:36:39 -0400

hey Robert,

there have been offers over the years, but I don’t think my body could endure a Botch tour at this point in my life.

Hey Brian, lately when I visited my parents and went through my old CD´s, I stumbled over my old Botch - American Nervoso Copy. So whats up with the "Dali´s Praying Mantis" Lyrics...???

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:34:13 -0400

I don’t remember the exact line of reasoning for not including the lyrics for that one in the artwork. I do remember that the title was a reference to a story I’d heard about Salvador Dali. Apparently Dali did a critical analysis of a Manet painting. I don’t remember which painting it was, and my internet searches on the subject seem to imply that the story is more fiction than fact. Anyway, this Manet painting was a harmless rendering of a couple standing in a field on a farm. But through some weird free-association thought-process involving a random sighting of a praying mantis, Dali arrived at the conclusion that the painting was actually a depiction of sexual indiscretion and infanticide. Oh Dali, you so crazy! But years later, when a museum was restoring the painting, they did an x-ray of the canvas and saw that Manet had originally painted a baby buried beneath the feet of the man and woman.

I know the lyrics have zero to do with this tale. But I think we might have thought that, like Dali, people could arrive at a more interesting and perhaps even more truthful interpretation just by using their imaginations.

Hey Brian, how many effects pedals do you own? Which pedals are your favorites?

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:41:10 -0400

I have no idea how many I own. Between the stuff I have on my board, the numerous backup pedals we bring on tour (be prepared!), the glitchy worn out stuff that needs to get serviced but probably never will, and the various toys that only get pulled out when we play older material, there’s quite a bit of gear.

Favorites: Tonebutcher Blue Wail, Fuzzrocious Rat Tail, EHX POG2

Two part question: who are some bassists you admire for tone reasons? And secondly, I know you play a lot of guitar, who are some of of your favorite guitarists?

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:02:47 -0400

I’m a bit of a broken record when it comes to bands and artists I admire. In terms of bass tone, I gotta go with Rob Wright from Nomeansno. The guy has a distinctive sound with a perfect balance of grit and clarity. I also love a few obvious tone icons, like Bob Weston from Shellac and David Sims from Jesus Lizard. I think Caleb from Cave In/Zozobra/Old Man Gloom should get more notice for having an excellent sound. Then there’s also the blown out distorted tones of Joe Preston from Thrones and Mike from Godheadsilo/Enemymine… good stuff.

Favorite guitar players? I’d have to go with D. Boon, Keith Huckins, and Andy Moore.

Hi, have you ever thought about adding a BBE SonicStomp to your effect chain?

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:53:58 -0400

I have not. But now you’ve piqued my interest.

what's the story behind the these arms break up?

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:53:29 -0400

That’s a long story that’s probably better suited for a private conversation over a couple of beers. I wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing it in a public forum without giving the other guys a chance to throw in their two cents. That said, I still love those dudes.

Bubbles&Gutz: #artistsagainstpiracy vs. #artistsforpiracy

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:42:00 -0400

Bubbles&Gutz: #artistsagainstpiracy vs. #artistsforpiracy:

pampelmoose:

bubblesandgutz:

I’ve made a lot of comments in interviews and online about file-sharing/music piracy in the past, though it occurs to me that I’ve never really made an all-encompassing statement about my thoughts on the matter. In some regards, I’ve never really felt like I needed to explicitly outline my…

My band Gang of Four was referred to here but has mysteriously been excised in the past day. Still, it’s a musician’s view of the tangled topic that is music filesharing…

Thanks for the repost, Dave. I actually posted a brief apology after your message informing me that Gang of Four were, in fact, not Marxists. Oops. In my defense, you were called Gang of Four and Wikipedia sites “the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School of social criticism” as an influence on the band. Still, the gaffe makes me feel a bit like Joe McCarthy, or someone with a Tea Party-level grasp of socialism. I realized shortly afterward that you were probably seeking a correction, so I deleted the explanation and updated my post by changing the wording from “a Marxist band signed to Warner Brothers that licenses songs to Microsoft” to “a band signed to a major label”. I also inadvertently deactivated all the article’s links in the process. That’s what I get for trying to make edits through my phone. All fixed now.

My intent with the original phrasing was to reference your defense of NPR intern Emily White and her controversial article “I Never Owned Any Music To Begin With.” I can imagine that artists with an anti-capitalist angle—particularly ones that worked with a major, probably saw a sizeable chunk of their bands’ licensing deals snatched away by the label, and, as a result, most likely viewed the entire record industry as a necessary evil—might be more comfortable with music fans defunding the entire music biz infrastructure. I made quite a few leaps there, particularly in the anti-capitalism department. My apologies. As an artist that’s seen three independent labels I’ve worked with cease releasing new titles (Hydra Head, Jade Tree, Touch&Go) and three of our independent distributors go under (Mordam, Lumberjack, Touch&Go’s distribution arm), all in less than ten years time, I have my own bias.

But the wording change also served to include David Lowery under the banner of artists “signed to major labels”, though he obviously represents the opposite end of the opinion spectrum. While White’s article was frustrating for me (c’mon Emily, that vast library of albums you love so much was only possible because of record sales), I found your assessment of Lowery as a mean-spirited and misguided anti-piracy spokesperson to be pretty spot on. I wonder how Lowery feels about public libraries stocking Camper Van Beethoven CDs, record stores selling used copies of the Cracker debut, or, shit, I don’t know, all those folks that turned up the radio when “Take The Skinheads Bowling” came on the air but never picked up the album.

Anyhow, thanks again for the repost. Hope this clears up some of the ambiguity.

#artistsagainstpiracy vs. #artistsforpiracy

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:16:00 -0400

I’ve made a lot of comments in interviews and online about file-sharing/music piracy in the past, though it occurs to me that I’ve never really made an all-encompassing statement about my thoughts on the matter. In some regards, I’ve never really felt like I needed to explicitly outline my position on the issue. But with Ghost Beach’s recent Times Square piracy billboard, I started thinking about how adding to the dialogue is important. As someone that’s been making records for 18 years, I figured it might be time to get all my thoughts on the matter down in one place.

First off, I’ve stolen music. I do it less and less these days, particularly now that Mediafire and Rapidshare are pretty much out of the equation. Still, I have no shortage of music on my iPod that I did not pay for. Here’s the catch, though: most of the music I stole fell into one of four categories:

Music I already owned on vinyl but was too lazy to convert to mp3s.
Music that was out of print and unavailable elsewhere.
Music I was checking out for an article I was writing.
Music recommended by a friend that I wanted to investigate before buying.

In each instance, I’ve felt ethically comfortable downloading these songs because I had either already paid for the recordings in another format, intended to pay for them later, or was accessing recordings I was not interested in keeping because it was strictly work-related. Granted, there are still mp3s on my iPod I listen to regularly that I have not paid for; I’m still trying to track down a copy of Craft’s Fuck The Universe on vinyl, but those mp3s I ripped off from a friend’s laptop also prompted me to pre-order Craft’s Void LP when it came out last year.

I first started buying music when I was 9. I bought Chicago 17 on cassette. I had already dubbed the album’s hit singles off the radio onto my boombox, but I wanted the actual album. In junior high, friends would pass around mix tapes and I would run out and grab albums by all the new artists I was discovering. A lot of friends would borrow my tapes and make copies for themselves, but I never felt satisfied by owning a dubbed copy of a record. It felt half-assed, non-committal. Pardon the juvenile reference, but owning a dubbed copy of a record somehow made me feel like a “poser.” It’s an issue I still have to this day; I don’t feel like a true fan until I buy an album.

I remember buying Dead Kennedys’ In God We Trust on cassette in 8th grade, and there was a little blurb in the liner notes about how side two of the tape was left blank so you could copy music onto it. On the tape itself, side two had a skull-and-crossbones with the skull replaced by a cassette tape, and underneath it said “Home Recording is Killing the Record Industry.” I think about that statement a lot. The music I’ve been drawn to since adolescence has never really considered itself part of the record industry. The artists I’ve admired have done their best to circumnavigate the major label world. Even in my own time making records, my bands have always worked with labels that were our friends. We made records on small budgets so that we could make sure the records were profitable. We split profits with the label 50/50. We made the best products we could on these budgets. These records meant everything to us, and to get those physical copies back from the pressing plant with our names on it is still a rush. All my bands make proper albums, not a couple of “hits” with a bunch of filler to round it out. It is a labor of love, not a career move. I remember when the second Botch 7” sold out, Phyte Records-owner Mike Mowery sent us a statement showing the net profit of the pressing. It was around $30. All parties involved were fine with that. A few years later when Botch released We Are The Romans, I remember a friend of mine who owned a record store mentioning that the wholesale price on the album was so low he was stunned that Hydra Head Records could turn a profit on it. I bring these examples up to reinforce the distinction between the recording world we lived in and the recording industry most people in Western culture are familiar with. It’s not to say that we were against making money; it’s just to say that we preferred to create a microcosm in which the band, the label, and the folks buying our records were all getting treated fairly. It was a system that valued art over business.

Going back to the Dead Kennedys, I interviewed Jello Biafra recently and we talked about how file-sharing has impacted indie labels. Even Jello conceded that this new era of sharing is hurting labels like Alternative Tentacles Records. His biggest complaint was with the contingent of people that felt like artists shouldn’t get paid for their recordings at all—a contingent he saw being largely composed of people in the tech industry. I’ve seen these kinds of complaints posted online before: why should we have to pay for an album with only a couple of good songs on it? Why should we have to pay for an album when the artist doesn’t even get paid royalties anyway? Radiohead and Foo Fighters are okay with file-sharing, so why isn’t everybody else cool with it? Piracy helps promote artists.

I’ve already touched on a lot of these topics already. First of all, if you’re listening to albums with only one or two good songs, you’re listening to the wrong albums. Quit listening to the shit you hear on the radio or saw on TV. Secondly, it’s true; most artists don’t see royalties. But I would again argue that most artists worth listening to are probably smart enough to negotiate a deal where they get a fair cut of the profits. I know my bands always did. If we weren’t seeing royalties, it was because the label wasn’t making a profit either. So you’re not “sticking it to the man” when you rip an indie artist’s album from your friend’s computer. Artists like Radiohead and Foo Fighters see the overwhelming majority of their income through touring. I’m sure they don’t give a fuck if Capitol Records makes a dime off their records. They’re more concerned with keeping their fans happy than keeping a bloated, outdated major-label afloat. I do agree that piracy helps promote artists. We live in an age where it’s so much easier to learn about and access new music. We Are The Romans sold more copies than any Russian Circles album. Yet Russian Circles draw far more people when we tour than Botch ever did. I credit that to the internet. Do the increase in ticket sales offset lost royalties? They certainly do. But again, this isn’t about money as much as it is about entitlement and maintaining a sustainable underground infrastructure. “Punk” principles were never profit-driven. I’m not concerned about lost royalties; I’m concerned that my friends that own or work at independent record stores, labels, and distribution companies are going to go under. I’m concerned about the costs involved in making a record in a world where people don’t think they should have to pay for anything. I’m worried that the only people that will make money off of music recordings or sustain a distribution enterprise will be tech companies like Apple and Spotify, who pay an even smaller cut of their profits to artists than any major label.

Fortunately, I feel like things are balancing out. In years past, I knew a lot of people who scoffed at the idea of buying music. Why pay for something that’s free? But recently a lot of these people have come around to the idea of being patrons to the arts. The success of Kickstarter projects and experiments like Radiohead’s In Rainbows demonstrate that people aren’t necessarily opposed to paying for music, they’re just tired of the old business model. And that’s fair enough. Botch didn’t like the prevalent practices of the music industry when we made our first 7” in 1995 either. I think most people are able to distinguish between an artist that needs patronage versus an artist that’s bankrolled by a relic of a bygone era of rock n’ roll excess. Or perhaps folks are just realizing that a vibrant music community where no one pays for anything simply isn’t sustainable. As Ian Mackaye noted, if you don’t want to pay for music, “enjoy the past, because it’s impossible to make music now without money.”

In short, am I opposed to music piracy? Well, yes and no. I don’t oppose people sharing music with each other. But I don’t think there’s any justification for arguing that you shouldn’t ever have to pay for music. Perhaps if I had been in a band signed to a major label I would have a much different take on things. You want to share music with a friend? You want to check something out before buying it? By all means, go for it. As long as there is still the acknowledgment that you need to give back in some capacity.

I'm sure you get this kind of crap all the time, but is there -any- chance of some sort of new-Botchness? Be it a single show or maybe an unreleased track? I know the chances are slim, but I was only eleven years old in 2001 and you guys changed my life back in '09 when I got into Botch. Hope to see you at a Saint Louis show soon. -- Richard Ziegler

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:02:55 -0400

Hey Richard, thanks for your comment/question. It’s really cool to hear that people are still discovering Botch and getting something out of it. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I think any kind of new Botch activity is pretty unlikely. The only news I have for you is that Hydra Head is reissuing American Nervoso on vinyl for Record Store Day this weekend. It’s the remixed/remastered version with the additional demos and alternate takes that they released on CD a couple of years ago. Botch wrote songs at a snail’s pace, which was at least part of the reason we broke up, and consequently every song we recorded has already been released in some capacity, so there are no unreleased tracks to share with anyone. And a reunion is doubtful. We’ve discussed some scenarios where we would actually consider playing again, but at the end of the day I think it’s unlikely it will ever happen. Dave K. and I are already busy writing and touring full-time with our current bands. All three of the other guys have started families in the last couple of years. I moved to the East Coast. Logistically, it’s just not feasible. But even beyond that, I know there is a contingent within the group (myself included) that doesn’t really want to revisit the past. While I was pretty bummed out when the band dissolved, I also realized that it was time, and I felt good about the legacy we left behind. We had a good thing going; I don’t really want to add anything onto our history as a band.

How did you get that snarling, sweeping bass sound on TAAS - Subtle Body (right at the beginning)? Still listen to Easter all the time -- the album destroys.

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:42:00 -0400

That first sound is actually a microKorg. I always ran my keyboard through the exact same set-up as my bass by using an A/B box at the front of my chain. It was my hope that this would make a lot of the keyboard stuff sound less synth-like and more like a bass guitar. I’ve had a couple of other people mention that they always assumed this first part was done on bass, but it’s just the microKorg running through an Ibanez Tube Screamer and a bass amp. Glad you enjoy Easter! And thank you for the kind words.

hey brian, i was wondering if you could say a little bit about what your doing in the first section of Philios? It's such a great part, and I can definitely hear what is bass and what is guitar. Am I right in thinking whammy, delay and volume swells? I just can't work out quite how the whammy is being used. The cool delay trail offs are probably my favourite part.

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:06:40 -0400

Hey Mitchell,

You pretty much nailed it. The only additional effect in the mix is fuzz. I don’t really remember what I was using in that department for this song. I know I used a lot of the Swollen Pickle on the album, but I was also pretty fond of how the EHX Big Muff worked for the more delayed/washy stuff back during the recording of Station and the early rehearsals for Geneva. The whammy is set on 1 Octave Up, so most of the beginning section of the song is more in the range of the guitar. In the “chorus”, I use the expression pedal to dive up and down from the octave-up position to the natural range of the bass.

Thanks for the interest! I’m actually always glad to hear folks reference this song. It’s one of my favorite recordings we’ve done, but I worry that it’s position at the very tail end of the album means folks might not always make it that far into the record.

Demo’ing the old fashion way

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:39:49 -0400

Demo’ing the old fashion way

can you provide any detail about the glorious fuzz tone at the end of Praise Be Man? it sounds downright amazing.

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:46:07 -0400

Thank you. That’s yet another example of doubling up on bass tracks in the studio. Maybe I should do that more often. For “Praise Be Man” we did one pass of bass through a Zvex Fuzzface directly into the board, no amp. Then we did a second pass with a Swollen Pickle through my rig. That gave us a combination of the brittle dirty high end that comes from going direct and the girthy lows from the amp.

Hi. Too many questions to ask so I'll just ask one. Geneva and 309 feature some of the coolest sounding bass riffs I have ever heard. Can you explain exactly what pedals are being used for these riffs? I am referring to the 'solo' riff heard throughout the mid section of Geneva and the closing riff of 309. Thank you and thanks for the inspiration to play music!

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:32:40 -0400

Thanks for the interest. Actually, both of those riffs were double-tracked in the studio. For “Geneva”, one pass is through a Fulltone OCD and the other is through a Swollen Pickle. If I recall correctly, I used my Delgada bass for that. On “309” I used a Fuzzrocious Rat Tail with two different basses. I used a Gibson Grabber II which has a darker, murkier sound for the first pass. It didn’t have quite enough grit and attack, so we did another pass on my original Gibson Grabber. My old Grabber’s pickups crapped out on me, so I have some Seymour Duncan pickup in there that’s really bright sounding. What you hear on the album is a blend of the two.

I know you enjoy pedals and trying/swapping. is there anything on your radar to try out?

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:21:31 -0400

There isn’t anything in the pedal department I’m dying to try at the moment. I do want to check out one of Electrical Guitar Company’s basses though.

Hello Mr. Cook, do you use a DI-Box live or just a mic in front of the cabinet? And can you please tell me what you use on Batu? thank you.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:02:18 -0400

Currently, I use a DI in front of the amp and a mic on my primary cabinet. I’m generally not too wild about DI’ed bass because it sounds severely scooped-out and a lot of times the fuzz and distortion sounds like garbage. When we travel with a sound guy I’ll leave it to their discretion; most of the time they’ll use a blend of the two. But when it’s a house sound engineer I’ll fight tooth-and-nail against DI because they usually don’t anticipate the amount of effects and distortion I use. I had a soundguy in New Zealand insist on using a DI before my effects chain in conjunction with with an amp mic as a compromise and it was a disaster. My volume pedal is deep in the effects chain and every time I did a volume swell you could hear the bass note through the PA before the note came in through my amp. I should also note that the guy didn’t show up for soundcheck because he took his wife to a hair appointment. You’re on my shitlist, Wellington soundguy.

To answer your Batu question, it depends on whether your referring to the album or live. The opening noise bit is done with a Tonebutcher Pocket Puss on record, and a Tonebutcher Blue Wail live. The rest of the song is either the Verellen Meatsmoke’s overdrive channel or Fuzzrocious’s Rat Tail.

Thanks for the interest!