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Curators, live at the Wee Red Bar


jon

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Hey folks,

Last week we (Curators) had the pleasure of supporting Wintersleep at Edinburgh's Wee Red Bar. We thought it might be an idea to record our set and so, for anyone who fancies it/cares/is bored, we present to you: Curators, live at the Wee Red Bar.

Send me an email/PM and you can have (for the princely sum of absolutely nothing) the 6 tracks as mp3s, plus Exclusive Artwork TM. That's right, you can have your very own live album with what I can only describe as a Da Vinci-esque sleeve for NOTHING.

Can't say fairer than that really.

Have a look at the blog on Curators on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads if you want a sneaky peek at the sleeve, and the songs are on the player.

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Guest idol_wild
Whats the Wee Red Bar like as a venue? And where in Edinburgh is it?

It's the Art School bar. It's a magnificent little place - I have experienced nothing but really good sound there. I also like the fact that there's no stage. There's an awesome mirrored spherical object right above the playing area which distorts the reflection. Quite trippy if you look up at it during your set.

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It's a nice venue for a social/club night. Been once for that sort of thing and really enjoyed it. Kartta played there on a Sunday night with a turnout of people which included...well, the other bands that were playing (think we've all been there). The sound wasn't great. It's a really reflective room. The plus sides are a really helpful engineer, and a plain floor plan setup. If you got some bodies in there, I'm sure you'd have an ace gig. The weird concave mirror thing is awesome.

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Guest idol_wild
It's a nice venue for a social/club night. Been once for that sort of thing and really enjoyed it. Kartta played there on a Sunday night with a turnout of people which included...well, the other bands that were playing (think we've all been there). The sound wasn't great. It's a really reflective room. The plus sides are a really helpful engineer, and a plain floor plan setup. If you got some bodies in there, I'm sure you'd have an ace gig. The weird concave mirror thing is awesome.

Fuck! I forgot Kartta played there too. But then I did have the most horrendous hangover that day. :down:

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It's the Art School bar. It's a magnificent little place - I have experienced nothing but really good sound there. I also like the fact that there's no stage. There's an awesome mirrored spherical object right above the playing area which distorts the reflection. Quite trippy if you look up at it during your set.

Is it part of the art school yeah? just off grassmarket?

we were offered it as a hire for part of our tour last week and were told it was in the middle of nowhere, which i was dubious about... we didnt take it on that basis, plus it was last minute and we would have need to organise a full line up etc

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Guest idol_wild
Is it part of the art school yeah? just off grassmarket?

we were offered it as a hire for part of our tour last week and were told it was in the middle of nowhere, which i was dubious about... we didnt take it on that basis, plus it was last minute and we would have need to organise a full line up etc

It's not on the middle of nowhere - it's about a five minute walk from the Grassmarket. It's part of the Art School - through at the back of the building. Nice wee space. I am a fan.

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  • 6 months later...

For anyone who's interested, here is the tale of the making of our album thus far...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We're finally making our record.

It feels like it's been in the works for ages and ages, but it's now finally happening although, because it's us, nothing has gone quite as planned...

Pete decided two days before we were due to start recording that he needed a new bass. "Yes!" we said, "guitar shopping with a time limit!" After hurriedly buying our daysavers, we did the Edinburgh guitar shop marathon on the hunt for a '51 reissue P bass. Lovely guitar. Of course, no-one had any in stock.

After Jon wrongly identified him as the singer in Jocasta Sleeps (apparently he gets Woomble comparisons too), the nice man in Guitar Guitar said that they had one in Glasgow, and could have it sent over. Fine in theory, but it would have arrived after we were due to start recording, so nae use. Not to be thwarted, we jumped on the 900 (Corstorphine is nearly Glasgow anyway...) and spent a grand total of 37 minutes in Glasgow, bought the thing and came home. Hurray!

The next day we loaded all our gear into Not Ready Studios* and set up, ready to start tracking on Monday night. Jon was, inevitably, unwell on the Monday, but nevertheless we made our way into the studio to start making some noise.

Things started to go wrong immediately. Stephen and Tom (the upstanding citizens who are committing us to tape) found that nothing was wired up and what was wired up didn't work. Cue hours of scrabbling about to get the studio to even a basic level of use. In a triumph over adversity, we eventually managed to batter out the music to three songs and made our way home to get properly stuck in the following days. There were rumblings of noise complaints but hey, it's a studio. Your're meant to make noise in a studio. That's what it's for. Aye? Aye.

So, we return on Tuesday night. We pick up our instruments and get ready to play. CRRSH. GRNNNNGH. Hmm, what's that? Oh, all the XLR cables are fucked. Marvellous. Cue another hour and a half of maintenance and we're back up and running.

Just as we're hitting the chorus of Sirens, the studio door flies open and a spectacularly irate Mr Joe Public bursts in.

"You! You! Do you know how loud this is?"

(We have the whole exchange recorded)

Jon calmly points out that we are a band paying to record in a studio, and that this involves playing instruments. Our new friend is having none of it and, after much squabbling, Stephen agrees to go up to the fellow's flat and hear what all the fuss in about. They leave, and we batter out a cracking take. Four in the can we think - this is easy!

Stephen returns. It's fucking loud. The guy's stairwell is shaking. The bannister is threatening to detach itself from the concrete. There is, it turns out, absolutely no soundproofing in Not Ready Studios. None. The owner of the studio won't answer his phone. Environmental Health have been called. We have to pack up immediately and leave.

Hmm. Marvellous.

Wednesday comes and, with it, frantic emails to and fro trying to secure somewhere to go and finish the record. After banging our collective heads against an unsoundproofed brick wall, we book into Chamber Studio (where Stephen used to work and where both Gary and Jon have recorded previously).

Chamber is the real deal. We set up, soundcheck the drums and guitars and proceed to batter out all nine songs in one evening. Pete nails the fiddly bass bit. Mark nails the bastard fill. Jon and Gary find that playing guitar without having to sing is a joy. Whoa-oh, we're halfway there! Just the singing to go, that's easy. We can definitely do all the vocals for nine songs in one four hour sitting. Definitely.

Hmm.

We return to Chamber and start to track the vocals, but it becomes swiftly apparent that we have not got enough time and we're hoarse as fuck after four songs. Shit. We stop, and have a proper think about what to do. We take all the tracks off the tape onto computer, and decided to spend a proper amount of time on the singing. We'll go through each song with a fine tooth comb, working on melodies, harmonies, lyrics and everything else and record one song at a time. In short, we'll not record an album in two days like insane people. We'll make the singing fucking brilliant to match the music (modesty eh?).

So, here endeth update number one. The music is all done, and was all done live. It sounds really, really good. Pete reckons we're punk as fuck for recording it all live. We're certainly punker than Green Day are these days. But then, so's Leona Lewis. Zing! Ahem, sorry. Vocal work starts today. Strepsils on tap. Exciting times. It's going to fucking rule when it's done.

*names have been changed to protect the unsoundproofed

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