Surprise Me Mr. Davis enter the studio!

[lsamuel3]

Is anybody else really excited that Surprise Me Mr. Davis (The Slip, Marco Benevento, Nathan Moore) are in the studio finally recording their official LP? Follow them on Facebook for great picture updates of the recording process. This album is going to floor us I'm sure of it.

[Northern Wish]

I'm really excited to hear what they are up to.

But I'm not going to hold my breath..... These guys are the worst at follow though.

Whatever happened to the rest of the Only in Montreal sessions? Not to mention the 16 or so months since the last batch of 'new music' was posted on their site- some of which was fantastic and deserved to see the light of day (I managed to grab the audio stream off of the site and create a cd of the tunes).

[bradm]

What excitement I have is tempered by my knowing there isn't a big chance I'll be able to see them play a show any time soon.

Aloha,

Brad

[bouche]

What excitement I have is tempered by my knowing there isn't a big chance I'll be able to see them play a show any time soon.

Aloha,

Brad

You've never missed a burlington show. I suspect we'll see one in the new year. As for excitement about the recording...fer sure! Nathan was taking requests on facebook for tunes to record.

I requested Fat Kings of Gods. Hopefully that makes it on there dedicated to ME

[Northern Wish]

While I love that tune, I'd say the fact it was written about 4 years ago will mean it is not included on the upcoming release.

Brad Barr shelves more amazing songs than some people can ever imagine even writing!

BTW I find the live version on the Only in Montreal ep to be terribly disappointing. Something about the timing of the vocals bothers me a bit....

[Schwa.]

Slip forum please.

[lsamuel3]

With their new manager Kevin Calabro, you don't need to hold your breath. He's got them on the right track. This thing will be out sooner than later (unlike the new Slip album which could take years unfortunately)

[bradm]

What excitement I have is tempered by my knowing there isn't a big chance I'll be able to see them play a show any time soon.

You've never missed a burlington show.

Huh? I've never seen SMMD, in Burlington or anywhere else.

Aloha,

Brad

[Northern Wish]

Unlike every new Slip album which takes years unfortunately

[Northern Wish]

What excitement I have is tempered by my knowing there isn't a big chance I'll be able to see them play a show any time soon.

You've never missed a burlington show.

Huh? I've never seen SMMD' date=' in Burlington or anywhere else.

Aloha,

Brad[/quote']

Duly noted.

..::Awaits SMMD dates to ask Bradm to come along to VT and have his mind blown::..

[bouche]

Huh? I've never seen SMMD, in Burlington or anywhere else.

Aloha,

Brad

Sorry, I must be confusing your attendance to nero gigs. I thought you were at least in attendance for that first EPIC SMMD at higher ground.

EPIC.

[Weirdness]

I am intrigued by this and look forward to having a listen if it should ever see the light of day.

Now then--The Slip I can get excited about. It's nice to have Phish back but I could realy use 2 nights of The Slip in Montreal or something simiar.

Side projects are great when they are just that but sidetracked is something else altogether.

[bouche]

I am intrigued by this and look forward to having a listen if it should ever see the light of day.

Now then--The Slip I can get excited about. It's nice to have Phish back but I could realy use 2 nights of The Slip in Montreal or something simiar.

Side projects are great when they are just that but sidetracked is something else altogether.

Just throwing this out there. How much would you be willing to kick in to make that happen? I'll bet 15 of us could be investors in order to make this happen. I got $150 ready to get in on this project. Just need a project manager and 14 other people with $150.

[lsamuel3]

2 night Slip stand in Toronto - put me down for $50 bones and I'll promote the shit out of it hahaha.

It's nice to dream...

[bouche]

2 night Slip stand in Toronto - put me down for $50 bones and I'll promote the shit out of it hahaha.

It's nice to dream...

Power in numbers mate. We're up to $200 !

[lsamuel3]

What does it cost to bring a group like The Slip in? 2-3 thousand?

[AD]

15 * $150

[Booche]

I never understood the reasons behind the global financial collapse because it seemed far too complex to me but I now get it.

[lsamuel3]

Judging by Nathan Moore's latest FB status update the guys are done recording! One week flew by it seems.

In other Slip related news My buddy has been running a pretty prominent Phish blog as of late called Dog Gone Blog (http://dogoneblog.wordpress.com/). He just featured a nice new segment on The Slip with some choice tracks plucked from some shows I sent him.

He's come to understand The Slip and plans on featuring them more and more as he's into them pretty hard now.

Funny enough he's also working at Relix now and in the midst of editing my review of The Barr Brothers album

Anyways give the segment a read and a listen. He's a great writer http://dogoneblog.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/the-listening-station-the-slip/

[lsamuel3]

A recount of the studio session by Zach Miller!

I was fucking exhausted driving home Studio House a week after Surprise Me Mr Davis arrived at our doorstep. The only things keeping me from rearing the car in front of me was a cigarette hanging loosely from my mouth and one of seven copies in the entire world of the new Surprise Me Mr. Davis full length album. Sitting next to me was Will Salwen, one of the few brave soldiers who lasted until the end of the recording session. Together we're singing along to Davis's epic "Wine & White Soda," a Who-esque jam about the pleasures of drinking in Spain. Somehow we know every lyric, every melody, every guitar solo, every little funny sound that Marco made. Perhaps it was because we spent a week living with the band, waking up every morning (well more like every afternoon) and seeing the band's smiling faces, ready to take on another 16 hour day of fucked up good recording. But it was simpler than that. We knew every nuance because we had spent a week with one of the most exciting, up and coming bands of our time.

Davis are the perfect blend of folk, country, classic rock, and contemporary Indie rock. It's like if you took Dylan, Neil Young, The Beatles, Wilco, and a whole lot of creative insanity and tortured heartache and mixed it in a musical blender. Each song had it's own special finesse that begged repeated listening. Some songs would leave you singing its ever infectious hook, while some would leave you quietly thinking (As the master of music simply put, it is what you don't, it's not what you do.) Every song had something special recorded in it. Whether it was gang wolf howling (featuring myself, Will, Max King and the band), pots and pans, a microphone placed outside recording the birds and wind, a track of power tools recorded in the garage, or a phone conversation between Nathan and his dad about drinking wine and white soda.

Most songs were the brain child of folk singer Nathan Moore who when not singing with the band was doing magic tricks in the control room while we would all look in amazement. When recording a background vocal part that I wrote on the aforementioned song, Nathan playfully joked saying "I've been meaning to have you guys over to my place but I just haven't had the time," referring to the makeshift bedroom he had been sleeping in, in the vocal booth.

When I first heard that Marco Benevento was coming to the studio again I knew it'd be something special. I've known Marco for about five years now and everything he's produced has been nothing short of magic. I had the chance to get some great keyboardist to keyboardist bonding in. Nothing excites us keyboard players more than a conversation about good drawbar settings and how to get delay on your Hammond B3. I also got some great stories about times on the road with the Duo involving copious amounts of liquor, none of which should be repeated here.

For the past week I felt like I was a member of a loving family I had never met before. I felt like I was that kid in Almost Famous. In fact I was even in the band for about 5 minutes when I did a couple piano takes on Nathan's haunting ballad 'Do You Believe in Ghosts.' But it was the hang that really made us feel at home. One night we were blessed with a clear night and a meteor shower so we made a bonfire in the backyard, made s'mores, and climbed up on top our jam shed and watched the night sky as Wilco's 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' blasted in my car nearby. And if you think that's cliche, we listened to Dark Side after. Another night Andrew, the drummer, made a pre-Thanksgiving dinner for everyone, complete with a full turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. On the final night of recording, Marco rushed into the control room and informed us of a gigantic luminescent ring around the moon, but it had been a long week and the band just wanted to finish everything. I was the only one who followed him outside. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen...a moonbow, he called it. We started talking about the album and I told him I had this feeling that this album was going to blow up and Marco smiled and said he thought the same thing. Eventually Jesse, the band's engineer came out and gazed at the wondrous moonbow. "Dude, it's a sign!"

It was a sign that something magical and truly spellbinding had been created.

Thank you Marco, Nathan, Brad, Andrew, Marc, and Jesse.

Zach Miller

Edited December 4, 2010 by Guest

[bouche]

oh man. I can't wait for this.

[boiler]

I've taken project manegment courses so I can handle that, I may have to charge more than 15* $150 though. I do however accept cheesies and weed as payment for my services.