Comments on: Through The Rain

Through The Rain

litlnemo — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 04:32:31 -0800

This one is really lo-fi as I don't have the master tape and it's a 21 year old rough demo -- and I do mean rough. :) Recorded Spring 1985 in dorm room A-1016, The Evergreen State College. (More inside.)

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 04:37:33 -0800

It's three of us -- me, Charlie Campbell, and Dave Kucera. We were all Evergreen students at the time. IIRC Charlie had borrowed a Tascam 4-track cassette deck and we wanted to experiment with it. Charlie had a bit of a melody he had been playing with and we all wrote the song together from that. Then we recorded Charlie's guitar track, did the handclaps in the stairwell where it was echoey, and recorded the vocals (me and Dave). In fact we might have done the handclaps last, though I'm not sure. At any rate, this is not the best way to get the handclaps synced to the rest of the track. The whole thing was done in a few hours.

But despite the roughness and awkwardness of it, I always thought it had some charm. I redid this song in almost every band I was in for the next 10 years, with cleaned up lyrics and better recording, but I never came up with anything I liked as much as this dorm room recording.

Charlie went on to bigger and better things in the band Pond and later as a solo artist. I'm not sure what happened to Dave.

By: pollystark

pollystark — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 11:55:24 -0800

I really like this - has a real 60s pop feel. It kind of sounds like something the Ronettes might thrash out as a demo.

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:18:35 -0800

Heh, I would never have thought of it that way. That gives me an idea for another approach to it, if I ever record it again. :) Thanks!

By: chococat

chococat — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 16:30:38 -0800

Great.
I think half the charm is that it's a 21 year-old dub of a 4 track demo. It's one of those capture-the-moment things where the moment counts almost as much as the song. Nice!

I have found that sadly, in these situations, you often can't go back and make it better.

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 17:18:50 -0800

That is so true. And the more you mess with it, sometimes the worse it gets.

By: snsranch

snsranch — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 17:51:10 -0800

Yep, I like it just the way it is!

By: Savvas

Savvas — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:15:08 -0800

Beautiful. Definitely another one for the playlist.

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 01:49:53 -0800

Thank you everyone! I am thrilled that people are enjoying this song.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 04:12:55 -0800

This reminds me of Aimee Mann. I love it.

By: bim

bim — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 18:26:30 -0800

You should rerecord this!

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 03:38:20 -0800

Heh, I would love to, but rerecording it has never worked well yet. :)

Jofus, that is one of the coolest compliments I've ever had. Thanks!

By: ClarissaWAM

ClarissaWAM — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:15:34 -0800

I'm ~~about~~ almost exactly 6 months late, but I really really like this. Playlisted and downloaded. Thanks!!

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:30:50 -0800

Just adding a cross-link here to the AskMeFi that has some additional info about some other music that Charlie Campbell has done, which you may have heard.

(And thanks, Clarissa!)