REBECCA GATES
(The Spinanes)
Likes: Bobbi Gentry Mississippi Delta Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson John Spencer Blues Explosion Orange Rolling Stones Between the Buttons TLC Crazy, Sexy, Cool
Do you want to explain what makes these records sound right?
No. If you blend these all together you might get the sound of our Spinanes album [Strand]!
Any records you don't like the sound of?
I hate Jeff Lynne; as a producer, not a person.
BARBARA MANNING
(Solo, 28th Day, Glands of External Secretion, Original Artists)
This first thing that I thought of is a Red Krayola [Mayo Thompson's past and present combo] album, Parable of Arable, that's one of my ultimate favorite albums in the world. There's an incredible mixture of absolute haphazard production mixed with infinite, thought out, production. It all blends in together, there's no stopping, there's no track listing on the CD, on the vinyl there's no grooves. It was a giant influence on my album, Nowhere. I admit it, completely, that I was very influenced by that album for my record. I'm amazed how the album blends together, but I can tell when the tape deck is rolling and nobody is paying attention to it and other times when somebody's being very careful about how they're bringing along the song or the way the vocals are really tinny in one spot and real full in another. I think that's a piece of genius but I can't stand the production of this one Chills album.
Brave Words?
Yeah, I think it's absolutely horrible, I think it ruined the songs. I've always thought I would love to go back and remix the album.
Did you know Martin Phillips [the Chills' leader] was talking about doing that?
No!
I read in an interview where he lamented the production and he thought it was in the mix, also.
That's weird, because when Brave Words was first out the Chills came to San Francisco and they stayed at my house. I was talking to Martin and I said, "You know, I really can't stand the production on this album." And he was like, "That's Mayo Thompson who you're talking about." I didn't really know Mayo's significance until I looked at all my Fall albums and then I started to discover Red Krayola on my own, so at that point, Mayo Thompson was just a name to me, I didn't understand that I was putting down this great man. I thought they had just gotten some shitty producer who did a really terrible job on it and Martin really defended it.
