"All of us except Greta [Salpeter, piano/guitar/co-vocalist] had been in local bands before, and we knew when you're playing shows and nobody knows your songs, it's no fun," Morris tells Outtakes. "So once we figured out how to play the songs, we just went in and recorded it."
For their self-produced effort, they got an album chock-full of folk-pop with healthy doses of swing, classic rock, and classical music to quirk up the piano-driven melodies. The eclectic sound, an endearingly uneven mix, was, however, entirely unintentional.
"The sound's just all over the place, really," Morris admits. "We had no specific idea what we were trying to do. We were just trying to do something we hadn't done before."
Their blind swinging struck a chord with Wentz, who quickly got them back in the studio to record a follow-up, Like Vines, which was released the same day the band hit the road with Panic! At the Disco for a co-headlining tour.
"It's definitely an extension of our thoughts on So Sudden," Morris says. "It's a lot more professional, and not only the sound and the arrangements. We put a lot more thought into it. Instead of being so sudden, it's so thought-out."
Once in the studio, the experience of recording Like Vines proved to be "the polar opposite" of So Sudden. "With So Sudden, it was fun because we didn't really have to worry about anyone else," Morris says, regarding having producers Sean O'Keefe (FOB, Motion City Soundtrack) and co-producer Patrick Stump of FOB in the studio with the Hush Sound this time around. "We just got to play music, which was amazing. This time, we knew how much we were learning. It was like taking four years of college in three weeks of recording."
But that pretty much sums up the Hush Sound's existence: turning out music that sounds like it took years to make. Morris, for one, isn't willing to say he didn't expect to be here, playing in the big leagues so soon.
"Well, if you don't think that when you're starting a band, that you're going to do this, you shouldn't start a band," he says. "You're starting a hobby, not a career." Cole Haddon
The Hush Sound joins Panic! At the Disco at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 22, at Revolution, 200 W. Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-727-0950. Got tickets? Good it's sold out.
Who's an Ass-Clown?
Michael Bolton is the type of celebrity who gives every average human the sense that he or she is incredibly lucky to have no talent for singing. He proves it is in fact not only bearable to have unremarkable mousy-brown hair but also desirable. And he makes clear that for a longtime life partner or casual date, it is far better to be dull than Desperate.
In an effort to escape the hatin' and blend into naturally occurring mediocrity, Bolton is frequently attracted to South Florida. He was spotted this past May lurking about the Setai in Miami Beach between stops at SunFest in West Palm Beach and rehearsing for a June 24 concert at Cable Beach in the Bahamas. Bolton has also launched an assault on the classics in a new album, Bolton Swings Sinatra.
Yet the singer is known to millions who have never heard him belt out even a note as the ridiculed object of an indie film construct, much the way Flock of Seagulls is recognized for Samuel L. Jackson's sneering reference in Pulp Fiction.
It was in reverence to this spirit that, electronically wedging herself into a recent teleconference interview with Bolton, Outtakes was able to lob just one question, which, judging by the length, complexity, and passion of the answer, hit its mark:
Outtakes: Mr. Bolton, how do you feel about being known to millions of people who have never heard your music as a "no-talent ass-clown" as a result of the film Office Space?
Bolton: "Office Space is funny. I've autographed a lot of those DVDs. But seriously... First of all, what do you do when someone knocks you when you've been nominated for Grammys Best Male Vocal four times? When you're looked at with respect in the industry? When you write with Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, Kanye West? The answer is, you don't have to be insecure about ever being a no-talent anything. You are light-years beyond that possibility. But I admit sometimes I am a clown.
"One of the things that comes with mainstream success is that people are going to love what you do. But there are also a lot of people who take shots at what you do, people who just don't get what it is you do. Here you've written with Dylan. You've written rock 'n' roll, country, and rap. You've sung with Ray Charles, Pavarotti... You kind of have to be so grateful about the long list of victories and for the mountains you've climbed that you have to look down from.
"Before you get famous, you don't take heat from anybody. Your rent checks are bouncing; you're a starving artist in a blues band. When I started recording pop ballads, I learned to take the knocks.
"This happens in every great career. They use you to set up a joke in a film. But did I mention that I recorded with Ray Charles and wrote with Bob Dylan? Seriously, I'm pretty cool." Jean Carey
Go for Gold
It's raining in New York City buckets for the second day in a row. Basements are flooding. Subways are flooding. LaGuardia closes down for a time, and the name Noah is on the tip of more than one tongue. And yet, the main room at the Knitting Factory is packed, sold out for the second of six consecutive nights leading up to the release of the Bouncing Souls' umpteenth album, The Gold Record, which was released on (big surprise) 6/6/06. But before the veteran punk poppers took the stage, Outtakes talked to drummer Michael McDermott about a variety of hot-button topics Mountain Dew vs. Cherry Coke, eating Ramen noodles with Heinz 57 sauce, and the celebratory pint of Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream McDermott downed the previous night. Oh, and music was discussed too.
Outtakes: What's the best thing about playing on the Warped Tour?
McDermott: Fucking everything. The downfall is you only play a half-hour. That's the only thing. And it's really not even bad, because everybody gets a half-hour, so there's no favoritism. And that being said, every other part of the day is cool. I mean, it's dusty, it's hot. It's in the middle of East Jabip most days, so you can't just go into town and go shopping and have fun. You make your own fun. You're in Bus Land. Everybody sets up their own little tent. It's a big fricking party. Everybody turns into best friends within weeks. It's a great thing.
What do you get homesick for while you're gone? I mean, you're not eating coffee ice cream every day.
Oh yeah you can. Sure.
Really? You can get Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream in East Jabip?
No, the night before, you know, your bus is stopping somewhere to get some gas, and it's usually one of those Flying J's, one of those good ones, so you go in, get stocked up, get what you want.
What record have you listened to more than any other in your life?
Right before Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American came out, it was still actually called Bleed American, because after 9/11, all those records, they're just called Jimmy Eat World now. But that record. For some reason, I listened to that record over and over again. I mean, just for many different reasons, from happiness to like sadness. Like the last week of my mother's life, I would go to the hospital every day and listen to a song off that record. Driving to her grave, you know, I listened to that song. I chose not to ride in the limo. I said, no, I'm going to ride in my car, smoke a bowl, and listen to that song. I don't want to sit in a limo. I'll cry. It affected me, but music, you know. I needed a soundtrack to my life at that point. Rob Trucks
The Bouncing Souls perform as part of the Van's Warped Tour on Saturday, June 24, at Bicentennial Park, 1075 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. Tickets cost $29.75 to $32. Visit www.ticketmaster.com.