mangobananas music : The Andy Band : snowcats and sundogs

snowcats and sundogs

1	octal optics	2007.12.10	Andy: Logic instruments: drums, bass, rhodes, piano, steel drums, 2 cellos; plus electric guitar and vocals Recorded on 10 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
2	rice and beans	2007.12.12	Andy: drum sampler, real bass, real acoustic guitar, piano sampler, vocals. Recorded on 12 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
3	noreaster	2007.12.13	Andy: drums, piano, rhodes, bass sampler, voice Recorded on 13 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
4	want need give	2008.07.05	Andy: drum sampler, piano sampler, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals; backing vocals, fretless 5-string acoustic bass guitar Recorded on 14 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig, with subsequent overdubs back in the Ithaca, NY studio through 26 August 2008 (vocals, b-vox, and bass).	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
5	dreaming dog	2008.07.02	Andy: rhodes, drums, piano, cello in Logic 7; acoustic guitars, electric guitar, 5-string fretless acoustic bass guitar Recorded on 15 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig, with subsequent overdubs back in the Ithaca, NY studio through 12 April 2009.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
6	tear it all down	2007.12.16	Andy: drums, bass, rhodes, piano in Logic 7, acoustic guitar, electric guitar Recorded on 16 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
7	equations	2007.12.17	Andy: drums and bass in Logic, electric guitar Recorded on 17 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
8	wire and bridges	2007.12.18	Andy: drums, piano Recorded on 18 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
9	your truck	2007.12.20	Andy: voice and electric guitar recorded with two microphones (one close to the Les Paul's body, one a couple feet away) and a direct input from the guitar Recorded on 20 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg
10	vapors	2007.12.20	Andy: drums (2 tracks of UltraBeat), synthesizer (Sculpture), bass (EXS24), piano (EXS24), electric guitar (2 tracks of Les Paul), acoustic guitar (2 mics on Taylor). Recorded on 20 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	1	snowcats and sundogs	The Andy Band	https://mangobananas.com/img/icons/vermont.jpg

Info for song: octal optics

Andy: Logic instruments: drums, bass, rhodes, piano, steel drums, 2 cellos; plus electric guitar and vocals

Recorded on 10 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.

Link: https://mangobananas.com/music.php?songID=9

Download: octal optics mix 2.mp3

This song was the Pick of the Week on 2014.12.28. Here's the story:

( show )

In December 2007, three years before I moved here from Ithaca, I spent three weeks living in Vermont, housesitting for my son and daughter-in-law while they were off on a trip to New Zealand --before the grandkids. (I wrote about this a while ago for the song "dreaming dog", and more recently for the song "want need give", both from the same unfinished album.) It was fun having about 12 days to focus on playing around in the studio, but I wish I hadn't had to do my real job at the same time. Still, it was a great opportunity and a lot of fun, and some really neat bits came from it.

This is one of my favorites, from the first night all set up in the studio, Monday December 10. I'd done a good, session-opening guitar improv, then got into this keyboardy space. I programmed a drum pattern in Logic, then plopped in some sampled bass to go along, then some modeled Fender Rhodes electric piano, then some sampled grand piano playing a little melody, then some sampled steel drums, then (why not?) some sampled cellos! I obsessed over this yummy textural loop as I built it up, then got out my Strat. I dialed in a sub-bass plug-in, like Jimmy Page used on Zep's "Fool in the Rain", that adds a note one octave and another two octaves below what I was playing. I thought it worked particularly well with the extreme string bending I was doing at times. Digital reverb and simulated tape echo were used generously. Then I improvised some vocals, mostly babbling. I looked for a B part and kept hearing something out of the corner of my ear, but just recorded some spazzing out with the cello sampler and that was it for the night. I'd hit a wall. Sometime later, maybe the next night, I found the B part, and recorded the really bendy guitar melody I heard (but I mixed it a little too loud!).

I collected all the improvised tunes from this session into an album called uncoil, and the more structured but largely unfinished tunes like this one are on the album snowcats and sundogs .

Thanks for listening!

-Andy

Info for album: snowcats and sundogs

In December 2007, Andy was house-sitting and pet-sitting in Vermont and spent time alone in the studio every night for two weeks. Most nights started with one burst of total improv, then work on a totally new structured song that often sprung out of the improv.

These are the structured songs. All the improvisations are on the album uncoil.

These are all the first or second rough mix of a song idea, mixed the same night I recorded it, except "dreaming dog" and "want need give", which both received some additional overdubs and development in 2008.

The playlist Vermont BGH Session lists all the songs from both albums chronologically, and includes the first mixes from 2007 of "dreaming dog" and "want need give".

Any lyrics on these songs were improvised and sung on the spot to capture the vocal melody idea.

Andy plays all instruments and sings. Recorded and produced by Andy with Logic Pro 7 on an Apple PowerBook G4.

Link: https://mangobananas.com/music.php?albumID=1

Album recording info:

( hide )

song recording info favorite / pick of the week
octal optics Andy: Logic instruments: drums, bass, rhodes, piano, steel drums, 2 cellos; plus electric guitar and vocals

Recorded on 10 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig. 2014.12.28
rice and beans Andy: drum sampler, real bass, real acoustic guitar, piano sampler, vocals. 

Recorded on 12 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig. 2016.12.12
noreaster Andy: drums, piano, rhodes, bass sampler, voice

Recorded on 13 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig. 
want need give Andy: drum sampler, piano sampler, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals; backing vocals, fretless 5-string acoustic bass guitar

Recorded on 14 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig, with subsequent overdubs back in the Ithaca, NY studio through 26 August 2008 (vocals, b-vox, and bass). 2014.12.14
dreaming dog Andy: rhodes, drums, piano, cello in Logic 7; acoustic guitars, electric guitar, 5-string fretless acoustic bass guitar

Recorded on 15 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig, with subsequent overdubs back in the Ithaca, NY studio through 12 April 2009. ♥︎ 2014.07.20
tear it all down Andy: drums, bass, rhodes, piano in Logic 7, acoustic guitar, electric guitar

Recorded on 16 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig. 
equations Andy: drums and bass in Logic, electric guitar

Recorded on 17 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig. 
wire and bridges Andy: drums, piano

Recorded on 18 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig. 
your truck Andy: voice and electric guitar recorded with two microphones (one close to the Les Paul's body, one a couple feet away) and a direct input from the guitar

Recorded on 20 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig. 2015.02.01
vapors Andy: drums (2 tracks of UltraBeat), synthesizer (Sculpture), bass (EXS24), piano (EXS24), electric guitar (2 tracks of Les Paul), acoustic guitar (2 mics on Taylor).

Recorded on 20 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.

song	recording info	favorite / pick of the week
octal optics	Andy: Logic instruments: drums, bass, rhodes, piano, steel drums, 2 cellos; plus electric guitar and vocals Recorded on 10 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	2014.12.28
rice and beans	Andy: drum sampler, real bass, real acoustic guitar, piano sampler, vocals. Recorded on 12 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	2016.12.12
noreaster	Andy: drums, piano, rhodes, bass sampler, voice Recorded on 13 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.
want need give	Andy: drum sampler, piano sampler, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals; backing vocals, fretless 5-string acoustic bass guitar Recorded on 14 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig, with subsequent overdubs back in the Ithaca, NY studio through 26 August 2008 (vocals, b-vox, and bass).	2014.12.14
dreaming dog	Andy: rhodes, drums, piano, cello in Logic 7; acoustic guitars, electric guitar, 5-string fretless acoustic bass guitar Recorded on 15 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig, with subsequent overdubs back in the Ithaca, NY studio through 12 April 2009.	♥︎ 2014.07.20
tear it all down	Andy: drums, bass, rhodes, piano in Logic 7, acoustic guitar, electric guitar Recorded on 16 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.
equations	Andy: drums and bass in Logic, electric guitar Recorded on 17 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.
wire and bridges	Andy: drums, piano Recorded on 18 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.
your truck	Andy: voice and electric guitar recorded with two microphones (one close to the Les Paul's body, one a couple feet away) and a direct input from the guitar Recorded on 20 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.	2015.02.01
vapors	Andy: drums (2 tracks of UltraBeat), synthesizer (Sculpture), bass (EXS24), piano (EXS24), electric guitar (2 tracks of Les Paul), acoustic guitar (2 mics on Taylor). Recorded on 20 December 2007 in Brownsville, VT at the BGH with the mobile mangobananas recording rig.

Info for artist: The Andy Band

eclectic acoustics

Members: 
Andy Wyatt - vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, mandolin, ukulele, studio.
Guest musicians have included co-conspirators from other projects/bands including: Jon Morse, Tim Odell, Pete Downes, Ayman Mobarak, Paul Tuckey, Tommy Whittle, Pete Bosanko, and Eric Krivitzky

Years of Activity:
1978-present

Overview:
There are cassette tapes by "The Andy Band" dating back to 1979, when Andy was 14 years old, and he is still an avid recording musician. Sometimes The Andy Band is all about "hit record and go" improvisation, other times it's all about one-man-band multi-tracking in the studio. Since 2010, Andy has been playing some of these songs live near his new home in Vermont at open mics. He relishes the thrill of improvising with an audience, as well as singing three-part harmonies and playing bass with players there. But he also loves building up a song with layers and layers of Andys, singing and playing everything.

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