“Squelch Curse” was something we would throw around back in the day because we didn’t understand how electronics worked and why our amps kept blowing up. However, there is also a plethora of evidence that highlights the reality that we were (and still are) a cursed band.
The most recent frustration is the inexplicable movement of automation in the mixing process. I purposefully drew automation on several tracks to do very specific movements. Flash to the rendering process and the automation is all sorts of jacked up. Also, I had a helluva time with Izoptope Ozone 10 with completely inexplicable drop outs at the 40 second mark of ever rendered song. Their tech support was of no help and it wasn’t until I uninstalled/unregistered/reinstalled/reregistered for the fourth(?) fifth(?) time that it worked. Would I buy another Izotope product after that? Maybe. I don’t know. (I do have a recent story of Izotope Rx helping to kill a really annoying 60 cycle hum — although after using it, I had to re-amp the bass because the tone was shit [but it wasn’t great to begin with, so meh, not Izotope’s fault there.]) But ultimately, I’ll probably end up sending it off to my old pal Laslo Middlebrow to master the record at his secret Caribbean home studio.
This thing WILL come out at some point and I WILL post about it here. Along with the remix/remaster, I’m also in the process of writing extensive liner notes for the few box sets that we’ll have out. I’ll break that up into individual posts here too. Maybe even a “book on tape” version. Who knows?
At this point though, I’m taking a break to let my ears refresh. It’s been extremely helpful working with Patrick — our bassist who joined after this record was done. I shouldn’t be surprised that it has taken a year to get this far, because it took almost two years to record, mix, master and eventually release (to literally no fanfare) the album the first time. If I could do this all over again, there is a giant list of things I’d do differently, but it isn’t worth getting into.
The box set will be as such —
Psychedelic New Wavers vs the Hair Metal Boomer — or A Guide on How Not to Record and Release An Album
Disc 1 – Original mix and master of P’rfessor Bob’s Noise Machine
Disc 2 – New mix and master of P’ffessor Bob’s Noise Machine
Disc 3 – Everything else, for better or worse: The Complete Squelch
Recordings – Disc A (demos, incomplete 1st EP and 2nd album)
Disc 4 -Everything else, for better or worse: The Complete Squelch
Recordings – Disc B (Live! Loud! and Lack Luster! This is Squelch!)
Booklet will have photos, production notes, dumb stories, credits and a bunch of other stuff. It will be released by our Turbulence Collective label and will be catalog # Turd 05.
We’ll also have the remixed/remastered album available via Bandcamp with possible cassette (CTurd 01) and CD (Turd 06.)
If someone wants to do a limit vinyl pressing that you’ll no doubt be stuck with for life, feel free to contact me.
Go Freaks Go! 