betaband
08-18-2005, 12:37 AM
BS 2000, A Beastie Farfisa Fest
Keyboard, 02.01
By Robbie Busch
There's nothing BS about BS 2000. Beastie Boy/hip-hop pioneer Adam "Ad Rock" Horovitz and drummer extraordinaire Amery "Awol" Smith have regrouped for round two as BS 2000, and the result is infectious, quirky punk funk. The new release on Grand Royal is called Simply Mortified. It follows their self-titled debut - a vinyl-only recording on which Ad Rock and Awol wrenched the E-mu SP-1200 to epic proportions. Awol remembers, "It was manic. We were sending bits to each other on SP disks and tapes to piece the record together. The only time we were in the same room was when we were sequencing."
For this CD, the duo bagged the long-distance MO and got up close and personal. Organ lovers are in for a particular treat: It's a veritable Farfisa fest. Check out the groovy surf inflections on their cover of the Ventures/T-bones hit "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach is In)", for one. "We had two Farfisas," says Awol, "a green and a white one and an orange and gray one that didn't work. Our friend Jazz, who's going to tour with us as a third keyboard player, broke it - broke it more. It was already broken, and he took it apart while we were tracking. He said, 'Yeah, I'll fix it for ya.' He took it apart and said, 'Well, that's what's wrong with it…it's broken.' So we didn't really get to use the orange and gray one."
Why feature the Farfisa? "We had one," Awol chuckles. "It was in tune, it was green and white, and it cost a hundred bucks!" And the kicker, revealed by Ad Rock: "It has a flat surface so you can put snacks on it." But seriously…. "One of our secrets as a band was that we faced each other while writing and recording, connecting with one another. So that way you could have the little Casio sitting on top of the Farfisa."
The Casio was something they wanted to keep a secret, but when pressed, Ad Rock let the cat out of the bag. "We used lots of little Casios, old ones. Let's just say I finally found, in Denver, the Casio that Shinehead used on that song 'Under Mi Sleng Teng'. We also used the Da Da Da Casio, the one Trio used: the PT-10." "Yeah, we liked the Casio MT series a lot," Awol adds. "We also used the Panther organ. It was kind of out of tune, but it has great sounds." "And it has a Panther on it," laughs Ad Rock. "We used it on the song 'Dig Deeper'. I got it in Oregon. You see, we are world travelers."
"Being a world traveler is great for picking up oddball gear," says Awol. "I picked up a battery-operated Yamaha synth, and on another trip I got a Mini-Korg II for $4! It's a cool monophonic synth. Another of our favorite little keyboards for this record was a General Electric Tote-A-Tune." Also in their arsenal was a glockenspiel, the SP-1200, a '60s Maestro drum machine, a Rhythm Ace, and a Radio Shack MG-1 synthesizer.
Ad Rock and Awol recorded Simply Mortified with a Mackie mixer and a Tascam DA-88. "We basic-tracked and engineered it all ourselves at a place called the Dungeon, on Mott St. in New York City," Ad Rock explains. "Whether we go right into the Mackie or the tape deck, we would go live to tape. And because we didn't always use all eight tracks, there was a lot of room in the mix. The bass on the Farfisa is phat, and when there's room for it in the mix it's a good thing."
For an extra rough sandpaper edge, the duo routed the Casio through various stompboxes and Leslie simulators. They also used a Metal Machine pedal to process some of the vocals, routed and miked through a guitar amp. "Then we went to Plantain Recording House in NYC," says Ad Rock, "and worked with some friends of ours. Tim Goldsworthy was the computer guy and James Murphy engineered. We loaded everything into the computer there and went through a nice, fancy mixing board they have." "We dumped the digital audio tape into [Emagic] Logic," Awol explains, "and we mixed through an analog board. We mixed down to half-inch tape, for tape compression. So the final product went from digital back to analog again. This gave back some tape warmth and body to the recording."
Keyboard, 02.01
By Robbie Busch
There's nothing BS about BS 2000. Beastie Boy/hip-hop pioneer Adam "Ad Rock" Horovitz and drummer extraordinaire Amery "Awol" Smith have regrouped for round two as BS 2000, and the result is infectious, quirky punk funk. The new release on Grand Royal is called Simply Mortified. It follows their self-titled debut - a vinyl-only recording on which Ad Rock and Awol wrenched the E-mu SP-1200 to epic proportions. Awol remembers, "It was manic. We were sending bits to each other on SP disks and tapes to piece the record together. The only time we were in the same room was when we were sequencing."
For this CD, the duo bagged the long-distance MO and got up close and personal. Organ lovers are in for a particular treat: It's a veritable Farfisa fest. Check out the groovy surf inflections on their cover of the Ventures/T-bones hit "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach is In)", for one. "We had two Farfisas," says Awol, "a green and a white one and an orange and gray one that didn't work. Our friend Jazz, who's going to tour with us as a third keyboard player, broke it - broke it more. It was already broken, and he took it apart while we were tracking. He said, 'Yeah, I'll fix it for ya.' He took it apart and said, 'Well, that's what's wrong with it…it's broken.' So we didn't really get to use the orange and gray one."
Why feature the Farfisa? "We had one," Awol chuckles. "It was in tune, it was green and white, and it cost a hundred bucks!" And the kicker, revealed by Ad Rock: "It has a flat surface so you can put snacks on it." But seriously…. "One of our secrets as a band was that we faced each other while writing and recording, connecting with one another. So that way you could have the little Casio sitting on top of the Farfisa."
The Casio was something they wanted to keep a secret, but when pressed, Ad Rock let the cat out of the bag. "We used lots of little Casios, old ones. Let's just say I finally found, in Denver, the Casio that Shinehead used on that song 'Under Mi Sleng Teng'. We also used the Da Da Da Casio, the one Trio used: the PT-10." "Yeah, we liked the Casio MT series a lot," Awol adds. "We also used the Panther organ. It was kind of out of tune, but it has great sounds." "And it has a Panther on it," laughs Ad Rock. "We used it on the song 'Dig Deeper'. I got it in Oregon. You see, we are world travelers."
"Being a world traveler is great for picking up oddball gear," says Awol. "I picked up a battery-operated Yamaha synth, and on another trip I got a Mini-Korg II for $4! It's a cool monophonic synth. Another of our favorite little keyboards for this record was a General Electric Tote-A-Tune." Also in their arsenal was a glockenspiel, the SP-1200, a '60s Maestro drum machine, a Rhythm Ace, and a Radio Shack MG-1 synthesizer.
Ad Rock and Awol recorded Simply Mortified with a Mackie mixer and a Tascam DA-88. "We basic-tracked and engineered it all ourselves at a place called the Dungeon, on Mott St. in New York City," Ad Rock explains. "Whether we go right into the Mackie or the tape deck, we would go live to tape. And because we didn't always use all eight tracks, there was a lot of room in the mix. The bass on the Farfisa is phat, and when there's room for it in the mix it's a good thing."
For an extra rough sandpaper edge, the duo routed the Casio through various stompboxes and Leslie simulators. They also used a Metal Machine pedal to process some of the vocals, routed and miked through a guitar amp. "Then we went to Plantain Recording House in NYC," says Ad Rock, "and worked with some friends of ours. Tim Goldsworthy was the computer guy and James Murphy engineered. We loaded everything into the computer there and went through a nice, fancy mixing board they have." "We dumped the digital audio tape into [Emagic] Logic," Awol explains, "and we mixed through an analog board. We mixed down to half-inch tape, for tape compression. So the final product went from digital back to analog again. This gave back some tape warmth and body to the recording."