Dear Internetters,

On 3/15/2008 the love lights horns (jeremiah austin, diana dizard, sarah jerns) played with the presidents of the united states of america for their cd release party. You can watch the entire concert below (the horns come in around 39 minutes for 4 songs, and during the encore for another):


Watch this show and more at SyncLive.com

Also, here is an article from the Western Front Online about the horns’ involvement with PUSA:

http://westernfrontonline.net/200803149795/art-life/whole-lotta-love/

Whole lotta love
by Alexis Tahiri
Friday, March 14, 2008

Getting involved with the Presidents of the United States of America was completely by chance, said Western alumnus Diana Dizard, baritone saxophone player in local band The Love Lights.

"It seems sort of like random serendipity," Dizard said.

The Love Lights’ horn section will be featured on three tracks on the Presidents’ new album, "These are the Good Times People," Dizard said.

Dizard said The Love Lights first met the Presidents when they opened for them at Western in September.

Before the show, The Love Lights’ guitarist and vocalist Rob Stauffer sent the Presidents front man Chris Ballew a MySpace message telling him that The Love Lights had a horn section that he could use on a few songs, Dizard said.

Ballew took them up on the offer and said The Love Lights’ horn section, consisting of two trumpets and a baritone saxophone, played "Lump" and "Froggie" with them at the show.

Ballew said the only time The Love Lights rehearsed with  the Presidents was during the sound check.

"The set was amazing," Dizard said. "We didn’t get much time to rehearse with them so we were all pretty nervous."

After the show, Ballew said the Presidents started to think about having The Love Lights’ horn section play on their new album.

"There were a couple songs that just felt like they needed horn tracks," Ballew said.

On Oct. 25, The Love Lights’ horn section, made up of Sarah Jerns and Jeremiah Austin on the trumpet and Dizard on the baritone saxophone, recorded at a studio in Wallingford, Wash., Dizard said.

"It was just me, Jeremiah and Sarah with headphones on in this huge studio," Dizard said. 

Ballew said he had the horn section play at the end of "Sharpen Up Those Fangs," "Flame is Love" and "Deleter," three songs that will be on the Presidents’ new album, coming out March 11.

"There were definite parts that I wrote out, but the parts expanded with input from the horn section when we were in the studio," Ballew said.

The Love Lights had their start in 2005 with Ben Ballew, no relation to Chris Ballew, and Stauffer playing guitar together, Dizard said.

Dizard said Jeff Ballew, Ben Ballew’s brother, was added on the bass and shortly after, Alex O’Farrell joined on the drums.

"Once Alex joined, people started turning their amps up," Austin said.  "The band really came together then."

Dizard said the horn section was added after Ben Ballew talked to Austin about adding a horn section to the group.

Dizard, Austin’s girlfriend, joined the group and when Jerns was found over MySpace, The Love Lights were completed, Austin said.

The Love Lights’ new album, "Young Lions," is in the final stages of production and is scheduled for releas April 3.

Dizard said The Love Lights will be playing two CD release shows, one on April 12 at WHAAM and the other April 19 at The Rouge Hero.

This latest installment in the Love Lights' blogcast has a recording of our show last month at the Crocodile Cafe in downtown Seattle. 10 songs, all for free. Some of them are ones that'll be on our new album, some of them are ones from our last album, some of them are good, some of them are not so good.

I think the player is pretty self-explanatory. But be sure to download the songs and tell us what you think.

This player has the last 3 albums by The Love Lights (not counting Problems & Solutions). There is the Lakes and Ponds EP, More Dead than Y'all (our Halloween EP), and It's Actually Christmas, the Christmas EP featuring 10 Killing Hands, I Love You Avalanche, Go Slowpoke, and Silence Dogood.

You can just listen, or download them all for free.


<3 The Love Lights

Day 2: Recording new  material
Dictated, but not read.

Rob and the Great Van show up. Guitars are loaded, keys are loaded, amps are tossed, and pastries are hidden in guitar case pockets.

Pick up Jeff. He is partied out – again – from the previous night's "Most Bitchenest Math Party Ever" (or so the poster reads). $150 is spent on alcohol. We take the remaining 6 beers (!) for recording purposes.

Stop by Cost Cutter for supplies. Do we go with the traditional frozen pizza? Hot dogs? I make a $1 bet with Rob whether or not they have veggie corndogs. I win. We go with lasagna and French bread. A big of mystery flavor Doritos is purchased. The package says DX-14 or something, probably alluding to the chemical(s) that give it the flavor. Also, a vanilla soda is purchased and we are disappointed to discover that it is nothing more than watered down cream soda. Woof.

Arrive at Actual Air Studios, Deming, WA. The rain falls and it is very, very green. Tim, as always, is in good spirits. He is so fantastic. He shows off his new Hammond organ and vocal microphone. Although the organ is not a B3, it sounds fantastic with his DIY leslie speaker. A leslie speaker is one in which the actual speaker is set on a rotating cylinder, and, like the Doppler effect, the sound goes in and out as the speaker rotates around, giving it a warble-y sound. The Beatles used the sound on Lennon's vocals for "Within you, without you," if I'm not mistaken. Also, Weezer uses it on "The Sweater Song."

Weezer sucks.

The chips are broken open and we discover they are cheeseburger flavored. Rob really tastes the mustard, I the lettuce, and Tim the pickle. Jeff remains silent, probably tasting the E.coli.

Begin tracking guitar for "O! Eidolon (Albequerque Freakout!)," "Fences," "Longfellow," "Communication Shakedown," and "Textured Air." Jeff plays through we little to no mistakes. I, on the other hand, have difficulty falling into the groove and end up playing in front of the beat for the first 5 attempts.

The recording conundrum: Recording basic tracks separately makes it difficult to fall into the drummer's groove 2 weeks after the fact. So, do you record bass, drums, and guitar at the same time, allowing bleed-over from track to track, limiting the processing and mixing of each instrument (destroying any and all potential of nailing down that 60s/70s drum sound); or, do you do each instrument separately and risk losing a tight, cohesive groove for the foundation of the song? We chose the latter, and even after a beer or two (two in this case), it was a bitch.

On the subject of the sound of the album, part of what made Day 1 so unproductive (in terms of songs completed) was the search for a particular drum sound. Modern recordings, drums in particular, are much cleaner, punchier, and rounder than our favorite records of the 60s and 70s. My caveat with the last record was our lack of focus in finding a specific, cohesive sound for the record, and as such, my goal for this record is to find one and work the hell out of it. We spent a good deal of time dampening the drums and placing microphones in specific positions that would reduce the punchy clarity of modern recordings and get to dirtier, simpler drum sound a la Ringo Starr. Tim is aided in his quest by the new book "Recording the Beatles." We copy Ringo's setup and are off. Today, it seems, we are aided by fate. The new issue of Tape Op magazine has an interview with Bosco Mann, the producer responsible for the Dap-tone sound, as well as much of Mark Ronson's sound (Amy Winehouse, Nikka Costa, etc.), both of whom I have sending Mp3s of to Tim. I bring in my Radioshack karaoke microphone for the guitars. It gets great, juicy high ends and distorts in just the right places. It sounds really, really good (although the others may beg to differ).

As we finish up the guitars, Jeff is asleep. We begin recording the Hammond on each track. "Longfellow" starts to pick up steam and I am starting to feel where it is going. With some Phil Spector-like production, the song could really be something. As it stands now, it is just OK. I try to get Rob to finish the chorus lyrics (I did the verses), but we are both stuck. The song has been in limbo for months now. "Fences" also begins to take shape and gain some momentum. Jeff's bass line takes it to another planet. It feels like a song off of Otis Redding's "Sitting by the Dock of the Bay."

Lasagna is finished. It is veggie, and the sauce is not very good; however, hunger trumps all and the plates are soon empty. Organ is finished up and so are we. Did we accomplish very much? Not really. I am realizing how much work this album may be. What I thought would be done now will most likely take the next few months. Yikes stripes. A lot of songs, a lot of instruments, a lot of vocals.

Next time: we will lay down the drums for "Tired Arms," "Summerlegs," "Owls" (again), "Ayes," "Trippy G," and Rob's new, yet-to-be-titled song. "Young Lions" and "Lies, Lies, Lies" have yet to see tape as well. That's a lot of work.

Here is a video the LL are working on. Tell us what you think. Any suggestions? Want to be a part of it?

Video Treatment
Song: "Danger" Theme (aka "Watch yo back")

Scenes:
Full band walking at camera, looking menacing.

From across street, camera pans in on 3 people on street corner. They appear to be dealing drugs. The Love Lights' backs are to camera, while third person looks over their backs at camera and appears to whisper something to them. They all look over at camera and walk away from camera. One turns around and kisses a peace sign at camera.

Camera slowly walks around corner of a 7-11 style store revealing two LL members shooting dice against store. They both hold up hands of crisp dollar bills. When they see the camera, they drop the dice and some money and run off.

From across street, camera pans in on 4 people on street corner. They appear to be dealing drugs. The Love Lights' backs are to camera, while third person parts the two LL, revealing they are a child to the camera and appears to whisper something to them. They all look over at camera and walk away from camera. The two LL walk away while the 2 children throw their hands up and appear to yell at the LL.

One LL rides in the passenger seat of Travis' (manager) pimped out VW bug. They are wearing sunglasses and a bandana and are holding a gun (or something). This is in slow motion. They stick their tongue out and bounce up and down threateningly.

Camera looks straight down at two hands being tied together with a bandana. The camera quickly zooms out to reveal two LL having a knife fight. They bounce around and stab at one another. Surrounding them are the rest of the LL, cheering them on and holding dollar bills in the air. Slow motion shots are interspersed of the LL stabbing at the camera (in the place of the other LL). This scene is awesome.

A working out montage ala Rocky I, II, III, IV, and V, and soon Rocky Balboa (VI): jogging, lifting weights, doing push ups and sit ups. Boxing vs. punching bag.

Full band walking away from camera (backs to camera).

  Most bands will usually post sections of their cd reiviews and leave out the critical parts.  For some bands this is a lot more work then others.  Sometimes you'll see something like "This cd was alright but......overall it was okay." -from some guy.  We aren't going to do this.  So here is the entire review which was written by Brent Cole at the What's Up! magazine.