"Lost and Found" is our fourth full length record. The release will be available as a FREE download for a limited time. We are getting together the last of the final master edits now. Should be another few days and then the album will be available. We will let you know this week when and where the release location is posted.
Later in the year, we will release "Lost and Found" on vinyl and CD. During that time, we will also release a limited run with deluxe packaging and artwork created and printed by John Smith and the rest of the band. The CD and vinyl will be a co- release from SKYBUCKET RECORDS and the new in house Dexateens label, CORNELIUS CHAPEL RECORDS.
We started working on this record by accident a few years ago after we had just finished "Hardwire Healing". John came around to play some shows down south and we figured while we had him in the area, we would try and record some songs. We called our old friend Lynn Bridges to come and join us at Shane Lollars studio for a few days. The two of them worked together and recorded us on a half inch 8 track machine. We recorded around 12 songs over the course of two days and ended up using four of the tracks for a portion of this album.
The location of Shane's original studio was on the 10th ave train tracks right across from the University of Alabama's practice field. Back then Shane was still calling his studio Napalm and it was very much a makeshift studio/home set up. The three guitars and bass were recorded in the living room and Sweetdog had his drums set up in the kitchen. Shane and Lynn worked out of a control room that was set up in the spare bedroom off of the den.
As usual, the loose ends on the arrangements and vocals came together right there on the spot. Im trying to remember details so that I can paint a picture of what it was like to record during those few days, but so much time has lapsed that im a bit hazy on most of it.
I played a telecaster through a silver face fender super reverb, john used the silverburst les paul custom with a mesa boogie maverick (on loan from Ham Bagby), Nikolaus used a telecaster with a music man head running through a 4x12 Marshall straight cab. Seems like the fridge was always empty and the room was real smoky.
One thing that I remember well is climbing on top of that old house to watch the Crimson Tide's football practice. The field was literally right across the street. They keep the chain link fence around the practice field wrapped in a fabric that you can't see through. I felt real privileged and criminal at the same time on top of that roof. Shane pointed out that the coaches observation tower with the spiral staircase had been around since the days of the Bear. Since then I've seen it in Bear Bryant photos and as best as I can tell, he is right, it's the same one.
Ironically, Shane's studio was the place that we had been practicing during the months leading up to that session. So needless to say, it seemed like normal surroundings and didn't really feel like a recording session, but more like getting together for band practice. That's the best way to cut a record if you ask me, in surroundings that feel like home.
Unfortunately, our practices were pretty different from the one that the University of Alabama football team was having less than a stones throw away. Our practices have never been funded by the University of Alabama cash cow and we have never had hundreds of thousands of adoring fans. We know how to work on a shoe string budget with a little help from our friends. That's just as good as a cash cow and comes without all the expectations. We ain't playing to win.
I knew during those sessions that "Lost and Found' would be a great title. I used to feel like our band could carry on without anyone of us. I even remember telling dog that our band could loose half of its talent and still be able to do something on a creative level. Well that ended up happening and I was wrong. We lost John for about a year and kept going on without him. That was the period that I wrote most of "Hardwire". We tried to record that material without John and the recordings and performances ended up very dull. It would be an understatement to say that something was missing without him. When he rejoined the band, we went to Athens to record the songs a second time, and that session became "Hardwire Healing". During that same time that John was not a member of our band, John was writing a majority of the songs that appear on this record. So just to make it clear, the title "Lost and Found" may be more about the Dexateens being lost without John as opposed to the other way around. When he came back to the band, I gained a new respect for him. Not just because he was sober and happy about it, but because his ideas and lyrics were stronger than ever before. I remember he told me right around that time that the more bullshit he eliminated in his life, the happier he was. This stuck with me. I was glad to have that kind of reason back in our band and in our lives.
In the months after that recording session, we just sort of went about our normal business. We played a few shows, we wrote a few songs, we toured Europe for a few weeks, and we basically sort of forgot about "Lost and Found". I knew it was there, but I wasn't really seeing the vision of the project and at that point, we knew we only had a handful of useable songs. At best "Lost and Found" seemed like an EP.
So a year passed and instead of finishing "Lost and Found", we began work on a new body of material. I don't know why we did this. It just seemed at the time like we needed to focus our efforts on some sort of recording project, and we felt like our momentum was best served into a new project as opposed to working on something from the previous year. I had always felt like there was a Dexateens record waiting to be made in Nashville with Mark Nevers. We had enough money saved up for a few days worth of recording, so we went there and recorded an album called "Singlewide". This record is really different in sound and style from "Lost and Found". Hopefully this one will come out as well in 2008, but its hard to say for sure. It's along story why, but our band is now living in a sinkhole of debt. Once we are out of debt then we will make plans to release "Singlewide".
So recently, it sort of dawned on us that we have two sessions worth of recordings sitting around and that it was time to do something with one of them. We talked about the options of releasing "Singlewide" or the idea of making "Lost and Found" an EP. I never have been able to figure out what purpose an EP really served. As best as I can tell, it is a way of putting out a release when you don't have a full lengths worth of material. We never have had a shortage of material, so we decided to put some more songs into "Lost and Found" and release it as a full length.
John came down from Ohio a month or so ago and we spent a few days tracking some new stuff and finishing up the other four from a few years ago. Shane Lollar at this point had moved his studio to the historic Capitol Park area of Tuscaloosa. The Alabama State Capitol was there for 20 years in the 1800s. The foundation stones are all that remain of that building, but its pretty amazing none the less. A very different vibe from the practice field on 10th Ave. but once again, special surroundings to cut a record. After the relocation, Shane appropriately decided to call the studio Old Capitol Recording.
While john was in town, we tracked another 7 or 8 songs and ended up finding out that 5 of them were geared towards the same direction as the previous "Lost and Found" recordings. John went back to Ohio and Shane and I completed the overdubs and went to Athens to get a mix with David Barbe.
My ears say this is our most concise record. 9 songs right at 30 minutes. The sweetest melodies yet. Some folks are gonna call it a pop record. That's probably what I would call it, a pop record with the sloppy flair that yall know us for.
We are real excited about releasing this record and especially being able to let folks have it for free. We don't tour much at all and really don't have any plans to do more than we already do. This is a way for us to reach people that otherwise wont ever get to see or hear of our band. We will make a banner available that you can post on your friends myspace sights and we would appreciate it kindly if yall would help spread the word about "Lost and Found". The banner and the album will be available this week. Be on the lookout. Dont say we never gave you anything.
new south
new values
elliott m