September-December 2009 – Pumpkinland II

The September-December 2009 – Pumpkinland II was the first set of recording sessions for the ongoing Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, at Billy Corgan's brand new personal studio Pumpkinland II. With the intent of releasing one song per month for free over the course of 44 months, each song was recorded one at a time. The band now consisted of Billy Corgan, Mark Tulin on bass and Mike Byrne on drums.

My desire is to release a song at a time beginning around Halloween of this year, with each new release coming shortly after until all 44 are out. Each song will be made available absolutely for free, to anyone anywhere. There will be no strings attached. Free will mean free, which means you won’t have to sign up for anything, give an email address, or jump through a hoop. You will be able to go and take the song or songs as you wish, as many times as you wish.

Background
The goal was to release a new song each month for 44 consecutive months, giving each recording a unique sonic treatment. An old API recording console previously owned by The Doobie Brothers was used on the first song. It looks like we are pulling a late one tonight. We spent most of the day tracking mandolin and it seems we are making some real progress on song number 3. A few minutes ago Ysanne Spevack picked up her Metal String Machine and was getting ready to lay down some space symphony tones when out of nowhere a 12 string banjo appeared in the control room and Billy started jamming on it. So, it looks like we are going to be here for a long, long time tonight especially if these crazy instrument keep popping out of thin air but, you gotta love the magic!

Guitar
Corgan played a 1961 Les Paul Junior Special through a Sound City Studio 20 amp.

Bass
Mark Tulin was said to have played a 1963 Fender Jazz bass through a 1963 Ampeg Portaflex flip-top amp.

Drum miking
Adapted from Kerry Brown's September 15, 2009 glittercop blog.


 * An AKG D112 was used for the kick drum, positioned inside it about 3 inches from the beater. Outside the kick drum and about 4 inches from the head were a Beyer M88 TG and an AKG D30 (so-called the "Zep Mic" for achieving the huge kick drum sound used on many Led Zeppelin recordings).


 * On the top of the snare, a Shure Sm57 and an AKG 414 EB were used, and an AKG 414 EB on the bottom.


 * The high hats were miked with a Neuman KM184.
 * An U47 Fet i was used for the floor tom.
 * About 4 feet in front of the kit was a Telefunken Elam 251.
 * High overhead mics (left and right) were Neuman's KM84s.
 * For the tight overhead microphone sitting very close to the kit, a stereo Telefunken SM2 was used.
 * A mono AKG C28 was used as an additional overhead mic.