Bad Shapes--Self-Titled
--Ada Wofford
----Released 27 March 2020
Whenever I have the opportunity to review a local band, I always ask them to tell me about the recording process and the gear they used. This is information only nerds like myself care about but it’s also information that no one else is going to bother writing down. So, I make a point to write it down with the hope that someday, a nerd like me will discover one of the many awesome albums I’m fortunate enough to review and will be able to learn how it was made.
Bad Shapes gave me the most detailed response I have ever received. In a two-thousand-word email, guitarist, Mark Quitevis and bassist and lead vocalist, Ben Taylor explain the band’s history, their goals, their process, and their gear. This enthusiasm and attention to detail is also found in their music—with every sound carefully picked and placed. This is a band that simply loves making sound.
Bad Shapes write their songs collectively, building off of improvised jams and revising until perfect. This is immediately obvious while listening to the LP—This is a BAND, not a singer-song writer with a band. At their strongest, such as on the tracks “Campfire Sunburn,” “Soda Springs,” and “Pacer” Bad Shapes sound like a wonderful mix of early OVLOV (think Crazy Motorcycle Jump EP) and Pile with just a dash of Death Cab—But specifically the Death Cab songs that actually sound like they were written by a rock band like, “Title Track” or even “I Will Possess Your Heart.”
These are the moments when Bad Shapes shine as collective song-writers as opposed to masters of noise, which they certainly are on tracks like “Binary” and “Beaming Venus.” And though Bad Shapes might love their distortion and fuzz, they have a way of smoothing everything out, almost making it soft. Nothing is ever especially abrasive and nothing is done without purpose.
Field recordings of TV and film clips drenched in echo repeatedly appear throughout the album, filling in any dead space and reminding the listener that nothing we do exists in a vacuum. Anything we watch or listen to, anything we experience, exists within a context of background noise, filling in the gaps and becoming part of the experience. In this respect, the background noise can at times be frustrating, as I would rather hear the guitars stretch and moan amongst the drums and space without static and voices mumbling behind them. But maybe that’s its purpose, to force the listener to listen more closely and to appreciate the music all the more for having to earn it.
This album, and the multitudes contained within it, certainly deserves to be understood from the perspective of the band. Ben Taylor had this to say about Bad Shapes’ process:
We're at a level of communication and trust that we've spent a lot of time building. And better writing is the result of that - more risk, more experimentation. That wouldn't be possible without the ability to check our ego and give/take criticism from one another. The self-titled album is the result of this experience, with some songs reconfigured from Mark's first demo, and some totally fresh from our current creative place.
We're at a point where we have some years logged with bands, making us more willing (or desperate?) to find new ways to be creative. We all have way too many effects at our disposal, which lends to our effort of no two songs being too similar. Wes is also playing synth, along with guitar, really adding to our versatility. Many songs begin as a 20-30-minute improv session. If somebody brings it back to the table, we’ll start to break down sections on our massive whiteboard. We’ve gotten to the point of color-coding dynamic changes. It’s a level of effort I’ve not experienced with a group before and I love it. Some songs take weeks, some take months. Some take months and still get left in the graveyard. It’s important that we all feel strongly about the writing decisions.
In regards to the performance we seek to craft, I've heard us described as looking like pilots of some huge control panel on stage. I'd describe it as a comical amount of gear. But we're trying to get leaner. We've got a better idea of what sights and sounds we like (for now). Mark and Wes have built some astounding pedal boards. I'd call Mark a guitarist and pedal board player; it’s definitely like another instrument in itself. I think Mark, Wes, and Peter were all bringing synths to shows for a while there. I'm also sampling our narrative, found audio stuff, so there's more gear. Too much gear? I haven’t even started on our fascination with video synthesis. Long story short, Mark got a video synth, and we started projecting it live. And now Peter's building a video mixing station behind the drums, and we've collected a dozen TVs.
As stated before, this LP is full of sound. Since My Little Underground started, I’ve review albums from big names like Pixies and Coldplay to bands working out of their basements—and while I’m a lover of lo-fi, this LP manages to make hi-fi sound honest. It’s honestly one of the best sounding albums I’ve listened to all year. Mark Quitevis had this to say about their gear:
We tracked the record ourselves in our practice space with a modest amount of recording gear. Our setup was centered around a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 interface. Guitars were mic’d with SM57s, bass was DIed, and drums used an Audix D6 (kick) and an Audio Technica AT2020 and Audio Technica AT2035 for overheads. Wes also has a Shure SM7 that was used on a good amount of the vocals. We recorded demos for each song live. From there we tweaked and finished writing parts over the templates of our demos.
Mark Quitevis' pedal board
When it came to the final tracks that would become our LP, Peter and Ben tracked drums and bass live. From there, Wes and I remotely tracked our guitar parts using Logic’s amp simulators and then re-amped our guitars with a Saturnworks Reamp Box. We also used the Reamp Box to run effects (Red Panda Tensor and Death By Audio Echo Master) on Ben’s vocals.
Ben Taylor's pedal board
Ben, Wes, and I all use a fair amount of pedals. I think it gives the music a 3D kinda feel and makes for a comical amount of gear to bring to shows. A lot of my tones for this record are centered around a Line6 DL4, an Electro-Harmonix HOG2, and a Foxrox Octron. I’m just familiar with the DL4. I thought I needed more in the past and “upgraded” to a Strymon Timeline a few years ago but moved back to the DL4 last year. It is the only delay I use on the record and is especially highlighted on “Splinter” with the self-oscillating Lo Res Delay. The HOG2 does all the clean organ octave sounds heard on “Splinter” and “Drone Mimic.” The Octron was used on all the dirty octave sounds heard on B.Z.E and Hoagie Mouth.
Wes Harmon's pedal board
Bad Shapes manages to do something very difficult in that the band refuses to stick to a formula and insists on using every piece of gear they own, yet the album is neither pretentious nor cluttered. And despite some of the darker, more somber tones and atmospheres created on the record, this is a record made with joy and love and you can hear it with every note.
100% of all Bad Shapes merch profits will be donated and matched to Campaign Zero for the month of June. You can contribute via their Bandcamp HERE.
Watch the video for single, “Splinter” below: