King Kong Girio
Mitch Girio's Music Blog
Mitch Girio's Music Blog
Dec 17th
Production – P
Engineer – E
Mixer – M
Bass – B
Composer – C
Prince Perry – Songs About Girls – P/ E/ M/ C (one song)
Stop Drop – P
Bri-anne Swan – These Are All My Friends – P/ E/ M/ B
Kirsten Jones – B/ co-C/ E (overdubs)
Nicole Christian – live demo
Dave Borins – live recording at Hugh’s Room
Josiah – E/ M – current
Crookedhook – P/ E/ M
The Expos – Blackwater (Stomp) P/ E/ M
Ellen Carol – song for film – P/ sideplayer
Emma-Lee – Never Just A Dream (Bumstead) co-P, M
Clara Engel – Tender… – P/ E/ M
Bob Henry – EP – P/ E/ M
Stoop, Drop N Skank – M
Morgan Doctor – M
The Clementones – co-P, B, C
One Night Band – pre-P, co-C
Nicole Christian – demo
Sean Peever – P/ E
Colleen Costello – soundtrack – E
Bruno – E
A Touch Of Love – E, M
The Big Man Himself – All Or Nothing (mastering)
Crookedhook – E/ M/ mastering
The Cavaliers – P/ E
London Town (musical) – co-C (with Greg Crowe) Nelson McIntyre, Winnipeg
Dave Borins – P/ E/ B Songs of Sense And Colour
Bri-Anne Swan – EePee
Shawn Sage – Misadventures In Song P/ E/ B
Christina Miter – E/ M/ B one song
Lo & The Magnetics – new demo/ re-mixes
Michael Marian (current) P/ E/ B
Grushenka – EP – P/ E/ B
Christina Miter – E/ M/ B one song
Last Call Poets – E/ M
Kirsten Jones – demos
Rachel Smith – Famous Secrets E/ M/ B
Clara Engel – Clara Engel – co-P/ E/ M/ B
Clara Engel – Cousin Mary EP – co-P/ E/ M/ B
John Layton – Femmes Fatales – P/ E
Barzin – My Life In Rooms – E/ M/ B
One Night Band – Way Back Home – co-P/ E/ M/ co-C
Colleen Costello – Glazed Over (EP) P/ E/ B
Grushenka EP – P/ E/ B
Shawn Glynn – Grace (EP) co-P/ B
Lo & The Magnetics – A Part (re-master Richard G. Benoit) P/ co-C
Tamara Williamson – Boat Song – B/ E
The Expos – Old Friends – P/ E/ M – re-release formerly the Donuts
Nicky Lawrence – Vague – B and co-C (one song)
Bob Henry – No More Battlefield – co-P/ E
The Makeshift Heroes – Last Call – P/ E/ M
Shawn Glynn – Christmas EP (current)
Look-a-like (film) – C
Cheap Suits – One Giant Leap – P
I An Eye – We Are One – P
The Donuts – Old Friends – P/ E/ M/ co-C
Morgan Doctor – Is This Home – M/ B
KIrsten Jones – I Will Love You Now (song) – P/ B
Shawn Glynn – This Is Christmas (song) – co-P/ B
Kirsten Jones – Drive-In Movie (remix/ re-master) – P/ E/ M/ B
Inner City Fanatics – EP – P/ E
Moesch – Songs From The Side Of The Road – E/ M/ B
Seshanaga – Heaven’s Gate – P/ E/ M
For Chris Sake (compilation) – E/ M
Sexual Secrets – composition for TV series – E/ B/ co-C
only forward – Everything Is Perfect – P
Lo And The Magnetics – A Part – P/ co-C
Barzin – Songs For Hinah – E/ M
Bryce Thomas – Once Were Explorers – co-P/ E/ M
Tamara Williamson – All Those Racing Horses E/ M/ B
Nathan Lawr – M/ B
Mel Borins – Doggy Had A Bark Bark – E/ M
Microbunny – Dead Stars – B
Greg Milka Crowe – bhakta basics – co-C (one song)
Shawn Sage – One Of The Good Guys – P/ E/ M/ B
All Skanadian Club Vol. 4 – mastering/ C (one song)
Gerry LeBlanc – Vagabond – P/ E/ M/ B
Norman Cristofoli – Pass The Mustard – E/ M
Mark Ripp and The Confessors – Minor Miracle – E (one song)
Gerry Leblanc – Flashing Yellow
The Kingpins – Plan Of Action – P/ co-C
Mad Bomber Society – Atomic A Go Go – P/ M
Labour Of Love (compilation) – E/ M/ B and some C
Whole Lotta Milka – Al’s Diner – P/ E/ M
Flashlight (Brown) – Running Season – P
All Skanadian Club Vol. 3 (compilation) – C (one song)
All Skanadian Club Vol. 2 (compilation) – C (two songs)
All Skanadian Club Vol. 1 (compilation) – co-P (one song)
The Artichokes – Meet The Artichokes – co-P/ C
King Apparatus – Marbles – co-P/ C/ B
King Apparatus – Hospital Waiting Room EP – co-P/ B
King Apparatus – s/t – co-P/ B
Dec 13th

Listening
I took the weekend off. Some chores around the house kept us busy, but now that I’m winding down and thinking about my work for the rest of the week, I’m amazed at how much music I’ve taken in this weekend alone.
I vaguely remember listening to Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist soundtrack yesterday along with a soundtrack disc from the original Star Trek series and Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations, but today seems like it’s been wall to wall when I list the music in my head.
Started off with Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on a disc that included Schumann and Liszt, followed by Elvis Costello’s Useless Beauty, The In Sounds From Way Out (always a fine accompaniment to any decent board game), more Glenn Gould (The Two and Three Part Inventions), Napoleon soundtrack (Carmine Coppola), Django Reinhardt (Djangology), Schumann’s Piano Quintet In E Flat Major and finished off with Mitchell Froom’s A Thousand Days (part of our night time routine – listened to this about 500 times, so far and still not tired of it).
It leaves me wondering how much music do we take in everyday? I see people traveling with iPods and such on public transit, that’s hours alone everyday. Some of this music is strictly for setting the mood, some for accompaniment to get me through dull tasks and the rest for me to sit down and take in fully. I was beginning to feel like I was burning out at work, but recently I’ve managed a month of compressed days that have allowed me to have full days off (sometimes three in a week) and I think it’s refreshed me somewhat.
Looking forward to the next record.
Here’s a little Gould to get it going.
Dec 13th

The Expos - Old Friends
The Expos
Old Friends (2006)
This was a funny record to make. I had seen and adjudicated the Donuts at the Brass In The Grass festival along with Christine Bougie (who I met for the first time and was to play on their second CD). Although the band was rough playing outdoors through a truly underwhelming sound system you could hear that they were moving towards this first record. I was hired to record them in Mich’s basement as I was only set up at an office space and they wanted to keep the budget reasonable. They were still the Donuts when we recorded and the CD was released under that name until the re-released it through Stomp Records in Montreal and decided to redress everything. I’ll come back to that.
I met up with the band to get a feel for what they were doing and how they played at this point. It was at this point that they told me they were ditching a good percentage of their material and would be writing a lot of new songs while we tracked for the week in August.
It was a week fueled by pop/ a tracking chart (which they marked up energetically as we went) and the impending deadline which was the end of the week. The band was splitting off to go to school so we were under the impression that this would be it. We did get most of it done in that time, but booked several sessions to track upright piano, backing vocals and some final touches. Then there was the inevitable rush near the end in order to get it pressed for the CD release show. We put the final touches on the last mixes and stayed up through the night to master the dics using a pair of Neve pre-amps to shape the sound. What shape? Shittier. Odd as that was, we were using these lovely 1073s to pull up the crap and make it a hair nastier. By 7am, we had achieved just that.
That was a recurrent theme during the process. The vocal microphone selection was based on that. We tested several and went with the EVs that I’d received as a gift from The Cheapsuits.

vocal mic of choice
This microphone here was their secret weapon. It had a unique tone which I’ve never used with any other artist. Not on vocals anyway.
The week was mostly a blur. I had set up as best as I could in the basement within smelling range of the cat’s litter, mostly relied on headphones. I have a clear memory of helping Adam M. with his trombone solo and then running upstairs to help write a line if I could and then run downstairs to continue on the next part of the solo…etc… that was the pace.
For this recording we got to experiment with the drum tones (which I like to do to open up the flavours) by deadening the skins for the reggae interludes (White Gunn/ Black Gunn). This would be the album where I used the my spring reverb the most. It’s a small Boss until that I picked up in a shop in Ottawa. Very distinctive tone.
When the CD was released I had completed 2 others around the same time – The Cheapsuits and I An Eye. I sent the CDs out together to a few labels and this basement recording was the one that got the attention. They eventually re-released with Stomp and used that as a chance to change their name/ re-mix (de-shittify some of the tones) and re-master with my favourite mastering engineer, Richard G. Benoit. They also used this opportunity to create some striking artwork.
Dec 5th

Shawn Sage
Misadventures In Song
(Independent – 2006)
This was Shawn’s second CD and we wanted to take his recordings to the next level. The problem was that we weren’t able to afford much else than what we did on the first. Coming into this recording there were some key differences, Shawn had picked up a new Gibson acoustic and we rented a pair of Neve pre-amps for the guitar and vocals (and whatever else I could squeeze through). I ran all the snare/ kick tracks through the Neve’s after the fact. The most important change was that Shawn himself became a much stronger performer. It was easier to get the takes we needed and it was far more enjoyable tracking those parts.
1. Misadventures In Song. The drums were tracked at Marshall’s house with Mike Van Steinberg behind the kit. Initially I wasn’t happy with the tones, but by the end I enjoyed what we had, except for Kurt Cobain. Most of the overdubs were done at an office I had on Kingston Rd., it was before I was able to track drums at my own place. Tracy Jones came in for this and a bunch of other songs and made the room shake. Here we also had Lynn Kastner add some percussion – a master at small hand percussion. I added a small organ part as a final touch for a counter melody. I think I meant it to be quiter in the mix initially, but it didn’t sit right that far back.
2. Another War. This was one that needed some massaging and there are parts that I’m not satisfied with. I added tracked some electric as did Tracy, but I only felt like the tracks glued when I put down the final Hammond track. This is yet another one where we had Andrea De Boer (Blue Venus) and Colleen Costello (Taffy) out to sing backups. Lots of giggles. That may have been from Shawn and myself.
3. Blow Out Sale. The drums were tracked with North Pole at Ryan Carley’s cabin on Guelphline. Sam Cino played on those two. This was done well before we began working on the album in a serious way. I don’t think Shawn had written everything yet. I associate this and N. Pole with his first record, but only because of the timeline. Used the Farfisa tone to garage it up. Tracy played along with a good sense of humour.
4. Stan Wadlow Park. This was an easy one. Open, nostalgic and inspirational. As any song about taking mushrooms should be. I actually remember singing back ups on this one, but it’s a blur. I don’t normally like rain stick, but Lynne made it work. I love the little Andrea/ Colleen moments in the chorus. Again the organ was glue played by a great friend, Meher Steinberg – no relation to Mike. The openness of the track made it easy to mix. It’s on songs like these that I particularly loved Mike’s parade drum kick. Tasty.
5. Permanent Bliss. A great feature of both Andrea/ Colleen’s BGs and Tracy’s detuned Hidalgo-esque blurts and the warbly aquatic textures. Meher switched over to Wurlitzer. His parts were tracked at his apartment in Parkdale. I can picture Queen Street west when I listen to his parts. Lynn pulls it together with her shaker.
6. Kurt Cobain. The toughest. We tracked the drums originally with Mike, but as we continued to track I couldn’t make his kit work. In the end we re-recorded the drums with Taylor Knox (Goldendogs) in a tiny basement. It looked like a miniature kit, but he made it feel big. We kept Mike’s lo-tom drum in the opening to give it the extra cloudiness. Love Shawn’s harmonica. By the end, the song made sense to me. Another loud session with Tracy. Oh boy.
7. Wandering Mind. I really like this song, but it’s definitely one where it was difficult to recapture the original demo. One of the only ones from this CD with a proper demo. Listening back now, I feel that we surpassed the demo, especially with Shawn’s vocal take. The only acoustic guitar track that I attempted for MIS.
8. Ruins Of Paradise. The kit here is cajon/ snare drum played by colleen costello. Throw in Shawn’s Casio keyboard line with Tracy’s spookier guitar touches and you have one of the creepiest tracks on MIS. When I hear Tracy (as I am listening to it right now to remind me) I’m brought back to our sessions of name-dropping guitar tones. It was how about if I try more of a “—-“ sound or a “—-“ kind of lick. I think we just like talking about our mutual admiration for some of the records we referenced. Probably because we’d get all misty eyed and shake our heads in nostalgic reverence.
9. Can’t Play The Blues. Blues can be tough for me. It’s a language that is so universal and simple on the surface that I find it can often feel pedestrian, maybe even lazy as far as songwriting can go. Shawn approached this with a particular lyrical hook which although not deep, helped ground it. It’s placement between Ruins and Lost makes it a breath of fresh air. I like Mike’s easy feel on this and Tracy’s acoustic work (right side).
10. Lost In The North Pole. Ok, my favourite, and that’s before Meher laid down the tasty electric organ solo. Even before he put down the wah- Wurlitzer parts. Yes, before I got to do my backing vocals – thanks for letting me, Shawn. It started even before Sam Cino played the drums in that cabin on a Fall afternoon. A great lyrical take on the Holiday Season and mental dysfunction. They go together well, no?
11. No Going Home Again. I think this one used to have more verses originally. As it is, it clocked in at 7:07, so in the end Shawn was merciful. I always imagine Shawn as the character in the lyrics. A lovely story arc, taking it’s time. Dean Cavill’s lap-steel parts were brought in on disc.
12. Place Called Heaven. We demoed this one at my first office space. Oh, boy. I’m glad we got to do this bouncy version. Andrea and colleen play the parts of the angels on the chorus. Tracy was a good sport in pulling out the twang (kinda like “—-“). Since then Tracy began to play this live at a slower, dirge-like pace (more along the lines of “——-“).
13. Piano Ballad. Recorded live at Café Au Lait on their apartment-sized upright piano, Shawn gave the 4 patrons there a few lively takes. The glasses are clinking in the background, is that a game of pool I hear?
Nov 27th
My head is hurting. I’d like to thank Shawn Sage for the red wine last night. I’ll be setting up the files that we recorded last night with Rob Greenway until…what time?
Two days ago I applied for my new passport. What is the term? Whatever. It was, however, a great example of how arbitrary the process of getting a passport can be. The first teller told me that I needed proof for my rush on the passport. I had to see 2 separate tellers. As it turns out, I was in the wrong, but I played the part of the indignant citizen very well. One strong reason was that I really thought I was in the right. Luckily, the second Passport officer showed me what to do to get it in a timely way without having to search for days for proof of the trip. blah blah blah I picked up my Passport today. Made the headache less miserable.
Thanks to the folks who sent me my picture right side up. It may seem like I don’t know how to use the technology around me, but that is only partially true. Thankfully.
Also, those who communicated the disgust of reading about my studio bottle, I’d like to reassure you that the bottle was disposed of in a timely fashion. No one mistook it for apple juice.
Today, we continue on the Shawn Sage marathon. Devrim Eldelekli will be joining us shortly. So I better get off this thing.
Will begin to conduct interviews and post them on this site starting this weekend. Why? Good question. Bored? Does that qualify?
Listened to Queen and They Might Be Giants this morning. My on street humming has alternated between those 2 acts until… now.
Nov 26th
It started yesterday when I was running off rough mixes for Michelle McKibbon. I knocked over my water bottle and spilled it all over the crotch of my jeans. Looked exactly like I pissed myself. Not the way I thought my morning would go. I had plans. Going to the washroom upstairs was part of them. Feeling like I didn’t want to risk it I decided to hang up the jeans and hang out in my underwear boots. Not a pretty sight, but I marched on. Lots to do. I decided to begin the task of rearranging the studio, moving desks, consoles, electric organs…etc… Eventually, I couldn’t hold it any longer so I used my water bottle as a urine receptacle, as I was too embarrassed to go upstairs with the wet jeans. A little irrational as almost no one uses that washroom.
I realize that this story isn’t really going anywhere. So I’d like to share my Halloween costume with you.

Robo-costume for Halloween
I tried to get this picture upright, but alas, no go.
Finished tracking for Kelsey McNulty this week. Really enjoyed her music. Mostly a live session with band except for a couple of vocal, electric guitar and rhodes overdubs.
Enjoying our new Vintech pre-amp/ EQ.
So many smaller sessions that my head is spinning. I enjoy being involved, but it does become difficult shifting gears three times a day.
K. and I watched Adventureland and Rachel Getting Married this past weekend. Enjoyed both. I can’t remember the last time we watched 2 movies in one weekend. Over 3 evenings, mind you. ha.
Our new studio set up is a great improvement. We have a concentrated keyboard island of sorts that makes them easy to access and use for any recording. Also, we have the old Traynor console set up now. I enjoy the tone from those strips so I’m happy to have that option.
Currently reading Eleanor Rigby (D. Coupland). Easy read, fun enough. I’ve been taking a break from the depressing run I had. After War and Peace I couldn’t stop reading emotionally heavy material from Blindness, The Road, The Cellist of Sarajevo, Atonement…etc… I finally broke it with The Body Snatchers and a short story collection by Richard Matheson. I find that whatever book I read begins to shade my mood according to the story’s tone.
Working with Josiah and Shawn Sage today. Perhaps a third. I’ll see when I check my messages.
Saw this post this morning. So did 3.45 million others.
Remarkable.
Nov 2nd

Stop Drop
I didn’t think that the final Stop Drop show would happen at Rancho Relaxo, but there you go. The band, jammed into the shoebox stage, up to their arm pits in each other, Stef on the verge of tears, Dan peeling a layer off like it’s some indie burlesque routine, every note played, every word sung being their last, mixing with the sweat from the last roundup of adult fans, friends and yes, you guessed it, family.
Did we, here at Winterbeard know that our first released project would be the Stop Drop swan song? Yes. In fact, we were throwing around the idea of only doing “last records”. Your band breaking up? Afraid to approach a label? Have no fear. Here at Winterbeard Records, we pride ourselves in sending your declining artistic endeavor into the vast sea of un-promotable, but quite abandoned music. The merits of which will only be preserved in the minds of those “in the know” and still sentimental of time when music used to be about something. Never fear, because if you’re lucky then these people may mention your deceased group in passing when you drum up a new project with what ever’s left of you only to hear, “they’re not half as good as when they were called _________.”
Well, that’s too tight a concept for us, so we’re skipping on the end of career releases, however, you can still catch clips of Stop Drop off of their Myspace page. www.myspace.com/sdsrock
Anyway, I hope to continue working to some degree with some of the members still remaining in the country. Paths crossing and all that.

drop stop
Oct 22nd

ONE OF MANY FACES
or just one.
Last week, Bri-anne Swan completed the first phase of her CD launch, ending at the Orillia Opera House. She has been charting at CIUT and is the lab, so to speak, concocting plans for her next wave of promotion. Hopefully, it doesn’t involve a sandwich board.
This week, the Expos are officially releasing their CD in Newmarket, sharing the glory with their hometown. And no one else, it seems.
Pre-production began last night for the next Cavaliers CD. The whirlwind of a session included apologies, bickering, heckling and the curry scent of a half eaten roti from Ghandi’s. We recorded 4 of the members together (drums/ bass/ 2 gtrs) and then they tackled some gtr overdubs. All this was in a few takes. For the first song, I set up 3 microphones facing inwards (triangle of fear) and Britton/ Mich/ Dan sang in harmony throughout the entire number. Fortunately, there were far fewer giggles than I thought there would be. For this we used dynamic microphones to cut down on any unwanted phasing and/ or bleed. The second song was done individually as they realized that the phrasing was unclear so we switched to a condenser microphone which I prefer on their sweeter vocal lines.
Right now, Prince Perry is rehearsing in the next room as I type. He’s trying a new song with the band. We’ve had a chance to alter some chords and make it a little more of a journey. It’s a sweet song that a friend of his wrote.
I began Richard Weisdorf’s Ep this week. He brought in 2 demos recorded on his computer. We went through it replacing each track one by one, prepping a new demo to use for grant applications. Richard is quite the keyboardist. It was funny just saying “play your part” and having him do it in one take. “ok, what’s next?” Made it a very efficient session.
Here are some notes I took with regards of some of Richard’s Issues. I titled the page, Richard’s Issues.
- singing high notes (hard to reach)
- fear of confrontation
- identifies with Dexter (TV character from show with same name – Dexter)
- Always ten steps ahead – therefor, never in the current moment
- Hears voices in his head
- Keeps secrets
Well, he’s paying me, so I’ll put up with it. Just look at this accurate picture (above) painted of Richard right after his pre-production session. Some people will argue that this is actually a portrait of Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann, 1922, but here at Slaughterhouse (754) we know better.
I leave you this. I’ll soon be on my way flapping through the city with my copy of The Cellist Of Sarajevo getting more and more depressed.
Oct 20th

A friend of mine, Richard B. speaks of public transit as if it’ll be ground zero of an inevitable zombie outbreak. Everyday I begin to believe he may be closer to the truth than I want to admit. I find myself taking in more of the gruesome details that I must have blocked out in the past. Or are transiters getting more gruesome on their own? Last week, I watched a man on the subway platform empty his nose into a garbage can using the open air-single nostril technique. This is where you use your index finger to block one nostril as you blow like burning hell through the other one. Effective, but repulsive to witness. Well, this man gave quite the show as he cleared out each nostril, but had to stem the flow of snot as it clung to his nose for dear life. He pinched it with his index finger and thumb. Great technique… no, wait, he didn’t even clean his hands, not even on his coat, Gawd!!!!
A common one these days is the open air cough. Or the no-block hack. It’s a simple way to live, just cough in whatever direction your body is pointing. It’s almost as if the hacker is clearing a path through some imaginary clutter or snow bank. Like they’re picturing each cough to be a burst of flame making their journey that much smoother as they trudge through a charred, but open landscape. Meanwhile, they’re releasing the particles of their sickness into the very air we (I) breathe, setting them on their way towards the light and into my friggin’ lungs, a—–e!
This weekend we picked up the torch on the Hear, Comes The Cavalry (HCTC) sessions. I was happy to see and hear that they were much healthier. Especially as I’m developing an acute case of germaphobia.
Finished Atonement and moved on to reading another depressing book, The Cellist Of Sarajevo. Can’t seem to stop. Stop picking downer books, I mean.
Oct 12th

Serge and co
So much has happened, and yet, nothing really is going on.
K. and I celebrated Thanksgiving by CD shopping at Sonic Boom and The Good Will. At the Good Will I managed to push a gaggle of children out the way to get to the video selection. One of my favourite things to do is resort the videos into appropriate groups. Putting all the Austen Powers films together in chronological order, Disney re-releases of children’s classics according to original box office date. Usually Snow White wins. Star Wars? No brainer. Bruce Willis I like to break down into action and soppy. All ex-wrestler-turned-actor films next to Arnold Schwarzenegger action/ fam-elly kom-eh-dees.
I did score big with Monty Python and The Holy Grail.
The books were another matter. It would take a full day to organize those. On the children’s shelf I found a copy of John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids and something by Stephen King. What the hell are kids reading these days?
After leaving with a new selection of old sweaters we made our way to the CD shop. Oh, the sweet sound like ticker tape of hipsters flipping through rows of used CDs. This was tough to keep to a reasonable purchase. K. helped me maintain some perspective. We had a pile of a dozen or so and then after listening to a couple of them and focusing that discriminating eye we narrowed it down to 3.
The winner was Serge Gainsbourg’s Couleur Cafe. Runner’s up were Johnny Cash American III with that moving version of Nick Cave’s Mercy Seat and a re-mastered version of The Band’s Music From Big Pink. Nothing new, but my backlog of music to have at my finger tips either for reference or purely for enjoyment is extensive. At this rate, I’ll never catch up.
Making karaoke mixes seems to be what October is about. I think people are hosting their own private little karaoke parties. Probably serving those tiny cocktail sausages. Does anyone ever dream in karaoke?
I’m on the last third of reading Atonement. Managed to finish Blindness relatively quickly after I wrestled it from K.’s hands. That is, after she finished reading it. Apparently, I’m only reading books that are thoroughly depressing and have been adapted into equally depressing films.
I’m going to listen to a little more Serge before turning in.
Goodnight.
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