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| Watershed - Hitless Wonder | |
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Scaramouche 07:18 pm UTC 10/29/12 |
| Just finished reading Joe Oestriech's 'Hitless Wonder' (thanks to JSteinfan for the heads up). Great read! Joe's wife Kate seems to have the patience of a saint, and their gofer, roadie, driver, mechanic, manager, Mike 'Biggie' McDermott, is a real character. Now listening to the 'Twister' album with a whole new perspective, and 'Sad Drive' is still a great song. In regards the album... Watershed first came to the attention of Don Ketteler (via a CD promo mail out), who then got Jim involved. They ended up having four managers (Steinman, Ketteler, David Sonenberg & Danny Lawson), and along with their A&R at Epic records (Frankie La Rocka), all seemed to pull in different directions regarding the production. Jim wanted slick pop, much in the vein of Billy Squier's Signs of Life (which is Watershed's favourite Squier album), but Epic were pushing for a live raw punk sound. Jim was only in the studio about once a week. It shows, as nothing on the album really sounds like a Steinman production (to me). Strange, but Steve Rinkoff doesn't get mentioned once, even though he seems to have been the lead producer & engineer, whereas Danny Lawson gets mentioned at lot, but I've never heard of him before or since (regarding production). On the insistence of Danny Lawson, Jeff Bova was paid $5,000 to play a simple piano part (over and over again). The band didn't even like the part and left it buried in the mix (not sure what song). Possibly due to The Spin Doctors second album flopping, Epic seemed to tighten their purse strings and no funds were forthcoming for extensive promo or a video (for 'How Do You Feel'). Promo copies of 'How Do You Feel' were shipped to radio stations without any mention of Jim's involvement, which the band & Jim thought was a mistake. Bearing in mind the release was riding the coattails of Bat 2, I think Jim should have co-written the lead single with the band and/or (totally) produced it. If Epic had then made a big song & dance of this fact, I think the single/album may have stood a chance. | |
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