Wicked Liz and the Bellyswirls deliver an exciting and fun sophmore CD with the release of INABA. Named after a Japanese friend that visits the band occasionally, the music on INABA shows amazing growth in the band's songwriting, particularly in lead singer "Wicked" Liz Townsend, who did most of the songwriting.
A quick look, track by track at INABA:
"She's Spectacular"--Jeff Ignatius, River Cities' Reader
The CD was recorded at River City Studios with Bill Peiffer (most famous as being the Lynn Allen mastermind www.lynnallen.com) ...Bill was great to work with, we worked hard and fast. Thhis was all done in about 3-4 weeks. Bill was awesome at setting a relaxed tone, having a good time and getting the most out of each of the Bellyswirls.
1. SO LONG- Sometime in the Spring of '02 Liz and Leo were goofing around and came up with the verses and choruses, literally each of them trading off writing a line of lyrics. They never really brought it to the band...til they were in the studio! While Bob laid down some bass tracks Greg, Liz and Leo ran up to Leo's house and fleshed this out, came up with a bridge and solo section...45 minutes later they were tracking! Way cool and indicative of the loose energy they seemed to get going with Bill in the studio. The Buddy Holly vocal part was Bill's idea. No wonder people call him the GREATEST MAN TO EVER WALK THE SURFACE OF THE MOON.
2. TINSELTOWN- a cover of the song by Billy Pilgrim, long a staple of our live show, a great take, Peter Criss "Shout It Out Loud"-type drums by Greg at the start....very cool!
3. PSYCHO- Bob had this music for quite a while, sorta Funk bass, couple that with Leo's snappy country guitar...and viola FUNKTRY music is born!!!! Oh yeah, on this track Bob played his official Rudy Sarzo bass, the one with the Japanese flag on it. Anyway, Bob had this riff for quite a while, we tried 2-3 different lyrics....none really sitting well...then Liz had a dating disaster and the rest is history!
4. CRUTCH- "I LOVE THIS SONG!"--Bill Stage, WXLP-FM (97 Rock) This is about when you've heard enough excuses and are ready to make a decision no matter what anyone says....strong Modern-Rock track, during the sessions we noticed a slight similiarity between Liz and Natalie Merchant, and I think this shows some of that. The bridge Liz and Greg threw together at Leo's house while Bob worked on bass parts...they then went back to the studio that same nite and recorded it with So Long...I guess we were on a roll!
5. WASTED DAYS- Alot of time you record and things don't turn out the way you plan, this turned out better than we could have imagined...I think we cut the rhythm section in one pass, cool tom fills and ...well, cool funky drums all around by Greg. Way to go G-spot! Bob is loose and funky, you get a good dose of Liz's character, does she have spunk or what?...and some pretty nice wah-guitar for a Irish kid. Trippy solo...
6. B-Groove- Currently the Bellyswirls fave to play live. We are always stoked at the reaction to this live, people dance almost as if it's a "hit song"! Awesome! Bob gets to flash some very cool bass licks here...I think Bill compressed the bass to the point of slight distortion...very 60's.... yeah! baby yeah! Again great character from Liz ...Leo barely plugged his guitar in, Bill hit the red button and the solo was over.
7 BRING ME AROUND--- Another song we have been playing on and off for quite some time, probably the most tracked guitar song, clean/dirty/electric, acoustic and a 12 string electric. Leo wrote the bulk of this waiting for everyone to get to practice one day, Liz got their first and by the time the boys were there we ready to put it all together. Leo borrowed a 12-string danelectro from Kerry Tucker of Einstein's Sister.
8. WHEN I COME HOME-- Bob found this on a Van Morrison live disc, done by one of his back-up singers...it was accapella...so we created the chords and drums....extremely loose...here the whole band just let it rip...
9 LIZ's SONG--Liz had the lyrics and a melody and Leo had to fit chords under them. We used a Roland JazzChorus amp on this and having never used one, Leo thinks it is the cleanest guitar sound he's ever heard! Liz does the harmonies all over the disc and man, do they sound great!
BONUS TRACK! NO ONE TO BLAME BUT ME-- Liz wrote this, brought it to the band, again we figured out the chords by listening to her melody... Greg plays metal-chair, snare and tambourine w his foot....a very positive song....
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