This past weekend Zen Fuse Box enjoyed some long overdue studio time and worked on our upcoming album of cover tunes! Our last covers album, 2016's Sound Revival, was so fun we decided to do it again! We had a productive weekend, and added overdubs to some previously recorded songs, including Brutal, by Olivia Rodrigo, Donovan's Sunshine Superman, All Day and All of the Night by the Kinks, and I Feel Fine by The Beatles.
We also started work on a few new covers, including Sufjan Stevens' Chicago, Up From the Skies by Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Cash's Cocaine Blues. Maybe the most quirky of the bunch is our mandolin-driven acoustic cover of REM's What's the Frequency, Kenneth? We had a lot of fun recording a group percussion track on Kenneth, which included the Daughters of Zen (who also turned in some fine vocals on Chicago). That percussion track may never see the light of day (or maybe it'll make a brief cameo) but it was fun to do.
During breaks we listened to some of other things we previously recorded, which are in the final mixing stages, including Cars by Gary Numan and Masters of War by Bob Dylan.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend came in the form of the "cover song challenge" that we came up with. The basic premise was that while we were out drinking at a local establishment during the weekend we would cover a surprise song that was playing in the bar while we were there. We had to hammer out the details, but ultimately we agreed while we were waiting for lunch at the Angry Pepper on Madeira Beach, that whatever song was playing at the exact moment our lunch was served would be a mandatory cover tune. We waited nervously as we heard Hotel California come and go, and then some REM songs that would have been fun but we already had an REM in the works. A live version of Rush's YYZ came on, which was a bit of a panic moment, but thankfully that ended just in time. Our fate was determined as our lunch was served, and the song that was playing was In Your Eyes, from Peter Gabriel's 1986 album, So. Did any of us know how to play it? Nope. Did we have to google the chords and lyrics? Yep. Did we record a cover of it? Sure did! And it's looking like it's going to be a highlight of the album!
Stay tuned!
Also we learned by accident that for some reason our 2014 song Junk in the Trunk has been getting semi-regular airplay on WLOY, the Loyola college radio station!