The standard format for any blog post recapping the musical guests from Saturday Night Live is to say how bad the mixing was and that the sketches were awful, and certainly Seth Rogen’s rough time playing any character that isn’t largely just like Seth Rogen and one of my least favorite tracks from The Lonely Island’s Incredibad serving as the bed for the digital short didn’t help the comedy situation. But the sound on the two and a half Phoenix appearances weren’t too bad. Add Bill Hader’s Gizmo impression and a half-funny Muppet-themed sketch and that’s almost something, right? Phoenix’s full-length performances (and, as a bonus, the Muppet bus clip) are after the cut.
“1901″:
“Liztomania”:
Saturday Night Live, “Muppet Bus”:
Saturday Night Live [Official site]
yeah, the vocals and some other tracks were definitely prerecorded. not that it’s a big deal - if it were my band i’d rather do that than risk sounding like complete garbage in our biggest american TV appearance ever.
I mean, I really LIKE Phoenix, don’t get me wrong - but there’s something terribly wrong with the visual of that drummer flailing away while the only drum sound coming out is a canned, sampled perfect snare hit every time (with no variances whatsoever in attack or tone). Cymbals swaying in the breeze, he’s mashing the hat but all you hear is “tap-tap-tap-TAP…”
@katesilver: My favorite awkward hug-and-wave closing-credits moment was the Kanye episode from last fall. Dude just walks right off the set while the camera’s still rolling.
@tigerpop: For a classic one, look for the Replacements episode of SNL - no one seemed to want to touch them with a ten-foot pole, and they just ended up doing some shenanigans in the background while the hug-and-wave carried on without them.
Had to be prerecorded vocals. Decent miming job by the lead singer though.
Was anyone else as surprised that Phoenix got the SNL gig as I was? I sat down to watch and they announced the musical guest and I was like, Really?! I mean, I’m happy for them, and Dan’s right, they performed well. But I was sort of gobsmacked.
It’s not like SNL hasn’t had left-field/indie acts before, but usually there’s some massive buzz somewhere. It’s not like Animal Collective has been on, and the Shins were on after, like, three albums. And these guys just show up? I’d love to know who in their camp is BFFs with Marci Klein or Lorne or whoever.
Hey, I really like “Like a Boss”.. maybe that’s because I currently work in an office. That being said, the video they made was hella weak. Andy’s lip-synching was off, some of the visuals weren’t funny at all, and there was a weird discrepancy between the pre-recorded track and the re-recorded bits with Seth Rogen.
@Chris Molanphy: I was surprised, but happy! It’s nice to see a band who isn’t “hit single of the week” or “highly touted indie” get some show time. I wonder if Lady GaGa will show up before the season’s over.
I didn’t expect a band like Phoenix to use pre-recorded anything, but so it goes. Ted Leo (via twitter) didn’t, either.
@Chris Molanphy: i bet it’s the coppola factor. or just really catchy (if wordy and french-accented) songs. but yeah, i was super-surprised as well, esp. given that their album isn’t even out until may.
@Varina: ted leo’s reaction was pretty priceless
@thearcanemodel: agreed, probably the coppola factor had a lot to do with it — but as for the timing, i think it had something to do with their tour routing plans, if i’m extrapolating info correctly from their twitter.
Obviously no musicians commenting here.
1) Phoenix has a “vocal sound”. He sang to a double track of himself singing in the verses of “Lisztomania” to create that sound. notice it goes away during the choruses and comes back in the vocals. He’s still performing it. It isn’t a pre-recorded lip sync.
2) Phoenix has a “drum sound”. The drummer absolutely played every hit. What you are hearing is samples that are triggered off of each hit that come through the mix. He is still performing it. There isn’t a pre-recorded drum sync track playing.
Thank you.
@the rich girls are weeping: The fact that SNL will be going on summer hiatus pretty soon also probably has something to do with it - they’d probably rather get the exposure before the record comes out than not have it at all, keeping in mind that some good feedback from this might lead to radio airplay of the single and perhaps even some sales (remember those?) once the music becomes available.
I found the backing tracks a little distracting in the verses during the first song, but overall I don’t mind them if it means avoiding completely unlistenable performances that sound nothing like the record. Also, Thomas Mars (Phoenix’s singer) is looking more and more like Bobby Gillespie these days, isn’t he?
I would like to argue that playing triggered drum samples to a click track (so that the band can sync up with the pre-recorded vocal track, on SNL) is EXACTLY the kind of thing that would get insert-whichever-pop-singer-here completely eviscerated by the indie blog-o-verse. Not to mention that this renders the presence of a drum kit mere facade, as they’re not actually functional instruments at this point (coulda just used V-drums or some empty coffee cans and not jerked me off with the illusion of hitting resonating drum heads like an actual, you know, drummer).
But if I am understanding the rules correctly, Phoenix gets a pass on this NOT because of indie rock double standard and favoritism, but because “that’s their sound?”
Weak sauce. Just mime the whole record so it sounds exactly perfect, why dontcha? No point in performing, or anything. Play everything exactly the same tempo every night so that the precious vocal track syncs up, knowing every night is going to be exactly the same set, every song will be exactly the same perfect length every night with no variance… It just seems to cross some threshold where there’s more emphasis on replicating an album than there is, you know, playing live music.
“Too Young” is one of my faves! So cool they performed it.
I do wish we would do away with the lipsyncing double standards. It’s either OK or it’s not, no exceptions because of the artist’s genre. I am leaning towards that it’s fine, whatever’s necessary.
But people who normally brave live performance on TV as such should at least get some credit for that. Maybe they should put warning labels on not-fully-live performances, just a quick flash: “Warning: Enhanced for television, not entirely representative of live performance. For promotional purposes only.”
I don’t care in general (unless it’s an artist I don’t like, trust or respect), but no one likes to feel tricked.
The sound was TOO good, and at the time I turned to my girlfriend and exclaimed “nice pre-recorded drum and vocal tracks!”
The bonus is welcome (I love that song). I’d rather watch a band than the awkward hug & wave — if I make it to the credits.
@ortholomeux:
you would appear to be correct. i went to ted leo’s twitter to read his response(s….he appeared to be apologetic yet conflicted about it for some time!). there’s an exchange on there with a similarly-worked up kid (caseymorell) who straight up asked phoenix about it. apparently they copped to using two vocal tracks to get an echo effect. but w/e…still a treat.
for the record, i am not usually a twitter-stalker (or even a tweet-reader…? ew.). can you tell that my cold medicine is keeping me up tonight?
I’ve seen the snl episode in question twice, during its original air date and last weekend’s rerun. I fast-forwarded through Phoenix the first time, but found them very enjoyable this time around.
I came across this discussion while researching the singer’s vocals. (googled “phoenix vocal sound.) I am a singer and have worked with studio effects for a few years now, and I have to disagree with the posting above about using playback. What’s going on during the performance is: live vocals go into an effects processor and the machine (or computer) doubles it with a slight variation on the timing and possibly pitch of the original. This allows the band the possibility to improvise while still reproducing the sound of the record. As for the drummer: he is using a minimalist approach at the beginning of the song that may look like he is only playing the one drum. Although they possible use a click track to keep the general tempo of the song, the drummer is still keeping the time for the entire show. During the choruses he plays what most non-drummers identify with as “real” drumming by riding the hi-hats in combination to the earlier kick/snare combination.
I hope this doesn’t read as snobby, just a music geek trying to share.
So, some of these self- described musician guys commenting must just be thinly-veiled Phoenix homers, because my eyes and ears tell me they used prerecorded guide vocals. It’s pretty obvious if you watch the vocalist, but for anyone still on the fence:
Listen to the difference between the verses and choruses in “1901.” He sang the verses unaccompanied, and he sang with a guide track for the choruses. Pay close attention at 2 min 23 sec or so, when the singer goes flat and backs off in volume at the same time, yet the guide track keeps trundling along at the same volume and on pitch, in all their compressed glory. No live vocal processing can do that.
The drums could have been outfitted with MIDI triggers, but the timing sounds suspiciously perfect. I remember watching this live and thinking the vocals weren’t the only things they canned, but I can’t verify this because my crappy internet connection can’t handle the videos.