"we're a band again, but I refuse to write/record in the studio with those guys" - C/D, S/D

The Strokes and Blink 182 are the latest examples of this. I think it's kinda bullshit, but wonder what others think.

i don't think that's really true of Blink's latest album

Yeah, I thought the Blink dudes reconciled after Travis' plane crash.

"reconciled"

They kinda did but one of'em won't be in the studio w the others

they supposedly shot a doc about the making of the album so it'd be pretty easy to settle this argument if one of us bothered to watch it

It doesn't sound like the recipe for a good record. The Strokes were a lot better with Julian Casablancas writing all the songs.

Well, wiki says Raymond is correct (the horrible wording and structure is wiki's):

The album was recorded at both DeLonge's studio in San Diego and in Los Angeles by Hoppus and Barker.[24] Recording in separate studios was DeLonge's idea, and ideas were exchanged via e-mail. Various engineers met up in person to trade files on hard drives.

I mean, if one band member had bubonic plague I can understand

I like that DeLonge couldn't even show up to record himself, he just sent his idea to do the dirty work.

Pixies?

i didn't know the strokes ever split.

they didn't, but their last album was after a long hiatus and a lot of the press focused on the fact that they didn't work on it together in person much at all

or i guess just the singer recorded his stuff separately

I was just reading this really interesting article in the New Yorker that seemed to explain a lot regarding quality of albums when in comes to the social interaction. Check out the sections on musical collaboration and the part about working collaboratively when you're far apart from the people you're working with.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lehrer?currentPage=all

lol there was a doc on the making the new blink 182 album?

is it called "Pro Tools"?
http://www.clashmusic.com/files/imagecache/big_node_view/files/blink-182_11.jpg

Ha, professional tools.

A lot of people point to the decision to stop touring (and, in turn, spend every waking moment together) as the end of the Beatles. Certainly the Stones have been in this hate-stasis for a few decades now.

seemingly EVERY major label rock band still standing has made a documentary in the past couple years -- i'm sure it was like a bonus DVD and not something shown at festivals

did DLR and the Van Halens work on the new album in the same room much or is the dressing room seperation just a tour thing?

even though friendship/social compatibility has always been a huge priority for me whenever playing in a band or making music w/ anyone, i kind of feel like people have an overly romanticized ideal about how interpersonal chemistry effects the music people make together, and whether people who keep working together after they cease being best buds are 'in it for the money' or whatever. there's no one-size-fits-all formula for the conditions that make good music, and if you've ever accomplished something professionally and/or creatively with someone you're not BFFs with then it's hypocritical to hold people in bands to a different standard.

if you've ever accomplished something professionally and/or creatively with someone you're not BFFs with then it's hypocritical to hold people in bands to a different standard.

that article i linked to above suggests that you shouldnt be BFFs for optimal results.

i think you missed the actual thesis of the article:

The fatal misconception behind brainstorming is that there is a particular script we should all follow in group interactions.

But it also says:

The best Broadway shows were produced by networks with an intermediate level of social intimacy [Q]. The ideal level of Q—which Uzzi and his colleague Jarrett Spiro called the “bliss point”—emerged as being between 2.4 and 2.6. A show produced by a team whose Q was within this range was three times more likely to be a commercial success than a musical produced by a team with a score below 1.4 or above 3.2. It was also three times more likely to be lauded by the critics. “The best Broadway teams, by far, were those with a mix of relationships,” Uzzi says. “These teams had some old friends, but they also had newbies. This mixture meant that the artists could interact efficiently—they had a familiar structure to fall back on—but they also managed to incorporate some new ideas. They were comfortable with each other, but they weren’t too comfortable.”

well, i think there's a very notable difference between things like Broadway shows or a television series that kind of by definition must be made by whole sets of interlocking teams of people with different skill sets, and a record, which can be and often is pretty much entirely made by 4-5 people or less.

I think there is a span between not being best friends forever and not being able to play together within a studio at the same time and place though.

Then again, it's Blink 182 and not Weather Report, so it's not like they are going to bust into some part that will expand based on the player's interaction or something. So much of that modern rock is just as microprocessed to the nth click and or copied and pasted, it's not like there is any real interaction between the musicians anyway. Not that doing it that way necessarily makes it bad music, but the spontaneous part of the equation is nigh on gone.

Then again, what would Weather Report have sounded like if they had all lived in the same house?

pretty much like Enema of the State

Sun Ra & the Arkestra probably comes close for everyone in the same house kind of situation at least at points.

archtype living-in-a-house-together album
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RxSMS8HbzRo/TueuAdIrsHI/AAAAAAAATQ8/OmWpAvtTjl4/s1600/Captain%2BBeefheart%2B%2526%2BThe%2BMagic%2BBand.jpg

Drummer lives in the basement, I see.

(I know, I know...)