Posted in Uncategorized on 06/30/2010 05:22 pm by Nelson Pavlosky
Wrong Side of Dawn will be entertaining the lucky people eating and drinking at Shogun at Bey Lea in Toms River on Friday July 9th and Saturday July 10th, 6:30pm-11pm both nights. The show is free! The food and drinks are not, but we promise that they’re worth paying for. We’ll be playing outside on the lovely roofed deck, which should be pleasant no matter what the weather is like. Friday will be an acoustic set with just Brian and Nelson, while Saturday will have more of a full rock band lineup and potentially rock harder
Posted in Uncategorized on 06/22/2010 08:11 pm by Nelson Pavlosky
Since we’re searching for a bass player to play at least a few gigs with us (Andres can’t make it to some of our upcoming gigs), I thought that now is as good a time as any to publish the bass tabs for our album! We have tabbed out every song that has bass on the album except for the opening to Crossing the Bar, which we haven’t figured out yet. The tabs were created using TuxGuitar, which is an open source, cross-platform tabulature editor.
If you think these songs look fun and you have the chops to play them on bass, please e-mail us at band@wrongsideofdawn.com or call us at (732) 503-9763! Our next couple of gigs are in south Jersey by the shore, but we rehearse in central/north Jersey.
Posted in Uncategorized on 03/11/2010 02:53 pm by Nelson Pavlosky
To build up the anticipation for our CD release show on Weds March 17 (less than a week away!), we will be releasing one song from the upcoming Stay Awake album each day on TheSixtyOne, a “music discovery engine.” Please check out Wrong Side of Dawn’s page on T61, and vote up the first song from Stay Awake that we’ve uploaded, Running Scared!
I must admit, one reason we are doing this is because of my curiosity as to whether this is still a popular website. We had a nice experience releasing The Grinder’s Tale 3P on T61 this summer, but since then there has been a massive site overhaul which made the site visually stunning but reduced usability in the eyes of many of its users, resulting in a bit of a user revolt. If our songs can’t get as much attention now as they did this summer… well, the 3 songs on the 3P are almost exactly the same as 3 of the songs on the album! So if you still like TheSixtyOne, vote up our songs to show your continued love
Posted in Uncategorized on 03/07/2010 05:09 am by Nelson Pavlosky
There have been some delays, but Wrong Side of Dawn’s full-length album “Stay Awake” will finally be on sale for the first time on St. Patrick’s Day (Wednesday, March 17th) at the Whiskey Bar in Hoboken.
The Bad Side of Down. That's right, these feathers just don't give a fuck.
Music should start at 9pm; our set should start at 10pm and last for 45 minutes. Cover is $5. Must be 21 to enter. Don’t believe the Whiskey Bar’s online calendar (http://www.whiskey-bar.com/calendar.htm), which currently lists “Bad Side of Down,” our evil twins in an alternate reality, as performing at 10:00. We’re scheduled for that spot. And if we really were a bad side of down, they wouldn’t have booked us.
Come out to grab a pint or two or twelve for St. Paddy’s Day, hear original music, and be one of the first to own the next big album of the millennium! Our consolations to those who will be unable to make it because they are not in the same hemisphere as Hoboken or are under 21. But even if you aren’t in New Jersey/New York, you can still be a part of the event in your own lame little way. As of our set, our album will be available to the world online! Be sure to check back for details when the date gets closer.
But wait, there’s more! Kickin’ the Mustard, featuring Brian’s fellow North Brunswick legends James Hsu, Wayne Karolevich, Megan Algeo, Matt Astel, and Noah Gordon, will be on right after WSoD. This guarantees that the music will never stop! Or maybe it will stop at midnight, as scheduled. Maybe somebody claiming to be “Bad Side of Down” will show up, and a good old Irish bar brawl will ensue. In any case, you don’t want to miss it.
(Did anyone else giggle at the phrase “unable to make it”? I did, just a little.)
Line-up for this show:
Nelson Pavlosky – Rhythm guitar, vocals
Brian Rose – Lead guitar, vocals
Andres Gonzalez – Bass guitar
Eric Serviss – Drums
Steven Stratvert – Piano
Katie Richards – Backing vocals, percussion
Posted in Uncategorized on 02/26/2010 09:19 pm by Nelson Pavlosky
The venue owner just called me to cancel tonight’s gig, because some of the other bands backed out and he didn’t think he’d have enough people to fill the venue. So I am sorry to say that tonight’s show will not be happening. My apologies to our fans and friends around Asbury Park.
The venue owner intends to reschedule the show, so we expect to play a show at The Saint soon!
Posted in Uncategorized on 02/25/2010 08:12 pm by Nelson Pavlosky
Tomorrow, Friday February 25, 2010, Wrong Side of Dawn will be playing a pre-release show at The Saintin Asbury Park, NJ! Our set will begin around 9:15pm, but the music should begin around 8pm, so come and support the other bands too, including Betrayall, Father Divine, The Shock Trials, and Scantily Clad. Tickets are $10 at the door, or $12.55 if you buy tickets online due to “convenience fees.” Sorry, we didn’t make that stupid pricing decision Anyone 18 years or older can attend, so bring your college friends RSVP to the Facebook event if you’re a Facebook-y person.
We are aware that there will be some snow the day of our gig (although it should be dying down by the afternoon), so to entice you to come we will give you this exclusive offer: we will give our new CD to anyone at the show at whatever price they desire! Yes, tonight only at the Saint our CD will be pay-what-you-want I will also be giving out free hugs or high fives to anyone who needs one.
Oh god, I’ve used up my exclamation point and smilie quota for the day, I have to stop writing now! Hope to see you at our show
Notes:Come see Wrong Side of Dawn’s first show with a drummer (Eric from Absence of Silence)! Doors at 8pm, our set should start at around 9:15pm, but you’ll also want to see the other bands including Betrayall, Father Divine, The Shock Trials, and Scantily Clad.
Posted in Uncategorized on 02/06/2010 07:50 pm by Nelson Pavlosky
Several days ago, while our web site was down and we were in the process of moving to a new web host, an ancient blog post was somehow re-posted to our Facebook page, claiming that we were on “indefinite hiatus.” This is definitely not the case, Wrong Side of Dawn has never been more active. In fact, we have booked a show at the Whiskey Bar in Hoboken on March 17 at 10pm. We’ll remind you plenty about that show in the weeks to come, and about other shows and events as we confirm them Do not worry, Wrong Side of Dawn will continue to make great music for you for the foreseeable future.
Posted in Uncategorized on 12/16/2009 01:56 pm by Nelson Pavlosky
On Tuesday, December 29, 2009, Wrong Side of Dawn will be playing its first live show in over three years! We will be the featured artist at an open mike at acoustic venue The Lickety Split in Philadelphia, located at the corner of South St. and 4th St. (401 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147). The musicians actually start playing at the open mike around 9pm, and we’ll probably be playing sometime between 9 and 11, we’ll post an update if we find out our exact set time. We’ll be displaying our softer side, so perhaps you’ll be able to hear all of the nuances to our music that you might miss when we annihilate your eardrums at our louder concerts Please join us! There’s no cover charge, just awesomeness. (This is a 21+ venue, our apologies to our younger fans.)
Posted in Uncategorized on 11/06/2009 11:50 am by Nelson Pavlosky
I’m happy to say that we’ve found a drummer who will be able to fill in at least temporarily, enabling us to book gigs without worrying about whether we’ll have a full lineup to play them. We’re still looking for a drummer who wants to be a more permanent member of the band though, so drummers please e-mail us at band@wrongsideofdawn.com or call me (Nelson) at 703-942-9378 if you’re interested in playing with us!
Posted in Uncategorized on 11/02/2009 10:27 am by Nelson Pavlosky
The lovely and talented Karen Rustad has been with working closely with Wrong Side of Dawn since its formation. Karen was there at our first rehearsals, with just me and Brian before we had any other musicians to work with. Karen has repeatedly lent us her artistic skills, doing an amazing job on the cover art for our old EP and the Grinder’s Tale 3P, and she’s currently working on a draft of the cover art for the upcoming Stay Awake album. She also did all of the graphic design and most of the web design for our beautiful website. [Incidentally, she's currently looking for work. Maybe you could help her out? ]
In addition, Karen is a serious singer and songwriter in her own right, having sung in choirs for many years, contributed her voice to musical groups such as Tryad (you can hear her singing lead vocals on “Beauty” from their album Listen) and written and recorded several wonderful tracks on her home computer. We had good experiences with her contributing vocals and some keyboards to our previous album attempt, so it is no surprise that we brought in Karen again to help us compose and sing the backing vocals on the “Stay Awake” album.
Adapting live vocal harmonies for a studio album
Karen has been performing at open mikes etc. with me since before WSD took its first steps towards recording a studio album. One song that she sang with me was Break Free (which is an ancient song that I originally wrote when I was in high school), and she wrote her own vocal harmony part to accompany me. On our previous attempt at recording this album, Karen simply sang the exact same vocal harmony that she sang when performing as a duo with me. However, this didn’t work quite as well with a full band, because Karen sang what amounted to a vocal solo during the bridge, at the same time as Brian’s guitar solo. Having two “solos” going at once made the song sound a little busy and disorganized, although there were a few nice interactions between Karen’s singing and Brian’s lead guitar.
When we started recording Break Free again at Portrait Studios for “Stay Awake,” I asked Karen to try writing some new harmonies that would be more choral and less busy-sounding, to avoid the problem of it sounding like there were two solos at once. Karen obliged by singing two-part harmonies, using them to create chords rather than an entirely independent melody line. I think the resulting backing vocals step back during the main part of Brian’s guitar solo in the bridge and give him more space, but also sound more impressive in a Cranberries-esque fashion. Naturally this is impossible for Karen to sing live without help, but that’s what’s great about studio albums, they free you from limits such as how many people you can put on stage at once.
Auto-Tune
Another issue that we had to confront frequently when recording with Karen and mixing her parts was when and if to use Auto-Tune. This is not because Karen has bad pitch, she’s probably on key more often than I am. This is because almost all of her vocal parts are harmony parts. Brian and I could get away with being a little loose with pitch when singing by ourselves, but whenever we bust out the vocal harmonies, any sourness in pitch is immediately and painfully obvious. Although some of Karen’s parts came out fine, we ended up having to use Auto-Tune extensively in some passages. One passage in “Out of Time” couldn’t even be saved by Auto-Tune (which says bad things about my ear because it sure sounded in tune to me when she recorded it) and we ended up having to throw out her part in that section. Whenever we discovered that Brian or myself were irreparably out of tune during mixing, we could re-take that section on the spot, but Karen wasn’t around during the mixing process, so it was a case of Auto-Tune or die. If someone is doing a difficult vocal harmony (or something similar) and you can’t get them in the studio again easily to fix any problems, I recommend that you record multiple takes and save them all, just in case there are undiscovered problems with the take that you thought was perfect.
For the record, Brian and I would have preferred to not use Auto-Tune at all on this album. We generally went for a straightforward “live” sound on this album, we didn’t want to sound too heavily processed and suspiciously clean. However, there is a trade-off between the time necessary to re-record a passage and the time required to Auto-Tune it. If you’re perfectionist enough to go and fix every little note by re-recording it, you’ll be spending a lot of time in the studio, and a lot of dough (unless you own the studio). Besides, if you have to do a zillion re-takes for each section to get it right, how much more genuine is that than Auto-Tune? Aren’t you using machines to cover up your shortcomings as a musician either way? The best, most “genuine” and impressive way to avoid Auto-Tune would be to practice until your vocal cords bleed, and then sing the song perfectly, without requiring any re-takes or Auto-Tune. Sadly, we just aren’t that good yet, and reality forced our hand.
Surprise harmonies
The vocal harmonies in the chorus of The Grinder’s Tale (listen around 2:55-3:15) came as something of a surprise to all of us. In one of the last recording sessions, we entered the studio with the vague mission of “add more vocal harmonies to the album” because Mr. Gutkowski (my old Latin teacher and indie rock mentor) had said something about how great vocal harmonies separate the pros from the amateurs, and we had agreed with him wholeheartedly. Brian came up with ideas for a couple harmony parts in his car while driving to the studio, singing along to the rough mixes. Karen had a different idea, however, and that sounded good too. So we figured, why not put all of those harmony parts on the record? Karen went off into another room in the studio alone with my iPod with the broken earbuds singing and re-singing the harmony parts until they gelled, and then we recorded the 4-part harmony together.
Similarly, the harmony during the “oohs” on Last Warning was a last-minute addition (listen around 2:44-3:04). I said something like “Hey Karen, Brian sounds kind of lonely in that part, why don’t you go help him out and add a harmony part?” The toughest part was the last note of the harmony. Karen tried a couple different notes, but nothing sounded right except that 2nd we have on the record. Karen was like, “You really want it to end on that dissonant note?” And we were like, “Yep.” The suspension resolves, sort of, when the rest of the band comes in, but dissonant or not we love it to death.
Karen’s interview
N: Karen Rustad, you’ve just finished recording all of your vocals for the Stay Awake album. How does it feel?
Karen: Uhhhhhheehhhhhhhhh [Karen fakes dying]
N: Speak words, woman.
Karen: Nah, it’s good. I’m glad we got it done in time – barely. I’m happy with the new harmonies we were able to add on, maybe. We’ll see… It’s something different!
N: Alright. And what was your favorite song to record?
Karen: Probably Contained. It was easy. And, sounds good as ever.
N: OK, least favorite?
Karen: Break Free took too long! Ohmigod! I think it’ll sound really cool, but it took *forever*, and I had problems with pitch, until I realized that it’s a lot easier if you only cover one ear.
N: Interesting. So just having one ear outside the headphones…
Karen: Yeah, even though you have a monitor feeding it back to you, for some reason it’s a lot easier if I hear my voice for real, rather than it being broadcast back. A lot easier for me to adjust.
N: OK! And how do you think the album is coming?
Karen: I think it’s coming really good! This is wayyy better-sounding than the previous attempt. And I expect it’s going to be really playable and I hope that it gets lots of interwebs attention
N: Alright, well, thank you
RSVP to the 
I will also be giving out free hugs or high fives to anyone who needs one.
Nah, it’s good. I’m glad we got it done in time – barely. I’m happy with the new harmonies we were able to add on, maybe. We’ll see… It’s something different!