To paraphrase an early progenitor of U.K. DIY, the Desperate Bicycles sang, in one of their most popular songs—which cost nearly nothing to record and release―“It was easy, it was cheap, now go and do it!” These days anyone with enough ingenuity can record a great record with very limited means. A GarageBand-equipped laptop and a few good ideas can go a long way. Here are five records made on the cheap that shook things up when they were released. They prove that you don’t necessarily need an astronomical recording budget to sound like a million bucks!
Bruce Springsteen Nebraska – In 1982 The Boss sat down with a 4-track to sketch out some demos for the next E-Street Band record. On the heels of massive success in the ’70s and with a trademark sound already cemented, Springsteen threw caution to the wind and released his most adventurous record to date. Sparse songs played with just guitar, minimal harmonica, and haunting vocals, Springsteen’s high concept record about economic hardship and depression is considered by many to be his best work. The album was later recorded with the full E-Street Band lineup, but those sessions are now the stuff of fan folklore as they have yet to surface as an official release.
Here’s “Atlantic City” from Nebraska:
Nirvana Bleach – Before grunge broke with Nirvana’s epochal Nevermind album, Kurt & co. were a struggling punk band on a small indie label out of the Pacific Northwest. The band went into the studio with producer Jack Endino on a shoestring budget and cranked out hallmark tunes like “About a Boy,” “Love Buzz,” “Negative Creep,” and “Floyd The Barber.” Recorded—as the liner notes suggest—for a total of $606.17, the album has to date sold in excess of four million copies. Talk about a return on investment!
Check out Nirvana performing “Negative Creep” live at Rhino Records in 1989 with the short-lived four-piece lineup:
Beck Mellow Gold – In 1994 you couldn’t turn on the radio or MTV without hearing Beck’s accidental hit single “Loser” from his breakthrough album Mellow Gold. With a handful of DIY tapes and an LP on the indie label Kill Rock Stars, Beck was already well known in the underground, but nobody really saw him coming, and in his wake he left a lot of fans―and penniless musicians―that much wiser to the possibilities of DIY. Much of Mellow Gold was recorded at home on a 4-track with no budget to speak of. “Loser” was a demo recording! The album opened a lot of doors for Beck, who today is an A-list name with a clutch of gold records under his belt.
Here’s an interview about the recording of the record:
Times New Viking Present The Paisley Reich – Ohio has a long history of low-fi and no-fi rockers. Mike Rep and the Quotas, New Bomb Turks, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, and Guided By Voices from Dayton are a few names that come to mind. Add Times New Viking to that list. The band’s two albums, released on the recently resurrected Siltbreeze label, sound like perfect pop songs recorded on a boombox. Mastering by low-fi Columbus legend Mike Rep adds the perfect amount of blownoutedness. Look out for a new album that just dropped on Matador.
Check out a clip of the band performing at this year’s SXSW:
Jay Reatard Blood Visions – Another recent addition to the canon of no-budget records, Blood Visions sent shockwaves through the underground upon release in 2006. After a decade touring under various guises and with a half dozen or so bands, Memphis’s Jay Reatard released this decade’s answer to the Wipers’ Is This Real. A famously DIY home-recording ethic pays off with Blood Visions’ searing love songs. After relentless touring and a grip of home-recorded singles, Reatard is a critics’ favorite with upcoming releases due out on Matador and Vice later this year. Not much has changed about how the records are recorded―they’re still blown out with VU meters in the red, just like they always have.
Here’s Jay covering the Go-Betweens’ “Don’t Let Him Come Back” live at the Goner Records store: