The World’s First Sing-Along Instrumental?

The latest effort from Silver Spring-based duo, Dubble Trubble, in celebration of Zero to 180’s ninth birthday:

Inspired by Mark Cuban‘s recurring catch phrase on TV’s Shark Tank, could this be the world’s first sing-along instrumental?

Check out this 100-second version of “(For Those Reasons) I’m Out” that features drum work by Bob Mitchell (Ferns) and the mixing talents of Rick Mosher (Bachelors of Art).

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“(For Those Reasons) I’m Out“

Dubble Trubble

Click on SoundCloud link

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E X T R A !

December 22, 2022 Update

“(For Those Reasons) I’m Out” was musically reengineered for even broader worldwide appeal in time for Zero to 180’s tenth anniversary.

“(For Those Reasons) I’m Out“

– Soft Power ’22 Mix –

Click on SoundCloud link

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Vocals and lead guitar overdubs recorded Friday, September 24, 2021 at Don Zientara‘s Inner Ear Studio on the last day the renowned Arlington, Virginia sound facility was open to the general public.

Inner Ear Studio

(prior to wrecking ball)

The following week, Dave Grohl‘s Foo Fighters would commandeer Inner Ear for the purposes of making a documentary tribute film, aided in no small part by cinematography firm, Bryan Davis Ltd., who posted this teaser video snippet on their Facebook page along with this blurb:

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D.C. PUNK ROCK ICON | INNER EAR STUDIO | DOC SHORT

– Coming OCTOBER 2021 –

Studio credits = Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Fugazi, White Zombie, Jimmy Eat World, Slickee Boys, S.O.A., Iron Cross, Scream, Black Market Baby, Dag Nasty, Embrace, Shudder to Think, Velocity Girl, Bikini Kill, The Suspects, Holy Rollers, Girls Against Boys, Adam West and many, many more [including Dubble Trubble]!

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For The Record

Final Recording Made at Inner Ear?

Split Decision:

Dubble Trubble’s track is the final Inner Ear recording (albeit, mixed elsewhere).

Debut LP by Hammered Hulls, however, is the final recording to be mixed at Inner Ear

(and last ever vinyl release to come out of Inner Ear’s South Oakland St. location)

Hammered Hulls at Washington, DC’s Black Cat

November 5, 2022

(Blurb below courtesy of Black Cat)

Alec MacKaye – vocals
Mark Cisneros – guitar
Mary Timony – bass
Chris Wilson – drums

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Inner Ear Studio

Extreme Trivia!

Thanks to the public library, Mrs. Zero to 180 recently enjoyed a graphic novel about Kent State by Derf Backderf, a Cleveland-based cartoonist, who began as a political cartoonist for Ohio State University’s Lantern newspaper. Thumbing through the notes in the back of the book (expecting to see references to future members of the band Devo), I learned that a Kent State student had leaned out his 5th floor dorm room and filmed the historic incident on May 4, 1970 with members of the Ohio National Guard on 8 mm film – known as the Strubbe Tape.

In 2007, a cassette copy of the Strubbe Tape was discovered by Alan Canfora in the Yale Collection. The recording was made by Terry Strubbe, “who dangled a microphone out his dorm window and let his reel-to-reel tape deck run for thirty minutes, throughout the whole event.”

But wait — prepare to have your mind blown. The notes inform us that there were two restorations and enhancements of the tape, “The first, by record producer Ian MacKaye, at the behest of Canfora in 2007”!

Ian MacKaye at DC History Conference 2024

with Dody DiSanto and Bob Boilen

As reported by DC City Paper (and virtually no other media at the time) in their May 9, 2007 edition, article by Matthew Borlik:

According to MacKaye, he and Canfora met years ago, when Fugazi performed at a benefit show for Canfora’s Kent May 4 Center in the mid-’90s. “He called me asking for advice, and I offered to take the tape to Inner Ear Studios and give him some thoughts on it,” MacKaye says.

Though Canfora’s recording is bound to ignite some controversy, MacKaye is quick to downplay his own involvement in the events leading up to its release. “I’m just helping out a friend,” he says. MacKaye says he took the recording to the studio and simply adjusted a few EQ levels and attempted to filter out some of the excess noise.

According to several news sources, Canfora is reported as saying he could hear the words “Right here. Get set. Point. Fire,” yelled out in the enhanced clip. For his part, MacKaye isn’t as adamant as Canfora regarding the contents of the recording. “You can hear someone say, ‘Right here.’… You clearly hear a cadence,” he says. “The problem with the ‘Fire’ is that there’s a woman yelling. When I sent it back, I said, “Hey, I don’t think it’s totally evident that you hear a ‘Fire,’ but what you do hear certainly merits a review.”

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Zero to 180 Milestones:  Years 0-8

• Inaugural Zero to 180 post that established a bona fide cross-cultural link between Cincinnati (via James Brown’s music recorded and distributed by King Records) and Kingston, Jamaica (i.e., Prince Buster’s rocksteady salute to Soul Brother Number One).

• 1st anniversary piece that featured an exclusive “Howard Dean” remix of a delightful Sesame Street song about anger management (with a special rant about how WordPress’s peculiarities made me homicidal the moment I launched this blog).

• 2nd anniversary piece that refused to acknowledge the milestone but instead celebrated the under-sung legacy of songwriter/session musician, Joe South – with a link to South’s first 45, a novelty tune that playfully laments Texas’s change in status as the nation’s largest state upon Alaska’s entry into the Union.

• 3rd anniversary piece that revealed the depths to which Zero to 180 will sink in order to foist his own amateur recordings onto an unsuspecting and trusting populace.

• 4th anniversary piece that formalized – as a public service – musical chord changes for an old (and tuneless) “hot potato” playground game called The Wonderball.

• 5th anniversary piece that paid tribute to the Buchanan & Goodman “break-in” records that helped fuel (along with Mad Magazine) this young music fanatic’s appetite for satire.

• 6th anniversary piece that dared to introduce contemporary music product — i.e., dub-inspired pop fusion — in direct violation of Zero to 180’s must-be-20-years-or-older policy.

• 7th anniversary piece that gave the previous year’s submission a good swift kick in the pants.

• 8th anniversary piece that celebrated the musical legacy of Washington’s one-time “favorite folk singer” and beloved drama chair at DC’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Donal Leace.