Digital Remixes of Recordings by Bill Kern & Barry Knoedl recorded between 1978 - 1982.
By the end of 1978, Bill Kern & Barry Knoedl had settled into a steady routine of writing new songs and recording them. From the end of July, 1980, to the beginning of September, 1981, they recorded all the songs from this volume, plus the second of the two Badbeats singles, the Jimi Lalumia & The Psychotic Frogs album (coming soon), The New Youth Front single (unreleased), as well as several other artists being considered for releases. It is also during this time period that work began on "Hound Dog / You Ain't No Friend Of Mine," the experimental piece, which was later released as a 12 inch vinyl single under Bill Kern's name.
Although Ralph Mori was still not a full-time fixture in the studio for this entire period, he was present for the basic tracks of several of these songs, and he was involved of most of the over-dub sessions.
Up till this point, Bill & Barry were limited to the instruments available to them; Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Drums, Electric Bass, Acoustic and Electric Pianos. One of the songs on this album ("Come Back (fast version)") has a solo on a Moog synthesizer. This was their first use of any kind of synthesizer.
In 1980, KNO studio got a new home. Barry built a nice facility in the basement of his house, and this would remain the home of KNO Studio until 1994. "Why (I Don't Know)" was the last recording begun in the old studio (although this track was not completed until June, 2013 in Texas, with a great guitar solo by Kelly Perkins).
It is also during this time that Bill & Barry began using more outside musicians to vary their sound. Aside from Ray Knoedl (Barry's brother), who had been providing lead guitar for Bill & Barry from the beginning, they invited Jimmy Yaeger a very talented keyboard player who had the most up to date keyboards, including a Melotron and an Oberheim polyphonic synthesizer, and Thorne Ventura an inspired guitarist, who always seemed to know just what a track needed. They even invited an entire band to play the backing tracks for "Sure Thing" and "Cashing In" just to achieve a different feel.
"Beautiful Day," one of two co-compositions on this album, was not really intended to be a co-composition. In fact it wasn't originally called "Beautiful Day." It was called "Some Boys," and it was intended for Fran Parker. Bill & Barry began recording it with Thorne Ventura before the lyrics were completed, and for some reason the song was forgotten when they wrote several other strong songs for Fran. When the tracks were being transferred to digital, this song was discovered with all the instruments complete, but no vocal, and no lyrics - in fact - no melody. Barry wrote a new song over the top of this recording, and this is the newest of all Kern - Knoedl compositions, and the longest to complete recording. Recording began May 4, 1981, and the last vocal was recorded June 20, 2013.
Murder Mystery is simultaneously enigmatic and disturbing. Bill wrote it in 1981. There is a twisted irony to the fact that Bill would write such a tongue in cheek spoof on unsolved murders, and then become a victim himself of an unsolved murder almost 25 years later.
We are proud to present the second volume of remastered and remixed recordings by Bill Kern and Barry Knoedl. - HEARTACHE
CD
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Also available for digital download and streaming at iTunes • Amazon Music • Spotify • and all digital platforms
Produced by
Barry Knoedl & Bill Kern
Recorded & Mixed at Kno Studio, Patchogue, NY; Medford, NY; Tyler TX
Engineers
Barry Knoedl
Ralph Mori
Additional Musicians
Ray Knoedl
Thorne Ventura
Jimmy Yaeger
Kelly Perkins
Fran Parker
Bobby D'Ambrosio
Michael D'Ambrosio
