Saturday Night Wrist

Infobox Album | Name = Saturday Night Wrist
Type = Album
Artist = Deftones


Released = October 31, 2006
Recorded = November 2004 - May 2005 and January - April 2006 at the Carriage House in Stanford, California, The Spot in Sacramento, California, The Airport in Burbank, California, The Hangar in Sacramento, California, Morning View House in Malibu, California
Genre = Alternative metal Experimental rock Shoegazing
Length = 51:33
Label = Maverick Records
Producer = Shaun Lopez Bob Ezrin Deftones
Reviews =
*AbsolutePunk.net (94%) [http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=183682 link]
*Allmusic Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0zfyxq9rldje~T1 link]
*The A.V. Club (B+) [http://www.avclub.com/content/node/55222/ link]
*Drowned in Sound rating-10|9 [http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/8044 link]
*Okayplayer Rating|4|5 [http://www.okayplayer.com/reviews/index.php/weblog/more/saturday_night_wrist/ link]
*Revolver Rating|5|5
*"Rolling Stone" Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/deftones/albums/album/12056692/review/12246020/saturday_night_wrist link]
*"The Skinny" Rating|4|5 [http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/37382-deftones-saturday-night-wrist link]
*"Kerrang!" Rating|4|5
Last album = "B-Sides & Rarities" (2005)
This album = "Saturday Night Wrist" (2006)
Next album = "Eros" (2008)/(2009) Singles
Name = Saturday Night Wrist
Type = studio
single 1 = Hole in the Earth
single 2 = Mein
single 1 date = September 12, 2006
single 2 date = March 13, 2007

"Saturday Night Wrist" is the fifth studio album from the Sacramento, California-based band Deftones. The album was released on Maverick Records on October 31, 2006.According to singer Chino Moreno, the record's title is a reference to nerve damage caused when an intoxicated person falls asleep on their arm (Radial neuropathy). The other meaning is "when you're alone on Saturday nights and your only best friend is your shaking wrist......". [Snelling N, "Deftones" "Beat Magazine" (Australia) Issue 1051, 14 February 2007 at p.28.]

History

In early 2004, Maverick Records told Deftones they needed to head into the studio due to the, in their opinion, lackluster sales of Deftones' self titled effort. The band started spinning around ideas for a new album at their studio, The Spot in Sacramento, California. On April 30, 2004 they announced that they would be relocating to Malibu, California, to continue writing the album at the "Morning View Studios", which was made famous for being the place Incubus recorded their 2001 album of the same name. The band spent most of the summer there and came out with an album's worth of material which Chino described as "straight evil music."

They then decided it was time to pick a producer and start recording the album. They initially considered enlisting Ken Andrews of Failure and Ric Ocasek of The Cars, to no avail. After that, they worked with Dan The Automator for about a week. This excited guitarist Stephen Carpenter, as when they worked with Dan The Automator, they seemed to be pursuing the "more technical", math metal based elements of the band's sound. After some deliberation, however, Chino Moreno and Abe Cunningham successfully pushed towards Pink Floyd producer Bob Ezrin and would have Brian Virtue engineer.

They then took a short break before planning a month long tour with Dredg and C-Minus to road test some material starting in San Francisco, California, and ending in Hartford, Connecticut, near where producer Bob Ezrin's studio was located. Recording of the album began in November, 2004. During the recording, tensions mounted within the band and between singer Moreno and producer Ezrin. Chino eventually jumped ship to continue work on his side project Team Sleep while the rest of the band continued recording. The Ezrin sessions concluded before Christmas and the band relocated back to their homebase in Sacramento to take a break.

In early 2005, the band started tweaking the Ezrin material at their studio The Spot with Brian Virtue and wrote several new songs in the process. Singer Chino Moreno decided to take a break from recording in the Spring to tour with his band, Team Sleep, who were also releasing their long awaited debut album. Moreno says this was good for him, as he was somewhat unable to focus on the recording sessions due to his speed and alcohol addictions, as well as the dissolution of his longtime marriage to his now ex-wife, Celeste.

The rest of the band, while anxious to finish the album, decided that it would be best to take a much needed break and take their mind off the music for a while. During this hiatus, the band released a 10 year anniversary CD/DVD entitled "B-Sides & Rarities" on October 4, 2005 which included one of the songs from the Virtue sessions, a Cocteau Twins cover titled "Wax And Wane." In late 2005, Moreno met with longtime Deftones producer Terry Date to help record vocals for some of the remaining tracks. The band also managed to record a quick cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" for Amnesty International as well as an iTunes exclusive cover of The Cars' "Drive".

In interviews since the album's release, vocalist/guitarist Chino Moreno has talked about the lyrical subject matter of some of the songs. Moreno says "Kimdracula" was part of his email address at the beginning of making the record during his heavy drug use phase. "Beware" is a warning to others about sex, drugs, and drinking, which were the three main problems he encountered during the making of the record. "Rivière" is a story he wrote about a witch during his heavy drug use phase. "Cherry Waves" is about testing the trust you have in someone else. "Rapture" is about the overall confusion he went through making the record. "Hole in the Earth" is about the communication issues between the band during the making of the record, in which Chino and the rest of the band were very divided.

In early 2006, all previously recorded vocals were scrapped and the band started working on the album again with longtime friend Shaun Lopez of Far and The Revolution Smile fame acting as producer. The album was then mixed by Ryan Williams. "Saturday Night Wrist" was released on October 31, 2006, having been leaked onto the Internet on October 13, 2006, over two weeks prior to its release.

The first single to be released was "Hole in the Earth". The single hit radio on October 16, 2006.

In interviews since the album's release, guitarist Stephen Carpenter has said that a significant portion of certain songs on the album were based around ideas from Chino Moreno, and said that "Pink Cellphone", minus Annie Hardy's vocals, is all Chino. This is reflected in that Moreno plays second guitar on many of the songs. The known songs he plays second guitar on are "Hole in the Earth", "Beware", "Cherry Waves", "U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,Select,Start", "Xerces", and "Rivière". However, Moreno has stated that "Rats!Rats!Rats!" is "all Stephen," and it is confirmed that Stephen wrote/plays all guitar parts on "Rapture", "Rats!Rats!Rats!", and "Kimdracula", but also plays guitar and wrote guitar parts on all songs except on "U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,Select,Start", where he plays drums and Chino plays the only guitar parts of the song. Carpenter attributes some of his lack of input to the album to his online golf obsession during the creation of the CD. He would record his ideas, and leave the rest of the band to toil with them for long time periods while he played golf online. The song "Rats!Rats!Rats!" has Abe Cunningham doing a blastbeat drum part more commonly found in death metal during the song's bridge.

A collection of sixteen demos from the Ezrin sessions has become available online; it contains rough vocal mixes of "Cherry Waves" and "Combat" as well as an instrumental version of what would become "Finger of Death" and some instrumentals recorded by the band without Chino that did not make the track list of the final album.

The writing recording process of "Saturday Night Wrist" was fraught, and placed strain on the relationships within the band. Moreno stated that making it was "a seriously unhealthy experience", and that it "dragged on without much direction". Following its creation, after leaving to work on Team Sleep, he stated that he "wasn't sure if [he] was going to return". ["Albums for 2008: Deftones". "Kerrang!" issue 1191, January 5, 2008. p. 47.]

Upon the album's release, the iTunes version included a cover of The Cars classic track "Drive" that features producer Shaun Lopez, as well as a prominent sample of Massive Attack's track "Protection" off of their album of the same name.

Reception

As of January 22, 2008, according to Metacritic, the album has received an average critic score of 72%, based on 18 reviews. [ [http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/deftones/saturdaynightwrist Deftones: Saturday Night Wrist (2006): Reviews - Metacritic] ]

Thom Jurek of Allmusic writes "...these songs, as diverse as they are, are utterly disciplined sonically. They have all the tension and dynamic, all the immediacy of yore, but the mix is spacious, and Chino Moreno's vocals soar above it." [ [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:7aq7g44ftvoz Saturday Night Wrist Review - allmusic] ]

Track listing

All songs written by Deftones, except where noted.
# "Hole in the Earth" – 4:09
# "Rapture" – 3:25
# "Beware" – 6:00
# "Cherry Waves" – 5:17
# "Mein" (featuring Serj Tankian) (Deftones/Serj Tankian/Shaun Lopez) – 3:59
# "U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,Select,Start" – 4:12
# "Xerces" – 3:42
# "Rats!Rats!Rats!" – 4:00
# "Pink Cellphone" (featuring Annie Hardy) (Deftones/Annie Hardy) – 5:04
#* The "clean version" runs to 3:54 and excludes the monologue at the song's end containing potentially offensive language/controversial themes involving fellatio and anal sex. This edit of the song is available on the "clean version" of the album.
# "Combat" – 4:46
# "Kimdracula" – 3:15
# "Rivière" – 3:45;Bonus tracks
* "Drive" (Ric Ocasek) – 4:50 (iTunes Bonus Track) (The Cars cover, performed with Shaun Lopez)

Credits

*Abe Cunningham - drums
*Chi Cheng - Bass, backing vocals
*Chino Moreno - Vocals, Guitars
*Frank Delgado - Keys, Sampler
*Stephen Carpenter - guitars
*Produced by Bob Ezrin and Deftones
*Vocals produced and additional production by Shaun Lopez
*Recorded and engineered by Brian Virtue And Brian Humphrey
*Drums on "Beware" recorded by Joe Johnston
*Assisted by Robert "Flossy" Cheek at The Spot, Sacramento, CA & The Hangar, Sacramento, CA
*Pro Tools Engineer: Ryan Gorman
*Recorded at the Carriage House, Stamford, CT; The Spot, Sacramento, CA; The Airport, Burbank, CA; The Hangar, Sacramento, CA; Morning View House, Malibu, CA
*Mixed by Ryan Williams
*Mixed at Pulse Recordings, Los Angeles, CA & Westlake Studios, Los Angeles, CA
*Assistant Mix Engineer at Westlake Studios: Brian Warwick
*Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk, New York, NY
*Additional vocals on "Mein" by Serj Tankian
*Additional vocals on "Pink Cellphone": Annie Hardy
*A&R: Kevin Williams and Guy Oseary
*Worldwide management: Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group
*North American booking: Jenna Adler for Creative Artists Agency
*South American booking: Marlene Tsuchii for Creative Arists Agency
*International booking: Mike Dewdney for ITB
*Legal representation: Mouthpiece for Maffgel, LLP
*Business management: David Weise/Sue Davidian at David Weise & Associates, Inc.
*Creative direction & design: Frank Maddocks
*Photography: Lego
*Images from the motion picture Roxana courtesy of Retro-Seduction Cinema

Chart positions

Album

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Awards

*Named #11 best album of 2006 in Sputnikmusic's staff "Best of 2006" list.

Trivia

The song U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,Start,Select is a reference to the famous Konami Code

External links

* [http://www.deftones.com http://www.deftones.com]
* [http://www.myspace.com/deftones http://www.myspace.com/deftones]
* [http://www.deftonesworld.com http://www.deftonesworld.com]

References