Hell Below/Stars Above

In 1994, the Toadies released their debut album Rubberneck. Propelled by the hit single "Possum Kingdom" and the band's relentless touring schedules, the album was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1996.[3] Touring for the album wrapped up in September 1996, after which the band fired lead guitarist Darrel Herbert, who no longer wanted to tour.[2][4][5][6] After auditioning several guitarists in late 1996, the band settled on Clark Vogeler of the alternative rock band Funland, which had broken up earlier in June.[2][7]

After writing and rehearsing new material throughout 1997, the Toadies recorded a new album, later known as Feeler, in Austin, Texas with producer Paul Leary (of the Butthole Surfers) between January and April 1998.[8][9] The band recorded 14 songs for the album, which was envisioned as an attempt to make "a more mature record" than Rubberneck.[8][9] Dissatisfied with the album's material, the Toadies' record label, Interscope Records, forced the band to make adjustments to Feeler; this protracted its recording process, and the band missed their scheduled time to have the album mixed by Andy Wallace as a result.[8] Whilst waiting for someone to mix the album, the Toadies wrote and/or included five more songs for consideration on the album, and its release date was moved back from late summer of 1998 to around early 1999.[10][11] Ultimately, the band ended up handing Feeler over to Interscope in an unmixed and unmastered state; the label then withheld the album from release, unhappy with its perceived change in sound.[12][2]

After the album's rejection, the Toadies decided to scrap Feeler entirely, feeling unhappy with its "mechanical" production.[12] The band then went on a month-long hiatus after facing writers' block and rumours that they were going to have a sophomore slump, with the band's frontman Vaden Todd Lewis going into a self-imposed exile.[2][12] Todd Lewis eventually decided to get the band back together again, and they began playing some local shows.[9] The Toadies would begin to face numerous difficulties during this time, financially and legally; the band's former manager, Tom Bunch (who was fired in December 1998) and Darrel Herbert jointly sued the band in 1999 after claiming continued royalties and unpaid management fees; the lawsuits would be settled in June 2001.[2][12][13] The band were also nearly dropped by Interscope following the merger of Interscope's parent company, Universal Music Group, with PolyGram in December 1998;[14] many Texan acts, including The Reverend Horton Heat and Tripping Daisy, were dropped from their labels during the merger, and the Toadies' perceived inactivity left their future at Interscope uncertain.[15] The band was able to stay on the label, as the person who was supposed to drop the band was fired during the merger,[16] and because Todd Lewis was able to convince Interscope's new president, Tom Whalley, to keep them on the label.[12]

Whilst Todd Lewis was still living in Austin, the rest of the Toadies began writing new material together in Dallas.[12] After hearing and being impressed by the band's demos, which consisted of early versions of "Motivational" and "You'll Come Down" (along with an unreleased song, "Trust Game"), Todd Lewis started writing songs collaboratively with the rest of the band; this marked a change from the band's prior output, which was solely written by Todd Lewis.[12] Todd Lewis and Mark Reznicek described the songwriting process of Hell Below/Stars Above as "finishing each other's sentences", with Todd Lewis presenting an idea that the rest of the band would flesh out.[12] "We'd had enough time together as a band--me and Mark and Lisa--to start vibing that way, and kind of feeding off each other."[12] Despite Clark Vogeler being the band's newest member, he quickly became an equal part in the song writing process.[12] Writing and demoing of new material continued until days before the Toadies headed out to Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California to begin recording the album in January 2000.[9][12] The new approach to songwriting proved to be extremely productive for the band; by January 2000, they had been able to write 40 brand new songs.[9]

Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California, where the band recorded Hell Below/Stars Above

After initially being scheduled to start recording in November 1999, the band entered Sunset Sound Recorders on January 3, 2000.[12] The studio, which Clark Vogeler referred to as "a classic studio", had been used by many influential rock acts from the 1970s such as the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and its history became an influence on the overall sound of Hell Below/Stars Above, which Todd Lewis described as "a little grander sounding, [and] a little more '70s, I guess."[17][18] The band opted to work again with Rubberneck producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf again, favouring their "full" production style.[12] The band aimed for a sound that was "a little bit more live, [and] not quite so mechanical" as the Pro-Tools produced Feeler sessions;[15] in order to achieve this sound, the album was recorded onto two-inch analog tape.[17] Three songs from the Feeler sessions, "Push the Hand", "Doll Skin” and "Best of Three" (retitled "What We Have We Steal"), were recovered and re-recorded for the album, while two other songs, “Joey Let’s Go” and “Waterfall” were also re-recorded but did not make the final album.[18]

The recording sessions for Hell Below/Stars Above were sometimes difficult and stop-start; notably, recording was halted for two weeks when the album was nearly complete after Interscope told the band that the album's budget still needed to be approved.[19] Furthermore, the band, still in financial difficulties as a result of not doing a major tour for several years, relied on royalties coming from Rubberneck to keep them afloat; Todd Lewis called "Possum Kingdom", which was still receiving somewhat regular radio rotation several years after its release, the "pay-the-rent" song for the band.[2][12][20] In order to make up for the lack of touring money, Lisa Umbarger took on a part-time role working for Starbucks, and Clark Vogeler reluctantly had to borrow money from his girlfriend for basic necessities such as toilet paper and food.[2] Recording was completed on March 18, 2000, and the album was mixed by Andy Wallace in April and mastered by Howie Weinberg in May of that year.[12]

Genre-wise, Hell Below/Stars Above has described by critics as alternative rock,[21] hard rock,[22] post-grunge[22][23] and grunge.[24] Some critics also described the album as punk rock,[25][26] heavy metal[22] and rock n' roll.[27] While mostly consisting of heavy rock songs, several tracks feature a more emotional, softer-sound, including "Pressed Against the Sky" and "Doll Skin". Todd Lewis called "Pressed Against the Sky" "really on-your-sleeve and emotionally bare [and] not trying to hide behind a scary story", and cited the song as evidence of his matured song writing abilities. "Since Rubberneck, I’ve been trying to express myself without relying on some story to hide what I’m really getting at.”[9] Hell Below/Stars Above also saw the band experimenting with a variety of instruments, techniques and ideas, including using vocal harmonies, tambourines and piano on several of the album's tracks.[28] The intro sound on "Doll Skin" was created by Todd Lewis knocking a wooden hammer into the body of his guitar, emulating tambour.[29] Despite the fact the musical landscape had changed in the years following the release of Rubberneck, the band was not interested copying modern musical trends or the album. “The charm of this record is that we don’t fit in,” Todd Lewis said to Pause And Play, “especially now with all the backwards-hats-wearing, scream-at-the-floor guys. It might be refreshing to hear somebody who can write a song and not be playing one chord on a seven-string guitar, screaming about their childhood. That’s what’s going to work with this record … there’s people actually singing and not being tuned by a computer and actually playing their instruments and actually writing a song. It has some merit to it, some hooks. It’s something to sing along to.”[9][30]

The album's penultimate track, "Hell Below/Stars Above", best presents the album's creative visions. The song showcases a progressive song structure, starting off as a straight forward fast rock song before expanding into a more bluesy song with a gospel choir and piano at the end. Todd Lewis wrote the first half of the song, with the rest of the band contributing something to the end of the song afterwards. The song also includes piano performed by Elliott Smith, who had worked with Rothrock and Schnapf in the past.[31][18] The band had never played it in full before entering the studio, and said it "took on a new life" when recorded. The song was originally recorded with backup singers who had previously worked with Stevie Nicks, but the band scrapped the idea after the vocals were recorded; instead, they brought in a single backup female singer. Despite the song's complex structure, the band said it was the easiest song to write for the album, with "What We Have Is What We Steal", "Push The Hand" and "Jigsaw Girl" being described as the hardest songs to write.[32]

The lyrical content on Hell Below/Stars Above covers themes such as sex, relationships, murder, religion, and was partially inspired by the struggles the band faced.[31] "Push the Hand" was described by Todd Lewis to be about "a relationship that gets fouled up because of sex, and about seeing how your friendship kinda goes away because you f---ed it up by, um ... f---ing."[31] "Heel" is about Todd Lewis' dog, and heavily uses double entendre.[30] "Jigsaw Girl" was described by MTV News as "a dark, romantic ode to a former lover the narrator has chopped to pieces." Todd Lewis described the song as "the prettiest song ever, but it's about how you love this girl so much, but she doesn't love you back, so you cut her up."[33] "I think it's fun to pull off a love song that's really f---in' twisted," Lewis said about the song to MTV News. "It's funny to hear a love song about something really dark and sick that still sounds nice and pretty."[31] The Austin Chronicle compared the song to "Possum Kingdom".[34]

The stained glass window on the Dallas Power and Light building, used for the album's disc and inner tray artwork.

The album's cover is a picture of an angel, and was taken from the 1996 book "Pillars of the Almighy" by f-stop Fitzgerland, a book which contains photography of churches and buildings. The band used the image to form the rest of the album's aesthetic. The disc artwork and the inner tray card is an image of a stained-glass window taken from the Dallas Power and Light building.[18][35] The artwork inside the fold-out liner notes contain an enlarged image of the front cover, with a combination of various words from the album's lyrics running through the middle.[28]

Hell Below/Stars Above was not immediately given a release date after it was turned into the label, and a waiting game that the band described as "frustrating" and "fucking depressing" ensued.[12] The band originally aimed for a release date of August/September 2000, however, this was not doable. Interscope's president, Tom Whalley, wanted to release the album in October 2000, but the band refused as they did not want the album to compete with releases from bigger rock acts such as U2 (All That You Can't Leave Behind) and Marilyn Manson (Holy Wood) around the same time.[12] The album's release date was then moved to February 13, 2001,[36][37] but the label eventually moved its release to March 6, and finally, to March 20, 2001, possibly to avoid competition with Big Dumb Face's Duke Lion Fights the Terror!!!.[7] It was released exclusively in North America. Despite the near seven-year gap between releases, the band was not worried about the scale of the record's initial success, and believed it would become successful overtime; Rubberneck had only become successful a year after its release.[31] Interscope shipped 70,000 copies of the album to stores.[7]

The first song to be released from Hell Below/Stars Above was "Heel", which appeared on Sampler 2000, a promotional sampler released by Interscope during the Vans Warped Tour. It was initially planned that the album's intended first single, "Motivational", was to be released in mid-December, but following the album's delay to March 2001 it was pushed back to February. At the last minute, the album's first single was changed to "Push The Hand" thanks to a fan poll on the band's website. The single was released in late February 2001. It was added to 48 radio stations upon its release, and reached number 30 on Billboard's Active Rock Chart.[7][38][37]

Without any touring support from Interscope, the band promoted the album with the band's first major headlining tour since 1997, The "I Am A Tour" Tour, travelling to various cities across the United States with supporting acts Elliott, Warren Peace, Diffuser and Enon.[18][17][56][57] The band made the conscious decision to travel to "secondary markets" and less-commonly toured locations such as Lubbock, Texas.[17] The band also participated in the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas prior to the album's release on March 17, 2001[38] and in the two-day CPR Fest in Biloxi, Mississippi, where they performed alongside Live, Filter, Rollins Band, Danzig, Tracy Bonham, and 3 Doors Down.[58] One of the band's shows during the tour, at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, was recorded and posthumously released as a live album, titled Best of Toadies: Live from Paradise, in November 2002.[59] The band's shows were much smaller than Rubberneck's, and some fans had not even heard about the album a month after the record's release. Demoralised and disappointed with the album's failure, the band member's relationships became increasingly strained.[2]

Personnel per liner notes.[28]

• "Jigsaw Girl" and "Doll Skin" were later re-recorded and re-interpreted for the band's sixth studio album, Heretics. "Queen of Scars", off of the aforementioned album, is a sequel to "Jigsaw Girl".[33][68]