Hell Below/Stars Above is the second studio album by American rock band Toadies, released on March 20, 2001 by Interscope Records. It is the first Toadies album to feature lead guitarist Clark Vogeler, who joined in 1996, and the band's final album with founding member and bassist Lisa Umbarger. The album was the Toadies' first in nearly seven years, and was their second attempt at recording a follow-up to their platinum-selling debut Rubberneck (1994); the band's first attempt, Feeler, had been rejected by Interscope in 1998.
Hell Below/Stars Above was produced by Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf and was recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, California between January and March 2000. Disagreements with Interscope delayed the album's release for an entire year after its completion. Unlike earlier Toadies' releases, Hell Below/Stars Above was jointly written by all of the band's members instead of by frontman Vaden Todd Lewis only, resulting in it becoming more stylistically varied. The album's overall sound was influenced by 1970s rock music, and was cleaner and less aggressive than the grunge-informed Rubberneck.
Hell Below/Stars Above received mixed reviews from critics and was a significant commercial failure upon release, with the album only reaching number 130 on the Billboard 200 chart and selling less than a tenth of Rubberneck's sales, primarily due to Interscope's complete lack of promotional support for the album. Disillusioned with the album's failure, Umbarger quit the Toadies four months after its release, resulting in the group's disbandment in October 2001. It was the Toadies' last album prior to their reformation in 2006.
Background 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. Touring for the album wrapped up in September 1996, after which the band fired lead guitarist Darrel Herbert, who no longer wanted to tour. 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.
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. The band recorded 14 songs for the album, which was envisioned as an attempt to make "a more mature record" than Rubberneck. 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. 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. 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.
After the album's rejection, the Toadies decided to scrap Feeler entirely, feeling unhappy with its "mechanical" production. The band then went on a month-long hiatus after facing writer's 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. Todd Lewis eventually decided to get the band back together again, and they began playing some local shows. 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. The band were also nearly dropped by Interscope following the merger of Interscope's parent company, Universal Music Group, with PolyGram in December 1998; 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. The band was able to stay on the label, as the person who was supposed to drop the band was fired during the merger, and because Todd Lewis was able to convince Interscope's new president, Tom Whalley, to keep them on the label.
Writing and recording Whilst Todd Lewis was still living in Austin, the rest of the Toadies began writing new material together in Dallas. 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. 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. "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." In spite of his status as the band's newest member, Vogeler quickly became an equal part in the song writing process. 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. 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. After initially being scheduled to start recording in November 1999, the band entered Sunset Sound Recorders on January 3, 2000. 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." The band opted to work again with Rubberneck producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf again, favouring their "full" production style. 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; in order to achieve this sound, the album was recorded onto two-inch analog tape. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
Composition and lyrics
Hell Below/Stars Above has been described as grunge, alternative rock, hard rock, punk rock, post-grunge, heavy metal and rock 'n' roll. 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." 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. The intro sound on "Doll Skin" was created by Todd Lewis knocking a wooden hammer into the body of his guitar, emulating tambour. 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."
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. 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.
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. "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." "Heel" is about Todd Lewis' dog, and heavily uses double entendre. "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." "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." The Austin Chronicle compared the song to "Possum Kingdom".
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