As is quite often the case, we have let a week expire without updating our blog. However, while we understand this can be frustrating for all those who are disappointed daily by our lack of content, one must admit that it is precisely our failure to supply new blogs that allows for the entries that do see the light of day to be packed to the brim with rock n’ roll hilarity and heartbreak. And I assure you, this past week suffers little in comparison to weeks past.
When last you heard from us, I believe Matt explained to you the unfortunate experience of attempting to sleep in our van in Tallahassee, only to barely catch a wink of sleep due to the intense humidity the lovely state of Florida gifted us. So, sweaty and sleepless, we emerged from our “beds” and prepared for the show, one which we looked forward to with great anticipation, for not only were Young Love and the Giants not on the bill, but Playradioplay had a show elsewhere that night, thereby bequeathing unto us the coveted headliner slot on the bill. Now, while this may normally be considered an honor and a privilege, having never played before in Tallahassee, we were uncertain as to how the show would turn out. And, as it happened, despite only playing for a crowd of 10-15 people (and this is perhaps an inflated exaggeration), we had a great time, sold a couple t-shirts, and ate KFC Bowls, an act which was categorically regretted almost immediately after. Go Seminoles.
Up and out, we make the move to Jacksonville, which, if you have been keeping up with your CNN, was not an uneventful drive thanks to the Florida wildfires which helped light our way on our midnight drive to the coast. And yet, it was all for naught, as we discovered soon after arriving at our destination that the show had been canceled. Flustered, we hopped back on the road and trekked it to Nashville, once again blazing through the Floridian fires, smoke clouds, and Wafflehouses. We have the pictures to prove it.
Hence forth it gets interesting, as it was in the great city of Nashville where Young Love joined back up on the tour. Fresh faced with freshly purchased t-shirts, the boys put on a great show, happy to be back on the road, and we were equally happy to have them back. Reunions and rock and roll aside, it was AFTER the show in the parking lot where the action really happened.
And away we go….
Upon exiting the club, it was brought to our attention that a nice young girl named Renee had unfortunately locked her keys in her car. Being the gentlemanly good Samaritans that we are, and not wanting to leave her stranded in the dark of the Nashville night, we decided to set up shop in the parking lot to wait for AAA to come unlock her car for her. It was this act of selflessness that served as the powder keg for the most ridiculous display of ridiculousness we had yet to encounter. In short, after we had been waiting only 5-10 minutes, two eager gentleman approached us, both about 30-35 years old, and both dressed moderately better than your average bum. We conversed with both a bit, and one of our two new friends wished to play us a song on one of my guitars. After much deliberating, I finally consented and allowed him to do so. Here is where the trouble starts. As he was playing (and he wasn’t half bad), his friend started accusing him of ripping off other songs, claiming that he had heard the song before on the radio. Not wanting to piss him off while holding my guitar, I berated his friend for being such a jake (which is Liam and Me speak for jerk), and collected my guitar before disaster struck. Yet, things didn’t end there, and the two started arguing again over the 33 cents that McKenzie had given them. Then it turned ugly. The singer of songs, now fed up with his critical companion, took a swing and cold clocked his opponent with a rock a had strategically had hidden in his back pocket. They then proceeded to brawl before our eyes, with articles of clothing flying off in every direction, including at one point a pair of trousers, temporarily leaving the undiscovered songster in quite the embarrassing predicament. Now, not wanting to see anyone get killed, O’Dowd and myself, both apparently blessed with a momentary surge of courage, as well as a complete lapse of common sense, ripped the street fighters apart from one another, forcing them to opposite ends of the lot as they now searched for planks of wood and rocks to throw at each other. With much force, and the help of a nice middle aged man who emerged from left field and convinced one of the two men to go with him in search of all the vices Nashville has to offer, we managed to diffuse the situation, hop in our van and hightail it out of there.
Needing a breather following this debacle, we swung into a gas station for a cup o’ coffee and perhaps a greasy meal. And, as fate would have it, upon our exit from the mini mart, the Krispy Kreme delivery man pulled up in his truck. Our magnificent merch man Mikey, never one to be shy, introduced himself and asked if the guy could help out a starving band on the road by bestowing upon us his good graces, which happened to be in this case delicious glazed doughnuts. In a surprise move, he consented and dropped into our eager hands 5 full boxes free of charge. We considered it monies owed by the gods of karma. Things are now squared.
In closing I realize this has been a long blog, and even though we have the entire state of Texas to discuss, I feel as if I should save it for later, and give y’all a rest. We will try and stay a tad more diligent, but to be honest, I don’t really see it happening. Time will tell.
-Dan
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
UTIOG Tour - Detroit to Florida
Lately I feel like all of these entries are beginning with my standard apology – sorry for the infrequent updates. Things have been hectic but fun on tour. This is our first legitimate national touring experience, and god damn are we getting an education.
The northeastern dates were an absolute blast – Detroit, Lansing, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Boston, Philly. We were opening for Under the Influence of Giants and Young Love, with occasional appearances by Play Radio Play who we joined up with later full time. Not the most gargantuan shows we’ve ever played, but great venues and great audiences of music lovers. We’re meeting lots of people and getting out in some cities that we’ve never seen.
The bands are great, and sonically right up our alley. It’s the next level of professionalism and killer stage shows. I enjoyed rocking out every night to Under the Influence of Giants (UTIOG) and Young Love. And they like to party. It can be tough keeping up with their tour bus with our zigzag tour routing, they drive through the night and we do our best to keep up but we made it work and still had time to bond.
Then things got complicated.
After an awesome Boston show, the Giants had to pull off the tour for an undetermined amount of time due to a family emergency, and Young Love had to do the same. That left only us and Play Radio Play for the rest of the tour.
We had a few days off in Philly to take care of some business, which was nice. I caught up on some backing vocals, and we traded in our Ford Expedition and trailer for a sweet new van. Despite the lack of headliners, our Philly show was amazing. We were so thrilled by the great turnout and want to thank everyone for schlepping out to the North Star to rock out with us. We had such a great time, and played our first real, unplanned encore. We were completely unprepared, but it made us feel like rockstars. Thanks again to everyone from Philly / NJ / DE for making it out! We’ll remember it forever.
The next day, our van wasn’t ready until 3pm and we had to leave for Boston late. Leaving with the trailer, we realized the van didn’t have the proper hitch height and had to turn back, reacquire the Expedition, reattach the trailer, and run like hell for Boston. We barely made it, but the show was great. We saw a bunch of our D.C. friends and got loaded with some hot moms in the parking lot. We didn’t make the Virginia Beach show, unfortunately, because corrective work on the van took too long. We made it to the venue on time to play, but the club didn’t want to have us load in late despite PRP’s accommodating offer to let us share all their stuff. Oh well.
In the Southeast, we’re driving a lot, and sleeping little. But the crowds have been awesome. Charlotte and the ATL were amazing shows where we met many fine Americans. Play Radio Play cleans up around there, and put on a great show.
So now we’re in Florida by ourselves, as PRP are at the Cornerstone festival. Mikey Hynes is keeping us in very high spirits. Its tough finding space and privacy to do the backing vocals, but here and there we’re able to set up in weird places – our new friend Aaron’s bedroom, our van in a parking lot, 20 minutes in a hotel room. Trying to save money, we tried sleeping in the car today between 7am and noon in Florida heat. It was generally unsatisfying. And sticky. If we do that we’ll have to do it at night.
So there’s the update. We’ll try to be on top of it in the future.
See you soon,
Matt
The northeastern dates were an absolute blast – Detroit, Lansing, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Boston, Philly. We were opening for Under the Influence of Giants and Young Love, with occasional appearances by Play Radio Play who we joined up with later full time. Not the most gargantuan shows we’ve ever played, but great venues and great audiences of music lovers. We’re meeting lots of people and getting out in some cities that we’ve never seen.
The bands are great, and sonically right up our alley. It’s the next level of professionalism and killer stage shows. I enjoyed rocking out every night to Under the Influence of Giants (UTIOG) and Young Love. And they like to party. It can be tough keeping up with their tour bus with our zigzag tour routing, they drive through the night and we do our best to keep up but we made it work and still had time to bond.
Then things got complicated.
After an awesome Boston show, the Giants had to pull off the tour for an undetermined amount of time due to a family emergency, and Young Love had to do the same. That left only us and Play Radio Play for the rest of the tour.
We had a few days off in Philly to take care of some business, which was nice. I caught up on some backing vocals, and we traded in our Ford Expedition and trailer for a sweet new van. Despite the lack of headliners, our Philly show was amazing. We were so thrilled by the great turnout and want to thank everyone for schlepping out to the North Star to rock out with us. We had such a great time, and played our first real, unplanned encore. We were completely unprepared, but it made us feel like rockstars. Thanks again to everyone from Philly / NJ / DE for making it out! We’ll remember it forever.
The next day, our van wasn’t ready until 3pm and we had to leave for Boston late. Leaving with the trailer, we realized the van didn’t have the proper hitch height and had to turn back, reacquire the Expedition, reattach the trailer, and run like hell for Boston. We barely made it, but the show was great. We saw a bunch of our D.C. friends and got loaded with some hot moms in the parking lot. We didn’t make the Virginia Beach show, unfortunately, because corrective work on the van took too long. We made it to the venue on time to play, but the club didn’t want to have us load in late despite PRP’s accommodating offer to let us share all their stuff. Oh well.
In the Southeast, we’re driving a lot, and sleeping little. But the crowds have been awesome. Charlotte and the ATL were amazing shows where we met many fine Americans. Play Radio Play cleans up around there, and put on a great show.
So now we’re in Florida by ourselves, as PRP are at the Cornerstone festival. Mikey Hynes is keeping us in very high spirits. Its tough finding space and privacy to do the backing vocals, but here and there we’re able to set up in weird places – our new friend Aaron’s bedroom, our van in a parking lot, 20 minutes in a hotel room. Trying to save money, we tried sleeping in the car today between 7am and noon in Florida heat. It was generally unsatisfying. And sticky. If we do that we’ll have to do it at night.
So there’s the update. We’ll try to be on top of it in the future.
See you soon,
Matt
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Recording Ends - Tour Begins
Dear all:
Recording is unofficially over, and thus begins the tour blog. I had a grueling week of vocals with mixer Christopher James, getting through all the leads and the vast majority of backing vocals. Everything sounds great, and without the rest of the band I was able to eat at Taco Bell every single night. Delicious. However, we completely ran out of time without finishing six backing vocal tracks. Not wanting to cancel or delay the tour, I will do backing vocals for the remaining tracks on my own in Philly.
In my downtime I had some nice lunches with Peter Torres and manager John Davis. Our friend Jeremy Levy was in town on business and pleasure, and I got to hang out with him on occasion as well. It was during this time that I was pulled over for the worst traffic stop clusterfuck of all time:
1: I pulled into the wrong driveway of a hotel by accident. In attempting to back out of the driveway and onto the street, I was stopped for making an illegal U-Turn (which I wasn’t actually doing)
2: Our rental car had two of three brake lights out, which I am theoretically liable for.
3: I was not carrying my insurance card as again, I was in a rental car. Apparently this does not matter to the state of California.
All told this may add up to $500 + dollars in fines and points on my license. Hopefully the judge will be understanding at my court date.
I also missed Dan Brown’s bachelor party in Vegas, which was disappointing. Rumor has it there was wall to wall gambling and drinking with very little sleep.
But all inconvenience aside, we started our tour on Saturday, which is fucking awesome. I left the studio at 1:30 am Saturday morning, packed my bags, and was picked up to go to LAX at 4am. McKenzie and I met up at the Detroit airport and cabbed it to the venue there. Larkin and Briks, having spent the week at home preparing and gathering supplies for the tour, had driven from Philly the night before.
Its great to be playing live again. We’re on tour with Under the Influence of Giants (UTIOG) and Young Love, two IDJ bands who are right up are alley stylistically. Later we’ll be joined by PlayRadioPlay! from Philly back to LA.
I’ll give you a more complete update on the first leg of the tour after the Philly show…
See you soon.
Matt
Recording is unofficially over, and thus begins the tour blog. I had a grueling week of vocals with mixer Christopher James, getting through all the leads and the vast majority of backing vocals. Everything sounds great, and without the rest of the band I was able to eat at Taco Bell every single night. Delicious. However, we completely ran out of time without finishing six backing vocal tracks. Not wanting to cancel or delay the tour, I will do backing vocals for the remaining tracks on my own in Philly.
In my downtime I had some nice lunches with Peter Torres and manager John Davis. Our friend Jeremy Levy was in town on business and pleasure, and I got to hang out with him on occasion as well. It was during this time that I was pulled over for the worst traffic stop clusterfuck of all time:
1: I pulled into the wrong driveway of a hotel by accident. In attempting to back out of the driveway and onto the street, I was stopped for making an illegal U-Turn (which I wasn’t actually doing)
2: Our rental car had two of three brake lights out, which I am theoretically liable for.
3: I was not carrying my insurance card as again, I was in a rental car. Apparently this does not matter to the state of California.
All told this may add up to $500 + dollars in fines and points on my license. Hopefully the judge will be understanding at my court date.
I also missed Dan Brown’s bachelor party in Vegas, which was disappointing. Rumor has it there was wall to wall gambling and drinking with very little sleep.
But all inconvenience aside, we started our tour on Saturday, which is fucking awesome. I left the studio at 1:30 am Saturday morning, packed my bags, and was picked up to go to LAX at 4am. McKenzie and I met up at the Detroit airport and cabbed it to the venue there. Larkin and Briks, having spent the week at home preparing and gathering supplies for the tour, had driven from Philly the night before.
Its great to be playing live again. We’re on tour with Under the Influence of Giants (UTIOG) and Young Love, two IDJ bands who are right up are alley stylistically. Later we’ll be joined by PlayRadioPlay! from Philly back to LA.
I’ll give you a more complete update on the first leg of the tour after the Philly show…
See you soon.
Matt
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Days 29 - 40 - The Home Stretch
Dear all –
Once again I apologize for the tremendous lag in our blog postings. I promise that in the future I’ll be more on top of the ball. Things have gotten a little crazy and busy. Maybe a lot crazy and busy. I’ll boil down some of the recent happenings:
April 18th: We played our first show in a month, and our first official non-showcase LA gig at the Viper Room, the Sunset Strip’s famous decadent rock club. It felt great to play live again, despite our studio rustiness. The label types, producers, and booking agents all showed up in addition to many strangers, all of which had very nice things to say. It was also nice to drink again. We drank many tequila shots, which I hereby christen the Liam and Me party drink of choice. This should come as no surprise to most of you.
April 20th: We’re hardcore into the vocals, and a bit behind schedule. Jeff and Matt have gone above and beyond the call of production duty, investing time and energy to the point where it’s encroaching on upcoming projects. Thanks to flexibility and improvisation, we have an extra week of studio time where I’ll do vocals with Christopher James in his studio space, freeing up Matt and Jeff to play catch up and do some edits. Mr. James is our mixing engineer, who also did the Hellogoodbye record, was Self’s keyboard player, and has a long and rich pop /rock /R&B pedigree, including a little platinum on the wall.
April 21st: Today is my birthday. This morning I drove the rest of the band to the airport. Larkin and Briks are returning to Philly to prepare for our tour, and McKenzie has his grandfather’s funeral. After dropping the rest of the band off, I returned to our now empty hostel suite to enjoy some rare privacy. It was great. I lounged around all day, read books and drank coffee. Later that evening I saw my friend Sam’s band The Jackal Headed Front play, which I’d been looking forward to for about three years. It was a great time with lots of prog production trickery. Then I had some Whiskey drinks. Delish.
April 23d: Started vocals in Chris James’s place. It’s a great studio that used to belong to a film scorer. Huge SSL board, great outboard gear, a custom designed space with sexy dimmers, and a massive screen for projecting films, TV, or protools sessions. It was slightly unusual adjusting from Jeff’s production style to Chris’s, but were tearing through at record pace and getting some good shit done.
April 26: The producers and managers (John Davis, Jeff Surnow, Gary Richards, Matt, Jeff, Chris) all got together to listen to the tracks and talk strategy. I was forbidden from attending (they didn’t want to have to coddle sensitive artist types). Apparently everyone was extremely excited about the material, and we’re going to have a finished product by June 1st. Excoiting stuff. Had lunch with Davis, Jeremy Levy arrived in town to hang out before our friend Dan’s bachelor party.
There is much work to do and a relatively short time in which to do it, but everyone should expect a great record with fabulous sounding tracks.
Updated celebrity encounters: Shirley Manson, Alain Whyte, and that guy from that one movie you know, yeah, that one.
More updates soon. I’ll see you on the road…
Matt
Once again I apologize for the tremendous lag in our blog postings. I promise that in the future I’ll be more on top of the ball. Things have gotten a little crazy and busy. Maybe a lot crazy and busy. I’ll boil down some of the recent happenings:
April 18th: We played our first show in a month, and our first official non-showcase LA gig at the Viper Room, the Sunset Strip’s famous decadent rock club. It felt great to play live again, despite our studio rustiness. The label types, producers, and booking agents all showed up in addition to many strangers, all of which had very nice things to say. It was also nice to drink again. We drank many tequila shots, which I hereby christen the Liam and Me party drink of choice. This should come as no surprise to most of you.
April 20th: We’re hardcore into the vocals, and a bit behind schedule. Jeff and Matt have gone above and beyond the call of production duty, investing time and energy to the point where it’s encroaching on upcoming projects. Thanks to flexibility and improvisation, we have an extra week of studio time where I’ll do vocals with Christopher James in his studio space, freeing up Matt and Jeff to play catch up and do some edits. Mr. James is our mixing engineer, who also did the Hellogoodbye record, was Self’s keyboard player, and has a long and rich pop /rock /R&B pedigree, including a little platinum on the wall.
April 21st: Today is my birthday. This morning I drove the rest of the band to the airport. Larkin and Briks are returning to Philly to prepare for our tour, and McKenzie has his grandfather’s funeral. After dropping the rest of the band off, I returned to our now empty hostel suite to enjoy some rare privacy. It was great. I lounged around all day, read books and drank coffee. Later that evening I saw my friend Sam’s band The Jackal Headed Front play, which I’d been looking forward to for about three years. It was a great time with lots of prog production trickery. Then I had some Whiskey drinks. Delish.
April 23d: Started vocals in Chris James’s place. It’s a great studio that used to belong to a film scorer. Huge SSL board, great outboard gear, a custom designed space with sexy dimmers, and a massive screen for projecting films, TV, or protools sessions. It was slightly unusual adjusting from Jeff’s production style to Chris’s, but were tearing through at record pace and getting some good shit done.
April 26: The producers and managers (John Davis, Jeff Surnow, Gary Richards, Matt, Jeff, Chris) all got together to listen to the tracks and talk strategy. I was forbidden from attending (they didn’t want to have to coddle sensitive artist types). Apparently everyone was extremely excited about the material, and we’re going to have a finished product by June 1st. Excoiting stuff. Had lunch with Davis, Jeremy Levy arrived in town to hang out before our friend Dan’s bachelor party.
There is much work to do and a relatively short time in which to do it, but everyone should expect a great record with fabulous sounding tracks.
Updated celebrity encounters: Shirley Manson, Alain Whyte, and that guy from that one movie you know, yeah, that one.
More updates soon. I’ll see you on the road…
Matt
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Days 23 - 28 - Vocals / Piano / Guitar
Sorry for the infrequent updates. We're coming down to the wire, having finished out the guitars, adding the last few instrumental flourishes and ripping into the vocals and piano. We've been split up into two different studios all week, which has proven to be very effective.
Jeff and I are in the main studio working on synths, vocals, piano, rhodes, and assorted other stuff. Matt has Dan, Jon, and McKenzie in his fabulous home studio working on all manner of guitar craziness and elaborate percussion arrangements on certain tracks. We're operating at maximum efficiency.
The good news is, pretty much all the instrumentals are finished and sounding fantastic. The sound is rocking and powerful with an extremely diverse array of tones and dynamics. The guitar arrangements drive with synths and pianos filling in the gaps. A&R Peter Torres stopped by on Friday and seemed very happy with the sound of even the raw tracks.
The bad news is we have about a week to knock out vocals for 11 tracks, and under the studio microscope the quality of my voice can be hit or miss. I had a great day on Thursday and knocked the hell out of "Pretty Black Dress". Friday things weren't feeling quite as magical vocally, but we did git done the bulk of piano work.
This weekend our good friend and fabulous guitar player Aaron Kipnis flew out to LA specifically to play one glorious guitar solo on the record. I have yet to hear it, but apparently it rules so hard that no one will shut up. I can't wait.
Otherwise we've been workaholics, keeping our social lives responsibly low key. On Friday night we kicked it in the home of producer Jeff Turzo. We drank beer and wine, and Jeff was inspired to make everyone gourmet cheesesteaks at 1am, after someone made an offhand comment about Pat's and Geno's. Also, we learned that Jeff has not one but two hot wives. Who would have thought that the more demure producer maintains a harem? Later Larkin and I attended an after hours speakeasy in Silver Lake replete with secret password and attractive Japanese servers.
The rest of the weekend was spent quietly entertaining Mr. Kipnis, consisting largely of LA-only fast food joints, drugs, sex, rock and roll. He leaves tomorrow morning full of In n' Out Burger and happy memories.
Back in the fracas tomorrow morning. Wish us luck...
Matt
Jeff and I are in the main studio working on synths, vocals, piano, rhodes, and assorted other stuff. Matt has Dan, Jon, and McKenzie in his fabulous home studio working on all manner of guitar craziness and elaborate percussion arrangements on certain tracks. We're operating at maximum efficiency.
The good news is, pretty much all the instrumentals are finished and sounding fantastic. The sound is rocking and powerful with an extremely diverse array of tones and dynamics. The guitar arrangements drive with synths and pianos filling in the gaps. A&R Peter Torres stopped by on Friday and seemed very happy with the sound of even the raw tracks.
The bad news is we have about a week to knock out vocals for 11 tracks, and under the studio microscope the quality of my voice can be hit or miss. I had a great day on Thursday and knocked the hell out of "Pretty Black Dress". Friday things weren't feeling quite as magical vocally, but we did git done the bulk of piano work.
This weekend our good friend and fabulous guitar player Aaron Kipnis flew out to LA specifically to play one glorious guitar solo on the record. I have yet to hear it, but apparently it rules so hard that no one will shut up. I can't wait.
Otherwise we've been workaholics, keeping our social lives responsibly low key. On Friday night we kicked it in the home of producer Jeff Turzo. We drank beer and wine, and Jeff was inspired to make everyone gourmet cheesesteaks at 1am, after someone made an offhand comment about Pat's and Geno's. Also, we learned that Jeff has not one but two hot wives. Who would have thought that the more demure producer maintains a harem? Later Larkin and I attended an after hours speakeasy in Silver Lake replete with secret password and attractive Japanese servers.
The rest of the weekend was spent quietly entertaining Mr. Kipnis, consisting largely of LA-only fast food joints, drugs, sex, rock and roll. He leaves tomorrow morning full of In n' Out Burger and happy memories.
Back in the fracas tomorrow morning. Wish us luck...
Matt
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Day 21-22 - Easter Eggs, or lack thereof.
For those who have been keeping tabs on our blog, you are no stranger to the frustrations we have been facing in the studio. That said, in an attempt to blow off some steam by accompanying our producer Jeff to the sold out HelloGoodbye show, we may have made a grave mistake. Filled with screaming, hysterically adoring fans, both on stage and off, HelloGoodbye put on a hell of a show, complete with Beastie Boy Cover songs and Confetti streamers shot into the sea of open armed young girls. Seeing all of this, the excitement and the rock, the show accomplished two things. First, it instilled unto each of us an intense desire to hit the road and get on our own tour, and second, it forced upon us the realization that 2-3 weeks of intense recording still stand in the way of our doing so. For now then, we must resign such desires and focus on the task at hand…but maybe we will go to the beach first.
Moving on to business in the studio, I have been given a vacation of sorts, and Matt has been thrown into the hot seat as we begin the recording of synths and keyboards. Now, while I do admit that it was nice to get a little time off from recording, I came to the realization this past Saturday that things can get a little slow in the recording studio when you aren’t the one actually recording. To enlighten you as to the happenings of the day, I watched McKenzie take on Star Destroyers and help the Rebel cause via Star Wars for Playstation 2, listened to Jon programming his beats on his laptop, and I incessantly surfed the web for hours, while occasionally practicing guitar in my little corner of the studio. However, whatever lack of excitement there may have been in the lounging areas of the studio, the work Matt completed on Saturday, as well as the potential the recordings all have in general, more than make up for it. It is finally getting to the point where we can really see the songs nearing completion, especially now, as Matt plans on starting vocals tomorrow.
And, while I have enjoyed my time off, I must admit that I am excited for tomorrow as well, for as Matt and Jon remain in the studio to continue working on Keyboards and vocals, McKenzie and I will head to Matt M.’s house to (hopefully)finish up the remaining guitar work. Hopefully this splitting of the group will catch us up on any lost time, and with any luck we may even be able to soon say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel…maybe. We will of course keep you posted.
In closing, we want to wish all of you a very Happy Easter, and pray that you all had fantastic breakfasts/brunches. If not, remember that we all had a single bagel apiece, so, barring a few exceptions, you probably all fared a little better than the lot of us.
Cheers,
Dan
Moving on to business in the studio, I have been given a vacation of sorts, and Matt has been thrown into the hot seat as we begin the recording of synths and keyboards. Now, while I do admit that it was nice to get a little time off from recording, I came to the realization this past Saturday that things can get a little slow in the recording studio when you aren’t the one actually recording. To enlighten you as to the happenings of the day, I watched McKenzie take on Star Destroyers and help the Rebel cause via Star Wars for Playstation 2, listened to Jon programming his beats on his laptop, and I incessantly surfed the web for hours, while occasionally practicing guitar in my little corner of the studio. However, whatever lack of excitement there may have been in the lounging areas of the studio, the work Matt completed on Saturday, as well as the potential the recordings all have in general, more than make up for it. It is finally getting to the point where we can really see the songs nearing completion, especially now, as Matt plans on starting vocals tomorrow.
And, while I have enjoyed my time off, I must admit that I am excited for tomorrow as well, for as Matt and Jon remain in the studio to continue working on Keyboards and vocals, McKenzie and I will head to Matt M.’s house to (hopefully)finish up the remaining guitar work. Hopefully this splitting of the group will catch us up on any lost time, and with any luck we may even be able to soon say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel…maybe. We will of course keep you posted.
In closing, we want to wish all of you a very Happy Easter, and pray that you all had fantastic breakfasts/brunches. If not, remember that we all had a single bagel apiece, so, barring a few exceptions, you probably all fared a little better than the lot of us.
Cheers,
Dan
Friday, April 6, 2007
Day 17 - 20 - Holdups Galore
Sure, we have a lot of ambitious guitar arrangements. But for reasons mostly beyond our control, this shit is taking forever as we enter our second week of goddamned guitar tracking. The primary issue is tuning. We're forced to go back and painstakingly retrack parts chord by chord because frets are simply not staying in tune for sections played high up on the neck of the guitar. Its just barely, barely off, but enough for the discriminating listener to hear the twang.
Matt M and Jeff remain patient, focused, and positive as we work through this stuff, but we band members are going mildly nuts. Matt Mahaffey brought in a flat screen TV, PS2, and collection of bizarre games and DVDs which has dulled the pain - McKenzie and I are in the midst of our second conquest of the Star Wars universe in Battlefronts I.
We had Thursday and Friday off. Thursday Jeff had some things to finish up and editing to catch up on. Friday we were kicked out of our studio by Donna Summer. Diva! Would have been nice to meet her though.
Briks, Larkin, and McKenzie had been talking about a visit to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, an LA only chain, for months. We finally went for lunch on Thursday. It was a delicious and strange combination, leaving us with that warm, greasy feeling on the inside. Seeing we were close to the Hollywood sign and seized by an adventurous need to work off some fried chicken, we hiked a trail that led right around the back of it. Seeing as the sign is covered with an array of cameras and motion sensors, we chickened out of climbing over the fence and down the rock wall to touch it. But we did manage to peg the letter H with a rock. Take that, I guess.
Tonight we're heading to the Hellogoodbye show with Jeff, and tomorrow we're back to work on Synths and Vocals. Tour dates are filling in rapidly! Check out our myspace for details.
Updated celebrity encounters: Tommy "Tiny" Lister - http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001474/
Matt
Matt M and Jeff remain patient, focused, and positive as we work through this stuff, but we band members are going mildly nuts. Matt Mahaffey brought in a flat screen TV, PS2, and collection of bizarre games and DVDs which has dulled the pain - McKenzie and I are in the midst of our second conquest of the Star Wars universe in Battlefronts I.
We had Thursday and Friday off. Thursday Jeff had some things to finish up and editing to catch up on. Friday we were kicked out of our studio by Donna Summer. Diva! Would have been nice to meet her though.
Briks, Larkin, and McKenzie had been talking about a visit to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, an LA only chain, for months. We finally went for lunch on Thursday. It was a delicious and strange combination, leaving us with that warm, greasy feeling on the inside. Seeing we were close to the Hollywood sign and seized by an adventurous need to work off some fried chicken, we hiked a trail that led right around the back of it. Seeing as the sign is covered with an array of cameras and motion sensors, we chickened out of climbing over the fence and down the rock wall to touch it. But we did manage to peg the letter H with a rock. Take that, I guess.
Tonight we're heading to the Hellogoodbye show with Jeff, and tomorrow we're back to work on Synths and Vocals. Tour dates are filling in rapidly! Check out our myspace for details.
Updated celebrity encounters: Tommy "Tiny" Lister - http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001474/
Matt
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