new songs from the new album

if you live anywhere else east of the west coast, then it is already monday morning when i am writing this, and if that is the case, then i am sorry. wait, i think that came out wrong... anyways... cd release shows were great success. ah, whistlestop, how we love thee. and then to top off the weekend, or kick off the week, whichever you prefer, The Modlins rocked a secret show for san diego's own Village Hat Shop's holiday party. what can we say besides the facts that the beer flowed like wine, the wine flowed like water, and the water was Perrier.

but yes, if you missed us this weekend, With Friends Like These has been unleashed, and if you still find yourself without a copy, swing by the myspace or the website, or come find us, in the year 2008! The Modlins are coming... ... to the Zombie Lounge, on january 8th, with dearest friends Secret Apollo, and new friends (and old friends of friends) from Las Vegas: Love Pentagon & Pan de sal. also, at the end of january, we make our triumphant return to the place that used to be our home away from our home away from home, the former Buster Daly's, now called U31, with the always excellent Anna Troy Band.

and in the mean time, here are two more songs from With Friends Like These : Why Did It Take So Long?, with not Eric, and not Matt, but me (Alex) taking the lead, and For The Good Of The Armor, featuring Eric's new-found harmonica skillz. with a z. word. happy mondayz.

alex slays the monday night mic

alex came over last night for a 2 hour vocal session. just laying down some initial backup vocal tracks to "it's up to me", "she won't miss me", "you said" and some leads on "why did it take so long?" ..... red stripes were had. tunes were sung. rice cooker was cooking.

okay, the rice cooker isn't part of it. but still very important.

band practice this afternoon in preparation for our anna troy/tower bar show, and acoustic practice for our Sunday show in LA (loverlee's CD release show).

it's gonna be a busy week, today or tomorrow matt and I are going to be going back through Alex's vocal takes, picking through and finding what's good, and what might need redoing.

and it's definitely official, Oct 9th will be our last session at the studio. pics to be available at that time.

and if you've never seen six feet under, i highly recommend hitting up the library and watching the entire series. we just finished season four (of five). it's a show that, as matt put it, isn't just an escapism show where you like being with the characters, but rather a show that's engaging, and you feel apart of, and like you're learning from the characters. you can sympathize with their situations, and as good or bad as the situations get, it's believable in the way they pan out and how the characters handle them. i only have good things to say, and if you ask nicely and put it on your christmas list, i'm sure santa will be happy to oblige.

we are liars, can we make it up to you on thursday?

so we may have told a small white lie when we said the last session was going to be on friday. cause, well, that wasn't true. we meant oct 9th. honest, we just ... well, sometimes get numbers and months crossed in our heads. so yeah, oct 9th, expect the boys and the studio to reunite for one last fling before the bitter cold of winter sets in.

however, we did have a glorious time working on vocals and picking vocal takes this weekend. matt and i spent about 3 hours on saturday and 3 hours on sunday laying down some sweet vocals ... hrmmm perhaps i should attempt to take pictures of all of this. i'm a horrible historian.

the infamous alex will be gracing the vocal stage (aka, the hallway upstairs in our house) to laydown some harmonies ... and one, soon to be glorious, lead part on "why did it take so long?"

in other news, we'll be playing the tower bar in city heights for the first time, playing with anna troy (and bart) for the first time. except this to be a night to remember. assuming you aren't already going to The National/St. Vincent, or Dan Deacon/Girl Talk, or !!! or .... well, staying home. or washing your hair. don't lie. everyone knows you don't wash it. you dirty kids.

round two (recording and vegas)

well ... it's was round two of recording last saturday. at the ass crack of dawn (9am) we loaded up, set up, rocked up, filled up (on some delicious mex-food at Lolitas), and wrapped up recording around 7pm. 5 more instrument takes done. we laid down the basic tracks (guitar/bass/drums) for ..... "why did it take so long?", "full moon", "not everybody", "it's up to me" and a beefed up version of "warm up (or say goodbye)" ... since all these instruments are being done live in the same room, the feel has just been amazing. it feels less like a recording session and more just a live performance set to (digital) tape.

with the remaining minutes we ran through some of the songs for our next round of recording (slated for sometime at the end of august) and then launched into some of our favorite covers (femme fatale, something to look forward to, being with you, too much monkey business ...... we even did a quick jam of Sweet Jane ... which probably will never see the light of day). then headed over to Scolari's to catch The Frantic Romantic blow our minds, and Secret Apollo continue to rock the house. a great saturday indeed.

sadly, i'm now in erie, PA and will be missing out on much of the weeks great music (the 88 at the casbah, red walls at casbah, um .... probably whoever else is playing the casbah) but i'll be back 11am friday morning, just in time for a run through before our set at the che. poor bailey had to cancel due to some unfortunate circumstances, but our friends Sinfonia Antartica graciously have joined the bill. in addition, it'll be round two in vegas. no word yet on who will accompany us at the beauty bar, but we're playing with Dios Malos. does it really matter?

Che Cafe - Friday, Aug 10th (8:30pm)
sinfonia antartica > the airlines > the modlins > the roman spring

Beauty Bar (in Las Vegas) - Saturday Aug 11th (9:00pm?)
.... um. us and dios malos.