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.

3 part harmonies, 4 star reviews

after pratice on tuesday, al, matt and I stuck around a bit longer to start running through the vocal harmonies for a batch of new songs that'll be on the next album. "bad night's sleep", which relies heavily on a well crafted 3 part harmony (courtesty of mr. sheridan), was sounding surprisingly good for our first run through. we also began working out back up vocals for "we're not quite through." matt and I will probably be attempting another vocal recording session later this weekend, laying em down, gettin'er dun.

i also just received a harmonica (in B) from dee for my birthday (which will go nicely with the 7 harmonica cheapo set i bought that didn't have a B). In theory, i'll be making my harmonica debut on an upcoming track on the album. we'll see how that pans out. Sure we could've changed the key of the song and made it fit in with one of the 7 harmonicas I already had (A or C were included) but the songs in B and, dammit, she's gonna stay in B.

.... the final studio recording session is scheduled for friday, sept 21st. hopefully this time one of us will bring a camera so we can post some pics of us galavanting around the studio.

and lastly, be sure to pick up a copy of SD Music Matters magazine (they're sprinkled around in CD stores, coffeehouses, etc.) as Bart Mendoza gave "Here's To Being Happy" a very flattering review and paired it with a 4 star rating. thanks bart!

day one: vocals

sorry for the delays on posting. we've been busy (and i've been to erie, pennsylvania twice now)

yesterday we started laying down the first set of vocal tracks. unfortunately my mac mini didn't quite have enough juice to keep up as it kept getting tired and quitting on us. a stop to fry's (and double the RAM) should put a stop to that.

"you said" got the vocal treatment from matt and myself, matt also put down some vox for "we're not quite though" and "she won't miss me" .... "with friends like these" seemed to be a bit more elusive ... and might require some T.L.C. .... more on this as it unfolds.

in other news, our podcast interview with pirate pods just was posted, so be sure to check out the band rambling through another interview (http://www.piratepods.com/)

that's all for now, we should be going back to the studio in a couple weeks to finish up the instrument tracks, and the gang will hopefully be making some headway on the vocals. perhaps we'll even post a demo or two for you guys.

until then....