This hole i've dug is mine forever

(*this picture used w/o permission, if i should take it down, let me know and i will, but anyone reading this you can find the picture here: http://explodingdog.com/title/thisholeivedugisminefor.html, and go there and buy something)

phew, with all that legality out of the way, i'm reminded of this exploding dog (the website, not the animal) picture from back in college (circa '02). This seems to be where we're at, and embody the state of the album.

Last night the originally planned final session wasn't quite that, but was still a very productive headway maker on the last changes of the songs. Consequently though, that means we've still got a bit more work to due and with the impending deadline (and the now already planned release date) we're in super crunch mode. we've got a show in LA tonight, a day to get our heads on straight and then we leave for the oregon trails. while we're out our producer-extrodinaire Mark (and pretty much the only friend we see) will be handling the horns duties and getting those sounding good on the songs. our sunday session went real well, dayna was super nice and did a great job with the parts (and I also know, if i want horns on a song, i shouldn't write it in B. Bb would've been fine, or C ... but of course, bull's eye on the terrible "nearly-all-sharps" key ... great work eric!)

anyway, the album is coming .. it's almost done ... and really, we're very excited about it. sadly some of the songs are gonna get cut, we'll see how it pans out, but there's no way all that we've recorded can make the album. but we'll find someway to get the discarded tracks out.

also, consequently, this uberbusyness has caused us to miss some great shows. We wanted to roll over to the casbah last night to catch Joanie and the boys but that didn't pan out. Red Pony Clock's return to the Habitat=missed. Writer's had a few shows around town now that i've been unable to catch and i forgot to buy tickets for the Luce Loft show on wed. so another strike against us. *sigh* .... i swear when all this is said and done, we're having a pizza party. until then .... the modlins are in the hole we dug for ourselves.

quick update

a quick, quick update late in the afternoon this fine thursday .... where are we at?

for those anxiously waiting (please let there be a few of you out there) we've got our hands in many pots right now. we've resumed practices at our rehearsal space and so that we can be ready to road test a few of the new songs on tour, most likely long beach will get the first glimpse of some of the new material. we've been consistently staying up til about 12:30pm each night working and reworking mixes. a final mix session with our head sound engineer kyle slated for next Monday, with currently no studio in our price range to house the session .... this should be interesting. a word document 17 pages long (and growing!) with tentative fixes, new rerecords, ideas and bad puns. another horn session schedule in covina for sunday (pre-lbc) with a trumpet player named dayna (and if she turns out to be the same dayna that shares her name with dayna's vegan special [holla! torpasta!] i'm gonna be stoked). a hometown show to kick off the tour at Radio Room Saturday Night (be there or be absent!). seriously, i think it's coming to an end (famous last words). we're gonna start scouting some mastering locations in the next week or so, we've got some time to sit on the final mixes. first drafts of the artwork from Patrick came in last week (or was it early this week) and they look sweet. kinda reminds me of The Exfriends "Joy Of Life" except sans band, and it's all painted. and there's .... ah, you'll see.

so yeah ..... we're busy .... and we'll have MUCH MORE to unveil in the coming weeks/months.... but more than anything else, mark your calendars for June 5th ... CD Release @ The Whistlestop in South Park (host of our last 2 CD releases) ..... we're finally playing with our good friends Writer (who've been bloggin' up a storm on their tour out to SXSW) .... it's going to be .... wait for it .....

... legendary.

the modlins are coming ....

spring 09 northwest tour

here's that poster alex was talking about ..... click to enlage

prowess

so last night before eric and mark headed over to meet up with roy, gabe and chicken at The Habitat, and before matt and i got to work fine-tuning more vocals and making it so noone will ever know i messed up the bass part at 1 min 56 seconds in to [insert super secret song title here], there was a discussion on the word "prowess". actual, it wasn't really a discussion as much as it was a sentence, a sentence saying that the word "prowess" is only really ever used in either the context of superheroes, or immediately following the word "sexual". what does that have to do with anything? who knows. what i do know is that i just finished updating the left column of this blog : The Modlins are coming... : with the next 7 shows, all of which happen before the end of this month of March!

yes, the Modlins are coming to The Radio Room here in San Diego, The Que Sera in LBC, The Knitting Factory Hollywood, and then we go up, up to the Red Room in the PDX, Eugene's Black Forest, Olympia WA's LeVoyeur, back to the PDX for Mississippi Pizza, and then back home. Sadly, we are skipping NorCal entirely because apparently, noone wants us there. Oh well. With friends like these, you know?

Or something. Poster coming soon?

props to Crocodiles

we are (slowly) moving towards what might be considered the start of finishing touches on album 3, which might actually have a name before it comes out, and getting ready for a tour up the west coast in a few weeks. on a similar level (or something), Skull Kontrol reports that The Crocodiles are going to be opening for The Faint in April and May. nice.