coming to you at 1000 beats per minute

hiya.

and goodbye michigan.

we've had a few great shows and some technical issues (like having too much time pre-show to drink and play pool). last night was our last night with Canada. very sweet folks. in three cities on this trip we managed to say with three different members of that band. and last night ended in a 13+ person percussion fest' at the tail end of their set. hopefully we all broke some stuff. insta-cred, no? no.

this morning we woke up dark and early and headed to Daytrotter for a session live off the floor that will probably be available sometime in the next coupe months. now we are across the river in davenport, iowa, boust to "ghost-ride the whip to the undead beat." whatever that means, we're gonna do it.

ALERT (Happiness Level Orange): Stephen bought two more sweet robots.

as usual, we are missing some great shows in st. louis while we're gone. i hope you're there.

k, now i've gotta get gone. show starting soon. adios.
ee/GAH

Tracking Day Twelve... Drawing To A Close

we write this at the tail end of 12.5 straight days of tracking

exhaustion is rearing its ugly head and the thought of our nice warm and familiar beds at home have never felt so far away

everyone here has been amazing - we have been staying with Eric E's cousin Amy for the last few days since the robbery and it has been a great boost for us to come home to made "beds" and plenty of food in the fridge

Devin has been a serious trooper this whole time, working over 12 days straight without a break and putting up with all of our shenanigans (robots, coloring books, crosswords, etc.) - we cannot thank him, and the rest of the studio staff, enough for their hard work and hospitality

seems to be the same story as always though...

band wants to make record
band plans to track all of their parts quickly and accurately - "shouldn't take more than 7 days" they say
twelve days into it, they're just now finishing tracking

if you multiply that by how long this would have taken, had we decided to go it on our own at home like the last record, then it is unlikely that we would even be releasing this until 2009!

seriously though, it is exciting to know that we are going home tomorrow, but all of us are completely overjoyed at how things sound and are very glad that we were able to pay so much attention to each these songs - we all came up here wondering if certain songs would fit and if we would have a cohesive record and by about day 3 things already sounded so full coming out of the speakers that the songs began to sound and feel like an album all on their own

mixing will now happen the week of November 12th, with Chad and us communicating by phone and FTP server and mastering will be completed on November 21st with us receiving the final product as we are eating our Turkey Day leftovers on the 23rd

please wish us luck on the drive home - somehow Stephen and Ryan made it to STL in 13 hours earlier in the week, but it is highly doubtful that this group of four will set the same land speed record

there are some very exciting things on the horizon and we will continue to update the blog as to the progress of the record

xoxo

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some things that might have slowed us down a bit...

robots!


getting the perfect angle


new Office episodes online


catching mice


the toy bin in the control room


impromptu drum-offs including neither of our two drummers


food!!!!


12 songs + 7 members


cellphone games

...

Tracking Days Five & Six...

in the short time since our last post, Devin has been replaced by Sparkling "Mike", a tin wind-key robot with real! sparking action, we needed someone who could get the job done for us and "Mike" stepped up to the plate...


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flute, done!


xylophone, done!




guitars, done!

in all seriousness though, Devin is really rocking this shit
since we moved from Inner Ear to Silver Sonya, we have been double-timing these overdubs and it finally feels like it is all coming together
songs are beginning to sound whole and we are growing more and more excited to finish this record

quick re-cap...
Friday: Kiley knocked all of her tracks out like a champ - keys, flute, vocals... + we did group vocals/stomps/claps for three songs
Saturday: Eric E., Mike and Steve's guitars were finished as well as Mike's xylophone parts

here is what is left on our list, we are so close, but there is still a tremendous amount of stuff to do...
Stephen and Mike's last few percussion overdubs
Steve's trumpet and keys
Eric E. and Steve's vocals

week #2 is going to be great - tracking will be finished and mixing will begin

back at the condo we have all started watching Entourage Season 1 - Jeremy Piven is so awesome
we have also taken to listening to the new Radiohead album independently, as opposed to all together in the van on the way to and from the studio - this methodology should make it very interesting on the long drive home when all of our opinions coalesce at once

hopefully we will have some photos of the sites next week when Chad kicks us out of the studio to start mixing - we are all very excited to see the Smithsonian

Ryan and Stephen leave tomorrow to head back to St. Louis, leaving Eric E., Steve, Mike and Eric H. here for the remainder of the week - let's wish them a safe journey home

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we found this place to have some really cool crossword puzzles...
www.bestcrosswords.com