Ok, so maybe we jumped the gun...

mixing is almost there

a few changes need to be done, which Devin will be taking care of tomorrow - shouldn't really be a big deal

otherwise, we are in the home-stretch and just about ready to let TJ tag in to master the record

everything sounds so great - chad and eric really rocked this stuff!
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in other news:
we will be touring/playing this Spring with some of our favorite friends; Bald Eagle, Witch's Hat, Elsinore, Cameron McGill, Sinkane, Canada, Light Pollution, Headlights, etc.!!!!

let us know if you'd like us to come to your city as the touring bug seems to be infecting all of us and we are all itching to get out on the road...







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we hope to see you at The Bluebird on February 8th! we are so lucky to be playing with Early Day Miners, Victoria, and Grace Basement

-mike

mixing = done.

mission accomplished. all the songs are mixed and i'm very happy with the way things turned out. i fly home in a few hours and then we'll evaluate what we have and get our ducks in a row for mastering. heads up, tj.

i'll gush again later about chad, devin, nick and t.j. i 'm sure. but they all worked hard under sometimes strange circumstances to make this project what we all hoped it would be. the scope of the thing exceeded everyones plans and expectations, and their contributions and efforts were greatly appreciated.

chad, nick and i all agree: kriss kross were some hard-ass rappers. investigate for yourselves. the proof is in the videos, my dears.

although i've gotten a bit used to the busy streets of d.c., i kinda can't wait to get back to st. louis. a beer with my friends sounds fantastic. 5000.

"In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns. "
-ee

the home stretch

i am happy to report that 9 songs are completely mixed. in the bag. knocked out' the park. done. yay.

i've extended my stay by a day to wrap this ish up. whew. chad has been mixing his ass off despite still being sick, and all of our thoughts are constantly with him. his devotion to this project has meant a lot to all of us, and i can't express my gratitude enough. anyway...

today, after he banged out "we used to dream about bridges," we revisited all the previous near-completed mixes and hammered them home. turns out there's a rick james thing happening in "i sleep in a bed of scissor arms." who knew? but watching the video of "super freak" on youtube was spectacular. some effed up musical things going on in that song that we never noticed before. not to mention some even more effed up visual things. like, the temptations, seriously? so confused. and every second rick james was on screen i got a little more scared.

wish us luck tomorrow. 3 songs to go.

i hope 2008 is Year of the Pad Thai. yum.

now, "getting back to my emcee status..."
-ee

currently listening to: "Ghost Town" by The Specials
currently watching: "The Godfather"
currently eating: not enough

p.s. apparently the area around the studio used to be "the hooker district." and he tells me this now...

halle berry kissed fred durst, don't tell my dad

here we are. last two days. eek.

saw some more of john "yoko" vogl's artwork for the record today. love him. at least there will be something nice to look at.

last night chad whipped up his most krayzie bone mix yet. suddenly "you and me, madly..." is all tweaked out and dark. the process freaked me out so much i had to put on headphones and take a nap. i woke up to a pretty exciting mix. our mutual love for tchad blake and aural excitement is coming through. i was hoping when we started that he'd take some liberties and push the songs in new directions. done. he struck again today with an even more drastic dose of production fuckery with "a good son." i like risk-taking in mixes. hopefully the rest of the band agrees. time continues to escape, but the man has his head down and is plowing ahead. we spent most of the evening tweaking and ironing things out. all is well.

when i head home it will be interesting to try to sleep without hearing the sounds of screaming and sirens. ah, city life.

today was the first day that i broke down and ate pizza for dinner. i've had much better studio eating habits this time around. no beer/fast food breakdowns. just mango juice and falafel. how old am i?

have you SEEN that fergie video? jesus h.

i can't think straight at the moment. i should probably sleep.

fuzzy wuzzy was a bear.

4 songs to start and the rest to finalize tomorrow. seems crazy, but my fingers and toes are crossed.

i'm a terrible blogger.
-ee

keep it movin', to the k.i.m.

coffee.

new recipe: bread, cheese, veggie chicken patty, garden vegetable cream cheese spread. combine. nuke. yum.

we're in the trenches. i have a separate workstation in the back of the studio to do prep work. nick is gone. chad is owning it. lots of effed up sounds blasting through his new genelecs. very exciting.

more coffeeeee.

"you got me trippin', stumblin'..."

d.c. is icky today. wet and dark. insert comment.

some songs basically done. some yet to be tackled. time, what?

things are looking up for "If I'm The First To Go," "Call It Casual," "Good Behavior," and "ABCDEFGraveyard." praise chad clark.

bounce to the beat now.
-ee

Progress, FINALLY! - Eric Checks In...

just wrapped up day 2 of pre-mixing at silver sonya. i've been working with nick anderson, who was assistant engineer to devin ocampo during the tracking phase and has been assisting chad clark with mixing as well. let me say that nick has been a huge asset to the project and his hard work and attention to detail has not gone unnoticed. we've been holed up in silver sonya's new space (a great loft in d.c. with natural light, tons of instruments and a shower!) for the last couple days and have had a fantastic time hanging out and working together. i think i just had a moment with him and he's not even around right now. gooey.

last night we knocked off early because nick had to work at the galaxy hut, a great small bar in clarendon, va. i closed the place down with him, and met his friend jay, who is a recording engineer originally from st. louis. the best bar conversation i've had in years. normally i shy away from that type of thing because bar conversations tend to veer towards football and office jobs, two things that share an unappealing ickyness and hit the red on my personal yawn-o-meter. but talking about q-tip and how guitars ruin songs made me very happy to be spending the night out and about. nick's generous bartending certainly helped as well. (i should note that a few solo rounds of pool at another nearby establishment earlier in the evening got things started off on the good foot).

tomorrow nick and i will finish prepping the last few songs for the first day of real mixing, which will begin on tuesday with chad.

i am sleepytime station. pop bottles. chat soon.

currently listening to: beck - the information
currently reading: the tender bar by j.r. moehringer
currently eating: veggie chili cheese fries from ben's, a chili joint that blasts goooood r 'n' b
currently remembering that i'm grossed out by: "what-i-did-today" blogs and people who write them

-ee

Album, Christmas Show, Tour, Oh My!

things are uber busy here in the GAH camp...

waiting for this record to be done has been excruciating  - each night, we go to bed with bated breath, hoping to wake up to a finished album - finally, we now have a true idea of when we will get to meet the product of our efforts

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*flashback - mid-November:
Chad Clark, our fearless mixer, contracted some sort of non-Super Bug related flu - it was awful - a week of misery, coupled with an ever-rising temperature resulted in a hospital stay for Mr. Clark - as it turns out, this was no ordinary elementary school influenza - little did we know, Chad had come down with some sort of super virus that the doctors were completely baffled by

after being released from the hospital, Devin and Chad tried to get back to work mixing - serious fatigue began to set in for Chad and we also became aware that he had developed a heart murmur from the ordeal

Chad kept insisting that he was cool and that he was happy to be back at work, but shortly after Thanksgiving, he went under heart surgery to try to correct the problem caused by the illness

everything with the surgery went GREAT and he is doing well at home in DC - hopefully he doesn't have to have another procedure down the line - let's cross our fingers, we are all so happy that he is ok
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OK, so everything considered, coupled with the stress of trying to mix 12 songs by a 7 person band, with almost 40+ tracks per song, from a thousand miles away, we have made some new decisions as to how we will finish this album

on January 5th Eric E. is going to fly to DC and spend a week working with Chad and Nick - no more emails trying to nicely explain a 1db change, no more FTP server madness! - we all agree that this is the absolute best way to get the record finished and it also gives Chad a chance to properly recuperate - so excited

it now looks like the album should be out this April - MANY more details on that to come!

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also, anyone within a reasonable driving distance of this unstoppable cheer-filled weekend, need to get their butts in their cars and head on down to Off Broadway this Friday and Saturday....

Tomko Bomb Co. Presents:
A Very Merry Christmas Spectacular

Friday, December 21st:
The Bureau
The Hibernauts
Witch's Hat (Columbia, MO)
The Makeshift Gentlemen
& VIDEOLOGY

Saturday, December 22nd:
So Many Dynamos
Gentleman Auction House
Light Pollution (Dekalb, IL)
Laite
& VIDEOLOGY

@ Off Broadway - 3509 Lemp Ave, St. Louis, MO 63118
Doors @ 8:30pm | Show @ 9:00pm | $7 | 18+

Sponsored By: Vintage Vinyl, KDHX 88.1FM, Dividing By Zero, Apples & Cats
Media and TheBungaloo.com.

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ok, so last but not least...

we will be coming to a town near YOU in 2008 - keep tuned in to our Myspace page to keep up with the tour as it is confirmed - we are so lucky to be playing with, and playing for, a bunch of our most favorite friends on this trip and already, we have multiple dates with Bald Eagle, Witch's Hat, and So Many Dynamos in the works