On the way...

En route...got out of Cincinnati around 745am.

Damage report is small this time:

1 car battery


That's it. We'll be in the car for the next 12 hours so send us messages.

Photos:

Last nite, Ian, Justine, and Matt W came over for a while:




First Light:




Beds:






Uncle Tom hard at work:




(L to R) Ric, Seth, and Ric listening:




Weird Vox amp that Moss has been using:




THE solo:





One of the places where vocals happen:





Mine and Hananel's guitar junk:





Drums:





The last thing we did today was about 20 minutes of space noise:









Parting shot of the Control Room:

Done

Tracking is DONE!


(pics soon)

It's just the end of the world (of warcraft)

So it seems like we are only hours from the last tracking session on this album. All that'll be left to do after today will be mixing and producing, which got us wondering about what to do with the album artwork. I already know what company will be pressing the CDs for us (I've used them before and they have great PR, do great work, and have great prices), but thus far the actual artwork itself is lacking. One of the ideas was using a Chilean artist that Moss and I both admire greatly. We'll be blogging regularly once we get back after we have these ideas set down on paper...right now I think we need to really just brainstorm and get everything written down that we want to do for the album.

This is really shaping up to be the album that we really wanted it to be. It's hard to believe that nearly a year ago, Hananel and I were invited to come up to JRC's basement studio by Chris and Moss. I've really appreciated the freedom to express what I want to express by what I play or sing. There are parts on this album that I helped come up with, but I wouldn't have made any advances towards that end without the encouragement and support of the rest of the band. In fact, I'd say that without working with these guys extensively over the past few months, most of the ideas I've had regarding anything on this album would have never come to fruition.

Last night, we started up video chats with all sorts of people...Matt Wilkerson...Ian Fritzsche...even Justine Spinoza. We figured out how to conference call, too. If you have a moment during the day, download Skype to your computer and search for the name sethgolden. I'll leave this laptop on most of the day I think, and we'll all be here tonight after we go out to eat to celebrate.

Word.

-seth

states.

...and just in case you were wondering, Matt Wilkerson, the score is now 11-2, and I'm the one who's layin' down the boom hand.

There is no spoon... There is no 3rd movie in the Matrix trilogy...

Last night, we finally accomplished something notable: we made Chris watch The Matrix. It is such a good movie. I really wish they would finish the trilogy and make the third movie. Wouldn't it be wonderful to finally see the Winonaryderchowski siblings complete the story arc? Too bad there isn't a third Matrix movie...

Question:

Has anyone been to The Sub? Is it still there?

-chall

Day 3?

Lots of work is getting done...we're pretty much finished with vocals, a few stray guitar parts left and some atmosphere...and we might have a record tracked.

Here's some pics:


Han cutting vocals:




Moss finally gave in to the peer pressure and did a little tracking with a Vox:




Ric @ work:




Justin Golden (from the band Ellery) is engineering the tracking of a lot of our vocals:




This is where we live:





Earlier we went downtown to a bookstore and scored some print. Right now, Seth is cooking veggie and real burgers, Han is washing dishes, Moss is watching TV, and I'm writing. Tonite is a likely candidate for a film to be watched on. Tomorrow morning we tie up a few loose ends and then have a listening party after lunch to see if it all sounds like we think it does.

At this point it looks like we'll be exiting early Saturday morning.

And yes, I'm still working on the Podcast. The hard part was getting the M4a file out of the Mac, into the PC, and converted to .WAV so it could be edited. Yes, I find it ironic that I had to use my PC to edit the Podcast because the Mac didn't really know how. It's all digital.

-chall

Well, we're not THAT bored

At least, Hananel isn't.


She's discovered Ninety-Nine Nights, a game I have on Xbox 360 that I brought up here. She's been playing it for the past hour I think...I think that makes her a gamer now.

So tonight will be a night of gaming, video watching, and enjoying the cool air provided by our fans.

Chris got many tracks done on guitar. So did John. We've had a productive day. I have not much else to report. Oh, other than quesadillas.

Kicking out the jams

So Hannelore and I kicked out some vocal jams this morning. The best part is that we did a lot of scratch vocals last time that served their purpose far better than we thought they did originally. I'm practically done with vocals. I'm going to punch an extra part (previously unheard by any audience except the Mavity) for "Dreaming with the Upsides Down" that should add a bit of dynamic buildup for the end of the song.

As far as bass goes, I've got a synth bass track to put on "Simulacra." In addition, depending on how things go over the next few days, we might do noise tracks for the same song. We're moving along fairly quickly, almost on a par with the last trip up. I think we got more structure established the last time, so it formed a foundation for us to actually work on some of that this time.

I'm not sure what we're doing for lunch, but my belly says it needs to happen soon.

-seth

Day Two

So, currently, vocals are happening...at least until lunch...then back to guitars.

We went to Indiana last nite. If Moss ever gets on here, I'll let him tell the story.

I think we recorded our first podcast last nite...I still have to edit it though...so maybe we'll have it up tonite.

More later.


-chall

One day done

So...the count for the first day is:

Moss and myself made major ground on the guitar side...lots of keepers today...

Tomorrow, we're gonna split the day...half vocals, half guitar.

At the moment...Seth is cooking us a fine pasta dinner...then, we'll probably go for a drive around town...then possibly watch a film...yeah...the rockstar life.

Don't forget to call the rockline 229-233-4724, and send all donations/carepackages/hate mail/food to:
The Monastery
2601 Stanton Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45206


Maybe we'll start that Podcast tonite.

-chall

Enough about this recording stuff

We just got done talking to Matt Wilkerson on Skype. By talking, we mean video chat.

So if you want to chat with the whole band, get Skype. Look for my name (sethgolden or Seth Golden) and the whole band will be on later tonight to chat. We may in fact do a philosophy table discussion with everyone that is invited to it.

Plus, here's cool photo editing this Mac does.



If anyone else gets bored, let us know...right now, Hananel and I are the only ones not having to do anything like work or whatever...

-seth

Manic Monday

So...I got keeper tracks on 4 tunes before lunch...Moss is back to work now.

Here's some photos:

Me tracking guitfiddles:







This is what the other folks do while guitars happen:



(seth with his new Mac...I think it runs on Biodiesel)



Moss just started some guitar tracks:




Through these amps:




Uncle Tom:






Seth is trying to video chat on his Mac with the Wilkersons. I have to go see what that means.

-chall

Addition

We have some new additions to the family:












1 Stroup Handmade Guitar
1 Ampeg Amp


Happy Graduation.


-chall

Hello

Hello Kaitlin and Sarah.

Pics cause we're bored

Habanela:





Seth:





Moss:





Chall:





Chance:

(photo not available)



Emily:





So, we are down a member....Chance was not able to join us this trip. We miss him already.

We had Cracker Barrel for lunch and I'm happy about that.

We're somewhere in Tennessee now...Emily predicts that we'll arive at 5:43EST. I hope she's correct.


-chall

Here we go again...

We successfully exited Thomasville around 6am this morning....it's 10am now and we're just North of Atlanta...Moss is driving, Seth is Navigating...I'm writing, and Hannelore is sleeping. Actually, we're all still pretty much asleep (except for Moss hopefully) and don't have much else to say at this point...so we'll provide you with a running update of our soundtrack.

1. Dan Warren mixed CD
2. "Get A Grip" Aerosmith
3. "2.0" Garbage
4. "Absolutions" Muse
5. Best of The Pixies
6. "Heartbreak Station" Cinderella
7. Maylene and the Sons of Disaster II
8. "Abbey Road" The Beatles
9. "Blister Soul" Vigilantes of Love
10. "The Heath McNease Fanclub Meets Tonite" Heath McNease

-chall

Over the river and through the woods...

...to Hordinski's house we go...

We're leaving Sunday morning at 5:30 AM. Same deal as last time....we'll keep everyone updated daily on this blog.

And for your viewing pleasure, a picture from our last show.

On to June?

Alan Parsons has declared April to be officially over. In that case, come to our show Saturday night at The Sub...doors at 9pm. There's someone famous opening for us.

-chall

Not that we had any doubt...

But, here is farther proof that Ben Noethe is important.






Yeah, he drew that on his pants.



-chall

It's official...

We have the album title.

-chall

We've been working on our moves (updated)

John's hair finally grew back out.

And Chris has been working on this move for jumping off of the stage.

Don't act like you aren't impressed...

Here's Chance with a wicked drum solo.

And I've been working on learning guitar to fill in here and there. I like to be versatile.

And here we have Hananel warming up at the piano for one of the slower songs in our set.

Is it April?

So...updates...

Show on May 4th at The Submarine...us and Heath Mcnease. It'll pretty much change your life.

We're trying to book more shows for May/June/July...we'd like to play some more out of town shows...nothing too far...Probably from Gainesville to Macon, Dothan to Waycross...that's our area of interest right now. If anyone has venue info for any cities in that radius, let us know.

We'll be returning to Ohio in May to finish tracking for the album. We're hoping to have the album out in early to mid June...much has to happen...artwork, song sequence, title, etc...so let's make lists (herndon). How about some suggestions? Even if we don't use any of them, should be funny to kick around some album titles.

Seth and I were just kicking around the idea of doing a weekly band Podcast. I don't really know what that is, and I don't think any of us own Ipods or Macs, but we're gonna do it anyway. I'm not sure what it'll contain...a bit of rock, some stories, other music we like, new songs we're working on, theories, ramblings, Aqua Teen quotes, and most likely some John Herndon sentences. Look for it soon.

In other news, we need to hire a hype coordinator. Anyone wanna apply?

The Ums and Kid Hart are playing Big Daddy's Saturday nite. Since we didn't get to see them last weekend, I'm pretty sure we'll be in attendance for that...as you should be also.

Speaking of those bands...we're gonna try and have them up at The Sub real soon. I'll keep you posted.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Tallahassee Police department for stopping the rock Friday nite. We were one song away from melting the faces off of everyone in attendance...and that could have gotten messy.

All for now.

-chall

Authoritah.

I wonder if The Police ever got shut down by the police. I wonder, in such a case, if that would be considered Police on police violence. I wonder if the rap song "#*%@ the Police" was talking about cops or the band, The Police. In the case of the latter, that would disgrace the name of The Police, which is "The Police"...
We should change our name to The Cops. That would be cool, because then when uptight baby-boomers call The Cops, we would could show up at their house and read them their rights with our amps turned up to 11. And they couldn't complain, because, "hey music-scrooges, you're the ones who called The Cops. I'm sorry we interrupted your American Idle, but we just wanted to let you know that you have the right to remain silent--use it, or we'll use it for ya..."

-- by jlm. puns fully intended. aquateen references completely fictional and not intended to resemble anyone living or dead.

The Police

We seem to have a problem with authority...
So far, here's the score.

John Moss vs. Carvin Guitar Strap

John: 0

Carvin Guitar Strap: 1.

Seth Golden with straw vs. Strawberry within a Strawberry Milkshake
Seth: 0
Strawberry: 1

Hananel Mavity with two straws vs. Strawberry in Strawberry Milkshake
Hananel: 1
Strawberry: 0

Chance Holt vs. any pair of drumsticks for more than 30 minutes at a time
Chance: 1
Drumsticks: 0

Chris Hall vs. Steak & Shake (or, really, any restaurant)
Chris: 0
Steak & Shake: 1

And finally...
Icarus Aquanaut vs. Tallahassee's finest
IA: 0
Police: 1

But from what I hear, you aren't really a rockstar until you've gotten shut down by the police.
To be fair for our band, we did play for about 3 songs longer than the police wanted us to. We ended on a cover of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees." I think that was worth it.

Stay tuned. May 4th will be awesome.

-seth, IA

and we'll stroll to the edge of the world.

we're back in Thomasville.
Ana took photos on Sunday, and those photos are good.
Chris continues to fight with the city of cincinnati, which, in turn, continues to prove that it is the most ridiculous city ever.
come to our show in Tallahassee next weekend.
that's all for now.
--jlm

Home

We did make it home around 3am Saturday morning. Lots of traffic delays on I75, but considering that we stopped about 8 times, 12.5 hours is decent time.

So, what next?

Tomorrow we have a photoshoot...we've got at least 2 shows scheduled so far in the coming weeks...in May we'll return to Ohio to finish tracking and mixing. Not exactly sure of all the dates yet...but it will most likely be mid-to-late May. We're hoping for a June release on the album...but a lot has to happen before then...artwork, album title, song sequence, etc...so don't hold us to that.

One more thing...we realized on Friday that something had been stolen out of our truck...we just missed is because we were so amazed that all the expensive stuff was still there. Unfortunately, what got taked was probably the most valuable thung in the truck on a personal level...my case of mixed CD's. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love making mix CD's for people...it's a bit of a compulsive art form for me...and I still do it the old fashioned way...no computers involved. Just piles of CD's and Vinyl...and a legal pad. In that case was around 100 mixed CD's that I've made for people over the last 6 or 7 years...mixes that reminded me of different times and different people...many who I don't get to see anymore. I also had 3 Dan Warren mixed CD's in there that I made from cassette masters he gave me in the 90's...plus some of his newer stuff...a bootleg live Normals show...and my iSLErO live anthology collection. Of all the things they could have taken from my truck...I would have given them the GPS, stereo, seats, battery, tires, whatever...but not my mixed CD case. They didn't touch my store-bought CD cases...and I had about 300 of those in the truck...I probably would have rather them taken them...because they're all replaceable. The mistake I made was that I used a computer laptop case as a CD holder...so they probably thought they were getting a laptop...and I'm certain that when they got down the road...and found out they just had a bunch of mixed CD's...they probably just chunked it in the trash. So, for nothing I lost 7 years worth of memories and a $200 window. Thanks.

-chall

Please pray for icarus aquanaut as Seth takes a shift at the wheel.

Chance's driving is infinitely excellent; Seth's driving, however, is not. Torch the Seth, Meatwad.
...
in other news, i'm already ready to return to Ohio.
...
we're back in Georgia, and we're listening to Stryper. how ya like them apples?
...
can we watch The Prestige again?
...
the band wouldn't stop at the wal-mart down from the Cracker Barrel so i could purchase the new Modest Mouse album.
...
the new Norah Jones album is infinitely excellent; Seth's driving, however, is not. Torch the Seth, Meatwad.
...
i have a monkey.

--john lake moss

On the road again...soon

We found a glass place that could squeeze us in this afternoon...so the window should be fixed right after lunch...and then we hit the road. Is is unlikely that we will make the whole drive today. We'll probably in up in Athens or Milledgeville tonite, then get up in the morning and drive the rest of the way...so we should be home by 2pm on Saturday. We had a blast last nite...good pizza, and a good film. I think we all managed to get a pretty good nite of sleep and we're ready to hit the road.
Here's the tally for this trip:

Drums tracks are finished
Bass Tracks are finished with maybe the exception of a few effects overdubs
Most of Seth's vocals are finished
Some of Hananel's vocals are finished
Most of Moss's guitar tracks are finished
I have finished guitar tracks for two songs
We have one broken window

We're coming home with some VERY rough mixes...but they're still pretty far from being finished...looks like the return trip will be in mid-May...but, we're still working out all the details for that.

We'll probably update some more at some point after we hit the road. Later.

-chall

Goodbye Ohio...we left you some Glass...

So we got done with a productive day of tracking to find this:








They didn't take anything...just broke a window...happened between lunch and 6pm...pretty gutsy breaking out a window in broad daylite. Arrrggghhh....sets us back leaving tomorrow cause we have to find a glass place that can squeeze us in. Anyway...this tracking session is officially over...we'll have one more tracking session on May, then mixing. We're all about to have some quality band hang out time...more thoughts later or maybe tomorrow.

-chall

Pics for Thursday

Quesadilla time:





We're very clean:





Vocal tracks today:




I'm not sure who took this...I found it on the camera:




-chall