consistency is boring, continuity is imperative

We finished tracking our upcoming full length last Friday! Our friend Jade "I'm allergic to cats" Sotto swooped in and saved the day laying down some lovely harmonies. She’s a one take gal, like Alex "give a little whistle" Craver, except he’s a man-boy. We are planning on heading back to Woodstock in the next couple of weeks to finish mixing the album and hopefully visit some animals. We ended up laying down fourteen tracks in five days! Chris Bittner, our engineer, was amazing! The album is wildly inconsistent, or as I like to say fun and unpredictable. We were very concerned with continuity, paying close attention to flow. The trickiest part about having so many different band members, and consequently opinions, is finding that connecting link. We’ve come to embrace our brand of chaos, it’s been liberating to let go. I think people are going to love the songs we’ve written, I know that we do.
brandon

prize fighters on the brink of a precipice

next to the leather couch in the control room there is an ancient globe, set on lizard's feet flaky with age. you can lift the top off of the globe and inside there rests an array of goblets and shot glasses, begging to be filled with the choicest liquors. outside, the sky is indistinguishable from the ground. justin has just made some home fries and they smell bangin. yesterday evening we all celebrated rather hard; making merry whilst recording the latest song. lots of screaming and head bobbing. many howls. growls. shaking jowels and trowels digging into the back of our throats, searching for the bloodthirsty dave the goats within. as far as the album is concerned, the songs don't sound the same. it is a concept album about variety. it is a convenience store, where one can buy strawberry blunts alongside succulent pizza pringles. ice cold doctor pepper sharing quarters with peanut butter. our first video is going to be alex as the genie of robin williams, juggling stars and naked babes and yelling. i'm tiiiiiiiiired today we are recording the cello and some clapping and tambourine shaking. jade is arriving this evening to lay down some vocals. disregard that part about anything being a concept album. we were just joking around. and i think we're almost out of brandy! i hope that everyone is staying inside and chilling the fuck out today, the roads are nasty.

sweet dreams

i'm feeling blue

Blue is no longer a color or a state of mind, Blue is actually an Australian Herding dog who lives here at the studio. Dogs have a way of sneaking up into my heart, making me feel like I was born into the wrong species. Yep, I'm a dog trapped in a man's body... get the scalpel. It's nice to have Blue around, he crawls up into your lap and cuddles with you in one quick motion. He buries his head in your lap. He barks at you for no apparent reason. I have a dog at home named Lou and he's a Pug/Jack Russell mix. The Jack Russell brings out his snout to a more suitable length making him look eternally like a Mastiff puppy. Needless to say, I love my dog more than life itself. Blue and Lou would probably get along. Blue likes to herd things, move them with his will power. He would have a good time moving Lou in and out of rooms. Lou would think that this was a game and run around in circles. Blue is a giant control freak who hates cameras and attacks the unlucky person who attempts to capture his essence. Lou doesn't mind getting his picture snapped. He always happens to look cute when he sees that flash.
Blue was kicked in the face by horse, making him blind in one eye. His head has a visible dent in it. He's not very good at depth perception, constantly jumping towards thing that aren't anywhere near him. He likes to lick his butt. Today he was cleaning his rear and farted right into his own face. The noise/smell startled him and he ran out into the dining room. I love dogs.
good talk,
brandon

Tues - fuckin - Day

It's tuesday, a wet wintery warmth envelops monstrous cabin of a studio nestled in the delightfully rural goat infested landscape, and eggs are just fucking great! Alcoholic supplies are running low, Brandon and Graham and I were talking and think we'll have to wait till after 5 to drink but we said that yesterday, and the stress was just terrible! So today we're working on our last two songs, one of of em is just a buncha random noise, it's like really freaking avant garde and you probably won't understand. The other is just a straight up rocker, and a real tick tocker. So yeah, that's pretty much it, God Bless, we love some of you!

This is our engineer Chris. He now likes Miller Lite. He is good people.

part 2: Ahead of Schedule

For the first time ever we are way ahead of schedule in the studio. We are set up to record live, and that is what we are doing. The goal is to record a great take of a song, not a perfect take. I have always wanted to record this way. I am firm believer that the old way is the best way, and a lot of the things we are doing in this session are similar to the way the old greats did it. Plus, I can play like shit and not feel bad about it. Mistakes are actually few and far between anyway. We are way ahead of schedule, which means we will be able to get to a lot of the plans we had for this album. It is exciting to say the least. Time for some coffee + hidden ingredient, and some old fashioned eggs and toast.

recording blog part 1

The studio that we are recording at is nestled in a huge Catskill Mountain compound. The compound has a pre-school, a farm, a studio, and various cabins spread all over the property. On the farm there are 25 goats, 2 cows, 2 horses, 2 pigs, millions of chickens, peacocks, and ducks, rabbits, and llamas. The first thing I needed to check was to see if the Demon Goat "Dave" was still alive. He was just a "kid" when I first recorded here. The first I saw of him he was beating up a younger goat, some things never change. I won't tell you what he did when the other guys first saw him (hint: it involves urination in a innappropriate way, even for farm animals). R Kelly would love this goat.