The degree

I made copies of employee files this morning and saw private, confidential details of people in a firm. It was sort of depressing... but nothing to get me down.

I googled "philosophy degree jobs" and came up with this.

At least someone is doing well with their pursued college interests. (Not that I'm doing so badly.)

I'm still kicking around several career directions that aren't really being acted on. Kicking ideas around in one's head isn't the same as just acting. I'm good at the first thing, not so good at the second thing. I'm trying to be more proactive about the second thing.

Where the i Divides has stepped it up a bit. The other members of the band are showing more interest in the future of the band. They are working on different projects, if ever so slowly. Joe got us booked into our residency in Milwaukee. As of October 26 we play at the Jazz Estate every last Sunday of the month. Next gig? November 30th starting around 8:30 pm. We are supposed to fill three hours (which we can do, just barely at this point.) so were learning a few more covers. That means the usual arguments have started again.

For the last six months or so, Danny has talked about nothing but playing "Stars" by the band Hum. You know that song, "She missed the train to Mars, she's out back counting stars." I started to figure out the guitar parts (drop D tuning) and then Joe started to say he wouldn't do that song. Danny than said he wasn't going to learn any more covers until we got that one into our song book. We finally had it out on that song and we all decided to let it go. Thank you Danny. My next pick is "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne. It fits nicely with our approach that we've taken to apply the Where the i Divides signature sound (delay-laden guitar and vocals, melodic bass, power drumming) and stamp it on songs that don't really employ those devices. "Bachelorette" by Bjork is a nice example of that. Our version of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" is pretty standard and our version of "Running to Stand Still" by U2 flat out needs to either be played acoustic or dropped.

I don't know what other songs are going to be added. Joe and Danny are talking about Live songs, "Lakini's Juice" or "Iris". Travis refuses to pick another song. He claims his pick of "Bachelorette" was his last. Now all he talks about is covering Rob Bass and C&C Music Factory. Funny, entertaining, extremely open to interpretation, but I think Joe and Danny aren't entirely on board... Maybe I need to convince them to give it a shot. Look at what Ben Folds did with "Bitches Aint Shit".

Aside from that, the album is several hours away from a fifth pass at the mixes. I tacked on backing vocals on Monday night. I forgot to record the part I add live on "Do the Math." That'll happen Saturday morning. And maybe I'll have a fifth pass ready for the band to listen to by the time they show up for rehearsal at two. It's a good deadline to eastablish. The cover art is done. We need to establish the graphic design aspect but that'll happen in due time.

Once the album is complete (less some additional vocals from my sister over Christmas) I'm shifting my focus to two things. First, completing demos for the eleven new songs so the rest of the band has something to practice and write parts with. Second, I'm getting the beginning stages of our official website formulated and hope to have something (Anything's better than a bounce to the myspace page.) It's all up in the air as to how much depth and detail I'm going to put into it, but it'll be tasteful.

I would apologize to my readers for being away for a while, but I've been busy and stuff. You know, excuses. Once I get the damn wireless router set up at home, I'll have the internets in my room. That'll make things a little easire for me to get online and start spreading the Where the i Divides brand. (I hate marketing but I'm pretty much the only one who'll do it for the band. Yech.)

Word.

Why do I make these "promises"?

The band is in some sort of limbo state as usual.

We are still working on the "Acoustic Set" with the additional singer. The band decided that she wasn't going to work out for the electrified performances. It was nice to have that drama ironed out.

And then Danny said he couldn't play our upcoming show on May 1st at the Klinic at 9 P.M. because he has to work on Friday. He told me this on the phone last Friday afterknoon a few minutes after he told me he had stayed up late the night before playing Magic with his buddies. I finished off my second shift of the split in the afterknoon and called Joe and Travis to talk about eliminating dead weight from the band. I just get tired of explaining to him every time we have a potential show on a weeknight that we aren't going to be given weekend slots without first proving we can draw a crowd. We can't draw a crowd without performing for people in the first place... it's rather Catch-22. Joe said that I shouldn't talk to Danny and that he would discuss it with him and convince him to play this show. This will come up again. (The next weeknight show.)

I stumbled onto an Indie Band Survival Guide epublished by some band. I read through some of their advice and think I should make the effort to read rest of it. Any advice (good or bad) is still something to stimulate the mind.

Then there's also the idea I've been kicking around of a solo project EP. Last night I came up with a title that I thought would be awesome, but it's something I heard a little while ago that I had forgotten that I had heard about. So yeah... I'm gunna start working on that tonight. Writing a new batch songs that are slightly different from what Where the i Divides is doing. (less drama).

And I have a dentist appointment at 2:30... ha ha ha....

practice

I don't have time today to fully expand on this idea... practice. For some reason, I'm actually busy today. And the stink of cigarettes is serious motivation to get this crap done and get out of here asap. I would love take some time and reflect on the role of practice in lots of things in life, but instead I'll get out as much as I can in five minutes...

Where the i Divides has practice tonight. I'm guessing it's going to be three out of four. There's really no need for it tonight if Danny doesn't show up. The rest of us know our parts if we're playing acoustic or electric. His showing up switches Travis to some other instrument and results in me teaching the songs to him on guitar.

I don't really want to do any of this. It seems like an exercise in futility to continue to rehearse songs that are waning in my excitment to perform them, especially when it means that our performances of this variance on our sound will be in places that are less agreeable than our only home these days... the Klinic.

Travis made a good point today about the importance of us using this as an opportunity to get into places like lame-ass coffee houses that shy away from aplification and run in terror at the thought of a distorted guitar (let alone a distorted bass.)

Yeah.

Yet, I'm still a little giddy for this evening. It's not like the summer writing sessions with Travis in the barn. (Those were the best times, so far.) There's conflict here. Mostly related to the constant stresses and tensions that I get from certain members and their innability to focus.

Part of me really wants to stake a new claim and try diggin somewhere else. It's not the music I'm not excited about, it's the line up I'm beginning to think is what's killing my motivation. (See my desire to keep exploring in the vein of the newest song "California Scheemin'; the Legend of Sun-Paw and Rankle")

Weekend up

My last guitar session was yesterday. Trav and I finished up our tracks on USA #1 and Cinnamon Magic. I only have four songs where I need to set up some studio effects on certain tracks but we can do that during the mixing process. Then I'll be done. (yeah right!)

Next on the docket, vocals. Joe says he is ready for them. He's not going through a sordid breakup/divorce this time around so we'll see what happens. It has been almost 12 months to the day since we first began recording this stupid album. I'm feeling certain that he will do better this time.

Danny's buddy is working on cover art. He's an out of work tattoo artist who offered to come up with some different illustrations for the title "Over the Terminal Moraine". I think he has a good sense of what I envision it to be and he'll do a good job on it. It's nice to have other artists who are willing to throw in their two cents on an idea. I could do it myself, but I have felt like I wouldn't ever come up with something that I would be happy with. Best to let someone else do it and keep my hands out of it.

That's about it for studio news.

I'm more wrapped up in writing new songs. I've come up with a really cool idea using a long delay (about 700 milliseconds with a short decay) that has a couple differnt ways it can be applied. This isn't going to be one of those "crank it out and move on to the next idea" songs either. It's going to be a slow, over-analyzed process of trying out different directions for additional sections and then a long and tedious process of arranging those parts into an aggreable addition the the "Doomsday Annie" collection. (Doomsday Annie is the working title for the new batch of songs. Our idea was to create some sort of linking concept for our second album and Trav offered up an idea of a comet smashing into the earth. He penned a list of potential situations that differnt people would be in on their last night alive before the planet was destroyed and I've sort of used those ideas as mental templates for sonic directions. Once Joe gets lyrics written I'm going to make him settle on a track order and then take the time to come up with some musical segues. We talked about doing that with some of the songs on the first album but we were already in the thick of recording and I didn't want to take the time in the studio (on the clock) to craft some half-baked ideas that may or may not have worked out.)

We already have 8 new songs in reserve.
Track list (most titles are working titles only):
1. Cinnamon Magic
2. Pandora's Fuzzbox
3. Yes or No
4. The Lament of Al Davis
5. Cicada City
6. Enough Already
7. Nine
8. Song That Saves the World From Self-destruction

Writing the songs for our second album could potentially be finished in the next few months, allowing that I don't decide some songs suck and shouldn't be used. (Cicada City) I've got other new ideas popping up all the time, I just need to take the time to flesh them out. That's mainly due to my new christmas present of an ipod. It's been three years since my old mp3 player was ripped off. It makes the hours standing in front of a computer and copier fly by these days. Work? No... I was researching new ideas to steal and use on upcomming songs.

But enough about that... other mysteries occupy my mind and I'm keeping those in my head.

34 days (or so) until the Birkie!

Another post?

I suck at keeping up with this blog.

That said, when I actually have time to sit and post, I generally have nothing to say.

The band is still in the process of retracking the album. On Friday the status was four songs left for the album that needed guitar work, two songs that needed the organ, and two new demos that needed guitars. On Saturday, I learned that we're going to rerecord one of the songs for the third time (the drums are still unsatisfactory.) That took the demos out of the equation since we can rerecord them as well and hopefully get a better couple of tracks out of the next drum session.

With that news, I went out to the studio yesterday to finish off guitar and organ tracks. It went well. Better and faster than I had expected. I had to make up a new part for "Believe" (what a cheesy title) with the organ since I don't play that part live ever. Something or something, I got the chords down and then took a couple stabs at it before I got it close to good. (good enough)

I had been having some thoughts about "The Moment" and the original guitar part that I play live. Changing it up, dropping it off this recorded version entirely. The organ holds down those same chords so it sort of makes that track redundant. The ambient slide space noise additives over the verses got a little more "rowdy" this time around and it bleeds into the guitar solo section. It's slowly becoming the song I envisioned it last February. (I could even go out and record some walking on snow and city noise to throw in there... hmmm. Maybe.) I decided to add a lead part over the second verse and will probably revisit the song on my next trip out there. Some lead-in noise in A minor??? Sure.

"Transfusion" went smoothly except for the solo. I've never had a set idea for that solo. It's just an attempt at making noise that sometimes comes off great and most times leaves me mad at myself for not actually writing one. (Prescribed solos are so boring though!) I have a starting point and an ending, but I never know where to go in the middle. Something with at least three notes to add texture...

This means that now I've got "USA #1" left to track. Yuck! It's one of the first songs I wrote for this band. Lots of delay. Requires some precise timing with the rhythm section that they're not up to speed on yet. Once the drums, bass, and guitars are tracked for that song, it's then only one session to set up automation on the guitars with studio effects and finally time to put the vocals down.

We started this damn project last February. February 2nd.

One year later... still not done, (but it sounds a lot better this time.)

We have seven new songs that are musically complete. Three new ideas that we are assembling and working out still. If we used all of those songs we could record the second album real soon. Put it out the same time we put ot the first one... Sure. (Chinese Democracy anyone?)

But enough about the band... even though that's what I spend most of my time working on.

The "Holiday" season is almost over. Pretty soon, I'll be able to go to work for five days and then work for the band for two. Gym four nights a week. The normal routine. No out of town guests. No days off in the middle of the week. No closing down bars and working in the morning. Just a mindless gear-turning as the saturnic return nears and passes... oh boy.

Re: a better pen pal...

This is a somewhat mundane exchange but there's some "gem lines" in here. We are discussing plans to get together for a writing session for the band as well as plans for Thanksgiving at the Ranch (and I am also talking about video games.)

----- I Wrote -----

Travis,
I think I was better off not going to see (Scott) Beo-WHA?.. but I saw it anyway. It's alright but not great. I have decided I want to have relations with a tomb-raider-lips demon and then have my spawn terrorize my village/kingdom. (What kind of wicked spawn would my seed produce? That is Question I should not have posited.)

(Quotational overuse alert!)

Tonight, I have erronously made plans to "hang out" with some friends from "High" School. We are "Going" to get "dinner" and then make "mashed potatos & confetti salsa" (not what you hope it is... neither confetti served as "salsa" or salsa used as "confetti")

...so I'm going to head to the gym right-short after work, speed home and obtain my bestickered guitar, return to the ithsmuths for dinner and then perchance meet you at the rehearsal space around eight? I forgot about our deal for this evening as I was hurrying to get to the theater last night after a "Killer" back workout all-the-while conversing with my friend about her visit to "Mad-City" for the holy-day. I think it was the endorphines... I was a little loopy last night... forgot.

You dig?

Z

--- Travis wrote: -----
> zach...
>
>i still have those mother gem jams running thru my
> head...bbb...bbb..bbb...beats!
>
> i'm thinking of e-mailing her, but i have no clue as
> to what i would say...
>
> i don't want to make you rush your plans this
> eve...if you would rather put jamming off or whatnot
> its fine by me...not saying that i wouldn't want to
> work on things; but its really up to you...i don't
> want to be out/up too late in any regard as i/we
> need a fast start tomorrow...(never too late to get
> one).
>
> speaking of which, we should most likely start
> cementing those plans now...takes about two hours to
> get up there...i'd like to be there all day to hang
> with family, sorry if that would bore you...we'll
> have football to entertain us...which starts at
> 11:30, so maybe meet at my place and leave around 9
> or so? ideas? we could meet earlier and have
> breakfast, since the meal will be later in the
> day...i can feel the cement starting to dry...
>
> have to go back to coding, chat more later
> trs13

---- I responded ----

HC-13

If it's up to me, I would rather stay up a little late (as I will be doing so anyway... those MVP awards don't get handed out like divorce certificates or hydrocodone 'scripts...) but if you want to bag it early than that's okay too. (Not really.)

Here's the scoop though. My friend is leaving Joliet and heading this way probably right now. Baring traffic and weather, she should arrive around 6:30 or so. But I think she's not counting on the traffic being as bad as I think it's going to be.

Maybe we can get together early? Say six? Call it after a few hours. I don't know. Oh wait, what did my horrorscope say? Be firm and direct with what you want today/keep a low profile.

I am not opposed to breakfast in the a.m. tomorrow. (I'm never opposed to breakfast, you know that. "It's like we're married. 'What are you doing? You don't like shrimp!'" Especially bacon. Bacon pureed with coffee and ice cream what a delicious breakfast shake that would be. Funnel Cakes? Tomb raider lips intact? Check.)

I'll meet you at the 114 at 6.30. Does that work? It better. I'll head over to the other thing at about eight. From there, I'll hang out till ten, head home and finish off the regular 2007 season. (Since when did Junior Seau play for the 'Skins? Douchebag=Junior Seau!) (11-3, 4500+ yards passing, 1500+ yards rushing. MONSTER OFFENSE!!! My rush defense has held opponents to 600 yards but my pass defense sucks. The fact that I outscore everyone makes that a moot point. But on the flip side, I've got something like 40 interceptions from my corners and safeties. Crazy mad stat party. I really should up the difficulty settings but then it would be a challenge and I'm not really in this for the challenge (if I was, I would be playing NHL '04), I get enough of that in my daily routine (yeah right). It's all about stomping the shit out of someone on the field with ease, to relax.)

But back to breakfast, are there going to be any places open for breakfast? Think about it...

Six thirty? You on? You in? You out? (Turn on, Tune in, Hulk out.) Vintage.

Z-Hype

Ripe, ripped from the headlines

As I was running around Friday from "Health and Family" to "Federal Court" to FedexKinkos to the dank pits I work in, supposedly called "office" (whatever the hell that means), I kept seeing the cover o' the Wisco State Journal in those little newspaper dispenser boxes. (I want that job! Standing in one place for years, taking change and giving out crosswords and horrorscopes.)

Headline went something like, "LOOKIE HERE! DUDE SHOT PEOPLE, GA-HILK!!! NOW READ THE 911 TRANSCRIPTS, HERE, FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!" (assuming you know how to read)

I don't want this to come across as another post where I almost spill my dirty secret that I don't think death is as big a deal as we all are supposed to act/believe/feel whatever. I don't like to explain that to people. It's taken years of hard work to build up these kinds of callouses. Alright.

Okay, so a guy shot his ex and some kids at a party... and he killed them and they were all pretty much kids, and it's a small town, it's terribly tragic (and I do emphasize that it is tragic) in the sense that it was needless and pointless and irrational to a fault. But what bothered me was the way in which the headline and the front page "picture" seemed like a gratuitous attempt to get me to buy the paper because it had excerpts of the emergency phone calls in a larger type... "he's shooting to kill, he shot at my head, etc." (Not the actual quotes.)

What I'm getting at is this. (Attention: point. (none?)more like question posed, accusations thrown, fingers pointed, self critically analyzed/scrutinized(check the half-baked ideas section of the index.))

At what point does my standing, gawking a-gape, rubbernecking become not so much a social concern for the community I live in and instead turn into just another passing story like so much of an lazy afterknoon serial?

This is a dark well to tread water in... Or as if it's a two week shoot of baboons during the drought season and they're desperate enough to drink water from the river that's full of large predatory reptiles. When one of 'em gets snapped, the rest sit and chatter and squawk, in groups of convenient comfort.

Or maybe I'm just repulsed by my own morbid curiosity of the details...

Rather that, Here's something more enjoyable to read, lovingly crafted by Joey Vochich

* * * * * * * * *

10/11/07...
lookingforward to it...
to what?...

(to the chaos and structure of tomorrow...)

ummmmmm.....

we will make eye contact with humans...and then hide...
(hide and move on...)

and i see
and you
and me
and us...
the same humans...but only sometimes.

us?

(U.S.A....U.S.A....U.S.A.!!!!!!!!!!!)

You see dear friend, i grew up during the Cold War.
With trick el down economy and darkness...
and thank god (god damn it!)
(for the sheen of pop).

with BOOM boxes and breakin 2 electric boogaloo...

yes, here we are...at the cusp of another christmas and another city winter

of patterns and local news and
disgusting!
just give me the weather forcast god damn it!!!
...and the score of the game...

the big game...

("the future cannot and will not be predicted...")

this is all i know...
this is all i want to know...

let go let go let go...

LETS GO!!!!!

(these words are not just for me...they are for you as well)

HEAVY DUDE...HEAVY!!

(and the clerk at the coffee house had the kind of eye contact that slows you down and forces you to
acknowledge the existence of suffering)...heavy....
"ummm...i'll take a large coffee."
"for here or to go?"
"ummm....to go."
"room for cream?"
"ummmm..."

"what does eric clapton and coffee have in common?"
"they both suck without cream."

"i like my coffee the way i like my men...strong and black."

(that's not funny.)

through discipline and dedication to what's for the best...

i lie to myself at least ten times a day...20+ on the weekends...
especially when i'm....

yeah yeah yeah...
god damn it...fuck...fuck it!
the clouds are rolling in....

shivering in the am, now that the earth is tilting
the other way

BlueBlockers ready...with made in china and american belly/baby fat

phlegm release almost complete...
for another this and another that

another yes and no and maybe...asapasapasapasap...

(whispering now...voice cracking...u.s.a...u.s.a...)

with moments of losing and winning and not caring...
this is it...

another 15minutes of you and me and whatever...

Thank you for reading.

If you just sneezed, well then god bless you child.

If you just yawned, you should go to sleep or drink some water.

Love,

Joe

* * * * * * * * *

Will do. Think I need both. Can't sleep. Two days now.

Storm brewing in the back of my skull, right behind the pounding headache that started towards the end of rehearsal today. First time back as the full band since August. Too Long. But we worked on our rendition of Bjork's Bachelorette
to the point of having a sense that we can at some point pull it off live, in front of people.

It's a great song. Off a great album. I consider it the perfect soundtrack to a solo day on Lone Peak with a Burton Frontier 170.

Alright. Kristin, you complained that my posts weren't as involved as they used to be. Here's a masterwork of cutting, pasting, and "researching" in the wee hour o' tha' morn'. Madden's calling and there's much studio work to do tomorrow (don't worry, it's all bass tracks. I can sleep through most of it, then veto it on final listen through and make "Thirteen" do it again.)

(and I keep trying to put apostrophes where they don't belong. Time to stop typing.)

Band Drama!!! and the Fox

Travis.

After spending a nice relaxing dinner (they prepared a delicious salmon chowder that I couldn't resist, and you know how picky I am about eating fish, but alas, I had to eat it because it was superbly delicious) with Sam and Megan and Will and Chris in Oconomowoc followed with heavy lifting (I helped unload their moving truck full of their new kitchen from Ikea) I rolled into downtown Milwaukee (I think I saw "the Fox" but it was kinda foggy and misty and my wipers don't work too well these days so maybe it was just a "harley dude" with a fedora) and kicked it with Joey Vochich (OMG it's Joey Fukin Vochich!) for a few hours talking about stuff (like his surreal week past)

He said that he had already sent an e-mail to Jakey at the Klinic confirming our acceptence of his offer to perform on Friday night as Where the i Divides without an answer from Danny J. and he said that he did so because if Danny makes up some excuse, we're going to play the show without him, performing our acoustic set in a similar fashion to last Tuesday in Greenfield park.

We also discussed the rediculously long message on Danny's answering machine and how it prevented me from leaving him a message on Saturday (due to my refusal to listen to it, YET AGAIN) and he said that he's going to "have words" with him about that along with some other assorted odds and ends that are irking him about Danny's "lack of professionalism". I think our showdown between the two of them may soon be more than just speculation. I can't wait to see them go at it. Bring my popcorn and my beer and get a front row seat. It should be a good one. Joe's got the height advantage but Danny has the military training.

I'll see you later tonight and we'll discuss these things in greater depth and also perhaps a missive about the struggling Milwaukee Brewers and their trouncing given out last eve in Arizona. What a game!!!

Sincerely,

Zach

--- Travis wrote:

> by the way (no, not that awful chili peppers song)

> what's the good word on that prospective klinic

> Friday night deal? are we going to be rocking? i

> hope so...

>

Strom a commin'

So whatever.

Slacking at work. Not doing what needs to be done. I'm waiting for the day to end. Where the i Divides is playing it's first "acoustic" show tonight at a park in Milwaukee. It's not an offical acoustic show (hence the quotes) because I'm playing my electric and Trav is playing an acoustic. Danny is not going to be at this gig. He's decided that he needs his sleep over playing a weekday show. (Yeah. We're that important that people will want us on the weekends because we draw so many fans and whatever.)

The recording that we have been ingnoring all summer has finally been "scrapped" thanks largely in part to our Engineer admitting that he improperly mic'ed the drums and that he was having a hell of a time mixing drums and that affects the overall sound and then Dan wants to retrack everything with click track (why the hell didn't he want to do that six months ago? I'll never know.) So we're going to re-record everything for a great deal of a steal that our engineer is throwing our way. I don't want it to take forever but it's going to.

I have decided that I'm going to simplify the number of guitar tracks. Strip things down. Work with bare minimum. Avoid the excess because that seems to create a void in the recordings. There's so much guitar that it kinda becomes a wash-out and fades into the back. It's not as distinct and discernable as it could/should be.

We have learned a few things from our first run at recording. I hope to got it doesn't take us 100 hours like the last time. (we'll see)

Not feelin' it today.

I really could care less about just about everything today.

I've been forcing myself to listen to the rough mixes of the recording I've been working on with Where the i Divides and it's terribly frustrating.

Why, you ask? I don't want to talk about it. Lets just say that my expectations for this project and the expectations of my collaborators aren't on the same page. I'm tired of hearing the mistakes, the constant rhythm section jangling like it's all important, all the time. I'm tired of the warble in Joe's "I'm like the guy from R.E.M, right?" voice. I just want to re-track a few guitar parts, a few terrible vocal parts and then mix the songs alone with the engineer and let the rest of the band decide after I've made my "Producer's Cut."

But that's not here or there.

Gas Prices though... That's apparently all the rage these days.

(I love the picture. I want to shop at the Open Pant'ry!)

Personal news update

Last post was me on a misery Monday. I've been ground down by the constant recording sessions debacles that seem to be cropping up. (Crapping up?) Over the weekend, I finished guitar tracks and some organ tracks. Travis has this super awesome vintage GE organ that has a fan in it. You plug it in and press a key and it opens a valve that lets air through to create a sound. It's pitched different than a true 440 so we're going to have to shift the entire track but thank god for protools (sometimes).

Saturday went well. Stuff was accomplished. I'm still not happy with the solo I recorded for the song "Jerkwater". It's not quite right. It's there, it's okay, but it lacks the power and flow that I need it to have. I listened to some Tool yesterday and am thinking I'm going to use that as a point of reference for that song. Acoustic guitar tracks on the song "Stepped Oustide" need to be re-recorded since we used Travis' Kingston and it's next to impossible to tune and my acoustic tuner needs new batteries. I'll have to drag my Oscar Schmidt acoustic in. The strings are probably rusted to hell and will break when I start playing but that'll just add to the overall effect I was going for with the Kingston. And then we got to Sunday...

Joe was late due to the time shift. We hammered away at one song for three point five hours with retakes and punches but it just wasn't coming out quite right. Then we switched songs and that wasn't working to well either. Compounded with the fact that Joe has changed most of the lyrics that he's had for the last year, it wasn't a good session. By the end, he was sprawled out on the floor, destitute and forlorn. So we listened to all of the songs, what we have so far and that just shot his confidence till the clip was empty. Stupid singers and their esteem issues. He said that "Plastic Head" needs to be retracked. All of it. The song was too slow. That'll take a day to do the instruments. He said that the solo on "One Day" needs to be the one I recorded for the demo. He wants to redo all vocal tracks. (roll eyes.)

So I had this haunting sensation on Monday that everything I was doing was wrong. Working on music is just a pipe dream that's going to go nowhere and I'm just living in Madison right now pretty much for the music. If it weren't for the band, I'd probably be living in Montana right now. I almost moved on Tuesday. Packed up and left. Figure out the situation after the deed was done.

Tuesday came and went with me pushing through the day. I filled out my application for paralegal school and sent it in. I've had it for almost a month now and it took me five minutes to fill out. No commitment, just the idea of doing something that I'm not apeshit hogwash crazy about, and going to school for it. But it travels, like turning wrenches or pouring drinks. You can do it anywhere.

So that's it. I'm in a funk... the rickety funk of springtime doldrums. Pushing myself past the easy road to depression and keeping focused on getting myself out from under the opression of the B.O.A Constrictor so I can finally tell them to fuck off for good.

Gotta get some work done now. These services don't enter themselves into the computer.

Recording up-to-date

The band has been left out of the discussion mix for a while. We've been recording through the month of February, pretty much every Saturday and Sunday.

Yesterday was the first day of vocal tracking. Joe was spot on for some songs and sounded good all around. He had been practicing. I noticed one song that was "finished" has either a guitar or a bass track that out of tune. I'm hoping that it's not the bass. If it is, I have to re-rent the amp we used, and I don't really want to do that.

There are guitar parts that need to be retooled. Several solos that still need to be worked out. It's been a long process of weekends spent listening actively. And that's the part that really wears you out.

We (the band) are hoping to have all twelve tracks "in the can" in three to four more sessions. That's including acoustic guitar parts, the remaining electric guitar parts, keyboard parts, vocals on half the songs (roughly) and several re-records of bass tracks. I'm tired of being optimistic about this process ever being over. It'll end, eventually.

And then you can buy it. But why would you want to?

What the crap... this is great!!!

The namesake of this blog created this on taxdollars!!!!

Recording is work

I have the mixed tracks of the demos and they sound okay. Could be better.

It's been fun trying to explain to the engineer that I want the replacement guitar track to drop out at the end and the original one to come back in. I recorded it last Saturday night without the bass and there's no drums in that section so I just did it willy nilly and now it's out of sync with the bass line. I haven't listened to the new version of it yet but I'll do that this evening.

Joe is in charge of putting the songs up on the myspace page. I don't know if he's got them up yet. I'll put an offical announcement up when they're there. They're aren't Great tracks. They're demos to get us local gigs and that's about it. Our next goal is to prep for our New Years Eve show and get squared away on recording the songs. That will be the nightmare of nitpicking and paining over a wrong note here, a flat note there, a drum hit that's a few milliseconds off. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not looking forward to it.

I also have to go see Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny tonight! Of course, it wasn't going to stay around long in theaters and I've been procrastinating in seeing it and tonight's the last night in town so it'll have to be done.

I do suggest seeing Jesus Camp. It's not a bad film, as far as the horror genre goes. I love the fact that the camp session is called, "Kids on Fire." Classic Irony.