Recordings

Here's a clip of Bill doing some vocal spots. Super awkward without the music in the background, isn't it?




Last night we were able to finish up the last bits of recording for our debut demo.
Our friend Brian Russo was awesome enough to share his time and equipment, and came to our Main Street practice space to set up and record 7 songs for us.

We knocked out drums and scratch guitars last week, guitars and bass last weekend, and then vocals and gang vocals last night.

Due to some pretty bizarre circumstances unfolding in the building that houses our practice space, tracking vocals was almost presented from taking place.
I was the first to arrive at 700 Main, office-building by day, practice space/Twilight Zone by night.
I unlocked the doors, set my things down inside of our practice room, and headed down the hall to check on the bigger room we had been recording inside of. There were a bunch of random middle-aged dudes inside this room, smoking pot and untangling miles and miles of cords and cables.
Heading back down the stairs to wait by the door for the rest of the band, I had to fight my way through a small group of kids riding unicycles inside the main hallway.
While waiting for everyone to show up, I was approached separately by about 4 or 5 yuppie-looking middle-aged people. Each of them handed me these 3x5 pieces of fabric with words embroidered into them. These pieces of fabric were tickets for some "natural healing" seminar taking place on the 6th floor of the building. Assuming I had something to do with the seminar, they handed me their tickets and asked me for questions about directions and seating arrangements and so forth. For whatever reason, it took a bit of effort to convince them that I was NOT involved in their event, and had no idea what they hell they were talking about.
So many strange things happen in this building after 6PM.
If you're ever in the area, wander around our building for a few minutes..your concept of "odd" will be redefined each time you open a new door. Or, play it on the safe side and take my word for it.

After being solicited for drugs, helping a woman unload a ton of fake plants from a van, and taking a few awkward elevator rides with total strangers, the rest of my band had arrived and it was time to get set up for recording.

The natural healing seminar on the 6th floor forced a resident bongo-drum instructor to move his weekly class from its usual spot on 6 down into our recording room on 2. With arms full of cords, mics, and other components, we entered the big concrete room to find a drum circle banging away on bongos oblivious to the world around them.
Because of the ambient noise being generated by this activity, and by the other bands practicing on our floor, we were forced to discuss alternate locations we could use as recording space.
We called just about everyone we knew, and their parents too...anyone with an apartment, basement, garage, etc.... We even considered sneaking in to a random unlocked classroom on a local college campus to record.
After an hour or so of discussing our options, we decided to tough it out and record regardless of the noise.

Because I'm a diva and need a million takes before I'm satisfied, the drum circle was calling it quits around the same time we were ready to start gang vocals.
So we moved everything into a huge concrete room down the hall, gathered around a single central microphone, and shouted snippets of lyrics at the tops of our lungs. Lots of farting and goofing around ensued, but the size of the room really helped the recordings come out awesome.

After 4 or 5 hours had elapsed, we were DONE tracking each aspect of our upcoming 7-song demo. Based on what I heard of the rough, unmixed tracks, I am more stoked on these songs than I've been on anything in a long time. Brian Russo really knows his stuff, and we're all super anxious to get our hands on the finished product so we can get CD's in your hands.


We've got JAY JACOBY illustrating the album artwork. Good dude who has done solid work for a lot of awesome bands. We're definitely looking forward to seeing what he was able to come up with for us. Check out his blog: http://positiveartlook.blogspot.com/

We're planning on releasing a CD, as well as a few "limited edition" tapes.


Stay tuned for updates regarding the recordings!


-Frank Edge