If you\’re up for it, come out to Clearview on Friday. We\’ll play a lot of new songs and even more old ones. Not to mention Darlington, The Immigrants and Moxie will be there. Details here.

This is our last show before we begin recording.

Okay, less than 48 hours now until Studio Day #1. Like I mentioned in the rough schedule below, all we care about walking away with at the end of the weekend are the drum tracks. If any of the scratch guitar is usable, great, but it doesn\’t really matter (although it would be nice for it to at least be in tune this time around). And actually, for a lot of the drum tracking, I won\’t even be playing scratch guitar. For about half of the songs, Matt will be playing along to a crude demo. Why? Well, even though the demos are admittedly crude (crappy guitar tone, incomplete parts, ect.), the tempos are pretty right on, and in the past, not recording the songs at the correct speed and trying to fix it afterwards has proven to be a huge annoyance that\’s not worth the effort. So, this way we\’ve been able to get it right ahead of time so we won\’t end up with any unpleasant surprises (tempo-wise, anyway).

A month ago, when I learned that the soonest we could get into the studio was August 30th, I was just about ready to pull my hair out, because I felt like we were completely prepared and energized to go in there and knock everything out with ease right then (after all, we\’ve been playing most of these songs close to a year now). And usually the way it works, for me anyway, is whenever you\’re very excited about something you should go do it right then, because if you wait, that excitement will turn into frantic uncertainty and career questioning, which ultimately turns into complete apathy.

Well, as it turns out, having this extra month didn\’t end with me proclaiming to world that I never want to touch a guitar as long as I live. It actually worked to our advantage: in addition to becoming even more comfortable with the songs, it\’s forced us to constantly tweak the arrangements which has resulted in better performance and a very confident mindset- something nice to have during a recording session. Even just last night, Matt and I changed some drum stuff around (one song almost completely). Pretty subtle stuff, granted, but it\’s this kind of subtle stuff that, had it not been changed, could drive a person crazy for the rest of their life.

Theoretically, this could be a never-ending process. I mean, what if we were to postpone the recording another month? Wouldn\’t we find more things that could be tweaked, making the final outcome that much better? Theoretically: yes. But, the thing is, the more time that goes by, the closer you get to reaching that point where you start getting worse, physically and mentally. And before you know it you\’re headed down Apathy Road. I\’m glad we\’re starting on it this weekend because I think we\’re already stretching the limits. And although it\’s very hard not to keep constantly thinking about changing things until they are on tape, I\’m going to have to. Draining all my energy before the recording actually starts is not a mistake I wish to repeat.

Is there anything more fun than singing cover songs, accompanied by a keyboard\’s cheesey music presets, while sitting in a living room full of people who are watching TV? Probably not.

Is there anything more annoying than listening to a guy sing cover songs, accompanied by a keyboard\’s cheesey music presets, while you\’re trying to watch TV? Probably not.

This has been one of the slowest weeks I\’ve ever encountered, although I can\’t believe it\’s already over.

My job as a cameraman (AKA \”camera-dude\”) sometimes places me smack dab in the middle of a situation that I would probably never experience otherwise. This week is a good example: I spent three 12-hour days with firemen. If I wasn\’t riding around on a truck or an engine (I now know the difference) chasing fires and fuel spills, I was either out on \”the box\” (an ambulance) witnessing some of the most horrific things I\’ve ever seen in my life, or I was sitting at a firehouse shooting the bull with some the smartest/ funniest men on earth while eating some of the best \”home\”-cooked food in America.

No way I could ever do what these guys do – although, this is coming from a guy who gets queezy when getting a haircut. Nonetheless, I had an insanely good time, although I\’m just now realizing it.

I haven\’t seen or heard about a new up-and-coming local band in quite a while. Most of the young bands I\’ve seen recently seem to be more concerned with how high they can jump than their music. Get a damn trampoline and give me your guitar, that\’s what I say.

Somewhere around here there\’s got to be a secretly frustrated high school kid with an older brother who owns a guitar. One day, while the older brother is away, the kid will pick it up, noodle around a bit and decide he wants to learn how to actually play it. After weeks of intense practice and callous formations, the kid will begin to realize that he doesn\’t have to know all of the chords in Mel Bay\’s Guitar Chord Guide Book, and that he can get through the verse and chorus of his favorite song by knowing only two or three (although, he\’ll eventually realize that in order to play the bridge correctly, he will need Mel\’s help with that minor chord).

Then all of a sudden, without even thinking about it, the kid will realize that instead of just complaining to his one friend (who only sort of understands) about the jerks that surround him, he can turn his rage (angst, if you will) into music.

So, the kid will go home and sit in his room for hours, putting his own words and melody to those same two or three chords. Once he\’s finished, he\’ll be so amazed at how easy and fun it was, and he\’ll immediately start on another one.

A fairly large amount of time will go by before the kid actually plays his song for somebody else. In fact, even weeks later, after meeting his \”drummer\” (definition: a guy with access to a drumset or at least partial drumset), they will only play cover songs the first couple times they \”jam\”.

Then two things will happen: 1) the band (now consisting of the kid, the drummer, and the \”bass player\” — *definition: the person who was able to aquire an old bass and Peavy combo amp from his neighbor\’s garage) will collectively get tired of using the ridiculous word \”jam\” and replace it with the other overused, but more accurate word \”practice\” and 2) the kid will finally introduce the songs he wrote into their set.

He\’ll be real sneaky about it, too. One day he\’ll just start playing one of them and wait for the others to ask, \”What\’s that?\” The kid will have 2 prepared answers and the one he ends up using will depend on the tone of their voice: if the question is accompanied by forrowed brows and looks of disgust, the kid will simply reply, \”I don\’t know, just something stupid I heard somewhere…\” and trail off into the opening riff of another cover song. This will not be the case, however. Instead of forrowed brows, the bandmates will have raised eyebrows and excitement in their words when they ask in a rather high, innocent voice \”What\’s that?\”

The kid will be somewhat embarrassed and unable to hold back a smile when answering, \”It\’s just something I made up.\” The rest, as they say, will be history.

I can\’t wait.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Thanks to those who came out to the Coffee Haus show on Friday. We appreciate you. It was a lot of fun for us, especially the second set (after that group of loud preppy kids left) when we got a chance to \”try out\” a few of the new ones. Thanks for humoring us…

-August 17th we\’ll be playing a show at the Backroom in Austin. Go to the shows page for more info and other upcoming shows.

-We start recording in a few weeks. Stay tuned…

-Sign up for the 41GB Newsletter of Sorts at the bottom of this page.

I\’m taking a break from recording some demo songs for our new album. My ears are pretty much shot, my head is pounding and I really need a drink. I\’m feeling a lot better about the new songs now. I have to admit that for a while there, I was almost thinking about ditching most of these and waiting for some new ones to come along. It wouldn\’t have been the first time.

Earlier this year, we recorded 15 songs and ended up only finishing three. Lack of focus was pretty much the reason: we weren’t exactly sure what we were going for- except just releasing another album. I felt like we were just “going through the motions” and figured that it wouldn’t benefit us (or anyone else) to release something we weren’t insanely passionate about.

It turned out to be a good thing that we did what we did though, because everything is really coming together now. Even just six short months after the \”abandonment\”, our playing has improved a great deal, and we\’ve had the chance to really fine-tune the songs. Ten of the songs from earlier in the year will be re-recorded along three new ones. We’re really excited this time around and if everything works out right, we think it\’s going to be a truly neat-o album. I guess only time will tell if it actually amounts to anything to anyone else.

Oh yeah, we haven’t “officially” started recording yet, so I bet my current positive attitude will change about 45 times before it’s all over. Just wait.