So, here it is – our new website. It\’s like the 19th one that Darren has built for us over the last few years. That\’s one hard-worker, that Darren Paul, God love him.

It is, of course, still one of those \”works in progress\”, so you can expect to see some random changes over the next few days and weeks. And obviously, all the other sections (music, bio, merch, etc) aren\’t here right now. They\’re being worked on still but should be up soon. The old site is still up, however, if you need anything.

Band-wise, we\’re still kinda resting up and not doing much of anything. Next month, we\’re planning to finish up those songs I was telling you about, and then maybe we\’ll try to figure out just what the hell is going on.

We\’re doing a few shows in October. Once I get those details, you should be able to see them over there on the right. (Speaking of the things over there on the right, the mailing sign-up is acting strange for some reason, so if you get an error message, you may want to try again later. Sorry about that.)

If you\’re looking for something more than this pathetic update, I suggest checking out this interview with Dr. Frank conducted by Ben Weasel. Really good stuff.

All for now.

Just an update for those who care, neatly segmented to make it easy to skim through before rolling your eyes and clicking elsewhere…

Recording news:
As you may have heard a thousand times by now, in late August we went to Tulsa and recorded 4 songs with Stephen Egerton (guitar player/ producer of Descendents/ALL) at his new place, Armstrong Recording.

The studio was actually still under construction while we were there, and the fact is we probably spent as much time trouble-shooting wiring issues as we did recording, but that’s not the kind of thing you care about while hanging out with one of your longtime idols. We had so much fun and learned so much in those four days, and even managed to get Stephen to record guitar solos on two of the songs.

This truly was a big deal to us, but I realize that, especially if you aren\’t a Descendents/ALL fan, I may be coming across as a show-offy idiot that needs to shut up and quit being a show-offy idiot. But I just wanted to share it with those of you who might care and say that if you’re a fan of Stephen and in a band of your own, you should go record with him. He’s awesome. (And cheap.)

Here’s the deal with those songs, by the way: two of them are pretty much done and the other two have no vocals yet. And all four still need to be mixed. There’s also the others that we recorded in July at Deedle’s Room. They also need vocals. And need to be mixed.

So, if you didn’t follow that (or didn’t care to), we’ve basically got a six-song EP that will be nearing completion sometime soon, whenever we get around to doing vocals and mixing. At that point, we’ll post some songs on the website and then maybe decide how to – or even if we should – go about releasing it.

Other Tulsa news:
We also went back up there on September 4th to play at the Armstrong Recording Grand Opening. It was an awesome show that included 9(?) bands from all over the country including The Nephews, a band formed specifically for this show, made up of Stephen Egerton on guitar, George from Hagfish on vocals, a guy named Bryan on bass, and 41GB’s own Matt Morris on drums. Their set was made up of mainly Descendents songs, with a little Hagfish and ALL thrown in. It was awesome, and we’re all awaiting their return (hopefully in Dallas this time, since half of the guys are from here).

One more Tulsa thing to add, and I doubt they’ll see this, but we’d like to give a big thanks to Stephen, his wife Natalie and their family for their hospitality while we were there. We really appreciated everything. Also thank you Ryan, Hank and everyone at the studio for tolerating us living there for a brief moment in time.

…and now for the Non-Tulsa News:
Other than finishing up the EP, our only plan for next few months is to have no plan.

Other than a late-October show in Waco and getting our new website on board, we won’t be doing much for the rest the year so that we can work on other non-band-related things and just sort of rest for a while. Since late ‘99, we’ve been in this non-stop cycle of “write-rehearse-record-perform-repeat”. It’s been a very fun cycle, but combined with our other jobs and “obligations”, it’s also been a very draining one. We’re not breaking up or hanging up our hats or anything (although some, outside the band, might prefer it), just resting.

We’re hoping after December, the break, combined with the typical short-lived motivation everyone experiences at the beginning of a new year, may offer us the excitement we need to pick up and jump back into the cycle headfirst.

I just hope it’s not made of concrete.