...and the band played on.

for better or worse, we have new songs, a new band, and not-so-new equipment. my guitar is dying a painfully slow death. recording update: these songs are done - or very, very nearly done:

intro
hot springs, arkansas
fake boy
joe g.
washington park

i keep telling jvans that he needs to now compose a companion piece called fake girl to his fake boy. recording is almost done. two of the songs sound like huge arena rock-type things - which leaves me with very mixed feelings. they always start out on acoustic guitar. upon bringing them to the band, they take on a life of their own. the results are...varied. sometimes they work out fine (calvin j comes to mind), sometimes they make me cringe as they are too far removed from the original renderings (accelerator comes to mind). still, listening to one's own voice during rough mixes is a truly humbling experience that i recommend to everyone.

we have recorded at least fifteen songs with joe the recording guy. he has been insanely patient. often times, we show up to record and we are hopelessly unprepared. after yelling and trying to impose some discipline in us, he still manages to help and play some guitar when i get frustrated. i've invited him to play a few songs with us at various shows in the past, yet he always demurs. i'd like to think it's because he's a bit shy but reality dictates that is more likely he does not want to compromise his integrity/dignity/cool quotient in the "metal" community.

speaking of songs, i believe the ep will have a song or two we recorded with benjamin on drums while we were still the other band.

jvans and i decided to record acoustic songs for a separate ep. those sessions start this evening. we are recording in chris' apartment. i suspect this means chris gets to wear the 'producer' badge. i can just see him saying "oh, damn..i forgot to press 'record' on that last take. do it again."