Oh my friends it looks as though we are closer than we thought to finishing this record. I suspect that aside from a possible, leisurely sax/trumpet overdub session we should be able to complete tracking in the four day stint we have scheduled this week. Our progress is due in no small part to our fabulous strings players. Big thanks to Beth, Josh and Veronica. They came in on Saturday and tracked their bits thus completing two more songs. Hallelujah!

We've spent this week working out songs for this Thursday's acoustic show in Quincy, MA at the Beachcomber. We've rearranged some tunes from Leave Your Light On and Fan the Fury. There may even be a new track in there. It's actually been a lot of fun working within the acoustic bounds. We may have to do more of these shows. It's kind of a nice way to really showcase the songs.

So that's all been very good news and one of my greater solaces in a time when this wedding business is becoming increasingly irritating. I'm not much the kind for traditional anythings and now that the fun of picking out our outfits has waned and the phones calls from home have increased, I'm trying to set my mind on the cruise that will directly follow the reception. I really would have been extremely happy exchanging rings at Boston City Hall with a great big dinner with friends and family, but I'm sure after all this dust settles all the chaos will be overshadowed by our immense joy... and this awesome cruise! Until then we'll continue trying on those rings.

I'm also in the middle of a reading frenzy. I'm on three books and must recommend them all to you. The first is a classic: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I'm sure Henry's mentioned that we've been on this Holmes kick ever since we saw the Downey movie (thanks Brendo for the recommendation). The Granada series is pretty fantastic too. It's a very easy world to get lost in. Also on my shelf is Revolution in the Head given to Henry and I by our friend Ben. This book recounts the details on all the Beatle recording sessions. Need I say more on why I'm so in love with it? Now I know how those crazy tape loops on Tomorrow Never Knows were made. The third is a book by rock n roll poetess Patti Smith called Just Kids. Thanks to James for the heads up on that one! It chronicles her friendship with artistic soul mate Robert Mapplethorpe, a true artist in his own right. A glorious story set to a New York 60s/70s backdrop. I can't put it down.

One more thing I'd like to mention was a documentary on an event Henry and I participated in called One Night Band. If you're not familiar, the basic idea is they took all these Boston musicians and broke them up into bands with people they'd never played with before and some they'd never even met. These groups went back to designated rehearsal spaces to write three songs and learn one cover which they would perform later that night before an audience that didn't know what to expect. We were very happy that Boston Band Crush asked us to take part and even better was the proceeds when to Zumix, an organization that introduces kids in East Boston to awesomeness of playing an instrument. Really, everyone should play something. We'd be much happier human beings. You can check out Henry and I in that docu below.

One Night Band: The Movie from Band Crush on Vimeo.

Cheers,

Jen

As has been mentioned before, the entire recording process has been strange compared to the other records we've made. Yesterday, we laid down all drums and percussion (plus a guide vocal at the very end) and nothing else. We get into these things where something's really weird and we laugh about it, but we keep going with it. Most art (or music or what-have-you) that I enjoy has an arc of "really, I don't give a fuck right now what other people are going to think of this, I'm having too much fun". More than at any other time, we've really hit our stride with this record. It's been strange. It's been fun. (Even when it's been frustrating.) There's still a bit of mixing to get through afterward, but it'll be interesting to hear everything as one solid, cogent piece.

Fuck, my back is killing me right now. Don't remember doing any heavy lifting yesterday.

Bit of an active day yesterday in the Boston music scene (which doesn't actually exist, I'm told). It all stemmed from an article in the Phoenix on our compatriots in Township. It was a perfect storm of toe-steppin'. The angle of the article is pretty lame to begin with, and I'm not sure when/where this alleged inter-scene quibbling is actually happening. Maybe I'm just assuming most people in their [shudder at the hypenated word] "micro-scene" don't actually care enough to get into real fights with anyone else. Entirely possible I'm so ensconced in my own thing that I don't actually care about the politics and am missing something.

I guess I just find the whole thing a dumb 700-word look in the rearview. Yes, there has been sniping and bullshit in the past and will continue into the future, but even at its bleakest Boston's always had a bedrock of support for local music (trust me, I've been to lots and lots of places; we've got it so goddamn good here). However, in the last year something really wonderful's happened—due in no small part to the increasing prevalence of social media—and a lot of us are actually out there supporting each other regardless of flavor. (How else could you explain Brendan Boogie, Tad McKitterick, and Duncan Wilder Johnson in the same band?)

All I'm saying is there are people—a lot of people—that give a passionate fuck about music in this town (not going to call it a scene, not going to call it a scene, not going to...) working harder than they need to to get it out there, and this article was pretty insulting. If you want to be that hipster caricature about it, then... I don't know... have fun crying to Justin Timberlake at night.

Bleah. I have to get out of here soon. Studio and whatnot.

Be good, and please quitcherbitchin.
Henry

Last night showed Jen some ideas I had for rearranging a couple of old songs we've been thinking of bringing back into the set. The between-albums limbo has a flavor all its own, and do enjoy it. You're not actively pushing any particular record, so you feel free to play whatever you damn well please. (Not that you can't do that anyway, but when there are time constraints guess which songs are getting cut from the set? I don't think there's anything on LYLO under 12 minutes.)

Speaking of that album (and this jogged memory theme running rampant lately), remembered something from those sessions. We were adding overdubs to Release and we kept telling Hugh about this untested idea we had for an organ during the verses just holding out a B♭. He was skeptical, but in the spirit of the whole album we tried it out anyway. It sounded hilarious, we bust out laughing, and never spoke of it again. In our heads we were going for a Hammond B3 sound. What we got was obnoxious Casio church organ.

Meeting up with Charles tonight. I forget why (murder?), but I suppose I'll find out.

Been watching a lot of the old Jeremy Brett/Sherlock Holmes series lately. More badass than I remember it. Holmes is kind of a fucked up dude who dabbles in cocaine. Dunno how I missed that in school. Bretty went a little insane over the role as well. He played Holmes for ten years.

Picked up a couple CDs this past weekend. Pablo Honey, which I surprisingly didn't have, and that first Macy Gray album. Laugh if you will, but I Try was one of the best songs of the 90s. Better than some of the shit coming out then, that's ferdamnsure.

Back in the studio this weekend, finally laying down strings. Should be exciting. Getting better at this string arranging shit with each record. If all goes as planned, should be a gorgeous result.

One would hope, anyway.

Henry's phone

Had a good chat with Jen this morning at the train platform. For years I've been lazily lobbying for an Aloud podcast, but the big mystery is this: what the hell would it be about? We concluded it would be great/appropriate to do a series on the next tour.

Been mostly avoiding any in-depth reading of news lately—particularly about our wonderfully productive political process. It's depressing the piss out of me. Trying to stave off the rot of cynicism as I age, as well as the urge to move to Canada, so tuning out for a spell seems necessary. (I doubt the planet will miss yours truly anyway.)

Halfway through this book by the late John Jerome called The Writing Trade. It's mainly his journal entries for the whole of 1989. He talks a lot about the weather and walking his dogs, but there are interesting nuggets in there about writing. Primarily, I'm enjoying the time capsule element of this book. Computers weren't ubiquitous and were almost novelty then. A writer had the option of using other methods of getting his work done. He dedicates a couple paragraphs to describe what I can only assume is Lotus Notes. It's interesting, and it makes me want to head on over to the typewriter shop, though—like the aforementioned podcast—I'd have little idea what to actually do with it.

Also started reading some Dostoyevsky. I may actually finish it.

Off running errands (Jesus H, do I *hate* malls), but here are three things that did pop up on my radar that I want to comment on (and you can't stop me):

- Further proof that it's possible to be both spineless and a bully: Google's 2010 Blogocide. Speaking of, after decades of their dickery, the RIAA may want to consider going the MTV route of becoming a recursive acronym (lest the public be confused they have anything to do with music).

- Further proof that Sarah Palin is a phony: her vacuous speech at the Teabagger's convention.

- Further proof that John Mayer is a douchebag: his recent spate of classy interviews. (I've been saying this guy's a douche for years. Nice of ya'll to finally catch up. :)

No studio this weekend. Would like to catch up on years of lost sleep, but I know this shan't happen. Tomorrow: crepes, window shopping for new amps, and a movie.

Henry's phone

Anyone else ever get these random flashes of long-buried inconsequential memory?

For a good portion of my childhood, me and my family lived with my grandparents (if not technically, then practically) in the Alapattah neighborhood of downtown Miami. Here's a Google Map of the area. Take a trip through my old hood with street view. It was even more depressing in 1989. Hell, looking at the place I spent part of my childhood in makes me sad; road and sidewalk's all paved now, but there were two huge, beautiful trees in the front yard that grew there for decades, with an Audi parked underneath that my gramps was convinced would run again. It never did.

Anyway...

My little trip down memory lane doesn't have much to do with the house. Whenever my dad (or whomever) would pick me up from school, it would involve a short sojourn along the Dolphin Expressway, past the Orange Bowl (which I'm told is no longer there), and then off the exit for 12th Ave. For years, there were always two things I would see without fail. The first is the Columbia Cedars building, whose since-replaced snakelike logo used to bug me the fuck out. The other were 8 x 10 photocopied flyers of a bearded man wearing a turban posted on all the large palm trees that used to line the once smaller street. After years of seeing this, an eight year old version of myself finally asked my dad who the hell this guy was:


"That's Yahweh Ben Yahweh, man," he said, "he's the leader of some cult." Implicit in his laughter was the message that this dude was batshit insane.

We eventually moved to the suburbs in 1991 (back then it was at the edge of civilization) and my grandparents followed suit a few months later, so I only ever returned maybe three more times after that. Mr. YBY was snuffed out of memory.

Until tonight. I can't even explain why. First, the name entered into my brain (Yahweh Ben Yahweh? What?). Then, the doubt (Did my parents make that shit up? Did I?). Finally, there was the realization that we live in the future; a place where I can look up station bumpers and commercials for the syndicated run of A Different World from a 1994 pre-UPN Channel 33 in less than three seconds. (This bumper from 1988 for their Creature Feature is fun, too. Anyone else miss independent TV like I do?).

Anyway...

This Yahweh Ben Yahweh guy was, in fact, real. He had his own cult based in Miami. He was of the mind that whitey and the Jews (aka the fake Jews) were evil oppressors. And, oh yeah, like most cults worth their salt, the central belief was that this guy was Jesus. He's also got a freaky-deaky website that looks like it was designed by a nine year old with a busted caps lock button and access to Ritalin and Photoshop.

The best part is that shortly after I got the hell out of Dodge, he was arrested via the RICO law for fourteen murders and went to prison for eleven years. His website refers to this as "THE CRUCIFIXION". The denied appeal is under the heading "EROSION OF THE CONSTITUTION". Then on May 2007, Mr. YBY completed his first journey on Earth an ascended to heaven. Or—more accurately—he got prostate cancer and then ate it.

I'm way past the point of no return on the whole god/religion thing, but somewhere in the pit of my rotten aged-27-years-in-an-oak-Catholic-barrel soul this shit still freaks me out. Perhaps it has more to do with the late hour and anticipation of strange nightmares that will never actually come to fruition.

Speaking of which, it's 3:40. I need to get my ass to bed.

Henry

PS: Here are some aliens.

All right, so as you can tell from previous blogs we're in the midst of recording. Turning the corner in fact. I guess we're about about halfway there really. We've got five songs that we've completed tracking on, four songs that have been started and need a few overdubs (strings, sound effects, vocals) and one track still yet to be processed into numbers and code in Pro Tools.

A lot of sleep has been lost. After recording we return home for rest and the next day's session, so I'm missing out on shows and friends. That would be OK, of course, if these last couple of sessions had felt more productive. Really, they have been, but I'm inpatient. Don't get me wrong. Mostly, this has been pretty easy. Much too easy, but these last couple of songs have been harder to bring out the best in (which will no doubt lead to greater results!). More time has been spent rehearsing these trickier tunes than recording them which is slowing the process. All this plus a bit of physical pain (courtesy of a sneaky cavity) did not help me out this weekend.

Friday arrived. I was scheduled to have said cavity filled in. The dentist was a great guy who played some piano jazz while he clamped and drilled at my teeth. An hour later I was on my way home from Back Bay to grab Henry and drive to Dan's. Despite the swollen mouth and the all soup diet, we did manage to continue working on the track we'd started the previous weekend recording piano, percussion and cymbals. This would leave just vocals. Blam! Another song would be completed. Naturally, I wanted to get to that right away the following morning. Naturally, by the tone of this blog you can infer this did not happen.

Saturday morning. I struggled in that booth. Struggled for it to sound more than ordinary. Struggled with suggestions by Henry and Dan on how to pronounce my words. I can be a bit sensitive about that. I was also doing battle with a runny nose. The cold weather does a number on it and it was particularly frigid on Saturday. Everything I sang sounded too nasally. Each take got worse and it was obvious to all of us it wasn't going to get any better at that moment. The mood was tense. I get irritable if my vocals don't sound right; overconfident when they sound good. I went to go blow my nose, Dan cracked a few jokes lightening up the mood, but the situation remained the same.

We called it a day. This will mean more sessions; our time in the studio already limited. I should keep it in perspective though. It's the first time that's happened. What I'm trying to say is we all have bad days. Saturday was one of them. All that being said I will be happy when tracking is finished and I can get back out on the road to play these songs for many of you in person.

On the plus side, things are good on the wedding front. Invitations have been designed by our talented friend Ashley, my outfit is complete, the wedding license has been applied for and Henry's tie came in (it matches my dress exactly). We'll also be getting fitted for our rings this week and looking for the rest of Henry's outfit (boots, shirt and pants).

We've got the upcoming weekend off from recording and are planning on checking out some new amps (smaller ones for the benefit of Henry's back and the Aloud minivan) as well as working out a piano part and harmony vocal for the tune that is as of now yet to be committed to code. I wish I could refer to it by name, but I can tell you its that Motown-ish type track I mentioned on Twitter.

Cheers,
Jen

Crazy week. Had our first rehearsal in months this past Monday, and somehow I wind up burning out a fuse on my amp—twice—before we even got to start playing on a borrowed amp. Practice was really loose and fun. The four of us got into a good groove very quickly before it evolved into a version of You Got Me Wrong with everyone singing like Dylan. We only made it halfway through before surrendering to the giggles and starting over again. It's funny how that happens. The second the four of us were in a room, we didn't miss a beat.

For the show, we borrowed my old amp from Hugh. This amp, too, began having problems during soundcheck. Probably an issue with a tube, but I was too busy choking on my own rage to check. One of the dudes from You Can Be A Wesley was awesome enough to loan me his amp.

I don't know how it came across, but all the nonsense with my gear plus breaking strings on both my guitars was enough to ensure I had a bad show. That's how it goes down sometimes. Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks (or so the song allegedly says). Still, it's difficult to put any teeth to my complaints. We were glad to be able to raise money to send to the folks in Haiti. This is where I continue harassing you to donate to the Red Cross, either via www.redcross.org or texting HAITI to 90999. This stuff helps and it's easy. You don't need to buy that extra beer.

Anyhow, it was great playing with everyone. The folks in Pretty & Nice, You Can Be A Wesley, and (as always) The Lights Out were super nice and real awesome to play with. Big hugs from all of us to Jillian for putting this show together.

Gotta say, as much as I've been enjoying the time off from gigging (not to mention lugging gear in the goddamn cold and snow) I do miss playing, even if I didn't do as well as I wanted to. I want to be on tour again. It will probably be a while till we do again, but I'm heartened by the fact we're talking seriously about doing something bigger this year.

Me likey music.

Speaking of shows, found out late yesterday The Beatings are going to be on the Great Scott bill on 3/25. That's exciting. We haven't played with them since waaaay back in 2004. Eldrigdge was also with me during One Night Band, so part of me is hoping we'll spontaneously break out that cover of Everlong.

I'm just sayin', the mandolin's going to be there.

We're also talking about bringing out some older songs we haven't played in years. Gotta love that between-albums limbo, eh?

Should probably get started on something that resembles breakfast. Have to head into the studio today. Dan's gotten the piano tuned up so we're going to try and get all the piano tracking done today. Getting close to finishing up. As always, don't know what I'll do with myself once we're done. (Probably sleep more.)

Be well,
Henry