Water, water..everywhere...

The first thing that now comes into my mind when I think about the band, and band activates. There could very likely be a huge bump in the road for us now. Our rehearsal studio took in water during Hurricane Ike's recent visit to Houston.
Getting a call from the landlord of the place telling me to get to the studio as quickly as I can, definitely wasn't a good feeling. Driving up to the actual building and seeing the roof peeled off of the main hallway, the hallway that we are housed, was even worse that. After taking a few steps into the dark building, and then walking into our studio, to soaking wet carpet...it really hit me that it probably wasn't going to be good.

There seemed to be just a few places in the ceiling, it seemed, that was actually leaking water from the rain, but it doesn't need much to damage your equipment. Water was dripping on my Marshall head, the only piece of equipment that is electrical, and Mike's bass drum seemed to soak up the water from the very floor that it sat on. Two signs that might ultimately delay us further than we could ever or have ever delayed ourselves.

At this point, I don't know what is going to happen, or if there is "a snowball's chance in hell" that my Marshall just might work. Wishful thinking, I know...but hey...stranger things have happened. I really even haven't given it concrete thought to what my plans might be if I am down, I guess I will have to sit down with Ruby, Mike, and Raymond at some point here and figure out a game plan. I am leaning towards the negative side of things right now, I don't know why exactly, just that I think my shit is fucked. Strange from somebody that tries to think positive. For now, the damage has been and only time will tell just what will happen...

that's all I have for now...

...and you can go home but i can't go home...

...wow...

it has been almost two months since really getting into the studio space, and it sucks missing out on all that time. It kind of gives you sometime to reflect on things (yet again), and helps to get you focused and helps you get the fire growing again.

It gets all of us thinking and talking (yet again) about just what the hell do we want to accomplish and ask ourselves, just what the hell are we doing??! We've had to do a little rearranging in our studio space, and helps to add to maybe the fresh start that we have been needing....

it sucks to kind of have to go through this over and over again, but we've weathered it for this long already. I figure that we just keep on moving. I think that we could get something good out if we really knuckle down and really try to.

I really don't have much to say at this point, and I really do hate to have to type something like this from time to time, but it's the way it has gone. We really are going to try and actually make some steps forward here now. A matter if we really do it or not is to be determined....

Here comes your ride, down Waring Street...

Well, June has turned out to be the month that I hoped. We have really stepped it up and gotten in there just about every possible day that we could have. Three times a week for the last three weeks is a great step for us. It has got to be the most that we have gotten in the studio in the last couple of months....

We have made some strides. I have personally as well. I am starting to get the hang of recording, well...at our level I should say. Coming home and "mixing" and uploading tracks after practice has really helped me get a little better at it. Practice makes perfect they say....it's true too!

We have reworked (a little) our only real track (let's call it "full tank" for now), and have spawned two untitled, unfinished work. One a fast tempo track with a lot of potential and one slower mellower track with even more potential. It certainly an exciting time. It has certainly gotten to be fun again too.

We are trying our best to keep it up. Things are really looking good, and feeling good in my mind. Sorry the updates have been slow, but I am going to do better, it's kind of my goal!

...and who knows, I might even share a track for the first time ever soon.....

more later...

nick

Shabam, Shabam, that's all I am...

Well, it's been a while...oh well, what can I say? Forget about it and try to keep on moving. We are certainly trying our best to do just that!

After some down time, something like almost two months, I figured that we really need to do something. We have to make a decision. I thought that the month of June could be that deciding month. I mean, let's face it. We have been in there for about two years now, and we haven't really don't have too much to show for it, if you think about it. I guess you can say that we have just been wondering aimlessly in there. No real direction, no real goals really.

We got back in there last week, and we decided to get focused and try to get as many sessions as we possibly can in. The month of June looked to be the right month, since our calendars seemed pretty clear. Last week we got in there three times. Off to a great start. The track we have been working on seemed to get a jump start again. A tweak here and there seemed to do the trick. It was by a collective idea from Mike and Rook. It makes the song feel more confident to me. When we are all focused and actually want to be in there, good things happen. We can shine when we want to.

We also started messing with an idea of another track that I kind of came up with. It seems to be a fun track to play. It can get really loud and rocking. We just have to figure out what direction it is going to go in. It sounds like it can go in a number of different ways. Most things do. So we have to try to narrow down the ideas on it. Make it uniform and coherent if we can.

I hope that we can keep up the current pace. You have to look at it one week at a time. Well..I guess we have to. There always seems to be something that comes up, but there isn't too much we can do about it. We just have to make the most of the time that we can get in the rehearsal studio.

For now, I look ahead to this new week, and just hope that we can get another three sessions in. If we can do that, then we are definitely on the right track. Cross your fingers....

We dont care, its not our fault that we were born too late...

ok, it's been a little while, but not much has gone on...

I will just say this....

we take two steps forward, and then fall flat on our face!

I hope we can get up and make some big strides in the next few weeks....we will find out...

Shoot the bad guys and I'll gladly sing a tune for you...

As things are progressing, I find (or we find) that there is always something new or different that throws a bit of a wrench in our schedule, and makes us lose a little bit of focus. I guess it goes to show how "amateur" we may be as far as being musicians go. Of course, I don't mean this in a bad way...I mean, I am talking about myself here as well! We have a hard time figuring things out from time to time.

At the current moment, we are trying to play the role of musician and producer. I mean this loosely at this point in time because what we are trying to do is basically just for us. We are just trying to work our way to recording a demo for ourselves to listen to and critique. Eventually we are going to work our way towards a more literal sense of the role, musician/producer as we look into letting people hear our creations.

It seems that we have a hard time of piecing things together. We have all of these "pieces" of songs, tracks, whatever you want to call them, but don't have a real sense of arranging them or at least we haven't figured that out just yet..this has been touched on before. If we did know how to arrange things, we would be way ahead of where we are now. It just would move along a lot easier. You might think that we would be playing around town somewhere. Imagine that!

Whatever you want to call it, whether it is being unorganized, lacking a bit of focus, lack of getting in the studio, or just plain lack or direction, we seem to hit some kind of a snag every now and then. To me, it's hard to figure out a solution to some of these problems. Sometimes, I think that I tend to over think things. I just try to look at all perspectives in trying to make some decisions, which I think causes the over thinking. We hit into a bit of that last night (2/19/08) in trying to rework the ending of "full tank". As the session progressed, things got a little too complicated. The good part about this was that right before leaving, we actually realized this. In hitting the track one last time we simplified it and it resulted in a better version. It was a great adjustment, and a step in the right direction.

I hope that the more we get into the studio, the easier things will get for us. As I have stated, we have gotten off to a good start for the most part this year, and I can only hope that it will continue and my hope that things get better and easier really do happen. Last night was proof of this, and a big positive for us, I think.

I told you five or four times, I told you five or four times..

We have been rolling along pretty good here lately, despite a no show and some late start times, but what can you do about that?! You pick up and keep on going, that's what! We have done a really great job of that, I must say.

Thinking that we have the recording process of it down, for now, or shall I say for what we want to do at this point, we have decided to really pick up the pace. For us, that is really saying something. The snail's pace that we have maintained is about to hit a full fledge walk! I am not trying to sound mean, but that is the only comparison that I could think of off the top of my head...really, it hit me fast! We plan on recording two tracks within the next two weeks. That is true, and I think that it is possible.

When I say that we are going to record two tracks, I mean, pretty much rough demos. I think that the comparison that we came up with is more of a sketch of a song, than a rough draft. We are trying to get something on tape, something that we can review and figure out what is missing (maybe a lot), and what needs to be changed or reworked. We are looking at this as professional as we can. We may even let a few people have a listen to help us with some insight as well...it all depends on the quality of the recording that we get down (and mixed down). Reason being, is because we don't want some people's first listen of us to be a shit recording, you know!? We want even these rough demos/sketches to represent us somewhat, you know what I mean!?!?

It's been a fun start of the year for us, in my opinion, and I really hope to continue it. I have been really focused. If everything goes as planned, and I REALLY hope that they do, we are going to really start moving and creating some things. I will keep posted on the haps....

when I lived alone, is there a ghost in my house?

An update is long overdue, I know....let me just try to get it going yet again...

Well, hmmmm....I guess we should just start off where we have been this month. Things have picked up, and practices have become pretty fun again. We aren't doing anything different as of yet, but it's been fun anyhow. We decided to start trying to create different ditty's again to see what, if anything comes from them. Deciding to do that, we have also decided to master recording ourselves in the process. I think that have contributed to the fun part again. Just trying different things to try and get the best sound out of the old four track we have, is a breath of fresh air. I figure we can really knock out two birds with one stones, so to speak.

This new year got off to a really great start, I think....the first two weeks were great, but at that same time, the next two haven't been that great...due to work, and whatever else. In hindsight, that pretty much has summed us up. We make great strides, but then have periods in between of standing still. The perfect case of "two steps forward, two steps back". I don't really know why that is, it just works out that way.

I always try to think of the best way to be organized and make sure we keep moving forward, but there always seems to be things that get in the way, our jobs, some one getting sick, whatever. Maybe a bit disappointing, but yet we all keep on doing it. I have been a bit more focused on music as a whole so far this, so I will do my best to keep on going...