10.29.05
In Chicago, working with The Bomb. We're doing vocals now and periodically I privately freak out that I am actually recording the voice of Jeff Pezzati. He's only one of my favorite singers ever. So, you know, it's going pretty great ... we did basics - in fact, just about everything - at Great Western down in Champaign IL. Great studio. Now we're at Semaphore in Chicago. Another great studio.
And yesterday Pezzati played me a demo he did a few years ago, of what might be the best song I've ever heard.
Saw the Life and Times here at Empty Bottle last night. More accurately, I was ROCKED by the Life and Times at Empty bottle last night. They made me want to play shows - and that's no small feat these days. Between that show, Pezzati's pop opus, and seeing the Eternals' pictures from their recent Japan tour, I am practically on fire to play. It feels like it's been forever.
But also dying to get back home and start working on the studio, which will officially be my space as of Feb. 1. It's great to see and work at so many other studios, and now be able to, well, pretty much appropriate other people's good ideas about studio design ...
Got to get coffee. Lots of it.

1.10.05

2005 has come in like a lion. Al and Eric from the Life and Times were here last week to finish recording and mixing their album. The redoubtable Paul Malinowski tracked 99% of it and the sounds are great - we did some additional vocals and guitar and then set out mixing. This record is a TREAT. Featuring a killer rhythm section and Allen Epley as the Voice of the Tragic Astronaut ... Right now I'm in the last throes of mixing and FTPing mp3's to the lads for comment ... anyone who knows me knows that I am a serious Al Epley fan, so I'm STOKED.
The big news is that after an agonizingly long search, I have finally found a studio here in Baltimore to call my own. Last Friday I signed a new lease on the former 1137 Recording building, and as of February 1st it will be my studio ... the original buildout was done in the 80's and it's a serious piece of work. Floated floors, bass traps in the control room and live room ceilings, hospital grounding, 3-foot thick walls, and lots of space to work in ... I expect to spend most of February remodeling and rewiring to make a home for the HD system, outboard gear and JH110. I will post pictures here without a doubt as soon as I get into the place and make it my own.
Tomorrow Darren and I meet up with Vic Bondi again for a second round of recordings. This time I am just playing bass, not engineeering - we've got Don Z on board for that, which is always great.
It's great to be literally drowning in music.