Yesterday I said I’d spare you the details of why we’re doing the album at our rehearsal space instead of the studio. I lied. One of the problems we were having with the studio was scheduling. Hughes’ studio is one of the busiest rooms in the area. Everyone wants to record there. Everyone! The place is almost always booked up. Our only real hope of getting anything done there would be to do a few marathon weekends where you record for forty hours in one weekend. That’s not how we wanted to do this album. Dino and I did that sort of thing on the Drew Johnson Band album. We tracked all of the bass and drums in two days. I have some fond memories of that weekend but I wouldn’t exactly say it was a laugh a minute. We wanted this album to be more fun during the making.

Another thing is that we’re just a lot more comfortable at our rehearsal space. We know where the bathrooms are. We know where the coffee machine is. We know where not to throw the cigarette butts. It just feels like home. At the studio you’re surrounded by hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear…the fifty foot mix console…the blinking lights…the guitar amps you could never afford…it’s all very intimidating. You start to think, holy God, this is it. This is the real deal. I better not screw this up. I’d be perfectly happy spending an entire day rubbing my genitals on all that gear but it can be pretty scary.

It was actually Hughes who suggested doing it at our place. I was pretty shocked when he said it but it makes perfect sense. We practice about three minutes from his house. So he hauls in a couple handfuls of wicked mics and even wickeder pre-amps and in about an hour you’ve got a studio set up and ready to go. It’s pretty amazing.

This type of approach works very well for the kind of album we’re making. It’s just good old-fashioned, balls-out, booty-kickin’, raw-assed rock and roll. It ain’t about the studio.

Here is some of the video footage from today’s recording session. Sorry that Dino isn’t in there much. He’s just so damn good looking that we try and hide him as much as possible. Most of the stuff is me being incredibly interesting and witty as always. The file is 8.95 MB so either be patient or get a better connection.

Get the video here.

There is a record number of F-Bombs dropped in this video so consider yourself warned.

We decided to do most of the recording at our rehearsal space. There are a number of different reasons why we’re not doing it in Hughes’ studio but they’re all very boring so I’ll spare you the details.

Angel and I watched Crash last night. Not the stupid one with James Spader, the good one, the newer one. It was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. I could go on but I’m to friggin’ tired. Just rent it. It’s amazing.

Borrowed gear is the best gear.

Find out why. Get the mp3 blog here.

(in response to bleemus’ comment on my last post)

I’m not sure exactly how we’re going to approach releasing mp3’s of the tunes we’re recording now. If it were up to me I’d let ya’ll here everything, but it’s not. When we do the recordings ourselves it’s very easy for me to put stuff up on the site because I’ve got it right here sitting in my lap. But with J. Christopher Hughes at the helm it’s a bit different. The mixes are his, not mine. They’re on his hard drives, not mine. They’re his creations, not mine. And thank God too. I like it better this way.

There is also another issue to consider. Right now there is at least a tiny little bit of interest in the album from a small indie label and maybe an investor. We’re not sure how this is going to pan out but if we go releasing everything for free (like we have in the past) then we may be screwing up the opportunity to release the record on a label. I don’t know that for sure but it’s just something we’re considering. I plan to put everything that I’m allowed to put on the site. I know there will be plenty of video, but the audio…we’ll have to see.

Get day the day 1 commentary on mp3 here.

Rated R for strong language.

The first recording session is tomorrow morning. As I mentioned before, we will be recording a couple of times a week for the next month. I’m very much looking forward to a month of nervousness and anxiety. Don’t choke Johnson.

…

Today I bought Nickel Creek’s latest album “Why Should the Fire Die?”. I’m stunned. This is excellent music. I realize that I’m a bit late to Nickel Creek fandom so this is probably not news to any of you. I was in tears listening to this record before I could even get home from the record store. Now I’ve got to say that making me cry is not the hardest thing in the world so that doesn’t carry much weight but damn it, if there was ever a good reason for me to cry, this album is one of them.

The thing that got me choked up wasn’t the sad lyrics, or the pretty melodies, or the eerie feeling that this kind of music existed before there was time. The thing that choked me up was listening to a group that really gets it…a group that understands something about music that is beyond just a good melody and good lyrics. It’s not something I can really put my finger on but I know that it’s something that I hope is in our music.

I remember a few years ago hearing people talk about Nickel Creek and saying how good they were but the conversation was centered around their skills at playing their instruments and how young they were. Naturally, without hearing the music, I got the impression that it would be some sort of prodigies-on-parade sort of thing. I was wrong.

Albert did it! That was one of the most dramatic home runs I’ve ever seen. Unbelievable! We should really close the windows in our house when there’s a ballgame on. The screeming and cussing and cheering are going to land us in jail. Within two minutes of that ball going over the wall, my cell phone was ringing. It was my mom. She’s the biggest baseball fan I know. We were both just about in tears. We can live on to be pissed some other day. Go Cards!