Bueller...Bueller....Bueller....

A reasonably warm Monday morning. Half the band are at work while others are enjoying an unexpected day off thanks to exploding man-holes and a power outage in the Theatre District. (insert your own joke here). Kellen and Aaron are in the midst of a Ferris Bueller-esque adventure as we speak (Aaron just belted out "Twist & Shout" in the middle of a parade).

What we've been up to: Saturday afternoon/evening Kellen recorded his guitar parts for "One More Jack Rose" and re-recorded his bass parts for "Disasterology" and "Rx Goliath." While his playing was transcendent, the initial bass parts Kellen tracked were somewhat lacking due to amp problems. The new sessions sound fantastic and we're more or less ready to start doing vocals for both songs. Using Aaron's Fender Jag and a host of pedals, Kellen also filled out "Jack Rose" quite nicely. It's an interesting tune in that we've never played it live and are basically hearing it come together as we record it. It's one of those studio-born songs that will be fun to try and translate on stage. Tuesday night we're meeting with Gustave to discuss The Octopus video's new concept and to record some vocals for "Jack Rose" In the meantime, back to work..or gallivanting around the city.

One More Jack Rose

A cold, sharp, night in Boston. We're starting to flesh out the newest song on our EP, the rambling "One More Jack Rose." The drums we recorded at Mad Oak have been comped and edited and there are scratch guitar and bass tracks for reference. The song is reminiscent of "The Octopus" in terms of the instrumentation: noisy guitar, thick organ, wandering bass, and some wonderfully frantic drumming. There are a few calmer moments and a quieter outro that should wind down nicely into the third (and as of yet untitled) song on the EP. Also: cats...lots of cats. Witness the process:



A brief sidenote: Mariokart has become the videogame of choice for the band. We've kicked around a new theory that our character choices say something about our personalities (Mike - Yoshi, Kellen - Bowser, Tyler - Donkey Kong, Aaron - Diddy Kong) We'll let you decide.

Once More, Dear Friends

Yes, we're rebooting Endangered Noises Rescue Foundation to help us once again document the long and arduous process of recording a new album. The band is shooting to release a four song EP in mid to late February (tentatively entitled "Rx EP"). But that's not all we're going to share with you: we're also playing shows, writing new songs, eating strange new animal parts (more on that later), and working to produce a major-level video for "The Octopus" in December (as a way of closing out the "True Believers..." album in high style). More info and pictures to come later this week.

In the mean time, a brief video of the tracking we did at Mad Oak a month or so ago. We've tracked drums for our last three albums at this fine Allston recording studio and once again were thrilled with the sounds we got.