Got a Little Captain in You?

Hello again. I'm back from the dark walls/warm beer/sweaty air of recording some songs over the weekend. Won't have the final mixes for another week or so, but all in all I think that it turned out pretty well. I ended up recording seven songs for this little EP, and I'm planning on booking some shows in the very NEAR future all around Chicagoland. So stay tuned.

It was kind of funny how the process ended up taking place. I went in with the idea that I'd record these songs as simple acoustic demos with the possibility of adding some lead guitar parts here and there and maybe a little bass. I proceeded to introduce the tracks to a couple of friends in a room full of band equipment, so naturally we played them as "full band" songs with drums, bass, electric guitar, etc. This was a HUGE mistake, and I'll tell you why...the songs ended up sounding great. Because of that, I was led into deciding that I was going to record these songs as a full band and not just acoustic. I got greedy. Now that would've been fine if we had a full week to rehearse and record them, the problem is...we had two days.

On the first day, we tried laying down drum and bass tracks the day after my drummer and bassist learned the songs. Normally when a band goes into a studio to record, they've done the following things: played the songs a million times, wrote their OWN parts to the songs, and had the general idea as a whole of what "sound" they work looking to achieve in the "big picture" of whatever it is that they were recording. These guys had none of that. It wasn't their fault, they just weren't well rehearsed in the songs, didn't write their own parts to the songs, and didn't know the exact "sound" that I was looking for. I just put them in a "lose-lose" situation. Needless to say, we had a very unproductive first day in the studio so I decided to scrap the whole idea, and just do exactly what I should have done in the first place. Record the songs as acoustic demos with the possibility of adding some lead guitar parts here and there and a little bass. So that's what I did (I still may end up recording them as "full band" songs in the future...I'm just not there yet).

The next day I cranked out seven songs in eight hours (world record timing). I played acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and then sang all of the vocals. Obviously, only having one day to work with, and thus cramming in all of these parts in such timely fashion, I really sacrificed some of the quality of the project, but I still think that it will turn out pretty well. It just felt great to record something again. There's something special about creating something that is completely YOU. Whether other people like it or hate it doesn't concern me that much, I'm just proud that I was able to accomplish something that I wanted to achieve for quite some time now. (Yay me!...make fun of my self indulgence here_______).

Normally I would have a few more paragraphs left in me, but I just don't seem to have much else to say to you today. OK, here's a few things:

I'm told that Kevin Gregg sucks (he's basically what Kerry Wood was last year...adequate), I'm not a huge fan of the Jake Peavy move (enjoy the AL Jake), as I've predicted since April, I believe that the Bears will make it to the Super Bowl (yes, I said it BEFORE it became fashionable), it's not gay to enjoy Bruce Springsteen (His 70's stuff is brilliant), who cares where Michael Jackson's kids are headed, I'm excited to see the "Inglorious Bastards" movie, it's not gay to prefer cats over dogs (it might be, but I still do), you should NEVER pay more than 10 cents apiece for chicken wings, it IS gay for a man to drink Captain and Cokes unless it's in the summer time and BEFORE 5pm, and there is nothing worse than those who get offended when people use the term "gay" to describe something...YOU are FAR MORE homophobic than I.

It's good to be back. Hit me up on facebook or in the comments section of this blog. Right now I'm listening to "Bowl of Oranges" by Bright Eyes. Drinks of Choice: I should say Captain and Coke, but that would be lying.

Your Pal.
Webby