Every time I do a recording project I swear up and down that I will blog like crazy about it. Then, the rest of life happens and I never get to talk about all the neat things that are happening. I can’t promise that this time will be different, but I am here delivering blog action right now so, carpe diem right?
In early January Collin and I were tracking drums and piano for our good friends Esterhaazy in a beautiful cabin in Virginia. Thanks to the ridiculous talent or their drummer we were ahead of schedule and decided to use the second day to record some drum tracks of our own. We had been kicking around the idea of recording again for awhile, but this was the first step to a real, concrete product, and it was one heck of a first step.
I would like for The Fire Tonight to be prolific enough for me to delusionally consider us the only new music you’ll ever need. The delusions will have to wait for another day though.
After getting into a very interesting discussion about the process of discovering new music with both with members of The Restoration and The Fire Tonight I decided to let you know where I go for new music. In addition to recommendations from friends I consistently go to three websites. Continue Reading »
After weeks of pre-production, tracking and mixing the recording process for The Restoration is finally over. There a few more technical things to be done before the album is ready for your hands (not to mention art and package design) but Stephen’s work producing and my work tracking/mixing is complete. We are very proud of the work we’ve done and look forward to everyone being able to hear and enjoy it as well!
Now that we’ve gotten that business out of the way we are on a collision course with The Fire Tonight EP and boy, is it going to be awesome. After doing some soul searching about why we are even bothering with this whole music thing we all realized that we really enjoy it. We like performing, we like writing, we like recording. To that end we are pursuing the fun-factor for this batch of songs by including an omage to ridiculous classic rock, some genre influences that we would have previously said didn’t sound like The Fire Tonight, and more surprises that we are bursting at the seams to tell you!
I know we keep talking about the album without sharing specifics because, like many groups, we don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too early. So what would you guys like to get before it comes out? What are some things that bands you like have done to treat their fans before they released something? As much as we are making this to have fun we’re also making it because we want to do something for you guys. So let’s open up a discussion.
I just got home from watching the new Bruce Willis movie - “Surrogates”. It’s not a bad film but it’s not a great film either. A good premise, reasonable plot and some decent action sequences. In the movie the majority of the world’s population lives through robot bodies, never physically leaving their own homes. Sadly, the movie practically shoves it’s luddite (caveman translation: “TECHNOLOGY = BAD, REAL THINGS = GOOD”) perspective down your throat. [SPOILER ALERT] Continue Reading »
On September 18, 2009, lightning struck not once but twice. Leaving to go out to meet some friends, I started my car and then seconds later it cut off. After a few What the Fucks, it dawned on me that my fuel light had come on earlier in the day, but usually it comes on then goes off and a day or two later I get gas. It’s been that way for 5 years now; well not that day. In disbelief I got a lift to a gas station and bought a gas can and put a gallon of gas in it. Hoping it would fix the problem, I had no idea of the bigger problem that lay ahead. Getting near closer to my car, I noticed a big branch in the middle of the road. Then a dreadful thought crossed my mind, which turned out to be real.
In the ten minutes I was out of my car a dead tree branch from a massive old tree had fallen directly on to the roof of my car, shattering my sunroof and leaving very noticeable dents in various spots on the roof and side of my car and giving my already dirty car a nice thick coat of dirt and debris. So not only did my car stall from lack of gas but because it did, my car was parked under the tree when the branch fell.
Now my car is resting at John Harris in Lexington and hopefully after 2 weeks, I’ll get it back. To add insult to injury since only the branch was dead and not the tree, I have to pay a deductible. Life is grand. I’ll end this post with a quote from a Lonely Island song “Fuck Trees, I climb buoys, Mother Fucker.”
Every once in a while it’s always refreshing as a songwriter to go trolling through your ideas archives to find little bits and pieces of music that you’ve written over the past several years. For big artists that have people throwing their dollars, bras and panties at them these songs end up on a b-sides album. For local/regional acts they become songs that you save for you next band (probably the disco-reggae-fusion-polka group you’ve always meant to start) or that you eagerly show your friends until they laugh at them, at which point you pretend that the song was always meant to be a joke.
After you listen to this song I think you’ll know which category this song falls into. Watch for it on a b-sides album when we’re famous and obnoxiously rich.
My favorite part is the BALLS TO THE WALL breakdown in the drums at the end. Trumped only by the snare solo.
POSTER ORIGINS: THE BIRTH OF AWESOMENESS - PART 1
How goes it interweb peoples? I’d thought I’d start a blog discussing how I came up with ideas for our show posters that you see scattered around town when we have shows in your area. Taking the cheap way to promote and doing them in-house I pretty much did one and impressed the other bandmates and have been doing them pretty much ever since. I thought I’d start with the first poster that I did and which is still my favorite.
Hello everyone!
Many apologies for being away for so long! The show in Charlotte was great, and right at this moment Collin and I are up in Nashville recording The Restoration. We agree that it is really exciting to not have to play a single note and just tell people what to do.
Speaking of recording, we are currently writing songs for an upcoming EP! Who is excited?? Well we are. We’ve got a few in the works, currently named “Save My Soul Epic Song” and “James Bond Spy Theme Song.” You know as much about the other songs as we do.
We’ll see you on the road this Fall!
Miles Driven: 2757
Hours in the car: 47
Cities/Venues: 8
States: 4
Bands Performed With: 14
Friends Who Let 4 Sweaty Guys Crash Their Place: 5 (Thanks Rameys, Barry, Mama Tart, Winston Russes and Lexington Russes!)
Tour Videos: 6
Obnoxious and Expensive Auto Repairs: 1
Favorite Fast Food: Wendy’s
Earliest Post-Show Arrival Time: 3:30am
We had a fantastic time on the tour, friends. We’re looking forward to playing some shows for you guys again in the near future! Check our dates on the right for upcoming shows in August and September.
Everything