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01/12/05 - I think that this is the first day we were able to get together this year. The weather has been awful so earlier scheduled get-togethers were scratched. Ran through the set. Worked out a few bugs.

These recent entries are rather bland because we are just building a frame. The journal is much more interesting to me when we are actually recording tracks. Until then you'll have to suffer through another month of "ran through the set and got a little tighter" entries.

01/27/05 - Didn't know what to put in the journal so Patrick suggested that I mention some of the things we talked about.

Patrick returned a CD of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's XFM Radio show. Patrick, not without reason, thought that Karl was the actor who played Big Keith on The Office.

We talked about The Office Special and about how the scenes of Dawn in Florida were kind of a let down

We talked about the film The Filth and the Fury - a documentary on The Sex Pistols.

Patrick has a friend who got notice to report for duty in August so we talked about what it would be like to live in Canada.

Patrick was suffering from a cold.

Steve sets his thermostat to 52 when he leaves the house.

02/01/05 - Steven and I experiemented with reversing the drum patterns in the verse and intro in John Doe. Also played around with finding a groove for Marianne. I think we did.

02/05/05 - Worked on Marianne, John Doe, Dingus and Shaking Off The Sand. Merged some chords and chips of a melody that I had in my junk drawer with Shaking Off The Sand.

03/03/05 - First session with Patrick in a while. Added Honey Pie to the list.

03/08/05 - Had a spirited rehearsal. Got our hands around Honey Pie and some other new parts. I refuse to call this a blog as blogs are like carbs, socks with toes in them and CB radios.

03/10/05 - Last go before a week break. Recorded most of the songs for the website.

03/11/05 - Added live versions of the new songs to the website. Patrick is bravely singing everything in order to afford me the opportunity to focus on developing drum parts. We still haven't worked out who is singing what when we record. The to-be-decideds are Honey Pie, Dingus, Wrong Star, Shaking Off The Sand and How Do You Sleep?

We've all been listening to old Radio XFM shows with Ricky Gervais, Steve Merchant and Karl Pilkington and have recently been trading around DVDs of some of Ricky's stand-up.

03/23/05 - Spent the 10 days off listening to the songs and adjusting drums parts on my brainpad. I've been listening to some old TV theme songs and there were several in 2/4 which gave me some ideas for some of the our new stuff.

03/24/05 - Squandered an opportunity to work tonight by relying on e-mail to sort out the essentials. Bah.

03/29/05 - Steven and I did some de-flapping on Marbeck. Fooled around with some loose grooves on Spider's Last Stand. Ran through a few other songs. Hadn't done Wrong Star in a while so took that one for a spin.

03/31/05 - Full compliment of musicians. Ran through everything. Suggested to Pat that we start thinking about which songs we are going to sing. Also told him that I've been eyeing Spider's Last Stand which had to come as a bit of a surprise. Steven played his Steinberger and was intermittently thrown by the missing head. He broke a string on the Jazz a few weeks ago and chose to play the Steinberger tonight rather than replace the missing string but bullied poor Pat into replacing a broken string on the Strat this just moments after it snapped. The irony, tragedy and comedy were explained to him as Patrick wound string.

04/14/05 - Spent a lot of time working on a bass hook in Wrong Star. Talked about some holes that I want to put in Marbeck. Patrick broke a string and I started on a fresh - pair of drum sticks. Worked on tightening up some bits in other songs. Started circulating a RadioHead bootleg performance from 1997 on VHS.

04/21/05 - Steven and I worked up some bass and drum bits for Marbeck and Spider's Last Stand that we implemented tonight. Had a very good rehearsal. Very spirited. Patrick is going to Ireland next week so Steve and I can keep dicking with parts unchecked.

05/05/05 - Patrick is back (sick) from Ireland where the Guinness tastes like milk shakes. We added Careful to the set. Talked a little about where we were going to record drums. I'm guessing that by the end of the summer we should be knee deep in the next CD.

05/10/05 - Good day of working up hooks and fixing issues. Ironed out some starts and stops in Careful. Widened the space in-between bits in Marbeck. Still changing around bass and drum parts in The Great John Doe.

05/19/05 - Steven and I worked on Careful and some of the other songs that are either new or in need of remodeling.

05/31/05 - Last week we worked on Robins Poking In The Yard. This week we worked on attaching it to Shaking Off The Sand by using a section of music from the original Terry The Pirate as the transition.

06/02/05 - Worked on the Shaking Off The Sand string of songs. Also worked on a Tango bit that I nicked from Peggy Lee's Mirrors.

06/14/05 - We've managed to borrow Patrick for 2 days. Today was a duplicate of 06/02/05 with the addition of working on a new feel for Marianne.

07/07/05 - First full band rehearsal in a long time. A little painful as we had to essentially relearn all of the songs. Patty has put Marriane in a closet for a while and I brought in a new bit for Patty to turn into a beautiful song. I gave Pat a 1984 Jackson Five Victory Tour bumper sticker for his car.

07/15/05 - Spent 10 mintues watching an ant toting a moth wing that was probably 10 times his size. Steve spotted a larger ant scurrying in the opposite direction with the other wing. The curse of the moth - you occasionally have to land.

Worked on the new untitled piece. Gave Patrock (possibly the greatest typo ever) some ideas for chorus melodies. Smoothed out some bits in The Great John Doe and Wires.

08/03/05 - Ran through the set. Talked about the songs that will actually make the album. Decided that Patty should bring a few more in.

08/09/05 - Worked on 3 new songs. Patty submitted Blunderbuss, We're All Frank Sinatra and words and a chorus for the temporarily titled Buzz. I brought in the v and b and Patty submitted the c. Patty wrote words for 1st v, b and c and I submitted the last v.

08/10/05 - Pat finished up the Amazon sales page. Now has sound samples and other little trinkets.

08/11/05 - Put finishing touches on the 3 new songs. Buzz is now MPC. Will post mp3s in the next day or so.

08/17/05 - Decided to record all 15 songs currently on the list. Settled on See Lilly as a temporary title for the CD. Recording live tomorrow and putting up new samples.

08/18/05 - Recorded about 12 songs live for the website and for part and arrangement evaluation.

08/19/05 - Noggin is #28 on Amazon's Free Download list.

08/25/05 - Added some builds bewteen the v and c in Mr. Dingus. Toyed with using a fuzz on the bass in Spider. It howled like a wounded elk so we aborted.

08/29/05 - Decided that we would record drums in mid-October. Fooled around with arrangements and bits on Spider, Blunderbuss and Wrong Star. I think I made Patrick cranky by bringing in an effects processor to monkey with. It was freed up from another project I had been doing.

09/05/05 - I started singing and drumming today on a few things. Since I am no longer singing in a second project I thought that it was prudent to start getting in shape again. Will post new sound samples tonight or tomorrow.

Pat swears that he wasn't cranky on 08/29.

09/07/05 - Ran through some of the non-new songs. Talked about lenthening the first passage after the intro in Shaking Off The Sand. Experimented with the bass following the solo in Hey Ma. Hey Ma has already been recorded so if we like it this will be an overdub.

09/12/05 - Experiemented with drum patterns for Wrong Star. Played around with lengthening the first passage in Wires.

Cursed the rebate system employed by thieves like Micro Center, Best Buy, Circuit City and every other chain that sells imported electronics tangled with multiple and complicated rebates.

09/13/05 - "Peteena Says" gets a spin on CFBX 92.5 The X's Pop Rocks! Salute to Robyn Roste.

09/15/05 - Toyed with changing the bass and drums on The Great John Doe. Tried the roaring drum pattern used last week in Wrong Star just in the intro and bridges. Last task for the evening was lenghtening the space between intro and long interlude in Shaking Off The Sand.

Steven was late. Very late.

09/26/05 - First, I brought Cosmo's Factory over for Patrick to listen to. He didn't know much about CCR other than the hits and some of Fogerty's solo stuff in the '80s so I wanted to turn him on. I listened to it on the way to practice and while I really dig what they did with guitars I thought that there was too much roots stuff for Patrick. I can tolerate it for the nostalgia factor but didn't think he could make it through it.

Secondly, Patrick brought me McCartney's new CD. He was initially very enthusiastic when he heard it a few weeks ago. This evening he still felt like it had a lot of good tracks but was a little less exuberent.

Thirdly, we pushed recording drums into November.

Lastly, Patrick had a wave of new Terry Chambers-ish drum ideas for The Great John Doe. This song is the furthest song from having a fixed part so it's a good candidate for continued evaluation and inspiration. The down side is that we just implemented some big changes in the bassline last week so I hadn't had time to develop new drum parts for it yet. The new feel was quieter than the original. The 3rd incarnation is a bit more racuous and less of a swingy than the 2nd. Patrick was very uneasy about suggesting the changes which is ironic since I never hesitate to stick my nose in other people's parts - frequently in the middle of playing them.

09/29/05 - Spent most of the evening trying out patterns for The Great John Doe. Settled on an And Two pattern.

Developed a strategy for getting back into the studio. We'll rehearse the set the last 2 weeks of October and then record the songs live the first 2 weeks of November. Then we'll listen to everything and make sure the arrangements and drum patterns are ready and then record at the end of November.

We've been developing the current list of songs for a year now. We finished mixing and started working on new material in August of 2004.

10/05/05 - Spent 1st half of evening teaching Patty my kooky solo for Wrong Star and working on drum patterns for The Great John Doe. Ran though some of the new stuff.

Spider's Black Pants and Windowbee

10/12/05 - Got through the whole set. Fascinating, eh?

Patrick and Steven did have an interesting discussion about synthesizing alpha and delta brain waves - a process that Steven scoffed at. "Show me proof" he says. I met someone last night who worked at a bowling alley who could tell how many pins fell without looking. That was my contribution to the conversation.

Later, I loaned Patty a film scanner and he loaned me The Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn.

10/19/05 - Dig: I got to Dr. Brown's at 3:55P for a 4P rehearsal. Steven wasn't there which wasn't that alarming because sometimes he's 5-10 minutes late. Patrick wasn't there either and this was slightly more disconcerting. I started to wonder if I had the right date. I even checked the time in the car and on my cell (or "mobile") and they agreed. At about 4:05P Steve wheels up and we go in to wait for Patrick. Patrick never shows. We decided to construct the following journal entry knowing that he would check it:

Pat was a no show again tonight. I'm afraid that he might be drinking again. It always seems to get the best of him in the fall. Why is it that the gifted ones always succomb to the bottle? I do know that his wife will get the worst of it as Patrick tends to talk with his fists when he's on the sauce. etc. etc.

So, I get home and there's a message from Patty (time stamped 4P) saying "I'm here at Steve's and it appears that I got the night wrong because nobody is here." I rang him up right away and he swears that he was ALSO waiting in his car from 3:55P to 4:10P. We checked our phone clocks and they were within a minute of each other. This means that Pat and I both believe that we were parked in front of a vacant building on a quiet street at the same time and did not see each other.

10/24/05 - Decided to abandon drums on The Great John Doe and just use accent percussion. Added a little section to Blunderbuss after the 1st chorus. Tried a blusier arrangement of How Do You Sleep.

10/26/05 - We talked a lot this evening (moving units, strategies for new album, A. Gold, Rush, Abbey Road) which was good because they playing was not. Worked a little on the new feel for How Do You Sleep.

10/31/05 - Halloween. Lights out, uh huh. Added some smooches to MPC (galloping drum fill ala Photograph), Blunderbuss (repeating bass hook after chorus), How Do You Sleep (playing individual notes of B7 for intro) and adding a build on Dingus on the chorus.

Reviewed our individual frustrations with the local sports team's play calling in last 2 losses.

11/02/05 - Worked on a slow build intro on MPC. Also added several bars to the outro. Played with the stop and gos in How Do You Sleep? Lastly, we did some more experiementing with Spider's Last Stand. Ended up just getting rid of the bass-simulating-horns part. Speaking of spiders - Patrick murdered a brown recluse. Smashed it right up in a kleenix he did, complaining the whole time that it was resisting him.

11/07/05 - Very productive night. Firmed up the new parts in MPC and How Do You Sleep. Next we hacked off the first 1/3rd of Shaking Off The Sand leaving the When It's Over and Robins Poking In The Yard sections. Then, we replaced the first Marbeck bridge with part of the missing 1/2rd of Shaking Off The Sand piece. Still have to work out how to get from 4/4 to 2/4 but it will be fine. Recording everything on Saturday for analysis.

11/15/05 - Cold and snowrainy. Patty and I worked on When It's Over. Steven showed up and we worked on Marbeck. Gave Patty a CD of vintage Kansas City bands MP3s and a DVD of The Ricky Gervais Show.

11/16/05 - Played with adding a piano part to Robins/Over. Worked on Marbeck arrangement.

Gave Patty "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" on CD. Also sent him mp3s of Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman", Sly Stone's "If You Want Me To Stay", Leon Russell's "Tight Wire" and "Midnight Rider" by Mr. Cher. Sent him "Layla" to review the transition to the piano based outro. Patty in turn sent me a beautiful Stravinsky remix he did titled "Beating Stravinsky."

Met a fellow at the record store a few weeks ago who plays banjo...

11/19/05 - Recorded everything live for a last check on drum patterns and arrangements. Didn't record Hey Ma since it's in the can and didn't do Spider since it needs more love. We should be on target to start recording drums in December/January if nothing drastic happens.

Porkmatter fumes.

11/21/05 - Recorded scratch vocals for How Do You Sleep?, Dingus and Wrong Star. Recorded scratch harmonies for those songs and a bar chorus for We're All Frank Sinatra. Bonked wrenches during the Wrong Star solo which will probably be replaced with a cowbell or equivalent.

11/26/05 - Played with the bass/drum parts on Spider. Added the MPC solo, a counter vocal to Willoughby and Steve- highlighted some bass parts in Blunderbuss with a fuzzy guitar. It should be noted that Steven had to be talked out of trilling the last notes of the line. Hoped to burn CDs to listen to but mixing took a long time so we'll finish on Monday.

11/28/05 - Finished making the demo CD. Spent too much time adding frills. Will update all of the sound samples in the next few days.

11/30/05 - Patty and I listened to the some of the demo CD together. Worked on some new phrasing for the chorus of MPC and revisited drums vs The Great John Doe.

12/05/05 - Well, the CD is spawning a lot of ideas and so we played around with some parts and arrangements tonight. We played with a longer pause after the 2nd "it's so..." in Frank Sinatra. Toyed with a fiercer guitar part on Marbeck. Monkeyed with drum patterns during the chorus in Blunderbuss. Practiced my gallops in MPC. Tried some With A Little Help From My Friends call and response parts in How Do You Sleep. Taste-tested some backing vocal bits in the Dingus chorus.

I'm going to send Patty "Toast And Marmalade For Tea" for no particular reason.

12/12/05 - Showed Patty a low harmony idea I had for Spider. Got new heads for all of the drums. Planning on recording either the week before Christmas or the week following New Year's Day. Still wrestling with whether to use click tracks or not.

12/14/05 - Shortened Marbeck and lengthened the bridge in Mr. Dingus. Decided on January 4th-6th for recording drums.

12/19/05 - Pat's primary noise-making box was dead on arrival so that created some delays while power supplies and power strips were tested and a substitute was produced. Tinkered with arrangements. Practiced the tango. Pushed recording drums forward a few days provided that we can get the studio and an engineer.

12/26/05 - Ran through the set. We start recording drums a week from Friday. Shooting for having this CD done by July. Talked about how to finance the production process.

12/28/05 - Another run through. Another to click or not to click discussion.

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