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01/06/09 - Ran through the chord changes for four of the new songs. Look at the subject of this blog and the body. Do you see any references to Sleep Novox? I mean, other than that last one? No. You do not. Joy.

Afterwards we drank a finger or two of homemade whiskey and looked through boxes vintage albums. More joy.

Met Daisy.

01/09/09 - Went for a walk and got coffee. Ran through the songs. Thomas played some bits that he has and gave me a pretty ditty to work up.

01/17/09 - Dragged the Ludwigs to AquaSound and set them up. Got the PA functioning and did a little housekeeping.

01/20/09 - Re-learned the chords and arrangements for End Of Summer, Dingus, How Do You Sleep? and Wrong Star. Wobbled through the list several times with varying degrees of success. Pretty far cry from fine tuning music in a chair in front of a computer. Decorating an ice cream cake versus changing a flat tire in the snow.

Where was Mani?

01/27/09 - Ran through the 4 songs without drums so that we could cement the feel and arrangements.

Patrick thinks we might have artwork by the weekend.

Ashley passed her stones.

02/04/09 - Thomas played us a wonderful remix of Terry The Pirate from "12." Ran through the set with full band. Recorded a little ditty for future consideration. Listened to a couple of Patrick's latest offerings. Still waiting on the Sleep Novox artwork.

02/06/09 - Posted the Audiofaucet remix of Terry The Pirate on MySpace.

02/10/09 - Resurrected the old debate - should we buy our own CD production/finishing gear or continue to pony up the dough to have the master duplicated and printed. Debate ended the same way it always does - with Pat insisting that we are better served by having it done elsewhere.

Also talked about Klaatu, The Eagles of Death Metal, Catherine Tate, running shoes, my Two Jackson Fives phone number and Todd Haley.

Artwork is nearly done. He is finishing up the text for the interior.

Ran through the 4 songs.

02/24/09 - Worked on Patrick's new ditty. Did the other 4 songs a couple of times. It was fun. Everybody should do it.

03/24/09 - Ran through the songs. Tied down a few ideas for Patrick's new ditty, I think currently called Domino. Some teasing about it actually being called Don. Killed the disco ending to Wrong Star and developed an alternative.

Patrick got an early version of the artwork:

Talked about:

Vintage Pro Wrestlers
Seeing Anvil
How Fleet Foxes "Ragged Wood" sounds like "Flap"
How Patrick likes his version better
The Pearl Jam/STP/Alice In Chains vocal stylings thing
Coconut Records
Taxes
Van Gogh and how his original paintings are better than non

04/07/09 - Ran through the 5 songs. Lamented that we typically come in with developed songs rather than building them through experimenting. With this in mind, we made a point of fooling around with a ditty for a half hour or so at the end of the session. There were some nice moments that we can either catalog for when we need a bit or keep poking at it every week until we bully it into a proper song.

Patrick had a nice new haircut. Steven had on a hat. I'm in that awkward growing-out-a-shaved-head period.

05/07/09 - More of the same. Tweaking songs and making up new ditties for the next album. Still no artwork for the last album.

Notes:

double the last chorus in How Do You Sleep?
accent hiccups with bass on End Of Summer
end the Junk song with the chorus
last verse of the Junk song vocal/guitar only

About us:

Steven is nearly done with the school year
Patrick is working too much
I have tickets for Fleet Foxes
Thomas has more privacy

05/12/09 - Patrick says that we'll have artwork next week. That's correct - next week.

Ran through the set. Added a part to the bit I brought in last week. Decided that End Of Summer is VCIVCIC.

Patrick has a chipped tooth but is aging well.

05/19/09 - Thomas picked me up in his pickup truck. At one point I contemplated sitting next to the gear shift rural boyfriend/girlfriend style just to make him squeal. As we were getting ready to leave the session I demonstrated my aborted plan and got a more than satisfactory response.

Album registration day. So, the title of the 2nd CD is now Sleepnovox, as opposed to Sleep Novox. This was a painful concession on my part and I shall refer to it every time that there is a vote that needs some extra weight. Mar-beck now has a dash, which had no impact on me.

Romped through the set with our darling Thomas on board. Smudged fat and flesh on some of the new ditties. Thomas suggested fewer bass bumps for Wrong Star.

Steven's precious Smith Strat is back in the studio.

05/26/09 - Ready to start rehearsing How Do You Sleep and End Of Summer to click tracks. Spent the 1st half hour trying a variety of devices/drum machines for a click source. Ran through the rest of the set. Patrick thinks the artwork for Sleepnovox (with changes we discussed last weekend but I didn't tell you about) should be done by the end of the week. Thomas wants to name the next album Program Number 29. I shall at least use it as a dummy name from this blog forward.

Note - I was informed that the name was "Program 26" and not "Program Number 29" as suggested above.

06/16/09 - I skipped documenting the last few sessions because they are fairly uneventful at this point. We are rehearsing How Do You Sleep and End Of Summer with a click. Thomas is playing bass on everything so far but Dingus and Wrong Star. We did experiment with making Wrong Star less driving. Patrick's song Domino is coming together sweetly. At the end we talked about adding Harriet to the list.

Mani made us bowls of sliced watermelon. She made herself a concoction that included watermelon juice, fruit juice and wine.

07/21/09 - Artwork completion date is still going to be a surprise.

Rehearsing How Do You Sleep, Wrong Star, End Of Summer & Dingus to a click now. Domino and an unnamed song are still played over a refreshing array of speeds. Plans are being made to record drums at Aqua Sound soon. This will be the first bit of recorded noise for the 3rd album.

07/28/09 - Wellsir, signed off on the artwork and set up the account for getting the discs printed. Going with jackets this time instead of jewel cases. Patrick is uploading the artwork tomorrow and Steven is snail-mailing the master.

Tick-tocked through the set.

08/04/09 - I'll be honest with you, I hate tuning drums. So I don't. Do I have a drum tech? No. I have a friend who loves drums and pities me. With a heart bursting with love and pity he goes over the kit until it is unrecognizable. The drums become a great joy to play and my debt to John deepens. Recording time draws nigh and the drums will need new heads. I hate putting on new heads. So I don't. Do I have a drum tech? Etc.

Patrick submitted the artwork for Sleepnovox (now one word, still hurts a little) with varying degrees of success. Right now he is waiting on a response from the manufacturer's Technical Support.

08/18/09 - Still tweaking the artwork because of template issues. We are back in "any day now" mode.

10/20/09 - I haven't posted anything in a while because this week is like last week is like 3 weeks before. Here are the things that are different:

1) Steven is mailing off the Sleepnovox master tomorrow. This means the CD available at Amazon, iTunes etc before Christmas

2) We started on a new song of Patrick's

3) Thomas sent us a remix of Flap

4) We tentatively scheduled another Curb Your Enthusiasm get-together

5) Patrick and I are in the early stages of planning a pretend sports-related event

6) We talked about starting the artwork for the 3rd album sooner rather than a year later

Six differences.

11/10/09 - Shipping info for Sleepnovox:

Status: In Transit - On Time
Scheduled Delivery Date: 11/12/2009

Don: "I'm afraid that there are going to be pops and clicks."
Patrick: "I know! Me too!"
Don: (interpreting Patrick's concern as confirmation) "Really? Was there something that you heard on the master?"
Patrick: "No. Just an irrational fear."
Don: (relaxes a little, which isn't very much at all)

OK, perhaps the dynamics of the relationships in the band need to be clarified for you to appreciate the above. I am a child. Patrick and Thomas are adults. If I say that I'm afraid of the bogeyman, I expect Patrick and Thomas to say "Now, now, don't worry your pretty little head about bogeymen. They are not real. Now let's get you back in bed." I do not expect "I know! Me too!"

11/12/09 - Shipping info for Sleepnovox:

Status: Delivered
Delivered On: 11/12/2009 11:04 A.M.

11/16/09 - HUGE CD release party tonight. In fact, I am going to have to drag two chairs in from the front porch. After our HUGE party, which will consist primarily of cracking the seal on the box for the first time, we will watch 3-4 episodes of this season's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Hoping that we have Sleepnovox CDs on Amazon and downloads everywhere else very soon.

11/18/09 - First wave of CDs were mailed out yesterday. Second wave goes out tomorrow. So far the website is the only place you can buy them. The should be available for digital download on iTunes etc. in December.

11/24/09 - Nice session tonight with full staff. Talked about some of the feedback we've been getting for Sleepnovox. Agreed in principal to use the image of the grandmother and grandson shooting each other for the next CD.

I'm trying to convince everyone that it's a good idea to make the 4th album a live recording. Options:

Live with audience
Live without audience
Live "best of" from last 3 albums
Live "best of" and new material
Live new material

I'm thinking that we could set up somewhere, mic everything, get levels and then run through the set twice a night over a couple of weeks and see if we get 12 good songs out of it. Wild hair syndrome.

11/28/09 - Thomas suggested doing a cover. Some of the titles on the table:

Last Train to Clarksville (The Monkees)
Sunshine Superman (Donovan)
Toast And Marmalade For Tea (Rin Tin)
Temptation Eyes (The Grass Roots)

Thomas also suggested Stratagem as the next album title.

12/01/09 - Ran through the set. Thomas is playing guitar on more songs. He's also coming up with some nice Hockey arena organ parts for Dingus. Talked about March Of The Penguins and sewer systems. Steven had a leaky blister from the previous session.

12/08/09 - An abbreviated but useful session this evening. Thomas is cementing guitar and keyboard parts. We worked up the Maybe I'm Amazed hook for Dingus. Tomorrow Patrick is submitting Sleepnovox to iTunes etc.

Mani gave us candles.

It is snowing.

12/16/09 - Still spraying copies of Sleepnovox around the planet. Digital distribution should be under way this week.

Good session last night. We now have 7 songs for the next album in various states of completion. I'm assuming we'll stop at 12. Thomas continues to add fresh guitar and keyboard noodles.

12/19/09 - The Girls are on Facebook. Just search for Girl for Samson.

12/22/09 - Thomas was ill and could not attend but we still had a tidy little session. I was trying to think of some stuff to share with you but most of it was either too personal or just uninteresting. And yet here I am, writing away. We did talk about Twitter. Patrick has become a fan and is convinced that I would like it if I were to give it a try. He indicated, as an example of it's usefulness, that he knew right away when Brittany Murphy died. He didn't seem to have an opinion about Dr. Brown liking it or not. A line I like from "The Only Living Boy In New York" - "I get all the news I need on the weather report." I don't really feel that way and it's not my argument for not using Twitter. It's just a quality line. When I proof read this I did it in the voice of Andy Rooney. Give it a try.

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