…House in danger.

Well, not really in danger, per se.  More like in chaos.  The kind of chaos that only five 20-odd year-old guys obsessed with little other than music (and, in Harris’ case, getting ripped at the local Cross Fit gym) can muster.  Luckily for the state of the kitchen, Auyon and Harris are both gone until tomorrow, so the common spaces in the house have another 12 hours to brace themselves for the inevitable mayhem.  Starting tomorrow evening, the unspoken dialog will go something like this:  “Dinner’s over?  Time to start rehearsal again.  Dishes?  What dishes?  We’ll do them later, with Abby’s help…wait…she’s in the Galapagos Islands, covered in Blue Footed Boobie excrement, loving every minute of it.”  (Abby is there doing academic research on Boobies.  The rest of the band wishes they could find a way to do academic research on…nevermind.  Ed.)

No, but seriously.  While we’re not complete slobs–I mean, not COMPLETE slobs–we might have to muster a little bit of extra motivation in Abby’s absence to keep the place looking respectable.  What do YOU think?  Can five dudes keep a small house clean for six weeks?  (Post thoughts below, please.  If you challenge us enough, maybe we’ll post some pictures…)  The challenge will be heightened by all that’s on the docket for the band in the next six weeks.

Drumroll… Segue…

Caitlin Canty will be returning on Tuesday for the last tracking session for her upcoming release Neon Streets, due out sometime this spring.  Don and Dave and I are hard at work on her tracks, nailing down some of the backing vocals on some, and the rhythm beds on others.  When she arrives, it’ll be one last flurry of capturing her lovely voice and guitar, and it’ll be off to the races with mixing the project, which should be done within two weeks!  We’ve had a blast working with her, and we’ve learned so much in the process.  As a total noob (read: partially/mostly/totally incompetent) recording engineer, I’ve had the chance to put my gear and my ears to the test, which has been an invaluable learning experience for me.  Dave now knows which knobs make his bass come through the studio’s monitors, and also which knob is for turning up the volume, so he has learned something also.

Speaking of mixing, we’ll be spending a few hours sometime in the coming days remixing (no, not in the club dance track way) one of our songs that we’ve been excited to release for a while.  We finished tracking it a few weeks ago, and we’ve been holding out on the release just because we want to make sure it sounds great before we let you all judge it.  Our egos are fragile.  So sue us.

Those new songs I spoke of last time are coming along well, and should be ready for our big gigs coming up!  We’re excited to be breaking on to some new scenes at the end of March and in April, including my hometown of Concord, New Hampshire, and my favorite city in the world, Portland, Maine.  We’re currently in the middle of a much-needed two-week hiatus from gigging, but we’re looking forward to kicking things off again at Pearl Street Nightclub with Nada Surf on March 31st.  It should be a great show!

So while we miss Abby very much (I can’t decide whether I’m thrilled that I won’t “have” to eat an 8 oz. brownie every night or devastated that dessert may be confined to my dreams for the next 35 days…not that I’m counting), we should have no trouble staying busy enough to pass the time quickly. I’ve started by penning this little Hiaku in between takes of Don’s sweet harmonies:

A Thought

by Sam Kapala

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WTF?

Brownies do not bake themselves

Damn Galapagos.

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See you out there…