Studio Update!

Jeez, I don't even know where to start! It's been a while since we've updated and there was a lot that happened so I'm definitely going to miss something but here we go!

When we got to Phoenix we stopped by like 3 different 7-11's and we all had 3 or 4 free 7.11oz Slurpee's from 7-11, it was 7-11 day & we were in AZ, how perfect! After that we cruised to Zac's to chill out in the pool before the show. Nothing too exciting other than a huge...water pipe and next thing you know we were at the venue. It didn't look like it was going to be very good, especially since we kind of jumped on someone elses show. But 15 minutes after getting there this chick rolls in who works for PBR and asks if we want free PBR and naturally we said fuck yeah! Then she gave us shirts and headbands and shit so we took a retarded photo for fun then played that nights show with it all on. It was pretty hilarious. The bartender girl was really nice to us and let me drink good beer from Oscar Blues with my drink tickets instead of the PBR. The other guy, who owned the place wasn't so nice until after we played then he was stoked on our band and gave us all shots of Jameson, 2 rounds. This man right here got hammered. It turned out to be a glorious night. Big thanks to Will Anderson for setting it up.

That night we took off to Oakland, another overnight drive. I have no clue if anything interesting happened because I passed the fuck out. I woke up to being pulled over by the California Highway Patrol. Apparently our trailer license plate was ripped off somehow and now this guy is on me for being asleep in the back without a seat belt...what a fucking guy! Basically we told him that we are a band and we're broke yadda yadda and he let's us off but tells me to put my seat belt on, for the second time I told him it didn't have one and he starts walking back to the cop car and looks in the window and and had the most disappointing look on his face. Sorry dude. Haha.

We drove all day and I was in and out of sleep trying to shake the hangover. I had to piss really bad and I didn't want to fuck up progress so for the first time I was going to just let loose inside a Gatorade bottle...I figured 32oz was plenty of space. I'm not going to go into detail but basically imagine me in the very back trying to hold it while randy hands me another bottle without making a mess...somehow we made it out on top. It was funny and I think is on video which may see the light of day in 2009 on the DVD I'm going to make, probably with the help of our buddies at National Underground. Anyway, we finally made it to the studio and the sun was shining down on us in more ways than one. For those of you that don't know, we have a pretty damn old van, and we are very happy we made it despite the minor troubles.

Once Ryan Massey (American Steel!!) showed up we met the engineer, Adam Myatt, who we are also working with (he's rad!) we loaded our stuff in and then he told us to get lost for a while. We didn't do much. Just looked around, to be honest so far Oakland hasn't been very exciting other than when we are in the studio and at the bar down the road that's full of nut jobs. Let's just say you could see some rap/rock groups playing there and people dressed in plaid chained pants. This is where Kyle, our camera/merch dude, had his first beer in a bar...awwww! We decided to go check out San Francisco as the sun was setting and it was a beautiful drive over the bridge (not the golden gate). We saw Alcatraz and just walked up mission street with a good buzz going. Then we came back. I'm not going to spoil everything that happens...gotta save some of that for the DVD!


Day 1

We started setting up amps and drums. Mike Urbano (from smashmouth!! ha) was there to help us set up drums and let us use his amazing kit. He's actually a really fucking cool dude and said some things that he specifically said we can not put on the video or tell anyone, but they were pretty god damn hilarious. We got a little rough of a start but at the end of the day we figured shit out and planned to hit it hard the next day. I think I mixed up the merchants story with the day we got here...but I'm not going to go back and fix everything.

Day 2

We woke up feeling good, and we got tons of shit done. Drums were nearly finished by the end of the night but we called it a little bit early because 10 hours of pure rock can get to you! We took it easy that night, just went to Merchant's bar again and had a few, we tried to play pool and sucked then came back to the studio compound. Our camera man, Kyle, had his first beer in a bar with us the night prior, then he had the privilege to try some of California's finest (or any for that matter!) for the first time. We ate all the food we had in the fridge including the bag of candy, Reese's were gone first, then Rollo's, then the kisses. Party.

Day 3

We knocked out the drums today pretty early. We even ended up recording the newest song we wrote right before we left that there are no lyrics for quite yet even but definitely is one of my favorite jams, in the words of kid dynamite, shorter faster louder. When we went to start recording guitars we found out that Colin's guitar's intonation was off pretty bad so right now they are out on a hunt to find a new bridge for it so we can make it work. Right now Adam and I are the only ones in the studio and I'm typing this out so you guys can get an idea of what's going on...I hate typing these things but I guess if you don't read them at least I can so I can remember the night before! Word!

Ride Easy!