mmmmmmmmmmdrop

so, the last month's been pretty real in the 'vizh camp. new year's eve, we played the vera project with a grip of solid NW bands. then there was the iron rain show at the morgue, which was a real ripper. i think the highlight for everyone was hearing their guitarist tell us that we sounded like you & i, which is a real step up from the standard answer of "yeah, i dunno...earth crisis but suckier?" however, the biggest news for us is that, almost a year to the day after we recorded our 2009 demo in fairhaven, we began recording for our EP.

around 3:30 p.m. on january 20, i rolled over to two sticks, right off of beautiful aurora avenue in seattle. bo and jackson were already there, blasting marked men and setting things up.

tight. this was my first time ever recording in a legit, "real" studio, so i was pretty excited. excited enough to snap off this picture that demonstrates just how out of our league we were to be recording here:

note that "gibbard/farrar rehearsal" is after us. that being ben gibbard of death cab and

jay farrar of uncle tupelo/son volt. they canceled and i was BUMMED. was seriously considering hiding out in the bathroom overnight so i could holler. don't judge me.

so yeah, two sticks is the real deal. the newest shook ones record was done here, and parts of the newest sun kil moon. so you know i was geeking. by this point, jackson already had john's drum kit pretty much set.

john and keith arrived not long after, and we got our amps set up (yes, i realize this is a lot of gear nerding. fuck off, don't care).

my guy: sovtek mig 60, avatar 4x12 with greenbacks.

keith's whip (a.k.a. eric's): peavey 5150 with custom gaffe tape edge-mod, mesa 4x12

then eric arrived. while some might be beaten down by cubicle life in some bellevue office hellhole, eric sanford is not a halfway crook, and his party vibe was unshook:

eric got his shit all set up in the little bass room, and we were ready to jump off.

basically, we tracked all the full-band songs (lord willing, EPs gonna have four songs and three instrumental interludes/intros) together in the drum room, with amps in separate rooms. here are some zany, antic-filled photos from that whole process, which probably went from around 8 p.m. 'til 1 a.m.:

lots of air-drumming and sitting on couches.

shaun and alan came to hold it down and mac our party-sized bag of chex mix.

shaun needed some baby-birding.

keith bringing the ruckus.

buds.

blurred hands of a "percussionist."

obligatory "guitars we used" pic.

eric on my dad's (!) 1968 gibson eb-0 (he also used bo's p-bass, both played through an ampeg b2r and 8x10). chill bass, you may recognize it from early '00s yakima punk group the dummericans...

bo "producing."

because i am a total moron, i felt the need to use a vintage fender champ amp as a footstool while i played guitar. because i'm in iron maiden, apparently.

we even got jackson to hop on the drums for a guest spot on one of those interludes, but sadly, no photographic proof exists. but it sounds ill. anyway, once drums and bass were locked up, eric went home, alan and shaun bailed and it was just keith and i, adding guitar part after guitar part. we ended up with four rhythm tracks per song, plus lead parts. shit seriously sounds like post-victory records hatebreed. yikes. anyway, this all went from about 2 a.m. 'til around 4:30 or 5. we were in fuck-the-bullshit, bang it out mode, and straight up, i barely remember it. got pretty hectic but minus a few clean parts, we got it done. peep game:

bo and i awash in a sea of pedals i barely know how to use.

keith getting real twangy at the end of the night.

"which one makes me sound like brian baker?"

niceties thrown out the window.

we wrapped up around 5, delirious but pretty amped up. i've gotta hand it to jackson and bo for sticking it out with us and hauling some serious ass to get these songs recorded. it was a long night of spotty playing and off-color comments, but they were super cool and way dedicated. props.

so yeah, we've basically just gotta get dan in to do vocals, and knock out a few more guitar parts, and it'll be done. this spring marks 10 years for me playing in punk bands, so this is a pretty cool way to commemorate it. anyway, once this thing's done we'll get something up on here for anyone who wants to hear it. thanks for reading.

alex

full gear list:

1994 Gibson SG Special
'80s Gibson Invader
2008 Ampeg AMG100
1986 Gibson Les Paul Jr.
Fender Telecaster

1968 Gibson EB-0
Fender P Bass

Peavy 5150 - Mesa 4x12
Sovtek - Avatar 4x12
Fender Twin Reverb

Boss Giga Delay
Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb
Ibanez Tube Screamer
Boss HM-2

Ludwig visible acrylic 22x18 bass drum
Ludwig Bohnam stainless steel 14x14 & 18x16 toms
Ludwig Bronze 14x6 1/2 snare
14" Paiste Rude hi-hats
20" Paiste Twenty crash
21" Zildjian A Rock ride
19" Zildjian A medium thin crash
18" Zildjian oriental china crash