Thursday, June 26, 2008

More Fan Feedback

A member of our Seattle fan base has emailed in some feedback on the latest B&B constructs. For Rockville, AV had this to say...

Nice - one my favorite REM tunes :-) You do Mikey proud!

And on the road received this praise:

This is great, I'm quite impressed. Maybe losing your day job isn't a bad thing...

Not quite sure if I'm in agreement with the latter sentiment, but it's a nice thought. So all in all, good stuff. The kids seem to be diggin' it.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The Stickmen Storybook

During a phone conversation today, Bill and I hatched the idea of creating a Stickmen Storybook. The concept is this: pick ten topics or events, and then ask each stickman to write a brief essay recounting said event. Each stick-person does this independent of consulting with other stick-persons. So it's their own work, based on their own recollection.

So you get four essays for ten topics. That's 32 essays! wait. nevermind. Anyhow, so now you've got a stack of essays. What to do next? Publish them! There are a number of online services that let you assemble photo albums and then print them out on a one-off basis. they bind them up all pretty, yearbook style! I even have an R2-D2 builders club yearbook from last year. Great gag.

So that's the plan. For each of the ten events, I'll collect some pictures, or maybe scan some memorobelia from the event, and then put it all together into a book. We'll then print a few out, get them to the crew, and move on with our lives.

Still, I think it'll be a neat little keepsake. So if you're a member of the band, get ready to write some essays!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Black and Blue Go Back To Rockville.

The place: Torrance, California. The date: June 14, 2008. The occasion: Rock and F’n Roll. The Reason: Bachelor Bill.

It wasn’t really the planets that aligned, but a bunch of circumstances. Bills entire family is out of town, meaning that he is once again a bachelor, albeit temporarily. Since the BNB operation has sort of fallen behind in schedule over the past month, we thought it would be a good opportunity to really knuckle down and get some work done. The idea was that we would be free of distractions, and able to crank out the tracks.

Insert old saying about best laid plans.

I arrived at “The Studio” at about noon on Saturday. Bill had been at work in the morning, but was ready to roll. There were no construction projects mid-flight in the garage, so it seemed that we could get straight to work. But there was a problem. The computer that we had been using to do our recording was missing. Well, not missing. We knew exactly where it was. It was with Lisa. This means we had to rig up Bill’s laptop to do the dirty work. We spent time installing and configuring Cubase, the greatest invention ever granted to rock and roll.

We loaded in the Rockville project, only to discover that there were problems. Bills laptop just wasn’t powerful enough to run the project. It would cease up and pop and click all throughout playback. Even worse, it would insert pops and clicks into the recordings. I guess it just didn’t have the processing power. We spent some time dorking around with the laptop, shutting down applications and services in the hopes that it would free up some CPU cycles. No such. After much experimentation, we hatched a plan to create a scaled down project file that only included tracks necessary to sync up new stuff. We got it down to drums, one guitar, and vocals. The thought was that if we lightened the payload of the project file, the CPU could handle it better. Partly true. We still had some hiccups, but decided to plow ahead.

After some recording, we noticed that although there were pops and crackles, they were often NOT embedded in the recording, but were instead being generated at playback. So that was cool. We concluded that our technique was working, and plowed ahead. But not before we kicked around the idea of throwing in the towel. Don’t get me wrong.

Although I did keep a log of what we did during the recording session, I do not have it in front of me, so I’ll just have to do my best to reconstruct it. Actually, scratch that. I’ll just do a very high level summary, and then when I get my mitts on the log, I’ll transcribe it.

The lead guitar took a couple of takes to get right, but it turned out good. As with previous rock efforts, we interrupted practice and recording to head down to Sam Ashe to pick up some supplies. Bill was hunting for a certain combination of strings that would duplicate what Peter Buck does on his Rickenbacker. That’s cool. Sam Ashe has taken some tips from Guitar Center, and now offers no customer service, combined with long waits in line. Cool. We dorked around for a while, and I purchased a “Cabasa”, a common percussion instrument that has a nifty sound to it. I thought it would be cool to introduce some new flavor into a recording.

Naturally, this recording session was not complete without a trip to Carl’s Jr.

Back in the studio, Bill belted out the lead guitar, and it sounded good. He then switched to bass. This took a little bit longer, as Bill is not as familiar with the bass line as the guitar part. I’d like to coin a phrase for something Bill does again and again. No malice intended by this, though I am being a tad snarky. It’s just something that Fischer has been doing since as long as I can remember, and has yet to learn lessons from. It goes something like this. When it comes time for bill to record a part, it goes like this. First, we record the track all the way through the song. Then Bill listens to the track, and identifies tons and tons of parts that need to be patched. We go in and start patching stuff up, but this proves problematic. Either Bill plays with a different volume, intensity, or maybe the axe has gone slightly out of tune. We spend a lot of time patching about half the song in this troublesome manner. Then, Bill says “maybe we should just record the whole thing again, rather than trying to patch it”. Now repeat the process from the beginning.

I want to come up with a name for that. Maybe “The Fischer Iteration”. Please submit your recommendations. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the original recording was usually pretty darn good, and could most likely survive on its own.

We did this for the bass line, and new problems were introduced. When you do an insert edit, it tends to create a little pop or tick at the beginning and end. Sometimes. My theory was that there HAD to be a way to fix those in post production, so we just let them slide during recording.

Somewhere along the way, we took a break to record some basic tracks for “On The Road”. I had been practicing the drum beat at home a lot during the past couple of weeks, and felt very comfortable with it. We did a couple takes, and one was just stellar. It was me on drums, with bill in the booth doing guitar and vocals. I was pleased as punch with the recording. Not only was it going to be my next production number, but it kind of made me feel like we weren’t falling so hopelessly behind after all.

I don’t remember the sequence of events, but along the way we overdubbed vocals for OTR, and did a harmonica track. I don’t think Bill was ultimately happy with the harmonica, but upon numerous listenings, I have really become sold on it.

I had a concept in mind for the song, but no idea on execution. I explained it to Bill. One of the things I’ve been hot to try lately is to get a set of dissonant vocals going during the refrain of a song. I cite REM’s “Can’t Get There From Here” as an example. So, in the refrain of that, the lead singer sings “Can’t get there from here” while a voice buried in the background is yelling “I’ve been there and I know the way” over and over. While it was not this REM song that inspired me to go this direction, this was a good example, as I know Bill is familiar with it. I don’t really know what words I wanted to go behind the refrain for OTR, though I figured it would have something to do with motion. You know, maybe something like “going, and going, and going, and going”. It even occurred to me to use “Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer GOOOOO!”. But then, that would be a copyright violation. So I cut Bill loose on the mic, and he came up with something really great. On the final refrain, he laid down some really unique sounding vocals that paid homage to the never released “Obscene Album” from My New Invention. (Note: this was a nod to an earlier discussion we had in the day, where I declared that it was time to write a song about our other songs. Just like the Beatles!!!) Bills contribution really had me laughing, and I thought it was great. The only downside was that because it was an ad-lib, there was a part in the middle where he kind of tripped up over his own words. (more on that later, dear reader!!!)

Somewhere in the practice, we also did a little goofing around with a song of Bills that I really like called “Second Time Around”. For Bill, this song has been the butt of many of MY jokes for the past five years, ever since we recorded the demo at TRU rehearsals. Long story short, I tend to sing a certain part of the song in a mock Liza Minnelli voice. I know, I know, that sounds really odd. I guess you just had to be there. That aside, I’ve always liked the song. Perhaps due to my mocking and other reasons, I’ve always believed that Bill does NOT like the song. Getting to my point, I sort of talked Bill into playing the guitar part for the song while I experimented with a couple of new drum tricks I had picked up. The weirdest thing happened: it sounded great! So much so that Bill confessed he liked the way it was going, and even suggested that this may be the next song he chooses to produce. Wow! I don’t think we recorded any demos of STA, but I’ve got it in my head what I was doing for the drums. Easily repeatable.

But let’s get back to Rockville, despite what the title of the song demands.

One of the things that we never quite got right in any of the recordings is what we lovingly call the “Deedle track”. That’s the little guitar riff right after the vocal says “And waste another year”. We did a dedicated track for that guitar part, and got it nailed.

Speaking of “Waste another year”, Herr Produktor Bill was never quite happy with that line in the song, and asked me to re-record it. No problem. We went through the song and with a new track, recorded that part of the vocal.

We did a separate cabasa track too. Though it was not my intention to use it on Rockville, it seemed as good a place as any.

We finished Rockville at almost exactly midnight. Timeline wise, I think it was just after that when we recorded vocals for On The Road.

We then did some band interview movies, and I think I ended up heading home at about 2:30.

All told, including technical difficulties and breaks, we had spent about 20 hours on Rockville. For this authors money, that’s too much. I’m not going to soap box, because this blog is not about bustin’ Bills balls. Though that may sound like a catch album title, I’m not here to spread the hate. Those days are over!!!

So there you have it. Another month, another song in the can for Black and Blue. Who knew we could actually stay on quasi-schedule for so long? Weird.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

First "On The Road" Review is in!

There's loads of back story missing to this post, but it won't matter, as the content is so rich. Long story short, Bill and I banged out a nearly complete version of "On The Road" in the middle of the second Rockville session last weekend. I'm producer on that number, and in sort of a violent reaction to the over-produced-to-death version of Rockville we finally wrapped up, I'm inclined to consider "road" just about done, save for a bass line and MAYBE another guitar.

But I mixed down what I had, and mailed it out to a couple of friends for feedback. (read: kudos). Here's what I got from a member of our Seattle contingent:

"dude, i'm not a fan of harmonica :) but, cool otherwise and thanks
for sharing...it's no dr. brümbacher, though :)"


It works on so many levels. The commentary I mean, not the song.

Friday, June 13, 2008

LollapAzusa '99 and After

Since it's Friday the thirteenth, with doom and morbidity as the attendant traditional preoccupations, it seems appropriate to delve into the band's latter days. Not really appropriate, because the "closing overs" weren't really dramatic in any Friday the thirteenth kind of way. More "whimper" than "bang." But then again, maybe it is appropriate, since Friday the 13th is just a bunch of hooey! (Oops.)

But hey, enough of me yackin'. Let's boogie!

I would say during the last half-dozen times the “classic” stickmen actually met, goodwill generally prevailed but there was a loss of excitement as the illusion of the band’s commercial viability was quickly slipping away.

  • LollapAzusa ’99 (early May 1999)
  • Jam session/casual performance in the Fischer backyard (4 July 1999)
  • 2-3 Rehearsals for the UCI Quad show (December 1999 – January 2000)
  • Lunchtime concert at the UCI Quad (early/mid January 2000)

LollapAzusa ’99 was the pivot between the “My New Invention” tour and the band’s final days. It was a college outdoor festival, which we had “rocked” the previous year (with a photo of our performance headlining the local paper). This time around, we had a CD to sell. We were “rested and ready” musically, having wrapped up a grueling series of pub dates, followed by several weeks off. Unfortunately, the crowd was disappointingly small and placid.

We turned in a good performance, along with notable baiting of the crowd by Matt, but in the end, we forgot to mention our CD, and accordingly sold none at all. The situation was socially uncomfortable for Don because of my sister’s presence, and the lingering romantic ambiguity with another “ex” who was performing on conga drums with a goofy jazz combo for a few minutes between sets*. The whole experience was less than thrilling, and perhaps slightly overshadowed by a backpacking trip in Joshua Tree that Don, Victor, and I began the next morning.

I guess we were a bit jaded by then. From that point on, I never saw the whole band get excited. Come to think of it, the last time I remember universal, genuine excitement was the “Antiradio” concert in December 1998.

As I’ve said before, the very last time that Matt, Vic and I practiced together was a highlight, a fun memory, in which the "holy trinity" had come full circle, and were at last returning to the Shire (only not ruined!) for a victory lap. It happened on a weeknight at Vic’s apartment – after we had learned that Don would miss our upcoming performance at the Los Angeles Chiropractic College. It was not a scheduled practice, but we telephoned Matt who came up "on the spur" to join us for a run through the planned set, without our usual instruments. Vic, being at home, had access to his normal stage gear: Warwick 5-string bass (british racing green) and Trace-Elliot amplifier. I happened to have my black Fender Squier electric guitar in the trunk of my Cadillac, which I played either unamplified or through a tiny practice amp. I wanna say Matt borrowed Vic’s Seagull acoustic.

It was a heck of a lot of fun, interrupted by a trip to In-N-Out (I was a bit of a pill, and pushed for that destination, which cost us valuable practice time). For me, it felt like a time warp: same comedy as the good old days in Vic’s freezing garage in early 1992, but with better music. As we packed up to leave, I distinctly remember Matt saying “I wouldn’t mind doing that once a month until age forty.” Of course we never did it again, and only played together one more time, at the LACC concert a few days later (5 October 2000).

Come to think of it, scratch that! We did play together again, when we auditioned Ashley Pigford to be our replacement drummer! But that’s “a whole nuther story.”

* The noted ex-boyfriend later went on to limited music-industry success with an outfit called “Hobo Jazz.”

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Fat Chick Strung Out!

Or is it strung up? I don't really have much to add for this post, but I have a picture of the newly strung "fat chick", my classical guitar that I'm hoping to use for some alt-flavor on a Black and Blue song.



A little history for you band history buffs here. This is my third "first" guitar. Through the course of my life, i've taken three runs at learning the guitar. I got my first guitar when i was about five. There's a picture of it and me on this blog somewhere. I think. Both my sister and I got guitars as gifts. The only thing I remember about it is that it had a tartan soft shelled case. it wasn't even really a shell. It was more like a guitar shaped pillow cover with a zipper up the side. Didn't really offer much in the way of protection. My sister's had a green tartan case, I think. Mine was red. Kate's guitar got smashed on the way to America. I remember someone unzipping the case to reveal a bunch of kindling. True shame. I kept that guitar in my closet in Illinois for I don't know how many years. Never really learned to play it. Never really tried. I don't know what happend to that old guitar. Probably got sold at a garage sale or something.

Then, years later, in Jr. High, I got my next "first" guitar. It was a black Ibanez Roadstar II. It had a white pick guard. It was a fender strat copy, but was still pretty expensive. I don't even remember how much it cost, but I remember it being a bunch. It didn't have a tremelo, which I liked. I got it for christmas. Not sure exactly what year. The one thing I didn't like about it was that it had a VERY delicate finish. ANYTHING would scratch it. I remember one time I rubbed a pick around in circles on it, just as an idle motion, and it make a swirly pattern of scratches that never came out. I was in a big Jimmy Page phase at that time, as a recent album by a band called "The Firm" was heavy on my playlist. I even saw them in concert. The thing that totally got me fired up was seeing Jimmy Page play guitar with a violin bow. Under a pyramid of lasers, no less. I thought that was pretty cool, so naturally my next step was to pick up a violin bow. Bummer was, they cost about 40 bucks for the cheapest one. made of "Frog wood", if I remember correctly. Back in those days, saving up 40 bucks was pretty tough. Not only did I not have a job, but I was also a fan of squandering every penny I had on things like big gulps and star wars cards. Man, how times have changed.

not really.

But anyhow, it took me a month or two to save up. I had to special order it from the music store in Barrington, the town in Illinois where I lived at the time. It showed up, and I ran home with my bow and chunk of rosin. I wailed away on my guitar for about an hour... and then the bow snapped in half. Looks like I had over-tensed it. Nice! Now I had a project: fix the bow! I tried everything, but I guess it snapped along it's weakest point, natch. I even took it into the music store, and they tried fixing it, but no luck. So now I was out forty bucks, AND heartbroken. I remember my guitar teacher complaining about how "dead" the strings sounded. I was too embarassed to tell him they were coated in violin bow rosin. At the time, my buddy Steve and I had also read that Eddie Van Halen boiled his strings in water before installing them on the guitar, so we did that too. I think contributed to the deadness of the strings.

I sold the Ibanez to a school buddy named Randy in my high school years. I cannot remember which. I took all the money I got from the sale and promptly blew it on comic books. No kidding. But by the time I sold it, I hadn't played it in years. I played that Ibanez on and off for about six months, and then I got in a super bad bicycle accident that almost lead to the elimination of my left arm. Though I completely recovered, the three months in a cast and following re-hab pretty much threw me off guitar. I remember when I was in the hospital having my arm looked at, the doctor told me I might never be able to play guitar again. I cried!! The pain didn't make me cry during the whole process of breaking and fixing my arm, but the thought of never playing guitar again made me strike up the waterworks! COOL!!

Years later, after high school, I was attending Santa Monica College and wanted to take a guitar class. I had taken lessons with the Ibanez years earlier, but the never were really interesting. half of the lesson was spent watching the instructor transcribe some eddie van halen solo in tablature, and the other half was spent with him watching me biff my way through last weeks tab. Not so good. So I figured the "community" approach would be more useful.

I actually don't remember if I took this class at the urging of Bill/Vic, or if this was something I did prior to The Stickmen. Maybe that's a question for Bill. The question is, when he showed up, did I already know how to play guitar? I remember writing "The Immigrant Song" at Comic Quest, and that song was riffing off the very first song I learned to play at SMC, so that might help time it. I dunno. ANYHOW, when I wanted to take that class at SMC, I needed a guitar. It just so happened that my girlfriend at the time had a spare lying around, so I grabbed it off her. I think I gave her 250 bucks for it. It's a nice guitar, made in Ireland I think. It has a VERY rich sound to it, and I really like. it's a very nice classical guitar. it's taken a few hits over the years, but that was from the previous owner.

I guess that's it really. If anyone wants more guitar history, just let me know and I'll scrounge around in my memory for the details of my other aquisitions.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Going Back to Rockville

This site is really supposed to be oriented toward "classic" stickmen activities, but as the Black & Blue narrative has been nearly 100% "Blue" so far, I'm chiming in with my version of the June 1 session. Here goes.

Rockville.

REM’s country rock song (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville has been one of my favorites ever since early 1992, when I was called upon to learn the guitar part for our newly-formed band, The Stickmen. That summer, I “doped out” the piano part in my parents’ living room, but The Stickmen had already moved on. I’m not a keyboardist, but I took piano lessons as a kid, and my guitar skills made it possible for me to deduce the chord fingerings, which was a great exercise because the song features like every minor chord inversion in the key of C (which is the easiest key for piano). So a lot of black keys, but attainable for a dabbler like me. It became my showcase piano bit, and whetted my appetite for honky-tonk piano. And somewhere along the way, Matt and I vowed one day to record an album of our favorite cover songs.

Anyway, for several years afterward I had a nagging itch to pay my dues on the instrument, but after moving out on my own, I lacked ready access to a decent keyboard. Finally, last year, I picked up a used Alesis DG-8 digital piano and parked it in my garage. As a natural consequence, Rockville aired at several jam sessions with Don and Matt individually.

So when May 2008 arrived and it was my turn again to “produce” a Black & Blue track, it was high time that I turned to this old chestnut. Actually, there was another title in contention, but I wanted to take another month to consider that particular arrangement.

For the Rockville basic track, I manned the control room while Matt played drums in the garage. Simultaneously with soundboard duties, I also did “scratch” guitar and vocals. The “soundboard”comprised Firepod (8-channel preamp and A/D converter) linked by firewire (IEEE-1394) to a Sony Vaio running Cubase.

The drums were recorded on three tracks:

  • Matt’s old stage microphone inside the kick drum,
  • My old Peavey stage mic hanging overhead,
  • Vic’s Shure SM-57 close-miking the snare drum.

I’m not sure whether Matt used 5A sticks or hot rods. It seemed pretty loud, so probably the 5A’s.

I did my vocal through the phantom-powered Apex condenser microphone, and used the Highlander internal pickups for my Martin acoustic guitar: a miniature condenser boom microphone (visibile just inside the sound hole) and a bridge-mounted piezo-electric.

I didn’t take long to get a couple of solid takes, and then we surgically patched the drum flubs on the last take. The patching process was really easy. We’d listen until we heard a mistake, and then Matt would play along to the recording and I would drop him in for a few beats.

Then Matt took the controls while I did the piano part using the “octave piano” on the DG-8. This was recorded with lines out in stereo. Repeated “patching” was required, as I had not practiced at all, and I also had a touch of stage fright from the video camera (Matt was designated “cinematographer” for the session). On playback it dawned on me that I was misusing the sustain pedal. I felt my performance get stronger once I finally nailed the bridge, so I went back to redo the first two verses, much to Matt’s annoyance. I had also realized that the camera couldn’t hear a thing because the DG-8 speaker was turned off.

Next, I had Matt record a rhythm guitar part, which I think he was surprised about, but then he underestimates his playing. I used the Apex condenser as a close mike and the SM-57 for ambience, a setup which Don and I had experimented with successfully in the past. For some reason, it was sounding a bit bottomy and dead, and messing with the close microphone position wasn’t helping much. Matt shot me dirty looks, and after a while I shrugged and said good enough.

Matt had read that the Beatles’ 1994 recording of Free as a Bird had used complete duplicate performances panned hard left and right, and before the session Matt had expressed an interest in eventually using the technique with acoustic guitar. I was already familiar with the Beatles’ extensive use of double tracking, or “tracking” as they called it (they coined the usage of the word “flange” in the mid 1960’s to describe a labor-saving artificial version of the process).

My thought was to “track” Matt’s acoustic guitar, but it became clear there wouldn’t be time. It all worked out later, because when I hard-panned Matt’s guitar and my “scratch” guitar, the result was a very rich, satisfying guitar sound. The subtle differences in phrasing between our juxtaposed rhythm styles were very complementary in the mix. But then I already knew that, which is why I enjoy playing guitar with Matt. Not coincidentally, the song April, recorded four months previously, had a similar story, with Matt’s slightly swingier acoustic track elevating the result.

We finished the session with vocals, again recorded through the Apex phantom-powered condenser microphone. I thought my scratch vocal was actually pretty decent, and initially intended Matt to use it as a guide. Unlike acoustic rhythm guitars, I feel that vocal tracks should be synched up very tightly. However, one of Matt’s idiosyncrasies is his preference to sing unimpeded by such distractions, and I acceded to his request to mute out the “guide” vocal. Sure enough, the result was a significant difference in phrasing, especially in the chorus, on the last half of the word “Rockville.” I went with it, and fell back on the tried and true formula of Matt singing his bit, followed by me singing along to that. Maybe next time I’ll tighten down my producer hat and crack the whip. But probably not. Anyway it was a solid performance from Matt, except for the “waste another year” parts, which will be redone anyway.

Matt took over the mousepad while I layed down a harmony part, but it wandered all over the map, with high, low, and unison parts scattered haphazardly, and a few mistakes thrown in there as well. What a pain. Time for a rethink. To make things easier to mix, I thought it would be better to record a harmony part in each register, and then pick and choose later. So I did a “high” harmony part. Only problem was that I had never tried a high harmony for some parts of the song. After several run-throughs and numerous patches, we had a complete track with a few totally new harmony lines: some clever, some lame.

We were out of time, and Matt had to split. I was a bit uneasy with a few of the issues already mentioned, but as I played with the mix later that evening, I kept incrementally adding back more of the “scratch” tracks and in so doing became more and more pleased with the results. I’m not a big believer in “fix in it the mix,” but in this case it seems the mix levels are the key to the end result. The piano levels have to be prominent enough to counterbalance the guitars, but low enough to mask clumsy use of sustain. The vocal levels have to be just right to fill out the lead part without harshness or clutter. It kept getting better, and after a while, I couldn’t stop listening, which doesn’t often happen to me. We still need to add bass and electric guitars, but I can already tell that the end result is going to be a highlight of the Black and Blue 2008 set.

Strings for a Fat Chick.

This past weekend, Bill and I recorded most of the tracks for our first cover, REM's (Don't go back to)Rockville. I'll try to get in a detailed write up of the festivities later, but right now, I want to talk about my recent accomplishments.

And they're not very big, so don't get your hopes up.

For this recording, Bill requested that I bring along my classical guitar. You know, to inject a new sound into a recording. I was totally up for it. What threw me was how Bill referred to the guitar. To protect the guilty, I'll change the names, but he basically said something like "Hey, bring Bianca with you".

My first reaction? Who the hell is Bianca, and why does Bill want me to bring her?

Then I remembered that we (the Stickmen) went through a period where we named all of our instruments. For some lame reason, I decided to name my instruments after girl friends, as I typically had one each time I got a new guitar. So this particular guitar was named after Bianca.

But like I said, that totally threw me, until I remembered who Bianca was, and that a guitar was named after her. But I didn't like it. So I demanded that from now on, the guitar be referred to as "Fat Chick". Totally appropriate, and would save me the trauma of wondering what the heck Bill was talking about.

I brort Fat Chick with me up to Bills' place, er, I mean the recording studio. We had just finished up the vocals, and were ready to move on to recording FC. I opened the case, only to find that one of the strings was busted. Or "Bust-ayat". Bummed, I went home without recording that part.

Anyhow, I made it to the music store in Irvine yesterday and picked up a set of nylon strings, along with some felt pics for the bass. Looks like I'm going to be doing the bass line for Rockville, and I like to use picks when I do that. So I'm all equipped!

That's about the long and the short of it.