Mattitude

An extremely productive time was had at the Birdcage today as we came closer to wrapping up all the guitar overdubs. In fact, we might be done entirely if Brandt kept working after I left (though I doubt it). Regardless, the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter as we progress in large measures towards the mixing stage.

Like last week, I again stepped into the engineer's chair as Brandt not only re-recorded several guitar parts, but committed some new ideas to disk. I won't bore you with the details as it was a tedious but necessary task, but he started off doing some wonderful work in the rapidy evolving CREATION PHASE. The parts he wrote for this song are not simple, but the ease in which he lays them down would make you think otherwise. His attention to detail may be as tight as as Dan Hamill's anus, but it's worth it. Anyway, I think now we can finally put that tune to rest.

Next came the guitar lead for 1956. When the song was originally started in the aggression, Tom had done a riff which I thought was a good starting point for something that could work in the chorus. It was the usual Tom throwaway riff that he probably wasnt even paying attention to when he wrote it, and probably couldn't remember even playing. Anyhow, I remembered it and wrote my vocal melody to it. Realizing his riff wouldnt work as written, I took the extremely rare opportunity to pick up the guitar and re-write and perform the part myself. I'm happy to say my favourite two words: FULL SUCCESS apply here. I am under the impression that this is the only time I have picked up a guitar for this album, and this was the first guitar lick I have written since the verse leads for THE MOTIVE way back when. This worked out well and inspired Brandt to pick up his guitar to layer something over it. In a matter of minutes, the song went to a new level. Stay tuned!

Afterwards, we attempted to re-record Brandt's intro guitars to SOLAR, but I wasn't happy with the guitar tones he was working with. After some time, and much to my delight, Brandt decided to stick with his original recording from the demo and would fix the timing of it in Live to make it dead on perfect. I'm very much sold on that sound so Brandt, if you're reading this, don't change your freakin' mind. KEEP THAT PART...

Sometime during this, we had a special guest visit us in the form of Matt Gentile. As some of you may or may not know, Matt laboured many years as the aggression's manager and my original bass tech. I refer to him often as Mattagement. Thanks to him we've seen places and things on this planet the average rock band will never see or even dream of in their lifetime. He's the guy you call and say "I wanna play some shows in Russia" and days later, you're headlining major cities in foreign countries. Along with Dan Hamill, he is the co-conspirator of our MOG trips abroad and has never failed in his duties to us as a mattager or as a friend. I never question a thing when Matt is leading the charge and this had led the some of the greatest adventures of my life.

Anyway, he had some time to kill before seeing Morrissey's last night at the Apollo, so he came to listen to the new songs for the first time. It was good to have a fresh perspective on the material from someone who knows that the hell they are talking about. Because the aggression has gone the way of Suffolk County, Matt and I have existed soley on a friendship level this past year. However, I was excited to see him slip back into his professional mode and start discussing things like what the single should be, what song we should open gigs with and how we should have an EPK on the new CD. All great ideas.

I guess I should ask the handsome bastard to manage the Hype. Someone remind me, thanks. ;-)

I'm off to LA this week, so time is short and we're stealing as many moments as possible to make sure Brandt has everything he needs to work with in my absence. We're in good shape. The idea now is to be ready to mix the whole thing in JULY. I make note of this now to see when we actually DO start mixing someday.

In the meantime, say hi to your MOMS.

F