Out in the Farm...

Been running around like mad man as I get ready for another LA trip, so bear with me if I seem, if I can coin my dentists description of my agent/manager/lawyer: Scattered.

We did the customary Mothers Day celebrating yesterday, honouring the woman who dares take the responsibility of claiming to have given birth to me. She's a nice lady, I like her, though she needs to stop working so much (which is something she would say about me). Anyhow, this brought us to Long Island (hopefully for one of the last times in my life before the nice people who raised me finally move into the City at last). Completely by coincidence, Irene and I had tickets to see her absoulte favourite band, CAVE IN, on Long Island as well. Farmingdale, no less. Notice the first part of that town's name is farm. I must admit to having a strong appreciation for Cave in, but I am less appreciative of these far out parts of Long Island. Well, it was another flashback to pre-drivers license days, as Irene and I were driven by my aunt and uncle (also nice people, who have seen many aggression shows in their lives, poor things) to the venue, which was on the "main street" of town. Talk about Suburbia. We couldn't wait to get the hell out of this town! Who in their right mind lives out here!

Anyhow, the gig was good. The young guys in this band are shockingly gifted musicians. They write complex, catchy songs and this was the first time I was able to check them out in a small venue. They are loud and talented as hell. I love their album ANTENNA, which strays from their previous hardcore sound, so when they dip back into the catalog, I am not as excited, but because they play so well, it's enjoyable nonetheless. Their new material steps back a little bit to the harder side of things, but with a 70's rock bent. Could be good. Stay tuned. Great band!

Irene being up at 5:30am for work this morning really kicked me in the ass and it sent me straight down to the studio in the morning for what will be my last round in the studio for the next few weeks. I spent the whole day there, and we got some work done. It may not feel like much, but what we did was very important for the record. We offficially wrapped up guitar tracking today as Brandt laid down his acoustics for THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE. Again, I played the role of engineer and it's something I need to do more of instead of letting everyone go and just do their things. Hypefactor was orginally intended for me to improve on my bass playing and singing and I think I have met those goals. Now, I need to focus on producing, though I'd like to apply that to another project, i.e. Chemlab, and then bring what I learn into the HF experience. Anyhow, something to think about. I also took the opportunity to have B tutor me in how to use the program LIVE, which he and Ash often use to edit loops and such. I need some practive on this fucker!

We also wrapped up a remix that has been sitting around. A while back, Brandt had started some remixes of two songs from THE DISTRACTED LOVER. They were good drafts, but I felt they needed some more work. We just never got around to it. Last night at Cave In, they were selling a limited edition live CD that they pressed on their own and this inspired me to want to do something for HF; possibly a giveaway using those remixes. In my mind right now, and it's being planned that way, it will be THE SWEETEST SOUL EP, and we will give it out over the website. I spent part of the morning re-listening to the remixes and I heard changes that could be made on the remix of THIEVES very quickly. Needless to say, we worked fast and have a nice completed remix. I have to really sit with the other remix as it needs a ton of work on my return.


In my fan boy moment of the day, I ordered the new solo album from Sakurai Atsushi of Buck Tick. My old friend Wayne Hussey of the Mission, who did a wonderful remix for us years ago, wrote a song on the album as do Bryan Haloblack and Mr. Watts himself. These are more than enough reasons to buy this disc. Hope it rocks.

My posting will be less frequent over the next few weeks thanks to my heading to the left coast, so hopefully my comrades will fill the void a bit. Behave.

F