In retrospect, that was a dumb idea. I don't really remember all the reasons I took some pictures and I have a feel it just wont all add up... either way, here's what happened while we were recording our record.
The first night (Friday the 26th of September) we left after work to go and get the drums all set up and ready. That Tuesday, or something, before that we had gone and I played a scratch track to all the tempos of the songs. With intro's and everything included as actual tracks on the record, we had 11 songs to sort out, which is (I'm sorry to say) the same as the Few and the Proud LP. oh well.
OF COURSE you can't tell with a phone photo from inside my car, but there was a super red, giant sun that morning. Just sayin.
This is how Chris warms up... what?
And disclaimer: there is a lot, A LOT of homo-erotic pictures of Chris in this... I don't particularly know why (outside of some freudian reason... jkjk) but just be warned.
You thought you were going to get some sweet shots of actual records right now, but sike!
After getting all the drums ready Chris, Hofax, and I went to our friend Pat's house for a little get together, we were told there was music and literature... for real, also like 15 people.
What we got was about 80 fucking people, and absolutely no literature. LET DOWN.
This guy was cracking us up. He was all over the place, and sang a duet with Chris to a Black Flag song... he also kept saying that he knew Chris from some where.
I didn't get a picture of it, but another guy tried to kiss Chris a little later on. Imagine if there was a ruler or a pencil or something else rigid in between dude's lips and Chris' face, and everytime dude tried to take a step closer Chris was FORCED to take a step back, just due to the repulsion. It was like trying to put two similarly charged magnets together. That's exactly what ensued for about 12 incredibly funny seconds.
Same guy later slapped me on the belly and immediately said, "I'm sorry, but seriously, who the fuck are you?"
So ends our night.
The next day I walked over to Dunkin' Donuts with Chris and I saw a gem incarnate:
No explanation needed.
So let me tell you a little something about Bricktop Recording Studios
Pete (whose father owns the building, they sell rubber rain-wear, wooden furniture, and plastic cutting boards) and Andy built this studio themselves. Harm's Way recorded our 2 song 7" there earlier this year, and we were told that now with the sound room built, the results would be even better. An offer we couldn't refuse.
Just to show you what else is in this warehouse:
So yeah, it's awesome. Everything sounds excellent, there's comfy free couches, endless supply of gumballs, and all kinds of things to play with. The ONLY down side is that the mixing room gets hot as FUCK, especially during guitar tracking when all the heads were on, plus the board and various equipment, plus people, plus Chris.
I warned you.
So drum tracking was going along nicely, everything was pretty smooth. At about the half way point the topic of lunch came up... this is where controversy set in.
John wanted a way to get free pizza, or as it turned out, just a free meal. Someone, I think it might have been Andy, suggested smelling Chris' asshole.
This asshole hadn't showered, had definitely relieved itself (possibly twice, sources are unclear), and had also recorded about 4 songs worth of drums, all that morning.
Needless to say, John's appetite spiked.
The next day, we got our little champion a free meal from White Castle.
(He wasn't sure if he wanted this on the internet, but considering no one really checks this besides Brad anyway, I'm sure it wont be a big deal. But just in case... don't bring it up)
I want to point out here, only because I didn't have much else to say, that this band has songs that I would say are.... %75 rip offs. Now, all music is recycled, and I am not saying it's a bad thing at all, it's not blatant like some bands have been, but the influences are pretty obvious.
Right now our LP track listings have nick names, check it:
White Zombie
Bolt Thrower
Sepultura
Carcass
Black Metal
Marauder
Crowbar / KoRn
Cro-Mags
Book mark this page, when you have the LP in your hands come back to this wonderful site and cross check with the actual tracks. YEP!
So after 15 hours of drums that day, we finished. Chris toughed it out, and was officially done.
The next day was bass and guitars, I got there a little later than the boyz and John was already done with 2 or 3 of the songs. I napped for a little, and before we knew it, it was time for guitars!
That's all we used for the record. Andy had me use my 5150 for both of my guitar tracks per song, and even used it for the "crowbar intro", but on the CLEAN CHANNEL. Hofacker played out of his Orange, and a pedal, and the result was surprisingly heavy. He also did the other track on the Mesa, and some of the weird Sabbath sounding leads had all kinds of weird effects on it.
There were a few hitches at first, but we finished all of the guitar tracks Monday night.
Dan liked what he heard.
James had been away camping all weekend doing some kind of mandatory class for his teaching degree. When he got back, he wasn't too happy about it.
This is how James warms up... what?
Tuesday night James started doing all of his vocal tracks, and just about finished them all as well. I recorded part of an acoustic number I put together for the intro to a song, and that was that.
Somewhere along the way it was decided that we wanted a drum intro to the record. Think of Chaos A.D. but less political.
Chris, Drew, and Caution are founding members of CSEDC (Chicago Straight Edge Drum Corpse (intended)) and they had a little play day in the drum room. The result was actually pretty cool.
I also got the idea to pick up a big metal pipe and blow into it to create a horn sound... my actual recording of it wasn't worth the rust ring around my lips... but Andy said he would find some samples.
That night we also recorded some violin parts for that acoustic song I mentioned, but I guess parts didn't really turn out because I can't really play violin. Oh well, some things were kept, and we were finally done with everything.
A few minutes later John found one of Cronin's fake BAPE hoodies and tried it on:
It fit well.
It's all up to mixing and mastering now, I'm sure there will be other parts to this giant ass post, but until then, PEACE.
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