Get 'em!

Buy these records next Tuesday, September 18:

Motion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me
Metro Station - Metro Station

They are both tons of fun and get my seal of approval.
That is all.

The Rentals, The 'Bald, and Image.

I just remembered that I was ignoring this. Probably to the point where no one will read it anymore.

Last Tuesday I attended the best concert thus far of 2007.
The Rentals played a killer show at House of Blues in Orlando. It was a show I never thought I'd see! They broke up when I was pretty young but I still played their songs religiously and pushed them on anyone who had the misfortune of riding in my car. Heck, Early Next Year even covers The Rentals' song "Waiting at shows from time to time. It was all in all a big deal. I got to stand through their fantastic 90 minute set and heard every tune that I wanted to. To top it all off, I got to go backstage before their set and meet and greet with the band. I've been a huge Matt Sharp fan since the early days of Weezer, so meeting him was a real treat. Rather than tell him how much I enjoy his music and how much it has influenced my own, we instead geeked out over Moog synthesizers. The rest of the band was just as cool and down to earth but eventually they were pulled away by stagehands to go and play their set.
It's now the concert to beat in my book.

Also, I'm so happy that the band got to see Piebald on their second to last pass through Florida. We actually got to see them several times in one year. They are also a big influence on the band and someone we can all listen to. Recently they broke the news that they'd be breaking up after their current tour. That's very sad, but they are leaving us with some great records and great memories.

Lastly, in our ongoing attempts at bettering ourselves as both people and a band, we have been spending a lot of time discussing our live stage show and band image. They are both two very important points that cannot be ignored if you want to make your passion a career. They are also two points that we are taking very seriously. We've been at this band thing for over 4 years now and whenever we look back at old pictures or video clips we see the progression that we have made since then. At our last show, we had lots of people telling us that we were the best we've ever been and they've seen nothing yet! We've all been shopping around for some new threads and we plan to unveil a brand new look and attitude to go with our new and improved stage show.

It's a very exciting time to be in Early Next Year.

Don't forget that we'll be playing live on Winter Park, Florida's WPRK 91.5 FM on Wednesday, September 26th at 10pm. You can tune in online by heading to www.wprkdj.org and clicking the "Listen Online!" link.

Enjoy!

Tunes!

Dear 2007:

Thank you for being an awesome year in music thus far.

Buy this -
Eisley - Combinations

You'll thank me eventually.

More Rec's

Here are some more records I suggest buying if you have disposable income. Both are from bands I really used to like, lost interest in, but have since returned to their fun, catchy, listenable selves.

Sum 41 - Underclass Hero
The Starting Line - Direction

Is anyone else counting down the days to The Rentals show at House of Blues?
No? Just me?
Does anyone else get a backstage pass to meet The Rentals at House of Blues?
No? Just me?

We have shows coming up. As usual. Shows. Shows. Shows.
V-Squat Fest is up next. We have a killer setlist planned. The kids better love us.
After that, the shows drift off into obscurity.

Attention fans in any Florida towns we've never been to: Tell your local venue to reply to my email and return my phone calls and then we'll be there.

Attention fans in any non-Florida towns we've never been to: We're trying. Seriously.
Want to pay the cash to get the brakes on our van fixed? Please?

I desperately want to play a new stage.

One day.

Buy our record. Please?

I just wanna write!

REALLY Written by Doug

Hello everybody, I've missed writing in this thing. CD sales are going slow but steady, lets hope they pick up as we begin to play more shows in the coming weeks and months. If you come to a show and you like what you hear, please buy the record. We need your help to function as a band and fight through the rough times when it feels like we might never be more than just a fun little band that a very select few like to listen to. We have aspirations to be much more but we can't do it without your support.

Enough of the pep talk.

We're incredibly excited to be heading back to Ocala tomorrow night. It's always fun to head up and see our friends and fans (hereafter referred to as "frans"). We hope to see a ton of you out there rocking out with us and if you know the words to the new songs, sing at the top of your lungs so we know you like it. We couldn't be more proud of the new record, we hope that you guys can feel the passion we have for these songs when we play them live or when you hear the CD.

Touring at the end of the year? Maybe. We're trying to make it work financially and if we can I'll be the first one to pack my bags and hop in the van. Seeing the country with my 3 best friends sounds like a fantastic way to spend a few weeks. So hopefully we'll be able to get out there and meet more frans all across the country. More to come when inspiration strikes.

Doug

I need a stinkin' title.

I stopped writing in this thing.
After the record came out, I actually started living normally again.
Our CD release shows were fantastic and we hope everyone buys a copy of the album.
We had a big promotion last week where we once again graced the main page of Purevolume.com and received a gazillion listens. We threw our new tunes out there to see what people think, and people are seeming to like it. We spent almost the entire week on the Top 10 bands list and were one of two unsigned artists. I hope people took notice.
Today was our first day not on the front page of purevolume and we've already gotten 650 listens today. That beats our usual 150 a day.

Here are records I recommend because they are a lot of fun.

Yellowcard - Paper Walls (Out tomorrow!)
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - Worst Band Name Ever (Available now!)
Matthew Good - Hospital Music (Out 7/31/07)

We have a brand new merch store located at http://earlynextyear.bigcartel.com

Thank you. That is all.

It's here!

Well, the new disc, "Catch These Words", arrived last Thursday, just in time for the first CD release show we had that Saturday in Ocala, Florida.

All of the new material seemed to go over very well and we are happy with the way we played and how the new songs were received. We will play our second CD release show this Saturday in Orlando at Back Booth. Also on the bill will be our heroes, Inkwell. The day before (Friday, June 29) we will do a quick radio interview on WPRK 91.5 around 3pm. It can also be hear online, so head on over to http://www.wprkdj.org for details on how to listen online.

This whole process has been very long and rough, so I lost my will to blog for a while. Hopefully it will return to me as the CD release shows come and go and the record "does it's thing."

Remember, the official release date is July 3, but the cd is currently available at our shows and at Park Avenue CDs (both the main location and UCF branch). We will start taking pre-orders online shortly at the ENY Webstore.

All the best!

In Conclusion...

The record is officially at the duplication plant!
We sent our baby off to the presses on Monday and now we just have to sit and twiddle our thumbs while the professionals make everything look amazing.

Tomorrow evening we are playing a show at The Liquid Cellar near UCF in Orlando to throw some of our newer material out there and to hopefully make a little bit of buzz regarding our CD release show coming up on June 30th at Back Booth.

Our pals Pop.Culture.Clash and Words Now Heard will be joining us tomorrow, so it's looking to be a fun evening. The Liquid Cellar is definitely a venue/bar in which we got our "start" so it's definitely nice to back once in a while to remember where we've been.

We've unleashed our new single, The Sick Charade, on our PureVolume and MySpace pages, and we intend to add yet another new track in the coming days. We need to prove that there is more than one awesome track one this CD!

More news on our release gig as we have it.

The ENY To-Do List 5.0:

So we're dropping this CD in the mail tomorrow.
FINALLY!!!

1. Write record / DONE
2. Find producer / DONE
3. Do pre-production / DONE
4. Record album / DONE
5. Mix record / DONE
6. Master record / DONE
7. Title the record / DONE
8. Decide tracklisting / DONE
9. Complete album artwork / DONE
10. Choose a "single" to push / DONE
11. Take new band photos / DONE
12. Book CD release show / IN PROCESS
13. Get Press reviews
14. Get internet reviews
15. Get radio promotion
16. Play CD release show
17. Sell lots of records

Makin' Records!

As things come to a close with the creation of the record, we still have a few more things to take care of before we mail this thing out on Monday!

While Travis works on mastering the record we needed to take photos for our album art! Turns out that not only does the CD have to look cool (even though everyone will just dump the songs onto their Ipods) but we have to look cool in it!

We really wanted to have a band picture inside the booklet, but didn't want to go the traditional route. So to fit with the rest of our design concept (which we're loving!) we decided to build a green screen in our living room so that our designer, Amanda, could take the background out of the photos and put us wherever she pleased.
So when it came time to build a green screen, what more do you need than green poster board and green duct tape?

Here are some photos from the night that I captured on my phone. They're low quality, but it's better than nothing, right?

I will try to get pics of interesting events more often!


First, we attempt to build the green screen:




Bert tests the lighting and searches for his shadow:


Bert is the guinea pig.


Doug is the second victim:


JoAnna has a very light instrument:


Now imagine a picture of me right here.
Looks like you'll have to wait to have the CD in your hands to see how the pictures of me came out!

This should be some proof that this record is indeed happening.

I heard something about our first single being released on the internet sometime late this week. It could just be a rumor. Who knows.

Details!

I will be doing everything in my power to ensure that our record is headed to the duplication plant this week!

There's one more panel to design for the artwork and then it's done.
There's one more song to fix and then the mix is done.

We should have our first single online in the next week or so. As soon as I have a mastered copy, you'll be able to hear the track anywhere our music is found online.

Here's the tracklisting that we have planned for the release:

Early Next Year
Catch These Words

01. Say Hello
02. Send A Letter
03. Catch These Words
04. Lifeless
05. Plan B
06. They Always Say
07. Right Here (With Me)
08. Never Saw it Coming
09. One Down, Two to Go
10. The Sick Charade
11. All Your Advice
12. Something That I Miss

For those of you wondering... will we have the new CD for our show on June 23rd?
We sure hope so.

4 of our songs made their way out into the world as we were passing out sampler CDs to both friends and important folks at Florida Music Fest last weekend. Hopefully no one will leak the tracks!

I thought the actual recording process was the hardest part of making a CD. Turns out the hardest part is hanging onto the songs and keeping them secret until the time is right!

Who knew?

Wasbenhapnin'

I believe the expression goes something like this: "No news is good news."

In our situation it goes: "Lots of news and not very much time to write about it on the internet."

In case you just can't live without an update, here's what's been going on...

Most importantly, we named the record! We finally decided on something that wasn't taken by other bands, and still makes sense and has meaning to our CD. We'll be calling the album "Catch These Words".

Secondly, we have the tracklisting together and the first "single" is ready to invade the internet very soon.

The album artwork is near completion. Just a few more panels need designed and finished.

The mix has shaped up nicely and we only have one major change to make before the Master is complete.

We're hoping to send this thing off to the duplication plant next week.
Let me reiterate that in case you missed it...
Sending. Duplication plant. Next week.

That means the record will soon be complete.

Awesome.

Promises Made

By this time next week I hope to have announced the following:

The Title of our record

The tracklisting

The name of the first single

The cover art (possibly, but don't get too excited)

The release date (again, don't get too excited)

We're getting closer by the day.

We've been soaking up the latest mix and have run across just a few more changes that made. We hope to turn a master copy quite soon.

More news to come!

News on (the) Record

Last night involved a trip over the House of Travis for a full band listen to the songs in their (near) final form.

We listened through everything front to back and tossed in our two cents. Changes were made, ego's were stroked, battles were won and lost. In the end, I think the songs are right where we want them to be.

It was awesome to finally hear our record in an almost completed form. This made me even more excited. I just want to get it out there and into people's ears so badly. I can totally relate to other bands now who record an album in January and can't release it until July. It sucks. We don't want to be holding onto this thing for months and months after it is finished, but there is still a ton of work that needs done in all phases of the record making process. We're still aiming for a late June/early July release, but we cannot even book our CD release show until we are ready to send this thing off to duplication. Wouldn't want to be stuck with a CD release gig and no CD, right?

In other major news, we finally settled on a title for the record. After many months of sharing ideas, arguments, and finding out that every other album name we wanted to use was taken multiple times, we finally found something that is unique and fitting to this project. We'll reveal it soon enough!

Also, before too long we'll have some new music for you to sink your teeth into.
Yes. That's right. NEW MUSIC.

Even I'm looking forward to that.

Tonight is Spider-Man 3 at Midnight.
I'm so excited.
And I just can't hide it.

Excitementism

I'm just going to go ahead and destroy my image right here and now...

I am so excited for Spider-Man 3 to open in theaters that I can barely sleep at night. I saw the first two films on opening night and even revisited the theater 4 more times when the second was released. I have decided to take it a step further and get tickets for a midnight showing this time around. I want this movie in my eyeballs ASAP. I grew up a huge comic book nerd and collected hundreds of issues of Spider-Man. Were I to sell them all, I could probably cover the entire pricetag for our record. But I won't do that. I still maintain that reading Spider-Man comics made me who I am today. I had to pick up my acerbic wit somewhere. If I happen to appear a bit more giddy than usual for the next few days, please forgive me. I will be back to my cynical self in just a few days. Bear with me.

Go see this movie.
I'm basically throwing all this information out there so that people will read it and when they come to see us at shows they can bring me Spider-Man memorabilia instead of cookies. I do love the cookies, please don't get me wrong.

If I disappear for random 2 hour blocks Thursday through Sunday, don't worry, I'll be at the movie theater.

Oh yeah...uh ...record. Sounds good. Out some day.

Another week, another update.

We played our first show in two months and nothing caught on fire. Ocala was presented a 7 song setlist consisting of only 2 songs from "Sarcasm" and the rest of the tunes were tunes that will be on our record. They were even the first people to hear 2 brand new songs as well! Bert and I almost saw our dooms! We played a dark stage that loomed several feet above the ground. Bert was positioned dangerously to the left of the stage and whilst rocking out, nearly slipped off the stage. He was saved by the arms of Mike from Hey Nice Guy. During the breakdown of our final song, Girl Like Her, I decided to once again climb the amps and got some crazy air with guitar in tow. When I landed I somehow managed to wrap my leg around a mic cable and I also began to topple off the stage in the same direction Bert had. Once again, Mike from Hey Nice Guy was there to keep me afloat and injury free. The crowd was very receptive to the new songs (if clapping and yelling when a song is over is considered "receptive") and overall it was a good show even though the crowd was sparse. It was the ideal way to present new material to people who actually listen to our songs. The other bands were quite good. It was my first time seeing Mashlin in years and Hey Nice Guy was fantastic as always.

We didn't get lost in Ocala this time around (we're finally starting to understand it) but it's nearly impossible to find any cheap food within the downtown area. Our fans brought us 100 sugar cookies to keep us going, and it's always nice to get baked goods. They ensure that we stay alive long enough to get back to their town eventually.

This show was to help us shake off some rust and I think we're quite ready for our next show on Sunday evening with Rory, Fallen From the Sky, and My Getaway at Back Booth in Orlando. Again we'll dish out the new tunes to an unsuspecting crowd of folks who probably don't listen to us... yet.

As far as the record goes, Travis is really hoping to have the mixing done this week and I'm looking forward to hearing some of the changes that he has made and taunted me with.
It's getting to the point where I've started to think more and more about which single to push from this record, titles, artwork, and tracklistings. All the nitty gritty details that have to be thought out before the thing even goes to press.

I've also started to make a list of ways to really promote this thing and get the word out there. Thankfully, I have quite a lengthy list, it's just a matter of making things happen. I really don't care for doing interviews because in the past they have all been generally terrible experiences, but if we can get to the right people, we might be able to say something decent.

We'll so the typical targeting of the radio, web, and press and hope for the best!

Mix #2

A few nights ago I went to see the Wizard...er... Travis to get an update on the mixing process. Poor guy probably hasn't slept since we finished tracking. He had done a crazy amount of work in a very short period of time. I admire his dedication. I got a quick update on the changes and edits he had made to the songs and things are really sounding quite good. No... wait.. amazing.
I walked out of there with updated versions of 7 tracks. Some have come a long way just since I last heard them. One of the songs was pretty much a finished product and sounded exactly like what I heard in my head. I'm so happy with how these are shaping up.

He's aiming to have everything complete by the weekend and hopefully by next week we will have gotten everything right where we want it to be. Then we're on to Mastering and Artwork, and Duplication!

Slowly but surely we're heading in the right direction.
There's really no telling when you'll be hearing tracks from the record, but it will probably be after we've chosen a "single" to push via the internet.

This record is really shaping up to be everything we wish the last record was and we owe Travis so much for being both an awesome producer and mentor to us throughout.

We'll be playing in Ocala, FL this weekend and we still have a lot to do, so I am off to band practice so that we sound awesome.

Cheers!

Record, records, and shows.

What's happening with our record you ask?

It's being mixed. Check back in a month.

I visited with Travis a few days ago to listen in on the mixing progress. He's currently in the editing/mixing phase which is always the most time consuming. Tweaks are currently being made to parts of songs that were not either 100% perfect or just needed some additional flair.

Here's an interesting tidbit... we actually have Travis doing quite a bit of programming on songs, so don't be surprised if you hear things that might be considered.... dare I say... electronic. It'll be awesome, I promise.

Second... there are a few records that were recently released that I'm highly enjoying. Pick these up:

The Academy Is... - Santi
I loved this bands first record. I played it over and over in my car on a cassette that I made and then the tape melted and I kind of forgot about them for a while. The band is back with a brand new record and some slick production. Everything is bigger and better sounding this time around. The band takes more of a straight ahead rock and roll approach this time around, but most songs still have the flair that you expect from the band. My only complaints about this record would be that A.) The lyrical content this time around is a little more vague and unrelateable. Most of the time, I have no clue what the dude's singing about. B.) The good songs on this record are GOOD and the bad songs are downright bad. There's not a lot of middle ground. But on the bright side, there are only 2-3 tracks I find myself skipping.

Standout tracks include: Same Blood / Neighbors / Seed

Limbeck - Self Titled
Limbeck is one of those bands where I will listen to and love everything that they release, so in my eyes they can do no wrong. This album keeps the alt-country tunes coming. All the instrumentation is phenomenal and each song tells a great story and provides great mental imagery. My only complaint about this record is that it's just more of the same. I believe they still have a lot of ground to cover as a band, and I can't wait to see them mature a bit more.

Standout tracks include: Trouble / Big Drag / Let's Get Crazy

Now I'm going to ramble a bit about shows.

When it comes to shows that we are involved with, we'll be playing the next 2 weekends. It's time we got back in the swing of this live show stuff considering we haven't been on a stage since mid-February!
We've been practicing whenever possible to try and shake off the rust and we'll see just how things go next Saturday when we return to Ocala, FL to play at the Capitol. We had a blast playing there last time to a packed house and are looking forward to doing it again!
Joining us will be our buds Hey Nice Guy, some touring act, and the 111 Records band, Mashlin. We're systematically befriending all the 111 Records bands it seems.

The following week we're getting to play an awesome all ages shows at Back Booth in Orlando with our pals (also on the 111 Records roster) Rory and the bands Fallen From the Sky and My Getaway. This might be the first show where we've played with all of the bands before.

This is also a huge month for going to see shows. This Friday is Brand New at House of Blues followed by Piebald at The Social on Sunday. The next Saturday, Limbeck is hitting up The Social as well. Good month for music!

Lastly, I just want to make known that writer Kurt Vonnegut died today. He wrote some fantastic books that you probably won't understand. They are way funny though if you're a bit off and have little to no morals.
Pick up Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions or Slapstick for some old fashioned social commentary covered up with shallow characters and bad metaphors.

Who am I kidding.
No one reads anymore.

More record news coming soon!

The Rough

This past Wednesday was my birthday (Yeah, thanks for all the cards) and it was a heck of a good day. Not only did I get to eat a lot of good food and take it generally easy throughout the day, but I grabbed some lunch with Travis and he provided me with a rough cut of our record. Really rough.

We needed something to reference so we could pick up additional parts that we added during the recording process, but it's awesome to be able to hear the songs that we put so much into. I'm still very excited to hear the finished product, but there's a whole bunch of tunes that sound fantastic even in their rough state. Again, the finished product should be pretty killer.

I've listened back through all 12 tracks numerous times, and I know the rest of the band has been doing the same. There's still work to be done and Travis has been working dilligently on these tracks. The drums sound much bigger than they did and I'm looking forward to hearing the same magic all over the rest of the instruments.

A few of the NEW songs are sounding awesome. Those are going to be exciting to release.

It's about that time for us to begin playing live again!
We booked our first show in almost two months for the end of April. Our buddies in the band Rory asked us to open for them at an all ages show taking place at Back Booth in Orlando on Sunday, April 29th. The show will also feature our old pals My Getaway.
It'll be a great way for us to get back up on stage. We're a little out of practice. It'll be a lot of fun putting together a brand new setlist. Over the last 5 or 6 months we had basically been playing the same setlist, just in a different order. Out of the 7 songs on our "Sarcasm" EP, it had gotten to the point where we were only playing maybe 4 of those songs live, but now we have an additional 12 to choose from making things way more interesting!
We're going to begin incorporating more and more new material into the live shows to (hopefully) build some excitement for the new record.
It'll give a little more focus to our practices, at least.

We're still waiting to hear if/when we'll be showcasing at this year's Florida Music Festival so we'll be sure to make that announcement as soon as we hear something.
If we hear something. You never know.

Things are slowly kicking back up and I'm ready for it! Playing on a stage beats playing in our kitchen any day of the week.

We're still aiming for the record to be released in June, so watch for plenty of dates to pop up around then!

Tonight is record celebration #2!

B-Day or Bidet?

Happy Birthday to our own bassman, Bert Long, who turns 22 years young today.

The Aftermath

I must say that I'm actually scared to write in this thing anymore. For one, I feel like I have nothing of interest to say now that our part of the record has been completed. For two, if I do keep talking about the album, then I'm afraid that I might say something that I will regret. Perhaps I'll accidentally drop a few song names. Perhaps my fingers might wander and leak some album title ideas. Who knows, I might even be tempted to release an MP3 or two.

In reality, I'm an adult and have full control over my actions... I'M JUST SO EXCITED!

Last night we had our first practice in eight years.
Okay, so it wasn't really eight years... maybe 2 and a half weeks is a better guestimate.
Anyway, we plowed through the songs in their newest incarnations. We still have plenty of work ahead of ourselves, but things flowed pretty well for the most part.
It's rough when we don't actually have a copy of the record yet, so there are changes we made that I'm sure we forgot about. I know I changed a lot of lyrics and the way they were sung, but until I can sit down and listen over and over, I'm just going to bumble my way through.

This record is really big on the vocal end. Lots of harmonies and big gang vocals. The rest of the band is going to have to step up to the mics in the coming weeks.

Hopefully this week Travis will have something for us to listen to. I'm getting antsy again. I used to hear these songs everyday for hours and hours straight, and now that I can't hear them, I REALLY want to.

As far as album titles, track listings, and artwork ideas... these are all yet to be discussed. So much of that stuff is really going to depend on the songs themselves. I feel like if we cooked up a record title right now, we'd probably just change it later anyway. These songs have to direct us where to go. For the album cover, we can't just grab a paintbrush and fill the canvas with an image of a Sorcerer battling a Dragon. It just won't work!

Here's my one promise to everyone:
This record will have the lyrics inside.
That's my #1 stipulation.

I finally got a bit more work done on the video that I promised to be done with weeks ago. It's very close to being complete!
Does anyone even care?

More news when we have news!

Recording: Day 14

I lost track of days and ended up a bit behind. As usual.
So guess what?

WE ARE FINISHED RECORDING!

We wrapped on Wednesday night after I finished up vocals for the last 2 songs. Afterwards we sat down and listened through all 12 tracks in their rawest form to make sure we had not forgotten anything.
It was amazing to hear all of our work blast through the speakers. 22 days of hard work and stress came out in musical form and couldn't have been better. We're all very excited to get the final mixes in our hands, but we also know that Travis's job is just beginning. He has to sit down and listen to these songs over and over to get them perfect. I said this a few other times, but these songs are HUGE!

In my opinion, the "Sarcasm" EP was very one dimensional due to time and budget constraints. This record is three times fuller and the life and personality just seeps out of the songs. I'm very proud of all my bandmates for their hard work and dedication to this project. At some point or another we all pushed ourselves to our limits and at the same time we were always there to lend support and to give words of encouragement. I'm thankful to Travis for taking on this project as well. Knowing him, he could have worked with anyone that he wanted to, and he chose us. It makes us feel good to know he believes in this record as much as we do and wants it to be as amazing as we do. What more could we ask for?

Last night, which was Thursday, we spent the evening loading out all the gear we used for the record. The amps, guitars, console, and loads and loads of cables were all piled into our van and returned to Travis. It was a little sad to see things go, but I know that JoAnna was happy to have her room back. She wasn't even able to sleep in her room for this process. Kudos to her for sticking it out and making the most of the situation.

Over the next few weeks we now have to go back and re-learn a lot of the new parts that we added during the recording process. It's going to be fun getting everything tight so that we can replicate what will be on the CD into a live show that holds up.

We'll rehearse through most of April and pick up shows where we can, but due to this schedule along with various vacations happening through May, we might not hit the stage til the Florida Music Festival happening May 16-20.
It's all up in the air right now, but we need the time to get our heads on straight, get back into playing together as a band, and making the extra cash so we can put this record out ourselves.

Tomorrow night we're going to throw a small celebratory bash in honor of our CD being 100% recorded and then over the next few weeks we'll be checking in with Travis from time to to hear the mixes as they progress. Once we find the point where everyone is 100% happy with how things are sounding, we'll get that sucker mastered and sent off to the presses.

Please keep an eye on this blog as we'll be releasing the title of the record (once we have it) and a tracklisting of all the jams which will fill it out.

Lastly, here are some photos from the last few days of recording that I took on my new phone. They're kind of lame, and I apologize for that.


The mixing console and effects racks in our makeshift control room.


This is the bathroom where I sang all my vocals. That is the microphone I spit all over.


These are the guitar and bass amps that you will hear all over our album.
Sweet tones derived from these monsters. They do not belong to us. We are not that cool.


Travis, Doug, Bert, and JoAnna take a break from recording to play some Tetris attack. Everyone else was good at it except for me.

Thanks for checking in throughout the process, and please keep coming back for more updates.

It's been a blast!

Recording: Day 13

My stress level has been all over the place as of late. I want nothing but great things for this record and I'm feeling pretty good that it will meet and exceed my expectations by leaps and bounds. Having Travis around has taught us all so much. We've approached these newer songs way differently than we may have otherwise and it's opened up our ears and minds to new ideas. Having a producer is one thing, but having a producer who has written some records that I spin on a regular basis and thoroughly enjoy is another.

Personally, I've learned quite a lot about tones, sounds, vocals, melodies, harmonies and... "moxy".
I know that when it comes time to start writing again I will be approaching things way differently and keep a much more open mind than in the past. I'm very excited to see where this record takes us and even more excited to write the next chapter.

Last night I finished up vocals for two more tracks leaving us with just two more to finish. I get more and more excited with each session that we do. Most indie records take about two weeks to finish and tonight we'll crack the 14 day mark, so by all accounts we're really on track even with most of us working full time jobs.

Like I mentioned in yesterday's blog, we should have a guest vocalist coming in tonight and I can't wait to tell you about that after it happens.

Two more songs, a few handclaps and shakers, and we can call it a wrap!

Recording: Day 12

Let me think a second... how many songs do we have completed for the record?
8 SONGS DONE!

That's right, folks we are now down to the final four tunes. Tonight I plan to wrestle my way through two more and then we'll be sharing some ideas on the final tune that is pretty bare bones at this point. Tomorrow during the day, Travis and JoAnna will take those ideas and coordinate some drums. I know that I've said this 100 times throughout the journal here, but we are not sure which direction this song will take so it's a bit of experiementation on all of our parts. It will be... interesting, to say the least.

Tomorrow evening we're planning to have a guest vocalist come in to lend his pipes to our record. We're not exactly sure where it's going to fit in, or what exactly will happen, but we shall experiement until everything is perfect or at least listenable. More on that after it actually happens. It will be cool. I hope.

So as usual, it's all work and no play, but things are surely coming together nicely. Travis is a vocals kind of guy so we've gotten to toss a lot of great ideas back and fourth. He's been a joy to work with, through and through.

We're all very anxious to get back to playing shows ASAP, so hopefully in May we'll be able to line up a few and we're pretty certain that we'll be showcasing at this year's Florida Music Festival as well.

We hope to have something for you to hear before too long, so keep those ears on alert!

Recording: Day 11

Yesterday was possibly the longest day of my life.

I had to get myself to work at 5:30am and didn't get home til 5:30pm.
We had decided to take a week or regain our composure and opted to kick back up this week to (hopefully) finish up the record. We've put ourselves on a bit of a time crunch, but deadlines create results. I hope they are good ones.
I spent all of last night in the vocal bathroom belting out extremely high notes to the microphone, the shower, and possibly the neighbors.
I had spent the entire day on my feet and talking so I'll admit to not being in prime singing condition. However, we finished up yet another tune! I believe that brings our total number of songs complete to six. Halfway through vocals!
The evening was dedicated to a song that I was never completely taken with, but it has done a complete 180 since it's conception. The drums are more driving, the bass walks nicely, the guitars shimmer, and now the vocals are sassy, sexy, and driven by some slick harmonies and a big chorus. It is slowly turning into a song that I find to be listenable. I'm sure I will love it after it is mixed.

Tonight the rest of the band is headed into downtown Orlando to see Rory at The Social while I stay home and sing. Sacrifices must be made, y'know?
I'm hoping to get through another song or two this evening and have something to show the rest of the band when they get back. We already wrapped up (what's looking to be) my favorite song for the record, but there are some others coming up that I think are phenomenal as well.

Also - I still have video that I'm editing. It ended up being quite lengthy, so it's just taking a little longer than expected.

Take care!

Non-Recording: Day 1

Today is break day!!

We're getting a 2 day break to catch up on some sleep and not listen to our own music. It's much needed. It makes me smile though when even when we aren't making a record we're talking about it. Everyone here in camp ENY seems genuinely excited about getting this thing done and getting it out there even though we really don't want it to end. More vocals, harmonies, guitars, and handclaps are due in the future but I think we'll use the next couple days to just chill and catch up on our movie watching. I'll attempt to finish editing some video (if I can sit still long enough to focus) but most likely just be kind of lazy.

I have "Snakes on a Plane" on lease from Netflix and I am dying to watch it. I also want to see "300" sometime in the future. It comes highly recommended from Travis and everyone else I know who has seen it.

If anything exciting happens, rest assured that you will hear about it. I'm trying to book us a few shows for March, so keep an eye on that show listing.

Also, since I'm a bit behind on my music recommendations, here are a couple of records to check out!

Out Now:
Sherwood - A Different Light
A great new album from a great band. Please go get this record if you like music, life, and the world in general.

Out April 3, 2007:
Here are a few records being released on Bert's 22nd birthday!

Chevelle - Vena Sera
The Academy Is... - Santi

Out April 10, 2007:
Limbeck - Self Titled
This might be the only record of 2007 aside from ours that will matter.

Break!

Recording: Day 10

Tonight's session kicked off around 9pm. Even though I was a little late in getting there Doug was recording some acoustic guitar for the tune that we chose to rebuild.
He built a solid foundation for the tune and we'll prepare to build on it another night. We once again turned the bathroom into a vocal booth and dove into some more tunes. I got a little too frustrated on the song we chose to start off with decided to find something a little more suited to the moment.

Myself, JoAnna, and Bert all ended up lending some vocal stylings to the track and by 1:00am we had something pretty solid. That's 5 songs finished. Doug bumps the percentage complete up into the 80% range.

Travis packed up some gear to get away from us crazies so he could do some mixing in peace. We'll get a short break and then hopefully kick up again on Thursday.
It was obvious that we needed a break simply because as we all sat around in the control room listening back to various parts we were totally reusing all the same jokes from previous days. We were all completely out of new material.

There's only so much verbal, mental, and airsoft gun abuse that people can take!

Recording: Day 9 redux

Last night we finished up vocals on yet another song.

4 TUNES IN THE BAG!

We turned one of the bathrooms in the house into a vocal booth by throwing towels everywhere to deaden the sound and then stuck a mic in front of me. At this point both Bert and JoAnna have contributed background vocals and things are sounding big, full, and harmonious.

Tonight we power into day number 10. So much for a break, eh?

Travis seems to want to get this thing done about as badly as we do (probably just so he can stop seeing us all the time), but we're anxious to get it done just as much.

We're still re-building one tune from scratch (it's almost there!) and I have to do vocals for 8 more songs. We're averaging about two tunes a day and hope to get through at least one more tonight since we won't get started until around 9pm.

I am still completely baffled by how hard it is to make a record.

More later!

Recording: Day 9 - Part II

That's 3 songs in the BAG!

We are officially finished with 3 out of 12 songs. Fantastic.
Everytime we complete a tune, I get more excited.
I rounded out vocals for one of our newer tunes and then the rest of the band joined in for gang vocal madness. We've got some super big songs coming your way. I think I can perhaps bump up our percentage to 65% complete.

Ugh, I feel like I keep writing the exact same things a different way.

The recording is going amazing. It baffles me how much work has gone into making this record. Each person put all of their energy into making their parts the best they can be and I couldn't be more proud of my bandmates. Even though I sometimes spent six hours sitting in one place listening to the same song over and over I go to bed each night absolutely exhausted.

I'm a little sad that our sessions are winding down but we have more to do and I hope that it can be completed sooner than later.

We're about to take a quick break for dinner and then hopefully kick up with another round of vocals. I'm a singing MACHINE!

Recording: Day 9

Here's another quick update while we take a quick break...

We've been working on vocals all day. We officially have two songs finished at this point with one more whole tune to record. Today is our last day for these sessions and we'll likely take a week off and then resume a little later so that we can get both our passion and energy back.

It's coming along! Slowly but surely.

Recording: Day 8

Just a quick update before I turn in for the night. It's about 1:30am right now and we just wrapped recording for the night. Today was by far one of the longest days for us.

Last night we started on the synthesizer side of things and got through 5 out of the 6 songs which utilize the high pitched squeels of joy. I actually had to take a step back and bust out an older synth and we used that on one of the tracks we finished up first thing this morning. After wrapping that up we headed back to the guitars and fixed up a few things and completely tackled one additional tune that we had yet to touch.

A little later into the evening we decided to start on vocals. I found myself in one of our bathrooms surrounded by towels and I belted through one song and that is now officially in the bag. I started on another song but it was getting pretty late so I only made it a few parts in. Tomorrow we'll finish up with that and hopefully toss a few more in the bag by the end of the day.

As things stand we have one songs COMPLETELY finished. Chances are that vocals will take a few more weeks to finish up as we have time. There's still one song that I've mentioned a few times that we were toying with. Travis wasn't thrilled with the original demo and we broke it down so we could rebuild. However, due to lots of overtime with the guitars I'm not sure if the song will be finished in time to be included in the record. It's a little hearbreaking since it was definitely one of my favorite songs and definitely one of the most personal. I'm not ruling it out yet, but 11 songs is better than 7, yes?

I started editing some additional footage today but since I was playing a more active roll in tonight's session (i.e. playing instruments or singing rather than sitting around bored out of my mind) that will be put on hold until I get a little more time to finish it up.

I hope that tomorrow will be very productive since it's the last day that we have scheduled right now. We'll let you know how things go and hopefully we can make a big dent in the tracks that we have yet to finish.

I'm so tired that my eyes are blurring.
To bed now. Sleep. Good.

Recording: Day 7 - Part II

So it's been quite the day. Quite a long day to be more specific. Doug and myself have been plugging away all day with the guitar side of the sonic spectrum. Yesterday we finished two songs and got ourselves halfway through two others. Today we riffed it up and I think as things stand right now we only have two more songs that have nothing as far as guitars. There are a few things we plan to revisit over the weekend, but right now it is late and we had to shut down the amps and plan to focus on something a bit quieter. We just made a quick trip to our favorite restaraunt, Ti'Juana Flats and have returned stuffed to the gills with mexican food goodness. Everyone is couch surfing for the moment while I our minds get refreshed and our stomachs settle.

For the remainder of the evening we'll either tackle acoustic guitar or Moog lines. I don't think we have decided as of yet.

When Doug was asked what percentage of the record was complete he responded with 60%. That sounds good to me. We're 60% done with our full length record. Some songs are shaping up nicely, others need work, and some even blew us away.

Have I mentioned lately how excited we are to release this?

Travis has been awesome to us and fits in very well with the crew. Our slightly askew brands of sarcasm mesh nicely and he likes to pick on Doug just as much as the rest of us.

It's been a heck of a day and I can't wait to update you more tomorrow. Soon we should have enough footage to post another video journal, so stayed tuned for that as long as I have time to do some quick editing.

Thanks for checking in!

midday mayhem

Hey guys,
JoAnna here. Just keeping updates and whatnot. We're halfway through day 7 of recording, and we're crankin' out the tunes like nobody's business. I know we keep saying it, but I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to hear the revamped versions of some of our stuff. Guitarmonies galore! Anyway. It sounds awesome. We're still only about halfway through guitar parts, but the time and patience is well worth it, because we know this is going to sound great.
Some time is always spent picking on/beating up Doug, but that's everyday. We don't need to be recording for that to happen. For me anyway.
Eh, I'll leave this short and sweet. More to come later, I'm sure.

Recording: Day 6 - Part II

Aaaaaaaaaand we're done for day numero six!

As I mentioned earlier, tonight was all about the guitars. Switching guitars, shaping tones, and playing really loudly through crazy amplifiers. Nothing better, right?

We spent a whole lot of time making sure that we're really happy with how everything sounds. Sound is important when making a record. Just so you know, this record is so far sounding amazing. One of the big reasons that we wanted to work with Travis in the first place was because his records always were so sonically pleasing. He's an advocate of big sounds and lots of layers. Remember that "Sarcasm" record? This record is going to sound 300 times bigger. Possibly 500 times bigger. There's no telling!

As far as guitars go, we finished up all the guitar parts on 2 tracks and I layed down rhythm guitar on 2 or 3 other songs. I honestly can't remember.
Our ears were starting to get tired so we decided to break for the night and resume tomorrow morning. We should be able to finish up 4 or 5 more songs tomorrow and then hammer through additional guitars, bass, and other instrumentation over the weekend.

While playing through tunes over the course of the day I realized how excited I am to start playing these songs at live shows. Sure, some of them we've been playing live for a while, but they have taken on completely new life and it's going to be exciting for everyone.
As a whole, this experience of working with Travis who is an all around fantastic musician, producer, and person is going to make us a stronger band. You'll see. Soon.

Tomorrow I shall update you again.
Until then...

Recording: Days 5 & 6

So I totally missed a day. Oops.

Let's see if I can remember all the craziness I missed reporting on...
Yesterday was focused on recording all the bass parts for the record. Bert spent Tuesday and Wednesday hammering out parts for everything. Things were a little bumpy along the way but as of yesterday evening he had laid basic tracks down for everything and I think we're going to go back to a song or two and review them over the weekend.
That went fairly late into the evening and around 9pm we started with some acoustic guitar sounds and decided to tackle one of the tunes that we wanted to rework from the ground up.
We got some structure ideas down and tracked a few things but it was getting late and we decided it would be better left for another evening. We'll also be clunking out some additional drum and bass tracks for that at some point.

This brings us to today... Thursday. Doug and myself managed to get a few days off of work to bring guitars into the mix. We started early at 11:00 in the A.M. and we tracked guitar lines for two songs. So in five hours we did 2 songs. Sure, sounds like a long time, but the stuff we did record is pretty killer.
There were two songs that I wrote the same week we started tracking and we hammered those out first.
A lot of time was put into finding ideal sounds and tones.

We're about to kick up on song number 3 for the day, so more on this as it develops.

More crazy camera footage was captured last night, so expect more video soon!

Recording: Days 3 & 4

I was slipping there for a day, but I'm back in action now.
Hopefully you enjoyed the video. I put absolutely way too much work into that for what it is.

Anyway, yesterday JoAnna finished up her drums... for now. We have 11 songs with drums. Gotta start somewhere, right? We still have one other tune that's up in the air as far as what we direction we will take with it. It might have some percussion and.... it might not. We don't know, honestly.

After drums wrapped up last night Travis set out to find a good bass tone for the record with a crazy old Mesa bass rig and a Marshall guitar amp. He does crazy things, but the sounds are crazy good.
Today was Bert's day to be in the spotlight and he, Travis, and JoAnna spent all day working on the record's lower end. I believe he completed bass lines for six tracks out of 12. Tonight we're going to turn the focus towards acoustic guitars for some mainlines and some backing layers and then tomorrow Bert will finish up with the bass (hopefully).

Hopefully more video to come soon. JoAnna had control of the camera all day while I was away at work, so I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of craziness she captured.

Are you still with us?
I know it sounds boring, but we're working dilligently and want you to hear this album. We only say that because we know how much you're going to love it.
Trust us.

Video Journal: Recording Days 1 & 2

Just a brief re-cap of what's been happening... in video form!
Click here to view the madness!

More later!

Recording Journal: Day 2

Alright alright alright!

So we worked late into the evening last night recording as many drums as we could for the songs. We ended up getting through 4 tunes before calling it a night. Sessions started up again today around noon and since we had already set up mics and got all the sounds, we just jumped right in. Recorded first was one of our newest songs and then we tackled a few older. As things stand at the time of this writing we have 3 songs done for the day and are almost midway through the fourth song, Lifeless. It's been quite loud in this house, but we're hoping to finish up a few more yet.

Bert is scheduled to start bass tomorrow or Tuesday, but we're confident he can rip right through his parts and get started on guitars by mid-week.

JoAnna is powering through like a trooper and we're feeling real good about the sounds and parts we have. Doing our best at this point to make sure everything is real tight.

The rest of us go into the control room, listen, nod and then hang around or get lost in various video game systems found lying about the house. Normally I would be hanging on every drum hit of every song, but we've got Mr. Adams overseeing everything and he's got a good ear for knowing when things can be better or tighter. We've been having a blast working with him thus far and we've barely even began!

Stay tuned for an update later in the afternoon!

Recording: Day 1

Hey there!

So today is the big day. Today begins the recording process for our follow up record to our 2005 EP release "Sarcasm is Your Friend."
We've been preparing for quite a while now and for the next 8 days we plan to record as much stuff as humanly possible.

We've been concealing the identity of our producer, but now we're ready to tell the world who will be manning the wheel of our record, so to speak.
I'm very happy to announce that our CD is going to be engineered, mixed, and produced by a fellow by the name of Travis Adams. He's an Orlando based musician who recently produced the Band Marino record and is the former frontman of the Doghouse Records act, My Hotel Year. In his free time, he also sings for a little band known as Inkwell. He also engineered and produced their releases as well.

When it comes to bands that everyone in ENY can enjoy, MHY and Inkwell both made the list, so we set out to get him as our unofficial fifth member. Turns out he's a real nice fellow and he spent the last 2 weeks listening in on our practices, disecting our songs and giving advice and pointers on how to make them better, more dynamic, and more diverse. After getting used to everything, we're loving the new material more by the day.

As I've mentioned in previous postings, we opted to record in our house in Winter Park, FL rather than to spend a buttload of money on a studio. This lets us not only take the time we need, but it's a place of comfort to us. Well, it was a place of comfort. Last night we brought in all the gear we'll be using to put this beast of a record together. Currently, our kitchen is full of drums and microphones, our living room is playing host to a countless number of amps and guitars, and JoAnna even sacrificed her bedroom which is now home to our control room which holds a 16 channel mixer, effects racks, computers, and us.

Last night after we had run all over town with Van Diesel picking up gear from shady warehouses, we loaded in all the gear, hooked everything up and proceeded to record some scratch tracks which JoAnna will use to play her drum tracks to. That went late into the evening but we've set the foundation for almost all 12 songs.

It's a new day. Day 1 of recording. As I type this, JoAnna is in the kitchen getting drum sounds while Travis and Doug monitor from the control room. Things are running smoothly and I expect to be hitting the record button before too long.

Throughout the recording process, we'll be taking a lot of video and I will be leaving my computer is our designated "Blogger" where this blog will be up at all times and anyone from the band can sit down and give you an update. So check back with us often for all the updates.

Get excited!!

Pre-Production: Days 6, 7, & 8

So apparently I'm updating in 3 day blocks now. Better an odd schedule than no schedule, right?

This will be quick...
Throughout Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we spent a lot of time just practicing. Just playing and replaying focusing mainly on songs that had significant changes and the brand new songs which are shaping up nicely and quite quickly. Most of our time has been spent standing in a circle in our kitchen staring at one another. It's been loud, long, exhausting, and exciting. The kicker? We aven't actually started recording yet!

We're feeling pretty good overall and are going into this with the correct mindset and fully prepared to do anything necessary to get the record that we hear in our heads.

Tonight we start bringing in all the studio gear. Computers, mixers, guitars, and lots of amps. Tonight the house officially turns into the recording studio.
There's no telling what we'll get to tonight, but tomorrow we're slated to get things rolling around noon. This is it. The time has come.
In fact, with my next post (whenever that may be), I'll finally give the heads up on who is at the helm of this project for the producing, engineering, and general awesomeness responsibilities.

Stay tuned everyone. We'll be making a conscious effort to grab photos and video as we have the time! This will be your best bet for up to date info for all things ENY.

Pre-Production: Day 3, 4, & 5

So I'm a bit behind. I'm always behind. The fact that I haven't been updating this thing every 5 minutes usually means that I am keeping busy, which is a good thing since there is a lot to be done.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we kept the Pre-Production ball rolling and continued to run through each little nuance of the songs. As things stand we are taking 12 tracks to the studio and are generally excited with how they are shaping up. Some have taken on completely new life while others remain similar to their original intent. It's exciting, I promise. We're really looking forward to playing some of these tunes live and can't wait for people to see how they've changed from how we were playing them previously. It's gonna turn heads, for sure.

On Friday, there was an 8 hour day of work and then it was right to rehearsal. We had worked songs to death the previous week and then started on 4 more. At this point we had 10 songs that we were ready to work with, but since options are always nice I decided that I could pen 2 more for the record, so after 3-4 hours of rehearsing I was then demoing on my computer for the rest of the night. I laid the groundwork for 2 brand new songs that were complete polar opposites. I think they'll develop into some of the strongest songs and hope they make the record.

Saturday was a full day of work and then back to rehearsals and more writing. Many other small details were thrown around and other parts restructured and then I laid vocals over the new tracks and added some polish to those suckers.

Sunday was a full 12 hour day of work and then back to rehearsals yet again for another round and then we took a bit of time to learn the new songs so we can start working on those at a feverish page throughout the week. Yoda listened to the new stuff and didn't hate it, so onward we went.

As you can see, we're busting our butts for this and we really want everyone to understand the blood, sweat, and tears that will go into the creation of this. We all had an exhausting but oh so gratifying weekend. On Friday we start bringing in all the recording gear where our producer/engineer will set up shop. I believe we'll also be bringing in a handful of extra amps and guitars to utilize.

It's just starting to dawn on me that we'll be making a record in just a few short days.
I still have many reservations about certain aspects of it all, but we have put full trust into The Chief that he will steer us in the direction we need to head.

Stay tuned for more details and prepare to be surprised.
That "Sarcasm" record? Psh. That was nothin'.

Preepro.

Yesterday was day numero dos of our vacation to the crazy land known as pre-production. Day number two was perhaps a few weeks later than anticipated and now we are having to move at the speed of sound to accomplish everything that we want to before we begin tracking in March. We spent the most of the day with our producer jamming our hearts out and sweating profusely while playing new material, meanwhile he sat in a chair and bossed us around....er.... made us sound better. Amazing how playing one riff for fifteen minutes straight can bring so many new ideas out into the open.

We focused on three songs and changed everything that was mediocre about them to make them amazing. Some changes really surprised us, others felt completely natural. It's bizarre when you've been playing a song for a year, or even several months and then trying to change something in the structure or progression can throw off your entire world. This is exactly the reason why we have to take a month just to practice the songs once it's recorded so we can do them justice in a live setting.

Ahead of us is a rigorous practice schedule which will pretty much eat up 4 out of 7 days in the week, but we are absolutely excited and giddy with anticipation. Giddy as school boys and school girls. We still have a lot of ground to cover, and little time to do it in, but we're gonna work hard and bring you guys the best album we can!

At this point we have 10 songs that we're toying with, but Mr. Producer Man (whose name we promise to reveal soon) wants us to bring at least two more tunes to the proverbial table. I have one song nearly 75% complete and another running at about 25%. I really don't know if percentages have a place in the examination of the songwriting process, but it felt natural.

So now we power through the week with practice, followed by practice, which is then followed by a quick break of throwing things against the wall and yelling, and then back to practice. This is one brutal schedule. On Sunday, "The Man" will be back to give us more direction.

It's crazy how this process is so entirely different than our "Sarcasm" EP in that we had absolutely no pre-production and well, let's face it... no production. Hence the whole "demo with a name" thang.

Stay tuned. We've barely tipped the iceberg.

More Gnus.

Yesterday we began some pre-production on our new record!

The day we've been waiting for is slowly coming closer and within the next month we should be tracking for the CD. We took a look back at a few of our tunes and talked about what needed to be changed, what could be better, and what was solid. Looks like we'll be reworking a lot of the tunes, so if you've been listening to our demos then please don't revolt when you hear a finished product unlike the previous versions. They will only get better I promise!

We have put full trust in our producer and know that this will be our most solid effort yet.

Get excited because we sure are!

Good Gnus.

After a long night of mixing and tweaking, there's yet another song in the ENY bag o' tunes.

Trying, hoping, and attempting to pump out two more.
Two.
I can do this...

Next song.... NEXT song...!

Oh, and happy Valentine's Day.
Do something nice for the men or women in your life.

New stuff, good tunes

Hey everybody it's been a while since I or anyone else has posted anything.

Recording is about to kick off in full effect. We are about to begin pre-production on the next record in the next couple weeks here. The plan, as of now, is to attack the tracking process in full force for about a week in mid-march. After that things are kind of up in the air, but I think our goal is to get the new record into your hands somewhere around July 4th. That would be very near the 2 year anniversary of the release of "Sarcasm is Your Friend." So I think you'll agree with us when we say "it's about freakin' time".

This is probably the most exciting time that I can remember in our history as a band. I have never been more excited about getting a group of songs out there. Some of them you've heard if you've been coming to shows and keeping an eye on our myspace, and some of them are brand new, but they are all amazing. I don't want to get an ego, but this record is gonna blow "Sarcasm" out of the water. I'm not at liberty to say who we'll be working with on this record, but suffice it to say it's somebody that we've looked up to for a long time. This person is probably gonna kick our asses in the studio and make sure that this record is as good as it can be.

So please be patient with us the next few months as we become very selective on what shows we choose to play. If we cancel a date in your area, please accept our apologies. After the record is out we're coming back with a new purpose and many new songs. So keep an eye on the blog for recording updates and all other ENY related updates and general craziness.

In the mean time go pick up the new Lifetime album that was just released. It's the best record I've heard in months. If you would have told me that their new album would be this good a few months back I would have doubted you. If you had told me that it would be better and more listenable than both "Jersey's Best Dancers" and "Hello Bastards" combined, I would have had you admitted to a mental hospital, but it is the best thing this band has ever done. Don't buy it because Pete Wentz says you should, buy it because it's fantastic music. It's an early candidate for album of the year (at least until our record comes out). Also, Alkaline Trio just released a collection of B-Sides called "Remains" go get that as well for an education into this band. It's amazing to me that some of their best songs never appeared on any album, pay special attention to "My Standard Break From Life", "Old School Reasons", and "Warbrain".

That should keep you all occupied until our next update. Until then, keep rockin'

Doug

More Gnus.

It's cold.
Why is it always so cold.
You spend all summer waiting for things to cool down and then you spend all "winter" craving the sunshine. I put the word winter into quotations marks simply because our winter here in Florida is the wussiest winter of them all. It's under 60 degrees here and I'm freezing to the bone. Meaningwhile, my parents in Ohio are combating minus 13 degree temperatures just hoping that the power or furnace don't give out. I'm so spoiled that I can complain about temperatures below 60.

On Friday we jetted up to Ocala, FL to play at a brand new venue called The Capitol. We'd only played at the K&K Concert Hall in that town before, so this was a nice change. We had a little trouble finding the place. Our GPS got us right where we needed to be, but since the building was unmarked we ended up just going circles around the place until the promoter Ben wandered out to the street to flag us down. No wonder we didn't see the place, it was actually located inside of a former Bank building. It was cool though to play inside of an old bank and seeing bands storing their gear inside of a huge vault. I was honestly too scared to go in them since I figured I would get stuck inside with my bad luck.

We got to open the show to a room packed full of kids. Everyone seemed to have a great time. We played through seven jams, only dropping in two songs from Sarcasm and instead focused on newer material which will hopefully be available sooner or later. After the set, our merch table was mobbed so we cleaned up as quickly as we could and went over to greet some new and old fans. Throughout the evening I ended up signing CD's, writstbands, drum sticks, napkins, and even our own shirts (which I still don't feel right defacing). Everyone was friendly and everytime I turned around there was someone waiting to have a quick chat.

Having shared a bunch of gear with the second band, Hey Nice Guy, it was quick changeover and they were up and rocking before too long. We hadn't seen the Hey Nice Guys in a few years so it was good to see them back. They played all new material which sounded great.
I spent a lot of time hanging out with them and Jimmie from A Denver Mile who played third. I didn't get to see their entire set since we were loading out as they played, but what I heard sounded great and I picked up their CD at some point.

Upper Class Trash was up after that but we were across the street at the Reno Grille which had food that we could barely afford. And not good food either.
We made it back just as the final band Glendale was setting up. That band actually had a bunch of members that we knew from other bands, as well as a fellow who actually took promotional photos for us at one point, so it was a little reunion all over the place. Glendale was really solid and had great energy. I grabbed one of their CDs as well to enjoy later.

After a long night, we headed back to Orlando. Big thanks to everyone who took home a shirt or a copy of our record. We hope to return to that venue again in the near future.

The rest of my weekend was spent being generally lazy and not watching the Superbowl. I'm really hoping to get another song finished in the next day or two and add yet another to the list of songs we're hoping to include on our next record.

Speaking of that blasted record... It looks at this point like we're going to begin Pre-Production sometime in mid-February and then begin tracking come March. Exciting. I talked to our Producer last night and everything still looks like a go at this time.

Here are a few CDs that I've been enjoying lately that I urge you to check out:

Dustin Kensrue - Please Come Home
I was never a Thrice fan, but I'm a huge fan of heart-on-your-sleeve Americana Rock N' Roll. That's just what this CD delivers - a very raw and stripped down romp through true feeling and emotion. JoAnna got me going on this CD by talking it up since she's the biggest Thrice fan....ever. After listening to some demos on MySpace, I knew that I'd give it a listen once it was out. So when I walked into the house one day and saw a copy of the record sitting on the kitchen counter, I knew I was in for an experience. I listened to almost the whole CD in one sitting and loved every second of it. If you dig Limbeck, you'll dig this guys style too.

Cobra Starship - When the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets
Ah yes.... the Starship. This record is just fun. I'm normally not into dancy rock that has more beats than lyrical meaning, but I'd enjoyed Midtown back in the day and was eager to see what Gabe Saporta had been cooking up since the bands demise. I like this dude a lot. Based on the things I'd read about this record, he approaches music very much like I do and knows how to write a fantastic hook. This record just blazes by with track after catchy track. It is over relatively quickly, but just keep it on repeat and enjoy your day. Lots of great guest stars and some uber-infectious tracks make this album one that's staying in regular rotation on the iPod lately. I am looking for good records with substance though, so if you know of any.... toss some names my way.

We have the next two weeks to rest up and tie up some loose ends, finish a couple songs if possible, and then it's SPRING MUSIC FEST!!

We'll see you there!

Gnus.

What's new?

Well, let me tell you.... not a whole lot.
We did some show shifting in the last week. We cancelled our show for February 10th at K&K Concert Hall in Ocala, FL. Instead, we'll be playing in Ocala a week earlier!
Come hunt us down on Friday, February 2nd at Ocala's newest music venue called "The Capitol" which is apparently located in downtown. You know, in the nice part of town. We'll be sharing the stage with local heroes Hey Nice Guy and possibly one other band. The K&K date has been rescheduled for Friday, March 16th for the first day of our 3 day mini-tour with Along the Sidelines.

We'll have the following week off, and that's been kind of fun lately as it means more songwriting time for me.
Speaking of which, I'm on the verge of finishing yet another tune that I'm quite pleased with. I'm hoping I can finish at least two more tunes somewhere in all of this. We're supposed to start pre-production for our record soon, reworking the songs, adding parts, taking stuff out, rewriting, rearranging, etc...
No official word on when that starts, but hopefully in the near future.
Our shows have been a bit more sparse as of late and everyone is generally pretty busy. JoAnna recently succumbed to a torn muscle in her side, so she'll be taking things easy for a while and probably won't rock out quite as much at upcoming shows. We also haven't booked anything past March since we expect to be doing a lot of writing and recording. Don't worry, once everything is settled with the record, we'll be back in full swing.

I finally broke down and bought a GPS system for our van. Getting lost was getting old really quick. Also, since JoAnna and myself are pretty directionally challenged, Bert usually ends up driving everywhere and that's not fair to him. As of late, he and I had been splitting the driving duties, so this should make things easier for everyone to take the wheel once in a while. Perfect timing for us to get this thing since we're heading back to Ocala soon and that place is harder to navigate than the maze in that 80's movie Labyrinth. Everyime we drive through that town, I get scared that we could get so lost that we end up running into the Goblin King (aka David Bowie).

Lastly, the lineup for Spring Music Fest 2007 is slowly coming together, so hopefully everything will be killer. At this point, I know that we're playing, and I know that Pathway to Providence is also scheduled in, so it's a great start with more to follow, I'm sure.

Overall, we're all getting antsy about starting our record. We have so much that we want to accomplish with it, and I have no doubts that it could take 10 years to put together if we let it, but hopefully a month or two will be enough. I really want to share all the details and let you hear all the songs, but we have to keep some secrets, y'know?
Plus, if I lay out the master plan here, then karma will come around and change everything. I don't want that.

Moral of the story? Come see us play on Friday.
Shows at K&K are a lot of fun, but the place is always so hot and humid. I'm looking forward to playing in Ocala with the air conditioning on high!

100 vs. 1982

Super big thank you to everyone who came out to our show at 1982 in Gainesville, FL over the weekend. We rolled into town around 6pm for our 7pm load-in, but the load-in didn't occur to closer to 8:30. While waiting, we grabbed some food from a Checker's across the street. What lousy service. We always manage to pick the worst or slowest place to eat in every town. Or maybe everywhere is just slow and uncaring nowadays. We were hassled by homeless people and then retreated back to the van for a false sense of security. There were homeless people laying in a gutter just mere feet away from us. Thank goodness for tinted windows.
The owner of the club was late getting the place up and running so a small crowd began to gather outside the doors. I was getting worried that people were going to start leaving due to the weather, but they were troopers and stuck it out. We made the rounds to say hello to the people we recognized and were happy to see that several people from our faithful fanbase in Ocala, FL made the trip out.
Overall, there were probably 100+ people in the tiny tiny venue. We were scheduled to play second and glad for it since the place was still pretty packed out at that point. Right before us, Tyler Cole from Ocala played some rockin' acoustic tunes, then we proceeded to start a 35 minute rock-a-thon and people really seemed to be enjoying themselves.
After our set our merch table was mobbed and I couldn't walk five feet without someone giving me words of encouragement. Everyone we met was very nice including the bartenders who only charge the bands $1 per drink. The rest of the night was spent watching the other bands and talking to anyone and everyone in our radius.
She's At Lizzy's followed us with some poppy acoustic numbers and then Gainesville band, The Ups played their farewell show for the mob.
Ending out the night was Along the Sidelines. It was their CD release show and singer Josh's 21st birthday, so we made sure to do things right and got loud and rowdy while they played.

Always fun meeting new people and catching up with the old. Based on the sales of our record combined with the smiles and handshakes from audience members, we're hoping to return to Gainesville and 1982 in the near future.

In other news, we were invited to play at this year's Spring Music Fest, held at the Port Orange Amphitheater. When we played this event last year we made a ton of fans and were glad to be invited back for another round. That's taking place on Saturday, February 24th, so mark your calendars.

We have a week or two off til our next show, so I'll be spending that time working on new material and reworking old stuff.

Thanks again to everyone who came out the show, we hope to see you at the next.

Movies and the hateful things I'm going to say about them.

Due to another free trial from NetFlix, I have been watching a lot of movies lately. Here's what I've seen recently, and what I thought about them....

A Scanner Darkly
From IMDB.com: "The L.A. of a not-too-distant future suffers a surge of drug abuse involving a new ultra-addictive and eventually brain-damaging substance simply named "D". Bob Arctor is an undercover narc leading a double life, dutifully reporting to his superiors while effectively having abandoned whatever normal existence he had for a "D" user/dealer career. But this schizophrenic situation and the drug-induced memory and concentration lapses put Bob under mounting stress."

If you've seen trailers of this movie, then you know right off that the artistic style in which it is done was amazing. This film stars Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr. and it honestly took me the majority of the movie to figure out exactly what it was about. It would have paid off for me to read that synopsis posted above. I was so amazed by the graphics that I saw right through the weak plot and apathetic acting. Just as the movie started to get interesting, the credits began to roll. All that build up for the big twist that actually gets me to be interested, only to find out that the movie was over. I hate when that happens. However, I'd love to see the same computerized mapping used over a good Scif-Fi or Comic Book movie that would really utilize it to it's full advantage. I feel like it was wasted on this film.

2 stars out of 5.

Employee of the Month
From IMDB.com: "At Super Club, a large warehouse store, the employees strive to obtain the "Employee of the Month" award with the benefits of having their picture featured on the wall of fame in the staff lounge. Zack Bradley, a box boy, and Vince Downey, a cashier, are two competitive employees. Vince has become head cashier of the store and has won seventeen consecutive "Employee of the Month" awards. Zack, has not won any "Employee of the Month" awards and has no desire to except when Amy, a new cashier who only dates "Employee of the Month" winners, transfers to the store. Zack and Vince compete to get Amy's attention through competition and courtship."

Dear Dane Cook,
Thank you for making this movie watchable.

Dear Dax Shepard,
You were not believeable as a ladies man.

Dear Jessica Simpson,
Why did you always look so nervous on camera, especially when you never delievered more than two words in one scene?

Dear Wes,
Why did you watch this?

But really, it wasn't all terrible and had a few hilarious moments in the first half of the movie only to become completely snorrific towards the end. Worth a rental, but don't expect Dane to leave you in stitches like his standup comedy does.

2 stars out of 5.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend
From IMDB.com: "When Matt Saunders meets Jenny Johnson, he thinks he's found the perfect girl. However, he decides to break things off with her when she becomes too needy, controlling, and jealous. Jenny doesn't take it well and decides to get back at him by using her superpowers, as it turns out Jenny is a superhero named G-Girl. Meanwhile, Matt and his co-worker, Hannah start to have a romance with each other which sends Jenny over the edge."

I'm a fan of Uma Thurman and whichever Wilson brother was in this movie, but this was definitely an underplay of their talents. It was an enjoyable 90 minutes of laughter and cheese-tastic situations, so that made it worth my while. I didn't hate it. Didn't love it. But it was funny. Plus there's a great scene where Uma Thurman's character throws a shark through a window and it chases the Wilson brother around an apartment eating and destroying everything in it's way. That.... was awesome.

3.5 stars out of 5.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2
From IMDB.com: "Captain Jack Sparrow's life is in debt to the legendary Davey Jones, Captain of the Flying Dutchmen who are supernatural warriors out for blood. Facing possible eternal damnation, Jack must save himself with help from Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who must come to Jack's aid."

If you saw the first Pirates movie and enjoyed it, then you owe it to yourself to see this one as well. A fast-paced swashbuckling adventure that serves as a bridge between the first film and the upcoming third film. Be prepared for a lot of cliffhangers. Some of the situations that characters got themselves into blew my mind. I'd love to meet the person who initially had the ideas.
Great movie all around.

4.5 stars out of 5.

The Covenant
From IMDB.com: "Four young men who belong to a supernatural legacy are charged with stopping the evil force they released into the world years earlier. Another great force they must contend with is the jealousy and suspicion that threatens to tear them apart."

Mindless action? Check.
Weak plot? Check.
Crazy special effects? Check.
It's guys who can do anything battling each other for all the power in the world.
Enough said, I think.

2 stars out of 5.

Lady in the Water
From IMDB.com: "Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world."

I'm a fan of director M. Night Shyamalan's work. I thought Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense, and Signs were all great but was a little let down by his previous film, The Village. I went into this movie not knowing much about it, other than that it was a fairy tale he wrote for his children, but interested to see what he was going to bring to the table this time around. I enjoyed the story of the movie and even though there seemed to be a lot of characters, everything that they contributed to the movie helped move the story along. Sometimes it was a little difficult to figure out exactly what was happening, but once the story got underway I was sucked in. Actor Paul Giamatti (who I think is great in general) did great in this film and played his part very well. Like I said, there are other characters who make the movie interesting such as a disgruntled movie critic and a guy who only works out the right side of his body.
The biggest disappointment of this movie is that the "Shyamalan Twist" that I have come to enjoy from his other movies seems absent from this one. I mean, there's kind of a twist, but nothing as mind-blowing as some of his past films. If you're a fan of his previous work, then check this one out. We'll see what his next movie brings.

4 stars out of 5.

Superman Returns
From IMDB.com: "After a long visit to the lost remains of the planet Krypton, the Man of Steel returns to earth to become the peoples savior once again and reclaim the love of Lois Lane."

First off, this movie is a solid 2.5 hours, so if you're going to watch it, be prepared to sit for a while. It's a slow start, but eventually sucked me in. This film picks up right where the last left off, and newcomer Brandon Routh is the perfect Superman. Not only does he look very much like Christopher Reeve, but he LOOKS like Superman would. When he does scenes as nerdy Clark Kent, he looks completely different. Director Bryan Singer did an all around great job. Kevin Spacey makes an appearance as crazy man Lex Luthor who once again decides to take over the world, and Superman must stop him all while saving Lois Lane (a lackluster performance from Kate Boswworth) from every bad situation she gets into (and she gets into a LOT of rough spots). They also have a kid together which kicks the superdrama up to 10.
The other thing to mention about this flick is that the computer work was impeccable. It's nearly impossible to tell when they are using the actors versus computer versions of themselves and everytime Superman flies somewhere and does something amazing, it looks beautiful. They definitely left room for a sequel and I'm really hoping we'll see one in the next few years.

4.5 stars out of 5.

There are my reviews.
Go read a book.

Old Town, New Place.

On Friday we made the trek down to Lakeland, FL to play at a brand new venue for us called Lillian's. The show kind of fell apart and the band we thought we would be sharing the stage with had broken up a week or so prior to the show so they filled out the gig with a few last minute replacements. The crowd was sparse but the venue was great and the stage was one of the best that we've played. Plenty of room for all our gear, plenty of room to move around, and a nice sidestage to stash gear before, during and after our performance.
We're definitely looking forward to going back there as part of a bigger show.
After soundcheck we wandered the town trying to find food and ended up settling on a sports bar. I'm not the biggest fan of bar food so I always look for a safe bet on the menu.
One turkey sandwich and 2 Jukebox songs later, we were headed back to the venue.

We played a forty minute set, jamming out 10 songs most of which was newer material, and we even included The Sick Charade which we've played live a few times (and is one of our new favorite songs) and Say Hello which is an upbeat Moog-powered pop song. I'll admit to messing that one up a bit here and there.
Post load-out, I crashed in the van for a quick nap while the next band, the Suicide Clubs played. We hung out with them a bit while the last acoustic performer played then went on a mission to collect our money.
After collecting what was due us, we decided to head back.
I steered Van Diesel back towards Orlando where we arrived home around 2:30am and went to sleep. We're so rock and roll. We go to sleep.

This Saturday we'll be playing up in Gainesville, FL at 1982. This is shaping up to be a great show. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.

For the Record

Last night we had a fantastic meeting concerning our next record. We had all kinds of doubts and worries about the project and most of them were put to rest just from talking about what we wanted to accomplish. We're very excited about the whole thing and hope everything will happen according to plan.

We're currently aiming for a March start and still writing songs as fast as humanly possible.

Places to go, people to see.

We have our first show of the new year this coming Friday at Lillian's in Lakeland, FL. This will be our first time playing at a real venue in that town. In the past we'd only played at a place called Winner's Circle which is a sports bar. There comes a time in every bands life when they need to pull away from playing places which are a bar first and a venue second, which is why this year we are becoming even more selective about the places we play, targeting actual venues or just solid lineups.
We've also tacked on a handful of dates for March in which we'll be doing a small 3 day tour with our buddy Josh Mccabe of Along the Sidelines out of Gainesville, FL. We'll be hitting up Vito's Rock N' Roll Pizzeria in Valdosta, Georgia along with Central Station in Orlando, and ending at the Seabreeze Coffee Connection in Daytona Beach. Should be a lot of fun. We're also playing Josh's CD release show on January 20th at 1982 in Gainesville, and next month he'll be joining us when we return to the K&K Concert Hall in Ocala, FL.

At some point this week we plan to have some meetings concerning our next record. We have a producer/engineer in mind and just have to work out the logistics of the record deciding what we want to accomplish, what songs we will record, and whether it will be another EP or a full length record. We're hoping to start recording by March, so crunch time will soon be upon us.

Looking at the shows we already have booked for 2007, I'm excited about each one of them. We're getting to play at a whole bunch of new venues and getting to play for new people which is always exciting. I just hope all of our travel time pays off. Van Diesel will be getting quite a workout in the coming months.