Invasion U.S.A. - Day Four

Vapid finished tracking bass about an hour ago. His tracks are teeming with those cool Dee Dee Ramone-style high octaves. I think half the songs on the album must end on the high octave on the bass. Good! You can't sit around worrying about that kind of thing. It sounds good so what the heck. We're not scoring the Phantom of the Opera here. The first photo below shows Vapid recording bass for one of my tunes, a peppy little number called Prince Of Space that recycles a riff for an unfortunately kind of crappy tune I wrote for the Lillingtons many moons ago with the title of Death Race. Great movie - lousy tune. They wisely chose not to release it (I'm not sure if they even recorded it) and I was able to use the riff in this newer and much better tune.

We're recording at the Madison Music Foundry, which is also where we rehearse. It's a terrific facility. Not some dump that smells like cigarettes, beer and piss. You know the kind of place - some glorified toilet where you have to haggle over prices with a deranged, bitter ex-musician who looks like he just got back from burying bodies in the crawlspace. This is a whole different experience. The staff are cool and very professional and the rooms are clean, comfortable and best of all, cheap. There's an unequipped studio in the back of the building that rents for peanuts so working here was a no-brainer. The second photo shows Sandy, the owner's dog. She's a pitbull/greyhound mix. I figure with that kind of combination you're either going to be dealing with a vicious killing machine that can chase down anything it wants a piece of, or a sweet, gentle pooch that just wants to be pet - thankfully, she's the latter. She has a bit of a licking problem - or maybe we just taste good - but we all have our little flaws.

Vapid just started vocals - the tune he's working on right now is called Teenage Strangler, a typically hilarious ditty about, y'know, a teenage strangler. The bottom photo shows him delivering the harrowing story of this wayward youth with the busy hands into a Violet Flamingo vintage tube condenser mic loaned to us by Lonya over at Full Compass. Thanks Lonya - the mic sounds amazing!

We're finishing early today - done by 6. Then we're off for the weekend so I won't be reporting back until Monday. Onward and upward!