Skelter People,

Big weekend in Skeltertown. I think, last time around, we did our initial recording of drums over the course of two weekends, and then spent a couple of MONTHS, off and on, repairing them. Much of that stemmed from, basically, learning how to use all of our (then) new studio equipment. I'm sure Greg will speak to that, at some point, since Studio Goldfoot is his baby. But suffice to say, there are a million things one can learn about just which microphone to use on which drums or cymbals and the vast difference in sound caused by the tiniest turn of the mic. We did end up with an o.k. drum sound on Boomstick, but most of that was due to Greg's MacGyverie. It was all very time-consuming.

The other thing we did this weekend, that we DIDN'T do when we recorded Boomstick, is use a click track. What's a click track, you say? Basically, it's a metronome that runs through the headphones while you play. Now, Nachie's about as rock-solid as a drummer can be. And I mean that. The dude is a freak. He plays (and looks, for that matter) like the Muppets' Animal, and has the inner clock of Lawrence Welk. ("And a one and a two...") But you'd be amazed at how far off things you THINK are dead-on can be...until you try to record over them. Things we'd certified as perfect were exposed as imperfect months down the road and, thus, a lot of the drums had to be re-recorded or, at least, Pro-Tooled later on.

But now, man, all the drums are, pretty much, finished for the new album. And we did 'em in one weekend! They already (pre-FX) sound a thousand times better recordingwise, because we know a lot more a lot more ABOUT recording. And the takes are amazing. I told Nachie that he's going to be the star of this album...until we bury him in the mix. (It's MY spotlight, you bastard!!)

That was our weekend. Friday night, we set up from 7 'til about 11 and recorded 'til 2 or so. Saturday's recording session lasted from noon until 2:30 Sunday morning. A little fresh-eared listening early Sunday afternoon. And two magazines and four issues of FABLES later, we've got our rhythm tracks.

Now, I need coffee...desperately.

--Michael

Oh, hey...and a quick shout-out to Kristie Lee Crystal, who loaned us some kick-ass cymbals for the sessions. A definite improvement over the poor things Nachie batters week-in and week-out. Thanks, Kristie Lee!