The City Veins

So my friend Darren came over to Aaron and Spencer’s place on Monday to get pictures for the cd. As discussed here, we did get our 8×10 taken. Basically, Darren just set up a camera and took pictures while we messed with each other. There are a lot of pictures that, while hilarious, should never be seen by anyone outside of this band. One involves Aaron putting a weird stick ball thing down his pants. Strangely enough, most of these pictures capture this band perfectly, from the way we interact with each other to the general level of stupidity that surrounds us. That is why they can never be shown.

So things are quickly wrapping up for this project. I hope to get the whole thing mailed out to get produced by the end of the week. If it goes much later, we are really pushing up against our June 6th deadline.

Accepting that posting chatting transcripts is pretty low in the blogging scale, and also done better other places, I am going to post a transcript of today’s conversation between Spencer and me. I think it is partially useful because is show how we interact. Mostly, we just need content up here.

Spencer: do you think darren might be able to get a good photo of us tonight as well?
maybe something for an 8 x 10
Charles: sure
I was thinking about that as well
Spencer: cool
Charles: nothing too fancy
Spencer: right
i need to get a haircut soon, but not before we get some pics taken
that’s what made me think of it
i am a girl
Charles: yeah
no, i think about the same things
I won’t get a haircut 2 weeks before anything important like a picture
Spencer: i just want to look rock and roll before i have to look more corporate again
Charles: you have to grow into them
aah, or there is that
Spencer: too bad i shaved this morning
so i’m thinking we should all wear coordinated spandex outfits for this photo
and then get an action shot of us leaping into the air
Charles: that is an idea
Spencer: that will work, right?
Charles: Can I be David Lee Roth?
Please
Spencer: i mean, you love van halen
Charles: PANAMA!
Spencer: only if you can do a jump split
Charles: hmmm
I may have to warm up
Spencer: well leave work now and start stretching
Charles: okay
I have practiced splits in Yoga
but they usually hurt a lot
and then I can’t walk right for a day or so
Spencer: it’ll be worth it
and you don’t have to lie to me
i know it wasn’t yoga
i know it was ballet
Charles: I actually had someone in boxing tell me that I moved like a ballerina
I don’t know if it was a complement or not
Spencer: haha
i often think the same thing watching you on stage
so graceful
like an elegant gazelle
Charles: thank you

Photo by Flickr user Kessiye.

So we haven’t updated the blog for a while now. We suck.  Here’s our bit of news: the CD is well on its way now.  Silver Sonya Studios has it for mastering and we’re working on the artwork/posters/press kits and all that.  This is actually more fun that it sounds.  We’re doing all that stuff by hand, splattering acrylic paint around haphazardly like talentless Jackson Pollack.  So far we made 40 unique posters and a dozen or so press kit folders like this.  They look pretty awesome (well, most do; some of them are hideous).

So far the plan is to use one of our posters are the cover art for our CD.  We were going to hand-decorate every CD, but that sounded better in our heads than the reality of actually hand-painting 1000 CD cases.  We still might do a limited run of 100 or so like this later.

I’ll put pictures of our art up here soon.

is The City Veins. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s not out of arrogance. I’ve never been able to listen to my own band’s CDs. It’s like listening to a recording of your own voice or watching yourself on video. You know that it’s you, but it seems foreign and awkward and makes you cringe a little. That, plus there’s almost always several things about every CD I’ve ever made that I would change if I had the time/money.

But our new CD is awesome and I’ve been looping it in my car for the last week. I’m psyched. When we set forth to make this EP, we wanted to make sure that we did it right, that even if no one bought it or heard it we’d still be proud of the product. I’m thrilled with what we’ve got and can’t wait to share it.

On a related note, Mike Eudy at Jamalot Studios in Rockville is an awesome producer/engineer/mixer/jack of all trades. He deserves a ton of credit for our CD. If anyone out there is in the market for recording services, Mike’s your man (and he’s cheap too).

The mixing is done, and the CD has been dropped of for mastering! I want to give a big thanks to Mike (who doesn’t have a website, but should). I learned a lot mixing this album, and it sounds fantastic. Mike used some fantastic tricks: doubling parts, keying gates to other instruments, adding reverbs and echos, etc. It is spectacular. The playing may be crap, but you are going hear every important detail of that crappy performance. You are going to appreciate how bad we are in unsurpassed detail!

One of the things I realized last night was that I have an Eaglesesque number of guitars on these songs, and I am okay with that.