We Proceed Without Mercy: Another progress update.

Citizens,

we've accomplished much since last we spoke.
Here, look:

See? If you'll notice, that leaves three drum tracks and we'll be done. Just one more solid day recording, and we're golden as far as drum tracks go! Huzzah!

Meanwhile, I continue to be The Worst Engineer Ever, and the guys are also toying with the idea of dubbing me The Worst Musician Ever, which would be like winning an academy award for me—it's an honor toward which I strive daily.

Keep checking back here every week or so—we're bound to have something delicious here one of these days.

Zach out.

THE RELENTLESS MARCH: The Raygun's recording progress

Heya Raygunauts,

I pondered the best way to communicate to you our progress in our recording adventures. The indisputable answer came to me almost immediately: infographic.

We're not yet ready to release the track list—we don't want to give too much away much too soon. But I can tell you that right now we're thinking it'll be 13 tracks. And here's where we are on it:

So there you have it. Seven completed drum tracks. Six to go, two of them already with scratch tracks.

Manning the console while Jono was recording yesterday, I had a crazy moment of realization. I've known Jono a long time, and I've seen him record several times, the last time was almost three years ago. You guys, Jono is crushing it out there. He's grown so much as a drummer, even since a couple years ago. Comparing him to High School Jono, it's like not even the same guy. I recognized as we were writing these songs that Jono's drum parts were tasty, but since we were all playing together, I wasn't really as available to appreciate what he was doing. Sitting back and watching him, and then hearing it later in mixing, has been a real pleasure, and I'm grateful that I finally get to do it. The same goes for Pippy—when we're playing together, I'm concentrating on my own part and I don't get to focus on what Pip's doing. I can only really tell if he tries something that sounds bad or doesn't really go with the song. Getting to hear his final bass parts has been so awesome. And I think the bass sound we're engineering for him is gonna knock your socks off. Deep and edgy. And I've barely mixed him, either.

I've done a couple of test mixes with test guitar mixed with final bass and drums for a couple of tracks. These are sounding way, way better than anything any Raygun fan has ever heard. I think you're gonna like this thing we're doing.

If all goes well, we'll finish tracking drums on the first week of June, bass the week after, guitar maybe a couple weeks after that, and vocals probably another couple weeks after that. We might be looking at releasing this sometime in August. I know, I know, it seems like foreverrrrrrrr, but that's just the way it is.

Til next time,

Zach

The Worst Engineer Ever/Guitarist, The Raygun

Recording Journal: TORNADO SIRENS!!!

Sunday was the second day of recording. Everything went MUCH smoother this time. Drums were tuned, Mics got replaced, Sounds achieved perfection, Zach said Zounds*. So we had to redo what we did last time...but we got twice as much done at least as far as drums. We also put bass on 2 songs.

We've even started thinking about sound effects. Pipp says TORNADO SIRENS!! I'm Leary and Zach is off being the Worst Engineer ever. That title is all in good fun but seriously, we wasted a lot of time because he forgot to remember settings.

I really thought, Zach would take this Journal and he's more than welcome to take a stab at it but he just took too long. But then again, he's doing a lot.

*...That didn't really happen

Recording Journal: First Day

Wow! Finally, eh? Today was the first day of recording for our twelve song album. I'd say it went well. At the last minuet we decided to get instrument stuffs and all so that everything sounds bright and shiny and new. It cost us several hours of recording but it was well worth it. With no EQ or adornments at all, these drums sound thunderous. The only thing that sucks about today is the late start we had. I did get one song done. I tried for a second one but Jury is still out on that. I kind of felt bad for Pipp because he was sat behind the computer pressing the record button. Next time I think he'll get a break.

Alright, When there is more stuff to report...You better believe I'll be telling you about it...Unless Zach beats me to it.

C'mon: installment one

Wait-- so in that universe Bradly Cooper has all the potential and knowledge ever? Sir, I can not believe your movie...not at all.

Lykke Li

Have you heard of her? I saw her on Conan a few weeks ago and I can't get this song outta my head.

Man, this video is trippy.

This one covers covers.

I've been asked why I lobby for the covers I choose to. I don't suggest all of the covers for the band, but a lot of times, the covers I do pick are pretty far out of our genre (whatever that is). The thing is, if there's, say, a pop song I like, it's not really strictly about the song. At a certain point, sometimes as quickly as the second listen-through, I start to hear the song not as it is, but as it could be. Eventually I reach a point where I'm barely hearing the song as it was recorded—I'm hearing it as I would record it. When we decide to do a cover for a song that's out-of-format, that idea of what it should sound like is then filtered through the realm of what's actually possible with a three piece band in a live situation, and there you have it.

Like with Tik Tok, the verses are way dumb, but the parts where she actually starts singing, there's some meat there. Not intellectually—I mean musical meat. Yes, there's musical meat to be found in some Kesha songs. I imagined that song slower—way more epic. And it seemed like an okay idea. The way we do it live didn't quite turn out that way—it's not a huge production—but we still shook the song up a little bit.

Zach out.