monstrous update

yesterday i was just about to start some new recordings when stefanie called me to come meet up with her at the goose island brewery for some drinks. i was going to do the guitars for this song that has had so many titles since it was written that i don't even know what it's called now- 'fall' maybe? or is it 'high'? or is it still 'high as i fall'? who the fuck knows. i have a bit of a small cycle of very fuzzy, vaguely poppy songs- a few of them with direct-recorded guitars. a few are 'down to sleep' leftovers. one isn't making the cut because i played it for stefanie and she asked me if it was a bjm cover.
someone emailed me this morning about buying my bass vi. fingers crossed. i talked about recording a cover for that cure song 'untitled' with it if someone showed any interest in buying it. i guess i should get to work on that one today when i get back to the apartment.
something strange- i'm kind of looking forward to the working week. i don't really understand this development as it's most unexpected. i've got a practice with aleksa on tap on sunday and i'm going to have her record some cello parts for the redone version of 'christmas song'- three to be exact. woot! hopefully we can get that one finished quickly and then i can finally do the 'all hope is blind' mixdown and see if i can tack on the 'christmas suite' single and that way it'll be ready in time for christmas. it will just be a downloadable thing, but since i'm already getting an album mastered and there is enough space to fit it on there i might as well do it concurrently for $300. i'm already paying the money as it is.
listening to the hope sandoval and the warm inventions show right now. i haven't written about it yet, so i thought i might as well right now. i'm going to post the audio as soon as i can anyway. just like when i saw her the first time at the aladdin theater in portland back in 2002 she played an unreleased song- back then it was 'friends of a smile' (which later came out on an ep). this time it was 'courting blues'- which is a fucking EXCELLENT song! i hope that it comes out on an ep of some kind as well because it is so awesome! yeah, she performed in near-complete darkness. yeah, she seemed uncomfortable onstage and didn't say hardly anything to the audience at all. they had some film projections that were pretty nice. good stuff. i didn't really care too much for the opening band dirt blue gene- but they were also her backing band. their songs were too blissed-out and airy even for me. they tried to do a 'rockin' number to close and i really didn't feel like it worked. it just seemed a bit obligatory. normally i eat that shit up like candy, but not this time. that said they were great musicians and i thought they were great as hope's backing band. i guess that their music isn't that song-based. i'm never a fan of style over substance. it was great to see colm playing again as well- i'm always tickled by the contrast between his drumming in my bloody valentine (now that i've seen them live as well) and with hope. he is fantastic at both- an excellent drummer- very song-sensitive which i admire more than anything. i'm beginning to really loathe the lakeshore theater- it just seems like an awkward venue for a music show. i've only seen two shows there- jolie holland and this show. i really hate how they open the doors and cram everyone into the hallway-sized lobby area and make them wait until they open the theater doors. the place just isn't laid out for something like that and they always seem to be running late with the soundcheck (i could hear the band soundchecking 'blanchard' as i was waiting out in the lobby despite the loud music they were blaring to try and cover it up). considering how small and intimate and beautiful the venue is (seated shows of this nature are the apple of my eye) the sound should really be better. it just seems a bit muddy for whatever reason- what's more it doesn't even seem like they send barely any of the drums through the p.a. if the p.a.'s that quiet then the sound should be crystal clear. i think this just ties in with the fact that it's primarily a comedy theater. another wonderful thing- the crowd was AWESOME! so quiet and reverent. such a rarity for such soft and beautiful music- if only every crowd could be so respectful. wonderful stuff. the people behind were obviously a bit three-sheets to the wind and elicited a few eye rolls from me at the time- but they were able to confine their annoyingness to the period inbetween songs. in retrospect they weren't bad at all- i am just very grouchy when i'm amongst a giant throng. all in all it was a great night and i'm so glad i went! i will go see hope sandoval whenever she plays. i'm beginning to kind of wish that i'd gone to see the milwaukee show as well.
not much else on tap today- i'm hoping a shitload of recording will happen. i carried all of my stuff over the other building to try to use the piano yesterday as well but chickened out. there were a lot of people in the computer lab and i didn't feel like subjecting them to an 8-minute long piano dirge that has no changes in it at all.
that's about all i have for today i think.