Slouching Towards an Album

As predicted, this weekend was more or less mellow. Friday night was reserved for actually sleeping, which was a nice change. After a Saturday full of students, we headed out to dinner at Scylla, a seafood restaurant in Bucktown. The meal we had was so good (how good was it?) that the woman sitting next to us licked her plate.

Literally.

Didn't even try to hide it, just picked up the plate and started going at it. Gina and I both had scallops over foie gras ravioli. So did the "plate licker." After dinner we met up with some friends and headed to Tuman's, f/k/a Tuman's Alcohol Abuse Center.

Tuman's is a bar in Ukrainian Village. It used to be my favorite dive bar in the city, with $1 beers, a beautiful old bar, a great jukebox, a pool table, and an old woman who sold pot brownies while running said pool table. Within the last year or so they've remodeled Tuman's, and while it's not the same dive it used to be, it's still retained the beautiful bar and comparatively cheap drinks ($3 Guiness, for example).

Sunday, I headed into the studio to do some background vocals. Dave and I managed to knock out two tunes, and I think the work we did on Fallout Grace was particularly strong. By our estimations, we've got three more tunes to do backgrounds for. After that, it's down to a couple of repairs and tracking strings and Dave will be mixing.

I've reached the point where I want the album done. I don't want to rush through the last, important steps... the vocals we patiently worked to lay down yesterday are awesome and they took Fallout Grace to another level. That's what we need to be doing right now, no doubt about it. It's just that... it's time to get the album wrapped and out the door and into the hands of fans. And to the business contacts we (and our management) have busted our asses to make using the EP.

My impatience also may be more fatigue too... I mean, tracking-wise as both guitarist and singer I've got double-duty, and I think it's beginning to wear on me a bit.

Not that I would trade it for anything.

jbg