Here's a bit of good news for anyone who's still interested in what we're doing musically. We were hanging out with some friends this weekend, listening to the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle, and I mentioned that that's one of the few bands that Tara and I can really agree on. Then I thought to ask Tara that since that's true, would she be interested in continuing the band if I wrote songs that were a bit more Zombie-like, and she quickly responded in the affirmative.

Tara's working out of town for a few weeks, so the album is on hold until she can come back and record some vocals. I'm still writing songs, though. Got a little side solo project called Maim Enyu, and I put up a rough vocal. I recorded this thing in about three hours. Hope you like it.

This is a pretty momentous day, because I just finished recording all the music for our very first album! We don't have many vocals recorded for it yet, so that's next. Anyway, I think it's sounding pretty good. Once we get all the words in there, I'll mix and master it the best I can to make it as good as possible for your ears.

I'm also happy that I was able to play this three-and-a-half minute bass part that was a bit complex for a novice like myself. I practiced quite a bit over two days and got it spot on on the first take. Go, me! Yeah, I'll pat myself on the back a bit today.

Now we're off to celebrate Tara's birthday, which is tomorrow, with several mostly female friends. Just me and the girls tonight. Later.

Probably should have done this months ago, since we're about halfway done with the album, but we're on board with Twitter now. You can follow us or whatever as we finish up the music, record vocals, mix and master and try to get licensed and crap. Might be more entertaining than some bands since we have no idea what we're doing and have no one to help us so far. Our username is "alotigers" (our full name was too long by one letter).

Here's a link?

Tara: I guess I did kind of want to be in a band when I was eight years old.
Scott: I bet you didn't imagine it sounding like this.
Tara: ...n - nope.

This week I started falling in love with recording again. I went for a couple of months of just programming some percussion for half an hour on weekends and practicing guitar parts a few times a week. I've been pretty busy, but I also just wasn't into working on the album for a while. Every artist needs a vacation from his art, and this helped.

Last night I finished up the drums and guitars for a song, and it's sounding really good. That's always a very exciting feeling. I played a "bass line" on my guitar and used the computer to drop it an octave. It doesn't sound like a bass guitar, but it sounds really cool, at least in that song!

I wasn't really sure how all this was going to sound with the electronic drumming, but so far everything is sounding really great. A careful ear will be able to tell the drums aren't real, but it still sounds pretty rocking to me. I plan to do a little bit of "organic beating" on tambourine, paint cans, etc., on most of the tracks, too. I'll get Tara to play some tambourine, too.

I'm anticipating being finished by Christmas, but we all know by now how those plans go. Right now I'm just going to focus on recording the songs and making them sound as good as I possibly can. Once that's done I'll figure out what to do next.

There's this one track...oh my gosh...wait 'til you hear it! Someday...

We did our first open mic last night in a little restaurant. We went on at 11 p.m., after an hour of acoustic country and blues. A really good funk outfit played right before us, which was good because our first number has a funky feel to it. I broke a string two hours before the performance, but I had two back-up strings, fortunately.
The amps were so loud that we couldn't hear ourselves singing, and although Tara seemed to feel really good when we finished playing, she's not happy with the recording. It doesn't really sound like her; it sounds like some other chick! I think she did fine, and I'm happy with the recording.  I actually felt pretty bad about our performance until I heard the recording!
People seemed to enjoy it, generally, and we had one friend and one co-worker there, and they were very encouraging. We have no plans for a future gig, but I hope there will be one someday. For now, it's back to work on our album.

Tara and I have performed together many times already, but never outside of a church. I don't know how much performing we'll be able to do, not only because of our day jobs and married life (not to mention children in the future), but also because there are only two of us, and we don't even have a drum set. So we may be limited to small performances in which the drumming is provided by my laptop (I should really name that thing--maybe Drummy?)

Anyway, we always knew that at some point we'd have to break out and perform in some capacity outside of a church, so although we're nervous, we've set a date for an open mic night. It's January 22 at the Circus Cafe here in Saratoga Springs. I love that place, though I have yet to check out their open mic night! We'll be doing that soon to better prepare ourselves. And then it's practice, practice, practice!

What will we play? I think we might start with a rocking garage-soul-punk number I wrote for the album called "Yer Hot Pickins". It has a mod feel to it and showcases our boy/girl dynamic and vocal harmonies. Then we might slow things down with a noisy indie rock song entitled "Ways and Means", with Tara on solo vocals. And then, if they let us play a third song, we might play a Who cover. That could be fun! We're in Upstate New York, and The Who was the only halfway mod band to play Woodstock (though they weren't mod at all by then), so I think the folks here can dig it. Maybe we'll do something from The Who Sell Out. Or maybe an earlier song. Whichever we choose, we'll play it in our own noisy, punky style.

This weekend stands out as being the one in which we officially began work on our album! I got a lot of work done on a shorter song that we performed at my parents' church this time last year. This version sounds pretty rocking! I've learned a lot since I started recording the demos, and I think this is sounding somewhat professional for a change. Tara seemed impressed when she heard the mix I worked on. It's miles beyond what we have on MySpace right now.

I think we're going to have a fairly unique sound. I can honestly say that I don't know what bands people will compare us to (assuming people actually listen to us, and judging by the number of people who have listened to our first songs, which are modest by comparison, I think we'll have an audience). I don't think we'll be easily pinned down with a one-word label (other than "rock", or "awesome").

We plan to have twelve tracks on our album, and they're fairly short, so it will only be around forty minutes long. It will probably take around forty hours to record, though! Which means I could get it done in about a week if I didn't have a day job. But since I do, it might take five or six months! If every weekend was like this last one and I could keep up this rate of work, it would be done in about three months, but with the upcoming holidays and youth events, that just won't be possible. But I'm very encouraged by what I was able to accomplish this weekend.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.