So, I guess insomnia is to blame...finally I'm getting around to updating this page. All I hear is that no one looks at this shit anymore - the site, not just my page - am I so vain? Well...

The point is that I have neglected it for far too long. But not nearly as bad as my own websites. Crap, I can't remember the last time I put anything useful on THOSE sites! So, on with the long-delayed point...there's news.

For starters, my wife Aubrey and I are expecting a little girl in September. That's kinda big. Secondly, as you might've deducted from all my pictures, I put an end to eleven years of mourning the theft of my old Les Paul, and I bought a new one. Fuck the recession.

Also, I've got two upcoming albums on the horizon (more on that below), so here's some new music to listen to...and YES, most of it is actually new!

"Truth & Fiction" - This stomper is the title track to the second Slack album, which will see release this fall, after I figure out how to promote it and get it heard by at least somebody. There's some pretty fun stuff going on in this tune...Tom really slays the drum kit and Sluthy throws down a wicked organ solo. This mix is probably not the final album version, but it's good enough for you to hear.

"Incorrigible" - This is a Rectals track that Tom and I did a couple months ago...it's got a nice funky vibe to it. It's kinda like a cross between "Soulfinger" and "The New Pollution". That's actually me playing all the instruments...you can tell it's me drumming because of the sloppy kick drum work in the middle section! Listen closely and you might hear the great Micah P. Hinson helping out with the "hey" at the end. Oh, and I think that's Tom on the single cowbell plunk. He had a fever, but just a tiny one.

"Free Utah" - This is from the "Opal White" movie soundtrack. I wrote this tune years ago...it's based on actual events...but that's another story altogether. Sometime last year I got a call asking if I could do a country song for a bar scene in a movie, so Tom brought over his portable rig and we knocked this out in about twenty minutes. I was really happy to hear that they decided to use it. It's a pretty great version of the tune, actually...my vocals crack me up every time. I could make a living singing that kinda shit.

"Midrakeson (Japanese Shinata)" - Another Rectals track that we did last summer, with a heavy indie vibe. We were going for several different sounds with this one...it starts off as a tribute to our Denton heroes Midlake, before coasting through Elliott Smith territory, and taking off in a Shins-y kinda stomp. I really enjoy this piece of music. Oh, and that's me doing some megaphone crooning in the middle. Something about a sports bra.

"All Aboard (demo)" - This track is a contender for the solo project I'm doing later in the year. It's a funny little tune I wrote while Olospo was at Xingolati in 2005...the lyrics kinda tell the tale...but I guess you just had to be there to know. I dig the feel of this tune...it's indicative of where my solo stuff's gonna go in the next couple years.

"Abbey Road Blues" - I wrote this jump-blues slap-happy thing while I was in Galveston over the holidays, playing bandleader to a Xmas musical. Seriously. I'd never really written a tune with this kinda feel, so when I came up with the guitar bit, it blossomed really quickly. I'd been talking about Abbey Road studios and how I once got to record there, but it kinda sucked that I've never been back. I just kinda ran with that idea. The song doesn't mean much, but it's fun to play and it sounds kinda cool. If you enjoy a lame white guy trying to do Robert Johnson. End result: epic fail.

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So anyway...as far as other news...The Slack album is being finished...we're just kinda wrapping up things at our pace, because we really have no reason to hurry...life gets in the way, and we're all old men now, so what's the rush? The track listing is finalized and it goes like this:

1. Infatuations Never Last
2. The Fine Art Of Bleeding
3. Frostbite
4. The Deep End
5. Truth & Fiction
6. Follow On
7. Pipe Dream
8. The Rumor Mill
9. Indier Than Thou
10. The Talk
11. What If
12. Maybe Heaven

Of course, six months from now, when the album comes out, maybe none of these songs will be on it :)

In OTHER NEWS, I'm starting a solo album this summer with Salim Nourallah producing. Salim and I have been working together for nearly five years now, and we've talked repeatedly about him producing an album of my songs, but we've never coordinated our schedules properly. Until now...we're starting in June and hope to finish it all over the summer before the baby arrives.

So, it's gonna be a busy year. I gave Salim 50 demos, and he chose roughly 20 to contend for the album. That leaves another 30 that I'll either record with Tom or Eric, or scrap altogether when I bring in the next 50. Maybe I'll just a take a long break and rethink this silly career of mine.

Thanks for reading this...hope you enjoy the new stuff.

Stay tuned for further programming.

CH
3/31/09