First things first - we haven't abandoned our old "Single of the Month" program. We've just redefined the amount of time in a month. So we finally got a new track posted this week. It's called "In the Air." It's the hardest true rock that The Common has done in a while. Perfect for heshing out. So be our guest and hesh away.

It's worth noting that this was our first recording we did completely in Steve's basement. Considering it's done by a bunch of half-assed recording engineers on mid-level equipment using only their collected intellect (low) and a copy of Home Recording For Dummies, it ain't bad. At least we think it's not.

We have another track about 75% ready to go from the same sessions called "So Cosmopolitan." We hope to get it up in December.

In other news...

- We've had some fun shows lately. The show at Doc's in Muncie wound up being a lot better than we'd anticipated. Doc's seems to have some life we haven't seen in the place in years. It's nice to see Muncie with a decent live music club.

- Tonic Ball was an absolute blast. The Fountain Theatre is one of our favorite places to play. We wound up doing "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" before Sweaty B bum rushed us and did "Jungle Love" with us. They were way ahead of schedule, so we got to do a third song. We went with our current "new song" called "Temptation Justification." It's got a nice grinding groove that kept folks dancing. In fact, it was quite fun to see people dancing to our stuff.

-  We have one more show this year. We're playing Saturday 11/25 at Local's Only with our pals Jackson Pain and 83 Feet. We've played a handful of shows with Jackson Pain in the past. If you like modern Brit Pop from groups like The Doves or Travis, you'll like JP. Unfortunately they don't get to play much anymore since two of their band members now live in New York and New Orleans and a third is moving to Seattle. So this should be a fun time. We do have a Nashville, TX show on 12/7 and we'll most likely do the Birdy's Christmas Party again this year, then shut down 'til 2007.

- One last piece of sad news. Our old friend Steve "Stevie Ray" Smith passed away last week following a bout with cancer. For those that have known us for a while, you'll probably remember us playing a lot of shows at Stevie Ray's House of Wax, a small, independent record store in Muncie. Steve was the owner and booker for the venue 'til it closed sometime around 2000. During the run of the store he was an ongoing booster for bands and helped bring some great shows to Muncie. He rode along when we went on  our "tour" in 2000 and always encouraged us, along with a lot of other bands, to reach for the brass ring and never sell ourselves short.

His son, who was always a fixture at the store whenever we'd play there, kept us updated during his final days. You can read his blog at www.myspace.com/xes_angel for details or leave a note of condolence.