in the 11 days we have been here we have spent so much time working that we haven't really had much time to hang out; we've been pretty much comatose after 8 and 9 hour days of recording. the guys at the studio took us out last night since it was their friend andrew's birthday. where did we go, you ask? well, we went to charlie's - denver's favorite gay cowboy bar and dance club. it was so great. no one hit on us (except the birthday boy andrew, who probably doesn't even rememeber it) and it was awesome to see a bunch of men line dancing and two-stepping on the dance floor. after that we went to another bar called the lounge which maggie said made her feel like she was in a game of "clue". my commentary on the bar was this:


chris: this bar is pretty cool!
lisa: yeah, the carpet is super soft! (bounce bounce)


it was a pretty posh place. as we were getting out of the van to enter this bar some kids walked by us and were checking out our van. so i stopped and waved at them. then they came to the bar and asked us if we were a band and it ended up one of them is the singer for a band called one dying wish. turned out that they knew some of the guys we were with as well. such a small world in the music scene.


today we were back in the studio at 11:30am finishing vocals. maggie was amazing, kicking out harmonies on the spot. its so cool how she can just hear that stuff in her head and sing it. then i sang a few things which were just enough to leave me dubbed "lisa the choir boy".
today we learned:
1. if we all gather around a microphone together to sing we laugh hysterically and we all have to close our eyes to accomplish anything.
2. a whoopie cushion provides many minutes of hilarious entertainment.
3. none of us like tambourines.
4. we're really good at synchronized clapping.
5. sarah has a good evil hobbit voice.


also, chris, the engineer, tried to write a keyboard part for one of our songs and ended up accidentally writing the titanic song that celine dion sang (can't remember what its called). it fits perfectly in our song! you'll have to buy the cd to see if we used it...

also! i just remembered this...
we have met virgil from suburban home records here, i think i mentioned him already. (he is to be thanked for tom's home cooking)
suburban home has some really great bands on it which i have never heard until now, including the adventures of jet and the band stereotyperider, whom we have known for awhile. check out this label and these bands - it will be worth your while.

first, let me say something that i feel is a bit embarassing, but i must admit. we have spent some time listening to jimmy fallon's new comedy CD and it is so hilarious. it's funniness just keeps resurfacing. i would never in my life buy a comedy cd, but if you get the chance, you should hear this one. it is really funny.

onward! sarah has completed the bulk of her vocal tracks now. maggie starts tomorrow, then me, and then we add some minor stuff and ta-da! off to be mastered and we're done! sarah was amazingly patient while laying her tracks. everytime chris said " you can do it better - again!" i thought i would scream, but she just said "okay." (not enthusiastically, but still!)

today we went and had an awesome "home cooked" meal at tom's home cooking. if you're ever in denver i would highly recommend it. sweet tea that beats even bojangles. yes, really. we finished today by 7pm and are now taking it easy at maggie and sarah's aunt suzy and uncle kevin's house. they have been so awesome to us. if you're ever in denver i would also recommend staying here, its the bomb. (think: electric blankets)

i did mention how there are lots of kooky people in denver and drunk old men, right? well, in addition to that weirdness, we seem to have stumbled into some time warp where we are destined to get in a fight. it is getting closer and closer... for some reason when people are mean to us here (like the stupid lady in the einstein bagels parking lot today who stole our parking space) we have lost all self-control. seeing maggie scream nasty things out the window of the van at this lady who seriously scrambled out of her car and ran inside the store was the highlight of my day.

i'd better get back to relaxing.

such a long day for me today. we were at the studio by 11am but then some technical difficulties and blah blah and i didn't get all my bass done today as hoped. 3 more songs to finish tomorrow. right now we are at university of colorado seeing the band the rise play. they are also from austin and its cool to see them here. i'm utilizing the student union's computers.
it was a really nice day out here today but since i was in the studio cave all day i missed it.
maybe tomorrow.

we're having an early night tonight which we are all really grateful for. productive day in the studio, sarah's guitar is done and sounding "hot" as matt likes to say.
today i saw a black squirrel which i thought was amazingly cool. no one else was very impressed, but they didn't see it. soon they are going to think i'm making this stuff up. in austin we have an albino squirrel, which i have also seen. i really feel very lucky to have seen such a wide variety of colored squirrels.
in case anyone was wondering (mom) my spleen has been hurting like crazy. it must not like colorado. i think it misses sunlight, warmth and exercise.
off to bed now, the electric blanket is calling me.

ahhh, another snowy colorado day.
off to breakfast in a bit and then to the studio late today. we played a show last night at "cricket on the hill" that we picked up at the last minute. everyone at the bar was super nice, we got free pizza and sodas and you know that makes us happy. we were tired after a 9 hour day of recording but it turned out to be a really fun show. the band we played with on tuesday night, bastard squad helped us get the show but then two of their members were in a car accident and they didn't even play! it was too bad because i really like their singer's voice a lot - i wanted to see them again. we played a really tight set, maybe from all of the recording practice, and it rocked. the crowd was good and a guy wearing a hockey jersey and a cowboy hat made sarah wear his hat through the whole last song.

sarah is about halfway through laying her guitar tracks (then finally it will be my turn!) and we expect to finish them today. things are sounding so great, we are all feeling really excited about how the album will come out. we've also met a bunch of cool people here, virgil from suburban home, our friend anthony from stereotyperider happens to be here in town, and everyone at the studio is rad. we went to the anti-valentines day show the other night and saw bands covering journey, sabbath and g'n'r - it was so cool! chris gamit makes an awesome ozzy. sarah's favorite was journey and it was pretty great. all the hits and everyone singing along. a lot of kooks live in denver and we have met our fair share, especially at that show. drunk guys trying to hug us and creepy old men who want to fight or talk close to our faces - blech. its all just been really funny.

still sore from snowboarding. maybe i should learn to not fall as much.