Done. We are mix ready, and set up scheduling for it to be mixed by Jan. 7

We went through the songs and added or subtracted everything we wanted, which wasn't much.

Added one background line in "Monday Morning" just to tie things together. Acoustics added in (not so) sad nudged it towards a fun, Violent Femmes kind of thing, acoustic but still tough. Added a couple vocals in "Skimming" which totally re-directed the song. It's a fun blend of loose and tight, now, and by subtracting a few lines, the whole makes total sense. The listener isn't overwhelmed, but is simply transported. We're now 100% confident about it, which is great. We also think it'd be a great last song that would blend into "Coney Island" because it contains the thematic point of this disc, and after it, there's not much left to say.

They're coming to life. I can feel this incredible sense of anticipation and release. And I'm beginning to think about the next one. Awesome.

More title ideas:
The Cool Green
One Good Tomorrow

Not bad. I still like "Bite Size" best. I don't know- it's real concise. Still thinking...

home for xmas for a few, now

Listen-down day.

JAIL- Great. Vocal is fantastic, parts are killer, Neal just opened it up on piano, it'll be so cool for people who've only heard him rocking the organ in Soulive. Vocals should be dry and present. Music box/piano can exist together. That's just a mix thing.

UNDERWATER- great. Ride the 'ahh's around 3:17, consider pulling "Soon this all will be" first time of the outro.

SKIMMING- pull the "whoa's" and give room. This needs to be thinned out. Too many doubles. 3rd verse vocals should be on lead, not on backgrounds. Song form is awesome. Finally.

REBUILD- Start should be drums alone. Give the drummer some. 4 bars or so. James Brown uber alles. Harmonica gets the pick up, signals band in. Awesome.

(NOT SO) SAD- Background vocals out of chorus 1 & 2, in for 3, will pull everything together in a huge way. Solo should be in after the bridge, should be foreshadowed at top of bridge which is a little sparse, still. Acoustics in chorus will pull it together further. Lead is great. Fun, snotty song. The disc needs it, ala "7 Bottles" to me...

GRACE- Nothing to say. Awesome. Lose the La La's at the top? Nah.

BE YOUR MAN- Backgrnd vocals in 4th line of chorus only. Fade the ending. Would be really cool before "Rebuild" in the sequencing.

FREE- Nothing to say. At all. Awesome.

MONDAY MORNING- Add harmony on "Slimmer than a dime", and chorus. La La's in solo: take them from my demo? Re-sing? Delete them completely? Leaning towards deletion.

STRAWBERRY SONG- Second song on disc, right after "Jail". That would be perfect. Lead vocal-devastating. Background vocal in chorus: 3rd line confuses the lead melody. Maybe ride it down in the mix? Double the "That"'s in bridge?

CONEY ISLAND- so cool. Birds are great. High pass filters on guit/piano, as if the music is coming from a house down the beach somewhere. The musical idea of this is an answer to "Will you wait for me?" from "Jail". The answer is: You did wait. I love you for waiting. I'm going to fulfill the promises made in "Jail" because you really did wait. It works great.

We're so ready to mix this dog. hell yeah.

What a whirlwind weekend. Saturday we had tix and backstage for Dave Matthews, which was good, but made unbelievable when James Brown came out on stage and basically burned the place to the ground. He is an idol, no doubt.

I've done ZERO holiday shopping, and won't do it tonight, because Blake and I are going to listen down to the entire disc, and decide if we have everything, all the guitar parts, all the vocals, all the backgrounds, but most importantly: did the collection of musical parts capture the intention of the song? This is the critical question. After we know the answer is YES, then the next phase arrives: the mix.

I'm nervous, but it's going to be fun.

I hope the answer is yes.