Dave spent today finishing up alot of his guitar tracks with Gummo. I wasn't there, so let's just assume it was earth-shattering.

Ok...

At 7pm, I went in and got to work on some vocals. Since discovering that I get better takes while singing into a hand held mic, we have made a list of some of the previously "done" songs for me to give another shot to. Tonight we started on "Outsider". We got the studio all dark and moody, Tom lit about 50 candles and the Nag Champa incense, and I got to work. The vibe seemed good, and we got some good passes. Next I worked on "Awake". Singing this one just about gave me an aneurysm the other night, so this time, I got a better balance in the headphones and comfortably "beat" those takes. Gummo seemed stoked with the progress we were making, so I tried "Blue Bruises" a few times for good measure.

Tomorrow Stephen and Gummo are spending the day in percussion world. Stephen is bringing in his arsenal of click, buzz, tom tom, shake, sizzle, clank, and bam! makers form all over the globe, and will go song by song and see where he hears some space for the texture that only percussion brings. Percussion can be that sometimes heard, sometimes subliminal element that can provide energy, a secondary rhythmic feel, and atmosphere on a track. No one I believe in the world is better suited to use the subtle power of these instruments than Mr. Perkins. When he is finished tomorrow night, I go back in for some more singing.

Next week will be our last week of this studio stretch, and we have more vocals to do, a little more guitar, and a keyboardist coming in to drop some more melodies into our mix.