1:47am - Jan 31

4pm, Friday
We moved into Sapient Sound. We set up and sound check. I went through 4 different bass amps until finally going direct and deciding to re amp it later. Starting off, I played my music man, but ended up using a vintage Rickenbacker I borrowed for the weekend. I love the way it sounds, melodic, but with a slight edge and kick to it.

We laid down basic tracks for Take It Slow, Rise Up, Let The People Know and Cute Girls in Combat Boots. Cute Girls will probably need to be redone tomorrow. I really enjoy recording and I haven't done a full length album since high school. The stuff I did in high school isn't really worth listening to now.

The studio is ours to use for this weekend and this weekend only. It costs a lot to make and album, so we are tracking most of it in three days. A lot of time was spend in pre-production for this album. We have been more than ready to do this for awhile.

12:41pm - Jan 26

We have found a studio! We move in Friday at 5pm and I think the place will be perfect for 2 Tone Runts. We also are working on a couple leads for labels to release the album. Our target release date is March 15, which is coming up fast. The release will be followed by a brief Midwest Tour. Starting this Friday, I will again have daily blogs, photos and videos from the sessions.

I've been working with Dez E on the artwork for the album. It's going to be a 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike theme. I took out all of my favorite albums and looked at the artwork, all of them had the same color scheme: red, white and black. Needless to say, that is not the color scheme for this album.

Sometimes when it's this cold in Minnesota, I wonder why anyone would live here. Then I go for a walk and remember why.

3:57 am - Jan 11

There have been a few set backs with the album. We where supposed to be moving into a brand spankin new studio to start production this week. Because of city code issues with the building, which should have been worked out before they rented out the space, are pushing the opening date of the studio way back. So what do we do now...
We started looking into other studios, which would be way more expensive. One spot was the same studio The Replacements recorded at. We may also record much of the vocals in our practice space. One thing is for sure, we are not going to compromise the quality of the album and we are still hoping to release it right before our march tour.

Some Good Advice for Bands...
DON'T BELIEVE IN MAGIC.
Seriously, this is the best advice I've ever gotten. I wish someone would have told me this in high school. Bands don't form overnight, play the one "magic" show in front of a producer and hundreds of fans and get signed and release gold records the next week. It's about being smart, creative, and working your ass off. I used to think to make it in this business you have to be extremely lucky. I thought a lot about this tonight when I was standing in the freezing cold outside a Streetlight Manifesto and Reel Big Fish concert handing out demos with stickers and a flier for our upcoming show. Sounds like a painstaking task, but it actually turned out to be something I enjoyed. Half of the people responded with, "I've heard of you guys!" Others where surprised by the fact that there is a local scene.

I've leaned to treat every show like it's special. We market each show a little differently and we limit our local shows. It really hurts the scene when one halfway descent band play every friday and saturday night. If every band maxed on one local show a month, more people would be at each show and every show would be a lot more fun. Believe me, If I go to see a band and the only other people there are either related or dating someone in the band, I know I'm going to be bored. If every show is special, everyone wins!

p.s.
Everyone should checkout Tom Gabel's blog on "Chinese Democracy"

3:30pm - Jan. 2

New Year's Eve in Mankato was interesting to say the least. Everyone was really awesome to us. After we played we were shown around to parties and given a place to sleep. It's good we found somewhere and didn't end up spending the money we had just made on a hotel. The police were going crazy around the time of "last call" at the bars. They where calling all the locals names and being more annoying then helpful. But when are the police ever helpful? We woke up around noon, ate some sandwiches and headed back to Minneapolis. It was a bright new years day. Which reminds me, I still have to make some resolutions and see how I did on last years.

I've been sleeping a lot lately. Somehow, it feels like if I just sleep I won't have to deal with any of my day to day problems. Like when I wake up, I'll have money to pay the rent and then some. Or when I wake up, I won't have to worry about how I'm going to eat today. Maybe when I wake up all the work will be done and I'll nothing but free time. But I wake up and nothing has changed, so I go back to sleep for a couple more hours in hope that next time I wake it will be different. After I do finally get out of bed, I find that there is no longer time to accomplish all of that. The doors have already opened and closed. And it hits me like a ton of bricks. Anxiety and migraines kick in. But I'm hopeful, because when I do work hard, it does pay off. And in the end, as long as I still have my friends, everything will be alright.