Studio report

So the rationales spent a day at the milkhouse recording studio last weekend - we booked the day to head in and spend some time with Shane O'Conner before he closes up shop on Rugg Road and moves out to the world of freelance engineering.

We weren't (and still aren't) entirely sure what the end result would be of the sessions - either really good sounding demos or the basic tracks of what will eventually become our first full length record. Either way we went in with about 6 solidly finished songs and about 5 newer songs or rewrites of songs that we've been kicking around. It was a long slog through the day but in the end we wound up with 11 tracks that are all pretty inspiring. We are definitely on track to get to work on finishing them off soon and seeing where we stand.

As with any long term gathering of Rationales - the topics of discussion were less than normal. some of my favorites - the imagining of the most ridiculous vegan 'meat' imitations that one could conceivably find in a market. Greg had it pretty well wrapped up with "vegan haggis" but i bent the rules and came in late with "vegan human placenta". hey - I've heard that people eat it. and its meat. why not?

another great but sadly unrecorded parts of the day featured the greg and matt banjo band - they turned the morning cold stone halls of 32 rugg into a warm and enjoyable hoedown. Maybe not the sort of thing one wants in their head at 10am on the night after the Nate Rogers Birthday Spectacular (PIMMS!!) but it was all good.

Shane was a pleasure to work with and we sped through a few takes of each tune - very productive day. While it will be a while before these (or other) new recordings surface (as we're still very much in preproduction/songwriting mode) you can check out a good deal of the new material live when we play at TT The Bear's on Sunday November 23, 2008 with indie rock phenom's The Wooden Sky (from toronto), Preacher Roe, and Trucker Mouth. This is going to be a big show - so please plan on coming out!