Hi, this is Dave. Hope everybody's doing well. Don's control room is loaded with toys and puzzles, and good European style food. He always brings in a loaf of fresh bread with some olive oil to dip it in, very Italian/Greek style. Don is one classy fella. He is wearing long pants today, which is very unusual; he usually wears khaki shorts. But today it is supposed to snow and it is cold as hell for Virginia.

The mood is upbeat and happy. I think the songs are strong, and pretty muscular too. Mostly everyone is happy to see each other and be here. The band chemistry is good and pretty relaxed, and we're having fun so far, which is really key to making a great record, I think.

It's funny because we're starting with song one from the demos, which has no title yet and is the only one that the words aren't finished. It's no big deal. Right now it's called sans amp, because on the demos for it, Brian used a Sans Amp for his guitar sounds.

Roger and Colin are still one of my favorite rhythm sections. They sound like they've been playing music together for more than half their lives. Wait a minute, they have! Brian just told Colin "Hey, you sound just like Colin Sears!"

*****
Ok, now it's short while later. Sans Amp came out really well. We're working on one called Dag (yep, this one's not named yet either), which is song two on the demos. This one is taking a lot longer. It's a deceptive song, because it just seems like a fairly straightforward raging punk rock hardcore song - but, Brian being Brian, it has a lot of twists and cool stops and starts. So I think this one took about 20 takes, and got everyone a bit fried. But now we just got it, and it was worth the effort. It's like everything in life, be it work or a song or a relationship or school - whatever. When you work hard at something and it doesn't click right away but then you don't give up and it ends up coming out how you wanted it to, that makes it feel even better, in a way. And even though this one took a bit of time, everyone is still in pretty good spirits - and starving. I think the Redskins lost which really sucks but the studio doesn't have a tv, and we were recording for so long, so we missed the agony anyway. Colin and roger don't really care too much about that but Brian and I are silly Redskins fans.

Steve Hansgen is doing great which is really helpful - he and Don are both people that have really good ears, and we have all been friends for many years, so we feel pretty comfortable just playing and trusting them and their ideas and impressions of what takes work, etc. Well, Roger is finishing the overdubs on the bass for this song, and then hopefully we can go get something to eat.

7 p.m. Just back from dinner at Restaurant Abi, a small Mexican place not too far from the studio, where Don has broken bread with many bands over the years, including Dag Nasty. Now we're about to tackle "bottle this", which is just a working title for the moment but I kind of like it. It's a song about having a shitty day at work or wherever and being stressed, but also that the only thing that matters in the end are your friends and family. This is the hardest song on the album, so hopefully it won't be too horrendous to get down.

9:03 p.m. Still at it. Just made a tempo change to the chorus and it seems to sound better than what we had.

9:54 p.m. Finally got one good take and we're going to try to get another that tops it.

10:03 p.m. Got it. Thank jah.

11:23 Have started to warm up into my favorite song of the record. This is pure raging hardcore, d.c. style, and it rocks for all of us who are old school (as they say nowadays about everyone who was kickin' it, dawg, in 1986 or earlier). G, this song is money, yo. Its tentative title is Flex Your Hat. Straight up.

11:32 Colin has announced that his dad, Dave Sears, who let us practice in his house for all the early days of the band, doesn't have a mustache anymore. Brian is doing various and hilarious impersonations between takes.

11:51 First tape rolling take of flex your hat.

12:20 a.m. Have a good take of the song. Switching reels of tape to see if we can top it. We talk about the new fugazi record, with various people chiming in on how awesome they think it is. Like all Fugazi cds, it was recorded here at inner ear with don. Everyone is getting tired.

12:48 a.m. We have it now, the right take. We'll see you tomorrow. Vive le punk.