Hey again. I just got here at around 7 p.m. today after a loooong day at work. The guys got done tracking the basics (drums and bass) for two new songs - song 5, which is tentatively called Ghosts. It's a song about not being able to shake the memory of a broken relationship or friendship no matter what you do. Musically it is the most like something that would have been right at home on Can I Say, so of course I like it a lot. Then they also did song 4, which is as yet untitled but VERY different. Moody and dark, and the slowest song on the album. Don't worry, it's not a power ballad.

Everyone looks and sounds toasty and tired today, me included. I don't think anyone got much sleep last night. I hope we'll get more tonight. I am also fighting a sore throat/cold thing which truly sucks.

Then the pizza came from Ledo's. It was kind of weird, because all the slices were about two inches square. It tasted like the homemade pizza kits you used to make in your kitchen in seventh grade. As Don put it, "Other than the crust and the sauce, it was great." He thought about it for a moment and then added, "And the cheese was burnt a little bit too."

We ate in the studio lounge with a band called Gist, a D.C. band that is mastering their record in the smaller studio room that used to be the room where J Robbins produced and mixed a lot of great stuff. The room is now the mastering heaven for bands, and is called Silver Sonya. Gist is a cool rock band with a touch of the newer D.C. sound, slightly on the esoteric side with great melodies. They are going to be shopping their record around, so label folk take note.

Chad Clark (formerly of the band Smart Went Crazy, who released two records on Dischord, and now in Beauty Pill) is mastering in Silver Sonya. Chad is an awesome guy and has a great ear. He has his own mastering set up in the room. He, Ian MacKaye and Brian very recently remastered both the first two Dag Nasty records and Dischord is going to rerelease them this year. The remastered discs both sound amazing and have extra stuff. I have to admit I was highly skeptical about remastering those records, but Chad kicked ass. It sounds better, flat out.

We're now going to try to get down song 6. It's a sort of heavy fast rock dag nasty song with a beat that makes you bop your head. Imagine that!

Now we're close to getting the right take. Colin is talking with Larry from Rev. Larry is excellent, and he and Jordan, the owner, are largely responsible for us signing to Rev. We requested Revelation hoodies and t-shirts. Larry quickly hung up.

Two hours later. Darren is here to tweak Colin's drums and put on some new drum heads, check tuning, etc. Darren has a flaming head tattoo on his arm that looks downright nice. Purple is an excellent tattoo color, I think. He and I are in the control room talking about drummer greats like John Bonham, Keith Moon, Stuart Copeland, Neil Peart. And we agree that none of those guys, despite their greatness, would have been better than Ringo was for the Beatles, for instance, or Charlie Watts still is for the Stones. The right match is so important. We both agree that guitar wankers like Yngvwe Malmstein or Joe Satriani have all the talent in the world but none of the soul that mark guys like Jimmy Page or Pete Townsend.

Brian is now playing Steve's 1963 Gibson SG Junior. It's an amazing guitar. He's going through a Marshall 1987 Silver Jubilee 50 Watt head, and a '92 Anniversary cabinet.

It's now 11:40 p.m. We just got a good take of 6, but Colin wants to see if we can top it. So we'll keep that one and try another.

Got the master take at 12:30, Darren is changing the heads on his kit and then we outta here!!