02-11-02

First day back after almost a month of relative normalcy, and a late one too as we are not starting until 6:00 in the evening-ish. Today is a clean up day, going over anything that may need sprucing up before we start mixing tomorrow. First on the agenda are the backing vocals for "Ghosts", which Dave knocks off in record time. Dave (and everyone else) feels that the lead vocals for "Broken Days" could be sung more aggressively and it would do no one any harm. This takes longer to tackle than "Ghosts" and attention spans wander (Mostly over to Chad's workspace where he is hard at work re-mastering the entire Minor Threat catalogue.) As you can imagine this proves too much of a temptation for the two former members in attendance and much of the evening is spent running back and forth between Dave's lovely singing in one room and our youthful aggression in another. Roger spends much of his time in the lounge singing along to "Filler" and other MT hits. We would show you the quite amusing photos of this riveting scene if the disc containing said pics hadn't disappeared at some point. Oh well, if they're ever found they will assuredly be posted. They're not as exciting or blackmail ready as some of the other "Rog" photos that exist but that probably doesn't surprise anyone reading this.

Brian (just back from Europe) is extremely jet lagged. He is not cranky; I don't care what anyone says!!! He's not…I swear. He's just tired and his knee hurts, that will have to suffice. No one is drunk, well Roger is a tad "jolly" but that's probably just the nostalgia he is currently high on. Don and I are wearing shorts because we are not quite right and Dave is eating bread and looking very punk. We're done and going home. Until tomorrow.

Day 23,000

Brian here. Rested (at last) and ready.

HUNGRY. Roger, get some food. Please.

It's obvious to me that these studio reports have degenerated into each band member insulting each other and/or otherwise commenting on relatively non-studio specific issues (Brian is a homo). I will attempt to re-capture the concept of a true studio log with this report. Until that gets boring - then back to the dirt.

We are continuing to patch up the backing vocals and hope to get to mixing by this evening. Dave is currently crooning a yet-to-be titled song featuring Colin Sears' lyrics to a very "Wig-Out" styled riff monster that I've had knocking around for about two years. Dave is singing into a Rode NTK tubular mic with a homebrew popper-stopper. GOD THIS IS TEDIOUS…

Don and Steve are wearing shorts, yet the temperature outside is near freezing. Why is this?

Steve Here. The answer is …HUBRIS!!!! Yes.

Hey there, Dave here. Some of the most fun time of being in the studio is sitting around talking about old punk stuff. Right now we're sitting here talking about Black Market Baby, a seminal D.C. punk band. I remember them really well. Songs like Youth Crimes and Potential Suicide were so fucking great. Steve just told me that they get back together still every couple of years - I must be there next time. BMB recorded with Don at the old Inner Ear as well. It's insane how many great things came out of Inner Ear. Not just because Don is my buddy, either.

Dave is finishing up the last song of the recording session. Hallelujah. Next is MIXING!!!!!!!
Brian is taking opiates to lessen the effects of punk rock knee.

Mixing enabled. The following are some technical "mixing" terms used here at Inner Ear.

fanny fanny pho-fanny
batman
fugawaga
flitty
sans amp (a product name, but it is also used as an adjective)
wet Dave up
dither it
feature
unmuddy
de-pussify

Roger has gone to Vampire Chicken (an amazing Peruvian chicken place up the street that is only open after dark.) In his absence we are replacing most if not all of his bass parts with whale sounds I got off a CD that came in a box of Frosted Flakes. I am also replacing his pictures on the album package with photos of Charles Nelson Reilly in drag doing blow off a hooker's chest.

Bookending
Ping-ponging
Autopan
Spinecho
Slow sweeper

Roger is (surprise) drunk AGAIN. He doesn't even recognize us anymore.
IF YOU KEEP TALKING SHIT, I'M GONNA PUT A DEREK SHU IN YOUR ASS.

Brian is now making bionic man sounds while all hopped up on painkillers in order to explain his thoughts on this song.

My God, we have a keeper. We are done for the night, and not a moment too soon, for Steve has just run out of salad. And if Steve doesn't have his greens, well…

Day 13

Hello, Roger here. Mixing continues. Chad is in the other room recording some sort of Christian talk thing. It must be odd to work on Minor Threat one day and Christian preaching the next. These guys kind of wig me out to be honest. One dude has a strangely angular head and horrible teeth. He also stinks of old Chinese food. Ah well, it takes all kinds, eh?

One thing I've always liked about Colin's drumming is that he makes these incredibly loud moaning/yelling sounds when he plays and he has no control over it. It just happens, especially during fills and accents. I've always wanted to set up a mike just for his vocals, but it's just never happened. I think he gets a little embarrassed hearing these fantastic gurgling moans. All is not lost, however, because he bleeds onto the various mikes set up for the drums. You can't hear it in the final mix, but it's there, and it always makes setting up the drum sounds during mixing a lot more fun.

Don eats a lot of French bread. Today he switched to cheese after always being partial to spaghetti sauce. I don't know why.

Brian here. I just came in and saw firsthand the insanity (both literal and figurative) that Chad is dealing with today. These people are not only oddly shaped and vehemently Christian, but they are now actually eating Chinese food (just delivered), which is incredibly strange, since Roger's previous olfactory observation would suggest that these people had already enjoyed a Chinese meal earlier in the day. (or maybe last night…I don't know.) Incidentally, these freaks drove to the studio in a car featuring "Semper Fi" license plates replete with Marine Corps logos, yet there is a sticker on their bumper apparently decrying the Marine Corps policy of reprimanding its actuaries. The sticker reads: "To err is human, to forgive divine - neither is Marine Corps policy." Roger and I are making another sticker for them…."God is my co-pilot to Chinese restaurants that offer discounts to military personnel with cranial inongruencies"

We have mixed three songs so far…Steve is roughing up the title track "Minority of One" for further tweaking as I write this. Dave sounds pissed off on tape, I tell you.

Hey, it's Dave. I just got in and instantly we went to get Vietnamese food. What I heard sounds really good. Brian had been to this Vietnamese restaurant before. Little did we know that there are now about 14 million Vietnamese restaurants in Clarendon. But we found the restaurant and it was indeed exquisite.

Shock, surprise, and horror - Roger is drunk AGAIN. I'm talking slurring, stumblebum, sell your TV for scotch, piss fucking drunk. What is he running from? I just want to help him.
I'M NOOT DRANK. FUCKN ACHOLE STOP SAYN DAT

It's a brand new day. It's a brand new daaaaaaaaayayyy

LAST DAY, FOLKS.

12 noon; Today, I (roger) feel like shit. Not because of the music or sadness of the impending end, but because the sub I ate last night on Don's recommendation almost killed me. It was one of those froofy suburban "authentic" Italian gourmet delis that overcharge, make you wait forever, and put rat poison in your sub when you're not looking. I think I bled internally all night and the mustard gas emanating from my rear was horrible, even to me. But enough about me.

After listening to everything we have done so far, Steve and Don are making some changes to one song. Other concerns can be dealt with in Mastering (oh it's not over yet). The amazing Chad Clark will be at the controls with Steve and Brian right here at Inner Ear Studios next week. We like him. He did an amazing job on all the Dischord re-masters and still had time to eat Chinese food with toothless Christians. Very impressive.

After this tweak is done, we have three more songs. Oh boooy.

3:55 PM As part of the process of approving a mix, we always end up going out to Brian's car to listen to a cd copy. After we're done, the cd is then smashed into pieces, to prevent piracy (and to assuage Brian's paranoia.) We are mercilessly adding fodder to already over-crowded landfills. But hey, cds are cheap and we will spare no expense for high fidelity.

Last song. It's crackers and ginger ale for me from here on out. Don't pay attention to all that drunk talk you've been reading about. It's simply not true. Honest. Would I lie? Who you gonna call?

8:15 pm Brian here…for the first time in this session, Roger is completely sober. The rest of us, on the other hand, have started dabbling in the post-mix celebratory beverages, even though we still haven't burned the last song. Don Z is hitting the wine. Steve and I are sipping whiskey. True till Death? Not us. Dave is at home with his kids, by the way, just so you don't think he's also smashing the SXE myth to bits. That's MY job, dammit

9:00 pm We are finally finished mixing Minority of One, the new Dag Nasty album out this summer on Revelation records. I'm really, really excited about this record. YaHey.