Gracias Vaqueros

One day to go.

All album traks done - tomorrow: a few b-sides, eq on original demos and a much needed and bloody earned very tall glass of champagne.

Time to honour our beloved fans and friends, and our brave and much talented drugstore vaqueritos.

ps- and no, there were no craze arguments or mad parties this time, I didn't sleep with any of them. (but I did think about it, of course!)
Gracias Vaqueros!

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Bad Monteiro?

Day 2 of mixing: started off good, with generosity of next door biz neighbour, who runs nice family crabmeat business, ended up even better with 3 lovely mixes of some of the mellower/quieter album tracks - Clouds, La Brume and Can't Stop me Now.

Had superlative crabmeat brunch; My dad used to say that crab was the food of angels - I think, in this instance, I may have to agree.

As for being a really, really bad person, although sometimes line of good and bad drawn with invisible ink, today, managed to overcome temptation, and happily shared crab-loot with everyone else.

you never doubted I would, did you?! scoundrels!

ps- very pop-postscript: the crabmeat biz is housed in what used to be another little recording studio, where, hard to believe but true, the SpiceGirls recorded their 1st album. historic.

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Pick'n'mix

I have no clean clothes left: none.

Recording time is over; Time to mix the album.

Mixing is a weird little beast, can bring the fussiest out of the laid-back, and turn deaf mice into audio-experts.

I'm gonna try really hard not to get over picky, and get trapped into the compression/delay chamber. Just want the songs to be heard, nice, unaffected and clear.
So far everything sounding top class, not a single brown smartie in the bag.

Now, can I have just a tad more reverb, please? and that 2nd snare beat on the chorus is too loud, also the b-vox needs panning, and the bass needs tweaking, and that guitar whatever...Pete's rotary organ...and the slides... (ad infinitum)

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Adaggieto

Yesterday our cute string quartet crossed the bridge into Drugstore island.

By no means over-producing our little beast, just adding touches on a couple of songs.

They were very young and lovely, hit our bar straight away and were happy being fed on burnt microwave popcorn.

Reason why I love young people, everything is worth it, coz the heart is still roughly in the right place, not yet completely tamed or jaded.

x

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Cloud 9

Recording vocals on Clouds, our last album track.
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Beyond the dirt that grinds
and turns everyman into ghosts
At the cave in comfort uplifted.
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Calm Ascending

Today, for the first time, had a chance to listen to everything we've done so far.

Respiratory and slowly.

I usually take a cheapo pair of headphones with me, the ones you'd get on Ebay for about, say, £30, not the worst, but just below average, and plug them straight into the desk. It's a great way to have an overall impression of what the record is roughly going to sound like.

Felt overwhelmed and happy with what I've heard, and for the first time, a gentle wave of calmness rose from within, something I haven't felt in years.

Terrible, isn't it?, but I fear that other dreaded word 'maturity' might have finally sipped into our music, but not in a serious or too grown-up way - not like that, but more like when you're about to arrive at someplace strange and new and feeling quietly comfortable with yourself.

star spangled pretty.

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El Pedro, in a sea of tinkles.

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Cowboy Lover

Fell in love with the wrong cowboy, not for the first or last time, I fear...

In the meantime, at the Drugstore Island, clock doing that Einstein thing I never quite understood, y' know, the bleeding two twins, one is travelling at the speed of light, the other stuck on earth, or whatever? as studio time slipping away faster than predicted by my mathematical planner. weird.

Still, despite recording studio own bizarre laws of non-logical physics, think we gonna make it and arrive safely at harbour in 10 days time.

all in good spirits.

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Strike a pretty chord

Underneath the rubble, the crass jokes, the ill-thought out pseudo-amusing twits, the grammatical mistakes, the rude bossy demands, the craze drive, the blind determination, the rock'n'roll sub-diva, the drunken bitch, this harsh shell that I carry, lies something quite small, barely there, in perfectly opposing symmetry, and sometimes it surfaces and strikes a pretty chord.

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recording Sinner's Descent, in a pool of red. later, we added some incredibly beautiful sounds, as described by Mr.Y, as such: a single bird, soaring high above a placid lake, which led me to think that there might be something extra going down w/ his morning yakult.
this was the last song I wrote just before going into the studio.

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Day whatever - Message from your leader - 1

Into week 2 of the sessions.

Had another great fan-visit day, Jason from Canada - recorded mad sounds, laughed, did photoshoot, signed mini-cowboy boots, ate chips, drank litres of baileys for the laydies, slept happy.

photo by andy willsher

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Yesterday, as the 1st of the winter sun came out, planner was abandoned in favour of walk in the woods.

All in good spirits.

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Pathos(wiki link): Pathos is often associated with emotions, but it is more complex than simply emotions.

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