Insult to injury

Blah. Remember how I posted about that FedEx truck that creamed our front porch?

Well, we've been wrangling with insurance companies and contractors for three months now, and we're finally ready to break ground and get 'er fixed. Sounds good, yes? I thought so, but when I got home today I found a letter from the city indicating that somebody had complained about us using "open storage" inappropriately to store building materials, etc.

Granted, the porch has looked like hell for weeks, but I did go out on Saturday of my own accord to tear down everything and haul it to the dump. So it's all cleared up now. We had to wait until this late date because I hadn't received a check from State Farm yet. Otherwise I would have done the work sooner. It's not wise to mess with the "crime scene" before you've been compensated!

So now I'm pretty pissed off that I have some dorky neighbor who didn't have the guts to ask me what was up, and instead sent the government after me. I'm assuming that there won't be much of a hassle since we've cleared off all of the debris, but I won't know for sure until the inspection takes place "10 or more days from now." And of course I have no idea who complained, only that they're spineless.

If it's not one thing it's another, I guess.

In brighter news Friday's McCracken show was a stunning success. Chuck and I had a fantastic time. I will be putting up photos shortly!

Jesse Kates * www.jessekates.com

Recording the Sexy Day 2

On Saturday I finished recording guitars for the Sexy Accident four song demo. Randy (engineer) got some great tones out of my amps, and it was fun to use nearly all of my gear in one way or another. Vocals will come next weekend, then its on to mixing and mastering!

In other news, McCracken is playing our debut show at the Brick on Friday. For those who don't know, McCracken is a collaboration between myself and Chuck Whittington of namelessnumberheadman fame.

McCracken has a song tentatively titled "Rolando the Choreographer." If you can identify the reference at the show on Friday, I will give you one copy of every CD I've ever released.

Be there or be square!

Jesse Kates * www.jessekates.com

Recording the Sexy Day 1

It's early Thursday morning and I'm up again after a late night recording drums, bass and scratch guitar for the Sexy Accident demo (and for eventual album tracks.) We worked from about 6pm to 1am at Sound Campaign recording studio, a new home studio run by Randy Ponzio that will soon see a more proper unveiling on the world wide web.

Like a motard (that's a motorcycle cop in France), I forgot to take pictures as we worked at a steady, somewhat elevated pace to get the tracks down. If you've ever recorded, you know that at least 50% of a 7 hour block will be setup, leaving 3.5 hours for playing, rough mixing, listening back and playing again if necessary.

All told we were highly, highly efficient and had a lot of fun. We have 4 songs in the works and the only one we had to play more than once or twice was a new number (Dan hadn't had the opportunity to write a bass part for it, yet.) It's always nice to spring things at the last minute! :)

I will record guitars this weekend. Watch this space!

Jesse Kates * www.jessekates.com