Album 6: Day 1

Steve Fisk landed last night after midnight, and we got him to our friend Natasha's place. Thank you, Natasha!

After a good night's sleep, Steve and Ramone went to Westend and got everything going – microphones up and wired, tape machine running, etc. It takes hours to get the kit sounding right, and no effort was spared! We are using 12 mics on the kit, of the 16 tracks we have available on the 2-inch MCI.

Around 2 o'clock, I arrived and Ramone, Steve and I went to eat Italian at Cupini's, a fantastic, northeastern style Italian deli on Westport Road, nearby. Dan met us there and we walked back to the studio to begin tracking.



Normally, it's a good result to get even one complete take of a song on the "setup day", but by the end of the evening and after a break for dinner at 39th St.'s Fric n' Frak, we had three - I'm Going To Love Your New Boyfriend, You're My All Creation, and Goats, Biscuits, Bees.

The MCI 16 track sounds amazing. We've never worked on this tape width before. We are not using any noise reduction, so everything is crisp and dynamic, while benefiting from all the benevolent foibles of tape. It's pretty much impossible to get a bad guitar sound on this setup, especially with Steve at the boards.

Speaking of, it's time to go get him for the start of day two!