Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sputnik, electric guitars & scrumptious burgers

My morning familial duties came first: pour cup of coffee, eat Kix, practice juggling handkerchiefs with Ellis (I think he's ready for clown school), empty cat litter box, take out trash and recyclables. Step outdoors to vibrant sunshine and warmer weather; ah, such welcome guests upon my skin. I cast my ballot on the way to Sputnik Studio. Upon arriving, though I was 30 minutes late in true Peters fashion, I discovered Andrew Osenga and Ben hard at work recording electric guitars on "I Will Go With You". Andy then added mando-guitar for a chorus idea I was hearing in my head. There was much rejoicing, at least in my head. Andy then played baritone and electric guitars on "Louisiana In the Dark", electric guitar on "The Traveling Onion", "Come Back a Fool", and, finally, "Sad to Watch You Wave".

Andy, during our original guitar session way back in early November, had rendered a slap-your-mother-in-the-face, George Harrison-cool electric guitar solo during the chorus modulation of "StWYW", but now, after listening back to it, neither I nor Ben are sure if it's the sort of solo that fits on an EP record. That's not to say that I'm cooler than the guitar solo, rather the solo is MUCH cooler than me. But, not to prematurely cast out presumed demons from pigs, the jury's still out on the part, so we'll see. I need to live with it (along with the rest of the songs) for awhile longer before setting things in cement. This paragraph is rife with an odd assortment of phrases, yes?

For lunch we were all invited to taste test a soon-to-open hamburger joint in town, in the shadow of the minor league baseball team's stadium. One could probably catch homerun balls in the Gabby's Diner parking lot during the dog days of summer (how wonderful that sounds right about now). Doug, the friendly proprietor and chef, cooked fresh hand-patted burgers & homecut fries, both the Idaho and sweet potato varieties, for our party of 10. My wife and I both greatly appreciate freshly ground, hand-patted burgers, and Gabby's is this sort of genuine place. No pre-packaged frozen meat here. Doug treated us all, only requesting that we give him our honest and critical feedback. I eagerly await the diner's opening, and hope that he thoroughly succeeds in the venture. I'm definitely going back to try the BBQ bacon burger.

Another good day is in the books. In case you're wondering, we're getting really close, folks. A few accents to yet add, then it's on to singing final vocals along with background vocals (BGVs). That should happen in the coming weeks. The artwork is being designed as I write this. Mix, master, duplicate (I'll explain these in more detail later) -- voila! CD for sale. I'm hoping to have a firm CD release date soon enough, but it's looking like March, maybe April. That, of course, will depend on how things go and whether there's money in the bank account to actually pay for these procedures (see Album Patronage). But I will keep the 3 of you informed as to when that when that might actually be. Hopefully, hope.

6 comments:

Curt McLey said...

This really is exciting. How were the fries? And will they cook the burger medium and with cheddar cheese, just like I like it? Oh yeah, the progress on the record is awesome too. Seriously Eric, I didn't realize that you were getting this close. You are in the red zone, my man. I smell paydirt. And I would love to see a You Tube victory dance when you score. If it's dancing kookily, all the better.

ERiC PETERS said...

homecut fries (the choices are of the traditional Idahoan variety or sweet potatoes). yes, cheese, too. the patties are thin so i don't know if there's an option to cook it to order, but barely having seen the owner in action, i'd bet he would.

dancing kookily -- there's a term i haven't heard in ages. so "popular" it was a t-shirt.

barberboy said...

If one was inspired to contribute more than the requested $50 towards the new record, how would one go about that?

Is there a PayPal link where i could enter the amount to contribute? An address to mail a check would be fine also, to avoid whatever service fee PayPal charges. Or carrier pigeon that could stop by my house for pickup. Whatever works is fine by me.

ERiC PETERS said...

barberboy:
if one desired to contribute more than the $50 level (do this sound like a PBS pledge-a-thon?), i will certainly welcome it. i'm all about avoiding PayPal fees, but if that's easiest for you, then i would never dream of saying no to it. yes, i believe you can send any denomination of funds to anyone with an account. the album fund account is: orders@ericpeters.net. if you'd rather mail a check, then drop me an email and we'll figure it out that way. eric@ericpeters.net
or i can send arrange to send a carrier pigeon your way. he'll be the one with the droopy eyes. answers to "milton berle".

we've actually just reached the halfway point to the $15K goal, which is super, but leaves a ways to go.

cliff young on cliff young (that's hot!) said...

How much do I have to pay to keep that guitar solo on there?

ERiC PETERS said...

if "cliff young" is who i THINK it is, i just want you to know that i'm really grappling with the decision to keep or not keep the solo. i love that it's so unlike me, which may be a nice addition in the overall scheme of things.

i heart you, "cliff young is hot".