09.08.10....the illustrious popping of the cherry

The first day blew by. Partially because I spent most of the day flying to Boston from Seattle, landing at Logan, taking the blue line to Wonderland, taking the 441 to Lynn and, finally, the 455 to Salem. I then walked to the store, bought bananas, peanut butter, a 99 cent bag of Baked Lays, and a Vitamin Water Zero (go-go / mixed berry).
Between travel and food purchases, what started at 4am in Sea-Tac airport, took until 7:45pm, when I was at the front door of Godcity.
I was greeted by the beautiful noise of Chris Maggio banging the fuck out of the drums, as he and Kurt worked on getting the sound nailed down.
I think we're all just happy to be around each other right now, after spending most of 2010 in separate areas. Having minimal face time with people you consider a van family....well, it leaves a void. Fly-ins to do a fest just feels like a teaser.
The first hour together was spent catching up, etc.
Brian, Chris and our TT merch/road dog/everything guy, Dan, showed up at 1pm, ready to get the ball rolling. Around 6, Scuba made his way from Brooklyn to Salem, armed with half of his life's possessions, since when recording is done he will be moving to Austin (for those keeping track, we are now spread out between Seattle, Austin and Louisville. Note to everyone: stop asking how we practice, how we get together to prepare for tour, etc...we just do it. We make it work. It's a lot easier to make difficult situations possible when all the bodies involved have the same like-minded goals.).
By the end of the night, drum sounds were almost at the point they needed to be at, which means tomorrow will, more than likely, begin the actual tracking of drums. This session gives us a lot of time and breathing room to work on everyone's part as they would like. It's the first recording session where stress will, hopefully, be kept to a minimum. Drums will probably take up the next four days or so, which gives Mr. Maggio ample time to do what he does, which is be a jaw-droppingly amazing drummer.
As most can assume, and I am more than willing to admit, a vocalist's duties in the studio are null....we fart around, working on songs and wandering aimlessly. Consequently, I was no help whatsoever tonight. I know my role, so I made my way down to the basement to eat peanut butter sandwiches and watch Star Wars on VHS. I fell asleep ten minutes in and woke up at about 11:45 when I was informed we were done for the day. We drove back to NH, where we are staying, stopping once at a CVS, in hopes that late night snacks were to be found...I left with a Diet Mountain Dew and a sadness over the lack of pretzel selection.
All in all, even including the ever-depressing cross country flights, this was a great first day.
I'm sitting here with all the guys passed out, and seeing as I'm on west coast time, even though it's 3:15am, my body clock is telling me it's only 12:15....which means if I was back in emerald city, I would have just clocked out of the bar where I work and would be on my walk home....which means I'm going to be awake until roughly a half an hour before these dudes all open their eyes and are ready to start the day.
Plain and simple, I (and more importantly,WE) feel pretty damn good. I'm going to sit here with headphones on and work on the songs, with brilliant American grindhouse films on the television and non-stop cups of coffee.

Within the next 12-15 hours, there will be many new things to talk about on here: details of the 2nd day, some new gadgets added that will connect everything TT related to here....and, most exciting, our fall tour plans will finally be announced!
I can't announce it, since we already piss off enough people without even trying , but I CAN say this: shit happens....and, boy, do we love it when it does.

Also: please feel free to spread word about this site....this is not going to be some mechanical blog, void of emotion and stripped to flatlined updates. We wholeheartedly appreciate those who take interest in this band, and the hope is that this blog/site will give you a feeling of being as much of a part of this band as we do.
Thanks for giving a shit.

rjm/TT

By the way, I wrote this whole goddamn thing on an iPhone. My eyes are now bleeding.