Where I've Been...

Good evening, all. This is my (Dan's) first post as Dan. I play the louder guitar, sing the backing vocals and arrive having eaten.

It's been a very busy weekend for me, and a very important one for The Sobriquets. First, the "me" part.

I'm writing this while sitting in the Hollywood Hills, just outside Los Angeles. The house next door is owned by the blonde cheerleader/superhero from "Heroes" (Hayden something...). This is nice work if you can get it, I assure you of that. While I have no particular love for the West Coast (definitely a Northeasterner by blood, temperament and location), it's been a great few days, and a very needed change of scenery for a bit. I've been out visiting my brother, and attending the first day of Coachella Music and Arts Festival.

This was the main stage, where later I would see Morrissey and Paul McCartney (and hear the strains of We Are Scientists, Franz Ferdinand and a handful of other bands during my wanderings of the grounds). Later on in the evening, I would be towards the front of this stage surrounded by tens of thousands of people, watching a real live Beatle.

I learned a couple of things this weekend: I learned that I really hate outdoor music festivals that I am not personally playing at. It's full of standing, being hot, paying a lot for food, waiting in line just about everything and generally being surrounded by people that I would normally never be anywhere near. I also learned that, the next morning, I will have almost no memory of anything unpleasant about the whole preceding events. I will gush wildly to anyone who will isten about how awesome it was. All these things happened, in that order.

But I did see a lot of great bands. They included: The Hold Steady, Buraka Som Sistema, The Bug, Steve Aoki, Leonard Cohen, Morrissey and Paul McCartney. All these acts were fantastic, and I was glad to have seen them all. I was even more glad to go home and sleep in a bed.

Later, on the way home (which was at about 2 am), we stopped at the dinosaur statues from "Pee Wee's Big Adventure".

Now, onto the other reason I'm in Hollywood. I'm sitting in Hopewell Studios, owned by a good friend, Jake Rodenhouse (that's me on the left and Jake on the right). He has been mastering the new Sobriquets EP (which still does not have a title... more on that in the future). We've been in the control room for a while tonight, and we have finally finished. Let me just say, it sounds absolutely great. And for those fellow geeks who like to follow these kinds of things, our reference tracks for the mastering were from the Tragically Hip's "We Are The Same" and The Decemberists "Hazards of Love". It was mastered with many awesome pieces of equipment, including a vintage Neve console, a DBX Compressor/Limiter and a URei Parametric Equalizer.

As a personal plug, this guy is a freakin' genius and has a sweet studio. If you are ever in the LA area and want to record in a relaxed but professional environment, look Hopewell up.

Anyway, with the mastered record in the bag, we are ready to move onto the process of getting pressed, deciding on album art, all that fun stuff. More on that as it happens. These are definitely the best sounding Sobriquets' recordings yet, so you do not want to miss out.

- Dan