Well I’ll Be…There’s Some New Songs on Myspace

You heard correctly. Head over to our Myspace and check out songs from our new album. Believe me, we’re just as excited as you are!

Yikes! New Album SOON, Shows

So WOW! I just experienced a blast from the past while logging in to write a new post. Which definitely isn’t a good thing when you’re calling your updates a blast from the past. Though it may seem like it, we haven’t been dormant at all! Since June, we’ve been playing downtown quite a bit, moving back to our respective schools, but most importantly, finishing the album has been our top priority.

We finished studio tracking back in June at Shirk Music + Sound in Chicago with our buddy Steve Shirk. Right after realizing that we hadn’t recorded as much as we wanted to, we began many more random recording sessions and tracked overdubs for roughly two months on and off. Since we were recording at what we’ve dubbed “the Punkin Patch” (Brian’s room), we had virtually no time constraints. This can be a problem, since we tended to take a lot longer than we had originally planned for.

Anyway, we finished recording the album at the beginning of august or so and began the process of mixing. Mixing went on for a while and  in mid-September, we decided to hire mixing extraordinaire Ed Stasium, who boasts mixing credits for bands such as the Ramones, The Talking Heads, Nada Surf, and even Gladys Knight. So, as it stands, we are currently mixing the album and probably will be until mid October. Then after this, we go to master. The expected release of the album should be in or around January. But, you will definitely be hearing some of the results of our latest efforts on our Myspace within the next week or so. So please stay tuned for that! We can confidently say that we don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Keep your ears peeled.

Love, Bryan

SHOW TOMORROW: Byron Colby Barn, Cancer Benefit

Just clarifying the details for the show tomorrow at the Byron Colby Barn. $5.00 Entry Fee. All proceeds benefit Relay For Life.

THE SHOW STARTS AT 2:00 pm!

Butterfly Assassins should play between 4-5:00 pm. Hope to see all of your smiling faces. This should be an awesome show!

Recording: The Week in Review

Chapter IV

We’ve been so busy in the studio, the blog posts have taken the backseat…until now that is. But currently, it’s the weekend and we’ve had time to re-coop and think about what we’ve been doing. So, we’ll recap the week.

Monday we finished up Danny’s bass tracks and started guitar. Through breaking many strings and miking three different guitar amps thirty-billion different ways, Bryan managed to pound through five songs Monday.

Continuing on into Tuesday, six more guitar tracks were recorded. Bryan played his axe all day long and ended at around 2:30 in the morning. Rock and roll! Upon finishing, he aptly proclaimed “I’ve got blistas on me fingas!”

Later that evening upon returning to Northwestern, our couches were being occupied by a welcoming party of friends. We were all exhausted…so what does one do about this situation? Watch “Liar, Liar” until sunrise! Three-fourths of the band enjoyed a quality piece of American filmmaking while Brian rested up for his big day of piano playing.

We arrived late (as usually are) on Wednesday at Electrical Audio, producer/engineer Steve Albini’s recording castle. After miking up the piano and enjoying some Chicago dogs from Hot Doug’s, Brian began tickling the ivories. We only had one day to record piano since we were in a different studio than normal so Brian had to work quickly. Unfortunately, due to an extreme lack of sleep and frustration, we were rushed right into forgetfulness. We “assumed” Brian was finished and began recording some bass drum for several tracks. Upon packing up microphones, we realized we forgot to record piano to the first track on our album. Oops! Guess we made ourselves a new project for the weekend…

Ultimately, the band, as well as Stephen our producer/engineer decided in a unanimous vote late Wednesday evening to take a break for the weekend to rest our ears. One can only withstand SO much recording. Especially when we’re all the in the same room for 14 hours at a time! Needless to say we were all getting a bit restless.

Thursday and Friday, we recorded the cello for the album, played by our in-and-out cellist, Kate. She stayed just long enough to finish her cello tracks and head back to her home in Ann Arbor, MI.

So there you have it. An entire week in one blog post.

In other news, we’re currently in the process of mixing down a live show that we recorded at Double Door. This includes new songs that will be on our next album. We may or may not decide to put those on Myspace. Anywho, more recording updates to follow once our break ends. Cheerio!

Quotes of the Week

“Get me an analog hot dog!” -Bryan

Bryan: “On my walk back to the studio these scary security dogs barked at me.”
Kate: “What did they say?”
Bryan: “Bark.”

Recording: Catnaps & Internet Games

Chapter III

As exciting as recording is, there is a LOT of downtime. Saturday and Sunday were slower days in the studio, at least for the Br(i,y)ans. It was a drum and bass weekend for the most part.

Dylan finished up his drum tracks early Saturday morning. We then began searching for the perfect bass tone for each song. After hours of fuddling, Dan laid down some tracks and we ended Saturday early at around 6pm. We’d been recording since Wednesday and it was time for a little break.

Our freedom from the studio resulted in frisbee and sand art at the Evanston beach Saturday night. Running around in the sand finally tired us out and we retired back to the Dorm to watch Dustin Hoffman’s stunning performance in the Graduate.

Back in the studio Sunday morning, we tried to get as many bass tracks done as possible before Danny had to go meet with one of his professors (he is still in school!). While Danny was dabbling in his education, the rest of us went down the street to grab some Italian subs. After wasting too much time eating, we arrived back at the studio and miked up the guitar amps. Bryan laid down his first set of guitar tracks for the title track of the album just in time for Danny to return.

Danny began his long night of recording more bass while Bryan and Dylan took to conquering internet games, including Aggressive Alpine Skiing, a very difficult downhill skiing game with an infectious techno theme-song. But, you can only play internet games for so long until the warmth of the studio and monotony of techno puts you right to sleep.

The studio lounge provides for excellent sleeping conditions. The soothing sounds of double kick-drums and earth-quaking bass from the death-metal band next door helped Bryan and Dylan right to sleep. After three hours of napping and tracking bass, we decided our ears had hit their limit of productivity for the day and headed back to Northwestern for some Z’s.

Quote of the Day

“Man, I’ll be just fine… I’m with the Brothafly Assassins!” – Tang

Recording: That Snare Drum is Phat!

Chapter II

Brian is currently deep in meaningful discussion with producer/engineer extraordinaire Steve Shirk over drum takes from Turn It Off. Regardless of what ends up on the album, we can promise you this much, Dylan’s kick drum will stir your loins. Today we plan to continue on to record the operatic, Light Fight, our most recent creation.

Yesterday was a moderately successful day in the studio. We concluded that we perform better later in the day/night (as most musicians do) so naturally, waking up at 11:00 am sounded like an excellent idea. Upon waking up, we grabbed some brunch and were back on the road by noon, only to hit midday traffic yet again.

Upon arrival to the studio, Dylan proceeded in beating on various snare-drums other than his own, in hopes of finding a new sound to include in certain songs. The result, a nice fat snare-drum sound (quite different from the one we use normally) on three of the songs on the record. Futzing around with miking techniques for the snare drum had proven successful. Drum tracks for three more songs done! Dinner time…

Delicious Mexican food in our bellies, we returned to the studio equipped with three bags of animal crackers and a twinkle in our ears to record the sequel to the title-track on the album. The metronome fired up and several takes later, we were happy with what we had produced.

If everything goes to plan, bass recordings should begin Saturday, and guitar recordings Sunday. Visions of album artwork continue to dance in Bryan’s head as the date draws nearer to the album’s completion.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more fun and tomfoolery. Also, be sure to click the picture of Dylan’s White Castle shenanigans below. It will direct you to our Flickr account which will be updated frequently with new recording photos.

Quote of the Day
Bryan attempts stealing Brian’s pillow to wake him up.

Bryan: “Brian, wake up.”
Brian: “I’m not done yet!”
Bryan: “Done with what?
Brian: “I’m not done with my pillow!”

Recording: White Boys & White Castles

Preface

Driving back to our living quarters after our first day of recording, we came to the conclusion that we would like to maintain a studio blog. So, throughout the next ten days of recording our first full-length studio album, we will be updating our newsfeed with blog entries and pictures for all to enjoy. That being said, we present to you the highlights from day one…one day late.

Chapter I

After waking up on the “comfortable” couches in the fully-accommodating lounges of Hinman Dormitory at Northwestern University, we grabbed some chow and charged on towards the fine city of Chicago to begin tracking for our first full-length album. Late start and all (we were drained after a late night set up session) the first day was a truly smashing success. We grabbed our instruments, put on our cans (studio-speak for headphones), and started playing through tunes. Later that evening, Bryan decided to head back to Grayslake to pick up our beloved Farfisa organ, which was in the organ hospital (Bryan’s basement).

Meanwhile, back at the studio, our heroes continued to press on into the night, Producing tuneskees. Upon Bryan’s valiant return with the organ and other vital recording tools, three more songs were nobly recorded.

After about twelve hours of work, we had finished the drum and bass tracks for about half of the album. By this point, our productivity had given way to tiredness and we decided to call it a day. Our tired eyes and empty stomachs then surrendered to the delectable goodness of White Castle, where Dylan successfully created (and destroyed) a smiley face constructed of hamburger boxes. Stomachs full, we headed back to the ranch and once again converted the dormitory couches into makeshift beds. Day one; complete.

Quote of the Day

Dan: “Look, it’s the great wall of White Castle!”
Dylan: “No, that’s a smiley face you dumb shit”

New Album, Website, Videos, Shows

Greetings patrons! We have just finished adapting the artwork to our current EP a bit, pressed a bunch of copies, and now we’re ready to rock. In addition, we should have an entirely new website up within the next two weeks, created by the beautiful people at Redhead Studios. So please make sure to check that out! While we will be using our current EP to play shows behind, we’ll be hitting the studio to record our first full-length album on May 26th. So far, it will be set for a release date in the first week of September.But we’re putting the cart before the horse. For now, we’ve got some lovely videos up on YouTube that were filmed at last summer’s Rock in the Park festival. Videos include songs from our current EP, as well as our upcoming full-length.

As far as shows are concerned, we’ve got some good ones coming up! Tomorrow (or later today) we’ll be playing Earthstock at GCHS. It will be our first hometown return since August 2006 so make sure you’re there! Details are to your left in the SHOWS column. In addition, we’ll be head back down to the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign to play a show at the Illini Union Courtyard. This show will promote the release of compilation CD that we will be apart of. The disc is put out by student-run record label, Green Street Records.

This post seems rather long-winded but it has been awhile since our last update. We’ve been very busy with our educations. So as soon as summer hits, you’d better watch out because we’ll be coming.

Love, Bryan

Same Band, New Name

Much like getting married, making a commitment to something often requires a name change. Folks, we have done just that. We’ve signed on to Old Flame Records out of New York and we couldn’t be more excited! What does this mean for us? This means a national re-release of our current album, and a tour this summer. After that, we will try and manage to get back into the studio and record the new album we’ve been working on. In short, we hope you’ll stick with us and help us spread the word about the name change.

We’re the same band we’ve always been! If you live in the Champaign/Urbana area, we’re looking for a big crowd to come out to the Cowboy Monkey to help us kick off our new name the right way. This promises to be a good show so if you can make it out, we would love to see your smiling faces!

New Way to get the News

Well folks, we finally gave in. We finally arranged ourselves an RSS blog. You’ve probably seen those RSS and XML logos all over the place wondering what they are. If you don’t know what they are, you should! Basically what they are used for is displaying news. If you click on our little RSS logo at the top of this page, you can subscribe to our news feed. Many browsers now are setup to automatically detect RSS feeds. If your browser does not, you will know because when you click the logo, you’ll see a bunch of code you probably don’t understand. If you see this code, you’ll need to get an RSS program such as RSS-Spider. Once you subscribe, whenever we post a news bulletin, it will be send directly to your RSS program so that you will know everything that goes on in the minds of the Butterfly Assassins. It’s a much more efficient way to stay updated!