NOW PEOPLE

Now people, that was a long and brutal day…

Welcome back to the broken dollhouse that is ‘Monuments To An Elegy.’ We took a few days off, to rest and clear our heads, with the idea that we’d be ready to rock anew with this fresh start. Makes some sense, right?

Well, after a short sprint thought ‘DORIAN’ (a heartrending new-waver), team Howard was prepped; save for confusion over how many songs were actually in the STAR pile. Jeff and I claimed 26 (minus those COUGARED), HW said 25. Much counting ensued! Time was wasted. And after 20 minutes of counts-recounts and hanging chads, a solution was found: one title having been counted twice between its two iterations. Oy vey!

So that made 23: 25 STARS minus 2 COUGARED, yes? And alphabetically so a traipsing began, with a discussion after each listen; pros and cons traded. When all was said and done we’d gotten the list cut to around 13, then a brutish 9. Another dialogue, this one looking at the record as it stands without further input. This cycled us back to songs overlooked, for all felt something was missing or needed. Let's call it 'rock.'

Now let me say here that this is very, very consistent with the process I’d normally undergo on my own in choosing what makes a record. It’s just in this case I’ve decided to let my brethren in on my mental process, and they’ve been fantastic about working through the logic with me without a single regret in being so open to their perspectives. And throughout the digging there was general consensus on what belonged save for one fantastic brooding idea that Howard referred to as a ‘jam.’ I won’t say I was offended (Jeff said he should have used Hollywood-speak and called it an ‘experiment’), but having written a verse, bridge, and back chorus for a song I think has a killer under track, I’d hardly qualify that as ‘formless!’

Herr Willing…!

The good part of this warp was a general agreement that the idea was best served on ‘Day For Night,’ where a darker set of themes should be explored. That would be 'ROUSTABOUT.'

So yes, tomorrow begins a second round of pre-production; 16-17 demos in 6 days; ahoy. Call ULTRAMAN, I need his honorable assistance at this time.