April 24, 2009

Recording Works in Progress

In accordance with the Obama Administration's insistence on transparency, we thought you might like to take a peak at what we've been up to.

Here's Joe giving a deliberately delicate strum.Double the amps, double the fun.
Here's Sam about to give a good pounding to his tiny Casio.In the "biz", we call this "LAYIN DOWN SOME VOX"

Not sure if you know, but Jeff's brain is formatted like a drum machine. In this picture he is reprogramming his internal patterns to include a triplet of ride cymbal fills in the 3rd verse.
Sam whistling into a plastic telephone microphone.
Nick engineers, Jeff hears, and Jon covers his ears.A picture for nerds, by nerds: Instead of using a traditional headphone splitter, we have geniusly hooked up two tuning pedals in order to create a makeshift one!

April 14, 2009

A Pageant is Brewing...

A few months ago, we contributed some music and instrumentation to a film entitled The Beast Pageant. It is a collaboration between the amazing minds of Jon Moses and Albert Birney. Judging by the trailer, this film looking to be a visual FEAST.



The film is still listed as "in production" on imdb, but if you donate $25, you will receive a DVD and CD soundtrack upon its completion...Not to mention your name in the credits! Now, I ask of you: HOW DOPE IS THAT?

April 6, 2009

Singing on the streets of Penn State after the bars close.

Have you ever been on a college campus where 27 bars have been condensed into 5 blocks? Have you ever been on those streets once they close? Have you ever tried singing to them in hopes that their drunken judgment will be impaired enough to give you some money?



They probably won't, but it will still be fun.

April 1, 2009

We should have checked the internet...

We were going to do a write up on our experience at our motel last night, but after looking at the reviews of it on Trip Advisor, we felt it could best be summed up by excerpts of other reviews:

NASTY DUMP! I checked into this motel for a week, but checked out after only one night. The room was disgusting with bugs under the bed and dirty carpet. There was no TV remote, the refridgerator didn't work, the microwave was broken and very dirty, and the staff was unhelpful. I spoke to the owner to request a refund for the portion of the week I did not use. He told me if I wanted service I should have gone to the Holiday Inn.

I have stayed in some real stink holes in my time, but this one was by far the worst! When I got to my room there was marijuana stems between the sheets and it appeared the sheets had been used by a hooker just before I arrived. I also found a used tampon in the dresser drawer.

We have a high tolerance for the occasional "mom & pop" or even a slightly "flea-bag" motel. This place was over our line, which was pretty low.

- Parked next to abandon vehicle with two flat tires
- Drunk approached us for beer, followed us in to the lobby and then we discovered he was a resident there.
- First room hadn't been cleaned. Second room was only slightly better.
- Large dog in next room barked
- Random person pounded on our door very late
- Hard core porn on the TV.

Only reason I stopped there was I had a coupon giving a reduced rate. They refused to honor it because the state fair was there that weekend. Found out later the state fair ended a few hour before we checked in.

1. Hair in bathroom shower
2. Toilet did not flush
3. No amenities (soap, shampoo)
4. Had to request towels
5. Rips in the comforter
6. Flat sheets instead of fitted sheets
7. Loud parties
8. Unrestricted PORN on channel 45
9. Newly Remodeled

Here are the reasons you should never stay there: (1) there was a horrible smell throught the building. (2) there was no clean linen in the room, just a dirty bath towel hanging over the shower door, and the blanket was in a ball on the bed _NO SHEETS< style="font-weight: bold;">when my husband called them from the room they came to the room showed him the laundry room and wanted him to make the bed. (3) no heat or airconditioner- did not work and the floor was soaking wet!!!!!!!!!!

The place was a dump! We decided not to stay and ask for a refund and the manager wouldn't refund our money. We ended up staying somewhere else, due to the unsanitary conditions and realizing they weren't going to give us a refund no matter what. We decided the money wasn't worth our safety and health to stay there. Terrible place, beware of this one!!!!

1. Pulled into what appeared to be a lobby with very undesireable people screaming profanities at each other.
2. Got to room stepping over trash and unsecured doors.
3. The bathroom floor was sticky so I kept my shoes on the entire night.
4. Porn on TV for no reason.
5. Recepticle covers were missing, and the one in the hallway was burnt like it was just recently on fire.
6. The boxspring to the bed was broken in half which made for a recliner type bed.
7. The peephole to see out of your room to the hallway was plugged up with toilet paper.
8. There were people fighting in the room next to me.
9. There was someone barfing all damn night in the other room next to me.
10. And to top it off, there were roaches in the drawers and in the doorjams...disgusting.

Recap:

I had to sleep in my clothes with the lights on to keep the roaches at bay and leave the AC on high to drown out the fighting and barfing along with the undesireables roaming the hallway. All in all I got about 1.5 hours of sleep which ruined my entire Sunday.

1) The whole hotel (including lobby and halls) reeks of stale cig smoke
2) There was garbage all over the parking lot
3)
There was garbage bags and other trash floating in the pool
4) The carpeting in the hallways was peeling up
5) The room reeked of cigarette smoke even though it was non-smoking
6) The floors creaked really loudly, which kept us up all night
7) The shower was filthy (we didn't end up taking showers because we would have come out dirtier than when we got in)
8) The bedsheets on my bed were stained (Ugghh!!!) and ripped
9) The "free" breakfast consisted of a few cold english muffins and brown bananas
10) The only thing better than the price, is leaving the hotel after a horrible night of sleep


I know it's April 1st, but this is NO JOKE!

The only thing that was good about this hotel was that they were showing Scanner Cop on TV. If you haven't seen this fine film, do yourself a favor and watch this instead: