I’m new here. To the band and bloggerfying. In the band I play bass guitar. 

Ravens inducted me to the band way back in October when we were where we are right now…Montreal. Back in October we were playing up the street from the studio at a place called Sport Benfica, which as far as I can tell is a social club for fans of the legendary Portugese club football team Benfica.

As Avery has already told you, we are in the beautiful and wonderful sounding hotel2tango with our trusty navigators Larry and Howard. Our journey to get here began on Thursday night in good ole NYC. We all piled into the big blue van (which I’m told doesn’t have a nickname….yet) and headed up to Asher’s parents place upstate where we stayed the night. When we got in at around 1 in the morning there was a fully roasted turkey with some homemade stuffing waiting for us. Awesome. Delicious. Thanks Mrs. Lack!

We rolled into Montreal on Friday afternoon and began setting up and starting to record beds (bass, guitar, drums). This place sounds really really good. Well for the next two days Larry worked Mike and I like we were oxen in the video game Oregon Trail. We sweated, we cried, even bled a bit, but we got through it and now there’s a great foundation for everyone to build on. Mike Riddleberger (new drummer) played the crapola out of the drums, but had to split early this morning to head back to NYC (11 hour train ride, ack!). His first show with us will be this Saturday at Mercury Lounge, so you should come check him out as well as the new songs we’ve been working so hard on.

While we record here at hotel2tango, we camp out in what I’m told is the French section of Montreal…about a ten minute drive from here. The digs are nice little duplex with two bathrooms and a nice little deck/porch that I’ve been doing my morning stretches and sun worshipping on. Also included in our cozy little apartment is an abnormally large rear projection television. This thing is huge. Mike liked to refer to it as our “glowing wall”. Avery promised me that he’ll post a picture of it later. Stay tuned!

Last but not least I have to tell you about a special person.

Gus!

Gus is the trusty studio manager here, beautiful brown eyes, playful attitude, and can chill hard.

He is also Howard’s border collie.

(posted by Patrick)

Hello friends!

We’re back in Montréal at Hotel2Tango, recording the beginnings of something.  The new studio that Howard and the rest have built is really wonderful – it retains all the charm of the old location, with the addition of some amazing new facilities.  The main tracking room is huge and the resulting sound (most notably on drums) is huge.  There is even a new espresso machine (it’s a Gaggia)!  We are lucky enough to be working with our friend Howard Billerman again, as well as Larry Crane.  Won’t say too much more because I don’t want to incur the wrath of lord mother Ash-tron, but suffice it to say, tape is rolling, and things are sounding great so far.

See you all soon,

Avery

(posted by Avery)