This past weekend has been a productive one. Erik produced the skeletons for his two new songs which I plan to work on fleshing out in the coming weeks. We’re especially excited about these two new songs, as we believe they’re the best material Taxidermy Penguin has produced thus far. Also, speaking of the Taxidermy Penguin moniker, that may be changing soon to a new name. In other news, as The Books prepare to embark on tour, I’ve been working on finishing up a set of new animations, which I hope to have up during the first week of May. So, as you can tell, we’re all busy and hoping to have some nice projects completed for listening/viewing this summer.

Hello, hello! A quick note about the details of this weekend’s recording progress: Erik arrived yesterday and we began taping a new song called "A Chasing After the Wind" last night with varying degrees of success. Computer programs tend to be sons of beasts sometimes and naturally, they must be tamed through very violent means which sometimes involve screaming at the monitor until the program becomes frightened and relents. Thus far this method has not worked, but we plan to try again today.

Tomorrow, Taxidermy Penguin is set to begin another weekend full of recording, during which we plan to polish the three songs we started from two weeks ago, and begin Erik’s latest two songs. After this, we’ll decide whether to release an EP, or write and record more to make a full-length album. Since old material is being revived for this set of recordings, the original recording of "Uphill and Backward" along with a slightly new rendition of "Inverted Porpoise" may find a place in the tracklisting as well. Like last weekend, I’ll try to give daily updates on progress for those who are interested, along with a full recap next week.

The Books (a band I’ve been visually collaborating with over the past few months) set out on their first North American tour two days ago. They’ll be hitting a bunch of states starting with the east coast and gradually working their way to Los Angeles, California, where Erik and I are planning to watch them play. The show will feature a combination of video and music, so it’s sure to be unique and entertaining. I should also mention, since quite a few visitors to this site are likely from Iowa, that The Books will be stopping at Grinnell College on May 10th. All the details I’ve been given are in the Shows section, as well as the official Web site at www.thebooksmusic.com. Go see them if you can!

I made another update to The Books site today – Their first album, “Thought For Food” now joins their latest two albums for an entirely listenable discography. To hear it, go to the site, click the hand-scrawled “books” on the left side of the cardboard, and enter the About section.

The recording sessions have finished for the weekend, and we’ve emerged with skeletons for three of the older Taxidermy Penguin songs, of which the closest to being done is "Phyllis," which I’m now adding my parts to. Erik finished off his slew of guitar and vocal work with "Timely Diaster" yesterday, which I have yet to write to. I’m planning to pick away at all three of these songs over the next couple of weeks until Erik is able to visit again and record a few more songs. In the meantime, I’ll continue fleshing out the Web sites for The Books and An Umbrella with animations and audio.

You know you’re running a very high quality studio when you use a sock pulled over the bent wire frame of a hanger for a windscreen. We had an amusing and difficult day with further progress on "Candlesmoke" and new work on "Phyllis" – a pair of a group of older songs that we’re working through first before plowing into new material. Anyway, the most encouraging aspect of this is for me is that it actually happened – yes, a collaborative effort involving music has actually begun to come to fruition. Hence, at this point, I’m fully expecting the computer to explode a mass of flames, sprout badger claws and gouge out my eyes in my sleep while simultaneously burning all musical data within itself, afterward rolling about the room in hysterical fits of glee until the house is a pile of ash and death and more ash.

Former Cardboard Canary singer/guitarist Blake Brown and former drummer Robby Ogden have scheduled their first performance at The House of Bricks in Des Moines, IA for Sunday, June 5, 2005. As mentioned before, Blake and Robby intend to perform a toned down version of the lost An Umbrella song “Silverlace Evening” along with new material, and one Cardboard Canary song – “Opaque Windows.” Any live dates they schedule will be kept in the Shows section, and I highly encourage you to go see them play! Interestingly enough, they will also be playing with former Cardcan singer/guitarist Bradford Johnson’s band Rosefield Rivals on that date, so in some form or another, every member of Cardboard Canary will be performing that day except me! Strange, strange…

On a different note, Erik and I began recording another abandoned An Umbrella song, called “Candlesmoke” tonight. Things have gone well thus far, and the quality is pretty nice too. We’re planning to spend most of the day working on recording this and four other songs tomorrow.

Erik and I have been planning for the past month to start recording the first Taxidermy Penguin album, and today is the scheduled date to begin, despite me mangling my picking-hand yesterday by slamming it into a metal railing. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t happen to people too often. In any case, if I’m not able to play, Erik will probably try to get his guitar and vocal tracks recorded throughout the course of this weekend for the first five songs. I’ll try to post an update next week on how it goes.

Former (extremely talented) Cardboard Canary drummer Robby Ogden has released a new EP with his band, which remains unnamed as of yet. More on that when I actually have the CD in my hands and information on how to purchase it. As of now, any inquiries on how to get ahold of the disc should be sent directly to Robby himself by e-mail or by posting a message to him in the chat room.