eddie from ohio journal May 31, 2004

The studio is a strange place. We are about three quarters of the way through recording our ninth album and the experience is by turns exhilirating, energy-sapping, thrilling, and tedious. We have been spending 10-12 hour days examining and re-examining our songs, trying to find the best ways to express ourselves through them. In the studio, our sense of what time it is, even what day it is, largely disappears. I always get caught off guard by this. I expect that being off the road for a couple of weeks will be a bit of a respite, a time to catch up on the daily rhythms of life at home. Not. We're working hard. We're having fun.

For the first time in nine albums we're recording with a new producer - Lloyd Maines. Lloyd is a guy we've admired and respected for many years and the experience of finally recording with him has been everything we could have hoped for and more. It's been creative, loose, fun, and productive, all at once. We're recording a bunch of songs, including many of the newer ones you've been hearing us "season" at shows over the past year or so. There are also some brand new songs that are just now seeing the light of day. We're so excited to bring all of it to you - and we plan to by the Fall.

Anyway, just wanted to give y'all an update on our lives here. We're doing fine and having such a time. Send doughnuts.

Robbie