For the first time in a long time, I'm proud to say that the CD really is DONE!  Ralph went through hell the last couple of weeks putting it together with Chuck Fletcher (of the Coney Island Fletchers).  I mean, Chuck didn't put him through hell, they went through it together. 

So after all the questions like "When?" "When?" When?", Ralph said it's done. And now we need artwork.  So then I said, Who's doing that?  Ralph said "You are".  So then, I said "Of course I am, let's go!"

It took many years to get this one done, but I had 2 days of real production time since I was laid up last week with a minor ailment.  Well, I'm not one to back down from a challenge and considering how much work went into the CD, I figured it's time to "man up".  Ralph, Ruph (the resident artist), Mike Hughes (Of the Hattenfield Hughes), Jeff Kirsten (Of the Kingston Kirstens) all had some great ideas.  Ruph's paintings made it easier and Ralph and I sat down and just went through the layout page by page. 

It's done,  it's done,  it's done!!!

Everything is at the printers right now and Ralph is bird-dogging the release to try and bring up a slew of CD's to Marquette at the beginning of May. In any event, CD's will be here for the summer.  We also have some new shirts, hats are coming and also digital downloads will be available shortly. 

In the interim, here's the cover and also the back.  I'll leave the rest a mystery.

WHEW! And that's from everyone.  And to all the people that helped, thank you from everyone in the band.

Respect

 

Well, I guess it has been another month since I've posted anything and for that I have an excuse.  I'm afraid to say anything about the CD until it's really done.  And since it has been "done" for over a year and a half now, I'm definitely losing my blog credibility :O)

In all seriousness, we are so damn close.  MAY 1 is the deadline to have physical, tangible CD's in our collective mitts.  In order to make this deadline, I doubted Ralph and told him there is NO WAY he can do that!  Which, of course, is the oldest motivational method known to man. 

Now, Ralph knew I was screwing with him, but the point was made.  You can't rush creativity, but you can work through production issues such as design, titles, legalities, UPC codes, credits, and all the things that you don't want to hold up your music production.  The CD leaves for mastering today and we should have it back in one week.  Then off to production and we should have CD's by May 1st.  Am I betting on it?  HELL NO - But, it's with a sense of humor that this and most of anything I write should be taken.  So besides the obvious, what else did Gizzae gain by going through this second CD?

Well, for one thing, technology has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years.  Everyone of the guys now has the tools to record ideas and also work alongside so many of the brethren that want professional quality recordings with professional musicians backing them up.  Rocket, Ralph and Clem all spend countless hours working with recording music, and not just their own. 

And now to something totally unrelated - I love white baseball hats.  I'm working on designing a line of reggae hats and I've always appreciated the nice clean look of a white hat.  So - I did what I normally do and that was look at starting another web site and/or look for a domain name.  Now, if you do not know me, I'm am rarely serious and have a sense of humor about everything.  With that caveat, I was cracking up (no pun) at my search.  I was looking for whitehats.com or something like that.  Well, my own search found that the name was taken but here were a few options for me to look at:



Well, CrackerHatsLive.com is not exactly what I meant when I was looking for White Hats!!  Snowy hats, well, I understand that, but CRACKERHATS?  Not only is that word nearly extinct, but how the hell can a search produce such a word?  I'm amazed and I thought I would show you all as well.  Crazy.

Stay tuned as Summer is almost here and we all know that in Chicago, there is no such thing as spring.  Winter and Construction are the two seasons, but for me, it's winter and REGGAE!

First off Happy New Year!

It's been more than a little nutty due to the holidays, but they are here and gone and we are already booking up for summer.  Right now, it feels like summer, or at least spring. 68 degrees in January in CHICAGO is insane.  Of course, everyone is so ill from whatever the hell is going around that we can hardly enjoy it.  Shameful and ironic.

We are going to be at The Alley again in Highwood Friday, the 25th of January.  You should check it out!  Pretty cool place with real dudes loading the pins on the bowling alley and a nice big dance floor.

We are also going to be at the famous Durty Nellies on Friday, January 18th.  These are both really cool places and since we are in the burbs, we get to see some old friends.

Well, I've been not so active on the blog, but only because there is so little interaction. I'm hoping we get some more participation, but thank you for reading anyways!

Hopefully, it won't be 3 months before I post again.  And now I'm off to do the newsletter.

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