I am now studioless. Things… didn’t work out with the last space and I basically had a couple grand stolen from me. It sucked, it sucks, but I’m dealing with it. New plan is to pay off all bills, replenish savings, and find a new space in a few months.

In the meantime, I am still doing some recording. Woe will begin album #3 on Saturday by heading to Gradwell House in Haddon Heights, NJ for drums. I did the drums and guitars for the last album there and am really excited to work there again. It’s a beautiful space with fantastic gear and both Dave and Steve are awesome guys. Overall, I think this is making the best out of a bad situation and I think there’s a good chance the album will come out even better because of this. I’m going to supplement their gear (API 3124+, 6 channels from an old Neotek console, some Neve clones, and a ton of killer mics) with my Sebatron, my friend’s Joly-modded Oktava MK012s, my Joly-modded NT87, and some other little things. I’m still not sure where we’re going to record the rest of the album but if we have to, we can keep going to Gradwell. Most of the mixing can be done on headphones with suplemental and final mixes done in rented spaces, so while this will be more of a hassle, it will also keep me from engineering it into the ground. I guess there’s something to be said for that.

Going to put up more info soon but in the past few weeks, I bought two 414s, ordered and received an amazing Sebatron VMP-4000e, did a fun demo with a friend, and moved into a beautiful studio space in Greenpoint. Pretty cool. Pics and details to follow, I’m too tired right now.

If my leg wasn’t so sore from my new tattoo, I’d smear both your asses all over the parking lot.

Todd’s “Life Sucks” tattoo from Beavis and Butt-head, episode 5, “The Crush.” I couldn’t bring myself to do it on my arm and sacrifice such prime real estate so I went with the shin. Done by my friend Alyssa at Living Out Loud in NJ.

A few weeks ago, I posted an experience with Sleepy’s and GE Credit Services. It’s not worth retelling, just find the post if you care. What is worth telling is that the day after my post, Sleepy’s customer service commented to the post and asked me to email them my information, which I did. A few days later, I received a phone call from a very nice woman who asked how she could help to make things right. Because I paid off the full balance of my credit card after believing nobody would help, she couldn’t do anything to the back interest; however, she could send me a check for an amount equal to some items on the sales ticket from my mattress re-purchase. This totaled just over $200 — far from what I spent because of this debacle but the best she could do without giving me money off the mattress, which could screw me again if I needed another warranty replacement. The check arrived a few days ago, as promised.

Though I’m still out a lot of money, I do appreciate Sleepy’s having staff dedicated to making amends with disgruntled customers. My feeling is that modern corporations often hide behind websites, call centers, email boxes that don’t really get checked, leaving the consumer with absolutely nobody to hold accountable or yell at when things go really wrong. Sleepy’s could have ignored my blog post but instead, they sought me out and did what they could. That’s cool and something that I will remember.

The problem is your recovery partition. Download Joker’s CWM v3, flash that to your phone, then reinstall CM9. It will work, promise. More info later.