I've got a bad feeling about this...

As I was driving to rehearsal last night, I had the deep-seated feeling that it would not be a good one. This was based on nothing; in fact, all signs would have pointed to a rehearsal that I would typically like. We had just finished recording, taken a week off, and were about to get back to working on some new tunes. So we should have been refreshed from the week off, and personally I like working on new tunes, especially since a few more originals is all we need to be ready to play out.

As planned, we get there and start working the newbies. New tune #1 goes OK. We all get re-acclimated with it and overall it goes pretty well. New tune #2 goes somewhat more slowly, which was frustrating (to me, at least) because that tune Matt had demoed fully and given everyone CDs....which apparently I was the only one that listened to and learned. Although we had started working on it previous, that one came along a lot more slowly, especially considering that everyone should have been able to work on it and learn the progressions on their own, instead of having to be reminded of them on the spot. But, whatever, we got it on track, mostly.

Then, the bombshell, and the now-apparent reason for my initial disquiet: our other guitar player announces that he's going to Ireland for four months for a co-op at the end of June. Of course, I don't begrudge him that excellent opportunity, but the timing is pretty bad, as we are on the cusp of starting to book some shows.

The question is now what? The options are: 1) Play as a 4-piece with one guitar for those months, 2) Play as a 4-piece with Matt on second guitar for a those months, or 3) Pick up someone on a temporary basis for those 4 months. I don't think replacing Kevin will be realistically discussed as an option, as we all like him and he's a good fit for the band. Listening to the songs, I do not prefer option 1. Some of the songs might not be that bad in a one guitar format, but I think most of them would be a little lacking without a second guitar. Out of the remaining options, I prefer number 2, as it has the smallest learning curve involved (except for Matt, who would have to learn to play the parts while singing; but at least he already knows the songs.) But I'm not sure he wants to do it. Option 3 means we need to start asking around for a part-timer, and then we have to acclimate them with the songs. A few names have already been tossed out there, but this is my least favorite option as it is the most work all around. Anyway, we'll need to figure this out, and soon.

The other problem from last night was that we got the rough mixes from our recording session last week. And, to my ear, they were....well, rough. I think, overall, we got some decent takes and sounds, but I'm not particularly digging the direction the engineer is mixing them in. I don't know if what I want to hear is doable based on what we recorded, but currently, we're not even close. I'd actually be OK using the recording as is for gig getting purposes, but in it's current form I would not want to put it on a Myspace site. This wouldn't be so much an issue, except the engineer is leaving town for two weeks this weekend. So I don't know what' s up there.

So overall, I'm feeling pretty much devoid of all band momentum right now. Great.