What? New content now?

That's right, suckas! One last post from Steve.

During the middle of the tour, we paused to record some demos. We frantically laid down tracks for 5 songs over the course of about a day. We then spent three months mixing and mastering the tracks. (Mostly 'cause we're lazy.)

But we finally finished them! Now you can enjoy all your favorite ZD songs in crisp, studio-quality (...ish we were a little rushed for time during the actual recording) demo EP format!

It's a Good Thing
The Adventures of Cristobal Pt. 2
Fat Kid Emo Pants
Happiness - By the time we reached this part of the recording process, the bass had slipped out of tune. I (Steve) couldn't get it to sound good with both bass and guitar, so there are two versions.
Happiness with bass
Carpedium - And with that exhortation of our greatness, I now take my leave.

Until next time, Zombie Dog out!

Philadelphia pt 2

Philly is a really cool city. We stuck around for a second day (we'd hoped for a third too, but we just couldn't find a gig. *sigh* off to Baltimore...)

Anyway, we played another open mic night. Again, hosted by Boy Wonder. He's a pretty cool guy and was quite patient with us being obnoxious and demanding.
It was at the Tritone, shown here


We played two songs:
I am the Greatest - right before we started playing, the high hat fell apart in 3 places. Dave spent the first half of the song trying to fix it and the second half with his snare drum way too close to the recorder (that part's probably my fault, but I'm still blaming him).
Our House - we lost the tempo in the beginning, but once we found it again, this song went pretty well.


Lessons learned:
1. mic placement. Don't suck at it.
2. Plug everything in. Why do I keep forgetting this?

May 30

City: New Brunswick, NJ - Nice town. The knew nothing about NJ besides what I'd seen in Kevin Smith movies, but it turns out that there are some really nice places around here. Every one we talked to was pleasant and helpful (though we never did manage to track down a place to sleep).

Venue: Southwest Burrito - pros: We got free burritos. Cons: no one really listened to us play. People trickled in, bought their burritos, and left. A few chatted with us, but no one did rock and roll karaoke or sat down to listen.

Songs:
Since no one cared, we did our full set plus some R&R karaoke.
The 2+ minutes of banter between songs were cut for your listening pleasure
Carpedium - This was a pretty good take. I recommend listening.
Adventures of Cristobal Pt. 2 - I think we finally know how to play this one!
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Even the beautiful croonings of Bonnie Taylor were not enough to bring people in.
Fat Kid Emo Pants - This is an abbreviated version. We dropped the sing-a-long part since there was no one there to sing along.
The Hand Jive - The only song Dave and I co-wrote together, so, of course, Dave hates it.
I Am the Greatest - This was a very sloppy take. Don't bother with it.
Somewhere around here, we started playing Buddy Holly by Weezer, totally messed up and lost the beat, gave up in disgust, and decided to rework the song for tomorrow
Happiness - There was a couple in the burrito shop, so we decided to play a ballad for them and dedicate it to 'em, but they left before we could start playing...
My Love - Since our real ballad had gone so well, we decided to follow it up with our stalking song. If you notice me mumbling towards the end, that's because some old ladies came in, and I felt really awkward singing about domestic violence with them around.
Our House - The Madness classic. Decent take.
Conspiracy - Another song about one person following and frightening another. I'm sensing a trend here.
It's a Good Thing - Saving the best for last! (as if it matters)
Drugs PSA - Just because no one's listening doesn't mean we shouldn't try to educate the kids

The moral of the story: New Brunswick is pretty cool, but burrito shops aren't a great place to do a show.

- Steve

Show #2

We played the open mic at the Quays again this week. 'twas pretty sweet!

Songs played:
Carpedium - Turns out, Steve's tone deaf and has no idea what key to sing in.
Our House - Making up for last week's sorry performance of this one.
Happiness - We dedicated our ballad to Samantha, our biggest fan (since last week), but it turns out she wasn't there for our set this time.
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Why wouldn't we play this one? It's clearly our best song.
It's a Good Thing - Why did we save one of our best songs for the encore?

Lessons learned:
Prepare an encore, but don't get too attached to it - We practiced our encore all week, but no one asked for us to play one. We had to beg the audience to demand it. It was actually quite pathetic.
Check your levels - We forgot to make sure the guitar was loud enough. Ironically, this made everything sound better. We'll do better next time.

One show down

5.22.09 - played a show at the keys

Songs played:
"I Am the Greatest" - I am actually the greatest, but Dave claimed the song was about how good he looks. What a jerk!
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" - We forgot who wrote this song; fortunately, some kindly drunkards remembered for us.
"It's a Good Thing" - Dave's been humming this song ALL DAY. He seriously needs to cut that out.
"Drugs PSA" - Remember kids, your parents know which drugs are good and which ones are bad. So says Canada.
"Our House" - They asked us for an encore, so we naturally decided to butcher some Mad House.

Lessons learned:
Streamline our setup - Jimmy (the organizer) was pretty annoyed at how long it took us to set up, so we promised to buy him a drink. I'm pretty sure we forgot to do so. I spent today turning my guitar amp into some kind of duct-tape cyborg so we can set up faster.
Practice the songs you're going to play - Seriously, this was the worst rendition of Our House ever.
Turn on the volume - the only reason you're not listening to sweet bootlegs of our show right now is that I forgot to turn the volume up on our DR-1. We recorded 21 minutes of sweet silence.