About this page

This page was designed to keep track of the new Guster album, based on regular updates posted to their studio journal and other sources. The idea was spurred by Reid Levin's notes on the original Gusterography, which he maintained diligently during the lengthy studio sessions for Keep It Together, updating information about the track listing, lyrics, authorship and instrumentation. Each entry was updated regularly with each tidbit of information that became available. All quotes are directly from Brian Rosenworcel via the studio journal unless otherwise noted. As of March, 2005, the track listing and order of the album was finalized, and as such, this page will no longer be updated, but I have decided to leave it here as a testament to the Guster creative process and everything that these songs went through as they were created, evolved, and recorded (or in some cases, died in-studio). Thanks to Josh Harriman, whose simple and elegant page design I borrowed to shape this measly page.


Overall album information

Fourteen songs were written and recorded in the studio during the band's first session in Nashville from January-April of 2005. Six more were written in a separate studio session in Woodstock, NY in October 2005. It appears that 14 will be on the final cut of the album. Tracks are in alphabetical order; the order they appear in on the page are the order in which they were introduced via the studio journal. Tracks in red are confirmed as no-goes for the album; tracks in blue are from the October session in Woodstock.
  1. The Beginning Of The End
  2. The Bowie-Ish One
  3. Captain (2:12)
  4. C'mon
  5. Come With Me
  6. Dear Valentine
  7. Emily Ivory
  8. Empire State
  9. G Major
  10. Hang On
  11. Lightning Rod
  12. The New Underground
  13. On My Own
  14. One Man Wrecking Machine
  15. Manifest Destiny
  16. Rise & Shine
  17. Ruby Falls
  18. Sorority Tears
  19. Timothy Leary
  20. You're My Satellite

Crew:
Producers: Joe Pisapia/Ron Aniello
Engineers: Jason Lehning/Eddie Jackson
Locations: Nashville, TN/Bearsville, NY

Additional musicians:
Jason Lehning: piano on "C'mon", guitar on "Ruby Falls", French horn on "Manifest Destiny", vocals on "You're My Satellite"
Jim Hoke: harmonica on "Sorority Tears", "You're My Satellite", "G Major"
Melissa ?: vocals on "Captain", "Ruby Falls"
Chris Carmichael: strings on "Rise & Shine", "Come With Me", "Emily Ivory"
Neil Rosengarden: brass on "Ruby Falls", "Dear Valentine"
Maria ?: vocals on "The Beginning Of The End"


Empire State (formerly known as "Yo La")

Date introduced: 11/08/2004

"Yo La" was first played at Bush Hall in London during their first European tour. Guster has long been fans of Yo La Tengo, so likely this is a tune written in tribute of the band or in their style. Reviews cite Ryan stating "this is the slowest song they've ever written but they're not about to go all soppy on us, it's probably the only slow song on the new record [...] very slow, but had a nice chorus. Quite a long song. [...] Brian plays on the kit for this, but uses a brush and cymbal very softly."

Update: 01/25/2005

"yesterday we recorded bass and drums on "empire state," which is the song we actually played live that one time in london a few months ago. ryan seems to be channeling the voice of georgia hubley on this one. my ride cymbal seems to be channeling the resonance of georgia hubley on this one. it's a heavy tune. slowest we've ever written. i love it. i hope to god it fits in the sequence."

Update: 02/10/2005

"We put like 12 keyboard sounds on "Empire State" that we'll sort through later."

Update: 02/17/2005

"Last night Ryan sang "Empire State," the song on the record that will make you all weep like sissies."


G Major

Date introduced: 01/12/2005

"Anyway, tomorrow we're planning to start with a relatively easy song for us, working title "G Major" for now (lyrics are last, remember?). It's a simple number with simple chords and a simple four on the floor drum beat. There's a beautiful and odd orchestral section to the song. There's no chorus. What else can I say about it? I expect it to be most people's favorite on the album. It's poppy... it's kind of what "Say That To My Face" wanted to be."

Update: 01/30/2005

"Today we cut "G Major" for a second time, and it sounds 1000% better. It was the first thing we recorded on this project and this morning we shifted the line-up on it (Adam on acoustic, Joe to bass)... plus we raised the tempo from 106 to 110 (just four beats per minute to you, the civilian journal reader, but the difference between a funeral and a party to the Gusters)."

Update: 02/11/2005

"The first couple of days here at Joe's were kind of slow but we kicked ass yesterday... we brought G Major to life with a droney dulcimer part coupled with a Nashville-strung guitar."

Update: 02/17/2005

"The other one that'll get some horns is "G Major" -- still to be renamed -- though Ryan sang it the other day. That one's coming together nicely. Ryan's fitting more words into his lines than normal on that one. It's like our version of a Subterranean Homesick Blues or something. Except way poppy-er."

Update: 03/02/2005

"Today we broke out the Juno, which is Jason's keyboard with "three good sounds on it." We used it for the middle na-na section on G Major (still waiting on a title) and we'll put it on Dear Valentine later today."

Update: 03/29/2005

"Yesterday we signed off on our first mix, "G Major," which at this point will probably go by its working title, the key of the song, though it's not a lyric. It works better than any of the titles we could gather from the song ("Everyone Here's in Trouble"... "Man with a Megaphone"... "I Can Tell What's Really Going On"). And goes with the military undertones in the subject matter. I have already revealed too much and expect to be punished for it. Mix sounds great. When we thought we'd finished Keep It Together, we actually went back and recorded another batch of songs, and then remixed all the old mixes again. I don't think that's going to happen this time around. It's just a gut feeling. There's nothing I'd change about the mix on G Major. We added a Polyphonic Spree-like choir of Guster voices (all four Guster voices, ahem) at the end of the song, and took the brass out all together. Somehow flutes and clarinets fit right in with the orchestral knee-slapping pop vibe of this one, but trumpets felt like the kitchen sink."


Captain (formerly known as "Country Joe")

Date introduced: 01/15/2005

"It's Sunday in Nashville and we're recording this album's country song. It starts off sort of country, anyway, then veers in a kind of psychedelic direction, then comes back home when Joe starts chicken pickin' at the end."

Update: 01/15/2005

"And even though we said we would avoid banjo on it because it's the one country song and banjo's a little obvious, "Country Joe" got a banjo track that sounds perfect and helps out the rhythm track a lot. Joe called it his "six dollar banjo overdub" because he used six dollars folded up in his fingers to get the right string sound, rather than a pick or his fingers. Later, I asked him if it was really six dollar bills he was holding, and he said it was a five and a one. I call that a two dollar banjo overdub."

Update: 02/15/2005

"Joe made Ryan do 40 vocal takes on "Country Joe" (soon to be renamed something with the word "captain" in it) yesterday. Joe likes putting together something good, then doing a bunch more takes to beat it, etc etc... makes for a good lead vocal, a tired lead vocalist, and plenty of free wiffle ball time"

Update: 03/10/2005

"Joe's friend Melissa came by tonight to add some "ahh"s to the end of Country Joe (still to be renamed) at the point where the song starts to take a strange atmospheric turn. Female voices sound good on Guster records. So does Joe's guitar solo at the end of this country one. We edited the track down a bit so the momentum never wanes and Joe's licks are all from the "best of Joe's licks" file. It's one of those solos that I can listen to over and over and it only gets better."


You're My Satellite (formerly known as "Satellite")

Date introduced: 01/15/2005

"Friday we recorded one that we're calling "Satellite" for now, though it doesn't sound like the BLT, it's more of a Fleetwood Mac meets The Church kind of thing. I got to tune the snare down real low to get a nice PSSHT out of it, and no one complained."

Update: 02/21/2005

"We added a couple of electric guitar parts to the one we call "Satellite" and it lent a wonderful 80s energy to the track. Calls to mind the Pixies at times and World Party at times. This is on a track that was already sounding a lot like Fleetwood Mac and The Church. Anyway, it still needs a few overdubs and a magic sound for the lead keyboard post-chorus section. This is a big track for the album and it sounds good with production. We need to write the lyrics for it."

Update: 03/02/2005

"We are not afraid of keyboards anymore. I don't know if we were ever afraid of keyboards, but we've never embraced them to the extent that we're embracing them on songs like Satellite (still waiting on a lyric/title) and Dear Valentine. Satellite's beginning to sound a bit Cure-like at moments. Like the vibe of "Long Way Down," but faster and poppier and sometimes keyboardier. Maybe we'll need a fifth Guster at some point.

Update: 03/29/2005

"Meanwhile in the other studio we're singing "Satellite" now for real, as we've all come to a lyric we like. Turns out the song will be called "You're My Satellite." It's a simple, sweet song, and we're going for a Love & Rockets unison vocal approach on it."


Rise & Shine (Formerly "The Pants")

Date introduced: 01/15/2005

"Yesterday we recorded one that we're calling "The Pants" (forgive our working titles, they know not what they do)... it's a real simple one. Joe plays bass, Adam's on acoustic, Ryan plays piano and I'm playing the kit with one bare hand and one stick.

It's a nice line-up for us. Our first take felt the best so we used it (after 6 inferior takes). That never happened on Keep It Together.

Anyway, these songs are going a lot quicker than our last studio outing (2001-2003)... but it's not for lack of experimentation, it's more that we're focused and know how we want to sound. For instance, I knew that I wanted to duct tape a sock to my kick pedal beater and click a frayed woodwhack stick against a piece of waxed cardboard taped the the edge of my snare rim on The Pants.

Actually, those were Jason's ideas."

Update: 02/25/2005

"Ryan plans to sing "The Pants" (working title) today too. It's a song about ghosts."

Update: 03/15/2005

"Before we let [cellist/violist/violinist Chris Carmichael] go we're gonna throw some string on the reprise outro of "Come With Me" as well as the back half of "The Pants" (working title)."

Update: 04/02/2005

"we mixed "Rise & Shine" (formerly "the Pants") on Wednesday. We will cut it close, but Godwilling we'll turn in an album the night we leave for our tour."


Sorority Tears (formerly known as "The Instrumental One")

Date introduced: 01/17/2005

"we recorded two songs on monday. the two shortest ones. one is a raucous instrumental with distorted drums and fuzzy guitar/bass that's hopefully a nice bed for some fun with the glockenspiel and other sounds that will contrast the mush we put to tape."

Update: 03/11/2005

"It was brass & woodwinds day here at Joe's house, and we dressed a few songs up with flutes & horns & clarinets & accordions & BARITONE sax & harmonicas. On the harp [...] is reed-man Jim Hoke, who played on "Backyard" way back when. Satellite, G Major, & The Instrumental One (all working titles) got some harmonica today. If you're thinking "why didn't Joe just play harmonica," it's because Jim is an amazing harmonica player, and Joe has a great personality.

Funny, that instrumental track (our first song without singing!) didn't really exist until today. It had a guitar/bass/drums basic on it, an intentionally sloppy and spirited basic at that... but we made it all klezmerized today. It's fun. Kind of sounds like a spaghetti western at moments. I think we've all thought in the back of our minds that this would be one of the ones that didn't make it on the record, but now we'll have to consider it in context and everything when we make those choices.


Come With Me

Date introduced: 01/17/2005

"the other is a throwback sort of crooney tune, probably called "come with me" that's the closest we'll ever get to sounding like elvis (presley). not like anything we've ever done before. great melody."

Update: 03/15/2005

"Before we let [cellist/violist/violinist Chris Carmichael] go we're gonna throw some string on the reprise outro of "Come With Me" as well as the back half of "The Pants" (working title)."


Emily Ivory (formerly known as "The Glands")

Date introduced: 01/21/2005

"clearly i must be a little nervous about the tune (working title "the glands" -- you know our working titles are usually the names of bands that aspects of the song remind us of... so if you haven't heard of the glands, from athens georgia, i recommend it. same goes for the now-defunct "the pants" of burlington vt). anyway, this song sounds nothing like the glands, actually. we're way out of our comfort zone on this one, which is good, i am told. we're bordering on funky at times. but not bad borderline funk like "medicine" or something. it's better (borderline funk) than that. it's built around a ryan octave-y bass line. we get a little bluesy on this one too (thanks joe). there's no guitar. the line-up is bass drums/conga piano banjo. people will accuse us of touring with ben folds when they hear a few songs on this record, but we don't attempt to pull off anything with chops, we just like piano more than ever."

Update: 03/15/2005

"Old-school Gusters like me, Ryan, and Adam use regular old-school toothbrushes. No batteries required. New-school Gusters like Joe use Sonicare toothbrushes (and swear by them).

So I guess if you power that thing up every night and let it buzz around inside your face, and you happen to be producing an album, it's only a matter of time before you get to thinking "hey I think this Sonicare is in the key of C" and then (maybe a week later) "hey, that song 'The Glands' is also in the key of C" and ultimately, another week later, "this Sonicare would sound AWESOME on that song 'The Glands'!!"

So we got to the studio the other day and Joe'd recorded his toothbrush onto our hit song. It kind of sounds like there's somoene vacuuming while you're trying to listen to the song, or maybe like there's a mosquito hovering by your ear. But it's right in tune! Anyway, it's chances of living are slim. Joe seems to have underestimated my ability to remove silly oral hygiene-related overdubs from our albums in cases where I'm not the one that's performed them.

Meanwhile "The Glands" (working title) got a facelift today courtesy of Chris Carmichael, a friend of Joe's who plays violin, viola, and cello. Usually we give the string treatment to our deep tracks but this time we're stringing up the big pop song, and it feels good. There's still no guitar on this song."


Timothy Leary (formerly known as "New Bare")

Date introduced: 01/21/2005

"wednesday we recorded a song we're calling "new bare" for the time-being. long ago, a guster song was written and never recorded called "bare" -- there is something vaguely reminiscent of that song in one guitar part on it, but the working title is misleading. ryan wrote this one a while ago, played it for us a few times in our rehearsal room and no one ever took to it. a couple of months later he played it again and everyone was all "holy shit! that's awesome! what the hell is that!?" our bad. it's the fastest one on the record, tempo-wise. plus, ryan screams at the end."

Update: 02/25/2005

"In other news, Ryan added a Line 6 (the green one) guitar part to "New Bare" (working title) yesterday. That's the little magic box that Ryan uses to create an ambient loop at the top of "Happier." The thing Howie Day uses to create 92 loops in one song during a live show. The sound felt pretty "Achtung Baby" to me, and lifted the track in a few nice points. Joe added a Stratocaster part to the song too to help the rhythmic side of the pre-choruses. This one needs some vocals and then its close to mix-ready."


Ruby Falls (formerly known as "The Pink Floyd-ish One")

Date introduced: 01/24/2005

"Saturday we recorded "The Pink Floyd-ish One" (the working titles only get worse from here). It's over seven minutes and it's in D minor."

Update 02/23/2005

"Ryan sang "Ruby Falls" last night (formerly "the Pink Floyd-y one") -- during the vocal we got a surprise visit from guitar tech Steven Castro, who is in town doing some guitar production work for Big & Rich this week. We have a precious few first impressions at this point in the recording process. When the vocal take expired, Steve said "man, you guys sound like Pink Floyd." This one might be my favorite track. Too early to know. It's definitely the longest track."

Update 03/10/2005

"On the brass end of things, our old friend Neil Rosengarden (see March 2002 studio journal for our history with Neil) stepped up to the plate with his flugalhorn & trumpet & valve trombone & baritone & french horn. Neil [...] added a Miles-y muted trumpet to the end of the Ruby Falls (formerly "the Pink Floyd one") outro, which has become quite epic. Melissa sang freestyle on it too. We really have never had a song like Ruby Falls before."

Update 04/02/2005

"We're moving on to mix "Empire State" today after spending two full days mixing "Ruby Falls." I spend a lot of time wondering what the reaction to Ruby Falls will be. Clearly we indulged ourselves a bit, creating our first song over seven minutes. But clearly there is more than self-indulgence at work here, as we spent two days nitpicking every detail of the outro because the song is very dear to every one of us. There is a keyboard solo and a muted trumpet solo on the same (Guster) song, both likely to induce tears, but for different reasons."


Dear Valentine

Date introduced: 01/24/2005

"Yesterday we recorded "Dear Valentine" -- perhaps the most fun song to play of the whole batch. It's spooky and washy and maybe a bit 80s but not really. Depends on how loud the keyboards get, and my gut is to crank them. The take where we were just fucking around and remembering the song before we knew that it was recording was the best. But it wasn't a full take, so we comped the drums from a bunch of takes and then moved on to the next tune without even putting the bass and guitar on it for real..."

Update: 02/17/2005

"Tonight it was Adam's turn to stare into the galactic box spring and belt out a vocal on "Dear Valentine." This is the washy ambient one that sounds kind of like nothing we've ever done before. In a week or so we're bringing in the same cast of Nashville characters who did brass and woodwinds on Keep It Together. You remember Neil Rosengarten the flugelhorn player who looked like Ryan's dad, right? You'll meet him again next week. Anyway, Dear Valentine is a candidate for some horns. Paddy horns, not leady horns... this track will be the biggest wall of sound on a Guster record to date, and methinks it'll rock live too."

Update: 02/20/2005

"We spent 9 and a half hours on Saturday re-recording Ryan's guitar on "Dear Valentine" to give it the right delay/tone... then went back and listened to where we were at the end of the day and thought that maybe we liked it better, maybe we didn't. It's easy to lose perspective like that. Then you go in Monday morning, hear it, and know right away what's good/bad about it."

Update: 03/02/2005

"Today we broke out the Juno, which is Jason's keyboard with "three good sounds on it." We used it for the middle na-na section on G Major (still waiting on a title) and we'll put it on Dear Valentine later today. We are not afraid of keyboards anymore. I don't know if we were ever afraid of keyboards, but we've never embraced them to the extent that we're embracing them on songs like Satellite (still waiting on a lyric/title) and Dear Valentine."

Update: 03/10/2005

"On the brass end of things, our old friend Neil Rosengarden (see March 2002 studio journal for our history with Neil) stepped up to the plate with his flugalhorn & trumpet & valve trombone & baritone & french horn. [...] Neil replaced the wall of fake horns on Dear Valentine with real horns."


C'mon (formerly known as "I'm Through" and "The Stones-y One")

Date introduced: 01/24/2005

"[W]e had access to the B Room for drums for the first time since we've been in the studio and the tones were great so I wanted to maximize our time there. We'll get back in there Thursday to record "The Stones-y One.""

Update: 01/29/2005

"we just finished the drums on the 15th and final song of these sessions -- "the stones-y one"... which was conceived last april in joe's basement, and wasn't very stones-y then. the verse was more like that song "perfect" that everyone skips on goldfly. we were just way into the modulated chorus, which had a floaty kind of buffalo springfield thing to it, and the pre-chorus which had a real nice hook in the bass line.

a few months later we wrote a post-chorus that was beautiful and energetic and soulful and then everyone got all precious about the fact that all we needed was the right verse and we'd have our perfect song. so we spent like 3 full months agonizing over it this fall. i think i wrote like ten different verse ideas using different combinations of the three guitar chords i know (G, D, and F#sus4/Bb).

and just when it felt like we weren't ever going to find it, ryan wrote something completely out of left field using the kind of D over A chord that a bunch of those great stones songs use. It had a really potent hearty melody with it and it fit in the song in a way that sort of changed the song. in fact, the chorus that was the impetus for everything is now the least memorable part of the song. still a great chorus, just a context thing.

this is my choice for track 1 on our record, but you never know how things turn out. sometimes you can't help but sequence your album before you record it."

Update: 03/07/2005

"Joe put a mandolin on the Stones-y song the other day. In one of my favorite Joe Moments ever, he said "hmm... I've never played one of these before" right before he hit record. Then proceeded to figure out how to play a mandolin within a few takes. Jason had recorded a distorted wurlitzer part on it the day before, so the combination has an early Rod Stewart effect to it. I am hesitant to put that man's name on this website as someone we're trying to emulate, but you'll have to trust me that the first couple of solo albums post-Faces rocked. And that the "Stones-y" one is maybe my favorite song we've ever half-recorded.

Update: 03/18/2005

"Yesterday we got a new guitar sound for the verses of the Stones-y one. Joe had the vision and it didn't take much tweaking after he threw the mic up. An old acoustic through a little amp, with a wide room mic... sounds somewhere between Cake and Street Fighting Man. Gives the intro more character and lets the electric kick in with the drums now too. That was a big overdub for me. Makes my favorite song even more special. Now we just need to sing it and mix it and name it. And take five months to put it out."

Update: 03/20/2005

"And with a little vitamin A in our system to keep our eyes from degenerating (!?), we watched Ryan sing my favorite song (the Stones-y one) on a rare working Sunday here in Nashville."

Update: 10/15/2005

"When we scrapped "I'm Through" and used it for parts we also transposed it down to G so the verse we were using in its new incarnation, a song called "C'mon," would be less excruciatingly high for Ryan to sing. But then we went and wrote a chorus with an A in it, the same problem note from the old verse. [...]

So with a solid vocal in place we built the song up to the sunny west coast driving tune we'd always hoped it would be, the song it promised to be before I'm Through's chorus took it on a mellow modulated twist that we came to regret and love at the same time. At this point "C'mon" has now officially blown "I'm Through" out of the water. Joe's B3 overdub really infused the song with energy, and Wonderboy Engineer Eddie Jackson blasted it out of the big speakers, transforming the studio into a dance party while Joe hunkered over the organ like Beethoven"


On My Own (formerly known as "Joe/Jimi")

Date introduced: 01/24/2005

"So last night after dinner (schwarma plate) we recorded one we're calling "Joe/Jimi" (working title)... features Joe's guitar and voice. Feels pretty Beatlesy but has a Neil Young kind of element to it. There's a blue note thing going on with it that can only be attributed to Joe. The song is like nothing else we've ever written. Dalton (our manager) came by while we were recording it, having only heard "the Pink Floyd-ish One" the day before, and when Joe/Jimi made it into the 6th minute during the outro, you could see the "what the fuck happened to Guster" expression on his face. It was beautiful.

Anyway, those are the only two on the record with three minute outros. I'm glad they're the first two Dalton heard."

Update: 03/05/2005

"Joe must have spent 12 hours on an organ part for the outro of "Joe/Jimi" (working title) that none of you will even notice. But it's impeccable and that track has started to sound great. Adam recorded a guitar trill for the end of the outro too, but it sounded a little too "Mama Leone's Restaurant" so we made him hum along vocally while he did it. Somehow, that made all the difference."


Manifest Destiny (formerly known as "Ry/Joe Piano")

Date introduced: 01/25/2005

"tomorrow we turn our attention to "ry/joe piano" -- perhaps the first song written in the batch. i return to the kit that i play while erect on this one. meaning, the percussion kit, not the drum set. sickos. i don't think anyone will be able to tell the difference between kits anyway."

Update: 01/28/2005

"Since there was very little fine-tuning to be done on the Bowie-ish One in order to get the right spirit, we spent the evening working on Ryan's piano part for "Ry/Joe Piano" ... he wrote a part that he can't really play yet, so it's gonna take a while. All musicians should feel like they're on the verge of break down all the time.... right?"

Update: 02/21/2005

"Ryan sang "Manifest Destiny" tonight (formerly "Ry/Joe Piano")... and since he'd been singing this one since he wrote the melody almost a year ago, he got it pretty easily. Has the lyric "how did everything get so fucked up" in it, so now we get the Explicit Lyric stamp and probably a lecture from the product manager at our record label. This song needs a few background vocals during the modulated Zombies outro bit and it's ready to mix."


Bowie-ish One

Date introduced: 01/28/2005

"Yesterday we recorded the creatively working-titled "Bowie-ish One" ... so named because the bass line Ryan's playing is very similar to the riff the bass plays in "It's No Game (Part 1)" off of David Bowie's Scary Monsters... but having never heard that song before in his life, Ryan was granted band permission to use it.

This is the song where we've been doing some demo-chasing... meaning, trying to recapture the spirit of the crappy first recording we ever made of the song... directly into the Sound Studio program of a laptop (imagine one crappy crappy mic in a room)... the bass was so loud it distorted the entire mix ridiculously. To get the song to sound remotely like our demo, we compressed the entire mix a lot.

Adam plays a solo that sounds like ZZ Top on it. I am thinking "really ambitious B-side" for this one. The verse melodies are kind of a sensitive topic on this one too. Certain band members like one verse melody. Certain band members like another verse melody. It's likely a third verse melody will be borne out of this conflict."

Update: 02/20/2005

"I think I have successfully killed "the Bowie-ish one" with negativity and passive-aggression. That song was dead to me a long time ago. If we finish it, it'll be a spirited b-side."


Lightning Rod

Date introduced: 10/13/2005

Mentioned by name only in the studio journal.


The New Underground

Date introduced: 10/13/2005

Mentioned by name only in the studio journal.


Hang On (formerly known as Hang On Suzanne)

Date introduced: 10/13/2005

Mentioned by name only in the studio journal.

Update: 10/13/2005

Some developments, "Hang On Suzanne" is now just "Hang On" [...] Levon Helm, who supposedly lives in the neighborhood, almost showed up last night to make a guest appearance on "Hang On." So I'm told. He could be my favorite musician in the entire world. Quite possibly.


One Man Wrecking Machine

Date introduced: 10/13/2005

"we got to chatting, discovered [Maria] was an opera singer, and the next day she was at the studio singing three octaves worth of vibrato on "One Man Wrecking Machine." It's really a simple, guitar-driven Tom Petty-like tune, and while she was wailing over it I gave Joe the "good lord there's no fucking way this is making the record" look at the same exact time that Joe looked over at me to give me the "this is fucking awesome" look."


The Beginning Of The End

Date introduced: 10/13/2005

"[...] a still-to-be-named tune that sounds a bit like sloppy Led Zeppelin with Ryan's voice over it. [...] Special guest co-producer Ron Aniello helped salvage the situation by importing the opera vocal takes [by Maria] into the outro of the aforementioned untitled rock tune, where it seemed to fit better."

Date introduced: 10/21/2005

"Some developments [...] "the one that rocks" is now called "The Beginning of the End.""