PRE-PRODUCTION IN LA WITH ROB SHNAPF
Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:53 pm
That's a giant building with an i-pod ad on it. Very cool.
Driving down the road.
WOO HOO...eisley was here twice.
Stacy playing her new song on guitar while we're waiting on gear.
Before Weston had drumsticks, he used these.
She can't hear that good really.
Rob with guitar...producing.
Rob producing. Others looking on.
Pre-production in progress.
Another i-pod billboard across from our hotel.
I'm not through with images. Don't give up on me.
---------------------more images from the week.
Driving to Cole Rehearsal studios
There's that giant i-pod ad painted on the building. (note size of dump
truck in the foreground...)
Remember those "seguay's" we rode at one of the Ca. venues on the
Coldplay tour? Steve Wazniak from Apple let us ride them. See images
somewhere. 
Chauntelle and Weston. right.
Stacy pondering. They're working on figuring out what all the weird
chords that Eisley plays that nobody knows the names for.
Sherri, hooded, singing...
Jon and Stacy dancing.
Jon pondering... they're working on arrangements with Rob.
Singing, I think.
work. work. work.
Rob smiles often.
Rob saying, "oh".
clipping across.
Rob's little boy painted his nails that day - because it was fun.
I have more but we have to check out and go home. Unless they let
us have a late check out...we'll see. YES. they did.
She can't take the stress and starts smoking like a sailor...
She doesn't get it. Or something is frustrating.
Sherri face.
Weston bought these at some Arizona trade store and wears them
all the time these days.
Weston does this weird dance and makes his hands do the edward
sissorhands thing...
Weston enjoys life by making others laugh.
Chauntelle sits down for a while.
Chauntelle tired.
Sherri tired.
Stacy tired.
Sherri shoes.
Sherri trying to look cute or whatever.
Craig Aaronson came by with wife and child just to give us ice cream
and hang out... oh, and listen to some fun music.
Weston at a normal moment.
Sherri outfit.
I spied them out at the hot tub by the pool... moments later, Jon came in
soaking wet... because Weston pushed him in, of course.
---------------------
This (below) Chronolojizes the goings on of the band - Eisley, while in LA for
Pre-production with Rob Shnapf for the new full length record, now in
progress. Photos above were taken throughout the week. bd
-----------------------
Hi. It's 4:00am your time; luckily here, i'ts ONLY 2:00 here. I'll try to
bring you guys up to date. hold on.
Tuesday, December 15
We arrived in LA on Monday around 1:45pm, at the Burbank Airport,
stood in line at the conveyor belt for our bags and gear; did I say gear?
Count em'... one guitar...check... but three never came out. The belt
stopped, people left, it was lonely. They never came. We just kept
looking...both directions.
We picked up our van, drove to the hotel and layed around...BUT NOT
FOR LONG!! becuz Weston said either two things were going to happen if
he didn't eat: 1.) his eyes wold pop out of his head 2.) He would implode.
Since Brand New just did some huge show here in LA with tons of other
bands, Jesse met up with us and is hanging off and on this week. SO, he
wanted to go to Mel's Diner....which we all like, so Mel's it was. And we
ate happily ever after; milk shakes, hamburgers, stuff. I dunno.
All I remember about the first night was there was lots of violence back
in our room till real, real, late. Weston bought a box of chocolate candy
and he and Jesse were throwing it at each other so hard it was knocking
knots on heads...and then everyone was stuffing candy into mouths...
and Sherri's and Jon's mouths were bleeding...and then Weston and
Jesse were throwing wet rags... laughing and wrestling all over the room.
And they were throwing TV's out the window. (JUST kidding) I was just
on-line; it was background noise. Then we watched every talk show on
TV until it was over. Jesse left and we all conked out. That was day
one.. but that was yesterday.
Tuesday, December 16
Woke up early. me. Everyone else woke up at the crack of 11:00 when
Darin called to give us the marching orders, where to go, when, etc. Meet
Rob at the rehearsal room at 12:00 noon. We did...after grabbing chinese
at a nearby place... None of the gear from S.I.R. was there yet, so we
just ate and yaked with Rob for hours. Great conversations about Elliot,
life, family, music, stuff...
Eventually the gear arrived....Fender Rhodes, Vox-AC30, Fender
Twin..etc. They worked on a song some of you may have heard called,
"Golly Sandra". Boy, I'm glad I didn't post the QT clip of the song on the
forum because, Rob changed it into this catchy samba tune with
marimba's and maraca's; no, but really... it's a joke; but they just
whittled on the song. It's exactly the same-ish. Only, I didn't like it when
Rob changed the Chorus to "Golly Bubba"... 
No. Rob is really great. Layed back, easy going, funny, warm/freindly; it
was a great day... I'm videotaping along the way, which is normal for
me, but this time, WB wants me to really capture everything so we can
make a great video about the making of... they have a cool idea, or I
should say Craig had the idea to make a limited CD run with the edited 20
minute movie about the "making of". Sounds good to me.
After, we all met up (that's Texan for "met") with A&R (Craig),
management: Dave and Darin... at a place called Gingus Khan. Very
tastey. Much laughter and fun... after that, we left and are in the hotel
room watching a movie starring Nicholas Cage.
Tomorrow, back with Rob at noon till 6:00. I have other stuff to do as
well. Gotta get some sleep. Goodnight.
Wednesday, December 17
Typical morning... it started at 12:00 midnight and varying degree's of
activities continued until daybreak. That means that we all fell asleep at
different times...but there were some that never seemed to go to sleep
until the rest of us were waking up. The TV was on all night in our room.
A trip to Jamba Juice and Starbucks gave us the necesarry vitamins and
caffenoids to sustain us for an hour...before Weston got hungry. He also
bloodied his hands from using the wrong end of worn out, saw-dust
eaten, drum sticks because they were too skinny to hold them
correct...so I had to borrow bandaids form a band here at the rehearsal
space called "Noise Rachet"...and buy drum sticks from the coolest Drum
Shop I've ever seen. Why? (you ask) Because they had a Slingerland set
on an alter....the last drumset he played on. (I almost fainted)
Rob and the band worked on....Mr. Pine and Sun Feet. (wow, oldies..!!)
I was in and out so I don't have much or know much to report on. We're
now here at the DMC offices, where I've been in meetings all afternoon -
and are the band is just milling around eating candy and drinking
corporate coffee. Super cool offices and amazing coffee bar... Coldplay
awards and photo's all over the offices...
Tonight we're going to hear "Annie" - a singer/songwriter Capitol artist
friend. That should be fun. Tomorrow, they say we're going to a Rufus
Waynewright show. (yes!) That'll help offset the fact that everyone else
has already seen a certain movie that we haven't been able to see. So,
there.
Thurs, December 18
yeH ydobyreve! (backwards) Hope you're all snug in your beds
envisioning sugar plums... and missing your moms and dads. My kids
only miss their mom...and sister and little brother. Last minute Christmas
shopping is evil...in fact, it's of the devil. Traffic is satan himself.
Don't feel jealous of us being here in LA. Please.
In continuance with the pursuit of the boring coverage (most boring ever)
of the tiny Texas band known as Eisley, well... here goes:
Last night we left you milling around Dave and Darin and Dana's new
offices - which are pretty frikin' cool. (frik is a good word. it means very)
Anyway, just so you'll know... this was important to the band: Chris
Martin was the first to see the new offices. Eisley was second... It's a
juvinille competitive thing, you understand; the subject of much muse
yesterday. Rancid might scare the other people in the building, so...not
sure it would be good for them to show up. (JuSt kiDding...shheesh)
News. DCM just signed Rilo Kiley to manage! That's the 4th band in the
portfolio. We really like Rilo Kiley so that rocks. Talk of a very important
tour with the two bands next year!
We're having to head out to WB for a meeting with marketing and A&R
and just to walk the band through the halls to smile and look pretty. I
have more under this topic later. Will report in as soon as I get a line up
today. More time with Rob Shnapf today...
Gotta Go!
bd
-------------finishing the 18th---------
WB meeting was more just to hang out. I guess they just wanted to hang
out. That's what we did. Saw the new offices, listened to new bands they
were signing, listened to the John Shanks sessions (another topic?),
watched the Eisley video, ate bagels and orange juice, talked to
marketing (really just listened to records in his office), A&R (listened to
records in his office), yakked with publicity, new media, merchandising...
etc. Lots of hugs. That's all really. They all relayed to us how impressed
the entire WB company of 850 or whatever was at Craig's presentation of
the band at the "Town Meeting". He showed the new Eisely video on large
screens after talking about them... and admittedly choking up in
referrence to how special this band was...so much that he named his
daughter after the band. (woah) ( insert photo of the girls holding little
Eisley here whenever i have a change). Anyway, he said afterward
people were coming up to him and saying how much they loved the song
and the video, etc. Now the entire WB family knows of Eisley if they didn't
already.
We left, went to eat at a place called Cactus, back the rehearsal space
where eisley worked with Rob on Trolley Wood...and a bunch of other
ones. I can't remember now. At the end of the day, we rushed into the
traffic to eat, rushed back through the traffic to the hotel for a few
minutes, rushed back out in the traffic to purchase tickets to see Lord of
the Rings, rushed through the traffic over to see Rufus Waynewright, left
in a rush back into the traffic to get to L.O.T.R.'s at the Arc Lite (sp?)
before our movie started.... got there and ordered pop corn and drinks
with 15 seconds to spare before movie started. Watched the movie, most
everybody cried, left at 3:30 am through NO traffic, got back to hotel,
eventually went to sleep. it's was a long day and I'm skimming.
Songs worked on today:
Trolley Wood
They All Surrounded Me
Queen of Leaves
Friday, December 19
The band is at the rehearsal space already. We got up, ate, and I
droppped them off. I'm trying to get caught up on posting before I head
back over. Will report in on this date later. Thanks guys. Boring DuPree
signing off. But first, I'll post some photos at the top of this thread.
woah, sorry about the weirdly dated posts. I must not have taken my
dorogon pills laced with blorm sauce. I think I have it right now...sorta.
Friday continued. The band worked hard all day with Rob on the following songs:
Finished up on Trolley Wood,
Lost at Sea
Escaping Song
Possible Songs in the line up for full length:
Many more to consider. Don't get your hopes set
on any song yet...
Mr. Pine (recut)
I Wasn't Prepared (redo)
Brightly Wound
They All Surrounded Me
Silver Bugs
Trolley Wood
Golly Sandra
Sun Feet
Queen of Leaves
New Songs unrecorded in progress:
One Day I Slowly Floated Away
Lost at Sea
Vintage People
Plenty of Paper
The Escaping Song
Hit Singles
Just Like We Do
Wicked Minded
Darling Look
Cry if You Want To
Come with Us
Stars That Fail
So, Friday they pretty much finished working with Rob. Everyone in LA is
leaving for Christmas at the end of the day, so we're on our own in this
big, lonely town. So, we gathered up ourselves, sent Jesse on his way
back to New York...(he's coming back to hang with us in Tyler; hooking
up with us for the Dallas show. What can I say? We've become good
buds).
We came back to the hotel, stared at the walls for a few minutes and
said, lets walk down to Hollywood avenue and go see a flick. So we went
and bought tickets for The Last Samuri - like 2 hours before showtime.
The rest of the time, we just hung out together, bored for the most part,
at that place...uh, something like walk of the stars? Where the giant
Elephant god towers over the open mall? Anyway, yeah,....coffee at
Starbucks, Nestle's Toll House, a bunch of stupid girlie shops and make
up shops where the girls took WAY too long...and Weston was doing this
"put make up on" dance to the electronica that was vibing our whiteboy
torsos...
The Last Samuri is good. We all had good reviews. Actually, it's a great
film. Tears. Very well produced. No cheese. No hollywood.
Then we walked back to the hotel, and I worked and they slept and that
was it.
-----------------------------
Saturday, December 20
We, (they) slept in; now we're up and are heading to go eat and go to the
rehearsal studio to work on songs. Craig Aaronson is going to meet us
and talk about the record....he's bringing his little boy; and then we'll go
eat ice cream or something. fun. But not as fun as going home.
Gotta go. bd
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