Jen: Happy birthday, AK Dave!

Thanks to the crew for spending Sunday with us.. and thanks, Chris, for the hog!!!!

Jen: today marks a questionable day in history 24 yrs ago

Happy 24th Birthday, Fuckshit!!!!!!

Hope you had an awesome day.

Love from the AK.

Jen: Badass show last night

Vengeance Upon Thee... Before the Bloodshed.. Somataform.. Lokey.. fuckin great show last night!!!

I had so much fun - everyone who WAS there made it count. great crowd.. great performances by everyone.. thanks to Mike, Lou, Miranda & Victor for the help and the sincerest thanks to Peck for putting it together and having faith in us.

"We love you, man.. AK motherfucker 2000 style!"

Now, it wouldn't be Jen if I didn't have something to bitch about. My bitchfest today is the professionalism of some of the bands on the bill. The entire backroom dropped off the show.. and one of the mainstage bands didn't call/show.. What the hell is that? I am appalled at the lack of respect for your fellow bands on the bill and YOUR BAND! I'm not talking about the bands that had family issues, emergencies, out of town with transportation issues due to malfunction, or anything else that is valid... unfortunately that stuff happens as part of life; I'm referring to the "what the fuck?!" kind of excuses given.. or no explanation, no-shows.

:::: At the urging of my bandmates, I have removed a good, juicy portion of my bitchrant. Apparently I should feel some degree of indifference. Oh well.. ::::

Lokey and Angerkill round two August 31st at Club Kristal. Great sound, low door, drink specials.. and METAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a great Sunday! Time for barbacoa with the kids....

Jen

Dave: Ready to move to the next phase

What's up everybody...first off, i want to thank all our friends and crew that went out to the show on 7/21 at Rock City to support AK, DP, Flesh Electric, Course of Ruin, and Revenge. I feel good knowing i can count on you guys to show up and party with us. I hope you're enjoying the tunes and the show, and we're continuing to work hard on bringing new things to the stage to keep things fresh.

That leads me to the main point of this blog entry....I was telling Jen earlier, that I feel like i'm ready to move on to the next phase of the AK evolution....thing is, we're still in the early process of recording this CD, and I still have lyrics to write on two or three songs! I feel weird. I think the weird thing about this recording, is that a lot of the songs have been written for a while...years...so, to us, they're not really "new." These are really great songs though, and I can't wait for everyone to finally hear them. Finishing these songs, getting great production on them, and releasing them on a CD to become immortal was only right...there was a time when we thought about scrapping them, and just moving on with all brand new material...but they were too hard to let go of. They needed to be heard and documented as part of the AK cycle. Now that we're in the process, and hopefully done soon, it's going to be like a right of passage for me. Finally, to get these songs out of our heads and into the hands of fans....hopefully everyone will dig them and find their attachment to them, however they can relate to them...that would be great.

Inside, however, my mind is jumping ahead a bit. I'm ready to take hold of new riffs, new concepts, sounds, lyrical concepts, etc., but I've got to hold off just a bit more until this CD is done. There's a couple of strange things influencing me lately...Mideast War stuff, believe it or not...i've never really been into writing about political stuff, but for some reason, i'm really concerned about what's going on over there....i feel hypocritical in a way though, because i don't know if i'm so concerned that i'd say, "hell yeah, sign me up so i can go save the world" kind of shit....i could never leave the family to go do that...but either way, just to digest the horrors that are going down over there...the civilian deaths, the flat out lack of understanding of two different ways of life, so hell with it, let's just kill each other...it's very sad to me.

Then, i'm reading the paper this weekend, and come across an article about these two little girls from Kansas i believe...six and seven years old, locked in a basement, starving, while their stepmom and her two kids live happily upstairs. I guess the social services got a tip or something, so they were able to rescue the kids...when they questioned them, they said they only ate when their dad was home...apparently he traveled on business all the time...totally horrific and disgusting.

Man, i hope i'm not depressing you guys out there...that's not the intent here...just a quick snapshot of the discontent i feel right now for the way things are, and the sad reality that there's not a whole lot i can do personally to change every evil in the world. I guess what this is leading to is that the next round of tunes may involve some of these feelings and what not, even if it's just an outlet, not necessarily a call to action. But if some folks get that as a takeaway, even better.

I love my life, my family, my friends.

AK Dave

Dave: Just kickin ass and shit.. AK style!

Yeah, so AK has been busy recording, playing live, practicing...damn, this is a blast!! I mentioned to Jared the other day, that after 6 months or so of being back "on the scene", i feel like things are finally back in sync. I can recall how it felt back in January, hitting the stage for the first time in two years....while it felt like home again, there was still an awkwardness about our playing that i now dismiss as rust. Looking back, and comparing our recent performance to those first couple, i'd say we're just about firing on all cylinders at this point!

Also reflecting on the shows to date this year, I can't help but think about all the support we're getting from the crew. There's too many of ya'll to name, but you know who you are...the inner circle if you will...those that have been there, band or no band, and come out to support us....even driving up to Austin!!! That's so awesome. I don't think i can muster the words to describe how appreciative i am of everyone that has supported us so far this year....i hope you're having fun at the shows and our goal is to continue to make it worthwhile for you guys to come out and party with us.

Man....and the CD in progress...it's taking a while, and will probably be a while before it's done. We're chewing off a lot by trying for 13+ songs...the pace is slow, working around our schedules and the studio's schedule. All i can say is be patient...if you've heard tid bits of the progress to date, you know it's going to be over the top!

Overall, the AK is truckin' along at about the pace we expected for this year. We've managed to work our way back into some solid venues in San Antonio and Austin, and have good momentum on the new album. Hopefully, we're gaining some new fans, and slowly the old ones are coming out of the cracks as they here we're back in action. The line up is great...Frank is as gay as ever, but is playing top notch shit...Jen's coming up with some of the most out there bass lines she's ever done, and what can I say about the Rook, I mean, Jared....he's managed to learn the old shit, play it with intensity, and the work on the new material is going to blow you guys away.

AND....making new friends and continuing on with the old school crew...the show on 7/21 is a perfect example of that...it's always fun to play, but when you play with your buds, it's a whole other level!

Anyway...just some random thoughts and updates...hope everyone's digging the shit....see ya on 7/21 at Rock City!!

AK Dave

Jen: We did what we said we wouldn't

Yes, we uploaded some new music for you guys before completion.

2 a.m. and I just came back from Jared's. I went to pick up a burn of our intro - "The Darkest Peace". Dave's leaving to LA for work tomorrow and I wanted to load it into his MP3 player for him.

What we're going to do with this song is pretty much up in the air in terms of what we want to lay down next - could be yet another guitar layer from J (my personal vote at this point... but who knows.. maybe our piano person will blow us away with something). This track was written in the jamroom one night after practice. Jared busted out the main guitar layer and I started playing the chords under it. Thats ALL we went in with.. that and a 118 bpm click which we reduced to 100. While in studio this past Saturday, Jared decided to throw some chords on top - then Keith started messing around with some effects. Keith goes to take a piss and leaves the tape rolling. Jared starts noodling.. Keith comes back and starts listening to the shit backwards.. and viola! There came the "voice" parts.. it's backwards guitar played by an unfocused guitarist while Keith was pissing. Great, huh?

That leads me to Keith. I can't rave enough about what he's doing for (and TO) us. His persistence and patience is pulling some amazing things from deep within that we almost didn't know were there. Just WAIT until you hear Dave's vocals. I think the word Jared used is "scary". My word is "intense". It's almost scary to think we ever even considered anyone else. We didn't really know him before recording. We were acquaintances, but thats it. Once the guys walked into his studio though, they knew.... we've all got an amazing connection on so many levels. This is the FIRST TIME we've had someone actually co-produce us.. and we're loving it.

This session has been very therapeutic for us all. I can't even describe.. hell, just listen to the intro.

Jen

PS Studio update: We're on solos and layers right now. Bass, drums and rhythms are done.. although it is 90% decided that Dave wants to go back and add some mo' rhythm tracks. Final determination will be on how it sounds. Dave laid down a song and a half of vocals to use up some studio time because Jared had a prior commitment for the first 3 hours of studio today. Good stuff... progress will all depend on scheduling now, but we'll update.

Jen: yes, yes.. the wrong address!

It seems that I had the old address on our flyer. The Underground is no longer on West Avenue.. its 512 Roosevelt. Here are the directions we've been given:

I 10 EXIT DURANGO. GO TOWARDS DOWNTOWN. TURN RIGHT ON S. ST. MARYS. ST MARYS TURNS INTO ROOSEVELT. ADDRESS 512 ROOSEVELT. ITS ON THE LEFT.

I fixed the flyers.. they should now load correctly.

In other news, we've all been staying super busy. We haven't had time to get together and practice since the beginning of the month! Studio is keeping us busy.. tomorrow, I'll finish up some basslines, then we move to Jared's solos and layers. Sunday is more solos and layers, then vocals. We're hoping we can get our cousin, Justin from the Hydra Melody, in Sunday, but it's been hard to keep in contact with him. He's got a new baby, busy with HM and getting ready for a wedding.. so understandable. We really want him on the intro - Frank was going to start bugging him yesterday. They're on myspace.. check em out - good stuff.

http://www.myspace.com/hydramelody

Thats it for now. Have fun at Slayer tonight!!!! Dave will be there (asshole) while I'm home with the kids. Can't go because we exhausted all babysitting for studio :(

I think Frank is working it & Jared's gonna find his way there.

Jen