I feel the need...the need for speed!

I kinda feel like this lately:

(image property of Warner Bros. Pictures)

Things are busy and moving fast, but ohhhhh, I'm havin' fun! (Also, I think protective headgear is very important.)

We've been gigging a lot, we've all been working alot at our various jobs, AND we've been recording a new EP that we're very excited about. I've posted a lot about our recent gigs, and I've whined about my work hours, but I haven't said much about the EP.

I haven't intentionally been mum about it - it's just been a very long process, and I didn't think to say much about it as we've gotten into the final stages of putting it together. But we're almost there, and we passed a big milestone this week, so I thought I'd give you, loyal readers, the scoop. (Oh, and if you read my last post, or you follow us on Facebook and have already seen the pictures of our parade gig, and you were expecting to read about that, I'll write about that next. See? So much goin' on, man!)

The EP is called "Sex & Coffee" after the title track of the same name, and it's got eight songs. We've been performing all of the songs in our live shows for a while now, and a couple of them made our live CD last year, but most of them were not available in any format until now. So if you're a fan of our live shows, you know the songs, and now you'll finally be able to buy them!

Also, if you've owned either of our previous CDs (released under our old band name, Johnny Austin), we think you'll be pleasantly surprised at this new release. This will be a much higher quality release than what we've done before - more produced, with more intricate vocals and instrumentation, and with professional mastering to make it radio ready. We are very proud of it and will do our best not to impose upon it our expectations of what it's supposed to be, where it should go to school and who its friends should be...as long as it doesn't disappoint us or do anything to embarrass us at the club.

The actual release date is June 1, so we've still got a month to go before we officially launch it into the world, but it's very hard to be patient now that we're so close. We started recording instrumentation late last year, but it took a few tries in different studios with different equipment until Johnny started getting the sounds he wanted, so we really didn't start working on the vocals until early this year.

Then came backing vocals, extra parts that we can't do on stage but can do in a studio, mixing, designing cover art and, finally, mastering. This week, we signed off on the mastered proof meaning (drumroll, please) musically we're done! SWEEEEEET!!

Now, we just have to wait for the production house to get us the digital and hard copy versions, and our blood, sweat and tears the songs will be ready for public consumption! Done, right?

Sure, sure kid. Except for a little thing called marketing. Yes, grasshopper, there is much work still to be done. But I am not complaining! This is all a lot of fun and very exciting, so I'm putting on my helmet, strapping on my seat belt, and gettin' ready to shift this thang UP!