Hiya, Oliver here. I thought I'd let you kind people know that The HILLBILLY MOON EXPLOSION is not just vegetating around at the moment, but actually getting some work done. So, here are my personal and unedited studio notes. Enjoy. I'll try and keep this updated. Cheers, O. Friday 24 October 2003 Yeehaw! Another round of studio sessions. And I'm looking forward to it. Luke and Patrick picked me up from the office where I do part-time work and were promptly awestruck by all the hot chicks who work there. Not to mention Miss Switzerland who also happened to be around and asked Luke the way to the toilet. Even beauty queens have digestion - and a beauty she is (the queen, I mean, not the digestion) although she's actually Canadian. The boys were getting nervous - whereas to me the company of eminently do-able ladies is the natural state of things. But I digress... We hit Star Track studio after lunch. Bass miking and drums soon OK. And then my beautiful, fully-restored buggery bollocking Ecco-Phonic delay unit didn't work. I recall Deke Dickerson mentioning he had three of them and none worked properly. Hooked up the Echoplex - hey, presto! Works great. Still, the guitar didn't seem to be the right sound for the song in question. Switched the Gretsches from Duo-Jet to 6120 - ah, that's more like it. Luke and Guz (our studio engineer) ask for beer. OK, we're rollin' ... Saturday 25 October 2003 We rocked right through 'Mambo Italiano' - tempo changes and all. Nothing like a good night's sleep to fix things. Then we try this new song - 'Inch of Dust' - after a couple of takes of which Guz asks if he may make a suggestion: "Throw away all the breaks." Now how come we didn't think of that? Patrick tears through an amazing solo. Rocks like fxxx. And then we do one of Emanuela's tearjerkers - 'Nobody's Baby' - a honkytonk type ballad thing. Luke, who's been playing hardcore and punk for most of his life, promtly decides this is his favourite type of music from now on. "I want to grow old playing this sort of stuff." Sunday 26 October 2003 I've got this new song called 'XKE' - my favourite car, I guess. Now, maybe it's the theme or maybe it's the music, but we soon opt for Patrick's '62 Fender Strat and tons of spring reverb and the next thing you know, we're riding the wild surf, hangin' a bitchin' ten (or maybe just hangin' one) for the gnarly dudettes lined up by the drag strip. Cowabunga, dude. Next up is a live favourite called "Pouppee de..." Something ... does anyone speak French? Emanuela? You're singing it ... no French? OK: Dear French HME fans: We're sorry the accent and pronunciation may not be 100%. But we love the song. If Johnny Burnette had teamed up with Serge Gainsbourg this is what it would of sounded like. Monday 27 October 2003 A couple of groovy jazzy things on today. Gazing over to the drums from where I stand with the bass I can't help noticing that Luke, his cigarette smoke and his drum brushes paint out a perfect 1950s New York club scene. Emanuela's singing great. We'll be able to use most of her live vocal takes. And then it's loud and fast chitlin chompin' moonshine mouthin' juke joint blues. Or at least that's what a Larry Williams song sounds like when The Hillbilly Moon Explosion do it. Patrick plays an old acoustic armed with a DeArmond pickup - on his knees. Sounds dangerous as hell. It IS dangerous as hell, Patrick assures me - after a couple of takes he's all moan drone my fingers are gone. Pat, you gotta suffer to be beautiful. Tuesday 28 October 2003 There's this Big Al Downing Song that I've wanted to try. I'm not quite sure yet what to make of it. All I know Emanuela wants it in the key of C. So we do the pop thing: Lay down drums/bass/rhythm guitar and muck around with it later. Not our usual cup of brew. Which brings us to the topic of where to eat during recording sessions. I'm always for the local Chinese takeout, whereas Luke's starting to miss the home cooking - fries, bratwurste anything wholesome and filling. It's just that I can't get down and groove and sing and rock after a full dinner of that stuff. You go one way - Sezhuan fried beef for me, thank you. Sunday 2 November 2003 I cancelled Saturday - I was throwing up for most of the day. No, not because of the gig the day before! So today is just me and Patrick and Guz the engineer and a whole bunch of vintage guitars. We did a couple of Danelectro baritone takes - what a great instrument! And then there's Patrick's '62 Strat. Now, even though the whole world including Tony bloody Blair has played a Strat at one point, it still is a brilliant instrument. Especially through a Bassman. Some of the sounds Patrick put down have a whole lotta Buddy Holly going on. Monday 3 November 2003 Emanuela insisted on re-taking a couple of tracks today and spent most of the day topping her already-perfect takes from the week before. And demonstratively yawning through all the guitar solos. Did I mention that my Ecco-Phonic has been working great? Now, THAT is what I call tape echo. Saturday 15 November 2003 Today was cool. Patrick played country picking with a Gretsch 6120 over a Phil Spector Ronettes song. How cool can you get? Way cool: A 1956 Duo Jet for a Burnette-type tune. And then for a blues bopper thing we ended up using Guz's Fender Mustang. And booze with everything. Sunday 16 November 2003 I didn't know Patrick could play mandolin. According to him, he didn't know either. But we've got Mandolin on our next record. Monday 17 November 2003 Farfisa! I knew that great big thing of Emanuela's would come in handy one day. Yours truly even plays a solo on it. Then some piano. Did you know that piano is actually the only instrument I learnt properly? All those piano lessons finally paying off, eh, Dad? Friday 28 November thru Sunday 30 Emanuela and I are doing vocal stuff. Laying down leads. Improving on stuff (which already was good enough) - Baroni and Hutter are such perfectionists! Monday 1 December 2003 A song I just wrote a week ago: "Holy Hoochie Coo". Tele through a Bassman - just can't go wrong. And then we redo the Bourgeois Baby. Here we go - starting to be fussy and re-taking stuff. Uh-huh.