...18 years ago...

Up late - eat - Brian arrives.

That's it. My tour diaries end here with a rather abrupt stop. I remember deciding that I'd just experience the touring as it happened and not bother to write anything down. I also ended up not carrying a camera much of the time. We ended up recording two more albums with Brian in Austin Texas. I think that Joe and Dave kept up diaries during future tours.

If your just tuning in, why not check out some of the highlights like: the first night, Stuart's trailer park, Prince in the house, big show at the Metro, Madison WI, van trouble, California horror stories, big show in Long Beach, Tacoland, a drumhead gallery, snowed in, San Francisco/Sacramento, and Thanksgiving with Mojo.

Thanks for reading.

Up at 1. Coffee and talk. I take a shower (warm water for a change). Eat at ___ then home to talk and listen to records etc. Lee, Dan , Dave B. and Rod go to the movies. Dave R., Joe and I hang out at the house. After others return we get late eats and to bed at 5AM.

Up at 10. Brian and I go to the percussion house and pick up a flexitone etc. Dave B., Brian and I go to the studio to do bass over-dubs etc. We finish over-dubs and added touches. Kathy adds violin and Brian adds lap steel on "Scotty". Female voices on "Dance Hit". Finish recording the album in four days. To bed at 5AM.

What's a Flexitone you ask?

Off day - sleep until 2. Up, eat and do laundry. We go to Liberty Lunch and see Eugene Chadbourne and the Butthole Surfers - great show! Home drunk and to bed at 2:30AM

Here's Eugene's site and here's the Surfers' site.

My mom's birthday. She did like those earings I bought her in San Francisco. We're up later and go to the studio at 2 to begin recording over-dubs etc. Dan and I program a drum machine and Dave writes a bass line and Rod's "Dance Hit" is born - very funny. Lee sampled his voice - "Art Fag", distorted guitar feedback - dance chart bound! We work until 5AM. Home to bed.

"Dance Hit" is of course "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance To Anything)".

Up and eat breakfast then to the studio. We cut tracks all day. I'm tired in the morning but pickup in the afternoon. By the end of the day we have all the basic tracks done. Home at 2:30 then to bed.

Up early - 9:30. We get ourselves together. Brian shows up at 10 and we load the van - drums, six guitars and a lap steel, two bass amps, five or six guitar amps etc. All pile in - Lee remains to pick up Dave R. who is supposed to be arriving by plane at 11AM.

We drive to te studio (pick up drum heads at "Tommy's Drum Shop" on the way - a great store). Nice studio - meet Mike the engineer. He's the nice guy Brian made him out to be and more. We set up and begin to cut tracks. By 11:30PM or so we had three or four tunes on tape. Home - Dave R. is there. All talk and we play him a cassette we made today. He seems pleased with the test tape.

Tommy's is still considered one of the best shops in town. The studio we recorded was the "Fire Station" in San Marcos Texas. Mike Stewart is an Austin based producer and manager.