Well, I don't know if Dave Grohl has this trouble, but we are having a heck of a time picking the band photo to use on the back of our new album.  This is the last step we have before sending the album off to the printers!  So I would like your help.  The band photo that gets the most votes wins and it will go on our album.  So if you can take a quick couple of seconds, look them over and pick which one you like best in the survey below it would be MUCH appreciated.  Thanks for your help!

Update: The results are in and the winner is A, with 56% of the votes!  I realized after I made the form that I effectively split the vote between C and D.  However, even taking those two together, they didn’t have as many votes as A, so A is the winner.  Thanks for everyone who cast a vote!!!

Today was the day.  The day  that I was going to prove that I could beat Dave Grohl.  Today is  the day that the new Foo Fighters album came out.  And today  was the day that I was going to release my new  album, American Man, too.  There is  so much I want to say, but it's late and so let me say really quickly that technically Dave has beaten me, because  their album is available to the  public.  But all is  not  lost.  

Today, all  the recording and the rough  mixes of the Brother Howe album  are done!  This is a major victory for me personally and I want to post snippets of songs and record music videos and tell you about the recording party we had and tell you what  I think of the new Foo album and what I thought of the Foo documentary  Back And Forth, which I went to see.  But I've been a bit busy with this whole album thing, so just know that either a  super  long post is coming soon or else I'll post smaller  ones and stretch it  out.  

Oh, and by the way, for my email subscribers I have  a special surprise for you today.  I'll be sending  you an email in honor of Dave beating me: a parody of Breakout by Foo Fighters that I thought I'd call:

I Hate Dave Grohl.

The world premiere of the Foo Fighter's first single, "Rope",  off their new album occurred yesterday at 7AM EST.  It's a bold choice for a first single; odd time signatures, breathy vocals in the verses, big catchy chorus, plus the sickest guitar solo on a Foo Fighters album yet.  Bravo, Mr. Grohl and Company, bravo.  Here's the link:

http://rope.foofighters.com/

In my efforts to Beat Dave Grohl, I hereby release the first "single" off of our new album too.  Okay, it was already released on an EP, but it will be on the new album and you can hear it below. 

It also is a bold choice for a first single I would like to point out.  I know, most people wouldn't choose a slow tempo, slightly depressing song inspired by the sad state of Michigan's economy as the first single to their mostly uptempo country punk album, but Brother Howe is not most people.  Nor are we most people's favorite band for that matter (editors note: there might be a connection there).

And so dear readers, without further ado, I present to you the first single off our forthcoming album:

Hard To Find

ps - I dedicate this song to Jeff Daniels, who's love of our home state inspired my brother to write an award nominated screenplay, which then inspired me to write this song.  I also would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Mr. Daniels for trying to pitch him on said screenplay on February 5th of this year.

There’s been some news in the Foo Fighters camp over the last ten days.  They have played two surprise gigs in the Los Angeles area and they have announced the date for the album release, which is (drum roll please)... April 12, 2011 (oh, no...).  I’ve gottalotta work to do in order to catch up and release our record first.  But I AM making progress, ladies and gentlemen.  Honest to goodness progress.  In fact I finished up another song last night.  Ah, it feels good to check something off the list.  And I do plan on having something for you dear readers on or before that date. 

Now, I don’t live in the Los Angeles area, so there is no way I can make or even attempt to make any of these “surprise” Foo Fighters gigs.  Dave tweets something tantalizing like, “are you guys ready?” and you know something’s coming up.  And then sure enough, way cool gig in a small club somewhere, where you could have seen the Foo Fighters for $20, up close and personal. 

Oh, you couldn’t make it either?  Yeah, too bad.  Blame Dave, not me.  So, I guess we’ll have to settle for the next best thing: YouTube bootleg videos from one of the shows itself that I happened upon.  Yes, these are the new songs from the as yet untitled new album that is coming out on April 12th of this year.  So now you can hate Dave Grohl and love me. 

You’re welcome.

Okay, so I had devastating news yesterday when I checked Dave Grohl's twitter account...

What the what?!  Holy smokes that was fast.  I have seriously underestimated the power of Dave Grohl.  The album is mastered and everything.  Well, here's the deal, as devastating as that may be, the release date for the Foo album is "spring."  Okay, now that's a little vague (I need a date people!).  I think I can still beat "spring."  Unless spring is February.  Then we might be in trouble.  

But I've gotta tell you something else.  I've got another confession to make.... This new Brother Howe album I'm working on has been in progress for three years.  And we've gotten done more in the last three months than we've gotten done in that whole time.  So in the end, whether I beat Dave Grohl or not, I will have to thank him for that.  Literally.  I will send him an album with a thank you card and everything.  I will do it with gritted teeth and a hateful heart, but I will be a man and do the right thing.  

So here is our current status with the album.  I had this already done in spread sheet form, but I liked the whiteboard format:  

So here is the first rough mix from the upcoming Brother Howe album.  I hate to lead off with a cover song, but that's just the way it worked out this time.  This is a song called Long Gone Lonesome Blues and was originally written by Hank Williams.  Check it out and see how that guitar sound turned out!  I think it sounds awesome, and this is just a rough mix done by me, which isn't near as good as the final thing will sound after mixing and mastering.  And I don't have Butch Vig either to make it sound really big.  So take that Dave Grohl!

Long-Gone-Rough-Stereo-Mix-2010-12-31.mp3

The other day I spent a lot of time mixing down my vocals and Jeri’s vocals for our cover of the Hank Williams song Long Gone Lonesome Blues.  It was the last thing I needed to do before I could have the song “in the bag.”  All the tracks would now be ready for final mixing and mastering.  

While I’m putting the vocals together for a rough mix with all the other instruments I notice something doesn’t sound right.  What was that?  Is there a guitar playing a wrong chord for a second or two?   I isolate the tracks.  It’s not the bass or the acoustic guitar.  But my electric guitar plays the wrong chord in the third verse for a couple of seconds.  

Nooooooo.   

Right away the following thoughts came  in my head.  Can I just forget about it?  I didn't notice at first, maybe no one else will either.  Maybe it’ll get buried in the mix.  It’s only a couple seconds.  Hmmm.  Nope, I need to re-record the thing.  Crap.  How  am I supposed to beat Dave Grohl if this  sort  of thing keeps happening?!

Once I get past the initial frustration, I realize it’s a good thing because I thought the guitar sound was a little thin anyway.  And since it’s the only instrument playing at the beginning of the song I was going to have to ask the audio engineer to see if he could fatten that guitar sound up a little bit.  But maybe if I record it right in the first place I won’t have to do that.  So I’ll use this opportunity to experiment with a new technique for me, and that’s using more than one microphone to record the guitar track.  I think I’ll use the Peavey tube amp as well.  I’ll mic the cabinet with an SM57 and then I’ll put a condenser mic up in the room somewhere.  Since I’m doing all that, I can use a ribbon mic I have as well to mic the cabinet.  That way I’ll have at least three tracks for the same guitar, each one sounding slightly different.  The room mic will give some natural reverb as well.  Those three tracks can then be mixed into one gutiar track when the time comes, or even used separately for a stereo effect to help fill out the sound.  Ooh yeah, I’ve got a good feeling about this.  I even made a video for those interested in that sort of  thing. I'll post the rough  mix of the song soon!

Dave Grohl has been busy the past few weeks...

Performing a secret show in LA :

Finishing recording:

Finding a new favorite guitar:

And playing a role in the new Muppets Movie:

Well, I’ve been busy too:

Working:

Yodelling:

And playing the ukulele!

Don’t look back Dave, I’m chasing you down.  Gotta catch up! 

Brian Regan is one of my favorite comedians and today I thought of his bit on being bad in school (at 3 min 30 seconds):

I think the worst day was the day that the science project was due.  Waking up that morning, that was fun, huh?  Your head would pop off the pillow, “Oh no...That’s due today...I had nine months to work on it and did nothing...I have a cardboard box.”

Yesterday Dave Grohl tweeted this: “Last vocal on the record! http://yfrog.com/h2qourj”

Oh, no...

It hasn’t been nine months and it’s not like I haven’t done anything. But at this point, Dave Grohl is ahead. He is beating me. Poop mouth.

We have drums recorded for three more songs.  We have guitar tracks and vocals done, but lo and behold, we are nowhere near complete to recording the basic tracks for the album. Today I recorded two guitar tracks and a ukulele track for Pete’s sake, but it’s never enough!  How, oh how, can I live up to this man?  I can’t and that’s just what I’ll have to live with won’t I?  

But there is still hope.  The new Foo Fighter’s album will be out in the spring hopefully, so I’ve still got time to beat Dave Grohl.  All is not lost yet, however.  I will prevail in the end!

Check out our drummer wailing away on some awesome drums!  Take THAT Dave Grohl!  Hoowah!

So the latest tweet from Mr. Dave Grohl is "Crash crash crash." with a video of a speaker playing the drum track to one of the new Foo Fighter songs where the cymbals crash three times in succession.  Check out the video here.  Okay, now that you've done that, listen to this:  I started mixing drum tracks last night that we recorded months ago for the new Brother Howe album and noticed a suspiciously similar "crash crash crash" in our song.  Coincidence?  Check it out:

 Okay, so maybe you can't hear the crashes quite as clearly in the video as I can hear it in person.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  But that doesn't take away from the fact that big mega-rock star Dave Grohl should have better things to do than steal our genius.  If you could copyright cymbal crashes I'd be all over this but there's no sense in fighting The Man.  Or Dave Grohl.

I hate Dave Grohl.