I recorded and mixed the first two tracks (in addition to 8 others) over 2 days at Farm Fresh in Bloomington in early 1998.

I met Jesse the drummer while working at Outback. I'd just finished the IU Audio program and, with no real vetting, we decided I would record their record. No one involved had a lot of cash, so we settled on $7/ hr for me (I insisted I needed more than my $6.50 / hr dish washing rate). Farm Fresh in it's early form was $250 / for a 24 hr. day. With no pre-production, we tracked, overdubbed and mixed 10 songs in 2 days. We tried for 1 day, but I vaguely recall I passing out after 20 hrs. and we booked a 2nd day.

This is not a technical recording I'd brag about by any stretch, but I'll brag about the band. 3 dudes. No cash. Bing was in high school and a better / cooler guitarist than most folks will ever hope to be. So many hooks and he really didn't miss. Zach was on bass / vox and clearly a solid front man with killer lyrics and a great voice. What I didn't get at the time was how good Jesse was. This recording is pretty unforgiving in how "tight" the drums were recorded, but listen to the left hand snare work in Hilljack Slack - it's tight as hell. The track "Bikini Spiders" left hand work is absurd how tight it is. Most of these were 1 - 2 takes on a 1" 16 track. No edits. No ProTools.

I'm listening to the rest of the record right now and it's really good. Some mixes are better than others, but that's how it goes with 90 minutes per track. I'd be happy to post the rest if the band were cool with it. Honestly, the 2nd track "It's Porn!" is such a classic, it's a shame it's not on here. Cheers, Jay