Critic.

I've taken 'Critic' from idea/concept to song in the last 24 hours. It now has a few different parts and is remarkably full sounding give how few elements it has so far.

One of the things that's been different with this group of songs is that Rebecca is hearing them much earlier. For the last album, and 'Wiser', in particular, I finished the songs almost completely before I played them for anyone else. I'm not sure why I used to do things that way - probably just from my early days of working by myself. Anyway, now things are more collaborative in all directions and it's working out very, very well.

We'll more or less be taking the weekend off to spend some time with friends and enjoy the weather. Next week, we'll be focusing more on preparations for the upcoming performance in San Francisco. Much has changed since the last one...

RYAN

You Are Here.

Tonight more progress made on 'Sunday Low' and 'Stop Thief'. Rebecca has some great new ideas for 'Breath Makes Smoke' but, unfortunately, I've got to redo it quite a bit faster before it's ready for new vocals.

I've attached an image of the album directory which I think you can click on to enlarge. One or two of the titles may be final, but they're mostly temporary.

RYAN

Reverse The Formula

As time goes on these days, I seem to be moving away from many of the tastes I've carried over the last several years. As you get older, it's accepted that you outgrow things - settle down - whatever. For me, I'm finding the opposite to be true - I want badly to shake off complacency. To rewrite things. Redefine. My eyes now seem to take in colors of all hue and saturation. Sounds that previously struck me as daft or confusing now have their place and I understand them. Hopefully, I can make some useful science out of all this.

RYAN

The Cracks In The Sidewalk

Some days are full of little things. No songs, no projects, no rehearsals. No callused fingertips or achy voices. On these days, the subtleties of life can take on inflated significance. Libraries, classrooms, walks through town. This is what feels right today.

RYAN

Tempo

It's always a good idea to listen to mixes in the car, everyone knows that. Well, we're not even close to mixing... Today I drove around Marin a bit, listening to some of the new material hoping I'd be able to hear some of the elements of these songs in a different way.

Consistently, one of the most common things I notice is tempo - you listen to something in the car and if it's a little too slow, you can pick it up right away. For the new record, there aren't really any slow or downtempo tracks so it's important that things have the right energy pushing them forward.

RYAN

14 Is A Magic Number

Piled up a list of the new tracks last night and it looks like we're working with 14 this time. I think for this round we're going to try for 10 on the album in contrast to the somewhat engorged W&S album.

Been playing the stringed instruments a lot lately. Letting the electronics rest a bit. I've been spending a lot of time teaching my daughter piano which, frankly, leaves me a bit uninspired by keyboards in general. Though, it is so unbelievable to see a 6 year old grasping musical concepts for the first time. Our eventual goal is to turn Halou into a sort of Menudo where members change with the generations. We're in talks with the representatives for Ricky Martin's frozen embryos and things are progressing well.

I must also acknowledge the drunken display of green just outside my front windows. The season has changed here and it's dazzling.

Summer Comes

I'm sure the Summer is what the wind is blowing in today. Gusts of it.

Last night felt like a leap toward understanding what the next record is going to become. It's like looking back on the trail you've just climbed and you realize you have made it further than you thought you would. That's because our trail, this time, is very, very different than the one we're used to walking.

So, this week Rebecca and I have been trying to solidify a mid-tempo guitar track and last night I think we cleared the final major hurdle. I've been grasping for titles early this time so we don't end up naming things poorly in the end, but the only lyric I can hear well enough in this one is something about "the tipping point". Anyway...

RYAN

The Ides of April (Nearly)

I miss Rome.

Anyway.

I wrote a couple of new things this past week that have convinced me definitively that the next album is going to be something of a sharp turn from the last. That was my intention, of course, but in the past I have made similar aims only to remain, frustratingly, so similar. These most recent bits bring us up to around 14 or 15 tracks to work with for the album, which is pretty near what I was aiming for. I think we're trying for a solid 10-track album this time, in contrast to W&S. I'm more excited than ever to play the new material live as it's just got SUCH a different vibe than what we've been doing for the last several years.

On a different track, have you heard the Blonde Redhead record? It's funny to see the excessively hip deride it as their 'sellout' album. It's nearly without fault, as far as I can tell and I fully expected the Shins record to be my favorite of the year. Good music, despite every single negative force kicking against it, is so vibrantly alive and it's more exciting than ever to hear it.

The new Rolling Stone magazine has brief reviews of the latest batch of Depeche Mode reissues and they've pointed out what I've been saying to friends for some time (subjecting myself to much ridicule): re-evaluate 'Songs Of Faith & Devotion'! I still listen to this record often and it still sounds amazing.

RYAN>

Seeing, not hearing.

I'm afraid I've little to report on Halou-related activity for the past week. I've solidly finished work on the Science Teacher EP and that's just taken it out of me musically for a bit.

My other pursuits usually struggle to find attention amidst all the playing and recording of music but lately things have really been coming into focus. My filmmaking 'career' is very much in its infancy but I am getting MUCH experience doing location shooting and direction. Very fun, but very different from the kind of work I'm used to.

We inevitably move closer to the actual recording dates for Halou and I'm getting that familiar feeling again: 'These are the songs you've got so if you want more to pick from, you better write 'em now.' Feeling very untethered stylistically these days and hoping some concentrated studio time will help me to see the direction things will go. I'm sure it will.

The April Flowers That May Devours

The sad demise of Tower Records also meant the obsolescence of the Bayside subsidiary of which Halou was a part. Furthering the theory that Halou shall never rest at a single label long enough to find any lasting comfort, we now move on to Dynamophone, who will reissue 'Wholeness & Separation' to prevent it from falling into the silent blackness much the way its two predecessors have done. As W&S is not even 1 year old, we have decided not to dress up the repress, but rather do a quiet continuation of the current format and simply keep the thing in print. However, as stated before, Dynamophone will also be issuing the (Sans Soucie-like) 'Skimming' which collects all W&S related material under one little umbrella thus saving cd racks everywhere from distended 'H' sections and diminishing the brutish relevance of such Western propagandist organizations as Hold Everything and the Container Store. It's our duty as counter-consumerist revolutionaries, is it not?

JESUS