I'm not sure when any of my songs will be on iTunes. That would be neat. I may have to look into that. For now, though, you can look at a brand new mini-site devoted to the "For You (Greatest Hits Vol. 2)" album here.

I just shoved a microphone cable through a hole in the baseboard of my living room and ran the end of it down into my studio. There is a piano in my living room right next to the hole. The drill died before I could widen the hole enough to accomodate shoving another back end of a mic cable through with the one cable already in there. (Plus the cable for cable, the original purpose of the hole) It now seems possible or even probable that I will soon have stereo recording of a wonderfully bright, in-tune piano available to me. If this works it will allow me to record to their fullest potential the following songs (roughly in order of priority):

Electric Light
Eddie Gee
Million Dollar Idea
Brute Waltz
The Imaginary Cat (GUH)

I don't know why I didn't do this right after we moved in two plus years ago. Because I am a lazy underacheiver I guess. Now I will just wait for the drill to charge overnight then this weekend I can finish the job.

In related news, Electric Light and Eddie Gee are slated to be part of a greatest hits volume 2 (1997-2005) collection tentatively called "For You". Tentative song list is:

1. My Name Is Paul (w/real drums, new vocal, 2nd bridge) (Pop Machine)
2. Ron Cey (possibly w/real organ replacing keyboard/saxophone fills) (Pop Machine)
3. Play (Towering Columns of Sunshine)
4. Emerson Avenue (Pop Machine)
5. Here (Love Songs)
6. One House (Bubba)
7. Eddie Gee (Towering Columns of Sunshine)
8. Bittersweet Love Song (live version)
9. My Baby's Home (Love Songs)
10. Wave 61 (Nothing Personal)
11. One More Day (Pop Machine)
12. Swqeatshirt (live version)
13. Fresno (Bubba)
14. Electric Light (featuring Kimbatina) (Bubba)
15. Milestone Motel (edit) (Little Stranger)
16. End of the Skies (w/ 2 new verses) (Bubba)
17. Time In The Middle (Bubba)

The first greatest hits collection was called Bullet Collection and was distributed on cassette. A remastered version may yet appear with the following (slightly revised) tracklist:

1. Slush (new version)
2. Someday (They Ain't Tires)
3. Pelican Man (Ringin' Far And Wide)
4. Child's Hallucination (Mellby 324)
5. Ark of the Covenant (Joe Rain & The Deserts)
6. the blame (Joe Rain & The Deserts)
7. Grudge (Last of the Pink Lemonade)
8. But Not In May! (They Ain't Tires)
9. Winter Ghost (Mellby 324)
10. Joe Rain & The Deserts (new version)
11. (Today I Don't Mind Living in a) Small Town (new version featuring Pete Rivard)
12. Farmer's Song (Suburban Decay)
13. I Wish I Had Kissed You Tonight (Springbrook Young)
14. Rio Grande (They Ain't Tires)
15. Nothing I Can Do (Ringin' Far And Wide)
16. Bullet Collection (Joe Rain & The Deserts)
17. Dream I Had Last Night (Love Songs)

I had a great show with Kaptain Karl last Saturday night at the Eden Prairie Dunn Bros. We had a fun rehearsal a few days before and polished up some of our favorite songs from our first CD. "Inkwell", "Behind the Curtain", and "Oh, No" all received very enjoyable performances. Weird that all those songs are now about 10 years old. Also did some Simon & Garfunkel and I had forgotten arrangements of who sang what, but we did ok.

Show was so enjoyable I started recording "Cricket", our best co-written relatively young (last three years) song. Had all afternoon and evening yesterday and am working on it more this morning before going in to work at 11:45. So far has rhythm and lead electric guitars, bass, and my vocal. It's sort of a sequel to "The Children" from Art Is A Lie, Baby and Generic Mayhem. When it finally makes it to a CD, it will be Great Uncle Helmer's fifth album.

1. Synthesis (cassette only so far)
2. old man will travel
3. Generic Mayhem
4. Fall (mastering/artwork yet to be completed)
5. as-yet-untitled-featuring-"Cricket", "Iceland", "The Sequel to Behind The Curtain (Now That I Know What's Back There)"

Sixth if you count the truncated "Anybody Seen My Wallet" project, from which otherwise unrecorded material may someday be mixed, mastered, and released. So I felt excited about that and am going to go to play at the Freighthouse Dunn Bros. with Karl tonight from 8-10 p.m. Hooray.