Today is our last day in the studio for a little while. We’ve been steadily knocking out remaining overdubs, some planned and others made up on a whim. Jonathan has turned in some great vocal performances so far, but we still have quite a few lead vocal tracks to go. Howard and I are going to pack him up and send him back home to his lovely girlfriend for some well-deserved time off. (He’s spent most of this year on the road with Okkervil River and Bill Callahan.)

We’ll reconvene on Dec 1st to do strings, woodwinds, brass, and any remaining overdubs. Then we mix and put it to bed. In the interim I’ll be doing a little more work on the new The New Year album. And sleeping.