What?? Throwing bolts?

So, Jason finally explains to me that "throwing bolts" means putting up your fingers (1st and 4th) while making a fist with the rest of your hand- like you're at a rock show!! So, coolio...now I get it.

We went out to Stanley Park yesterday and rocked the shizznit on the kiddie choo choo train....fun shite! We also ate some killer asians at Azia restaurant near our new digs at Sutton Place. We are rock stars and are ripe for the picking.

We had a piano player by the name of Dave Pickell come in to lay down the tasty jams on one of our songs, Lillian. He's a great player and brought exactly what we needed on the cut, and it only took maybe an hour.

I'm leaving in a few minutes with Zach and Jason (waiting for our runner Adam, good kid) to ride out of the city 20 minutes to Grouse Mtn. to ride the gondola and look out upon the city from the mountain side, instead of the beautiful city side.

Super spoiled, but never rotten,

- Jed and the rest of the a.m.

Hammer nails the guitar

Sat afternoon now, just heard my new favorite guitar part. Hammer strapped on the trusty Fender telecaster and ran through a Vox amp. The sound is amazing. The bridge and instrumental break of "Be Still" is now graced with the most sweet yet ripping guitar part of this entire session. Not only is it the way the instrument sounds but the finesse and authority Zach commands from the thing.
Throwing bolts here at the studio.
Cant wait for the finished product.
Jason

Saturday Morning...

Before Jed and I gathered our belongings for the hotel change over, we headed down Davie Street in search of a killer breakfast. Eureka, we found it! Unfortunately it being our last morning at the Sandman, we will have to journey from our new hotel back to Davie Street to get our fill of "The Dish". This small, healthy alternative breakfast joint was were I drank possibly the best smoothie I have ever had. Not possibly... actually! It was a simple Banana, Pineapple, & Orange, very frothy, very refreshing. Jed got some strange juice which contained carrots, celery, ginger and some other veggies which made the drink purple (I believe it could have been beets). Jed said it made him feel healthy. I'm glad I did not try it. We both ordered the Eggs Sophia Wrap with sun dried tomato basil spread, jack cheese, and sauteed mushrooms. By far the best breakfast we have had during our stay. We will be back. Rocking and staying fed with Jed...

Jason

Housekeeping!!!

Trent here. yesterday we dug into Lillian and i must say it is some of the best work this band has ever done. You fans will not recognize the song when you hear it. It is big, fat, washy and beautiful. hammer and jeff worked their asses off last night. Afterwards we hit a bar downtown and drank....and drank.....and drank....peed..drunk dialed our lawyer.......drunk dialed Donny.....and then drank. Hammer and I came back to our room with BK and trashed the place in all of our drunken glory. I sprayed benjie with the fire exteguisher as he came out of the bathroom. Funny...until we all couldn't breathe. The other guys wanted some more drinks so they went to the peep show across the street. After 45 minutes of looking at weiners they realized we are in the gay area of town (not that there is anything wrong with that). Hammer turned on the TV and kept making lewed comments about what he wanted to do to Jodi Foster's nose in the movie Contact. I spent the evening trying to push Hammer's and Benjie's twin beds together while they were sleeping so they could wake up in a Trains, Planes and Automobiles moment but instead I kept tipping Benjie over and onto the floor. this morning while sleeping on the fold out I awoke to Housekeeping peeking around our door, horrified at smashed bananas, crackers, broken sugar packets and tiped over tables. I apologized and then said, "Need sleepy........get out....must get sleepy..."

The music is going amazing. I am shocked with how huge it sounds. See you all soon.

~Trent

Shot down....in a blaze of glory!

I think that's how the Bon Jovi song goes. Except that we actually saw "blades of glory" last night, and it was not the best movie I've ever seen. In fact, it wasn't even in my top 200, by a long shot. But it was consistently amusing and I did lol, so coolio.

We are at day 27, trying on daisy dukes and drum parts with our esteemed producer, jeff dawson, who is really tranforming our barge of a band into a finely tuned battleship cruiser. Everything sounds amazing, and I won't write too much for two reasons:

* BK is going under the knife as I write this because he's got many cool percussion toys that he wants to lay down, and I want to listen in the control room, without judgement.

* Here's our first (and possibly only) video we'll put up on this blog....check it out here!

Eating and sleeping well,

Jed and the experience

Bass tracks

I played bass tracks today and I'm very pleased with the takes. Jeff, our producer, had great input and vision to help out with the parts. My favorite track performance is "Still In Love With You", which is also my favorite song of the three. I used the Rickenbacker on it and "Be Still". The sound is deep and smooth. On "Lillian" I had the opportunity and pleasure of using Bryan Adams' 1962 Fender Precision Bass. Since he owns the studio it was here to use at our disposal. What a treat! The thing sounds great and is super playable. There is only a small amount of paint remaining on the bass. It looks like it has been on the road for most of its life. The tone is perfect for the openness of this song. Can't wait to hear the guitars next. Jed and I laid down a tight, solid, rhythmic foundation to build the songs upon. Having fun and living the dream....

Jason

All these great things...happening now!

We've got several super cool things goin' on today, and I'm not sure where to begin, and I'm pretty much hyped for it all so I've got to run off and get started:

We've got jason, our fearless, metal head bass player tracking in studio today...not really a metal head, just a metallica/pantera-afficionado.

I've managed to work in some great breakfasts, some better than others (bad bacon at hamburger mary's), and some killer snacks and early evening scarf fests consisting of panini sandwiches with cucumbers and cranberry compote, duck sausage tortellini and some price waterhouse bakery near the fantasy factory across the street form our sandman suites abode. No slight to the land of canadia, but we are enjoying our rooms and are feeling alive and reckless on the streets of B.C.!

Some big ass movie is being filmed literally right across the street from the studio, with catering, lights, wardrobe and fanny trucks parked round the block. We have been told by Mimi, our grand liason, that films/tv/mini series are constantly being created in and around vancouver, and if you go to bcfilmcommision.com or something, then you can see all films, etc. being produced. Elegy stars Penelope Cruz, Dennis Hopper and Sir Ben...Kingsley, so we've asked them over for a 'we are the world' esque danity kane sing-a-long later tonight. We'll see how that all turns out...

Some have asked if we can put music on the site as we progress....we'll see as I try to setup an audio blog or a live phone call chat blog or some shit....(I'm busy up here, so we'll see).

And finally, we've got Dustin Gould coming up today. He'll film us for a few days and then go home. We can't wait. For many days (at least two) I've dreamed of documenting five a.m. in their glory, reminiscing on past, present and future endeavors, so here's our big chance!

OK....gotta go back to work/fun/more fun than work

Love and Nagy,

five a.m. and sons

Studio Shots

Check out the band in the studio...


Trent, Jason, Jeff, Jed, Zach, Bree, Mike, Mimi & Benjie


Benjie in his fort



Hammer and Trent working on "Liliann"

Jason on bass

Jed....Umm.......

Didn't have to use my AK....today was a good day.

this is Jed. So I've finished drums on the first track, "be still", and it all sounds awesome. Our producer Jeff is amazing and he's got some amazing old 1942 drums that just make things sound incredible!

I'll let BK write more tomorrow bout his beverage elation, so for now I'll just say that it's time for bed, and we'll do it all again tomorrow on a few new tracks.

We also walked around the city today, got lost in a closed entrance to a shopping mall, stared in bewilderment, not only at the beautiful Vancouver water/sky/snow-covered mtn skyline, but were stopped in our tracks listening to wang chung. Who is wang?? And who is chung for that matter??

Also had some great pasta (pronounced paste-a here) across the street from our studio.

full and funny feeling...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Day 1

We made it into Vancouver last night. Met up at a bar with Mimi and Bree (Canadian Recording Services), Jeff Dawson (producer) and Mike Fraiser (Mixer). The hotel bar, Moxie, was blasting mindless house music all night. fortunately, after Trent bitched enough to the ho waitress, they turned it down. We ordered watered down drinks and Jed got the Salmon Wrap. We aren't sure if Canadians have a sense of humor yet, we'll let you know. We are staying in downtown, and so far the city is cool. We just arrived to the studio. It's fat. Most of the day today will be setting up the equipment and getting sounds while Jed waits for the lunch break. It was an early morning, as most of us wandered in around noon.

We'll keep you updated!

five am

We're off to Vancouver Saturday Night!

So, somehow, I've convinced the band to head up to Canada, Vancouver to be exact, to record some great new tunes with jdawson, whose had recent success with dpowter's (had a bad day!) big hit. Trent, our fearless lead singer and key motivator is now in BC I believe as he's going up a day early to get some details nailed down with jeff and finish up the schedule of what's gonna happen while we're there.

I am super excited to get on up to the great white city, for many reasons, one being that I love the area and two, because I'll run into some of my family, as the Friesen's are all over Vancouver.

We've got a videographer for a few days, so this should be fun....wish us luck!