Seven of the ten songs on "Alcoholy" were written and rehearsed before the tape started rolling. This was a new strategy compared with the epic "Hall of Shame" which was written and recorded at the same time. The idea was that if we knew the songs first this would speed up the entire recording process. The other three were cobbled together the night before the session.

The initial step was to capture the drum and bass tracks. There was an allotted space for nine drum tracks and one bass track. Unfortunately the album couldn't be made without the bass actually having it's own track. We could have really used another drum track for the finger cymbals. But that's neither here nor there. On the first day, rhythm tracks for the first seven tunes were laid down in their entirety including sound checks and mic set up in about six hours. One week later the remaining rhythm tracks were laid with the same set up. The total time consumed by rhythm tracking was 8 hours.

The next step was to record the vocal tracks and guitar parts. We knew Danny would be able to lay down his vocal tracks like clockwork since we had been playing the songs for months. However, Danny's lyrics, which were written on a roll of bounty paper towels were destroyed when Chris spilled a beer and used them to mop up the mess. Since Danny didn't have the words memorized, they all had to be re-written from scratch with the empty spaces filled in with plagiarized portions of Sports Illustrated. That done he moved on to the vocal tracking. The vocals were completed with the following results:

The total time consumed by the vocal tracking was 82,079.27 hours. Tom had to be rushed to his psychiatrist's office 19.25 times because of fits of uncontrollable violence and sobbing. Chris and Rich never want to hear those songs again...ever.

Tommy was up next to record guitar tracks. The first takes of each song were just incredible. The tone and the performance were unbelievable considering it was the first attempt. Unfortunately, these tracks were recorded over and we were never able to duplicate those magical virgin moments. The total guitar tracking time ended up being 79,882.12 hours. In all fairness, for 8,337 hours of that time the guitar was accidentally unplugged and nobody noticed.

Tommy finished the last guitar parts the morning we were supposed to enter Studio Chicago for mixing. The engineer, Al, was late in arriving because his toupee was glued on crooked and he stayed in the john until he was able to melt the glue with hot water and fix it. Too bad he still looked like a baboon's asshole with eyes when he walked in. He jumped into action executing a classic mixing move almost immediately. It only took him seconds to pussy out all the bass and drums virtually eliminating any interest and motivation by the rhythm section. The mixing proceeded with Tarbender and after a while Chris and Rich went to get some beer since they had nothing to do with the sound anyway. Supposedly there was a liquor store around the corner. It was closed. Go figure. Studio fucking Chicago. So they started walking and about five fucking miles later they got lucky. They did the whores and then kept walking another five miles until they came upon an old drunk guy bar with a package goods sign. An old fart blew the dust off a coupla 12 packs and we were heading back. When we got back they were just about to finish the initial preliminaries to mix Tarbender. After a few hours of Tarbender we didn't know whether to puke or take a diarrhea dump right on the mixing console. It was obvious then we each had to take a break separately to avoid somebody getting strangled. We had already seen the deluxe lounge with big screen TV and week old coffee. Unfortunately we couldn't use the lounge because there was a class in engineering going on. This "class" said the TV was bothering them. They couldn't concentrate. We were making noise. Boo Hoo Hoo Hoo little baby ass wipes. I think that class was called "How Not to treat a Goddamn Paying Fucking Customer you Dick Head". So we finished the mixing on two songs and the timer ran out. We had budgeted a certain amount of cash for the session and it was gone. We just had enough to master a final mix. It looked like our concept album might turn out to be a maxi single. We only had applied the jumper cables to Al's balls for a few minutes when he decided to make us a deal to mix some more tunes. The next session, Chris' car was in the shop and Rich had to work extra late, so they couldn't make it. Oh, Sorry! I mean really sorry. Love to be there. Maybe next time. At the end of another grueling mix session the suicide watch was in full force. Half the songs were done. That was it. We were broke. What were we going to do?

We went home. Dolphin Studios was where we would finish the album. Tommy was locked in the control room for the duration. He wasn't even let out to piss. The studio never smelled better though and his mixes were so much better than Studio Chicago's. We all kicked ourselves and each other for wasting so much time and money. Now we had new energy. We were angry. We were gonna make this the best Wakeup Call ever. Danny blurted out that he screwed two fat pigs in Lake Geneva. Rich said "great album concept, let's call it 'Alcoholy'!

We mastered with a different dick head at Studio Chicago. Then it went to Chris, Deb and Kent for the artwork. Fortunately, they slightly changed some of the original concept into what you see on the cover now. They also changed the album title to "Yah Dude" but that was rejected in favor of the original.

The album complete, we diligently set about the gargantuan and complicated task of cranking up the promotional machine. Danny spear points the operation by looking for gigs all over town and rubbing elbows with the Who's Who of the ever burgeoning Chicago music scene. He proved his commitment to the band and finds plenty of work for the boys.

Chris took over the task of web promotions and e-mails hundreds of people a week all over the world with entertaining info about Wakeup Call and Alcoholy. He seeks out and discovers new and exciting online music magazines and provides clips, photos and interviews to his contacts. He also promotes their sites as well, ever-expanding Wakeup Call's entertainment empire.

Tommy remains the ultra webmaster and initiated our real wake up call service business that places a phone call automatically from a computer. We have over fifteen thousand customers already, and this part of Wakeup Call World nets 75 times what the band takes in on a monthly basis. Way to go Tommy!

Rich is running Wakeup Call World's incredibly busy merchandising center. Thousands of CD's, posters, tee shirts, stickers, coffee cups, plastic combs, cotton balls, baby aspirin and ace bandages are sold and shipped daily. The free standing brick and mortar store (Wakeup Call World World) is under construction and will have it's grand opening in April 2003.

With all this commerce going on it's hard to believe we have time for live appearances. Here are some Alcoholy tour dates. We'll see you there!

SAT 24 NOV 02 --- Cabaret Metro SAT 02 DEC 02 --- Chicago Theatre SAT 09 DEC 02 --- Allstate Arena SAT 15 DEC 02 --- Skyline Stage

SUN 25 NOV 02 --- Double Door SUN 03 DEC 02 --- Vic Theatre SUN 10 DE C02 --- UIC Pavillion SUN 16 DEC 02 --- Bill's Bar

Party Down!