so many things!!!!!!

1) first of all - my friend Jared Saltiel did the most amazing cover of my song Seasons which is up on his page. It's so beautiful, and I am so flattered that he liked the song enough to want to do his own version of it...he has such incredible production intuition and I love the double guitars, the charango, the drums...god damn, I almost like it better than my own. He thinks he overproduced it, but I think it's perfect. So please have a listen and support him and his music, he's a wicked multi-instrumentalist and songwriter and you would be foolish not to trek to see him play any time, any town. Check it out right HERE.

2) I went up to north campus with a couple mics, my MBox, and my laptop and went into one of the practice rooms to record some piano songs I had floating around that I wanted a recording of, which I have dubbed "the purple piano demos" due to the purplish tint of the piano I recorded them on. I'm not really planning on doing anything with them, so you can download or listen to them all HERE if you like them. Other than the piano version of seasons, the songs - "cat and mouse," "oh howard!" and "court and spark" (joni) were recorded live. Even though my crappy condenser mic definitely doesn't do that grand piano justice, I'm pretty excited about having new songs on there. If anyone for any reason wants the charlene myspace staples - modern nature, different colored eyes, and don't worry bout me - just send me an email (kayechar@Umich.edu) and I'll send them your way.

3) My friends Ben and Leah are in a band called Lightning Love! and they have pretty much become my new favorite Ann Arbor musical obsession...it's a trio of Leah ..boards, Ben on guitar, and Leah's brother Aaron on drums. Totally irresistible, catchy, indie pop, but it's more than that. They sing about real things - about smoking on the porch and bumming on the weekends, and boys who are taken - and the honesty and spirit is undeniable. Leah's childlike voice put together with the other instruments all combine to create this sonic quality that will never fail to make the corners of your lips curl up and inject a bit more sunshine in your step. Not to mention they're the nicest, most unassuming people ever. I think talented and nice go hand in hand, don't you? Check out their adorable demos on their myspace or come see their live show to have them charm your pants off with their sweet and sassy selves. God, I love them.

<4) WE ARE DONE WITH ALL THE TRACKING (except vocals - yikes!) After the next couple sessions with the Jimmer the thing is pretty much ready for mixing and mastering....aaaahhhh!!!!! I'm bursting with excitement about it, and I can't wait to finally let everyone hear it...it's really different than I thought it would turn out, but I couldn't be happier. Everything sounds beautiful and huge and insane. Jim has been unbelievable throughout this whole thing. He is one of, if not, my favorite people on the planet and to have somebody who is really into your music and does so much more than just press buttons is so invaluable (why is it that valuable and invaluable mean the same thing? I guess the same reason that a fat chance means the same as a slim chance... anyway...)

okay. enough gushing. I'm happy. it's springtime. I'm going to do nothing but read High Fidelity and listen to happy pop music this week.