But that makes it sounds more like a retrospective. "redvinegar's greatest hits!" or "songs you heard pedro play in java haus years ago!" and obviously, we prefer the latter to the former. But still, a greatest hits album for a first album, recorded on equipment ranging from a tape recorder to a four-track, burned on to CD-Rs? And of material that you've heard a million times? Uhh, no thanks. And this is not to mention the important fact that to have a greatest hits album sort of necessitates that you have a few hits.

This means that meanwhile... might not be what you expect, especially if you just heard us play for the first time, or haven't known us personally for a few years. And it may not stand up to your expectations. However, for those of you who have been fans and friends, meanwhile... is what we've been doing in the meantime, between that point in time when you first asked, "when are you guys gonna record" and the summer of 2000, when we all sort of first parted ways.

That's how this disc came about. It was May of 2000, and we had gotten together for what was going to be our last practice for a year and a half. We'd been playing at the 'Wood a lot that spring, and at a few other places, and it had been a lot of fun. But other things were calling, Los Angeles, summer, et al, and so we decided to record a practice, just to have it to hang on to and pull out, in case we never got the chance again.

"The Living Room Sessions" turned out so well, that we thought about making a little cd out of it, maybe an EP, something understated yet cool, trying to encapsulate what we had been doing and the music we were playing. From there the idea of adding other recordings, early stuff of Phil and I, a couple tracks from a practice in Anderson Chapel, and a few surprises seemed to flow naturally. And like a lot of things, the idea got dropped and sat dormant for about a year.

In the meantime, Phil fell in love and got engaged, and when his wedding started to come around he got the ball rolling again to finally get this CD put together, so that we could have it at the wedding (where redvinegar played at the reception and at a wednesday night party). And by that time, we weren't as worried about being understated because hey, who did we have to impress? So we indulged ourselves and added a few pictures to the layout, ran over to Kinkos and Office Max, and had a little CD-stuffing party in my office. And thus, meanwhile... was finished.

We're proud of it. At least, I know that Phil and I are; for me, it's a lot of happy memories and good times spent with good friends, making music that was not only just fun, but was also deeply personal and important to us. Having it on a disc that we can give to our friends and share with people and just say, "here it is!" is a blessing. And I know that for me at least, its technical shortcomings aren't an issue. They're even sort of a token of its authenticity -- it's one of those things like when you hear your voice on the phone and you have to step back because you didn't recognize yourself. Here is a clearer picture of those times and that music than we could have intentionally tried to create.

Peter

International orders and all questions can be directed to pedro@redvinegar.net.