This is the first and probably most important of our polls! Cast your vote on Hell Cow’s gracious ascend to the top, or its  inevitable failure!

Today we were graced with the presence of the all mighty Dan! Dan is a friend of ours and has been for many years. He is an exceptional guitarist, but a terrible friend; but hey, you can’t win them all! We used to jam with him on a regular basis, but now his job is more important than his friends. Dan works third shift at some shit-hole in the next town over which sucks because we don’t get to see him very often. But today was one of the few times we could hang out, so we made the most of it… by going to Wendy’s… then Jamming! Perhaps one day he will tell his boss how he really feels, and quit. Then he can join us and make absolutely no money!

Hell Cow is looking for a singer, and today we had our friend Tom come by and try out.  We started off by playing him some of the songs that Chris had written . Initially, he hated them and wanted us to die in the worst way possible for conjuring up such blasphemy, but eventually we sweet talked (read bribed) him into confessing it is the best thing he has ever heard.

Later, we showed Tom to our underground lair (A.K.A. Studio). We started jamming out some System of a Down because it was something we all knew. Tom had a distinct and interesting vocal style, but a terrible memory for lyrics (“disorder!!! Disorder!!!…….. Disorder!!!!”). Not being sure how he would sound with our song Agony… we went upstairs and ate pizza. While devouring triangular bits of love, Tom shared his old band’s MySpace page with us, which for the sake of your eyes (yes… your eyes), I will not share it with you.

Shortly after pizza, we returned to the secret underground lair and set up the mics. Now, Hell Cow isn’t some mean boss which wants everything done the way it says;  we are flexible (no not that way). We had Tom do a few (read a thousand) takes in different vocal styles. In one take Chris would tell him what he wanted for the song and Tom would attempt it. In the next take, he would sing clean vocals, and then he would mimic metallicuchh and megadeth for shits and giggles. We had a ton of fun, but at the same time we were actually very productive and finished recording the vocals for Agony. We’re not too sure if his style will match our song until we hear the mix, but we’ll keep you posted!

Today we went to the local music store (the one better than Guitar Center) and picked up a Shure SM-57 dynamic microphone. The plan is to use it to record guitars, the snare drum, and vocals (till we have enough money to afford a nice condenser mic). We went with the Shure because it’s basically an industry standard mic… and it was cheap.

We also picked up a new head for Mike’s snare. He went with an Evans genra dry. It has a built-in baffle ring on the inside, as well as some holes in the head that are supposed to help lower overtones. So far, he’s pleased with it; it has a nice crisp attack, and very short overtones; just what he was looking for.

On a side note, there is no concrete evidence proving that we may or may not have bought a case of beer at the huge liquor store next door…

Finally! We had everything set up properly (or so we had hoped) to start recording drums! For no reason in particular, we decided that “Agony” would be the best song to start recording. That meant that it was up to me to lay down a drum track first…

Eager, and excited to be recording our first song, I jumped right in with the intro; I had to do 16ths beats on the high-hats with an accent on the last hit. It sounded simple enough but this being my first time recording drums all of the pressure was on me. Let’s just say I gave it my best… and failed.

In the end, I realized two things; I needed a lot of practice, and I needed a new high-hat stand. I never actually sat down and practiced this song; usually I hop on the drums, Chris grabs his guitar, and we start jamming. From now on, I’ll actually have to practice! As for the high-hat stand, I was using a stand that Manny had given me for free. It sounded terrible. The old saying rings true; you get what you pay for… and I didn’t pay shit. So it was off to the “store-that-is-a-thousand-times-better-than-guitar-center” to buy a new high-hat stand. Stay tuned for new high hat action!

Our Bassist, Manny has stepped aside from Hell Cow! Did he leave to escape from the embarrassment which Project Hell Cow will bring upon us? Nope, he wouldn’t mind the shame or the *cough* massive success *cough*; Manny has moved to Ohio to live with his girlfriend in their new apartment!Yet another person successfully escapes the depressing shit hole of a town in which we so valiantly call home *shivers with disgust*.

We dropped by his house the night before he left and met his girlfriend, hung out, and even helped him pack (a box or two…)! Naturally, we got him drunk so his 12 hour drive, which started at 5am, would be a tiny bit worse (you’re welcome Manny =P).

We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors, and hope to see him back soon… but not the “I lost my job, and declared bankruptcy” kind of back… or the “I pushed my girlfriend down the stairs, slapped a stripper named Susan, ran over a dog, and have to lay low for a few…” kind of back either… In fact, if that ever happens, please don’t come here Manny. We don’t want any trouble =).

Welcome to the Official Project Hell Cow Website!

What is Project Hell Cow?

Project Hell Cow is an online documentary featuring daily blogs, videos, polls, interactive discussions, and audio clips which follows the daily happenings of Hell Cow – a metal/rock band that is set out to rockinate the music world (that’s right, that’s rock and dominate in one word… put that in your pipe and smoke it.) Project Hell Cow will cover everything ranging from song writing, recording, mixing, and mastering in our home studio, to playing shows at local bars, and attacking pigeons with long, pointy sticks. Tune into our video documentary series – Project Hell Cow on YouTube to see our progress! Follow us on our journey to ultimate success, or watch us fail miserably and become wife beating alcoholics; either way, it will be highly entertaining and will cause eventual loss of brain cells!

There are 3 main goals of the Project Hell Cow website; to have all of this content in one place, be able to share it with the world, and get feedback from our fans. So check back here often for updates on our progress. Blogs are added daily, and new videos episodes should be posted about once a week. Feel free to leave your thoughts as comments, and join the discussions on our message boards! You can also follow us by becoming a fan, subscribing, and following us on Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace,Tumblr, and our YouTube channel! Thanks for checking us out, and I hope we hear from you soon!