I tend not to devote too much space about my band, As Yet Unbroken, here on Bleeding Neon, as there are already multiple web venues I use to promote and connect with for the band, including the official website (which I just rebuilt, you should check it out), MySpace and Facebook. But as music is a big part of my life (and as you should know by now, has been for decades), it’s pretty much unavoidable that news related to it will show up here.

We’re in the process of writing and recording new songs. Well, actually, the writing’s been done for a while — the recording is taking longer. We’re tracking everything in the somewhat-inadequate home studio I have set up in my house, the same place in which we practice. I’m running a mix of lo- and hi-tech, running microphones through an analog board to a digital recorder (in this case, GarageBand on my iMac).

GarageBand is surprisingly powerful. I actually do own more “pro” recording software, namely Cubase VST, but when I bought the iMac this summer, I found it wasn’t compatible with the version of Cubase I’ve had for about a year or two. So I just started tooling around in GarageBand, because it was there (comes pre-installed as part of “iLife”). I didn’t expect to do much more with it.

But after spending some time getting to know it better, and after seeing an amazing quality difference in recording from our earlier efforts, I have to say: This is the best bit of free software I think I’ve ever used. iPhoto and iMovie kind of suck balls, but GarageBand — you’re all right. My friend Sean, who sings in a group called Mosaic (you may have seen them on MTV’s Top Pop Group) agrees with me — he uses GarageBand on his MacBook to record stuff on the road and on the fly and seems pretty pleased with it.

Anyway, here’s a glimpse behind the scenes at our rehearsal and recording of one new song, “Last Words.” It’s a bit of a departure from our heavier material, with a punk-ish guitar amended by a New Order-like drum pattern:

I just got word today we’re going to be played on Area 107.9-FM’s “Local 107.9” show this Sunday, Jan. 11. If you’re in Las Vegas and near a radio at 10 p.m. that night, I wouldn’t be sad if you listened in. Heck, you could even call up after DJ Joe Sacco plays whatever song from our three-song demo and say “man, those kids are all right!”

Or come down to the Freakin’ Frog (4700 S. Maryland Parkway) on Saturday, Feb. 7, when we’ll be playing live with Think and Fractured, starting at 10 p.m. It’s a free show, and it’s 21-over, so there won’t be a bunch of whippersnappers there to make me (or you) feel old.