Jay, Edward, Paul, Scott and I all got together for our first rehearsal in Jay’s Arlington Heights basement on Sunday, June 23, 2002. Some of us were just meeting for the first time, and others of us had long running friendships. The syrupy Chicago summer afternoons had well arrived, and we only had a couple of days to get ready for the first trek in support of “The Palace at 4am”. The room was a sweatbox, a mesmirizing musical laboratory of guitars, keyboards, amplifiers and curiosities. Tools, master tapes, coffee cans full of god knows what. In all, I quickly found we were surrounded by artifacts of constant pursuit, souvenirs and useful belongings from Jay’s long running and undamageable relationship with music. Felt like I could have hidden away in there behind, between, inside of something, and it might’ve been hours before anyone found me. The musician/fan factor split me down the middle viciously. It felt sensible and familiar, but in some ways I was just flat out geeke...