"Can't you guys come together with your three points of view and combine them into something?" she asked. "It would seem that is the logical conclusion."
"And hopefully that's what we'll do," Jake agreed. "We've only had a few sessions now. We'll get a list together by the deadline. We always do."
Most likely they would have, had they been allowed to continue. Now, however, with the new album on hold in favor of a live album, the band found something else to argue about. This argument, however, was not with each other, at least not at first. It was with their oldest and most formidable enemy — Crow and the rest of National's production team.
National had the right to put together either a live album or a Greatest Hits album at any time during the duration of their ownership of the rights to the Intemperance collection of songs. The band could have argued until blue in the face, could have screamed and threatened lawsuits, but the language of their contract was quite clear on this issue. National owned the rights to all tunes recorded by Intemperance, including live tracks, for twenty-five years beyond the expiration of the contract itself and they could do with them what they wished. The same contract, however, gave the band the right to oversee the development and production of any album bearing the Intemperance name, including the right to decide which tracks went on the album (subject to veto by National management), what order they went on, and how the final mix of the tunes in question were done. These were rights that Jake, Matt, and especially Nerdly insisted upon utilizing for the live album.
Crow had tried to talk them out of it, of course. "Look, guys," he said. "Just keep enjoying your vacation. We've already given you the standard advance money for the live project so your bank accounts are back to overfull again. Travel, ride your dirt bikes, go fishing, fly your airplanes, run your restaurants. In short, enjoy yourselves. The live tracks are already recorded and only have to be mixed. We don't really need any of you in the studio for any of this — at least not until the final mix when we might have to do some overdubs on some of the weaker tracks."
"Overdubs on a live album?" Matt asked, fuming. "Don't even fucking think of it!"
"You think I'm going to allow some National Records technician to mix a live album?" Nerdly asked. "I will be there for every session."
"Me too," Jake said. "There's no way in hell we're going to let you throw something together with our name on it without consulting with us. We'll come up with the track list and give approval for all tunes put on the album."
As much as the band was stuck consenting to the production of the live album in the first place, National was similarly stuck with allowing the band to exert their control over that production. It was, after all, in their contract. So instead of enjoying themselves with travel, meaningless fornication, gross intoxication, and every other excess the members of Intemperance were so famous for, the three core members were now showing up at nine o'clock sharp five mornings every week and working in the studio usually until six in the evening — sometimes later. Every week, it seemed, there was a fresh clash between the band and their management over the vision for the album in question.
The first battle had come over the name of the album. National was pushing for something along the lines of Let The Darkness Descend or Falling Between The Cracks (making reference, of course, to the infamous coke from the butt crack session that had taken place during their first tour). Nerdly had come up with the title: Thrills Alive, making reference to Intemperance's most popular live song — The Thrill Of Doing Business. Although both Jake and Matt had thought Nerdly's idea a good one they did not wish to put any emphasis on one particular song. After a drunken, stoned session at Jake's house one night they had come up with what would become the actual title: Intemperance — In Action. Nerdly, upon hearing it, had quickly agreed (although he still liked his idea better).
"In Action?" Crow had complained when told about it. "That's boring! I'd be more inclined to go with Bill's idea than that."
"And we'd be forced to go along with you if it were you making the final decision," Jake said in return. "But you're not. We've already made up our minds, Crow. In Action it's going to be."
From there the arguments had spread to what the album cover itself was going to look like. National favored some sort of satanic imagery, of course, while the band wanted nothing more than a wide angle shot of them on stage and performing. That led to the issue of just who should be seen in the onstage picture. Should they use a shot where Darren was playing bass or one where Charlie was playing? National didn't really give a shit either way since their satanic imagery had been shot down, but all five members of the band had strong feelings about this particular subject. Matt and Coop both insisted that Darren's picture be on the cover shot.
"Darren is the real bass player for this band," Matt argued. "No offense, Charlie, but we hired you as a replacement while Darren is recovering from the fuckin' botulism. You'll get credit on the tracks you played on and you'll get your share of the royalties from the album, but you don't get to be on the front."
Jake and Nerdly both disagreed with this logic. "We already know we're going to use the tracks recorded on the last tour for most of the basic tunes," Jake said. "Those were the recordings with the best sound quality because they were using newer equipment. Charlie is playing on those tracks, not Darren. His picture is the one that belongs on the album cover."
"Then we'll just have to use the older tracks for the basic tunes," Matt said.
"I apologize, Matt," Nerdly cut in at this point, "but I must strenuously disagree with that idea. The older tracks are palatable and can be mixed into something of LP quality, but they are inferior to the latest tracks from the Book tour. I was personally able to set the levels on those tracks and they are pristine."
The argument started to get quite heated before Charlie himself stepped in. "Dudes," he told them. "I don't care if Darren's on the front of the cover or not. Put him on there. I know I'm just the replacement. I'm happy enough that I'm even involved in this at all. I was about to jump off a building before you guys let me in the band. Why should I care if my picture is on the front or not?"
Jake tried to keep arguing on Charlie's behalf even though Charlie himself was in favor of the Darren shot. It seemed a matter of honesty and principle. If Charlie was the one who had played bass on the majority of the album's tracks, he should be the one to be featured on the cover. In the end, however, Nerdly took the side of Charlie, Matt, and Coop, not because he thought they were right but because he knew that this was ultimately a stupid thing to be arguing about. Jake was left standing alone on the issue and was forced to give in.