Daisy Cutter began recording in the summer of 2001 when new found friends Johnny Walker met Worn Records Founder John Simmonds. In fact they worked together and before they knew if they were joined at the hip in the studio for what seemed like an eternity. Daisy Cutter rapped up mixing and mastering nearly 6 years later in the spring of 2006, but the art work still was not completed until 2008. Early copies of the record did surface before the official release, however nobody will confirm or deny how these “alternate” versions of the album got around. A variety of different album covers were played around with before Dan Vajda finally came on board to complete the packaging.

When The Misconducts embarked on recording their first full length record they had no idea it would lead to nearly a decade of snags, delays, births, broken bones, broken bottles, and every other form of breakage imaginable. None the less, and without a full time drummer The Misconducts began the first of countless sessions in studio with Worn Records. The plan was for Vocalist and part time Drummer Craig Anselmo to lay the drum tracks down for the rest of the band to record along with. The first song was recorded as single before the band decided to continue with Worn Records. Shifting Sands was completed and put in motion the rest of the record.

The next set of songs recorded were more frustrating for the band as this time they had a better idea of how they wanted to work, and put higher expectations on themselves as a recording group. After a few frustrating sessions trying to get the magical drum take down for Two From The Tailor, engineer John Simmonds gave it a go behind the kit and nailed it. Though Anselmo’s drums remain to this day on 4 songs of Daisy Cutter (Million Of You, Rat On A Stick, Shifting Sands, 2 Car Garage (alt version), Simmonds would perform the rest of the drums tracks on the record and would become The Misconducts drummer until 2008.

With 5 songs under their belt and more studio experience to draw on, the next few songs would prove epic. Johnny Walker wanted to slow the recording process down somewhat and spend more time on each song. With a couple of lengthy songs in mind Walker and Simmonds would get the ball rolling by finalizing the arrangements by recording drums, guitar and a rough vocal track for Whatcom County Lines. Once the song had been completed with the rest of the band, the same process would start again for See Your Face. These 2 songs took nearly an entire year to complete.

The end still far from sight, the band wanted to progress and grew frustrated with the amount of time being spent on each song. The decision was made to group a number of songs into a series of sessions again to at least get enough material down to choose from to put together a collaboration of the sessions for release. The final sessions began featuring Gone Travelin’, Rita’s Gone, Red Eye Express, Two Car Garage, and Mouse Holin’. These sessions were recorded in several different locations, and made use of a variety of drums, amps, guitars, and recording techniques. A cover of Chris Isaak’s wicked game was also recorded but never saw the light of day, though it may eventually end up somewhere.

Once mixing began it became less of a band project and more of Guitarist Johnny Walker and Engineer John Simmonds’ Editing hours and hours of tracks, mixing levels and tweaking every aspect of the years of audio footage. Walker would spend an unimaginable amount of hours listening, and re-listening to every aspect of the recording. He would take mixes home only to need to tweak the drum sound, or the bass, or the vocals. It was his baby and it became nearly out of control before finally rapping up production in 2006.

The writing of most of the songs span a number of years before the recording even started. Vocalist Craig Anselmo, and brothers Johnny and Jimmy Walker contributed to the majority of the song writing, while Lead Guitarist Glenn Sagman piped in on vocals on one of his  contributions, Rat On A Stick while leaving the singing for Anselmo on his other gem, Mouse Holin’. Reta’s gone a favorite of the band and their fans for many years turned out as great as any on the record. Anselmo’s haunting vocals accompanied by Walker’s chilling guitar intro lay the foundation for the rhythm section to blast their way in while the band pays tribute to their fallen friend.

For Engineer John Simmonds and Worn Records this was a learning experience having only started his recording studio a couple years before taking on the project. In fact few pieces of equipment used for the first session still remained in use by the time the final sessions were rolling. The sound of the record is one that grows on you. It’s not the most perfectly polished sounding record you going to find out there, it’s more a reflection of the recording process over such a long time. It captures rawness comparable to the Replacements or Husker Du records, while supplying punishing well balanced guitars tones only a vintage Les Paul/Marshall combo could. Drums sounds embraced by the cool, sweaty, stained, underground garage studio walls, and guitar solo’s captured on miracle first takes, and late night painstaking “off the clock” sessions.

Daisy Cutter is a story both in song and in memory. The album itself is filled with ups, downs and everything in between, while the blood sweat and beers that went into making it are a tribute to what rock and roll is. This album will never be repeated by anyone, it’s one for the ages.