Chris Walla and I have worked together many times throughout our seven years of acquaintance, but despite constant threats, we'd never really collaborated on anything together until the fall of 2004, when he was on break from Death Cab for Cutie touring and recording duties and I was sitting around staring at the ceiling for a change. We went into the Hall of Justice and recorded three songs in two days, with the idea that I would use them on the Sean Nelson and His Mortal Enemies record. Fortunately or un-, these recordings sounded nothing like anything else on that inchoate album, standing alone in a way that sort of demanded its own project—after a bit of reflection, Chris agreed, so we're calling it The Vernacular. We almost have an album's worth of material now. Given the scheduling reality of Death Cab (I'm pretty sure they have a day off scheduled for May of 2006), not to mention my busy schedule of self-Googling, The Vernacular will have to be stuffed into whatever cracks we can find. But find them we shall. You never know when and where this stuff might turn up. Watch this space for deets on the ongoing saga.