This record has been forever in the making, but it wouldn't be Hot Cross if everything went smoothly or easily. What were we up to? After Fair Trades came out, we did close to 200 or so shows in support of it and began writing. After about 6 or so songs were completed, Josh left the band and we ended up scrapping everything since it had been written for 2 guitars. We toyed around with the idea of getting another guitarist but decided to go at it as a 4-piece. It took us a while to get back up to speed and readjust, and in late 2005/early2006 we finally hankered down and ripped this thing (kicking and screaming) out of ourselves. We set out in the summer of 2006 to document it and continued to write and refine everything up to the instant we were getting scratch tracks done in the studio. We put the songs to tape (errr, hard drive) and after 9 cosecutive 10-16 hour days, something just wasn't right. The songs didn't sound complete, the performances were "off", sonically it sounded muffled and the entire thing just didn't work.

After an attempted remix and agonizing over what to do, we called Josh (who has been working as a recording engineer since he left) to rerecord it and holed ourselves up in New Jersey to give this another try. We AGAIN mulled over the songs and gave some some serious rewrites, and wrote another song in the studio while recording (remember what I said about writing and refining up to the last minute).

Recorded by Josh Jakubowski @ Cannon Road. Art by Myles Karr. Layout by Ryan Patterson. 13 songs, about 45 minutes. Released on Hope Division/Equal Vision (CD), Level Plane (vinyl)

Our debut LP which was a little more controlled than "A New Set of Lungs". Getting drum sounds for this thing was a pain. Actually, getting ALL the sounds was a pain and while we were recording this a space shuttle blew up, which seems a fitting omen. We've only played Dissertation: 14 once live and probably won't ever again since we've since shuffled the lineup a bit. Half of the now unavailable vinyl version was on a sweet baby blue and the other half was black.

Recorded by Eric Kovortek @ Trax East. Layout by Matt Smith. 10 songs, the better part of an hour. Released on Level Plane (USA), Sonzai (Japan), Nova (CD in Europe), EWS (vinyl in Europe) and Building in Australia. Whew.

Recorded entirely by ourselves, (well, mainly Josh, with lots of assistance and love from Andrew "Fadooz" Frankel) this is our first recording with the new(ish) lineup of Josh and Matt switching to guitar and bass respectively. This was a learning experience and a first for us, but it turned out pretty bad-ass all things considered and while it stands up to our earlier material sonically, I think that our songwriting has improved by leaps and bounds. Some of the vinyl is on blue and gray split.

Recorded by Josh Jakubowski, Andrew Frankel and Hot Cross @ Cannon Rd Studios. Layout By Ryan Patterson of Auxiliary. 6 songs, somewhere around 20 minutes. brought to you by Level Plane (USA) and Sonzai (Japan). Sick.

Our debut EP. Most of this was written before Billy came into the picture (he was studying abroad in England) but listening to this, you'd never know. 7 songs, all written in about 3 months and banged out one weekend in Washington DC. This record was fun, fast and a little rough around the edges, but a few of these songs are still in our live set. I got in lots of trouble for doing this layout while I was still working a "real job" at a large cable channel. Too bad the vinyl is out of print because I was pretty happy with how the insert turned out. for the 10" version, 114 or so are on orange and some test presses were packed up in metal jackets and sold at a show in Philly.

Recorded by Jonathan Kreinik @ American Studios. Layout by Matt Smith. 7 songs. Released on Robodog (now Robotic Empire) initially on 10". Rereleased on CD by Level Plane (USA), Sonzai (Japan), Nova (CD in Europe) and EWS (12" vinyl in Europe)

This is a split with our tour compatriots, The Holy Shroud. This has one of our personal favorite songs on it, and the Shroud definitely gives us a run for our money with their own, "make you shit blood, it's so good" track. 100 of these are on wacky blue and white "pie" 4-way split vinyl. Another 300 or so are on clear vinyl with a blob of black in the middle. My inner record dork is happy that these variations exist. The remainder of the domestic press are on black vinyl. The Euro press is all on picture disks. Check your stool for hemoglobin.

Recorded by Josh Jakubowski @ Cannon Rd Studios. Layout By Daniel Danger. 1 song from each band, somewhere around 6 minutes. brought to you by Level Plane (USA) and Paranoid Records (Europe)

Tour only 7" with our favorite road-buddies Lickgoldensky that was made for our joint tour in the summer of '04. These guys are complete assholes for breaking up. 2 songs from each band and ours were 2 that were from the same session as the split with Light the Fuse and Run. Both these songs were supposed to be rerecorded for Cryonics, but "A Voice Turned Vacant" didn't make the cut, wheras a different version of "Patience and Prudence" appears here. I like my guitar parts better on here, and this version is a little rawer and faster. 500 pressed, 100 on white vinyl, 400 on clear. This shit is gone, sorry.

Recorded by Vince Ratti @ Skylight studios. Layout by Hrishikesh of 1AM Radio fame. 2 songs from us, 6 minutes or so. A Level Plane/Watson and the Shark split release.

2 songs from each band and the digital version has some videos of us in Germany and Light the Fuse looking all professional-like. "The Eye is a Tricky Machine" is still a staple of our live set and the best Light the Fuse track is on the flipside. The vinyl is long gone, but they were on orange, red, clear and mostly black. Also, due to mastering snafus, some were released with Hot Cross on both sides, with side b being the shitty mastering job that we rejected. Our then distributor had already assembled about 100 or so, so they just stuffed the correct version of the 7" in with the dooty one and a few confused chaps thought this was a double 7". Some people think that these versions are neat and collectable, but we chalk them up as a fuck up.

Recorded by Vince Ratti @ Skylight Studios. Layout by Matt Smith. 2 songs from us. Released on Level Plane/Elictric Human Project (USA), Sonzai (Japan), Nova (7" in Europe)

Benefit CD that's being put out for the National Association To Protect Children. in addition to our track, there are songs by NoFX, Jawbreaker(!!!), Coalesce (covering Jesus Lizard nonetheless), Darkest Hour, MXPX, Anti Flag, Against Me! and a whole slew of others.

1 song from us. Fat Wreck Chords put this out and it's for charity. Don't be an asshole and download this.

Label sampler and rarity CD that was released by Level Plane. A track from Fair Trades and Farewells was included along with tons of others from City of Caterpillar, Lickgoldensky, One AM Radio, Coliseum, Malady, Amanda Woodward etc. Nice.

Layout by Ryan Patterson/Auxiliary. 1 songs from us, whole lotta love from our label mates and friends.