Any advice for live studio recording?

howmuchdifference

My band will start recording sessions soon at our rehearsal space--a 1-story house (we usually rehearse in the basement). We're tired of burning cash at studios and not getting the right sound or very many songs. We're hoping that if we use that cash to buy our own equipment, we'll be able to take our time and get the sound right. We have a capable engineer within the band, although it does make things difficult for him to engineer and play at the same time.

We're also trying to capture the energy of our live performances. The studio stuff we have done in the past sounds very sterile to us. Our sound is kind of a grungy, punky rock sound with a 70s vibe. Somewhere among the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Blondie and (of course) Pearl Jam. You can hear some of our studio stuff at http://www.myspace.com/dearcalamity.

Any advice or thoughts would be much appreciated...