state of rehearsals

so like i feel like we ought to maybe be rehearsing three times a week instead of two. i haven't brought this up yet, cuz hell, tommi will be like fuck no. well no, i dunno, but probably, haha. i dunno, maybe i'm impatient, we've got like about six songs that we can play pretty adequately, a couple of them actually sound performance ready and shit. it's just that we keep coming up with new ideas and stuff that need time and work to be developed and everyone has their own learning pace at figuring out what exactly to do. i'm trying to keep pace and continue sketching out lyrical ideas and such and helping to develop potential synth parts as needed. as it is, it's still kinda hard for me to come up with coherent lyrics for some of the new songs. i'm trying to write stuff that is more extroverted, or classically contrived, and i'm not exactly always sure if it's the best direction to be headed in. i would like to do stuff that is more abstract, but i never really took creative writing, so uh, i guess i'm not sure what is aesthetically good and bad, i.e. my shit detector isn't so adept at judging at the moment. anyways, my goal is still to start recording once we got ten new songs down solid, so maybe that might commence by february. i just feel like we need more time for the guys to learn some of the older songs that are on the cd thing that is probably gonna start collecting dust in our closet around this time next week. it could be a week later than that, but the big boxes of plastic should definitely here within the next two weeks. anyways, i think each one of us is sharing a common goal of having band that is fucking really really good. we'll see if that pans out i guess, haha.

the ten commandments

ok, so these are like 10 rules to not sucking, or things i learned while making our new record or something. i was almost gonna include this new agey crap within the liner notes of the cd, but tommi nixed the idea, suggesting it was more blog-worthy than cd-worthy. so here they are:

it is nearly impossibly to create a piece of perfection alone. by harnessing the creativity, abilities, and energy of yr collaborators, together you can create something more than the sum of yr parts.

always push forward to become better.

always search to find new ways of expression and do not be afraid to try new tools to push yourself out of any established comfort zones.

no cliché, trope, or idea is off limits. everything from the past is open to assimilation and can be used at least once.

it is always acceptable to play to one’s strengths, even if it means occasionally repeating oneself. perhaps this time the execution will be stronger and better.

respect the ideas and input of yr collaborators. if at first something does not seem to work, give it time and accept the challenge to find a way to make it work.

don’t be an ego-centrical bitch.

never try to create for yr perception of an audience. always follow yr own instincts and create only for yourself. whatever audience you have will sense yr authenticity and respect yr integrity.

you never absolutely need drugs or substances to induce creativity, even if sometimes they help release yr inhibitions.

never establish any rules that can not be broken.

artist statement

ok, so our fucking record thing is actually being made. my bank has been charged. in fact my bank was so sketched out about having such a large sum of money charged, that their friendly robo-caller all done called me earlier to confirm that yes, i do wanna let $1691 be charged to some place called cravedog in portland oregon. take that WAMU, y'all won't be embezzeling my savings for the big shitpile of blown hedge funds and housing market collapse and such. anyways, the record is called META AMBIGUE, and that means, it pertains to the process and failure and interwined ambiguity of music and sex. or, how i had writers block and kinda fucked up my relationship. it's real neat. hope i break even eventually!

we're getting a goddamned record made!

i finally sent the fucker off on monday, and got a confirmation call today from the replication plant that they had received it, and that everything is all good. the guy on the phone, i think his name was mario, he said that all our shit was very much together compared to what people usually send their way, and that everything was good to go. and he like the illustration by koak that we're using in the insert tray, haha. anyways, we're getting the things made by a company called CRAVEDOG that's based out of portland oregon. so i'm excited! all got do is hawk 200-300 of the fuckers and i might even break even! heaven forbid, oh the folly!

things are going well with the new guys in the band. it's not terribly tight yet, but it ain't no trainwreck, been teaching corey to play on the off-beat, shit like that. we got some pictures of 'em, should be posting them up in the next few days and such. basically the plan is once we got like ten new songs all arranged and ready and playable, we'll start recording the new record. i'd like to have a fucking laptop by then, but i dunno how long it'll take me to save up another two to three grand.

melt banana was fucking awesome, they played a cover of heart of glass, that was pretty cool. the next day i went out to guitar center and spent the refund from my busted amp on two new pedals. a digitech whammy, which melt banana guy agata uses a bunch, and a ibanez analog delay. they're pretty cool. my plan is to get a digital delay at some point too. it looked like agata had like 3 or 4 delay pedals that he used, so you know i be taking notes.

fuck the amp lab in san mateo. the guy there is a total doucebag. i took my shitty busted amp down there to inquire about getting it fixed, and he was like, i don't even wanna look at it, go away. fuck that guy. i spent an hour and gas driving down there and back on my fucking day off, so uh yeah, fuck him and his shitty business. i shall my vengeance on yelp!

anyways, fucking cd thing is coming, should be about three weeks i suppose.

almost there

ok, so we're almost there with the fucking artwork, haha. tommi's super awesome photo collage is just about done. we've basically been copying the vibe from these dandy warhol cds i picked up a couple weeks ago that are just all filled with photo collages. anyways, it should look pretty cool. so i reckon things should be ready to go on monday morning, cuz i got the whole weekend off to get shit together to send to the replicator. it's gonna cost around $2250, which isn't too bad i suppose! for 2 cds in a fucking jewel case with lyrics and pretty pictures and such. we're going to see melt banana tomorrow night with a bunch a friends. i'm super excited, as they were fucking awesome when we saw them last july. it's at the same venue, the indepedent. i can't wait, the guitarist is fucking amazing. next on my list to pick up at evil guitar center is one of those red whammy pedal things. they seem pretty fucking sick. i've been starting to get the hang of creatively using the pedals i have, and i'd also like to get some death by audio pedals, cuz the one i have is fucking sick and loud as fuck. i've got to start wearing earplugs at practice too, cuz i tried em last night and i realized that with earplugs i could actually hear myself better when singing, it was so weird. i really wanted to go see A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS play last night (they make the death by audio pedals) at mezzanine, but i figured band practice was more important, and it was being curated by suckass live 105 with two other bands i hadn't heard of. if they had been playing last, i maybe could have made it work, but i figured, fuck live 105, i'll seem them next time they play sf, as long as it ain't a wednesday or sunday.

still not there

so we're still not quite there with the artwork for the god damned cd. everything is just taking so long to do. on the bright side though, it is all coming together nicely. since we've resigned ourselves to using plastic jewel cases, as they are incredibly cheaper than going all paper, we've been throwing together the art work for an 8-panel insert which will include all of the lyrics in very very tiny print! right now tommi is working on a photo collage out of a bunch of different pictures, and we've narrowed down the pics from the photoshoot to the two we're gonna use. it should all end up looking pretty nice, so that even if the music is shit, we'll have a real nice looking package to hock at our intermittent live shows.

speaking of shows, our currently next scheduled show and probably official cd release party is gonna be FRIDAY MARCH 14th @ EL RIO. we may end up setting up some shows before then too, guess we'll see what happens. it is my goal to somehow set up some kind of tour in the spring for like a week or two, so we'll see if that manifests.

anyways, onto maybe even bigger news, we've got two new guys in the band. they are jerry on keyboards, who we met at folsom st fair this past year, and corey on bass, who tommi knows from work. it's been a couple of weeks and things are going pretty awesome, and there is quite a high level of excitement! last night we were smashing thru some tunes and it was like hey, we sound almost like a real band. and we sounded fucking massive. i mean, not as cool and tight as the grindcore band down the hall, those guys are totally my hereos, i so wanna do some fucked up grindcore tunes. anyways, the story on these two kids are, jerry used to be in an electro dyke band called clitastprohy, and they broke up after playing at the bottom of the hill. corey is a youngin' who's totally into late seventies power pop and shit and has this really nice looking rickenbacker bass that he plays pretty good too. he has played in a couple bands with some friends, i can't remember what they were called though at the moment. anyways, me and tommi are super excited to have them playing with us, and it's been like two weeks and we already got like six songs together (plus we made up like two new things last night, i swear the hits just keep a coming). anyways, it seems like everyone is really open to doing whatever kind of music we want, and my goal is to honor everyone's ideas and input and just start churning out new songs and go in all kinds of different directions. like last night we came up with this minute long song that corey is gonna sing that documents his heartbreakingly many failed attempts to fuck his ex-girlfriend in the ass. it's gonna be awesome. still hoping to find a second guitarist/synth player. there is someone interested, we'll see if that comes to fruition, it'd be pretty cool to have a gang of five with a female in the group.

anyways, hoping to get the cd done for real this time this week. probably won't get them back from the replicator until early january, but it's gonna be hot.