learning new songs

so we're working on adding some more songs to our set, more songs from the damned cd, that is. jerry ended up getting hella stoned and listening to the cd after our disasterous point arena show and decided it was pretty really good or something, and has been taking the time to learn some of the songs of it. he says he likes hack a lot, which is a good song, i like that one alright, haha. so we're working that one out. we're also working on bitterlust, which it really surprises me that people respond to. i mean, it's such a schizophrenic suite, not really a pop song or anything, it's just this collection of six or seven short bits strung together that after a few years i managed to make work as a recording, at least relatively well. anyway, the guys have learned about half of it, and it sounds fucking amazing. i mean, i'm really shocked at how good it sounds, but it's like this huge psychedelics blue and purple behemoth of color and sound, so yeah. it's always been one that tommi has enjoyed playing, cuz it's so varied, but it sounds so huge now with corey and jerry, so that's pretty cool. we're taking it at a one section per practice learning thing, cuz each part is completely different from the other.

we all decided that we have to rework age of irony. i'm still convinced that it's a great song, but our current arrangement just hasn't been working. basically, corey and i have agreed that we should be playing the same thing, cuz that's boring. so i gotta work out a new guitar part for the verses, and i can hear it in my head, i just need to make the time to work it out. that way corey will be free to play the riff but then also fuck it up in a fittingly fashion. then i want tommi to pursue more of a blast beat type of thing, which is of course influenced from nick's black metal project, but this is the song for it. then i've kinda change the chorus guitar part to almost this reggae sounding riff thing that sounds a bit like the clash for part of it. anyway, i think once we get the arrangement right, corey won't hate it anymore. the song is important to me too, cuz tommi kinda accidently wrote the music, which is a first!

then i got this song that i haven't really introduced to the guys yet, cuz i haven't made the time to finish the words or the synth bass riffs, but it's called the dichotomy, and it's all fucked up. i guess i see it as more of a electro hip-hop type thing, i just have no idea what corey is gonna do on it, or even how it's gonna sound with the four of us. i but i think if i come into it with a clear structure of the words and the riffs, the four of us can work something really good out that will probably be totally unexpected.

anyway, we're playing saturday the 31st at MAGNET in the castro. it's free and it's all ages, so come if you care! then we're playing on june 10th at kimo's with some band from down south called Metroid, and who the hell knows else. and then on the 25th we're at the retox with a instrumental guitar and drum duo from portland and a rock and roll band from berkeley!

no time

to do anything at all really. i've been working way too much, and it sucks. the only good aspect is that i'll be able to pay off some of the stuff i've bought recently a little sooner than i thought. but still, i have very little free time to just lay about, and everything i do is very compartamentalized at this point. my cute little whiney bass player has a hard time comprehending this sometimes. anyway, i spent my one day off yesterday recording all day, doing drums with nick for his evil black metal record. he insisted on smoking weed before hand, and surprisingly, it may have helped him drum better. although he's been practicing a bit more intensly lately, sooo...that probably played a part in it going smoother too. but regardless, he's getting a bit better at that damn double bass drum, that's for sure. we managed to lay down tracks for almost all of two songs, just ran out of time and steam right at the end. there was one part where he was kind of unsure of what to do and i suggested straight disco, unfortunately he foolishly vetoed that request. i mean, shouldn't every black metal album have at least one 30 second disco beat break? i mean, c'mon! anyway, i guess i had a little bit more input that i've had previously as to some of the drum arrangements, which was pretty cool. one of the songs we were working on was one of the ones that stands out to me. it's weird that right now only a couple of his tunes have parts that stand out to me, whereas there are a couple of songs that i have absolutely no recollection of at all in any way. which is not to knock 'em, just nothing about the scratch guitar or drums has a hook that grabs me. i guess this particular one is a bit more melodic than some of the others. i'd like to encourage him to develop his melodic/dissonant arrangements a little bit more, but i'm still not even sure what he's got in mind. but i guess he's got a pretty clear vision of what he wants. either way, i've warned him that i will mock him endlessly if his lyrics suck, haha. anyway, at this point we've got just over one song left to record drums for, so thank fucking goodness for that!

some thoughts on CA legalizing gay marriage

basically, for all the people out there on the wrong side of the issue, because it's shouldn't even be an issue, i say - HA! na na na na na naaaa, another score for us, the good guys, in your stupid fucking culture war. y'all better pray a little harder for the rapture now =P

report on the show may 8th

so we played at the Stud last thursday night. it went pretty well, for all intents and purposes. sound was an issue again, in that i was too fucking loud. basically, i fucked up, in that i was kinda insecure in our ability to play good, so kinda subsconsiously i cranked my guitar up so that if jerry or corey fucked up, they'd just be drowned out. a dumbass thing to do, cuz they were fine. people were like, oh everything sounded good once we stuck our fingers in our ears. i dunno, i guess i just haven't quite figured out how to deal with my new amp properly yet. plus, everything sounds to quite when i have earplugs in. plus, i like loud guitars! and i think the three of else all sort of end up kind of competing with each other, not to be the loudest overall, but to be loud at our own comfort level...which is way too loud for a small club. plus, when tommi can't even hear the drums, it's not really a good situation. so i think we gotta learn to play quieter and balance things out better. but overall it was a good experience, we didn't fuck anything up, other than being too loud. i thought it was kind of low energy overall, but it seemed like some people enjoyed it. we even sold a couple cds! shocker! and i gave some away too with our fancy new stickers.

anyway, the first band was the switch, who i guess one of their members flaked out at the last minute, but then instead of the two remaining people performing, it was just one guy. it was actually really good too, jerry totally dug them, i'd definitely like to see them play again with their full line up. after that we played. we were supposed to go last, but after coreycakes had some issue with his ID and the bartender, we worked it out so that we went second. we played:

birthday suit
inspire
popstar, for sure
busriding
don't you wanna play with me
persona
oh tyler
fem politique
anal fixation

anyway, as i said, we didn't really fuck anything up too badly, so yeah. after us was pink swastika, they were pretty cool, even though drummer expressed to me that he had some misgivings about playing after us. but naa, they were actually way cool. i caught about half of their set and then retired to the van out front where everybody was drinking beers inside. yay, catering party van! anyway, my friend qi kang was a big help the whole night as he kinda got drafted into being our roadie. he was actually a total sweetheart and a good sport about everything. he even handed me my guitar and then took it right from me right after we finished - now that was some rockstar treatment right there, haha! we did lose all of drumsticks somehow though, sux.

our next show is may 31st, so we're gonna keep working on new songs, corey even wrote some lyrics to something we kinda jammed out a week or so ago, and it's good to have the little bastard back.

other than that, i've been recording drums for nick's black metal album. everything is going smoothly other than he decided that it would be acceptable to cheat and record the double bass parts separately, and lo be it for me to be a purist and deny him the use of double bass just because it's really really hard to play them while hitting things very fast and such with your hands at the same time. anyway, the drums are sounding really good, i think we're building a really solid foundation for all the evil black metal goodness to slurry up on top. the new laptop computer kicks ass too, yay! we'll probably start recording our new record in a few weeks once nick's project is a little further along and we've got our new songs tightened up a bit more.