this saturday

ok, so like this saturday we're doing the transam party, and we're desperately trying to get our shit together. we tried to practice yesterday after gay pride, but it was a drunken disaster, so we ended up going back out and drinking some more. we were downing beer the whole day. well really all three days. i even managed to keep up with the shenangins. me and jimo did get together and practice down at the studio saturday afternoon for a good three hours or so, and we're gonna get together again tomorrow night, so we might not be totally doomed. the real wild card is gonna be getting corey on board for the cover song. anyway, the plan is to rehearse as much as possible between now and saturday and then not get too drunk and blow it when it comes time to actually play, ha! and then we gotta keep pulling our shit together for the show july 14th at the retox. no resting on our laurels, that's for damn sure.

practice practice practice

so we are desperately trying to get our shit together for the july 5th show at transam, and the july 14th show at retox lounge. me and jimo have been getting together and working on tunes and stuff, and we had a good long rehearsal last night (sans corey - who had to work), and i think we've pretty much got it figured out as to what we're gonna play at the Transam gig. i figure we only really got about a half an hour to play, so we really only need about 7 songs to do, but jimo is such a quick learner and incredible creative force, it's really awesome having him in the band, we might have more stuff ready. the two of us are singing together on some tunes, and we're throwing charisma back into the set. i'm really excited to bring in some of the songs from his catalog into our repetoir too. and we've started with this really amazing cover that he has posted on one of his myspace pages. all i have to say is that it's pretty funny that a gwen stefani cover has me WAY more excited than a devo or t.rex cover, haha. but i think what i like best is that we're finally doing a cover that sounds different from the original and more infused with whatever our collective sound is. i mean, jerry still has to figure out what to do exactly, and coreycakes wasn't around last night, but me and jimo and tommi got our shit locked down tight on the arrangement. it's gonna fucking murder them faggots next week. at least, i hope - if we don't blow it, ha!

so we got a 5th

so there are 5 of us now, and we're like five times louder, fuckin' a. this kid JIMO has done been co-opted into the band as our new guitarist and vocalist and whatever else he wants to do. he's really cool. tommi met him at the bar on castro about a month ago, and then he came to our summer party a couple weeks back, and then he ended up at band practice last sunday, and we're all like join the fucking band already. i had heard some of the songs he had recorded, and they were really fucking cool. i mean, when i met at our party, i was like within five minutes, do you wanna join my stupid band? he's that cool. anyway, somehow he decided, sure why not? so yay! it seems like his two main influences are post punk DC dischord indie rock and singer songwriter folk, and he has a fabolous voice. so we got together last friday and hammered out a song together. i'm really excited, hopefully doesn't quit, haha!

so we were originally supposed to be playing at the RETOX lounge this wednesday, but then we disappeared from their calendar, and i emailed them and was like what's up, and didn't hear back from them, so i was like, fuck it, we're not playing that show then. we just got jimo in the band and he needs to learn the set and we got a way more high profile show coming up on july 5th at this transam event. anyway, i finally hear back from the retox guy today, and he's like, oh yeah, oops, i "accidently" deleted you from the calendar, yes come play on wednesday. so i'm like, yo dude, we just got a new guy in the band, haven't promoted the show for shit cuz we thought we were off of it, so like we'd rather not play. supposedly we're going to be playing there on monday july 14th, so i was like, hey, you got 3 bands already for wednesday, so unless yr really counting on us, we'd rather bow out and get our shit together and come do it next month. supposedly, we're getting to pick or help book the other bands for that july show which we're doing with a touring band from seattle called Martyrs of the Apollo Guild. so my goal is to get some other bands to play with us where we can all collectively get a decent turnout, like when we've played el rio, and not like when we played Kimos. speaking of kimos, the sound guy recorded the show off the board and sent me a recording of it. ironically, it's all mostly bass and vocals (with some drums), highlighting the two members of the band who happened to have colds. it sounds pretty fucking horrible. lots of flubbed bass notes and off-key vocals. i'm confident it sounded relatively decent from the audience, but this recording - ain't no one gonna ever NEVER hear, haha. anyway, aside from the distraction of gay pride this weekend (which i'm disapointed we're not performing at in some fashion), we're gonna be getting our shit together so as to totally level the ear drums of all the kids at the TRANSAM party on july 5th. that shit is a really big deal, and i'm really excited that we're playing it, and hopefully we won't blow it too badly, ha! fortunately we got corey planning to get pretty naked, and a cute new guitarist, so yay!

finally, things are going well recording nick's black metal album. we have guitars now finished for 4 out of 7 tracks (bass and drums are all done), leaving just vocals, synth, and any post production effects to be added. it's not seeming like it will be too difficult to mix. the drums are bright and clear, the bass real low, and the guitar tinny and razor sharp. i actually feel like the guitars are a bit too trebly, but nick says he wants it to sound sonically similiar to black flag and greg ginn. regardless, the guitar playing really sounds fantastic and the musical arrangements and songwriting with the guitars and bass is very very strong with some excellent melodic and dissonant interplay between the instruments. i really think that all them black metal poseurs on internet message boards will really like this record (if they ever get a chance to hear it).

post mortem on the june 10th show at Kimos

ok, so Kimos was a fucking rad place to play. wish more people had been there tho, ha! the sound guy was really really good, and the guy who booked us, chad, was super nice. the first band was the girl with violent arms, and that was just one guy. but he was really really good, i totally enjoyed his set of bass and vocals and drum machine with keyboards and lots of loops. metroid from southern california were second, and they were as i predicted. radio rock or something. they played with precision. i kept hearing keyboard, yet there was no keyboard on stage, and it seemed like the bass player wasn't actually playing about half the time. plus they a big fat guy sitting on stage holding a shot of liquor hollering backing vocals. later on, after our set, apparently he puked all over tommi's arm at the bar. douchbag. before we played, the bass player and his afro came over to talk to me and a very sick corey about how to properly pronounce our band name. corey explained that it's like, you say, "part gay", parae! i was like say it a la espanol! and he was like are you guys gay? and corey was like, i'm straight, but the other guys are, yeah? and then after an momentary awkward pause he was like, oh we're all gay, hahaha. douchebag.

so we played. cheryl brougth me some colored lights to put on my fingers that she got at a party store in the mission. me and jerry split the four pack. fucking brillant, really! i put them on my right hand, so my strumming was like lightning bitches! we played: fem politique, persona, inspire, popstar, busriding, you don't love me anymore, don't you wanna play with me, fear of death, birthday suit, anal fixation. i only fucked up during the first verse of popstar of all things. tommi felt that the drumming was too slow on many of the songs, but while we were loose and full of energy, i thought we had hard shit locked down pretty tight. especially with corey being super lethargic from being hella sick, and myself having had a runny nose all day trying to recover from a cold. we some issues with the keyboard amp. i guess we gotta upgrade jerry pretty soon, not sure how i'm gonna finance that, been buggin him to save up some money instead of buy $80 import cds and such! as has become the pattern, yet again we lost something at this show. this time, instead of equipment, it was an article of clothing belong to tommi. yes, some asshole stole tommi's perfectly fitting jacket (the kid has long alien arms). and in the jacket was tommi's id, bank card, and money. it was really fucking lame. and we got into a huge fight at the end of the night that involved my hot dog getting doused with whiskey because i didn't wanna hear it anymore. fucking girls. oh well, the show was cool, cuz we won over a random ass 80 year old man. he was like, i just turned 80, and you kids were awesome, all full of energy and such. that made my day! i gave him a cd, he was really genuine and nice, so i guess we must have been doing something right!

anyway, our next show is in just under two weeks at the Retox lounge over in the dogpatch neighborhood by potrero hill. not sure if we'll be able to coerce anymore people into coming out. but i guess the new plan is PROPS PROPS PROPS. gonna go hit the party store for more low-tech pyro, haha. and hopefully this time corey will be well enough to sport those tight red short shorts he promised he'd wear before he got all sick and shit. i'm trying to finish the words for a song idea i've had gestating for like two fucking years, so tomorrow's my day off, and i'm not recording with nick, so hopefully i can not get distracted and get all my shit together proper.

general retardedness

so there was this big ol fucking misunderstanding drama thing between us and the guy who organized the Magnet show, all due to a stupid Yelp review tommi posted. it was so fucking dumb that i'm not gonna go into it at this point, cuz apologizes have been made, bridges mended, and whatever, fuck it, moving on! so unless it gets stupider, we're gonna leave at that.

and on that not, last night while getting ready to record some guitar tracks with nick, my fucking two month old b52 amp totally fucking died! our theory is that i blew a fuse. basically i was fucking with the line out while the damn thing was turned on, not sure how or while this would fuck it up, but basically a horrible noise started generating on the distortion channels, so i turned it off and then on, and then when it came back on both of the overdrive channels made barely any volume and sound at all. strangely, the clean channel still worked fine. so we tried out the orange boss distortion pedal on it, and while it was someone decent, we decided that the overall sound was too thin and wasn't as heavy as what we were getting from the solid state setting on my amp - before it completely crapped out. basically, i had remembered something about how bob mould would record his guitar back in the husker du days with a mic on the cab and a line out going direct, so i was like, let's give it a shot. anyway, the line out on the amp was really fucking noisy and was giving off an awful hum, which in trying to deduce the cause (which was the amp, not the pedal, not the cord, probably not the xlr to 1/4" converter), the amp just fucking died. so, i took it today during one of my worst days ever at catering hell to a guy over in oakland (powerage). hopefully he can figure my shit out and get it fixed. i mean, the fucking thing is still under warrenty (and the reverb is hella busted) but to get it fixed under warrenty i have the pay for shipping the 62 pound fucker to fresno of santa monica or wherever, and that really ain't happening. i figure i might as well find someone in the area that can work on it and maybe possibly even mod it up into something better. and we were actually getting a fucking sick metal sound out of the damn thing, i don't know what nick did to turn the nobs, but it was sounding really fucking good, better than i ever tried to get it to go, i gotta get him to show me how to get the razor sharp metal sound, cuz the best i was getting was a sludgy grunge sound out the damn thing. anyway, i hope this shit works out, cuz i've got $1200 in credit card debt on the damn thing. and i probably won't have it back for our show on tuesday, which sucks, cuz i don't know what i'm gonna do necessarily for a back up, but i'm thinking i may use my PA mixer and attach it to my cab, hopefully that might work out...we'll see!

anyway, i have no idea how to get anyone to come out to the show on tuesday night. it will probably be an empty room. and i have no idea how to entertain them, cuz being a competent band with semi-original musical ideas just isn't enough. guess we gotta try and win over the local drunks and bartenders, or something...we're so doomed, haha.

report on may 31st show at magnet

it was retarded. so we find out late in the afternoon the day of that there's no PA at the Magnet place, cuz jon sugar, the guy organizing the event, didn't do shit to acquire one. so i was like, JC, let's use your PA speakers, and my PA mixer. too bad they weren't terrible compatible. i mean we were running hella late and didn't show up til 7pm which was when the event was supposed to start, cuz it took longer to coordinate getting JC's PA and shit and the load out of my equipment. plus i got off work late too at 5:30pm. not that we had any idea that there was a time limit as to how long all three performers had to perform. 3 bands and 2 and half hours? how fucktarded is that? not realistic at all. so it took me about 40 minutes to get the sound up and running for JC's Violent Vickie performance, and even then, it sounded shitty. i did not need the added stress of having to be make-shift sound guy. so halfway thru her set i cut out to the parking lot where corey and his friends were shotgunning cans of miller lite. never in my life did miller lite in a aluminum can taste so god damned good, cuz by that point i was fucking over it. anyway, i assumed we were gonna go third instead of 2nd, cuz the other band had there drums set up, so i was like, whatever, fuck this i'm gonna relax. but then jerry comes at me and is like, they want us to go on now. and i'm like, oh shit, ok, whatever. but then it's like, where's tommi? oh, still at the house getting dressed up! so i'm like calling tommi and my roommates trying to get word that we need our drummer down here setting up the drums, stat! so tommi finally, after about 20 minutes later, runs down and we start setting up, and jon sugar is like, ok, so you guys got a half hour, and the next band has a half hour. and i'm like, what about set up time dude? we need at least 15 more minutes to set up our shit. now i guess i should talk about the crowd at this point. the crowd was pretty geriatric. now i don't want to be a bitch, cuz everyone was polite, but the energy inside that room was weird. it was basically this guy jon and his movie going friends supporting him on his attempt to put on a rock show somewhere where a rock show should never happen, because the space is ill-equiped, in that it is not equiped at all. so along with his friends staring at us from the corner seated in chairs like little penguins, there was the staff of the community center, and the other band hogfather and corey's cadre of friends, and a crazy homeless dude. we weren't getting paid, cuz this was a free event. but was it a fundraiser, or a benefit, or anything at all? what the fuck is GAWK (gay artists writers kollective) in the first place? it was retarded. i mean a forum for performers i guess is great, but no real planning went into this as far as i could tell. so we played six songs. cuz i'm fucking polite and i was like, dude, i know we're running short on time and i don't want to cut into the last band (who got to play for 40 minutes anyways - so much for being nice!) basically, we played - fem politique, persona, inspire, busriding, anal fixation, and birthday suit. i mean, after four songs, he was like ok, one more, and i was like fuck that, here's two short ones. so i went thru all this stress and effort to play for 18 minutes to a mute and unreceptive crowd of whackos and a homeless dude, wtf? i took two days off from the jazz club so that we could adequately get our shit together, which we very much did, as we fucking played very very well. i mean the only point to doing it was that i think it gave us all more confidence and experience with playing in front of people, especially since our first couple of shows together were kinda rocky. so we all know now that we can fucking kill as long as we're solid on the song and can hear each other, so that's the only good thing out of the whole fiasco. hogfather we're cool, they were more fun and accessable and visually entertaining to watch and did a pillow fight thing that i missed cuz i went to go get the van so that we could load out as fast as possible. one of their guys expressed reservations about having to follow us, so that was a nice complement i guess, haha. anyway, the whole ordeal was really draining, and then today i'm still getting these ass-backward emails from jon sugar, where he CC's people in on conversations that he's having with other people, and basically he backhandedly complements us, or disses us, i'm not sure, and says, "oh well Parae was better that the first time i saw them," and that was it. i mean, i'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish. i wouldn't say it's was a mistake to play his event, i just wish it hadn't of been so disorganized to the point where i had to carry most of the impact. so whatever, fuck it. oh yeah, corey unveiled his surprise - he dressed up like a fucking cowboy, haha. as long as he rocks a yellow bandanna around his neck, i'm happy, it's the cutest thing, ahaha. and he had a big fake mustache and everything.

as for this blog, i'm going to try to keep the shit talking to a minimum. i had a post up from about a month ago (since deleted) that was very inappropriate and unprofession and passive aggressive and it came back and bit me in the ass and i feel like a total asshole about it. so while having a band is really difficult sometimes, i'm very thankful to have tommi and corey and jerry doing this with me and hopefully we can attain something worthwhile with it as the entire music industry implodes, cuz i hate my jobs.