Saturday, October 3, 2009

Well, an update...

...but I don't know where to start...Gina and I are doing fine. We have our little squabbles and whatnot, but that's okay - couples do that. On the whole, we're really doing pretty well (6 year anniversary coming up - YAY!!).
Since quitting the band, I've been at loose ends, somewhat. I'm supposed to go over and jam with a friend sometime this week or next, in hopes of putting together a band or something...but I'm not sure if I'm feeling it...today while Gina was gone (to her friend Crystal's house for Halloween Decorating and such) I played on the GarageBand app on our Mac Mini. It's basically a virtual studio, and you can make mp3s and whatnot. I made an mp3 out of a song I wrote years ago. The mix is a bit wonky and I haven't yet learned how to program my drum machine (just let it play) so the drum track is a little skewed - well, okay, the whole production is a bit of a mess. But it was more fun and more liberating working on that song and having it come out the way it did than it was playing bass in the band the last year or so...even beforehand, really. I actually worked on two songs today. I 'finished' one (got a basic drum-guitar-bass guitar-vocal mix on it, anyway - the song is called 'Concrete Garden') and am almost done with the other (a song I've had lying around for about 20 years called 'Feeling Better') except for the lead guitar track...in every band I've been in, I've always had to struggle to bring the fruits of my creative labor to the table. Every time, however, that I work with one other person (my good friend Amy Clinkscales; or the redoubtable Jim Kelly of 'Concrete Rhino' fame, also a good friend of mine), I not only have better luck doing my own thing (so to speak), but I find myself listening more to her/him and putting forth more of an effort towards actually collaborating. As for my solo works, the only one that gets in the way is me (for better or worse).
More and more, I'm starting to think that a band w/any more than 3 people total is a bad idea...tomorrow I believe I'll work on 'Feeling Better' some more, and maybe another song after that...we'll just have to see how it goes...

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Well, I'm out of the band. I kicked myself out. I simply had my fill of the crap. So I put my official notice in, and played my last 'official' gig with them last Thursday...of course, I'll still play w/them until their new bass player ( a fellow named Josh, who, from what I can tell, is a cool dude) has all the songs under his belt. I might leak details out later on in this blog; suffice it to say that I really thought things would get better, but given the chemistry of the band as it stood, I should have known better.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

At long last, an update...

Well, it has been a while, hasn't it? I've been reading over my past entries and saw that my last entry was posted on 12/27/08...well, here's what's up...
First, the band. As it turns out, our old lead vocalist (let's call him 'Corey') knew (pretty much all along) that we'd been advertising on Craigslist. Which, I'm sure, prompted him to go audition with another band or two. As far as I know, nothing came of it. On our end, we were practicing on Tuesday nights and auditioning singers on Wednesday nights. This process went on for quite some time, and it looked as though we had it narrowed down to a couple of people...then it happened. No, Corey did not find out and get all 'chainsaw' on everyone...the 'it' that happened was this - our old lead singer came back into the fold. Here's the scoop for those not in the know - the band originally was comprised of K and Z (mentioned in my last blog), another guitarist (he was actually the driving force behind this incarnation - we'll call him 'Sam'), and a singer (we'll refer to him as 'Jake') who kicked ass. Jake and Sam really didn't get on too well, for myriad reasons, so we had a 'band meeting' (yes - every time we seem to have a 'band meeting', it means that someone is either gonna get kicked out or someone is in danger of it and we gotta address it) and decided that Sam had to go - he wanted to go into a different direction from us, and he wanted more control over the band than we were ultimately willing to give him. There was no animosity other than what had already existed between Sam and Jake (and they didn't HATEHATEHATE each other so much as the chemistry was , uh, volatile), and Sam went on to form another band that gigs in the Metro area and is readying a CD. Well, Jake was all set to go with us, but he had other coals in the fire as well. From what I understand, he had to get ready to move at a moment's notice - either to New York or L.A. (he's an actor by trade and does all sorts of voice-over work to pay the bills). So, we had to find a new lead singer. Hence the entrance of Corey into the picture. Well, after over a year and a half; Jake came back into the picture, after we'd been auditioning people on the sly (but only sort-of on the sly, as it turns out) for about 2 or 3 months. So, we took Jake back and K told Corey that he was out...which Corey more or less had a feeling about anyway. He could tell from our general vibe that something was up, and the Craigslist ads weren't as oblique as one might have hoped (they kept getting flagged for removal and K believes that Corey was behing it). We were gonna have one last gig with Corey if he wanted to, to say Goodbye once and for all to the band as it existed, but Corey nixed the idea, stating that it was best to just call it quits if that's the way we wanted it...so we got Jake ready for the upcoming gigs (many which Corey had booked), and we've been booking more gigs (we're booked until August)...The thing is, Jake wants to do originals. One of the reasons that the first incarnation of the band split the way it did was because Sam had all these originals he wanted the band to do. So we became strictly a cover band. This should be an interesting few months ahead...
Switching gears to the pet front - if you've been following Poo Corner, you should know that we have a new kitty! She's not new anymore, I suppose...we got her at PetSmart in December. She was sitting in the little cage they have, and she had a little mat at the back of her head, just behind her ear. I didn't quite think we were ready for a new kitty, having just dealt with the passing of Scout. It was a Saturday, and I told Gina,'If she's still there next Saturday, we'll get her'. Well, the week went by, and the little kitty (who had a penchant for doing the 'happy paws', much like Scout) would not leave my mind. I was starting to fear that we'd dropped the ball and that we'd go to PetSmart and someone else would have her. I couldn't wait for Saturday. Well, that Saturday did indeed come, and we did indeed go to Petsmart, and - she was still in that little cage...needless to say, we got her...she's been with us for about 5 months now. We gave her the name Mary J. (after the singer Mary J. Blige), and we figured out that her birthday falls more or less on May 1, so we gave a nice celebration for her involving cattoys, gushy food (for Mary J. and Bill) and angel food cake (for the humans in the house)...there is more, I'm sure, for me to go on about, but I'm getting blogger's cramp, so here's a good place to stop...I'll try to be more forthcoming with the blogs in the future...