June 2005

Thursday, 6-30-5

So we finally have a list of songs Tracy wants to play. I got the list last night and we play tonight. Man am I in trouble. I have not even heard some of these songs, and I've never played along with ANY of them. That's the penalty I pay for avoiding "popular" music. Rage Against The Machine, Sublime, Local H... I've got a lot of learning to do in the next 4 hours.
I started with the songs I do know, sort of get them out of the way. The only tricky part so far was that the drum piece for Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" is written entirely in triplets. No big deal there.
I've heard "Money" by Pink Floyd over a thousand times, but never while I was behind the drum set. Simple enough though... After the intro, I keep losing the beat. That never happens, how did I do that? Start over. Same thing, after a few measures, I'm off beat again. I listen to the track carefully without playing along. He's playing in 7/8 timing and then switching to 4/4 and then back to 7/8. Why? Never question Pink Floyd, just relax and accept it. I've never noticed it before. I just tapped along, more interested in the lyrics or watching the munchkins dance than in the drums. They seemed so simple before. Now, I see so much more. It just goes to prove that you can listen and still not hear.
So a seemingly simple list of songs reveal a wide variety of playing styles some more difficult than supposed. From triplets, to 7/8-4/4 change-ups, to Primus, this guy picked out some good stuff. Although, after I gain a little ground in this "band" thing, I intend to get a few tracks in too. He's tested me, now lets see him keep up with Slayer, Morbid Angel or My Chemical Romance...

Tuesday, 6-28-5

I don't know anything about interpreting body language. I just feel it. I find it difficult to talk to people over the phone or in chat rooms. I prefer to see them when I talk and I seem to get twice the information than when I just talk on the phone. The trouble is, I never do anything with the information. I only take it in, recognize that I am getting data from them and move on. For some reason I don't retain the body language part of the conversation. Playing poker is the same. I see the body language, I understand what it means and I play on it. Two minutes later, I have no idea what just happened. I couldn't tell you what I saw.
I use it and discard it and don't retain it for next time and in the mean time I'll believe anything you say.
What a chump... I... am.

Friday, 6-24-5

This is just a catch-all because I haven't updated in a while now.
I didn't get to play last night because it was a different band on stage and I didn't see my bass player there. So, he and I are going to play at the house sometime next week. We're still looking for a guitarist and singer but it's a start.
Teresa and Becca have been gone over a week now and I haven't done much of anything since they left. It's like I'm stuck in neutral gear. I had all these great plans for completing projects while they were gone but only about half of them got finished. It seems that I am too busy ALL the time now.
I did complete some of them. I ran the CAT5 to Becca's computer. I cleaned up the back yard and put together the patio swing. But not much else got done. I was playing my drums or sleeping the rest of the time.
I can't seem to sleep at all this week. I think it's because Teresa's not here. Well, I'm going to pick her up at the airport in a few hours so maybe I'll get some sleep tonight.
I wonder what she found when she was up there. I wonder how soon we'll be moving up there.

Friday, 6-17-5

Jeff and Trisha came out last night to the bar to watch me make a fool of myself. Of course, when we got there Jeff ordered a pitcher of beer and got that "lost" look when they asked for his ID. He left it in Callahan (30 min away). So instead of drinking cokes, he took off to retrieve his ID. By the time he gets back, the house band is set up and ready to go.
They break into a few songs and I suddenly feel like bolting through the door. How did I put myself in this position? How am I going to pull this off? How bad am I going to suck?
After the first set a bass player emerges from the crowd and I assume it's the guy I'm looking for. Before I can talk to him, a guitarist and another drummer sits in and they start playing. OK, looks like I'm off the hook, I guess they already have someone else to play. So now I feel relieved that I'm not going to play but at the same time, I feel like a chicken. This is something I want to do and no one is going to hand it to me unless I get up there.
The house band goes back on and I go up and introduce myself to the bass player as he comes back through the room. He says that he's been looking for me and we can play after the next set. We'll start off with "Tommy The Cat". Well I was hoping to start off with something a little more mainstream? Out of the possible set-list, why'd we have to start with such a challenging song? Now I'm REALLY worried I'll look stupid...

The second set comes to a close and up we go. I know I didn't get as much practice with these songs as I'd have liked. I'm sitting behind this guy's drum set and I'm actually humming a few bars of "Minuet in G". Professor Harold Hill's "Think Method".
I get a feel for the guy's set. I roll off and hit the basses. Not bad. I can do this. As soon as I start hitting the drums, I feel like I'm where I need to be. No longer nervous, I'm there to play.
They decided to start out with "Blister In The Sun" by the Violent Femmes. Not a big fan of the song but I've been playing it this week because he said we might do this one. I missed a break and also forgot to come down at the right spots but I covered well enough. I don't even know if they noticed. They were trying to find out where they were too. Some people in the crowd were hollering something about the drummer and they weren't yelling about anyone else so I assume I was playing to one extreme or the other. Was I being praised or heckled?
Next we went into "Tommy The Cat" by Primus. Same deal, I missed one break but pulled that one off well enough I think. It's so easy to know where you are in a song when it's playing in your ear. The same notes cue me up and I know when to break and when to come down. Live and with other amateurs, it's a whole different game. There's no cue for me. I just have to know when/where to stop. Freaky....
The house drummer uses such thin sticks, they felt like toothpicks in my hands. Half way through Van Halen's version of "You Really Got Me", I dropped a stick. I kept going and reached back to pick up a spare. Not too bad...
They threw one at me I hadn't played before. "Fight For Your Right" by the Beastie Boys. I said I'd try it but don't expect anything much... I was going along fine and trying to remember how the song ends. I finally remembered and just in time. I brought the song to an end and discovered I did it too soon. I forgot the whole last chorus. I started back up and played it out but man, it was like a crashing a truck. I totally shanked it.
I hadn't even heard the next song they wanted to do so I stepped down. Enough people were congratulating me that I guess I did alright. The bass player said he wanted to get together later so I guess I'm not as bad as I thought. We'll see where we go from here...

Wednesday, 6-15-5

Last week I was reminiscing about the "old days" and how much I miss being in a band. My bluff was called and I was told to put up or shut up. So I put an ad on the local musician board and I got a couple of hits within days. A local bassist has found a bar with a house band that plays on Thursday's and lets people come up and jam between their sets. And it just happens to be at Cecil's, the only bar I've been to in the last year. (I'm not normally the bar type) So, I guess I have to go do this.
Through e-mails we decided on a set list. 3 or 4 songs depending on the amount of time we have. Man, this is going to be such a train wreck. I haven't had much time to practice and one of the songs is completely new to me....

CCR - Down On the Corner (Straight forward timing)
Van Halen - You Really Got Me (Rock beat)
Primus - Tommy The Cat (Funky weird beats)
Violent Femmes - Blister In The Sun (Never played it before)

My brother Jeff is in town and the only day we can hook up is (of course) Thursday. So he and Trisha are coming to see me flop. That's OK, he says drummers aren't really musicians anyway.

Thursday, 6-9-5

I have a little bit of knowledge for you guys. Most people probably already know this but I may have been a little slower than normal last night because of the mass quantity of alcohol that somehow found it's way into my system.
You know how you can wet your fingers and pinch out a candle?
Don't do that with polyester rope.
I tried to tighten my djembe head last night. It is strung with 3/16" mountain climbing rope (Polyester wrapped Kevlar core). I noticed that the very end was frayed out. So, I got the lighter and melted the end together. Unlike the candle wick, the rope didn't extinguish when I pinched it. Instead, it stuck to me like napalm and seemed to burn brighter now that my flesh was fueling the fire. I couldn't scream, it was after midnight. (When else would I have time to do this?)
After a bit of suffering and muttering, I saw that I had a big ugly flare of melted rope so I re-lit it and used my shirt to pinch it out. Ok, now I know that molten polyester burns rather quickly through t-shirts and here I was in the same situation. Seared flesh.
Some people never learn....

Wednesday, 6-8-5
(Posted 6-9-5)

We're a week into June and I haven't updated since mid-May. Bad me, sorry.
I try very hard to keep a positive public face on this web site and the truth is I just haven't had the energy to put into the site recently. I've been having to force myself to even smile recently and trust me, you guys don't even want to see the stuff I've been writing in this "down" swing. So instead of dumping all my vileness on the site, I just haven't been updating. It's taken all of my energy to "fake it" and look happy to everyone around me so the site gets very little of what's left.
So why tell you this now? Because maybe getting back into this will bring me back up. That and I needed to explain why I haven't been here recently. You don't realize how many people read your site until you stop putting stuff up there.
I've got a lot of catching up to do and very little time to do it in. I attempted to get this update in yesterday but just didn't pull it off. That was the only day I don't have a full schedule until next Friday (17th). I guess if you're reading this, I got it updated at some point.

Monday, 6-6-5
(Posted 6-9-5)

Freddy called me today and left a voice message on my cell phone. He wanted to let me know he was feeling old and wanted to make me feel old too. Fifteen years ago today, he and I graduated high school together. His plan backfired. It didn't make me feel old. It made me feel bad. I'm already feeling bad so I guess it really only made me feel worse. I normally look back at those years and I'm glad to have them behind me. Happy to have lived through them. I'm not normally one of those people that look back at their high school years and wish they could do it again. But this time, it triggered a big wave of nostalgia that turned to melancholy. Is it possible that I really DID peak in freaking high school? What kind of loser does that make me? It made me realize that I've been floating now for close to three years!
So, maybe it's time to get up off my ass and do something. Maybe it's time to make a choice; am I done, or not? It's not too late to get moving again if I do it now. Right?

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