11/26/06
Today is the one year anniversary of the CD Release show for'Charmingly Awkward.' We're on the outskirts of Houston, just passing a 40foot white statue of Sam Houston that towers amongst the trees along thefreeway (controversial character, I believe he led TX to independence fromMexico). Traffic is nearly stopped on either side of the freeway due torubberneckers disrupting the flow as they pass a fender-bender gettingcleared on the shoulder. I just discovered that we will be slicing rightthrough Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on tomorrow's drive. Neverbeen! ...I burst of excitement upon this discovery, slamming the atlasagainst the car seat, declaring it to the sedated van, my four companionsresponding in nods and shrugs and sighs... Oh well, I'm looking forward toseeing it, this is what I live for: the spaces between the things I've seen!(Though I find the more I vocalize my anticipation of such things, the morethe rest of the guys descend into apathy... Product of being isolatedtogether in this machine for weeks and weeks I'd imagine)
Anyway back to the 'Charmingly Awkward' CD release show... We booked it atBottom of the Hill months before the album was even finished, mostly to justgive ourselves a recording deadline. I spent all my free time handing outflyers around town, preparing a band to play the show (only Bryce had signedon with me at that point), and sending the album to anyone we knew that waseven remotely connected to the music industry. The show itself coupled withthe album blossomed into probably the greatest feeling of accomplishmentI've ever had! We rotated musicians in our band for nearly every song tobring on stage as many of the various friends that played on the record aspossible. The show sold out in advance and we played with the greatestsatisfaction, despite still awkwardly figuring out how to play some of thesongs live.... Its fun to reminisce... The last year has been surreal....
....People are drawing in the dirt on the side of our van and trailer.Somewhere in the mountains of Colo-Wyo-Utah-Zona it got caked in a brownfilm. Every few days we plan to wash it but the time we set aside alwaysslips away. At gas stations we take liberal advantage of the free windowwashing liquid so portions of the vehicle have clean white streaks amongstthe filth and the temporary graffiti of show attendees... mostly "I loveSTN" "[any-city-USA] 'hearts' you!" and, of course, cartoon phallusesa-plenty (which I scrape off with the toe of my shoe)...
Fast forward. I'm once again sitting shotgun. Quarter to five (AM!), 45miles west of Baton Rouge, blocking out Bryce's hard and heavystay-awake-rock with my calm and/or nostalgic dozing-off-rock on a shufflingiPod: The Beach Boys, Weezer, White Stripes, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen (oops,too soft... mesa boogie, sound replaced kick and snare, car stereo fadingin), Spacehog (remember that one song, 'In The Meantime', makes me think ofthe stack of CD on my brother's dresser, a thin cover of dust, sometime backthere, say 1997?), Nada Surf ('Inside of love' but still thinkingnineties), Interstate Love Song? Goo Goo Dolls? Sparklehorse? What year isit?...
Tonight we played the venue where Two Gallants got tazed. Look it up onYouTube... Fucked up. Fucked up. Shitty police officer... Anyway we had agreat show, didn't get any noise complaints. Straylight Run's sound guy hadme try in-ear monitors for the first time so it felt like I was in a studioon stage. Its silly for small shows for a few dozen people in woodenshacks, (veiled in graffiti, guarded by dirt lots and chain link, piss andbeer, crumbling streets, vacant dilapidations, crack houses)... but forbigger, more cut-off-from-the-crowd stages I'll probably invest in a set formyself, I could actually hear my own voice tonight above my own crankedguitar and Joey's drums, but I felt so distant from the audience, wecouldn't even crack jokes together...
...Well, The hard night sky is starting to fray a bit along the edges...Yawn... I might as well wait for sunrise at this point, catch a realsouthern sunrise, gotta stay awake... So foggy outside, so sleepy inside.Maybe I'll just recline the seat. That's nice. And I'll grab my pillow,yeeeaaah... take off my glasses... kinda twist sideways into the door...cuddle up... feet on the dash... yawn... I guess I could just rest my eyesfor a bit...
Today is the one year anniversary of the CD Release show for'Charmingly Awkward.' We're on the outskirts of Houston, just passing a 40foot white statue of Sam Houston that towers amongst the trees along thefreeway (controversial character, I believe he led TX to independence fromMexico). Traffic is nearly stopped on either side of the freeway due torubberneckers disrupting the flow as they pass a fender-bender gettingcleared on the shoulder. I just discovered that we will be slicing rightthrough Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on tomorrow's drive. Neverbeen! ...I burst of excitement upon this discovery, slamming the atlasagainst the car seat, declaring it to the sedated van, my four companionsresponding in nods and shrugs and sighs... Oh well, I'm looking forward toseeing it, this is what I live for: the spaces between the things I've seen!(Though I find the more I vocalize my anticipation of such things, the morethe rest of the guys descend into apathy... Product of being isolatedtogether in this machine for weeks and weeks I'd imagine)
Anyway back to the 'Charmingly Awkward' CD release show... We booked it atBottom of the Hill months before the album was even finished, mostly to justgive ourselves a recording deadline. I spent all my free time handing outflyers around town, preparing a band to play the show (only Bryce had signedon with me at that point), and sending the album to anyone we knew that waseven remotely connected to the music industry. The show itself coupled withthe album blossomed into probably the greatest feeling of accomplishmentI've ever had! We rotated musicians in our band for nearly every song tobring on stage as many of the various friends that played on the record aspossible. The show sold out in advance and we played with the greatestsatisfaction, despite still awkwardly figuring out how to play some of thesongs live.... Its fun to reminisce... The last year has been surreal....
....People are drawing in the dirt on the side of our van and trailer.Somewhere in the mountains of Colo-Wyo-Utah-Zona it got caked in a brownfilm. Every few days we plan to wash it but the time we set aside alwaysslips away. At gas stations we take liberal advantage of the free windowwashing liquid so portions of the vehicle have clean white streaks amongstthe filth and the temporary graffiti of show attendees... mostly "I loveSTN" "[any-city-USA] 'hearts' you!" and, of course, cartoon phallusesa-plenty (which I scrape off with the toe of my shoe)...
Fast forward. I'm once again sitting shotgun. Quarter to five (AM!), 45miles west of Baton Rouge, blocking out Bryce's hard and heavystay-awake-rock with my calm and/or nostalgic dozing-off-rock on a shufflingiPod: The Beach Boys, Weezer, White Stripes, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen (oops,too soft... mesa boogie, sound replaced kick and snare, car stereo fadingin), Spacehog (remember that one song, 'In The Meantime', makes me think ofthe stack of CD on my brother's dresser, a thin cover of dust, sometime backthere, say 1997?), Nada Surf ('Inside of love' but still thinkingnineties), Interstate Love Song? Goo Goo Dolls? Sparklehorse? What year isit?...
Tonight we played the venue where Two Gallants got tazed. Look it up onYouTube... Fucked up. Fucked up. Shitty police officer... Anyway we had agreat show, didn't get any noise complaints. Straylight Run's sound guy hadme try in-ear monitors for the first time so it felt like I was in a studioon stage. Its silly for small shows for a few dozen people in woodenshacks, (veiled in graffiti, guarded by dirt lots and chain link, piss andbeer, crumbling streets, vacant dilapidations, crack houses)... but forbigger, more cut-off-from-the-crowd stages I'll probably invest in a set formyself, I could actually hear my own voice tonight above my own crankedguitar and Joey's drums, but I felt so distant from the audience, wecouldn't even crack jokes together...
...Well, The hard night sky is starting to fray a bit along the edges...Yawn... I might as well wait for sunrise at this point, catch a realsouthern sunrise, gotta stay awake... So foggy outside, so sleepy inside.Maybe I'll just recline the seat. That's nice. And I'll grab my pillow,yeeeaaah... take off my glasses... kinda twist sideways into the door...cuddle up... feet on the dash... yawn... I guess I could just rest my eyesfor a bit...
Posts
