Tales of the Treadmill
Tales of the Treadmill
"Old Photograph" - Idea
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Today I’ve been begging tony to let us rehearse in his new drum studio in 5 Pts- which I must say, is quite swank. It’s big, and most importantly, there’s a door you can back your car up to. That’s key. At his pad where we usually rehearse- he has these damned paving stones from the end of his driveway to the practice shed at the back of his house- and they are spaced in this completely demonic way - just perfectly so that no matter what gait you have or what speed you walk- you can never, and i mean never hit a stone the right way without walking like a drunken penguin with legs of different lengths. Plus, it’s like a 50 foot lug from the driveway to the door, and this is just unacceptable. That’s like, a good 20 seconds of carrying heavy shit. His new place is killer. He’s got a little empire going over there. Here are a few emails back and forth about this...
ang wrote tony:
dude- i'll lick the tip of your penis if you let us practice in your studio. or i won't, whichever you prefer.
tony wrote ang:
Well, at the risk of losing guaranteed felatio (tiny amount of vomit in my mouth), I had already planned on our rehearsing there.
ang wrote tony:
you can smear the vomit on the tip of your penis before i lick it. excellent.
I think we picked photos from the shoot today. We have a list anyway, I don’t know if we agree, but... Brad is going to work his magic on them- hopefully very strong magic as I’m in need of the most potent available. Hopefully he’ll get those to us this week so we can send them to Patrick so he can finish the website. Our goal is to have that up by the 7th. We’ll see. Patrick said to “keep my pants on because no one wants to see that monster.” true.
I’m freaking out a bit because I think we might suck for the St Pat’s show because we haven’t had enough rehearsals. What’s even worse, is that I’m worried that no one will show up to watch us suck. I’m pretty sure the Rock’s Reunion show was a fluke and I don’t expect that many folks to show up. Plus, everyone gets all loaded in 5 Pts- I mean, who’s still coherent enough to make it out that night too?
I’m also really annoyed that we’re going to do Eileen again. Heidi put her foot down and says we must do it. I’m so not into it. I remember thinking it was hilarious when we first did it, I’m sure it was my idea- but then it just became kind of stupid. Anyway, maybe after I re-learn it and play it a few times I’ll think it’s funny again. Doubtful. I do have fond memories of covering Baker Street and Children of the Sun.
I sent Tony a quicktime of what I’ve got for the video intro for the St Pat’s show. He emailed that it’s “not working for him...” I give up. The editing shit is so fucking painful and I don’t really know what I’m doing- so something like- importing a JPEG into Final Cut as a file that I can work with takes me 3 hours to figure out. Then finding the footage.... blah blah. Took me seriously 2 hours to figure out how to make a graphic appear over top of some other footage. This is all just my excuse to really learn FCP once and for all- but I still get annoyed when I spend a bunch of time and the feedback is that it’s ‘not working.’ But... either he does something else- or this is going to be it. I’m not spending any more god damned time on it.
I have this little riff that I’ve been messing with for about two months. Actually, it’s what I was trying to work on every time when the last four songs came out instead. It seems like the meat of what I do comes from being distracted from what I’m really trying to do and then that distraction becomes what I really work on and end up keeping. Anyway, this riff keeps getting shoved to the shoulder. It’s super-simple- but I like it for some reason and it’s stuck around in my brain this long, which is usually a good sign. Then again, Let the Dogs Out is still stuck in my brain too, so who can tell. It’s just a little melody. Another one that’s in 6/8. About time to pull it out for real and either do something with it or shoot it in the head and put it out of its misery.
I’m really supposed to be practicing for the St Pat’s day show, but hell- I can’t seem to stay on track with that. Practicing is so damned tedious and boring. But fear of sucking makes me try my best to get it done. It’s much more fun to perform when you know what the fuck your doing and you don’t have to think about it instead of having to put the extra effort in to fake it all. But, this is a good distraction I guess.
For some reason, this video is mirrored, so it’s backwards. I guess the point here is to point out how meager the headwaters of a song can be. As I’ve said before, you just gotta have blind faith that it will turn into something better- and maybe something actually good. Anyway, not sure about the chords. I think I’ll switch to guitar to see if I can squeeze anything out of it.
hours later....
Worked on this and practiced our set list a little more. It’s unbelievable that I still can’t remember lyrics to songs that I’ve played probably thousands of times. That part of my brain must be the part that alcohol deteriorates. Heidi and Tony say I should use a teleprompter like Michael Stipe. Teleprompters seem a bit pussy to me. Plus, I ain’t got one. Plus, I’m not Michael Stipe.
Well, strapping on ‘Mr. Black’ and cranking up the distortion helped this little riff a bit. See what you think. I kind of have a full chord structure for a song I think. Some of this I’ve been working on for awhile, but one part in the verse clicked into place. that little part after the first chord in the verse part that climbs up a bit. Much better than what I was doing before. I realize now that it’s again kind of fucked up time signature-wise. It’s in 6/8 for the intro and verse but then shifts (hopefully seamlessly) into 4/4 or maybe it’s 4/8... not sure. The intro has a measure of 3/8 in there somewhere too i think. Has all the little annoying bits I seem to gravitate toward. Anyway, here it is:
Again, the video is backwards so I look like Jimi Hendrix. I’ll have to figure that out someday... I really like that sort of 2nd intro part after the verse and chorus, where it sort of kicks in. I think that will be a good opportunity for rock. My bridge ideas so far suck the mighty ass and I refuse to make them public here. Time to work on that and sort of start poking around for the vocal melody.
I have a good idea what this one will be about too. Something about an old box in the attic, and sort of sitting there and staring at it and wondering what the best plan of action is. Wondering if you should open it up and go through whatever’s inside and maybe causing yourself to remember things you’d forgotten that will make you happy, or if it’s better to leave it sitting up there because you might find things that are depressing, or that the act of looking into the past is depressing in and of itself. Or, maybe the very best idea is to drag it out in the yard and set it on fire without learning what’s in it. Something like that. Like, that really sad feeling an old photograph can make you have. What a glimpse of something from your past means - that it’s over... that the distance from right now back to that photograph is how much closer you’ve become to being a dead mother fucker since that photo was taken, and staring into the past only makes the dead mother fucker part come quicker. And, obviously, this all has to do partly with our exhuming this band- digging it up and disturbing it when it was clearly fine resting in peace where it was. And like, what good is this doing? I mean, I have my answers... My answer is that if this gives me an avenue to be what I always was and what I really am most of all for a little longer, or for another brief period of time- then screw it. We’re not sitting around talking about past glory days, which when that happens it’s always regrettable and sad. “Remember when is the lowest form of conversation...” Instead though, I feel like we’re just trying to create new moments that give us pleasure or satisfaction right now, or in my case, anyway- allow me to feel again that I’m doing what I was meant to do- even in this sort of hobby-ish kind of non-life or death mellow sort of way. I’ve also found that there’s something very wrong with writing songs, recording them and letting them rot away on my computer. They need to sort of be set out into the world- even if it’s just playing them with other people or better, playing them for other people. You don’t want them sitting in the dark where they can get a nasty yeast infection. But there’s something creepy and unsettling with them just existing on my hard drive. It’s like keeping your baby in the basement. And I can’t seem to get myself out there to play acoustic by myself, even though I’ve enjoyed the times I have done that. I just sort of like the idea of a band. In addition to the music, it’s the whole machine of it. The little culture of it that gets created between the people involved. The master plans and the attempts at manipulating things or shaping the projection of image- all that shit- it’s just good fun. I like having a Manifest Destiny- no matter how weak and limited and truly un-expansive it might be. It’s probably like playing Simms City or something. It’s cool to have all these little projects and seeing which turn out well and which fail miserably. It’s even more fun when it doesn’t matter much either way. I mean, the truth is that our sort of assignment is to try to fill the time from our birth to our death with whatever we deem valuable. For whatever reason, this is valuable to me and I appreciate having another opportunity to fill some time with it.
Right. Whatever the fuck. I’m off to Barley’s for Claxton Night with the girls. I will drink Pisgah Pale Ale or two. Hopefully when I get home I can start demoing the music for this thing. I’ve been trying to have a pact to do lyrics first, but I’m kind of anxious to get something on tape. We’ll see how it goes. At the very least - I have to have a definite melody before I crank up the recording gear. I’ve made that mistake before- where I think a structure of a song is locked, and I lay it down, and then I come up with a melody line that needs an extra measure or a different chord or something, and I’m just screwed and have to do it from scratch.
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