hey you. first, grab the two les savy fav mp3s of tracks from their new record available from their website. ahh, newwavy! then, read my next post.

the process of bandforming is a new experience for me. in mid-june of 1999 i was assimilated, rather reluctantly, into a band fronted by a friend of a friend. i didn't have much songwriting input beyond arranging the bass parts, and the music wasn't really what i was interested in playing, but my best friend was the drummer and i was in dire need of live performing experience. so i played with them whenever i was in the chapel hill area; and i guess that arrangement is still in effect, though i bristle at putting my own money toward stuff like recording and touring for a band i'm only a side-man in.

now i'm helping to put together a new combo on the west coast dedicated to playing what i want to play. right now i've got one guy pretty much confirmed, nick from mono, and another prospective guitarist has showed interest in what we're doing. we're still in search of a drummer and sampler-user, though it may be tough to locate one of the latter who's into what we're doing. in these formative stages, no one quite knows what they're doing, and practices often dissolve into amorphous jam sessions which we record for further development later. but of course, all that's pretty manifest. what most non-scenesters don't realize is the enormous amount of schmoozing necessary to get anywhere in an indie band these days. sure, talent still matters, but if you're not down with the scene you're not going anywhere. so i try to impress upon my bandmates the importance of ingratiation, demeaning and disingenuous as it may seem. but again, y'know, we're working toward a goal here, and personally i think getting the word out about one's band is worth a bit of social whoring. that may sound a little odd coming from such a social outcast as myself, but as long as said networking acts strictly as an adjunct to getting shows and record deals and stuff i'm cool with it. meeting cool people would be a mere side effect because, as i well know, they're not so common these days.

guess i'm down to updating weekly now. things have been moving so quickly lately, i don't quite feel that i've had the time to digest things properly into legible form. in addition to supporting the home PCs of over 100 stanford students, i've been addicted to kaillera; specifically, street fighter alpha 3. i'm better than most players on the american servers, though there are a couple players that kick my ass consistently. but god: in europe and especially in asia, i'm so much meat for the tenderizing. those guys are killers, lemme tell ya.

on the music front, i've been practicing with nick, and things are sounding pretty interesting. if we're lucky our first songs will coalesce fairly soon so that we can begin honing our soon-to-be-in-demand live show. personally, i derive inspiration from all the mediocre indie bands being signed these days, e.g. the firebird band, reuben's accomplice, 98% of the deep elm roster. . . you know what i'm getting at. now all we need is a drummer, perhaps another guitarist, and someone who knows their way around a sampler. operators are standing by, so apply now. that would rock.

went 'n saw burning airlines, rival schools and the actionslacks last night with nick in the city, for the second time this year. nick turned me on to kleenex in the ears, which greatly enhanced my listening experience and decreased the concomitant ear-ringing. the actionslacks were professional, but quite frankly, dull. a couple tracks hit my sweet spot but by and large, it wasn't much to write home about. i just can't get that excited about standard 4/4 rock anymore unless the songwriting/performance is pretty incredible, and these guys weren't. rival schools, just so i don't look like i'm contradicting myself, gets by on the strength of walter schreifels' incredible voice. the band turned the intensity level up a couple notches, but the sound wasn't that great for some reason. walter didn't stop bouncing for a second, like his life was gonna end if he stopped. i like the record alot, so i liked their show.

burning airlines was just as good this time as last time, but they didn't blow me away quite as much because i knew what to expect. they played a couple tunes i hadn't heard live yet, so that was a treat; otherwise, it was more or less the same great rock show i'd seen this summer. i guess the theme of the evening was bands fronted by ex-frontmen of influential bands who get a bunch of seasoned scenesters together to prolong the magic. eh, whatever. i had fun.

i just got in from north carolina. the news is grim today. i woke up at about 7 am PST at my uncle's apt in san francisco and flipped on the avengers, ironically. my uncle's roommate came out of his room and told me to put on the news. and now, 14 hours later, i still can't get that horrible image of the plane hitting that building and the resulting explosion out of my head. now i know i have enemies. one of the first thoughts that entered my head this morning was that i have honest-to-god enemies. people i've never met wish me harm because of what i represent. and that fact has never scared me so much as it does now.

i'm usually a pretty sarcastic guy, but i can't smirk my way out of this one. i'm hurting because of the day's tragedies. thousands of people are dead today because of ideology. again. i mentioned to my father that i didn't believe any normal american would ever cheer over any mass murder, anywhere, as the citizens of the west bank are alleged to have done. but later i thought to myself: it's easy to hop aboard a moral high horse when all your needs are taken care of, you've got clean clothes on your back, and you have no pressing needs. there's no excuse for these hateful acts, but scapegoating and reckless use of the "e" word will only result in more tragedy. but unfortunately it seems that further bloodshed is inevitable.

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