slogging it all away

my ever-growing list of places i've contacted for shows on this tour continues to astound me. it has grown to epic proportions. epic, i tell you. we are closing in on it though- things are getting very close. so far we really just need a show in minneapolis, san francisco and l.a. i tried to work in the possibility of playing in omaha or lincoln, nebraska but ultimately what our main concern should be at that time is getting home. i think it might be a bit much to stop on the 26th, play a show in nebraska, get up at 7am and load our shit and get our asses to our house, unload all of our stuff only to get back in the car, drive it to the airport, get that whole deal settled (god knows how long that will take) and then get our asses back home before then leaving again to go see my bloody valentine. it seems like tempting fate a bit too much. i'd much prefer if we just try and get ourselves home as quickly as possible- ideally in two days' time if at all possible- and then being able to get the whole rental car situation squared away in the morning and not have it hanging over our heads. i have the car reserved until 7:30, but i definitely don't plan on having it that long.
so i guess we'll see what happens. i have a few more places i could contact, which i probably will do before i leave here. i'm at the coffeeshop of course. not where i work, but around the corner from where we live. i am going to have to drop by beans and bagels later on today to pick up my paycheck and run some errands. i have to go to the post office and the bank as well. i have about 15 cds to mail off. will called me from work today to tell me about how him and jenee listened to the cd together and they really liked it. he said they both almost cried. sweet!
i'm preparing for complete ignorance, but dammit this record deserves to be heard motherfuckerrssss. i was even pondering placing an ad in magnet or something. i'm not sure what good it would do- it wouldn't necessarily sell any more copies of them. i am beginning to think that all it will do is increase our visibility a hair, which i guess couldn't hurt. it is also possible that if i buy an ad and send it in they actually might review it and probably rip me a new one. har-dee-har.
i'm sending one to pitchfork. i've sent them something since 'invisible against the sun,' though. rrrr. now i'm starting to get ticked off. better stop before the next stop is self-defeatist land.
i did absolutely nothing yesterday. absolutely nothing. i couldn't seem to type anything up and i ended up getting pissed and screaming, which didn't make me feel too good. ironically the screaming gave me a headache that wouldn't go away- i deserved it. oh yeah. i think that today is the time to stop by staples and get some correction tape because that would fix the problem. i don't know why i have the pathological need to use my typewriter, i just do. it's not something i can explain at all, it just works so well. it almost feels like it has become my new handwriting since i used to handwrite the little notes as well as the artwork and liner notes and such. no good- people can't read it so good. i have a massive shipping list. i have to spend some time at kinko's as well.
i bought a nina nastasia 7" on itunes last night too. i can't find the 7" anywhere, so i just shelled out the $2 and bought it online. that way if i, by some ridiculous miracle, am ever able to find it then i can buy it and not have to convert it. i have a massive backlog of new stuff to convert as it is. the bonus material on the 'daydream nation' vinyl box and all of 'low level owl' to convert. i wanted to do some mixes for the ep as well to put up on our myspace page. 'voices in the air' and 'fade to white.' both finished tracks. woo. hoo!
annoying point- can't get ahold of christopher gagnon again to add the violin parts to 'petals in a rainstorm' and 'sleep now...' which would pretty much finish that track off. i wanted to go use jim licka's mellotron possibly on that song- i think it'd sound fucking awesome and beautiful and pretty much exactly what i'm after, then it needs glockenspiel, new vocals for the second half and then bada-boom tada- finished. still haven't made much in the way of headway as far as finishing the two new songs- stefanie calls them 'smorgasbord' and 'leprosy' because they don't have titles (or lyrics). i have written tons of lyrics for both of them but am not happy with anything i've written. 'leprosy' is a problem now too because even with just two verses and two choruses it drags a bit. plus the rhythm was changed so the current lyrics and melody sound a bit droney with the way that it is now, whereas it didn't before. i guess we have some time to work on it. i'm just antsy and a bit frustrated. 'smorgasbord' i've already attempted two takes of- one was wayyyyy too long at about 15 minutes, the other is maybe about 8 or 9 minutes. we tried to play it live and again i tried to make it more to the point and it was still over 8 minutes. *sigh*. it is my curse. 'smorgasbord' has had two different sets of lyrics. one is alright. i might do what i like to do occasionally and cut and paste between the two versions. it's also an extremely dramatic song. a little bit much at times, but maybe people will love it. that's usually how it goes. yeah-yeah.