it's been a while since i've written in this thing. this is my first normal weekend in several weeks (about three i think). the trip to kansas city doesn't count because that was as close to a full-on vacation as i'm likely to get in the foreseeable future. with that in mind i'm happy to report that it was a really fun trip- very relaxing. i know that it's been a good weekend if i find time to become cripplingly bored before the end of it. that means i've been able to fully unwind and relax.
the show at the record bar was really good- it went really well and a ton of our friends and family came out to see it. sadly they all left right after we played and why i must be careful played to me and all of the record bar bartenders and servers. that's kind of a shame because they were quite good. i don't really know how they do what they do and i can usually figure out how most bands i see do what they do. with them it seemed like they were eerily and ridiculously in sync with each other. i enjoyed them a bunch. we played for a pretty generous amount of time- we were done with four songs within 20 minutes- quite a record for us. we strung most of it together. i wasn't real happy with the last song- mainly because i kept having trouble grabbing the chords and i didn't sing it very well, which was a bummer because i sang so well for the rest of the set.
after the record bar show we packed up our lovely red chevy cobalt (the type of car i am sure we are damned to be given at every rental lot that we pull into for the rest of our car-renting days) and headed over to kkfi to play on radionic's show. we got there and he informed us that the door we were supposed to go into was surrounded by homeless people. we were a bit nervous, but went in. they were actually very polite. the setting up and playing was all a blur and i was still a bit dazed from the show at the record bar. i think that stefanie was too because while we played on the radio we made a fair amount of what i thought were very obvious mistakes (i heard the recording later and as it turned out none of them were as obvious as i'd thought at the time). we played four songs sort of quiet-like and made some delirious banter.
after that we were able to park the car in the garage at my parents' building and go straight to sleep. the beauty of a secured garage. at first my paranoia was nagging me not to leave my stuff in the garage, but then i remembered that my dad keeps both of his $1000+ bikes in the garage and they've never been stolen, thus putting things into perspective. there is a gaggle of other stuff that other people in their building keep in the garage as well. in the morning we unloaded everything from the back seat (the fender twin and stefanie's floor tom mainly) and never unloaded the trunk at all. while i'm not such a huge fan of the chevy cobalt one thing about it that i love is how deceptively huge the trunk is- it held every piece of equipment that we had except for the two previously mentioned pieces. good stuff.
i don't remember much about what we did from day to day, but we went to the filling station every day (of course), i went to winstead's two or three times, we watched 'fletch lives' and most of 'teen wolf.' 'definitely maybe' was on again as well and we watched some weird lifetime movie that starred thora birch with my dad. our parents took us to some really awesome restaurants. at least half of the trip was funded by my credit card- but the money was paid back immediately once we got home because i had a giant fat paycheck waiting for me that had two six-day workweeks on it. i actually had the urgency to pay the money that we spent back. i'm surprised at how much we did on the little we had. it helps that my dad stocks their fridge with beer. he also has a cooler with wine racks that's usually pretty stocked with beer as well. going to bars has begun to become a fairly restrained act for me as well these days- i can have a maximum of two or three beers and not really feel much of anything (or at least anything that lasts for more than an hour).
stefanie spent all of saturday with her parents. i joined up with them after they got back from visiting their grandmother (which took up more than half of the day). we even had the foresight to leave by 10:30 on sunday morning so that we were home and unpacked by about 8pm despite a few construction setbacks once we got back to chicago (this portion of the trip took 20-30 minutes alone). my dad had given me a bunch of money for gas and we had enough left over to order takeout from summer- perfect after a 9 hour drive. we even had some time to relax and watch some dvds.
despite last week being a three day workweek it seemed interminable. i don't know why this is- but at least it's over now and things will go back to normal somewhat for at least another week. we're housesitting for jay and diana through the majority of the month of september. it's probably not going to be too pleasant after a while, but at least we'll make a bunch of money that we will desperately need. this money will be enough to buy us our train tickets home for christmas. yay! i'm not sure but the money from the two-week trip might not be spoken for so i might be able to use it to master 'all hope is blind.'
speaking of 'all hope is blind' it's done. i have to listen to a few new mixes that i made, but it's pretty safe to say that it's all good. i might take a song off of the final tracklisting- the one that will most likely get the axe is 'under the flood.' it's loop-based and despite the fact that we are able to we haven't attempted to play it live yet. one of my main rules with songs tends to be that if we aren't dying to play it live then it probably isn't worth putting on the album. i have some loosely-tied plans for the release. i'm going to press up 100 promos first and send them out all over the known universe while getting the pressing of the lp going. i'm not sure how this will be done, but it will be done i say! i have about four months to get it done, but i will remain optimistic that it is still possible.
we need to get some fliers printed up to attempt to go on tour in march. i am still going to apply to play at sxsw. i don't know why i continue to apply and apply and apply every year and never get in, but i'll give it five years. i've already done three. i actually might call in some favors to try and get on some unofficial parties. it's about time i at least tried, dammit!
i'm currently musically obsessed with the morning after girls. i don't really understand this phenomenon, but nearly every psychedelic band that i love i've seen live for the first time and not liked only to track down their records later and completely fall in love with them. i guess this is a good thing as i tend to end up really loving music that i don't get at first.
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