The City Veins

Yes, that’s a shitty song off of Semisonic’s much-maligned sophomore offering. I’m sure they were talking about some tired, completely overused description of love, utilized by Shakespeare in order to reference a greek playwrite. But with bands as it is with love, the mixture of elements determines the product. We are still at the stage of proving that we have the ability to form something meaningful and new from a musical standpoint. Sometimes it seems as if we’re close to a break-through, somtimes not.  That’s normal. But what can sometimes be shocking is the way that being part of a band transforms personalities, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. A band is not only a professional entity but is, ideally, formed on friendships and a sense of common interest. But no matter how hard you try it CANNOT be exclusively one or the other. There is just so much work to do, so many tasks to complete that you cannot help but sometimes treat friends as co-workers or employees. Obviously, people get pissed off at each other. I always hope that the result is a complete implosion through which something genuinely emotive is produced.  Anger can be useful, if people have the good sense to use, though I suppose anger is irrational almost by definition (or maybe that’s rage).  Regardless, when your favorite bands are out there creating good music, it’s likey that one of two things is actually occuring:

1Â They are about to fucking kill each other.

2 They are all suffering through immense amounts of heroin withdrawal. Â

On a completely different note, and probably more appropriate as a separate post, we’re going to begin offering new recordings much more frequently. Spencer, Bayes, and I are moving into a new place off of Lee Highway, and when we’re finished moving in we will be able to record rehearsals live. That should be pretty bitchin’. If anyone doubts my technological acumen, which you would have plenty of evidence for, I will put your criticism to rest with the next set of offerings. Bayes and I will also drop selected pieces of songs that we’re working on, so check back frequently!

It was a long weekend. As I sit here avoiding my pathetic excuse for a real job, I once again realize that long weekends are only relaxing for old people. For the majority of us reading this, 3 day weekends usually take more out of you than put back in and we spend the rest of the 4 day work-week catching up on sleep, sobriety, and what happened in the rest of the world while we were not sleeping or staying sober. I digress.
We had two shows this weekend–a first for us. Thursday night we played at The Red and the Black on H street in DC. This club is relatively new, and is comfortably nestled between an impressive array of barber shops, stores specializing in real and fake hair products and by-products, and liquor stores with chains on the outside and protective glass in front of the counter. Although this was our own show, and we had known about it for about two months, there was a relatively low turnout. Besides the obvious fact that people didn’t want to come out on a Thursday to see us play, my guess is the location on H street had something to do with it. U street offers many more options than H street in terms of restaurants, bars nearby, and a metro-stop within close proximity. So, the odds were against a large turnout from the get-go. I guess people were already drunk, had satisfactory haircuts and didn’t really want extensions.
I digress. Again.
Moving on to the actual show….The Red and the Black is a small place with an odd sound setup. The room for the band is made of metal and wood; not the greatest setup for acoustics. The soundguy is also the bartender and her philosophy on levels was based primarily on turning knobs until it sounded ok while popping the top off Miller Lites and breaking a ten so patrons could leave a tip. With all that said, I was still a little surprised to be electrocuted each time my face touched the microphone. Though the electroshock therapy lasted the entire set, we played our asses off to a receptive crowd. We debuted a new song, “Oh, Backwards”, and realized although Charles wrote the majority of the song, this was probably our first real collaborative effort as a band. As such, it’s the most rewarding and fun song to play live. Another first, Aaron’s girlfriend Rachel finally came to see a show, so he can avoid mockery for the time being. Granted, she has heard our CD more times than she probably cared to, and is privy to our practices more often than she would like. Our good friend, Darren Higgins, came out and brought his camera to further immortalize The City Veins. Check out his photos at www.darrenhiggins.com . He also has a show this Thursday in DC…check his website for details. Thanks to all who came out on Thursday, despite the location and it being a weeknight. Hanging out on the back porch before and after the show with everyone makes the night worthwhile. The other two bands, Chaos of Birds and The Daybreak Line were great and also very nice people to share the stage with.

Moving on to Friday night at The Velvet Lounge…

Friday night was also a first for us. We were actually asked to open for someone. The Pawns, a great band from NYC, came down to DC for a headlining spot and Rob at Velvet Lounge contacted us last week to ask if we could fill in an opening slot. It’s always nice to be asked to play somewhere instead of either demanding, begging, or pleading. Luckily, all of us were in town and willing to play. Chaos of Birds, ironically enough, was also on the bill. After Chaos’ amazing set, we hit the stage and didn’t have to contend with the wonders of disfunctional electricity during our 9 song set. Rob does a great job on sound and it’s nice to not have to worry about how the levels sound to the crowd. Despite Charles’ claim of personal performing woes and Spencer’s distaste for the order of the setlist, I think the show went well. As a side note, I will no longer be doing any work for the band. I will be starting my free-loading this week while others make the set list, book the shows, load and unload the gear, and put stickers on the underside of toilet seats in seedy rock clubs. When I am once again appreciated, I will then commence band-related work. I’m kidding. Sort of.

Another highlight of the night was meeting a very hyper girl from Taiwan who dispelled all stereotypes of the Far East by getting really drunk, not understanding what people were saying to her, and enthusiastically shouting “Johnny Depp!” while talking incessantly about the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. My favorite moment can be summarized in the following conversation between her and Aaron:
Girl: “What’s your name?”
Aaron: “Aaron.”
Girl: “Wait…..who’s that?”
Aaron: “Me.”
Girl: “…..I’m confused.”

The rest of the weekend was spent sleeping, watching tv, drinking, sleeping and sweating in our non-air conditioned house. Spencer and Aaron and I signed a lease for our new house on Sunday, so now we won’t have to move drums to practice and we can start our Behind the Music fights and drug use together on June 15th. Aaron and I spend a little time working on Pro-Tools, recording some demos of new material and working on arrangements. It’s a slow process at first but recording is a lot of fun and a good release.

Tonight we play the finals of TT Reynold’s New Music Showcase at 8 pm. Go to www.ttreynolds.com for directions, it’s on Main Street in Fairfax just past 50 on 123 near the Hooters and George Mason. We go on 2nd, so most likely around 8:30. The winners get a paid weekend gig so we’d like to see everyone out there to support and vote for us. Bring your grandparents. Charles unfortunately won’t be there to perform poorly, so the bad performing will be left to Aaron, Spencer and myself. That goes for on stage as well as in the bedroom.

We are playing tonight at The Red and The Black with The Chaos of Birds and The Daybreak Line. It should be a good concert. We go on around 10:00.

Also, we have been asked to open for Pawns at the Velvet Lounge. We will also be playing with The Chaos of Birds again. I believe that we will also be going on around 10:00. I find this exciting because it is the first time that a band that I am in has been asked to play somewhere, particularly without the expectation that we bring anyone. Now all I need is to walk out of a concert with more money in my pocket than when I went in and I just might feel like a professional musician.

We hope to see you at one, or for the truly adventurous, both concerts.

We are currently in the process of deciding what songs to cover. This is a remarkably arduous process. The problem is that we want to pick a song that people will know, and a song that we can play differently than the recording. The point of a cover is to have something that concert goers, particularly those that don’t know us, can immediately recognize. Something that will wake their ears up. The flip side, is that we want people to be able to learn something about us as a band based on the way we play the cover. For example, we could play “Across the Sea” by Weezer perfectly and all the you would learn is that we like “Across the Sea” by Weezer. And really, who doesn’t like that song?

For me, this creates a whole category of songs that I can never cover. Songs that I love. I could never cover “Let Down” by Radiohead because I love that song too much, and can’t contemplate playing it differently than the recorded version. What happens is that we have to find songs that are well known, and that we don’t love but that we respect and/or find interesting. This is a difficult proposition. Try to think of songs that fulfill these requirements. We are currently toying around with “Nothing Compares 2 U,” “Walk Away Renee” or maybe something from Motown. Something by the Clash might work, but then we quickly enter the songs that I love realm. I just don’t know.

Feel free to chime in with any suggestions. We are getting desperate.

Last night we hit another milestone. In every band’s early days there is one event that makes all of their efforts pay off and solidifies their existence as a formidable force: when a neighbor or passerby threatens to call the police because of “all that horrible noise”. Last night, on May 14th, 2007, we popped our cherry.

Luckily, we had pretty much finished up practicing for the night, with only one more song on the schedule. A new song, “Oh, Backwards,” had gone well and will be ready for the 24th, and we had played through another new one, as well as all the “older” stuff which allowed us to get the lead out after a week of not practicing. Near the ending notes of 16 Buzzing,(around 8:50 pm) we heard this horrid and shrill shriek from upstairs–seemingly from an extremely upset woman-sounding thing. Immediately, all of us thought either someone was being violently raped in our living room (unlikely), or that my dog, Beam, had somehow broken free of the confines of our house and been unceremoniously run over by a car (rather likely). We assumed the later, crossed our fingers for Beam, and rushed upstairs to determine the origin of, and reason for, this ridiculously loud and emotional outcry.

Much to our relief, the culprit was none other than our disgruntled old curmudgeon of a neighbor, we’ll call her Mrs. Potter. That moniker sounds good for a really nasty old woman with too much time on her hands. She immediately began yelling at us and saying she was going to call the cops and it was absolutely offensive and ridiculous that we were making that much noise. We explained to her that we had probably practiced 30 times in that basement, and she had never heard us, and that both the neighbors on either side of us said they not only were ok with the music, but they actually liked hearing it. Mrs. Potter, however, lives 3 doors down and apparently doesn’t care for our brand of music. Her main concern, however, was that “this poor dog (Beam) had to listen to such horrible music.” Aaron then replied, “It’s not horrible,” and she said: “It IS horrible. You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Aaron then responded, “Well, that’s a matter of opinion.” She then left the scene of her crime (breaking and entering and trespassing) muttering that next time she was going to call the cops and not even warn us.

I stood there like an idiot, thankful that Beam was alive and busy running trying to scrounge for food, prescription medication bottles, or nicotine products, as usual. Aaron took the lead in telling this woman to go fuck herself, while Charles and Spencer slowly emerged from the basement, not wanting to meddle in our neighborly discussions. Unfortunately, that event signaled the end of a pretty solid practice and the beginning of our plan to seek revenge on Mrs. Potter. Aaron and I are thinking a nice flaming bag of poo (Beam’s probably, Aaron’s maybe) is definitely on tap before our June 30th move out date.

Any other possible suggestions for solutions to this are welcomed. The City Veins have their first nemesis. We will win this battle, and there will be flaming poo.