The City Veins

Thanks to all of you who came out last night to see us play at the Velvet Lounge…we love that joint, we love Rob (the sound guy, only slightly sexually), and any time our support shows up like last night, we’re happy. Lights Resolve and The Black and White Jackson’s were also great. Please support them both by checking out their myspace pages, that’s really all it takes to make a band happy.
After the show last night we all did the typical “thanks for coming” talk to all of you in the crowd, then we got down to the real deal: taking home a souvenir. A band seemed like an easy mark, so we took home Lights Resolve. As it turns out, they had a prosepctive place to stay when they got down here, but no where solid, so we invited them over. They followed us down 9th to the 395 tunnel, then they over-heated on the bridge, and we left them in the lurch, like only good hosts would. They waited for their van and trailer to settle, and Bayes and I drove home. They’re quite adept at following directions, so they showed up about 25 minutes later. Spencer and I promptly put on our DVR-ed episodes of Flight of the Conchords to set the mood, but I’m not sure they recognized the show: clearly touring musicians don’t have the time on their hands that those of us in the half-assed working world do (although Spencer and Charles actually work).
Then we talked for a couple hours and did what bands ACTUALLY do: there were no groupies or late night boozing. The drummer ate some old egg rolls that were sitting on our coffee table. We talked about their moment of fame in their last band “Last Week” (now with an ironic and meaningful twinge), how they toured asia, how they played on a bill with Gwen Stefani, and how now their new band is trying to make it back from almost scratch with a completely different musical personality. I fained the ability to relate, talked about my experiences playing clubs larger than 150, which are few and far between. Then we talked about Jeff Buckley and the band Ours. I told them I sat up at night in college smoking pot and crying while watching live at the Cabaret Metro, and they called me a wuss. I cried some more. Then, realiziing we were making too much noise for suburbia we all turned in for the night, me in my bed and them on our futon/extremely long L-couch. In your face, mother-fuckers. I got a bed, you don’t.
Those guys are still here. They might stay the week. If they do, you all should come over and hang with the rock-star house. Or at least show up on thursday at TT Reynolds when we play with them again so you can be part of my next blog.
Again, thanks to those who came out last night.

–Aaron

Come out an see us tonight at the Velvet Lounge with Lights Resolve and Black & White Jacksons. We should be going on around 11:00, I think, but don’t hold me to that. We have free copies of our EP “A Weekend Affair” to hand out, but you do have to pay to get in.

For those of you who can’t make it out tonight, or who want to bankrupt us with shipping costs, you can order a copy of the EP here.

To shed a little more light on some of the issues within the band that Charles eluded to in his last blog, part of the tension results from songwriting and creative mission. My personal draw towards music has always been from a creative perspective. It’s a given that it’s fun to stand on stage and feel as if you’re important, and no-one in their right mind would totally distance themselves from the sex, drugs, and rock & roll fantasy. However, a great many musicians whom I respect did not approach their craft with any of that in mind, or at least convincingly appeared not to care about excess. In a very small way, and in it’s most palatable and benign form, this is what some of our arguments are about. How do you create a song? Who is your audience? What influences do you bring to the table? The answer to these questions are all relevant as you determine whether or not what you’ve just created, either collectively or individually, is worthwhile or a piece of shit. And it seems that no two people ever hear it the same way.
Music exists within the context of it’s own history, and from a creative stand-point you have to be cognizant of what tools you are utilizing and where they’ve come from. One is likely to think a song or work is valuable if they feel they are properly channeling those artists they respect, and equally likely to disregard elements they find to be juvenile based on their own musical preferences. It stands to reason that if the members of a band have differing influences that sometimes it feels like “A martian talking to a fungo” (Costner, 1988). As it turns out, we in The City Veins all have similar influences, but the differences are somtimes magnified when a single element of a song deviates from that particular intersection. It seems to be at the point of deviation that people become the most opinionated, and this issue has yet to work itself out.
Geography does, I believe, play an important role in the musical preferences of almost all people, especially for those who live near large urban areas. If you grew up in NYC, your likely to support various forms of hio hop, punk, and indie music, while influence in this area may be distributed by Fugazi, Q and not U, or Ted Leo. The DC punk sound is distinct from New York punk, as Seattle rock was different from all other rock of the ’90’s (and LA rock is inherently soul-less and concerned with excess and stardom). This may seem tangential from the previous discussion about our band arguments, but I think our personal geographies have more to do with these arguments than any other specific creative issue. While three of us are from the DC area, we have had diverging experiences and locations. Charles, who is the only one of us to ever live at a DC address, is much more tuned-in to the native DC scene than the rest of us. Adam lived in the southwest, so he is influenced by The Shins and other such bands. So times our differences geographically effect what we like and don’t like, and I think we each struggle to keep an open mind to each others opinions. Once that’s worked out: brilliance.
As a last point (if you’ve decided to read this far, bully for you), as someone who aspires to properly articulate his influences, I have a tendency to think of band value only in terms of creating something new and genuinely contributing to musical history. If we make money, that’s great, but I think the best bands are the ones that simply did what they thought sounded best and at least TRIED to push things a bit. That may not be the first thing we all thing of in terms of why we want to play, but it is mine. not that we don’t each want to sound like the artists we love, it’s just that they aren’t all the same artists.

I remember when my sister was graduating from college and she complained that every conversation centered around questions of grad school and/or future employment. Being in a band is a lot like that, most of your conversations become about your band. Ordinarily this is a good thing, particularly given you ego-centric most musicians are. We relish any opportunity to talk about ourselves.

Our current problem is that we have been mired in a band fight for about the last 2 weeks or so. This is not a big deal, and has nothing to do with why we are not playing in Philadelphia, but it starts to wear on you. I have reached the point where I don’t want to talk about the band anymore. This is why this blog has been silent for a few weeks.

As we reach the end of this current band fight, I have been reflecting on band fights in general, and the many fights that I have had. In my last band, I had a shouting match with my bassist while we were recording over a single note. We were just yelling at each other for an hour about one note! Given the cost of studio time, it was probably the most expensive argument that I have had. It is also interesting to note, that I have been a central component of every band fight in the bands I have been in. Were I more humble, I would probably think that I might be the problem.

The one constant in all band arguments is that they come at the intersection of artistic, financial, and personal concerns. Tension just gradually builds up, and eventually one little thing will happen and all of a sudden everyone’s problems with each other come gushing out. Just imagine tension you may have had with your friends, your co-workers, and then try to create something while working with these people. I should add that these problems are being resolved by people crazy enough to try to make a living playing rock music. Suffice it to say, things can get ugly.

But things have worked out themselves out, and we are pressing onward. We hope to see you all at the Velvet Lounge on Friday, July 13th! What can possibly go wrong on such an auspicious day? We will be playing with Lights Resolve and Black & White Jacksons.

Our concert in Philadelphia tonight has been canceled due to booking snafus. We hope to reschedule, and make it up there soon.