The City Veins

Because we have some time before our next concert, which should hopefully be before February, our practices have become a little loose. For example, last night we played a 6-8 minute funky version of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, and a weird Phish-like version of “Do Re Me” from The Sound of Music complete with me screaming “Where’s the Deer?”. And while these pieces will never make it out of Aaron and Spencer’s basement, they are extremely useful exercises. These songs are never planned, so they force us to really listen to each other, and play off of each other. We also learn each other’s tendencies during these absurd jam sessions.

It is good for every band to learn how to listen to each other, play off of each other, and what to expect from each band member. For us, it is very important. There are bands that take the time to script out there songs, and practice them to perfection, before they bring them out into the world. We are not that kind of band. We pretty much practice a song 3-4 times, get a general idea of how it works, and then see how things go live.

If you were at the Velvet Lounge show last Saturday, you may have noticed a song towards the end that, and I am being generous here, completely fell apart. It is a new song, and we are still figuring out how it goes. The ending was the real disaster, and it was because I came in late. That forced Aaron to continue to sing an outro thing while he was waiting for me to come in, but I was waiting for him to stop singing before I came in. This made the song go on too long, and just generally not work. The fact that my guitar went out of tune didn’t help things either.

We tell ourselves that because we leave things open, there is the possibility for great things to happen while we are on stage. It also means that things can, and will, go horribly wrong from time to time. I think this makes things more exciting, well for me at least.

Photo by Flickr user scfllaw

After our last few concerts the general consensus seems to be that we are having more fun on stage, or at least we look like we are having more fun on stage. While I think that we are having more fun on stage, that is not what people are necessarily seeing while we are performing. From the crowd’s perspective we are laughing more, but the dirty secret is that we are mostly laughing at each other, particularly when someone else in the band makes a mistake. I think that we know each other pretty well as musicians at this point, and we have practiced the hell out of the songs. The result is that we are each listening to the other person a lot more, and thus picking up on little mistakes each of us make. We are also comfortable enough around each other to call people on their mistakes. So the more we laugh, the worse the concert.

In a somewhat related note, Aaron and Spencer have decided that I play better when I am angry. This is actually not that unreasonable position to take, I probably do play better when I am angry. What is irritating is that Aaron and Spencer think that this gives them license to pester, annoy, irk, and bother me before concerts in an effort to make me mad. Their defense is that they, like me, want a really good performance. They don’t have a choice, or so they plead. So when you see Aaron or Spencer talking to me on stage, particularly when we are setting up, they are probably saying something profane to get me riled up.

Also, there are pictures in from our performance at WMUC. They were taken by Nestor Diaz. Spencer is particularly excited because he actually gets to appear in these photos. So go check them out.

Last night we had the pleasure of being on Third Rail Radio, a fantastic little program on WMUC (www.wmucradio.com), the University of Maryland’s college radio station. I think I can speak for the other guys when I say it was one of the best times we’ve had as a band yet. We played a 30-minute set and then had a 15-minute “interview.” We have a recording of our songs, including several new ones, that we hope to get up on our MySpace and website soon.

Highlights include:

• Aaron’s theory on why the dinosaurs died: “I don’t know, it was like freezing and stuff.” Priceless. Thank God he’s not a high school history teacher or anything - oh, wait…
• The history of the band, in which it was finally revealed that we while I did meet Aaron and Charles through Craigslist, it was really in the erotic section. The fact that we all played instruments was just a nice coincidence. (I hope sarcasm comes through on the Interweb).
• A very interesting question was raised: if lactose-intolerant Charles ate Velveeta, what would happen? Is there so little actual cheese in it that he’d be safe? Or would he turn into one big Velveeta cheese ball, like Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka after the blueberry gum? I personally hope it’s the latter, and further hope it’s not long before we find out.
• Aaron has really, REALLY strong feelings for Chutes’N'Ladders.
• I have similarly strong feelings about Batman, especially Batman Begins.
• Charles is only moved to speak when the discussion turns towards dinosaurs.
• Phone call pranks work better when caller ID doesn’t blow up your spot (sorry Lisa Marie).

As far as our actual set goes, I thought we played very well (except when I spaced out at the end of “Strike Up the Band”). We were in a room by ourselves and there was a great, loose vibe going on between us. It was strange, because we knew were performing but it was also a more laid-back, practice type vibe. That’s when we’re at our best, when we’re loose. Plus, it helped to get all the bugs out of us on Saturday night at Velvet Lounge. We played a pretty good set there and had fun, but it wasn’t as good as we think we could have been. We usually practice the day before a show to get any screw-ups out of our system, but Thanksgiving didn’t let that happen.

We want to send shout-outs and thanks to everyone at WMUC. First, to the sound engineers for doing a bang-up job, the sound quality was amazing. Second, to Mike Levine, Miles Waltuck, and company for 1) booking us and 2) conducting an unusually amusing interview.

Finally, dear reader, a word of advice: Listen to WMUC! They are good people playing good music and doing a lot to support local acts, plus they stream online. Third Rail, in particular, is on every Sunday night from 6-9 and is a great way to get to know up-and-coming bands, both from the DC area and from beyond (check out the impressive list of past guests: www.myspace.com/thirdrailradio).

The City Veins are currently in the middle of some very interesting times. While using the terms “crossroads” or “turning point” is pretty cliched, it’s kind of accurate here.

Let’s recap:

As you’ve probably read, The City Veins are now a three-piece due to Adam’s departure. We’ve been a band for a little under 7 months, and it’s been quite a ride. In that time, we’ve had some amazing success, including some great publicity and playing Arlene’s Grocery after being a band for less than 6 months, but there’s also been a fair share of obstacles and disappointments, which we’ve generally listed here in this blog, culminating with the loss of a founding member. That’s our history to date in a nutshell.

It would be easy to take a negative outlook on all this, but the reality is I couldn’t be feeling more positive about this band than I do today. Aaron, Charles and I have practicing our asses off and we sound damn good. I am proud of us. We’re not as polished as we were with Adam, and the total band sound isn’t as “full” with one guitar now instead of two. Yet we rock harder now. Because there’s only three of us, each of us has to raise our game to another level, and the early results are more than encouraging. I wish you could hear the difference between the first time we practiced as a 3-piece practice and now. All I can I do is express my excitement to bring this to the stage.

The truth is Adam’s departure really did benefit all parties; he is happier now and it is making us a better band. That’s not because Adam made us a lesser band, by any stretch. It’s just that challenges, by their nature, either defeat you or making stronger. Losing a founding member and a key songwriter would set a lot of other bands back quite a bit, and I’m happy to see how well we’re responding to this.

This isn’t PR-driven, not some “let’s put a good face on this” BS. This is the truth. Though the road got more difficult, this band is moving in the the right direction. I can’t wait for you all to see the new City Veins.

So we had a band meeting last week. We have about a month or so off, and wanted to get organized so that the time would be productive. It is good to occasionally have some time to regroup, tend to the things that have fallen by the wayside, and write some new material.

Aaron decided to come up with the agenda that you see here pictured. (Note, you can click on it to see the full-sized version) As you can see, it is pretty absurd. In fact, it makes me worry about the future of this band. Do you think that the Rolling Stones, or the Clash used footnotes? Also, the voice of this band apparently uses the phrase “Goals Model.” I was at this meeting, and I have no idea what a Goals Model is.

The real problem here is that Aaron was going to write a post about the meeting, he was also the Secretary, and hasn’t yet. That means that I get to make fun of him.