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>>I've LISTENED a lot. I haven't PLAYED all that much, so I'm much farther,
>Well, that may be so, but I'm sure you've still advanced since I last heard
That sounds interesting. You know I've got a tape of an old band rehearsal,
at Cactus Jack's. Well, you weren't there...Okema, of all people, was doing
the singing. That was pretty scary, man. Anyhow, I think Julie recorded
it, as there's a fair amount of Dave and...well, there's a whole lot of her
at Faire on the later part of the tape. I dunno....it was just funny. I
know Big Sam has a couple of tapes (or recorded us a couple of times,
anyhow), but there isn't really a whole lot of video that we've got.
>>I think of the solo in "Fist On Fist," where we
>I totally agree! The first time I heard that, I was like, wait a minute!
He'll do that, take an idea and take it in a radically different direction
than you think he will. Or that you'd normally hear. There are a lot of
eccentricities in his playing, which go to really defining his style. And
it's mostly stuff that he DOESN'T play -- places where he drops beats and
shit. For a lot of folks, that sorta thing throws them off. My opinion is
that it makes things interesting.
>>Oh, hell yeah. It's funny, though, because when Pat, Sam, Alex, and I sat
>That's hilarious to imagine, really.
>Okay, I came in late, so educate me on details: who was in the band prior
Well, the notion was that Sam, Alex, Pat, Matt Anthony (playing keyboard)
and myself were gonna be "the band" and go find a singer. Matt, because we
weren't playing synth-heavy music and because he wasn't real eager to learn
anything anyhow, didn't last, even in the plan, for more than a couple of
weeks. So the four of us plowed away for a few months, with the end of
playing at Millikan's Battle of the Bands, which morphed into the first
Annual Talent Show. See, the whole thing was on track, had a club
sponsoring it (the Industrial Arts guys, who, conveniently, also comprised
most of the Stage Crew), and had all the plans together when the
administration balked -- felt that there were too many security concerns.
So, basically, the quartet of Stiletto (not yet Premonition), Horace
Deloris, 2 Miles To Go, and the Gregorian Ponks were going to hack it out on
the big stage. Woulda been a hell of a show. Transformed into a less
threatening talent show, three of the bands backed out (Ricky's band played).
Basically, when that fell through, we didn't practice too much until the
following summer, a period during which Alex basically left and did his
Horror Legion thing. Basically, at that point, it was just the me, Sam, and
Pat core of the band turning ourselves into an ass-kicking outfit. The
history from that time forward you surely know.
Then again, maybe I'm doing a disservice to the whole history. I mean, I
first jammed with Sam over a long weekend our sophomore year (about a year
before tha band coalesced), when I slapped my bass part on "STW" (nee "The
Gretchen Song"), learned "Fade To Black," and jammed on "You Really Got Me"
with Sam. And Sam had played with Pat and Alex before that point, so the
roots on the band go back farther still.
But, basically, it wasn't until about the time just before Alex left that I
asserted myself at all, and wasn't until we were playing in the garage that
my ego really played a significant role in shaping the band.
(The harmonics in Traveler)
>As I remember, one day you hit the first harmonic entirely by accident and
Sounds about right...I do an awful lot of that kinda stuff. It's that whole
improvisational spirit I always talk about trying to play with.
Adam D. Barnhart
>>at this point, from turning what's in my head into something that you'd
>>actually HEAR.
>you. Anyhow, it will just be fun to hear what you guys can remember in
>general. I've recently decided that we'll bust out the video camera and see
>what kind of highlights (and lolights) I can capture.
>>just really opened up that "Running Free" rip off for him to go off.
>>And Pat had the balls
>>to, in the middle of his feature, stop. Not play anything. I thought that
>>was fucking amazing.
>Isn't that defeating the whole idea. But then, it's like that break
>actually creates a tension for the rest of the thing. I've always thought
>it was cool because it was just different. different idea, different approach.
>>down to crank out "Aces High," I sucked. It was invaluable for me to sit
>>there and get my ass kicked for a few weeks. In any event, since I was
>>really almost in a "student" kind of position, I wasn't particularly pushy
>>in the early days of the band.
>to aggregate sum, and when did you enter the picture? I take it Alex was
>there from the start and left, or at least diminished, before I entered the
>picture. If you can, give me a few vague dates. I know I arrived August 89
>and spent that Fall putting lyrics together, whilst we contemplated
>Shoemaker replacing Pat and you had chicken-pox. That Spring, around when
>my brother arrived here, was only the second time we played with Pat there,
>as I recall.
>>Yeah, the doorbell. I didn't remember the source of that, but it's one of
>>those things that actually locked really well into what Pat was doing. It
>>does sound pretty cool.
>the second to cover the mistake. Then you fell in love with it.
Excerpt One -- Excerpt Two -- Excerpt Three
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