I Got Nothin' (Sorta)

For real. I have very little going on that I haven't already talked about.

I'm still in the middle of that show about women, and it's absolutely become a job. I don't want to go, but I need the money. And on rare occasions, it's fun. Recently we started dicking around and trying to add classic movie themes into the middle of songs, whenever possible. Day 1 involved the theme from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The guitar player managed to sneak it in just about everywhere. As the bassist, it's a lot harder for me to include these things. Day 2 was a particular challenge. We were trying to work in any music from Star Wars. Have you every tried playing the Imperial March in the middle of "I Will Survive"? Not entirely possible. However, playing the riff from Peter Gunn during "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" actually works pretty well. If anyone can think of movie themes that are easy to insert (a la Close Encounters), please let me know.

Also, I've been reading an exhaustive history of heavy metal music called Metal: A Definitive Guide by Garry Sharpe-Young. He spent 20 years culling all the information and interviews, and has organized the bands (about 75 of them) by type. It starts with Heavy Metal, such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Budgie, and goes on from there. It includes some of my favorite bands in there, such as 3 Inches Of Blood, Testament, Nevermore, Lamb of God, you name it. It's about 8" by 9", with size 6 font, and 500 freakin' pages, man. It took me 4 days to read about Black Sabbath alone. (On a very smooth side note, Paul Donato, one of the many, many replacements for vocalists Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio [inset], fronted the band Keep under the pseudonym Michael McDonald following his Sabbath career. The band also featured Mark St. John of Deep Purple and KISS drummer Peter Criss.)

And finally, even though it's in the Twitter, Dan took the new EP over to DiscMakers in Camden to get pressed. Should be back very shortly, at which point you will buy it. Not may buy it, WILL buy it. You can't see it, but I'm glowering and shaking my fist at you through the computer.

In summary, apparently I did have some stuff to talk about.

- Josh

Thank the Good Dude, It's Over

Josh here. It's been a while since I blogged, and with good reason. I've spent the past 3 weeks doing my darnedest NOT to fail out of grad school.

Well, to be fair, not to fail one class. But it was a doozy. However, I successfully earned a D+ in said class, so life rolls on. I will miss looking like Macaulay Culkin, though.

I've also been tied up with the closest thing to a real job I've had in 5 years. Since the end of April, I've been performing in RESPECT: A Musical Journey Of Women at the Act II Playhouse in adorable Ambler, PA (adjacent to Norristown, and a short hop from the imposing-sounding BROAD AXE). And let me tell you, if you think men are scum, if you remember the 40s, and if you want to sit in a theater and go "mm-hmm" for 2+ hours, then come on down. Seriously, the show definitely panders to 50-and-up female crowd, but it IS a pretty fun show. All the actresses are really nice, and the pay is good. But you will feel like a dick for having a penis (ba-dum-bum) if you sit through this.

One of the crew pointed out to me that there's only one man in the entire show who doesn't get a bad rap, and it's Dr. Martin Luther motherfucking King. The rest of us didn't have a prayer.

The band is finally working again after an unexpected hiatus (much of which was my fault), and we're looking forward to our upcoming show this Saturday, the 23rd, at Doc Watson's. It just so happens to be our 50th show, as well as James' 29th birthday. It's going to be a time, so come on down! I'll be screeching in around 11:15, minutes before our set, as I have a performance of RESPECT that night as well. Ah, the joys of professional musicianing.

Until next time, keep on tranglin'. (?)