-dan stumbles in-
Damn that cargo van rocks. Fucking-a it's a beautiful sight. That's all I have to say about the cargo van.
I'd like to talk a little about my history. I started playing music at a very young age. I'm not sure why I was pushed into it. I know that when my parents bought their first house the guy who owned it had this player piano that he didn't want, so he threw it in with the house. My mother had piano lessons when she was younger but I don't remember her pushing me into playing music. I know that my great uncle played sax in a polka band, and even though I had never heard him play I guess just the thought that someone in my family had played the sax made me want to pick it up. So I did in the third grade. My family was pretty poor so we rented many a shitty sax during my tenure as a sax player. Alto at first but tenor as I grew a little bigger. Damn that thing was heavy to carry to school. I quit playing sax after my freshman year, I guess it just wasn't cool to play the sax at that time so I picked up the guitar. Of course Nirvana had just hit the scene and I was all into that. After only playing guitar for like 2 months I found a friend of mine that played drums and we formed a semi band. It was good times I always loved music and playing guitar let me express a lot of the feelings that I had growing up. I also learned how to play that piano in the meantime. I found out also that my great-grandfather played the fiddle (3/4 violin). So I had kind of a musical backround.
My second year of college I ended up hooking up with this band spice rack. They played pop punk and I played with them at a couple shows, even cut a demo with them. It wasn't meant to be, they just couldn't keep up with me on guitar. So I put it away for a very long time. Pulling it out on rare occasions like to teach girlfriends some chords or to show off for them. To tell you the truth I thought I was done...which I guess I was in effect.
It was only jay and bill that got me excited in music again. I had never played bass and it didn't seen that hard to me. Although I had always strayed away from it. See I'm six foot tall and thin, typical bass player material. I tried to stay away from it, but it found me and I love it now. Bass seems to compliment how I play which seems to compliment the band which is why I play with them.
It's the most expressive music I've ever been able to create and I truly love this band.
-dan goes back to work-
Nparkproject's Journal
My Podcast Link
10/10/2004 07:55 #30424
Cargo van and my history10/07/2004 18:52 #30423
Free Cargo Van I have the best job on the planet!!! Today I was asked if I want a cargo van for free! Hell yeah I want a cargo van for free!!!!! This thing is in great condition. I need to put in about $800 and this thing will be as good as new! That's nothing compared to the $15,000 we would have had to take out a lone for. Transportation of equipment will soon become an issue and now it's one less thing we have to worry about. Well i'm glad that I am the first to come on and respond to the situation Dan talked about today. In my mind there is no reason I can fathom that would have sparked what happened. I can't go into any deeper than that without bringing up dead issues but I think after what we all witnessed on Monday, we should all make sure we think about the consequences before talk, and pick and choose our battles wisely!! All we did was give eachother a worthless headache. I'm glad it's behind us and we should all try our hardest to avoid petty shit at all costs! And another thing I feel strongly about is that just because we are a band that does not obligate us to fight. WE should take our time perfecting our music rather than getting under eachother's skin! We all need to take a fucking chill pill and start doing what we are good at. Playing as a band!!! (Improvised bass riffs and all)
Later E-peeps ( I can say that this should be the last time you ever hear drama like this come from us)
Jay has spoken
Later E-peeps ( I can say that this should be the last time you ever hear drama like this come from us)
Jay has spoken
10/05/2004 13:52 #30421
Sorry Nick Everybody duck, Mt. Saint North Park just erupted. Details at eleven.
But don't worry, we're ok.
But don't worry, we're ok.
10/04/2004 14:41 #30420
Strange Weekend!!!!! What's up Elmwood? I have finally returned back to the strip to speak my piece on the situations that have been taking place over the past week or two. I'll start with Dan's party. It was a great time except for the police showing up about 20 minutes after we started to play. WE have always had problems with our next door neighbors and I think as soon as they heard us playing they tried to sabotage our party. Luckily, the cop that came by was real cool and told us that as long as we played in the garage with the door closed everything would be fine. So we moved our gear in to the garage and had a great time playing for everybody! I wanna especially thank Dan's friends from the radio station for all of there kind words when we were done playing. They seemed to really enjoy themselves and that made my night!. Now on tho picture drama with Billy. We discussed it later that night (after a ridiculous reaction to my request. No offense Billy!!!) and everything worked themselves out like usual. I want to apologize for taking down entry's that you worked hard on! I never looked at it that way and I should have. It's 11:11 and I wish for forgivness.......! So I would now like to take this time to encourage everyone not to drink and drive and speed unlicensed, unregistered, uninsured and in another state. We'll just say that I could be rotting in prison right now if it was'nt for a real cool cop (and we all now how rare they are to come by). Finally tonight we are gonna get a full band practice going . It seems like it been so long since we all practiced together I am starting to get over anxcious. Alright I am getting yelled at by my boss so I gotta go. Sound clips for everyone soon thanks for staying updated!!!
Later Elmwood
P.S Sorry for any spelling errors I was in a hurry!!
Later Elmwood
P.S Sorry for any spelling errors I was in a hurry!!
10/07/2004 09:38 #30422
Not sure what you want...-dan jumps into band journal-
I've thought about this a hundred times since monday. How to tell you what happened but without bringing any unnecessary drama to a situation that, in my opinion, was squashed the night it happened.
So I'll just tell you my perspective of it and why it happened.
We were having what I would call a good band practice, I was having a lot of fun at least. I was also drinking gin. Not that this has any bearing on what happened in my opinion, but the aftermath I did say some things that were pretty fucked up but I felt like I was being attacked verbally at that point, and especially when I'm drinking I'll let a verbal barrage come out in full force.
So nick was only gonna be able to jam for another 20 mins and I had thought we had covered everything in practice that we needed to cover. Not that we plan out a practice but I thought the purpose of the practice was to finish up some songs for a demo, and we had gone over the songs that we were going to use for a demo. So then we started playing songs just to jam them out (my perspective), and so nick can hear them again, cause he's only practiced with us a couple times. So I went upstairs for a recycling of the fluids, some going out, some going in. Well they stated playing without me, so I came downstairs and jumped into the song, and they stopped. So we started it again, and it got fucked up, so after some jib jab back and forth we started it up again. Now at this point I just started riffin off the song, stuff I thought sounded good. I could see the looks from bill and jay like what is he doing. We do this a lot, little looks back and forth. Anyways they stop and this is when everything went haywire.
After I was told to stop ruining "my" song ( i won't say who said that but you know who you are) I said some stuff about somebody learning their scales they'd realize I was playing a really cool riff. Then I was told that they couldn't play when I play like that. That's when I pulled my plug and said fine you can't play with me fuck you guys I'm done. That's when the real hurtful stuff rolled out of my mouth. I'll tell you why. These guys want to be in a band that can vary it up, I don't like the word jam band because it conjours up images of 20 minute songs, but essential an improv musical group where we can riff off each other and change up the songs. Well if we never practice different things how do we know if it will fit. Then to be told that they couldn't play when I was improving was just the nail in the coffin.
Being told that they couldn't play with my riff because they felt it was out of place and out of time was not only hurtful, but it goes against everything they want to become. So I told them I was getting tired of playing these songs anyways. Which came out wrong cause I was drunk, I wanted to say I'm tired of just playing the songs regular, I wanted to jam it out a little, but by then everyone was already yelling...well except nick he wasn't yelling....then I was told that leaving practice was a bitch move. Boom!!! I blew up. Well on several occasions band mates have threatened to quit the band if their demands weren't met, I wasn't quitting I was only finished with practice for the day. So I saw my leaving band practice as less of big deal than my band mates.
So anyways we pretty much talked everything out that night, but I'll tell you I was so pissed at them that I couldn't remember why I had walked out until yesterday. Saying hey dan take it down a notch we want nick to learn this one, or dan we want to really work on this one...those are things to say to your drunk bassist...telling him you can't play with him when he's doing "stuff like that" will only elicit a response of the plug being pulled.
So who knows if this will lead to more drama, I hope we are past my chapter. I wanted to explain to them as well as you a little better
ab
out what happened. I apologized to bill and jay for walking out, nick sorry I know you come all the way out to practice, and you were sick on top of it.
This will happen with a band who lives together, we're only people.
-dan goes back to his job that he's been ignoring for an hour-
I've thought about this a hundred times since monday. How to tell you what happened but without bringing any unnecessary drama to a situation that, in my opinion, was squashed the night it happened.
So I'll just tell you my perspective of it and why it happened.
We were having what I would call a good band practice, I was having a lot of fun at least. I was also drinking gin. Not that this has any bearing on what happened in my opinion, but the aftermath I did say some things that were pretty fucked up but I felt like I was being attacked verbally at that point, and especially when I'm drinking I'll let a verbal barrage come out in full force.
So nick was only gonna be able to jam for another 20 mins and I had thought we had covered everything in practice that we needed to cover. Not that we plan out a practice but I thought the purpose of the practice was to finish up some songs for a demo, and we had gone over the songs that we were going to use for a demo. So then we started playing songs just to jam them out (my perspective), and so nick can hear them again, cause he's only practiced with us a couple times. So I went upstairs for a recycling of the fluids, some going out, some going in. Well they stated playing without me, so I came downstairs and jumped into the song, and they stopped. So we started it again, and it got fucked up, so after some jib jab back and forth we started it up again. Now at this point I just started riffin off the song, stuff I thought sounded good. I could see the looks from bill and jay like what is he doing. We do this a lot, little looks back and forth. Anyways they stop and this is when everything went haywire.
After I was told to stop ruining "my" song ( i won't say who said that but you know who you are) I said some stuff about somebody learning their scales they'd realize I was playing a really cool riff. Then I was told that they couldn't play when I play like that. That's when I pulled my plug and said fine you can't play with me fuck you guys I'm done. That's when the real hurtful stuff rolled out of my mouth. I'll tell you why. These guys want to be in a band that can vary it up, I don't like the word jam band because it conjours up images of 20 minute songs, but essential an improv musical group where we can riff off each other and change up the songs. Well if we never practice different things how do we know if it will fit. Then to be told that they couldn't play when I was improving was just the nail in the coffin.
Being told that they couldn't play with my riff because they felt it was out of place and out of time was not only hurtful, but it goes against everything they want to become. So I told them I was getting tired of playing these songs anyways. Which came out wrong cause I was drunk, I wanted to say I'm tired of just playing the songs regular, I wanted to jam it out a little, but by then everyone was already yelling...well except nick he wasn't yelling....then I was told that leaving practice was a bitch move. Boom!!! I blew up. Well on several occasions band mates have threatened to quit the band if their demands weren't met, I wasn't quitting I was only finished with practice for the day. So I saw my leaving band practice as less of big deal than my band mates.
So anyways we pretty much talked everything out that night, but I'll tell you I was so pissed at them that I couldn't remember why I had walked out until yesterday. Saying hey dan take it down a notch we want nick to learn this one, or dan we want to really work on this one...those are things to say to your drunk bassist...telling him you can't play with him when he's doing "stuff like that" will only elicit a response of the plug being pulled.
So who knows if this will lead to more drama, I hope we are past my chapter. I wanted to explain to them as well as you a little better
ab
out what happened. I apologized to bill and jay for walking out, nick sorry I know you come all the way out to practice, and you were sick on top of it.
This will happen with a band who lives together, we're only people.
-dan goes back to his job that he's been ignoring for an hour-