Woodshedding

Gettin' our groove on...Andrew has come up with a couple of great melodious new tunes. One of them Mike Reg has developed a lyrical approach to - tentatively titled "Suicide Wings" - and it is sounding great. The other one is also a terrific groove and we are playing with some lyrics that Rob wrote for a song titled "Mi Casa es su Casa" to massage the lyric and cadence to align with Andrew's musical vision...it is all in motion, works in progress...the woodshedding. We have this little woodshed in Reg's basement studio where songs and musical ideas are introduced and tested, where the tires are kicked, where the need for practise is identified, where improvements to technique are supported and encouraged...it is a pretty cool woodshed. The digital artwork files for Stereo Bang Bang are coming from DMA later today; we will proof, approve and then DMA will provide a hard copy for proofing by our mad design genius, Andrew, before going to print. We are expecting the Master Disk from Spencer imminently and, following a listening preview, it will go to DMA for pressing. And our merch order is well in hand with Brian McShane at Polar Promotions in Yellowknife - T-shirts and hats with the new Children of Celebrities logo, courtesy of our mad design genius. And if y'all want to check out something really cool...www.sonicbids.com/childrenofcelebrities ...is definitely worth a looksee!

Getting our groove on

Last practise we sat around and tried a few new musical ideas that Andrew had been working on. There's something about listening to a fragment, a lick, a riff, over and over at first, then jumping on. It reminds me of the merri-go-round at the park when I was a kid. Jumping on a moving merri-go-round was enormous fun if you could time it right so you didn't eat merri-go-round for snack time.
When its a good groove, there's something that draws you in. You realise your feet don't really belong to you because they are taken over by the beat. Your head nods, you chair dance while your brain races through your closet of musical ideas looking for something cool to wear.
Then there's the other guys to consider, what they bring, where they  take the melody. You try at least not to clash, but mostly you want to impress; its a lot of give and take until finally we are all hip to the same groove.
Once we have it, we have it, and we all think its cool. For a brief moment, we indulge ourselves and stare in the mirror at our faded 15 year old rock star wannabes and dream.
I mean really, how much can a band jet cost, anyway?

Coming home...

So, its been just under a week that I have been back from Asia, and my body still hasn't picked up the clue. My body clock is coming around but I am somewhere over the Aleutian islands now. I expect my body will arrive later this week, with all its requisite baggage I am sure. In the meantime, I am finding new ways to entertain myself while the rest of the world sleeps.
For example, I now know three different words for spider in Japanese. I can whistle the theme from Hawaii Five -Oh while juggling lemons and I have found you can buy used tires for ridiculously low prices on the net, if only you are willing to pay about a half million dollars for shipping. Insomnia is not my friend.
So what about actually practising bass? Seems like a good idea, but not really. If you find yourself wandering around in a stupor, its usually a bad time for things like operating heavy equipment and practising bass. And the neighbours get a little cranky at 3AM as well.
So I will continue to wait for the rest of me to show up, I am looking forward to being reunited with my old friend Sleep.
Don't wait up.