I've had a long, troubled history with trying to start a rock band.
In junior high, I made my first failed attempt at starting a ska band. We were going to call ourselves Wal Toed Hailuem, which is, of course, an acronym for We All Love the One-Eyed Doll Head and It Loves Us Even More. (Don't blame me, the name was Mike's idea.) We wrote a few songs. Well, they probably weren't really songs, but they seemed like it to us at the time. We had a lineup, although they didn't all know they were in the band. (Kordik was going to play bass even though I didn't really know him and had only met him once at Mike's birthday party in seventh grade.)
There were a couple practices in my living room and garage, but the thing never took off.
The idea kind of fell by the wayside until about junior year of high school, when I tried to start another band. It was made up of myself, Mike, Nick Janowski on bass and Dave Burke. And I think Nick Pulikowski was supposed to play keyboard. We practice a couple times in Nick J.'s basement. We were maybe going to play a show at a graduation party, but that didn't happen. The band died out after that. We also didn't really have any songs. And this time, I don't think we even had a weird name.
The last failed attempt was attempt seemed like it was the one. We had a pretty solid lineup. Myself and Mike splitting the duties on drums and percussion. Kordik on bass. And best of all, we had Matt Good. He could sing and play guitar and recorded his own music in his basement. We even had a name: Numo. But again, we didn't really have any songs. We almost had a show at Enchanted Castle, but we backed out because we were too nervous (and didn't have any songs to play). Our name even appeared on an add for the show in Skyline.
My interest in being in a band, while it never really went away, remained dormant for most of college. But it's be reawakened.
On Saturday, I played my first gig ever. Matt Good agreed to play at High Anxiety Music Label Launch Show. And he needed a back-up band. So I worked my connections (asked my brother) to get the gig as his drummer. And it was awesome. I didn't play my best and we didn't have that much time to practice, but it was still tons of fun. And I got to play at the Canopy Club.
And now I want to be in a band again.
SONGS OF THE MOMENT:
"You Know Where I'll Be" - Conrad
I think its funny that we're both drummers, but i was in every one of those imaginary bands. I wish i played guitar.
And i'm pretty sure i still have that doll head somewhere. that thing was creepy as hell, and even creepier that i found it in a suitcase on the street that was full of nothing but doll parts.
Posted by: mallio at April 18, 2007 2:56 PMWell, the really sad thing is that I had a guitar the whole time. I could have easily spent some time teaching myself to play and then we would have been set.
Posted by: Dan at April 18, 2007 6:32 PMmy lil bro can play guitar. you could call yourselves the dans. (kordik, petrella, dukats)
Posted by: jen at April 18, 2007 8:15 PMThe DANS! great idea.
Yeah I realized a few days before we were gonna play the show that I had been in an "almost"-band with dan and dan once before - the Numo thing. being billed for a show and then not playing was a pretty good joke for a while after that.... Anyway, I think this is where i'm supposed to pretend that I am a rock star, NOT a web developer, and say something "cool" like "dan, keep rockin, my brotha-man." or something.
"Hit that snare like it just called your mom a B*****!!!
Posted by: matty at April 18, 2007 9:59 PMWill you play drums for David's and my band this summer on weekends when you're around?
Posted by: Julia at April 19, 2007 12:18 AMDefinitely. That would be awesome.
I mirror your brainwaves. Sure, I couldn't hear myself for the actual show, so I prolly sounded like crap, but it still poured gas on my fire, I gotta play. I'm such a noob. It was cool that we got to play with the real deals like Matt and Chase and John.
I'm willing to contribute to any and all projects. I gotta clear out the noobwebs.
Posted by: DK at April 19, 2007 11:26 PM