Dreaming of Old Stew

Rocking Tunes at Whiskey Jo's on 7-5-2023

When I heard "Rock This Town", it took me back to the days of hearing the Stray Cats for the first time. I was always mystified why their drummer played drums standing up - could he not afford a drum throne? - and thinking he was the only drummer who ever could and would ever play drums standing up. Obviously, this was in the early 1980s when this tune was released and MTV helped me form inaccurate opinions about drumming and drummers in those early days. While The Stray Cats introduced me to the rockabilly genre, I never really invested a lot of time into exploring it.

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https://youtu.be/ qU00W7BcIVI - Rock This Town

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When I heard "Fortunate Son", it took me back to the Spring of 1992 when I was playing drums in a band I've mentioned in the past - Old Stew - and how this tune was sometimes our first song of the night. Playing at Bonehead's on Center Point Road in Cedar Rapids was probably not as glorious as my mind likes to think it was, but that's okay, right? 

The building Bonehead's was in had been Dale's Fruit Market, which I remember the huge walk-in cooler with the automatic doors, before it was transformed into a bar - I don't recall the name of the first bar that opened in the building - before it eventually became Bonehead's, before that closed and was replaced by a Pioneer Food Store. Next to Bonehead's was a bar called "King Tut's Lounge" and it was the first place I heard a band play the Roy Orbison / Van Halen tune "Pretty Woman", though the name of the band is long gone from my memory. Sorry for the side step into the history of that building on Center Point Road in Cedar Rapids, but it felt relevant.

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https://youtu.be/ YQjPZPKr1Qs - Fortunate Son

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Johnny Smoke

After I left Old Stew in 1992, Stoff & Bulldog went on to form a band called "Johnny Smoke." I loved Johnny Smoke's music.

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Serve The M - no, the Other M.

I also saw this video the other day. It says to serve the Music, not Me about how a drummer can serve himself, not the music. I admit this is something I face when I play drums at Saint Thomas More. I tend to embellish the rhythms I play so that I don't get bored playing straight 4/4 time with snare on 2 and 4 or, in 3/4, with snare on 2 and 3, or, in 6/8, with snare on 3 and 6. My interest in balancing 'overplaying' with 'boring drumming' is why I watched this video:

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After I did a little more digging, I found this video by Brandon Khoo.

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I like his style.

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For my own growth as a drummer, I listen to my self playing drums. Nowadays, I use my cell phone to record Mass so I can listen to what I sounded like whenever I want to do so. This is not a new practice / method for me. I've always done this - recording myself playing drums - dating back to before I was even in a band in my parent's basement. When I would practice drums, I'd use a boom box and cassettes, which I still have in the sump pump storage room. I also recorded rehearsals and performances with Assume, various practice sessions in that basement, Old Stew, and Free Beer / Corporate Prisoner on cassettes. Later, when I played in Lou's Classic Ride, I used a micro recorder that I borrowed from a former co-worker. Eventually, I transitioned to using my cell phone instead of cassette tapes to create recordings of Uncle Rico the Band and auditions with other Ideal Bands.

Why? Am I obsessed with my own drumming?

No.

I do this because I do want to be able to serve the Music, not Me, when I play drums.

It doesn't really matter when I've played drums - from playing alone or with other musicians. I want to grow as a drummer. I don't want to play the same beat that every other drummer in the world plays. I felt that way the other night when I was practicing on the Yamaha electronic drums. As I played along with the pre-programmed tunes in the brain of the Yamaha set, I focused on the patterns that repeat - think verse, chorus, verse, chorus - in an endless loop. I intentionally tried to play "insane" patterns - that served Me, not the Music - during some of the cycles. I did that to foster creativity. After a cycle of playing an "insane" pattern, I would revert to playing a beat that served the Music, not Me. I actually found that being able to dial back the "insane" pattern to be a challenge during the "sane" pattern cycles. I plan to explore that challenge in future practice sessions. Of all the videos on the "All Videos of Me Playing Drums" page, I think this one - where I achieve the balance I crave. I play soft during the verse so that the drums are felt, not overbearing. I then have a hint at flashy during the "I've been waiting..." part of the song. During Brian's solo, I'm intentionally playing soft again.

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Damn, I love the way we played that tune. Brian's guitar playing is spot-on, Matthew's bass locks in with my pattern, and Joe? Well, he belts out the lyrics with emotion.

Editor's Note: For videos, see https://prhmusic.blogspot.com/p/videos-of-me-playing-drums.html

Not Built for PC

This was made with 2 guys in my basement in 2006. All improv and hilarious. We switch instruments on grocery store. I'm on guitar. It's kind of a joke on the world that I'm releasing this stuff. It's not built for public consumption.
Josh on drums
Joe on vocals
Christ on guitar

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This is what it would be like if I released Assume or Old Stew recordings.

Robbie Z Says to Get High

I always have this thought when I hear the phrase "getting high" and it takes me back to 1992. I didn't wake up this AM wanting to write about Old Stew, but I put "getting high" and "Old Stew" together in my brain like salt and pepper. I'm sure I've wrote this previously on this blog, but when I played drums in Old Stew, 4/5ths of the band smoked pot. I was the 1/5th that never had any desire to even try it. In 1992, I graduated from Mount Mercy College and I knew better than to involve myself in drugs. Sure, I drank too much booze and too often I was drunk and as out of control as an individual that takes drugs, but, c'mon, who doesn't get a little wild in college? .... I had to pause so I could stop laughing about some of my wild college escapades - all of them inappropriate for permanently documenting them on this blog that is visible to the public - long enough to be able to type. It's fair to say I was a different person in 1992 than I am now.

While I certainly don't endorse the idea that anyone should get high, I do think that the Iowa Legislature should have approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Right now, if someone is in severe pain, that person has to go to CO, where it is legal. The Iowa Legislature failed the people of Iowa when they failed to act. I think an issue like this should not be partisan. I would challenge the Republicans to do the research and to help the people that voted for them to do actual work.

Why this extended essay about getting high, drinking booze, and such? Well, Rob Zombie's "Get High" just assaulted my ears for the first time. While I like this groove and the parts where the guitar drops out and it's just singing and a tambourine / percussion in the background, I still am just not a Robbie Z fan. I've seen him in concert, when he was the lead singer of White Zombie, though I can't recall who else was on the bill with him at this precise moment. The guitarist, John 5 (and I only know that because he was on "That Metal Show") proves he is a great guitarist. The drumming is interesting. I even like the vocal effects.

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I like "Get High" better than the first single I heard:

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Cannot Get Sick of This Tune

It's my favorite part of a Metallica concert.
It's the first tune Old Stew, my college band, used in the set list when we made our public debut at the Mount Mercy Talent Show.
So funny how many times I have listened to the tune and I don't tire of it.

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Cremation & the Body

I'm going to get personal. This isn't meant to be a post that is uncomfortable to read, but it may be. You have been warned.

Sitting in the same room as Mom, I'm thinking about what to do with Mom's body after she passes away which, I'm told, is not far into the future.

• Dad believes that the body is a shell for the spirit and that after someone dies, their spirit no longer needs the body. He would be content to place her remains in an urn and to place the urn on the mantle above the fireplace in the family room within the house I was raised. 
• I disagree. 
• I want Mom to be laid to eternal rest which, to me, doesn't mean sitting on the mantle. If Dad happens to be out of town on a birthday or perhaps the anniversary of her death, I won't just go into his house to pray for her. The idea I have in my head is that Mom should be laid to eternal rest, which, to me, doesn't mean a temporary home - it means, to me, a permanent place. 
• It is very important to me that Mom receives after life care that follows the guidelines of the Catholic church. Mom practiced her faith until she could no longer do so - thus, I feel strongly that her faith needs to be respected.
• I want to be respectful that Mom is as much my mother as she is Dad's wife of 50+ years. I also realize that Dad began the grieving process nearly 5 years ago when Mom left their home to live in a nursing home. He has visited her on a regular basis. I know that losing her will be immensely difficult for him.
• I know I am also grieving and have been since she went into the nursing home as well. I have certainly not visited her as much as Dad. 
• I also have not been the best son to her. I made a lot of mistakes, especially in college. 
• Booze was a sensitive subject. 
• When I came back to live in their house in the summer of 1989, after my first year of college, and said on the first Saturday night I was back that I was going to go watch my friend Serbi play drums in a band at a bar, it was the beginning of a new era of our relationship. Mom disapproved of drinking booze. That's an understatement. Her brother was an alcoholic; Dad's dad was an alcoholic; she feared that I would become an alcoholic. It really freaked her out.
• It didn't get much better during the following summer when I came home to live with them and went to Ken Schmitt's wedding reception. After James, KK, JR, and I were done with our shifts at the Spring House restaurant, the four of us journeyed up from Cedar Rapids to Central City. I sat by the keg and drank like a fish. On the way home, I told JR that I thought I was going to get sick so he pulled over. As I walked into the ditch, I stumbled and went down on a knee. I had on khaki pants and so, after doing my business, I returned to JR's vehicle with muddy pants. I don't remember who helped me get to my bedroom in Mom and Dad's house. The next AM, my alarm went off at 6, I got up, showered, went to 7 AM Mass, and then to Spring House for work. Around 11, Mom called down to the Spring House. She was upset with me because she had found my muddy pants. She declared that I was grounded and that I was not to go out anymore.
• Drums and playing in a band was a sensitive subject.
• Stories about Horny Genius and Old Stew have been told elsewhere on this blog.

There are so many thoughts I have about Mom.

On Pot Smoking

This is an essay I wrote on 2/14/2011. I did not edit it since finding it last night.

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On Pot Smoking

Nearly twenty years ago, I was in a band. Catfish played guitar, Shoebox sang, Bulldog played guitar, and then there was me, Stretch, playing drums. We originally got together to play for my college’s talent show. We worked through two songs, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and “Bullfrog Blues”, an original that Catfish and Shoebox had written. We rocked the house. After the talent show, we got a Sunday night gig at Bonehead’s, a local bar. We didn’t get paid money – just beer. As a college senior, I liked those Sunday nights. I didn’t have a Monday class until after noon so if I needed to sleep in, I could.

Our set list was primarily the easy songs that bar bands cover – “Hey Joe,” “Roadhouse Blues,” “Taking Care of Business”, “Seven Bridges Road,” and “Tush.” We would throw in some originals that Catfish and Shoebox were writing and closed our nights always with “Enter Sandman” with plenty of distortion. When we were done playing, we would put our equipment in Bulldog’s dad’s truck. For reasons I still do not fully comprehend, all of my drums magically would appear at Catfish’s house the following Tuesday when we convened for rehearsal. I think I owe Bulldog a lot for being my silent non-bitching drum roadie on Sunday nights.

For as fantastic and fun as this situation sounds, it was not without its share of headaches. I grew up in the “Just Say No” era. “Drugs are bad” and the “Don’t Do Drugs” media campaigns of the 1980s were always pounded into my head. I know that in many areas, drugs are a means to a social network as powerful, if not more powerful, than Facebook is today. Consistently, though, I was put into situations I did not like. We went to a party together as a band. Someone pulled out some pot. Who were the ones that quickly huddled around it? My band mates and friends: Catfish, Shoebox, and Bulldog. At the same party, someone offered me mushrooms. There were other times – watching the three of them pass a joint around at an outdoor concert we went to and at rehearsal, someone would light up. Immediately after that, I wanted to leave.

I was a college graduate. I was living with my parents until my wedding day the following August. I was working full-time, being responsible, and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Drugs were an unwelcome member of our group, a silent fifth member of our group that had taken over a band I had helped put together to play music that I loved. It became less and less about the music, though some of our rehearsal tapes have truly magical musical moments of jamming on a riff for 10 minutes and another time, playing one of Catfish’s originals that, to this day, I will never get tired of listening to.

I left the band in October of 1992. We had rehearsed twice a week without any idea why we rehearsed. There was talk about getting some gigs but nothing ever happened. The night I loaded my drums into my car to go home, Shoebox looked at me and said, “This isn’t good-bye, this is see you later.” I nodded and told him to take care of himself. Honestly, despite it sounding like the scene was made for a crappy movie, I do not believe I ever saw him again. I remained friends with Bulldog – he was an usher in our wedding – and the last he had heard, Shoebox was basically homeless and addicted to drugs, living somewhere in Colorado.

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Bittersweet

In a single word, the gig on Saturday night was "bittersweet" in the sense that there were positives and negatives.

On the positive side, I am estimating that I played at a 95% "grade" as far as hitting spots that we worked on in rehearsal. I call that tremendously awesome. I felt positive about how I played Alex's drums. As I begin to listen to the 3 files I created on my phone (one for each set), that impression is being reinforced.

On the negative side, I am saddened to report that Uncle Rico the Band is not going to be a band anymore. Why is the band not going to be a band? There's a variety of factors but probably the two biggest are time and there just isn't enough of it in a day to balance family, the band, and work by other members of the band.

When I think about my time over my tenure with the band, it's easy to look at numbers. What I've been thinking about is I spent 60 hours (including transportation from North Liberty to rehearsal in Cedar Rapids and then back home) with Uncle Rico. That doesn't count the hours I made my family listen to our setlist on my MP3 player whenever we were traveling somewhere in the Ford. It also doesn't count the hours I spent practicing the songs in the den on Alex's Yamaha electronic set. So, given 60 hours, the payout of those hours is a 3 hour gig and the $100 I got paid.

I'm not complaining about the time I invested. This was only my third band since high school - Old Stew and Lou's Classic Ride being the other two - and I think playing with Gary made me a much more precise drummer than the other two. With the other two, if I changed up my pattern or changed up a drum fill, it wasn't usually noticed. With Gary, though, it was noticed. Gary is a very precise guitarist and keys in on certain parts that are played by others. It wasn't an easy concept to dial in to my mentality.

Maybe something will change in the future and, if it does, I will be happy to play with Scott, Gary, and Greg. I updated the All Videos of Me Playing Drums page with some pictures. When I get the videos Alex took on his iPod, I'll add those as well.

I'm not in any of these videos.

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New Wave 80s Rock Covers

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Ring of Fire cover

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70s Punk Rock covers

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Buddy Holly Covers

Song Name -- Artist (original artist)

1. All These Things That I've Done -- Killers
2. Bad Case of Loving You -- Robert Palmer
3. Basket Case -- Green Day
4. Blister in the Sun -- Violent Femmes
5. Blitzkreig Bop -- Ramones
6. Brown Eyed Girl -- Van Morrison
7. Brown Sugar -- Rolling Stones
8. Dancing Queen -- Yayhoos (ABBA)
9. Dancing With Myself -- Billy Idol
10. Don't Change -- INXS
11. Fight For Your Right -- Beastie Boys
12. Folsom Prison Blues -- Johnny Cash
13. Hey Jealousy -- Gin Blossoms
14. Hot Stuff -- Cockroach (Donna Summer)
15. I Ran -- A Flock of Seagulls
16. I Saw Her Standing There -- Beatles
17. I Wanna Be Sedated -- Ramones
18. I Will Survive -- Shout (Gloria Gaynor)
19. I'm a Believer -- Smash Mouth (Monkeys)
20. I'm Gonna Be, 500 Miles -- Proclaimers
21. Interstate Love Song -- Stone Temple Pilots
22. I've Been Everywhere -- Johnny Cash
23. Jenny / 867-5309 -- Tommy Tutone
24. Jet Airliner -- Steve Miller
25. Johnny B Goode -- Chuck Berry
26. Just Like Heaven -- Cure
27. Lola -- Kinks
28. Lonely Boy -- Black Keys
29. Love Her Madly -- The Doors
30. Margaritaville -- Jimmy Buffet
31. Melt With You -- Modern English
32. Mony Mony -- Billy Idol
33. Oh Boy -- Crickets (Buddy Holly)
34. Paranoid -- Black Sabbath
35. Pump It Up -- Elvis Costello
36. Ring of Fire -- Social Distortion (Johnny Cash)
37. Rock and Roll All Nite -- Kiss
38. Rockin' in the Free World -- Neil Young
39. Rock'n Me -- Steve Miller
40. Santa Monica -- Everclear
41. Should I Stay or Should I Go -- Clash
42. Squeeze Box -- Who
43. Still Rock and Roll to Me -- Billy Joel
44. Sweet Caroline -- Neil Diamond
45. Train in Vain (Stand By Me) -- Clash
46. Two Princes -- Spin Doctors
47. What I Like About You -- Romantics
48. When the Sun Goes Down -- Kenny Chesney
49. Wonderful Tonight -- Eric Clapton
50. You May Be Right -- Billy Joel
51. Your Mama Can't Dance -- Poison (Loggins and Messina)
• For next rehearsal
• It's the End of the World -- REM
• Angie -- Rolling Stones

We have also played these songs in past gigs.

1. A Hard Day's Night -- Beatles
2. Accidentally In Love -- Counting Crows
3. All Shook Up -- Elvis
4. All the Small Things -- Blink 182
5. An American Girl -- Tom Petty
6. Angie -- Rolling Stones
7. Authority Song -- John Mellencamp
8. Break Up Song -- Greg Kihn
9. Burning Love -- Elvis
10. Bus Stop -- Hollies
11. Cars -- Gary Numan
12. Come Out and Play -- Offspring
13. Crazy Little Thing Called Love -- Queen
14. Crocodile Rock -- Elton John
15. Day Tripper -- Cheap Trick (Beatles)
16. Don't Be Cruel -- Elvis
17. Driver 8 -- REM
18. Fortunate Son -- Creedence Clearwater Revival
19. Go All the Way -- Raspberries
20. Good Girls Don't -- Knack
21. Hello Mary Lou -- Creedence Clearwater Revival (Ricky Nelson)
22. I Fought the Law -- Clash (Crickets)
23. I Love Rock n Roll -- Joan Jett
24. I Wanna Be With You -- Raspberries
25. I Want to Hold Your Hand -- Beatles
26. I'm Yours -- Jason Mraz
27. It's Not My Time -- 3 Doors Down
28. Know Your Enemy -- Green Day
29. Kodachrome -- Paul Simon
30. La Bamba -- Los Lobos (Ritchie Valens)
31. Lay Down Sally -- Eric Clapton
32. Monster Mash -- Bobby "Boris" Pickett
33. Mrs Robinson -- Lemonheads (Simon/Garfunkel)
34. Oh Pretty Woman -- Roy Orbison
35. Photograph -- Ringo Starr
36. Promises -- Eric Clapton
37. Puppy Love -- Donny Osmond
38. Red Solo Cup -- Toby Keith
39. Rock and Roll Music -- Beatles (Chuck Berry)
40. ROCK in the USA -- John Mellencamp
41. Run Rudolph Run -- Bryan Adams (Chuck Berry)
42. Running Down a Dream -- Tom Petty
43. Seven Nation Army -- White Stripes
44. Sex and Candy -- Marcy Playground
45. Shake Your Booty -- KC & Sunshine Band
46. Shama Lama Ding Dong -- Lloyd Williams (Animal House)
47. Somebody to Love -- Jefferson Airplane
48. Surrender -- Cheap Trick
49. Suspicious Minds -- Elvis
50. Teddy Bear -- Elvis
51. That'll be the Day -- Buddy Holly
52. The More I Drink -- Blake Shelton
53. They Say Its Your Birthday -- Beatles
54. Twist and Shout -- Beatles
55. Upside Down -- Jack Johnson
56. Vertigo -- U2
57. Who Says You Can't Go Home -- Bon Jovi
58. Wild Child -- Chris Ocasek (Crickets)

See You Later, Not Goodbye

It's funny how life goes sometimes. The way my brain works is that when something happens, I reflect about similar events in the past. I find it easy to compare / contrast the past event with the current event. I'm doing that this morning. Our friends and neighbors are moving today so I'm thinking about past events when I was confronted with the reality that I would not see someone on a daily basis like I had in the past. I have been in the same situation countless times in my life and it doesn't get better or easier the more it happens.

The specific event I'm thinking about is when I was leaving the band Old Stew back in November 1992. As you may recall, Old Stew was the band I had put together while in college to play the Mount Mercy College talent show. I have captured several memories about them elsewhere on this blog. Anyways, when I was packing up my drums for what would be the final time, Shoebox, our vocalist, looked at me and said without the usual easy-going edge in his voice, "This isn't good-bye, this is see you later. Don't say goodbye." At the time, I honestly thought I would see him again so his words made sense. However, to the best I can remember, that was the last time I have seen him. I remember him so fondly whereas other people / friends have come in and out of my life and I don't remember them as specifically as I remember "saying see you later" to Shoebox.

Earlier this morning, shortly before 6:30 AM, I posted the following picture on Facebook with the text in the white box. I sincerely hope life is good for the Rainey's in New Hampshire and equally sincerely hope our paths cross again. I said "see you later" to Ron, Margaret, Wade, Sally, and Mary. I don't think I said the word "Goodbye."

The Other Side of the Equation - Just to for Balance

I have a Ludwig Vistalite drum set. It has a 24" bass drum, a 13" mounted tom, and two 16" floor toms. I've often fantasized about how it would be so excellent to have a huge double bass drum set. I know that in my current band, Uncle Rico, as well as in the previous bands I've ever played in, including Lou's Classic Ride, Corporate Prisoner, and Old Stew, that I have no justification whatsoever for a huge double bass drum set - I would never use it outside of my basement. Still, it doesn't stop me from thinking about the picture in this post and what an awesome set of drums it would be to have.
Editor's Note: The picture that was here is no longer available.
In other news, I have 36,629 files in the Daughter drive on the MyCloud drive, which includes 1544 files in the ___Margaret directory, which is where I'm putting all of the files from the CDs of hers that I rip. I have her permission to reorder the CDs in her two CD holders to be in alphabetical order so I am using the power of Windows Explorer to show me the correct order. I also have three tops to three spindles set up to separate the CDs into 3 groups. Bands A-H go in one, I-P in another, and Q-Z in a third. That will help me with the alphabetizing of the CDs. I chuckled a bit when I thought about how many times I worked with Mrs. Bacon, my 4th grade teacher, on alphabetizing and using key words in the dictionary. It was a skill I struggled to learn but I now use it anytime I am doing a project, like Margaret's, and it just makes me recall how frustrating it was to be struggling with something but to then, years later, to see the value in that struggle. I haven't yet figured out how the time I spend ripping Margaret's 300 CDs are going to throw off my reconversion schedule goal date of 12/1/2014. Looking at the schedule, I think after September, the schedule was somewhat softer. I should be working on Spindle #21, but that's on hold while the Elkader PC and the Toshiba work on Margaret's CDs.

Rehearsal, Recap, & Retirement

Uncle Rico had a good rehearsal last night. I thought that I nailed a lot of my parts in the songs we went through. My tempos were fairly solid and that made me feel good. I liked the way "Pump It Up" sounded and was very happy that I made it through "Dancing with Myself" with my limbs still attached. "Wonderful Tonight" felt good and so did "What I Like About You," "8675309 Jenny" and "You May Be Right." At the previous rehearsal, I had issues with "Oh Boy" and "Squeeze Box" but I would say I practiced enough to correct those issues to the extent I didn't have them again last night.

I did have issues with "Blister in the Sun" and the end of "Rocking Me." "Blister" just never settled into the groove with my snare part and, to be honest, I had noticed that the last time we played it as a group and had actually focused on it during practice time on the Yamaha electronic set, but thought I had corrected the issues with my parts through practice. Not so. The end of "Rockin' Me" was kind of a surprise as far as not being able to flow through it.

That song has given me fits in the past. I still vividly remember hearing the version of that song that Old Stew played at Bonehead's in spring 1992. That recorded version was a disaster. I don't really remember going through that song multiple times at rehearsal, even when we were playing gigs, as in getting to the end of it "Rocking Me" and then going through it again. I really wish I would have been much more diligent about having a recorder going at each and every rehearsal and documenting the path we were taking to be able to play outside of Catfish's house.

The takeaway from the issue I was having with the ending of "Rocking Me" is I will listen to the recording by Steve Miller as well as the recording from last night and try to resolve what I was playing and what I should be playing.

The retirement aspect of this post is that I think "Suspicious Minds" (and perhaps others) have been retired from the setlist for now. For me, "Suspicious Minds" has been a lot like "American Girl" was with Lou's Classic Ride. I wanted to nail my part and it was hit and miss. I won't miss trying to hit the change from 4/4 to 3/3.

Back to It

For the past few weeks, when I worked on any of the conversion projects, I sat in the living room on the couch and would watch TV but today, I'm starting out with a different strategy as I have come downstairs to the den, where I can have a second monitor and sit in my comfy desk chair as I rip / organize my files. It's peaceful.

Last night, Scary Robots rehearsed. I used Carol's voice recorder to document the rehearsal. I have always tried to document rehearsals. Up until Scary Robots, I used cassette tapes. I think I'd like to invest in a recorder of my own. Carol doesn't mind letting me borrow it but it would still be nice to have my own.

What I hear on the recording is a band making strides. The consensus was that we were sloppy. We had an issue with "Stuck in the Middle" - my example is I hit the snare instead of the hi-hat - and that's a song we've always been nailing. Next week is crazy busy for me so I'm not rehearsing until after that. Hopefully, by that time, the 15 songs I mentioned yesterday will be so ingrained in my head that I can't play them wrong. Matthew has talked about that idea before and I want to get to a point with those songs where I've achieved it.

I'm still optimistic about the August 24th gig and hope by the end of May, I can either accept or reject it. I really want to do it. It's intoxicating to think about playing rock & roll music in front of an audience again. I haven't done that since 1992 with Old Stew at Bonehead's. I think Scary Robots is the group of musicians I want to be on stage with to break that 21 year dry spell!

Too Sick to Jam

We were going to have band rehearsal last night, but Joe, our singer, stayed home from work because he wasn't feeling good. Rehearsal was going to be from 5 - 7 at his girlfriend's studio and we were all looking forward to reconnecting. It ultimately came down to Joe bailing on rehearsal.

I didn't really mind that - I donate blood on 1/29 so I want to be healthy between now and then. What I did think about was an incident during the Old Stew days, 21 years ago. I know that it's kind of silly and counterproductive to think about life 21 years ago and to think that if you replay the situation in your mind enough times, you will not do what you did or say what you said.

What I recall, quite vividly, is that Old Stew was going to play a gig on a Sunday night. Someone was having a party and had asked us to play at it. I had not been feeling good that day. I had a cold. This was when I lived with my parents. I had graduated from Mount Mercy College. The band members had called and said they were coming to get me.

When the doorbell rang, I was in my bedroom. I walked down the hall, through the kitchen, through the family room (and past my parents) to the front door. The four of them (Shoebox, Bulldog, Catfish, and Dave) were standing on the porch. In turn, they each said three words to me, "Are you ready?" It was, obviously, rehearsed. They had thought about how to persuade me to come with them.

I remember thinking, "Okay. I'll go. I'll load up on drugs to help me feel better and I'll go." It was important to me to go because we had been rehearsing and rehearsing and this was a chance to 'play out' and that's what I really wanted to do. Old Stew, at the time, had gone months without a gig. I had noticed, when I looked at the car in the driveway, that they had loaded my drums into Bulldog's truck. They just needed me to play.

I said I would go. I shut the door and went to get my shoes on."Where are you going?" my mom asked.

"We're playing."

"You can't go - you don't feel good."

She might have said more and she might have not said those exact words, but the gist of the conversation was my mom was telling me to not go with them.

As a college graduate, I still listened to my mom. I went back to the front door and said, "Hey, I can't go."

Their eyes looked authentically sad. There had been joy in their eyes when I had accepted their request. It was now replaced with the emotion at the other end of the spectrum.

I don't remember if they ended up going and playing the gig without me. I don't remember if I ever asked.

I do know that the five of us, as Old Stew, never played a gig. I left the group in mid-November 1992. I'm not sure when Dave left, but eventually, he wasn't part of the group. After I left, I've never seen Shoebox again. There have been stories that he was living in Colorado and was in bad shape (drugs?) but I don't remember how to spell his 'real' last name to even do an Internet search for him - I just knew him as Shoebox.

The point of all this is that Joe called off rehearsal because he didn't feel good and it made me think about Old Stew.

Editor's Note: There were many ideas for a band name for this band, including "Hairy Eyeball" and "Scary Robots." We eventually settled on Lou's Classic Ride. 

G-n-R Revisited

I really wish I could remember more of the G-n-R concert in Iowa City. I remember bits and pieces.

I remember Brian May opened (this was after Freddie Mercury's death) and had Cozy Powell playing drums. I remember thinking Powell was a much more interesting drummer than Matt Sorum. I also remember there was a banner someone had made that said "May is God" and not really liking that - I believe God has not come back to earth as a human. I recognize Brian May as a talented guitarist - I get it - but I also just fundamentally reject the idea that man is worthy of being worshiped like a God.

As for the G-n-R portion, I do not remember any songs they played except they played "Patience" while sitting on a couch they had brought up from backstage. I don't remember if they were late getting on stage.

I went to this concert with members of Old Stew - James, Stoff, and Shoebox. We walked from Carver Hawkeye Arena, where the concert was held, to the Mill in downtown Iowa City. I was at the Mill last Monday, 12/10/12. It made me think about how far I had walked. I was in disbelief. It seemed to be a short walk back in 1993-ish, but in 2012, wow, it was a long ways!
http://www.hennemusic.com/2012/12/axl-rose-talks-about-guns-n-roses.html

Foiled by Rain

I left the house @ 7:15 AM and walked about 20 minutes before it started to rain. So I returned home. I will have to get my steps in later today for the GCC.

Now I'm converting a cassette of James, Stoff, Shoebox, and some silent listeners getting drunk and playing a bunch of songs, including the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go", Iron Maiden's "The Number Of The Beast", Lynard Skynnard's "Sweet Home Alabama" and a bunch of originals.

I wasn't there. There were two parallels in the formation of Old Stew, the band I played in at the Mount Mercy College talent show. On one parallel, there was James, Stoff, and Shoebox, and on the other parallel, there was Ken and I. And then... and then the parallel lines crossed.

Digging up the Past - SRV

I was thinking about one of my friends Ken. It is kind of weird to call him "friend" because he moved from the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area years ago. The last I knew, he lived in Dubuque. He was a guitarist - we spent many hours in my parent's basement. We went through a metal phase, in the summer of 1989, then a blues phase, in the summer of 1990, and by the summer of 1991, we managed to get through "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. The legend goes that we cranked that out in the basement, then talked to our friend James, who had also gone through the metal and blues phases with us. He had been jamming with two others: John and Stoff. John sang while Stoff played guitar. The idea was hatched for the five of us to play "Enter Sandman" at my college's talent show. We also put together an original that John and Stoff had written called "Bullfrog Blues," a song I still adore.

The talent show was two nights. The first night was not as good as the second night. I remember watching the video of the first night immediately after we played. During Ken's solo during "Enter Sandman," John paced in front of Ken. I told him not to do that the second night so he ran down the center aisle during Ken's solo the second night. My drum solo the first night was pathetic. The second night was a lot better. I also looked like a geek the first night and had 'cooler' clothes the second night. My roommate Brian Rock ran the lights and on the second night, he made it not as dark on stage. Overall, I don't like watching the first night.

Which leads me to Ken. Ken married Carrie in the summer of 1990. I got really drunk and had a good time. Fast forward to 1994 and Ken and Carrie were getting divorced. He was going to move to Dubuque to be closer to his family, who lived in Sherrill. Ken was working at the Spring House as a cook, but his passion, at the time, was guitar and art. He was a big SRV fan. I found the following cover song of a band. Youtube is amazing in that they are called Schroeder's Ghost. The video is from a live gig on 5/29/10 at JD's Place in Farmingdale, NY. The band members are Joe Sanfillippo (guitar), Frank Bisceglia (bass), Keith Taylor (keys), Tommy von Stiegler (drums) and Pam Dixon (vox and other miscellaneous items). I wish they'd come to eastern Iowa!

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Two Jams on the Radio

First, KRNA actually played this song on the radio while I was pumping gas into Karen's van @ Casey's. I remember when this came out, it was "so rebellious" for the same band that had won over the world with "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child of Mine" to sing about murder. There's a cassette of Old Stew playing this song at rehearsal in 1992.


Then, on the way home, The Fox 100.7 played this song:

But it actually sounded more like this. I have always remembered that I auditioned for a band (on drums) in Urbana. This is one of the songs we played and I hadn't heard the song before. I remember the singer and guitarist trying to teach where the snare hits were. I know I totally flubbed up the audition on this song.... I think they had a tape of it and had me listen to it, then we tried it again. Never played with them beyond that...

Who's He Going to Tell? and Bands I might Join?

Father Norton woke up Sunday morning and realizing it was an exceptionally beautiful and sunny early spring day, decided he just had to play golf.

So... he told the Associate Pastor that he was feeling sick and persuaded him to say Mass for him that day.

As soon as the Associate Pastor left the room, Father Norton headed out of town to a golf course about forty miles away.

This way he knew he wouldn't accidentally meet anyone he knew from his parish. Setting up on the first tee, he was alone. After all, it was Sunday morning and everyone else was in church!

At about this time, Saint Peter leaned over to the Lord while looking down from the heavens and exclaimed, "You're not going to let him get away with this, are you?"

The Lord sighed, and said, "No, I guess not."

Just then Father Norton hit the ball and it shot straight towards the pin, dropping just short of it, rolled up and fell into the hole.

IT WAS A 420 YARD HOLE IN ONE!

St. Peter was astonished. He looked at the Lord and asked, "Why did you let him do that?"

The Lord smiled and replied, "Who's he going to tell?"

I'm willing to bet that whomever is playing in this golf tournament will not miss Sunday church because the tournament is on a Monday...

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Meanwhile, I'm kind of working on coming out of retirement from playing drums. NOTHING is set in stone, but there are two potential projects that have my interest.

The first is a guitarist who told a co-worker he was looking for a drummer. The guitarist plays ambient music and rock so I gave him a cassette of an Old Stew rehearsal with a 10 minute jam that I call "10 Minute Jam." The song eventually breaks into a song we were working on at the time called "Lemonade" but for the beginning of the song, it's improv. So I gave the guitarist the tape, then didn't hear anything and didn't hear anything. There was a Nine Inch Nails show that prolonged my co-worker from seeing him a week and then, I heard through my co-worker that he liked what he had heard. Late last week, my co-worker let me listen to 6 songs he had put together. The first one I heard was called "Rigor and Frost" and immediately, I could hear a Metallica ballad within it. I wanted to bash out a tom pattern immediately, on the first listen. The others are good as well - a couple of them have piano - but I really hope I can someday jam "Rigor and Frost" with him. I don't know what the next step of this will be so it'll just be a journey.

The second is Jenn, who cuts my hair, plays with a guitarist named Don. They have 2.5 hours of music together and when they get to 3, Jenn said they would be looking for bandmates. I'm not a shoo-in for this gig as I would expect them to audition drummers and maybe it'd work, maybe not. I do know that I heard Jenn sing this song with the guitarist playing in the background and I liked what I heard. This would be country music. I'm a metal head, but I can tolerate non-twangy country. My first thought is that it would be fun to just see where and how it progresses.

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Just to be clear, I do not consider myself a member of either band. It may not click if I were to play in either of these situations so I guess it's wait and see.