Ramblings of a drummer.

            Growing up when I thought about playing/making music I always wanted to be a drummer. In school band tryouts in the fifth grade I tried out to be a drummer.  My "audition" was copying some hand taps the instructor slapped out on a table.  I wasn't expecting that to be the audition and was intimidated because he went so damn fast and I was too scared to ask him to repeat it.  So I meekly tried to imitate what I thought he slapped out.   He said "nope, no rhythm, try something else.  I tried something else and quit within a month.  I refused to give up in my pursuit of being a drummer.  

So I would just play along in my head, sometimes I would play air drums. I knew where the drums were positioned so I would just play my invisible kit. And as silly as it sounds, and unlike the air guitar you can actually learn how to play drums if you know how to keep rhythm and a beat, move your foot with the bass drum hits, and move your hands like you would on a normal kit.  hitting the cymbals at the right time, and the rack toms, etc.  By the time Eric Klingensmith let me borrow his drum kit in high school I knew how to play the drums basically and keep the beat.   Not bad for someone who never had a lesson and taught himself.

My influences growing up before I had a kit were mainly from classic rock.  I would play along with all the KGGO standbys, Kansas', Carry On Wayward Son, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Led Zeppelin. Now, obviously I'm nowhere near as good as Bonham, but I know parts of my drumming came from listening to Bonham.   Part of my style even came from Alex Van Halen. Mainly the partially open Hihat sound, that I'm sure Dan, Chuck dislike and I KNOW for a fact, William Tarbox HATES.  

Growing older after I had my kit,  Dan, Eric Kennedy, John Lingle and I started our first band.  My influences had changed to more Punk/alternative music by that time and those are the influences I hear still today. 

Richard English(the original Flaming Lips drummer), I kind of took his crazy chaotic sounding drum fills and incorporated them into my style. More so in Fetal Pig probably than the other bands I've been in, although I distinctly remember Eric telling me to do some "Flaming Lips fills" on some old Delirious Conniptions song.

Some other influences from that era to me were George Hurley from Minutemen, Steve Shelley from Sonic Youth, Murph from Dinosaur Jr and lastly Grant Hart from Husker Du.  I didn't follow Grant's (or even much of Bob's career) post-Husker, much at all. I'm not really sure why not and hopefully, I will in the future.  I always loved his voice and his playing.  I never got to see them live which was disappointing to me.  About the time Dan and I got into them, they were nearing the end of their Husker career.    I will say as much as I love a lot of the Husker Du catalog, I am in NO way an expert on their material like my brother is.  But I DO know Grant did leave his mark on me and my meager musical career. I just wanted to put it out there and make it known.  Show him respect and say, "Thank you for shaping me into who I became as a musician."

One last random thought, I had always secretly wanted to perform and sing, "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely." with Fetal Pig, but I'm pretty sure that will never happen.   We don't really do covers.    

jeff    9/14/2017

Reflections of Mom.

There are a few things that I've wanted to expunge from my mind to the blank screen before me within the last day.  So I will attempt to begin.

 

My mother's birthday would have been yesterday.   It's been 6 years November since she's passed.   To this day, there are times when I know she's gone and I get extremely depressed, yet there are other times where I forget she's gone and think to myself, "I have to call mom and see if she's heard such and such."   I remember the most recent incident of this was when the Ultimate Warrior passed away this past spring after being on WWE Raw the day before and inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame over the weekend.  That was such a shock to me and knowing how much Mom loved watching wrestling, I couldn't imagine what her thoughts would be.  I remember actually getting ready to dial her number before it hit me that she wasn't there to tell.  

 

There are still times I go to my Dad's and occasionally get in my head that Mom is just out with Grandma somewhere or is downstairs or something.   Time can be a pain in the ass sometimes.   I can't remember my Mom's voice anymore.   It would take .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 of a second to recognize it if i heard it again, but for the life of me, I can't hear it in my head the exact way i know it was.   That kills me, I hate that.   I can only remember dreaming of her once since she's passed, it was great...until I woke up and reality set in again.   I know her voice was 100 percent accurate in that dream, because i know it's buried in my subconscious forever.

 

There are a million conversations I want to have with her still.   I want to talk about Hannibal, because i know she would have loved that show.  She always enjoyed those creepy shows and movies.   I wish i could have found out what she thought about Lost's finale.  I'd try to get her interested in Person of Interest, I would have talked wrestling with her, because i know she still watched it, even years after my brother David had lost interest.  He was into it when he'd gotten into his car accident, so Mom recorded all of the WWE programming when he was in the hospital those months and then got herself hooked.   I couldn't believe it the first time she asked me if i watched wrestling this week.   I remember saying, "Mom, why the hell are you watching wrestling?  You used to get on Dan and I for watching wrestling when we were teenagers."  Then she explained the reason re: David.   At this point,  I had long given up watching wrestling and didn't really start up until 1997.   Once I started watching again, we shared that bond for quite awhile and i know she really enjoyed that.   My fascination with wrestling waned off and on from 1997-2008, but hers never did.   I guess she enjoyed the soap opera aspect of the storylines I guess. 

 

I miss silly things like the inevitable argument my Mom and Dad would have driving the 8 blocks or so to my Grandma's house every holiday.  Usually over whether Dad remembered to lock the door when we left.  They never fought for real, as far as I know.  I never saw it if they did.

I remember making my Mom really laugh every Christmas when we'd get together by sarcastically proclaiming, "Christmas was ruined." over some trivial event.   She would laugh so loud over silly things I'd say.

 

I miss the tradition I started in the early 90s and kept going up almost until she passed, when I would invite Mom and Dad over on Super Bowl Sunday and get some KFC and we'd watch the game.  Mom would want to watch the commercials and Dad would want to watch the game, and each of them would talk over the parts that the other wanted to see, without fail for the entire event.

 

I miss Mom's desire to make us some sugary goodies while we had Going to Grandma's practice downstairs, so it was waiting for us when we got done.   I know Jim Duede misses that too, he'd mentioned that fond memory when practicing at my parents' house.   I appreciate the fact that every Tuesday night for YEARS and YEARS, she put up with us having band practice in that basement (Sump Pump Studios) while she put up with our learning how to play music from scratch until we became "good".  Her sitting in her chair, watching all of her TV shows with only Closed Captioning on because there was NO way she was going to hear it.

 

I miss talking about countless movies that I want her to watch because i know she'd like them.  I miss those phone conversations about nothing that would last at LEAST an hour.   I hate the fact that her disease stole that from me the last 6-7 months she was alive and couldn't talk above a whisper, i think THAT's part of the reason i can't remember her voice 100%.  

 

I admire her for all the shit that she beat in her life, Lupus, Breast Cancer, all the other cancers that went in remission.   I fucking hate myself for being naïve, thinking that she could beat the last one, and not being prepared for when she couldn't.  Even up to when she was in hospice.  I hate myself for not being there at Hospice when she finally passed on because I thought Dad and I could run home for a few hours and try to get some sleep before going back to Hospice after being there up all night.   I have a tough time knowing that when I came back to Hospice that I was the one that noticed she was gone, even before the nurses.   I hate the fact that I know that when you die that your eyelids won't stay closed.

 

(I'm getting this all out now on "paper" because I'm tired of it in only my brain so forgive the tone and jumping around emotionally)

 

I think of her and remember all the things she enjoyed and things that i think of when I think about her and things she enjoyed and other things we used to share, and I'm going to make a laundry list of things in no order whatsoever.

 

Shields and Yarnell (some mime duo from the 70s that used to be on all these variety shows I'd watch with her)

Captain and Tenille

Helen Reddy

Carole King

Quantum Leap

St. Elsewhere

The Jeffersons

Soap

Dallas

Falcon Crest

Knots Landing

Dynasty

Atari (Missile Command, Pac-man and Atlantis(the holy grail of Atari games.  if you mentioned Atari, Atlantis was brought up even 20 years later, saying how much she loved that game)

INtendo (mom could never say the first N)

garage sales

her babysitting in the early 80s

badminton (pronounced badmitton)

indanola instead of Indianola

"Around Robin Hood's barn"

"Two farts in a skillet"  ex. "You two are just running around like two farts in a skillet!"

humming melodies with partial lyrics

canasta

oh hell (card game that I don't remember the rules)

Larry Bird

Magic Johnson

wrestling

family feud

Huey Lewis and the News

Hall and Oates

The Alan Parsons Project

TV guide

Entertainment Tonight

 

I guess for now I've gotten most of this out of my system. 

 

I miss her everyday.  The thing I guess I really regret the most now is that my Mom won't get to meet and know my new wife.  I know she would love her.  I know that Moco would have loved her back.  I imagine how proud she would be seeing me so happy.  I really wish I could change that, more than anything. 

 

Happy Birthday, Mom.

 

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My 2014 Oscar Picks

My 2014 Oscar Picks


Best Original Screenplay: American Hustle
Best Adapted Screenplay: Captain Phillips 
Best Visual Effects: Gravity
Best Production Design:  12 Years a Slave
Best Original Score: Gravity  (I really loved this soundtrack every time I've watched the movie, I remember really liking the "Her" score, as well,  but they haven't released it officially for me to listen to it again, so Gravity gets my vote.)

Best Film Editing: Gravity 
Best Directing: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Best Costume Design: American Hustle
Best Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska)
Best Animated Feature: The Croods
Best Actress in a Supporting Role:  June Squibb (Nebraska)
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)  (this was difficult for me because Jared Leto was awesome in Dallas Buyers Club and will probably win.  But the fact that Barkhad had never acted in a movie before and held his own with Tom Hanks pushed it over the top for me. He was great.

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best Picture: Gravity 

(I have seen every movie nominated for Best Picture except for, Philomena, which I wanted to see, but did not make it to.   This is a tough list to pick just one out of all of these great movies.  Most years I can easily pick out what I thought was the best movie.      I also know that this movie has been somewhat polarizing to a lot of my friends who've see it.  Some love it, some didn't like it at all.  It certainly does not have as strong of script or performances of some of the other nominees, which is why its screenplay was not nominated.    I picked it, because out of all the other movies, THIS one was the one that grabbed me and made me forget I was in a theater.  The special effects and directing are mind blowing to me.   My heart raced, and i felt like I was a little kid again watching something I'd never seen before.  A pure visceral experience that I loved every minute of.
Well that's it, my 2014 Oscar picks.   They are not the same as what I think WILL win, in some cases, but that's the fun of watching. 
See you at the movies.

The Beatles

My thoughts on The Beatles in honor of the 50 year anniversary of their first U.S. appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.

Growing up in a small town in Iowa, music had always been a part of my life.   Sometimes it was my mother humming songs always puttering around the house, sometimes along with the radio, sometimes just with a melody running though her head. Other times, she would play songs on this old chord organ we used to have.  My mother and father also had a lot of vinyl records, lots of Elvis (my dad's favorite) and other artists from the 50's and 60's.    One of these albums was called, "Sing a Song With The Beatles".   You weren't REALLY singing along with The Beatles.   Instead, what you got were instrumental versions of early Beatles songs with an organ playing over the parts where you were supposed to sing.

My brother, Dan and I used to listen to this record growing up and around the time we started our own musical career, we actually recorded a version of this album with some friends of ours.  I believe it was during allergy season and we called ourselves,  The Religious Underground Basement Dwellers With Allergies.  It featured Dan, myself and our friends John Lingle and Chris Wysong.   I have no recollection of why or how we came up with that band name, I can kind of piece all of it together but I don't remember why the word  "Religious" was in there.   It wasn't good by any means, but I remember it being a lot of fun.   I remember singing in a horribly overdone,  British accent, way more prominent than The Beatles themselves, ever used.   I remember us all taking turns on vocals and I remember lots and lots of laughing....along with unnecessary profanity (usually by, yours truly).  "I'm in love with you and I feel fucking fine"   I do remember "All My Loving" was my "shining" moment.

The Beatles became a big influence in Dan and I's music career, not so much in songwriting, but i think the fact that they were having fun, creating their own music, and also coming up with creative ways to make music.   From the beginning, Dan and I always wanted to write our own music and lyrics.  Looking back I don't know if that was rare or not, we were the only people we knew in our town, along with our friend John and Eric, who were in an actual band.   The fact that none of us played our respective instruments when we started and the fact that all 4 of us to this day still create music, is testimony how serious we all were about making music. 

I know some of us had different books about The Beatles.   Biographies, recording session notes, chord books.  I loved the movies, all the records, anything Beatle related I took a HUGE interest in.   John was my favorite, he was the funniest to me.   But honestly those 4 guys together, especially in the beginning were something special and the world knew that right away.

 I envied the way they decided to just stop touring (because they couldn't hear themselves over the crowd) and focus on recording and creating music the rest of their time together.   A feat that is just MINDBLOWING to me.   I can't imagine ANYONE doing that today and being successful, since touring seems to be the main money makers for bands anymore.   In the book I had of the Beatles recording sessions, which were notes taken in the studio of dates and what songs were worked on what days, I was amazed to see that even though they did not tour anymore, they were in the Abbey Road studios almost every day working on something when they were together.  Aside from holidays usually,  and time when they would take a few weeks off for vacation.

I remember in an interview, John Lennon saying he saw Elvis on TV and say, "That's a pretty good job" and knew he wanted to be a musician.  Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from Kiss, both have said they saw The Beatles on TV and knew instantly they wanted to be musicians.   And I'm positive someone saw Kiss and said the same thing and then so on and so forth.

I was 10 years old when John Lennon was shot, I remember it only vaguely.   I mainly remember my cousin having a shirt with John Lennon 1940-1980 on it.     Years later watching the footage of the people so shaken up and brought to tears by his death; I'm glad I didn't know much about him yet because it probably would have really disturbed me at that age.     (interesting(?) side note: I did come up with an outline of a screenplay once in my early 20's about two losers who died without doing anything substantial and being selfish in their lives were told they were going to Hell unless they did one good deed.   My idea for the good deed was them going back and trying to save John Lennon from getting shot.   It was going to be animated, and John Goodman was going to be the voice of God.   Anyway, that will never come to fruition, but I would still like to write it).

I've also always had the dream project in my mind to cover the entire "White Album".  My brother and I have talked about it since we were teenagers.    I also have great memories of my ex wife and I, when we were dating, driving on road trips listening to our Beatles CDs and singing along to all the songs. I, insisting to be John, and she would be Paul. and we'd not fight over George and Ringo's songs so much.  I think we probably both sang each others parts constantly.  The specifics of the memories now gradually fading like the ink on an old t-shirt.  

The Beatles have always been a part of my life since my teens, and while there may be times I don't hear them for some time, once you hear that "one" song again, you just want to fire up that whole catalog and sing along with all of them.   They are just that infectious and melodic and wonderful.

I've read something about it somewhere once about this and I think it does bear some merit, that the U.S. was in so much shock about JFK's assassination still that we, as a nation, needed something to heal us. And I do think seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show those 2 and 1/2 months later did help do that.  Maybe that's part of the reason they connected with so many people and made them happy when they needed to be happy again.   

Whatever the reason, I truly believe the landscape of music would not be the same without The Beatles.  I know my landscape would not be as full and rich without them in my youth.

Birdman of Alcatraz, my ass!!!

So I watched "Birdman Of Alcatraz" last night with my father.  A few things....Burt Lancaster: great.  Directed by John Frankenheimer: cool. Telly Savalas: sweet.   

My issue? The movie is 143 minutes long, no problem there.  However, in that 2hrs 23min. I think Lancaster spends 20-30 min total on Alcatraz at the end of the movie and when he's there, he's not allowed to keep any birds!!!  He has all his birds at Leavenworth which is where the rest of the running time is spent.  Blatant false advertising.  I really don't understand why it was called that. Even though the movie was really good, this fact bothers me like an itch inside a cast on a broken arm. 

Fetal Pig - In Your Head- live last November

Live performance of "In Your Head" from our Autopia album available on ITunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting.  This song has always been my favorite to play.
For followers who don't know me personally, I'm on the drums.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/autopia/id500717397

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B0076ZG09C?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Fetal%20Pig&index=digital-music&search-type=ss

http://fetalpig.bandcamp.com/