Road Gig!

Tonight my band plays its first road gig. Whenever I think of playing out of DC, I always think of this Tenacious D episode. We are playing at the Brass Monkey Saloon, and here is the information. We are going on late, like 12:30 or so.

I learned in my last band that I should always wear earplugs. They are mostly great, but I have noticed a recent problem. We have been practicing a fair amount, and thus I have been wearing earplugs a fair amount. The problem is that they are messing with my earwax. Currently my right ear feels slightly blocked. It will eventually go away, but it is irritating none the less.

History...

One of the problems with the Nationals is their lack of history. Actually, more to the point, the problem is that we don't know which history we want to adopt. When the team moved to Washington, there were discussions about which records we would celebrate and hold on to. Which Senator's records would we use, the ones that became the Rangers or the Twins or both? And what about the Expo's records? It is confusing.

That is why I see the Nationals as starting a new history, which is one of the things that makes the team exciting. Also, that would be the one benefit of a historically bad season. It would give the team character, and something to talk about years down the road. We could all say, "I was there when."

In many ways I envy a team like the Philadelphia Phillies. They have a long and storied history, and their fans should be proud of it. For example, this site is fantastic. I am seriously thinking about trying to make it up to Philly for the Phillies unprecedented 10,000 loss. Think how exciting that would be. No other professional sports franchise, in any sport mind you, has ever lost 10,000 games. Just the thought of the Phillies losing 10,000 games makes me giddy.

So congratulations Philadelphia! I should also mention that Philly is the city with 4 professional sports teams that has gone the longest without a championship. Truly you are the losingest losers to ever lose.

Thank You...

I intended to write this yesterday, but stupid work got in the way. Also, I was hella tired. Anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming out to see our debut on Wednesday. It went a lot better than I could have expected, although I am not the most optimistic person in the world so take that with a grain of salt.

I also want to thank everyone who linked to us. It was really unexpected. Personally, I was going to wait until we had played a few concerts before I demanded links. In fact, the bandwidth for our album was all used up and Tommy had to come up with some new hosting. I like to think of it as having been Yglesiased.

For a little behind the scenes information. I usually sing on more songs, but Aaron plugged in a short guitar chord, and I couldn't both play the guitar and sing at the same time. That is something we are going to have to work on. Also, the last song was so long because that is what a starting band does when they don't have enough material to fill out a set list. I hope to shorten it in the future.

Thanks to Tommy for the picture.

Living on the Lighted Stage

I hate Rush. A lot. One reason that I hate Rush is that Neil Peart's drum solos are so long and useless that bassist/keyboardist/irritating vocalist Geddy Lee uses them as an opportunity to check on his fantasy baseball stats. Seriously.

Tonight...

Just a friendly reminder, but tonight is my band's first concert at the Velvet Lounge. We are playing with Tenley from American University. We should be going on around 9:00 and I think that tickets are $6.00. This could all be completely wrong; I am always wary of trusting information given to me by Aaron. You all should come out. Yes You! I have also put a new version of Cultured Capital with real drums up on our blog.

What I find shocking is that all of sudden my band is playing a lot of concerts. We have seven concerts in the next 2 months. I went from not being in a band at all to being in a very busy band awfully quick.

For my friends who have never known anyone in a band before, this means that you are going to hear a lot of whining from me. You can ask Tommy, who has been to the Grog and Tankard more times then any man not convicted of a crime should. Trust me, I feel bad about begging people to come to concerts, but this is life in a band.

The truth is that it is important that some of our concerts are well attended, and others, ahem, can fall by the wayside. To that end, I promise only to bug you all when it is important. While I would love for you all to come to every concert, I am much more realistic.

Comin' to Liberate You

Just so you all know, if I ever get the chance to stand on the same stage as Bruce Springsteen while he was playing "Rosalita" I would look exactly like Craig Finn from the Hold Steady in this video.

Assuming that I didn't pass out first.

Of course, this is the definitive live "Rosalita" live performance. I dare anyone to watch that and tell me that Bruce is not a genuine rock god. If I can have just one song from my concert on April 11th end like this one does, then this whole learning to play the guitar thing will be totally worth it.

New Music...

I am not sure if our drummer, Spencer, wanted to re-record some of the drums on the new album because he wanted the music to reflect us as a band more, or because he hated my fake drumming, but on Wednesday we went to his house and recorded some real drum parts. We have the first new song, Strike Up The Band, up over at The City Veins' blog. You should go over and have a listen.

In other news, I installed this plugin and so far I think it works great. If you are thinking about hosting music on your Wordpress blog, you should definitely check it out.

Ominous Signs at RFK...

And I am not referring to the score.

Opening day was good. The Nats lost, but if that surprised you then you are in for a long season. What is funny is that the team, or at least the ownership, know how bad things could get for this team. For example:

When I arrived at my seat, there was a video preview of the new stadium, including descriptions of various luxury boxes and seating arrangements. This was combined with the graphics of construction girders that adorned all of the images on the scoreboard. The announcer welcomed us to the last opening day at RFK stadium. Not one pitch had been thrown yet, and we were already encouraged to look forward to next year.

The guess the year trivia question was, "In what year did 'Major League' come out?" I am going to let the IMDB plot description speak for itself:

"The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team so they'll lose and she can move the team."

Hmm....

Finally, the slogan for this season is "Pledge Your Allegiance." One will earn their fan stripes every time they show up at the ballpark this year.

Actually, I don't think the season will be all that bad this year. Expectations have been lowered to the point where this team can, and probably will, trip over them.

Help Me Internets, You Are My Only Hope.

I have spent the last few days trying to set up the band's blog. This is what I have so far. I need to design a header and change the color scheme, but overall I am happy. The problem is that I have a few things that I would like to do that I can't seem to find any plugins or widgets for. Note, this is a Wordpress 2.1.2 blog.

First, I would like to be able to select an author's name and go to all of the posts by that author. I have seen this done, but I can't seem to figure it out. It would also be nice to have the author's names appear on the sidebar with the same clickable functionality.

Also, I would like a section in the sidebar that lists our upcoming concerts. It would be nice if you could click on them and go to more information, be it a post about them or whatever. I have tried this, but I can't seem to make it work. Any help would be much appreciated.

Also, feel free to let me know if you have any other ideas for band blog functionality.

Baseball Preview...

We are less than one week from Opening Day, otherwise known as the greatest day of the whole year. Admittedly, the prospects for the Nationals are not great. Sports writers can't seem to decide if the Nationals will lose a laughable number of games, a historic number of games, or somewhere in between. My current favorite prediction comes from King Kaufman's Sports Daily. His prediction for the finishing order for the NL East is:

"Philadelphia, Atlanta (wild card), New York, Florida, Grand Canyon, Marianas Trench, Washington"

So why go to the ballpark this year?

The first, and most important reason, is that this is a year to get your Fan cred. When the Nationals start winning, and people start showing up to the stadium with new baseball hats you will be able to scoff at them and say, "I was there in 2007."

If you go with me, you can watch me try to keep up with all of the runs scored and pitching changes in my scorebook. I imagine that things could get pretty hectic around RFK this year, and the 2007 season could be the greatest test of my scorekeeping abilities for years to come.

Also, there is a certain poetry to the dejected baseball fan watching the other team bat around. In fact, baseball fans are better at yelling at/hating/cursing the team they love than any other sports fans.

Finally, a day at a baseball game is better than just about anything else.

But you should be prepared. This season could will be ugly. The Phillies fans will be even more insufferable, and New York fans even more smug. You will have to hear the horrible Tomahawk chop from Braves fans, and...well, I don't think their are Marlins fans. That said, the Presidents race is one of the greatest innovations to team sports in the last 10 years, and Teddy has still yet to break into the W column. That alone is reason enough to visit RFK.

April 11th at the Velvet Lounge

I am please to announce that my band, The City Veins, has its first concert on Wednesday, April 11th at the Velvet Lounge. I will give you more details as they become available. But you all have to come, and these are the reasons:

1. Most of you live within 6 blocks of the Velvet Lounge
2. Most of you have never seen me perform live
3. Most of you don't have real jobs that you have to wake up for on Thursday

Again, click here to download our album. Remember, my blog readership is small and I know almost all of you personally, including all of your home addresses. There will be penalties for non-compliance.

Friday Miscellany...

This whole voting rights thing has made me so angry that I can barely contain myself. Never mind that we are fighting for legislation that will still leave us short of full representation, but the way that the Republicans derailed the bill only highlights why it is so necessary. The fact that people who we didn't vote for can change our gun laws proves why we need someone on the Hill that represents us.

I am pretty sure that I am going to take off of work to participate in this, and you should too.

I really like DCist's answer to Representative Charles Boustany. I am still figuring out what issue I want to bring up with my new Representative. I wish that we could go farther. I am envisioning a day when all DC residents don't work. I would imagine there are enough residents working on the Hill, as Waiters, Cab Drivers, Metro Operators, Security Guards, etc. to make life markedly more difficult for the congressmen who domineer over us.

In related news, D.C.'s own These United States are the Thursday session over at Daytrotter and you should go give a listen. It seems to me that D.C. is starting to develop a pretty good, non-Dischord, music scene. It is nice to see.

Finally, due to Catherine's prodding, and boredom at work, I now have a Facebook profile. You should go over an be my friend. Full disclosure, I mainly plan on using it to harass people to come to my concerts.

UPDATE: Apparently it was Congressman Louie Gohmert that brilliantly opined:

"I would submit to you that Washington, D.C. is also the only city in the entire country that every Senator and every Member of Congress has a vested interest in seeing that it works properly, that water works, sewer works, and no other city in America has that."

I for one have noticed a fair number of potholes around that I am sure that Louie wants to hear about.

Also, I forgot to add that Matt is not welcome in my apartment if he is packing.

MySpace

On of the unfortunate side effects of being in a band is that you have to use MySpace. I have accepted that we have to have a profile and that I will have to use the site fairly regularly, but I still hate it. It is just so very ugly, both visually and functionally.

That said, it is apparently important that we have lots of friends on MySpace. I can't imagine that people booking concerts pay that much attention to the number of MySpace friends you have. For example, can I get a gig at DC9 if we have 200 friends, but not if we have 150? I have been out of the band thing for a while, so maybe this is the case.

Anyway, if you have a MySpace account please become my friend. Note, Adam messed up something, so our first MySpace account, http://www.myspace.com/thecityveins, is not our account. We are currently using, http://www.myspace.com/cityveins.

Go Ducks!

I think that every person should see this video of Greg Paulus flopping last night. It is fantastic.

In other NCAA news, my bracket is still intact. I have historically done pretty well in NCAA pools. My philosophy is that you have to dare to be great, and not be afraid of looking really stupid. I always pick a few teams that probably are not going to go far, but have a respectable chance of doing so. I like this strategy because, if one does well then I make up a lot of points where other people are not. I don't even try to believe that I can pick everything right, I just try to get lucky with one or two teams. For example, this year my whole bracket depends on Oregon and Louisville. If they do well, then I will probably win, if not (which is likely) then I look like an idiot.

I Feel Like Dancing...

I know that I have a lot of friends who work developing websites, so it pains me to say this, but you all can just give up. I have found the greatest website ever. There is no way that you can top this, so why even bother.

Created here

I Call Upon the Power of the Internet...

Now that I am in a band, I have to design a band website. It has been a while since I have done a band website, and a lot has changed on the internet since then. So I wanted to ask all of you wonderful Web 2.0 people: "what do you like in a band website?" What features must we have, and what horrible mistakes have you seen on websites? For example, I know that long flash intros that are required every time you visit the website are bad. Do we think that a blog is a good idea for a band, keeping in mind that Adam will be one of the people writing for it? Please, leave any ideas you have in comments. Thanks

Also, you will notice that I have left a permanent link to download our album on the sidebar. Again, feel free to pass it around, or link to it, or whatever.

A Weekend Affair

The album, "A Weekend Affair" by The City Veins, is finished, click here to download it. The album is zipped up, which I don't think should be a problem for most people, but you may need to download a program to unzip it. Feel free to share it, burn it, trade it, post links to it, or whatever. All that I ask is that if by the grace of God you manage to actually make any money with it, please give me some.

We called the album "A Weekend Affair" because the whole thing was recorded, and mostly written, over the course of a single weekend. Overall, I must say that I am surprised at how happy I am with the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I still hate everything, but I always hate everything I record. Given that we decided to record the album on a lark, and that we hadn't really written or arranged anything, things could have been a lot worse. There are a few things that I would change if I had more time, but not many.

The only other thing that I want to add is to explain that I intentionally put very little time between songs. I wanted the experience of listening to the album to be like the experience of recording it. We just moved quickly from one song to the next without any time really to reflect on what we had done, and I think that I mostly captured that feeling with the sequencing of the songs.

In other news, it looks like we might actually become a real band. Hopefully I will have news of a show in the D.C. area by the end of the week, or early next week. While we don't have a "drummer" yet, or remember how to "play the songs," we are reasonably confident that we can get our act together in time. Hell, we recorded an album without any real preparation, how bad can a concert be? Assuming that it isn't at the Grog anyway.

Donors Choose...

So this hasn't been a great week. Not a bad "get me a fifth of scotch" week, but a week filled with a series of minor annoyances that added up. I had a bunch of things I planned on accomplishing this week, and managed to complete none of them. It was irritating, and I am glad that the week is over.

The one bright spot was a package that I received from Donors Choose. Donors Choose is a non-profit organization that collects proposals for materials or programs from public school teachers and then asks for donations on their website to fund the proposals. You can read more about the organization here. You can search for proposals by area of the country, subject, and/or price range. One can also fully or partially fund a proposal. The non-profit use to go by the name Means for Dreams.

I came across the site a few months ago during my internet travels. I liked the idea behind it, and found that a Kindergarten teacher at a school near me had put in a proposal for a laminating machine so that her teaching materials would last longer. I decided to fund this proposal, put in my credit card information, and then didn't think much else about it.

Well a few days ago, I got a package in the mail with a lovely handwritten thank you note from the teacher, thank you cards from the students, and pictures of the students. I also got this poster.

It just makes me smile.

So let me encourage you to wander over and check out the site. We hear a lot of negative things about the state of public schools, particularly in here in the District, and this website is certainly not going to solve the big problems that our schools are facing. But if their are still teachers who still care enough to write proposals and go through the vetting process that the non-profit uses, and enough people who stumble across the site and help out with whatever they can, then maybe there is some hope.

I Walk the Line...

An Attorney from my office wanted to go to a hearing this morning. In order to ensure that he got in, he sent me early to get a place in line for him. Early, as in 2 1/2 hours before the the hearing started early. I must admit though, the experience was kind of amazing.

I don't think that many people are aware of this, but here in Washington we have professional line sitters. There is a whole group of people who are hired by lobbyists, law firms, and the like to wait in line so that they can get into hearings. I learned that most of them sleep outside of the House and Senate Office Buildings in order to get good spots. The result is that they have large bags to hold their stuff, and lots of ratty sweaters and layers on. Frankly, they look slightly homeless.

I managed to be the second person in line for my hearing, but another hearing in the same hall had about 14 line sitters already waiting at 7:30. The guy at the front of that line spent about an hour snoring loudly, leaving me to wonder just how long he had been there. I don't blame him, the Rayburn has some lovely leather couches for people to wait on. The guy in front of me seemed to be in charge of some of the line sitters. He was frequently on his cellphone and got up a lot to check on people throughout the building to make sure that all the necessary spots were saved.

He also told me about a very popular hearing last summer that a lot his clients wanted to go to. Apparently one of his competitors started the line for it 3 weeks before the hearing started, so he and his team had to spend 3 straight weeks in line. I am not sure exactly how this works, how can one group can stand in a line and declare that this is the line for the hearing in a few weeks? What stopped my fellow line sitter from standing somewhere else and declaring that the line? He spoke of this line with the same pride that someone has when they talk about marathons they have completed. He also got a lot of overtime for those weeks, which he was also happy about.

I did notice that the woman who was setting up my hearing frequently asked the guy which line was for which hearing, and how many people were waiting. I guess the House staff relies on the line sitters to keep the order.

This brings me to my next observation. Line sitters are very nice to each other. Once you are in line, you have saved that spot. People are free to get up and go to the bathroom, or get breakfast, or sub people in, once the spot has been saved. They all seem to know each other, and are very talkative. I talked with another professional line sitter about Sodoku solving strategies, and another offered me some of her popcorn and told me that she was worried about the potatoes that she planted earlier this week.

As the morning went on suits filled out the line and replaced the line sitters, and "Who do you work for?" replaced opinions on the Wizards and recent movies. The Rayburn was restored to its staid conservative self. Frankly, I liked it better at 7:30 in the morning.

Say It Ain't So...

So I was reading this article by Steve Albini when I stumbled across this sentence:

"Lyle Preslar, former guitarist for Minor Threat, is one of them."

The "them" in question are A&R men for major record labels. Can this be true? Can a former member of Minor Threat, and Dischord, really be out there lurking in the shadows of the bar, luring bands into the clutches of major record labels? They told me the devil would be attractive, but this attractive?