Meditations on Banter/3.1 and High School.

So Monday is (as far as both Justin and I agree on), the last Banter/3.1 show. It really feels like the end of a period of time that I feel attachment to. I know I'm not in the band, but I'd like to think that I at least had a small part (ok fuck that let's stroke some egos: a very vital role) in the development of the sound and style of Banter/3.1 I'd also like to point out that he started around the same time I went into high school, and heard him more or less around midway through my freshmen year. I think it's funny that for some reason this project is stopping as soon as I graduated. I guess no Banter for soundtrack to my college years. My High school years? Fuck me, I listened to "14 New Songs", "Songs of War and Gardening" and "Medicinal Reverb" more than I thought on those drives to school. I even had some kids like it! I remember driving Jamie and Melanie to our gig at the elementary school teaching Spanish, they both said "This is really good, in a really weird way". I had "Medicinal Reverb" on. I turned it low because I didn't want to freak them out. Too late.

Am I sad that he's stopping it? Yes. We talked about the progression of Banter and where it could go, but I guess that stopped in order for him to work on film, and that's just where he's going. In terms of walking up the steps to his study and sitting on the floor as he walks over and gives me a new cd every other month, I will miss that. (I don't think I ever paid for a Banter album, and certainly never got any copies of the album that weren't CD-Rs with black sharpie writing.)

But I can see if he wants to end it, it's his choice. It's sad I will never hear "Grape Crush" or "All Up In The CLUBBBBB" played live again. But I will say it was a total pleasure to watch the progession up close and personal for the last 4 years.

Now, with that out of the way.

Met with Wayne last night. Worked on some songs, he got the 90% of them fleshed out. Helped out with the other 10%, worked on bass lines and other ideas. Really coming along, feel like I'm not doing as much as I could be doing but we still need to figure out the dynamic/relationship.

Talked about things, including Meccalily doing a gig at the luau. Long story short, he called up martin, expressed intrested in an electric set, and also about me playing guitar for them. Will see what happens. I'd rather have them try me and find out it's not working than just not give me a chance. Talk about recording, talk about Dom on drums and how maybe I should just track everything I can with the new songs. Speaking of recording...

Recorded Nick's other band "Able Archer" Tuesday. Started off getting sounds, cue 2 hours of figuring out why the fuck Channel 1 on the Delta isn't working. Dirty contact and I can't waste an hour cleaning it. Call dad twice, we both agree to just patch the Behringer "tube" pre amp to the delta. Whew! That was close. This was after getting sounds. Dan (bass player) had to be at work at 4 so we were running on a time table. they tracked 6 songs in an hour. Never did more than 2.5 takes. Fine. Listening back, didn't get the best drum sound I could have. Fuck. They seem fine. To the Mews for pizza/dropping dan off/break. Then back to the house for vocals and 2 percussion overdubs.

Lotsa shit I should have done for vocals, but didn't think about. Got caught up in the social side of recording...

But, with Wayne's permission to record on "Tower of Destruction", this basically means I get to track things one at a time, which means I can fully mic the drum kit (CLOSE MIC'D! GASP!) and basically can experiment with shit with funky mic placements and stuff. I think I caught the bug.