I skipped my first class today. yaaaay. I'm sick/have allergies, and needed to stick around the coffeehouse to learn how to close, so instead of feeling like shit and hauling ass at 7:55, I figured I'd feel less like shit and wake up at 9:30. Good plan, just need to study extra hard. 

Weekend:

Friday-ToE show at the union. Good respectable crowd, but for a Musician's Guild show expected more, but what can you do. Got a weird vibe from the crowd, but Jon and my Dad assured me it was just in my head, and people seemed to enjoy it. Was pumped for Sick Electric but Jimmy had car trouble, got delayed. Jon and Dad split before they went on, too bad, they would have liked them but not the best show they've ever put on, maybe it was for the best. Was planning to go Julia's afterward, but ended up going to Kingston Pizza with Dan, went home and watched episodes of Harvey Birdman until some ungodly hour.

Saturday-Meccalily recording. Went with dad around 2, set up equipment, figured out the best setup for instruments/mics. Finally started tracking around 5-6. Had to drop Dad off at home and then get back to find that no one knows how to work the damn thing. I stay out of it as it's pretty jury rigged to begin with. Out of nowhere, my dad shows up again in the nick of time before people start getting angry. Fine going the way it was, but I really wish that in the future we could try the "build everything from the ground up" method, as I think everyone is competent enough to work this way.

Overall, went well. Started feeling iffy when I woke up, kinda got worse throughout the day, but got much much much better when Melissa made me huge water bottle of tea. Felt good. Hung around at Jon's until around 11. Jon mentioned before I left that everyone is really happy that I'm in the band and are really happy with what I'm doing. Still don't believe him.

Sunday: Up around 12, feel worse than before. More tea and medicines help me out. Go to the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner. Listen to A Postmodern John, very relaxing and always puts me in a good mood. Back at home, nice homemade pasta, then to school for meeting at 193. Interviewed two nice girls. Both got the job. Stuck around for closing and...well yeah, that leads us to now.

Philosophy class in ten minutes. Have a shift tonight closing 193 from 9-12. Will try and close around 11 if not busy, which i don't plan on. I'm going to drink my body weight in tea and listen to ambient music all night. Hooray!

I'm thinking about doing a house of fire show.

I know I said I would stop it. But the main thing that was stopping me before was I felt sorta limited in just using guitar. I would revert to Frippertronic rip-offs. But I'm thinking of incorporating the moog and the laptop into the setup via the mixer, maybe sending the guitar through it too with an amp modeler or something, and hooking it up through the house PA system.

When I talked to Chris, Nick and Dean about this, I said that it's pretty much in the can for right now, but I'm getting that itch to do solo sets again. I said to them that I'm not really breaking new ground at every show, and some of the improvisations were actually just pieces I had rehearsed for 30 seconds to remember them, and just see where they go from there.

But Nick busted my balls about how I'm not breaking new ground every show. And I thought, why should I have to? I like playing them (sometimes, if the vibe is right) and I have fun (sometimes), so why should I beat myself over not sounding different every night?

It's interesting that they Smashing Pumpkins have stayed with me throughout 3 schools. I got into them in 8th grade by happenstance basically. Went to an Evanscence or whatever they're called with Martin and Lily, and they did a cover of "Zero". My 14 year old brain goes "hey, wait, this is a good band that does this song". But most people know the story already.

But through out the winter of 2004, all I listened to was The Pumpkins and Sonic Youth. Not a bad combination. The thing is that I became a completist. Starting downloading boots and B-sides and imports that I could physically buy. This was back after the Zwan (who are still a good band) disbanded, and during the break of February, teh b0lly had posted a blog saying that he was working on a solo album which nobody noticed (before AND after it's release date). So they were well enough under the radar for a popular band that all their first singles and imports were not being re-released. So I got to downloading, spent money on all their albums I did, and got myself a nice little collection. And this stayed with me in high school. I still listened to them pretty religiously. But somewhere along the line they died out, midway through freshmen year, then sophomore. Did I really grow out of it? In some ways yes, in some ways no.

There seems to be a very common simile for relationships of a fan to a band, and a relationship between two people.  In general, it's said that you can grow out of bands, and never listen to them again. The equivalent to breaking up with them. This is true with a band like Tool for me. Haven't listened to them since 2003, have no REAL reason to. They're a good band, but I guess I'll take king crimson. Not to say Tool copied Krimson, but Krimson is really just all over the place in terms of sound. Tool kinda sticks with the dirges. For all intents and purposes, Tool was a band I broke up with. Primus as well. I never listen to Primus anymore and once in a GREAT while I'll go "I need to listen to that again" but will never follow through.

The Smashing Pumpkins and I never really broke up. 

One thing I hear and read about The Pumpkins is that they're a good band, but they also allow people to get deeper into more bands. The similarites between My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" and "Siamese Dream" all VERY obvious, but I don't know if I would have even gotten into MBV had it not been for The Pumpkins. One other band I would not have gotten into would be Slowdive. Siamese Dream was said to be influenced by Slowdive's sound. 

But through all of the changes, one things that never slouches is the songwriting. Billy Corgan knows how to write a good song. I will say Zeitgeist is their worst album so far, but it's not a horrible record. I give it a 6. 

But for from Siamese Dream to Machina II, everything in that period, b-sides included, is very, very good.

With that out of the way, today was alright. Did a so so audition today. First day of classes tomorrow. Scared shitless. I really hope I don't party so much and flunk out like my dad did.