Monday, October 09, 2006

a collection of unanswered questions

I was reading a quote that had something to do with the worst sin you can have toward someone is not to hate them but rather to be indifferent to them as that is the essence of inhumanity. Point taken, but I'm not too sure that the one being hated would agree. A similar idea occurred in a book i read to Kaiya the other day... it is called "I like you"... and one of the reasons a character gave for liking somebody is that when they are mad at you you are mad at them too.

I am usually one to be indifferent, choosing to avoid arguments. Often it is because i don't feel the argument will solve anything... i am probably wrong, but that happens from time to time. It is one of those philosophical points that may have more merit in discussion that in practice. It might be one of the key developments of our evolution as social creatures who have had incredible resources poured into training us as consumers.

We are not people rather a demographic of consumers... where am i going with this? I try not to be a consumer, and i don't bother with people who irritate me... wasn't it William S Burroughs who said in a song titled worlds advise to young people "If you meat someone who makes you feel like you have lost a quart of plasma AVOID that person... you need that like a hole in the head.

It can be good to be challenged however... that will be the goal for the upcoming 21 Tandem Repeats year, although I'm not sure hate need be involved. I guess it's the word hate that is so wrong, just a strong word.

Back to 21 Tandem repeats.. as per usual. So were are sitting on a good CD and a bunch of songs that we could go in and record again, but there is just too much potential to do more, to create a "sound" for the band, or a voice... i do believe we have and have always had a voice. As Winnie the Pooh would say "it all comes from working together"... we all work differently but we need to find a way. I recall reading about a great band and how they wrote material together and the member was saying that they collect their best riffs and go from there, which is about the best place to start when songwriting. i have usually found that there are very few arguments when putting a good song together because it feels right, and when you are trying to put that flash into a bad song everybody has exhausting ideas that go nowhere... never be afraid to ban a song, it could have some potential but a song is never worth more than the band, even if it happens to be "charting" on some little known web page.

I remember doing a song with Roadbed called Honest Beardman... a kind of joke song that was shit together in the studio... later when Roadbed was chosen to be one of the countries top 10 emerging bands there was a battle of the bands competition held online and the song "Honest Beardman" was representing us... in some ways it was unfortunate and in another way it was fitting.

I did another late night show at the railway last thursday and i could be done with those. I feel like we play a mean supper show, and i don't care to organize others further. It got me to thinking about thinking outside the box for shows. One idea i had was to go and play some high schools (sure sure bright idea Robertson) and possibly talk a bit about what it is like to be in a band, and to encourage kids to get a proper education and enjoy music. I think too many people get in bands and think that they are going to make it and end up bitter broken souls... and music doesn't need to be that. i remember going to camp and looking forward to the campfire where there would be songs to enjoy together. Now it seems like most people go to shows to

1) Be seen so you will go to their show
2) Drink
3) Be seen because they know the person playing and there is pressure to support them
4) socialize

and then sometimes people go to listen. I will note at this time that many bands suck horribly and play at ear piercing volumes all under some delusion that they are the next generation of their heroes.

I am lucky music works for me.

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