Category: whimsy

joy & wonder

~ Adam Johnston ~ Leave a comment

Earlier this week we worked three new songs that we can offer out to a live audience at the Funk N Dive on Friday, 9-Midnight (along with The Proper Way). We’ve gotten into a routine of putting a recorder on the floor when we want to run a new song straight through for the first time. Besides giving Caryn a track to rehearse with, we all get an irrefutable memory of exactly how we rehearsed that song. (Sometimes it’s a fun time capsule, too, realizing how much a song morphs for us as we work it over time.) I put the tracks on my phone and listen to them to get the feel for the changes and entrances. But more than those technicalities I love to hear the end of each recording.

It’s a small miracle, playing a new piece, start to finish. So it makes sense that after the music has finished there’s this pause as the last note fades, and then laughter. It’s some cross between laughing at a punch line and the laughter of astonishment. There’s delight in giving life to something that wasn’t clear before, the genuine joy in figuring something out.

And, I never imagined I’d ever get to play a Stevie Wonder cover.

Hope to see you Friday.

leaving our mark

~ Adam Johnston ~ Leave a comment

We got booked for two gigs on the same weekend. What’s more is that this was the first time we did 3-hour sets. It’s a lot of work to play 180 minutes of music, so the fact that we did this for the first time and then did it two nights in a row is a kind of milestone for us. Also, we had a great time, and we had music to spare.

But more than this is what can’t be measured and what others can’t possibly know. We keep adding new stuff that’s rehearsed, and we also keep adding new twists that even the band doesn’t get to hear until we’re there in front of a live and lively audience. Like when Caryn turns to us before I Want You Back and says, “oh, just so you know, I am going to change the timing and I didn’t want you to worry that I was messing it up,” and it was brilliant and probably the best rendition of the song that we’ve done, especially with Tim’s bass line. Tim keeps riffing on a solo for Message in a Bottle that I love to take in, especially on his new amp. Ian has completely re-created Sucker with percussive licks that I truly do not understand — so I just let them happen and try not to get in the way. And then just for kicks I added a little baroque interlude on one line of Come Together that cracked Caryn up so that she stopped singing. It was only unfortunate because she had nailed all of the words to that song up until that point, which is no small feat.

Also, people were singing along to our covers of both Katy Perry and Sesame Street at a bar on 25th Street. Given all that, I feel like we’ve left a mark, at least for us as a band. And, even though I’m not sure Caryn noticed, there was a graphic mark left on the stage of one of our gigs, right in front of her, and right in front of every other band that shows up in the future.

Our logo permanently affixed at an undisclosed location.

We play music that we like and invent it as we go along. People — old friends and new — sometimes dance, or sing along, or simply nod their heads, but more than anything they get to see us having fun and trying out new things. For this, we’ll happily stay out late two night in a row.

group work

~ Adam Johnston ~ Leave a comment

As we’ve been trying out brand new music and dusting off old stuff for 3-hour sets coming up, I’ve realized something: It’s way more fun to play with the band than to play by myself. And it sounds way better with everyone else, too. Sure, you should all clamor for my stylings of solo piano; but, frankly, something kind of magical happens when we get together. This is kind of funny to me now, because there was so much “group work” that many of us have done in school that was definitely not so magical. It’s remarkable when a collaboration actually turns out so well, and so far in my life I’d be hard pressed to find as good an example as playing in this band.

I wish I knew how to describe this. Bill Evans, who could play piano, solo or ensemble, like nobody else, suggested in his work with Miles Davis that playing with a group adds an additional dynamic:

Aside from the weighty technical problem of collective coherent thinking, there is the very human, even social need for sympathy from all members to bend for the common result.

Bill Evans on Kind of Blue

That “sympathy” isn’t just the caring about what comes out or even each other — though this is definitely part of it — but the listening to each other and seeing how all of those gears mesh together. I play better because three other people give me better ideas about how the song should go than what I have, even in the midst of playing something for the first or fortieth time. And, I’m responsible to hold up my end. We each support each other but also pull each other along, and we something more than the sum of the parts.

This is all to say that we get to do this more, in public, with a couple of long sets on back-to-back weekend nights. We’ve all been back-to-school and also fitting in rehearsals in the tangle of these last couple of weeks. Frankly, playing all weekend long sounds perfect.

This Friday, there’s a gig at the Lighthouse ($5, 21+) from 9-Midnight. We like the sound and the stage and the vibe there, and we’re happy to go back. (We’ll be back there in December, too.) And then, Saturday, we are playing the easy-going outdoor porch of UTOG Brewing from 7:30 – 10:30p. Hope to see you at either, or both.

blooper reel

~ Adam Johnston ~ Leave a comment

We keep a digital recorder on hand during rehearsals. Documenting new tracks is useful for future practice or just to remember what we invented on the spot. But sometimes it’s a 30-second blooper reel of failure and comedy.

New song intro blooper / teaser.

lighthouse

~ Adam Johnston ~ 1 Comment

This Thursday, June 6th, we get to play at the Lighthouse Lounge here in Ogden. “Ogden Unplugged,” an open mic opportunity, runs from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. Then we get to take the stage at 9:00 until 11:00 PM. Event details are posted here on Facebook — but that pretty much sums it up. No cover, and come as you are for as long as you’d like.

This is our first chance to play here, and we got even more excited after hanging out for a few hours watching Scott Rogers hold court and endure our heckling. Ian and Caryn are just finishing out their school years and packing up classrooms, while Tim and Adam are each flying back from different work trips in different time zones, all collecting back together just for this. We put together a set to take full advantage of the two hours; and we hope you all take advantage of the laid back vibe (couches and coffee tables or tall tables with bar stools or anything in between). Hang out with friends, and if you occasionally take notice of something we’re playing, so much the better. We’re really looking forward to it.