Seeking a Band

Marginally talented drummer seeks similarly semi-serious band for jamming and live shows

Likes:
6/8 time signatures
Triplet-note drum solos/fills
China crash cymbals
Splash cymbals
Off-beat hi-hat ska beats
Fun music that gets people dancing
Drum intro from "That Thing You Do"

Dislikes:
Not being able to use my double-bass pedal properly (read: at all)
Slow, super-serious, not fun music
Drama
Taking oneself too seriously

I spent Saturday night at a bar in Bethesda, watching a band that featured a coworker of my friend Katie. They were pretty good, and live music is always fun. Plus, I met a bunch more local N.C. State people who I'll undoubtedly be hanging out with a lot more often once flag football season gets started in a few weeks.

It was, predictably, beyond ridiculous, which is sort of becoming a theme when I go out with my friends now. I'll take it. Anyway, I had a really, really great time.

These guys were playing music. Just for fun. Just hanging out, playing a few songs in a bar with people watching and dancing and having a good time. So as I was watching this band play, it struck me. They're not doing anything I can't do.

Hell, I have done it. Not in a bar or anything, but I've played in a band. I've written and co-written songs. I've played in front of people. And the thing is, I'm better now than I was then, you know?

Here's my set. It's a great five-piece Pearl kit with some roto-toms (which, truthfully, I hardly ever use) that came with it when I bought it used from the music store where I used to work.

I've got 14" hi-hats, two 16" crash cymbals and a 20" ride. My wishlist includes a 10" splash cymbal and an 18" China crash, but those have been on my wishlist for going on a decade haha.

I've had it for probably eight or nine years now, and I absolutely love it. It sounds great for what I want to do, and it didn't break the bank to acquire it.

I know my skill level on the drums. I understand my limits. People who have heard me tend to tell me I'm pretty good, I guess. But, you know, what else are they going to tell me? I am less confident than they are, but I appreciate the kind words.

But I know what I can and cannot do behind a kit. I play to my strengths, and I don't try to do too much. I stick to what I know. And that's really the key. Don't overreach, do what you do and do it well. I feel like I can do that.

So what do I really want?

I just want to play some music, man. I want to find a band that plays a few gigs a month around the DC-area and mixes awesome covers with a few original songs. I want to find some people who are in it to have a good time and just play.

Because here's the thing: it was the most fun I've ever had, so why not? What on earth is stopping me? I mean, other than talent, drive and determination, of course. I kid, I kid. But seriously. What's stopping me? There isn't anything stopping me other than I simply haven't ever thought to try before.

Can you even imagine? Going to band practices and jamming with other people again. Playing live shows in front of actual audiences. Writing music again. I'm getting the chills just thinking about it.

A while back, I asked for feedback on what kinds of posts people would want to read, and Erik's dad suggested a post about something I've always wanted to do, but haven't and why. While I still plan on writing that post, playing music in a real band again would be A-No. 1 on that list. Why haven't I? No real good reason.

So there you go. I'm going to start looking around Craigslist for a fun situation, and I'll start contacting people as soon as this job thing is settled. Maybe I'll even post an ad using the description up at the top. I bet that would get a few hits.

To all my DC-area friends: do you know of a fun band looking for a drummer? Let me know! I'm totally in.

-BG

Speechless

Funny thing about me: I'm very rarely speechless. Verbose may be the best descriptor ever used to describe me. Ask my friend Clark about the time I submitted a 1,200-word column on a football game I covered. It should have been in the 500-600 word range. Whoops.

I usually don't have a very hard time coming up with things to say or to write, and I have opinions about almost everything (even if I don't necessarily articulate them at every moment of the day [restraint, my friends -- a valuable skill]). Those are several reasons why I've always enjoyed being a "writer."

It's a wonderful outlet for when I have things to say (which is often), even if the number of people who care about those things can be counted on one hand (which is also often).

Imagine my surprise when I sat down to write for the blog today, and I had nothing. I don't have anything particularly funny or interesting to say (not that anything I ever say is particularly funny or interesting, mind you), which is both pretty funny and interesting to me, anyway. I have a list of 20 or so ideas for posts sketched out, but none of them really excited me today.

I'm honestly pretty shocked I've been able to keep up with the three-times-a-week writing schedule, with only a couple slips, for almost three full months now. Anyway.

So there you go. This post is about to get a little stream-of-consciousnessy. Continue at your own risk.

I was so blown away by the response to my story about The Cycle. Google Analytics tells me the blog received the second-most traffic yesterday behind only my (500) Days of Summer break-up post. That's so awesome. I loved writing that story yesterday. I seriously loved playing in a band, even if it was only for a brief time.

You know, maybe I should hop on Craigslist and see if there are any fun bands around here looking for a drummer. I'm not trying to join a super-serious, pretentious band or anything. I seriously doubt I'm good enough to play in a band like that. I just want to play some fun music that gets people dancing. I'm going to have to think about this one. Not a bad idea.

I just saw a new show on BBC America called "The Hour." Let me tell you this. I think it's going to be awesome. The pilot just aired a day or two ago. But it's set in 1950s England at the BBC as the network tries to launch a new news program.

Because of the time period in which it's set, it kind of has a Mad Men-esque vibe going on, which I'm obviously a fan of because I love Mad Men. McNulty from The Wire stars in the "Don Draper" role. My only gripe is BBC America is not available in HD (I know, #firstworldproblems). It's just really distracting on a 55-inch HDTV (#humblebrag, to continue the out-of-place hash tag trend). Oh well. DVR is set. I'll have to deal.

So last night, my friends and I went to Front Page for happy hour because they've got some pretty good specials there on Thursday nights ($2 Miller Lites, Corona and Corona Lights, as well as free tacos). I didn't get any tacos though. They ran out. I love when I can go out and have a really good time for like $16. And I like it even MORE when it doesn't lead to any weight gain the next day.

Yes, I weighed in for the third consecutive day at 193 for a loss of 34 pounds. I'll take it! I really wish my ribs would stop hurting so I can get back to running and lifting the way I want to. I'm just too scared to try anything in the gym with my ribs hurting the way they are.

I'm definitely taking it easy tonight because TOMORROW one of the Katies has a friend in a band, and that band is playing somewhere in Bethesda! It almost doesn't matter what kind of music it is. I just like to go listen to live music. It'll be a good time, for SHO. And then we'll likely go out somewhere after that. I most definitely cannot go out three nights in a row. So tonight is a TV/reading/walking the dog kind of night.

For privacy reasons, I have my Twitter settings such that you have to request to follow me (which you should totally do, by the way). In the past 24 hours I have received no fewer than SEVEN requests from obvious porn spam accounts. What in the world. So very strange.

Still no word on the job front, but my confidence is renewed! Google's Revenge will not allow me to speak about these things publicly, but feel free to gchat me/text me or something. I am hopeful and optimistic as ever.

Oh, my dog Allie walked into a tree today. So that happened. She gets in the habit of not looking where she's going when she sees other dogs across the street. She follows them intently with her whole head and pays no attention to what's in front of her.

Well on our walk this morning, there was a big German shepherd on the other side of the street, and Allie was, predictably, pumped about it. Well I'm so used to her going nuts for other dogs, I didn't notice she stopped looking forward. Then I heard a yelp and saw her snorting and making funny faces. Yup. She walked into a tree. Once she and I determined she was not hurt, it was actually quite funny.

I felt so bad for her. I think she was embarrassed. She didn't want to walk for a few minutes and just buried her head in my legs. Poor thing. She's fine, of course, and we were able to complete the walk successfully without another tree-crashing incident. Oh dogs. You never cease to amaze me.

Wow, look at that. I started writing this thinking I had no idea what I was going to write, and I've turned in more than 1,000 words anyway.

As always, thank you so, so much for reading and for the feedback you give me. People telling me they're reading, laughing and enjoying the blog is seriously amazing, and it always makes my day. I'll try to come up with something thoroughly entertaining by Monday. Until then!

-BG

Behind the Music: The Cycle

I was a band geek in high school. I have no problem admitting that. I'm not entirely sure I'm not still a band geek. C'est la vie.

HOWEVAH! In addition to being a band geek in high school, I was also in an actual band. Believe me when I tell you this: it was awesome. Ready for the story? Good.

When I was in fifth grade, I knew I wanted to be in the school band. I'm not entirely sure why. I just knew it was something I wanted to do. Naturally, as I'm sure every boy wants, I wanted to play percussion. My parents were...less than enthused about the prospect of me banging on drums all day.

So I picked the clarinet. Pardon me while I adjust the tape on my glasses. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed playing clarinet and do not regret the choice, and by the time I graduated high school I was actually pretty good at it. But you know. There it is.

I always wanted to play drums in a band. When I was a freshman in high school, I made extremely loose plans with some friends from my neighborhood to create a band where I'd play the drums. Needless to say, it did not happen. For as long as I could remember, I'd air drum. I'd use pencils on notebooks. But the fact remained: I'd never played a real drum set.

Fast forward to my junior year of high school. I'm still playing clarinet. It was just after the marching band season, and we were at our end-of-year band banquet. My best friend Jon came up to me and asked, "Hey do you want to be in a band?" Yes I do, I told him. But I don't believe there's a place in a real band for a clarinet.

"No, you'll play the drums."
"Jon, I've never even been in the same room as a real drum set. I don't know how to play."
"That's OK. I'm going to play guitar, and I don't know how to play that."

Well then. We were off. We recruited a bass player (Jay, who actually played trumpet), a keyboard player (Lindsay, who actually played flute), a trumpet player (Andrew, who, in addition to playing trumpet, owned a drum set and actually played very well) and a trombone player (Chris, who actually did play trombone).

And yes, I do still have those red drumsticks in the picture.

So we became a band. Andrew was kind enough to bring his drums (at which he was, to reiterate the point, quite good) for me to use, since I didn't have any. The first time I ever sat behind a real kit was our very first band practice. And trust me when I tell you this: it most definitely sounded like it. Look, there's a 0 percent chance we were any good when we first started, but we had something going for us. All six of us had been in band forever, so we were all extremely musically inclined. We picked up our parts fast. Well, as fast as 16-year-olds are going to pick them up.

We were trying to come up with a name, and we joked we should call ourselves Wash Cycle. Our first album would be "Rinse," naturally, and our second would be "Tumble Dry." Our greatest hits collection would be called "Suds." It was hilarious at the time.

And then I stopped and said, "well, what about just The Cycle? Why couldn't that work?" And just like that, it stuck. We were The Cycle.

We practiced every week. We all found we loved just jamming and playing together. Eventually (finally), I convinced my parents to buy me a drum set. Another guy from marching band was selling his old kit, and I was able to get a decent CB set for like $200. It wasn't going to win any awards, but it had all the pieces. At that point, I just needed to play.

It was so much fun. You don't even know. I got some excellent noise-canceling headphones and started playing along to my favorite songs at the time (a LOT of Reel Big Fish [not much has changed], Blink 182 and Boston, if I remember correctly) just to get a feel for playing. I never had any lessons, so I was just figuring it out as I went along.

The band party took place in December 1998, and we continued to play throughout the winter and spring. For St. Patrick's Day that year, our marching band was invited to play in the St. Patrick's Day parade in DUBLIN. Yes, really. In my life, I cannot imagine seeing more people than I saw lining the streets of Dublin as we marched through. Once in a lifetime, man. Unreal.

While we were in Ireland, the band decided we needed to have our own "Abbey Road" photo. Like you do. However, we found the whole "taking a picture while we're walking across the street" thing to be prohibitively difficult in downtown Dublin. So we improvised by standing in front of a ridiculous church, still in Dublin. Sadly, I do not recall what church this is any longer.

A few things about the photo. We were exhausted because we'd just marched in the several-mile parade. Also, I don't know why Lindsay isn't there, nor do I know what Chris, Jon or I are looking at. And I can only assume Andrew just sneezed. Give us a break. We were 16 years old.

We recorded a handful of songs and played exactly three "gigs" in our brief career. The first was in Jon's backyard not long after we formed, with all of our way-too-excited parents in attendance. Awesome. And yes, there is video evidence of this, and I do believe I have the VHS of it somewhere around here. Actually, I believe I have video evidence of all three of our gigs somewhere. I'll have to find them.

Anyway, the second was over the summer of 1999. There was a contest/showcase in Concord, N.C., for bands involved with one of the guitar teachers at the music store where Jon and I worked. He heard we had a band and invited us to play. We played four songs, and I thought we really killed it that day (as T.J. Lavin would say [GUILTY PLEASURE ALERT!]). That was a fun day, even if we got lost on the way there.

The last gig was at the band party where we formed a year earlier. We took this one probably less seriously than we should have haha. I don't remember us being bad, by any means. We had actually gotten pretty decent playing together, considering almost none of us knew how to play our instruments when we formed. But you know, we were goofing around and just having fun.

I have to brag for a second. We did write one song, called "Let Me Know," that I love to listen to still today. It's on my iPod. I burned it to CDs when it was still cool to burn CDs for the car (it's not anymore, right?). And, considering we were 16 years old when we wrote it, I think we did a pretty damn good job. It's still the first song I play on my drums when I get a chance to play.

The great irony in all of this is 13 years later, Jon and I are actually pretty decent at our instruments now, and we haven't played together in years. Sigh.

Little did we know, The Cycle was the first of many things Jon and I would do together that would have been seriously awesome if we truly dedicated ourselves to them haha. More on those in future posts though.

In the meantime, we're always in the mood for a reunion. Nothing big. A few new songs. Mostly old stuff. So please don't hesitate to contact me for booking information.

Seriously though. There is nothing like the experience of playing music on stage (no matter the audience). It's an unrivaled adrenaline rush. Utterly exhilarating. If you can do it, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I'm out. Back on Friday!

-BG