1.24.2001

thanks, e-fresh. that's a nice thing to say.
also, it should be mentioned that one of the songs we worked on was written by our drummer (the gist of it anyhow).
it doesn't sound like a midget either.
it's fresh.
last night's practice was very reassuring.
fresh.
posted by rob gaddy 1:20 PM

1.19.2001

the view out my office window is something out of the dark crystal. all this dead kudzu and vines and fog. no one wants to go to their processing things sold and bought jobs today. the kind of day you look out the window, crawl back in bed, and vow not to look outside again until tomorrow. instead i keep looking out there.
i used to live somewhere where there was snow in the winter, and it was cold and windy and arctic for five months or so out of the year. winter was real there, and there was a sense of accomplishment getting through it. you had to prepare for going outside. you had to have a coat and hat. you needed four-, or at least front-wheel drive. things got cancelled.
here there's a halfhearted lukewarm sense that the season changed, but mostly i just feel cheated out of three hours of sunlight and inconvenienced by a noncommittal cold that creeps in quietly, insidiously. simpering. i remember too late to grab a jacket. i never remember a hat. it's cold, but not really that cold.
it can go ahead and be spring any day now. this is a let down.
i went and saw a few chapel hill bands over in the big city of raleigh last night after practice. pleasant was playing, which involves a guy named sean and a girl named maria, both of whom have come to see us play, and it was time i returned the favor, and it was a really good show. sean has the kind of voice that seems like he has no preconceived notion of how to sing, so everything that comes out is spontaneous and sort of inpired. like speaking in tongues. you know, like john ashcroft. they had claves and a violin. sean needed to turn his guitar amp down, but other than that it was great.
blah blah blah. back to work that pays me.
posted by Evan Rowe 10:45 AM

More On The Cradle Show

I like drum risers. I like monitors. I like effective monitor mixes (Russell rules my left ear). I like stages bigger than Oriental rugs. I like lights. I like being far enough away from my bandmates that I don't have to fear knocking them down with the emanations of my rock power. I like playing where people I like have played. I like hookers in the dressing room. I like having a troupe of dancing little people. I like smoke machines. I like scale models of Anglo-Saxon ruins. I would like to do it again. Like Space Mountain.

Nevermind what this thing tells you. Matt wrote this. You should know that because Evan hates hookers in the dressing room. He likes them on the private jet.
posted by Evan Rowe 3:56 PM

1.18.2001

Hi. This is what I was talking about. Here we'll have both show reports and random postings about what we had for breakfast, et cetera. I had a cinnamon raisin bagel w/ cream cheese. I have taken this idea from Hey Mercedes, a very good band who also have day jobs which provide time for such exercises. Now the news page can contain just news. Hope this works.
posted by Evan Rowe 11:09 AM

For lunch I have enjoyed some lunchmeat and cheese and nuts, all washed down with a tasty root beer.
posted by rob gaddy 12:32 PM

Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, 01.14.01

So we got the show the Wednesday before we were to play it. We were psyched. I had a lot of my young rock education from that place. And the knowledge that we’d get to play on the same stage we’d looked at from the other side so many times wasn’t lost on us. I’m not afraid to say that it was badass to stand where Thom Yorke had before they were playing arenas, or where Black Francis had stood, staring at the same exit sign. We’re not too cool for school. And anyone who shrugs off their first gig in a place that has always been “the place” to play is cynical or just acting. We’re neither. It ruled us.
Also great was the new fun of guitar in the monitors, and the monitor desk off stage left. We’re used to monitors being used mainly to bathe us in a sea of feedback, if they are there at all, so this was nice. Cheers to both the monitor and the FOH guy at the Cradle.
I’ve been working a lot on the space machine stuff with my guitar, and I think that went well this time. The delay is working better and the feedback is getting under control.
Zack and Melissa from TLA came down, and Chris from Maple Stave, and Eldridge from Wilmington, and they brought some friends, and it was really good to see you guys. And our friends showed up, again. Every time I wonder if maybe they’re just going to stop coming to see us. But they very graciously keep getting there. Hopefully some of the new folks will make it out to the Cave. Agent Ink isn’t really American-style football type music, anyway. Skip the Super Bowl. At least until the ‘Skins or the Raiders get back there. Enough with the expansion teams already.
After the show we spent a lot of time playing Worms and Atari with Chris and listening to Public Enemy.
I have to say it was a good day.
posted by Evan Rowe 2:54 PM