Forgery League

Second rehearsal tonight with the Parts. It’s a good workout, since Nigel writes catchy songs with lots of tricky changes and twists, and there’s lots of room to do cool stuff. My playing continues to improve, and I’m finding my way around the fingerboard with a lot more confidence - in terms of finding the right notes, improvising, and intonation.

The Fender Jazz is still an alien beast… I’m used to the ultra-light touch of the fretless, so my playing is clumsy, with lots of missed notes. I’ll have to see if lighter strings help.

Oh, and we had a puppy at rehearsal. At our first practice, about a month ago, another member of the band brought in a tiny retriever puppy. Young Sammy whined a bit when we started, but once we sat her down in the midst of the band, next to her adopted mum, she was fine. Now, Sammy is about four times the size, and on the verge of being too big to fit in laps and duffel bags. She’s a sweetie and has ears like boat sails.

From time to time, the four of us in this house get together with a friend or two for coffee or dinner and talk about Stuff - tonight it was a long conversation about spirituality and purpose and big things like that. Afterward, we wandered up Augusta St into Kensington Market, and sat for a while in Bellevue Square Park, chatting and watching the action: two rambunctious dogs, a grizzled guy with a staff who seemed to be putting hexes on people…

And then I looked up at the light standard next to our picnic bench, and saw that it had strings.

Someone had drilled holes in the aluminum pole, bolted on a makeshift bridge, and strung it like an upright bass. Above the nut (if it can be called that) was inscribed “The Kensington Bass”, and below, the artist’s name (though I understand he’s a bit secretive about it now). It was tunable, and in pretty good tune. It’s been there, according to the inscription, since June. I amused myself playing all the Soul Coughing songs I could remember. A bit hard to play for my hands, used to playing electric… but still, how delightful!

Flickershow news: a friend of ours has it in mind to do a tiny-budget video of “Invincible”, and we’re aiming to shoot it on April 9th. We won’t have time to record the final version of the song before that, but we’ve put together a demo to use for shooting.

Been doing a lot of covers lately, trying out things I can sing and play bass on at the same time. In the midst of all that, I’ve been doing some work on original tunes - as always, I have about half a dozen of them going in parallel, none of them finished. But it’s a nice feeling to be making progress. Maybe this weekend I’ll devote a day to wrangling them into shape and making a CD for the rest of the band…

Latest web site: SpinHost. I’d been puttering around trying to come up with a logo, when the spin -> wind turbine idea finally wandered up and thumped me on the head. So the logo and site take their cues from streamlined Air Age stuff. There are some further refinements to come - the photograph of the turbine isn’t final, for one thing. I’m gonna replace it as soon as I can get down to the Ex to take a picture of the one there.

Practice with the new band went brilliantly. Probably going to be playing with them at the Free Times on March 3rd. Saveface, they’re called; not to be confused with a US band of the same name.

It was the first time I’d played bass with a drummer. He’s barely out of high school, but he’s played pretty much since he could walk. A super guy with great finesse and a wealth of knowledge, and full of good ideas for arrangements. I’d ask him to play with Julian and me in a second, if he didn’t happen to live an hour further out of town. O.o

There was a lot of feeling out of parts and fumbling about - luckily their songs are a lot simpler than Julian’s! - but things came together amazingly well. It was also a relief and a joy to play a cover where I knew the entire bassline already. I look forward to having parts for all the other songs worked out…

On our break we played pool (we were in the lead singer’s parents’ basement) and, in contrast to my usual inability to sink a single shot I all but ran the table. I’ve only ever had that happen once before (I was drunk that time, and I think a lewd bet was involved). Maybe playing put me in some kind of in-the-body zone.

Here’s to jamming. Yes! And sleep.

Week of personal turmoil for a lot of people, it seems to me. Spring fever? War twitchiness? Who knows? Folks are moody or manic or both. At least three bands we’re friends with have undergone drastic lineup shifts or split altogether. Four, if you include me switching to bass. :>

In cat news, M and I independently came to the same conclusion about Sean: when he’s in a kitty-fawning trance with Spot on his lap, he gets this Look on his face just like Elijah Wood-as-Frodo being hypnotized by the Ring. Scariness.

Tarquin ate string this morning. Had to follow him around with scissors and a wad of kleenex. >.<

Hanging out with J today. We had some time on our hands, so we wandered into Songbird Music, where we mucked about with various guitars and basses. And I fell in love.

A used fretless - the brand escapes me. I’ve never enjoyed playing bass before - it felt too clunky, clumsy, murky, not to mention too big for my skinny little fingers. But this was just… smooth. Easy to play, and expressive in a way that I’d never experienced before, thanks to the absence of frets. It’d be a fun addition to our lineup - and I’d be happy to relinquish lead guitar duties to someone who knows what the hell they’re doing.

I’m going back to Songbird today to sell as much gear as I possibly can. Here’s hoping the bass is still there. :D

Postscript: The bass, as it turns out, is a Fury, maybe an LS-4. (Made in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, yet!) I sold a couple pieces of old gear and put in a down payment yesterday. Yay! Might have ‘em put a switch on it to turn off the rather hum-sensitive single coil pickup.

Bass is so much more physical for me. Lead is brain work as I try to find my way through the forest of possible notes. Bass puts me solidly in my body rather than floating about all absent-minded. Or at least makes me spaz around like an idiot while playing.

Planning continues apace. We have a real estate agent now, and a possible mortgage broker. We’ve each broken the getting-a-house idea to our respective parents. We’ll see if we can scrape together a down payment…

Other ideas: get business DSL and host our own sites, rather than shelling out an insane amount for someone else to do it. The server could double as print server and household MP3 cache.

Jammed last night with a friend of J’s from university, who writes songs himself. He’d be great to have around for a gig - and in fact we tossed around the idea of each taking up a second instrument and being playing backup for one another. I’m liking the idea. In fact, it might get me off my butt and trading in a couple of presently unused pieces of equipment for a bass.

Today’s bon mot:

M: “Do you guys have a phone book?”
Me: [intending to say “You mean the White Pages or the Yellow Pages?” but far too drunk] “You mean a telephone book?”