Ok. I’m hungry and looking for work online, but I never find anything because I don’t know what I’m looking for. My boss has not responded to text since I’ve returned from a trip[ two weeks ago. I’m normally running sound 3 or 4 nights per week, but there’s no schedule. I just get texts that say, “wanna work tonite?” But I haven’t gotten one since before that trip. The calendar is full, so shows are going on. I’ve texted him a few times, to no avail. And I asked the manager, hey, I hope everything is cool. This is very unusual. I wasn’t paying attention either because I’ve been recording. Whatever. I need to find more work anyway. I’ll sort this out. But I’m fucking starving now because I have no money left. I mean, $10 in the bank, $8 on a card. I’m expecting $300 in checks to arrive tomorrow, but I’ll be lucky if I have access to that by Monday. Fuck. So I spend today listing records on Discogs. I wrote other venues to see if they need anything. But, man, jobs aren’t for me. They aren’t reliable and I’m not interested. I liked buying and selling synths and pedals but I’m out of stock. There’s got to be another way.
The first thing on my mind right now is recording. I’ve been recording songs for years, but have been kind of lost with them. Then, during an acid trip over Christmas, it occurred to me I just have to go into those recordings and fix them up and, walla, I have an album, a really good one. So I’ve been working on that since. It is a slow process because I’m in practice on bass, but not anything else. There are equipment problems too, such as my bass needs a new A string, but I can’t afford that. Other critical instruments are either still with techs or I’ve sold them because I needed the cash, figuring I could re-buy them later. So I’m plowing through recordings, fixing up vocals, re-mixing to a better sound tape machine, re-doing basslines, coming up with guitar parts I never bothered with before. The results are being posted live, as they are done, to our bandcamp page. Right now I’m working on Beach Drug Dealer, Birmingham Alabama, and Sodomy Festival. On all three, I’m re-recording drums which has taken a few weeks practice, and should be done within a week. With Beach Drug Dealer, I’m torn between two versions. Both need the A string on my bass, and both use the Minimoog that a tech has had since 2017. The version I slightly favor is too short, so I’m extending it with the extra verse I wrote later, but the minimoog will drop out after the first two. I also don’t have the acoustic guitar that opens it. And my snare is busted so I’m using a snare I don’t like. Never the less, I persisted.
The goal is to get these songs finished as soon as possible so I have a demonstrable album. I will get the tracks in order and play it for people to see how it goes over; I think it’ll be a big hit. I will shop this version around and say, hey, this is what I’m working on, I need funding to finish it. I also need help getting to England to tour in the spring, and to promote it and press it. Then, ideally, an actual album will be finished by the fall. A finished album means visions are realized, parts I don’t like replaced, bad tone and poorly played instruments are replaced. And I have to just sit on the album for a while too, put it away and come back to it, to see if any lingering ideas are nagging at me. Then what? When the album is ready, what? I have no idea. That’s why I’m anxious to shop it around. If someone wants me to re-record it in a studio, fine. But they’ll have to pay for it. And it’ll have to be analog.
Anyway, for some reason, I thought that since I’m desperate for money, I had to post this album now, today, and use it as leverage. For some reason, when it occurred to me I hadn’t heard from my boss in two weeks, my first instinct was, “I’ve got to finish this record!” And I spent a lot of time working on it. No, no. I’ll start playing for people once I finish this batch of songs. Today I started looking at grants, but those could take months to come through. I do think I can use this album as leverage to secure some funding, but I’m also just focussed on the record and terrible about thinking about money. But that’s what I’m thinking about today. Hmmmm… I really just want to eat this weekend, and get some gear repaired.
Too Close to Vomit 