Flea bitten varmit rambles on and on and on

Got back from the vacation all bitten up and sunburned, but pleased with the amount of beer I was able to imbibe – so much so that I was able to withstand the entire ‘Micheal Bolton’s Greatest Hits” cd one night at the resort bar. The bartender liked MB, and since he was serving me drinks one right after another, I put up with it. I didn’t listen to the ipod at all during the trip, but heard a lot of JJ & The rogues, Clinic, Echo & the Bunnymen and other catchy-tuned bands in my head. The last time I vacationed, I had the ipod set to play the Shins’ 2 cds over and over and I will always attach the memory of European winter train rides and tours with them. It’s much better to do this sonic memory attachment experiment when you are in an interesting environment instead of the usual daily commute or errand run, replete with exciting traffic lights, pavement and crap.

Nothing much in the way of band news – until the June Gigs at dada and black dog tavern. Will pump those up later. I haven’t been very creative lately, a lot of phrases and snippets of songs pop into my head every now and then, but nothing has really grabbed me and demanded my full attention. That or they sound too much like the stuff I’ve already done. The cheesy method i use – singing melodies and other musical parts into a tape recorder during conscious or semi-conscious states, to be later re-worked with electronic or actual instruments and then recorded as demos – is working, but I’m just not happy with any of the ideas after I revisit them with a more objective ear. Mr. Muse ‘ll come back eventually. (prayer)

In other news, Chris Carmichael and Lindsay Graham have opened a new recording studio called dmeter studios. I haven’t taken the tour yet, but I can already guess it will be filled with all sorts of cool gear, backed by their own highly-proficient, creative engineering and production-driven minds.

Also, Trey mentioned that Sorta is gonna be playing a ton of shows and several out of town mini-tours in support of their upcoming release in the late summer/fall. He said, “Are you SURE you don’t want a fill in for me?” I’ll take that as an open invitation. If any of you readers like to bang on things and are interested, let me know. We’d love to keep the live thing going as much as possible, even though other members are quite busy with other projects.

Finally, I’ll be at Club Dada this Thursday night to see Amanda’s Boca Tinta produced “Listening To…” series featuring Dirt Blazers, Alamo Jet, and The Atoms – a Ya’llternative set. Should be a helluva lot of fun. C’mon out!