So, do you want to know all the things I had to do to get ready for a more extensive tour? Well, for one thing, I had to buy more guitars. Continue Reading »
Daron's Guitar Chronicles
Sex•drugs•rocknroll•the closet•the stage•the 80s
Behind the Wall of Sleep
PART SEVEN: Summer 1989
* * * *
When we got home I slept for a week.
I’m not exaggerating… much. The last show was in Seattle and we were on a red eye back to Boston, so it was around 8:30 in the morning after being up all night when I actually dragged myself into bed. I didn’t even take my clothes off. I didn’t even realize I laid a guitar case down right next to me in bed until I woke up when I kicked it onto the floor some hours later. No damage was done–the futon I slept on was on the floor anyway. I made a mental note to buy some furniture. Then I went back to sleep. Continue Reading »
Art: Daron by Tab Kimpton
Happy Thanksgiving to US readers, and happy 3rd Thursday in November to everyone else. I’ve got one more special post to do today before regular Daron posts start again. Some of you may remember I took donations some months ago with the intention of passing them on to artists for commissions.
Tab Kimpton is one of my favorite artists. His webcomic Khaos Komix tells the interlinked stories of a group of gay, queer, and trans British teenagers. By turns funny, touching, suspenseful, and heart-stopping, Khaos Komix is one of only two current webcomics I actively follow. (I have several others I wait to catch up on every few months…) To say I recommend it highly is an understatement.
Anyway, Tab’s rendition, under the cut: Continue Reading »
Flashback: The Way it Is
(And Remo finishes the tale…)
The scorebook stood on the piano where I had left it. I gave Ray a beer and sat him in the foam chair. Martin had set up the mini-kit, just the snare and a high hat. I told him to play with brushes instead of sticks.
“Wouldn’t want to wake your neighbors…?” he joked. But I had other reasons for wanting the brushes. Continue Reading »
Flashback: Here Comes Your Man
(And back to Remo again…)
So I was sitting there at the piano, banging away on the song. Eventually I got too hungry to write anymore, and I realized what time it was.
Time to find out I didn’t have anything decent in the fridge and didn’t have time to go out and get something before going down to The Top to load in. We headlined every third Tuesday, there, which meant we didn’t go on until eleven o’clock or so, but there was sound check and set up to worry about. I wasn’t as picky then about it as I am now, but it was still important. Alex had most of my gear in his van, and he was honking in the driveway about the time I was scarfing down a package of Stella D’Oro cookies. Continue Reading »
Flashback: Smalltown Boy
(And now a segment from Martin, Nomad’s drummer.)
Wow, I’d totally forgotten that the night Daron showed up with a black eye was the night before we met Ray. But of course that makes sense because that explains why he was there and his Dad wasn’t.
Okay, wait, maybe he didn’t have a black eye. That was a different time. He spent the night at my house that time, too, so it’s easy to get mixed up. I didn’t know if he’d taken a smack or if it was a more emotional blow at the time. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Continue Reading »
Flashback: Rock This Town
(To get you all warmed up for new Daron posts again, we’ll start with a flashback story from Remo’s point of view, as promised many moons ago. At least, this section is Remo’s…)
I named my band Nomad because I imagined we would travel the highways and byways of the world–or at least the country. But for a while it became a bit of a standing joke–I mean, in five years we’d never played outside of two states. There were about a dozen bars in the area where we were a draw and we just went around that circuit, over and over.
Not that it was a bad life, you understand–we were all paying our bills for one thing, and we had a nice little following, one or two local cassette-only releases–not a bad life if you can live it making music. So I can’t say I wasn’t happy with it–I could have done that another ten years. But I had to believe we’d travel someday, I had to believe we’d attract some attention sooner or later. Continue Reading »
Give me your favorite songs from the Eighties
OK, it’s official. Daron’s Guitar Chronicles will start posting again on November 10th, with a Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule. As before, any week where the Tip Jar gets $25 or more will trigger a Saturday post, as well. Sales of the ebooks through the DGC site will count toward the Tip Jar total, as well!
What we need from you folks right now is titles of your favorite songs through 1989. Actually, we can go right through 1990 at this point. So comment here, or on Twitter, or Facebook, with title of song and artist. I’ve titled most of the chapters I’ve written already, but there are always some that still need one, or need a better one. If you’re really motivated, a link to where the song can be found on Youtube or other linkable site would be awesome as well.
The first few posts will be the long-promised Remo flashback story, we’ll have some art from the fabulous Tab Kimpton, and then the Chronicles will pick up a little bit ahead of where we left off.
We last saw Daron in San Francisco as the B-tour was winding down. We’ll pick up with him at home with the A-tour — and some major decisions — looming.
New DGC posts coming soon
This morning I dug out a closet full of winter linens to run them through the laundry before the weather turns cold, and discovered my Yamaha classical guitar in its case at the back of the closet.
I asked Daron what happened to his. He said he sold it when he left music school and moved to Boston. I played for about an hour this morning–I’d almost forgotten how. Whole bunches of riffs and songs I’d forgotten came rushing back.
It’s probably not a coincidence that yesterday on the bus I wrote six chapters, and then today I wrote a few more. So I’m almost ready to start some new posts.
First up, we’re going to have the background story folks asked for, where Remo and Martin will tell us a story from 1979 or so. I’ve got some art to share, too. And then new posts will get rolling.
To find out each time a new post appears, follow Daron on Twitter (@daron_moondog) or on Facebook (Daron-Moondog). If you use an RSS reader, the Feedburner feed should work (ping me if it doesn’t!), and I will post at my Livejournal as well.
In other news, all thee volumes of the DGC ebooks are doing great. Volume One is still free on Smashwords and the Amazon Kindle Store
are selling steadily at the Kindle store as well, and Volume 2 has been consistently in the Top 25 “Coming Out” Bestseller list at Amazon! Volume 4 won’t be out for a while yet since it’ll encompass the plot arc that will start posting here soon.
Thank you so much for reading about Daron. (And Ziggy.)
DGC ebook, volume 3, coming soon…
I’m working on the third volume of the Daron’s Guitar Chronicles ebook series. Here’s a sneak preview of the cover! Volume 3 will encompass though chapter 201 and include Ziggy’s story, as well.
Volume one is still free right now on Amazon.com and Smashwords, and volume two is on sale on those sites for $2.99. Or for any size donation on my regular “Get ebooks” page, you can download either one (or both).
