I went back to Sound City the next day and cut the other track they wanted. This time, the producer-manager-guy had nothing. I mean, okay, he had a cliche for a chorus, which the bass player-band leader put the kibosh on, and when I got sick of them fighting, I just piped up with, “Hey, […]
I’m not going to tell you the name of the band. It doesn’t matter anyway. I showed up at Sound City driving Remo’s truck. The place was in Van Nuys, and was in yet another one of those low, flat-roofed industrial buildings that are everywhere in Southern California. No one from the band seemed to […]
I spent another week in Boston, during which Carynne made me go to the dentist, and I got all my new furniture arranged. My room seemed bigger when it had actual shelves and a sleek chest of drawers instead of all the piled milk crates. Having an actual bed meant there was room under it […]
The next day I was asleep under a thatched shade thingie on the beach when Jonathan got another phone call. I was just waking up, and looking at the spot on my arm where the skin was still darker than the rest — where the pyrotechnic had burned me, I mean — and thinking how […]
Things went to hell the next day. No, they didn’t. I just wanted to try saying that and see how it sounded. Because things don’t just suddenly go to hell in the same way they don’t just magically get better, either. If there’s a miracle in my life, it’s the miracle of patience. I don’t […]
(Kickstarter status: 53% funded! 16 days to go! We just have to keep up this pace and we’ll make it! http://kck.st/IlE7Bi) — Carynne. Oh my god, good old Carynne. She sat down with me in the first row of seats and went over every mother-loving detail I asked about. Come to think of it, it […]
The next day was another media day, but at least this time there was no crack-of-dawn radio show on the schedule. I sat in the lobby bar, where my friend Crystal–the bartender from the other night–kept me well hydrated while a parade of rock critics and journalists took their turns with me. If I’d wanted, […]
Back at the hotel I went and checked the suite to see if there was anyone hanging around. Apparently I had just missed Louis and the video of that night’s show. Carynne and Bart and Michelle were still there. I could hear Digger’s voice through a closed door, like he was on the phone with […]
It was a very professional crowd, it seemed to me. They clapped in all the right places, cheered in all the right places, never got too crazy, but never lagged in energy either. Don’t get me wrong; that was perfectly fine. But it wasn’t special. Or maybe it was me. I was so ready for […]
We were picking up some station from San Diego that played actual alternative music, it seemed. I wasn’t sure if they were all New Wave all the time or if it was only this late at night or what. There were very few radio stations in the country–I knew because Carynne had told me–that specialized […]