its been a while, hasnt it?

hi guys. its dave (you know-yanul cisco hernandez barretta bla bla etc...). i thought i might post my first myspace blog ever. i usually avoid these things like the plague but this little show that I, dameon and ron have agreed to do seems to have sparked a bunch of "what the...?"s out there. i, until really recently, had no idea that so many of you even gave a fuck about this band anymore as much as we do. its been a really wierd and cool surprise. i just kinda put the band out of mind these last few years, and i guess i assumed that everyone else did too. not that we were huge, or anything. its just cool to see that our fanbase did grow up a bit, but didnt forget about us. awwwwww shucks. sappy, huh?

i wanted to catch everybody up on where we've been.

when me and ron moved to portland way back in the year 2000 we had no real intention of abandoning anything. nevertheless, the decision haunts us to this day. every time we visit home, or talk with one of our friends still in the duke city conversations are peppered with subtle "so-too big and fancy for albuquerque, huh? dont forget where you are from!" etc etc... (shit. dont even get me started on how much more intense that all is as a member of the shins.).

the truth of the matter is that anyone who was really familiar with my music knows that leaving home and traveling, and experiencing as many different environments and people as possible was what most of scared of chakas songs were about. go back and check it out if you dont believe me. among the weird, garbled, and coded lyrics that made up most of our music was one common theme: "get the hell out of here!" "dont get too comfortable." "being physically and emotionally stationary is toxic."

to be honest, i have to admit that leaving albuquerque also had alot to do with certain attitudes that existed there as well. i am passionate about music. every kind of music. always have been. and it was just (in the 90s) not that cool to have too wide a range of musical interests. I would go see Laughing Dog, or Smashed Hands and be treated like a total spectacle cause i had on a sweater. Or I would be at a party enthusiastically talking about Neutral Milk Hotel or Guided By Voices and be made fun of cause my buddy i came with had on a Crimpshrine shirt that had traces of "gasp!" B.O.!

we would tour and meet people in other cities, with way more laid back and enthusiastic attitudes about music, and then come home and it just felt like a small town high school, where if you said the wrong thing you'd get into a fight. it just got so boring. and honestly, we were gone so frequently that it felt like no one would even notice us being gone. but mostly i felt that staying ANYWHERE for too long without experiencing any other reality was dangerous. on every level. so i split.

after the move, as you know, we continued playing as scared of chaka, with a couple of different bass players. and we recorded our last album-crossing with switchblades, which was mostly about how fed up i was with my own identity in scared of chaka. and how much i wanted to break up the band. it was just time, and me and ron both knew it.

its been a crazy 6 years. after packing boxes at sub pop records and working as a bartender in seattle for a while, my buddy james called and invited me to rejoin the shins, who had just lost their bass player neal (who ironically enough replaced me when i was originally in the band. well, there was me, then Ron for a couple shows, then greg from little blue schooner, then neal, and then me again. that was the order of the early shins bass player merry-go-round).
i was already in a band when he asked me, called Broadcast Oblivion, who i started with my buddies coady and droo. Broadcast Oblivion was initially an outlet for scared of chaka songs that didnt really fit the scared of chaka mold. we put out a record and toured before i rejoined the shins full time. we are all 3 still doing pretty well now in our current different endeavours.

anyway, since then i got married to my beautiful wife, sophia, who has made me happier than i've ever been. she makes pasta at one of seattles best eateries. we have a boston terrier named dexter. we live in seattle. things are good.

THE REUNION

for years we've heard random people here and there asking about SOC, and if we'll ever play again. we never gave it much thought. but i think in the back of our minds we always thought it could be fun. we've maintained contact through the years, so friendship wise, it hasnt been a problem. but theres always been some excuse that has prevented us from actually taking the idea seriously.
this last year has found the three of us in slightly more flexible states of living. what can i say? pete asked us to do this at the perfect moment and the three of us shrugged and said "why not?"

to address the many "why play there and not here in my city" messages, some really nice, some peppered with "fuck you"s (many thanks, new mexico. see you real soon!) the answer is simple. this was not a well planned out thing we did. this was a pre-existing show that pete kindly asked us to be a part of.
we initially thought it might be a good low profile "practice" type show that might be good to play, see if we still got the goods, etc....but since then, the three of us have become really excited. and now its a real show that we are excited to play.

tickets-well, pete knows more about that than i. i do know that they will be available online in early march. please buy them early. theres a feeling this thing might sell out.

more shows after this? well i guess it depends on how good this one show goes. we really dont want to subject the country to some haggard-ass lame "pay our mortgage" tour disguised as a reunion. lately theres been too many of those by bands that should know better. we dont want to ruin what should be a decent legacy just to make a few bucks.

however, if this thing is as fun as everyone is telling me its going to be...who knows? we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

we've been remembering all the great times we've had playing to you all. we are really starting to get that old feeling again. thank you all for the overwhelming positive reaction to the news.

ps-i'm still a very proud member of the shins. but i cant wait to perform my very own songs again. i also cant wait to be on a stage where i can jump and scream again. wow its been a long time.


ok-ron and dameon? your turn. spill yer guts!