so, greg "spaghetti fingers" roehrich gets the mvp award for last night.

i realize we have not given anyone any real updates on anything, so i'll do that, but first things first:

we practiced last night and it ruled.  due to some things you'll read about further down in this blog-a-rino, practices have been sparse and sometimes not as fun as could be.  last night, however, was not one of those practices.  it had most things going against it, including long work days, long drives for some, late night, and one of the smallest spaces we've squeezed ourselves into over the years.  my estimate is the room is 8' x 6' at best.  we don't get to use our own equipment, and nothing sounds all that great.  but, when  you haven't a place to practice, you needn't look a gift space in the mouth.  sort of.

so, here is a run-down of why last night ruled:
-spaghetti fingers let loose a slew of hot licks that melted most our faces.  i believe maguire's stayed intact, as his is the sweetest of them all, and therefore hardest to manipulate.
-we successfully completed and reviewed two songs, which i suppose are more in their skeletal phases, but i'd like to think maybe we're beginning to stick the organs in place and getting a feel for the race, religion, facial features, etc.
-song one, tentatively referred to as "the hot water song" still sounds pretty cool, though we didn't make progress so much as review it so we didn't forget it.
-song two doesn't really exist, as it's just a noise thing we did once and probably forgot, but for some reason i'm intent on pretending it's a legitimate piece.
-song three, tentatively referred to as "bone china" starts with a "chinese riff" by spaghetti fingers, has multiple key changes/non-chord tones/out of key chords, features one of the cooler yet simpler vocal parts i've ever written (if i do say so myself...which i do), and generally is ridiculous.  i'm fairly certain that some of these things will change, as i often get vetoed when voting for the most ridiculous road possible.  way more often that not, this is probably for the better.
-we played a space jam in B major, which we've never done before.  to most people that probably doesn't seem to matter, but we've been known to stick to a few easy keys to navigate around, as have shown up time and again on our records.  for example, e minor and f# minor have been old standbys.  so, B major was a welcomed and enjoyable diversion.  and guess who was responsible for it...that's right, old italian fingers himself.
-i generally just had fun being ridiculous with my best friends.  it's been a long time since we could just let loose and not care about anything, and it was wonderful.

so, that's a little update.  now for some background information:

2005 saw us play somewhere in the area of 170 shows.  that number is not exact and may or not be fairly accurate.  regardless, you get the idea.  it's a bunch.  add that to the amount of times we practiced, which when we were not on tour for a longer period was 1-3 times a week, and when home for a short time, usually at least 1 time a week.  if you do the math, you'll soon realize that the four dudes that are outsmarting simon where in a room/van/hall/whatever with each other for probably around 250 days or so last year.  i don't care how much you love someone, or like being around them, when you don't get a chance to sleep or eat well, see your other friends, whatever, you can't go on having a healthy relationship without getting back to your own life occasionally.  so, that's essentially what we did.  we got back from our tour with Little Compass on october 30 or so, and decided we'd take november off.  we practiced once in december, and played two shows, then took time to be with our families during the holidays.
the idea was to get back fairly full-force in january, but we just weren't ready.  as a whole we all needed to get our lives back in order.  some of us applied to grad school, some of us took the GREs, we all went back to work, girlfriends, roommate, other bands, etc. 

for a period of time it got a little scary.  i for one that maybe the break was going to be longer than projected, maybe forever.  and to be honest, it might have happened had we not taken the time to make ourselves feel comfortable before getting back in a room together.  i know, i know, this all sounds rather metallica/some kind of monster; however, i assure it is nothing like that.  we still totally loved each other, and continued to see each other on weekends, at shows, at pickup football games, whatever.  we just need a break from our band selves as it were.  and much to my pleasure and amazement, the break seemed to do us some good.  we felt a bit of a weight lifted off of our collective shoulders.  so, now when we enter a room to practice, we do so as four friends hoping to make music that makes us happy.  we no longer have a record label to answer to, and don't have any tour plans.  as much as we absolutely love all of our friends that enjoy our music, and miss the heck out of you guys, we figured that if we couldn't do this the way we wanted to, we couldn't do it at all.  so, four dudes playing music.  that's about it.  it's pretty simple really, and in a way, i think that's what we wanted. 

so, thank you so much for indulging me.  it's late, and i have to work tomorrow, but i'd rather write to all of you.  i hope you're splendid.  the rest of the boys and i miss you dearly, and should a weekend mini-tour ever occur, we'll be sure to let you know.  if not, come up to jersey, and i'll let you sleep on my couch.  heck, i'll take the couch, you can have my bed.  sleep well, be safe and smile widely.
pj/os