Monday, July 31, 2006

I Had A Dream That I Was At A Show, And I Couldn't Play Any Song I Know...I Couldn't Think of the Words or Not Even the Chords

...So I dropped my guitar and ran out the door."
--Captain Chaos


I just got done writing a new song. I made up the words as I played it, so if it sucks oh well. I don't really care. These lyrics are probably wrong, I'm just going by my memory of what I think I said. It's more of a spoken word thing than anything...I might call it, "Blessed Be the Lord My Strength, Which Teacheth My Hands To War, and My Fingers to Fight."


Times pass
Over the murky waters I hang
Slowly dangling ever closer to the beryl depths of the stream below
This noose is getting heavy
Locked around my neck like a locket containing your picture
But will you ever...will you ever notice me?


Times pass
Over the sea of lies I have wrought
And if the rain's like blood,
Let it all pour down...Let it all pour down...


Seasons change
With the blowing wind through the trees
These leaves are changing and so am I...So am I...
Where is this going? Where are we going? I don't wanna go anymore...Please tell me where we're going...I don't wanna go anymore...please...


Seasons change
Through the forest of deceit you have sown
And the rain is pouring down



Tada.

I've Been Goin' Over All the Words To Say To Win You Over...And I've Been Fallin' Over Myself Trying to Get to You...

Wow. Today was a blast.

It started off kinda slow, with me almost falling asleep several times during church. Well, at about 3:15 I left for Rollie's house to play his sister, Maggie's, 21st birthday party. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. I mean, I love playing, to any size crowd, but like...I've played 2 birthday parties before, and uhhh the atmostphere sucks. Anyway...We got there, set up all the stuff, jammed for a little bit, and then pretty much everyone went swimming, except for me. I've never really liked swimming...Dunno why. But anyway, yea. That was fun. After that, we practiced about 4 songs (Dave was drumming for us and had never heard / played them before), and then just kinda stood around for a bit. Then the idea sparked to go to the game room, where we played pingpong and whatnot. Fun stuff. Then we went and played about a 15 song set, getting done around 11:15. Fun, fun, fun. Sadly, I hadta leave at about 11:40 so I could get back in before the midnight driving curfew thingy.

I dunno...That whole explaination sounds really lame. There was just a really nice atmosphere no matter who you were around or where you were. Hard to explain with words. You woulda hadta have been there, I guess?


Well, back to the drab, boring days until school starts back...



Oh, and for the first time ever, my fingers bled from playing bass. Surprisingly enough, though, it wasn't my fretting hand.

Apparently, I "play hard." Well, I guess I must've smacked my bass a wee bit too hard and my finger got ripped open. I didn't even notice 'til about 2 songs later when I looked down and saw the blood spatters on my pickguard. It didn't hurt at all, so I just kept on going...Yay.


PS -- Inertia and Mount Awesome will be in Blairsville on December 19th.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Ghost Use Doorbells, for They Have Lost Their Hands To Dying...

Do you ever wonder what would happen if you died? Like, not suicidal thoughts, but like, if you have affected anyone else's life whatsoever, or if your life was a total waste? I wonder that a lot. Especially at work when I have nothing to do except wash and wash and wash and wash and wash...And wash and wash and wash. I can't wait til my 2 weeks notice is up.

In other news, school's starting date has been pushed back to the 14th. In the words of that one dude from Heavyweights, "This pleases me."

In other other news, I just ate a plum. It had a sticker (which I took off before I ate the plum) of Donald Duck on it. That's kinda sad...Disney putting their characters on fruit.

Paul Baribeau has a new album out, but I can't order it, because he's currently homeless. That really makes me sad. Not because I can't order it, but because such a great musician and friendly person is homeless. I told him if he was ever in Georgia that he could stay at my house.

"Sick Joke 2" is the best zine ever. Everyone should own at least one copy.

Finishing up this post, I present you the lyrics to "I Miss That Band," by Paul Baribeau:

The words that you sang
On a track that you wrote
On a record that I lost
When I moved 2 years ago
And it all came back loud and clear and made me sad...
I miss that band

The notes that you played
All at once
Then one after another
And the drums kicked in
With the bass
And you guys sounded so good together
And it all came back loud and clear and made me sad...
I miss that band

Maybe if I close my eyes
I'll be back in a Lansing basement
Nodding my head as you rocked
And I wish now as I wished then
That we'd never have to ever grow up
And it all came back loud and clear and made me sad...
I miss that band

Saturday, July 29, 2006

...But Where Do They Make Balloons?

The show was an absolute blast. The most fun I've ever had at a Top Pavilion show (or just about any show for that matter).

I found out "imadethismistake" couldn't come the night before at like 1AM. And also, that the "Act of My Mistakes '06" tour was pretty much screwed. Then I started thinking "I bet no one's gonna show up," like I always do.

Well, I get up to Meeks at 4, when I was supposta meet the rest of the band to run through a couple songs. Well, of course, that never happened because they were all late, and I had to go get wire cutters. The cheapest pair cost me 14.95. Me mad. Anyway, by the time I got back, a few people had shown up and all of the rest of Suite 11, except Rollie. It was 5 and no one was there. Well, like always, I waited to start the show by like 30 minutes. And yay! More people showed up.

GMST did good except for a couple timing problems. You could tell they were having fun though, and that's what it's all about. Up next was Natalie Sheppard. She has an awesome voice. She could so be on American Idol. Seamas O'Lanigan played 3rd and got everyone in a drinking mood with his Irish folk music. Then "Suite 11" played. We did alright. Up next was me and Dave. That was the best we've ever sounded together, although our set probably had more mistakes and screw-ups than anyone else's. It was fun though. I broke a string, which sucked, but oh well. Next came Josh Fletcher. He did really, really good. It was the second best I've ever heard him (the first was the first time I ever saw him live...It was so emotional it would chill you). Finally, up came The Alcoholic Freshman, and got everyone wanting to go home and cuss out their parents. Haha. Then the show itself was over. John and I each played a song of our solo stuff. I almost forgot the words to mine and screwed up a lot. And the song sounds really lame with only 1 guitar part. Not to mention the lack of tambourine.

Well, everyone nearly dwindled out save like a dozen people. That's when the fun began. We just hung out with some of the people who played and talked, sang, and were merry. It was great. We did that for over an hour. Then we went to Huddle House and kept talking, singing, and being merry. Let me tell you...There were some interesting topics...Wrestling, Spinal Tap, Seeing some guy almost get his pants pulled off right outside the window, Traveling, Record Deals, Baseball, Shows, Stupid People, Punk vs. Hardcore...You name it, we probably talked about it. It was great. I got home at Midnight. Definitely looking forward to doing it again.



Today was nowhere near as fun. I got up, checked the mail (something I ordered like a month ago still isn't here yet. I'm kinda getting worried because I mailordered it with cash :/), called Dave, canceled the "tour," went to work, got back here, replied to MySpace crap, then typed this whole thing.



I live an exciting life.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Leave Me Here Alone In My Room, Feeling Genius, Feeling Blue, and I'll Finger Pick and I'll Watch the Rain...

Well, song number 3 is in the bag. I JUST finished it. It's from the perspective of a guy waiting for his wife or girlfriend or just a friend to die (you'll get it once you read the lyrics).


"Some People Think of Heaven As a Garden of Eden...But What is Scenery Without Solace?"


Moving too fast on a long and winding road
Missed the curve, spiraled out of control
A flash, a crash, it's all over so soon...


Here is a place where we can hide
Free from the worries seeping through the other side
Tell all your friends, start spreading the news
Tears may fall, but they won't last long...
I'll see you soon...


Laying in your bed, tossing and turning...
You want to cry, but can only choke instead
I'm sorry that I'm gone
It's all my fault
Please don't forget me...I will remember you


Here is a place where we can hide
Free from the worries seeping through the other side
Tell all your friends, start spreading the news
Tears may fall, but they won't last long...
I'll see you soon...

The day has finally come
I will see you so soon
Taken in your sleep my dear
So here again we meet
...But all I'm getting is a blank stare
You've forgotten me.


Here is a place where we both can hide
Free from the worries seeping through the other side
Tell all your friends, start spreading the news
Tears may fall, but they won't last long...
I still love you





Kinda meh, but oh well. What do you expect out of me at 4AM? I still need a title for it, though. Maybe "Thoughts From Heaven?" I dunno. That sounds lame.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Let's Run As Far As We Can Until the Sun Goes Down...

Well, I decided to go ahead and put up my stuff on MySpace. Only one song is up right now, but the others are on the way.

http://www.myspace.com/thisislestat

Friday, July 21, 2006

I Sing A Lot of Love...I Sing A Lot of Change. And All My Thoughts They Are the Same...

Alright, I'm in the middle of recording and my brother just barges into the room, and starts babbling. Screws up everything. Then, he goes to sleep in a chair that's in the corner and is snooring. Well, since I'm nice and don't wanna wake him up and say, "Hey retard, get outta here," (even though I already told him that and he didn't leave) I'm not playing. So yea...I guess I'll have a couple rough recordings of *2* songs tomorrow afternoon-ish. Yup. I wrote another one. The lyrics are crap, but I'm liking how the music sounds so far. I like long song titles too.




"Life Isn't That Simple. I Mean Who Cares If Ling Ling Returns the Wallet and Keeps the Money? It Has Nothing To Do With Either Fear or Love."

We've been here for way too long
yet here is where we stay...
Dying to flee this place.
I think it's time we left this town good.

Just take my hand...
I'll show you the way.


Well let's run as far as we can
'til the sun goes down
And let's laugh like we never have before
it's about time we had some fun
Then let's kiss like there's no tomorrow
throw out all your troubles and pains
If only we could stay...Pack up our bags and run away
Maybe I'll see you there?


Now here we sit...
Neither knowing the words to say
But that doesn't really matter...

Your hand in mine will pass the time
until the sun comes up






Yup. That's it. I suck at writing and I hate that.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

This Life of Mine's Like Doing Time For Crimes That I Didn't Commit. If Life's A Game, I'm On the Loosing Team and I Just Wanna Quit...

Alright, cool. I think I've finished the first song for my solo acoustic whatever. I'm not sure what I should call myself though. I'm thinking about "This Is Lestat," (that's a line from The Vampire Chronicles that just kinda stuck in my head) but I dunno yet. All I know is, I'm not gonna use "Dakota Floyd" 'cause my name sucks. Oh well. I've got time to think about it. I'm not putting up anything for like 2 weeks. I'm waiting 'til Dave leaves for college, cause he'd wanna make this stuff AAoMO stuff. And I don't want it to be AAoMO stuff. But yea...anyway...Here's the lyrics to the song. They suck:


These good times will fade
And we both will change
But for now...For now
We're gonna be OK


Well, I'm tired over workin' overtime
Thoughts all weighted on my mind
Where I find myself
Buried in your arms

And my constant state of apathy
Yea...It'll be the death of me
When I try so hard
To get to you


And I know that I will let you down
And I know that you won't regret this when we're through
And you know that you deserve better than me
So why don't you just tighten my noose


These ups and downs are killin' me
Feelin' like I've got 6 broken strings
But there's nowhere left to run

I try to scream, but my lungs collapse
The days of "me and you" are past
And I still can't see what went wrong


You are the wind in my hair
My breath of fresh air
The stars in the sky
My lonesome firefly

The lights from the skyline
My breath on a cold night
The fire in your eyes
(is) matched by none

I'm the lovesick loser
In this game for 2
But I don't care what you say...
I...I need you


Tada. Yay suckiness. Gotta start somewhere though, I guess. :/


I don't have a title for this yet...I'm thinking one of these, but I'm not sure which yet. I'm kinda leaning towards the second one... They're quotes from a movie, by the way...Guess it and win a prize:

"Every Living Creature On This Earth Dies Alone"
"Some People Are Just Born With Tragedy In Their Blood"
"Life Isn't That Simple. I Mean Who Cares If Ling Ling Returns the Wallet and Keeps the Money? It Has Nothing To Do With Either Fear or Love."



Show tomorrow. YHC / 7PM.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

I Can't Begin To Compete With You and Everyone Knows. I Know You Know It, Too...

...It's a complicated fear
that grows with every year
and it's walking on it's own, finally
All I can offer are farmer chords,
these simple rhymes and you painted in words
You can sing this when alone
or whistle it through your teeth
and it will feel like home
no matter how far you'll be
from my lonely arms outstretched
just beyond your reach
singing "ooh, baby, please..."

--Ben Gibbard



Whew, yesterday was a fun day.

It started off normal, me dreading going to work. Well, I get there and about 9 minutes after clocking in, Atlanta-tattoo-guy (we don't know his real name for sure...I think it's John) tells me and Johnny to go home. When we get outside, John tells me that I should go over to his house and hang out with him, Trey, and Bethany. So I do. It was a blast. I listened to Trey and Johnny practice for a bit, and then at 1AM we decided to go to Waffle House and meet up with Clay. That's where we called Mark and messed with him because he was drunk. When we got back to Johnny's house, we decided to watch Donnie Darko. Great movie. If you've never seen it, do so. Trey and I attempted explaining the ending of it to Bethany for like 10 minutes. She still doesn't get it. After that, we made fun of rap videos and various other TV shows until like 9AM. Fun stuff. Shortly after that, everyone said their goodbyes and went home. I went to sleep on my couch within like 2 seconds. When I woke up, I had 2 hours 'til work. I wasted it on the internet. Well, I get to work, and pretty much the same thing happened as yesterday. I worked like 50 minutes? It's kinda cool not having to work, but it's a big waste of gas. I haven't even made back my gas money just driving there yet. Oh well.

I need to buy an 8 track recorded. And a PA system. And a good microphone.

I'm getting swamped with bands wanting to play here. The way it's looking, there's gonna be 3 shows next month, all within like a week of each other. Hopefully I can manage to pull it off and have a good amount of people show up to all of them. Check it, yo:

JULY
*Thursday, July 18th -- YHC // I Am Only Your Side Effect, An Act of My Own
*Thursday, July 27th -- ACOUSTIC SHOW @ Meeks // AAoMO, Suite 11, The Alcoholic Freshman, Seamas O'Lanigan, imadethismistake, Josh Fletcher, GMST, Natalie Sheppard

AUGUST
*Saturday, August 19th -- ACOUSTIC SHOW @ Meeks // Sloppy Meateaters, Suite 11, GMST
*Monday, August 21st (?) -- First Baptist Church (?) // Farewell Flight, Taking Lottie Home, Motion Commotion, foreverDOWN (?)
*Tuesday, August 29th -- The Black and Gold Center // Dirty Larry, In the Shadow of Victory (?), Parkers Rich (?)

SEPTEMBER
--Nada--

OCTOBER
*Monday, October 23rd -- ACOUSTIC SHOW @ Meeks // Peasant, GMST, I Am Only Your Side Effect

NOVEMBER
*Saturday, November 4th -- YHC (?) // Jon Crocker, I Am Only Your Side Effect

Monday, July 17, 2006

Count Your Blessings Daily...I Dare You. And May Your Fears Rarely Scare You. Let Your Heartstrings Grow Thick and Long.

The past 3 days were quite a bore. I spent them in Pigeon Force with my dad, his girlfriend, and her family. We did typical tourist stuff and it was kinda lame. There were a couple cool parts, but most of it was a big waste of money though, in my opinion. Oh well. Whatever.

While on this trip, I got "Catch For Us the Foxes," by mewithoutYou for 7 bucks. If you don't already have it, you need to acquire it. I also got an awesome book called The Angry Clam. I've read it twice already.

Oh yea...Me & Dave got signed to an Indie label today. Go us. Safe!!! Forever!!! Records is gonna be putting out our full-length whenever we get it recorded. Pretty snazzy, eh?

Speaking of "An Act of My Own," we NEED to fill a tour date. Finding help around here sucks.

Ok, yea...That's all I have to talk about.

Friday, July 14, 2006

These Days I Can't Stand To Be Alone, But I Don't Make Very Good Company...

I haven't posted here in quite awhile, so I guess it's time for me to let you know what's going on in the world of, well...me.

My cat died last night. We had had him for nearly 8 years. Apparently, he contracted some weird blood infection and died 2 days later. We buried him today. We're thinking about getting another, but it won't be the same y'know?

In memory of Zeus the cat:



I just got back from Chicago. It wasn't as bad as it usually is, actually. I went to 2 shows (seeing like 9 bands). At one of those shows, I witnessed one of the most honest live performances I've ever seen. It was beautiful. twelve.o.one was the band. They're from Pennsylvania. They know Farewell Flight. I bought a shirt and a demo. Seriously, if you ever get the chance to check 'em out...Do so. I also saw a band with a juggler. That was cool.


Tomorrow I'm going to Pigeon Forge with my dad, his girlfriend, and her 2 kids. I've talked to them like twice in my entire life...It's gonna be so awkward. Oh well.


I'm in the process of writing a zine. It should be out by late this month...Before me & Dave go on the "An Act of Mistakes" Tour.


Yep...We're touring. 3 days with my friend Kyle (http://www.myspace.com/imadethismistake). It should be fun, fun, fun.


I got a haircut and it's kinda sucky, but kinda ok...I'm not sure what to think about it yet.


I'm not ready for school to start back. I'm ready to see all of my friends, but not actually get back to work.


I finally got another car. It's an '88 Cavalier convertable. I like it, although it's an old man car.

I hate my job.



This point is pointless and going nowhere. I have no cool story or adventure to tell. I'm done.