All during our rather mediocre set, I was composing this installment of GBM in my head. What do you say about a show like last night's?

I felt like I was on a cruise ship. I rifled zealously through my luggage, but I couldn't find my spangled majorette's costume anywhere.

But, I digress.

It was Shalom-the-Soundguy's 44th birthday, and he seemed nonplussed by that turn of events. Can I say enough how much I love Shalom? I love Shalom! (say it with me!) Also, Todd, the owner, is my new favorite nice guy. He doubled our "opener's pay," even though he was under no obligation to do so, and we walked out of the room with $100! (Eddie's usually, or used to, pay a portion of the door. I'm not sure where last night's flat rate thingy came from, but we were glad to have the guaranty. We would've probably taken home slightly less under the old door-take system, although, there was a good crowd, so who knows?)

Our show was mediocre, mostly because I was nerve-wracked for most of the set. I'm not sure why. My voice was shaky, which in turn made me feel shaky. And then I flaked out and made a gaff in 'wait for me,' and it felt like the it took several bars before i was playing in the same time signature as the rest of the band again... We ended up doing a rather nice version of "snow" toward the end, however, which redeemed things slightly. (it had gone badly in practice the evening before, so I was proud of myself for remember the changes.)

GrooveLily rocked the hizzy. They are all REAL players. And they look like rockstars. They have a neat combination of instruments--electric violin, keyboards, and drums. They're all very comfortable performing, and even though I've never seen them before, I felt like I was witnessing some of their best work. They genuinely seemed very passionate about their songs, and I could relate to the bitter ones about how much it sucks to want something you can't quite get your hands around. So, yay for GrooveLily! We got them to autograph a poster for us, so that we'd have a memento of the evening.

I'm a total hypocondriac ("I'm Blind! I'm Blind" everytime the power goes out). This was our last scheduled show, and whenever I find myself in this spot, I can't help wondering if we'll ever play again? [i could just book a show, and rid myself of that worry, but why waste a good self-pitying wallow when the opportunity presents?] The truth is, we're having some trouble figuring out what to do with certain of the new songs. We feel like we've got a good batch of strong songs, but arranging them so that they sound cohesive on a record is another matter entirely. This batch is presenting some real challenges in that area. Furthermore, we're still waiting for FedEx to deliver a couple more perfect songs. We had hoped to record the album in December, but I don't think we're ready yet.

We're going to hole up for the next few weeks and try to figure out how best to "serve the songs." Right now, Ryan's playing carpaccio while Chris is braising, I'm poached, and Travis is making a sandwich. Here is a list of what we're working on:

Broken Windows In Factories
The Year You Were Born (Jet Airplane, for Will)
When Joe Lived On Mary Street
Elevator (for Sarah)
Boats
Victoria Falls
Saint Stephen's Green
The Graduation Song
Flight Attendant Shaped Hot Air Balloon
Old (the 'c'mon c'mon' song)
Flora Plum
I Put The Gun In My Mouth
Stand In The Rye And Catch You

Not all of these will make the cut, and we have several others marinating in the tank. It's anyone's guess how the tracklist on the new record will turn out. But stick around!! Find Out.

Wow.

So, we finally had a GREAT show!

It's so weird not to be able to bitch about anything, or put myself down… But, this time…wow. Everything just fell into place.

The sound, which is always excellent for me @ Eddie's was—this time—also excellent for the band. Shalom, the new sound guy, is really, really great. He actually put mics on the drums!! Chris' bass sounded so sweet and round. And, don't even get me started about Ryan and his FLY-ASS MOOG!! Even I didn't screw up the guitar so much. (I'm trying to learn to not start pounding the thing into oblivion whenever I start feeling it…it really does sound better if you play confidently, but gently… simple, but it's hard to put into practice when you have no technique to speak of.) All in all, I thought we played pretty close to our best. It felt amazing--one of those shows where you say afterwards, if all shows could be like thisshow…

Also, a ton of our favorite people showed up to cheer us on: Dee & Jade, Carin, Rama, Lauren, Julie, Gina, Paul & Sarah Melancon, Elizabeth Elkins…just to name a few. We were pretty pleased with the turnout, especially for a Tuesday night—so THANKS GUYS!!!!!!!

The band that played after us, Raisin Hill, was EXCELLENT!! They were this jazzy kind of outfit, with a cocktail-style drum kit, upright bass, archtop electric guitar, no vocals. Chris, had he been able to stick around, would've peed himself! They absolutely rocked my socks off. And the headliner, South Paw Jones, from Austin, was also great. I don't think he was feeling it—the crowd had pretty much dwindled by the time he went on—but I loved his stuff. He does this quirky take on old-school, Bob Dylan Style folk music: old ass guitar with crappy strings, harmonica, singing about how girls with amnesia are hot… He was just really quirky and fun, with a deadpan kind of delivery that cracked me up. Check him out!

Man, those of you who missed it, really missed a great night of music @ the Attic! I miss Eddie Owen, but the new owner, Todd, is really nice, and seems to very sincerely want to continue the “vision” of bringing quality acoustic music to Atlanta. I like all the sprucing up that's been done; the place retains its charm and warmth, but the women's bathrooms now have doors!! I hope it always feels that good to play there.

After the show, Ryan and Chris and I huddled around one of the little tables in the pool room, and just looked at each other. And then Ryan said, “man, I really needed that.”

Indeed.

We showed up at the club around 5pm, for load-in. As I was attempting to park the clown car, a massive SUV rounded a corner & squished me tight against the guard rail. I glared madly at driver, who turned out to be Rebecca—stage manager for the Atlantis Showcase. Ooops!

Now, Rebecca seemed like a lovely person, once you talked to her. Chris actually recognized her as the former girlfriend of the former lead singer of his former band, Funmud. All the bands were more or less on time for the 5pm load-in. We hefted our stuff into the club, and then sat around rather nervously, waiting for someone to explain how the evening would go. What happened instead, was more like a casting call in the movie FAME. Someone started tuning a mandolin, and he was fantastic. Zac Brown, the first artist on the bill, started talking to mandolin guy. And slowly, all the bands began chatting with each other, making a kind of peculiar nervous conversation that went like, “Am I good?” hehheh, “I dunno, you'll have to ask my agent.”

I thought my head might spin off with nerves. How long have I been doing this? I got so disgusted with myself that I went outside and hung out alone for a minute. Somehow, we figured out that only the first band was getting a soundcheck, and that the rest of us were free to leave until showtime. We said goodbye to each other, and I headed off for dinner and a shower.

I was slightly better as showtime rolled around. The packed house that I'd been anticipating never really materialized, although I was grateful for the couple dozen friends who came out to see our show. Stage sound at the Red Light Café has always been a little weird for us. At this show, I could hear OK, but Travis and Chris couldn't hear anything. I assume they played the show from memory! Unlike our last 2 shows, I think our performance was more or less OK. We didn't kill it like I was hoping, but we all at least played respectably. Ryan was actually sounded great. There were a couple of songs that went kind of badly, but I thought we played most of the set pretty well.

The crowd was a really tough one. There is nothing like a limp and perfunctory smattering of applause after each song to make a girl question why in the hell she chooses to make such a regular fool out of herself. Gina said afterwards, that the house sound was really good, which made me feel somewhat better. I'm well aware that my perception of events is often radically different from reality. So, I guess I can't really say for sure how the night went. I can only say that I was disappointed, feeling like we gave it a good shot and that people could've cared less. We really kind of stuck out like a sore thumb on a bill that was filled with really excellent musicians who fall more into the “americana” category (the two other acts that we saw were Zac Brown & Penny Jones.)

After the show, we discovered that Bill Zero from XM Radio was in the house! He's in town, speaking on some of the panels. It was super of him to choose to come see our show, out of all the shows he could've chosen on Saturday night. I fell in love with him right away. He seemed not only incredibly nice, but also smart and cute and funny. What a guy!

There was one woman in the crowd, who stopped me after the show and told me, “It was a pleasure to stay for the whole set.” After that, she asked us why we chose our band name, and offered the suggestion that we should display our name bigger on our posters. I have no idea who she was, but she was wearing Atlantis credentials on a lanyard and she was accompanied by a really cute guy. I'm sure we'll get the call tomorrow or the next day.

There isn't much to say about Saturday's show... This was our 2nd year playing this outdoor festival (which, incidentally, is located in an Atlanta neighborhood called "virginia highlands"--not in the state of Virginia.) We love playing this gig because the sound is much better than we're used to, and it's nice playing on a big outdoor stage, with good equipment, etc.

So, on the one hand, the show was fun b/c the sound & equipment. But, our performance left me a little...eh. It was wicked hot, which is the only excuse i can find for the fact that we kept slowing down the tempo on about every song. I was feeling lethargic, so **I'd** start the songs a bit slower than normal...and then the band would kick in with a tasty...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Note to self: must maintain tempo even if dying of thirst and sunstroke.

Also, I was a weird kind of nervous. Like, I didn't feel nervous, but when I looked at my hands right before we kicked off the first song, they were all shaky and stuff. Chris thought the first song on the setlist was one that he wasn't supposed to play for the first verse, so imagine his surprise when we kicked into "Wait For Me" sans bass. He said he stood back, pretending that the song was supposed to start with no bass. LOL--hope he doesn't mind me blowing his cover. I didn't even notice--I was too busy trying to keep my fingers from shaking off the fretboard.

It's all good. We had a good time, regardless of the fact that our performance was a little off. The sun came out right about the time we started playing, and the crowd on the green swelled to about 30. Niiice. We sold some CD's.

The best thing about this show was seeing Joe McPherson standing out in the crowd, wearing his weaklazyliar T-Shirt. He's so cool for doing that.

A GBM for No Reason

Things are going pretty great in weaklazyliarland. Even though we really don't have much going on, I have a good feeling about things. We've been working hard on a whole batch of new songs, and, as always, these songs have a different energy than previous batches. Songs are weird that way. They are something in & of themselves. And yet, collected on an album, there is a whole different energy.

On [DEMO], the songs felt really energetic and fresh. The studio experience was a breeze. I had no idea what I was doing, and therefore, no fear that I would fuck it up. When we were recording “Too Much TV” the engineer, Ed, told me—after a few takes of the guitar part—to just “pick a rhythm and stick with it.” LOL. I didn't even feel bad, because I didn't really understand that it was bad not to have a particular ‘rhythm'. I listen to “Marlene on the Wall” from Suzanne Vega's first record, and I giggle, realizing that—although the acoustic guitar is marvelously rhythmic and thwicky—there is no set pattern to the way she's playing; she's just following the drummer of her own vocal. It's cool! If only [DEMO] had the same staying-power as SV's 1st record!! Alas, it is as embarrassing to me now as my 7th grade school picture--the one where I have Leif Garret's messy mane and Brook Shield's wings.

Yesterday Night has so much more weight to it, in comparison. I remember feeling this clenching in my stomach, the whole time we were mixing. In the very back of my mind, behind the “Pistachio Prescription” bookshelves and moldy beanbag chair kisses, there was a crumpled notebook page, a question written and erased and rewritten, a hope that maybe these songs would get us out of our day jobs. Joe, shirtless and intense, pounding out the beginning of “Bright Yellow Bucket;” Chris & I with our eyes closed, hitting the first chord together, moving along that dark progression. I don't think anybody, anywhere, could believe in something more than the 3 of us (and Gina) believed in that record. I still like listening to it. It has a happy innocence, and a sense of truth about it. There are a million things we'd change—starting with the chorus-y guitar & bongo-ed production on “Tuesday” and moving on to the minute+ in length that we should have deleted from “Rocketpop” (or “New York” or “Snow” or “Again.”) But, c'est la vie. It's still something to be proud of.

The November Diaries feels like the paper-thin gold chain my first boyfriend gave me, the one my dad fumbled to clasp around my neck on the haunted and strange Sunday before church, years and years ago, when I realized my dad was a person and I was growing up. The November Diaries will probably always ache inside of me a little. I love those songs so much, even their imperfections. I love the sound of my fingers on the guitar strings, the noises of breathing, the roundness and warmth of Chris' bass, Joe's whisper-brushings on the cymbals, Ryan's soaring organ wings. When I listen to TND, I just love my band so much. We're everything I ever wanted us to be (well, except for still having the day jobs—but I maintain, that's because we're lazy, and not because we're not good enough.)

With all those records behind us, there are times I feel as invincible as a baby. It's as if, now that I know exactly what I'm doing, I've realized it doesn't matter what I do. And so, once again, I have no fear of screwing up. The new songs haven't assembled themselves into something cohesive yet. They're like a bunch of little children, running amok, wrecking havoc. We've got over an album's worth of songs, or ideas for songs. I have no idea which of the little freaks will end up populating our next record, or whether the record will turn out to be crap. But, we're heading into the studio June 13 & 14 to start the long process of recording them. I can't f***ing wait!

I'm writing this on the fly, on my way out of town. The show blew by in a whirl, and all i'm left with are a few quick impressions.

1. The 1st band, The Bamboo Shoots, were these impossibly cute boys from Paidea high school who have formed a jazz band. I listened to them from a side room, without looking at them, because looking at them made me feel like a lecherous old roué.

2. Looking out at the crowd, from the stage, I saw faces of all our tenants, who routinely call me up about their broken toilets & leaky roofs. Cris from Cinevita (producers of the forthcoming film "The Adventures of Oicee Nash") snuck up and snapped a picture in the middle of the set. She'll probably tack it to the wall & throw darts at it! Note to Cinevita: We'll have to dock your security deposit for the dart holes in the wall. DON'T MESS WITH MY ROCK STAR VIBE!

3. Did anybody get any of the free catering? It looked good. The chicken-on-a-stick seemed very popular. Travis was hording a pocketful & threatening to play his set with Satay.

4. We couldn't hear a damn thing while we were playing. It was like hearing music faintly from far away through the thundering of a subway train passing by. Chris said afterwards that if Travis can play under those conditions, then he can play under any conditions. Note: the stage sound was an effect of the room & the very loud party in progress; it reflects not a wit on the talents of the sound engineer

5. All things considered, the show seemed to go OK. I have to take it on faith that we didn't sound like total ass. We played about 5 "newish" songs. The 2 weirdest of the new ones, the ones I like best because they're full of holes and still evolving, didn't go very well. "Boats" started off great, with Ryan diddling on the Moog (my boss Michael actually had an amazed expression, like he couldn't believe our little folk band was sounding so weird.) But, after the first 30 seconds, it seemed to drag until ryan kicked it with a tasty piano groove about 2 1/2 minutes in. I started "When Joe Lived On Mary Street" too slow, and my guitar went terribly out of tune--too bad, b/c that's my absolute favorite of the new ones. "Victoria Falls" (another new one) went well, though. We kicked that one with a tasty groove.

6. I played Ian's guitar (electric) on 4 songs. ROCK.

7. I remembered to mention that we had CD's for sale, but I forgot to introduce the band or give props to my man T. BAD GERLINDA. Let me rectify: Travis is the daddy mac. He rocks. He rocks loud. He rocks soft. He collects rocks. He likes cheese (Roquefort) and tourist traps (See Rock City). He hates rich people (Rockefeller) and certain mountain ranges. Travis: we are so, so grateful to have you.

8. Paul & the Get Go's! are sounding so, so very polished after their many tours and shows and hobnobbing with the rich and famous. They sounded great, even though Lee-the-guitarist was out of town, and they played as a 3 piece. Go Paulie!!!!!!!

I guess that's about it for this GBM. I'm off to take a much-needed shower, wash all that metallic band smell off of me. Are any of you guys familiar with that smell? It's guitar strings and old cigarette-smelling road cases and rain and...when I'm old and dying one day, I bet that smell comes back to me & makes me smile.

Sorry it's taken me a few days to write this. I'm even skipping the middleman (our admin) & posting straight to the board b/c said admin is @ death's door & I don't want to bother him with trivialities.

Actually, I wrote another GBM about a month ago that never got posted. It was about the new gear Chris & Ryan have acquired. It included pictures. I suspect Mr. Admin never posted it b/c the picture of Chris' bass wasn't quite right. Then again, he may have deleted it in a fever of...fever. ANYWAY--

the annual holiday goof was plenty of fun, as always. Sue Witty had a guitar player & mandolin player backing her up & she sounded goooooood. Her new songs have a really nice appalachian flava, maybe just b/c of the accompaniment. nevertheless less, it was yummy.

we played next, and i'm not sure what to say about that. it was just me & ryan, since chris was on his deathbed & mitch is no longer playing drums with us. we played 3 new songs; it went OK. i lost my mind, kind of, on the last song we played--not in a bad way, just in a "i was feeling a bit too close to the material" kind of way, that embarrasses me now. But, i'll let that go. (hahahahahahahaha.) things in weaklazyliarland are in a constant state of flux, it seems. we're all hanging onto each other's promises to persevere, waffling between uncertainty and the freedom of a wide open future. i'm not sure what we'll do next, but i am sure it will be something. ROCK ON.

2 excellent, excellent songwriters filled out the remainder of the middle set. Ryan Williams (Jimmy Ether of the Ether family presents) wrote new songs JUST for the show! And they were great songs too! I thought his voice sounded really great over the amazing Eddie's Attic sound system. He also *looked* really sexy draped, in his tall way, across his chair. (insert girlish giggling.)

Adam McIntyre came down all the way from Nashville to rock our sock off! He was amazing, and very cute. He made a theme of 'love songs' for the evening. It was really cute. I love his songwriting, and I can't wait to see him with his band, in his full guitar-god glory someday.

Next up, Pat Walsh played a couple songs. Afterwards, Ryan whispered to me that Pat is an incredible guitar player. I personally like this lyrics, the way they're specific--in that Paul McCartney/Penny Lane kind of way.

Last, the crowd finally got what they'd been waiting for--a heaping dose of Paul Melancon & The Get Go's! [I *think* that's the name his band is going by these days.] Paul was sick with the plague, but managed to play a brilliant show anyway. You've heard me go on and on about Paul before, but let me emote about his splendiferous band for a minute. Lee, Chris, Lyle and Paul have gotten really tight traipsing all over Florida with the Indigo Girls. I love the way Lyle's vocals blend so well with Paul's, not to mention that Lyle rocks on the bass. Chris (also of Ether Family Presents fame) is rock solid on the drums, confident and having fun. And Lee is my guitar hero. Not just because I love her actual guitar. But because she effortlessly does all the things I wish I could do--like stepping on the flange pedal at just the right minute, and moving her pick cleanly across individual strings without making a sonic mess (try to do a simple arpeggio, in time, with a pick--it's not as easy as it looks.) Anyway, Paul is doing GREAT, and we couldn't be happier for him. He's achieved all the things we hope to achieve: he's quit his day job, he's a full-time musician. Go Paul!

In conclusion, we all had a great time (I include you, the reader, in this statement.) Now Go Have A Happy New Year!