Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Outgoing Message and Playing Music

Several of us from school are taking the red-eye to Bangkok for a professional development conference on Wednesday. The plan after Bangkok is to catch an overnight train to Laos. The idea sound pretty exotic, Hopefully we'll snap some good shots along the way.

We are at the 3 month countdown until we head home. I have been feeling sentimental about playing music in a band and this has to be the longest time since 1982 of not being apart of a group. I’ve been strumming a bit on the guitar and even pulled out the recording equipment the other night and tracked a few songs.

I opened a couple of Isinglass recordings (the first band I played with in SD) and listing to the songs took me back. It took some convincing but San and Mandy finally let me play with them. Sam is an amazing song writer. Initially the band was a three piece that included Scott (the original Blink 182 drummer), I jammed with them and I didn’t make much of an impression as I wasn’t asked back until Mark took over on drums a year later. The good news was that we all became friends and Scott and I started to hang out by making weekend surf trips down to Mexico, food outings, and an occasional jam session. While going through the Isinglass songs I also found recordings of a couple songs Scott and I made with a 4 track. Listening to them made me crack up! I played guitars, some feedback, and manipulated sounds while he created a beat using a tin popcorn dispenser, some drums, and keyboards. The songs are meant to be listened to on headphones since we intentionally made the sounds pan both left and right as to create a wave in the shape of an infinity symbol. The repetition is to be chant like. At least that is what I hear. The songs are titled Track 01 and Track 02. You can download them by clicking on the links below.

Isinglass Halloween show 2004

Track 01

Track 02

Isinglass

A Scott Story circa 2004.

I looked at him across the table as he gave me a half-cocked smile while he shoved food into his mouth, I shook my head and went “what the f**k Scott!" He finished chewing, “it didn’t mean anything to me, I’m not sentimental about it.” While we were finishing our breakfast we talked about everything in the world, but I kept coming back to “what the f**k…why? How could you?” And in my mind the conversation was “when in the hell are we going to get the bill so we can go to the fricken thrift store to look for the platinum album you donated.”

It was bothersome how at peace he was with it and how I was the one freaking out and it wasn’t even my album. We paid our bill and drove over to the thrift store. On the way Scott thinking out loud said “I wonder if all my Bukowski books are still there or all the movies Georgia and I donated, I hope they still have my Star Wars videos, I kinda want those back.” I just looked to him with amazement “so you donated all your books and movies too?”

Once we were in the store I ran up to the cashier and told them that I accidentally donated a platinum album. They told me that it was long gone and went on about what a big stir it caused. Then one of the ladies asked, “how was it accidentally donated” that was when Scott stepped in “I donated it and it wasn’t by accident!” The ladies asked him how he came in possession of a platinum Blink 182 album. He told him he was in the band when he was a kid. The ladies finished by telling us how both of them sold…and I looked over at Scott and went “THERE WERE TWO???”

“yeah.”

I just smiled. The Star Wars disc and the Bukowski books were gone too. We ended back at his place and he gave me an old drum set, a couple of surfboards, and a few other things. I guess my reaction to all of this is more about me than anything else. I always admire people who can divorce themselves of material items. It wasn’t my place to comment on what Scott did. At the end of the day, I didn’t care and I admired that he can let go of his past and move on. It is also like giving the big middle finger to his former band mates …sure he could have made bank on EBAY…but he didn’t and committed the most humble act by making the record available to anybody. That is cool. Thanks for the lesson Scott.

1 comment:

  1. great music mr. medina, i enjoyed that! :D
    so you come home in 3 months? wow, how does that feel?
    -Jessica M

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