A regular Sunday outing to have some Indian food and browse some sales at the mall turned deadly- er, somewhat fateful when I got a bit cavalier about unfolding Paul’s stroller. Two pieces of the stroller finally came unstuck from the folded position and locked themselves back together in the “stroller” position – on the ringfinger of my left hand. Five seconds of silent screaming later, I was able to unlock the stroller again and free my finger which was sending white-hot-and-cold streaks of pain up my entire arm. We kept it in a pack of ice for about half an hour but that didn’t really help – the parts had closed on the last digit of my finger where the nail is and had bruised it badly. That was two weeks ago and while the feeling has come back in that finger, it still hurts to play guitar. In the meantime I’ve been practicing drums a lot and working on “other things”. But more about that in a minute…
Despite the smashed finger, I did do a show the other night at the Family Wash in “East Nashville”. For those of you not from this area, East Nashville is not to be confused with Nashville – only the trendiest of the trendiest hipsters live in East Nashville. Against my better judgment, I like that area. I mean, if you can ignore the projects right next door to cute, fixed-up houses right next to crackhouses which are right next to the country club, yeah it’s great. I did a gig there with Gerlinda from WeakLazyLiar. It was Paul’s first time at one of my shows, and he was apparently quite amused at seeing his daddy singing to everybody. I’m looking forward to going back there in a couple weeks playing drums for our bassist, Josh Bennett. Gerlinda and I had spent the afternoon before the set playing songs to each other on my back porch. That memory will probably be with me until I’m an old, old man. It will be the day I realized that my journey as a songwriter is only beginning.
Before I smashed my finger, I celebrated my 27th birthday at ye olde Windows On The Cumberland with a quite good set of electric rock and roll. It was a good show – I can’t complain. The venue itself is worth plugging in at all and the bands we did the show with were two of the most gracious bands I’ve ever been on a bill with. We didn’t use any of our own amps or drums thanks to them. The whole deal was quite pleasant but unfortunately I had to leave (to relieve the babysitter) while the second band was playing The Meters’ “Cissy Strut” – one of the first pieces of music that Drivin South ever put down on tape.
But enough about things that are less me, let’s talk about things that are a bit MORE me. Dismal tone of this blog aside, when people read something I’ve written, they often ask me “Adam, you should write!” I remind them bluntly that they have not asked a question at all but merely ended a declarative statement with an unnecessary exclamation point. They then pull a brick out of their handbag and reduce me to pudding for my insolence. But seriously, why don’t I write? First, I have no education on the matter of writing. If you could see the high school I went to, you’d be impressed that I can eat grown-up food. College only confused me when they introduced me to words like “comma splice”, “topic sentence” and “the”. However, I’ve been told that I couldn’t do things before. Remember that crabby old bastard at Highland Music in Birmingham? He told me I should just give up playing guitar because he didn’t hear any talent. Obviously I didn’t buy an amp from him that day. I used my irritation to write Drivin South’s first song and the rest is forgotten history. Yeah, maybe I will work on the writing thing. I decided to write a series of short stories based on the songs from “Nothing Means Anything” and seventeen days later, I’m finished. Well, except for editing. It needs work but some of the stories turned out quite well. If you want a copy, let me know – I’ll email it to you. The main thing I learned during this process is that while I do have a certain amount of writing talent, I have a long way to go and I need to work on it like crazy to get there.
Speaking of other avenues, a friend called me recently wanting me to do the “film score” for her short film. It’s going to be a very funny film and I’m enjoying working on the soundtrack. I did take a couple years of film scoring classes at Belmont with the intention of eventually getting into it but doing film scores is kind of like getting any kind of job; no one will hire you without experience. I guess the goal is to eventually do Wes Anderson-y movies but I think Mark Mothersbaugh has that job locked down pretty tight. And he can keep it; God forbid anything bad happen to Markie. Check out “The Life Aquatic”’s intimidating score for examples of his work in Wes’s films. Yes, it’s the guy from Devo. And yes, I did just record a rough cover of Devo’s “Girl U Want”. A somewhat more polished version will probably go on an EP to be released this fall.
Did I just mention an upcoming release? Because I should mention that the new album, Nothing Means Anything, is being manufactured in a Portland factory at this very moment. Promo copies will go out in a mere two weeks and the full-on real deal will be in boxes at Headphone Treats in Atlanta well before the release date on June 7th. Watch out for its adverts in your favorite music mags around that time.
Time to go get Indian food and hopefully not to smash my finger again.
Over and out,
Adam
