muted

from the vaults: dickfish - i got a soda

the only band i've ever been in was called larry grayson's coma and it was born in newton, massachusetts in 2000. mark and i were living in the infamous parsons street house at the time and decided that since we shared a love for music, we might as well buy instruments. real instruments. why should it matter that neither of us knew how to play any? you gotta start somewhere. so he bought a bass and coaxed me into purchasing a drumset. once the set was assembled (thanks, keith!) we determined that the best place for it was in my bedroom, next to my bed.

soon after purchasing the instruments, we learned that adam stachelek played guitar (as well as drums, bass, washtub, triangle, kitchen sink, vaccuum cleaner, etc). adam began to come by and rock out with us. before that, i had no idea what the hell i was doing and mark was better at dirtying his bass than playing it. a few months later, adam ended up moving into the house with us. we bought a 4-track that was set up in my bedroom and we began recording our "jams" (i hate that word but i don't know a better one). my bedroom was our practice space and studio (if you will). i woke up every morning and opened my eyes to a drumset, various mics, a 4-track and a floor covered with wires. i miss that.

lots of bands like to have singers and the coma was no different. throughout its history, lgc rocked out with brett, my brother johnnie and sometimes martha behind the mic (at different intervals). having someone to sing for us was a treat since it didn't occur as frequently as we would have liked.

when we were at our most band-like, johnnie would stop by once a week and we'd work on whatever sounded good the week(s) before. we had so much fun and actually didn't sound that bad for having a rhythm section as wet behind the ears as mark and i were. what added to the fun was a little tradition we started to "warm down" at the end of a practice.

mark and i were huge beta band fans and were fascinated by the stories of them switching instruments with each other mid-song when playing live. we decided that we'd do the same after a jam - everyone would take an instrument that wasn't their primary one and we'd have one last jam for the night. all four of us loved this idea so much that we even gave these new permutations its own band name and told ourselves when lgc made it (wink, wink), we'd open for ourselves with this crazy other band and make double the dough. the name of this band? dickfish. adam coined the term once when he was talking about the creatures at the bottom of an aquarium ("you know, those little dickfish?" "uhhh, what?") and we decided it was the perfect name.

i was hesitant to sing for dickfish, but eventually it was my turn. for this permutation, johnnie manned the drums, mark the guitar, and adam the bass. dickfish material was always improvised, so it took us a while to get going and for me to think of what to "sing". eventually it happened. it was so loud in my bedroom that the other guys didn't hear what i was screaming until they listened to the recording after we finished. but we were definitely on the same page - when they would go from quiet to loud (somehow at the same time - it was uncanny), i'd start screaming and vice versa. i'll never forget how much fun it was to scream at the top of my lungs and not think twice about it. it was quite the release too. i could definitely use some of that right now. it was hot as fuck in my bedroom too. i forgot to mention that.

what was also cool about this version of the 'fish was that i had no prior idea that johnnie could rock the drums nor that mark could play guitar. adam plays anything, so it was no surprise that the bass playing was the most solid part of the song.

i enjoy the 2:53 mark - where i go from a full-on scream back into normal "singing." sweet! i was listening to a lot of pavement and totally copy a scream from "cream of gold" at one point.

dickfish - i got a soda

p.s. you should ask me for the story behind the "lyrics" some day. it's a good one but my mom might still read this (thanks, mark :) so i'll save it for your ears/eyes.