The Invented History of Superjock, Part 3: Practice, practice, give up.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
The oral history of the Superjock practice experience, as told in a bar by a friend of a friend.
"Yeah, mmmm, I knew them. Well, one of them at least. Sort of. What do you want to know about? What their practices were like? You're serious? Okay, okay-- just--just let me order this first. Mmm, okay, thanks. Oh, that's good. Right, practice.
"I know Verien and Matt* had played together for a while, by the time they got the four-piece together. And Jeremy** was fairly new with the band. But Jason*** was the freshest of the meat, wet behind the ears and naive enough to prove it. And get this-- the kid had never played bass before!
"The first time they met--hang on. Yeah, I'll take another. Okay-- the first time they met was in Verien's room, on the third floor of that guy's dorm that used to be a girl's dorm not too long ago. Yeah, that's the one. All four of them crowded around Matt, who was sitting in the middle of the floor with his acoustic guitar. Jeremy had his acoustic, and Verien was playing on his djembe or whatever it's called. Jason was playing his electric bass, but he didn't plug it in; in fact, he could barely hear it. It's a wonder he even learned the songs.
"But anyway, they fleshed out some songs. Matt had written many of these before he formed the band, so it wasn't like he needed the practice--the rest of the band had to fall in line, though. Jeremy was pretty quick to pick up the guitar parts, and started added his own lead stuff in from the get go. And let me tell you, Jason got it into his head quickly that if you're not used to playing bass with your fingers (instead of usin' a pick, you know?), you'll have a swollen hand in no time.
"But the first practice went well. Though they practiced more and more over the next few weeks, they eventually started movin' shop into the concert band rehearsal space, an over-heated gym that dated back a century. Verien was fairly handy with audio-type things, so he got a good makeshift monitor system set up? What? Oh, they're, like, speakers aimed back at the musicians so they can hear all of the other instruments. Right. They messed up a bunch-- Jeremy had a tendency to over-think what he was playing, and Jason had these stupidly elaborate bass parts in his head that took him forever to strip down. But it was fun. Matt's songs were catchy, but fairly easy to learn. He was the first to admit that many of them followed similar chord progressions, just in different keys (he loved that capo of his).
"So they were confident. Well, as confident as that bunch could be, anyway. They just sort of stopped practicing, because they thought, 'Hey, we'll be cool.' They made a set of cryptic, asinine posters to hang up over the campus. They made trips to the Salvation Army thrift store to buy sweater-vests. They set up a rumor network that spread the word about this incredible band called Superjock, soon to play in Skye Lounge.
"But pal, let me tell you-- their troubles were only beginning."
*Verien (drums), Matt (vocals/acoustic guitar)
**Jeremy (guitar)
***Jason (bass/vocals)
posted, with grace and poise, by Jason @ 2/05/2006 01:03:00 AM,
4 Comments:
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At 5:18 AM,
Lucas said...
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about time.
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At 8:20 PM,
said...
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Cool Rumor: The fifth member of Superjock was Chuck Norris. He never could make it to any shows or practices though, because he was too busy delivering roundhouse kicks to badguys' heads.
Cooler Rumor: Superjock plans a reunion tour sometime in the next couple of years... so keep your ears peeled! -
At 6:30 PM,
Jason said...
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Holy smokes, I've been waiting my whole life to hear about treadmill belts! THANKS YOUSSLSL!!!!!
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At 11:38 PM,
said...
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WTF?
