The Brave Unknown

I thought the band that's not called Foolkiller was coming apart. Half the band, apparently, was disinterested in continuing. That left me and the drummer going, 'But we were having fun!'

To keep going, we'd need a bassist, for sure. A singer? Well, with grown up schedules and commitments, the more people, the harder it is to find a rehearsal time that works. What if I expanded the human rights atrocity that is my singing on Code Monkey and started trying to sing some other stuff? A trio, that's about as small as a rock band gets.

We'd also need to find some PA equipment and a place to rehearse. Or maybe not: the bassist is maybe less disenchanted than she was exhausted, but it still might be that we're a trio.

Thing is, I think I suck balls at singing, but I don't know that it has to be a permanent condition. Some guys I went to school with have a great cover band, Perpetual Change. I actually went to junior high with the bassist/singer and drummer and high school with their lead guitarist.

I remember in junior high, they weren't Perpetual Change, they called themselves 'ATB' which, if memory serves, stood for 'Anything Better.' As in they couldn't come up with anything better for a name. But I think on fliers, people took it as To Be Announced, so they changed it. This is strictly speculation on my part: I witnessed these changes from afar, and the band certainly didn't discuss it with that weird metal head who is always wanting to join the band.

So anyway, at one of the 'battle of the bands' events I remember from high school, Mike (the bassist/singer) sang. It was the first time I'd heard him do so; the band had been through innumerable vocalists. They went through a couple lead guitarists before Bill joined, but I remember thinking you never knew who was going to sing for them.

The first time I heard Mike sing, honestly, I thought he was horrible. Very pitchy. But a time or two after that, I was like, 'Hey he's pretty good.' When I saw them at the Brooksider a few months back, I was impressed with everyone, not the least Mike's vocals.

So that makes me think, maybe I can learn to sing. I think, and again, this is strictly outsider speculation, that Mike started singing for the band because he knew at least he would show up for the damn rehearsal. Maybe it's just a matter of being cocky enough to act like I can sing and the next thing you know...

So I've been working on this with some of the songs from the band's existing set, and some other material. I asked Mo if Daddy was a good singer of if he sucked and she said, 'Sucked...Oreos?'

I gave her the Oreos, she ate her dinner after all, and she was honest to boot.

Some stuff I've wanted the band to do, like Funeral For a Friend's Streetcar, I don't think would work as a trio number. There's some other stuff that I've been wanting to do that might be possible. And then there's Green Day, which I hadn't even considered, but their tunes do appear to be trio friendly...