A quick reminder that DWS will be playing at the Vaudeville Mews tonight, doors at 5:00pm. We won't actually play until 7:30 at the earliest (I'd guess). Come see me forget the pre-chorus to "Goodbye" (odds are high despite Ginko Biloba supplements taken just before this entry). It'll be a pretty normal DWS set with the addition of a Moving Mikey song and a Slapstick cover that both Moving Mikey and the Mailbox Snatchers played. If you've read my personal band history blog from a couple months ago, you'd know that those are my previous bands. You knew that, right six visitors a day?
This seems like as good a time as any to talk about one of my favorite things. Ska! At some point in eighth grade, I was introduced to The Aquabats. It was at this very moment, my life diverged down a long, ladyless road. Sure, when you're in high school there'll be a couple of your ladyfriends at the ska show and you two will inevitably skank. It's high school and you're in a band... skanking should happen (at least oral skanking). If you're a socially-awkward guitarist with REALLY bad acne, it'll happen once and then in eight years you'll start a blog. Don't worry, the acne isn't quite as bad as it used to be... and you're fat. If you've seen the Less Than Jake, "evolution of a ska kid" t-shirts, you'll see a very real progression (as it is though, the Descendents' "evolution of man" t-shirt is my favorite "evolution of..." t-shirt). Unless you're Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Big D & the Kids Table, etc., it's really not acceptable to play in a ska/punk band after high school... let alone, three years after you dropped out of community college, but I do and so what!?! While most of my friends began listening to more rock-oriented genres, leaving ska behind, I've began listening to those same genres, shuffled in with ska. I still enjoy most of the bands I dug that eighth grade year and on. This isn't normal, I suppose. Anyways, one of the reasons these ska tunes are still in rotation is my fondness of the energy in the music. A good ska/punk song is like four Mardi Gras, man! Having a bad day? Put on The Fury of the Aquabats and listen to Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates! TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE-DOWN! Another reason I dig that ska music, mang: I heart puns and ska is ripe with the worst puns possible. Imo, the best ska-name I've seen was The Skabortionists (Iowa's best ska/punk band, circa 2003). The limitless abilty to throw "ska" on the front of nearly any word beginning with the letter "a" is totally skawesome. Skalmost Heroes! Skanarachist Cookbook! Skaustralia! Skatonement! Skalan Skalda! So many options, IT'S SKAMAZING! Skanyhow, I'm 24 now... and I still listen to and play ska. I'm going to be single forever.
I'm taking today off to prepare for the National Film Challenge weekend that is upon us in just six point five hours. Sure, that's plenty of time to write down some thoughts (I'm am already here...); however, I'm not feeling very strongly (or even weakly) about anything today. Also, I have some podcasts to catch up on. I should probably also eat sometime soon... If you're bored enough to be here right now, I'd suggest checking our the new DWS MySpace page and "friending" us (if you're still on MySpace). After that, maybe hop on over to FunnyorDie.com and watch the Ron Howard video... I like that guy. When you're done with those things, you should come back here and leave some kind of comment. Maybe you could write a short blog of your own that may inspire me to resume blogging on Monday? I'm out of ideas.
I hope for your sake that you're ahead of the curve (me... I'm the curve) and are well aware of the unholy awesomeness of Ronald Jenkees. BEHOLD:
Ummmmm, wtf. It's like Harry Carry met Timberland; they get sexy and had a man-love child prodigy with mild Downs Syndrome. I'm listening to his album right now and will probably be listening to it all day because it is entrancing. (I'm currently tranced.) As a white male, I only tend to bob my head when looking at my tax forms (amirite all Black comedians!?!) A side-effect of being tranced appears to be head-bobbing. Has anybody else suffered these same symptoms? Let me know... we may have a class action lawsuit on our hands, here: Ronald Jenkees v. Mind Slaves of Ronald Jenkees. Anyhow, GET INTO IT!
I've played in bands off and on since sophomore year of high school. My first band ended up named "Out the Door" (I was dropped off at Kyle's house and didn't arrange for a ride home, much to the annoyance of Kyle and Steve, who didn't want to take me home. Something to the effect of "you just go out the door without thinking!" was said and the band was named). We played one show; a three song set that included a cover of the Ventures' "Pipeline" and two original songs, "My Velcro" and "JB Hates Ska." I then played solo for the first time when I sang another original, "Happy Belated Birthday (You're Retarded)." This solo moment spawned my acoustic solo project, Billy Confessional which lasted throughout high school; my one hit song being "Fat Gurl Likes the Pie." It was and still is atrocious. Before all of this, my buddies formed a ska/punk outfit in late 1999 named Driving While Stupid (after their second guitarist, a sterotypically bad Asian driver). After dwelling on the failure of OtD for a while, I formed my own ska/punk band, The Mailbox Snatchers. We played quite a few shows over a couple of years (opening for bands like The Slackers and Big D & the Kids Table, both in Iowa City) before fading into local band obscurity. DWS trudged along during this time, only once interrupted by aspirations of taking things seriously (see: The Contingency), but that didn't really work out (see: DWS's first full length "Contingencies Never Work"). After Mailbox, I was bandless for sometime. I recorded bass for an Eric and the Floaters split album with the Argos (even writing the bass line to "Unicron vs. Death Star") while hanging around sometime around 2003. Fast forward a bit, Little Billy and the Naughty Thoughts formed as my first band completely sans ska. We played the GrandView College Talent Show, placed second and won $500. This remains the only money I've ever made from music. Meanwhile, DWS continuef with an evolving cast of members. >>FORWARD>> I moved to Iowa City just before 2005, effectively ending my stay in the music scene. (It was around this time that DWS "broke up" for the first time.) After my then-girlfriend left me and I dropped out of school, there wasn't much holding me in the IC aside from my job. Shortly after I was fired from that job (Spring of 2006), I moved back to Des Moines and started jamming with my buddy Tony. This led to a new ska/punk project named Moving Mikey (after a game on Nick Arcade - we ran through many Mike O'Malley references before finally settling on another Nickeloden referemce). That lasted through two shows (including a trip to Wisconsin for Skappleton!) over about a years' time. (Meanwhile, DWS played a couple of reunion shows). After MM, Tony and I kept jamming, writing songs for a more agressive punk band named Banzai! Banzai!, but eventually his fiance became increasingly annoying (at least that's how I felt) and Tony couldn't hang out with me anymore because I didn't like her. That was and is still dumb. >>FORWARD>> More time passes, it's 2008, and I'm hanging out with some of the dudes I used to hang out with before I moved to Iowa City. ( I still haven't dated a lady since the IC.) I am bored as are these dudes, some of whom were in Driving While Stupid... a band that I was still to this point never a member of. We started talking about playing some tunes, but nothing materialized until all of the sudden, about a month ago, DWS is back together and I'm playing guitar (about one month after I finally sold my amp). We've practiced a couple of times, not too much rust on their end, and in a couple of weeks: Be there if you like... I'm not psyched at all about the venue and don't see mself hanging around, but it should be a good time while I'm there. We can chieng out afterwards! YEY!
Ska! At some point in eighth grade, I was introduced to The Aquabats. It was at this very moment, my life diverged down a long, ladyless road. Sure, when you're in high school there'll be a couple of your ladyfriends at the ska show and you two will inevitably skank. It's high school and you're in a band... skanking should happen (at least oral skanking). If you're a socially-awkward guitarist with REALLY bad acne, it'll happen once and then in eight years you'll start a blog. Don't worry, the acne isn't quite as bad as it used to be... and you're fat. If you've seen the Less Than Jake, "evolution of a ska kid" t-shirts, you'll see a very real progression (as it is though, the Descendents' "evolution of man" t-shirt is my favorite "evolution of..." t-shirt). Unless you're Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Big D & the Kids Table, etc., it's really not acceptable to play in a ska/punk band after high school... let alone, three years after you dropped out of community college, but I do and so what!?! While most of my friends began listening to more rock-oriented genres, leaving ska behind, I've began listening to those same genres, shuffled in with ska. I still enjoy most of the bands I dug that eighth grade year and on. This isn't normal, I suppose. Anyways, one of the reasons these ska tunes are still in rotation is my fondness of the energy in the music. A good ska/punk song is like four Mardi Gras, man! Having a bad day? Put on The Fury of the Aquabats and listen to Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates! TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE-DOWN! Another reason I dig that ska music, mang: I heart puns and ska is ripe with the worst puns possible. Imo, the best ska-name I've seen was The Skabortionists (Iowa's best ska/punk band, circa 2003). The limitless abilty to throw "ska" on the front of nearly any word beginning with the letter "a" is totally skawesome. Skalmost Heroes! Skanarachist Cookbook! Skaustralia! Skatonement! Skalan Skalda! So many options, IT'S SKAMAZING! Skanyhow, I'm 24 now... and I still listen to and play ska. I'm going to be single forever.
