Sunday, September 30

The haps

I thought I'd drop a blog (that sounds awful, doesn't it? :) on the goings on, in addition to web-site updates.

Steph and Tobias have been in Las Vegas visiting Steph's mom for the past few days. I've had a pretty fantastico weekend of pseudobachelorhoodness. On Friday I hung out with Brigid and some of our current and former co-workers. We hit the Cashew downtown and then the Cigar Box, two places I'd never been.

I probably damaged my hearing more in that one night than I have in the last two years of rock rehearsals and shows. At the Cigar Box I was nestled in a cushy armchair right next to one of the PA speakers. The speaker was about 12" from my head. I tried buffering it a bit with a throw pillow, but you can imagine how effective that was. Really, you can.

Initially I was pretty uncomfortable, but something in me (perhaps alcohol) decided that it was time to stop worrying about it and embrace a little self-obliteration. After all, is there a more pleasant way to obliterate oneself than to watch a number of attractive women dance to Abba at >120db while sipping a screwdriver in an armchair? All I lacked was a smoking jacket.

I have decided that, at some point, I need to start dancing.

Our final stop of the evening was Jimmy Johns, who in a brilliant business maneuver have decided to stay open until 4AM on Friday and Saturday nights serving sandwiches to the intoxicated and the otherwise awake.

Last night I went out to Lawrence with Mark Hamblin and Chuck of namelessnumberheadman to watch said band rock the Replay Lounge. Both Chuck and Mark have trained to be Sexy Accident fill-in bassists at times past, but that's not really germane, now is it?

We started the night by enjoying bindi masala (okra), a cheese korma and some vegetable samosas at the Indian place just off Mass ave. We may have also invented a few businesses, but only time will tell.

The show itself was fab, and the stage banter particularly entertaining. Do you like piano played up high? Yeah? At one point I saved Andrew's keyboard from an untimely death as it began to fall from its stand during one of the more rockish numbers of the night. Andrew was busy drumming, singing, and milking a calf and Chuck was playing guitar, completing a tax return and conjugating the verb "to jump" in French while whistling, so only I could save the keyboard. Afterwards I was given mad props, as they say on the street(s), which was nice, and apt considering how awesome I am.

Both of these evenings ended around 5AM, which means I'm happily sleepy now. Perhaps unfortunately, I've also been watching chuck's copy of "A year and a half in the life of METALLICA" which means I may be at risk of living (sleeping?) the Enter Sandman video if my subconscious opts to be bitchy.

Other interesting events of note - Mr. Forester photographed us last week at his soon-to-be-abandoned pad. The session was very fun. I particulary enjoyed playing the "dress up Pat Fent" game. He comes with so many outfits!

Other than that we're siked about our two shows next weekend. We don't exactly know where the second one is yet, but I'm sure that'll work itself out.

Geoffrey Brigid Ryan Michael (Aileen) Sean Kyle Kathryn!

Just sayin'

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com


Lyrics!!!

So I spent a few hours tonight putting up a page with all of our lyrics on it. Check it out!

It's really fun for me to read them all, since so much of it is at least semi-autobiographical. Or at minimum I felt a resonance to the ideas and feelings captured in the songs at the time I wrote them. It's a great way for me to remember things - like looking at photos.

Anyway, enjoy! I sure did.

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com


Thursday, September 20

song 11! - my girl

So one of the advantages of postponing the album is I get to write more songs. I just finished my first draft of a new one called my girl - it's pretty fantastic if I do say so myself.

Here's the words (at least in draft form) -

my girl
doesn't watch tv
'less it's a movie
by the cohen brothers

my girl
likes to paint and dance
wouldn't give a glance
to no dudes in sports bars

my girl
is at home asleep
'cuz she's gotta keep
Toby blowin' bubbles

my girl
doesn't mind a bit
puts up with my shit
when I get in trouble

she's almost everything I need
forgives me all of my misdeeds
how did I land with all the world?
how come I get to call her

my girl
sure knows how to cook
not just by the book
likes to make me wobble

my girl
knows just what she needs
'specially when she reads
vampire romance novels

she's almost everything I need
forgives me all of my misdeeds
how did I land with all the world?
how come I get to call her

my girl

- lyrics (c) (p) 2007 Jesse Kates


'Course I have to be careful not to write TOO much new material or the band won't ever get to the point where we've mastered anything! :) It just sucks to be so talented and prolific :p

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com


Wednesday, September 19

my ideal woman

is smart as hell
paints or draws or dances
is funny and laughs at my jokes
likes to cuddle
shares my political values
can relax
wants to have friends over for dinner
is spiritual
doesn't watch TV but loves movies
is reliable
likes to walk and hike
is beautiful but doesn't obsess over her appearance
loves her family and wants one of her own
is a little shy
likes to do things i wouldn't otherwise do
is committed
appreciates great food
likes to travel
enjoys carving pumpkins and baking christmas cookies
loves sex
plays chess
settles me down

how on earth did i manage to get everything on my list?

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com


Wednesday, September 12

Chicago has been postponed

We made the difficult decision today to postpone our trip to Electrical Audio. We're just not ready yet. The band sounds better than ever, but we want this album to be as close to perfect as is appropriate for Rock n' Roll. :)

So if you want us to play any shows, drop us a line. We're back in "live" mode.

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com


Sunday, September 9

Silencia!

Sorry I'm a little slow on dem dere updatey-things. I've been really sleepy, and busy, working on recording rehearsals obviously and, oddly enough, album art. :) I just couldn't resist.

I'm super excited about the design I've cooked up, but I think it would be a little premature to reveal it here.

We are still working hard. Harder than ever! And our date with destiny is fast approaching - just about one month off, now. I had a dream about being in the studio last night, 'cept the studio was dingy and dark and a lot of things were going wrong.

One of the more memorable details was me realizing that they were recording us one track at a time, starting with the bass, which sucked. I tried to ask about it - expressing that we wanted to record live as a band - and I was treated like an idiot. I think I was flashing back to being at Low Key earlier this year. :)

In other news, I changed the key of Lonely days back to D in standard instead of E flat in my crazy C# tuning. I originally wrote it in D and had been playing it in E flat for tuning / guitar tech reasons, but it just doesn't work as well in the slightly higher key. I have to strain too much to hit the high falsetto notes. Plus, I originally wrote it in D and it just works better that way.

I can still hear the night I wrote it, and remember when I left it on the voicemail of the woman who inspired it so she could enjoy the sweet strains of my voice warbling in the distortion of a cell phone encoder while she was visiting an ex-boyfriend in Washington. I had to record it three times before I was happy with how it went down (She didn't get three messages - I scrubbed the first two takes. It pays to be an expert in the Sprint voicemail UI.)

She said she enjoyed getting the message in the midst of ex awkwardness ("why won't you change your clothes in front of me?" he asked her.) So in the end, it's only right that I commit it to tape in the form as originally heard by the song's inspiration on the night of the song's creation. So that's what I'll do.

In other news, I've started my first secret society with two conspirators. Does anyone know where I can buy silk monogrammed smoking jackets? I'm not kidding.

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com