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December 14, 2004

Is this a band?

A family band: You know, AB doesn't play the drums... but don't you wish she did?

Eat it, Meg White.

Everybody must rock out:

Doesn't The Missing Link (all right, his name is Jesse) remind you of Bob Dylan? That is because he is awesome beyond all understanding.

Now, I had met Jesse a few times previously, when all of us were imprisoned in Dallas, but I did not at that time understand his greatness. Now that I am aware, he will never be allowed another peaceful moment. We tried all sorts of tactics to convince him to move back to the Southeast from Los Angeles. None of them worked. Yet.

How he could resist us, I don't know.

Being a drummer in a recording project is pretty boring. You get to rock out like, one time, and then sit around for two hours and wait for the next song. So, you gotta do something, right? And, this is Chao Camp, right? So:

The same could be said for anybody involved. There's a lot of waiting.

Here, I am practicing my mystical vampire face for the album cover. My forehead has crossed oceans of time to sing this song to you...

A lot of time also gets spent doing other things, like cooking and drinking, and threatening suicide if someone doesn't change the CD out of the stereo.

But, mostly, what goes on is a lot of adjusting of the levels, and plugging in of mics and stopping and starting, and, if you're me, cussing because you've messed it up yet again. "DID YOU SAY IT WAS TWO BARS FOR NOTHING?! ... HUH? OH, I STILL HAVE ON THE HEADphones...sorry." And, Vince Chao is a patient man, but even he has his limits.

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Posted by The DMs at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2004

A thousand words

Believe me, I could write a thousand words about this weekend. The Damn Millionaires, setting aside the various current turbulences in our personal lives, got back in the zone. We're much like Britney Spears in that way.

We hadn't seen each other since July, and the rust came off quickly, especially when we added The Missing Link to the mix, who used to play with Vince in another fine ensemble, and who gave us all just the shot in the arm we needed. Maybe all we needed was a shot in the arm. We're much like Wilco in that way.

Oh, speaking of "in the mix." Vince had been talking for two days about "picking up a mixer from Doug," all in the same breath as saying "when we mix the songs down," and "we have to get the bass right in the mix," etc. Of course, everyone in Funroe is a musician, so stopping by so-and-so's house to grab a piece of equipment is not at all strange - as a matter of fact, I've never been there when we hadn't done just that.

So, we all ride over to the generous Doug's house and Vince and AB run in to grab this "mixer." I turn to Chris while they are in the house and say "Do you think we have enough room in the trunk for the mixer?" And we sit there debating over how big it's going to be, and whether or not AB and Vince can carry it by themselves.

Two minutes later, Vince comes out of the house carrying a KitchenAid he needed to make dessert that night.

So, I would be remiss if I didn't also publicly recognize "the fifth Millionaire," who is actually just a red KitchenAid mixer the Chaos had on hand for the weekend. They have recently purchased one, but did not have it in-house in time to make the fantastic cheesecake we enjoyed throughout the weekend, so they borrowed a pinch hitter from friends.

We're dumb. However...

We have lots of other pictures, which will be here later. We really had a fantastic time, ending each song with a chorus of "how'd that one get so... awesome?"

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Posted by The DMs at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)