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18 july 2000
----- I wrote this tune back in January. In February, I (quite prematurely) presented it to the band to learn. One rainy evening in March, we dedicated a band practice to it. Four hours. Different parts. Over and over and over again. I had a cold that night, and yet I kept on singing until I almost couldn't sing anymore. Almost. The recording was made at the end of practice ... the whole band was confident we could get through the song, from beginning to end, without stopping. We didn't care about kicking ass, playing well, singing well, none of that. All we wanted to do was get through the thing without having to stop. Wamba threw a microphone in the middle of the rehearsal room so we'd all have a tape to take home and learn from. As for me, my voice was gone. Completely shot. I had been screaming all night, and what little vocal I had left was a cross between Mick Jagger and Gilbert Gottfried, on a bad night. We got through the song. Sure, mistakes were made, the vocals (both lead and backing) were horrible, wrong chords were played, there was really no groove to speak of ... But, we got through the song. And that was a milestone in itself. Wamba ran copies of the tape for everyone and we all went home and worked on our parts. Over six weeks later, we performed the song for the first time live, and it was abysmal. But I knew it would get better. Now, four months later, after infinite tweaking of music, lyrics, and instrumentation, I think I can honestly say that this thing has turned into a song. And I'm dying to record it. But all I have to look back upon is this pathetic rehearsal tape from March, when we hardly even knew how to play or sing it. And yet, everytime I listen to it, it kinda makes me smile, maybe because I know how much better it is now, or maybe because I remember how cacophonically crazy and crude it was back then... Crazy and crude, yep, but the Hammond B-3 done sound cool, and I'm posting here a link to the only recording I have of this song, the first time our band ever played it together, from start to finish, without interruption. It's rough, it sounds like it was recorded in a garage, we were very tired, even more out of tune, and there are a shitload of mistakes. Back then it was called "Silly Love Song," then "Shy Guy," then "Monday Blue," and finally "amababa." The current lyrics (ie, what I'm singing now at our shows, although they still ain't done) are below (older version I posted in april)-- the tune as a whole has gone through a bunch of changes since this recording was made. The MP3 (ripped direct off of cassette, which was recorded out of a single microphone in the middle of our rehearsal studio back in March) is here. It's a piece of me I can't really put in writing...
A pretty face, a cross, a busy street If you're still with me, you can hear what our band sounds like when we finally learn a song and take a bit of time recording it ... listen to I Mean to Tell Ya, which, I have to admit, sounded worse than "amababa" the first time we got all the way through it.... And yeah, I kinda nicked that clav lick from Stevie Wonder But the Hammond B-3 done sound cool, don't it? Weird, ain't it.... ~~~ Encore? Um, ok. Just because I promised a good friend a mention in here, I hereby dedicate this next mp3 to Don, who never calls when he says he will. So here it is, my least favorite song of ours, but still the one they decided to play on the radio out here, Cool It Out. What? Another one? Well, the notify list got a link to our most recent studio recording (see, the notify list is cool), but if you're really desperate (which I highly doubt), you can check out some of our older stuff on the band website. Yes, that's the back of my car in today's picture. Frightening, ain't it? all music and lyrics above are copyright © 2000 Groaning Mona
In the forum: 18 july 1999: : didn't write 17 july 1998: slim : Having a penis really sucks sometime. OK, maybe "sucks" was the wrong word. Let's just say that the day my mind and my dick become friends, well, all will be well, birds will chirp, and angels will sing.
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