Andrea is going to go back to school to seek her degree in teaching. Her and I (plus our little dog, Molly and our cats Zoey & Cloey) will be moving to Chattanooga over the next few weeks. This necessitates less music output for a while. HOWEVER, we of course will still be jamming with Ross (Knoxville is only a 2 hour drive!) An added benefit is that Chattanooga is a ROCKIN' town with a progressive music scene compared to Knoxville/Sevierville. Once we are settled, we plan to find a drummer and REALLY HIT IT HARD! Meanwhile, for those of you who are dice rolling geeks, I have published the rules to my role-playing game Nutshell" and have been working on posting notes in html format for "Weorai" (a setting for Nutshell.)
Well, Jane, I mean Janet..LOL, you certainly had a rough time there. I will admit that I have been in a recent jam and considering we both are employed by Christmas Place, I felt sort of a common ground, no pun intended. I locked my keys in my car just recently. Now, after leaving work at 10:20 pm or so, there are not alot of people left around. Though if we extended our hours even to midnight I think people would find a reason to shop!! (Careful Andrea says to self..haha!) So, here I am with arms loaded and tired looking forward to my 5 min drive home! I am one of the lucky ones I suppose. I reach down and dangling from the keyhole is my overcrowded keychain. I think I have at least 10 keys on there and I only use maybe 4?Minus the troll doll and photo keyring of me and my honey bunch! Sorry I tend to digress! Anyhoo, so I dig deep to find my cell and call my parents. I am 36 and yes, I still call my parents in time of need. Skip the boyfriend, he would just fuss at me. After 30 minutes of trying to reach a locksmith, my mother returns my call saying they are on their way. At this point I am just relieved and hoping I have enough cash in my purse to pay them. In my mind I am thinking maybe he will feel sorry for me being blonde and all!HAHA! Well,I feel I am entitled to one blonde moment a day! So I sit patiently on the employee bench and suddenly realize, where at first I felt safe, the lights go out. You know darkness makes everyone alittle nervous. There is some light so I am fine until I hear the parking lot sweeper quickly driving up beside the employee area. Have you ever noticed how fast those guys drive? Geez, watch out! Being the dramatic that I am, I tend to cringe as he stops. He kindly hangs his head out the window and yells “Having car trouble??” Well, I hear Jeff Foxworthy whispering in my ear..”Hears your sign!” I said I was fine and had someone on the way. Instead of moving on he proceeds to tell me about his cell phone plan and how great it is . He was nice but I was really eager to get in my car at this point. So he smiles and goes on.Every trip around he stops to make some comment about how it stinks to have car trouble and how expensive it is to call for help. I am feeling much better at this point and wave him goodbye on his last round. It’s quickly approaching 11:30 and the midnight hour is close. I am tempted to lay down and close my eyes but I was afriad some big spider would decide to climb across my face and then I’d set the alarms off by screaming hysterically.(Hang in there ya’ll I am almost rescued.)So he gets out and has a flashlight and some wire thingy(those of you old enough to remember Sniglets will appreciate that word usage!!) So, I watch as he tend to have some difficulty. He says to me he needs more duck tape. Wow, what an invention! Its a fairly simple process which makes me feel even more ridiculous! I am gonna have extra keys made tomorrow, first thing, I tell myself! He gets it unlocked and a sigh of relief exits my mouth! Then I ask the dreaded question, “How much do I owe you kind sir?” “That’ll be $50.” I could have passed out at this point but being the size girl that I am, no one wants to see that big of a chalk outline on the pavement!!!! I then asked, sarcastically with a giggle,”any kind of local discount?” He replies, “That is discounted!” I respond with a laugh and undefinable words that resemble the Muppets Swedish Chef! Then I get out my wallet and start quickly counting and realize I only have $40 and like 35 cents. (Maybe he will…NOT!) “I can take a credit card!” (Well, of course you can, why would I think otherwise!!ARGH!) Instead of making this process take any longer, I begrudgedly hand him my check card and he swipes it right there. Did I mention we are still in the dark? He says thanks and I grunt a thanks back. Word to the wise, always have extras keys.
by Shmoo
Still haven't had time to do anything music lately. I have tinkered a bit with the site this past two weeks and have begun work on House Rules RPG (a roleplaying game we dorks made up and sometimes play when we are bored.) Andrea got talked into joining the Moose's Lodge. (WOTM)
As a band, Electric Gypsy is in kind of a productive slump. Perhaps we'll have some output soon (once we are adjusted to our new day-job scheduals.)
by Shmoo
Our band hasn't done much this past couple of weeks other than increase the number of hours spent at our day jobs. The economy is really tight right now. Andrea and I are behind on rent. Ross went to visit long time pal Keith Forman in Ohio last weekend. They mostly just played video games but did manage to record a little on a new version of "Brown Eyed Girl" which we might post online if/when completed. Keith is an awesome musician we grew up with in Jellico, Tn. Look for his band Black Mike Silver on MySpace, YouTube and at DMusic!
by Shmoo
Van Morrison (or his publisher, Exile) have decided to "lighten up" and let us and other bands put covers of his tunes online at YouTube and other such sites. See the article: Van Morrison hates covers - doesn't hate covers..." Apparently Morrison/Exile noticed that their hired copyright enforcer, Websheriff was being too heavy handed in doling out DMCA take-down notices. Websheriff actually came to the Boycott-RIAA website and apologized (on behalf of Exile) to us and other bands who had our Van Morrison covers yanked for not "good enough" reasons. So, in a way, by being the "squeaky wheel" WE WON! (Whoopie!)
We are in the process of re-posting our version of "Brown Eyed Girl" at this very moment. We will put a link to it in the "New Stuff" section of our website as soon as it is available! (About 15 minutes from now.)
by Shmoo
Hooray! Our self produced compact disc, 'Insert Drummer Here' is now available! (We recorded all the tracks over the years prior to meeting our current drummer, thus the title.) If you want a copy, simply use our donate button and send us $10. (Provide your mailing address!) Many of the tracks have free mp3's you can download or stream from iLike. (Just go to iLike.com or garageband.com and look for Electric Gypsy!)
by Shmoo
*sigh* ...Oh well. We obviously didn't play at the Battle Of The Bands. We were unable to get in touch with Johnny in time to confirm he would be able to make it. The folks at Big Mama's Karaoke Cafe were gracious about it tho and said we could reschedule for a later date. We will let ya all know!
by Shmoo
Times are hard! Johnny's phone has been out of order and gas prices are so high that it has been difficult for us to meet-up and get things done in preparation for the Karaoke Cafe's Battle Of The Bands this coming Friday. (Oh, the stress!) However, we finally managed to contact our drummer and confirm that we will at least get to rehearse one more time on Thursday before the show. KnoxRocksTv will be filming it all. (We will of course post the vid-links as soon as we know them!) We are crossing our fingers in hopes of putting on a good performance. (The other bands on the ticket are REALLY good!) Come cheer for us!
by Shmoo
Had rehearsal at Johnny's house today. Johnny thinks we should lay-off doing so many cover tunes. He doesn't seem to like the way we play a lot of the covers we have been trying to work up with him. (But he gets excited by our originals!) We have the upcoming Battle of the Band's at Big Mama's Cafe on July the 11th. (We are scheduled for 8pm.) I for-see only one more rehearsal between now and then. Hopefully we can "get it together" enough to do a good show now that we are going to switch gears and drop a lot of the material we had been working on.
by Shmoo
Sadly, Andrea had to work yesterday and we were unable to make it to play the show in Jellico. This sort of thing happens to us a lot whenever we have plans as a band. Oh well, at least it wasn't a paid gig. (We were going to do it for free.) Maybe next time. (We are invited again on the 12th of July.) - Next week, if we can coordinate our schedules and rehearse, perhaps we will record some more audio and/or video.
by Shmoo
Happy birthday to me! (I'm 41 today.) Ross bought me a Mackie 1202 VLZ mixer which will help us a bunch.
Uploaded 3 videos from our rehearsal last week. Nothing special. We just pointed the camcorder at the center of mass and turned it on.
by Shmoo
Was a busy week! elektronz at DMusic did a great techno remix of "Tomorrow Never Knows" available for free download!
We all met at Johnny's house on Friday to rehearse for our upcoming show in Jellico on Saturday, 21 June at the downtown Veteran's Park. Songs planned for our show are: Middle Of The Road (Pretenders) - Our Lips Are Sealed (Go Go's) - Just A Girl (No Doubt) - Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison) - You're No Good (Linda Ronstadt) - Shakin' and Little One (Electric Gypsy originals!) - Summer Breeze (Seals & Croft) - Melt With You (Modern English) - Creep (Radiohead) - Landslide (Fleetwood Mac) - Not Fade Away (Buddy Holly) - Crazy Thing Called Love (Queen) - Sir Duke Stevie Wonder.
Also, there are a few "outtake clips" I uploaded at YouTube featuring us between takes at various rehearsals and other errata. (lol, better go see them before Andrea, Johnny, and Ross make me pull them down! Sheesh! My band-mates are too shy sometimes! Gotta let them know that fans LOVE that kinda stuff!)
by Ross
Went to Jellico to see our friend's band, Exit 160 (look for their MySpace page!) at the Veteran's Park Downtown Pavilion. We plan to be there for a show on the 21st.
by Andrea
Doing a booth at the Relay For Life in Sevierville today and tomorrow. Made lots and lots of Tie Died T-Shirts for the event!
by Shmoo
Posted "Tomorrow Never Knows" at YouTube and a partial clip of Andrea and I messing around with "Landslide" from a couple months ago.
by Shmoo
Check this out! "Lightning Strike" - Shmoo's first animation evar! (.avi file)
Lot's coming soon folks! We are busy recording our official debut album and working on various music video projects whenever our time off from the day-jobs allow. I have completed the audio for "Tomorrow Never Knows" which is a cover of the trippy Beatle's number and have posted an .mp3 at DMusic. In the next day or two I hope to have the video for it done and will post it on YouTube and DailyMotion.
As for songs that will be on the debut album, we have plans to overdub Andrea's dad, Herby Wallace on our studio version of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" in the next couple of weeks. An original song I wrote, "B. Goode 2 Me" is almost finished, needing only some guitar leads and fills. "Little One" still awaits drums from Johnny and Andrea's final vocal. (Ross says he might want to re-do the bass too.) Both versions of Ross's "U Suck/This Sucks" are DONE! They will be posted at DMusic very soon, but I am working on a stop-motion animation thingy to make "U Suck" into a video - which will be posted at ReVVer and OurStage instead of at YouTube (because it is an original that ReVVer will PAY us for!)
Update 20 Aug '08 - procrastination has kept me from yet having done this. Sorry.
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