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smackenzieMission had bought his house, so the story went, because there wasn't enough room in his apartment for his drums, his girlfriend, his girlfriend's cat, and his sister. The drums had been living in his parents' basement until they'd moved out to Arizona. Mission had packed up his kit and unwillingly put everything in storage, except for the seven months Steerpike rented honest-to-god rehearsal space, where he could set up his kit and leave it. His girlfriend's cat didn't survive the house-moving process and for a couple of months after they'd moved in, the girlfriend insisted that Mission had let it escape because he hadn't ever liked it in the first place. The girlfriend lasted almost another year, much to her credit, but by the time she and Mission broke up they could both honestly say they should've done it sooner. His sister, unfortunately for the band, wasn't going anywhere any time soon.
The house was a little bungalow/cottage style place with a detached garage and a driveway. The kitchen could use some updating but the house was built in the 20's and still had a lot of the old wood and details, and it wasn't a huge house but it was certainly big enough for one single guy, his drum kit, a drafting table, and an old surfboard painted with palm trees and cartoony surfer girls in convertibles. Lately Mission had been making noises about getting a dog, but who would walk it in the middle of the day? He was a graphic designer for one of the local weekly "alternative" papers and worked strange and sometimes really long hours. But he had a little yard and space for a dog, and most importantly for Steerpike, he had a garage where he could set up his drums and have people over for rehearsal.
Someday Laurie figured the neighbors would complain, but in the meantime it was an improvement over their old rented practice space, which was below street level and kind of dank, and it sure beat playing in his parents' house. Besides, there were usually snacks.
He pulled up in front of the house, maneuvered his bike around Lea's car, and parked next to the garage. The garage door was closed, of course, and there was a regular house door on the side wall, but no one opened either when Laurie banged on them. He went across to the house, knocked on that door, and was finally rewarded with Mission letting him in.
"Hey," he said. "I have to finish some stuff for work, but come on in. Lea's in the kitchen. We're still waiting for Bran."
"I'm kinda early," Laurie admitted, coming inside and shrugging out of his jacket. Mission hung it in the front closet.
"We'd still be waiting for Bran even if you were on time." Mission grinned. "I got some beer and a lot of soda. Go help yourself." He gestured vaguely towards the kitchen, then disappeared into his office. Laurie leaned his guitar case against the wall and went to find the bathroom first, and then something to eat.
Lea was in the kitchen washing grapes and sucking down Coke through a straw. One of the things Laurie liked about Mission's house - the drummer was prepared for small boys to show up unannounced and at any time, so it was a fair bet you'd get bendy straws, Swedish fish, and chocolate pudding when you came for rehearsal.
"Well, hello there," Lea said. She glanced at the kitchen clock. "You're early."
"I left home at seven and rode around for a while," Laurie told her, opening the refrigerator door and scanning the shelves. He wasn't sure he really wanted a beer, but if it was good beer.... "It doesn't take me an hour to get here. And I know if I was one minute late, Bran would've bitched me out."
"He's not here yet."
"That's what Mission said. But it's not eight."
"Almost." She held out the bowl. "Grape?"
"Nah. Does Mission have any pudding?"
Mission did not have any pudding, so Laurie contented himself with a banana and a Coke and briefly considered mentioning Danny's love life to Lea. She had three highly protective older brothers, though, and they'd spent her entire adolescence and young adulthood trying to scare off any potential boyfriends (thankfully not always successfully), and Laurie wasn't sure she'd agree with his method of helping Danny out, and he didn't really want to argue about it. Instead he listened to Lea chatter on about her job - she was a mortician in the city morgue - and some of the weird fucking things people died of.
"Haven't found a guy with a gerbil up his ass yet," she said, "but today we got a little old lady with a stomach full of calcium pills."
"I didn't know you could OD on calcium." Laurie's mom took it, 1000 milligrams a day.
"You can't. She had a heart attack. I have no idea why she took all those pills, though. Maybe she thought she could kill herself with calcium."
"Easier to drink a couple gallons of milk."
"Old people are weird. When I get that old, promise my weirdness will at least be interesting."
"Ok. I promise."
Mission stuck his head in the kitchen door and said "I'm going to go warm up, you want to wait for Bran here?"
"Let's start without him," Lea said. "That's what he gets for being late."
Mission opened the door on the side wall of the garage so Bran would know they were there. As if you could miss the noise, Laurie thought. There was a weird tempo change in the song Laurie was working on, which had no lyrics yet but what he thought was a really killer melody. The song wanted to do one thing at the bridge and Mission wanted it to do something else, so he and Laurie tried to work through it until Bran finally showed up with his guitar and an apology.
"I have news, boys and girl," he said, opening his guitar case and pulling out a couple of pieces of paper. "We got a gig October 30 at the Pig - "
"We knew that," Lea interrupted.
"And Fifteen-Cent Solution canceled a show on the 12th at Underworld, and guess who they asked to fill in?"
"Us, clearly," Mission said. "That's a week and a half. They don't give us a lot of time to rehearse, do they?"
"Who else is playing?" Laurie asked.
"They were supporting Mintyfish, and I think And We Danced was also supposed to be on the bill." Out of the corner of his eye Laurie saw Lea make a face. She didn't like And We Danced - they were kind of pop-punk-ska and as far as she was concerned, a lot of poseurs - or the lead singer of Mintyfish. For a girl who would be entirely uninvolved in the local music scene if she hadn't been in a band, Lea had some very definite opinions of some of the players in it.
"So, what, now we're supporting Mintyfish?" she asked, sounding annoyed.
"Equal billing." Bran looked pleased. "Except we have to play first."
"Underworld's all ages, isn't it?" Laurie said. "I promised I'd try to get Danny into our next show." Bran shrugged.
"I'll ask. That's the first big news, so we have to work on the set list. I want to play 'Peake.'"
"No," Mission said.
"No," Lea said.
"Why?" Laurie asked.
"Peake" was one of the songs off the EP, an eight-minute track that Lea thought was pretentious and Mission thought had the weirdest and possibly most difficult time signatures known to man. The EP itself was kind of a bridge between Mission and Bran's shoegazer days in the Pear and Pomegranate and the more rocking, guitar-driven sound of Steerpike - "Peake" was like the moody pretentious lyricist's last gasp. It was Bran's more or less successful attempt to translate the feel of the Gormengast trilogy into music, and as such was close to his heart. But none of the other band members really liked it. Laurie thought it was a good song in the sense that he liked listening to it - it was moody and atmospheric and strange, and a very good song to concentrate on - but he didn't love playing it live. It was one of those songs that benefitted better from being played on a really good stereo system.
Bran looked determined, and even though he conceded that the show at Underworld was probably too soon for them to get "Peake" in good performance order, he still wanted them to consider it for the Blind Pig at the end of the month.
"The Underworld gig is the most important right now," he said. "We go on at eight and get an hour and a half. I think we can probably do most of the CD, but we got a really good response for 'Winter White' and 'Red Army Blues,' and by now if we don't do Joan Jett the crowd gets pissy - " Lea grinned at Laurie, because Joan's "I Love Rock and Roll" was his song - "and I'd like to try out 'Wide and Clever' because we haven't done it for an audience yet."
"As long as you stop tuning my guitar first," Laurie said. "That's why the strings keep breaking, you tune 'em too tight. That's a weird fucking song."
"I like it," Lea said. "It's got an interesting bassline, and the words aren't too obscure." Bran had in fact gotten a lot better about his tendency to write arty, deliberately strange, inscrutable lyrics.
"You keep getting ahead of me," Mission pointed out.
"No I don't. You keep slowing down."
"Maybe we should run through it a few times to be sure," Bran suggested, pulling his Fender out of the case and looking around for a cord to plug it into the amp. Once he'd gotten himself set up, he held out his hand to Laurie, apparently not having heard the "Don't tune my guitar because you tighten the strings too much."
"Uh, no," Laurie said. "Just because I brought extra strings doesn't mean I want to use them."
"Otherwise it sucks."
"I play everything else with my own tuning, Bran, I don't know why you have to fuck with my guitar just for this one song."
"Because he's a perfectionist and knows more than you?" Lea suggested snidely. Bran ignored her, but he pulled his hand away.
"Fine," he pouted, "when it sounds crappy I'll blame you."
"Ok," Laurie said. He didn't think it would sound crappy at all, but to be fair it was Bran's song and Bran probably had it in his head that it should sound a particular way. It just happened that the sound in Bran's head would snap Laurie's guitar strings.
words: 1818
total words: 9230
The house was a little bungalow/cottage style place with a detached garage and a driveway. The kitchen could use some updating but the house was built in the 20's and still had a lot of the old wood and details, and it wasn't a huge house but it was certainly big enough for one single guy, his drum kit, a drafting table, and an old surfboard painted with palm trees and cartoony surfer girls in convertibles. Lately Mission had been making noises about getting a dog, but who would walk it in the middle of the day? He was a graphic designer for one of the local weekly "alternative" papers and worked strange and sometimes really long hours. But he had a little yard and space for a dog, and most importantly for Steerpike, he had a garage where he could set up his drums and have people over for rehearsal.
Someday Laurie figured the neighbors would complain, but in the meantime it was an improvement over their old rented practice space, which was below street level and kind of dank, and it sure beat playing in his parents' house. Besides, there were usually snacks.
He pulled up in front of the house, maneuvered his bike around Lea's car, and parked next to the garage. The garage door was closed, of course, and there was a regular house door on the side wall, but no one opened either when Laurie banged on them. He went across to the house, knocked on that door, and was finally rewarded with Mission letting him in.
"Hey," he said. "I have to finish some stuff for work, but come on in. Lea's in the kitchen. We're still waiting for Bran."
"I'm kinda early," Laurie admitted, coming inside and shrugging out of his jacket. Mission hung it in the front closet.
"We'd still be waiting for Bran even if you were on time." Mission grinned. "I got some beer and a lot of soda. Go help yourself." He gestured vaguely towards the kitchen, then disappeared into his office. Laurie leaned his guitar case against the wall and went to find the bathroom first, and then something to eat.
Lea was in the kitchen washing grapes and sucking down Coke through a straw. One of the things Laurie liked about Mission's house - the drummer was prepared for small boys to show up unannounced and at any time, so it was a fair bet you'd get bendy straws, Swedish fish, and chocolate pudding when you came for rehearsal.
"Well, hello there," Lea said. She glanced at the kitchen clock. "You're early."
"I left home at seven and rode around for a while," Laurie told her, opening the refrigerator door and scanning the shelves. He wasn't sure he really wanted a beer, but if it was good beer.... "It doesn't take me an hour to get here. And I know if I was one minute late, Bran would've bitched me out."
"He's not here yet."
"That's what Mission said. But it's not eight."
"Almost." She held out the bowl. "Grape?"
"Nah. Does Mission have any pudding?"
Mission did not have any pudding, so Laurie contented himself with a banana and a Coke and briefly considered mentioning Danny's love life to Lea. She had three highly protective older brothers, though, and they'd spent her entire adolescence and young adulthood trying to scare off any potential boyfriends (thankfully not always successfully), and Laurie wasn't sure she'd agree with his method of helping Danny out, and he didn't really want to argue about it. Instead he listened to Lea chatter on about her job - she was a mortician in the city morgue - and some of the weird fucking things people died of.
"Haven't found a guy with a gerbil up his ass yet," she said, "but today we got a little old lady with a stomach full of calcium pills."
"I didn't know you could OD on calcium." Laurie's mom took it, 1000 milligrams a day.
"You can't. She had a heart attack. I have no idea why she took all those pills, though. Maybe she thought she could kill herself with calcium."
"Easier to drink a couple gallons of milk."
"Old people are weird. When I get that old, promise my weirdness will at least be interesting."
"Ok. I promise."
Mission stuck his head in the kitchen door and said "I'm going to go warm up, you want to wait for Bran here?"
"Let's start without him," Lea said. "That's what he gets for being late."
Mission opened the door on the side wall of the garage so Bran would know they were there. As if you could miss the noise, Laurie thought. There was a weird tempo change in the song Laurie was working on, which had no lyrics yet but what he thought was a really killer melody. The song wanted to do one thing at the bridge and Mission wanted it to do something else, so he and Laurie tried to work through it until Bran finally showed up with his guitar and an apology.
"I have news, boys and girl," he said, opening his guitar case and pulling out a couple of pieces of paper. "We got a gig October 30 at the Pig - "
"We knew that," Lea interrupted.
"And Fifteen-Cent Solution canceled a show on the 12th at Underworld, and guess who they asked to fill in?"
"Us, clearly," Mission said. "That's a week and a half. They don't give us a lot of time to rehearse, do they?"
"Who else is playing?" Laurie asked.
"They were supporting Mintyfish, and I think And We Danced was also supposed to be on the bill." Out of the corner of his eye Laurie saw Lea make a face. She didn't like And We Danced - they were kind of pop-punk-ska and as far as she was concerned, a lot of poseurs - or the lead singer of Mintyfish. For a girl who would be entirely uninvolved in the local music scene if she hadn't been in a band, Lea had some very definite opinions of some of the players in it.
"So, what, now we're supporting Mintyfish?" she asked, sounding annoyed.
"Equal billing." Bran looked pleased. "Except we have to play first."
"Underworld's all ages, isn't it?" Laurie said. "I promised I'd try to get Danny into our next show." Bran shrugged.
"I'll ask. That's the first big news, so we have to work on the set list. I want to play 'Peake.'"
"No," Mission said.
"No," Lea said.
"Why?" Laurie asked.
"Peake" was one of the songs off the EP, an eight-minute track that Lea thought was pretentious and Mission thought had the weirdest and possibly most difficult time signatures known to man. The EP itself was kind of a bridge between Mission and Bran's shoegazer days in the Pear and Pomegranate and the more rocking, guitar-driven sound of Steerpike - "Peake" was like the moody pretentious lyricist's last gasp. It was Bran's more or less successful attempt to translate the feel of the Gormengast trilogy into music, and as such was close to his heart. But none of the other band members really liked it. Laurie thought it was a good song in the sense that he liked listening to it - it was moody and atmospheric and strange, and a very good song to concentrate on - but he didn't love playing it live. It was one of those songs that benefitted better from being played on a really good stereo system.
Bran looked determined, and even though he conceded that the show at Underworld was probably too soon for them to get "Peake" in good performance order, he still wanted them to consider it for the Blind Pig at the end of the month.
"The Underworld gig is the most important right now," he said. "We go on at eight and get an hour and a half. I think we can probably do most of the CD, but we got a really good response for 'Winter White' and 'Red Army Blues,' and by now if we don't do Joan Jett the crowd gets pissy - " Lea grinned at Laurie, because Joan's "I Love Rock and Roll" was his song - "and I'd like to try out 'Wide and Clever' because we haven't done it for an audience yet."
"As long as you stop tuning my guitar first," Laurie said. "That's why the strings keep breaking, you tune 'em too tight. That's a weird fucking song."
"I like it," Lea said. "It's got an interesting bassline, and the words aren't too obscure." Bran had in fact gotten a lot better about his tendency to write arty, deliberately strange, inscrutable lyrics.
"You keep getting ahead of me," Mission pointed out.
"No I don't. You keep slowing down."
"Maybe we should run through it a few times to be sure," Bran suggested, pulling his Fender out of the case and looking around for a cord to plug it into the amp. Once he'd gotten himself set up, he held out his hand to Laurie, apparently not having heard the "Don't tune my guitar because you tighten the strings too much."
"Uh, no," Laurie said. "Just because I brought extra strings doesn't mean I want to use them."
"Otherwise it sucks."
"I play everything else with my own tuning, Bran, I don't know why you have to fuck with my guitar just for this one song."
"Because he's a perfectionist and knows more than you?" Lea suggested snidely. Bran ignored her, but he pulled his hand away.
"Fine," he pouted, "when it sounds crappy I'll blame you."
"Ok," Laurie said. He didn't think it would sound crappy at all, but to be fair it was Bran's song and Bran probably had it in his head that it should sound a particular way. It just happened that the sound in Bran's head would snap Laurie's guitar strings.
words: 1818
total words: 9230
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Date: 2003-11-04 02:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-11-04 09:30 pm (UTC)heh. thanks.