The Post Tour Blues
What does one do with all of this time?
“Well, now what?”
It is a question that I knew that I’d ask myself the minute I had time to think again. For the whole month of August my days were accounted for on an hour by hour basis. Wake up at this time to drive for X hours so we can arrive in City Y at Z-o’clock. The end of tour brings on two feelings: a sudden stasis after being in motion, and an equally sudden destruction of a daily calendar. My time is no longer regimented by anything but my own needs and desires.
These are feelings that I’ve had enough experience with to anticipate and account for. But the end of this tour had a new wrinkle. The end of tour meant the end of the tour diary. Once I made it back to Brooklyn I no longer had to keep a mental log of what made each day different from the last. Writing about the tour kept my eyes sharp and my mind active. Slouched on the couch, where I last left you, my senses let down their guard. Time slipped into an indistinguishable blur. So if opening this email was your way of asking what I’ve been up to lately, consider this letter one long “uhhhhhhhhh not much”.
That’s not true of course. There’s groceries to buy, laundry to do, housework to remain on top of. I helped a friend move out of their apartment, might as well keep those loading-in-loading-out skills active. I’ve had time to really dig into One Hundred Years of Solitude (good book). There’s equipment to replace (new headphones), and old equipment to dig back up (my ancient double bass pedal, hopefully more about that soon).
Plenty of work to do. As I mentioned a few letter’s ago, the second season of The Human Instrumentality Podcast is well underway. Since I returned from tour two more episodes have dropped. The first covers Satoshi Kon’s brief intersection with the long-running cult favorite Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, which Joseph and I took as an excuse to talk about Shonen anime (i.e. Dragonball Z, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, etc.) in general. Its probably the most fun we’ve had recording without a guest, so if you’re even casually into anime this episode is worth a listen. The second covers Kon’s directorial debut Perfect Blue, a paranoid thriller set in the entertainment industry that turns the barrier between fiction and reality into Swiss cheese. Perfect Blue is a stone-cold classic on its own terms, and makes for a rich case study in the “90s dorm poster” movie canon. In addition to promoting the episodes that are already out, I’ve been busy editing together the rest of the season. We’re really laying the track down only meters away from the train at this point.
As my paid subscribers already know I’ve also returned to work on the new Lamniformes record. Deadlines are starting to peak over the horizon. I feel good about reaching them. So good in fact that I feel safe in turning some of my attention to the next batch of songs. Between a couple of songs that didn’t fit on the full length and a few new tunes I think I have a tight 22 minutes of good material. And speaking of paid subscribers, I wrote the first entry in a new series that will go behind the paywall. You’ll get a preview of that on Thursday.
One common side effect of coming off a tour is total lethargy at the thought of seeing live music. In an act not unlike staying up late to out run jet lag, I tried to power through this phase and bought a last minute ticket to see At The Gates play Slaughter of the Soul at Irving Plaza. I had missed the chance to see that same trio of band, album, and venue in 2008. Well, better late than never. My efforts to stave off gig-sickness received a huge boost when Seth Engel invited me to see him play drums for Mister Goblin. As luck would have it, Stimmerman were also on the bill. I’d been meaning to see them for years, so that’s two birds down. Still, I’m not exactly begging to spend an evening in the empty bowls of a rock club any time soon. Dipping in for The Good Part and leaving is enough for now.
Since I’m not practicing for any upcoming shows, it’s back to Drumming Upstream. All things go to plan, the next entry should arrive in your inbox next Monday.
Huh, that looks like a lot more going on than I expected when its all written down!