Avi's view and Jons place for practice

Autumn has announced itself today with a pleasant chill and the serenading of crickets. What a relief from the sweltering humidity and the shrill cacophany of cicadas which has made life a bit uncomfortable for the past month or so.

Last night was a strange practice, to say the least. First of all, we all got to Jons place real late, for various reasons and jon was a bit impatient since he had wanted to play us a riff he had in his head ,so that we could all work with it.It was a rhythmically interesting piece and we will have to work on it soon, though no melody came to me upon first hearing. we went on to play the newest TenGooz song 'clear skies' which will be upbeat,optimistic and easy to listen to(in contrast to the rest of our dark, disturbing and barely listenable repetoire!)I had been playing it on the acoustic for a few weeks and had worked out a nicely construced little piece,but after Hase G and Tanaka put their hands to it

it sounded, especially the intro, quite beautiful, and seemed to have taken on a life of its own. Jons drumming was also key to developing the phrasing of the vocal line.Jon and I in some of the songs have developed a singing and percussing in unison style that can be heard in such pieces as Jin Jin. We are thinking about recording the song this coming Sunday,though it might be better to wait until we ar emore confident with it and the lyrics are set.

We then moved onto 'Only time will tell' which Jon had suggested needed some serious overhauling.This is a song I had had in my head and had been fiddling with for a few months(Hase G's adjustment period to the band)and we finally started rehearsing it a couple of weeks ago.

I think its a good song with a set theme and a catchy chorus. Last night Hase G and Tanaka were toying with a Jazzy break with django style guitar. That would fit well with the gypsy motif of the song.

Before we knew it, it was past eleven and it was time to call it quits.We didnt really accomplish anything and somedifficulties arose. The sorest point for me is that haseG refuses to play our old covers which people loved to dance to. I think we need something to fall back on when the dancing doesn't stop and you need something to keep it going.With five very different people, its very difficult reaching a consensus. I think we will have to make a song on that theme someday.Or maybe not.

More tomorrow......