Will I Get A Beatdown If I Start A Thread About The Kissing TIme?

Also, Stevem, would you mind putting something in the FAP calendar because I don't know how to do that.

I'm kinda scared. I'm cutting a TEST to play this gig and all, coz Monday nights are my course. Oh my. What's more important to me? Maths vs. ROCK'N'ROLL, FITE!

you're such a badass!

(I didn't just say that, did I?)

thank god for ed, i felt like ilx was just a complicated kate/colette chatroom today...

Oh wait, except none of us are actually pop stars yet ever which makes him a real boy, and therefore bad.

(Or was it on crush threads or dating threads or other things that you don't read?)

(if you really want to know, ed, i can find you the thread where it's all explained)

(Or trying to deflect actual tension, coz if I mock him online, then maybe I won't punch him IRL.)

(Ed, you'll enjoy me Barrying all over the kissing game thread)

It will probably be fun. So long as I manage not to FITE! with Peter. It's been a long time since I actually punched/sacked/pulled a gun on a bandmate onstage. This is why I've been only playing with girls (apart from Matthew, who is a drummer and therefore doesn't count, according to the rules of girlgroups) for the past five years or so. Boys in bands are just too much trouble.

The Captain is a NUT!!! But that's half the fun of playing there.

I remember when you were going to play the Windmill, because I would have come out for that, honest, seeing as how close it is to my house, so I was disappointed that you weren't going to be there. Blah.

But I will be very glad for the support if you come down!

Let me know about the B&G one, one of these days you *will* play on a night where I don't have to rehearse or something (now I no longer have an annoying boyfriend to row and stop me going to gigs).

I think we were supposed to play a B&G gig, but we ended up having to cancel it because it would have meant 3 gigs in a week, argh!

Ned, have you downloaded our MP3s?

http://www.geocities.com/thekissingtime/music.htm

Recorded on a laptop in my bedroom, my first production job in ages, ::bites nails::

(Blimey I can't believe we're organising social events for November already. We'll be starting the Christmas party thread before we know it)

But it is now burned into my brain. Wisconsin = SEX HOURS OF CHEESE!!!

x-post, we SHOULD actually schedule the Xmas part round about now, because that way we will get in ahead of the conflicts!

Fuck off when you've got a real band, you devious jailbait chasing degenerate crackwhore!

Hey, these songs are very nice! *merry* Is it wrong to say I'm thinking a bit of Lush in their quieter moments?

I mean, all in all, it wasn't that bad. There were a lot of obstacles, but I think we overcame them.

First off, our singer FELL OFF A BUS on the way to the gig, and, props to her, performed with bandaged hands and a mild concussion. But it meant no trumpet. Next, we can't run our keyboards through the soundboard. So I'm reduced to running sequences and Freaky Dancing for half the songs. Next, we find out that even though we've brought extra mics, they have the wrong kind of input, so there's 3 mics for 4 people, one of whom is sitting down. Ah well, as I said, if there's not gay pr0n about us on the internet by tomorrow, I'll be disappointed. (I'm also disappointed that Ruth called Carl, so Cat and I had to trade off being Pete for the night.)

Oh yeah, speaking of which, jeez. What a mad place. The most uptight bar manager and the most laidback soundman in the world. They would have been a hillarious team if it wasn't so shambolic. The night is called "Don't Forget Yer Bass Amp" but they have both a bass amp and a guitar amp, which no one has bothered telling us, so there are way too many amps as everyone has brought one. So we're told that we have to store our extra amps and guitar cases "on the landing upstairs". I drag my stuff upstairs, and realise it's the entry of a house. And just as I'm grilling the manager going "Whose house is this? How many people live here? I'm from New York, I'm paranoid, those fuckers will steal anything that isn't nailed down, amps, cases, elections..." right then, I see A Junkie slithering up the stairs. (on reflection, I don't think it was actually him. Too tall.) OK, great. Our spare stuff goes in a cab back to Slantytown.

Anyway... despite all that, I think we pulled off an OK show. It's just kinda really disheartening when you're sitting waiting to go on and there's NO ONE there. Cat and I were all "fuck this, let's go next door and maybe just maybe we'll come back to find the club full of our friends." Which, luckily, it was. Phew.

Ruth and I waltzed. I danced like Bez. Peter fell off the stage. Poor Ruth; I tried to snog her at the end of Just Like Heaven, forgetting that she had a broken face. (That's the only song I can think of that fits yer description, Matt.)

Anyway, massive props to those of you that made it out, props to you that tried (aw, sorry, Dr. C, that really suX0rs with the trains) and, well... hopefully the B&G will be better.

WHAT'S BROWN IN BETHNAL GREEN?!?!?

(I'm going to regret asking this).

::lays finger aside nose::

Errr... I don't know. We don't have a "what's brown in Bethnal Green" yet. Need to come up wtih one, quick!

Chuck just won.

That stage was so weird. The swirly lights were pretty and everything but I couldn't see shit. The brightest light in the room was the one over the bar. And as for sound -- I'm singing right next to Carl I mean Ruthie and I can't even hear her -- not through the monitors, not in my ear, nothing. I couldn't hear my bass either even though I was standing in front of the amp (I could feel it though) -- I kept staring at my fretboard to make sure I was in the right place.
And sharing mics kinda sucked 'cause it meant I had to actually turn my back on the audience and I really don't want my ASS to be part of the show.
But I think we were okay for a band that like to fall down a lot. ;)

I've been disappointed that people haven't come to the last few shows, so now that all these people are telling me that they are coming to *this* show I feel pressure to be something actually organised other than the usual Heartbreaking Work Of Shambolic Genius.

Sorry, I know I'm not allowed to use the word "shambolic" as Peter has put the ix-nay on it (ramshackle, my ass!) which means perhaps I should put it on a T-shirt to annoy him.

Anyway, I'll be coming from my job interview so I may be in a bloody suit.

I'm suffering from crisis of confidence and wondering "what am I doing in this band anyway?" at the moment (due to unrelated things) and if this gig isn't fun, then it may end up being my last with the band.

Anyway, I probably shouldn't be writing this stuff somewhere that my bassist will read it, but I don't think they're unaware of my concerns anyway.

I don't know what time we're on, as usual. I'm thinking 9-ish. it won't be before 8, that is for sure.

Fair enough, he might have a point that The Smiths are overrated, for many, many reasons. but their having GUITAR SOLOS is not one of them.

I have actually just handed in my notice over this.

this is a fucking bloke who will listen to the fucking Las, but thinks the Smiths are overrated because they had guitar solos. I have quit.

I asked him if he burned out on the Smiths, because that I could understand, like all of us who listened to the Smiths so much when we were teens that we became disenchanted and couldn't do it any more. But no, he never cared that much for them.

It's not a wind-up. Like, what is the POINT of being in a shit jangly indie band if you don't want to be The Smiths? i don't get it. I don't even *like* shit jangly indie bands, but I put up with it because I love the Smiths.

Stay and subtly move them in a direction you want, is what I say. The Smiths thing is mentalism, but does it really matter?

Talked to Catty for quite some time after rehearsal when Smiths-Hater was at the supermarket and it's not like my concerns aren't shared by other people in the band. There is a very distinct split in the musical tastes in the band and I don't think it's ever going to resolve itself. There has been some preliminary discussion of the band actually splitting into two, but who knows.

I mean, there's always been a split in tastes, and I never thought this would be a permanent situation. I've always felt like I was filling in a friend's band, rather than this being *my* band. If it were something that I could just turn up and play, fair enough, but it needs a lot more work and effort and input than that.

It's just that I want to balance that girlpop element with something a lot more interesting than stupid hackneyed (heh) indie jangle. (Yeah, the Smiths thing is a red herring, but it's more like the straw that broke the camel's back.)

Anyway, we shall see what happens tonight...

TKT : "Hmm, this song could do with a little bit of something different for the middle eight. Any ideas, anyone?"

Kate : "Let me see... Try THIS.(fiddles with FX pedals) : SCREEEEEEEE! WAAAAHHHHH! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!....(infinite drone noises)

Eleven Minutes passes, final noises die way.

Kate : "How was that? Maybe a stick some 4-part harmonies on between 7 and 8 minutes?"

Maybe you should balance it with stupid hackneyed indie jungle.

That's exactly what I mean by "my band". not just "I have something invested in it" but "I get something out of it".

Anyway, I'm done with my stupid crappy job interview. I think I impressed the CEO but intimidated the crap out of everyone else. Argh. He wanted to hire me for another part of the conglomerate that does data analysis. We shall see... i think it may be waaaayyyy too corporate for me, but whatever.

Hackneyed Indie Jungle? that would be great! Lynskey, do you want to start a side project together?

The problem with the split tastes thing is that I'm very good at providing the girlpop element. I'm not so good at providing the artdrone element. I do much better being the pop one in a weird band rather than the weird one in a pop band. I guess I need to be in a band with people whose tastes are more OUT THERE than mine, rather than more conventional than mine.

Seriously, get back to the UK and we will start an artgirl dronepop band. Oh yeah.

If anyone's in touch with her could you get her to mail me asap?

I have just emailed you both!

:-)

The Kissing Time plays its last gig at the Pleasure Unit on Tuesday, 11 October 2005.

The entrance fee is £5.00.
Stage Time is 8.40pm.
The venue opens at 6.

The other artists are Model Citizens, The Fray, Jamie West Band, and Mothra.
(MOTHRA, people. Godzilla's nemesis. Genius!)

The Pleasure Unit is located in "beautiful" Bethnal Green at 359 Bethnal Green Road.
Nearest tube is, unsurprisingly, Bethnal Green.
(It is unlikely that Pete Doherty will be in the area in case this is a concern.)

Proper flyers are forthcoming, please stay tuned.

It would be great to have your support at this gig. We ditched the iPod/Matt-in-a-Box for live percussion and have some new songs so it's all quite different from the last time you've seen us.

Hope to see you all there!

Cat, Darren, Peter and Ruth
The Kissing Time
http://www.thekissingtime.com