karl.tsakos.us/blog

(Continued from “Rock On, Part1: The Early Years.”)

After things had settled down, my friends from college, post college friends, and siblings would get together every Tuesday for ten cent wing night at a local bar. Sometimes we would get together afterwards and have acoustic folk jams at my brother’s and my apartment. Tom was still around and usually played with us. This common song reference actually resulted in one of my first public performances. Ridgefield, Connecticut was having a street sale where all of the stores opened their doors and setup stands to attract patrons. Tom was friends with the owner of the local music shop who happened to have a band setup on the sidewalk for people to try the instruments. Tom and I picked up the guitar and bass while the owner played drums and his son joined in on keyboard. We played for around an hour and attracted a small crowd.

My musical endeavors got even folkier when wing night dissolved. We discovered that my sister’s friend Liz also played guitar and sang. We wound up playing mostly cover songs and some original stuff with her. Every Thursday we would play open mic night at Jimmy’s Seaside in Stamford. Always the same group of people both in the audience and on stage. Often My brother would join in on vocals. This venue is where the tradition of picking a new band name for each performance started. The only name I can recall off the top of my head was “We Know a Cop.”

Actually, I’m not sure that was what happened next. It’s quit possible this next bit happened first but to be honest, this period of time was sort of amorphous and didn’t have any one particular style or outlet. Anyhow, I started to play lead guitar with my sister and Liz playing rhythm guitars. We tried a couple of bassests and a couple of drummers. We played at someone’s party once, and I can’t recall who was playing bass and drums. I think it was Kemmet on bass and Teague on drums.

Towards the end of that incarnation, I believe Jim M. started playing bass for us. As that band thinned out, it became just Kia, Jim M., and me. We started writing some original music. In our search for a drummer, we came across my other friend Jim D’s friend Dave. I didn’t really know it at the time, but this was the first time Dave had played drums in a band. He had played other instruments in several bands, but never the drums. This band actually gelled and we managed to make some multitrack recordings. We were all set to publish them with a fixed band name, “Rex Mundi” until we learned there was another band using that name. We decided to take the name of the CD for our band as well. Thus we were “Vufu.”

“Vufu” came to an end when my sister had her first child. That’s when Jim D. Started singing for us. The band became Me, Jim D., Jim M., and Dave. We eventually added Sean as a percussionist. The band also lost it’s name. We had become what could be best called an eclectic cover band, doing everything from country to metal. So it made sense to re-institute the tradition of picking a new name for every performance. And we did perform. Our band names included: “Piper Down,” “Autopsy Turvy,” “Tranz-Phat,” “Monkey-X Mystery Attack,” and “Hypnotoad.” I’m probably missing one or two.

As was becoming a new tradition, this band fell apart when our bassist, Jim M., and his wife had their first child.

As things were slowing down, Dave had started another band so he could play keyboards again and get out from behind the drums. Dave has had the closest thing to a musical career of anyone I know. His last band broke up because it was too hard to kept replacing the guitarist. This new band consisted of long time collaborator Edz on drums and one of his many guitarists Shaun. Dave asked me what I thought of the music and I said it was good but it lacked bass. He said they needed to find a bass player. I said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” Dave followed my bad impulse with the unwise, “Okay.” I say “bad”and “unwise” because it could have turned out poorly for our friendship.

As it turns out, we were a good match and I became the fourth member of the band. Because Dave didn’t want to be the singer this time, we started a search for a female singer. Thus, Christine joined the band.

I keep saying “the band” because we have yet to all agree on a name (although Dave and I both like “P.C.M.A.”). We will need one soon. We’re almost done recording our first album and then will want to play some gigs to promote it.

So, there you have the history of bands I’ve been in. Look for future installments where I will discuss some of the bands in a little more detail and provide some example recordings if I have any.

Sorry not to have any updates this weekend. I’ve been a bit busy with the Orthodox Easter holiday and family events.

I’ll have something up this week.

First, a little house keeping. I changed the title of this thread from “My Garden” to “Gardener’s Update.” It just sounds better. Also, I will use this forum for discussions of general gardening interest and not limit it to my vegetable garden.

That being said, last week I was on vacation. I focussed on doing work around the house. One of my projects was to trim my front hedge and see if I didn’t kill it completely with the poison ivy killer. No great loss if it doesn’t come back. I’m not very fond of it and would prefer a tree like a japanese maple or something in the front yard instead.

The poison ivy, although apparently dead, had an incredible network of roots intertwined around the bushes and under parts of my lawn. I donned two pairs of rubber gloves and went to work trying to pull up all the roots. My mother (who doesn’t get poison ivy) started to try removing the vines and actually got completely skeeved out by how extensive the roots were and gave up. That’s when I came in with the poison ivy-icide. Now, six months later, I went in to remove as much of the remaining plants as I could incase it survived my attempt at herbicide. I got a lot out. Something between twenty to forty feet of root. I did not get it all.

Even though I wore the gloves as mentioned, I was only wearing a short sleeved tee shirt as well as long pants and old sneakers. I’m sure despite my efforts to keep the roots off my skin and clothes, I don’t think I did. I also think I trod in the piles of root as I was pulling up some of the more determined bits. As a result of my zealous eradication of the poison ivy I have most likely exposed myself to the possibility of the worst rash I’ve ever had.

After the removal, I immediately washed my hands and arms with the anti poison ivy scrub you can get at the pharmacy. I then took a shower and washed with the scrub again. Now, I’ll wait. At the first sign of itching or a rash, I will scrub again and break out the calamine lotion. The anticipation of a poison ivy rash is enhanced by my just getting over a rash I think I got pruning my lilac bushes.
I find gardening quite enjoyable when the plants aren’t out to get me. The current state of my property isn’t quite at that utopian garden of Eden I’m striving for. Soon I hope.

Garden update: I decided to finish off the garden by putting in edging and mulching around the outsides of the beds. I used a wavy pattern to balance out the formal squares of the beds. I think it turned out okay. It’ll help keep the plants out of the lawn and visa versa.

All the seeds I sowed two weeks ago are showing signs of life. They sprouted quickly, but now I have to be patient as they grow to edible size. I know they won’t grow any faster if I keep peeking at them every time I go by the garden or past a window. Still, my first garden has me transfixed.

Since I haven’t received the seeds I ordered last month from one of the seed companies I broke down and purchased some cheap sugar snap peas and planted them. We’ll see how they do. I’m sure they’ll be fine. (Seed Update: The seeds arrived in the mail Friday afternoon. Planted some carrots and beets on Sunday.)

I guess the garden seed supply business is one of those industries that does well in a down market. The reason I haven’t received my order according to the e-mail I received is that they have had such heavy demand they can’t keep up and had to hire thirty additional people to help fill their orders. I guess home gardens aren’t just hobbies anymore. Good to remember for next recession, buy stock in seed companies.

I once had a band. No, I had several bands. More to the point, I was
in several bands. Let me clarify.

I wanted to start posting some of the songs from the various bands I’ve been in. I realized to do so it would make sense to include a history of said bands. This history turned out to be a bit longer then I thought so it is broken into two installments. Here’s Part 1.

My first band was a high school band. My sister Kia and her friend Tania decided to write some songs. Punk songs if my memory serves me. My sister played guitar and Tania played keyboard and they both sang. Our neighbor down the hill, Benjy hosted the band and played the drums. I was drafted to play the bass guitar (which Benjy also had). Until then, I don’t think I ever consciously thought of the bass as an instrument. I may have been able to tell you someone was a bass player, but didn’t think of it’s sound as something distinct and not just part of the overall sound of the band. My first bass part was all whole notes, which in punk music is kind of slow. Not bad considering I had never really played a stringed instrument until that point. They told me it was played using the index and middle finger of the right hand, no pick. I gave it my all and during the first few practices played those whole notes hard enough to get blisters.

The band was called “Have a Nice Day” and our logo was a smiley face crossed out with a bloody slash (this was before “Watchmen”). The band was the first of many I have been in that never performed anywhere. It was also one of the most successful bands I’ve ever been in. We wrote or learned somewhere between five and ten songs. We would record ourselves playing in Benjy’s basement on a single microphone to a cassette tape. Then make copies of the tapes for each other to listen to. Needless to say, the audio quality was often substandard.

So, how was this a successful band? I guess you could say it was the precursor to viral marketing, it was 1983 after all. We would play the tapes for our friends or tell other people we were in a band. Pretty soon, people I hardly knew would comment about the band or somehow had heard one of the songs. We had a buzz. And that was that. My sister and Tania both graduated high school in 1984, and thus ended the band.

I didn’t really play anything else through high school. When my sister would come home from college, she would borrow a friends bass for me and we would write some songs during summer vacation. I’m afraid nothing has really survived from that era.

While I was in college (my sister had graduated from her college) we formed another band called “Zod.” We recruited my friend Curtis to be the drummer. He said he knew how to play and that was good enough. We played all cover songs from bands like “The Dead Kennedys,” “Flipper,” and the “Sexpistols.” This band even performed once at some late night college party in some dark room where beer was being served. We sucked. Our friends were nice enough to cheer us on. Really – they were being nice. Our drummer got drunk to calm his nerves which didn’t help his performance or song retention. Kia’s underpowered practice amp screamed through the performance whether or not she was playing. I can’t even remember my own performance, I’m pretty sure it’s because it wasn’t memorable.

Post college, we still had “Zod,” but it again was just for our own pleasure. Kia, Curtis, my brother Yani and some other various friends rented a house together where we had a permeant band setup in the basement garage. By this time our friend Tom, who was a real guitarist, was playing with us. My bass playing had been improving and we were moving on from the three chord punk and playing harder songs like “Thin Lizzy’s” “The Boys are Backin Town.” My friend Paul (whose bass amp I used for the “Zod” gig and used for practice) would occasionally join in with us as well. Even though he was a bassist first, he played guitar as I was playing bass.

Somehow, Paul, Curtis, and I wound up playing alone and started writing our own songs. We had worked up enough songs for a set and Paul scheduled us for our first gig at The Beat in Port Chester as “The Gilberts” (named after comedian Gilbrt Gottfried). The same The beat where Moby had DJed early in his career. We were practicing hard and perfecting our songs for the upcoming first performance. Somewhere around a week before the gig, my sister and curtis had a large fight which not only resulted in the end of the rented house, but the band and ultimately my friendship with Curtis. Looking back, I feel terrible for Paul. We tried to stay together for the gig and even practiced again but ultimately it was too uncomfortable. I think Paul got another bass player and drummer together to play the gig. I don’t really remember as I was distracted at the time.

Interestingly enough, The recording of the last practice survived. It had some great fights and arguments on it. A couple years ago my friend Dave (who I didn’t know in the time of The Gilberts) was looking for an argument to put in the background of one of the songs his band “Copperman” was recording. I mentioned the tape and he went with it. So, somehow without ever performing, the music, or more to the point the arguments of “The Gilberts,” lives on.

In part two I will cover everything post Gilberts to today.

(Continued in “Rock On, Part 2: The Later Years.”)

How does my garden grow? Pretty damned well. So far.

Here we are, one week after the completion of the garden beds and there are already signs of life. The Lettuce and the Radishes have not only germinated, but there are tiny sprouts poking their heads our from the ground. Man, that was fast.

It’s amazing to see the different appearances of the sprouts between the different species of plants. The lettuce is tiny, green, and delicate while the radishes are meaty and red. They look like tiny Venus Flytraps to me.

That’s a pretty good start for my early season plants. In another week or so I will plant some more of the same crops to make sure I have some at their peak for picking as long as possible.

Still waiting on delivery of some seeds (a month after ordering them). Last Monday, the vender replied to my status request with, “they should be shipping this week. It’s now Sunday and I didn’t receive anything. Hopefully they will be here early this week.

That’s it for now, stay tuned for more updates.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: This entry has been edited for clarity. In the future I will try not to post on the fly just after waking up.