bachelorette

new mustard

When it comes to new ideas we're always looking around for exciting music to inspire us. Sound of silver pushed King James in the right direction. I figure a small dose of !!!'s Myth takes is just what Charm needs and listening to Pole's beautiful Steingarten makes me want to give KAM an electro hiphopdub make-over. I'm hoping Boom Bip's soon to be released new EP and Björk's much anticipated new album will give us just as much inspiration when we continue or work on Beatnik, MKMV and the songs we recorded at The Void last month. No need to fear my urge for sonic adventurism. The new Wilco will provide my band mates the right counterpoise.

take you for a ride

hully gully

No one is irreplaceable. Always knew that, I guess. Now I know for sure: Missed out on last weekend's band rehearsal and without me there, Spider James was on a roll. No ego damaged here though. As you may have read, the four guys that were there, came up with a great - not to say bloody brilliant - approach for King James. I've played the demo at least six or seven times this week and I love it. It reminds me of New York, of LCD Soundsystem - which isn't strange if you know Ted and Willem were at their Amsterdam concert two weeks ago. It brings back the feeling I had visiting the fairground when I was a kid; the joy of a Hully Gully ride. It also has a little touch of dEUS' What we talk about, but without the melody. There's hardly any melody left in this sucker. It's all groovin'. (Something I'm sure the late Mr. Brown would approve of, Tedski...)
We'll continue our work tomorrow, which will hopefully lead to something worth recording in The Void this May. We'll be without JL and Ted this time around. There's always someone missing.

back to mine (6)

scream thy last scream

Saturday we rehearsed only with four of the guys: Rob, Boyke, WJP and myself. We worked on King James (again). Tried to focus more on the groove, and less on the funk. Patrick wasn't there and we couldn't recall the lyrics except for one line: "You give what you got and you find that it's never enough". So we yelled that one, 'til our throaths got sore. I guess it sounded a bit like primal scream therapy. Don't know if this is the right way to go for King James, but this version really has energy. And by the way: we actually did manage to kick out James Brown.

living well

in my absence

Eighty percent of success is showing up.
Woody Allen

north american scum

king james brown

Not a great Saturday for this Spider James' bassist and singer. Not great at all. Too much work and too less sleep broke me up. Aching head, sour throat and a small fever to complete the picture. And as Willem and Ted left our rehearsal Yesterday to go and see the brilliant LCD Soundsystem in Amsterdam, I went home feeling miserable and sad.
Our rehearsal was short, mainly due to my illness and Rob having to leave early, but it was a fruitful afternoon. We found out we can't kick James Brown out of King James. No matter how hard we try. We can, however, make James Brown - dead or not - freak out on fuzz guitar, shaking his hips on a funky drum and a mellow dream pop flow. That's must be worth something.

shady

sing along

Haven't had much time last couple of days to keep you posted on Spider James' whereabouts. Sorry. Here's a quick update.
We've recorded my lead vocals for 'On a Breeze' last Saturday. I also mumbled and crooned my way through the 07 rendition of 'Umbrella'. Willem also added some backing vocals to that one. That's the good news. Which means there's some more or less bad news. Okay, you've guessed it: some of the singing is not so good. We did get a bit sloppy here and there recording the lead double track and some backings. Hey, we were tired. And we're not real singers anyway, we're just pretending. We'll to quote the late Aaliyah: "If at first you don't succeed. Pick yourself up and try again". We will.

back to mine (5)

quote

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, 'Is there a meaning to music?' My answer would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?' My answer to that would be, 'No.'
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

drowned in sound

plans

Today was good. A bit short, but we missed Luc and WJP. Had a few cups of coffee. Talked things through. Had a laugh. Listened to some of our music in Rob's car: 'Beatnik' and 'MKMV'. Made some plans on what to do next. Decided we're gonna do 'King James' again... We simply have no choice after hearing what we made 'On a breeze' sound like at Pidah's. We're gonna take a closer look at the chords of 'KJ' - see if the Boyke method can do some good here. No rehearsing next week, cause next week we'll be at Silvox. Editing 'Beatnik' with Caspar or, who knows, doing the vocal parts for 'Umbrella' and 'Breeze'. We're certainly moving in the right direction.