Category: Blog

Wednesday night was the last rehearsal for the poor souls who have agreed to come along to LA. Up to this point it had been sort of rough going. Not that it was bad, but Lyle and Lee come from a different sort of band (a VERY good band, I might add), in some ways, and the styles were not matching well at first. I have become spoiled by working with a bunch of people who would come in and play what was on the recorded version, or use it as a starting point. But in this instance they were bringing their style with them. So it was a little dicey for a while trying to make the songs meet in the middle. But everything seemed to fall into place this time around. Still a little messy in some ways, but good enough for a 20 minutes set, I think.

Chris is a better drummer than he realizes. He’s my link to how these songs should sound.

So… Tuesday will be all about me running around with my head cut off, trying to get organized to leave tomorrow. At the same time I have to go pickup the poster design and deliver it to Daemon, and go grab a box of Slumberland CDs to sell in LA.

I am leery, still, based on the last experience there. For anyone who missed the story months ago, I played IPO two years ago, and I played it solo. I had explained it to them beforehand that I could only do it acoustic and they were fine with it. So Sarah and I flew out and had a great week, visiting with Scott and his lovely Maggie. Then I played the show, an ill-advised 20 minute set of introverted acoustic pop, bracketed on either side by bouncy pop bands. I had resolved to just play my stuff and not try to cater to appeal to what they would expect, and while this is certainly laudable from a philosophical standpoint, in practice it was ugly. They applauded, don’t misunderstand, but I didn’t sell a single CD, no one signed up for the mailing list, and no one came up to me afterward to say a word.

This is the reason why I wasn’t surprised last year to have not been invited, and why I was surprised this year when I WAS invited. I knew there was no way I was going to do it solo, so that’s how this whole mess came together. But it’s almost as if I haven’t played it before, because I honestly don’t know what to expect. Whether things will go much better with a band or whether I’ll still end up at the end not having had any results whatsoever.

Expect many posts during my trip. Probably starting during the flight Friday morning.

No, I knew I’d forget something…

Back when I posted up “Jeff Lynne” as a free download, and it somehow made its way through the ELO mailing lists, I got an email from someone in the ELO fan club in Spain. They were doing an online newsletter and wanted to link to the song and maybe do an interview. As funny as I found the prospect of someone “interviewing” me I said of course.

I haven’t heard back yet about the interview, but the site is up now, and there I am, staring out from the page surrounded by Roy Wood and Jeff himself. Which is a strange feeling, to be sure.

I mention this more, though, because, since the site is in Spanish, I had to run the thing through a translator to know what was being said. I can follow most of it, but some of the translating is really bizarre, and has already resulted in at least one song title idea.

“This native musician of Atlanta has formed under the charmer and bittersweet Pop sound of the seventy and recognizes to be captivated by the music of the ELO to which he feels as its Maxima influences. Ex–member of a successful local band called Radiant City, at the moment happened to solista and next to the band The Million Box, will publish in September of 2002 a new called album Dark Double bed which includes a surprising simply called song-tribute Jeff Lynne in which it overturns many of the ELO-agreed ones which they turn in his mind. The shining subject can be unloaded completely from its official site.”

I don’t have a clue how “Camera Obscura” became “Dark Double Bed,” but you can bet your ass you’ll see a song called that from me before long.