a free form jazz odyssey in front of a festival crowd

so, the weekend has ended. Oy Vey.

First off, who is this Andy Melunakis (spelling?) kid who has a show on MTV? It may have been the lack of sleep or large amount of sugar and chili cheese dip in my system, but that kid is freaking hilarious. He even mocked the blog phenom. Pure genius.

The band was in the studio for the past 3 days, and let me just say, the drums sound like a massive freight train/ truck/ large moped, straight out of hell, headed towards your face, and there are no breaks in site, bitch. Lots of instruments, lots of sound. BUT, Perhaps the best studio experience, besides the music, was learning about R Kelly’s “Trapped In The Closet” video.

Now, if you have not heard about this wonderful piece of cinematic, musical, and cultural history, I will enlighten you. This is not your average R&B slow jam. no no no. This is a 10 part saga, nearly an hour in length, all set to music. It begins with our man R, waking up in the bed of a lady friend, realizing he is not with his wife, and attempting to leave. She informs him that her husband is coming up the stairs, so he must hide in the closet instead of exiting through the front door. NOW, all is fine, until a call comes through on his cell phone. Through the lyrical genius of Mr Kelly, we learn that “he tried as quickly as I could to put it on viiiiiiiiiiiibraaaaaate”, but alas, it was too late. The husband of the woman was approaching the closet door, and R is forced to pull out his Baretta. You think this is the end? no no no. thats not even the end of Part 1. I’m not going to give away the ending here, since MTV is only up to part 2, but lets just say it involves themes of homosexuality, infidelity, police brutality, and goddamn sexy R&B slow jams. As someone said while we watched, his lyrics sound like a 4th grader narrating what they did on their summer vacation. I will say though, it is a great musical confidence booster to realize shit like that is being produced by multi platnum artists.

Now, after the R Kelly rant, we must discuss the food. Playing in a band can have several different effects on the way you eat. You could be in a band like Medeski Martin Wood, and travel the world sampling delicious cuisine from Japan to South America- cooking in the kitchen of your tour bus, or you could eat McDonalds 3 times in one day, in 3 different states like I once did. I assure those days are long gone, and my stomach thanks me. In the studio this weekend, much food was ordered. We began with some sushi, which i believe to be the perfect recording food. I was not weighed down, Yet I was sort of full. We followed the next day with the standard Chinese food, kind of eh. Later saturday evening, we had some chili cheese dip, strawberry fluff-cream cheese fruit dip, and some alcohol. Let me tell you, some good stuff. None of the odyssey crew (TM) was in attendace, but I consider it my personal odyssey solo album.