I’ve got a two-week break from the job so I can recharge my batteries (while changing diapers and waking up to unearthly shrieks between midnight and 6 am and picking up after three other kids plus two birds while my wife recovers from getting her abdomen cut open and trying to get some freelance stuff wrapped up late evenings). So during my five minutes or so of daily free time I am inching ever closer to getting ready to record new Frank’s Enemy music.

First thing is getting some new strings on the old Ibanez. Marc Golob used to make fun of me back in 1992 because I hadn’t restrung the guitar since the Lead’s last tour in 1990. Well, Marc, would you believe that the strings on my guitar right now are the same ones I used to record Illumination in 1997, all of 11 years ago? Yup, it’s still the “Snarling Dogs” set you sold me back at Capstone.

Been a while...

Those darn strings are older than my kids. They’re almost like my kids (hey, I have enough kids to string a bass now). I’ll miss them…

Anyway, drop B-flat tuning, here I come. The riffs should be coming out most warped.

Here’s a couple more lyrics I’ve been playing with:

And the Band Played Guantanamera
A song about Cuba, and how the popularity of Guantanemera in the ’60s when I was a child was probably rebel chic in disguise. I tried to write this lyric about four times before this attempt. It still needs work, I think.

The world had a party
The banners were flying
The New York Times
Was proselytizing
We were having a wake
Our heads were rolling
While Peter Paul and Mary
Were reloading
The bones of Jose Marti
Dug out of the shrine
Fitted with a red beret
Changing the crime
And over time
Heroes become hijackers
Jackals get displayed on
The bellies of Bushwhackers

Guantanamera
And the band played

To my mom and dad
It was nostalgia
While the rest of the world
Kissed Che Guevara
I wore a tie to school
Richie Rich being snide
Ballpoint swastikas
While MLK died
Free rides and taunts
Manipulation and rants
The only thing they taught
Was ignorance
Sing me a song of coercion
And consequence
Who was that longhaired outcast
Behind the fence

Guantanamera
And the band played

When the change comes
Where things will stay the same
Have a rum and a screw
Don’t forget to tip your slave
The truth is only known
By guttersnipes
The rules are only made
By the asswipes
See the colors flying
In the pomp and circumstance
Deadly force institutions
Trying to make you dance
St Ignatius, Luther, and Calvin
Tried to be my guides
I rejected these
For Jesus Christ

And the band played
Guantanamera

May 23, 08 May 30, 08

I Hate Star Wars
From the sublime (not really) to the ridiculous (definitely). This is not going to take more than 20 seconds of the listener’s time. I like the title more than the verses, which are my way of expressing that my love affair with comics and Star Trek and “Fandom” became doomed when Star Wars brought it all into the mainstream. I guess I preferred being some odd geek that was into stuff no one else was into. I guess that’s why I do Frank’s Enemy music…

I never stood in line
17 at the time
My world exploded
And I didn’t know it
My secret escapes
Became weeds in a place
I had to go away
I gave it all away

UPDATE: I’ve decided to actually tune the guitar to Drop A-Flat, which is Drop B-Flat-Natural with the low string tuned down a whole step. I’ve never heard of anybody going this low before. Maybe there’s some unexpected reason why…