Completely Off-Topic: I'm hilarious

My sister found this log of a conversation we had possibly years ago:

Fake Radish says: 
S'mores make me ill 
Erin says: 
Its because you're not hardcore 
Fake Radish says: 
I remember eating them at Brownie camp and feeling like I got salmonella. 
Fake Radish says: 
So I haven't eaten them since! 
Erin says: 
what does salmonella feel like? 
Fake Radish says: 
Pretty bad, you get this odd fishy odor fumigating from your intestines 
Fake Radish says: 
Making you nauseated 
Erin says: 
lol 
Fake Radish says: 
It's a terrible thing. : < 
Erin says: 
sweetie i dont think salmonella means 'salmon in your belly' 
Fake Radish says: 
Of course it does! There's also tunaberculosis 
Erin says: 
ahaha 
Fake Radish says: 
And the Carp. : < 
Fake Radish says: 
I gots the carp. 
Fake Radish says: 
And fishyllis 
Erin  says: 
you're so funny 
Fake Radish says: 
I also have crabs. 

Luckily, this is just the tip of the WIT ICEBURG. 

"What's Doin' With Diefenbaker?" volume 3 - post 10/13/09 band practice

Not much been doin' in Diefenland lately (isn't it great how you can add Diefen- as a prefix to pretty much anything and it rules?). Due to out-of-town guests visiting and general need-to-work-on-music-stuffs-outside-of-band-practice-ness, we've only logged one significant band practice since the last "what's doin'" post, plus a couple lil' short aborted ones. Tonight was a return to form, at least from my perspective. I actually bothered to readjust the distortion settings on my amp before band practice so it actually didn't sound like actual shit, so that was one thing. Also, we've pretty much agreed to not worry about keyboard parts during practice, thereby freeing Shari up to concentrate on the lyrics and vocal performance, which makes the whole experience more enjoyable and, thereby, more sustainable for everyone involved. The keyboard parts will still be worked on, of course... just outside of the "band practice" setting, similar to the way I've been working on new songs. Less pressure, less people standing in a corner with a guitar strapped to them with nothing to do for long stretches of time...

Minutiae that may be of interest:
- It's been cooler lately so I was wearing a hat whilst playing guitar. Lots of fun!
- Yuri, for whatever reason, seems to love band practice (I thought it was because she's old and can't hear anymore, but that theory was disproven), so she was in the room the entire time... she seemed to sleep through most of it, though... take that as you will.
- There was a brief discussion, both before and during practice, about the usefulness of writing lyrics on the toilet (see above image).

Songs played:
"It's Not So Easy For Everyone" (lyrics and music: Borneman) (run through twice... Verdict: much improved vocals, just about perfect)

"(Untitled new song)" (lyrics: Fedak, music: Borneman) (messed around with, discussed... Verdict: a work in progress...)

"Interstate 80" (lyrics: Borneman, music: Borneman/Fedak)(run through once with new rhythm track and new coda added to end, tried something different with vocals on new ending... Verdict: agreed that the whole thing needs to be played faster... other than that, we're on our way)

Here's some rough worktape audio of the above-mentioned "(Untitled new song)": Doo da doo da doo da DOO doo doo

Everyone who reads this post and doesn't comment shall be banned from Diefenbaker's backstage coke parties once we get famous.

Rick Diefenbaker

Steve Perry

It's official: in a recent poll of lead singers in bands named after Due South characters and/or former Canadian prime ministers, 100% voted that the person they hate most in the world is Steve Perry from Journey.

Parenthetical to that, here's a bit of Diefenbaker audio I'd been meaning to put up for a while, but never got around to:

CLICK IF YOU HATE STEVE PERRY

It's from a very early "full band" practice recording (from that same hand-held cassette recorder, circa August '09) of when we were first starting to get the music together for Maybe Michelle. If you can't be bothered to listen to the actual clip, it pretty much sounds like New Order and Gang of Four being forced into a room together, hating each other at first, then realising that they have a lot in common and just fucking running with it.

If you put this together with the previously posted DA recording of Maybe Michelle with the current vocal, you can get a fairly good idea of what the song is shaping up to sound like, much more so than the demo version.

Steve Deifenbaker

Attention, North America! The first DA (Diefenbaker acoustic) has arrived!

DA performance of Maybe Michelle, recorded live and sorta drunk at the September 26th, 2009 band practice. CLICKY CLICKY!


Where: Diefenbaker practice space, Hampden, Baltimore City, Maryland.

Who: S. Fedak (AKA fakeradish): vocal
J. Borneman (AKA Johnny Diefenbaker): acoustic guitar

More audio goodies coming soon (like tomorrow)!

Johnny D.

"What's Doin' With Diefenbaker?" volume 2 - post-09/24/09 band practice

Songs played:

"It's Not So Easy For Everyone"
"Interstate 80"
"Maybe Michelle"
(all Borneman/Fedak)

Long band practice tonight. Long and enjoyable, no rickness in sight. I think it went over an hour and a half, but I didn't pay much attention to when exactly it started. A very long practice to only get around to playing three songs, eh? Well, I'll try to break it down for you...

Far and away the star of the evening was the Casiotone MT-68 (see previous post). We started with "Not So Easy", for which the keyboard very able-ly (sp?) provided the rhythm track... massively through the bass amp, of course. I thought it was sounding great overall, though Shari's still having trouble with the phrasing (she only sang on that one, no keyboards attempted). We attempted to iron out the biggest wrinkle, the "remember those you left with and those left behind" line a few times, then ever forward.

Next up, we worked on "Interstate 80". Much rickness has been experienced in the past with regards to coming up with a keyboard part for this song, so Shari wanted to try out her new best friend, the MT-68, on this one and see if some new inspiration could be manifested. One cheap distortion pedal later, and we had a 20-minute version of "I-80" that sounded like an outtake from Radiohead's "Kid A" record. Nothing really set in stone as for the key part, mind you, but new sounds and ideas abounded, and it sure did sound good while it was going on. Something to build on, to be sure. The MT-68 strikes again...

What better song to end on, for "struggling rock band" Diefenbaker, than "Maybe Michelle"? We ran though it twice, MT-68 in tow, and it sounded great. As always. Cised.

The one piece of bad news for the evening (for me, at any rate) is that, apparently, all of the covers that we were previously working on have been vetoed. While, as Diefenbaker's sole songwriter, it's certainly flattering that the singer is so into the originals that she finds the covers boring, I, personally, will miss Lush's "Kiss Chase" and Love Spit Love's "Am I Wrong?" at band practice. Not to mention Aimee Mann's "Guys Like Me", Metric's "Gimme Sympathy" and ol' Bruce Springsteen's "My Hometown" from the I'm Busy demos that never even made it into the current incarnation of The Dief. Farewell, dear friends, I shall always remember your chord progressions ;____;

Keep on rockin' in the free world, Rickies
Jonathan Diefenbaker

SUPPLEMENTAL: Casiotone MT-68

As Johnny Diefenbaker stated, the source of awesome was a Casio keyboard. He failed to mention that it was one of my many loves, the Casiotone MT-68. Oh Casiotone, how I love you. Upon being pretty dissatisfied with the drum beat he chose for "It's Not As Easy for Everyone", I lept from my seat and grabbed the Casiotone and hooked it up to the bass amp. The beats, they were a-bumpin'.

Any donations of exceedingly crappy keyboards are strongly encouraged. Although, I wouldn't really call the MT-68 crappy. You should hear the pipe organ sound. I bet if I combined it with an amp and a distortion pedal it would sound amazing.

"What's Doin' With Diefenbaker?" volume 1 - post-09/22/09 band practice

Tonight's was quite the atypical band practice. Lately we've been in a pretty good rut as far as band practice structure goes: Enter practice room, set up and "duck" around for 15-20 minutes, then launch into one of our four songs, repeat song, move on to next song, repeat that song, etc., and, poof, an hour's gone by. Things were a bit different tonight, but it all still worked out... eventually.

"The Rickness" (a general bad mood) was present from the beginning. Due to reasons totally unrelated to the band (residual effects of fryed cheese consumption over the weekend at the Maryland RennFest, threatening emails from health insurance providers) I (Johnny Diefenbaker) did not enter the practice in the correct mental state. Add to that the fact that we were going to attempt to add another song to the repertoire this evening and I only found out what song it would be after I entered the practice room. Conditions were not ideal, to say the least.

One run-through of "Maybe Michelle" (and a brief break to familiarize ourselves with our parts for the new song) later and things were off and running.

Discussions were had as per the desired BPM's and rhythm track for the new one, the history of the song (it's an original, actually quite old... circa 1997, I think), after which multiple run-throughs were attempted. Another Casio keyboard was brought in and a much more fitting drum track was introduced, which made me see the old-ass (to me) song differently and got me "butt-cised"(excited) about it as a Diefenbaker song.

Songs played this practice:

Maybe Michelle (Borneman/Fedak)
It's Not So Easy For Everyone (Borneman)

If you'd like to hear an extremely rough version of "It's Not So Easy", I'd refer you to Diefenbaker's soundclick page. As mentioned in the below supplemental post, though, the versions of the songs there bear very little resemblance to the "full band" versions one might hear on a tuesday, thursday, or saturday night if one happened to be passing by a certain rowhouse in Baltimore.