::BLATHER::

03.11.06 - 3/9 AT THE ECHO
Neal just promised me he's going to submit stuff for posting here. That's cool. Neal writes good.

I'm gonna get one more in before he submits his first contribution. Maybe I'll write exactly what he was going to write and really piss him off. Sorry pissed off Neal of the future.

We made it out the other night and played a full on band-on-stage-with-sound-guy-making-us-sound-incredible type show last Thursday - opening for Steve Wynn, thank you very much. Neal can tell you all about that cat. I'd heard of the Dream Syndicate as I grew up through the 80's, cutting my teeth with bands like Agent Orange, Toy Dolls, GBH, Thompson Twins.....one of these things is not like the others.......but I completely missed the boat with the Syndicate. I get to call them that, you don't.

It was great to be on the bill with a more established show like that Mr. Wynn. I like the idea of some random Steve Wynn fan possibly walking away from our set with a smile on their face. I know Neal sold a CD or two that night, so we connected with someone. I love that.

Neal...?

12.13.05 - TYPING OUT LOUD
Hi. Marty again. Y'know, Neal was the one who requested this part of the site when I started buidling it. I wonder if he'll ever use it.

Anyway...I don't know if it's the end of the year, the news I just got dropped on me about Joc, or a combination of those and several other things, but I've found myself in a rather introspective place the last few days. Not just the last few days but it seems to have ramped up a bit lately.

The Patch has been trying to find its way and get everyone ready to take the next step now that the record is done. It's weird - we joke about Weed Patch being sort of like a poker night in that it's really, at the root of it all, nothing more than a way for us to get together, blow off some steam and play the songs Neal brings in for us to help bring to life. Perhaps that's what we tell ourselves to keep things from getting too serious. It's bad enough we live in LA and we're in a band in the first place (Why is LA the only one who ever laughs at that joke?) so it helps to keep things grounded in that regard and not take ourselves too seriously. Are you listening Scott Stapp?

Lately there's been some talk about the "band bond" and all that implies. Back to that poker night thing: One thing about poker night is that you don't go out and play poker with your poker buddies live on stage. Maybe you do, what with the tidal wave of televised poker competitions filling TV now-a-days (finally something to make golf seem exciting) but, chances are you show up at a friend's house, drink, eat, smoke, laugh and play poker. You're not trying to get people to come watch you play poker, you're not trying to get people to pay for a recording of you and your friends playing poker and, beyond whomever it is that controls your bank account, no one cares if you suck at poker. In fact, the other people you're playing with would like you to suck a lot!

Weed Patch is a fucking rock n' roll band...and a damn good one at that. This isn't your ordinary poker night. We've got great tunes and a group of talented people working to make those songs come across the best they possibly can, so what's the band bond? Can it be defined as a static entity? How can it be as our band moves and shifts to make this or that happen for ourselves? This machine runs on money and time...and time is money, right?...so what face does this "band bond" take when it's time to do something like shell out an ass-load of cash to record an album? What face would poker night take when it comes time to shell out an ass-load of cash to re-do the basement you play poker in every week? Everyone likes playing poker at Joe's place 'cause he's got the sweet basement with the seemingly endless case of beer in the fridge down there. No one wants to lose the great basement but everyone at the table has their own life with its own financial demands – perhaps a family, a car that's on its last legs, debt, any number of things tugging at the wallet. But, eventually the time comes to remodel that basement and Joe asks his poker buddies to help make it the best basement it can possibly be. He knows they can't chip in financially but he asks them to put their backs into the project...for the sake of poker night!

What's the bond now? It's changed a bit, hasn't it? Things have shifted and there's more at stake for one person in particular...the guy writing the check for all this. The bond at this point should be to help that guy make the best m'er f'ing basement he's ever seen. It's got to make every other basement within a fifty-mile radius look like a sad little bomb shelter with a girlie calendar on the wall trying to class the place up. It's all got to be about making that guy writing the checks feel good about what he's doing and feel good about who he's got helping him do it. That's it! Nothing more needs to come into the equation...OK, perhaps some personal satisfaction from a job well done. Fine. The smile on your face when you see Joe showing off his new basement to the in-laws. This is not the time for one of the poker buddies to hold a bit of a grudge that Joe didn't decide to go with his suggestion for the color of the new carpet or the shade of the panelling on the walls. It's Joes basement. He paid for it and he's the one who has to live with the thing.

When you all reconvene for poker night – the basement's done and it's ruling – that's when the bond shifts yet again. It's time to bask in a job well done. Poker night has grown together and learned a thing or two – like what a stud finder is – and the focus has shifted back to what it was before the basement issue came up, but now there's more of a purpose than there was before. You've now got to get as much out of that new basement as you can. Poker night has to be better than ever!

Now is not the time to take two steps backward. It's all about moving forward with this little card game.

07.15.05 - I HAVE CONTROL OF THIS TRANSMISSION.
Hello again. Installment two on the Blather page and I've gotta say...being
in the studio for those nine days at the end of June was an absolute blast,
as you might be able to tell from the pictures. Seth was calling some very
important shots and made sure we put down everything necessary to make
a particular track pay off in the end. We didn't have much time to waste and
he was on top of it. Very cool to watch him work.

So, this new album is going to be great! It's definitely a step in the right
direction for me as a player. Each band I've played with has pushed me in
new ways and Weed Patch is no exception. Everyone involved was totally pro
and we worked hard to make the best record we could in the amount
of time we had available. Darrin's studio was very nice and he did an incredible job
engineering, running the board and he even dropped a bad-ass guitar solo on one tune...
I'm not saying which one though.

Brad blew us all away as he laid down some beautiful piano work, kick-ass punk rock
banjo and his trademark guitar insanity. He came through for us big-time. I think we all
nailed it. I've got rough mixes (listening to them as I type this) that sound great on their
own, so I can't wait to hear them after Seth and Matt Pence get done mixing.

That's all for now. Take care.

Marty

06.21.05 - AM I ALLOWED TO DO THIS?
Hi. Marty here. This thing has said "Coming Soon" too long and that's
just stupid.

On the 23rd, The Patch is going into the studio with our pal Seth Rothschild
to record the...dare I say...much anticipated follow-up to Maybe the Brakes
Will Fail? I know I've been waiting for it.

We've been feeding Seth clips from our rehearsals over the past few months
and he's got some ideas I can't wait to work into the tunes.

It's going to be a marathon recording session as we try to fit a whole record
into six or seven days. Gonna be tight but definitely fun as hell. I'll do my best
to keep the photos and stories comin' as it all goes down since no one else
is bothering to write anything here. Punks.

More later.
martyr