In part to indirectly answer Oxy question, and part for the sake of a rant, here's another post....
After leaving Lucid Ocean, I tried doing a few different things, including resurrecting my sporting pursuits, eventually making it to the lofty heights of captaining Adelaide University's Z grade cricket team - before my premature retirement due to the overseas travel requirements of my job. More on that below.
I also tried to put another band together with my mate Phil, whose band GSD had just split. We got together with a guitarist Anton, who was a friend of Phil's brother Daniel. One of Anton's tricks was playing his guitar with a screwdriver! So given my Sonic Youth fixation he met with my approval! We rehearsed some Lucid Ocean songs (Flood, and an untitled song that Andrew hadn't put lyrics to before I left), two GSD songs, two or songs of Anton's, and a few soundscapes that had come out of our interminable jam sessions. Essentially it was three guys coming from three different directions, and we desperately needed a drummer to fuse it all together. We tried out a few drummers but none cut it. They were probably completely confused by our experimental wall of noise! Not surprisingly, the "band" drifted apart....
I tried to put together another band closer in style to Lucid Ocean, but I was growing disillusioned with the whole idea of being in a band. One of my motivations for playing in a band was as a means of getting out of this pissant town, Adelaide. A xenophobic town with a big inferiority complex! Possibly best summed up by Paul Kelly's song (see below). I have a personal connection to the lyric "Kensington Road runs straight for a while before turning, we lived on the bend it was there I was raised and fed", as a (long lost) friend of mine Nick grew up in a house a few doors down from here! And I annoy my family everytime we drive along this road by pointing out "this was where Paul Kelly was raised!"
Yes, Adelaide is "nice", but it's boring as bat shit if you're young! And even as a teenager I realised Adelaide had problems. We went from being the most liberal and progressive capital city in Australia to the least liberal and progressive. And the least ambitious. What probably sums this up best is that a recent film set in Perth in the 1980s was filmed in Adelaide, because Adelaide now looks like Perth did thirty years ago!
Anyhow, I digress. But the point is I wanted to get outta here, and a band seemed as good a vehicle as any - combining my love of music with a ticket outta here. But when my job started taking me outta here, most of my motivation for being in a band diminished. But another turning point was when a friend pointed out that there were already so many great bands writing great songs, so why did I feel the need to write my own songs. I didn't have an answer. This got me thinking about my motivations for being in a band, and whether they were honest, or in my best interests.
I got to spend a lot of time overseas. And the offers to live and work overseas came pouring in. And then I fell in love with a girl.....from Adelaide! And one who wasn't keen to live overseas since here parents were elderly. She did accompany me on a work trip to Germany for three months, and this almost ended the relationship! But here we are, still together 15 years later.
And irony of ironies - by spending time overseas, I became much more appreciative of the virtues of Adelaide! And I won't be leaving any time soon!
Still awake? If so, your reward (or punishment!) is three more Lucid Ocean tracks, which come from a four track recording made at a rehearsal three days before our first gig. Someone suggested we should record our songs, put them on a cassette, and (snail) mail the cassette to ourselves. In that way, if anyone ripped off one of our masterpieces, we had dated proof that the songs were ours. Just goes to prove what a (unjustifiable) high opinion of ourselves we had! I recorded the tracks on my 4-track, mixed it own onto cassette, and posted a copy off to myself. I really liked the mix, but when I played a copy of the cassette to Andrew, he commented in his usual disparaging way that the guitar sounded too bright. Hmm, sorry, was I meant to make the guitar sound dull? Which reminds me of the time he described my guitar sound on a particular song as being too cerated! What?
Anyhow, I'm digressing again.
Here are the tracks - far from our best songs, but I think they have some charm. And I love the Rickenbacker guitar sound - bright or not! It's 1986 again!
Song for Someone was a song Wayne bought in with him when he joined the band - including all the guitar lines. Which was good as it meant we instantly had a good new song, but bad in that we all felt it didn't sound like our song. So it was the first song to go when we wrote our next song (Said August). All One Moment was probably the next song to go after that, while Darkest, Lightest day stuck around
in our set for another year - although it was drastically changed at least once. I'll see if I can dig out the final version for a comparison, although I suspect I probably only have a boombox recording of it. I've played this version of DLD to a few people, and at least two have asked whether I overdubbed a second guitar. I didn't. And yes, the descending riff that appears after the second chorus and at the end is heavily influenced by Gardening at Night by REM....actually, let's be honest here, it was completely ripped off!
01. Song for Someone
02. All One Moment
03. Darkest, Lightest Day
