A Change In Direction

Lots of changes lately. Lots of long conversations, lots of thinking, lots of re-evaluating the practicality of everything.

Long story short, rock tour is not going to happen this summer.

We decided that since we don't have an album recorded yet, it would make the most sense to stay in town and spend some time in the studio. Several different factors played into this decision. I've never really been one to be practical, but I think it makes sense to stick around Portland for awhile. Hopefully we can play some shows around town and get a full album up for sale online by the end of the summer. Then, Original Sound Trash can be more than just a live music experience.

Of course, I'm not going to ditch this blog. I'll probably change the title of it and the focus will broaden up a bit, but the blog is here to stay!

That's all for now. I'm about to fall asleep over here.

Kids That Can't Read Good

"Hey...those are my pants," Ryan says to me, strumming the final chord of a song. I laugh. I've been smirking the whole time, wondering how long it would take him to notice. We made it halfway through the set before he recognized them.
Maybe someday I will give them back. But they are comfortable.

We've got a show in exactly a week. I'm honestly nervous about it. It's our first time performing since August (unless you count the time we popped out of a closet and sang a love song in Klingon on Valentines Day...don't ask...) and we're still a little rusty. We're also struggling with ticket sales a little. But there's still a week left. We'll get there.

I've started subbing as an educational assistant to earn a little extra money. My goal is to make enough to pay for my half of the gas on tour. The work isn't bad except for the fact that it requires me to get out of bed before noon and work with children. After just one day of subbing at a grade school, I remembered that I don't even really like children.

Me: "Hi kids, I'm Miss Lauren. You are the group of semi-retarded children that can't read and I am here to help you."
Semi-Retarded Child: "Hello, Mr. Ding-Dong."
Me: "That's not my name."
Chorus of Semi-Retarded Children: "Mr. Ding-Dong!"
Me: "Uh...Mister? Do I look like a man?"
Especially Special Asian/Arabic Boy: "Yeah!"

The things I do for rock and roll.

Captain Emo Pants Reporting for Duty

Is it normal for bandmates to share clothing? I am wearing a pair of Ryan's pants right now (girl jeans, actually) and I think they look quite good on me (despite a couple of unfortunate rips and stains). We were taking band photographs this afternoon and I was having a mild wardrobe crisis. Ryan's girl jeans to the rescue. They were comfortable and kind of sexy, so I kept them on to go to a party after the photoshoot.

In other news, I was reminded once again tonight that music is the one thing that will always be there for me (other than Ryan's incredible fashion sense, of course). I don't know what is wrong with people sometimes. But pianos are sure easier to deal with.

Allow me to just sit here in my male bandmate's girl pants and act all emo. Rawr.

Rock tour blasts off on June 25th. Mark your calenders, boys and girls.

Bad Hoooorse! Bad Hoooorse! The Thoroughbread of Sin!

He got the aplicaaaation that you just sent iiiin!

Yeah, anyway...

I earned several geek points last night by attending a stage performance of "Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog." When it comes to live theater, I tend to naturally gravitate towards all things bizarre and utterly campy. This play definitely fell into that category. It was at a funky theater in Portland with church pews for the audience to sit on. People came dressed up like super heroes and sang along.

It was everything you would expect from an independent production of a cult Internet video. The costumes were great but Doctor Horrible couldn't sing. The show stayed true to the original version but snuck the occasional song from the commentary in there, absolutely destroying the fourth wall and making for an overall hilarious theater-going experience.

Steve was kind of surprised at my enthusiastic response when he first asked if I wanted to go to this play with him. I don't know why he was surprised. After all, I am the girl who once wrote an entire rock opera about zombies. Campy is my middle name.

I graduate in exactly a week. I think I'm going to wear my sequined Lady Gaga dress under my robes, just because I can. Maybe I'll buy a cheap pair of Paris Hilton-style sunglasses to go with it for dramatic effect.

Okay, I'm semi-kidding about the Paris Hilton-style glasses. But I'm totally Lady Gaga-ing it up.

You only live once, right? :D

I've managed to adopt a Zen-like attitude for these last few days of college.

Q: What did the Zen master say to the hot dog vendor?
A: Make me one with everything!

My laid back approach to life is a bit uncharacteristic - usually I'm a neurotic little ball of anxiety. But in a world of so many unknowns, the only way you can survive is to just take one day at a time and make each hour (each minute, even) the best it can possibly be.

This new outlook can probably be partially blamed on a fantastic book I read last week. I don't really read much, but I ended up with a copy of "Tuesdays with Morrie" and finished it in two days. I really think that everybody should read it. It gives you a lot to think about. And if you have read it, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Anyway, I digress.

I think the time line and general nature of rock tour are in the process of being rearranged. We will still be hitting the road, it just won't be for as long as we thought. So we may only make it as far as Oklahoma or something. Who knows. Plans are still in the works. Things change. Ideas evolve. Band mates get offered million dollar opportunities.

Ryan and I need to have a pow wow. Will keep you updated, world. :)

Cell Phone Angst

I hate text messaging. Words never sound the way I intend for them to sound when I send them via texting. It is a soulless form of communication.

But phone conversations are bad too. Especially the kind where the other party is mad at you and you are barely able to articulate what's going through your head. I think I will be okay if I never have to have another phone argument ever again.

If I could live without a cell phone, I would. Unfortunately, if you do not have a cell phone in today's society you are considered to be a nonperson.

There's a part of me that wants to "forget" to take my phone with me this summer though. Fear not, I'm not that stupid. But going without a cell phone would be really liberating. It's an obnoxious piece of technology that's always attached to me, buzzing and beeping and blasting 80s-themed ringtones. I love it because I can contact anyone from any point in the universe. But I also hate it. Because no matter where I am, anyone and everyone can contact me.

I am angsty today. Don't mind me.

So Ready To Blow This Popcorn Stand Foreva, Foo

A few days ago, I joined a cool site called 20 Something Bloggers. Yesterday I was cruising around the forums and found myself in a group devoted to indie music. Someone on the forum had posted that they were about to graduate from college and travel the country with their band for a couple of months. Whoa, that's exactly what Ryan and I are doing, I thought to myself. That's so cool that someone else is doing that too. Then I looked at the post again and realized that Ryan wrote it. He got a 20SB account when I wasn't looking. It's a small Internet after all.

Ryan put a new post on his blog last night that terrified me for a minute until I read the whole thing. Then it made me grin. I called him and we spent a good hour babbling on about all things rock tour related. The conversation ended with us proclaiming that this summer will be completely "ROCK-EFFING-TASTIC!" I got off the phone and stared at my map for a bit before I fell asleep.

I am so bored with my life right now. I do not allow myself to get bored very often, but right now I feel like I'm stuck in a bunch of ruts. It's not that my life is bad right now, it's just that I'm ready to do something entirely different.

Some people get really depressed over the whole graduation thing. They feel like their life is ending or something. I don't get it. I feel like my life is just beginning. If my life was a film, everything that has happened up until this point could be covered through a expositional dialogue (or perhaps a montage) in the first 15 pages or so of the script. I haven't even fully broken into Act Two yet. I've still got the whole movie ahead of me.

(Hi, I'm a scriptwriting nerd. Can you tell? :D)

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do today. Last time I checked, it was sunny out. I think I'll put on my springtime bohemian attire, go for a long drive, end up in a place where no one knows my name, and write for hours while drinking over-priced coffee.

Can't Sleep. Clowns Will Eat Me.

I should be asleep right now but sleep is overrated.
I was dancing around my kitchen eating Cheez-Its a little bit ago. I need to stop having so much energy in the middle of the night.
Ryan and I now have a show booked for May 23rd. It's at the Someday Lounge in Portland and I am completely stoked. It's been way too long since we've done any live performances.
If you want to buy tickets to the show, let me know. They are on sale in advance for $8. I would really love to see YOU there.
Of course, if you live in a completely part of the country and cannot make it to the Portland show, fear not. We might be coming to your town this summer.
The official route is still in the works. Bits and pieces of it are coming together. Tonight, Ryan informed me that all systems are go for Las Vegas. We're gonna stay with his old roommate (we're couchsurfing as much as possible) and hopefully play a few shows down there. Not exactly sure where we're headed to after that, but eventually we'll be on the east coast. I'm trying to surf around the Internet and figure out what cities would be good for us. Someone told me there is a big indie music scene in Michigan. Random.
Do you guys know any great places we should investigate?
Would love your input. :)

And now, I shall sleep. Maybe. Yes.

Death and Business Suits

I think I'm going to die.

It all started with the strange craving for a smoothie. I'm the proud owner of a Magic Bullet and usually I just make my own smoothies, but tonight I was out of yogurt and feeling lazy. I remembered the peach jet tea smoothies they make in the coffee shop on campus and drove over there.

I don't really frequent the campus coffee shop like I used to. I went there all the time my freshman year because it was close the drinks were cheap, but I soon realized that most of the baristas working there didn't know how to make coffee. It's hard to mess up blended drinks though, so I thought I'd go there tonight. But when I walked in, I found that the entire room was lit by candlelight and there was some sort of poetry reading/silent environment/seance going on. I really didn't stay long enough to know what it was. I left, still longing for a smoothie or some sort of fruity something. I passed a vending machine in the student union building on my way out and was seduced by the idea of lemonade.

So I fished a bunch of odd change out of my bag and bought lemonade out of a vending machine. And I went home and drank lemonade. Really bizarre, bad tasting lemonade. The more I drank, the weirder it tasted. I made it halfway through the bottle when the expiration date caught my eye: SEPT 01, 2009.

Today is April 15, 2010. That lemonade is over seven months old. I can see the words on the gravestone now:

Here lies Lauren. She drank bad lemonade. RIP.

Ah well. All I can do is continue to live my life and see what happens, right? :D

A few weeks ago I bought a business suit. I've never really been one to own a business suit, but figured if I wanted to look good at an interview I should add one to my closet. And isn't that what you're supposed to do after college - get a bunch of interviews for jobs that you're mildly interested in and hope you get the one that is the least offensive? That's what I thought I would do. That's what I thought I should do. That's why I bought a business suit (which looked pretty good on me, but that's besides the point).

Today, I returned that business suit. There may come a day when I need to own one, but it's not going to be for awhile.

It was quite liberating to get that suit off of my hands (no matter how good I looked in it).

Rock tour, here I come.

United States of Neurotica

I ride the elevator up to the 18th floor, clutching the bag with my hard drive in it. I hate elevators. I get in and out of different elevators three times just because I cannot bear to ride up 18 floors in one straight shot (and because an assortment of awkward strangers kept getting in with me).

The 18th floor is full of offices and cubicles. I immediately feel stifled. I quickly find the people I've been doing an internship for and get them the video they need from my hard drive. "Sorry it's not entirely edited," I say. "I was going to go to the lab and edit it this morning, but somebody spilled some chemicals in the science building and the whole campus was shut down." (And yes, that really happened.)

They are nice people. They like the work I've done, or at least they pretend to. It's a dreadfully boring video, but it's what they wanted. They help me finish it and get it exported and out of my hair. "Great work," they say. The man gives me a high five.

I take the elevator down 18 floors and spend several minutes attempting to locate my car in the parking garage. I do not relax until I am on the freeway.

I never, ever, ever want to work in a job that requires me to sit in a cubicle. I never want to have an office. I don't know if I ever want a proper desk. The idea of offices and cubicles and giant corporate buildings with over 18 floors terrifies me. It's enough to make me want to run away and make music.

Well, I guess I want to do that anyway. But you get the point.

Two weeks of school left. Two weeks, and then finals. After that - BAM! Graduation. The official launching into the universe. I am excited, but at the same time, I am totally stressed out and not even sure how I'm going to make it through the next two weeks. I know I will somehow, but it still throws me into anxiety land whenever I think about all the things that need to happen between now and then.

I tried to go to bed early tonight, but it didn't work out. Too much on my mind. I went into the kitchen and ate jello with a fork (the spoons were dirty). Then I puttered around the Internet for a bit, as I often do on nights like this.

Tonight, I found myself on Omegle. I hadn't been there in a long, long time and most of my conversations looked like this:

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

You: i dont want to have cybersex
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

I did manage to have a decent conversation with a polite, music-savvy teenager in Brooklyn. The convo ended with the girl adding Original Sound Trash as a friend and promising to come to a show if we play Brooklyn. I gave up on Omegle after that. The odds of having two good conversations in one evening are too slim.

I should probably go to bed. I am not going to want to get up in the morning. But I probably wouldn't want to get out of bed even if I fell asleep three hours ago.

Man, I can't wait until rock tour. It's quickly become something that I not only want to do, but that I need to do. I need to get the heck out of here for awhile. I need to travel and meet all kinds of interesting people and have crazy experiences and make loud music.

That's all.

Fingers Crossed

Today, that Steve fellow that I am rather fond of is going to approach the operations manager at his job. He is going to ask the following question: "Can I have two months off to travel around the country with a local indie band and film their rock tour?"

I'm praying this conversation goes well.

Happy Friday!

Here's a song we wrote a few months ago. It's about our favourite topic - the end of the world! Enjoy. :D



The world better not end before this rock tour adventure goes down. That's all I have to say.

On a completely unrelated note, Amanda Palmer tickets go on sale tomorrow! Gah, I am such a fan girl. But the idea of seeing her perform live seriously makes me giddy.

In other news, I am still sick. I slept all morning and will now attempt to eat ramen noodles. Life is so exciting today.

Thursday Ramblings

Sick Lauren. So hawt right now.


Tis a glorious sick day. I haven't bothered to get out of my pajamas yet. I'd like to think I'm getting better though. After all, I ate a piece of toast and lived to tell about it.

I've made the most of my time by doing a little homework and watching all of the videos in the "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" collection. I also sent an email to a band we might open for on the east coast. I asked for recommendations of venues to play over on that side of the world. I signed my name under the words "Peace, Love, and Disco" and sent it into cyberspace.

Then some guy I went to high school with IMed me out of the blue to tell me he likes my music. I chatted with him for a little bit and found out he's playing in a ska band now. He's also planning a tour this summer and told me that booking shows in New Mexico and Texas is rough. I had heard from a couple of different sources that the music scene in Texas was not great but this confirmed it. There are only two sticky notes in Texas on my map. One represents friends of a friend and the other says "STRANGER DANGER" with the name of someone I met on the Interwebs ("put me on the map but i am stranger danger!" he wrote...oh how I love having friends that live in my computer screen...). So we can probably skip Texas.

I think we're headed more towards Oklahoma anyway. We may have to go through a little bit of Texas to get there. Depends on which way we go. There's probably not much of a music scene in Oklahoma either. But my good friend Nancy lives there and she informed us that we are coming to Oklahoma even if we have to do a show in her living room. Sounds like a good time to me. Nancy's sticky on the map gets a star by it.

Ryan and I really just need to sit down with a map and hammer out a route. We also need to do a lot of research about where the good music scenes are. We keep saying Portland to Portland, but there's a lot of different ways we can go.

There's also the option of coming back through Canada. It sounds sexy in theory, but the more I think about it, the more I ask myself this question: What the hell is in Canada?

I'm trying to think of an answer to that question that doesn't involve the phrase "lots of grizzly bears."

Though Original Sound Trash is all about being unique and reaching out to new audiences, I don't know how I feel about playing for grizzly bears.

Who knows though. There's gotta be something cool in Canada. Commence Internet research. Yah!

Dude. I should take another nap or something.

Have a glorious Thursday, friends!

Peace, Love, and Disco,
Me!

Our Drummer Has No Soul But It's Still Rock And Roll!

It's been approximately one week since Ryan and I gave birth to this crazy idea of taking our music on the road. And though it's only been one week, we already have several options of places we can stay throughout the trip as well as the possibility of a show on the east coast. Everyone I've talked to in the past week has been extremely supportive of this whole rock tour idea, which blows my mind a little bit. Steve keeps telling me that it only makes sense for me to go on a cross country rock tour and that the fact everyone is being so supportive just proves that this is meant to happen. I hope he's right.

In other news, my band mate is apparently Bob the freaking Builder. Last week he was talking about making a drum machine for our shows this summer. I had no idea that meant he would be updating his blog with pictures of the finished product on Monday. You can check it out here.

Who needs a real person when you have a drum machine? :D

(Related question: Why do I need one mariachi when I can have a whole band? :) The first person who can name what movie that's from gets a gold star.)