Dan at the Black Cat, December 29, 1999 with his Xmas gift from Peter
Photo: Kasi Burns

December 3, 2003: New Entanglements

(I'm leaving the last post I wrote 3 1/2 years ago below...partly because I like to read it from time to time to remind myself of where I came from.)

After moving to LA I took a bunch of time off from music. I'd thought I'd just join a band as soon as I got here (since long haired guys must be issued a band and keys to a practice space upon arriving in LA the same way young women are all required to get a Chinese character or some Celtic knotwork tattooed right above their ass, right? Psst--I think this later is being used as a tracking device by the government--sort of like a barcode for aspiring actresses and models...but I digress...). But as it turned out, I didn't, partly because it took a while to figure out the various scenes here and partly because I came to realize that I didn't want to just immediately join a band. I've done music my whole adult life and been in an active band for all but a few years of that time...it was nice to see what life would be like without 2 nights a week of pulverizing my ears and to reacquire a hunger for doing it, rather than because that's what I know how to do (i.e. just playing out of habit).

A dream in August of 2001 had me seeing Mission of Burma in a small club. When a few months later, it turned out they were reforming for a few shows in Boston and NYC, there was no question that I had to be there. I flew to NYC for my birthday (and the 2nd anniversary of the last Absolutely Boxspring show) with many old and dear friends (among others, Boxspring bassist Dave Witty) and then caught Burma twice at Irving Plaza. They were just as good as I remembered and just as inspiring as they had been when I first saw them when I was 17. That's what I wanted to be doing. A week after returning to LA, I answered an ad on the wall at Amoeba and because acquainted with Dorian Wood. Within a week of meeting, we played 5 songs as a duo at a party billed (for the first time ever) as the Dorian Wood Guilt Trip. You can go to the site to see what we've been up to...an EP, a compilation track, a half dozen lineup changes, shows without drummers, shows with drummers who've never played with us before, improvised shows with turntablists and rappers, performance art, pornography--it's all good, as we say here in So. Cal. There's an MP3 of a song from the EP, but no one song can in any way be representitive of what we do.

As if that weren't enough, I later hooked up with another group of musicians...we eventually decided to call ourselves Eight Minute Morning. You can check that site out--not a lot of history there, but we've played a lot in LA and there are MP3s there too (I recommend Top of the Food Chain as a good starting point for the Absolutely Boxspring fan). A new demo is in the works.

I'm not the front man or even a vocalist in either band and my compositional input has been limited a few riffs for Eight Minute Morning tho' I sure have a lot to do with the arrangments. I couldn't be happier about this state of affairs--by the end of Absolutely Boxspring I dreaded writing lyrics and pretty much had given up on it (half the last EP is instrumental). Just playing the guitar and not having to wrestle with anything else has been a really good thing, both for my guitar playing and for the bands collectively.

That's all I can think of right now that an Absolutely Boxspring fan might want to know. Check out the new bands and let me know what you think--you can still email me here.

May 10, 2000: Over & After

Starting the night after the last show, my life became too chaotic to even begin to document here, so I haven't said anything. I've seen some really good shows, and recorded Cry Baby Cry (I stole the title of one of their songs for this update), which are the sorts of things that I'd usually post here, but updating the page has had to take a back seat to real life.

About that last show....it was definitely in the top of couple of shows we ever played and maybe even the best ever. Great turn out too--it just shows who will come out of the woodwork when they get email saying "LAST SHOW EVER". Thanks for being there with us. We did two full sets, playing pretty close to everything that this lineup of the band had ever played on stage. Exhausting, but worth it. It felt like going out on top to me.

As for the reasons behind the decision to end the band suffice it to say that it wasn't the usual "artistic differences". And we all still get on quite well (in fact we're going to dinner before the Shiner show this week). But it just became apparent that this band had run it's course and that it was time for us to move on. It wouldn't surprise me if someday we found ourselves making music together again, but the name Absolutely Boxspring and that catalog of material belongs to the 1990s (with the exception of the last show, of course). Thanks to all the people who helped us out over the years particularly the various ex-members of the band: Steve Witty, Jeff Venverloh, Ian McCaleb, Scott Frey;Peter Mansinne for all the recording and stage assistance and pep talks over the years;Nicole Dewald and Lara Day Kozak for attending more of the shows than anyone else and taking the photographs to prove it.

Needless to say, finishing the last Boxspring recordings hasn't been at the top of my list. I'm moving to Los Angeles in a few weeks and the studio has already been dismantled (tho' not packed yet) so the last Boxspring tunes will get finished once I'm out there. There will be an announcement once they are up on our (now sadly defunct) mp3.com site.

As you've probably already noticed, I did get around to the promised site redesign. It's been done for a while, I just hadn't gotten around to making it live. Uses CSS, for the webgeeks among you. I'll be doing some tweaking under the hood and updating the links soon. Oh, and check out the discography page--it's been redesigned too.

Here's the shows I'll be seeing in the next few weeks as I attempt to get out of town:

• Wed. 10th, Stinking Lizaveta at the Velvet Lounge
• Thurs. 11th, Spirit Caravan (formerly Shine) at the Ottobar (Baltimore)
• Fri. 12th, Oswego at the Black Cat
• Sat. 13th, Shiner at the Metro (they have a new CD)
• Sun. 14th, Shiner at the Ottobar
• Sat. 20th, Q and Not U at the Kansas House (Arlington)
• Sun. 21st, Bald Rapunzel/Durian joint CD release party!
• Sat. June 3rd, Dismemberment Plan at the Black Cat

I'll probably be gone by the time of that last one. I'm paying rent in LA as we speak, so I need to get out there.

And if anyone who reads this knows of a band in LA looking for a guitar player or of some one/thing/band/club in LA that I simply must check out, let me know.