I exercise in a most unusual way.

I exercise in a most unusual way.

Most reading that will not get the reference, so why did I use it? Just me being obscure.

The reference is to a song by “Wall of Voodoo”, an 80s band, famous for the tune “Mexican Radio”.

Speaking of obscure bands, Gypsy Bandwagon has a gig this Saturday night at The Purple Onion in Saluda, NC. And I’m getting ready for that gig.

Which brings me back to exercising in a most unusual way. I don’t have a clue how other bands get ready for a gig. I’m sure, like GB, they get together for at least a few rehearsals before the gig proper. But what the individual members do to prepare mentally is possibly, even probably, much different than what I do.

What I’ve done, at least enough to call it a routine, is pull out a bunch of “inspirational” videos by other bands. I’m a pretty visual sort of guy (recall that I’m an illustrator in my other identity), so this makes sense to me.

So on Friday and Saturday nights I reviewed “U2: Rattle and Hum”. Sunday at lunch Karin and I watched “The Partridge Family” pilot (all inspiration is not equal). Last night I looked at a batch of 80s videos from MTV (how much hair did we have back then?). As the week continues I’ll doubtless watch various other films and videos that may or may not include; “Oh, brother where art thou?”, “The Monkees”, “Newsboys: Down Under the Bigtop”, “That thing you do!”, etc.

I’m pretty eclectic.

Saturday night I also came over to the studio (where Karin was, working on her MySpace page) and plugged in the electric guitar (with effects) and jammed along with old records of Cheap Trick, 'Til Tuesday, The Clash, Thompson Twins, and (you guessed it) Wall of Voodoo. Those old 45s still sound pretty good to me.

Today I’ve been inking some more on the pirate novel illustrations. I’m very far behind on that project, so it’s a good thing I’ve gotten some more done. (Hi Tim!)

While I’ve been inking I put on GB’s album “Stole My Mule” and harmonized to the tracks where I was supposed to.

So far I’ve hardly touched the drum set. You have to work up to these things.

I just recalled that I did drum briefly on Saturday when I came into the studio to do something that was going to take a couple of minutes. I guess I sat down and drummed to “Voices Carry” while waiting for something to upload, download, or scan. I don’t recall what.

But other than that, I’ve not drummed in weeks. Not consciously anyway.

I do it unconsciously all the time. I suppose that’s how one becomes a drummer. Anytime a song is in the air, I find myself either drumming along or thinking of how it would be improved if done another way. I beat on the steering wheel in the car. I raise a cloud of dust from the floor mats doing bass beats. I have worn a spot of carpet away at my drawing table doing beats with my feet.

One reason I haven’t actually sat down to drum yet (it is, in fact, why I’m not drumming now) is that Karin’s got a student next door playing harp. She’s had students all day, and I hate to be bashing away at some piece and throwing them off their rhythm. So I have to wait until the students go away to get my proper practice in.

Of course today that will be impossible. Karin’s got students until 7pm, and seeing as it’s our 19th Anniversary today, I’m hoping to sweep her away to a fabulous (low-to-mid-priced) dinner and maybe a movie (we’d do more, but we’ve been in a budget crunch since mid-July).

Perhaps I can pull the Djembe over into a corner and do some hand work, now that I think of it.

Anyway, the point is, I do things to inspire me to do well as drummer for GB. The things that inspire me are usually listening to and watching bands that are stylistically pretty far away from the GB sound.

For the record, I do not listen to a bunch of gypsy music or celtic music. Playing it with Lance, Carissa, and Karin is a lot of fun, but it’s not my listening style. I’m sorry if that disappoints any GB fans. (There’s what? At least one of you looking at this, right?)

Of course I did just listen to “Stole My Mule” (the whole thing, start to finish), so that counts, doesn’t it?

So, now I’m going to take the next step and look at the artwork on the cover, and reread the liner notes!