Naimul

My fingers are calloused.
The tips of the lefty are purple and hard.
Like a eggplant boner or something.
I'm behind in my school work, I haven't gone out much, and I probably won't look on these last few days with much joy.
But I have a new skill to add to the list.

I'm learning to play the guitar.

It started when a guy in my apartment offered me his old one to learn on. What a guy, that Adam Rodman. When I started picking out tabs to play, I realized how much a musical background can help in learning a new instrument. That and dedication mixed with high pain tolerance. Two days later I knew the bass line from a song called The Humans are Dead by Flight of the Conchords.

If you haven't heard of FOTC by now you've been living in a cave that hasn't yet been penetrated by Light, HBO, or most of Youtube comedy. They're a folk parody duo from New Zealand that for the last four years has steadily climbed a ladder to heaven and is now taking the country by storm. From playing in bars in Kiwi land to their own TV series, they've influenced many people with their humorous styling.

But this blog isn't about them. Its about me and how they're skyrocketing me to new heights.

I'm in a tribute band. We're called Intense. There is a facebook group with photos and videos. Its titled like this blog, check it out. My guitar giver and I play covers of FOTC songs for now, but I can see, with a little practice, how we could write our own new material. We just had our first show, one week after forming, and have a second gig in the scope. Here is a clip from the first half of that first show.

An explanation: Despite the terrible quality of footage, the capture of our mic troubles, the ADD exhibited by the cinematographer (jk lara thank you so much), and the unplanned addition of Victor's singing voice to the set, our first gig went really really well. Too bad only a handful of people showed up, but hey, you have to start somewhere. We will record a version of the humans are dead for your viewing pleasure and then give you details on our next gig soon.

We have cool band art. Check it out:

When we have 6-8 songs under out belt a local club will let us have our own gig, not just an open mic night like our first show. I'm so excited, its like the unfulfilled dreams of highschool Jeff and Naimul. Sporadicons come to life in an unexpected way. And we can only get better from here!

This blog really isn't just me though. Its also about Flight of the Conchords and Wandyteeth, two of the best things...ever. I made a CD the other day with Daft Punks Discovery album and songs from FOTC's new EP. It represented the influence of Joel and Jeff on my aural development. Jeff=Homework.mp3, Joel=Hiphopopotomus.mp3.

And now that you know what is new, heres something completely different.

I'm out two hundred bucks. Here is why.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naimul/1376726969/

This is the last photo of the set. Click on the photo stream on the right to move through and see the rest.

Terrible circumstance. But there is a chance now...for renewal. A new opportunity to...shop?

Lemons into lemonade, I could make a bag or quilt or a patchwork shirt out of this....

Damn.

I know event blogs are never as fun as issues and ideas blogs, but really, these event blogs deal with some important issues.

Like that of religious intolerance.

Last night "Intense," the flight of the conchords tribute band, was slated to play at a venue with an audience in desperate need of our comedy stealings. I somehow managed to set us up in the most hostile environment imaginable. Amongst Evangelical Christians.

Well, they weren't all evangelicals, some of them were just Christian members of the student ministry on campus, but the supposed open mic night at the Union Caberet was populated entirely by these bible thumpers. Before the show a rapid staccato email exchange read something like,

"Come at 7 and sign up, keep it clean."

"Um...we sing a song called business time, its like marvin gaye but nerdier, is that okay?"

"Yeah you're cool, just keep it respectful."

"What?"

And so forth. When we got there, we weren't sure what was okay and what wasn't. We decided to let the first few acts tell us what it was all about.

So the first song was a young man with little creativity singing about how, as christians, we are surrounded by the world. And that world is full of SIN and TEMPTATION. And this young boy is going to wait for his girlfriend. After his rousing first song we were treated to another chronicling his debates about dying/killing himself to get to Jesus faster vs. just sticking it out on earth because god put him there to make music. Holy shit I almost picked up my guitar and fled.

But a brief pow wow with Adam and we decided to play Albi the racist dragon to tie in the issue of race and play it off as planned. Then we would play Humans are Dead to wow them and tell them about how all their crazy self flagellation will pay off soon because the robots are coming. We still had to sensor somethings.

Despite the cold reaction from a few tables in this large room of people (this one guy kept glaring at me for being a heathen), a lot of people liked this stuff. You judge for yourself. I think it is one of the better live renditions we've run. On to new songs.