Tastes Like Burning
For the last year of my time in Colorado, I played in a band called Tastes Like Burning. It has a long and slightly convoluted history, revolving around myself and my friend Jon, a drummer I met while working at Fiske Planetarium.
At the time, I had just returned from Egypt and hadn't really resumed any musical projects. Kevin and I had dinked around a little, but I was hesitant about reviving Afternights. One day, out of the blue, Jon came up and asked me if I knew any good bass players - he and a guitarist friend of his were trying to start up a band. I told him that I myself had practiced bass for years, although I had never seriously played it in a band before. Nonetheless, Jon invited me over to practice. I was rusty, but he and Andre (the guitarist) seemed happy enough, so I stayed.
We played as a trio (with Andre's brother joining every now and then) for the summer. Andre would be leaving for school in the fall, so we didn't get too serious - just learned to play a dozen covers - but the time was invaluable for me re-learn the basics and break my hand in. We finished that summer with a gig at a block party in Boulder for 200 people or so, and were very well received. Andre, unfortunately, had to leave after that, so Jon and I began looking around for new members.
The next couple months were pretty chaotic. Although we played regularly, we couldn't seem to decide what kind of music we wanted to play, whether we would do originals or covers, and how many people would be in the band. We tried out a number people; Dave sang for a while until he decided it wasn't worth it to him; we auditioned a few guitar players whose tastes turned out too incompatible or who weren't interested in doing anything they hadn't written themselves. Finally, I invited Kevin to join us as a keyboardist, and with his help, we became capable of at least writing songs that were more than a bass line. Jon then found his friend Ania as a singer (an immense relief to me, since I was not at all comfortable singing), and a few months later, Jed as a guitarist. At this point, we had a potent songwriting team. Kevin and I wrote the basic song structures, Ania had a wonderful ear for lyrics and melody, and Jed's experience and versatility helped us all out. We began writing songs and recording demos, and soon we had a couple gigs lined up.
Unfortunately, Kevin was getting harder and harder to work with. His behavior was growing increasingly erratic, and he never seemed to be on the same page as the rest of us. It got bad enough that I stopped bringing him to practice, which was of course hurtful and it was a diffult period for us.
Nonetheless, down to a quartet, we really started to click. We soon gave up covers so we could concentrate on originals, of which we wrote 8 or 9 in the next few months. We also started playing more gigs, the most memorable of which were a rockin' show at the People's Republic of Boulder and a laser show at Fiske Planetarium. I really think we would have been well-established in Colorado in another year, but alas, I had to leave right as we were taking off. Hopefully they'll keep the momentum up - as far as I know, they've found a new bassist and hopefully it's working out with him. Playing with TLB has been an irreplacable experience for me, and it was some of the best times I had in that otherwise uncomfortable year between Egypt and Chicago.
Downloads:
Live at People's Republic:
- 8 Feels Gr8: One of the two songs wrote when Kevin was in the band. I wrote the basic riff(s), Kevin added the chorus and finale, and Ania put in some awesome lyrics. It's a wierd song - Ania and I heard the song differently, i.e., her beat 1 was my beat 3, and after some inital surprise and confusion on my part, we worked it into the song seamlessly. One of our best.
- Exposed: The other song with Kevin, and one of my favorites. It's classic Cam-Kevin song writing, plus Ania's innovative vocal melodies. A moody, dreamy song Ania wrote about a boy she was seeing who loved to climb mountains and watch the sun rise.
- Contrary: An early song. It's actually not nearly as complex as our later stuff, just good ol' reliable Am-D and a chorus, but it was always a great song live.
- Green Lights: Written in a desperate attempt to get enough material for the Republic Show. I really like how this turned out. A very strange guitar-bass interplay that reminds me of Radiohead in its dissonance.
- Paste: Based off a song I wrote on the acoustic guitar, one of our finest moments in songwriting. This is when bands are at their best - I thought it was a good song before, but once it had been processed through the band it was far more powerful than anything I could have come up on my own.
- Excuse Me: The first Kamran/Jed collaboration, mostly Jed's creation. It was a fun song to play, but I think we were still getting used to each other and our songwriting substantially improved after this one.
- Unwanted: I had little to do with this song - it was mostly Jed and Ania being brilliant together. In fact, I never really found a bass line I liked until our very last show - probably because it's extremely dark and heavy, a style I normally don't delve in.
- Paystub: I wrote most of this on the bass before taking it to the band, so it feels much more like a Kamran tune than something like Unwanted. I even got to fumble through a bass solo on this one!
- Dead and Bloated: We're not terribly good at covers, but we did this one a couple times when it looked like we needed some harder rock on our set.
- High and Dry: Jon and I had been playing this Radiohead tune since we started out with Andre. We finally let the poor thing die sometime in August, after a year of abuse.
Studio Recordings:
- 8 Feels Gr8: Early garage recording of the tune with Kevin playing, just to give you an idea of the origins of the song.
- Exposed: Recorded at Fiske Planetarium, this is, to date, the highest-quality recording we've produced. This features both Kevin on piano and Jed on guitar.
- You: Kind of a side project, but it features three of the four of us, so I'll put it here. I wrote this song for Rea's birthday and had Jon and Jed help me out with it, for which I was extremely grateful. I would have loved to have done this as a group with Ania singing it, but we never got around to it.
Video Clip: Live at Eck's Saloon
- Hi-qual (approx. 9MB): This was our first post-Kevin gig, and we were a little rocky, but it's fun to watch. Features the first two-thirds of Contrary (before the camera batteries died)