tour 5.02
Saturday, June 21 1997 Memphis TN Barrister’s
Todd - Continuing on with a melancholy theme, I was dreading Memphis, as my friend, Jeff Buckley, had just drowned here two weeks prior. The other Heston’s knew him as well, and just being in Memphis seemed…well… morbid. The club, Barristers, was a big square box with LOTS of echo if it isn’t full, which again, it wasn’t. The power cut out during the set. We called it a day and beat it out of town. I drove through the night en route to Norman, OK. To stay awake as the sun was rising, I sang Pink Floyd’s, The Wall, in it’s entirety aloud, a capella. Matt woke up as I was closing out “The Trial”, and asked if I would like him to drive. I accepted and immediately passed out. I think I dreamt about David Gilmour….
Zeph - Another boring, long lasting night in Memphis. Even less eventful than some of our other stays here. We left after the show to get to Oklahoma where we were staying for the next week. I remember Matt was driving and we were feeling good, early in the morning in Arkansas.
Carol - Dan gave me a handful of weed before we left. so nice. andy wasn’t there this time. apparently he either quit or got fired. memphis was gonna be lame again. i could feel it. a ghost town. strange to be back here again after what happened to Jeff and Rob. power went out twice during our set. the first time we were all like, “well, this is a first.” but after the second one we were like, “fuck this” and quit.
June 22-25 1997 - Norman OK Recording at Dan and Todd’s house.
Matt - What made touring somewhat tolerable were our stops in Norman, OK. This time I was really excited to record at Dan and Todd’s. Though my spirits were high, my inspiration wasn’t. As usual I wanted to play all the parts, but had to let the other band members play. Which was for the best. The sounds were pretty mellow and Dan had an ADAT machine. We tried to record this song I’d written a month or so before called “Try Try Try”, but we didn’t get it right. I wrote a few new ones but didn’t get to finish them.
Z - They had turned their house into a studio. Dan had the control room set up in the garage with lines running into the house. We used his bedroom for the drums and Todd’s for the guitar and bass and keyboards. We stayed there all week and drank a lot in the afternoon and smoked weed and tried to come up with songs. We had great weather all week and discovered Emeril on the food channel. We came up with “The Disney Corporation” and “2 virgins” and “Melenger” there because everything felt so relaxed and drunk and slow.
C - we arrived in norman very early in the morning. Dan and Todd were still asleep. they had this cutest little kitten which was new. Todd Phillips is totally allergic to cats so he wasn’t too thrilled when he saw him. got ourselves situated for the 5 day recording session here. the boys got on my nerves already when they were supposed to go pick up groceries and came back empty handed. Matt and i had horrible chinese buffet.
T - We stayed with at Dan and Todd’s house… a typical college town crash pad with a make-shift recording studio in an adjacent room. The weather was brutally hot and the house’s newest resident, a one month old kitten, was making me supremely allergic and uncomfortable. Food was scarce, so we loaded up on a few days worth of provisions at Food 4 Less. We recorded some decent songs there: A cool version of “Try Try Try” and “There Ain’t No Girls There” (which I later stole as my own, new lyrics and all). The crown jewel of this session was a circular number that I added a cool guitar track to. The cat started getting to me, so checked into a Super 8 up the road to clear my bronchial tubes out for a night. Mikey and I scoured some bars to find special friends with minimal results.
Monday, June 23 1997
C - the boys dropped me off at the OU library on their way to the grocery store. i was trying to write a paper for my incomplete from the art institute. but instead i got side tracked and found this really old promotional book on korea that was printed in the early sixties. Matt came and got me. the boys recorded all day and i watched a lot of tv.
Tuesday, June 24 1997
C - Todd Yeagar took me to his bank so i could get a cashier’s check for me and Matt’s rent. mission accomplished. Evan from love button came over in the afternoon. he cut his hair off and was looking cuter. made crépes with strawberries and everyone had a little. Todd Y took us out to pizza later. it was delicious. Todd’s such a sweetheart. more recording. more tv. the humidity in the house was making me sick. i took a benedryl and passed out early. Todd checked into a motel becuz of the kitten.
Note: a couple years ago, Todd Y sent me .wav files of all the tracks. I finally got around to mixing the songs from these sessions. I re-recorded vocals and added instruments where needed. Here’s what we have now -Matt…
Disney Kids
Why You Keep Waiting Your Kind Will Never Survive Prof. Melenger There ain't no girls there Try Try Try