Rock and Bowl: A modest proposal.

So, I'm waiting for my coffee to cool and my Genuine Counterfeit PreEmbargo Cubans to arrive by UPS from my friends at JR Cigars, and I remembered something I brought up earlier in the week that needs more fleshing out.

One of the biggest complaints about the Des Moines music scenes is...okay the biggest complaint is there's a lot of sucky bands and too few venues. AFTER that, though, the biggest complaint is that bands are always tearing each other down and there's no comraderie. Overall, the scene suffers. Just take a look at the typical Craigslist bullshit that flares up from time to time.

Okay. The English have Soccer. There's all kinds of great stories of legendary British bands having a bit of footie for fun. Hip Hop has basketball. Death Metal bands have Dungeons and Dragons nights--okay, I can't back that one up...

This is all a bit too athletic for most bands I know. However, they all like to drink beer and hate golf. This leads to BOWLING! It's not all that athletic, but has enough individual and team competition to keep it interesting. You keep score, but noone takes it too seriously (unless your name is Walter Sobchak). And you can rent EVERYTHING neccessary so no intial cost is necessary. Plus there's that vintage thing for all those ironic hipsters out there.

Bands on Board so Far:
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Black Storm Alice
Porkins' Ghost
Superchief (at least one of them)

Spread the word! I'll make brackets and everything! Each band will be a team. This is just for fun for now. Maybe in the future, we can get some sponsors and have a championship or something. This would be a great opportunity to hang out and/or network in a mellow, not-so-loud, non-competitive environment.

I'm looking for feedback here, so I'm publicizing this post. We'll see what happens.

My Bands

I'm in two bands.

The first, is Porkins' Ghost. http://www.myspace.com/porkinsghost
The band consists of my friend Dave on drums and me on bass. We play primarily improv space rock, for lack of a better word. We play in a huge building at his place way out in Western Iowa near Stuart. We did have one show, at the Vaudeville Mews, on May 15, 2009. We were also featured on an UnderTheMic compilation. We'd like to play more, but various commitments have kept us busy and not rocking. We'll be back, though.

The second is Black Storm Alice. http://www.reverbnation.com/blackstormalice
This is a more traditional Classic Rock Cover Band. It consists of Doug Diaz on drums, Doug Ulenhopp on guitar, Hanna Jones on vocals and me on bass. Like I said, pretty straight ahead rock, but I have managed to drag some improv jams out of them every once in a while. This probably has more potential for shows, since it's a more conventional type band, but we have yet to play a gig.

I would love to play more, but my work schedule won't allow it. It is opening up more lately, so I can get to some jams. My dream, as usual, is to make a living at this, but I don't know.

Oh, dear. I promised not to be boring, but you've probably stopped reading by now. Oh well.