photo by Matt Spilker
[Editor's note: This Saturday, Jan. 25, Hear Nebraska hosts Take Cover Lincoln at Vega, starting at 9 p.m. Take Cover features Nebraska musicians covering songs by other Nebraskans. To preview, performers will share their takes on the songs they're covering.]
I actually kind of labored over my choice a little bit, because it's been something of a challenge for me these last couple of years to maintain the level of involvement in the local scene that I previously felt I had.
The first songs I thought of were written or co-written by Josh Hoyer, which means I had already played them a few hundred times. So that's cheating, haha — I mean, it seems like it violates the spirit of the gig to play a song from a band you used to be in. So I had to pass on those, which was pretty tough because some of those songs are still pretty ingrained in me.
I tried not to waffle between "some obscure tune you've never heard of" and "Amber" by 311 because I didn't want it to seem like I was "that guy," but then I realized overthinking my overthinking was the literal worst.
So I went with "Ballad of a Paralysed Citizen" by The Faint, and it is because I do actually have an odd non-direct connection to the Faint. The Short Version: In high school (1997-ish), I dated Ben Armstrong's sister Kate for 16 months and change. During that time, Todd Fink (then Baechle) asked Ben if he knew anyone with kids, because they wanted a chorus of children on their CD. Ben knew I had younger siblings; he asked me to ask my mom, Mom said yes, and we ended up at (I think?) the Mogis' house studio. I sat and hung out while my brother and sister learned and sang the last chorus of "An Allusion Passes Through the Bar" from the Faint's Media. It was cool.
I picked "Ballad" because I really enjoy messing around with covers. I'm kind of a scoundrel when it comes to playing covers straight; anyone who has seen Tsumi knows we almost never played a cover as-is. We played "Tainted Love" in 6/8, we added extra chords to "Sober" by Tool, we did unspeakable weirdness to "Bad Moon Rising," and so on. "Ballad" doesn't really have a guitar in the mix, or if it does it's heavily altered or hidden. But I also really like the song for its fairly sparse rhythm track — anymore it seems like electronic music has this obligatory 1! 2! 3! 4! synth bass drum thing going on, and it just feels really lazy and comfortable. But "Ballad's" percussion, if you take away the strings and lyrics, it almost feels like something you'd hear in the '90s while playing Doom or something.
Whether or not *my* arrangement will maintain the eerie moving forward, I'm not sure — I have the song under my fingers, but the arrangement is still up in the air. I am definitely looking forward to this gig though, as I haven't really "gotten out of the house" as it were since Tsumi's 10-year bandiversary gig in October 2013. We're on a pretty official hiatus right now, what with the incoming baby girl in late May, so who knows when we'll have another show? I *do* know I need to stretch though, so this gig is most welcome.
Take Cover Lincoln at Vega
Saturday, Jan. 25 at 9 p.m. // $7 cover
Lineup includes:
Gerardo Meza (Mezcal Brothers)
Heidi Ore and Jon Taylor (Domestica, form. Mercy Rule)
Jon Dell (Universe Contest)
Eli Mardock
C Balta (Once A Pawn)
Jim Reilly (LIFE is COOL)
Aaron Parker (Gordon)
Lucas Kellison
Cory Kibler (The Sleepover, Demos)
Freakabout
Dave Socha (Bolzen Beer Band)
Craig Reier (Low Horse)
Manny Coon
Eric Nyffeler, Jon Augustine, Daniel Nickel (Bus Gas)
Orion Walsh
Luke Sticka (Tsumi)
Liz Hitt (form. The Terminals)
Chance Solem-Pfeifer (Little Marais) and Michael Todd