Lately

CJ practiced for the first time in a long time last night. Since May we've only had one Pixies show and only practiced Pixies once or twice. The rest of the time it has been all Flaming Lips.

Last night we played all of Doolittle, including Silver (which is new to us), and about 15 or so other songs. The plan is to play Doolittle on Dec 16th and a mostly different set on Dec 15th. It is unclear if the set on Dec 15th needs to be 45 minutes, an hour, or longer. It could be as much as two 45 minute sets.

Overall I think we sounded great. I don't feel too proud to say that I sounded the best out of everyone. I think I've practiced more in the interium, including over the last couple of weeks...and I was once again stone cold sober while everyone else had at least one beer last night. Where being sober has felt hard for playing in recent weeks...if I can sustain it in the end it will certainly ultimately improve my playing (if not my feeling of being relaxed). I actually felt myself under utilizing my brain last night...I could wander off and read things on the wall while playing for instance. I guess it makes sense. If you can play a bass line after having drunk 5 beers...surely sober you'll have significantly more free brain space to play it and not totally have to focus on it.

Anyway, I'm happy to be back at the Pixies stuff and happy that everyone seems to have a new sense of dedication. A month ago I think we were all ready to go live under rocks for a while. I'm more optimistic about the future of the band now than I've been in a while. There was talk of learning Bossanova last night...which no one has ever been all that interested in. And three of us played "Distance" on a whim for the first time with no prior prep (while Paco was in the john) and nearly ran right into "Lovely Day" before realizing that we ought to refocus on the tunes at hand. I think that we're all ready to get back at this thing.