Flipping some pages

I took a sabbatical from the internet the last few days mostly because my day job was trying to steal all my free time. It was one of those weeks where everybody was calling in or off of work for some reason or another. Luckily I was there to fill in the holes and almost loose my mind in the process. The icing on the cake was my last ultra busy day where I showed up for work at six a.m. and didn't leave until five that afternoon all without sleeping the night before. Boo Hiss. Well things have quieted down at work and I'm back again yammering on to no one in particular.

I was flipping through a free magazine circulated throughout Midland/Odessa called "Good Times". I'm sure most cities have at least one of these rags that survive completely on ad space crammed to the margins. They tell the readers what is going on this month with music and other forms of entertainment. Usually they'll have a feature one page article interviewing a big name band passing through or the theater department putting on a new run of "Les Miserable". The rest is full of the already mentioned advertisements, a blurb about some new "hot spot", a calendar of events at the local bars and venues, and some more ads. The one in Lubbock was titled "Study Breaks" and I have to say a better read, especially when I was bored waiting for class to start or sometimes bored waiting for class to end. Study Breaks had a chart of the local bars and their drink specials they offered every night so you could plan your night accordingly and know where the deals were. Sad to say the one in this town doesn't offer the same help.

As i was flipping through the glossy pages getting an idea of what bands were playing around town I noticed something really funny. There's a band in the local scene maybe even larger scene called AIDS Wolf. What? So I flipped on looking more closely at some other band names around town. Apparently Midland/Odessa is full of band name gold. there's one guy playing around town called Roland Z. Not too bad I guess but it looks like he puts on an acoustic show so why not just name the one man band after the only member? Other solid gold acts around town this month are straitjacket, Dingo Sanctuary ( I have a friend in Houston who plays in Save The Manatees), Stinky Johnson, Glove Box, Cirebrook?, Mister Happy, Wolf 359 (AIDS free), Coldwater Country Band, and Pushrod to name a few. Is it really that hard to come up with a name for your band? For these guys apparently not. I'm not saying these groups don't have talent. I couldn't say because I probably wouldn't be heading out to give Glove Box a listen.
"Hey mom I got hired to play drums for a band. Ya we're called AIDS Wolf. I can't wait for you to hear us we really rock!" Really? It is cheating to go on too long about this though since I play for yet another Texas Country band titled after the lead singer's name. I could probably rattle off a list twice as long for all the bands just in this area following that formula, but it does simplify things. We have never sat around and thought maybe we should change the name back to Herpes Wolf. I think it had such a better resonance to the fans.

While writing this I googled AIDS Wolf and they are apparently pretty big to the terminally alienated types. They're a four piece band that's been playing for some time and started out in Montreal. Not my kind of tunes, but not just guitar riffs double bass pedal screaming junk. More of an acid art creepy tunes kind of feel. Good for them for becoming popular while standing out so sorely with a name like that. Reminds me of a clip from Wayne's World, which I can't for the life of me find on youtube. Wayne walks up to the club and asks the bouncer, "who's playing?" He says, "the shitty beatles". Wayne asks, "how are they". The bouncer says, "shitty". Wayne says, "ahh so it's not just a clever name". No idea why I remember that with such clarity, but whatever.