The Well, volume Jake (XXI)

[Jake]

"High Five the Cactus"...what a great song title, lol!

Haha, it's a funny title and it's a great song to boot. You should check them out.

Best gig you have ever witnessed?

For me it's a tie between Bad Religion/Rise Against or Bright Eyes. It was back when Bad Religion was touring for "The Empire Strikes First" and Rise Against hadn't become entirely too preachy and annoying at this point. The opening band was a complete joke (From First To Last) but but other bands just brought it all out. So much energy, even from those old dudes in Bad Religion.

Bright Eyes was another great one. Most of the night was just Conor by himself and his acoustic guitar. It was in a very small, cramped venue which created a very intimate atmosphere. He ended up getting really drunk, which seemed to bring out his emotions even more, and he was crying during "Waste of Paint." As emo as it sounds, it just broke my heart.

Band you would most like to be in/have been in?

My ideal band would have the rocking aspects of punk and hard rock, like a bad religion meets siamese dream-era smashing pumpkins. It would have the pop accessibility of green day, but not so predictable, and wouldn't be afraid to straight kick your ass or have a heart-aching ballad every now and then. Also, in this band I magically have the ability to write a good solo too

Plus any of those band stories, play any shows with any bands i would have heard of?

One time we were playing a gig in the middle of July in a venue with no A/C. Now, for those of you who know the Houston area, this means it's going to be gross, and you are going to sweat, alot. We were sitting backstage and they luckily had a gigantic industrial fan on the floor to at least attempt to cool some of us off. Anyways, our drunk bassist decides he REALLY wants to pee in the fan. He did, and some poor sap's gig bags were flung with his urine. That's kind of an a'hole thing to do, but I can't help but find it a little funny.

Some bands we've played with you may know: Set Your Goals, 30FootFall, and The Queers. The Queers gig was back when they had their old guitarist though. We never got too many gigs with well known bands, since we always found ways to piss concert promoters off, like, the vocalist canceling gigs for no reason, or the bassist spending a few days in jail therefore we couldn't play. One promoter I even considered somewhat of a friend of mine said he would never book the band ever again.

[Jake]

have you ever had the nickname "the snake"?

Never. A few people (including my dad) have called me that on occasion, but it's never stuck. My only ever nicknames have come from the band, and the one they called me the most was Absolute, because I'm a christian. According to them, whenever they asked me a God-related question, apparently I was always reply with the word "Absolutely" somewhere in the sentences. My other two band nicknames came from the fact sometimes I talk really fast and mumble over my words: j-j-jake and Cocaine Jake.

How have you adapted your playing to accommodate having severe wrist/hand/arm/tendonitis issues?

I stretch a little before playing, and I can't palm mute for nearly as long anymore, since I can't apply pressure for very long. But by lightening the pressure on my hands when I mute, I can do it considerably longer now though. I also find myself strumming more, as that has no real affect on my playing. For the most part though, my playing is relatively close to way it used to be ::knock on wood::

[Jake]

Whatcha doin' next week? I will be in H-town for a few days.

Not much. I have class, but as I'm currently unemployed I have free time just about everyday of the week, except for monday and thursday. What are you coming to town for?

If we were having a few beers, and I was to say "Deathcab for Cutie is the dumbest f'ing band name ever", would you agree, or disagree and provide an alternative?

Also, what kind of beer would it be?

I agree. Funny thing is, the band name is actually a song title by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, which is an equally dumb name. You may know the Bonzos by their hit "The Monster Mash"

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band certainly had better song titles to make for band names, which makes me wonder why they picked Death Cab For Cutie. Oh well.


I'm not really a Death Cab fan, but the funny thing is, I love their vocalist's side-project, The Postal Service (see first post).


Oh, and we're going to be drinking Sam Adam's Utopia. It's a $140 beer, so I hope you're buying.

[bungalowbill]

Jake, I know you are into Punk style music...If you were forced to listen to prog rock for a day, what groups and/or albums would you listen to?

What is your favorite fast food?

[Jake]

Where in the world would you like to:

1. Travel just to see it

For me it's a tie between New Zealand and the UK. I want to see people who live basically like I do, but only slightly different

2. Live

Tough question. I love Texas but I'm not sure if I want to live here forever. I honestly don't know, so I'd say it's a tie between So. Cal-New York-Boston-Seattle-Austin-Houston. Regardless of the city, I want to live in a mansion and drive european sports cars

3. Play before a stadium audience

A big festival crowd, like Bonnaroo, Coachella, or Donington. As long as I don't get bottled.

[Gearjoneser]

I always thought your band, Kemo for Emo, had a decent shot mostly because you had all the elements in line.....music, image, age, name etc.

Do you think you could reform it with any ex members, and replace the family guy deadbeats with motivated members? Your thoughts?

Or, what sort of band would you like to form next?

[Imp]

what's your favourite bass riff?

[Jake]

Jake...

What is your most embarrasing moment?

One time, I was hanging out with the band dudes. No practice or gig, just hanging out. It was toward the end of the night, and we all went out go eat some buffalo wings. I was getting ready to go home, and I was already feeling sick, and something in those wings just didn't sit right. I say my goodbyes and drive off....and then all of a sudden I felt that "drop" in my stomach, and I immediately needed a bathroom. I sharted. I pull a highly dangerous u-turn and race back to my bassist's apartment, and without saying a word I burst through their apartment door and ran straight to their bathroom, where I made some of the most disgusting smells I didn't know I was capable of. Not only did I scare the beejezus out of them (imagine someone unexpectedly running full speed into your home with no warning), I obviously smelled horrible too. I didn't hear the end of that for a while....my stomach hurts thinking about it!

What's the no-panties chick who came on to you up to nowadays?

Funnily Enough, I ran into her not long ago. She's lost about 20 pounds (which puts her under the 100lb mark) which leads me to believe she's become anorexic, and she claims she's trying to become a model. She ended up screwing one of my friends. I'm not jealous, in reality I actually feel pretty sorry for my poor friend, that girl is beyond stupid. She also found some strange new age religion...good for her, I guess.

What foods do you find incredibly difficult to resist?

Pretty much anything fried. chicken fried steak, french fries, fried chicken, fried chicken strips, etc. It's unhealthy as crap, which is why I'm trying to curb it, but sometimes I can't resist.

When do you feel most 'at home'?

Between 11:00pm and about 2:00am. Everyone in the house is asleep except for me, and I feel alone to collect my thoughts and listen to softer music. It's when I feel most at peace with the world, and I feel like everything is going to be ok, no matter what crap is going on in my life.

[Jake]

name a parenting skill/trait etc of your father's that you hope to emulate

My father is an excellent provider, something I'll always admire and hope to emulate someday. He's worked 2 full time jobs since his mid 20s to ensure his family can live the lifestyle we want to have. When my older sister turned 16, she needed a car. So my dad, out of the goodness of his heart, sold his 1969 Ford Mustang Fastback so he could have money to buy her a car. That was his pride and joy for years, he rebuilt the thing with his two bare hands...I know that must have hurt him a lot to have sold that.

My dad believes to be successful you need to have a reliable car and a good education, and my dad has provided me with both, buying me a car at 16 and paying for my entire college tuition and books. I'll do the same for when/if I have kids.

name a parenting skill/trait etc of your father's that you hope to never ever emulate

My father can be a very stubborn man sometimes. When he makes up his mind, there's no negotiation with him. It's good to have a solid stance on things, however he often makes decisions without fully researching the subject at hand. There's definitely been times where he has been wrong on something and even in the face of truth will not recognize he is at fault.

name a parenting skill/trait etc of your mother's that you hope to emulate

My mother has almost an infinite amount of empathy, which I highly admire. She can put herself into just about everybody's shoes, and can realize why certain people act the way they do in certain instances, which makes her a very easy person to get along with, and is great when it comes to making compromises to make sure everybody is happy.

name a parenting skill/trait etc of your mother's that you hope to never ever emulate

As much as I love my mom, there is one quality of hers I've always promised myself I would never do. Sometimes if she gets into a bad mood (for whatever reason) sometimes she takes out her anger and frustration on whoever is nearby, even if they are uninvolved in why she's upset in the first place. For example, if I forget to take out the trash, which under normal circumstances she'll simply remind me to do it, when she's angry for a completely unrelated reason she'll blow up and yell at me why the trash isn't at the corner, and make a subtle comment that I'm somehow useless. She almost always apologizes later, but I'd rather her not do it in the first place, you know?

[Jake]

Tell me about badgers.

Badgers (x10)





Mushroom, Mushroom




Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake! Snaaaaaake! Ohhhhh it's a snake!

[Jake]

Jake, I know you are into Punk style music...If you were forced to listen to prog rock for a day, what groups and/or albums would you listen to?

I can stand Rush, since to me they are the most tasteful prog band, since I find the genre as a whole guilty of too much guitar wankery for the sake of guitar wankery. Weather Report is pretty decent too.

What is your favorite fast food?

Without a doubt, Whataburger. I know they aren't available in many states, but IMO they're the closest a fast food joint is to restaurant quality food. Their chicken strips combo, with toast, fries, and white gravy is so good I bet you could fool some people into thinking it's restaurant quality if they didn't know any better.

Jack in the Box comes in a distant 2nd.

[Jake]

I always thought your band, Kemo for Emo, had a decent shot mostly because you had all the elements in line.....music, image, age, name etc.

Do you think you could reform it with any ex members, and replace the family guy deadbeats with motivated members? Your thoughts?

Or, what sort of band would you like to form next?

Thanks for the compliments!

I agree, a lot of the elements were in place, however not everything was picture perfect. The music scene in Houston is in horrible shape these days, and it was almost always a ***** to draw just about anywhere. Even a place like Fitzgeralds, which back in the 90s would weekly get 300-400 visitors on a friday or saturday regardless of who was playing, struggles to draw 20-30 people sometimes now.

The drive was gone too. Both the singer and drummer have kids, and their priorities changed. That makes them good parents, just not very good band members when you're trying to go big. Obviously, I fully support their decision to spend more time on their families, but it's hard to tour when you don't make much money at your day job and you have mouths to feed. And no tour = no big record deal. We talked with a few majors and some bigger indies, but when they found out it was impossible for us to tour unless we were given a huge advance, every single one of them split.


Time was the main reason I left, but assuming time wasn't an issue, I would love to reform with some the guys. The drummer, Matt, is the best drummer I've ever known, and the fact he isn't big with some band is a crying shame. If I ever start a new band, he's the first guy I'm calling. He's primarily a drummer, but he plays guitar, bass, keyboards and trumpet, and he's even a superior guitarist than I am! Unfortunately for him, he needs a lucky big break to ever be in a full time touring band, I'm afraid. He's 23 (or 24?) and already has two kids, and he has no college education.

The bassist is also a talented musician, and I wouldn't mind being in a band with him again, however he became progressively more and more unreliable as time went on. I hate to say that, since he was my closest friend in the band, but unfortunately it's true. He would get fired from jobs for dumb reasons, and was in trouble with the law on occasion. We had to cancel a big gig once at the last second because he was in jail from a bar fight the night before. He would have to clean up his act for me to seriously consider being in a band with him again. We've been in talks about doing some recording stuff again, but no serious re-try at a band.

The singer? No. Classic Lead Singer Disorder. Always made executive band decisions, sometimes without even consulting me or other members. Canceled practice constantly, sometimes for no good reason. And whenever I would cancel for something legitimate, he'd get very huffy with me. Sometimes it would have to be his way or no way. Always wanted songwriting credit...a lot of my ideas would be dismissed for that reason. He's a good songwriter, but a mediocre vocalist, and sometimes a downright bad guitar player. Majority of the guitars you hear on the album were done by me for that reason, and his voice is autotuned as heck on the album. I hate to be trash talking the guy so much, especially since he was generally very nice to me, but I have no intentions of being in a band with him again.



Right now I have my "when I have time" indie rock band called Something Really Dirty. It's just me and a drummer, kind of like a punk rock White Stripes....our drummer sounds a lot like Meg White too, for better or worse We make it a point to not take ourselves too seriously, and have songs about Burger King, Ninjas, and metrosexuals.

We're both pretty busy guys, so we don't play very often, but it's a good musical outlet for the both of us when that musical itch strikes us.


I pretty much gave up my dreams of being a pro musician a while back (some of you may remember the thread) but if the right offer came along I would have to take a serious look at it in any case. Sometimes a part of me wants to move to Los Angeles, hop onto a serious band that could go places, and see what damage I could do.

[Jake]

what's your favourite bass riff?

"New Born" by Muse has a killer bassline.

[Jake]

Well, what else you got, folks?

[LesStrat]

What's the worst thing ya'll ever did to that annoying tour guide at JSC?

[Hoss]

you've been on here even longer than me (the boards)...what is the most memorable moment you've seen on here...describe it!

[ratherdashing]

Are you still concerned about hair loss? Why, or why not?

[Jake]

What's the worst thing ya'll ever did to that annoying tour guide at JSC?

That girl is/was WEIRD. She was bragging about seeing some japanese rock band whose vocalist slit his fingers on stage and flicked his blood on the audience, and she came back to work the next day bragging she got his blood on her. So for the next few days we all said she had gotten HIV from the guy. That's about it.



She actually lives in Louisiana now, maybe I can give her your number and you two can hang out.

[Jake]

you've been on here even longer than me (the boards)...what is the most memorable moment you've seen on here...describe it!

A few things come to mind.... Rev Donzo's blowout, Carmine, Frank Rizzo, that one dude who posted up pictures of himself in drag, and Butch Snyder's song stealing fiasco.


The only real low-point that sticks in my mind is the banning of seafoamer. That dude was cool. Also, me freaking out and blowing up on Odie would be a memorable low point for me.

[Jake]

Are you still concerned about hair loss? Why, or why not?

Yes and no. I finally cut off the long locks last month, and the shorter hairdo compliments my slowly thinning hair, which has helped tremendously. See, my hair is somewhat curly, and the weight of long hair uncurled the hair, showing more of my scalp. Now that it's shorter, the curls are closer to my head, and hides it.

I've also been using Nioxin, a shampoo designed to help you keep the hair you have and strengthen weakening roots. It's working pretty well thus far, but the bottle even says it only slows down the inevitable. I still have majority of my hair, so hopefully the early detection will make me look normal for at least a few more years.


Since doing those two, you really have to know what you're looking for to see the damage. Here is a somewhat recent photo:





Once I start losing significantly more hair, the freakout will resume, but for now, I'm cool.