I've Been Kicked Out of a Band, Again

 


I love music. I love listening to it, writing it, playing it, performing it, noodling around on any instrument I can make sound interesting, and pretty much any other means of experiencing it. The problem with performing it is finding a group of friends or peers with similar tastes and available time to rehearse. At the moment, my problem is the latter.

Full transparency, I wasn't literally kicked out of a band. Last September, I jammed with some old friends with the intent of making it a regular thing. Problem is I don't have time to make weekly band rehearsal a regular thing. I have two young kids and my intention is to be as active in their lives as their mother. So, while feeling guilty for the last 9 months that I never returned to jam, the day finally came where my absence was rightfully filled. Maybe I should have quit but the allure of being in a band is the healthiest drug I can imagine.

Waffle Mouse (one of the many names the guys are considering, but haven't officially selected), started as a concept of Tony Leo's. Tony is the guy playing the keys in the GIF. Tony is a really talented guy. We first played music together back in 2015/6 when I was in Jess & Her Biscuits (another moniker that wasn't official, but I love it too much to let go). I was shown the door from the Biscuits after Jess felt I was "pushing the group off the path she initially intended." Hey, no problem there. Write the music you want to write and lose the players that don't fit. In that instance I was pulling the group into a more Rilo Kiley-Modest Mouse zone and she was looking for more country-pop coffee house stuff. Again, I'm cool with being pushed out of someone else's project. Although, when we first jammed together on her song "Wait" I was getting literally goose bumps from where the song was headed.

After that chapter closed, Tony and I kept in touch and he eventually shared he was writing some Ska music. Tony and I both were very active musicians in Des Moines's early 2000s quite small ska scene. Tony shared his tunes, I noticed they didn't have lyrics, and I eventually wrote lyrics for three songs. I would love to share those demos with you but they aren't my songs to share. I really hope they keep those songs going. Is it lame to say I was kind of proud of those lyrics? 

Look I have been in many bands in my 27 years of guitar playing. Not as many as others, but it's always been something I've enjoyed. Even the four groups that said my services were no longer needed, I had nothing but good times. To be fair, my playing and attitude has never been a reason for cutting me loose.

 I've been itching for five years now to get back into the thing and record some music with friends. Problem is that can't be a reality for at least two years. In closing, I'll say Tony sent me some very nice messages when he said he didn't want to kick me out but they found someone with more availability. Tony and the whole Waffle Mouse crew are good dudes. I hope whatever songs they choose to release are top notch and launch a whole new wave of ska fandom in the Des Moines scene. If so, I will hopefully ride their coat tails in 2026.

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