Brian
The following is a letter from Lo. It will be added to the web site
probably later tonight (relative to my time-zone). It is amid much
deliberation that it has come to this. As a matter of issue, even the
sending out of the below was held up for a few days awaiting possible
changes. That being said, the web site should continue to stand (with
minor moving related disruptions hopefully soon after the new
year). Presumably this will cause a lot of discussion on the mailing
lists. In any event, the process for coming to this has not been a short
one. In slightly related news, there will be opening acts at Wetlands,
those are in the process of being finalized. See you at Wetlands....
-Budke
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Hi everybody, this is Lo.
<Ahem>.
The time has come to make the announcement.
It's not an announcement I really like making, but I think there will be
some relief once I actually manage to make it, so here goes....
On December 22nd and 23rd, 1999, at the Wetlands in NYC, God Street Wine
will be playing the last shows of our eleven-year career.
Call them our "farewell" shows. Call it our "last waltz". We haven't
really
decided what to call them, but the fact remains that on the 22nd and
23rd,
we will get up on a stage together, turn our amps up, and jam for a few
hours in that strange way that some crazed people seem to like....for the
last time.
Now before you all start to ask questions at once, I have a few things to
say.
Perhaps the first question is "why?" I'm going to try to answer that a
little further down, because first I want to talk about the shows, and
about what the future holds.
As for the shows themselves, we aim, quite frankly, to make the last GSW
shows of all time also be the best GSW shows of all time. What does
"best"
mean? Well....
* They'll be damn long, that's for sure. We got a lot o' music to play if
it's our last chance.
* They will certainly feature "oldie" GSW material that hasn't been heard
in years. It is important to us that these shows represent every era and
style of the course of our career. Also, it should practically go without
saying that no material will be repeated between the two shows, in an
effort to present as many songs and sounds as possible.
* They will certainly feature an array of musicians beyond what your
average show has to offer. We hope that GSW members of all eras will be a
part of the shows, along with our friends and people who have played with
the band in the past as guests or studio players. This of course will
enable us not only to have a good time, but to bombard you with even more
notes than ever before.
* They will be taped, as have most GSW shows in 1999, for an upcoming
live
album; we hope that the special qualities of the two "farewell" shows
will
lead to their being especially good for the live album: the best song
selection, the best extra musicians, the best sound checks and
rehearsals,
and, perhaps most importantly....the best fans....
This brings us to my next point. We fully expect the shows at Wetlands to
be 100% joyous, wholeheartedly exuberant evenings....not only because of
how much we will enjoy playing music together, but because of how much we
treasure the chance to share it with YOU one last time. One thing you
realize, playing in a band like God Street for so many years, is how
fortunate you are, to be a part of making music that is so important to
people: not just a lifestyle or fashion choice they made or a tune they
got
caught in their head listening to the radio, but something that is really
important and meaningful down in their heart and soul. It is a quite
overwhelming sensation to have this thing that you have put so much time
and love into, and then to see that that time and love put in actually
goes
through the music and transforms itself into this passion on behalf of
your
listeners.
In short, it has been our honor and privilege to have shared this music
with you all over the years. And we want the privilege of sharing it with
you one last time.
Not that the band, God Street Wine, is going to cease to exist. Far from
it. I am going to continue to try to build and maintain this web site
with
a view towards marketing our past and future releases. Yes, future
releases. First off, there is the aforementioned live album, in all
probability a 2-CD set, culled from the band's performances throughout
1999
and perhaps from previous years as well. There is also the possibility of
distributing a much larger archive of recorded live material, from
throughout our career, in mp3 form on the Web, on a pay-by-the-song or
subscription basis. Then there is the infamous Mercury album recorded in
'98 at Long View Farms, working title: "Hot, Sweet, and Juicy". Certain
legal issues surround the release of this album but it will probably
nonetheless happen sometime in 2000. I also have a (mostly) instrumental
acoustic project, in collaboration with GSW keyboardist Jason Crosby and
cellist Julia Kent, as yet untitled, that I expect to release early next
year. Finally, there's a good possibility that GSW may record sometime
next
year, and that unreleased material will continue to be released on this
web
site in the upcoming months.
What are the other guys doing? This and that. Dan Pifer is doing some
freelance web design as well as producing a demo tape for a promising
vocalist. Aaron Maxwell is enjoying life with his wife, Sarah, and their
Boston Terrier, Satchel, working in the city, and playing in a bunch of
musical projects on the side, such as the Pancake Party Boys and Pete
Levin's occasional jazz project at Session 73. Aubrey Dayle is on the
road
with John Popper right now, while Tomo is living in Ireland and playing
drums with at least 4 different bands. Pete Levin can be seen around the
NYC club scene with numerous bands. Jon Bevo is an expert in CGI
programming and his wife, Toni, has started working on Wall Street, the
better to keep Jon stocked with Jameson's whiskey.
As for me, I want to play music. The bug bit me when I was 11 years old
and
the urge is still as intense as it has ever been. But, to be honest,
this
is a brutally difficult way of making a living, and my thoughts on the
general state of the music business as we approach the turn of the
millennium are far from positive. Not to mention the fact that it's going
to take a while to adjust to the fact that the band which has both ruled
and guided my entire existence for the past decade will no longer be the
center of my life. I'd say the odds are pretty good that I'll be out
there
one way or another, but I think I need to take a while right now to think
about what form exactly that might take.
Now for the question you asked at the very beginning, but I ignored
you....WHY?
Why the last show? Why no more touring?
I've always believed in being completely honest and frank with our
audience
(which is not generally the case with entertainers, believe me), and I
want
to tell you the truth about why we won't be playing any more shows after
12-23-99. Well, there are a lot of reasons. Some have to do with money.
Some have to do with the fact that we're not as young as we used to be,
and
some have to do with our own personal preference.
It would be an oversimplification to say "we can't afford to tour". Any
band can afford to tour, it's just a matter of how miserable an existence
you're willing to put up with. A couple tours ago, the situation was
basically, "you guys can afford to tour if you go out without a tour bus,
just a van, and one less crew guy." So we thought about it, and how much
we
liked the playing and the music, and we did just that. Even now, if we
were
willing to go out in a van, and lug our own equipment, and maybe sleep on
a
floor or two, we could not only "afford to tour", we could make a pretty
decent living. In fact that's exactly what we did from 1988 to 1992, when
we hired Michael Weiss, our first full-time crew member.
But doing that at age 32 is a lot, lot less appetizing than it was at 22.
And what is the point of enjoying what you do, if the doing of it becomes
so difficult that instead of loving it you hate it?
Sometimes people get indignant when I tell them how little money we've
made
over the years. Sometimes people say how screwed up the music business is
when music that they don't care for is going triple platinum while at the
same time God Street Wine can't make a decent living. Well, we have no
complaints, and we feel damned lucky to have made a living doing what we
loved for the better part of a decade--which, incidentally, is a lot
further than many, many very talented people get with their music. There
are people out there right now making great music that will never be
popular and will never make them a dime. I mean, sure, the system is
screwed up, and sure, we would've liked to make more money and be more
popular. No question. But we got to be a part of something extremely
special for a good chunk of our lives. And that stays with you forever
(as
opposed to the big bucks, which we probably would've just spent in a year
or two anyway).
Then there are all the issues having to do with our interpersonal
relationships. In this regard, God Street is pretty much like any other
band. It is a close marriage of five guys who both love each other a lot
and at the same time drive each other completely crazy. We have always
been
an incredibly close family, and had a lot more to do with each other
socially, off the road, than most bands I know. Nothing can begin to
describe the feeling of closeness that we have on stage when we are
playing
and everything is clicking. And nothing can substitute for the
camaraderie
of a band and their "people" on the road. But, when a group of men have
spent as much time and experienced as much life in such close proximity
as
we have, they begin to develop an almost physical need for DISTANCE from
each other. And I feel, and I know the other guys feel, that we'd rather
spend the rest of our lives as good friends, and enjoy each other's
company
and maybe even jam together sometimes, than spend the rest of our lives
driving each other crazy, and unable to appreciate one another properly,
for the plain reason that we're tired of each other.
Let's see....what other reasons? We could keep doing it on a part-time
basis, play shows around the NYC area, or just on weekends, whatever. The
problem with this is, we've always taken a great deal of pride in being
good! Not just good, but practiced, professional, and with everything in
the music polished till it sparkles and ready to go; which you just can't
do on a part-time basis. And we all feel the worst thing we could do
would
be to go out and play shows that were not up to our former standards;
bad,
not only because it would be depressing for us, but it would be an insult
to the former "greatness" of the band, and to the people who cared about
the music.
There are a lot of other reasons, but these are some of the main ones.
And
then there are the two biggest reasons, which make all the other reasons
sound like leaves blowing in the wind:
BIG REASON #1: "All things must pass."
BIG REASON #2: "Because".
And if you're still reading this, thank you for proving the stupid
pundits
and sociologists (not to mention the record-company execs) wrong about
the
short attention span of the MTV generation. As in many God Street Wine
songs, I seem unable to get my points across without taking a long time
to
do it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- - - - -
One day, back in 1991, I was feeling bad about the band, and I decided to
quit the band. And I wrote the song that I figured would be the "Epilog"
of
the band, and in it I wrote "Though I didn't get where I wanted to go, I
did enjoy the ride."
Well, I never did manage to quit the band. And as an "Epilog" for the
band
now, the line doesn't really work. The reason it doesn't work is that,
the
truth is, when I wrote it I was too young to realize where I "wanted to
go".
In fact, let me put it a different way. When I wrote the line I sort of
assumed life was about "wanting to go" someplace in particular, and that
when I got there, everything would be great. For instance, "I'll be happy
once we sign a record deal." Or, "I'll be happy once we are touring in a
bus." Or, "all I need is to get a record out".
What I didn't realize is that there was no "place" I wanted to go, and
that
"happiness" itself just consists of the striving to do all these things.
It
was always the PROCESS of earning these things that was the truly
valuable
thing; once they were attained, of course I always hungered for the next
goal, always thought that next plateau was the mythic "where I wanted to
go".
So the truth is, I always got where I wanted to go....I always got to
revel
in that PROCESS of striving, working, fighting, laughing, playing,
loving,
crying....and I was half right, when I said "I did enjoy the ride."
So this is what this is all coming down to. The car will still be around,
of course, but the ride is finally coming to an end. And together with
Dan
and Aaron, and Scott, and Budke, and Levine, and Schwartz and Everybody
who
has been a part of this band over the years (a list that would fill
several
pages), we want to thank you, and each other, thank you for being with us
on this ride....the ride of a lifetime.
See you at the Wetlands. Let's cap it off with an ending to remember.
Lo Faber
New York City
Nov 10, 1999
--
PGP Key can be found at http://www.budke.com/pgp/budke_budke_com.txt
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