Thrash Is A True Friendship Builder

The past few weeks have been extremely nostalgic. It's strange to think that I'll actually miss some aspects of Redding when I'm finished making the move to Sacramento, but none the less I'm certain it will happen. The two things I'll miss the most: friendships and the odd music projects that spawned from those friendships.

When I got back into town last week Miles Claiborne and Ethan Purvis called me to try to schedule some type of hang out time. It is known by a few, but Ethan, Miles, and I originally met and bonded while starting a Misfits cover band called Teenagers From Mars a few years ago. We quickly realized we were all a bunch of skater music nerds with common interests and have been the best of friends since.

Now the one thing we bonded over the most, was a love of really fucking fast music. Call us short attention span youth, but there is nothing better then a song, set, band, etc. that blitzes through a set at record speed. This love for music that was ridiculously fast birthed a side project called Trash Can Adventure Kids (T.C.A.K.). By the time I'd met Ethan and Miles they'd already been jamming out really aggressive thrash but needed someone to sing and write lyrics. Upon finding out a shared interest, I quickly joined T.C.A.K. Since it was a side band for all of us we only played a few shows with the material we wrote and a few live recordings surfaced. We'd made the plans to record an EP, but with all of us having different bands, college, and commitments elsewhere, it was hard to make time for it.

My friends, we finally made the time and recorded. Fuck...yeah! It only took an entire year, apologies to the 3 people who remember our shows from last year. The EP will be released in the next month and we finish recording it tomorrow. Everything is DIY down to the recordings in Redding, a fact about the music scene here which is really fucking awesome. Miles is a genius with recording so we've set up camp with his home recording equipment. The EP will contain 4 or 5 originals, a few covers, and a few live tracks.

The recording process and looking back on all the songs we wrote in the past years has been so incredibly fun. It's great seeing how much our friendship has evolved, I fucking love those guys. Spending time with Miles and Ethan, talking about all the good times, the music, all of it... has been another bitter sweet and precious memory of living in Redding.

Friendship is a wonderful thing. And now I'm getting all sentimental... *punches self in head*

Rather, I'm gonna put on some Dropdead, thank my lucky stars for having great friends, and reflect on all the good times.