November Living Room Bootleg Session - Whale Blubber

So, for this month's Living Room Bootleg, I decided to go back a few years to 2002 and the song that started my tangent career into comedy.... Whale Blubber. Now, I do these recordings in one take, with one mic, in my living room. And sometimes they're pretty rough. And this one sure is. :)

I was in a weird period of my career having just split with my previous band mates and sort of looking for my own direction. I had not yet even settled into a decision to become a singer. I was just writing and writing and writing to get all the stuff out of my brain that my old bandmates would let me do.

And so this little song came about that was based on a scene from the Jim Carrey film, Me, Myself, and Irene. Frankly, the movie stunk. But there was one scene where he and the girlfriend character are sitting next to a lake discussing romantic commitment. His statement of "If I moved to Alaska, would you go with me?" "Yes!", she says. and Jim says, "Ok, but would you eat whale blubber for me?" And there it was. My girlfriend and I thought it would make a great song title. She thought it less of a good idea when I said I was going to write it. :)

That one line just really sums up commitment issues so well. "How far will you go for me?" You end up doing things you never would have thought you'd be doing. And you enjoy it.... Ok, you try to look like you enjoy it. Ok, you grimmace and bitch the whole time, but you do it anyway.

So, since they had taken the conversation to ridiculous lengths, It seemed to me I should do the same with the music. And what more ridiculous music than 80's power ballads. The kind the hair bands used to play. The kind the hair bands still play if you live in Oklahoma.

I set the lyrics to as many 80's power ballad cliches as I could. The quiet introduction, the overblown chorus. Even the chord changes are textbook. Except I missed out on using the Cadd9, which really would have made it. However, the guitar solo does go to E minor as it does in all those songs. Even if the rest of the song isn't in E minor. And yes, I overdubbed a guitar solo onto this bootleg track, because the part is boring with out one. :) Besides, I felt like showing off my mad skillz, yo.

I never planned to put this song on an album. A B-side maybe. Bonus track. Just for fun type thing. I was busy cooking "serious songs" like Judgment Day and Brand New World. But I went to a music convention that year and spent a great weekend with some fantastic artists. During one of our late night jam sessions, I decided to spring Whale Blubber on them. I had never performed it before. And I sang it quietly sitting on a chaise lounge next to the hotel pool at the Riviera in Las Vegas. Sometime long after midnight.

The next morning, the 10 or so artists who had heard the song came to me and kept saying "I can't get that Whale Blubber song out of my head. I sang it all night and when I got up this morning. Put it on your record." And I argued. Surely, my serious songs were more worthwhile, than this little joke of a song. But they insisted and I put it buried down in the lineup of my CD Ribbed For Your Pleasure.

Go figure that it's the one that would be popular. I got requests for it at shows. I'd have people stop me on the street and say "I'd eat whale blubber for you dude!" Yeah, weird.

And since that had made the record, songs like Two of Me and Hillbilly Love did too. Purely as a lark. And with a single show at the Hyena Theater in San Francisco, my career in comedy was launched. The rest is recent history. :)

So, if you've never heard the original studio version in all it's cheeseball glory, check it out on Ribbed For Your Pleasure. And if you haven't seen our live DVD yet, Raising A Rockus... Oooh boy, are you in for a surprise. We tweaked that song hard and closed the show with it. Smokin!...

To hear the rest of this story and hear the song (free), login to the "Current Fans" area at www.RoadsideAttraction.com and click on Audio Downloads.

Phil Johnson
www.RoadsideAttraction.com

Coming Up For Air... Post APCA Houston

So Chris Valenti and I flew to Houston last weekend for our first college showcase.

"But Phil... It's Wednesday... What took you so long to blog about this?"

Well, my energy was shot and my nose to the grindstone for the last two days. That conference was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I've had in a long time. Good and positive, but difficult.

We performed three times, once for our showcase in front of 200 or so people. Two other times in the "illegal showcase" after hours. Mostly for head buyers and agents there.

We spent quite a few hours in our booth doling out specially made "Romantically Dysfunctional" T-shirts, DVDs, CDs, and whatever else we could come us with.

Fun fact: Chris's best way to get people into the booth to play our dart game was to yell at a passerby "Hey, wanna play darts?" And then throw a dart at them. No worries, they're the magnetic kind. :)

So after spending hours getting to know tons of great college students and buyers we end up in the co-op session where the actual bookings take place. They go through each of the acts in alphabetical order. Your heart really starts pounding as your name comes up, let me tell you! So here comes our name, and we're just praying that someone throws a yellow interest form in the air. And...... please.. please... please...... ONE! At least we weren't shut out in the first session.

That one interest form gave us the push to get 3 more by the next session. And we've got interest from 3 other schools to talk to yet. So, it looks like the Battle will be heading back for shows in Texas and Louisiana as soon as February.

And now, it's all in the followup. So we've spent the last two days on the phone and computer establishing the relationships we'll need to get this phase of touring working.

There's nothing like being tossed into a room of 300 people that have no idea who you are, and trying to make them understand your art and like you as a person in 3 days. It's exhilarating and mentally taxing. I was a wreck by Saturday night.

But it's only the beginning, so I better get used to it. Two more conferences coming up in March! :)

Phil Johnson
www.RoadsideAttraction.com
www.DysfunctionalRomantics.com