There are certain Facebook trends and traditions that I tacitly acknowledge in my way - one of which is putting some old shit up on the Hushdrops page most Thursdays. (If any of you TL;DR types are still here, I urge you to hit the bricks) Now, we have - at this stage in our life as a band - quite a few songs. Two full albums (one of them a double), and a number of singles and unreleased tracks. In terms of what we choose to play onstage at any given moment, there isnt any real tendency towards sentimentality. Were mainly there for the newer shit. Not long ago, there was a woman who would seemingly show up every time we DIDNT play I Get What I Want and claim indignant outrage that we hadnt performed our big hit (she never actually called it that, but she DID claim to have it as her ringtone - one of the reasons Ive put it back in the act recently was out of some vain hope that shed be there and get to hear her jam...who knows, maybe shes been burned too many times and that ship has sailed for good). She seemed like a nice person, and...had she requested it BEFORE the show, I cant imagine why we wouldnt have played it. Maybe we were BOTH wrong... Similarly, there are some songs of similar vintage that probably havent been performed in maybe 20 years. We never put them on a record, and...it is safe to say that there is AT LEAST one person onstage in 2014 who has never played (or possibly even heard) the song in his life. I would neither name nor belittle the song(s) here, but...for however fondly one or more old fans might remember them, all evidence strongly suggests that they didnt make the cut in some crucial way. Maybe I thought the lyrics were stupid or adolescent...maybe I thought there was no more than a nominally catchy chorus and that the overall effect of acknowledging the song today was like leaving my high school journal out along with a jar of zit cream (its really not that much of a stretch to think that a musician might consider one or more of his earliest efforts overly immature). They cant ALL be winners, but its a little sad to realize that someone elses favorite Hushdrops song might be something you thought you had successfully buried in the backyard. Now, THIS song - on the other hand - dates from that sort of adolescent era, but...I love it every bit as much as I did the day we wrote it. We havent performed it in years, I dont think, but...that certainly speaks to no lack of enthusiasm for the song itself. We played it rather insistently for years, and...if you liked it, I hope you were there. In mentioning a show that we are playing this Saturday (https://facebook/events/577335109061806/?ref=4 - THIS one, I am reliably told that we go on at 9pm and that there is no admission fee...it is our friend Zacks 40th birthday celebration, and were honored to be there...I am told that there will be food and a keg, but Id still advise you to BYOB to this rare, informal Hushdrops performance), it was (more or less) put to me by a potential invitee that wed have to perform Divine as an attendance incentive. Fair enough. I like it, it deserves to be played, I miss playing it, and...conceivably, anyone who saw one or more of our recent shows may be ready for a little variety/nostalgia (we have stuck to our story more than usual recently, mostly because of our overriding enthusiasm for the new LP). I dont know that we WILL play it - its been long enough that I dont really remember our moves, such as they are (hows THAT for transparency?). Its a major personal favorite, and Id sure hate to shit the bed on (all three of us keep going for the same note in a harmony or something equally unfortunate) just to fulfill a request. Ill put it THIS way - if we manage to rehearse between now and then, Ill absolutely push for it. Theres not a TON I can say about the song, other than that it was the first time Joe and I ever wrote together, and...it does seem to represent some sort of peak. I even saved the piano we finished it on! Seriously - its mere feet away from me right now. THATS how much I like this one. I feel like its journey from Hey, John - check out this bit to our finished song was remarkably brief and concise. As a bonding exercise for Joe and I early into our working relationship, it would prove invaluable. I seem to remember there being a time when I - John San Juan - sang it onstage, but...once Joe got a hold of it, there was no going back. Clearly, he was born to sing it. I was born to listen and sing a harmony part. I could tell you more about the evolution of the song, but...I could also just have you read Rob Jones fantastic piece on it/us: thedeletebin/2011/02/21/interview-with-hushdrops-who-play-divine/ Suffice to say, we loved it enough to open our first album with it. As Robs article illustrates - it also took us six years to get THE recording/arrangement of. Perhaps some day when Ive destroyed the final shred of our legendary mystique, Ill post some of those discarded efforts.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 19:15:16 +0000