Phase One: Summer 2004
By the time the school year had ended I still hadn't found anyone local to be Short Wave, and so when Neil came home from Virginia I asked him if he would play drums in the project. We called up Jim one night in May and decided to play an open mic night at the Call in Providence. We played three songs and I had a minor melt down on stage because of some unpleasant concert attendees, including on outspoken gentleman wearing an "I HATE F*G**TS' shirt (not censored). This was the only time the Oxbow Session line-up preformed live.
Greg, who I had played with in Ataraxis for years, was also home for the summer. We were hanging out anyway, and his bass and amp were still in my parents garage from the Ataraxis days - so it was natural for him to step in and play. Thus first 'real' Short Wave line-up was solidified. I started booking shows.
We were all 19 years old, and only played our own brand of 'original' music, which meant gigs were sparse.
We managed to jump in on an open mic at The Call, a venue in Providence, twice.
Amazingly The Call's open mic included drums and amplifiers so a full band could play by just bringing their instruments and drum sticks.
We played at JONAH, the community center in Warwick where Ataraxis had gotten it's start, and finally we closed out the summer playing the annual outdoor show in Oakland Beach. We hung an American flag with a peace sign replacing the field of stars, which, perhaps, epitomized the confused fusion of our 1960s rock and 1990s grunge influence.
A late-night jam session (June 2006)
A recording found at the end of a reel of tape. Apparently recorded sometime around three in the morning, Neil, Andy, and Greg attempt to write a song from scratch. The chord progression bares an interesting resemblance to a song demo I made around the same time, 'Spoon.'
Spoon (alternate version, July 2004)
An alternate take of a song I was working on in the summer of 2004 (the 'normal' take has overdubbed instruments and percussion, but the over all tuning is a bit sour - even by my standards). After re-discovering the acoustic jam with Neil (previous track) I wonder if I was pulling from that idea? I have no recollection of writing this song (only recording it).