Narcissus and the Goldmen
While playing with Groove Service, I was getting really into singing and playing the golden oldies like “Body and Soul” and stuff made famous by Chet Baker. Groove Service wasn’t really the ideal outlet for this sort of artistic expression; if you read my article about that group and heard us play, you might see how those guys were in a bit of a different place musically. So I recruited some other guys that I really enjoyed playing with for a side project. This drummer is one the most sensitive percussionists I’ve had the pleasure of playing with and the guitarist is just impeccable. They’re also two wonderful human beings and I miss playing and hanging out with them a lot.
I named this band after one of my favorite novels “Narcissus and Goldmund”, definitely a must read. Coincidentally I am a bit of a sculptor, (read the book for the reference) and you can check out some of my work here: https://davebassdp.wixsite.com/turpitude. It’s all pretty old as I haven’t held a chisel in years but I sure do miss that as well...
This group didn’t really do much in terms of gigs, though we really should have. My fault really as the front man. I think that if I had stuck around Santa Cruz we would be doing quite well by now (that and if the drummer had laid off the recreational substances). The absolute sweetest guy I know; drugs should not be a crime but they do need to be used responsibly for sure. They do tend to make one a bit irresponsible when taken to extremes as well which makes accountability as a band difficult.
I did most of the arrangements for this group (also did the recordings and production seen here), we got a bit funky as you can see in this version of “Body and Soul”:
https://youtu.be/K-zdNVEPeRY
but mostly we kept it pretty chill as you can witness in this version of “What a Difference a Day Made”:
https://youtu.be/AJR2a795-Mo
My Life as a Bloodbag
Sometimes looking back at those days can give me such heavy nostalgia it hurts. I guess we always tend to remember things as better than they were (at least I do), there were plenty of challenges for me then like being in a relationship with a vampire. For real, no fangs, but in Santa Cruz these things really exist. I mean I don’t think she does it on purpose, I really care about her and I think she is a fundamentally good person who has been dealt a really shit hand. But still. That shit is rough.
Sometimes I would lie awake in bed next to her with the overwhelming sensation that my body, or parts thereof, was expanding to 3 or 4 times its size and also density, like some stone giant. I was sure at the time that something was trying to possess my body. Which may or may not have been from her, honestly, where she was living was an artist residence (poor people housing of course) that had been built on top of an old tannery that had been built on the site of a native american grave yard. Super bad vibes there and some really, really messed up shit went down there while I was sleeping there one night. Nightmare type stuff.
I wanted that relationship to work out really badly, partly because the sex was great and I liked her a lot when she was herself and not being controlled by a demon, but also because she had a lot of musical potential and the few times we were able to play together without her freaking out were really stellar. Her original stuff was great but for some reason she wanted to be a jazz singer. Which was not her best idea. We actually met in a jazz class at that community college (despite being in our early thirties we were some of the youngest people in that particular class, hah) and we were so into the standards at that time that half of our conversations were in song lyrics. Sometimes we could communicate just by whistling bits of melodies to each other we were so deep into that shit.
Past is passed and that past needs to stay where it is because, while I learned a whole lot and grew much from the experience, she nearly drove me nuts. If you’ve never heard the term “gaslighting” you should look it up. Funny because I learned that word from her, accusing me of it. Thats the way that shit works though. Beware of redheaded scorpios. Whew.
Unicorn Chaser
Here’s some more music from The Goldmen to clean your palette after that harrowing tail: “The Nearness of You” https://youtu.be/j6WHsFqkMFI