Building Foundations

Way back in December 2007, Citizens Banned had its official last show. It was at the Hexagon Bar's 12/12 event. 12 bands playing 12 minute sets. Drummer Dave had quit, so we devised a way to play "acoustic" versions of some of the songs, then go into a medley of instrumental sections with me on drums and vocals.

I was personally devising my Patch scheme at the time. I was writing "Sound. Of. Static." songs, thinking about the overall direction of Patch, how proggy everything was going to be, how straight forward other songs would be to balance the weird experimental nature of everything else.

Being in the studio for so long, I long(ed) to take Patch onstage. If I see a live band kind of sporting the same exploits as Patch I get really envious and a million ideas start flowing into my brain. One of those bands is Minneapolis' Buildings.

All of the CB guys went home, I was by myself at the bar watching the rest of the bands play. When "Buildings" came up I was floored. They sport a punk/grunge/prog style made by ADD sufferers. Sections fly by, but it's tight as hell.

If I'm ever stumped for ideas while writing, I visit Building's Myspace page and listen to their streaming playlist. Lately, I've been visiting their page a lot while writing the first stream of songs for Patch's summer/fall outings.

The guys are all extremely nice, they're full of ideas. I hope they break out of the local scene . . . if Patch breaks, they'll definitely be some of the first people I'll be contacting to share a tour bill with, that is, if they haven't broken up. They threatened imminent kabash in the coming year, and they have "Farewell Show" media posted online. Here's hoping the ADD-ness brings them out of retirement if that is so . . .

Here's the Myspace Inspiration Extravaganza:
http://www.myspace.com/buildingsband



Railroad Jerk -- "Bang the Drum"