Doug Van Pelt

My razor's not dull...I am

I just got off the phone with Rose Morgan of Sevendust. I've been meaning to interview them for years (over a decade), so it's nice to finally talk to a band like this.

I'm staring at a prom photo of Len Nash atop my computer monitor as I write this (which is scary).

Okay, here's the thing: Thank You.
Yep, "Thank You" sections or the credit portion of liner notes. Everyone reads them, but nobody admits it. It's like "Yearbook Day" in junior or senior high school. You're getting all your friends and even that pretty girl you're afraid to talk with to sign your yearbook. You can't wait to open up the pages in front and back and see what people wrote.

I remember one fateful moment in Pflugerville, Texas -- back when Pflugerville was just the suburb of Austin I'd drive to 2-3 times per week to rehearse with Lust Control in our drummer's mom's house. Well, during the time we were working on the We Are Not Ashamed album, Michael Knott and his people (Chris Colbert and Chris Rumba) contacted me about releasing something on his new Blonde Vinyl Records label. I told them I had some demo tapes of songs that we weren't re-recording for the WANA album (we were re-doing "hits" like "You Make Me Puke" and "Mad At The Girls" and "The Big 'M'" and "Planned Parenthood," among others, but I had an album's worth of un-used songs from the This Is A Condom Nation and Dancing Naked recordings, so we put them out on his label and called it Fun Fun Feeling. Well, it came out before we had finished recording WANA and were still rehearsing that album a lot (our producer, Kemper Crabb, asked us to play the songs 200 times each before we'd go in the studio to record, which got us "tight" enough to "knock them out" quickly in the studio. On the day that I received promotional copies from the label, I brought several to practice to give to the band, which was different, since none of them played on those recordings (it was essentially LC2, as the original rhythm section quit the project after Dancing Naked and I carried on), but we were all excited about it anyway and it was this lineup that was photographed for the back of the CD. So I handed a copy to Matt's mom, Yvonne, who graciously let us rehearse 3 times a week (for 3 hours at a time) at high volume levels in her house. She opened it up and went straight for the "Thank You" section. I was screaming inside: "NO! NO! NO! Don't look there!" I had neglected to thank all the current people working with the band, as this was a past-oriented release (at least that's what I was thinking), and that was one of the LOWEST points of my life -- seeing her disappointment in not being thanked. Two inches tall -- that's how big I felt. Oh man!

So anyway, don't let the false humility police fool you. Everyone reads those things and everyone likes to be appreciated. Yes, it effects us in that pride area of the heart and soul and can get ugly quick, but it does matter and it does make a difference.

So today I got a copy of Bradley Hathaway's incredible book (with cd of slam poetry) and admired how it was laid out. Then I remembered that the publisher asked me to write a blurb for the book. I guess they're called "endorsements." I flipped to the front and read his introduction. It was so simple and so cool and honest. This guy just amazes me. I love what he's doing. I hope he keeps up the good times. Anyway, I flipped to the front and found the "endorsements" or whatever and read what the singer for The Chariot (Josh Scoglin) thinks of Bradley's stuff. These are awesome statements. Then I scanned around looking for mine. Not on this spread. Not in the front. I went back through each of the two pages, looking for my name. Yes, I am that lame!

I didn't see it, which was slightly sad. 'I guess they had more than they needed,' I thought. Bummer. 'That kind of thing can really help promote HM Magazine,' was a natural thought. It is cool how lifting others up can in turn lift us up (especially when done in the right direction, and not as a cause-effect motivation). Mine wasn't there. I wasn't go to say anything or ask why they didn't use the endorsement I sent. I understand how people change their minds when putting together a project. Sometimes you don't like how something turned out, or sometimes you have too many ingredients and you have to make the tough decision to cut something out. 'Oh well,' I thought. 'I guess I got cut out.'

And then I flipped over on the back of the book (sometimes they put a few of those blurbs on the back, too). Oh my gosh! There it was: my blurb. As stupid and prideful as it sounds, it's a darn cool thing to see. I'm goofy and I'm being painfully honest here, but you better believe that it makes ya feel good when ya see something like that. The thing I like is it's praise for someone else. Proverbs say to "let another man's lips praise you," and not your own. And it's so easy to praise (don't freak out and think "blasphemy" when you hear about someone praising someone else and that someone else ain't God. Praise is just another word for compliment. We all need it and thrive on it.)... it's easy to praise this Hathaway cat, because he's so good.

I was amazed when doing some deadline layout and having the interns watch. We don't have the layout program on more than one computer here, so they can't do the final layout work. It's possible that they can do some in QuarkXpress, which I can then import into InDesign (we did this for the HM new shirts/merch color ad in the upcoming issue, which should ship out on Monday). But while doing layout I play some pleasant music. Usually it's stuff I really love, like U2, Dashboard Confessional, Type O Negative, H-I-M, The Awakening, Outer Circle, Johnny Cash, or even that 2004 Scorpions album (the great Unbreakable -- buy it now), but also fun stuff like Brother Russell's Radio Jihad and Melba Comes Alive. And, of course, Bradley Hathaway's All The Hits So Far, But Don't Expect Too Much. And while I played this, Frances was quoting right along and even ahead of Bradley. That's hot! That's like people singing along to every word at Dashboard shows. I noticed that at Cornerstone this year, when he went on before (was it Project 86?): people in the audience were quoting right along with him. They knew all the words.

That is a compliment.

Maybe memorizing Scripture can be seen in this light, too. I've never thought about it this way before (I've always thought, 'This will help me in my spiritual life. I can do spiritual warfare this way,' and 'This is a spiritual discipline that's good for me' -- like eating vegatables, hehe). Maybe we can just bless God like a performer feels when the audience has the words they penned memorized. That's kind of cool, huh?

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at August 12, 2005 03:36 PM