earaches rants

I figure since this is the first rant, I supose I should explain where my nickname earache comes from. To do that I must ramble on, hence the first earache rant.

As I grew up in the music scene in the Bay Area and Sacramento, I loved this band from the hills called Okra Pickles. Anyway... I had built a reputation for throwing really big 4th of July parties where I would book local bands for the entire day and put them on a stage out in my front yard and blast them out into the RiverPark neighborhood. I did this for eight years, having had over 40 bands play in my from yard. It got to the point where the local music scene was sending me audition tapes to play my parties. The local news station always covered my parties each year. I was proud to have been quoted as "the coolest guy in RiverPark". It became a real Sacramento event. I was always trying to get the Pickles to play. One year after they had finaly broke up, I had asked GWAMBA (lead singer/songwriter of Okra Pickles) to play my party...but he refused as he was touring Reno at the time, but also swore passionately to never play Pickles music again. 

Years later, I moved back to the West Coast however ended up in the Pacific NorthWest, only to find that GWAMBA had bought a 40 acre ranch up here too! We have been best friends ever since. Something about the Sacto music history ties and common friends that we both share etc...anyway since those days I have had a passion for playing guitar, but I can never put the time and energy that a full time pro musician does, so needless to say I still suck. GWAMBA is truly the most amazing guitarist I have ever had the chance to see, and absolutely one of the best songwriters I've known. He is an artist with words. Soooo when he nicknamed me Earache...it just seemed too apropriate, since I do suck in comparison to his brilliance.

I'm a visual guy...not so much and audio professional...so I will take the name and embrace it.

~earache