Mostly Harmless

It was the first year of university. Paradoxical Overtones had broken up, everyone had moved on to different universities, and I was missing the whole band thing. Sitting on my bed on the 7th floor of Laurier Hall, strumming my unplugged guitar, I stared daggers at my room mate’s half of the room. Britney Spears stared back. I knew that it was going to be a long year… somehow, I imagined that Lara wasn’t enjoying my Rancid skull and crossbones poster.

Courtney lived a couple of blocks from the university. We’d known each other for a few years, having been at the same church retreats. We bonded over caffeinated teen antics. I knew she’d played the drums in high school, but I had no idea if she’d want to play with me. After all, I wasn’t very good. Lem always said that I was the dead weight in Paradoxical Overtones, and I know she was right. Over coffee, Courtney and I decided to try and find a couple of other people to make some noise and see if we could make it pretty.

Erin lived an hour away and played the bass, and we know she’d love hanging out with us, since we were cool university students and she was still stuck in high school. She jumped at the chance, and Paul rounded out our band with a second guitar. In my mind, Paul was a guitar god. He took me under his wings and that’s when I really learned how to play. My fingers were so calloused and sore that sometimes I could barely type, but I progressed quickly and caught up to him enough to no longer feel like I was dragging the other three down. To be quite honest, I had a crush on Paul in those early days, but that was before I met Eric. He was a guy in one of my classes, and well, that’s a story for another day…

We practiced for three months before our first gig. It certainly wasn’t glamorous, but to us it was magical. For four people struggling through university and early adulthood, the band allowed us to jump out of our day to day lives and be the party people, one or two nights a week. Erin would come down twice a month, and we’d play cover songs and a few originals at the local bars: Big Dick’s, Spicoli’s, the Pub… the names and places have all sort of blended together at this point. Erin and I took turns singing, and Paul would tell stories between songs. The girls loved Paul…

In the summer after my first year of university, we released our first EP, Leave My Soul Alone. We made 700 copies of it, and sold it at the shows. It had five tracks:

1. In a Moment – this was our attempt at a song like Chick Magnet – a bass driven punk song that was, in all honesty, quite catchy. It made it onto our first full-length album.
2. Through With You – I think this is the song where we rhymed master with plaster
3. Mixed Metaphors – Our attempt at clever lyrics.
4. The Pebble – my personal favourite, stolen from church events Erin, Courtney and I had attended.
5. Punk Rock Boy – a girlie version of Punk Rock Girl. This song should never be covered, and we never should have recorded it.

Puny Express - Leave My Soul Alone

Anyways, the LMSA EP wasn’t very good, but we soldiered on. I’ve talked with Courtney, and she wants to continue the story over at her blog. Maybe after all this, Paul and Erin will give us their takes of what life was like on the Puny Express. I know it was a ride I’ll never forget, and despite the rocky points that came later, I will always look back on those early days fondly.

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