Why I Love Playing In PINNACLE

Well, long time since I wrote an update for this site - yowza! I apologize with more fervor than a politician!

But the last several rehearsals have been SO great I just HAVE to speak out about our progress…..

A while back our humble bassist Bill Fox played a new tune for Karl and I that he had been working on. In times past Bill has contributed his musical ideas primarily in arrangements and help finding the
right notes to finish or augment a melody line or riff rather than whole songs or sections of songs (though he certainly HAS contributed a few killer sections). I've brought in a few complete songs and the lion's share of the material has sprung from the creative loins of our guitar wunderkind Karl Eisenhart. So here comes Bill, laying on Karl and I a really developed piece - and as soon as he starts playing it, Karl looks at me and smiles cuz we both realize that it's a) friggin' great and b) unlike ANYTHING the two of US could have written. As each successive section was played for us, the smiles got bigger and our excitement level was off the chart.

We've been working on that piece for a few months now.

Way back at the very beginning of our writing for the next record, Karl had come up with a 16th note legato melodic pattern that reminded me of (but sounds nothing like) "Vista Grande" by the Steve
Morse Band. Since the whole pattern ran four measures of 4/4, I of course came up with a drum beat that consisted of two measures of 11/16 and a measure of 10/16 played twice, utilizing the ride cymbal and hihat with kick drum accents on each of MY "ones" - and then Bill starts playing a deep thick keyboard bass note pattern of half notes where NONE sounds "resolved" but they all sound "powerful". My kick drum hits are too crazy against this so I phrase the kick drum with him in 4/4 while still playing the ride cymbal and hihat in 11, 11, 10, 11, 11, 10 - and NOW we've really got something. We recorded it back in 06, filed it away and I never stopped thinking about it.

Fast forward to 08 and Bill's new masterpiece - and suddenly I say "it's too bad we can't graft that other bit onto this - would that possibly work?"

I think you can guess where this story is going…..

The ironic thing about this is that our strongest suit is our compositional ability. Many of our contemporaries in this weird little niche world of prog nouveau (or whatever the hell you want to
call it this week) have hotter drummers, busier bassists and better singers than us (no one ever says they have a better guitarist, though). Yet, very few can out write us (and the ones that CAN are my
favorite bands currently, such as IZZ and Spock's Beard ). But the very maturity that infuses our songwriting with memorable hooks also makes even our WILDEST odd-timing bits sound "natural" and almost "straight" (think: musical), leading many people who hear us to say "they're really more of a straight rock band with a guitarist who shreds". And though the leadoff track on our last record MELD began in 15/8, ran thru 17/8, alternating measures of 6 and 4 and an enormous anthemic hook in 7 that I got to solo over on the drums, with all three of us playing in different time signatures at the end but stopping on the same note (hence the title "Information Overload"), and the third track has 5/4 over 15/8, 7s aplenty and a killer 9, it's all so well put together (at least, WE think so) that
the average ear goes "wow, pretty song". So I know that no matter HOW tricky it is for me to phrase 11, 11, 10 over 4 on this new piece, most people are never going to catch it.

And that's OKAY - cuz I - and WE - are writing and playing exactly what gets US off. And thank GOD that many of you have enjoyed it too.

So as we worked on a new transitional part this week to move Bill's piece into Karl's latest epic - think Funeral For a Friend/Duke's Travels segueing into not Love Lies Bleeding but something more like Can't Get It Out Of My Head meets the second half of Genesis' Inside
And Out or something from Quadrophenia - and you'll STILL have no idea what it sounds like - but I can honestly say that I've NEVER been more excited about this band.

Karl and Bill are the greatest!

NOW, will it be READY in time for the Riverside show?

Only time will tell….

Nicaraguan coffee kisses to you all,
Greg Jones