I gave away my "One Possession"...

(Scroll down to see the video)
What can I say, I never thought this would happen. Seriously. People are constantly asking me when there will be a Last Gentlemen reunion. I always smile and shrug and say probably never. I'm not sure exactly why I felt that way. We broke up on friendly terms and most of us see each other from time to time. There have even been pairings in other musical offshoots. Brian and Greg played together in Sugarbuzz. Tommy played with me on the Three Chord Circus CD. I always felt that I'd be happy to make new music with any or all the former members but not happy to revisit Last Gentlemen. I suppose there are unresolved issues that I don't even realize. 


I was surprised one night a year or two ago while talking to Brian and having him say that he wouldn't mind getting together as "the band". Up until that time he also never thought it would happen and he had no desire to even think about it. I guess clichés are clichés because they so easily and accurately sum up the situation "enough water under the bridge", "time heals all wounds". There are probably a host of them that fit this situation.


When I started this acoustic project I made a list of people I wanted to perform with and Brian was one of them. He was happy to do it. The initial idea was that he would play with me on one of my songs. As luck, circumstance and timing would have it Brian was coming to town for a show with the band he plays with in August. I called him a few days before and asked him to bring an acoustic guitar so we could shoot a song. 


At this time Tommy and I had already gotten together to shoot a couple songs for my project. I'm not sure why, probably mostly because I was unprepared to do a song of my own but I asked them both if they would mind getting together to shoot a Last Gentlemen song. They said yes and it all just kind of clicked even though we didn't know which song or where we would film until the last minute.


The location was picked because of it's close proximity to the venue Brian was playing. Also there was a large festival happening across town that we wanted to stay away from because that would have sucked up a lot of time, for various reasons. 


The song we did seemed obvious. One Possession was the "A" side of our second single and the "big" song off of our first album. It was also significant because it was the first song that all four of the original members co-wrote (me, Brian, Michael and Greg).


I have to say it was really fun. It was also funny how we had forgotten the songs. I know it had been years but jeez, we played those songs a million times.


So here 'ya go, half of Last Gentlemen reuniting with One Possession.


jimhewitt.com

I have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth...

Yes the rumors about the video of me playing with myself are true.

In preparation for my possible political future I will handle this as you would
expect. I will :

A) Address the scandal head on by posting the video myself. (Read as: I'm an
exhibitionist and I want to make sure you see what I did) and B) Apologize. We
all know that really means I'm not sorry I did it, I'm only sorry I got caught.

But I'm not sorry, I won't apologize and I hope you watch the video 1,000 times!

Sincerely Your Future President (although I am not announcing my candidacy at
this time),


Jim




OK, well then...


This is "Rope". When I first decided to do this project I rushed and did a version of Rope that only a few people saw. That version really was a test version for me. I needed to test the new recorder, syncing the new recorder with the video and editing the video itself. I was very eager to get started and that version was, um...fairly messy.


So this time I took a little more time. 


What I've learned from this experience is that A) It's a lot harder to record songs in the studio when you are playing all the instruments, acting as the engineer and producer AND dealing with setting up the cameras.  And  B) My computer is W A Y outdated and is pushed beyond it's limits when it comes to multi track video editing.


By the way, you can see photos from that first video here.