OVERHANG

Technically, Joel has not worked a real job for nine years. Sure, he's working for Overhang Productions LLC, but mostly he just sits in his basement living space that someone kindly has allowed him and works at the computer--listening to music, placing beats here and there, making progress that only a few people can hear. He has gotten alot of help from family and friends financially which has allowed him to live this way, but constantly scraping and asking for money for his musical project and day-to-day living expenses is hard work too.

On his breaks away from the computer, Joel reads the Bible and a book about Vincent Van Gogh for comfort, inspiration and direction. Van Gogh seems to be speaking to him again, this time not just in the form of the paintings but in Vincent's relationship with his brother Theo (Vincent's lifetime supporter and patron). At one point in Vincent's life, it seems that his brother was suspicious of the direction Vincent had been heading with his life. With a gift of 50 francs, Theo expressed concern for Vincent's apparent "idleness". This is Vincent's response to Theo's letter:

"Now for more than five years--I do not know exactly how long--I have been more or less without employment, wandering here and there. You say, Since a certain time you have gone down, you have deteriorated, you have not done anything. Is this quite true? It is true that occasionally I have earned my crust of bread, occasionally a friend has given it to me in charity. I have lived as I could, as luck would have it, haphazardly. It is true that I have lost the confidence of many; it is true that my financial affairs are in a sad state: it is true that the future is only too gloomy; it is true that I might have done better; it is true that I've lost time in terms of earning my bread; it is true that even my studies are in a rather sad and hopeless condition, and that my needs are greater--infinitely greater--than my possessions. But is this what you call 'going down', is this what you call 'doing nothing'?...

But I must continue on the path I have taken now. If I don't do anything, if I don't study, if I don't go on seeking any longer, I am lost. Then woe is me. That is how I look at it: continue, to continue, that is what is necessary. But you will ask, What is your definite aim? That aim becomes more definite, will stand out slowly and surely, as the rough draft becomes a sketch, and the sketch becomes a picture--little by little--, by working seriously on it, by pondering over the idea, vague at first, over the thought that was fleeting and passing, till it gets fixed.

I must tell you that with evangelists it is the same as with artists...Why do I tell you this?--not to complain, not to excuse myself for things in which I may or may not have been wrong, but simply to answer you...If there has been any change at all, it is that I think and believe and love more seriously now what I already thought and believed and loved then...So you must not think that I disavow things--I am rather faithful in my unfaithfulness and, though changed, I am the same; my only anxiety is, How can I be of use in the world? Can't I serve some purpose and be of any good? How can I learn more and study certain subjects profoundly? You see, that is what preoccupies me constantly; and then I feel imprisoned by poverty, excluded from participating in certain work, and certain necessities are beyond my reach. And then one feels an emptiness where there might be friendshhip and strong and serious affections, and one feels a terrible discouragement gnawing at one's very moral energy, and fate seems to put a barrier to the instincts of affection, and a choking flood of disgust envelops one. And one exclaims, 'How long, my God!'

For the moment it seems that things are going very badly with me, and it has already been so for a considerable time and may continue awhile in the future; but after everything has seemed to go wrong, perhaps a time will come when things will go right. I don't count on it, perhaps it will never happen; but if there is a change for the better, I should consider it so much gain, I should be contented, I should say, At last! you see THERE WAS SOMETHING AFTER ALL!"

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Figuring out what a drummer is like through email and phone conversations is like looking through a glass darkly. Our potential drummer lives too far away and his musical style is a bit lighter than ours. We have been getting some good technical drummers, but none of them have the deep, dark something that is also necessary. But there isn't a whole lot of that kind of music in rock'n'roll right now, so it makes sense that not too many people are influenced by it.

Joel and Grant are going to play an original song at Pullman Church this weekend. That's two mini-gigs in as many weeks. Joel will play guitar despite the fact that his fingers get all tingly and numb afterward and it will probably take him a year to recover from the damage that has been done. We really miss the band when we do live stuff like this. It's kind of sad, actually, but what can you do? Take any drummer that comes along? That doesn't seem like a great option, not at the moment anyway. We already found our ideal musicians. And they left the band.

We are starting to realize that if building another band is not panning out, we should continue to pursue the "Christian" studio route, so we are now looking into the possibility of getting Janis (a repeated figure in this blog's cast of characters) a religious visa. Pullman Church is looking for someone to help with the music and sound, which may be one of the requirements for the visa. Janis has helped build some of the best studios in Latvia, so that would be a real plus for Pullman. As always, we'll keep you abreasted (how I wish this was a word).

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 4:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Joel and Grant are getting ready for a little gig at the Festival of the Americas this weekend. It's our lawyer's thing she does for her church. We did it last year with the whole band, a kind of funny experience--we were playing our own stuff at 1/10th the volume we normally play, and it was still too loud and people were eating burritos and just staring at us like "What are they doing here?" Then we played a couple praise and worship songs by special request and melted their hearts. It was actually one of Grant's favorite live performance experiences. It probably also helped boost our status for the H1-B Visa, since it made us look better than the average garage band. By the way, it was a minor miracle we got this visa, I don't know if I communicated that clearly enough. I think OVERHANG Productions LLC's case might have set immigration law precedent, no joke.

Anyways, as this little gig is coming up, we get this email from yet another guy who is interested in drumming for OVERHANG, but this guy is uncanny. Grant seriously thought it might be a hoax or prank from someone who has been reading these blogs and thought it would be funny to write us an email spitting back exactly what we want to hear. By the way he talks about music and his influences, he sounds like almost a mirror image of us. And he lives in Chicago. We are still keeping expectations under control, but we can at least be encouraged that "that special someone" is out there somewhere.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Picture this scene: the original members of Overhang, all together in one place again, eating Chipotles on a warm sunny day in the park across the street from the skyscraper where Matt now works. It only lasted as long as Matt's lunchbreak--one hour--but for that short time it felt really good to be together again. Nothing but warm feelings. What a blessing! Joel and Grant feel fortunate to have shared a year-and-a-half with those guys. I think it was good for all of us.

Joel and Grant are also encouraged by a meeting they had with a drummer possibility. His name is Euwen (pronounced "Owen"). He's from Ireland and has an H1-B Visa in common with Joel. His musical style is different from Grant and Joel's habitual way of doing things, but he's an excellent songwriter in his own right and appears very rhythmically sound. We have not played live with him yet, but are hoping to do so tomorrow. Joel, of course, will have to watch, because he needs to rest his arms.

The one year anniversary of Overhang's decision to split up has proven to be a true celebration.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Joel and Grant are looking forward to meeting up with Matt and Dan in a week or so to hang out. Dan is coming in from Philly and Matt is still around town, so we'll get together and talk about old times and what's been going on in the meantime. It's hard to believe it's been a year already!

In Joel and Grant's meantime, we've been consistently weeding through drummer and bassist possibilities--one or two a week. We are encouraged by positive feedback we've received from people who would like to promote our music on the radio. I think I mentioned that John from the Damos Agency had a heart attack several weeks ago during the time we released our single "Arrived" to Underground and Christian radio stations. We were wondering why we weren't hearing back from him about our single and then we get this email saying he had a heart attack. But, thank God, he survived.

What were the results of the release of our single? Well, about what we expected. Here are some of the stations it was played on: KSRQ, KWOF, KZZQ, WBNY, WCUW, HDRC, KADI, KCBU, KCSU, KDCR, KJTY, KSPC, WBGL, WBYO, WCUW, WDCX, WGCA, WFSE, WIOJ, WITR, WMSJ, IGGY ROCKS, STILL SMALL VOICE, TETELESTARI RADIO, UNDERGROUND RADIO, INDIE GOSPEL RADIO, YOUTH RADIO, SPIRIT RADIO, CROSSROADS, TIGER RADIO, KCFS, WITR, LIGHTFORCE, INDIE ROCK SHOW, KNGM, WDMl, BCC. We got our last tracking report and some stations were giving it medium air play.

In other news, Joel is undergoing acupuncture for carpeltunnel in both his wrists. 12 hours a day of guitar playing and computer work is hard on the body, apparently. He is frustrated by it, but buoyed up by the fact that we're still able to work on new music , hands or no hands. In fact, lately it's been no hands. Joel devised a contraption by which he can cut, paste and mix with his feet. It looks very funny. We ought to take a picture. The owner of a secondhand store thought it was quite funny that Joel wanted to buy a pink little wheely dinosaur toy so he could cut off the top and strap it to his foot so he could use the mouse with his toes.

Joel and Grant are getting ready to play at their lawyer's church function in a few weeks. Joel will probably have to play drums and Grant will sing and play guitar. Grant has been doing a bit more singing at Pullman Church, taking old gospel songs and giving them a new rock'n'roll feel. That's kind of the direction the new album is going too.

What? New album? The first one isn't even finished yet! Oh yeah, we're going to try to release two at once. The new material has more potential for radio play and since we don't have the band we want yet, that's our best bet. Besides, we've learned how to make live-sounding rock music with hip hop beat sounds and that seems promising. The new album might have at least 4 or 5 possible singles on it while "Another Hole for You to Crawl Into" has maybe two at the most. And those would be a hard sell without hearing the band live. And if you never heard Overhang live, that's too bad. It was really something to see Matt playing the work of 15 or 20 drummers on one trap set. Hopefully you will get a chance to see something like that again sometime. The new music is coming 10X faster than on "Another Hole...", like some divine music-maker is presenting us with a gift and asking us to just take down what's coming day by day. And it's coming fast, just like we hope Janis will come from Latvia on a visitor's visa to help us finish both albums at once. He can struggle with us on the first one, and then cruise on the new stuff, like we've been doing. I'll post some of the new material here or on our website soon. Oh yeah, our website should be up in the next several weeks. We'll let you know.

Thanks for reading! Rock rock rock and roll.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 4:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ray Johnson, message in a bottle

Inspiration without notation

Here in the duldrums again

no wind and no answer my friend:

Joel with carp l. tunnel and hit in the ribs by moving car while riding his bike, John with heart attack while promoting our single "until it's arrived" on the radio. Courtney Taylor vs. The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Dig! An old story? No, things have already changed since then, and Anton had nothing to do with it. The music industry wakes up as a cockroach, and there's nothing they can do about it--internet will not stop! Stop on a dime.

Will we ever really be artists? Christians are unwilling to be prophets--too scary, too Protestant, too much getting shit on the hands and then burning it to make too much of a point that the stupid people won't get anyway. Not even after you're dead, maybe. Human feces, Lord? How about cow dung instead. Then, maybe, I'll follow your will. How to be an artist: we've got the living-off-limited-resources part down, but I'm not sure I'm willing to go THAT far. I like being understood too much! How to draw a successful rock band? Burn it and then dump it in the river in the middle of January for someone to make sense of later. I don't like that idea, but that's the idea, right?

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's about time somone said it! Billy Corgan in the June/July '05 issue of Paste Magazine explains what is wrong with the "indie" mindset. Hopefully, Corgan's comments in combination with Bono's recent interview with Greg Kot and Kanye West's ambition-on-his-sleeve will help encourage more young bands not to settle for small audiences or be satisfied thinking small.

Talking about why he didn't like being in Zwan with musicians taken from indie bands, Corgan says:

They proved me right, which is that the whole indie thing is just a pose. I can't say that about everybody, but our general feeling in the Pumpkins always was that people took the indie route because deep down they knew they didn't have the talent to make it on the mainstream level. And those people proved to me, that deep down they know they don't have the talent, or the focus, or the true love of people to want to really get out there and try and connect with people. It's really about them. And fundamentally Jimmy and I disagreed with them.

If you're going to play music at a high level to a large audience, it can't really be about you. You have to make it seem like it's about you, but it has to really be about others, it's really about sharing. And their indie-cred mentality really is about, 'What's it got to do with me?' and 'Can I find people who agree with me, who think like me, who dress like me, smoke pot like me?' They're just assholes. It's simple. I could go on with a thousand stories, but you can put that in capital letters: THEY'RE JUST ASSHOLES. They really didn't care. They didn't really care about the music, they didn't really care about the fans...They really just want to live like pieces of shit and live their little weird creepy lives. End of story.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maybe these aren't really that funny. But when you imagine telling someone that your band is called OVERHANG, and then them saying something like, "oh, you mean like the problem you get when your bra doesn't fit you right?" or, "oh yeah, I saw a picture of that on foreskin.org", it seems a bit humorous...or at least out of context. You be the judge.

SELECT GOOGLE MATCHES FOR OVERHANG:

• OVERHANG. ... Overhang, Sticky ends generated by restriction digestion of double-stranded DNA. Related, Sticky ends.
  
  [THE REAL MEANING BEHIND OUR BAND NAME]


• Property Jargon Buster...Redemption penalty overhang. This is where the redemption penalty continues beyond a fixed or capped rate period effectively tying you in to the much higher...
  
  ["REDEMPTION PENALTY?" THAT'S JUST BAD THEOLOGY]


• Overhang. A roof, upper floor or balcony that projects out over the storey immediately below. Large roof overhangs are useful for protecting people from sun ...


• "Overhang" Photographs of an intact adult male foreskin that comprises about 80 percent of the total skin system of the penis -- sometimes referred to in medical...
  
  [IF YOU'RE CURIOUS, YOU CAN SEE A VERY GRAPHIC PICTURE AT THE WEBSITE. IT'S VERY EDUCATIONAL]


• Feature - The Overhang Effect
  
  The length by which the tool extends from the toolholder is a variable that can be used to 'tune' the machining process. Contrary to what you may expect, ...
  
  [NO IDEA WHAT THIS COULD BE. SOUNDS PHALLIC]


• Overhang
  
  Paul Arden's fly casting tips: how to use overhang to cast further.
  
  [AGAIN WITH THE PHALLIC. WE'LL BALANCE IT OFF WITH THE NEXT TWO...]


• Bra overhang: how to battle it.
  
  Learn how to firm up your chest and lose overall body fat.
  
  [THIS SHOULD BE OUR BAND'S CAUSE...SOMEONE'S GOTTA SPEAK OUT ON THIS ISSUE!]


• Breasts: Exercises That Will Help You Look Better In a Bra
  
  Please give me the best exercises to prevent "bra overhang.

Bra overhang may be one of the few fitness problems that can be solved by shopping at ... [WWW.OVERHANGONLINE.COM]

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fortunately, Joel has been able to start some of the equipment left over from the fire. It doesn't all work as well as it did, but we can use some of it, at least. Joel retrieved a couple of the amps. The Mesa Boogie amp was tossed out the window by the fire department, probably to save it, but ultimately ruining it. The amp just smokes when you turn it on. Joel also retrieved his electric guitar, which was fine. However, last week, while it was being stored at Joel's temporary place of residence, someone took off the door to the garage and stole it. So now Joel's guitar set-up is gone.

If it seems to you that someone or someTHING is trying to break us, trying to whittle down our options until we just throw in the towel, then you are interpreting all this in much the same way we are. Since July 4, 2004 (only one year ago), OVERHANG has experienced loss after loss. Here's a list:

--1 bassist to girlfriend in Philadelphia

--1 drummer to wanting a stable 9-5 life

--Grant's health (stomach/dizziness/low energy symptoms, making driving, flying, watching movies, being in crowded spaces, tv and reading impossible for two months)

--first visa application for Joel rejected, second one accepted, but costing OVERHANG several thousand dollars that could have gone toward something else (like promoting the new album)

--band practice space and equipment, Joel's living space, to fire

--Joel's "souped-up" electric guitar to some neighborhood thief

It is frightening that all these losses and more can happen in one year. BUT, HOWEVER, INDEED NEVERTHELESS...

if we deigned to tally up all the gains from this year, it would no doubt surpass the losses: gains in experience, in confidence, in conviction, in appreciation for God's grace, in friendships, in musical ability, in learning how to suffer long, in experiencing the resurrection power of The Overcomer, in joy, in peace, in learning to let go of unimportances...and the list goes on and on. We do not rehearse this list of good things just to comfort ourselves or put a happy face on the year's difficulties. On the contrary, we have been amazed at the joy that has welled up in us through this all, even to the point that we are bored with the suffering motif and practically unaware of the ugly things happening around us.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Joel was looking into the possibility that our damaged equipment was covered by the landlord's insurance and he got a lawyer just to be on the safe side. Apparently a guy affiliated somehow with Joel's landlord felt threatened by that, so he called Joel today and told Joel he'd kill him or charge him with arson or extortion, maybe all three. This guy says he's a Puerto Rican Jew and, according to him, they are not people to mess with. These seem like empty threats with no basis in reason. Hopefully, nothing will come of it. The fire department's investigation showed "no determination" on the fire. That's kind of frustrating.

In other news, Joel has met with a few drummers in the last week. They were interesting guys, but they don't seem to fit as well as Matt aesthetically or personally.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently someone or some group of people who want to help Joel get a new computer to continue the Overhang work have set up a pay pal account for him. If you are interested in contributing, go to paypal.com and enter "helpjoelgetanewmac@yahoo.com."

In other news, despite earlier advertising, this is the month that our single, Arrived, goes out to radio stations nationwide. We will now track its progress. Damos Agency decided to wait because there were so many singles released in June and July and we would have had stiff competition. Joel and Grant are not overly optimistic about any "Another Hole For You To Crawl Into" songs making them famous on the radio. The songs seem to make more sense live (when you have a drummer and bassist, that is), but it's worth a shot. It could be that the new material OVERHANG is working on (currently loosely dubbed "All Together Now") seems to have so much more radio potential than "Another Hole For You to Crawl Into".

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yah this is quite the adventure. You never know what's going to happen next. It was strange because I couldn't sleep right before the fire and I was thinking 'God whats going to happen, we need something drastic to happen, we're in pretty deep'. Then the fire happened. Oddly enough I was also thinking about how at home I felt in the coach house and i was thinking 'this feels right, this feels like the right place to be'. Then the fire.

Its going to take a bit to get everything going again. It was actually our neighbors that held the fundraiser for us. They gave us 900$ alltogether. We became close enough with them that we were all sad that we're leaving the neighborhood. Pullman folks are of course helping me out in every which way too. [Our immigration lawyer] is helping get the visa papers back already. We're taking pictures of everything tonight to see if we can get any insurance money from Carmen's insurance. I'm pretty skeptical but we listed the stuff we lost and it retails at least 30,000$. You just don't realize how much equipment you acquire over the years. I salvaged alot but I don't think much of it will work. We'll see. God's in control so I'll just do what I can.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've been following our story, you're not going to believe the latest dramatic event in our saga...Joel's house, where we've been doing our music, caught fire late Friday night. Since I am visiting my wife in Pennsylvania and not with him right now, here is an email he sent out to people to let them know what happened:

Our house caught on fire. It was pretty serious. Fortunately our neighbor was still up at around 1:30am and threw a beer bottle through our window to wake us. I was actually awake in my room but didn't smell anything until I hear the window shatter. We were out of there in seconds and about 40 firefighters showed up. I think they're still trying to put it out. They're pretty certain we lost everything. All I have are my shorts, wallet and one earplug. I couldn't remember any of your numbers and I didn't get my cell phone. Can you send me your phone #s?

The arson/fire inspectors are going through things tonight and we'll see if we can salvage stuff in the morning. We think the hot water heater set it off. I'll probablystay with some friends for a while but I'll have to see where things are at tommorrow. People are offering us money already and we're staying at our nieghbors. I can't believe this neighborhood. Wonderful people.

Gotta try sleep. I'll keep you posted.

Joel

As far as I know, Joel says that all our music equipment was probably destroyed, but he somehow has the recently backed-up cd's of what we've been working on for the last long while. His neighbors threw a fund-raiser for Joel and his roommates. He needs clothes and daily provisions etc. I don't know what anyone on *cino can do to help, but pray for us.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Keep Janis in your prayers. Unfortunately our producer got in a car crash in Latvia and suffered a concussion. This may set us back a bit on the production of our album, but at least he's ok. And who knows?-- maybe it would be better if the album was produced by someone with short-term memory loss (a joke, there's no memory loss, but it really could be helpful).

Joel is in Canada for a family wedding (something made much easier with the recent visa approval). Grant is house-sitting in Evanston, without a wife (without two wives, if you count Joel) but with a piano and all the recording equipment he needs to record vocal and piano takes for some new music.

We're trying to put together some good photos for our album. Here are some good ones.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, we got word back from our lawyers four days after filing our application for a work visa for Joel. It was approved! Quite a miracle. A huge load off. We were already thinking a bit about what to do next after this application was rejected. Now we don't have to worry about that!

Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts. Now we need to figure out how to pay lawyers fees etc. Oh how we wish we could use the money on equipment. Sometimes it just seems like we have more problems than the average bear.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because we are sending our second petition for Joel's H1-B Visa this week, we will have to take this blog off the catapult site for a while. If you were wondering why we haven't been talking much about the details of Joel's visa or our progress (or lack of it) as a band, it's because we were afraid that the honest confessions of our struggles might hurt our case if someone in INS happened to read it on the internet. But now, reading over the entire blog, we think it might be easier just to remove the whole thing for a while than to change all the references to Joel and our situation.

So, since you might not hear from us for a bit (the petition process could take at least a month) on this blog, we'll now give you a complete update on recent and future occurences:

--Last month, we were surprised to hear that our music is played often on a radio station somewhere in Connecticut. We still haven't found the station, though.

--Also as of last month, OVERHANG now has its own publishing company, "Signpost Publishing", which means we are entitled to some money every time our music is played.

--In June, we hope our publishing rights will be exercised as we release our first single, "Arrived", to several radio and internet stations across the country (so request our single at your local radio stations in mid-June!). Our song will be at the top of the list of tracks on the Damos Agency's promotional cd. The Damos Agency will help promote and track the song's progress for several months. Check out their website. We are glad to be working with fellow Christians who have a similar vision about the future of Christian artistry in the music industry at large.

--The last several weeks, we have been buying equipment for the finishing of our album. The equipment is going to Latvia, where our "reformational Christian" producer, Janis Kalnins will now be able to use his immense engineering talents on the recording of rock'n'roll in his new studio rather than waste his gifts on music and sound for advertisements. The plan is that our money will allow him to get the equipment he needed to start his own studio while enabling us to finish our album rather inexpensively. We will be sending all the tracks from our album to Latvia this week so Janis can begin working on them.

--We do not pretend to know how long it will take to put the final touches on the album. It could take three months. And then it's very possible we'll decide that our own original mixes were better than the ones Janis did. Such is the nature of our work. But you can be sure it will get done and you will be able to purchase it when it does. We are trusting God's timing because we have shown ourselves to be poor judges of timing ourselves (how many times have you heard us say we think the album is done or almost done? and we were flat wrong!)

--In three weeks, the remaining members of OVERHANG will be driving out of the city to a field somewhere in the night to dig holes and take scary pictures for album cover art (proof positive that we expect to finish the album sometime in the near future). We'll be doing this with Matt Dimos, our good friend who helped us with many of the pictures posted on our website.

--We will be launching a new website in early to mid-June that will hopefully reflect the excellence of our musical aesthetic. You will be able to download our music there and we're hoping to include this blog and other interesting phenomena.

--Joel is currently suffering from some tendinitis issues and is taking a break from any and all tasks having to do with his hands. Even though we find ourselves buoyed up by the new music we're making, we're going to let it sit while Joel allows his wrist to heal.

Wow, that's a lot of stuff going on. The Lord has really blessed us despite some very difficult times. If you know anyone who's interested in helping a struggling band through some difficult financial times, let us know. With all the lawyer's fees (WHY DID JOEL HAVE TO BE BORN IN CANADA!? We could be putting the thousands of dollars we're spending on fees to much better use!) and recording equipment costs, we need help just to keep going day by day. I know that, relatively speaking, not very many people read this blog, but I pray fervently every day that God will be glorified through this crazy-ass story of two determined and willfully naive young(ish) men staking themselves and all available resources on the belief that Holy Spirit rock'n'roll can change the world.

Prayer: Lord, establish the work of our hands.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 3:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We just read over all our old blogs. We're thinking of putting this *cino blog on our website--a big step since I didn't think the blog was a good idea at first. Now I'm glad we did it though. It has been quite a journey so far. The temptation, of course, is to think that the last year and a half have gotten us less than nowhere.

Whereas we started the blog with an "almost finished" album, then added a bassist and then a drummer and then got better and better gigs and were well on our way to playing at Martyrs Pub regularly (after our last show, we were told we could play at Martyrs any time we wanted) and a possible gig at Calvin College in the Spring, now we have no band, are in the midst of spending more money on a second attempt to get Joel a visa and still haven't finished the album. Does that sound like progress to you?

Despite the temptation to despair over such a story, we are starting to feel a renewed sense of conviction and resolve. The results of our labor are not up to us and not within our control. So just keep working and trust that good fruit will come in its season. That's the way the world has worked for thousands of years. Why would it be any different now?

So now it's summer and we're still laboring to find replacement musicians. Joel and I are starting to think that if our Dan and Matt are not replaceable, then we will have to implement some new strategies. After hearing Dan and Matt say things like "If I get in a relationship, she's going to know that I am committed to this band" and "I want to be in a band that takes music seriously. I'm tired of playing in bands that don't want to go somewhere with their music" but then seeing them do the opposite, it's difficult to trust people.

Joel and I don't know what indications to look for in a new bassist and drummer, however. How do we know that they won't turn around mid-way through, before the going really gets going, against their own proclaimed intentions. Was there something in Matt and Dan that we should have been aware of? If so, maybe we can avoid it with our next selections. Maybe there's a way to communicate to prospective musicians what it will be like to commit to this band before they actually commit? All of these questions make Joel and I want to just commit to eachother because we know at least we can trust one another.

And then we are struck by the sadness that our own optimism about the power of the spirit-filled community is waning. Maybe we'll just hire other people to play with various projects because it seems like money has more power than pure loyalty to a vision, we think. Do you see the devil working in these questions? The kingdom of this world is so visible that it's hard to keep your eyes on the unreality that there must be people out there who want to change the world with rock'n'roll, no matter what the cost.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I was in high school, I bought lots of cd's. My dad said that cd's seemed to be a bad investment, since you could only get a few listens out of them before they seemed out of date and you threw them away. So I tried to buy only the cd's that I would be listening to my whole life. Since then, however, I've come to appreciate the value of music on a different scale, making my old ways of justifying music obsolete.

Music seems to be exceedingly valued by our society. It's everywhere--radio, stadiums, movies, television, commercials. But quantity is no substitute for quality. Because we tend to value stuff as commodities, music has gotten really mixed up in the mix up. For example, isn't it kind of crazy that people pay the same price for a Hoobastank cd as they do for Jay Z's last album? The value, in terms of quality, is not even comparable. And why is it that lawyers and philosophers can pursue their craft with the support and comfort that our education system provides, while musicians scrap to get 25 people to their shows in order to pay for the gas to get there. Many small business owners are treated with respect and honor--entrepeneurs, we call them (because every good deed deserves to be called by a french word), but upstart bands are often considered "dreamers", people "going through a phase" and delusional youngsters who need to "get a real job".

Last week, I saw an interview with U2. The interviewer asked them what it would take for them to break up. "Two crap albums," Bono said, as he always says to this question. They've agreed to break up as soon as the quality of their music suffers. I like this answer because it shows that U2 accepts musical value as an important part of one's life decisions. Indeed, many artists, including Bono, claim that rock'n'roll saved their life. And in many ways, music does give life. So why doesn't it have more value in our society? Is it because, like Bush says, we're living in a culture of death? (tee hee hee--no, but seriously).

I'm not really getting over the break-up of Overhang as a band. In fact, the longer this separation goes on, the more frustrated I am by it. At the time Matt and Dan came to us with their reservations about continuing, I had a sense of disconnect. And I still do. The music we are making is of great quality. Its value continues to impress itself upon me. Dan asked several times what the difference between Joel and I and Matt and him might be--why we were willing to stick it out and they were not? There are many reasons, but one is that Joel and I can't give up on this thing because it continues to have value beyond the value of our own efforts. I try, but it is hard to see the "Another Hole For You to Crawl Into" album as just a group of songs two guys put alot of time and effort into. If it was just that, I may be quite depressed about the wastefulness of our efforts...even it it were finally finished. But I feel that the world needs music of quality as the world needs life. As much as the world is harmed by the likes of Hoobastank, it is blessed by the likes of Jay Z.

As people are caught up in the downloading frenzy and music is easy to come by, they might be tempted to forget that the value of music goes well beyond the value of a dollar--in fact, its value transcends our monetary system of values. If people knew how valuable music is, they might not be confused by why we continue to go further into debt, to avoid "getting a real job", to remain loyal to a bear of an album that asks so much of us--that threatens not only our financial security, but security in general. Working for something that is of great value is a risky investment, but our sense of its value must fuel our trust that it's worth it.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Long live (apocalyptic) rock'n'roll, a perfect instrument for slicing and dicing. Folk music can pick up the pieces after it's all over.

Apparently, Jimi Hendrix used to introduce his music as "Electric Church Music" before lighting his guitar on fire and feasting on its strings in concert. This is a fascinating fact since it reveals Hendrix' own understanding of the tradition rock'n'roll was coming from and reveals the spiritual nature of what he was doing. Many in the early days of rock didn't know how to justify their church upbringing with their love for "the devil's music". Jerry Lee Lewis thought of himself as a future resident of hell, which makes "Great Balls of Fire" particularly significant. The Rolling Stones sympathized with Satan and perhaps the first mythic rock figure, bluesman Robert Johnson, made a pact with the evil one. It's easy to see why many people don't think of rock'n'roll (a slang word for sex) as God's music. Which is why this Jimi Hendrix fact is so revealing. Though The Rolling Stones interpreted the Two Gospel Keys' original recording of "You've Got to Move" in a sexual way on their Sticky Fingers album, the surging waves of joy and ecstasy belong--not to Mick Jagger's tight pants--but to the original Spirit from which it comes, the Spirit that calls out in a loud voice, "You've gotta move, 'cause Jesus is coming and he's comin' soon."

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The title of our last blog has been altered to avoid any misunderstanding. The expletive in front of "devil" was deleted so as not to be disrespectful toward Satan.

Speaking of Satan, rock'n'roll is still the devil's music, a truth that is evident all around. White rockers are so boring. They pound out these straight half-punk, half-disco, half-country (that's three halves, if you're counting)beats on the drum kit and whine about their contemporary personal malaisies (new word; likey?). Hip hop is better sonically, but most of these guys think pleasure can only be measured by the bulge in their pants.

Give us something new, oh Lord. U2 is great, but it's not enough. By now, we all are clear on the fact that the goal is soul. But why can't that old soul come with some fresh beats and un-as-yet-discovered sonic miracles? The goal is also to overcome musical impossibilities and to bask in the revelation of God's musical creation. True feelings need to be nurtured, but some sonic spice would be nice along with it.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Of course we're still looking for musicians, but we're also giving in to the temptation to work on new music. Our twenty-odd new song ideas are all over the place, like two extremes making fun of their own limitations, and we're starting to think that might be an exciting listening experience. The dense organic sound of "Another Hole..." made us want spare, catchy, bright, dark, sharp music. Rock'n'roll for R&B radio. While we're waiting for "Another Hole..." to pan out, there's no reason not to explore our new musical selves.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After realizing Matt doesn't have enough of the necessary ambition to play drums with OVERHANG, after running out of money, after Grant's physical breakdown (not being able to look at a computer screen, read, drive, watch TV, listen to music etc. without feeling dizzy and nauseated), after Joel visited Dan in Philadelphia to "remove the spite" that had been accumulating with distance and differences, the bright future for OVERHANG no longer seems like a sure thing. Which is not to say OVERHANG doesn't have a future. It just means Joel and Grant no longer think the future they had in mind is the future God has in mind.

In fact, recent experiences have persuaded the remaining members that the success of the band depends much more on God's grace than on business and marketing savvy (of which we are in short supply) or technical and artistic expertise (of which we feel most confident). We are therefore hoping that God will come to the rescue when we are at our weakest, like he has done with so many others so many times before, because OVERHANG is definitely not in a position of strength right now.

Despite the hardships, we are grateful to God that we have found a way to finance the finishing of our album. We are also planning on releasing "Arrived" in May as the lead single on a compilation disc for the Damos Agency, a promotions company that wants to put us at the top of their list. We also opened a new bank account with the guy who opened Billy Corgan's first bank account so many years ago. A good sign, we think.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When we started this blog, we thought it might be a bit boring, but we've had more of our share of drama the last several weeks. Our bassist left us in the lurch, our momentum of shows has ground to a halt, our money has run dry and now one more thing: Joel's Visa application was rejected! Our lawyer says we should appeal, so Joel will be able to stay here a while longer maybe. If the appeal is also rejected, well then we'll just have to build another case for next October. Not looking forward to that. This first case was a lot of work: starting our own business, writing our business plan and gathering info for the lawyer. Over-all, you might ask, what is the general mood at OVERHANG headquarters? At this point, we're all taking it in stride. Grant is trying to recover from what appears to be "adrenal fatigue", Matt is working two part-time jobs to help pay rent, and Joel is cleaning up the album tracks to make it easier for someone else to mix (when we get the money to finish the album). Currently, we have an artist friend working on the album artwork and hope to have a new web design up on our site after Christmas with our complete unmastered album available for download. One must make the best of one's situation.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 3:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, Grant is trying to write an ad for a bassist on a Christian radio site today and it wouldn't let him type the letters a-s-s because it spells a dirty word. For a laugh, you should check out Grant's frustration with the site at www.thespiritradio.net. The post is in the community section under the topic "Introduce Yourself".

For those of you who don't want to sign up to read Grant's post, he says something like, "Hey, what's wrong with this site? I keep typing b*** guitar, but the middle of the word b*** keeps getting starred out! I don't know how else to say it. I'm looking for a person who plays the instrument that compliments the drums in a rock band. It's not a profane instrument. It just happens to contain an occasionally offensive word in the middle of its own name."

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 1:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dan left last week. We're now visiting churches in the Chicago area, looking for bassists. It's a strange feeling, not being a band again. We're again pouring all our energies into the album. Our potential producer friend just heard the recent version and said he no longer thinks he can do anything to it. It sounds finished to him. That's good news. So it will cost a bit less to finish it. It still will cost more money than we currently have, however.

Currently, we're waiting to hear from Angels Net about a grant application we submitted to help pay for it. (Do you know about Angel's Net? It's a non-profit organization that helps fund Christian artists!! Yeah!!) What else are we waiting for?....Let's see...Oh yes, the popular South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX received our application to play there next Spring. We hope to hear from them in February. Stay tuned 'til then, I guess.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dan has decided to leave the band. He's going to Philadelphia to be with his girlfriend and to experience life outside of being in a band. Of course this comes at a really bad time for OVERHANG. We're getting lots of good shows in Chicago and building good momentum. The music has really come together. And we just got an email from an A&R guy from Virgin Records asking us for our promo materials. He heard us on My Space and liked what he heard. I sure hope God knows what he's doing. Sometimes His timing seems to really suck.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 3:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We opened up a chaotic local band showcase last night at Subterranean in Wicker Park. As the headliners, our show went great, one of the best ever. We played 40 minutes of our own stuff. We were honored by the presence of "Crazy Mary" from Q101 and played up our best impression of ourselves for the cameras (look for OVERHANG on the Chicago local access channel 19 November Eighth). But, after our performance, all hell broke loose. The drummer for the next band was late for his band's performance. The lead singer called the loser drummer and told the crowd to curse him over the phone. When the drummer finally came, he offered to buy everyone drinks, then the band launched into standard prog rock fare. Midway through the third song, the drummer broke his drumsticks (actually, they were our drummer Matt's sticks that he stole from Matt's bag) and threw them forcefully into the crowd, I mean he whipped them across the room where, apparently, one of the broken sticks stabbed a female patron in the back of the head, causing her to bleed profusely. Then a fight broke out on the floor between various members of different bands and audience members. Punches were thrown. Some girl got hurled against our bass amp that was stored near the stage, dumping beer all over it. The sound guy at Subterranean raced downstairs to call the police because it looked like a riot was about to break out. Eight squad cars rushed to the scene and a couple ambulances came to take away the bleeding and broken few. The lights were turned on and the cops announced that the show would be cancelled. The lead singer tried to rile everyone up against "the man", but eventually their plug was pulled and the other bands were allowed to play. That's what we get for hiring the Hell's Angels to do security.

We're looking forward to playing at Martyrs this Thursday night. Matt will leave his Killer Drum Sticks at home this time, just in case.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 1:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Things are going well right now in terms of getting asked to play gigs. We were invited to headline a local band showcase because, as the woman on the phone said, "you guys are great." Our lawyer invited us to play at one of her functions in November, which is a good sign, because it means she believes Joel will still be in the country in November.

On the immigration front, we did get some questions back from the INS about our application to hire Joel. They wanted proof that Joel is getting financial support from family and friends and they wanted more info on what makes Joel a composer for OVERHANG. We will send back our materials and probably hear from them in a week and a half.

Dan and Matt are back from a two week break in which they are trying to figure out their mixed feelings about being in this band for the rest of their lives. We talked about how that probably is not the best way to think about being in anything. It's a pretty overwhelming thing to think about being involved in something for your entire life. Dan returned yesterday and says he feels like he might not be right for OVERHANG...so we are now looking into other bassists. (The matter-of-factness of this sentence does not accurately reflect the difficulty of the situation, but we'll leave it at that for now. God knows what he's doing.)

The album is sounding great. We applied for a grant from Angel's Net (a non-profit organization that helps support artists financially) to finish the album. We really believe that we've created something very new and exciting sonically (based on our responses from various engineers here in Chicago), so we can hardly wait to get it out there for people to hear.

Words of encouragement for Christian artists who want to make something really special for others: "Don't give up, Don't give up, Don't ever give up! People need what you want to give them." At least that's what we tell ourselves.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All together, OVERHANG is 24ft. 8 in. tall and weighs 718 lbs.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 1:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

U2's new single is out now and, to our relief, it is not identical to anything on our upcoming album, which we will be releasing (in its totality and free of charge) to several hundred lucky people at various rock shows throughout the city of Chicago as a promotion for a local band showcase we've been invited to participate in as well as an upcoming show at Martyrs. The band recently had several days of soul-searching where we were wondering about the future of the band (finances being as they are and all etc. etc.) but we came out of intense negotiations with a renewed sense of purpose. Matt and Dan will be taking a two-week break before we launch into a string of shows in the Chicago area in late October and November...if Joel remains in the country, that is.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 1:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A big "Thank You" goes out to the person who emailed to remind us just how naive and in need of marketing help we are. Yes, we are looking for people who know what they are doing because we have only a few clues based on other bands' success stories (which we desperately mull over for answers to our own career questions). But who wants to work with a 6 month old band that still hasn't proven itself. We're trying lots of stuff and stupidly publicizing our attempts on *cino...I'm not always sure why.

We just had to send a big fat $1,000 dollar check to the INS to speed the process along on our application for keeping Joel in the States with OVERHANG. With the money, we're buying an 80% chance that they'll look at our application. Yep, that's right. In a matter of two weeks, the young band, OVERHANG, could no longer be together. That's a pretty heavy thought for all involved. Let's hope and pray the INS folks have good taste in music.

Thank you to all those who attended the Lilly's show last Saturday. It was our biggest turn-out yet. The little coupons we made to keep the price down for our fans must have been a success.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had a great practice yesterday. We're trying to reproduce some of the harmonies on the album for our live show coming up at Lilly's here in Chicago. Amazingly, our voices blend pretty well. This will add new sounds to our guitar-heavy music. Joel and Grant are going guitar shopping this week to try to get the right kind of percussive sound on an electric guitar. So far, the closest we've come to the right sound is putting an acoustic guitar through an amp with distortion. Maybe we'll stick with that in the end, anyway. We'll have to see.

OVERHANG is pursuing an idea for a music video but has yet to find the money to do it. Our film-maker friend is writing up a proposal for it so we have some idea as to how much it will cost and how long it will take. We just found out that one of our friends got a job at MTV, so we'll see if that connection can be of some use down the line.

Dan is going to Florida this week, so we won't be practicing as much. Matt is still sending out promo packs. He's painting the envelopes red and pasting a spooky picture of us on the front to increase the chance that someone will open it and read our materials. Joel is taking a few days break from the last mix of the album to get some objectivity before we send it off for final mixing.

And our review is now in HM Magazine. It's short and it goes like this:


"Having already won a contest this year that gave them rights to a main stage performance at Cornerstone in Illinois, Overhang's future looks promising. Their sound has elements of classic rock, yet is innovative enough to sound completely new and original. With songs that keep you guessing as to where they'll go next, Overhang is a refreshing reminder that old can sound new."

We don't disagree with any of that. It's a good first review of our demo. We look forward to hearing more feedback on what we've done with our album--hopefully in the not-too-distant future.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OVERHANG played at Pullman CRC this past Sunday. We worked up a rock'n'roll version of "God Himself is With Us" (page 244 in your grey Psalter hymnals), the classic gospel song "Sow Good Seeds", U2's "Love Rescue Me" and an offertory "Peace Like a River" medley with harmonica and horn section. It was a blast and very well received. The tone was grand and worshipful. We were very glad for the opportunity. A bunch of kids came up afterword to get our autographs and talk about how cool harmonicas are. We signed their bulletins and told them to "stay in school", "don't do drugs" and "vote or die"--three very important messages for all young people today. Which brings us to the VMA's on Mtv last Sunday night. Always inspiring. Bad music awards shows are always good fuel for aspiring young artists. These birth pains will give way to better days.

In other news...


-- we burned a copy of what may be one of the last of our own mixes before we send it off finally to get re- mixed. Since we lost two months worth of work, we were set back a bit, which proved to be a good thing for the music. Joel is getting much faster at finding the right sound for this album.


--we got our first noise complaint from neighbors last Saturday. Apparently, their dishes were rattling in their house.


--the newest issue of HM magazine that features OVERHANG as a "pick of the litter" is supposed to be out now, but we couldn't find the most recent issue at Borders yesterday. If you find it, let us know.


--to follow up on previous blogs, we were not selected as "the next big thing" in the Chicago-area 94.7 The Zone contest. But, judging from the winners, that's a good thing.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 2:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In an effort to be a band that does regular live performances, we've been sending out our promo packs to venues, making follow-up phone calls, emails...and we have not received any gigs at all for our efforts. So now we're looking for a booking agent or visionary manager who has connections that can get us where we want to be.

I guess we're learning what it's like to be a business. You have to spend money to make money. We have a great music video idea for "Arrived" and an award-winning film director friend of ours who's willing and able to do it, but we need to find the money first. Ink and paper, burnable cd's (we gave away 1,500 at Cornerstone) and labels cost alot when you're making so many promo packs. And there's still food and rent. A few of the members of the band have resorted to doing those research tests you find on the internet because they pay really well...if you're willing to take experimental drugs or fill out long surveys about your beard-trimming habits.

The business side of being a band is very uninspiring. So lets focus on the big idea. Recently, we sent a letter to U2 in the far-off chance that they would read it--and with the hope that they would decide to ask us to tour with them next year. We reproduce it here because it captures who we are and what we are trying to do. You might be able to tell that we studied several of Bono's speeches to get the right tone for the letter. Besides, it's very Bonoesque to believe you're good enough to open for the greatest band of the last 20 years. So, without further adage...

Why Cornerstone Festival?s New Band Contest Winner OVERHANG should open for U2 on the next American tour:

??if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.? Luke 19:40

There?s no stopping the Spirit of rock?n?roll. When the Pharisees tried to stop Jesus? followers from singing in Luke?s account of The Triumphal Entry, Jesus warned them--If you silence the crowd?s music, you?ll end up singing a much sadder song, a tragic version of Psalm 137 that ends with Jerusalem?s destruction. It?s much better to sing along with the Spirit than to have your children dashed against the rocks.

When it comes to the Kingdom of God, singing the right song for the right moment is not just a sign of good taste. It?s a matter of life and death. Which is why we have decided to enter the high-stakes profession of ?rock?n?roll band?. Since U2 have proven to be the biggest gamblers and most faithful leaders in rock music, we believe our musical service to others would benefit from touring with an experienced band that can help us connect with more people.

Yes, we are among the many bands that are inspired by U2. But while many bands have merely adopted U2?s cinematic sound as their own, we have always been drawn to U2?s big ambition and soulfulness. Taking ?OVERHANG? as our name, we bring the over-the-top, pillar-of-fire-by-night spirit of the Bible to our own time and place. Having grown up in circles where God was squeezed into sentimental hymn books and individualistic praise and worship songs, we were drawn to the roaring voice of rock?n?roll, the uncertain movement and ?can?t get no satisfaction? longing that we found there. Rock?n?roll shows fearlessness in the face of apocalypse. It is an eternal desire for greater things.

Motivated by this desire, OVERHANG has developed its own unique sound?music so full it seems to spill out of itself as if there isn?t enough room for it all in the space of one song?but yet, there it is, all at once. OVERHANG?s music will remind you of the old spirit that can be found again and again in new rock?n?roll, from its gospel roots to Johnny Cash, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads, The Pixies, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against the Machine. Though the band?s sound cannot be likened specifically to any of these influences, it?s the newness that identifies OVERHANG?s music as part of that enduring rock?n?roll spirit.

If you take the time to look through these materials and listen to OVERHANG?s demo, I?m sure you will find the band?s big ideas and marching arena-rock sound a good fit for U2?s upcoming American tour.

Sincerely,

OVERHANG

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is life after Cornerstone. We put so much of ourselves into The Cornerstone Festival performance that we were shocked to find life (and more hard work) on the other side. I must admit that the *cino blog was low on the list of priorities. Just because there was nothing new added to the blog does not mean that nothing happened. Far from it! Here is a list of highlights from the last few weeks.

--Dan spray-painted really big promotional signs on bed-sheets to hang up at Cornerstone, accidentally leaving a really big "OVERHANG--New Band Contest Winner" sign painted on the neighbor's wooden fence.

--The band finally finished all the immigration paperwork for their H1-B Visa petition. OVERHANG is now a Limited Liability Company seeking to hire a Canadian immigrant composer.

--OVERHANG worked with an engineer and friend of Billy Corgan at Gravity Studios for a mix of "Arrived".

--Matt got bit by the neighbor's dog, went home for an unrelated vacation and came back to play a pair of shows with the band in Michigan.

--A pre-Cornerstone tour in Arkansas was successful and relaxing. Everywhere we went, people were nice and appreciative. And some people even danced.

I'll try to keep on top of this blog thing more now. We've just organasized ourselves so that we don't let stuff like this slip past our attention. Be sure to look for us in the next issue of Hard Magazine. We're featured in the "Pick of the Litter" section. And we will also be in Spotlight magazine, though I don't know where you'll be able to find it. And we're waiting to see if we got into the "The Next Big Thing" contest here in Chicago. We'll know at 5pm today. Thanks for all your support. Later.