Wisdom Teeth

I want to start this next blog with a very important fact regarding my mother.

I truly do love her very much, probably more than any other person on this planet.

She also drives me absolutely nuts sometimes, as I am sure I have the same side effect on her. So Mom, if you ever end up reading, this just know that I love you. Maybe at this line stop reading (I know you too well and of course you won't)

My momma hated our name. Just absolutely did not like it. She really just did not think is was catchy, she thought it was weird, and any opportunity she got she commented on how she disapproved of it. Talk about annoying.

At first I would subtly lie to her and tell her that it was temporary; that we were desperately searching for something suitable to call ourselves. This only worked for so long.

If any one person has greatly influenced The Danger Bears the most, I would have to say it's probably my mom. The thing is she has no fear of hurting my feeling with harsh criticism. Which is fine when I am asking for her opinion, which usually I am not.

Dane that song is too slow, speed it up!

Dane who wrote that? Oh, I see, not you, I don't like it at all.

Dane what's that weird noise in the background?

Dane why don't you sell more CD's.

Sell them for this much, do this, do that!

Here's what you need to do Dane, blah blah blah.

You didn't sing very well last night, you've sounded better, Were you sick? (No, I wasn't)

You looked nervous.

You were fidgeting.

You guys looked frompy at your show.

I hated those head dresses, you guys looked much better when you took them off.

Most of the criticism I honestly listen to (although I would never let her know that, hell no). Because my mother is a pretty damn smart lady and I trust her. But some things that she says have actually compelled me to do the opposite. I feel that this has really affected how our music has formed.

One thing that really pisses me off though, is when I would be writing a song in my room (just for me, not to be recorded, just a private song) and she would make come out of nowhere and comment about it, when I really didn't care for anyone to listen to it. Those were the only times when I would lose my cool with her musically. She really knows how to get my flippin goat.

However, when my mother did compliment our music, I knew she really meant it...

You guys did awesome on the radio, you sounded fantastic.

I think you guys could be a hit, because your music relates to everyone.

Your voice and Claire's voice mesh together so well.

You guys were the best band that played tonight.

Everyone was so excited to see you.

I'm amazed at how much your music has expanded.

You actually sound like good music!

I'm telling all my friends about you.

You should make your little sister your manager (not happening, that's actually a counter example of a good idea)

I can always ask my mom for an honest observation of our performance, and this I feel has helped me to become a better performer and lyric writer. I love my mom, and finally I have written a song with her in it, it's about time! Hopefully it will be recorded soon. It's called Strong.

Eventually she did come to love our name, THE DANGER BEARS.

She just had to warm up to it first.

My Dad is a whole other blog for a whole other day.

Goodnight Friends.

-Danger

Name Game

Names are important. Names are a part of who we are!

<---(our first band photo, taken ourselves, haha, ghetto)

There is an ongoing debate in my head on whether as people our names shape our lives, or if our lives shape our names. It is a troubling question, especially when you are naming a band.

We wanted to convey the type of music we were making in our name. I think we really wanted to reflect the people that we were too.

Something kind of interesting, memorable, light hearted but having the potential to go in depth. Something REAL. Something kind of entertaining.

We made lists of potential names:

Chicken Scratch (ended up being the name of our album)

Out of Laguna ( we ended up leaving Laguna)

Out of Egypt ( Exodus?)

Garden Party (probably already a band named that or something)

Water Proof (what? that was a stupid idea)

Luck Joy Smugglers ( I was probably reading The Joy Luck Club in English)

The Free Birds (ended up naming a song that)

Sun Beam (no comment)

The Little Ministers ( I'm catholic so... that one didn't really make sense)

The Sol Bears (getting warmer)

This was the biggest hurdle we had come upon, and finally we had found the name for us. Yes Folks, we would call ourselves...

THE DANGER BEARS

At first it didn't really roll off the tongue, we thought it might be too weird. What does that mean?

Are people going to know we are a band, or are they going to think we're action heroes or something?

We didn't know and essentially we didn't really give a shit because we liked it!

The Danger Bears is just a combinations of Claire and I's nicknames.

Claire BEAR

and Dane-ger or DANGER...

I got the nickname Dane-ger when I was playing volleyball. I played all four years of high school as an opposite (I'm left handed).

Every year as soon as season was over, the basketball team would take over the gym and we would have to figure out something to do. Many times we would play a highly intensified form of soccer with virtually no rules dubbed Volleysoccer. Though there may be a debate about who actually christened the nickname, there is no debate as to why I was called that.

I repeatedly would nail my friend Chris in the crotch with the soccer ball. (Sorry Chris)

Once in freshmen year when I was throwing him the volleyball, I chucked it at his nuts. (no explanation). And I think two times I kicked the ball from probably six feet away and they hit him, and he went down...fast.

I got really into those games and I'm not sure if I ever stopped running because after they ricocheted off of Chris's nether region I would have possession of the ball again! I think one time I actually had to hop over his moaning body.

In my senior year sometimes the crowd would chant DANE- GER when I would serve. Good times. Good times. My friend Megan claims to have officially coined my nickname, but the jury is still out on that one.

Anyways that's where we got our name. The Danger Bears.

When we told Claire's parents they were thrilled. SAWEET!

we thought we had conquered the world, we had a song and a name, we were going to build a myspace and post the song! Nothing could stop us! The world was our oyster!

That is of course,

until I told my

MOTHER...

here's a link to our music page, give her a gander.

http://www.myspace.com/thedangerbears

p.s. feel free to send any personal Danger Bear stories to my email

dangerbears@hotmail.com

and I will post them.

Christmas 2010

I have to halt the story for one quick blog moment.

It is Christmas Eve and I got Claire some wooden dishes from a second hand store, their pretty freakin cool. After I went to church with my family I came back and dropped the whole fuckin bag of them on the floor!

After I was done flipping a bitch, my Dad glued two of them back together. I also got Claire a deck of cards called 52 Silly Things to Do When Your Blue. I doubt we will do any of those things, but we joked that we would actually do them all. haha

At 10 o'clock p.m. my family and I arrived at Claire's house and Claire gave me her present to me.

An absolutely Gigantic MUG.

What's up with all the kitchen ware?

Christmas is awesome, period. the. end.

Goodnight.

I'm putting up a picture in the new hat my mom got for me.

Holy shit, I love this holiday.

-Danger

The First Song

The First Song

Twin Moons Shinin, They won’t shine that bright again.

Twin Moons Shinin, Where have you gone my friend?

Sometimes I think, that we will not shine that bright again.

We were crammed into the corner of Claire’s music room, singing our very first song. I was nervous singing in front of her for the first time, and I was still amazed at how quickly the lyrics had come to me.

Just an hour before I had walked through her picturesque garden, full of pastel flowers and hanging trees. I distinctly remember a stack antique coke cases that had been transformed into flower pots.

Knocking on the green dutch door, hearing her annoying dogs Buddy and Kai barking.

Watching Claire’s mom peek over from the kitchen with familiar round eyes, and finally seeing Claire bumble down the stairs making faces at me through the glass.

Although I can’t remember precisely what she said to me (probably something like,

“What’s up poop head?”)

I do remember the feeling I had going into her house

Peaceful.

Tik furniture and asian decorations filled the living room and kitchen. Her walls were orange, coincidently my favorite color. I felt like I was in some kind of weird music land, where everything had aesthetic value, everything had worth. We went into the music room.

Now, my whole life I never believed that I was musically gifted. I couldn’t play any instruments, I couldn’t sing a note until the end of my sophomore year, and I had failed at playing violin, saxophone and guitar as a kid. The only person in my family who could make any type of music was my little sister, who played the piano for a few years as a kid.

So, going into Claire’s music room was absolutely amazing. Instruments lined the walls, a drum set filled most of the space, and there was a mike for recording in the corner. Claire and her brother Eric play the drums and guitar, her sister Lauren plays ukulele, violin, guitar and probably five other instruments. Here I was, surrounded by tons of instruments and the only thing I knew how to use was a yellow pad of paper and a pen!

But I used that pad of yellow lined paper a whole lot those first few months, that chicken scratch became our very first songs, and coupled with guitar we were on a roll. Just me and Claire and our hopes and dreams and fears.

She started to play and I just sang along and tried to write down what I was saying. Every now and again she would stop and I would keep scratching away, the words came quickly to me, they just flowed out like a faucet. We sand together in that first recording, there were no separate tracks, and we only had to record once or twice and then we were done.

We crouched by her computer, listening through i-pod ear buds to our first creation. Our baby!

Twin Moons solidified our belief that we had to start a band. In many ways I see our first song as a little miracle, a little bit of luck. It was ironic because Twin Moons is about losing a friend and here I was making a friend who would sing by me for years to come. Next, we had to figure out what to call ourselves, oh shit.

The Magic Of Marine Ecology: Birth of THE DANGER BEARS

She sat diagonally behind me in marine ecology class. Round head, big round eyes, orange backpack, strange jackets, a dirty mouth, cussed like a sailor.

I should have know that we would be friends but at the time I didn't have the any idea.

My earliest memories of Claire are her harassing remarks either directed at me, or at this person I will call Bert. Bert was a total idiot, most of the time, but at certain times could be genuinely hilarious, but only if he was being mean. Claire completely loathed him, and to be honest I'm not a big fan of ass holes either. Everyone in the class took Bert's bullshit all the time, and would laugh at his jokes and go along with whatever he was saying so that we wouldn't become his next victim...

Everyone, that is, except Claire. She would blatantly mock Bert and tell him straight up how much of an ass he was. Then I started joining in, and eventually we were tag teaming Bert, and then just kind of making fun of each other (but in a teasing/friendly way).

When the year was up, I had aced the class and Claire had barely passed I think. (My memory is a bit foggy junior year and I don't know why, but I have a feeling it's because of all the Acutane I was on). Either way, we had become pretty good friends and I enjoyed being around her. Claire has always had this awesome ability to be herself, and I love that.

Claire also showed me a website to help me learn guitar, and I had recorded a song and put it up on my myspace page. It was called "Hello Mr. Sunshine" and it was one of the very first songs I had ever recorded, right in my bedroom with a little USB mike. Pretty crappy quality really.

So, as soon as Claire and I figured out that we both had songs on our myspace's we had to check them out. This was probably a few days after school had ended, and the summer was just starting. I distinctly remember going onto Claire's page and clicking on the song and listening. I had never heard her sing or play guitar before.

I was in shock! She sounded really fantastic, better than I could have ever imagined. Her voice was soft and had this really great texture to it, and her song was just genius in my opinion. She listened to my stuff, commenting went down, then phone calls...

Next thing I know Claire and I were in her music room, making our first song.

Introduction

There are pivotal moments in life that should be remembered.

I highly doubt that this is one of those moments.

My name is Dane and I am in a band called The Danger Bears, and for the next year I am going to be blogging our adventures and activities. I have no idea how to write a blog and I think I've only read one blog in my life, so I wouldn't expect much for now.

-write more soon

DANGER