A story from our very own Sam Ramone Rochelle: The Out (Awt) is a song inspired by the true events of a 2012 Centre St. recording session, and never before has the story been shared to the public, including Adam, until now. Please enjoy the true story of The Out (Adam-Wasn’t-There) below. Well, as the beginning of the song may suggest, it all started on a muggy white-sky’d afternoon in the basement of the Rochelle haus. Because Adam’s high school had required his presence at a Junior Leadership Weekend, Adam was unavailable. However, pressed for recording time, Sam, Johnnie, and Ramone all opted to spend a saturday afternoon recording instrumentals for what would technically be Centre St.’s first demo. Unfortunately, without Adam’s iron-fist in the picture, as the afternoon went on, our productivity in recording songs dwindled. We could try to press on, but we eventually realized that we needed a snack break. Ramone ran upstairs to check the pantry for unhealthy snacks suitable for musicians, only to find that his house was clean out of chips. Ramone returned back to the basement, empty handed, and delivered the news to the other members, who were equally as disappointed/furious. Refusing to begin recording again until they found chips, Johnnie, Sam, and Ramone all contemplated solutions to their dilemma. At that point, none of them had licenses, adding an extra layer of difficulty. Then, clarity. “I think there’s like a convenient store 5 mins down the street, you guys just wanna walk there and grab some stuff, then come back?” “How far is this place? Realistically is it within walking distance?” “Yeah. Let’s just go.” And out the door they went, to the Natick Honey farms, precisely 1.7 miles from the Rochelle house, skipping merrily all the way. Ramone led the group happily, painfully oblivious to the fact that the walk would actually take 35 minutes. After 20 minutes of walking, smartphone in hand, Sam Baler asked, “alright where is this store we’ve literally been walking for 20 minutes.” Puzzled, Ramone looked down at the map on the small iPhone screen as they continued on. “Sorry guys I guess it’s a few more minutes.” Continuing to glance down at the screen, Sam watched the little blue dot on the iPhone (indicating our location), and saw something strange. On the overhead view of house that was directly to our right, the map displayed bold letters that read “J. CREW.” “Guys, the map says there’s a J. CREW right here.” “I live in Natick, I’m positive there is no J. Crew, especially right here. This is legit a neighborhood.” “But yeah, it says it’s a J. Crew.” “That’s super weird.” (Fun Fact: Before the Out (awt)’s current version, the chorus of the original lyrics went “Find Me a J. Crew!” in place of “stroll down the road.”) Continuing on, the group finally found the honey farms convenient store, and subsequently a wealth of chips, drinks, candy, and low quality mechanical pencils. Each band member loaded up on all they thought they could eat, and deposited the food they were to buy on the clerk’s desk. The clerk, a jolly, husky old man by the name of Shawn rang up the group’s items. “Guys we should totally just write a song about this. Soulfully, Shawn chanted rhythmically, “ya got ya chips, ya got ya drinks, ya got everything, ya got…” as he rang up the items. The group paid what they owed in cash, and proceeded to leave the store, all of their hands occupied with plastic bags of unhealthy snack items. A success. On the way back, passing the J. Crew house, the group was alarmed to see multiple large dogs pressing against the house’s fence, barking loudly. Distracted by the vicious-looking dogs, Sam Baler tripped on a small crack in the sidewalk, and accidentally dropped his bag on the sidewalk, spilling all of the precious cargo inside. “Nice going, you dropped the bag, Sam.” Recollecting himself, Sam picked up his bag, and the group continued walking until the finally reached the Rochelle house: another 1/2 hour walk. Returning triumphantly with a wealth of chips and drinks, Johnnie, Sam, and Ramone happily munched on their respective snacks, and spent the rest of the afternoon recording. The story of The Out (Awt),” is truly one of despair, hunger, travel, and certainly success. And we did it without Adam there, so look guys we aren’t totally incompetent without Adam so chill.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 00:00:31 +0000
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