Let's Go to War

Since August when we debuted the re-tooled surf/party version of "Bring Out Your Dead," whatever song is our newest is my favorite in our set. "Let's Go to War" continues that tradition this week as I find myself listening to its live version from Saturday over and over.

In 2005, Daniel and I were playing together regularly with the hope of getting a drummer and starting our own band with the two of us singing and playing guitar. The idea collapsed in on itself for a number of very good reasons. From that time, we created three to four original, complete songs. Only two of them were worth salvaging in any way, and I've been working since we started the Distractions to find ways to retool them and make them our songs.

The first success at this was a lick and chord structure that Daniel wrote in 2005, somewhat inspired by Rev. Horton Heat. I added my own words to it after listening to lots and lots of solo John Lennon that I will make the world a better place by never sharing. I was barely playing any bass at that point, and I didn't add one until I used his 8-track to make a demo of the song. When I did, I stumbled into a bass lick that turned the song into a conversation between the bass and lead guitar, an idea which I have developed more since we've starting playing it again. The idea itself, in my mind at least, owes a lot to the band Dos, so much so that I even re-made the demo with just two basses and my vocal. I doubt we'd have enough time in the studio, but I'd love to do the same with the song we're playing now as a b-side.

Sure, when we play it now, it's a buzz track that rocks every bit as hard as "Man Vs. Cheetah," but to me, I like this one for how the bass and guitar interact, an idea that I'm continuing to work on since I can listen to it and since it has some tweaking to be done to it (i.e. if we'll work in the bridge we have for it) before we hit the studio.