were trying to be creative,” Casey said.
“You said to be creative,” Sukh added.
“I just don’t understand how Elvis has any relevance to Beowulf.”
“That’s okay because we do,” Casey responded.
Mrs. Edwards sighed and walked away. Sukh spoke in a low voice. “Primary sources, my…well I will not say what I was going to say. At any rate I am very glad not to be working with that windup toy.”
Casey nodded. “Amen.”
Sukh whipped out his copy of Beowulf. “Okay so it is I think unavoidable that the plot of this drek will at the very least need to be addressed in our project, yes?”
She shrugged. “Can’t argue with you there.”
He started writing out the main plot points of Beowulf. “As long as we acknowledge this she cannot give us too low of a grade.” He grinned. “And then we add Elvis in as…as the icing, yes?”
“Absolutely. But also Sukh I’m wondering something.”
“Yes?”
“After school can you come over to my house?” Casey began, “This guy Ben from my Spanish class will be there too.”
“But what exactly will he be there for?”
“For band practice.” She sat up straighter in her chair. “We, my friend, are going to start the most guitar-slaying, album-selling, hotel-room-trashing rock band of all time.”
16
Sukh and Ben were also sophomores so none of them had their license yet. Since Yull had an Amnesty club meeting that day, the newly formed power trio took the bus to Casey’s house after school.
Thankfully all the three-seaters were taken. The three of them cramming into one of those would have been too unrock for words. Casey sat in front of Ben and Sukh. She took paper and pen out of her bag and turned to face them. “What are your influences?”
“Let me consider,” Sukh said.
Casey looked at Ben. “Drummer?”
“Is that how you’re going to address me from now on?”
“Possibly,” she said.
“Why do you need to know my influences?” he asked.
“For when we write our band bio. They always state influences in band bios.”
“I see.”
On one corner of the paper Casey scribbled A good bandleader knows how to keep her musicians on task. She threw her hand over it so Sukh and Ben could not see. Ben might have seen though. Or perhaps he was just raising his eyebrow because he had an itch. “Influences, please,” she pressed.
“The punks,” Sukh said.
She brought her pen to paper and nodded. “Interesting.”
Sukh nodded. “Yes, they have most definitely influenced me.”
“Which punk bands in particular?” she asked.
“Nirvana,” he said. She wrote it down. “Mudhoney,” Sukh continued.
“Separating yourself from the pack here,” she murmured.
Ben looked out the window. Casey frowned and made another note at the bottom of the paper. While attitude on the part of drummers is to be expected, it is still imperative for band leaders to communicate a sense of limitation to said drummers when they get too lippy. Aka, threaten to fire him from time to time.
“And I like the hard punk bands like Fugazi and Minor Threat,” Sukh concluded.
“Sukh man,” Casey said, “even though I generally view D.C. scenesters as kids in hammer and sickle T-shirts with degrees from elite schools, these are impressive contributions.”
Ben’s eyes remained glued outside. “Ever listen to Jawbox?”
“No but I can.” Sukh grinned. “This bus ride is more educational than an entire day at Walton!”
“This is only the beginning of your rockucation.” Casey turned to Ben. “Your turn.”
“Did you just say ‘rockucation’?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Do you have any food at your house?”
“All rider requests must be made in writing,” she said. Riders are food and dressing room requirements made by musicians while on tour. Ben just stared. “We might have Oreos and frozen pizza,” she added.
“Blue-eyed soul, psychedelic, Spencer Davis, Traffic,” Ben said.
She cocked her head to one side. “I didn’t know they still made Winwood fans.”
“They do. Your go.”
“PJ Harvey, My Morning Glory, Cat Stevens, Andrew Bird, Moby, and the Gorillaz.”
“You are an impresario of influences,” Sukh said.
“That I am,” Casey said. Ben looked back out the window.
After cleaning out the kitchen of all forms of junk food life, Casey, Ben and Sukh went to the basement. Ben had a drumming pad and Sukh had an acoustic bass they borrowed from the music room. Casey strapped her guitar on.
And then she kind of panicked. What if they did not like her songs? But they were watching and she had junk food pumping through her veins. She launched into the song about her biology teacher being reincarnated as a tapeworm. When she got to the end she realized she had