Eric Frowley then got up and defended Jake like he was defending Jesus Christ Himself before a Roman court. He cited multiple precedents relating to First Amendment issues and multiple precedents regarding what constituted obscenity. The point he based most of his defense on was that in order for something to be considered obscene it had to have "no intrinsic artistic value".
"Obviously," Frowley told the judge, "since this band has sold more than eight million albums, has sold out every concert hall they've been booked in over the past two years, including all Cincinnati shows, and have been nominated for three Grammy awards to date, there is intrinsic artistic value to their work. Calling it obscene simply cannot stand up to a legal test."
The judge was forced to agree. He declared there was not sufficient evidence to try Jake Kingsley on the charge of obscenity and dismissed the case.
Six hours later, Jake was sitting on the balcony of his condo, soaking in his hot tub with a fresh drink and staring out at the rain that was falling on Griffith Park.
Two days later the band met in their warehouse for their first jam session since they'd cut the demo tape for Balance Of Power more than a year before.
Chapter 2b
The session went reasonably well. The first two hours was spent taking their instruments out of storage cases, cleaning them up, plugging them into the sound system, and tuning everything. The instruments were not the same ones they used on stage. Jake used a top-of-the-line Brogan Les Paul knock-off because its components were superior and it recorded better. Matt used a newer version of the Fender Stratocaster. Darren had a different version of the same Brogan bass guitar. Coop had a different, though identical drum set. Nerdly had an electric piano instead of the Grand he normally used.
After getting everything tuned in and sounding good they then went through the ritual of smoking marijuana out of a water bong. Though there was a long-standing rule about using intoxicants of any kind prior to performing or rehearsing, this rule did not apply to jam sessions when they composed new music. They had found that being stoned during the composition phase actually seemed to help with their creativity.
Matt introduced them to his first new song first. It was called Can't Chain Me. Like pretty much everything Matt wrote, he had composed the main guitar riff first and then wrote the lyrics to match it after. The riff was a grinding, powerful, and complex five-chord progression that Jake and the others were immediately impressed with. They lyrics were quite good as well, dealing with how various people — women, managers, record company executives — tried to control Matt and how he refused to be controlled. It was a more mature version of a typical Matt Tisdale tune and Jake was already thinking that it might just be the title cut of the next album.
They worked on it for almost three hours without a break, refining the rhythm, finding ways to insert the piano and Jake's backing guitar, learning the lyrics and composing when the harmony of the rest of the band would come in. Since this was a subject that Jake could relate to well he had no problem finding and conveying the emotion of the lyrics as he sang them, of getting across exactly what Matt was trying to say.
"Off to a good start," Matt said as they smoked a few more bonghits during their break.
"I agree," said Darren, who, to the surprise and delight of the others, had taken an active and enthusiastic approach to the composition process in a way they hadn't seen since back in their D Street West days.
After the break Jake introduced them to his first effort, the song he thought of as the best of the three he'd composed so far. It was called Cold Reality, a song about how the things you've always dreamed of and anticipated always seemed to be less than expected, sometimes even evil, when you achieved them. Jake wrote his songs by composing the lyrics while strumming out a basic rhythm on his acoustic guitar. In this case — much to Darren's chagrin — he envisioned multiple tempo changes. The main verses would be played with a ballad-like air, heavy on acoustic guitar sound and piano with only supporting solo-chords from Matt's electric. The choruses would be a bit heavier, with Matt doing a distorted electric version of the main riff while Jake played a little heavier acoustic. The bridges, on the other hand — and there were two of them — would be played in classic heavy metal with two grinding distorted electrics and no piano at all.
The complexity of the song meant that they were only able to get the very basics of it settled in the three hours they worked on it. Darren grumbled about the fucking tempo changes, of course, but seemed to remain good-natured about them. Everyone else really liked the tune and was enthusiastic about working it up. The suggestions flew back and forth as to just how fast the tempo should be at each point and how dominant each backing instrument should be put across. Matt, Bill, and Jake, as was usually the case, were the ones to make most of the suggestions.
Before they left for the day Matt plugged back in and showed them the new heavy palm-muted riff he was working on. Heavy turned out to be just the word for it. It sounded nothing like Kirk Hammett's work on Master Of Puppets — Matt, as promised, had adapted the technique and changed it to his own style — but Jake continued to have his doubts about it.
"You got lyrics to go with that yet?" he asked Matt.
"Not yet," Matt replied. "I'm still working on the basic riff. I can pull some lyrics out of my ass later. What do you think?"
"It doesn't quite sound like an Intemperance riff," Jake said.
"What the fuck does that mean?" Matt asked.
"Well... where are we gonna fit Nerdly's piano in with that riff? I don't think it will mix well."
"That's true," Bill said. "It's too fast of a tempo for a piano to keep up. And a riff like that needs to be the domineering sound on the recording, just like Metallica does it. My piano would just be lost in the noise. I don't see any way to mix it in."
Matt grumbled and even threw out some profanity, but he was musician enough to know that Jake and Bill were right. There was no way to mix a piano in with a heavy palm-muted riff without it sounding like shit. "I'll work on it some more," he said. "Maybe I can find a way to slow it down some."
And that ended their first session.
"See you all tomorrow," Matt told them as they headed for the door. "Same time, same fuckin' channel."
They went out to the parking lot where a limo from Buxfield Limousines was waiting to take Coop and Darren home. Jake had his Corvette and Bill had a brand new Ford Escort he'd bought shortly after coming off tour ("It's practical, economical, and environmentally friendly," he'd explained when Matt had called him a fuckin' faggot for buying such a pussy car). Matt had a new car he'd just purchased the week before. It was a silver 1987 Maserati Biturbo that he'd paid $75,000 cash for. It was obvious that he loved the car almost as much as he loved his Strat.
"Anyone wanna grab some dinner?" Jake asked.
"Not me," said Matt. "I've got some bitches coming over tonight and I'm gonna have a little orgy."
"How about you, Nerdly?" Jake asked.
"Maybe tomorrow," Bill replied. "I'm going to go take a shower and then head over to the Flamingo. I feel the need to engage in some meaningless fornication. You gonna come tonight?"
"Naw," Jake said, "I'm still a little burned on the meaningless fornication after the tour."