Owner's Closet

Craig Finn Tour: Day Eleven

2012-02-13T15:04:00.004-06:00

Kansas City.

One of the shorter drives of the tour, our four hour jaunt through Missouri got us to Arthur Bryants after the saturday lunch rush. I had the burnt ends sandwich with the BBQ beans. It was pretty good but the general consensus was that Pappy's the day before was better. Many of us wish we had gotten ribs at Arthur Bryants. The sweet tea was fantastic.

Load-in. Soundcheck. Took a heavy nap and woke up in a panic thinking I'd overslept. The freezing ass walk to the club woke me up. I'd wanted to play the Record Bar for years. i think it's a great club. The room set up, the menu (I wish I'd tried some of the food), the staff, etc. The room was packed but really chattery. WTF? Hey, if you want to talk through someone's set that you just paid for, fine I guess. Closed down the Record Bar then went to Stagecoach with Matt Cook and closed it down. Then went back to our room and closed it down.

Craig Finn Tour: Day Ten

2012-02-13T14:57:00.000-06:00

We had a long ass drive from Richmond, IN. Nothing too exciting. Went straight to Pappy's BBQ in St. Louis. Some of the best ribs I've ever eaten. Moist and tender but not cooked too long. Just right. Dry rub too, not drenched in sauce. And sweet tea. Yeah!

Got to Off Broadway, loaded in, soundchecked, sat around. We had a terrific show. I played some new lines on "Apollo Bay" and "Jackson." Shucked one in the last song but the chances I took during the night more than make up for one trespass. CF and Some Guns were hot, boozy, spontaneous, and loosie-goosie. We put "Once You Roll Over" second in the set ("freaks up front") and it's arrangement is becoming a bit more realized. Frederick rolled in at the end of the night. What a dude, ya know? Thanks to Steve and everyone at Off Broadway for a hell of a night. Went back and crushed brews at the hotel. Good times.

Craig Finn Tour: Day Nine

2012-02-13T14:50:00.003-06:00

Columbus.

Made it to Columbus for a radio promo deal. Craig and Ricky did it while the rest of us ate cold pizza. There was a really old photo of Magnapop performing at that station and they had a huge bar in the basement. After load-in we ate some craptacular vietnamese food at the North Market. While at the market, I also bought some Jolokia hot sauce which rules!

Great show. The Basement is an afterthought of a club. After talking to my bartender friend Cody (ex- Two Cow Garage), I found out that place is more a venue than a bar, as in it's not open when a band's not playing. Our sound guy Anthony did a great job considering we had a crabcore band rehearsing and performing in the venue directly above the basement. Some band called Down with Webster was pulling Talladega Benchpresses reps right above our heard. Stack and racks, bro. We played well and each show is getting better and better. Each of us are taking chances, which is propelling each of us to play better. Some Guns are gelling and it's quite rewarding. We had first introduced the outtake Once You Roll Over to the set in Detroit and we were going to play it in Columbus but CF decided to skip it. I think it was skipped because the song wasn't quite arranged well enough, it wasn't in quite the right place on the set list and on this evening, CF had some trouble with his tuning pedal which caused a delay.

For the first time in my years of playing Columbus, I did not stay in town and party. Instead, we split town for Richmond, IN to make some time against our long drive to St. Louis. There was a Steak and Shake in the parking lot of our hotel so James and I destroyed some Frisco Melts. Sweet tea to boot. Our room had been freezing when we got there so we cranked to thermostat up to 74 so it would be toasty when we got back from eating. Oh it was toasty. We just should have turned it down before crashing because it was so hot in there that neither of us could sleep. It was like a fucking oven in there and I real didn't get to sleep until about 7:30am. Van call at 10am.

Craig Finn Tour: Day Eight

2012-02-11T19:58:00.005-06:00

I'm not sure quite what to say about Detroit. I'm sure there are wonderful aspects to the city that I may never see. I'm sure there are a lot of great people that live and work there. But I'm sure that while most of you have never been there, you've heard plenty about the state of the once booming city. As we rolled into town, traffic got worse on the interstate so Craigs decided to take an exit and see what the neighborhoods were like. Whoa. It was like nothing any of us had ever seen. Perhaps you've driven through a depressed Southern city upon whose curbless pothole-filled roads sit broken down vehicles in front of junk covered porches. Or maybe perched high above the streets on a Brooklyn freeway in the comfort of your vehicle you've considered what it'd be like to live in a graffiti covered row house or low-income high rise. Maybe you've traveled to a pour nation on this or another continent and seen abject poverty and desperation. Those images and realities do not have quite the same impact as the utter abandonment and decay we witnessed in Detroit. That's not to say some of the aforementioned realities aren't much more serious and perilous than Detroit's condition. What we saw was an apocalyptic scene in the sense that beautiful old homes had become burned out, dilapidated, piles of rubble. There were many clusters of buildings that reminded me of the bombed out Dutch towns in Band of Brothers. The streets were bare aside from an idle pedestrian once every mile or so. It seemed quite uninhabitable. Plywood for windows. For those of us wrapped up in living in the cool part of town or having to decide which new bar or restaurant to visit this week (there are just too many choices-OMG!), life without amenities, hope, and choices isn't ever-present. What we saw was the disintegration of America. Atrophied capitalism. Dissolved dreams and prosperity. Depression. A very real representation of life in America. A reality that could be right around the corner for Americans if things don't change in a big way.

Our experience changed even more when we got to where we were staying. Upon arriving at the Motor City Hotel and Casino, we had one helluva time parking our van+trailer. The whole reason we were booked at this place is because they told us there'd be secure parking. Right outside the lobby entrance there were about ten empty guarded bus parking spots and they wouldn't let us park there, even for thirty minutes while we checked in and dropped off our bags. We were sent to the "Ohio Lot," which was empty save for two security trucks and the guards that sat in them for eight hours at a time. They wouldn't let us park there. It was empty!! We needed a lamppost to back up to and not only was that difficult for them to understand, they were completely unable to accommodate. So they sent us to the lot at the very back of the property and in an unpaved half-lit unfenced lot we hesitantly and frustratingly left our rented raison d'etre. The rooms and everything was really nice. However, James made the observation it was all kinda creepy that some assholes plopped this huge money suck of a shiny entertainment complex down right in the middle of this depressed economy, to give mindless jobs to many and rob everyone else's wallets.

The shining spot of the day was our gig at the Lager House. The place was packed, the food was great, it sounded good on stage, the greenroom was adequate, the sound guy was for the most part on his shit. What a great crowd! Seriously, the energy in the room was palpable and we definitely felt it. If a bar is meant to be a place where one can temporarily escape their everyday woes and bullshit, the Lager House might be the best bar in the country. While we were there, it was if none of the sadness we saw earlier in the day existed and rock and roll was all that mattered. All hail The Lager House!

Before the show, Mount Moriah's rhythm section, Ricky, and I went two doors down to a sewage scented bar called Nemo's to watch the Carolina-Duke game. None of us got to watch the whole game because of our set times and the outcome of the game sucked, based on what I saw on Sportscenter when I got back to the room. I think we all went to bed praying our van, trailer, and gear would still be backed up against a construction barrier when we walked out there in the morning. It was.

Here are some photos from our drive to along Southern Michigan.

Craig Finn Tour: Day Seven

2012-02-11T19:49:00.003-06:00

Chicago.

Straight to hotel after boring drive through Illinois. Boring. Greek grub sesh at Pegasus two blocks down from the hotel. Chill in room, go to club, load in. Upon immediate inspection, the Empty Bottle is a classic rock club. Brick walls, straightforward beer selection, corner stage, random (and arguably stupid) objects hanging on the walls, stinky green room. It just had that feel. Grand Champeen should (have) played here. It has a similar vibe to what Emo's "inside" was like. It had been around for nearly as long too. Great little restaurant next door too. I had a salad with grilled romaine, bacon, a poached egg, parmesan (I think) and a good dressing. It came in one of those brown togo boxes you'd find at the build-your-own-salad bar at Whole Foods. I could have eaten twice as much as the portion. James got the Fried Chicken special and said it ruled. It was his birthday and he got a complimentary brownie a la mode. How nice? The set and the crowd were great. We hung out with Bun E. Carlos at a Chuck E. Cheese for some late night Chicago style deep dish. Wile E. Coyote was there too. He was eatin' Chicago dogs though. He fuckin' loves those Chicago dogs, dawg.

Craig Finn @ Frank

2012-02-10T11:41:00.002-06:00

Watch "No Future" from our show at Frank back in December. Filmed and edited by Transistor Six.

http://transistorsix.com/artist_craigfinn.html

Craig Finn Tour: Day Six

2012-02-09T19:20:00.004-06:00

Iowa City.

So I've been to Iowa City many times and I've played The Mill at least three times. I had some preconceived notions of how the show would go and I knew that I'd at least get a decent meal out of it. The vibe of that room when you first walk in is that of a 50 year old mom-and-pop steakhouse, which is not very rock and roll. By the end of soundcheck though, the room felt pretty good. Again, a short walk to the hotel so we were able to chill. I had a nap which was AWESOME. The way the performance room of the Mill is set up, almost every person in the full room was sitting down. Thankfully, when we took the stage Craig asked the crowd if they'd come closer, and they did. That changed the whole feel of the scene and is perhaps what's been missing from my previous visits to the Mill.

The gracious bartenders took good care of us and once we loaded out, I stumbled back to the room. Felt good to fall right asleep…the bed in this place was killer. So was the shower. Woke up early enough to get some breakfast downstairs, after which I was feeling pretty darn good. Hit the road for a sold out show in Chicago at the Empty Bottle. Yeehaw.

Craig Finn Tour: Days Four and Five

2012-02-09T12:26:00.003-06:00

Minneapolis.

After waking up to snow In Des Moines and leaving asap, we got out of the storm within an hour or so. Q drove like a badass and though there were a couple of hairy moments, we made it. It was a pretty damn long drive. Got the hotel and dropped bags off then went to the club. My ol' pal Rich Mattson and his lady stopped by The Triple Rock Social Club on the off chance I'd be there and I was! They were in town from Iron Range to play an Ol' Yeller gig in St. Paul which I, regretfully, had to miss. Ol' Yeller is one of my favorite bands that Grand Champeen ever played with. Rich is a stellar songwriter and guitarist, and all-around rad dude. Glad I got catch up for a quick sec.

Load-in, soundcheck, blah blah. Feedback session at the Triple Rock. The menu was covered with this meat alternative called Mock Duck. What the hell is that? I had the Minneapolis Po' Boy with Mock Duck and I still don't know what it is. That was a rad plate of food, though. Also, the Summit Seasonal beer was delicious. It was a bock of some sort, I believe. Back to hotel for a slight chill.

The show at the Triple Rock was sold out weeks in advance and the crowd was awesome. It was our fifth show of the week and we were really settling in to the set. The crowd really dug the tunes and the band, despite a few blockheads requesting Hold Steady and Lifter Puller songs. We met Dustin Miller, Hold Steady crew member and nice guy, who expanded on many of Q and Craig's tour stories. Good hang after the show with Some Guns, Tim, Weez, Baby Grant, Tony, and a bunch of other nice MPLS folks. Love that place.

The next morning, Craig and Ricky did an early-as-hell in-store at Treehouse Records. They returned to the hotel and picked us up so we could make a four song audio/video recording at the local NPR affiliate, The Current. The host of the show was Paul Westerberg's sister. Neat. Her name is Mary Lucia and though she had interviewed Craig many times before, she still made it interesting and funny. Watch our version of Apollo Bay here:

minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/02/08/craigfinn-live/

I was really hungover and the pressure of it being recorded just amplified my pain. Can't tell though, right? When it was finally over, we parked the van and bellied up to Grumpy's bar to watch the Super Bowl XL7IIV4. Mark, our bartender took real good care of us. Great hang with the band, Dustin, Q, and Baby Grant. Short walk back to hotel. Crash. Next stop Iowa City.

Craig Finn Tour: Day Four

2012-02-04T09:53:00.003-06:00

The title of Steve's song on Polvo's EXPLODED DRAWING said it best...

Snowstorm in Iowa.

Craig Finn Tour: Day Three

2012-02-03T19:50:00.004-06:00

Long drive. Started off with a Wichita Deuce (hey Clare!) and then sat in the van all day. Tour, man. Going deeper on the rock trivia. Head East, Black Oak Arkansas, Styx, Night Ranger, Extreme, Talas, Fetchin Bones, Gary Wright...

Got to this wonderful place called the Slowdown. Soundcheck was great, dinner at the pizza place next door, workin' out harmonies...

Craig Finn Tour: Day Two

2012-02-03T17:39:00.006-06:00

Our show in Dallas was great. Club Dada sounded great and the crowd was very appreciative. Since they didn't have TW Samuels as their well whiskey, I had to pull a couple of blackteeth after the show. Wasn't the blacktooth invented in Dallas by some metalhead? That a shot of whiskey with a splash of Coke has a name is redneck mixology.

Anyway, had a great breakfast...

Drove to OKC. Got to the dirt lot behind the club and perused the sweet record store next door. I bought a bunch a records from this guy at the Austin Record Convention in October. Should have bought a couple of things. The show at the Conservatory was fine. We're still kneading the set like pizza dough. I need some crushed red pepper. The crowd was awesome, hanging right in there with us and really diggin' the material. 3.2 beer, nasty bathroom and hollow stage aside, we had a good time but we had to leave soon after the gig to haul ass to Wichita to sleep for a few hours.

Craig Finn Tour: Day Two

2012-02-02T16:03:00.002-06:00

Oklahoma City. The Conservatory.
James
Ricky
Alex
Falcon
Q
Craig

Craig Finn Tour: Day One

2012-02-01T21:53:00.002-06:00

Mount Moriah, Club Dada, 2/1/12

Craig Finn Tour: Day One

2012-02-01T19:18:00.005-06:00

Thanks to everyone who came out last night for our tour kick off show at The Hole in the Wall in Austin. We had a blast and are certainly ready for the umpteen shows we have ahead of us. Y'all hold the fort down while we're gone.

Tonight we're in Dallas at Club Dada. Beau Jennings and the Tigers are opening the show and Mount Moriah, who will be touring with us through Seattle, are direct support. We rehearsed Sarah, I'm Surrounded to the set list. It's an outtake from the record and a sweet jam where I get to play huge whole notes over 6/8. Nerd.

After Craig and Ricky did a radio show at KXT in Dallas, we dumped bags and grubbed across from the club at Casa Brazil. Totally middle of the road club sandwich and a small portion of hashbrown casserole. The hashbrown casserole at Cracker Barrel is better, if that tells you anything. This older lady came up to the table and told Falcon he looks like Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon. Then some weirdo confused one of us with a bartender from a nearby bar and was asking us strange questions. I've been hearing it for a few years now and today I finally saw what everyone has been saying about Deep Ellum. Kind of a sad scene, all these wonderful brick storefronts with for lease signs in the windows. Carcasses of fun times past. Q thinks the neighborhood is "busted." Based on what we saw today, I would agree. Hopefully the nightlife is much more lively. Either way, it'll be a great show. The soundguy Chris made it sound fantastic on stage.

Excited States

2012-01-12T02:56:00.001-06:00

Grinder

2012-01-08T18:34:00.001-06:00

Coffee of the Week: Handsome's Don Medardo (Honduras)

2011-11-11T13:14:00.010-06:00

I went to Houndstooth yesterday because I was told there would be another shipment of the Verve Siberia but alas, there wasn't. Instead, I was recommended the Handsome Coffee Roasters Don Medardo from Santa Barbara, Honduras. It has the Handsome rating of "A" which Paul told me means "adventurous." I brewed two batches of it with the pour over method at home yesterday and I must say that while it didn't seem too adventurous, it was quite delicious. Today I brewed it for me, Jennie, and my sister in the press pot my sister gave me. All three of us share the opinion that its flavors are better represented by the pour over method. The press wasn't bad, just not as revealing. I will have one more pour over and review the flavors.

I am curious about Handsome's grading system. If the Don Medardo is an "A", I will probably go for the "C" class next.

Barelyswine: Barelyfine

2011-11-09T18:54:00.011-06:00

Last week I took my girlfriend to Barleyswine for her birthday. It had gotten great reviews so we thought it'd be good to try on a special night. It turns out that Barleyswine is not the place to go if you want to have an intimate, quiet dinner with someone. We got there shortly after it opened and were immediately taken to two seats between two couples at one of Barleyswine's "communal" tables. I was so caught off guard by this unappealing seating arrangement that it almost caused me to walk right back through the door. But with Jennie giving her nod of "it'll be fine," we sat down at the cocktail-height table.

The couple sitting closest to the kitchen was considerate and spoke at a low level. It was the other couple, a man and woman in their early 70s, who immediately high-jacked our conversation and told us how much we were "going to love it." The gentleman sat on my side, completely invading my space with his elbow and incessantly talking about the menu. What I want when I go to a restaurant is to peruse the menu myself, discuss it with my dining companion(s) and/or the server, and then form my own opinions about the food I'm being offered. And I'm not opposed to someone giving me their opinion, but when someone tells me how I'm going to feel about an experience, I see red. Realizing I needed to dispense with my initial expectations and switch the dinner vibe to non-romantic, I announced I "forgot to lock the car" took a walk around the parking lot in order to regroup.

The talkative couple were very nice but continued to be annoying as they searched for signs (i.e. my name is Alex, they used to live in Alexandria, VA) as to why we were meant to be sitting next to each other. Two examples of their nice beer selection are the ones we ordered; 750ml bottle of Ommegang Rare Vos and 25oz. Brooklyn Local 2 Dark Ale. Thing is, I don't feel like beer is a good beverage for such nice food. Burgers, pizza, wings, hot dogs, BBQ, crawfish boil; totally. Fine cuisine with dynamic and subtle flavors calls for a beverage with subtle yet dynamic flavors, like WINE. I wanted wine when I left the house and I should have stuck with that idea. But by exploring the "barley" concept that this establishment is shooting for, I was left wanting more. Regardless, there were plenty of fine beers on the menu and the two we drank were plenty tasty.

Now the meal... The food was great, for sure. We started with an arugula and beet salad, then moved onto the Waygu ribeye with amazing banana grits, some scallop risotto piece that I didn't try on account of my shellfish allergy, and sweetbreads. The sweetbreads were tasty but hardly worth it. The duck special (which was the best item, in my opinion) and the corn battered pig face were the highlights of the plates we ordered. Unfortunately, the food was overshadowed by every other aspect of the dining experience. The dessert, smoked fudge, was one of the best dishes, not only because it was awesome but because it meant I was that much closer to getting out of there.

Sometime during our meal, the older couple left and we were asked to scoot over against the wall to accommodate a party of three. I do not appreciate being asked to move seats in a restaurant once my meal has begun. The knife was twisted in that wound when these people turned out to be loud talkers and distractingly fidgety. They gave off the vibe of three people at a business meeting who didn't really want to be there. The loudest person was talking like he was being interviewed, pitching himself like a desperate stag at a speed dating session. The other two were just going through the motions and conveying obviously mindless small talk. The man sitting next to Jennie was annoying her to the point to distraction and once our wonderful dessert was over we chose to get the hell out of there.

To sum it up, Barleyswine has a couple of good things to offer. They have a great beer selection and some really tasty food. Unfortunately, it was obvious that under the guise of communal dining and kitchen table homeliness, they've tried to cram as much as they can into that little room and charge a premium for the experience. The outcome is that Barleyswine is not really worth it. My money and time would have been better spent at Uchi. I think Barleyswine is best suited for groups of four to six sharing a light affair (i.e., birthdays, friends in from out of town) or business dinners for wealthy capital venturers from New York or California who are thinking of moving to Austin to open a bar. Lord knows those are common occurrences.

Coffee Of the Week: Verve's Siberia

2011-11-06T13:04:00.004-06:00

On Paul's recommendation Tuesday, I left Houndstooth Coffee with a bag of Verve's Siberia. So Damn good! I recently took apart my Hario Skerton in an attempt to mod it out and even the more course grinds. No such luck. However, I did enough internet research to find a few websites that helped me fine-tune my grinding and pour over techniques so much that I brewed the best cup of coffee I've ever made. Paul said the Siberia (an El Salvadorian bean, which I'm partial to) is an incredible coffee and I'm sure plenty has to do with that factor. However, I went to Frank and had a cup of their pour over intelligentsia and I'll say I bested it. The funny part is that it was Frank's immaculate cup of coffee that inspired me to pursue finer home brewing techniques. Now I just need to keep buying the good stuff. It's always worth the few extra dollars.

Past Prayers video for "Sleeping Late"

2011-10-27T19:17:00.004-05:00

I shot this video this summer and got it all edited together last night. I'm pretty darn happy with it. Visit pastprayers.com for other Past Prayers videos!!

Also, visit A Part Of Stuck for Past Prayers videos from Stuck's Native Sessions. There are also great videos from RTB2 and Leatherbag.

Gigs: Feb 16 & 19

2011-02-25T17:18:00.008-06:00

The week of February 13-20 yielded two more gigs in two more of my bands. The first gig took place on Wednesday the 16th at The Ghostroom on 4th Street in Austin. The Ghostroom resides in the building that used to be The Gingerman. I never went to the Gingerman and I'm happy that it is now a quality, unaffiliated venue. Chris Payeur runs sound and really has the place dialed in. They have a great patio too, which is an attractive feature for me when it comes to live music venues.

The show started with Nic Armstrong who I haven't seen play in quite a while. Maybe even since the last Ripe/Grand Champeen show which I think was at Room 710, and 710 doesn't even exist anymore. Nic sounded better than ever, owing much to the addition of a drummer who accentuated his songwriting and gave it more punch. The second band was Beta Rhythm who were pretty powerful. The overdriven keyboards reminded me a little of the first Hot Snakes record, which is great in my book. There was also some Delta 72 in there and if you ever saw them, you understand what i mean when I say "driving."

The Past Prayers set was great. It was our second one and definitely better than the first. What more could you ask for, right? Oh, well, I'll ask for Chris mixing on a sweet Midas Venice.

Our set:

Own Yr Own

Burnin'

Mighta

Repeat

Nine

DMAL

Cashin'

Impossible

Verona

Hard Head

Paid

Flash

Let's

I have audio of this show and I hope to soon have video too. I will post as soon as I figure out how. Here's a few photos Jillian Schantz took during our set.

On Saturday the 19, The Bremen Riot played at the Hole In The Wall with Polite Society, Melissa Bryan and Sissy Spaceship (KS). When I walked in Sissy Spaceship was singing about Brit Jones. Right on. The NvsS tradition lives on. Not only did they have great energy and an excitable setlist, they made fantastic posters for the show. Melissa Bryan and Terri Lord rocked out as a duo, leaving the lowest of ends the only thing necessary to complete their punk/rock onslaught. The Polite Society gave a poppy, three-guitar assault with quality hooks delivered the way only a McCarthy brother can. Bremen Riot played fourth and ripped out a forty minute (tops) set comprised mostly of songs from our upcoming release entitled PM Magazine. Set list was as follows:

Top 5 American Rock and Roll Bands

2011-02-25T16:48:00.004-06:00

After getting cut at the bar the other night, I sat down next to my friend Dom Aiello and enjoyed a cold beer. We got to talking about many things and as conversations go amongst musicians, we started talking about music. We were out back at the Hole and as many of you may know, the juke box out there is nothing if not eclectic. I believe a Creedence Clearwater Revival song came on and I declared that they are the best American Rock and Roll band. Of course, this isn't necessarily true, but it set the tone for the next 45 minutes.

I soon posed the Top 5 List subject: "Top 5 American Rock and Roll Bands."

We soon established that while many acts from the fifties who were responsible for Rock and Roll should maybe be on the list, their importance came more into play with how they affected young pale men in England. Dom sees a lot of that stuff as rockabilly anyway and I see it as lightweight. That "Bands" is in the title is important as well. This excludes the Bill Haleys, the Jerry Lee Lewises, the Elvises, and the Buddy Hollies. We're talking bands here. And we talked bands. I suprised myself by considering some bands who I would otherwise blow off, only because of their undeniable Rock and Roll aesthetic. And no, Cheap Trick wasn't even brought up.

We saw eye to eye on most every band that we discussed and found it really difficult to choose 5. While each of our Top 5's would have been different, we could at least agree on 14 to choose from. I don't remember who he chose aside from ZZ Top, which I agree with. Maybe we agreed on X too. Anyways, now that I've had a few days I'll try and pick.

ZZ Top

The Allman Brothers

Creedence

The Doors

See, it's hard. Whatever. Of course it doesn't matter. It's fun is all. Here's the master, in my own hand.

Gigs: Feb 11 & 12

2011-02-12T16:03:00.009-06:00

Last night I played with Grand Champeen at the Elk's Lodge and then with Excited States at ND. While they were rather different shows, both were fun. The Elk's Lodge gig was a joint birthday celebration which allowed Grand Champeen some room to stretch out and play some fun covers. We also played some originals fairly poorly, but that's ok. Right? From what I can remember...

Wounded Eye

You May Be Right (BJ)

Records & Tapes

And Your Bird Can Sing (Beatles)

Cottonmouth

Get Back To The Quiet

Hey Tonight (CCR)

Winterlong (Neil)

Foreplay/Come On Come On (Boston/Cheap Trick)

Root and Branch

Radio Radio (Declan MacManus)

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown (Neil)

Can't Hardly Wait (Westerberg)

Paid Vacation

Just Want To Get You Alone

Bottleglass

Another World, Another Planet (Only Ones)

All The Young Dudes (Bowie)

Walk Of Life (Dire S.)

At 10pm I hauled ass over to the ND, found a parking spot right outside the door, and walked into The Decade Show's third to last song. They have really spruced up that venue since the last time I was there. I feels like a real club now. Right on. Excited States went on second and delivered a searing set of catchy, angular, rock gems. That set went a little bit like...

Victories

1983

The 15th (wire)

Found Some Tapes

New Song

Pretty Little Cages

Slow Cooker

Feel The Sting

New Song

Under The Weight

Look What the Wind Blew In (Thin Lizzy)

The next evening, Grand Champeen shared the "middle" stage at the Hole in the Wall with Pink Nasty, and The Mother Hips from California. Jack Wilson played short sets between acts on the front stage and helped make a great night all around. Pink Nasty delivered a solo set that was full of good songs and an endearing, stark honesty. Grand Champeen played second and tore the room apart, leaving a splintered stage for the Mother Hips to repair with a couple of hours of smooth Northern California tunes. Despite the nearly unrecoverable state in which we left the room, they managed to put on a great show. Perhaps it was their creative songwriting that displayed their mastery of mid-song tempo changes. Or it may have been their outstanding musicianship and singing abilities. The loyal and excited crowd was a no doubt a big help. I don't know what happened on the first night of the Hips' two-night stand when Smoke and Feathers and December Boys opened, but I hope for them that it went as well as our night did. We did something like this:

Join Us

Good Slot

Diff Sort

Records &

Get You Alone

Root &

Get Back TTQ

Wounded

Death Of

PGPA

Haste

Ides

One &

Rott

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown

Rest Of

Fakin' It

Or at least I think that's how it goes. Some fella who flew into town to see/bootleg the Mother Hips recorded us as well. I want to find this guy and get a copy. He said he'd give us one. If the recording turned out, it should be a good snapshot.

Upcoming Gigs!!

2011-02-01T15:08:00.007-06:00

I am in, like, five bands and it's starting to get busy around here. Here is my schedule for the upcoming month or two. I'll be updating as I find out more, especially regarding SXSW.

Feb 11 10:30pm

Excited States @ ND w/ fivehead, The Decade Show, Militant Babies

Feb 12

Grand Champeen @ The Hole in the Wall w/ the Mother Hips, Pink Nasty

Feb 16

Past Prayers @ Ghostroom w/ Nic Armstrong, Beta Rhythm

Feb 19

Bremen Riot @ Hole in the Wall w/ Polite Society, Melissa Bryan, Sissy Spaceship

Feb 23 (11pm)

Excited States @ Carousel w/ Why Not Satellite

Feb 25 (9pm)

Grand Champeen @ Club Deville w/ Lil' Cap'n Travis, Boxcar Bandits

Mar 4

Bremen Riot @ Bryce Clifford's House; House Party!!!!!

SXSW Week

Mar 15 (8pm)

Grand Champeen @ Hole in the Wall w/ Glossary, Romantica, Vulture Whale, Lil' Cap'n Travis, The Mighty Deerlick/Militant Babies, Bremen Riot

Mar 16 (2:15pm)

Freelan Barons @ Treehouse (501 E. 6th street)

Mar 17 (3pm)

Freelan Barons @ Threadgill's

Mar 17 (5pm)

Grand Champeen @ Trophy's; Ballard day party

Mar 17 (7pm)

Bremen Riot @ Dog and Duck w/ the Minus Five

Mar 18 (7pm)

Freelan Barons @ Taproom @6th w/ Madison Square Gardeners

Mar 18 (10:30pm)

Freelan Barons @ The Treehouse; "We Are Columbus" showcase

Mar 19 (9pm)

Freelan Barons @ Lustre Pearl; official SXSW Showcase

SXSW is over

Mar 31 (12:30am)

Past Prayers @ Hole In The Wall w/ Right or Happy, Austerity Measures

Who Does That?

2010-11-11T16:39:00.002-06:00

I was sitting next to this guy at a traffic light the other day. He was smoking a cigarette in a brand new Mercedes Benz with the windows rolled up. Who does that?

Hater

2010-11-06T17:07:00.006-05:00

I think that when a person is deemed a hater by someone else, it's just the deemer making themselves feel better about their own righteousness. Does a person have to like everything on earth in order to not be a hater? If a person expresses their opinion and it doesn't line up with another person's, does that make one of the people a hater? I think calling someone a hater is pretty shallow. It seems to imply a sense of narrowmindedness; that the "non-hater" won't accept that other people might not have the same likes or opinions as them. In this ever self-satisflying world, this mentality is only gonna get worse. As it gets easier and easier to program every gadget and convenience to a person's exact specifications, humans' acceptance of others' methods and preferences will diminish.

A Letter To The Chronicle

2010-05-26T18:44:00.006-05:00

(This is a letter I've written to The Austin Chronicle. I had to submit each section individually online but I'm mailing the letter in it's entirety via USPS. It is posted here as I wrote it. To read the article that drove me to distraction, click on this: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A1027791)

Dear Chronicle,

This letter is a reaction to Margaret Moser’s feature story regarding the five Jimi Hendrix albums released in March by Sony Legacy.

While I understand that the previously unreleased Jimi Hendrix recordings that have just been unleashed on the world warrant critical attention, I believe the need to review his groundbreaking and game changing original 40-year old recordings is banal. Does Moser or the Austin Chronicle truly think that any of their reading audience hasn’t heard these albums? Really. I would bet that the number of people in Austin who are intimately familiar with the recorded works of The Jimi Hendrix Experience outnumber 2:1 the number of people who voted in the last local election. Anything more than a review of his latest posthumous release, which barely exists in this feature, is telling us what we already know.

Amongst the few informative passages actually addressing the recent Hendrix releases, one that addresses non-musical information with any real insight is one that refers to Stevie Ray Vaughan. You just had to mention him, didn’t you? In a seemingly desperate attempt to continue to blow Austin’s exaggerated historical self-worth out of proportion, Moser connects Stevie Ray Vaughan to Jimi Hendrix by comparison of their penmanship! Weak. If musicians’ stylish misspellings provide glimpses of greatness, look for the next Chamber of Commerce mascot in the gear rental agreements at Rock N Roll Rentals. Better yet, double check the piles of rejected SXSW applications that will accumulate over at the Chronicle office this fall. After considering all the musicians who have emulated, worshipped, and covered Hendrix over the years, I’m confounded as to why Stevie Ray Vaughn was mentioned at all.

III

Moser, I can’t believe you had the nerve to state that at the time of his death, “Hendrix hadn’t discovered Texas guitarists yet.” Knowing that Hendrix was a big fan of Billy Gibbons is Rock 101. Gibbons’ Moving Sidewalks opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience on their first tour of the United States. If you had been paying attention in all the greenrooms and Austin Music Awards ceremonies your presence has graced, somewhere along the lines you would have heard that Jimi Hendrix very much admired and respected Billy Gibbons as a guitarist.

And by the way, what’s a blues native? Why did you interrupt an article about one of history’s greatest musicians with an anecdote about a teenage blues band that covered two Hendrix songs? I bet that has never happened before. Oh, wait. Millions of other burgeoning rockers and I all did that in the 9^th grade. As difficult as it may be, please try to tell us something we don’t already know.

I too remember when Hendrix burst into my life. I contracted chicken pox in the eighth grade and for two weeks I stayed at home employing my parents’ record collection as a substitute soundtrack to Super Mario Bros. I remember Are You Experienced? and Heart’s 1985 hit-monster Heart being the two albums that were in heavy rotation. After repeated listens I became frustrated that “Third Stone From The Sun” skipped at the end during the industrial/piledriver fadeout. While this blemish prevented me from being able to hear “Third Stone” resolve the way Hendrix intended, the dynamic and rhythmic tour de force that had already occurred became the blueprint that would shape my musical world. And as millions of others’ stories go, my first band was playing “Hey Joe” and “Purple Haze” in my friend’s garage the next year. (Sorry ‘bout that, Jimi.)

And now that I’ve shared this story I ask myself, “So what?” For a period of time in my youth, that Heart album meant as much to me as “Are You Experienced?” Does that mean that because badass Austin bassist Mark Andes played on that Heart album that he has anything to do with Hendrix? No. Nor does it mean that anyone wants to hear about my chicken pox any more than they want to hear about your crabs.

When I first read Moser’s article, The Big Lebowski analogies rushed to my mind as I imagined my The Dude to Moser’s Walter Sobchak. With hopes that my oft repeated question will actually be answered, I raise my voice to ask, “What does Stevie Ray Vaughan have to do with anything?” This question is a symptom of my exhaustion brought on by the nostalgia pedaled by the Chronicle, and Austin in general, on a regular basis. Nearly every week, the names of fallen heroes and venues fill the feature stories and gossip column as if these ghosts were the only major players the Austin music scene had to stand behind. Let’s move on, people. There are hundreds and hundreds of people alive in Austin, right now, renting PAs, recording equipment and rehearsal spaces, making their own music and hoping to be heard. And of those living people, dozens of them truly deserve to be heard by the millions just as the Sahms, Foleys, Vaughans, and Van Zandts have been.

Another way of saying this is that it’s sad that with so many musicians, bands and songwriters in this town, long gone B-list dinosaurs like Moby Grape are the ones getting a cover story. Moser, please don’t attempt a feature about the newly remastered and repackaged Exile On Main St. Rolling Stone already did the heavy lifting on that one.

Alex Livingstone

Horses For Courses: The White Album as a single album

2010-04-20T21:58:00.015-05:00

While flying down the highway in the van with Tim Easton last year, the subject of a single-disc White Album came up. The suggestion that The White Album would have been better as one album than as two is 40+ years old and still interesting to me. I've often entertained the idea of it being a single disc because I've always thought that there's some serious filler spread across the four sides of The Beatles' November 1968 release.

So that day, in the van on the highway, I came up with the song sequence for what I think would be the best single disc White Album. Many things were considered before I came to my final 14-song sequence. Without a doubt, my choices revolve around which songs on The Beatles are my favorites and which I think are filler. Perhaps that "my favorites" is the only qualifier based in

my reality makes it one of the most stringent parameters. My favorites are my favorites and while some may disagree, it's my opinion and its the basis for my whole side of the argument. By the same token, I'm not trying to say that some of the songs I omitted from the line-up aren't amongst my favorites. It's just that of the omitted tracks, I have decided that there's something about them that makes them less brilliant, more aimless, or just poopy. For instance, I have always loved the song "Martha My Dear" but for the purposes of this experiment, I feel that it's too sappy and theatrical. On top of those qualities, I've read that the song was borne out of McCartney's desire to write a challenging piano piece as an exercise which comes off as clinical. Then you have the fact that none of the other Beatles played on this track, while a quality not precluding a song from being in my one album sequence, it's certainly not a quality benefitting a song whose merits are already in doubt. Lastly, "Martha My Dear" was not a part of the Esher demos.

Though I came up with my single-album sequence (SAS) in September, I hadn't considered writing about my SAS until I heard the complete Esher demos earlier this month. I had heard the songs from the Esher tapes that were included on The Beatles Anthology 3 but I hadn't fully considered the importance of The Beatles' four track session at Harrison's house in May of 1968. By mid-May, The Beatles had all finally returned from Rishikesh, India with a ton of songs for their next album. I now put a lot of importance on these demos because as a songwriter, I know that when it comes time to make demo recordings, the songs that get priority treatment are the completed ones as well as the songwriters' favorites. So in considering my SAS, a song's presence on the Esher tapes is a feather in its cap.

As far as the framework for the length of the album, I decided that like the majority of their albums had up to 1968, it should include 14 songs. The Beatles contained 30 songs meaning less than half were making the cut. Due to obvious inferiority and overwhelming unpopularity, nine of those thirty had no chance of making it on the album. I bet anybody could guess which ones those are. This left a list of 21 songs to be judged by the aforementioned determinants and the rule that Ringo had one lead vocal per album.

Side One

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Dear Prudence

Yer Blues

Mother Nature's Son

Don't Pass Me By

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Long, Long, Long

Side Two

Revolution

Sexy Sadie

Blackbird

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Helter Skelter

Julia

One thing that I didn't consider when I came up with this list is the balance of Paul and John songs that seemed to occur on the earlier albums. I know that during that 24-hour long sequencing session on October 16-17, 1968, they decided that neither John nor Paul would have more than two of their own songs in a row. I also determined that if George got one song per side and Ringo got one vocal per disc like they orchestrated on the original release, that would leave 11 songs for John and Paul to split up giving someone the upper hand. Looking back on my John-heavy sequence, I feel like so much of what Paul did didn't really include the other Beatles that John's tunes would naturally win out. "Honey Pie", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", and "I Will" just aren't band songs. Julia isn't either, but it shows a side of Lennon that had rarely been seen up to this point and with it's open-hearted sentiment, it has to be included. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is the possibly the one song by Paul that I would put on the SAS against my better judgement, mainly because of its popularity. It got cut in the first round because I find it annoying and I know that it took them forever to get it right in the studio, having tracked the song over and over throughout each day of a week. This to me says that they just weren't feeling it or that some of them didn't think it was worthy enough of their hard work and attention to take it seriously and get it right. Perhaps I would substitute "Everybody's Got Something Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey" with "Ob-La-Di", making it more balanced. Anyway, I reckon I think John's songs are better.

There you have it. I love "Savoy Truffle" and "Cry Baby Cry" and "I Will" and "Martha My Dear" and "Glass Onion" but I just don't think they make the cut. Sue me. Also, I think Harrison's "Not Guilty" would have been a contender over "Piggies".

As I'm sitting here looking at the 16 songs that didn't make the cut, 6 to 8 of those would have made an interesting double EP like Magical Mystery Tour or maybe a couple four song EPs like they periodically released up through July 1966. I didn't spend much time on the sequence but it might look something like...

Birthday

I'm So Tired

Martha My Dear

Cry Baby Cry

Savoy Truffle

Ob-La Di, Ob-La-Da

Glass Onion

I Will

But I love The White Album. Just sayin's all.

SXSW 2010 Schedule

2010-03-16T11:26:00.003-05:00

The following shows are what I've got going on SXSW 2010 week. The first gig listed is with Leatherbag, the poster for which is included below. The rest of the shows will be with The Freeland Barons, a group that includes myself, Tim Easton, Aaron Tasjan, and Mark Stepro. The Freeland Barons will be playing songs from Tim Easton's most recent release, "Porcupine," as well as songs from the album the Barons made together in Nashville last year. Hope to see y'all out and about. Have a good week!

Alex

Tuesday 3.16 9pm The Ghost Room

Tuesday 3.16 12:30am(ish) Beerland w/ Brent Best, Lil' Cap'n Travis, Glossary

Thursday 3.18 12noon Jovita's Twangfest Party

Thursday 3.18 6pm St. Vincent Thrift Store 1327 S. Congress

Friday 3.19 5pm Hole In The Wall

Saturday 3.20 1:30 Yard Dog Gallery

Saturday 3:20 6pm Hole In The Wall

Grand Champeen in the studio

2010-02-26T22:23:00.033-06:00

The next Grand Champeen album, tentatively titled "Feelgood M.D.," has been in the works for quite sometime now. Just a few words to bridge the gap between it and the last record...

It's hard to believe that "Dial T" came out three years ago. In fact, it's so hard to believe that I think I'm plain wrong about it being three years. Nope. Here we go...the All Music Guide* says March 13, 2007. Damn. Anyway, it's really taken that long for the fervor to die down. In the three years since the "Dial T" CD release party at Emo's we've been knee deep in the hoopla surrounding it release and astounding success. It's only recently we've realized that we've actually been ankle deep in the poopla.

By the time we went to mix the last album, its songs had been decided on and road tested well in advance. So when it comes to our next album's tracks, it was in between the aforementioned decision making process and the release of "Dial T For This" that some of them were written. After a few photos I took at a Trinity University radio gig the week "Dial T" was released, we'll move on to the newer songs...

"Haste to Mobilize" and "Just Want To Get You Alone" were both probably written in 2006. I know that "Get You Alone" was around for awhile because it's on the "Georgia Style" tapes. I know "Haste" was written in the fall of 2006 because I wrote it. I also know that "Because of You" came from summer 2007 because I wrote it at the beach on the nylon string guitar. I've always wanted to record a version where a nylon string guitar is the main guitar in a style like I've heard some Violent Femmes and Dead Milkmen songs. "Fakin' the Sound" and "Get Back To The Quiet" are also of a slightly older vintage, due to their emergence on some home demoing Channing did a ways back. None of that really matters though because if they were all written tomorrow, recorded next week, and released in June 2010, the recorded version would be the same one you're gonna (hopefully) be listening to in June of 2020.

The following "diary entries" are from a few weeks last fall when we finished recording the basic tracks for the next Grand Champeen record. I was on a bit of a write-it-down jag which is why there's any written record of the events, represented here verbatim. Right now, it looks like the album will contain 12 songs and with the basics for three having already been recorded

we knocked out the nine tracks we needed. Our gear was all in one room so that we'd be in a comfortable rehearsal-style situation. This set up was decided on because we've realized that we're a rock band and headphones aren't condusive to the kind of music we play. To satisfy this recording concept, we came up with a one-room setup that resulted in suprisingly little bleed between instruments. If a loud rock band like Grand Champeen can record clean basic tracks with all of their gear in the same room, we proved that people tend to get too uptight about isolation and "pristine' recording. Fuck that anyway. We already made that album.

So, the basics for "Gone With the Wind" and "Because of You" were recorded sometime in 2008, I believe. PGPA was recorded and mixed in April of 2009. The rest of the basics were done in October.

Sunday

Ned and I got to the studio around 9:45 and we found Crow and Channing setting up amps and mics. Ned's drums were in the large part of the room and our three amps were on the other side. Our objective is to track live like we're at practice, for the natural feel. Headphones blow.

Channing was having some trouble with a microphonic tube so he spent sometime troubleshooting that.

Monday

We got some more sounds and recorded a bit to make sure all ps put levels were good. Ned had been sick and was still feeling bad and decided to go home and get rest and start the project in earnest on Tuesday. There was some discussion about drum sounds, too. So Channing, Crow and I stuck around to evaluate the drums sounds we had. There were/are so many combinations of mics to use, we had to whiddle them down to a few to check out what we had. It was decided that the snare and the floor tom needed attention. Ned was quite concerned with the kick so after analysing it we realised we had a good one. It was decided what to do the next day and we said goodnight.

Tuesday

This was a productive day that started with Crow and I going to Guitar Center for direct injection boxes. He wanted to be able to have a solid DI signal for the three guitar in case we wanted to screw with their sounds down the road.

Back at the studio, he and I went on a tone quest so that his guitar rig would be ready to go. We also set up a U87 five feet out from the kick to get more rromy, mid-rangey sound. Also, Crow set up a couple more room mics for options. When we all got back together, it was jam time. We tracked versions of "Get Back To The Quiet," "Haste To Mobilize," "Records and Tapes" and Fakin' The Sound." It was a good night and we all felt comfy in the recording scenario. No phones, guide vox, bullshit. Live, practice space, rock band.

Wednesday

We jumped right in with some "Golden Wheel." Sounded great. I think we tracked a few takes of "Just Want To Get You Alone" and "Fakin the Sound." We spent some time rehearsing "You've Got Your Rivals" which is one of Chan's newest. It hasn't seen as much time on the practice field as most of the other pkayers. We also lit up a few takes of "Root and Branch" but decided to revisit it Thursday. Last of the night was a "She Saw A Rainbow" and it was decided to visit it Thursday as well. All in all, a great night in the studio. One of our most productive, ever.

Thursday

Epiphany and Setback. I walk in and the MCI won't stay on. Something is wrong with the power supply. Damn! We rehearse the songs and spend a little time on "Rainbow" then call it.

Sunday

After a few days of inactivity due to the MCI's illness, Hough brought the board back to life and we reconvened after I got off work. We dove straight in to a faster, peppier version of "Back To The Quiet." Good decision on our behalves. We then got keepers of "Root and Branch" and "You've Got Your Rivals." The last to get tackled that night was "She Saw A Rainbow." We got through a whole take but decided to come back to it the next night. At this point we had basics for everything except "She Saw A Rainbow" which is awesome!

Monday

We reconvene between 9 and 10 and get right after "Rainbow." After a few tries we got a solid take. It had been decided to use a click and I think it helped tremendously. Since we had ironed out the structure, we were able to float through it by memory. While the click stiffened things up a bit and some of the ebb and flow that we were used to was smoothed over, I think it ultimately strengthened the track. While Chan and Ned weren't sold at the end of the night, I was.

Thursday

Channing and I returned to the studio to punch anything that needed fixing. I had a couple punched to do, mainly "The Golden Wheel." Chan may have only fixed one song too. The general feel was, "that's fine" or "that's great, leave it."

Friday

Hole in the Wall gig.

Sunday

Channing recorded vocals for "Fakin the Sound" and one other song.

Sunday

I did scratch vocals for all of my tunes so there would be a reference for any work the guys did/do while I'm in NC.

Tuesday (many months later)
Tracked vocals for "Haste To Mobilize" and "Because of You."

Thursday

Crow rhythm guitar to "Because Of You" recorded.

*The All Music Guide doesn't have me listed as a member of the fucking band. Nor does it have me credited for writing my songs on "Dial T." Whoever writes that stuff is an idiot. The internet is full of holes.

Solo set #2 Club DeVille 2/11/10

2010-02-18T13:22:00.005-06:00

The second solo set I did at Club Deville went pretty well. Unfortunately, it was another crappy night of weather. Despite the low turnout, there was a nice group of people at the show. Collin Herring had a great set. His song are interesting and he's a terrific singer and guitar player. My set looked something like:

Leave It All Day

Root and Branch

Nine Years

Impossible To Turn Away

Because Of You

Cashing in The Dish

Paper Rock Scissors

Paid The Way

Sister

Drop Me A Line

I Can't Help You

Hard Luck Woman

On Your Own

Haste To Mobilize

The Angels' Share

Pining For Verona

Luling and Lockhart: Quest to Qualify a Quartet of BBQ Queens

2010-02-15T11:54:00.042-06:00

On Friday February 12 (coincidentally the 45th anniversary of our parents' first date), my sister Emily and I went on a road trip to Luling and Lockhart to eat BBQ. My intention in recounting our adventure here is not to provide some authoritative ranking but to simply let y'all know what the two of us found that day. Also, I know there are at least two restaurants we did not visit (Chisolm Trail Icehouse & BBQ, Luling BBQ). For that, I apologize and promise I will go next time. The priority was to expose my sister to neighboring BBQ joints that excel in conveying what is possibly Texas' finest tradition.

Luling

Population: 5,080

We decided to start our trip by heading down I-35 to San Marcos and taking Highway 20 to Luling. It seemed to be the quickest way to get the adventure started. We had coffee for the car ride and had intentionally eaten nothing before we left the house. On the way out the door I grabbed last year's Texas Monthly's Texas BBQ issue so that Emily could get a better handle on the scope of the subject. Being from North Carolina, she is no stranger to the intensity with which people handle, consume, live, and breathe BBQ. (The irony was not lost on either of us that in that issue of Texas Monthly, Snow's BBQ of Lexington, TX was named #1. She and I have known for most of our lives that the Lexington in North Carolina is the BBQ capital. Now all of a sudden the Lexington in Texas is the best. Come on, Texas Monthly.) During previous visits to Austin, Emily has eaten at the Salt Lick, Opie's in Spicewood, and Cooper's in Llano (our favorite). These trips opened up her world to Texas BBQ stylings yet were only a fraction of the joints worth seeking. Though these previous experiences were quite spaced out and only partially introduced her to the intricacies of Texas-style BBQ, she was a pro by the end of this day.

Despite the large amount of cars and trucks parked in front of the restaurant, the main dining room wasn't packed when we got to Luling City Market (LCM). As the digital clock on the wall struck 12:30, we entered the meat room in the back right corner of the restaurant after only standing in line for a minute. Once the door shut behind us, Emily understood that we were somewhere special. I know that every time I am greeted by the (typically geriatric) person standing patiently behind a counter, scale and cash register, I get pretty excited. This person has a similar role to that of a bartender. They are between you and what you want and you have to deal with them to get what you want. And if you know what you want and how to order it, you'll be in great shape.

With breakfast forwent, we had accrued a mighty hunger that made us dive in with wild abandon once we picked a seat in City Market's secondary room. Fortunately, Emily had the presence of mind to call a halt to the feedback session so that we didn't ruin ourselves for the

rest of the adventure. This being said, Emily was blown away by the ribs. Upon her first bite,

she was OMGing all over the place. She liked that there wasn't a heavy spice rub or any sort of sauce slathered all over the ribs, delivering nothing but the taste of the perfectly smoked pork each time. The sauce was terrific, having a South Carolina mustardy quality that I did not expect. With the excellent brisket, I made my ceremonial half-sandwich with onions and sauce, each bite followed with a jalapeno chaser. I did this being well aware that ingesting bread would just prove to be filler on a day when stomach real estate was more precious than spiky hair and a sculpted goatee is to a Nu Metal bassist. The sausage was loosely packed and coarse, throwing a mouth party upon every bite. Despite all these kind words, somehow it wasn't as magical as it had been last summer when I ate there on the way to the beach. Emily and I were both disappointed by the "sweet tea" which was iced tea flavored with Nutrasweet and lemon juice. In actuality, it was probably just some crappy powdered mix. Anyway, the verdict was that the ribs and sauce were king at Luling City Market.

Lockhart, TX

Population: 11,615

Our second stop on this journey was Smitty's Market (SM) in downtown Lockhart, TX. I had been there many times and was quite thrilled to share the experience with Emily. An even more dramatic experience than standing in the smoker room at LCM, the open pit fire at the rear entrance of Smitty's caught Emily off-guard and immediately let her know we were amidst hallowed greatness. We had forgotten to find an ATM on the way to Smitty's and so as to not totally embarrass ourselves, we stepped back outside and assessed our cash situation. Cool. $29.00. That got us 1/4 lb of brisket, 2 links of sausage, 4 ribs, two jalapenos, sliced onion and sweet tea. Oh! The sweet tea! The best of the trip. A bonus for Emily was that they had the small pellet-style ice cubes. The sausage was incredible. Just perfect. It had a similar coarseness to LCM's sausage, but it was juicier and tasted even better, which I didn't think was possible! The ribs were totally different than those at LCM. There was definitely a sauce on them though only a light coating. Emily thought she tasted beer somewhere in there. Another difference here was that Smitty's ribs had more meat on them. The brisket was great but the pieces I got were cut a little too thick for my taste and I'm not sure if it's the reason, but the meat wasn't as tender as I had wished. At this point, we decided that Smitty's sausage and sweet tea were unbeatable. The last time I went to Smitty's I made this same assessment, which I think is a testament to their craft. Oh yeah. The sauce set out on the tables was basically hot sauce (ie Louisiana Red Dot, Texas Pete) and if one were to apply too much of it, it might ruin the experience.

Upon giving Emily a rundown of the day's itinerary as we barreled down I-35, we decided that Black's BBQ should be last joint we visit. This was borne out of concern that Black's sides and desserts would tempt and distract Emily, ultimately running the risk that these side dishes would gentrify what was left of her precious abdominal real estate and derail our motives. This meant that Kreuz Market (KM) was the third stop on our tour. The giant building at 619 N. Colorado is the tourbus friendly version of Smitty's, except it may be even more stripped down when it comes to what is offered. Regardless of its menu, Kreuz Market houses the newest and most spacious restrooms of the four temples and it was at this point in the trip that they came in most necessary!

The family lore that surrounds SM and KM looms large in Central TX BBQ history but when it comes down to the meat, the two speak for themselves. It was at this point in the day that Emily decided she cared only about pork ribs. While I understood her point of view, I couldn't enter KM and not also try the sausage and brisket. But wait! When we got to the scale, I was informed they were out of brisket.

"What? No moist beef with which to make my half-sandwich?"

Strike one.

"You mean to tell me in all those pits behind you there is no moist brisket. Whatever, man."

Thinking quickly on my feet, I heeded the advice of my friend (Andy Wilson) and chose to try a slice of the prime rib. We took one sausage link, two pork ribs, and one attractive slice of prime rib into the dining room where we got two cups of unsweetened tea (strike two) and groggily chose our seats.

One might think that at this point a person could lose perspective on the whole situation. I mean, four BBQ joints in one day? Really? I totally see that argument. In most cases, such skepticism would be a tenable position. Cue-buzz not withstanding, we ate so little at each restaurant that we had truly not overwhelmed ourselves and were pretty much still on point.

Emily dropped the first judgement by dissing the ribs. She didn't like them because they were covered with an pepper-heavy rub that got in the way of the flavor of the pork. I love pepper and I appreciate the whole spice rub thing, but I'm gonna side with her in that it was too

much. Perhaps if there had been more meat on the ribs then there would have been a better meat-to-rub ratio and it wouldn't have reminded me so strongly of beef jerky. The sausage was much different than LCM or SM in that it was finer and had a distinctly stronger flavor. Despite its finer consistency, the flavor of Kreuz's sausage wasn't as smooth and ended up not topping our lists. The real winner here was the prime rib (pictured, left). It was so moist, so tender and so flavorful that I couldn't stop eating it. The outside was just as tender as the rare-ish inside so I alternated bites between the outside and inside sections, marveling each time at how spectacular it was. Why had I never gotten this before? Andy was right! Even if they hadn't run out, there was no way that Kreuz brisket would have been more satisfying than their prime rib. I'm a changed man. So while it may seem that Kreuz Market was a letdown, the prime rib was stellar enough to take me back next time I go to Lockhart.

For our fourth and final stop, we slowly made the short drive over to Black's. While Emily got out and walked around, I chose to sit in the car for a few minutes and collect my thoughts. The cafeteria/buffet style line was confusing because so many things looked appealing but we knew we had to stay on track and not let our eyes do the ordering. Emily couldn't resist and got creamed corn and green beans, both of which turned out to be too garlicky for our tastes. They had deliciously sweet tea which became one of Black's saving graces because we ended up being none-too psyched about the meats. The pork ribs were kinda tough. The brisket was just fine. The sausage had a great flavor and had a similar coarseness to LCM's but the casing was a little tougher which brought it in at third place. Black's BBQ provided the most traditional BBQ sauce of the four joints, and one of the more enjoyable sauces I've had in Central Texas. When John Anderson's classically crappy "Swingin'" came ringing out over the stereo, the ambiance at Black's reached for the skies. Unfortunately for , the evaluation of the day's events was gonna put Smitty's in first place in the ambiance category. Emily was put off by the croakies-and-oakleys-wearin' white boy behind the counter at Black's, claiming that he kinda tainted the otherwise old school feel of the joint. While I agree with her, the big yellow and black billboards all over town have kind of led me to expect a little more cheesiness from Black's. Having learned a lot about Texas BBQ in just a few hours, Emily noticed this fellow's timidity when in a pinch he was forced to pick up the knife and cut some brisket. It's something like this that can effect a person's experience when going walking these sacred halls of grubdom. All I'm saying is that if they are going to cut the meat right in front of you, they better know what they're doing. They at least need to put on a convincing act. So, Black's had cool souvenir cups which Emily liked. I like the cup too, but I feel it puts Black's in a category with Rudy's or Stubb's where there seems to be some smoke-and-mirrors merchandise action that distracts the customer from what may be middle of the road BBQ. That's just me...

So, what a great day! I got to spend some excellent time with my sister and I ate some amazing food. If anyone says it can't be done, they're either lazy or lying. Going to four legendary BBQ joints in one afternoon not only can be done, it should be done.

Part 4: Rim of the Chasm

2010-02-02T12:20:00.052-06:00

(Note: Unfortunately it has been months since I've worked on this tour spiel. I hope I remember some details. I have some stuff written down from the tour, but not much.)

We got to Galion around 11pm and after dropping Mark and Aaron at the Stepro's, Tim and I checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Bucyrus. Despite the knowledge that looking for an alternative to Boone's Farming under the Bucyrus water tower with the town's three homeless guys at 11:30pm is a lost cause, the Horseshoe Bar provided a different yet equally depressing scene. Instead of music playing, the Blue Collar Comedy Show was blasting from the TV that was being ignored by the bartender and his four patrons. The patrons, 1 woman and 3 men, were engaged in an insult barrage that involved the guys ripping on the gal for being a whore. Awful. She claimed to have known the guys for 18 years told and us that "it's alright." If this in fact were true, that she hasn't escaped their abuse is a sign that maybe she now needs them as much as they need her. Sad. Tim had an Easton, I had a Michelob and a shot of Beam and we left after twenty minutes. Back to wifi and cable TV.

This was the portion of the trip where Tim, Aaron and I would be without cell phone service. For whatever reason, there is no AT&T service in Bucyrus. This was really annoying but in the grand scheme of things was fine, really. We had work to do and the more we removed ourselves from society, the better. We agreed to meet at Baker's Pizza at 2pm Monday to start

in earnest. It was very Let It Be/Twickenham in its cold, cinderblocky feel. That first day we got off to a slow start on account of some band having ripped off most of the club's PA gear when they played there a month before. Once they went out and bought new mics, mic stands, cables and speakers, everything worked great. We worked until 11pm and had gotten a substantial amount done. M & A went back to Galion and Tim and I settled for more cable and internet in the room. After our experience at the Horseshoe the night before, neither of us wanted to "go out."

The next day we drove to Galion to pick up the boys, got back to Baker's around 2pm and immediately started rehearsing. There was some great pre-production being done and we all seemed to feel good about the songs and their arrangements. So over the course of the two

days, we arranged and rehearsed all of the to-be-recorded songs and as a trial run for the new material we included them all in the set at Baker's that Tuesday night. In fact, we played two full sets of music at that Baker's gig. Porcupine and the new material makes 20 songs and then all the other stuff we do made probably 30 band tracks plus some Easton solo. There was a pretty good crowd assembled for a Tuesday night. Some strange man from Easton's

past bugged the shit out of everyone at the show and ended up annoying Tim so badly Tim fled the nuisance before we had even broken down our gear. Thinking Tim had left the venue for good, the freak ended up waiting for us in our hotel parking lot to "hang out" after the show. Absolutely no bueno. Aside from his crazy ass, it was a good night.

I must say that the folks at Baker's were very hospitable, generous and wonderful. They provided an invaluable service to our band, giving us the means to be as productive as we could be during the week leading up to our studio sessions. It was exactly what we needed, except for maybe portying with hookers and cocaine in a swank Chicago penthouse for five days, but whatever. These rehearsals allowed us to go into the studio in Nashville and crank shit out! Breck, Petra and everybody else's generosity will be indelibly stamped on the project. Our music is a transmission from the depths of the Buckeye.

The next day was spent casually working our way out of that Mid-Ohio quagmire. We were hauling ass southbound on some state highway until a detour caused us to have to backtrack and take an alternate route to Columbus. While there was quaintness in each small town we passed through, I was about done with quaint. I wanted to be able to use my expensive phone-puter and I wanted a decent meal. We were to play the Rhumba Room that night and we hoped it would be a doozy.

Easton rocked an interview on the Rhumba's back patio after loading into the club. He played a song whose title I can't remember but it's somewhere on film out there. There was a police car siren going off in the area during the end of the performance that was in tune with the song...pretty neat. Matt Hoover and ALT opened the show with solo performances of their songs. There was a crowd in the joint by the time the FB went on and that certainly inspired us to play a great show. It sounded great on stage and the concergoers were into the jams, especially the new ones. I got a little hammy-time and we crashed at Haley's late in the morning after reviewing the evening's events, etc... Much thanks to Haley, Christian, Bob, Angela, Dave and all the party people who came out to see the band. I told you I can play!

After some Yeah Me Too we hit the road for Louisville. This was a big show for me not only because I have always wanted to go to Louisviulle, but I was playing a show with my guitar hero Peter Buck! I met him backstage and he was really nice, as is everyone in Minus 5. We all discussed the new Beatles remasters and upon hearing Buck's opinion of them, I realized just how old the guy is. He was talking about having purchased some reissue series in the early seventies and comparing them to how the original pressing sounded. As a tremendous Beatles fan, this was beyond even me. There was also discussion of the pros and cons of bands playing yet-to-be-released material at shows and whether or not it is a screw to the audience. This was what we'd be doing with Easton's material that week and I likened it to REM having played their new album at Stubb's during SXSW a couple of years ago. Pete appreciated that.

The Louisville show was a little strange because the show took place in a church

basement/cafeteria and the greenroom was the former rectory. It all went fine I think. No, wait. The opening guy played too long and compromised our set length. Lame. When it was

all over, we tried to find some nightlife. Bardstown Road in Louisville seemed great but we had to wade through one crappy bar choice before we were able to find a good one. Cheap beer and good grub. It was the night Megadeth was on Jimmy Fallon. The metalhead bartender turned off the stereo so we could all listen to their performance, which was good. It was cool to see a metal band on network TV. Easton hustled pool and won a bunch of money off of an ex-bowhead and the frat boy meal ticket she carried around. After the bar, Easton bought us 40s with his pool shark earnings and we drank them in the parking lot of the junior high school where all the dudes from My Morning Jacket met in eighth grade. This left more than enough dough for Easton to put us up for two nights in some swank digs near the airport in Florence, KY. I don't remember the drive back to the hotel from Louisville because I was passed out on the back bench. Apparently, Mark drove us like a badass through a torrential downpour back to our KY palace. Hopefully during my next visit to Louisville I'll have enough time to visit the Will Oldham Birthplace and the quarry where Oldham shot the cover of Spiderland.

The next show was a Friday night in the upstairs lounge room of the Southgate House in Newport, KY. This meant that we had the whole next day to relax at the Hilton. I walked over to Cracker Barrel for a delicious lunch where I wrote some of this here tour spiel. Tim found me there and together we searched drove the streets in search of a coffeeshop and a store where Tim could buy an eyeglass repair kit. After this thoroughly exciting adventure, we went back to palace to chill for the whole afternoon!

During our stop through Columbus, Sam Brown had given us the entire Beatles Mono box set! Thanks, dude! Our suite had an entertainment interface port, so I hooked my computer up to it and we listened to these crisp remasters through the nice speakers on the room's huge flat screen television. We were newly inspired by tracks we had all but forgotten about. Specifically, "Anna" off of Please Please Me. So good. We also spent some time charting out "Nobody Plays Piano In Athens, GA" in preparation for our date in the studio. It is a cool piano based song that Easton says he wrote and recorded on the spot. The demo is good but, oh, what we did to it in the studio! More on that later...

Upon Easton's demand, we ignored the liephone and free-formed it over to Southgate House from the interstate, getting there just fine. Once you stray from the directions, who knows which gasket will blow? Actually, there's a good chance it'll be mine, but I'm working on that. Load-in up a bunch a stairs, soundcheck, dinner across the street near the aquarium, opening set by the Billy Catfish Orchestra (dude with a guitar and a bubble machine). We had a great set and the people that came out were so nice, attentive, and supportive!

We were playing most of the new songs and they all went over really well. I was having a sort of bass drop-out issue which kept my mind half out of the game but I suppose that's how it goes. Back to our KY Palace. The next day was our double header, time-zone changing, move into the studio day. Oh Billy, Billy, Billy. This is a biggie.

Not only did we have to be in Lexington for our performance at an Oktoberfest celebration under a tent at 2 or 3 pm, but we had to get to a radio interview by noon. One of us lost his phone before we even left the hotel so we spent an extra thirty minutes tearing the van apart finding only that we had left Tim's merch at the Southgate House the night before. Sweet. As we bail on the phone and merch and jump on the interstate, the kettle started pressurizing as we began to see steam coming out of a couple Barons's ears. Then it happened. Twenty minutes down the road traffic comes to a standstill. Total standstill with nary an exit in sight. Trapped, late, hungry, tired, having to run off into the woods on the side of the interstate to pee and finding the van locked and your bandmates and the people in the surrounding cars howling with laughter when you come back...

it all came down right there. Sometimes in life and on the road, the moment comes where all of your problems are intensified making it seem like it's all gonna fall apart. Well, I reckon sometimes it does fall apart. Thankfully for the Barons and the rest of the planet, the world didn't end and we made it to Lexington. Yeah, we had to call the radio station and cancel our appearance. Yeah, the world probably did end for the poor soul who was driving that double tractor/trailer that crashed and spread its mangled fusilage all over southbound I-75. Yeah, our bandmate found his phone in his man-purse while we were sitting there idling on the highway. Yeah, we made it to our tented gig in a church parking lot. I tell you what though, Mountain Dew and Bratwurst have never tasted so good together as they did that day. So as to burn up the road towards Nashville, we broke down our gear and loaded the van as Tim finished up the set with some acoustic numbers. Got paid and splitsville.

I drove us to Nashville, listening to the Jicks and enjoying the beautiful state of Kentucky in a lovely afternoon sunshine. Our load-in at the Cannery was early-ish so there was no time to spare and thankfully we didn't run into much traffic. Though at one point when the other guys were asleep, we did come to a dead stop on the Blue Grass Parkway. I was in quiet disbelief that this could happen to us twice in one day but not ten minutes later, we were past the wreckage that had occurred on the other side of the highway. Rubberneck traffic was all.

We made it to Nashville right on time and loaded straight into the club, with some leftover heated tempers from the trying day. Our load-in/soundcheck was compromised by Buddy Miller who was using the stage to rehearse his band full of Nashville session fags. Acting a total stage hog, Miller stopped his crap with enough time before doors to let us set up our gear and realize how uncomfortable the scene was. I used the rented bass rig...some Trace Elliot bullshit that had PGPA written all over it. I felt like a wet cat up there. We soon found out that the monitor engineer was a complete idiot who on what must have been his first day at work, was given control of one of the most powerful sound systems in town. Bad bad bad. If you haven't been to the Cannery, it's a huge building. Really cavernous. And this worried us a little. It only accentuated the fact that we were playing so early that when doors opened, the only thing in the room other than crew members wearing fingerless gloves and Ziljian sweatpants were the restless ghosts of food packing employees from the late 1800's.

Thankfully, by the time we went onstage, a crowd had assembled and the show seemed to go off without a hitch. Maybe there were hitches, I don't remember. I just know that it was not a cut-loose last show of the tour. Before the last band had even finished playing, we were loaded into the studio over in Berryhill where we were going to record one of the best albums I have ever heard. Tim, Fredley (who happened to be in town), and I went by the Basement to see a show but it was packed, the cover was steep, and it had been a long day so Jim headed off to his hotel and Tim and I went back to Club Roar. We found Aaron and Mark absorbing the studio/warehouse vibrations (playing tunes on piano and guitar). For the next day, our first day of tracking, we had planned a twelve hour day. Jump right in. We were ready.

Solo Set at Club DeVille, 1/28/10

2010-02-02T08:56:00.010-06:00

Last week I played a solo set of music on the indoor stage at Club Deville. Big thanks to the folks who came out to hear me! Gettin' up there and playing and singing is such a weird deal and I don't quite know how to explain why. I believe it was the fourth time I've gotten on a stage by myself and played my songs for people. From February 18 to March 13 at the Hyde Park Thater, my friend Joey Hood will perform a one-man play entitled The Athiest. I will go see this performance realize that what I do is easy! But I can only assume that as with many things, it gets easier the more you do it. And next week (February 11) at Club Deville, I will be performing another set of (mostly) originals. While last week I opened for Miranda Brown's new duo Basketball, next week I will be opening for a fellow named Collin Herring. We have not played a show together but I think it will be a fun night. I am particularly excited about it because my sister will be in attendance!

Last week's set was good because I played old Grand Champeen songs, yet to be released Grand Champeen songs, songs from my unreleased solo album and a couple of songs that are homeless. Here's the set:

Paper Rock Scissors (incomplete soundcheck aka I screwed it up)

Paid The Way

Drop Me A Line

Repeat the Answers

Cashing in the Dimes

Sister

Nine Years

I Am The Walrus

Flash In The Pan

On Your Own

Because of You

Haste To Mobilize

Bayonet

I Can't Help You

Color Me Impressed

Mighta Got Caught

Root and Branch

Pining For Verona

I'm gonna change up the set for next week. Play some different Champeen songs, different covers and another homeless tune. The tracks from the upcoming albums by both Grand Champeen and me will remain on the list. I guess I don't want to deliver the exact same performance. That's boring. Anyways, I have enough songs to where I don't need to.

Since my last post, I have started playing in Beaty Wilson's group Excited States which has been fun. I'm playing bass, Beaty's on guitar and Andy is on drums. I always liked his songs in Fivehead and those that I've heard in his projects since Fivehead was a fully functioning band. We've got about 8 songs floating around the practice space and hope to have more soon. I hope that we'll play a set sometime during SXSW.

I have also started playing with John Voskamp of Peglegasus and Ye Olde Castletons notoriety. He came to me with the idea of playing instrumental tunes as a happy hour group with him on guitar and his cousin Nate on an Ace-Tone keyboard. We got together once and it sounded cool. There's some potential there for sure.

I have also been jamming with George Duron. For that rock, we're playing songs I've written that are more on the aggressive side of rock. I want to mix Polvo, Drive Like Jehu, the Sea and Cake and Sonic Youth and I have 20+ songs that fall into that category. More to come in that department.

Hope to see y'all out next Thursday at Club Deville!

Getting Started

2010-02-02T07:39:00.008-06:00

I have no idea where I left off and I didn't bother to look.

I do know that it's 7:40am and all I have to do is write, listen to Leatherbag, and drink the wonderful coffee sitting next to me. I purchased some beans roasted by Independence Coffee Co. and I have been quite pleased with them. I had been buying Ruta Maya beans for awhile and have been satisfied with them too, but I noticed they're kinda expensive and started to look for something else to try. So I went for another local brand and I recommend it. Two others I also want to enjoy at home are Cuvee and Owl Tree, both of which I've tasted and enjoyed outside of my control environment (home).

My most recent coffee-related mind melt was when I had a cup of Intelligentsia coffee at Frank. This coffee isn't roasted in Austin but it is incredibly delicious and I've been thinking about it everyday for a week. While extremely impressed with what I tasted, I think I'm onto what Frank's got going on. The quality of the beans, how they're roasted, which village they come from, whether the poor Columbian dude gets paid well or not for his crop, and other related farm-to-market efforts are factors that I believe are important when it comes to a cup of Joe. However, in the past 17 months of working on my album at Jim Fredley's house, I witnessed and executed one of the most important aspects of the cup of coffee: the brewing.

For a long time, I believed that the French press method created a superior cup of coffee. This is after I realized that regular drip coffee, while convenient and often tasty, had limitations to the beauty it can yield. But after dabbling in the world of French pressing, laziness soon led me back to drip and was soon unsatisfied by what I was drinking. When I again accepted that drip coffee has some major flaws, I started ordering the Americano (and still often do) and this turned my world on its ear. I started appreciating the espresso roast in a way I hadn't ever before (lattes, mocha lattes, etc...) and I started to appreciate a single cup versus a bottomless cup of drip. Because of the many variables of a coffeeshop's drip-delivery system, I have my doubts that any of them can deliver a crisper, hotter, tastier cup of drip than they can a cup of Americano.

Anyway, what I learned at Fredley's was a more labor intensive method of brewing yet one that yields a damn fine cup of joe. And like much of the finer things in life, Rome wasn't built in a day. So I went to Frank and they brew their coffee the same way we had been doing it at Jim's for over a year. And when I tasted that coffee, I knew that I had the answer. So now I have to go find the correct tools so I can make such wonder cups at home. I'm not gonna describe the simple process... you're gonna have to go to Frank and check it out for yourself. And grab some great food while you're there.

Part 3: Back East

2009-10-16T12:52:00.026-05:00

Because of all the window business, we were totally going to miss our 2pm soundcheck at the Mercury. Really? 2pm soundcheck? Dumb. NYC can be dumb. We were gonna go by Dirty Bird ToGo on the way to the Merc but by the time we got to town we didn't even have time for that. We loaded in about an hour and a half before our set. The place was packed for AA Bondy (whoever that is) who had the slot right before The Freeland Barons. Though the room cleared out a bit while he and his backing band took way too long to break down their gear (not cool, douchebags), the Barons were back together and we delivered. Thanks to John and Amber for coming out. See you both soon!

Later that night in Park Slope, Tim and I were up until 3:30 getting our windowless van a spot at a nearby garage. I sat there and watched as it took the attendant nearly thirty minutes rearrange the cars to accommodate our huge van. The guy was a master and somehow made it all work. Fortunately, we had JP's sensory deprivation chamber to sleep in and we got a great sleep. However, Tim did have to get up and take the van to the shop but they had the thing finished by 1pm! Not only did it cost less than half of the other quotes but they had it done in no time! So after lunch, JP, Tim and I took the train over to Red Hook to get the van from the rascist mofo who owned the shop. On the way back to JP's we stopped by a music store that was next to some real-life mafia hangout. You know, the kind where the fat Paulies sit in chairs out front and talk about stupid/dangerous/illegal shit all day. Fascinated with the goombah life and aching to catch a glimpse, Tim stood outside as if he was admiring the architecture or waiting for a ride to try and hear their conversations. He caught one bit about how it's "better to do a down man than an even man." We each had our own opinion of what that meant.

It started to rain as we were packing the van before heading to Union Hall. Great, right? I must say the club was pretty swanky. The ground floor of the bar has a pseudo-library feel to it...what actually to me seems like a gentleman's club in Britain in the twenties or thirties. Hard-bound books on dark-stained shelves surrounding plush lounge furniture and an indoor Bocci court. Posh. While this is all fine and good, I was most impressed with the availability of Modelo Especial in a can for $3. The first band had finished their set and before we realized it, our set time was up. However, there was some discrepancy between our tour book, when the soundguy said we were supposed to start, and when we actually were up to go on. Since there were only a few people there, we went with the majority opinion and pushed the set back twenty minutes. This sent everyone into a tizzy (rightly so except for the sound guy, whose original set times we were obeying) and it seemed to piss off the Death Vessel, the show's headliner. Although the sound on stage sucked for me, I powered through and we did a good job. Aaron's amp was pointed right at me, blowing my head off, and I was using the backline amp was on stage and was being used for stand-up bass. For those of you who don't know, one must treat an amplifier differently for a stand-up bass than one would for an electric bass. Hell, there are a huge spectrum of variables for people that only play electric bass. Anyway, it was good. We were loud and probably played too long but we sounded good. Bartow and I got outta there pretty soon after we played because we wanted to meet up with Nurkin who was playing with the Birds Of Avalon at the Cake Shop that night.

Because of the rain, we went back to Bartow's hood and waited on Scott with some Lone Star beer (!) at SuperFine. We shot pool for awhile and wanted to hang there until closing but they closed the place down early on account of it being slow. Bartow and I got some beer and waited for Scott back at his house. He showed up and we stayed up to 5 or 6 drinking beer and scotch and broin' down. It's great to hang out with your old pals even if for less than ten hours. We ate at the Bridge Restaurant for breakfast and parted ways as the F train took them to Manhattan and took me to Park Slope. Back at JP's I tried to soothe my vicious headache with a barefoot and short-panted consumption of coffee and water. In a matter of fortunate timing, just before Mark and JP headed off in the van to some market in Red Hook, I looked at our pile of gear stashed behind JP's couch and noticed that my bass wasn't there. So I ask Mark the whereabouts of my bass. He doesn't know. I go out to the van and it's not in the back. "Where's my fucking bass!!??"

Realizing the guys left it at the club the night before, the three of us got in the van and went to Union Hall. Needless to say, I was furious that they had neglected to get my instrument. I understand not recognizing the case because we don't really know each others' gear. That being said, anyone who's had enough road experience in a band knows that when you pack the van at the end of the night, you make sure everything's there. Idiot check inside and back of the van checklist. When I knocked on the door at Union Hall that morning, I was greeted by a non-english speaking cleaning crew which only heightened my anxiety. The explanation of my situation fell on deaf ears but they finally wised up and fetched one of the club's gringo employees who led me downstairs to the venue. Praise be to the heavens, my lonely bass was leaning there against the wall just where I left it. I assumed that my Ric was in good hands when I left early with Bartow the night before but I guess I was wrong. Trust is a difficult thing to come by and on the road it's even more precious. It's not an "each man for himself" situation. While each new city and venue presents a new give-and-take scenario for band members' duties/roles, a general blanket of responsibility stays over the band: Cover your brother's ass. Bass was there. Total freak-out narrowly avoided.

I spent the rest of the day blogging or some crap. We were playing World Cafe in Philly that night so we weren't in a big hurry. It was raining that night (lame) just like it was the last time we went down to Philly from NYC. We were the second band of the evening...two show evening. Some blues dude from Austin played the early show and we were scheduled to go on around 9:30 0r 10, I don't remember. There were a handful of fans there and we played a pretty solid set. They had some good quality half-priced grub which was nice. I had managed to get through NYC without spending a ton of money and my luck was continuing. We drove over to Wilmington, DE to stay for free at Aaron's folks' house. It was the longest I'd ever been in Delaware, every other "visit" having been for ten minutes on an interstate drive-by. The evening rain produced a damp morning that made the trees and grass all seem lush and inviting. Too bad, because I got behind the wheel and hauled our asses up to New London, CT for the I Am Festival.

Tim didn't want to cross the Bronx and he was right for thinking so. The traffic sucked and held us back at least 45 minutes. By the time I was starving and had to urinate (read: done driving), we were in beautiful Connecticut, about an hour away from New London. That was a three to four hour drive that shouldn't have been more than three. Oh well. That's how it goes on I-95. When we got to the harbor about an hour before our set, we rolled our gear out to the end of the pier where our stage was. Pretty cool. Some funk-rock band was playing when we got there and as painful as it was, they were soon to stop. The scenery was awesome and the weather was perfect, all overcast and mild. We had a short set but it was good and the PA was loud. Free High Life backstage. The Drums and Free Energy played after us and both sucked. Both "bands" were pathetic and in my opinion, a waste of time. As usual, the kids love that crap and continue to surprise me with the willingness and ease with which the wool is pulled over their eyes.

It was up in the air as to whether or not we were going to stay in New London and party down with the locals or start the drive for Ohio. After a good time hanging out with some townies and a rad set by Deerhoof, we hit the road for Bucyrus. Thankfully I had

already driven that day because I was more in favor of partying and not in favor of getting behind the wheel. Our destination was the Delaware Water Gap, a picturesque stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. We got rooms and crashed hard at some place that served its purpose. We stopped for lunch in the nearby town of Stroudsburg, PA (photo left) where at a lovely restaurant called Mollie's, I had the best corned beef hash I've ever had. Truism. After some lolly-gagging around town it was back on I-80 for the long boring drive back to boring central Ohio. Back to the land of no AT&T coverage. Bucyrus, "Bratwurst Capital of America," Ohio.

Part 2: Sucks, Drags, and Smash and Grab

2009-09-20T20:38:00.013-05:00

Our motel in Niagara Falls wasn't close to the falls which was a slight bummer for the guys. I, on the other hand, didn't care much having been there two or three times already. Both sides, at that. Our two rooms were next to each other in an otherwise vacant motor court. For our motel rehearsal of new material, we set up a stripped down version of our gear in the older brothers' room. "Maid of the Mist," "Dirty Windshield," "Until It Kills You," and "What Do You Live For?" were a few of the numbers. Mark took copious notes on structure and dynamics that would no doubt come in handy down the line. We had a lovely Italian dinner at Michael's on Pine Avenue. Any time you're in the Niagara Falls area, I recommend eating anything with red sauce at Michael's. Alpha Dog was on the tube later on. Scary film about idiot kids in California. Man, that place seems f'ed up, I'm glad I didn't follow the desire I had to move there back in 1994. Who knows, though? Might have been fun.

We left ALT at the motel (because he didn't have his passport) and headed for the border as a three-piece. Our crossing was painless and we made it to The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto by 5:30. After a slight miscommunication with Brian the Front of House Knob Twister, we sound-checked and all was smoothed out. The first two acts on the bill were ok, the second of the two being the only other band on the bill I liked. Aside form "Daily Life," our set was mainly Porcupine, much like the ones we played at SXSW. At the end of the set, we decided to load straight into the van from the stage. Only problem was that some crackhead motherfucker broke into our van by smashing the huge window next to the first bench.

Thankfully, the club owner caught the asshole in the act which prevented him from totally cleaning us out. As it stood, the theft of his satchel with passport, phone, ipod, the previous night's charts, and other personal belongings left Mark the primary victim. The alleys and streets of the neighborhood behind the bar were combed with hopes that the thief gave the bag a quick rifling through and ditched it in the bushes. Our search was unfruitful and after patching the window with cardboard, loading the gear, using all of our drink tickets and hanging out with the friends and family who had come to see us (great to see you Tyler and Megan!), we headed back to the border. With a U.S. driver's license in his wallet and a tattoo of the Ohio state burgee on his forearm, we had confidence that the patrols would let Mark back in. Correct in our beliefs, we soon had the merciful guards behind us and were back with our estranged bandmate at the Roadway Inn. A damn sucky experience that ruined a great show. The gear was loaded into the rooms and with that Christmas Eve anxiousness, it took awhile for the kids to fall asleep once they went to bed.

The next morning (four hours later), Tim Got up at 8am and started calling auto glass replacement services. In Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Albany, we couldn't find glass and labor for less than $550. Ouch. Tim called JP down in Brooklyn who started the search for glass while we were hightailin' it to the Mercury. The long drive across the state of New York wasn't nearly as bad with a cardboard window as I thought. And I am always impressed with how beautiful a state it is.

Part 1: All The Pretty Girls Turn 40

2009-09-18T14:44:00.015-05:00

Sitting inside WalMart is not awesome. However, knowing that the van has had an oil change is awesome. This stop also allowed us to get supplies like CD-Rs and legal pads. Once we gas up, we're heading off to Niagara Falls, NY for a two night stint at a lovely motel where we're gonna set up camp and work on arrangements for new songs. But let me back up...

Saturday night was quite interesting. My plane landed in Columbus @ 5:30 and I promptly took a cab to the house where Tim was going to play a private gig. The hostess and party throwers were very nice and hospitable, considering I didn't know them from Adam. They had built a stage in the backyard and set out hay bales for for theater style seating. A great crowd assembled for Mona's 40th and for them, Tim played two hefty sets. Actually, the first one was 30-40 minutes long but the 2nd was behemoth. Cuz was pulling out all sorts of tunes, specifically J.P. Olsen numbers from way back. This only encouraged him further that we should record "Crazy" in a couple of weeks. The revelers wanted me to play with Tim but by the end of the first set, I was in no shape to do that. I enjoyed myself thanks to the lovely Columbus evening provided me by Mother Nature and the extraordinary hostess Haley. They had an air mattress for me when I crashed at 3+am.

We had an early van call and ended up leaving Columbus around 12:30pm. We had to pick up the Crate combo amp Parker so generously loaned to me/us. We also had to get our tour vessel from Sam. Our fart box is the Sun's old van, a grey E-350 not unlike the 'peen van.

We barely managed to iphone it to Galion to pick up the rest of the band, Aaron Lee Tasjan and Mark Stepro. We were on a tight schedule but made it to Nelsen Ledges State Park despite the absurd AT&T blackout in Mid-Ohio. Tim claimed he could get a signal in the Middle Of Nowhere, Alaska which makes one wonder why it's impossible to get a signal north of Columbus. Midwest dark ages with a side of sauerkraut.

The benefit we played was for National Autism Awareness. That's a great cause, I think, because of the complex issues austistic people and their loved ones/care givers face everyday. What I don't support is the jams the band before us was dishing out. Jam bands. Blargh. The stage, setting and PA were all very nice and allowed us to have a great first gig as The Freeland Barons. We rocked out the majority of Porcupine and got sonic on a couple of songs. The Daily Life sounded good on its maiden voyage. Get What I Got worked ok for being so complicated. Joy was fun.

Dr. Ralph Stanley played after us and it was quite nice. He just stood there and sang some songs while his band of Christians did all the work. Ralph sang "Oh Death" acapella which was touching until he forgot the words. Oh well, the guy is 82 and deserves as much slack as he wants. After waiting and inordinate amount of time waiting for Donna the Buffalo to play, we got bored and took off down the road towards Buffalo. The decision was made to find rooms in Erie, PA so we headed downtown to see where the action was. Turns out there wasn't much action in plain sight so we headed into The Docksider Bar for a brief respite. Bad idea, for it was Karaoke Sunday the The Docksider and the singing was atrocious. So we had a couple First Night of Tour beverages and found a room at the Tallyho-Tel on the interstate. No luck in finding The Wonders' Memorial Practice Space. Maybe next time. The next morning, it was off to Niagara Falls, NY.

Music Month

2009-09-01T11:26:00.007-05:00

Yesterday I worked my last bartending shift for nearly a month and happy about that I truly am. Not because my job sucks but because I am going on tour with Tim Easton again. Also at the end of the tour, we are recording in Nashville for five days. Yes hell! I'll be playing my first gig out of the country (Canada) and will play my first gigs in Brooklyn and Louisville. We'll be playing on World Cafe which will hopefully be more lively than Mountain Stage. One of our shows is with Ralph Stanley and another is with the Minus Five (Pete Buck!). Our gig in Nashville on the 19th is for the Americana Music Association conference which should be fun. I already know that a couple great friends of mine will also be in town that week. Recording and partying will be the M.O. It'll be like making Van Halen II or Rumours or something. Partytimes!

We will be playing in Georgia on the 25th, driving my ass back to Nashville to fly home on the 26th. That night I will practice with Grand Champeen in preparation for our gig the following evening with Birds of Avalon and three days later with Prescott Curlywolf. Then that Friday, a 3/4 Freeland Barons will play at the Scoot Inn. The Freeland Barons is the name of the outfit that is about to tour with Easton, including Easton. So between September 1(today) and October 2 (Scoot Inn), I am playing music and traveling. Jealous much?

Right now, I am at Pocketchange Studios with Jim, working on the mix to "Nine Years." After listening to last week's mix of the song, we decided the drums and bv's needed a little attention. Last week saw the 99% completion of "On Your Own" which by the way, sounds incredible. I think we are both psyched about OYO turned out. So much so, that it will be hard to have to wait at least a couple of months before we can resume mixing in earnest. I think today we're gonna try to get to a couple other tracks done so we have a few to solicit in the interim period of no-mixing.

My gig at Flipnotics last week went well. I played twenty songs and feel good about all of them except "Cheap Therapy" because I forgot its words. I thought my cover of "Gardenia" was good and the impromptu version of "Angels' Share" worked out. I'd like to thank all of the folks who came out to Flip's on that rainy night. I think I'd like to do it again sometime soon.

Sky colored as some shade of bruise colored blue

2009-08-27T00:58:00.010-05:00

Ah, the Eighties. Or do you prefer seeing the 80's?

What's your favorite song on Energy?

McCartney----------------------Squire-----------------------------Barlow

Stinson---------------------------Lee-------------------------------Lemmy

Jones----------------------------Mueller---------------------------Henner

Henner, you ask? Allow me...

Two Sided Evening That Made The Dog Days Disappear.

Drive by the empty lot at Freedom Drive where The Pterodactyl once stood. Pass behind a shipping house and wind off into residential. Along that calm stretch of Tuckaseegee lived the town dirt. The richest soil in Mecklenburg and beyond. The kind of wealth where you're not even sure if it's cool to park at the cinderblock church across the street. Evidence confirms hallowed ground may have many south bending veins.

We were hanging around a lot that summer. No doubt skating and exploring its related much-funnities/no-goodities. Getting to the record stores to find out about gems like Another State of Mind and James At 16 had been our M.O. for a long time. Will had turned 21 that May and was in control of a sweet blue Toyota pickup. Cast aside in a fit of excitement, the city's intimdating veil had been withdrawn and we could fly down by 85 on Morehead, pass that soon-to-be mid-nineties (mid-90's?) coffeeshop and hold our breaths 'til the man tried to stop us.

With Lemmy because he plays with force. Throwing the bassline in a damn headlock every time. Everybody looks at him but no one's slowing down.

With Karl because he held down the stage. Honkytonk Mom was a Clam Dip outtake. #1.

We saw (ex-operation ivy) on the flyer and knew we had to go. One of the summer's top five decisions. Five times it may have been a great idea to ditch that car, but hindsight will never tell us for sure. We have to count on the memory of seeing Nuisance and Schlong at the Milestone on a late July evening. And as a duo, an equally fulfilling show with Jawbox and Helmet made a two night stint at the Milestone the finest introduction to the best live music had to offer.

Perhaps you disagree with the preceding chart? Are you not familiar with the relativity of that chart style? Axes of Decision. The title to Rush's 43rd album. About the kniving of the trees.

The last leg's last stand

2009-06-16T16:55:00.009-05:00

(Part thirteen of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning.)

We made it to Park Avenue CDs in plenty of time for our in-store performance. Turns out, there was another act on the bill and we had their whole set to decompress before taking the stage. There was a great turnout for the in-store... at least triple the size of the Auburn show which put things into some kind of demented perspective. I purchased the CD/DVD of Crack The Skye because I needed to learn lyrics and watch the "making of" footage. At this point, I was dorkin' out on the new Mastodon, big time. The folks at Park Ave. were very nice and gracious. They had snacks and beer for us when we arrived and they later sent us on our way with a ton of beer and Vitamin Water! Tim played acoustic, I played direct through the P.A., and Sam played floor tom and snare. It worked out really well, I think. We went straight to Will's Pub to load in.

Here's and example of why the iphone lies: We searched the internet for Will's pub. We hit the "Get Directions" button that plugs the coordinates straight into your iphone map app. We typed in "current location" and it told us where to go. What the computer age didn't know was that Will's Pub burned down last year and that there is a new Will's pub in a new location. The address the internet/liephone gave us was a brand new medial facility built atop the ruins of the old bar. Luckily, the new Will's was on the same street in Winter Haven and we made without too much cussing.

The show in Orlando turned out to be one of the best of the tour. Matthew Butcher opened the show and delivered a great performance. A couple other bands played and then we had a great set. I met Kevn Kinney after the show and we had a nice conversation about southeastern rock and roll in the 80's and 90's. He has played my hometown (Charlotte) many times over the years which led to a discussion about the city's big clubs of yesteryear, The Pterodactyl, 4808, and The Milestone.

There was a huge crowd out for this show, despite there being several festivals going on in Orlando that weekend. Our dinner at some family oriented fishmonger was good. I had a ton of shrimp and gallons of sweet tea. Sam and I stayed at some motel. The next day, we left Orlando early to try and do some scenery lameness in St. Pete's. Tim and Sam wanted to visit the Dali Mueseum so we liephoned its location. Once inside and faced with a steep entry fee, I dug deep and asked myself if I cared enough about Dali to pay a lot of money to see his art. Myself told me that I didn't so I made a couple of phone calls and sightsaw instead. Visual (2D) art is a tricky one for me in that I'm not interested in the majority of media, genres, and styles. I love photography and I find many styles of painting appealing, but I feel like I've seen enough of Dali's work on refrigerators and dormroom walls to satisfy the need to see a visual representation of Pink Floyd's "Meddle." That's a bit of a generalization, isn't it? That's right, it is.

We then drove to Clearwater in search of the beautiful white beaches full of sanddollars, palm trees and bikini-clad women tanning themselves beside coolers full of cold beer. Wrong. We first got to Indian Rocks Beach which reminded me of some of the more residential beaches I have visited in my life and therefore, a nice calm place to chill on the beach. Instead of stopping there, we drove north to Clearwater proper to a public beach full of people I'd rather not see in bathing suits. After about 45 minutes, we split in order to find a snack and a beer. We found both at a bar nearby and we consumed $2 Pacifico, oysters and shrimp while a cover band played Eagles songs on the patio of the bar next door. Ahhh, beach life. Cold beer, tourists, flip flops, good food, cover bands... wait, that kinda sound like Austin.

The show in Tampa was at a bar called New World Brewery. It didn't seem to be a normal venue because as we arrived, the soundman was assembling the P.A. on the covered brick patio in the courtyard. That's fine, whatever. "Last show of the tour, let's have fun." I drank plenty of free beer and was nice and toasty when we went on. There were some great moments in the set because Sam and I were both throwing caution to the wind and cutting loose. It was a good way to end and we went back to Orlando after the show, looking forward to the next day. Our plan was to go to the beach and decompress and then go into the studio Tuesday relaxed and record many of the newer jams we had played on the tour. However, this was not to be so. The heavens decided that this was the week that Florida would drown in torrential rains. Bummer. Good thing our hotel was attached to a mall...

Boiled Peanuts and a School Bus

2009-06-14T12:22:00.008-05:00

(Part twelve of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning.)

The liephone said to take 316/29 back to Atlanta, jump on I-85 and be in Auburn, Al in just over three hours. Had I asserted that I drive and that I believed this suggested route was the best course of action, we might have gotten there in three to four hours. However, I had driven from Atlanta the day before and I wanted a break. The plan was to leave at 1:30 so as to avoid Atlanta rush hour and make the drive as short as it should have been. Once we actually got on the road it was 2pm and though this wasn't a tragedy in and of itself, it certainly was a harbinger of the trip ahead. It seems no one else had bothered to look at their liephone or map because we were making multiple wrong turns before getting out of Athens. The person driving then decided that there was no way he was going through Atlanta so he picked out a "scenic" route that headed south and west in order to bypass the city. The whole point of leaving at 1:30 was to avoid the traffic. After living in Austin for nine years and sitting on the parking lot that is I-35, I understand that exerting a little patience will get you through the jam and still make the highway the faster option. If we had gone through Atlanta we might have hit some traffic but we would have gotten through it and it probably wouldn't have been that bad. Instead, our three hour trip turned into a six hour trip. Bummer. Aside from buying a bottle of Vidalia Onion hot sauce at a peanut stand on the side of the road, I was as close to loosing my shit as I may have ever been. I don't think I have ever felt so pissed off from not being in control. As we got stuck behind school busses, RVs and redneck junkers on Highway 16, I bit my tongue and vowed to take the helm as much as possible from then on out. I'll sit through some interstate traffic so that I'm not in the van all day.

And once we got to Auburn and made a big liephone-induced wrong turn on our way to the club, it started pouring rain and lightning. Great. The Strutting Duck was the name of the bar we played that night. There were some nice folks working there and the food was good. Too bad there were like, seven people watching our set. We played much more than our normal set taking some chances, and why not? If a tree falls in the woods... The green room was an airstream trailer without electricity, in which we took turns shooting from the bottle of Maker's Sam and Katie bought down the street. After all, The Duck was a beer-only bar. I believe this was the night when the Jason Isbell bit really took flight. It had started in Whitesburg, but now it had full lift off, mumbling it three times and everything. Mumbling it in an OCD-Rain-Man fashion became hilarious after a gig like we had that night.

I had vowed that we would make the next day's long drive to Orlando without consulting a liephone, using only an old-fashioned road map. This also meant that I was driving. Unfortunately, we had to leave around 8:00am but with Sam's coffee I was good for awhile. The other three slept for most of what was a beautiful drive southbound on a string of state highways that stitched together the lower foothills of Georgia and the upper parts of the coastal plain that, once we got on I-75, became northern Florida . It was nice to witness this gradual transition of landscape again. Having grown up taking vacations on the beaches of the Carolinas, a large part of that liberating four hour drive east was watching the diverse foliage and red clay foothills get flattened by sand-rich soil staked with pine trees and golf resort billboards. However, unlike the beach-bound drives that own so much real estate in the nostalgic part of my brain, this day's drive had a more ominous vibe. Upon getting out of the van in the parking lot of Sonny's Real Pit BBQ, that first deep breath of thicker, saltier air meant that I was near, or perhaps already inside, Florida for the first time in my life. Yes, the ill-reputed New Jersey of the South.

"Visit Florida. See America's Wang."

I-85 is not that bad

2009-06-13T18:37:00.007-05:00

(Part eleven of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

The show in Raleigh was pretty good. I was happy to see John Durham, Jennie's aunt, and most of the Dynamite Brothers and Birds of Avalon crew. I had come down with the van illness and felt like shit that night. What didn't help was the A/C vent that was aimed directly at my head when we were on stage. Since Sam was setting up in the middle of the stage between me and Tim, I had nowhere to go and got pounded by this thing which was possibly the longest set of the tour. We got back on stage with Tim twice that night. Even though we went on around 8:20pm, there was a good crowd and we played well. Back at the 15/501 Extended Stay, I watched a little Predator and Sleep as much I could considering we had a long drive to Atlanta the next day.

Yeah, we scenery fagged a little bit before getting on the road proper and ended up getting to The Earl at the very last minute. Even though we were running late, I made an emergency stop at Bojangles on I-85. Believe me, it was necessary. The opening second group on the bill was using our gear and we had to load it onstage immediately after arriving. The Earl is a big venue with great food and a good sound system. Our set was ok. I remember that evening I discovered my threshold for pre-show booze consumption. Two shots and three beers is too much if'n I want to feel in control. The long drive and stress of being late made me "think" that I needed to chill out with a couple drinks. Wrong way of thinking. I slept very well that night in a cozy bed at the Highland Inn. The next day, the four of us ate at The Vortex in Five Points before heading to Athens. That place has good food but they are ridiculous when it comes to teaching the customer how to be a customer. The whole front page of the menu is a lesson on how to behave in their restaurant which is quite tacky. Believe me, I understand the frustrations of dealing with idiot customers in a service industry environment, but that's how it goes. If you don't like it, find a job in another field. I reckon someone has to teach people how to behave in a restaurant but chances are, the people that need said instruction are probably the same ones who won't read the page of the menu that doesn't have food items listed.

When we got to Athens I checked into the Hollodome and did some laundry. Checked out the 40 Watt (rad) finished laundry, ate dinner at Grit (rad), met Cameron and a bottle of Bulleit back at the room (rad), headed to show. The fellow opening the show was a real sad case. Apparently, he is either awesome or pathetic, depending on his level of sobriety. This evening, he was loaded and sucking in a tragically hilarious way. The "crowd" was still booing him when we took the stage and built itself back up to 50 or 60 strong during our set. We played well and then Cameron and I went out on the town. We ended up back with Bulleit and Neil Young. Imagine that.

I have to go to work soon and will resume this later. The next part of the tour was painful and frankly, I don't have the time or the energy to write about it right now.

I have forgotten a lot of bits

2009-06-13T18:19:00.003-05:00

Just hanging out on a Saturday afternoon, trying to get jacked on coffee. I am listening to some of the newest Birds of Avalon tracks. Their new album called Uncanny Valley is weird but great. The few tracks I have of their sessions with Mitch Easter are even more bitchin' but they are super secret "and don't really exist." That's how I understand it anyway.

Earlier today I wrote lyrics for a new song of mine called "Slip Past." I wrote it immediately after I got home from the Easton tour. The first time I picked up the guitar it came pouring out. I had gone almost a whole month without playing guitar and was a little backed up. I was feeling a little pressure to complete the lyrics because I want to play the new song at the Hole in the Wall this week. On Thursday night, I am playing a "solo" set for a "singer/songwriter" night Mike Nicolai put together though I feel the guitarist/songwriter moniker suits me better. The set of 9 songs I will play are mostly new and only one will be a Grand Champeen song. Seven of the songs I'll be playing make up half of the record I have been recording. I am not only looking forward to playing guitar in front of people again, I look forward to performing these unheard songs. I like them and think that y'all will too.

My next post, which I will immediately write, will resume the tour diary. I have forgotten plenty of details which is a strong case for taking taking notes on the road. The last bit of the tour is in the deep south and was spotty anyway...

Today I have also come up with some new riffs for my stoner rock side project with George and Sally.

$24.58, I bought a headache.

2009-05-21T12:24:00.011-05:00

(Part ten of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

Lynch's Irish Pub is a fine establishment in Jacksonville Beach, FL. It was recommended to us by a hotel employee so we took the lead and were moderately pleased. The blues band was good and the girls were good looking but the dudes were meatheads. So it goes. Our room at the Hilton is nice...perfect for blog madness.

Where was I? Oh yes. We were waking up in New London, needing to get back to Brooklyn to drop off Bartow and Aaron. But first, we had to scenery dork over to Mystic for some clam chowder or some crap. Quaint small town on mother's day=long lines at the chowder shacks. So we don't know where we are and I'm hungry so I start getting cranky and impatient. After following Sam and Tim Scenery I pulled the plug on the wild chowder chase and ate deliscious Mystic pizza with Bartow and Aaron (who was sick and didn't feel like walking all over town). It was good and I was ready to drive back to NYC and get to the South. Well, Sam and Tim didn't seem like they wanted to leave yankeeville so we found a pizza restaurant on Staten Island to make the experience last just a little longer.

I forgot to mention that an old friend of mine from when I went to N.C. State now lives in New London. I haven't spoken to him since 1995 but I saw his name on a flyer for a tattoo art show and knew it had to be him. The folks at the club confirmed that he is from N.C., tall and nice. There had been a fifty year old ban on tattoo parlors in New London and now Colby has gone in, had the ban lifted and opened a parlor. Alas, I didn't see him though I would have liked to. Colby got me into the Smoking Popes, among other bands. I thought it would have been fun to get a tattoo from him that night but he never came by the club. Oh well. I found it funny that if I had gotten a tattoo from him, two of my three would have been from Connecticut.

Soooo, we left Staten Island and drove all the way to Fredricksburg, VA where we spent the night. In the morning, we ate Waffle House and kept truckin' on down to Winston-Salem where we landed at Krankie's Coffeehouse. What a great establishment? My family met me there and I took off with them to have dinner and so forth. It was great to see them again, but that goes without saying. The show at the Garage was a lot better than we expected for W-S on a Monday night. The opener was good but he played too long. It happens and it's annoying and you get over it. Everyone wants to play in front of people but you don't always get to, as evidenced by us in Auburn.

On the way to Raleigh the next day, we went through Chapel Hill and I had lunch with Scott, Jason and Arun. That was nice. I saw Bill Kelliher walking down the street which got me bummed that I couldn't see Mastodon at the Cradle that night. Still listening to Crack The Skye and loving it even more. I bought the new Obits record in Iowa City but haven't heard it yet. Also, I got a couple care packages while in W-S, one of them containing the new Gary Louris/Mark Olson album. It is rather awesome. For the first time in a while, I have a bunch of new music to listen to!

Tim and I just listened back to some of the recordings the New Excuses made in Orlando Tuesday. That shit is hot. A brand new Gminor waltz of Tim's was particularly live and raw.

I swam in the ocean

2009-05-20T14:08:00.004-05:00

(Part nine of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

I am in Cocoa Beach, FL right now. After a few more minutes of coffeeshop'n with Tim, we're gonna head over to Ron Jon Surf Shop so I can get a Ron Jon t-shirt. after that, we're heading to Jacksonville where we're staying at a lovely resort for two nights. I hope the weather's nice so I can swim in the pool or relax in the hot tub. Perhaps I'll watch HBO all night long. Either way,

I had a great swim in the ocean a couple of hours ago. The sun was out and there was a healthy breeze blowing. The clouds, that have been dumping rain on the majority of Florida, parted for a while which allowed a nice moment at the beach. Sitting here right now though, it seems like the clouds are rolling in. It's time to get a Panama Jack painter's cap with flaps. Or maybe a pooka shell necklace...

I'll have the four piece fried chicken dinner. All white meat, please.

2009-05-14T12:03:00.020-05:00

(Part eight of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

I don't remember the drive to NYC but I'm sure it was raining because the second leg of our tour was covered in precipitation. We had a 4:30 load in and miraculously, we made it on time. It was miraculous because instead of taking the Holland Tunnel straight to the Mercury Lounge, we took the Lincoln Tunnel to midtown and stopped by the Gibson Guitar showroom for some hollow body hook ups. Also, Tim wanted to get his Tele's string breaking problem fixed, but that's another story. We then headed south to Chelsea where we found a PRIMO parking spot right in front of Joey Cases' Dirty Bird To-Go. Fried chicken, cornbread and roasted beets. Damn fine cooking! Joey C then took us around the corner to Chelsea Guitars which is located in the front of the Chelsea Hotel. I had wanted to see the Chelsea Hotel for a long time so I'm glad we made the short trek. Richard Lloyd, Dee Dee Ramone and thousands of lesser known degenerates did a lot of bad shit in that place. These days though, it seems like it'd be a even tougher to give it away on 7th Avenue.

I must take moment and say that the newest Mastodon record is fucking phenomenal. It got a hold of a copy right before I left Austin and I am totally hooked. Also, I heard the new Dynamite Brothers and Birds of Avalon records today. They rule as well.

Right now I am sitting in the hotel room in Athens, Georgia waiting on a load of laundry to dry so I can head over to the 40 watt and load in for tonight's show. Cameron is coming to town and we're gonna have a grand old time, I guarantee.

Anyway...

My cousin John got to the Mercury right after soundcheck and we went for Thai and beer. Great to see him again. The show had started when we got back and Bartow was there too. We went on at 8pm and rocked out. Aaron sounded so good on lead guitar and that just made us sound more phenomenal as a group. It was a shorter set than usual but that's New York. Get on, do your thing, get out. We all headed back to Brooklyn in the pouring rain after load out. Bartow, Tiffany and I went back to their house for a quick beer and beddy-by. The next day I picked up the boys in Park Slope and headed off to Philly where we got lost again, thanks to the iphone, which has now been dubbed the liephone. We got Tim to whatever radio station it was he had an interview on and the rest of the brodeo had beers in the cafe. I ran into an ex-coworker on the street...small world. Before we got to Johnny Brenda's, we passed The Fire which instantly worried me that we were playing in a shithole part of town. When Grand Champeen played the Fire four or five years ago, that part of town was awful. As it turns out, the neighborhood is up and coming and Johnny Brenda's is THE place to play. We were all extremely happy with the whole night. The owner greeted us warmly, the soundguy was behind the board the ENTIRE set (I'm looking at you Continental Club), the food was good, the bartenders were nice and the room itself was unique and warm. The other night I told Kevn Kinney that we had a good show at a great venue in Philadelphia and he didn't believe me. We proceeded to swap "New Excuse" stories and let me tell you, he had some good ones. The point= Johnny Brenda's rocks. We went back to Brooklyn after the gig and crashed at JP Olsen's house in Park Slope.

I slept extremely well but when I woke up at noon, I got outta there and took the F train to Bartow's where I took a shower and changed clothes. I got back on the F train to Broadway-Lafayette and Bartow at his office around 2pm. We had great Vietnamese sandwiches, went browsing for mothers day gifts in SoHo and checked out a new coffee shop called La Colombe he had heard about. Then, FINALLY, I walked the brooklyn bridge. It was a beautiful day and I took some great photos from and of the bridge. It was a great walk and I'm so glad I did it. Bartow and I freshened up and then went back into the city for pizza at another new place he's heard about, L'Asso. It was good pizza and a bottle of shiraz. Then we cruised over to the venue of Tim's artwork showing for margaritas, wine and a brief solo acoustic performance by Tim. Bartow and I then headed to the upper east side and met Tiffany at some restaurant/bar called Southern Hospitality. Ha! It seemed like they were trying to emulate the style of a southern restaurant like Lupie's. The only problem is that when it's filled with yankee goombah fratboys, it ain't gonna be a southern restaurant. Why don't they keep their own lame New England style instead of ripping off that of the South? Whatever. We left there and went to some other bar that was filled with lame music and people. The bar itself was cool as shit with the majority of the patrons in the basement catacombs. Screw that, back to Vinegar Hill.

Bartow and I got picked up for our scenery homo event of driving out to the tip of the northern fork of Long Island in order to take the ferry from Orient Point to New London. We had lunch in Westhampton at a cute little diner called Eckert's and saw the beach nearby. It was after lunch that people start admitting to illness and our van becomes knowingly inflected with swine flu. Great. The ferry ride was nice except that there was a thick fog on the sound and we couldn't see anything once we got past Plum Island. Oh well, no big deal. We were out of the van and having nice bro time. Once we got to New London the liephone deceived us several times before we made it to the hotel, only to go straight to the club. I was behind the wheel and I don't like getting lost so I was a little aggravated. So much so, that Bartow and I did carbombs immediately after parking the van at the Oasis. That's better. Sean and Shannon at the Oasis were terrific, feeding us and plying us with libations. The opening band, Tommy McLiketohearmyselftalk went on later than scheduled which put us on later than we wanted and backed our set right up against last call which always sucks. It was a dick move by a bush league local band who wanted to hoard the stage instead of acting professional and being considerate towards the out of town band/headliner. We had a great third show with Aaron and due to he and Sam having watched the new Wilco film before the show, their performances were a bit more inspired from having seen the movie. It's kinda what we used to do back in the days when we skateboarded. We'd watch the Search for Animal Chin and get all psyched to go out and try kickflips for two hours.

Back to the hotel where sickies Aaron and Sam shared a room while Bartow, Tim and I had another. Since this was the last show of Phase II, I will end this post before it gets any longer. I mean, does anyone have enough time to read this shit?

Tim Easton and the New Excuses

2009-05-12T11:33:00.017-05:00

(Part seven of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

Hello Charleston! The drive up to Charleston, WV from Whitesburg was quite nice. The sky was a porous veil of clouds allowing both sunshine and rain to peer down onto the mountainous, wooded landscape full of trees in varying states of bloom. We got to Charleston and relied too heavily on the iphone, causing us to get lost and frustrated. Yes, the iphone is amazing but it doesn't not always make a perfect substitute for a Rand McNally road atlas or a simple phone call for directions. We eventually found the Mountain Stage building, but had enough time check in to our hotel. Mountain Stage set each of us up with our own room at the Marriott which was sweetness. Back at Mtn. Stage we ate a catered dinner and ragged on the Kings Of Leon for posing like The Band on the cover of Rolling Stone. I mean, really. The little Colonel Sanders bow ties, theater dork vests and preacher man hats with the Upstate New York background. Puke. Their music is just fine but their imaging and marketing is stupid. It seems like they have to rely heavily on their cuteness because their music isn't good enough to speak for itself. It's all image these days, people. The days of bands like Supertramp becoming successful are over. The popularity industry isn't interested in supporting thirty or forty year olds who make awesome music. REM got in just under the wire... when it was cool to look weird.

The Mountain Stage performance was stiff due to its nature. We had a specific amount of time to perform five songs and we had to be very quiet and there was no beer. It was exactly like the mild mannered NPR thing that has been parodied on Saturday Night Live. When we took the stage, Sam needed to make quite a few adjustments to the drum kit and instead of interviewing Tim in front of the crowd, or even just vamping on some g-rated shit, the emcee stared silently at Sam which in turn made all of us uncomfortable. I think the emcee did a pretty mediocre job at entertaining but I guess Garrison Keillor he ain't. Not cool. What was cool was going to see the Carpenter Ants at the Empty Glass later that night. The Carpenter Ants were partially the Mountain Stage house band and partially some other dudes. They did some great obscure old R&B, rock and roll, soul and gospel tunes. During one of their set breaks they let us play a few tunes which allowed us to kick out the jams and achieve redemption for the stiff performance earlier.

We had the next day off and we spent it driving to Vienna, VA where we stayed the night with a friend of Tim's. At one roadside stop along the way, we saw a huge painting of a bloodied Jesus on the cross, telling us we were going to hell. All we needed was a restroom break and some snacks and to have such guilt and judgment thrown at us! Well, I never! Actually, I have. That is my experience in Western Maryland. Once we safely removed the van from our nation's interstate system, we had some grub and watched a little TV before retiring for the evening. Though it hadn't been a stressful day, a day full of driving can be tiring nonetheless.

Tuesday morning we took the Metro into DC and looked up Sam's congressional representative in order to get into the House Gallery and see the government at work. Once we got into the gallery, we found out that the "work" our government was doing was trying to convince the powers that be that a post office in Long Island, NY should be renamed in honor of Geraldine Ferraro. We heard testimonials from Representatives from five states other than NY which was a little confounding, considering it's one of how many thousand post offices in this country! Rename the damn thing and get on with it! After that experience, I had lunch in the Sculpture Garden Cafe and then explored the Museum of American History. The reconvened near the Black Ops Bench on the mall and then took the train back out to Vienna.

The show at the IOTA Cafe was pleasant. There were some people there and it was raining and the opening band from Nova Scotia was great and we played well. I appreciate Avery and Alice and Brandon and Alan coming out to the show. It's great to see old friends when passing through their town on a tour. Next stop, New York City.

By the way, this show in Arlington marked the beginning of the second phase of our tour. No old bits. All new bits. Act II in progress. Enter our fearless swordsman, Senor Tasjan.

Can't Keep Up

2009-05-08T17:00:00.009-05:00

(Part six of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

Yeah, I can't keep up with writing. So much has happened since I last wrote, I don't even remember when I last wrote. I'm currently in Brooklyn, having a beer after having walked the Brooklyn Bridge with my friend Bartow. It was my first trip across the bridge on foot and after having read The Great Bridge, it was a terrific experience. The weather finally cleared up. It has rained everyday since we were in Minneapolis and it's getting quite old. I hope it stays clear for our trip up to Connecticut tomorrow. The plan is to drive out through Long Island and take the ferry from the tip of the island over to New London where we are playing that night. We want to stop and see Ace Frehley's childhood home if there's time. Should be a blast.

I just looked at my last post and it was in Columbus which was a week ago. Damn. There have been four shows and one live recording for radio broadcast since then. We've been in appalachian territory and huge east coast cities. Touring is awesome.

The show in Columbus ruled. We really needed it as a group. The crowd was right up against the stage and definitely feeding off our energy which in turn, gave us something to feed off. The previous weeks performances led perfectly to that moment. It's a shame that no one recorded it. Megan Palmer, who played on Porcupine, played violin with us on quite few numbers and added a great element to the songs she played on. Stones Throw Away specifically. I enjoyed seeing Shane and Micah Garage that night... it was cool of them to come out. I wanted to see Josh Kayser too but i should have known he'd be a punk ass bitch and not come out. Jive ass muthafucka.

The next evening we played Whitesburg, Kentucky at a venue called Summit City. We took Highway 23 (Columbus' High Street) down through Michael Hurley's home of Portsmouth, Ohio and crossed into Kentucky where we stayed on 23 until we split off on 119 south. The light rain and fog covering the thickly wooded hills made me feel like Whitesburg was a secret hamlet tucked away in a distant holler that we were quite lucky to discover. Amelia and Joel owned Summit City and really took care of us while we were there. We stayed in the apartment on the second floor and had some tasty grub made right there in the venue. That happened to be Kentucky Derby day which may have contributed to the smaller turnout. That's our new excuse anyway. After all, we are Tim Easton and the New Excuses. Even though I couldn't care less about the derby, I had a Mint Julep in honor of the regional event. It helped me realize that I just don't like bourbon that much. The mint and sugar were tasty but the bourbon just put it too far over the line. Anyway, the opening band Folk Soul Revival did a nice little set and then we played to a decent crowd. We were certainly loud in that room but it worked out. We heard a lot about how Jason Isbell had recently played there and that he had gotten loaded. Jason Isbell, Jason Isbell, Jason Isbell, etc...

Bartow and I are heading into Manhattan to have dinner and then go to Easton's art show in Soho. I'll have to get back to this later because I haven't covered Charleston, D.C., New York or Philly. In a nutshell, the show's have been great. The last two nights, in New York and Philly, have been a four piece with Tasjan back on lead guitar. That dude rips and has added another layer to the music that has really catapulted the performances into an even greater realm than they were before. Later...

Ohio Buttguys

2009-05-01T18:29:00.004-05:00

(Part five of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

Now I'm back in Columbus. It has been a good ride up to Minneapolis and back. The show at the Hideout in Chicago last night was weird. I've played the Hideout many times and that was the most reserved crowd I have ever seen. I have a feeling that everyone that came to see the show thought it was gonna be a more mellow affair. I listened to some of the recording today and it was rocking and mellow... a great mixture, in fact. It's really too bad if people don't appreciate what this outfit is doing with Tim's music. We're giving it a life that if doesn't often see except on recordings. I know he plays with other folks from time to time but we're really getting this shit going. So last night there was a timid arc, a shy horseshoe, a cool line. Everyone was as close to a wall as they could get and you could hear a pin drop after the applause between songs.

The set in Minneapolis the night before was a lot of fun. It felt like the first real show, largely due to the high-end PA, rock club lighting and general proper club vibe that the 400 bar possesses. There were a few SNAFUs in the set but nothing to cry about. The crowd came out to see the show and everyone stayed until the end, seemingly enjoying everything we did. There were even a few ladies dancing! Tom Sullivan, the proprietor of the bar, regailed me with stories of Karl Mueller and other rock dignitaries that have graced his stage. The fun night was compounded by the presence of Baby Grant Johnson and Kruddler. After the show Tony and I stayed up with some Pabst and pizza. Good times up north, for sure.

We're playing the Rhumba Room with Sam's band You're So Bossy opening the show. It's raining but it'll be good regardless. Home town show be rocktastic!

Ok, now we got it

2009-04-29T11:53:00.005-05:00

(Part four of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

I'm sitting in Iowa City, getting ready to go to Minneapolis for our gig at the 400 bar. We played and rehearsed yesterday at the Day Trotter studio in downtown Rock Island, IL. We cut versions of "Porcupine," "The Young Girls," "Broke My Heart" and a new one called "I'm In Love With You." It was a fun experience but after a five hour drive, an intense rehearsal and live-to-two-track recording, we were frazzled and needed to eat dinner. There was a cheesy pizza restaurant below the studio in which we grubbed and decided to drive to Iowa City, drink some beers and construct a set list. And that's what we did. Got a cheap room next to The Mill and wished we were playing a show.

The show in Ft. Wayne the night before was pretty good. The stage setup was a little awkward and the stage was extremely illuminated but it was fine. The Brass Rail reminded me of The Fire in Philly... pretty dingy.

Showdown in Roundtown

2009-04-27T10:48:00.004-05:00

(Part three of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning)

Our first show was in Circleville, Ohio which is 35 miles south of Columbus. We ran into Sam and Jenna right when we pulled up to the venue, Toodles Pumpkin Inn. We loaded in, ate lasagna from a joint across the street, and hung out for a few minutes before playing. Sometime in between setting up and playing, the stage area took on an odor of feet that was pretty gross. I had gone to the bar for a shot and beer and while I was gone someone must have hidden some Fromunda cheese in Tim's amp so it would heat up and really permeate the room.

Anyway, we were to play three sets with two breaks no longer than fifteen minutes apiece. We had a list of around 25 songs and we played all but three of those. In their stead, Tim whipped out at least as many that I had never heard before which was exciting. We jammed a few blues numbers out, stretching our legs and seeing how we play together. After all, it was the first time the three of us had even been in the same room together. All in all, the show went really well. People I talked to expressed that they couldn't tell we had never played together before. I was a bit loosie-goosie but that's to be expected. I had been in a van for the better part of two days and was hung over from the previous night's adventure in Nashvegas. We spent the night at Tim's in-laws house, which was a really nice place on the out-skirts of Circleville. After the nightcap of a cold Natural Light I took from Richard's stash in the garage fridge, I retired to a bed and a room to myself. Oh, sweet slumber.

Kissing Bug

2009-04-27T02:50:00.003-05:00

(Part two of a sequential tour narrative. Go to April, 25 2009 to start at the beginning).

Did you know that Chuck D died from kissing bug related illnesses? It may be quite true. Oh, and by Chuck D I mean Charles Darwin, the original Chuck D.

Kissing bugs have been known to plague inhabitants of southeastern California.

Do you know what happens when the gnome returns home?

Do you know where Engagement, Ohio is?

Tell me what Austin has that Columbus doesn't. (Don't answer that, actually).

Bucyrus, Ohio has an annual bratwurst festival.

Circleville, Ohio has an annual pumpkin festival. So what? More interestingly, the town of Circleville was originally laid out in concentric circles and was a major stop on the Erie Canal system. Now it has neither characteristic.

Dick's Den is the same as it was and Carabar is fun. Shrimp tacos are good and cougars are fun. Hot sauce and hot dogs/sausage go hand in hand.

The Horseshoe Bar in Bucyrus sucks pretty bad. I have never wanted to hear "Black Hole Sun" that loud.

Easton Tour, Part One

2009-04-25T15:04:00.011-05:00

(This is the first part of a sequential tour narrative).

As some of you may know, I have been hired to play bass for Tim Easton on his tour supporting his new album Porcupine. I thought it would be fun to write about the tour so here goes.

Tim flew into Austin Wednesday night and we headed out for Ohio the next morning. By the time we got on the road it was 11am and we didn't really stop until we ate a late lunch in Little Rock. Sam Brown, our drummer to be, told us that we needed to have a soul food lunch at Kitchen Express and I'm very glad we made the effort. I had the two piece dark meat fried chicken plate with stewed okra and green beans with two glasses of sweet tea. Oh yeah. I grew to love this type of southern cooking when I lived in Tennessee and eating it welcomed me back into a part of the south that I haven't visited in awhile. At the same time, I felt like I had successfully made it out of Texas, where the tea is not always sweet and the soul food usually has some annoying Louisiana-infused theme. Not that I dislike coonasss cuisine, I just like to eat it when I want.

Anyway, back in the van with Tim behind the wheel for the first time. We spent a lot of our time in Arkansas bonding over the Beatles. Listening to anthology tracks mainly. It was dark by the time we crossed the Old Man and though Tim had some Alaskan friends in Memphis that night, we decided to keep going. Barely ten miles east of Memphis on I-40 we were welcomed to Tennessee by some of its finest troopers. They pulled Tim out behind the van, asked him our business and then asked me for a corroborating story. They took me to the back of the van where Tim and I signed a waiver that allowed them to search the van. While officer #1 searched the van, officer #2 told us about how much he likes Jimmy Buffett. Once it came out that we were musicians, I guess the guy thought we would like to discuss the musician he most respects. He claimed that though he had been a fan for thirty years, that he wasn't a parrothead. Right. Thankfully he wasn't a dickhead either because they let us go with no tickets or anything. I guess a couple of clean white boys a breath of fresh air after their arrest of a guy with a firearm earlier that evening.

We decided to drive all the way to Nashville and we made it with time enough to drink at three different bars on the west side of town. The Goldrush, The Villager Tavern were both near Vanderbilt while the dingy basement pool hall that ended up being the most fun of the three was more towards Berryhill where we were gonna stay. I had driven most of the way and as thanks, Tim got me thoroughly hammered. He played some pool with some crazy locals and I just hung out, happy to be in Nashville again. Our crash pad for the evening was Alex the Great, the studio where Porcupine was recorded. We spent a few minutes trying to suss out Way Out West but were too spent and crashed out.

In the morning, Robin came over and caught up for a few minutes before we left. Tim played me the Al Kooper Christmas album that had the J & H Productions bit on it. Incredibly funny stuff. That record also had the Buddy Rich yelling tapes which is also infinitely entertaining. We cruised by the Gibson showroom to pick up a backup electric guitar for the tour. It turned out to be a sweet Epiphone Sheraton that may end up being Tim's main ax on this tour. After a bagel sandwich and coffee at Bongo Java we hit the road for Circleville.

The drive through Kentucky was awesome because it was such a beautiful day. Even though there weren't any leaves on the trees due to it still being early in the year, the scenery was exceptional. As we drove through Louisville I spied one of the coolest skateparks I've ever seen. It was all cement and the kind of thing I dreamt about as a kid. On to Cincinnati where I spied the Roebling Bridge but was too far away from it to get a good photograph. Once in Ohio, we called ahead to the restaurant connected to the venue so that our free dinner would be ready for us when we got there. We were running a little late and at this point we were both a little loopy but also very excited about the three piece jams to come.

Homework

2009-04-13T13:57:00.003-05:00

I have to start digging into the Tim Easton catalog today. We leave for tour in ten days and I have at least 12 songs with which I must become one. I already know nine songs from SXSW and in addition to those, Tim has requested us learn a couple of covers which will remain nameless. Some of the tracks he sent me are very mellow and we will possibly be reinterpreting them in the three-piece format. All and all, I'm stoked about the tour. It has come to pass that we will be taking the Champeen van so last week it got a great tune up. This week I have to tune up the interior... that thing is a total catastrophe.

SXSW Part 3

2009-04-05T10:54:00.005-05:00

Friday

I woke up damn early and Tim picked me up around 10:30 so we could make it to his solo performance at the Front Gate Tickets Morning After Day "Party." The party was that shit was free; Evita's Botanitas was making rad tacos, the douche that runs Torchy's was giving away coffee, and some chick in her workout clothes was giving away Bloody Marys. Nakia and His Southern Cuzins played first and, aside from his voice, was very worthy of the stage in front of City Hall. Tim Played a nice set right after and soon after he was done, we went and picked up Stepro and headed off to Maria's Taco X-press. It was the second of two Sin City parties and we rolled in, devoured, and took off. We started of with The Young Girls and the woman who sang on the album got up and sang with Tim on that number. The four-piece ripped though the set and after I chugged a Fireman's 4, I took Tim to a coffeeshop so he could use the internet and find out where his second solo gig of the day was to be. Apparently, the hosts of the party didn't announce the party site until the day of... dumb.

On his way to the party, he dropped me off at Trophy's where I saw RED FANG! Finally. They delivered like everyone said they would. I wish I had jumped on the "new" cd's they had for sale because they sold out of it. I'm just gonna have to wait for the new one to come out. After a short talk with John Sherman, I walked down to Jo's (bad service) coffee where I was to meet Tim and direct the van downtown towards our showcase.

We found a rad parking spot and dicked around downtown until our showcase at midnight. Oh yeah, that's when I saw Metallica at Stubb's. That's right, suckers. All I have to say is:

Creeping Death

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Harvester of Sorrow

One

Broken Beaten Scarred

Cyanide

Sad But True

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Master Of Puppets

Blackened

Breadfan

Whiplash

Seek and Destroy

It was an amazing set and they played two ...And Justice For All songs they didn't play when I saw them in Novemeber. Considering I love this band and I feel pretty lucky to have seen this show, I must finally admit to myself and the world that Lars isn't a good drummer. He was dropping beats left and right but whatever... I'll listen to the records, like I am right now.

Back to Habana Calle for the Ground Control booking showcase. The set with Tim went great except for him breaking a string on his electric and having to play his acoustic the rest of the set. After enduring a set by Deer Tick, Caulkins and I crashed at my pad...

Saturday

Tim picked us up early and we headed to Yard Dog where we did a three-piece set around 12:30pm. It went really well (natch) and we all went our separate ways because our shows were done. I had to work at nine o'clock that night so I was into the idea of cold chillin' on the couch or something. Before I even made it to the couch, Tim texted saying, "We have a gig! 5pm at Jovita's. Can you do it?" Though Aaron hadn't been with us at Yard Dog, he was able to make the afternoon gig (despite being a little late). This was perhaps the funnest gig of the week because all pressure was off and we got to jam and just have fun. Not that we weren't doing that at the other gigs, but this one just didn't matter. We knew what we could do and had a great time doing it. Our seat-of-the-pants version of "Five Years" was better at Jovita's than at Yard Dog when it was sprung on us on stage! I then drove the band and a bunch of Irish men and women down south, dropped Stepro off up north and went to work at 9pm. Givin' her for Bob Boone. Just getting up and going to work everyday.

TTFN and RHTS

2009-04-05T10:24:00.005-05:00

This week were the last session Jim and I are going to have for a couple of months. On Tuesday, he's going out on tour for his job and by the time he gets back, I'll be out on tour with Tim Easton. Knowing this was the case, we scheduled a percussion session with Bert and he RULED it! We recorded percussion on eight songs and a new full kit for the bridge of "Flash In The Pan." We got the kit overdub first and then blew through the other songs in a few hours. Then we partook in yellow bellies and tequila out by the fire to celebrate near completion of tracking.

Two days later (yesterday), Jim and I had a vocal session for which I sang new leads on "On Your Own" and "Cashin' In The Dimes." Actually, last night I think I decided to call the latter of those "Jar of Dimes." Not that it matters much to you because you haven't heard it yet! After that we roughed out the 11 songs for which we've completed tracking, leaving 3 to complete when we reconvene in June. Between now and then, we'll be mixing and analyzing via internets and such. We'll see how it goes. I'll tell you what though, these roughs sound pretty damn good!

SXSW, Part 2

2009-03-26T12:42:00.010-05:00

Wednesday

Tim and Mark picked me up and we headed off to some rehearsal space that Tim had acquired. This space ended up being on a ranch next to the landfill off 1327. When we got there, the fellow who was supposed to let us in the gate didn't answer the phone so Stepro walked down the long drive towards the house. The proprietor ended up being there and we found our to-be-studio in a shed at the top of the driveway. A few songs into the set and we could all tell that this new pick up band was going to be just fine. We tackled "The Young Girls," "Burgundy Red," "Broke My Heart" and "Porcupine" first and flew through them with no problem. We knew we were in good shape and we decided to finish the set anyway. During "Stormy," in walks the proprietor with Pamela and Michael Des Barres! I'm rockin' out in front of Miss Pamela! Holy Shit! That's one step away from Jimmy Page. I thought that if this is how SXSW is gonna go, then quitting Stubb's and taking the gig with Easton is the best turn of events to happen to me in awhile. We packed up the rental and headed to Dog and Duck.

The Dog and Duck gig went well. Hillary York was first on the bill and sounded great with a full band. We were second and I didn't feel too nervous about the set. I had half a beer and we ripped it out with few hitches. Then I had a full beer. A few people present told me they never would have known that the three of us had never played together before. Good sign. Then it was off to the Convention Center to get our wristbands. It was a mess down there but we found a sweet parking spot... the first time the Parking Gods would smile upon us this week. We had lunch at Iron Works BBQ and I must say I was impressed. I hadn't eaten there in many years and I plan on going back there more often.

I met up with Tiffany at Emo's where we saw a set by The Bronx. Unbeknownst to me, The Young Widows had finished right before we walked and when I found out that I had missed them I was pretty disappointed. The Bronx was good rock, though. Tiffany and I then waited in line for 45 minutes to get into the Fader party which would have completely sucked had it not been for the free Budweiser and Southern Comfort. Needless to say, while Tiffany was taking care of her business I indulged in the flowing booze. Jennie picked us up at 5th and Waller and took us back to her house where we made a couple Tito's screwdriver roadies for our walk to to see Glossary at Cissi's Market. Glossary played a "feelers" set that was really beautiful. They adapted to the intimate setting with no awkwardness. We were pretty lit so we went to Taqueria Arandas for togo tacos and ate them while we watched Wet Hot American Summer. That movie really isn't that good and we all fell asleep before it ended.

Thursday

This was to be my busiest day of the week. I had to take Jennie to work so that I could make it from the Grand Champeen gig at Jovita's to the Easton set at Club Deville 30 minutes later. Champeen played a 25 minute set of songs that we hadn't played at Beerland two nights before. Tiffany, Caulkins and I immediately went downtown and set up at the New West party. I met Aaron who was to play lead guitar on the rest of the Easton gigs and I met Mark Olson and Gary Louris who were to play later that day. All nice fellas. Our set as a four piece was even better than the set the day before and we were all feeling pretty good about the group. If we could only learn 12 new Easton songs and go into the studio immediately... that would be some fun. The Olson/Louris set was incredible. It was so wonderful to hear those guys singing together after so many years. While their set was made up mostly of songs off their new album, the Tomorrow The Green Grass songs really made my day. "Over My Shoulder," "Two Hearts," "Nothing Left To Borrow," "Blue" and the even older "Two Angels" brought back a lot of memories. After spending the rest of the afternoon hangin' at DeVille, Jennie and I ordered Homeslice pepperoni and mushroom togo and took a nap in the hour while it was being prepared. Then it was off to The Hole In the Wall for the Bremen Riot and Grand Champeen gig. When we got there, Gleeson had just finished and Will Johnson was about to play a solo set. John Paul Kieth and the 1 4 5's then played their rhythm and blues rave ups with a scorching set by Mandible close behind. The Bremen Riot set was invigorating and the two new Nicolai songs went off really well. People are still amazed at how awesome Mike performs as a lead singer. I'm one of those people. After a short pee-break, Champeen launched into a set similar to that at Beerland. At the end of the day I had played four separate sets of music and had logged 6 shows for the week. Needless to say, I was tired but Tim was picking me up at 10am so I had to get in a shower and a nap before he showed up. Fall alseep to the amazing Blue Earth...

Back At It

2009-03-25T18:26:00.005-05:00

As a major storm rolls into town, Jim and I are taking a break from overdubbing. Susan Vessel is giving me a detailed doppler report on KEYE. She's great. We finished work on "Impossible To Turn Away" just before the rain started coming down. We were recording vocals in his living room and they storm noise would most certainly have been picked up in the microphone. Yesterday, we overdubbed bass, acoustic and electric guitar, and organ onto "Impossible." Though we had already recorded the three former instruments, we had to rerecord them because we edited the drum track on the end of the song.

After looking at our to-do list, it seems there's not a lot left to record on these songs. We have a date next week with Rick to overdub percussion which will finish "Drop Me A Line," "Paid The Way," "Mighta Got Caught" and "Flash In The Pan." I need to make dates with horn players for the second week in April in order to finish "Hard Head" and "Over Before It Started." There's vocals left on "Cashin' In The Dimes," "Burnin' Out," and "Over Before It Started." There are some back up vocals on "Pining For Verona" and "Over." After that, Jim needs to play some guitar on "Burnin' Out" and it's time to mix!

SXSW, Part 1

2009-03-24T10:28:00.007-05:00

Due in large part to not being trapped behind the bar at Stubb's for the first SXSW in five or six years, I feel like I had a week worth recapping. It was a busy one filled with music, friends, beer and tacos...the way it should be. No, I didn't bartend all week and I'm not rolling in piles of dirty cash right now, but I've been down that road and it sucks the soul. I'm gonna go day to day starting Sunday, March 15 and go through yesterday, maybe.

Sunday

Just like all my Sundays recently, I woke up tired and cursed the Mexicans power washing the meatwater stains off my driveway. Don't they know we're sleeping? Is power washing on Sunday morning really necessary? Work was fine. Sunday front bar shift. My friend Ben had gotten into town Friday night and we had made plans to hang out when I got out of work this evening. After pulling a Mr. Rogers and changing into my civilian clothes, my tattoo artist friend Mike and I caught a cab to the Sidebar to meet up with Ben. He was there with Jody, David, Joey and others troopers in the New Guard Comedy forces (i,e, Danny McBride, Bill Hader) and when they all left, Mike, Ben and I walked over to Shangri-La. The city had shut down Shangri-la's yard/patio so everyone was stuck inside. After some beers and shots we got in a cab and went to The Longbranch Inn for a change of scenery. Ben was fascinated with the moon tower across the street and made the requisite Dazed and Confused references. The scene there was ok but we were restless so we made it full circle back to the Hole In The Wall. I wanted to show Ben some local spots and upon entering the Hole In The Wall, that mission was accomplished. After the Hole, we went back to the Four Seasons and ran into Jody and his wife in the parking lot. The bar was closed so we searched out a hotel room party. We found a geeky sausage party but they all recognized Ben from Foot Fist Way and East Bound and Down so we were a hit. Ben invited them over to his room and we destroyed his mini-bar until security clamped down on us due to a noise complaint. I took yet another cab home.

Monday

Wake up hungover and go to work, psyched about life and all that. Made it through work and directly after, went to rehearsal with both Grand Champeen and The Bremen Riot. For those of you that don't know, The Bremen Riot is Mike Nicolai and the members of Grand Champeen, together as a band. We have been playing together for years but just recently we have decided to be a band instead of his backup band. We have two new songs called "Easy Joe" and "Ruthless, Unbroken and Profane." We're playing these and other songs again April 11 at the Hole In The Wall.

Tuesday

I woke up and took Jennie to work and then went home to take a nap. I don't remember whet else I did that day. I think I ran errands and then picked Jennie up with the intention of going to $2 taco night at Quality Seafood. Unfortunately, the lot was totally full and we realized it would take too long so we left.

This evening was the annual Tuesday-before-SXSW-music-festival-Grand Champeen-and-other-bands-at-Beerland show. Since it was Champeen, Glossary and Two Cow Garage, it was a near-reprise of the This Is American Music line-up. The show was a blast for all. It was at this show that I met Tim Easton for the first time. After weeks of emails and studying his new album, it was a relief to finally meet the guy who was getting me back on the road! I also met Mark Stepro who was to play drums at all our gigs last week. Turns out he grew up in Gallion, Ohio which is stones throw from Bucyrus... home of Micah and Andy Two Cow. (Ohio had a strong presence in my SXSW this year.) I went back to Jennie's for a nap to rest up for my first day of playing with Easton and Stepro.

Phase One In Which Doris Gets Her Oats

2009-01-26T15:37:00.004-06:00

On Saturday we finished tracking all of the drums for the album. We brought in the fifth and final drummer for the project and he did an exemplary job with the two selected songs. So that we can continue to keep things vague, let's call this drummer "Tom Kha," or Tom for short. I had given him demos of "Burnin' Out" and "Cashin' In The Dimes" back in the fall when this project started and he must have listened to them because he came in and nailed each track within three takes. We were done by 4:30pm and went and had celebratory drinks at Nomad.

We tackled "Burnin' Out" first for little to no reason at all. Compared to the demo, the beginning has a longer intro section and and the end has a more decisive resolution.

After changing a cymbal and adding a rack tom, we set a few levels and ripped out three takes of "Cashing" with the third being the best. The second take was great and we were gonna use it so we decided to record one more without the "stress" of it having to be "the one" and it turned out better. Funny how that happens.

It's crazy to think that the drums are all recorded. Jim and I set a goal of having the majority of recording done by the end of January and that is now a possibility. Being unemployed has definitely made it possible for me to give the project so much of my attention. That being said, I have to go back to work so I can pay for quality mastering!

Shushy, you're cut!

2009-01-23T12:20:00.006-06:00

This past weekend we got Rick back in the studio to record three songs. The fates of these songs were in the hands of several of the drummers we've used yet they ended up landing in Rick's lap. And rightly so. "Welcome Home," "Impossible To Turn Away" and "Over Before It Started" are all a little different from most of the songs we've recorded. One thing commonality between them is that they we all written many years ago, possibly when I lived on Haskell St. in '01 or'02. I know that I wrote "Over Before It Started" on the piano that's on Channing's back porch. I'm sure that I wrote "Welcome Home" alone watching "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" on a stormy night on Haskell St. At some point during the movie, the storm knocked our power out and that's when I wrote it. I finished watching the movie after the lyrics were finished. I had always been fond of this tune and I've always wanted it to see the light of day.

"Over" and "Impossible" are both exercises in varying song form, both in a vague GBV sorta-way. Of the three recorded that Sunday, these two turned out the best. In going over "Over," Rick settled into a drum beat that did not include the snare...a first for the record! I look forward to getting some French Horn and cello on this track. Still trying to come up with a piano part though. I forgot the one I wrote on Chan's porch so long ago.

"Impossible" was easy to track because I had given Rick a detailed demo of the song I had recorded with Jim in 2007. He pretty much copied what I played on the demo yet he added skill, confidence, coordination, finesse and a steady tempo. Brilliant!

"Welcome Home" turned out to be a pain in the ass and after having tried it with GC years ago, I should have let it go. But it was that pesky fondness that kept me coming back. We started the session by recording toms for the verses. It wasn't until I played the toms and showed Rick what I heard that he was on board with the part. Then we recorded big room ride crashes. Once those underdubs were made we set up a normal kit to get the chorus parts. No slight on Rick because he's an amazing drummer, but I wasn't feeling it. And then a few days later when we recorded guitar for the song, I was even more underwhelmed. That night at home (Wednesday), I decided to axe it from the record. Fuck it. Aside from having an accordian player create an amazing mood on the verses, I don't care about it anymore. Letting it go, y'all. That night I also decided to 86 "No Big Rivalry," a song for which we've yet to record a note and for which there wasn't going to be a drum track anyway.

After cutting those two tracks from the lineup, we're left with 14 songs. That's classic Beatles style and it will be approximatly 38 minutes long which is a great length. Plus, Jim says 14 is his favorite number. My favorite number is 7 and there will be 7 songs per side if I'm ever blessed with a vinyl release. At least it's gonna be sequenced with that in mind.

Flagging Down Confidence

2009-01-10T13:19:00.005-06:00

I learned a good lesson today. Why complicate the situation? Jim and I had planned a brief session today and shortly after trying to record some piano parts, the session was aborted. Today was the start of serious work on "Nine Years," a song with atypical chord changes and relatively complex vocal harmonies. The seed for this song was a two-chord riff and a series of 7th chords that imply a diminished scale. While I wrote the whole song on guitar and I knew that I wanted at least this main guitar part in the song, I thought that there needed to be a bunch of piano. I had written vocal harmonies that would begin during this guitar phrase and then expand during the chorus. I've been dreading the vocal sessions because I'm not confident about my singing but today I realized that I'm much worse at playing piano than singing. I learned was that if I wrote the song as a guitar, bass, drums and vocals song, then that's probably what it should be. I did write a bunch of vocal parts so that a piano could get in the way.

I wanted to give the song a different feel and not have it rely heavily on guitar and therefore thought piano would be perfect. Jim helped me realize that the vocal arrangement will be different enough and that it didn't need to be any more complicated. I also realized I suck at piano if I have to use more than three fingers. I need to accept that I'm not even really a decent pianist and that I need to stick to guitar and bass. After this deflating "piano" session I'm ready to sing some harmonies! Monday...

Mighta Got Caught But You Threw It Away

2009-01-05T12:33:00.007-06:00

This past weekend we had our fourth drummer lay down some tracks at Pocketchange Studios. This drummer shall be referred to as "Marvin." I had gotten together and rehearsed these two songs with Marvin way back in the fall so he was already familiar with them when we got in front of the mics.

We spent early Saturday afternoon changing drum heads and setting up microphones. Around 4pm, we started recording the project's shortest song, "Mighta Got Caught." This is a little ditty I wrote sometime during the Spring of 2008. I remember its birth sometime after the January 2008 home demos of "Drop Me A Line" and "Flash in the Pan" and "Nasty Dream." I have always felt like it should be the last song on the album in the same sort of way that "Her Majesty" is Abbey Road's last wave goodbye through the back window of the sedan that carries away a loved one and leaves you standing on the sidewalk with only your thoughts. We'll see if that's how it ends up. The tracking went well and we ended with enough time in the evening to watch some football and make it home to catch Saturday Night Live.

For the record, I am now a Beyonce fan after having seen her on SNL that night. Someone like that should effectively send Madonna packing for the nursing home. Out with the bad air, in with the good.

The next day we reconvened and set to recording "Let's Ready To Go." This song is probably twice as long as "Mighta" and is at least twice as ferocious. It is definitely influenced by Drive Like Jehu and I hope the final mix/performance will even come close to the power they conveyed. While the first few takes were adequate, each pass saw us make slight adjustments to the drum arrangement and we ended up getting it in 7 or 8 takes. I really look forward to laying down the guitars on this one because I want it to be fast and raw. Fast like the fastest, longest, and funnest water slide in the world yet raw and abrasive as if that water slide was actually a mile of steep, sun-drenched, shingled rooftop. Yep.

We took Monday off and Tuesday we commenced to recording a bass track on "Hard Head," a song we tracked with Joe way back in August but had left alone because I didn't have a bass line. On Monday I wrote the bass line and I think it works great with the drum track and helps propel the song in just the right way. Also on Tuesday, Jim and I finally ordered the neck for the guitar he's gonna build for me. I can't wait to have a new electric... while it will be great to have an electric with new frets, a new instrument often provides a fresh outlook on songwriting and I'm hoping that will bring new tunes!

Just going to work everyday...

2008-12-05T10:41:00.007-06:00

Since that last session with Rick, Jim and I have been in Overdubville, creating sweet acoustic, electric and bass guitar sounds. On "Repeat the Answers," we used my Ric through the Bassman and it came out like hot buttered sex. For the electric guitar, we used the Telecaster through a Marshall and a Bassman amp. After tracking a doubled vocal, the song was alive and walking. just needs lead guitar on the bridge and the cacophonous intro I dreamed up.

"Drop Me A Line" came to life as soon as we put the simple bass line and acoustic rhythm tracks. I'm glad that Joe and Jim told me to trust my gut because I did and those acoustics slid the swing right in there over Joe's straight drum beat. Marvelous! At some point we put on some electrics that took the songs to a whole nother level. I did a Keith Richards-esque lead part using the Tele through the Blues Jr. and then did another to fill out the verses and harmony leads at the end of the verses and choruses.

We had a very productive session on Monday, working on "Pining for Verona." Up until that day, we only had drums and a Fender P-bass track (that had been tracked quite awhile ago). We busted out the Stars and Stripes SG with the P-90 that's tuned a whole step low to get that thick sludge we needed. We ran it through the Marshall that was turned all the way up yet employing a power brake so as to save Jim's windows and siding. Though this sounded great, it wasn't until we used the Les Paul Standard through the same rig that the song came to swampy life. Those two guitars together just gelled the whole thing. The issue at this point became the choruses. The acoustic that we had first recorded was practically useless in the chorus so we tracked big open chords on the now-capoed Les Paul and it worked perfectly. It's ideas like that that make me happy I hired Jimmy Jam to produce this joint! I then went back with Stars and Stripes and recorded a simple arpeggiated line to spice up the choruses. On the last chorus, I doubled the arpeggio with a higher melody, again on the Stars and Stripes. By the end of this session, we were totally stoked on this song. Heavy duty catchy rock. Yes.

During our next few overdub sessions, I want to tackle "Paid The Way." I think that little ditty will come to life with some sliding acoustic and slinky electric tracks. And bass, of course.

We added acoustic and bass to "On Your Own" but that song won't really come to life until we get piano to double the bass line and fill out the rhythm track with some syncopated chords.

The Light Is On

2008-11-25T09:34:00.006-06:00

It was a month or so before Jim and I got together again because on the 7th of September he went out of town for three weeks. With seven drum tracks in the bag, we were both itching to get to work overdubbing the instruments that would bring these songs to life. However, while Jim was out of town I had written a song called "On Your Own" and I wanted to track it immediately. A drummer friend of ours we'll call "Rick" had just moved back to town so we enlisted him to give us a fantastic drum track. For this track, Jim lowered the tone of one of his floor toms to match that of Ringo's floor tom in "A Day in the Life." Also, we put tea towels over the drums to give them a really nice deadened vibe. Also, we instructed Rick to not play crash or ride cymbals to provide maximum acoustic drum tone.

I envisioned a drastic edit on this song and decided the best way to achieve the desired effect would be to abut two different recordings. The idea was inspired by Dinosaur jr's "They Always Come" with a dash of The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" over the shoulder for good luck and measure. So on this day, "On Your Own" was recorded as two different drum tracks and will be two separate recordings until the mixing process. The session proceeded in a similar fashion to the previous two with Rick and I fine-tuning the song's performance aspects while Jim fine-tuned the microphone placement and recording levels. All said and done, it only took a couple of hours and the whole thing was done. I think the outcome will be really cool and the recording's concept will add a nice flavor to the overall texture of the album.

Jamming with Edward

2008-11-18T15:28:00.003-06:00

The second session for this project was on September 2 when my friend "Eddie Watkins" came to record a couple songs. I had sent him mp3s so he was slightly primed for the session. The two that I decided to track were "Repeat the Answers" and one I had written less than a month before called "Pining For Verona." This session went very smoothly, with Jim setting up microphones and getting sounds while Eddie and I rehearsed the songs. As before, I was in the "iso" room playing the Jazzmaster through the Crate and delivering a guide vocal. All the guide vocals suck but some of the guide guitar has a nice quality to it.

I've been thinking that "Repeat the Answers" would be a nice lead off to the album... we'll see. I have an idea for an intro to the song that would be a cool first thing to hear. So by the end of this session we had seven drum tracks and we had only spent maybe a total of 10 hours recording. Awesome.

A Beginning

2008-11-07T14:42:00.011-06:00

I've tried to post something that I wrote a few years ago, just to get this thing started, but it didn't happen. Obviously. I wish I could write about certain things going on in my life right now but, alas! I am forever bound by the attorney/client privilege.

In light of this, this column will largely be the chronicle of an enormous project I have begun. It is a recording project that is the culmination of years of songwriting, several tumultuous relationships, one wonderful relationship, and one great friendship. Hopefully, this will be of some interest to someone. If it isn't, I don't care.

My friend Jim has a small recording studio in his home. Jim has great taste in music and it was when we played together in a local band for a few months that our friendship began. Jim and I have many things in common (name three) and this past summer we decided to join forces and record my songs at his home studio. I have been sitting on over 20 songs and he wanted to improve his recording skills so after a few discussions, we made plans to start.

First of all, I didn't want to record with a set group of guys. I'm starting to realize the band structure I know and love so well is largely a performance based concept. I am currently in two bands with incomplete recording projects. I would go bonkers if I waited to fit my backlog of songs into either of those groups' recording schedules. Also, if I played every instrument myself, the project would move along a lot quicker. So I lined up five drummers to learn different songs and come in one at a time to record them. I would then hole up with Jim and play basses, guitars, keyboards, etc...

On August 27, we had our inaugural session with the first drummer. Let's call this drummer Joe English. Joe's really, really good and he agreed to record some drum tracks for me. Having only one rehearsal on the 26th, he came over to Jim's studio and recorded 5 drum tracks in about 6 hours. Badass. Before each song, Jim experimented with microphone techniques while Joe and I fine tuned the song's structure and feel.

We started with a song called "Nine Years." It seemed to be the most complex of the five songs that were slated to track so we thought we should tackle it while we were fresh. Joe totally grasped the concept and after molding the bridge into place, we got the song in just a few takes.

The other songs we tracked are "Hard Head," "Drop Me A Line," "Paid The Way," and a cover of "Listen To What The Man Said." There was an issue with "Drop" because the tune has a built in swing to it but my instinct wanted Joe to play a straight beat, allowing the guitars to give the swing. It didn't sound right while we tracked because I was only playing a scratch guitar, leaving the arrangement sounding empty and "not working." However, Jim and Joe insisted that if my gut and brain said Joe should play a straighter beat, then we should trust my gut.

"Hard Head" was fun because Jim slathered compression on the drums and Joe played to the sound, creating an awesome back beat for a white boy funk exploration. "Paid The Way" couldn't have been an easier song because I wanted the drum track to be kick and snare only, in the vein of "Black Country Woman" from Physical Graffiti. We recorded "Listen..." at the end of the session, after the real work was done, and nailed it in two takes. I was obsessed with this song over the summer and had to record my own version. It is inspired by the "Wings Over America" version and will be a two guitar, bass, and drums interpretation meaning, it will not have piano or saxophone or that lame "the wonder of it all" section...

All things considered, the session was a complete success and we all felt great about the work he had done in a relative short period of time.