Grimace in the City

I'm really looking forward to performing in San Francisco Friday night at the Plough and the Stars!

I'll be playing the keyboard with my oldster rock 'n' roll band The Tunebuckets. It will be my first time out with them. I joined the band as the drummer, but later switched to keys. I don't consider myself a keyboard player but I'm working hard at it. Because of my back issues and creeping arthritis playing drums was becoming painful. I really like the Tunebuckets and wanted to stay in the band. Last year at our annual "Sparkstock" July 4th block party I played Matt's Wurly with the Tunebuckets while Jim sat in on drums. The keyboard added a cool new dimension to the sound. I now. have a Nord Electro 3 that is a great little instrument and emulates the Wurly perfectly (also Farfisa, B3, Rhodes and Vox Jaguar). The 'buckets have a new drummer, a young guy named Matt (different Matt). We go on first at 9:30.

Then the Backorders will play at 10:30. We'll be playing "Grimace", of course. Last time out December at the Starry Plough) Robin and Greg were absent and Erin Lyman and Ken Mahru subbed for them (they did a GREAT job). Sam Douglass is now more or less permanent on lead guitar. I have moved to keys. I've actually been the keyboard player ever since Eric Kampman left the band early last year. The band will be full strength for this show it will be a first for a "Grimace"performance. The December show, as I said before, had no Robin and Greg and the two September (Stork Club and Red Devil Lounge) shows had no Sam (I was on lead guitar and there were no keys) - so this will be a treat!

Sam and Erin's band, the Fireflies, will perform at 11:30. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing them for the first time. I'm hoping that Erin will join us for our set-closing rendition of the old 60's hit "Sukiyaki" - sung in Japanese.

We are doing this show for a couple of reasons: 1. T.R. Hunt books first Fridays at the club and 2. I want my muse and poster model, the very beautiful May Mui, to have a chance to hear the album that she "inspired" before we record it. I am very proud of these songs and the Backorders know their way around them pretty good now.

Here's the poster - designed by me and executed with aplomb by Jim "Boom Boom" Usher

April will be a quiet month but in May we'll be out again. The annual Spirit Vibrations-sponsored Bob Dylan birthday concert is happening on the 24th at the Red Devil Lounge and I'll be there with the Backorders (Erin and Ken will be subbing for Robin and Greg again) and earlier that month - the 11th - I'll be doing an "unplugged" show at Berkeley's new Hippie Gypsy Cafe with Robin and Greg. We're calling out trio N.O.S. for "New Old Stock". Matthew Joseph Payne has volunteered to be our opening act.

The other cool thing about the Friday show is that it will be our first "All Peavey All the Time" performance. Amps, guitars and drums are all Peavey! Some musicians turn up their snobby noses when I say that we are a Peavey-playin' band. It bothers me, but I understand. I used to be snobby about equipment until I realized that I was the one who was missing out. When I started collecting 70's-era R.O.C drums, some of my musician friends thought I was joking. - until they heard the drums. My Reuther drum set is my favorite of all the sets I've ever owned. I have recently aquired a - what else? - Peavey set - not the expensive "collectible"  Radial Pro kind, but the cheap import "International" series. Put on some good heads and tuned 'em up and they sound GREAT.

So, why Peavey? Why not Fender or another brand? Well, I'll tell ya: I remember going to see Elvis Costello in Berkeley in 1978. He was with the Attractions on his first big tour of the States, playing songs from My Aim is True and the soon-to-be-released This Year's Model. I remember the Peavey amps they used and how tinny and awful the sound was. My opinion was: "Peavey, yuck!" Fast forward to last year. Greg and I were in the market for a 40 to 50 watt tube amps for our guitars. The Twin Reverbs were a little too heavy and powerful for the clubs we were playing. I was thinking Deluxe Reverb but damn they were expensive! One day Greg showed up with a Peavey Valve King 112, a beautiful, mellow little 50 watter that was perfect. I went out and got one right away. The guy who sold my amp to me also threw in a Peavey TNT bass amp. Then I remembered that somewhere in the basement was...a Peavey KB100 keyboard amp....and the rest, as they say, is history.

So let me say in closing: Peavey, Backorders, Tunebuckets, Fireflies, May, T.R., Spirit Vibrations, Friday night, Plough and Stars....BE THERE!!!

It's Tomorrow

The Starry Plough show is tomorrow. It will be the first and possibly only show for this particular band, which I'm calling the Backorders Social Scene because I'm borrowing a couple of members of Sam's band to fill in for Olga and Greg who were not supposed to be in town for the show. Of course now Olga and Greg WILL be in town, but will not be performing because Ken and Erin - the replacements - have gone through the trouble of learning "Grimace".  Ken will be playing acoustic guitar in Greg's place and Erin will be singing Robin's parts. They are both very much up to the job. Ken is a GREAT drummer, but he's also a very capable guitarist and Erin has a very pleasant and musical voice. Sam will be singing Greg's parts Wew're having a rehearsal tonight.

I will also be playing guitar in Lizzie's set. I'm really excited about this for a couple of reasons: 1. I get to play guitar, which I no longer do in the Backorders 2. I'm learning new songs not of my own choosing that are slightly out of my comfort zone. 3. I get to play with Lizzie, who is just fabulous. We've been practicing for the last couple of weeks here at Famous House Studio and it's coming together nicely. Lizzie and I are even talking about getting a group together - adding a rhythm section to back us up - and  putting together a set and playing out.

Today I'm going to go to Mojo Stone's record store gig in Berkeley and talk to them about backlining the show tomorrow. I know that when bands are on the road they don't like to leave their stuff out in the van so they may insist on using their own equipment. Maybe they'll be willing to share their bass rig if not their drums.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to hear them too. From what I've heard online they're kinda pop/blue/rock.

On the 8th of next month - a Sunday afternoon - I'm returning to Ex'pressions to continue working on the acoustic remake of Winter Comes and Goes. The version I made with Eric back in '09 got away from me a little and the original concept was lost. The one I'm doing now - provisionally titled Winter Comes and Goes/a (I remembered last night that original title was going to be The Recovery and there was actually a title song that was dropped from the track listing) - will be just voice and acoustic guitars (and banjo. yes, banjo. maybe). I'm going to get all the tracks down at Ex'pressions as I can get sessions and later mix it with Greg. That's the plan now, anyway.

Back to tomorrow's show: this was supposed to be my last live performance ever. Back issues, inability to drive, seizure disorder, can't carry my own equipment, can't even really play guitar anymore....all of this has created a situation that makes live performing a daunting endeavor for me. Add to all of that the general slog of putting together a show in the first place - getting a show, getting the entire band to show up - whoops they can't all be there - find substitutes and teach them the songs....I could go on. BUT I've made a commitment to my friend May that I will play at the Plough and Stars in San Francisco in March so that she will have a chance to see me perform the songs that I wrote in her honor. And now of course I want to do some shows with Lizzie.

So, if you are here in Northern California and you're reading this I hope you're coming out to see one of my last live performances - and my only performance with the "Backorders Social Scene" - and my first ever performance with new musical partner Lizzie Cuevas!

Lizzie 'n' me rehearsing at Famous House. Lizzie is playing my Epi Hummingbird and I'm strumming  Woody, my custom-made Strat. For the show I'll be playing my turquoise Epi semi-hollow. Note the "Rock-em Sock-em" t-shirt.

Oh yeah and I've made an early New Years's resolution to get back to work on my historical blog "Every Song". I haven't done a thing with that since September.

Saturday Night

This morning was the last rehearsal before the Ex'pressions webcast on Monday. Turns out we have about 50 minutes of music - the webcast is an hour so that will give us the opportunity to redo any songs that we. I actually wrote a song last night to take the place of the Bob Dylan song we were doing. It's an Em I-IV-V so I just wrote my own words to it. The title is "A Month Away from Summer" and it fits right in lyrically with the whole "Grimace" concept thing. I'm looking forward to this performance - it will really be the first time I will stand and just sing (I'll play some keyboard, but I'll stand for that too). At the Dylan show and the Kinks show last year I played keyboard but I sat for the performance. It's quite liberating to just sing.

Here is the drawing that inspired "Grimace":

 It's amazing to me that this drawing inspired such a burst of creativity - a burst that hasn't entirely abated. Of course. there are things going on in my life now that are worth writing about - but I wonder if I would have actually written anything if  I hadn't seen this drawing?

We recorded this morning's rehearsal and as soon as I figure how to do it,  I'll post a song or two!

Starting

This will be where I'll be posted news and upcoming events!

Monday night I'll be doing a webcast from Ex'pressions College in Emeryville with the Backorders. We'll be performing songs from Grimace, my new album that I haven't recorded yet. I've done a few of these webcasts in the past and they're always a lot of fun. It's supposed to go out at 11pm, but sometimes we get going as early as 10:30. Sam Douglass, who played lead guitar with Jonathan Mann's band, the Rock Cookie Bottoms (I was the drummer) has been playing with us for the past two months. So, besides me (I'm playing keyboard now) and Sam, the Backorders are: Robin Famous (guitar and vocals), Greg Reznick (acoustic guitar and vocals), Mark Stone (bass) and Jim Usher (drums) - basically the same Backorders you've come to know and love over the years only now with a really good lead guitarist.

My nephew Mikey Reznick came over one day earlier this year with his i-pad and drew a cartoon-y line sketch of me, which I immediately claimed for the cover of my next album. This inspired me to begin writing the songs that became - or, will become - the Grimace album. I've been performing the songs with the Backorders for the last several months and we've really grown into them.

Here's a link to the Ex'pressions College webcam. Just click here Monday night to watch the performance.

http://www.expression.edu/sound_arts/webstreaming_camera/

This will be out first outing with Sam on guitar.

On Friday, December 30th (New Year's Eve Eve!) we'll be taking "Grimace" to Berkeley's Starry Plough Nightclub. A band of youngsters from L.A. who call themselves Mojo Stone will be headlining and the opener will be none other than Lizzie Cuevas of the Glowing Stars! The Starry Plough has a special series of shows called "Five Dollar Fridays" - I think it's the last Friday of every month - so not only do you get to see a great show and hear some great music, you get a bargain! We'll be going on at 10:30, give or take.

Julie Bernstein of Funcruch Photo will be documenting the Ex'pressions show. She's a fantastic photographer and I'm looking forward to working with her again. You can check out her work here:

http://funcrunchphoto.com/music

I've also been working at Ex'pressions recording Winter Come and Goes/a which is - will be - an all-acoustic version of my 2009 album Winter Comes and Goes. I've so far got 5 of the 10 songs in various stages of incomplete. The track listing will be a little different because I'm going back to the original group of songs intended for the album. When I did the first version with Eric Kampman producing in '09, some songs were dropped and others were added for various reasons.

Here's a poster for the December show. Thanks to Jim Usher for the design and a very special thank you to my poster girl, May!

Famous House Studio has recently been revamped. I've isolated the drums and Greg and I have set it up for recording - we practice now directly through the board using headphones. It makes for a much clearer - and ear-saving - mix. I should be posting some rehearsal recordings soon.

That's all for now - I hope you'll tune in on Monday night and/or plan on coming out next month to see it happen in person!