Friday Unrelated Information

1. The Drum Doctor and his Literate Lady recently moved into an apartment in the swanky Avenues neighbor hood of SLC. Tomorrow, to christen their new pad, they will be hosting a housewarming party. Interestingly, it is starting mid-afternoon; to get the partying started early, I wonder, or to ensure its early end? I will have to find out.

2. Earlier in the day, the final door-to-door campaign push for west-side state-rep candidate Angela Romero will be going on. I am planning to participate, although the last time that I did a certain needlessly hostile former friend was there as well, emanating ice cold vibes and insisting to meet the campaign manager in a separate spot at the end of the walk - I suppose because, oh my god, I am just such a dangerous and terrifying person, she feels threatened being anywhere near me. I mean, god forbid, I might try to say "hello"...Oh, it would just ruin her day. I certainly don't need to senselessly torment myself, but I want to do all I can to push Romero to victory, even if that means exposing myself to another round of passive hatred from a delusional narcissist.

3. I have three new songs in the works: one is kind of a ska/punk number with some interesting changes, another is a lament for lovely girls that self-sabotage due to insecurity, and the final an ode to my so-called 'crazy' best friend Mr. Bombs. The final song is a little bit disjointed, with a distinctly different feel to the verse and chorus, which I think mirrors the theme of the lyrics - although Remodel Man just found it frustrating. I was showing the song to the band last week, and Remodel Man proclaimed "That was fucking confusing! Dude, I don't play math rock!". While I share his distaste for songs that are needlessly complicated or overly jammy, I think the song is an interesting mash-up of styles, with just a slightly unconventional structure...but, perhaps it will have to stay in my solo catalog...

Have a great weekend everybody, and don't let the haters bring you down!

Friday Unrelated Information: Choose Wisely

This Friday night, there are no less than three (3!) events competing for my attendance:

1. The violinist from Genre Zero has taken up with an additional band, the gypsy ensemble "Juana Ghani". They are playing a show tonight at Fats Grill. Support our fiddler! And also, maybe, ask her about that certain alt-rock band that she plays in...

2. I've been volunteering on weekends with a friend, Angela Romero, who is running for the Utah State House of Representatives. Tonight, she is hosting a fundraiser/birthday party, with a 'roaring twenties' theme. The theme was explained to me as stemming from the fact that her home district is #26, so throw on your best zoot suit (isn't that from the twenties? Or more like the thirties? Oh well), shiny dancing does, and tear it up with SLC's moving-and-shaking young democrats. At the Frida Bistro/Rico Warehouse. 

3. It's the 'First Friday' of the month, and that means that the monthly community gathering is going on in the garden under the billboard, AKA Urban Growth Community Garden. This is probably where I will actually end up, as it is just a few blocks down the street. Also, I am curious to see if those hooligans will come back!

Have a great weekend, and be sure to check back next week for the return of "War Story Wednesday"!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Last night Mom, Frog, and I sang karaoke at Pipa's Asian Tapas Bar. If you haven't been to Pipa, you are really missing out. They've won the City Weekly "Best of Utah" award for best Asian fusion, and it is well deserved. From standards like BBQ pork and lettuce wraps, to exotic dishes with shark and eel, Pipa is hands-down the best 'chinese food' I have ever ingested. You're life is sorely lacking if you haven't experience the culinary masterstroke of their Snowball Shrimp. The new karaoke night, Thursdays from 7-10pm, is a lot of fun too. I tore up The Cars' "Just What I Needed," Mom nailed "I Will Survive," and Frog even stepped up to do an especially accurate rendition of Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places".

2. Tonight, Genre Zero is putting on a very special dinner show at Sun and Moon Cafe. What is it that is going to make this show special? We're going to break out all of our current material, and maybe even a few of the newer songs that we've been working out. Also between our two whole-band sets our bassist, the legendary Remodel Man, will be performing a solo acoustic set. Following that, I'll be dusting off a few of my most personal and poignant songs, before the band rejoins me to crank out our dazzling electric set.

3. Though I don't attend any more, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't stop by The Peoples' Market this Sunday, for their annual Animal Appreciation Day. This has been one of the most enjoyable days at the market in past years, featuring dogs and cats up for adoption, various animal advocacy groups, and the pets of vendors and customers alike. Perhaps if a certain someone has cooled off enough to no longer consider my mere presence an act of harassment (as the police advised it could be construed - hence my lack of participation in the market this summer), I might even stop by briefly, as I am looking to adopt a kitten...

Have a great weekend everybody!

War Story Wednesday: It's Not so Simple...

For this week's installment of War Story Wednesday, I wanted to elaborate on my previous description of the small-mindedness and naked aggression often present in the military, and to offer a counterpoint to some of the responses I received. The feedback I received regarding the write-up from last week, while thankfully free of any hateful personal attacks against myself, was entirely one-sided and also overly simplified. I would hope that by offering my (few) readers a deeper insight into my own wartime experiences, and by extension the military culture and lifestyle in general, they might be inspired to engage their peers in an informed dialogue. This same hope was one reason why, during my street performances this summer, my guitar case displayed a sign reading: "Iraq War Veteran Musician - ON TOUR - tips greatly appreciated!" The other reasons for the sign were more selfish in nature, namely the possibility that pedestrians who might otherwise pass by would see the sign and instead stop to listen, and perhaps be more willing to leave tips. The sign worked: one listener, who I can only assume was a veteran himself, left me a $12 tip! However a rival busker, already upset that I had arrived early and taken "the best spot in town", saw the sign and seized on it as a point of contention. I had the suspicion that he was just trying to run me off, but he was a Vietnam-era veteran himself, and he hostilely questioned me as to what being a veteran had to do with music. I tried to explain to him that my identity as a veteran is just as important to me and as relevant as the identity of being a musician; many of my songs are specifically inspired by either my own service (such as my love-letter to the stateside base where I spent most of my enlistment), the inspirational service of others ("Folded Flag", an older recording of a song written when my friends were deploying yet again while I was left behind), or the aftermath (the previously mentioned tribute to Dan Lessig). He finally left in disgust, calling me "low" and "shameful". In the moment, shocked by my accuser's bitter recriminations, I forgot to tell him what I have said here - that I aspire to keep the cost of the recent wars in the public consciousness, to keep the dialogue going, and to help people better understand the veterans that they know.

What I am trying to get across with the story of the accosting busker is an illustration of the intent behind these long-winded, emotionally exhausting, and sometimes scathing posts. What I am not trying to do is merely glorify myself, show off, say "look how cool I am and look at all the bad-ass stuff that I did". Honestly, I didn't really do anything 'bad-ass'; I was a truck-driver, and not a very good one. When I told the story of preventing the beatings that my fellows desperately wanted to mete out to civilian detainees, I wasn't trying to put myself above anyone, nor was I fishing for compliments or sympathy. Rather I was trying to present my view of what happened, how I handled it, and how it continues to effect me.

Further, while I did not condone and certainly continue to oppose unnecessary violence, I do understand where the anger was coming from. My deployment was fairly representative, I think, of what the vast majority of our troops experienced during the majority of their deployments. That is, long periods of boredom punctuated by short periods of extremely grueling and physically demanding work, all under the shadow of seemingly unending mortar and rocket attacks and the looming unseen threat of roadside bombs. Of the entire reenforced battalion stationed at our forward base, only a handful of Marines ever even laid eyes on a known insurgent who was actively engaged in hostilities. Rather, mortars land inside the wire, the Quick Reaction Force rolls out to investigate...and find abandoned mortar tubes, if anything. Convoys and combat patrols range the freeways night and day, often without event, sometimes spotting IEDs which Explosive Ordnance Disposal comes out to defuse, and sometimes they miss those IEDs...usually with no enemy to retaliate against. Intelligence operatives spend weeks gathering information and cultivating informants, only for the raid mission to inadvertently search the wrong town.

So...I fully understand the anger and frustration, the ceaseless fear and stress, and the feeling that here they are, we have them...this is the enemy! We've finally got them in our grasp! Only most of the time, it is just not that simple...

Echo-Four-India, out

Friday Illogical Ideations

1. I believe in ghosts, but not in the way you might expect. I think that when we actively remember a person who has passed, the chemicals and electricity in our brains making up the thoughts and memories related to that person form the 'ghost'. When we are faced with a decision and contemplate how the deceased would have handled it, or draw upon an inspirational person who is no longer living, that is the ghost 'speaking' to us. I know, kind of strange, but I am a strange person I guess. One of the songs I do, Shut Your Mouth, is my abrasive tribute to a fallen classmate and fellow veteran whose death was mocked and used as fodder for gossip by many of our more immature and insensitive peers; I like to think that live performances of this song are a kind of seance.

2. I've been struggling lately to find a good balance between promoting my music and being a pushy, tiresome, overly zealous used car salesman. On the one hand, if I do nothing to 'push' the tunes on people, no one is going to hear them. On the other, I have had a fair amount of people on the dreary facebook get upset at me for inviting them to all of our shows, and especially for posting about the shows on their profile. Ashlee"Pay attention to my blog that's all about promiscuous sex and my eating disorder so I can feel better about myself"Raggle even called me an internet troll and un-friended me because I 'shared' a couple of our show pages on her facebook wall. It's my belief that as an artist I have a bit more leeway that the average huckster. That is what I consider my music - art. I do like to have a good time when playing, and I hope the audience does, but I go to great lengths to write meaningful lyrics, and I aspire to write interesting, creative, worthwhile music as well. For me it is about something very different than just shaking asses, impressing babes with swagger, and getting free drinks.

3. In the same vein at the previous item, I have often been accused (lately even more so) of taking myself, life, and generally everything too seriously. I am constantly being told to lighten up, take it easy, get a thicker skin, not to worry about things, to stop making a big deal out of it, et cetera, etc. There have been some situations that were supremely frustrating, because these were things that I felt really deserved to be 'taken seriously', yet my carefree companions kept to their lackadaisical disposition and continued to encouraged me to do the same. A prime example: several months back while on a weekend shooting trip, the guys were doing several things that violate the four basic weapons safety rules, and when I stopped them to give them some instruction, they kept interrupting me with funny anecdotes about shooting accidents...all while they continued to wave their guns around with fingers on the trigger (although I had made them unload prior to my safety lecture). Now I am not trying to lay judgement on those dudes, I certainly wasn't trying to ruin their fun, and one of them did eventually speak up on my behalf and helped to reign in the others. But it was my strong impression that when I insisted on shutting down the shooting to give them a safety talk, they were thinking something like "Oh god, here he goes again. I've handled guns a lot before, why can't he just lighten up?" But seriously - that is how people get accidentally shot! Oh well...I am probably just over thinking all of this and taking it all too seriously.

Monday Musical Madness

As they say in Utah, oh my heck! The show at Urban Lounge was easily our best yet, owing much to a greatly improved violin rig and a deft setup by the house's sound man. In case you were wondering, our fiddler used the pickup I got in Tucson and played through our drummer's amp, which was miked along with everything else and fed through the house PA. Other factors contributing to the high quality of the sound included miking the drums (the kick in particular), and the best monitor setup we've played through yet. Every member of the band had their own dedicated monitor wedge, and the engineer made specific mixes for each of us. For example: the drums and bass had mostly each other in their respective monitors, the makings of a tight rhythm section, while I had a little bit of everything and a lot of my own mic. I can't stress enough how great the sound was on stage; pretty much every other show I've played has found me straining to hear the band, and especially my place in it. In the past I haven't been able to hear my voice, resulting in my pushing it too far, hurting my throat and the audience's ears. Thank you so much, Urban Lounge, for your professional stage and sound!

We weren't the only ones who benefited from the exceptional audio. The bluesy band that followed us, Candy's River House, sounded just like the gun-slinging pros that they are. The Wild Ones, seeming to disregard the owner/soundman's concerns about recent noise complaints and excessive stage volume, blasted the crowd with a sonic assault more evocative of a festival or stadium than a nightclub. The next group was an amalgamation of recent transplant Ammon Waters, who was releasing a single, and The Red on Black, and they sounded great as well. Everyone involved had a good time, sounded great, and even got a little bit of pay.

While I am beginning my job search in earnest today, I am also going to continue working on my home recoding projects. Last week, on the eleventh anniversary of "9/11", I recorded and posted some of my songs relating to my military experience. There are several more, and I'd like to get them polished to a high sonic sheen, with hopes of releasing them this coming Veterans Day in November. Also in the works is a bumping, thumping, sardonic punk song to be performed with The Wild Ones' energetically bad-ass singer. Stay tuned for a demo!

Are You Ready to Rock?

Our good friends The Wild Ones hooked us up with this show; in fact, they were originally going to have us headline, but circumstances changed and now we'll be opening. I'm not complaining - Urban Lounge is one of the hottest venues in town, and, our mostly middle-aged-working-stiff fanbase will be more likely to see us if we play earlier in the evening. Doors open at 9:00, we'll go on around 9:30. Not sure what the cover charge is, but I assume there is one. While I assume that we won't get a piece of it,  the more people who show up and pay early in the night will help us look good. The same talent buyers run Kilby Court, and we'll probably get more promotional backing for our upcoming show there if we make a good impression this Thursday. Hope to see you there!

Finally...Friday Unrelated Information

1. All of us big-time gaming nerds let out a string of collective "ooohs!" and "ahhhs!" a while back when this video of a life-size Warhammer 40,000 Rhino APC made the rounds. Created as a promotional item for the PC game Dawn of War II, this 'model' is actually a functional vehicle. Now, while seeing one of our tiny toys enlarged to human scale is plenty cool in itself, imagine how much cooler it would be to see this tank engage in a demolition derby with some similarly life-sized xenos vehicles. Well, that geek's wet dream may make the transition from our imaginations to the plane of physical reality sooner than expected. Madd Matt recently returned from Burning Man 2012 to report that this year saw a new theme camp added to the party on the Playa: Warhammer 40,000 Orks, replete with madly-engineered 'wartrukks' and 'warbuggies', green body paint, and trophy Ultramarine heads. While he wasn't able to get any photos, and we've yet to track any down online, I believe that Space Marines and Orks will be staging full-scale mock-battles in just a few short years. Keep your eyes on You-Tube!

2. I am now back home in SLC. Tuesday night, Genre Zero practiced for the first time in over two months, and while we a were all definitely rusty, it was a great relief that no one had outright forgotten songs. We've got several shows coming up, stay tuned for specifics. Also, I showed the band two new songs that I finished while on the road. I was able to record some partial demos with Mr. Bombs (who is thankfully out of the hospital and doing better than ever) which I plan to finish up over the weekend. I've rearranged the loft the create a cool home studio space. Check it out:

It's kind of set up in stations. From left to right: the "Leads & Overdubs" station at the desk has my first instrument ever, a crazy Yamaha keyboard with synth-style controls for custom sound-sculpting, the center is the "Control Station" with the mixer, monitors, and laptop, and on the right would be the "Main/Rhythm" area with digital piano. Okay, so I know it is silly to think that my little music area is cool and any kind of 'studio'...but it IS cool and it is the best studio I've got at the moment.

3. I know that this made the internet rounds a long, long time ago, but John Waters is still right.

War Story Wednesday: In the Trenches of Rock

Well, there isn't much time so I'll explain it quickly: Above you can see the recording session for Secret Meetings. Below is a mixing process to get the basic tracks off of 4-track cassette and onto a digital recorder:

 Then tonight we are going over to record the vocals.

Thoroughly Rocked-Out Thursday

The full-on Rock'n'Roll schedule doesn't particularly lend itself to making regularly and timely blog posts, I've found. My days in Tucson this past week have generally started around noon, with a pretty consistent morning routine of coffee, cigarettes, and some combination of television and acoustic guitar practice. I'll start to get my act together around three or four in the afternoon, making calls and packing up gear, and head downtown anywhere from 5-7:00 PM. Then it is rock-out time for Mr. Bombs and I, or he'll have rehearsal with HAIRSPRAYFIREANDGIRLS...or maybe one of the other bands that share the practice space will have rehearsal. I've taken to calling the practice space the "Rock Office," "Office of Rocking Out," and other similarly silly epithets.

The photo above is of the band Secret Meetings, an excellent band featuring a husband/wife bassist/vocalist team and the HAIRSPRAY Joshes. Mister Bombs is going to be doing some recording for them this Saturday, and I'll get to play assistant engineer. The plan is to isolate the amps, so that a live recording of the whole band will have each instrument on a channel for mixing. Noah and I recorded takes of two of my songs that way, but we haven't really listened to them. Speaking of Noah and I rocking out, our show this past Sunday was incredible! The touring bands Olsen Twinns and Little Ruckus made the dance a party! The whole show was laid back, low key, and relaxed, but, also totally punk rock at the same time. Mister Bombs and I were very well received as the openers - the songs were much more rock than dance, but the all-ages audience of roughly twenty were into the music and took all of my remaining demos. Somehow, the touring incarnation of 'Genre Zero' (AKA: Me, playing under the band name which was made by Robb, the Doctor...of drums...the instrument being played by Mister Bombs, who is usually one of the best guitar players around and created some Fruity Loops, simple synth backup tracks that we played with for 2 songs) fit just right. Before the pop-punk-dance bands, Donut Shop Death (AKA: Mari Safari) played a set of frosted-flake-level g-g-great punk songs, like I am talking Weezer-level good. She also used a backtrack for her songs, prompting Mister Bombs to ask if she might want him as a drummer at her next show. Then Olsen Twinns and Little Ruckus taught us all about Sweat Power - go to their show and you can find out, too. To close the evening down, gracious host and undisputed most-enthusiastic-dancer Mullarkey retired some of his Run On Sunshine songs by performing them post-dance, outside in the misty sprinkles, and a-Capella. Awesomely great songs about cats and life in Austin MadMatt generously drove our gear and helped us with the load in-and-out. You remember his awesome bus, right:

There is a very 'artsy' panorama wherein the frames totally don't line up but, everyone who was there is in a frame: The Gals checking out the cool stuff taped up inside the bus in the blue, MaddMatt driving in the dark red, and me grimacing in a silly way that I meant to say "Party in the Bus"...but just looks scary. Tuesday after Geeks Who Drink, we all went to check out Matt's new pad:

Tonight, the Electric Blankets (who also share the practice space) are playing a benefit show / roast of Tyler, a friend of theirs who was jumped and beaten just a few blocks from 4th Avenue, the bar district in Tucson. He had several bones in his face broken, jaw split...all for telling some guys to leave a lady alone who was trying to tell them to get lost. Someone got mad at me when I was busking, and luckily I escaped a savage beating, but Tucson is a rough-and-tumble kind of town...

These kinds of shenanigans like rehearsing for shows, going to shows, playing in shows, hanging out with all my old friend in a party bus...well, they last until 3-4:00 AM, and sometimes I'll still be up for a bit after that. Hard to find time for the morning blog write-up when I am going to sleep looking at the sunrise...

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Tucson has this establishment, called "The Loft Cinema", that is the local indie theater. They also happen to serve beers that you can take into the movie, a la Brewvies in SLC. Tonight, a group of us are getting together to go to the late-night showing of High Fidelity. This film was highly influential on the young Mr. Bombs and myself, in fact it is probably the source of much of our music pretension and snobbery, and the book by Nick Hornby upon which it is based has been on my 'need to read' list for a long time. Maybe after tonight I'll be re-energized to seek said book out.

2. We've got a lot of work to do so that we will be ready to rock worlds at a show we're playing this Sunday at The Pound. We've been working hard at getting the songs really fine-tuned, getting our loop timing just right, and building some dancy-ness into the tunes. It is a live dance music show. Sunday at 7 at the Pound: better bring your dancing shoes.

"Hell's Bells ringing, my secret music..."

So if you recall, I've been reading The Vampire Chronicles, by Anne Rice. While I am on the fifth book now, the second and third have a hefty number of pages devoted to Lestat, the vampire rock star. Interestingly, during the latter days of Lestat's mortal life he runs away from home to Marie Antoinette-era Paris with his friend, the soulful but rejected-by-the-masters violinist, Nicky. I wish that I had the books with me, or had a better memory, because there are some great descriptions of Nicky's playing. I remember one passage wherein the violin is described as being able to communicate emotions in a way that no other instrument can, that it is the most haunting. In the books, Lestat uses his vampiric powers of mimicry to play a medley of Nicky's songs for the Vampire Queen, causing her to briefly wake from her endless slumber. Also, it is rock music that awakens Lestat  in a 1980s New Orleans graveyard, and there are great descriptions of the "electronic amplification's ability to sustain notes into eternity".

Well, tonight marks the end of over a decade I've taken off from playing the violin. Once I got a guitar, I started to slack a lot in the school orchestra, and once I was out of high school I set the violin down completely. I even sold my old student violin. Being out here on the road, trying to put together shows and pickup bands, I've been frustrated by the lack of a string player. Then it dawned on me: we were walking through downtown Tucson right by the Chicago Music Store, where I rented a violin for the school Orchestra way back in 3rd grade. I got a nice contact pickup, so we can run the fiddle through an amp. This useful piece of gear will work better for the Genre Zero violinist back in SLC; she currently uses a clip-on mic that produces a lot of feedback. Also, I've acquired a clip-on all-instrument tuner, which I can use when playing the violin to make sure my notes are actually in tune. Finally, I had them rig my rental up with 'fret' markings. I'm only going to whip out the violin for a couple songs tonight. I'm either going to blow minds, or, get mine blown away by an angry audience. Here's hoping for the former!

Bored; Need Bombs

Well, I've been busy living the Tucson nightlife; band rehearsals, bar-hops, the Geeks who Drink Quiz. MadMatt has been kind enough to drive me around in his Volkswagon Bus-o-Awesome, Stella. Of course, my main man G Money has been carting me around plenty as well, and we've been practicing the songs at least once a day. Also, I wrote a new song about life on the road and it is inspired by all of my dear friends. It has been so deeply inspirational, humbling, and motivating to see so many of my closest and best people, even though we're now scattered across the country. Also, I have met a lot of really great people through my friends...and now we are all cross-country friends with each other!

Here is one of the old-gang reunion photos:

This already made the rounds on facebook, but, who knows...I might have to delete that again if I get too excited! You can see Matt's bus behind us.

 Also this week, Matt took me around showing me some of the best graffiti art around town. Tucson is pretty spectacular in that there are large swathes or town where you can't go a single block without seeing a psychedelic mural, a graffiti collage,  or some other excellent piece of art:

I really like how the artist used the decaying bricks as teeth! We're trying to put together a video (!!) to show off a bunch of the cool public art in Tucson, so keep your fingers crossed...

So Much to Do

I arrived in Tucson yesterday and there is so much to get done before the show tomorrow at Sky Bar.

Still too far out and overcomplicated (not to mention unprofitable) to try to bring some the the SLC band members in, but my good friend Noah and I have put together a solid pickup band, to play a one-off. Going to try to mix things and alternate between electric and acoustic guitars, and a little keyboard and synth.

So...I am off to take care of business. In the meantime, savor these words of wisdom I picked up from a friend of the family in Austin, who is Vietnam-era veteran of the "Old Corps":

Texas Express

Well my relaxing time in Austin is over, and I am presently waiting to board the bus that will carry me across Texas, back to the West, and into Tucson. I owe a huge thank-you to all of my extended family in Austin, and an apology to those in the Austin area that I wasn't able to connect with. From picking me up at the airport, introducing me to other musicians, and getting me to my two small shows...well, Austin isn't a very easy place to get around, and I genuinely appreciate the family support.

Thank you to my aunt for for being so nice and helpful. She turned me on to her extensive rubber stamp collection, so that I could class up the Genre Zero demos:

She also put on a private all-ages show in her house; it was somehow very different yet also very similar to the house shows in Lincoln. Basement music: Westlake suburbs style! I was hamming it up good for the children, and I think they enjoyed it:

It was a really good show, actually! I pushed my musical boundaries in a way that I haven't in a while, what with being able to fully indulge in the possibilities present in a rock n' roll band. I learned some hymns to play on the piano, which I think my aunt's church friends appreciated, and those were really fun to sing. Really good melodies, and challenging too; one refrain's lilting and lyrical melody line wound its way through my whole vocal range. The acoustics in the piano room and nearby living room, which the audience overflowed to, were excellent.

I am still trying to throw together a second leg of the tour; hopefully something in Vegas that maybe some of the band can come down to, then it is looking like a stop back through SLC (and potentially a show at Sun & Moon cafe), I'm trying to get some things going in Lincoln so as to stop back through there, relatives in Ada Oklahoma are putting something together, and then maybe my new musical friends in Austin can turn me on to something. For now, it is off to Tucson to put together the Sky Bar show. Rock on!

"In the Suburbs I, I Learned to Drive..."

 Well here I am, in the suburbs of Austin at my aunt's palatial hilltop villa, reconnecting with a lot of my extended family that I haven't seen since I was discharged from the Marine Corps five years ago. While the West Lake / Southwest Parkway area on the outskirts of Austin is hardly the "Weird Austin" of downtown and Sixth Street, it is still pretty cool - the Spike-Jonze directed short film "Scenes from the Suburbs," included with the deluxe edition of Arcade Fire's album "The Suburbs," was filmed here. My first night in town I was lucky enough to meet some local musicians, via my father's brother, and we had a very enjoyable evening sharing our music with each other.

I did get some sad news yesterday. One of the bands in our little West-SLC music clique, "The Wild Ones", is breaking up. Always a drag to see a good band cease. Selfishly, I am disappointed because we never got to do a show together. But in the bigger picture, I just hope that the relationships in question aren't too strained, that there is no bad blood. Who knows, maybe this had to happen to give everyone some fresh perspective...and they'll end up playing together again some day, in a better and more mature incarnation? They say that there is a silver lining to every cloud...

Well...the piano, for my show tomorrow night, is being tuned up right now...

"...Oh, and the blues, I got the blues, that's me..."

Just a quick update for today. I played a set with the Mojo Blues Band in Oklahoma City, and it went pretty well. The band was made up of extremely skilled musical gunslingers, so them not being familiar with the Genre Zero songs was only an issue for the songs that have a lot of sudden stops or starts. Otherwise, it was fairly spectacular. I was warmly received by the audience, despite NOT playing anything resembling "the blues", and one fast friend was kind enough to take some video of the show:

Leaving Lincoln

Wow! The whirlwind fun of Lincoln is finally, sadly, over. It was actually very embarrassing, the way that I didn’t want to leave and how I scrambled around trying to savor even the last minutes of my time there. I am glad that after a week hanging around the Bolzen Compound, I hadn’t fully worn out my welcome. I felt like I was starting to a bit, like the seeds of expectation and resentment had been planted and were starting to grow, and like my gentleman’s courtesy was gradually becoming either just rote niceties or falling away completely in the wake of familiarity. For example: right at the very end, I was trying to say my heartfelt goodbyes, but I was distracted worrying about my luggage and things...I even got called out on it; someone was trying to say their heartfelt goodbye back to me, but I kind of ruined the moment.

I think we all understood and shared the feelings of exhaustion, awkwardness, and bittersweet anticipation that are attendant on the end of the temporary. Still, I cannot say thank you enough to my hosts, so here we go again:
Thank you Brian and Jandi for your epic hospitality!

In my continuing quest to improve myself, or more specifically to improve the effect  I have on the world around me and the people in it, I learned a lot. This past week in Nebraska, meeting new people and experiencing a different rhythm of life, really changed a lot of my outlook. It was such a breath of fresh air, not to say anything bad about SLC, that I am leaving Lincoln with an improved perspective.

Onwards and upwards!

Lincoln Weekend Bonus Edition

 

 What a whirlwind of a weekend...a whirlwind of music! It started Friday afternoon, when we headed into downtown Lincoln to hear a local band "Good Show Great Show" perform at a busy intersection during the lunch rush. They were a very cool band, with what I suppose you would call a 'psychedelic' flavor throughout their rock/pop/indie/whatever style. I guess it is part of a new program the city is putting on here, partnered with local non-profit "Be Heard Lincoln," to put on live lunch music every Friday.

After the end of the show, I busked again, this time at a substantial downtown bus station. I heard after the fact that the bus station has a mean reputation, but that's where the people were, and I got a pretty good response. It was great practice, and was also good for getting my voice nice and warmed up. I was also very fortunate in that later Friday afternoon, my host's roommate kindly drug out her old keyboard (a late seventies, birth of analogue synthesizers, old-school Korg affair) and had a good-old-fashioned noise-band jam. That put me in a good headspace for the show Friday night - it was dark in the basement (Lincoln house shows are in the basement from what I gather), but here are the shots from the Genre Zero set. My thanks again to Brian for the backup - the tuba sounded really good!

Bolzen Beer Band, of course, played after to close out the night. Almost two kegs of beer were consumed! And finally, Saturday night I roadied for Bolzen. We drove an hour or so away to Diller, Nebraska. Bolzen did the final show of the "Diller Days" festival, an all-day street fair, carnival, and celebration of the small town of Diller. Bolzen had played at the literally-only-bar-in-town before, and so there was a presence from their fans, as well as just the Diller crowd coming in to the bar the end their festival day. In case you didn't know, Bolzen does a very cool alt-polka routine.

Yeah, that's right. Alt-polka. You'd have to be at their show to really get it, but here is a taste:

The Tourist

 A very lovely day in Lincoln yesterday! While I had been downtown Tuesday night, I went back in the daylight and played tourist a little bit. I've explored a lot of the downtown area already, which is surprisingly large, with the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, a kind of bar district, the state capitol, a lot of eclectic shops. It is very vibrant, too - when I was going around Tuesday night, the bar was full, if not somehow over fire code - overall the feel here is small town mixed with downtown, west mixed with east.

I got some decent pictures of some cool older buildings. The first is the YWCA, according to the stone over the door, and the second was really cool and probably ten stories tall:

I also walked down to the Nebraska state capitol building:

It was really cool inside, although I think I went too late in the day, and I got thrown out of the big tower. I made a cool $8 busking downtown yesterday; not to make excuses, but it was a bad time of day. For the time of day, roughly 2-4 PM, I think I did very well. Also, not one, but three or four other musicians ended up stopping by and jamming. Two of them were even young teenagers, and we formed impromptu three person jams for a song or two before someone had to scoot on their way. When I left to re-connect with my friend at his job, a just-back-in-town singer/songwriter type guy and a girl from a local band were still playing!

It's a really cool atmosphere here, but I am just passing through...