Lately

I've been a little remiss in updating RM, but it isn't for lack of musical developments.

Last night was the first gathering of the Flaming Lips tribute project. We listened to about 20 potential tunes and talked staging and props and players.

Next Tuesday is the first gathering of the Blondie tribute project. I think I've got committment from 2 guitars, a bass, a singer, and me on drums. The keys are still tentative...but he seems to be leaning our way. We'll see if anyone has strong opinions about the setlist or if we just play Best of Blondie and call it a day. I've been working the tunes and am making good progress. There will be a balance to strike betwee "close enough" and "what he really played." I'm trying to lean towards the real thing...but in the end it will be doable "one way or another".

The trip to see the Pixies had its ups and downs, but mostly up.

SSW is on a bit of an unplanned brief break and TD is starting to learn "new" (to me and the bass player) tunes (and is wrapping up recording the cd that I am not featured on). CJ has a show May 20th. It is themed "filth."

Greece May 1989

Pixies, Greece, May 1989, right after Doolittle was released:


Whole concert playlist of videos (19 songs) here.

Early Pixies Show

The 8th Pixies show ever played has just been posted on the internet.

The Pixies - Live Québec 1987 by patbergeron

CJ, Mickey's, 4/16/2011

THE MARATHON!

I think it went as well as possible. The opener, The Sesters, arrived and set up on time and were done in 30 minutes. We were able to take the stage by the appointed 11:30pm hour. I was oddly nervous the moment that I hit the floor and don't think I shook it until half way through the second set. Had a beer before, two during, and one after and 2 or 3 pints of water. Having to pee didn't end up being the problem I thought it would...I think I sweated it out. Plenty of sleep the night before. A very good dinner. The crowd was a little more sparse than past Mickey's shows, but very enthusiastic. I let a girl sing Where Is My Mind for me...cause, well, there was no stopping it.

We had really weird flubs...things that have never gone wrong before. Start of I'm Amazed...Velouria...other small weird things. Sound was good. We had 60W floor monitors and I'm not convinced they helped much, but I could hear my vocals ok for most part except on Velouria...and I think something else was wrong on that song with RS so that might be why it was weird.

Quotes from audience "You ARE as cool as Kim Deal" (followed by unneccesary explanation of Dandy Warhols tune) and "You make a decent Kim Deal substitute" and "You sound exactly like Kim Deal" (bullshit, drunky...I just don't). Someone else said "I like what you are doing with the bass parts" which I assume means...again...I sound reasonably like what I'm supposed to sound like...cause I certainly didn't write those bass lines.

I feel good about the whole thing. It's good to have a good show because that last High Noon CJ gig made me want to quit this. But I think that was just a bad night...partly my fault, partly not my fault...and overall we are still really kicking ass pretty well. The next gig is a single set at Filth (that's the theme) at Inferno, my first show there ever. Can't wait.

In the meantime...I'm hitting the road on Thursday to catch the real Pixies in Detroit on Friday, Milwaukee on Saturday, and St Paul on Sunday. Same show. Three days, three cities, three days. That's the dream.

Set One
TROMPE LE MONDE
THE HOLIDAY SONG
BROKEN FACE
MR. GRIEVES
CRACKITY JONES
ISLA DE ENCANTA
HEAD ON
CACTUS
NO. 13 BABY
IS SHE WEIRD
I BLEED
INTO THE WHITE
I'M AMAZED
BRICK IS RED
ED IS DEAD
LA LA LOVE YOU
DOWN TO THE WELL
RIVER EUPHRATES
PALACE OF THE BRINE
LETTER TO MEMPHIS
DEAD
MONKEY GONE TO HEAVEN
VAMOS

Set Two
DEBASER
BONE MACHINE
BREAK MY BODY
PLANET OF SOUND
ALEC EIFFEL
VELOURIA
CARIBOU
MANTA RAY
SUBBACULTCHA
DIG FOR FIRE
ALLISON
SOMETHING AGAINST YOU
THERE GOES MY GUN
HEY
GIGANTIC
THE SAD PUNK
LEVITATE ME
HERE COMES YOUR MAN
NIMROD'S SON
WAVE OF MUTILATION
GOUGE AWAY

Encore
TAME
WHERE IS MY MIND?

SSW, Mr Roberts, 4/14/2011

We were a last minute add with Pop Suicide. They wanted us to fill as much time as possible.

The show was a comedy of errors. Two mic stands broke. Kenny's bass amp wasn't working properly. Both Rick AND Jim broke strings. On more than one occasion at least one of us was in the wrong key. For a few songs I realized as we started that we hadn't played them in weeks or months. No one but a handful of our dedicated fans (read FRIENDS) attended. They still paid us the $150 guarantee ($75 per band) but warned that we needed to bring a crowd next time. Of course, with less than a week's notice about a show, that's hard to do. Especially for a Thursday show.

I had three beers...one before, one during, and one after. And I drake coffee and 32 ounces of water. Ate a huge pasta dinner. Had decent sleep. I'd say it was pretty sober drumming and not terrible. Mostly I just hadn't played some of the songs for a long time. We also debuted 3 tunes that weren't really ready for prime time but went fine. I recorded the show...not our best performance. Rough start...middle was decent...got sloppy as we hit the home stretch again.

After the show I was accosted by a persistent drunken Moroccan man. First he really wanted to know all about my drums (which are about as "not special" as a drum kit can get and still be playable in a professional situation) and then he wanted to tell me what a great player I was over and over. And then he wouldn't go away. He wanted to talk to me, but wanted me to drop everything I was doing and stare straight into his eyes...but I needed to load out. He seemed unwilling to talk while I packed up...and it created an akward situation. After load out I tried to talk to him, but it became apparent that he was quite drunk AND had some language barriers. He was very passionate about whatever it was that he was saying and really, really wanted me to respond...but he was basically mumbling jibberish. No idea what that was about. I couldn't tell if he was hitting on me...was just really into the drums...or what. I suspect he was in that "when women drum it is so cool and sexy and they are awesome" thing. The drummer that played in the opening band had way better chops than me and he didn't seem interested in that guy at all.

I always find it suspect when people are overly enthusiastic about what a great drummer I am. I think that I am a reliable drummer and do a decent job in a beginning-intermediate kind of way. I don't have tons of chops and I don't have tons of finesse. I have a limited pallette of skills. I have a good amount of experience playing in a group situation and I am good at listenting to my bandmates and reacting appropriately. I try to serve the music and not show off. I practice and I learn my parts and I show up to rehearsal and, unless you are one of those people who hate me (and there are those people in the world) I'm easy to get along with in a band. I promote my shows and even book them as needed. I buy beer for the band. I have my own equipment and transportation and rehearsal space. I pull my weight.

I am not, however, awesome. And when someone tells me I am awesome I think it says more about them than me. They either
1) are a guy that has a hang up about female rockers
2) are a woman who wishes they could be a rocker but is afraid to try
and usually are also drunk.

Setlist:
1. PART TIME PUNKS
2. HATE & WAR
3. I HATE THE RICH
4. NEW ROSE
5. THAT'S HOW I ESCAPED MY CERTAIN FATE
6. TEENAGE KICKS
7. MR. SUIT
8. HELICOPTER
9. WE ARE THE ONE
10. DON'T GIVE ME NO LIP CHILD
[we took a break here to change 2 broken strings]
11. BOSCOBEL BREAKOUT
12. I AM A CLICHE
13. DANCE (4X) TO THE RADIO
14. SUSPECT DEVICE
15. YOU DRIVE ME APE (YOU BIG GORILLA)
16. WARSAW
17. POLITICAL SONG FOR MICHAEL JACKSON TO SING
18. EVERYBODY'S HAPPY NOWADAYS
19. MANIAC
20. ONE TRACK MIND
21. TOO DRUNK TOO FUCK
22. TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS PLEASE
23. FUCKED UP AND WASTED

Kim Deal's Rig

Here's a photo from the start of the 2011 tour:


Thanks to MJ from ye olde days of Tech for letting me know this is an Ampeg SVT...which appears to be a 300 Watt tube amp built for the classic vintage sound...and a whopping 80 pounds just for the head (must be nice to have roadies). On Musician's Friend this amp costs $1,699.99. I assume there's an 8x10 under it...adding another 140 pounds. The cabinet will run ya about $1,400.

Rapture

It takes a while for them to pan to Burke long enough to see what he's doing. Again, the recording seems more finessed than this performance.



I'm beginning to think that not even Clem Burke reproduced Clem Burke's recordings live. And so I shouldn't feel too bad about not nailing something precisely right so long as the feel is correct in general.

Call Me

From the recording I was convinced that Burke played a jazzy shuffle on the hi hat with his right hand on this. I've now seen multiple videos where he plays two handed on the hi hat. I wonder if he changed it at some point. I kind of like the way I hear it on the album better, though admittedly that is harder to do with enough force to come out at a live show.

Blondie Lineup

At least in the early years, Blondie was a singer, one guitar, keys, bass, drums. (Photo from 1976):


Later in their career they added a second guitar player...an addition which happened prior to most of the big hits (below photo from 1982).

Blondie

We are a go for playing a Blondie tribute for Halloween...in addition to the Flaming Lips tribute.

I don't actually have a band to do this with yet...which seems kinda crazy, but also I'm not real worried about it. The key piece, besides the lead singer which is nailed down already (MW), is the keyboard player. I don't know many keyboard players. I asked Dr. K, but I think he's leaning against doing it. Which is too bad. I think he could pick it up with nearly no rehearsals. Keeping my fingers crossed. Looks like KS is in on bass and I'm gonna try to convince CT to play guitar. Not sure if we need a second guitar or not. Suppose I should figure that out.

I had been a little worried about learning the drum parts, but I'm starting to feel better about it. The whole reason I wanted to do this was to learn Clem Burke's drum parts...particularly the open hi hat stuff. I don't know if I'll nail everything perfectly by October, but I think I can get the point across.

Maybe I'll even get as good as this kid:
Call Me


Dreaming

TD, High Noon, 4/4/2011

TD played a show with Barristacid and The Choons on a last minute offer. Attendance was low...a Monday night and nearly no notice to the bands and it was listed TBA in nearly every advertising venue.

It was a good show. I thought all three bands played really well.

I had 2 PBRs before the show (spaced at a one an hour rate) and one during and a glass of water. Ate fast food for an early dinner on drive back from Indiana. Hadn't played drums for a couple of days and had only rehearsed once in the last several weeks with the band. I thought I played well though.

It was nice to have a monitor and be able to hear the band...and the bass drum. I think playing Easy Life right after another heavy tom song is a bad idea...I need a rest between tom songs because I always feel I have to hit the toms so hard that I get tired. I played the whole show with the Travis Barker sticks, which I've been working up to. They really play nice for double strokes, the weight makes it bounce more easily with less effort. And the length is nice for some things, though I do sometimes get caught up on the bottom of a cymbal cause I'm not used to the length. I think that the sticks make me tired in practice, but at the show I was too jacked up and didn't notice. I did get tired, though. I really kinda went all out on energy and was a little spent about 3/4 of the way through the set. On the next to last song, One is For Man, my splash cymbal leapt off of the stand and into my lap. At first I thought the stand had broken, sheared off. But after the show I saw that the plastic part under the cymbal came unscrewed. A new thing to watch for. It threw me off but no one else seemed to notice. I already have trouble with that song, so it made it hard. Moving On still feels rough in the cock rock section, but it went ok. Brought the chimes. People dig them.

Overall, a well-played show, though. I'm happy with it. And that ain't nothing.

Setlist to follow.

The Marathon

On Wednesday CJ played through the proposed 46 song setlist for April 16th. Two 23 song sets. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal because we normally have 2-3hour rehearsals. But about 15 songs into each set I had to pee in a painful way. About 10 songs from the end I felt physically exausted and like I literally might fall down. The next day I noticed my left shoulder was kind of sore (from the bass strap). I almost, not quite, got a blister on my left index finger. There was some friendly debate at the end of rehearsal about whether this is such a hot idea.

It's not a hot idea...it's a HAWT idea.

I hope we go through with it. I've got about two weeks to build stamina. It is essentially two hours of music. It'd be cool to play the set every night from now until the show, but I can't imagine that I'm gonna find the time to do that. I suppose that when you are training for a marathon you don't run 26 miles every day for two weeks leading up to it.

And I gotta moderate my liquid intake day of show. Subtle balance between keeping the throat lubricated enough to sing for two hours and my bladder exploding.