Here's the updated gig-ography. I've included all dates scheduled through the end of 2011 as well.
Seven Stone Weaklings
2011
12/9 Mickey's
6/16 WORT
4/14 Mr Roberts
3/10 Mr Roberts
2/13 Harmony
1/8 Crystal Corner Bar
2010
12/11 WYOU Fundraiser
11/5 Wisco
10/7 Mr. Roberts
8/17 Frequency
7/25 High Noon Saloon
4/24 Frequency
3/30 High Noon Saloon
2/25 Great Dane
2/14 Harmony Bar
1/22 Mickey's
1/8 Frequency
2009
12/19 High Noon
12/12 Mickey's
9/6 Slackfest private party
July Private party at my house (first show with RS)
5/14 Frequency
4/4 Glass Nickel
The Drain
2011
11/10 WORT
11/9 High Noon
9/22 Great Dane
8/26 The Wisco
7/9 Legend's
6/14 The Wisco
4/4 High Noon
2/25 Beaver Dam Best Western,
2/3 Great Dane
2010
12/31 Mickey's
11/4 Great Dane
Note: TD played many years of shows before I joined them.
Crackity Jones
2011
12/16 Frequency
12/15 Mr Roberts
10/28 High Noon as The Flaming Lips
9/9 Mickey's
5/27 Mr Roberts
5/21 Inferno
4/16 Mickey's
3/21 High Noon Saloon
2010
12/4 High Noon Saloon
10/30 Mickey's
8/28 Mickey's
8/4 Frequency
7/8 Great Dane
6/4 Mickey's
5/19 High Noon Saloon
4/24 Frequency
Other Bands
10/28 Peroxide at High Noon
10/1 Peroxide at Ladies Rock Camp at Madison Music Foundry
See also here for older, now defunct bands.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Lately
CJ practiced for the first time in a long time last night. Since May we've only had one Pixies show and only practiced Pixies once or twice. The rest of the time it has been all Flaming Lips.
Last night we played all of Doolittle, including Silver (which is new to us), and about 15 or so other songs. The plan is to play Doolittle on Dec 16th and a mostly different set on Dec 15th. It is unclear if the set on Dec 15th needs to be 45 minutes, an hour, or longer. It could be as much as two 45 minute sets.
Overall I think we sounded great. I don't feel too proud to say that I sounded the best out of everyone. I think I've practiced more in the interium, including over the last couple of weeks...and I was once again stone cold sober while everyone else had at least one beer last night. Where being sober has felt hard for playing in recent weeks...if I can sustain it in the end it will certainly ultimately improve my playing (if not my feeling of being relaxed). I actually felt myself under utilizing my brain last night...I could wander off and read things on the wall while playing for instance. I guess it makes sense. If you can play a bass line after having drunk 5 beers...surely sober you'll have significantly more free brain space to play it and not totally have to focus on it.
Anyway, I'm happy to be back at the Pixies stuff and happy that everyone seems to have a new sense of dedication. A month ago I think we were all ready to go live under rocks for a while. I'm more optimistic about the future of the band now than I've been in a while. There was talk of learning Bossanova last night...which no one has ever been all that interested in. And three of us played "Distance" on a whim for the first time with no prior prep (while Paco was in the john) and nearly ran right into "Lovely Day" before realizing that we ought to refocus on the tunes at hand. I think that we're all ready to get back at this thing.
Last night we played all of Doolittle, including Silver (which is new to us), and about 15 or so other songs. The plan is to play Doolittle on Dec 16th and a mostly different set on Dec 15th. It is unclear if the set on Dec 15th needs to be 45 minutes, an hour, or longer. It could be as much as two 45 minute sets.
Overall I think we sounded great. I don't feel too proud to say that I sounded the best out of everyone. I think I've practiced more in the interium, including over the last couple of weeks...and I was once again stone cold sober while everyone else had at least one beer last night. Where being sober has felt hard for playing in recent weeks...if I can sustain it in the end it will certainly ultimately improve my playing (if not my feeling of being relaxed). I actually felt myself under utilizing my brain last night...I could wander off and read things on the wall while playing for instance. I guess it makes sense. If you can play a bass line after having drunk 5 beers...surely sober you'll have significantly more free brain space to play it and not totally have to focus on it.
Anyway, I'm happy to be back at the Pixies stuff and happy that everyone seems to have a new sense of dedication. A month ago I think we were all ready to go live under rocks for a while. I'm more optimistic about the future of the band now than I've been in a while. There was talk of learning Bossanova last night...which no one has ever been all that interested in. And three of us played "Distance" on a whim for the first time with no prior prep (while Paco was in the john) and nearly ran right into "Lovely Day" before realizing that we ought to refocus on the tunes at hand. I think that we're all ready to get back at this thing.
Monday, November 14, 2011
TD, WORT, 11/10/2011
It is yet another tail of two gigs. You'll (the universal "you" because I know that I'm the only one who reads this) recall my morbid dissatisfaction with the Wednesday gig. Well we played the exact same set the very next day on WORT for Psychoacoustics(in a different order because of curse words and "Safe Harbor" beginning at 10pm). It went great on Thursday. I was still stone cold sober. I am still hanging up a bit on Bodies R Burnin, One is for Man, and in a few other little spots in songs...but on balance it was perfectly presentable. And the feel amongst us all was just better too. J's tempos were better. Twan could hear. It was just better. Made a great new contact with the guy running sound too.
This made for the third time that week that we played this set all the way through...Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I was exhausted by Thursday from staying up late two nights in a row and moving our shit both nights. Touring, especially unsupported touring, must just be brutal. That said...one does gain confidence with repeated playing of the same set. Those bands must be air tight at the end of a tour.
There is a Realplayer playlist of the entire show at https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/dsward2/web/tunes/TheDrain/WORTpsychoacousticsNov102011/wort_Nov102011.pls (our performance starts around 1 hour 30 minutes and runs for just under an hour).
Setlist:
Sent It
Going Down Drain
At the Door
Better N Better
Gun in Your Grave
Bodies R Burnin
Jack
One is for Man
Gotta Tell U
It's Alright
HSUL
This made for the third time that week that we played this set all the way through...Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I was exhausted by Thursday from staying up late two nights in a row and moving our shit both nights. Touring, especially unsupported touring, must just be brutal. That said...one does gain confidence with repeated playing of the same set. Those bands must be air tight at the end of a tour.
There is a Realplayer playlist of the entire show at https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/dsward2/web/tunes/TheDrain/WORTpsychoacousticsNov102011/wort_Nov102011.pls (our performance starts around 1 hour 30 minutes and runs for just under an hour).
Setlist:
Sent It
Going Down Drain
At the Door
Better N Better
Gun in Your Grave
Bodies R Burnin
Jack
One is for Man
Gotta Tell U
It's Alright
HSUL
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Memo to Myself About Gloom and Doom
I just looked and on Oct 18th I was totally happy with my drumming. Today I am pretty much the opposite. Today is the 10th of November. I am reminded that I have a personal monthly hormonal cycle, despite the fact that there is no obvious manifestation of that any longer. Typically, around the 10th of the month I get irritated, depressed, and down on myself.
Today is the 10th.
Three weeks ago I felt great.
And, once again, I effectively stopped practicing my drums around late August because I was hurting myself going too hard too fast. And I was depressed. So where as I used to sit down at the drums almost every single day and practice...and in the very least for many hours on the weekends...I haven't played them at all except in rehearsals since August. That's almost three months now. Duh.
Today is the 10th.
Three weeks ago I felt great.
And, once again, I effectively stopped practicing my drums around late August because I was hurting myself going too hard too fast. And I was depressed. So where as I used to sit down at the drums almost every single day and practice...and in the very least for many hours on the weekends...I haven't played them at all except in rehearsals since August. That's almost three months now. Duh.
TD, High Noon, 11/9/2011
We played a Rock Against Walker benefit with The Type, Barristacide, and some dude with a guitar. It was sparsely attended. I was stone cold sober.
I struggled. Things that used to be easy feel hard now. Stuff that used to come instictually are hard to pull off at all. I don't know if it is lack of practice, the fact that I only play these songs once a week, sobriety, or what. I feel out of sorts and uncoordinated. It's been like this about since about a week before the Halloween gig. I've been thinking it's been nerves, but it happened at rehearsal lately a few times too.
I suppose it went alright as far as the audience could tell. It wasn't an unmitigated disaster or anything on my end. Just not smooth. Not polished. Not good. I felt like I didn't match up to the other drummers. The stage sound was weird too...the guitars were fuzzy. Twan agreed it was hard to hear. I guess that I should have asked to adjust my monitor. I don't know. J was all over the place on starting tempos too...slow songs played fast...fast songs played slow. I struggled to adjust the tempos and was kinda inconsistent.
We play the exact same set tonight on the radio. It'll be the third time I've played it this week. I'm dreading it. I don't feel like it is gonna get better. I'm sure that I just need to go back to the woodshed. But damn.
Sidenote from the cool/weird files:
The dude with the guitar who opened played Where Is My Mind and then after his set and after spotting me and RS in the crowd yells "Crackity Jones!" in a woo-hoo kind of way at us. "We're famous" I say to RS who says back "Yes, to roughly 100 people" to which I reply "just like the real Pixies back in the day". It was kinda cool. I kind of forget about all this until about 30 minutes later the guy comes up to me. He's got that overly enthusiastic look. He's moony-eyes. He's over the moon. He's got that "I can't believe I'm actually talking to you, you're my hero" look. he starts babbling about Crackity Jones. Now it was weird.
And then there was a kind of "oh I thought maybe Crackity Jones was playing cause I saw the band here (even though only two of us were there, which makes me wonder if he would even recognize Paco and Pico) and I was all excited but I guess you guys have another band and I'm excited to hear that too." But he wasn't really. In the span of 10 minutes I had the full experience of what it is like to be Kim Deal and have someone be so excited to meet you...and how strange that is (especially since I'm not even actually her)...followed by the full Joey/David experience that no one would recognize you on the street because you aren't one of the more visible members of the band...followed by the full Frank Black experience of "I do lots of music stuff but all these fuckers care about is the Pixies". Truly, truly surreal. That people (including me) react to celebrities (who actually are just other human beings) in this way is so strange and interesting. That people then further carry over those feelings and reactions to proxy celebrities is truly fascinating. I mean this guy was playing at the same gig as me. He did a Pixies cover...that's all that Crackity Jones does. He and I aren't any different. SO WEIRD.
Setlist:
Sent It
Going Down Drain
At the Door
Gotta Tell U
It's Alright
Jack
One is for Man
HSUL
Better N Better
Bodies R Burnin
Gun in Your Grave
I struggled. Things that used to be easy feel hard now. Stuff that used to come instictually are hard to pull off at all. I don't know if it is lack of practice, the fact that I only play these songs once a week, sobriety, or what. I feel out of sorts and uncoordinated. It's been like this about since about a week before the Halloween gig. I've been thinking it's been nerves, but it happened at rehearsal lately a few times too.
I suppose it went alright as far as the audience could tell. It wasn't an unmitigated disaster or anything on my end. Just not smooth. Not polished. Not good. I felt like I didn't match up to the other drummers. The stage sound was weird too...the guitars were fuzzy. Twan agreed it was hard to hear. I guess that I should have asked to adjust my monitor. I don't know. J was all over the place on starting tempos too...slow songs played fast...fast songs played slow. I struggled to adjust the tempos and was kinda inconsistent.
We play the exact same set tonight on the radio. It'll be the third time I've played it this week. I'm dreading it. I don't feel like it is gonna get better. I'm sure that I just need to go back to the woodshed. But damn.
Sidenote from the cool/weird files:
The dude with the guitar who opened played Where Is My Mind and then after his set and after spotting me and RS in the crowd yells "Crackity Jones!" in a woo-hoo kind of way at us. "We're famous" I say to RS who says back "Yes, to roughly 100 people" to which I reply "just like the real Pixies back in the day". It was kinda cool. I kind of forget about all this until about 30 minutes later the guy comes up to me. He's got that overly enthusiastic look. He's moony-eyes. He's over the moon. He's got that "I can't believe I'm actually talking to you, you're my hero" look. he starts babbling about Crackity Jones. Now it was weird.
And then there was a kind of "oh I thought maybe Crackity Jones was playing cause I saw the band here (even though only two of us were there, which makes me wonder if he would even recognize Paco and Pico) and I was all excited but I guess you guys have another band and I'm excited to hear that too." But he wasn't really. In the span of 10 minutes I had the full experience of what it is like to be Kim Deal and have someone be so excited to meet you...and how strange that is (especially since I'm not even actually her)...followed by the full Joey/David experience that no one would recognize you on the street because you aren't one of the more visible members of the band...followed by the full Frank Black experience of "I do lots of music stuff but all these fuckers care about is the Pixies". Truly, truly surreal. That people (including me) react to celebrities (who actually are just other human beings) in this way is so strange and interesting. That people then further carry over those feelings and reactions to proxy celebrities is truly fascinating. I mean this guy was playing at the same gig as me. He did a Pixies cover...that's all that Crackity Jones does. He and I aren't any different. SO WEIRD.
Setlist:
Sent It
Going Down Drain
At the Door
Gotta Tell U
It's Alright
Jack
One is for Man
HSUL
Better N Better
Bodies R Burnin
Gun in Your Grave
Monday, October 31, 2011
Halloween Redux
Just watched half a dozen videos of the Blondie performance. I see plenty of errors...mine and those of others...but I gotta say that the casual observer would have seen none of these. It flows along really nicely and we cover our tracks. It's shocking just how hard it is to notice the flaws.
Halloween 2011
This photo is just about the coolest thing ever.
It was pretty insane, but I managed to make it through this double header show. I did not play the Blondie set my best. I was dropping sticks a lot and was nervous and just missed some things. The kit was not exactly like I was used to...the cymbals too far away. I switched to longer sticks part way through and stopped dropping. Spaced the tempo on one song...we had to start 2 or 3 over. I'm sure it all went fine and I'm just frankly glad it is over. I'm also glad that I know that I played the songs flawlessly a few weeks ago in rehearsal. Think I had two or three beers between 4pm and 8pm when we took the stage. Alcohol was not a factor.
Here's a video of Call Me:
Went and ate dinner at the Brass Ring, changed costumes, and came back for Flaming Lips. The show was running maybe a half hour late, but not too bad. Learned the lesson that when you throw 30 three foot balloons at an audience they do not play with them peacefully, but throw them back at you violently. I was not prepared for this and was glad I'd practice Race for the Prize hard enough that I could stop and start playing my part as I dealt with balloons. Still...the balloons were cool and people loved them.
I made some mistakes in the set...spaced guitar chords on Yoshimi a bit, forgot to turn off the tuning mute going into Do You Realize...amp maxed out and cut out on overdrive part of Pompeii. Overly the amp held up well with all 5 bands playing through it. One of the other bass players complimented me on how great it sounded. It seems to have survived. I think that it cutting out on Pompeii probably had something to do with the way I had it set and the fact that it was just over the top too much signal. I had one more beer before FLIPS and two more after. The next day I was tired, but not at all hung over. I was drinking low grade 12 oz beers the whole night.
There were many technical glitches with the sound check (RS's vocal effects mostly) and the video (don't under-estimate compatibility issues)...but overall it came off as we'd intended (minus the confetti, which was vetoed by venue owner a week before the show). The dancers worked out really great. We had pro sound and pro video on hand. The show was captured and then some.
It was all well worth doing. But the herding cats (and trying to learn drum parts above my skill level) for Blondie and the dealing with all the extras (including harmony vocals) for FLIPS ended up being pretty exhausting over the 8 months of prep. I grew weary of it all and am glad both projects are over. There is some talk of reprising the FLIPS set and we've have an offer on the table to do so...but I think it took so much out of all of us that I'm not sure if it will ever happen. I kind of just want to go back to playing the Pixies. This was hard (my drumming on Blondie and FLIPS as a whole), no doubt about it, and a strain on all involved. It was an accomplishment and I fear we'll forget that too quickly...but I'm tired and ready to move on. I think that we all are.
Blondie Setlist:
Heart of Glass
11:59
Call Me
Dreaming
Rip Her to Shreds
Sunday Girl
X Offender
Denis
Tide is High
Hanging on the Telephone
One Way or Another
Detroit 442
Flaming Lips Setlist:
Race for the Prize
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 2
What is the Light
Fight Test
Bad Days
Do You Realize
Kim's Watermelon Gun
The WAND
Pompeii and G
She Don't Use Jelly
Turn It On
It was pretty insane, but I managed to make it through this double header show. I did not play the Blondie set my best. I was dropping sticks a lot and was nervous and just missed some things. The kit was not exactly like I was used to...the cymbals too far away. I switched to longer sticks part way through and stopped dropping. Spaced the tempo on one song...we had to start 2 or 3 over. I'm sure it all went fine and I'm just frankly glad it is over. I'm also glad that I know that I played the songs flawlessly a few weeks ago in rehearsal. Think I had two or three beers between 4pm and 8pm when we took the stage. Alcohol was not a factor.
Here's a video of Call Me:
Went and ate dinner at the Brass Ring, changed costumes, and came back for Flaming Lips. The show was running maybe a half hour late, but not too bad. Learned the lesson that when you throw 30 three foot balloons at an audience they do not play with them peacefully, but throw them back at you violently. I was not prepared for this and was glad I'd practice Race for the Prize hard enough that I could stop and start playing my part as I dealt with balloons. Still...the balloons were cool and people loved them.
I made some mistakes in the set...spaced guitar chords on Yoshimi a bit, forgot to turn off the tuning mute going into Do You Realize...amp maxed out and cut out on overdrive part of Pompeii. Overly the amp held up well with all 5 bands playing through it. One of the other bass players complimented me on how great it sounded. It seems to have survived. I think that it cutting out on Pompeii probably had something to do with the way I had it set and the fact that it was just over the top too much signal. I had one more beer before FLIPS and two more after. The next day I was tired, but not at all hung over. I was drinking low grade 12 oz beers the whole night.
There were many technical glitches with the sound check (RS's vocal effects mostly) and the video (don't under-estimate compatibility issues)...but overall it came off as we'd intended (minus the confetti, which was vetoed by venue owner a week before the show). The dancers worked out really great. We had pro sound and pro video on hand. The show was captured and then some.
It was all well worth doing. But the herding cats (and trying to learn drum parts above my skill level) for Blondie and the dealing with all the extras (including harmony vocals) for FLIPS ended up being pretty exhausting over the 8 months of prep. I grew weary of it all and am glad both projects are over. There is some talk of reprising the FLIPS set and we've have an offer on the table to do so...but I think it took so much out of all of us that I'm not sure if it will ever happen. I kind of just want to go back to playing the Pixies. This was hard (my drumming on Blondie and FLIPS as a whole), no doubt about it, and a strain on all involved. It was an accomplishment and I fear we'll forget that too quickly...but I'm tired and ready to move on. I think that we all are.
Blondie Setlist:
Heart of Glass
11:59
Call Me
Dreaming
Rip Her to Shreds
Sunday Girl
X Offender
Denis
Tide is High
Hanging on the Telephone
One Way or Another
Detroit 442
Flaming Lips Setlist:
Race for the Prize
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Part 2
What is the Light
Fight Test
Bad Days
Do You Realize
Kim's Watermelon Gun
The WAND
Pompeii and G
She Don't Use Jelly
Turn It On
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