SXSW Day 0 - Part 2
SXSW Day 0 - Part 1
Wow, what an incredibly long day. I knew I was booked on the 6:15 flight and I was, but it was 6:15 AM not 6:15 PM. Travel was good, the flights were little bumpy, but it feels so good to be back in Austin. This is my first time attending the interactive portion of the conference, so I'm pretty excited for the conference to kick off tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the photos.
Early morning travel!
Austin bound this morning for SXSW!
More Spiller shows!
We just got asked to play a really great show. More details soon. Can't wait to share with everyone.
The New Sundays?
I'm really enjoying the new Memoryhouse album.
Suburban Apologist
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The awesome folks at SubAp! did a nice write up on Spiller getting back together. I'd link you directly to the article, but it appears to have been taken over by Russian spamers.
Summer of '93 by The Good Graces
My band The Good Graces have a new record coming out very soon. Here's a sneak peek. Download Summer of '93 for free for a limited time
Spiller
My old band, Spiller, from back in the late 90s, early 2000s are back! Marcus and I have asked Vinnie Cosentino from Palentine and Lukali to fill the drum seat and we're off an running. We've got a show at the New World Brewery on April 7th to celebrate.
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Thx Mgmt Proudly Presents
Saturday, April 7th 2012 SPILLER http://www.facebook.com/spiller THE SEMIS http://www.facebook.com/thesemis MICHAEL CHRISTMAS https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Christmas/252997804729643 + thee Liquid Jesus DJs http://www.liquidjesus.com/ 9pm | $tbd | 21&Up at New World Brewery 1313 E 8th avenue - Ybor City - 813.248.4969 ###################################### Formed in 1996 from the ashes of singer/guitarist John McNicholas’ original punk outfit, Lie, Spiller made quite the impression on the Bay area’s musical landscape during their heyday almost a decade ago. Gold Leader (which was released on Super6 Records way back when) is an extremely charming set and marked by crunchy, grungy guitars all buoyed by Marcus McCord’s bouncy, yet brawny bass lines. It’s all heavily garnished with the band’s penchant for sunny harmonies and infectious hooks that seemed destined for 90s radio gold. Spiller never “made it big,” but their return (guitarist Scott Harrel is no loner in the lineup and original drummer Pete Joseph has been replaced by Palantine frontman Vinnie Cosetino) is welcome breath of fresh air for sure. Two bands, established surf-classic rock revivalists The Semis and up and coming St. Pete garage-rock sensation Michael Christmas, are set to play support on this must-see bill. |
Real Estate
A few weeks ago I started writing for a blog out of New York called, Indieball. It's a great little blog. Check out my first review for a band called, Real Estate.
2012
2/2/2012 - Working on new songs and new website
2010
11/2/2010 - New shows posted!
5/19/2010 - The Low Days had a great time playing at the Sidewalk Cafe in NYC this last weekend. We'll be posting some pictures soon!
5/5/2010 - Hi friends! We've got some new shows on the calendar to check out. Come out!
3/3/2010 - Hey there! My new band, Supervisor of the Loveless Averageis playing at Lenny's Bar tonight!
2009
12/5/2009 - Hey everyone, I know I've quiet here on the site, but there's some great show coming up at the beginning of the year. I'm trilled to be playing up in NYC at Googie's, Flicker Theater in Athens, and a fantastic 3-day tour of North Carolina, all in the first 30 days of the new year. Between now and the end of the year I'll be working on new solo material and I've been playing with some friends in a new band that's going to be called, Supervisor of the Loveless Average. Hopefully we'll start playing shows in Feburary. I'll make sure to keep you informed.
10/11/2009 - So, without going into any detail. I've hit a wall. Not with my car or anything, but with a million other things. There's burning the candle at both ends, and then there's burning the candle with a volcano. I'm doing the latter at the moment in various aspects of my life and to be honest, I could really use a nap, or some coffee, or both. I still need to catch up with my trip from Ireland. I stared a journal when I was there, but never had the downtime to spend with it. For a majority of the trip I was sick. Not go-to-the-doctor sick, just sick enough to feel like crud and worn out pretty much all the time. There was one night on Innis Mor, we had just had a fantastic guided tour of the island, thanks to John our driver and we were walking around the port when my body just said, ÒI'm done.Ó I headed back to the hostel and passed out for about 2 hours. Here I was, in one of the prettiest places I'd ever been with some amazing folks taking the same life journey. My heart was singing, my eyes were wide open, my soul was soaring, but my physical body was having none of it. That's where I am today. I need a napÉ of maybe I need to go back to Ireland. It's been a month since I've seen a castle. I mean, that's probably all it is. Lack-of-castle-itis.
9/4/2009 - Hey all, it's been a while since I've updated, but I'm committed to using the blog over the next 8 days to document my trip to Ireland. I fly out tonight, and I'm back next weekend. It's been 4 years since I was there, and I can't wait to plant my feet on Irish soil again.
5/20/2009 - I'm playing a solo show this Friday night at The Drunken Unicorn and I've got some new photos up, check it out!
4/22/2009 - I just updated the Photo pages with some newer stuff. Check it out!
3/24/2009 - Hey everyone, I'm just back from SXSW. It's good to be home, but as always, the trip was a huge motivating lift. So many people living the dream, playing their hearts out and enjoying their life. I can't wait to start working on some new music, and I can't wait for the two shows I'm playing this week at Kavarna. Come out if you get a chance, all the info is in the calendar. Also, here's some pictures from my trip out to Ausint, ENJOY!
3/16/2009 - I swear to god I'm going to start blogging more. CHeck the blurb above for the new blog. I'm heading to SXSW on Wednesday. Check back for updates!
1/20/2009 - Hey all. Just a quick hello to remind you about my show this Thursday night at the EARL. I hope you can make it out!
1/1/2009 - Happy New Year everyone!
2008
11/25/2008 - Hey gang, there's some great shows that we're booking. Check out all the upcoming dates, maybe one is close to your smiling face. It would be so nice to see you.
12/23/2008 - Greeti ngs friends, not much to tell here. I'm heading down to Florida for a few days before the year closes out. I've got a cool show coming up this Saturday at the The Emerald Bar. It's the return of Dank. Also, on 1/7 I'll be playing a fun solo show at the Flicker Bar and Theater in Athens with Bain Mattox and Mary O. Harrison. Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'll check in at the top of the year. This website is due for a complete redesign. Maybe the next time you drop by things will look a little different.
11/27/2008 - Happy Thanksgiving!
11/12/2008 - Hey folks, the holiday's are coming up so quickly that I wanted to let you know about a new show that I just booked down in St. Petersburg on Friday, November 28th at The Globe Coffee Lounge for Hugh vs. Hugo's art opening. I'll post more details as I get them. Hope to see all my Florida friends very soon!
Played a fun couple of shows last week. Last Thursday I played with Mary O. Harrison & the Tiny Tears at Flicker Bar and Theater in Athens with Casper & the Cookies and Keith John Adams. We had a fun show and all the bands were fantastic! On Friday I played with the Good Graces at Java Monkey with Lindsey Appel. It was rainy and chilly, but it made for a fun evening and a cozy crowd under the outside covering. After the show we headed over to The EARL and caught a fantastic, fantastic, fantastic show by Margot & the Nuclear So and So's. They just blew me away, again.
11/3/2008 - This year is going by so quikcly it's crazy! It seems like it just started and here it is November already. The last few weeks have kept me pretty busy. I had another recording session with The Low Days. I've got most of the music done, and now I'm working on some ear-candy overdubs and some vocals. (Photos)
On October 21st I played a fun show at the Sweetwater Brewery to benefit FitWit. I played outside on a fantastic evening and the free beer was flowing! (Photos)
This last weekend Liz and I headed up to Minneapolis to visit family and friends and I got blow away blown away by the guitars at Willie's American Guitars! (photos coming soon)
This week is going to be a busy one for me, I've got two shows, one on Thursday night with Mary O Harrison at the Flicker Bar and Theater in Athens, and on Friday night the Good Graces are playing at Java Monkey in Decatur. Check the show listings for all the details. Hope to see you out at one of the shows!
10/15/2008 - In my feeble attempt to get back to updating this site I'm going to hit you with a new entry in the journal! Had a fun show WonderRoot a few weeks back, and a great show last Thursday night at Kavarna in Decatur.
A few weeks ago I got started on some new recordings for my new project called The Low Days. It's esecentally still a solo project but I hope to bring in a variety of folks to do some playing on the new songs, and make it more of a communnity vibe. I've already started playing the songs live under my solo name and under The Low Days. You can be my friend on MySpace, check out the demo up on The Low Days page. On the first recording session Derek Murphy put down drums for 4 songs, and I put down some guide bass and guitar for all the tracks and did a little singing. Last night James and I reconveened again and put down all the acoustic guitars and did a little more singing.
OK, just about catches you up. I'll do my best to get by here alot more often in the coming weeks and days.
09/27/2008 - Hey friends, come on out to WonderRoot this evening. I'm playing a solo set at 9:00pm!
09/18/2008 - Hey everyone. It's been ages since I've checked in, and it's very possible that it will be ages before I sit down and commit thoughts to paper again soon. Who knows, maybe I'll surprise you.
So, last time I wrote was just before the beginning of August, and I've done a ton of stuff since then. Let's quickly recap.
At the beginning of August a bunch of us headed up to Rhinelander, WI for a long weekend of relaxation on the lake. We had some beers, played some golf, sheepshead, and lots of Rock Band. Before my flight out on Monday I stopped for a nice long visit at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
During August I completed most of the legal paperwork for my new company, Octane Guitars. I'm still building up my inventory, and I've already made my first sale!
I wrote some new songs and performed a set of new material at Newfangled Fest! I got a window busted out again! I saw Jack Johnson at Lakewood Ampitheater. Played Athens PopFest 2008 with the Mary O. Harrison Band and The Good Graces.
Headed down to St. Petersburg for my birthday weekend and had a fantastic time with friends and family. I caught a fun show by Margot & the Nuclear So and So's at The Drunken Unicorn. Played The EARL with The Good Graces and loved the band The Dutchess and the Duke and James Jackson Toth on the same bill.
I played two sets at the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival, one solo set, and one with Mary O. I saw Aimee Mann at the Variety Playhouse, what a great show! I got an iPhone! Liz and I went to our first Atlanta Twitter meet-up. And just last weekend we went to a great weedding.
Ok, whew. That should catch you up. I'll post more soon. There some cool stuff coming up in the next few days!
06/17/2008 - I admit that I've been terrible at keeping up with the website lately.
07/28/2008 - Greetings, dear readers. It's been a measy 10 day since my last update and though that may be an eternity inthe bloggy world, for me it's pretty good lately. Not too much to report except a fun show I played with Mary O. Harrison last Thursday night at The EARL. We played with The Preakness and Cassavetes. We had a fun opening set and then we hung around for The Preakness before hearding home. I had to get up early in the morning so, sadly I missed Casavettes. Next time for sure. This week I've got a few practices before a weekend getaway. I could really use a break at the moment so it's coming just at the right time.
07/18/2008 - For the life of me I cannot keep up with this journal lately! Once again it's almost been an entire month since my last propper update. Back on June 28th I played a fun couple of sets with The Good Graces and solo at Kavarna. (Photos) I spent a fantastic weekend down in St. Petersburg for the 4th of July (Photos) and again the following weekend for the wedding of a good friend. Recently the APWBWGTTD got togeher again (Photos), and last night I had a great time at the Taste of East Atlanta! (Photos). OK, that's it, check back soon!
06/24/2008 - OK, first off I want to tell you about a last minute solo show I'm playing this Saturday night at Kavarna in Decatur. You've probably heard me sing the praises of this place so I'll spare you the sales pitch. Just be there. I'll be playing guitar with The Good Graces and I'll be playing a solo set. It's a free show. Just go.
OK, so I've done stuff since I last checked in. I was a model in a photo shoot. (Blog/Photos) The SDXE folks got drinks. (Photos) I went to Minneapolis wit Liz and had a great time. (Photos) We had the June Blogger meetup. (Photo) I helped demolish a kitchen. (Photos) The usual stuff. OK, that's it, you're caught up. I'm tired.
05/28/2008 - It's been so long since I've sat down and committed some thoughts to paper that I'm not sure where to start. The beginning you say? OK, let's get caught up really quickly, it's been a month.
Last month I started playing with a new group called Bad Magic Number. We've only had two practices, but they were a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to more once everyone's schedule quiets down.
On May 2nd I played the 500 Songs for Kids benefit at Smith's Olde Bar. It was a blast. I played The Freshmen by the Verve Pipe. There were too many highlights to mention so go check out the (PHOTOS).
The following Wednesday was my last day at Super Deluxe. I had been there for around a year and half and it was indeed the best of times. I don't think it was a surprise to anyone that we got shut down, but it was a sad day. I've made a ton of great friends there. I know I'll see everyone in the future. I had a new job lined up that started the following Monday, so I was lucky.
For Mother's Day weekend I headed down to St. Petersburg for a few days. I had a great time at the BAAMO street market, and I had a blast playing at the 2/3 Spiller reunion with Marcus and the Paper Stanleys at Cafe Alma. It was great to see everyone. (PHOTOS)
May 14th was the mothly enstallment of the APWBWGTTD blogger meetup. I got there late, but the group was still in full swing when I arrived. (PHOTOS)
Two days later was the Mary O. Harrison CD release party at The EARL. A few days before the show the opening act had to cancel so I stepped in as the first act. I had a great time playing solo and with Mary. Magnapop closed out the night and sounded fantastic as always. (PHOTOS)
The next two days I spent down in Box Springs, Georgia at Mahoneyfest. I played a solo show on Saturday, got a flat tire, and saw a ton of amazing, amazing performers. Check out all the (PHOTOS), it was nuts.
Later in the week a few of us from Super Deluxe caught a stand-up set by one of my favorite artist, Maria Bamford. She was hilarious on stage, and very sweet and nice when we all got to talk to her after the show. She even remembered me and left a funny little comment on my MySpace page. (PHOTOS)
On May 22nd I played two sets of original tunes at Kavarna in Decatur. I taped the show for posterity, hopefully I'll post it sometime soon. I need to go through the recording and chop it up. (PHOTOS)
This last weekend Liz and I headed over to Wilmington, NC for the annual WE Fest XII. We had access to a great little beach house and the beach all weekend. I performed a solo set on Saturday night at the Soapbox (a laundromat rock club) and I played with The Good Graces on Sunday. There was a ton of great people there, and a ton of great bands. On Monday before we headed out of town we explored downtown, grabbed some yummy seafood and just relaxed before heading home. (PHOTOS)
On the drive back from WE Fest I got a call from Tessa from Super Deluxe. A good friend of our, Erlene has passed away earlier in the day in a tragic accident. I'll always remember her as smart, charming, beautiful, energizing, motivated and sweet. When I first started with Super Deluxe we sat next to each other and swapped music, and made each other laugh. She will be missed by so many people. It's tragic. My heart goes out to Aaron, her family and all of her friends. She touched everyone she met, and I consider myself lucky to have worked and played alongside her.
04/28/2008 - Hey everyone, lots to catch you up on so here we go with a quick recap of the last week or so. Two Friday's ago the Good Graces played a fun but weird show at the 11:11 Teahouse. The crowd was small but the bands, for the most part were really good. Tiger Saw and Cathy Cathodic were a blast. (PHOTOS)
The next day The Good Graces and I played the See-Through Souls 2008 show in Kirkwood and it was a fun, laid-back time with some amazing window-art creations. (PHOTOS)
Liz and I also had a great time at Criminal Records for Record Store Day and the Sweetwater 420 festival in Candler Park was a great time too!
This last weekend saw me getting together with some folks for a second time and hammering out some new tunes. I'll keep you posted as things move forward, should be exciting stuff.
This Friday night I'll be performing at Smith's Olde Bar's 500 Songs For Kids. I'll be playing around 9pm and it's for a great cause. Hope to see you out and about.
04/15/2008 - Hey everyone, just a quick recap from last weekend! On Saturday I headed over to Chapel Hill, NC to record some guitar on the upcoming Good Graces' CD. Jerry Kee was producing the three songs that I was recording and I was excited to be working with him. He's recorded a ton of my favorite bands from that part of the country like Superchunk, Portastatic, Seam, and Polvo!
When I arrived Kim was wrapping up her parts, so I said hello to Jerry and Molly the studio cat and got set up and tuned. I brought a few guitars, but it seems like the '62 blue Jazzmaster was all I needed to get the tracks down. Kim did some additional songs the next day. Jerry was a great guy, and so easy to work with. I'm anxious to hear everything when it's mixed and ready to go. (PHOTOS)
04/10/2008 - When I started writing in this space in 2001 so my Dad could keep up with what I've been up too I never would have thought that I'd still be spouting off 7+ years later. At first it was fun, then habitual, cathartic, a chore, and finally an afterthought.
Hey, I've been busy! I'm not even sure how far back to go, but I suppose I'll start with a fun show I played last weekend at Kavarna. Last Saturday I played a solo show with Cousin Sophie, Spy Magnet and my friend from Florida, Geoff's Evil Twin. We had a fun time, many beers were had and I even bumped into an old friend from St. Pete that's living in Atlanta now. (PHOTOS)
On Tuesday night, Liz and I headed over to the 40 Watt Club to see The Weakerthans, Christine Fellows and A.A. Bondy. Christine opened the show, A.A. Bondy wooed the crowd with his southern heart and the Weakerthans came out and rocked it with a smile. We had a great time and we had a quick chance to chat with A.A. and John from the Weakerthans. Two incredibly nice folks. (PHOTOS)
Last night was the April edition of the APWBWGTTD Meet-up, and once again we had a fun time trying out a new restaurant and meeting new friends. (PHOTOS)
OK, that's all I got for today. I need to get some work done and get ready for Good Graces practice tonight! We're hitting the studio in Chapel Hill this weekend!
04/02/2008 - Yesterday wasn't like any other day in a long time for me. It was one of the best days I've had in ages. Work was engaging, my heart was singing, and the weather here in Atlanta was amazing after the early morning rains that we so desperately need.
After work I headed home and walked Molly around the neighborhood. It was beautiful out. The neighborhood dogwoods, flowers, and purple-flowery tress were going crazy with pretty. I picked some yellow wild flowers and dandelions and stuck them in Molly's collar. People laughed and smiled. I said "Oh, isn't she beautiful!"
After a fun walk I headed off to band practice with the Good Graces.
It was at practice that I received the call that a friend of mine here in Atlanta had "collapsed" and that the ambulance was on the way. I quickly packed up and loaded the car. I got an update a few minutes later that the EMTs were there and that they were taking him to the hospital. I sped out to meet everyone there.
As I pulled up I got the call. He didn't make it. He died.
From this point forward my memory is fuzzy, the details are heartbreaking, and the events were of course, life changing.
So, I just wanted to say this. Love the people in your life with all your heart. Life is way too short and everything can change in a heartbreaking second. Please say some prayers for his family and friends today. They lost a loved one way too young. He'll be missed by a ton of people that were really lucky to have him in their life.
Love,
John
03/25/2008 - SXSW Day 5 Recap - Sunday morning, surprisingly totally awake. I bounced out of bed, checked the weather on the news and headed out early. As I've done in years past I headed out to Mount Bonnell to check out the view before heading back downtown. The weather was clear and cool, and from the top you have a great view of the city and the Colorado River.
From there I walked the waterfront downtown and headed to the S. Congress district to hit some shops and get coffee and drinks with JoEllen. Quick enough it was time to head to the airport and head home. I gave Flee and JoEllen a ride and we checked in and waiting for out flight. Mine was slightly delayed and full of screaming kids so it was nice to get home. Hello Atlanta, I'm back.
Is it too early to start planning for next year?
Day 5 in the books, I'm home safe and sound. (Photos)
03/24/2008 - SXSW Day 4 Recap - Saturday is the last big day of the music festival and in years past it's been one of the most intense as you try and see every band you've missed all week, and check off all those final "must-do" items. One of the first things that I wanted to check off my list was Flatstock. Flatstock is a fantastic concert poster showcase featuring around 100 artists. I could have spent $1000 in there, but I managed to get out of there with just two great Spoon posters and a few buttons.
From there I headed briefly over to the Paste party for some food and drinks before heading up to the Mohawk to see Film School rock the crowd with their My Bloody Valentine sound.
Super Deluxe was sponsoring a huge day party called Mess With Texas 2 at Waterloo Park, and that's where I spent the remainder of the day before the night shows. There were a million cool bands and hilarious comedians. I got to see Atlanta's own Atlas Sound, Kimya Dawson, Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, Aziz Ansari, Reggie Watts, Tig Nataro, Hard 'n Phirm, Paul F. Tompkins, Brian Posehn, Human Giant, Matt & Kim, and The Breeders!
After a long sunburnt day spent under the Texas sun I was ready for the final night shows to get started. I didn't really have any "must-see" shows tonight so I just winged it all night. First up was a nice set by Georgie James at the Dirty Dog. The band was quiet and the club was loud so I was straining to really catch everything. Next up was Neva Dinova, they had a nice guitar heavy sound and I stayed for most all of their set before heading over to the Parish to try and catch Los Campesinos!
There was a big line outside but it quickly moved inside and I made it upstairs just in time to watch the band set up for 30 minutes. They tore their set and played my favorite "Tonight I Have to Leave it" to finish out the night. Well, the end of the evening was quickly approaching and I was done. I stuck my head in a few bars on the way back to the car and picked up a big slice of pizza for the walk. Every year I want the festival to last one more day, yet I'm totally exhausted by this point. One more short day in Austin and I'd be home.
Day 4 in the books. (Photos)
03/21/2008 - SXSW Day 3 Recap - By Friday morning I was finally in the swing of things. It always takes a few days to get your schedule lined up with your endurance. This is a marathon, not a sprint after all. I slept in a little bit and then headed down to the convention center to grab some food and drinks at the Australian BBQ and then headed over to the Paste party to start the day of rock.
When I arrived Lightspeed Champion had already started his set. I really enjoyed his stage presence and his original songs. He's made a challenge to himself to play a different Weezer cover at every show, and today he played Perfect Situation off of Make Believe.
After their set I was ready for my second show by The Weakerthans in about 14 hours. Yes, they we're up next and I couldn't wait. I positioned myself right in the middle and rocked out the entire time. They played a slightly different set, and it was great. NPR was there recording the show. You can stream it HERE.
Next up I headed back of to the Australian BBQ and caught The Vines before heading over to check out the Spin party at Stubb's and She & Him at the Yaris outside stage. That was completely packed so after a song I went over to Emo's a got to see a fun set by Bon Iver.
Back at Stubb's I got to see a handful of songs by Vampire Weekend, and while I really like their new CD I was not blown away by the live show. Maybe 4pm on a hot and dusty friday afternoon is not ideal view conditions.
Jens Lekman was playing across the street at Club Deville, a place I played in 2004, so I hoofed it over there for his set and bumped into Kim. Really dug his set as did the entire patio full of people.
I made it back over to Stubb's just in time to catch X rock the crowd. They brought the rock and Billy Zoom's smile never left his face the entire time.
Super Deluxe was having a night party so I swung by there and helped put up a few posters and fold some shirts. Putting up posters, we spotted Franz Nicolay from The Hold Steady parked on a corner playing some tunes on his accordion. Very inconspicuous my fiends, what a cool idea.
As we were watching Franz play up waled Jonah Ray and Matt Braunger. We walked it down to the Fader Fort to meet up with the guys from Human Giant where they were getting interviewed (video here).
OK, I'm tired, but the night parties are just getting ready to start. I headed to the Parish with Kim for the Merge Records showcase. I've always loved this label and nearly everything they sign so I knew I was in for some great music.
Portastatic with just Mac solo was up first and he played a short but fun set of tunes. Wye Oak was up next and I really dug them. The drummer played drums (duh) and bass on a keyboard with his left hand while the singer also played guitar. A big sound from the two folks from Baltimore.
The Radar Brothers hit the stage next with some great tunes followed by a loose-but-fun Shout Out Louds from Scotland. She & Him we're clearly the buzz band of the night and they brought a beautiful and charming set to the Parish.
At the end of their set I headed back down to the Super Deluxe showcase. On the way I got a text message from Atlanta that said "Kirkwood has power and seems fine. Cabbage Town hit hard, Downtown hit hard." Turns out a tornado just slammed through town and all the Atlanta folks were really concerned about home.
Several of the folks from work either lived in hard hit Cabbage Town or nearby. It was a surreal way to end the evening and I hurried back to the hotel to check the news for the latest info.
Day 3 complete. (Photos)
03/20/2008 - SXSW Day 2 Recap - Thursday started out with a very cool keynote speech by the godfather of punk, Lou Reed. He had a million great quotes including, "I've got a B.A. in Dope, but a PHD in Soul" and, "Technology makes it easier to make things worse."
With the noon hour quickly approaching I headed over to Volume for the Paste/Stereogum party and caught My Brightest Diamond's quirky and fun set. Next up I was over to Emo's Annex for Dawn Landes and Peter Moren before heading back to the Paste party to catch a fun and loose set by Nada Surf.
By this point I was starving, and despite the delicious queso at the Paste party I needed real food. Hello "Music from Spain" party. Hello free buffet.
Next up was the Irish Breakfast courtesy of the Music from Ireland folks. I missed the food but I got there in time for some great tunes from Delorentos, and the best Guinness I've ever had. It's usually at this point in the day that randomness takes over, I just let the wind take me to whatever I can hear. In this spirit I caught The Duke Spirit, Christine Fellows, Cloud Cult, South, Moby (playing bass in a blues band!) and a really cool set by The Blow at the trade center cafeteria!
The night shows were up next and this was the night that I was most excited about, The Weakerthans were playing!
I headed up to Cedar Street early to take advantage of the free drinks and settled in for the night. First up was a great set by Islands and a knock-my-socks-off, best surprise of the festival, totally entertaining Tim Fite.
Soon enough The Weakerthans hit the stage and rocked it hard. They sounded great and played a wide selection of tunes from all of their records. The crowd bopped and swayed, and sang along. This was definitely a fan show and not an industry crowd. What a fun set.
I wanted to stick around and see Billy Bragg, but instead decided to catch No Age at the other end of the strip. I would end up seeing No Age again on saturday and really enjoy them, but tonight the PA was so loud and it was so late that I was only good for a few ear-shattering tunes.
Day 2 is done. (Photos)!
03/19/2008 - SXSW Day 1 Recap - SXSW is always a mix of insanity, inspiration, and endurance. So it's been customary for me to fly out there super early on Wednesday morning so I barely make it to the Yard Dog in time for my set at the BAAMO showcase. Mission accomplished. After my morning flight got delayed I arrived at the Yard Dog about 8 minutes before I was supposed to start playing.
I had a fun set, I played an extra song or two and then settled in for the rest of the show. The Ditchflowers sounded fantastic, as did Ed Harcourt and everyone else. It was a great time and the food was top notch as always.
Next I headed down to the convention center, picked up my badge and my big bag of swag and headed over to the Fader Fort. I caught a few cool tunes from YACHT before heading over to Stubb's for the R.E.M. showcase.
It's not typical that I spend an entire evening in one venue, but I didn't want to miss R.E.M., so I stuck it out and checked out all the bands that were on the bill before them. Summerbirds in the Cellar were bombastic and thick with pre-recorded tracks, broken amps, and video screen behind them. Jonathan Rice was great despite a loose cannon guitar player, really enjoyed his tunes. Next up, Papercranes were OK, but the performance seemed a bit contrived. Dead Confederate, a local Georigia band with a swirling Hammond B-3, and a plodding vibe.
Finally R.E.M. hit the stage and the place went nuts. They sounded great and I loved the new tunes. I think their new CD is going to be great.
The weather turned cold, so I headed out before their encore was over and stumbled upon The Lemonheads playing their album, It's a Shame About Ray in it's entirety. They sounded awesome.
Day 1 was in the books. I checked into my crappy hotel and passed out. (Photos)!
03/18/2008 - Time sure does fly by fast at times. No sooner than I get back from Texas, I realize I never had time to fire off a quick entry about my trip dow to Florida 10 days ago. There's not too much to report other than it was the best time I've had in ages.
Dank and Nessie rocked the Emerald Bar and everyone was there. I lost track of the number of parties that weekend. I had a great time. Check out the (Photos)!
02/29/2008 - Three years ago last night one of my favorite bands of all time played their final show. I wasn't there.
I first discovered the band Luna while I was working at Spec's Music in Gateway Mall in St. Petersburg, Florida. Musically it was the middle of the grunge rock revolution and every song that played through the store's speakers blasted out with abandon and wildness except one.
There was this one CD in the 6-disc changer that was so low in volume that I always had to check to see if it was still working. It was. It was Luna's first CD, simply entitled Lunapark. It was the copy where the name of the band had a numeral "2" after the "Luna." I figured there must have been another band named Luna at the time and this was the way the fine folks at Elektra records dealt with it while the other "Luna" was offered money to change their name.
OK, that's not really true at all, I just thought it was weird. After a few weeks of everyone in the store enduring that one quiet CD, the manager of the store plucked it out of the player and said "you want it?"
I took the CD home, and from that time forward that CD has been on or near the top of the stack. I fell in love with every song. My old band Lie covered "I Can't Wait." If a girl liked Luna I took that as a sign we should get married.
The first time I saw them was at a place in north Tampa called The Stone Lounge. It was a great punk rock club run by a friend, and it served as a local band hang out for a few years. I've been told the name Stone is a reference to Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam. I have no reason to doubt for a second.
Low opened the show. They were fantastic. Luna played next and lifted the room a foot off the ground despite Sean's busted amp and some drunk frat boys from USF screaming the entire time.
I picked up every CD they put out from that point forward. Every little EP I could find. Every shitty mp3 I could track down on the web. They were one of those bands.
And so, as I played last night at Flicker Bar and Theater with The Good Graces, the Jazzmaster seemed to play itself. I snuck in a few Luna licks. Nobody seemed to mind. We had a great time. We ate free popcorn. (Photos from the show)
Three nights previous, Liz and I saw an amazing set by Luna's singer and bass player Dean and Britta at Eddie's Attic. And despite the drunk couple standing up directly in front of the stage groping each other and making out, they lifted the room a foot off the ground again, like they always do. They played a dozen tunes from Galaxy 500, Luna, and their own Dean and Britta catalog. At the end of their set the band sat out in the main room, smoked cigarettes, talked with fans and relaxed. I was going to say hello, but I didn't.
I guess I should have. I just wanted to say thanks.
02/27/2008 - I'll be honest, it's been hard keeping up with the journal/blog/thingy lately. I've been so busy and the words are not spilling out. Maybe it's the huge amount of facial hair on my face that's weighing me down.
Last weekend the fine folks in The Yum Yum Tree did an insane amount of driving to play in Chapel Hill for International Pop Overthrow 2008 at the Local 506. We played first. We rocked all ~20 folks that saw us and then we drove home the next morning. I had a good time. My friend Marcus meet me out at the club, took some snazzy pictures of us rocking and then we headed out to see what Chapel Hill had to offer. We had some pizza, we had some beers, we had a good time catching up.
The next morning we caught up some more, and then reluctantly, with the help of a 20oz coffee, I headed home. I made a few brief stops on the way home, but I was anxious to get back. I was anxious to sleep. (Photos from the trip)
I've very excited about tomorrow night. I'll be playing guitar with The Good Graces in one of my favorite spots in Athens, GA. It's called the Flicker Bar and Theater. The show starts at 9:00 PM and we go on second. If you're in Athens and you're so inclined, we'd love to see your smiling Face. They have Free popcorn for crying out loud!
02/19/2008 - Hey there, hope everyone a nice long weekend. I needed the extra day off to recuperate from all the activities this weekend. OK, here's a quick recap.
Friday night the Mary O. Harrison band played a set at Kavarna with Richard Parsons. The show got off to a late start but once we got up and running everyone had a good time. (Photos)
The next night I was back at Kavarna, only this time with The Good Graces. We played with songwriter Marcellus, the one-man experience The Subliminator, and songwriter Mark Phelps. (Photos)
Finally, and at long last, I've got my little home recording setup running. I picked up a new Apple MacBook, to replace my old one that died last month, upgraded the RAM, and I'm up and running. I hope to start posting some new demos very soon.
02/11/2008 - Happy monday everyone. Last weekend kicked off with The Yum Yum Tree playing our first headlining show at The EARL on Friday night. All the bands sounded great and we really had a fun time. Thanks to everyone that made it out! (Photos from the show!)
I have two shows this weekend to look forward to. Both of them are at a great little place in Decatur called Kavarna. This friday I'm playing guitar with Mary O. Harrison, and on Saturday night I'll be playing guitar and bass with The Good Graces. I think I play at 9 PM both nights. Come on out, and see the calendar for all the details.
02/07/2008 - Hey there, just a quick reminder that one of my bands, The Yum Yum Tree will be headlining our first show at The EARL tomorrow night. All the details are in the show listings. Hope to see you there.
02/04/2008 - Hey everyone, just checking in after a fast weekend. The Good Graces played a private party on Friday night at Round Box. The food was yummy, the company fantastic, and the drinks were free. Ahhh... my favorite kind. Won't you get me one sometime soon?
This week is going to be a busy one, I've got practice three nights this week and The Yum Yum Tree is headlining our first show at The EARL on Friday night. Awesome!
Work is starting to pick up on my new project, and I hope to have an announcement and some demos up on the site pretty soon. Speaking of the site, I'll have a new site up for the new project, although you can always keep up with me here.
(Photos from the Good Graces show!)
01/24/2008 - It's been a while since I checked in! I had a fun show last Friday at Smith's Old Bar, thanks to everyone that made it out!
Last night a bunch of us attended a book reading at Wordsmiths Books by Rob Sheffield for his great book Love is a Mix Tape. I had him sign my copy and he was great to talk to, a real nice guy. Also performing that night were The Swear. They ripped it up real good, nice job for rocking a bookstore!
OK, just a few quick updates. The Yum Yum Tree is playing International Pop Overthrow 2008 in Chapel Hill, NC! Mary O. is going putting her new CD out on Two Sheds and she's making a video!
Whew, that's enough for one week.
01/17/2008 - Hey, I'm playing my first weekend show at Smith's Old Bar - The Atlanta Room tomorrow evening at 8pm. Come on out!
01/08/2008 - Hey everyone, long time no see. I was going to do this big recap of my Christmas and New Year's break, but I'm so excited about 2008 that I can't find the energy to look back for a moment. OK, maybe just a quick recap!
The holidays were a ton of fun, and very hectic. Liz and I drove down to Florida on 12/22, through a ton of traffic, just in time to make my solo show at Tre Amici @ The Bunker in Ybor City. I had a fantastic time playing, and it was great too see Bob Anthony, Kenny Howes, and so many great friends out at the show.
After the show, we walked around Ybor City for a while, caught up with some more friends, and had a great time out and about. The rest of the long weekend was spent at the beach, at the Dali Museum, having drinks with friends, and eating at some of my favorite restaurants in town.
Back in Atlanta for Christmas proper, presents were opened and quality time was spent with more family and friends.
New Year's was a low-key affair, dinner in the EAV with friends, and we heard all sort of fireworks (gun shots?) when New Year's hit! I swear East Atlanta sounded like a war zone when the peach dropped at midnight.
OK, that's it for a look back. (photos)
I'm looking forward now, and there's a ton of things happening! There's going to be lots of music, shows and recording this year, and I hope to get a fair amount of traveling in as well.
2008 = Create!
2007
12/31/2007 - So this is the end of the year, and I always tell myself I'm going to post a list of favorite songs, or CDs, as if anyone buys CDs anymore. Well, here's a quick and dirty list of things that made me smile this year. I'm sure I missed some things and some people. My bad.
- Super Deluxe goes live and I still have a job
- Jeff Tweedy @ the Tabernacle
- Playing with The Good Graces, Mary O. Harrison and The Yum Yum Tree! Great people, every one of them!
- The Atlanta music scene
- SXSW 2007! A million great shows in one town.
- BAAMO
- WMNF
- Dean & Britta at the Variety Playhouse
- ISP Space (R.I.P.)
- The EARL
- Smith's Olde Bar
- Hanging with Ava in Delaware
- 500 Songs for Kids
- See-through Souls
- Working with the CNN.com folks on Funny Lunch
- Ben Gibbard at Center Stage
- Sloan at the 40 Watt
- AthFest
- Bright Eyes at The Fox Theater
- Memorial Day weekend with my Florida friends
- Corndogorama!
- The Star Bar photo booth
- "Marry Me" by St. Vincent (answer "yes")
- Java Monkey
- The Atlanta Songwriters shows
- Lenny's Bar
- Rufus Wainwright, Neko Case @ the Tabernacle
- My second annual Wisconsin holiday
- Milwaukee Art Museum
- The Other Sound Festival
- 11:11 Teahouse
- The Drunken Unicorn
- KEXP & KCRW podcasts
- 2007 Grant Park Summer Shade Festival
- Playing Kelly's Pub in Tampa with Lance, Rebekah & Rob and Ted
- Rebekah & Rob in Atlanta
- Kent and everyone at Legend's Guitars
- Midtown Music
- Eskimo Kiss and Eskimo Bliss
- The Preakness
- Club Awesome's pool party
- Parade
- Thunderbox rehearsal space
- GutterPop
- Sandra and Raleigh
- All my Super Deluxe co-workers
- Jeff Wood (R.I.P.)
- The Howlies
- The Bain Mattox crew, past and present
- James and Ali
- The East Atlanta Strut
- The 88.5 WRAS interview
- The Jupiter Watts
- Art Bar in Columbia, SC
- Two Sheds Records
- Two days in Indianapolis with friends
- The Gardner clan
- Broad Ripple Fall Music Festival
- Luna Music
- Indianapolis Museum of Art
- Eisenhower Field Day
- Atlanta People With Blogs Who Get Together To Drink
- The Clermont Lounge with Liz! Peach Cobbler!
- Little 5 Points Halloween Parade
- Pittsburgh to see The Weakerthans
- Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater
- The Hushpuppy Gallery
- Chomp and Stomp
- Kavarna
- A decent car crash
- My new JamMan pedal
- My new Strat
- The 1990s, Art Brut & The Hold Steady show at the Variety
- The Swell Season at the Variety
- Once
- Black Lips at the Variety
- Happenstance 2007, "One Great Song!"
- Bain Mattox and Shot From Guns at Eddie's Attic
- The Turner Christmas Party and a busted window
- Liz's new house and expertly manicured lawn
- All my great new friends in Atlanta. - Molly my doggie
Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve everyone. I'll catch up with everyone in the next few days!
12/20/2007 - Sorry this is so long... The last few days have been full of rock and roll, and as my habit of late, it's taken me a few days to spill my guts.
Last Saturday was Happenstance 2007. Take 30 musicians, assemble them at 10 AM in a bar, and have them draw names out of a hat to determine what 6 new "bands" that they will be in. Next, have them go away for the day and write 20 minutes worth of original songs and learn one cover. Sounds easy right? RIGHT?!
I rolled into The EARL at 10 AM, signed in and grabbed some coffee. As more folks arrived, I got more and more excited. Jenny and Mike from The Eyes were there. Mary O. Harrison, Tracy Clark from The Preakness, Blake Guthrie, and lots of other folks were there and ready to rock in the early morning.
Quick enough the 6 "front persons" took center stage and pulled names out of 5 baseball hats, one each for guitar, bass, drums, and one for an auxiliary player, that could be any instrument.
Jenny Hutton from The Eyes was up first and drew Mike Goldman, her guitar player's name from the hat. There's a rule you can't play with anyone you've been in a band with before, so she had to draw again. "John McNicholas." Cool! I was really hoping to get a chance to play with Jenny and I was equally as excited when she drew Tracy's name from the sweat-stained PBR baseball cap next! The other players would be Harry on drums, and Allen on guitar and keyboards.
The other bands were quickly assembled. We picked our Journey cover tune, and then everyone gathered outside The EARL for the official group picture.
The band headed back to the Harry's practice space, which as luck would have it, was three doors down from the room that The Yum Yum Tree uses at Thunderbox. When we arrived, Harry unlocked the door, looked in the room, paused and said, "one sec." A few minutes later he came out, "Hang out for about 10 minutes, there's a guy sleeping in here."
He shares his space with 4 other bands, and one of the guys got kicked out of his apartment and was couch surfing in the space. Literally. There was furniture.
With Sleepy out we began the process of coming up with three tunes. Allen's keyboard was D.O.A., so we took a short break while Jenny ran and got her keyboard as a replacement. By 12:30 PM we were ready to rock.
I had had an idea on the way over about a song with a Lee Renaldo-spoken-word style verse and a catchy chorus, so that was the first song attempted, and the first song quickly aborted.
Jenny and Allen had an idea for a song with a 50's progression that we all jumped right in on, and it sounded great right off the bat. Jenny decided to compose lyrics about the guy that was sleeping in the space. Fun!
I started messing around on guitar and Tracy said, hey, that's good for the song that you wanted to do earlier. For the next hour and a half we worked on what would become a song called "One Great Song!" It's a fictional story about how all the guys in Journey met. I love it.
Next up, Tracy suggested we work up a fun and funky tune. We did, and we called it "It's Your Thing." This one quickly became a favorite of the other bands in the space, as I later heard how much they were digging that one at 3:30 PM in the afternoon from the rooms next door.
We took a break for pizza, told some stories and attempted to clear our heads. We did, we cleared them so well we could barely remember the songs.
Back at the space we ran through everything a few times, worked on Tracy's tune and Jenny finished up the words to what would become "Practice Space Surfer."
Next up was the cover, Journey's "Wheel in the Sky." Awesome, yes I know. We stripped out all the hard parts, and rocked it with guitar solos and vocal harmonies. Yes, it was glorious.
Suddenly it was 8 PM. We had to be there by 9 PM. We ran to our cars through the rainy parking lot and headed home to change/nap/eat before load in.
I ran home, changed, and got back to the EARL a little before 9pm, met with Liz and brought my stuff inside.
The order of the bands was randomly decided, and we were picked to be second. This was perfect, let the first band break the ice and we could play before we forgot all the songs or had to many beers!
The first band sounded great, Mary O. was on keyboards, and they sounded damn fine. The bar was set high. We were up next. Guitars we're quickly thrown on stage, tuned up, beers refilled and before I knew it we were being introduced. "Will you please welcome to the stage '27 Vagrants!"
We started with Tracy's song, "It's Your Thing," and the people were dancing. So far so good! Next up was Jenny's "Practice Space Surfer," and after a few false starts we were off and rocking. Tracy and I were hitting the backups hard and Jenny's lyrics were great. I'll have to provide a transcription soon.
My song was third, and "One Great Song!" was rocking from beginning to end… not so much in them middle, but hey, it was rocking and nobody noticed, right? I told the story of 4 musicians in the 70s, rocking and rolling their way to rock and roll history.
For the grand finale we rocked The EARL with some Journey from 1978! "Wheel in the sky keeps on turning!" Jenny switched over to keyboards and we ended the tune with an arena-rock ending, Tracy fell over, Allen and I pulled out some rock moves and then we burned the staged to the ground with pryo. I made up that last part.
In just the blink of an eye our day was over. It was a quick day, a quick set and now we would sit back and just enjoy ourselves for the rest of the evening.
Blake Guthrie headed up the next band, featuring Leanna from the Georgia Fireflies on drums with some other fine folks. They sounded great and the words were top notch.
The fourth band consisted of Regina from Cowboy Mouth and others. They started of by jumping into the crowd with a rocking surf instrumental and the intensity only went up from there for the entire set.
Band number five feature Mike from the Eyes on guitar and Yum Yum Tree drummer Alex. They rocked. The best joke of the night goes to the unknown drummer in the audience that used his sticks and did a "One, Two, Three, FOUR!" and the entire band started except for Alex. Fantastic.
Finally, band numero six hit the stage. I don't know any of these folks, but they rocked it and rocked it good. It was a fitting way to conclude what was one of the most fun and memorable days.
What an amazing event, with an amazing group of talented people. Thanks to Brian Fletcher of Luigi and everyone else that made this evening happen. (photos)
12/13/2007 Hey everyone, come out to The EARL tomorrow night for Happenstance 2007. I'll be playing guitar in one of the 6 new bands that we'll form tomorrow. It's for charity. All your friends will be there! You will have a great time!
So, this week has been hectic. I'll recap quickly. I had Yum Yum Tree practice on Monday, we've got a show on 12/27 at The EARL and we're getting ready to rock it!
Tuesday, I worked on some new songs with my new band called The Low Days. There, I said it, it has a name. Songs that we ran through were Chicago Apartment Building Fire, We can Stow Away the Sound Underground and a third one that's tentatively entitled Carmel.
Wednesday, I got together with Kim for Good Graces practice. We talked music and cider. We had fun.
Thursday night was the big Adult Swim, Super Deluxe, Cartoon Network, Game Tap Christmas Party at Park Tavern. It was a blast. We had drinks. There was a chocolate fountain. We took a prom picture. I got my car window smashed in. Oh, and DethKlock rocked Center Stage!
Tonight, Liz and I are going to see Bain Mattox play Eddie's Attic and tomorrow night is of course, Happenstance 2007 at The EARL. And on Sunday I rest. Oh way, no I don't, it's Yum Yum Tree practice again! Our last one before our show on the 27th.
I need a nap.
12/05/2007 - I can't believe it's December already! I'm excited to announce that I've been picked to participate in The Happenstance 2007 at the The EARL on 12/15. They get 30 musicians, randomly form 6 bands, and that night everyone rocks a set of new tunes that they wrote that same day! I attended last year, and it was a great time.
Last Friday night Liz and I caught a great show at the Variety Playhouse. It was Stomp and Stammer's 11th birthday and it was a completely packed house. The Selmanaires kicked things off with some Talking Heads inspired beats, while the second band, Snowden provided some rocking Euro-core. Deerhunter played third and just slayed. There was tension galore on stage with Bradford calling Colin, "the Deserter," and making light of Justin's bass amp problems. I hope I get a chance to see them again sometime, I have a feeling that was going to be their last show for a long time. Last but not least, the Black Lips ripped the top off the place as everyone was ready to dance by the time they hit the stage. Beers and bodies we're flying the entire set! What a great show and a great night. (photos)
Saturday night, Mary O. Harrison and the Living Room Drama played Kavarna in Oakhurst. We had a fun and quirky set and it was nice to have so many friends come out on a chilly evening and hang out. (photos)
Well, I've been doing some writing again, and I'll be in the process of getting a band together pretty soon up here. If you're interested in playing some tunes or know someone who might be, drop me a note!
11/30/2007 - Hey everyone, I'm just now catching up for the week. I had a really fun show at Smith's Old Bar on Tuesday night. The 8pm starting time was in my favor and a nice group of friends made it out to the show. I've been asked back on a weekend in January, so I'll need everyone out in full force for that one so they'll have me back again sometime. (photos)
I'm excited about the weekend, there's some fun stuff happening every day. Tonight, right after work I'm going to the Vinson Gallery for their Christmas show and sale. It's run by a friend of mine, Shawn Vinson, from the late 80's music scene. He took pictures of my old band Parade in Paris.
Later tonight I'm excited to be attending the Stomp and Stammer show at the Variety Playhouse featuring Black Lips, Deerhunter, The Selmanaires, and Snowden. It should a fantastic show.
Tomorrow night I'll be playing Kavarna at 10pm with Mary O. Harrison and the Living Room Drama. It's a free show and the music starts at 8pm.
11/27/2007 - I'm playing at Smith's Old Bar in the Atlanta Room tonight at 8pm and I feel like crap. I'm sick. That won't stop me from rocking out, but it will keep me from hanging out all night to see all the acts unless I pull a 180 and feel better. Come on out tonight, bring me some tissues.
My trip down to St. Pete for the holidays last weekend was fun, so fun that it's not important what I did. It was good to see everyone and bask in some Florida sunshine. Hope you had a great weekend.
11/22/2007 - It's raining this morning in Atlanta, and that is indeed something to be thankful for. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday with family and friends.
11/21/2007 - If I don't catch up with everything that's happened over the last week I never will, so here's a quick recap.
Last Thursday night, Liz and I attended the monthly bloggers meet up at Ace's Bar in lovely downtown Kirkwood. It was a fun time and it was great to meet some new folks in the group. (Photos)
After the meet-up we headed down to the Star Bar to catch Big Trouble In Little Five Points, a monthly show put on by Atlanta's Pop Death Squad. It was packed beyond belief are we were lucky to even get in. We caught The Lollygags, a two-piece electro-dance group from Athens and the Black Kids from Jacksonville, FL. We had a great time! (Photos)
Saturday night we caught The Swell Season and Martha Wainwright at the Variety Playhouse. The Swell Season, featuring Glen Hansard from the Irish band the Frames, and Czech singer/songwriter Marketa Irglova stared in the movie Once and provided the music as well. It was an amazing movie and their live set was incredible. They played almost everything from the movie in addition to some Frames songs and even a great Pixies' song, Cactus. He told a great story about the last time the Frames were in Atlanta; they played the Echo Lounge and hit his head on a nail sticking out of the ceiling. When he came too, Chris Martin from Coldplay was holding him in his arms. Funny. (Photos)
Sunday night was a fantastic show as well. The Hold Steady, Art Brut, and 1990s played the Variety playhouse, and we were back in attendance to rock out. The 1990s were loose and fun, with great feedback and lots of "ba ba ba" back up vocals. Next up, Art Brut were fantastic, energetic, engaging, and pretty much stole the show. The Hold Steady rocked it hard, and were every bit as good as the last time I saw them. The crowd bounced, swayed, and hung on every word. At the end of the show everyone at the front of the stage crawled up and joined the band for the last song. It was quite a moment and a fantastic way to end the weekend! (Photos)
OK, that's it, that's enough, I'm off to Florida for Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
11/13/2007 - I had such a fun time last Saturday night. It was my first time playing with the ATL Songwriters group, and it was my first time at a great new spot in Oakhurst called Kavarna. Jim Combs had already started by the time I arrived, and this was the best set that I've caught by him. During one of his spontaneous compositions he played an electric kalimba that sounded amazing!
I was up next so I grabbed my guitar, tuned up, and rocked it. I had a really fun time on stage, the best time I've had in a long time. The room sounded fantastic, the crowded listened, chatted, and laughed at my lame attempts to be funny. Some friends made it out too, which is always great and very much appreciated.
Next up was the Melinda Kingsley Band, a fun four/five piece. And finally, closing the night was one of my local faves Lindsey Appel. She's got a really sweet voice and creative songs, good stuff indeed.
Most of Sunday was spent playing some guitar at home and trying to figure out my new JamMan pedal. It's a looping pedal. I think I'm the last solo guitarist to get one, but they are pretty damn cool. And finally, Sunday night, a big group of us gathered to celebrate our friend Kim's marriage vows and rock out to The Preakness. No pictures in this updated unfortunately, you'll just have to trust me that all this stuff really happened.
11/09/2007 - Last night was... wow. Um, it was great. Srsly. All my gear broke before we even started, cables, input jacks... and once we started rocking the entire rig was destroyed by the second tune and I never mentally recovered. All that being said, nobody seemed to notice but me. I'm pro like that.
Last night was a really fun time, I got to catch up with lots of friends and ran into folks I hadn't seen in ages. Rick Brantley played a great first set, The Yum Yum Tree went second and Bain Mattox closed out the night with some new tunes, well, new to me at least. It was full house and everyone had a great time! (Photos)
Don't forget my solo show at Kavarna tomorrow night. Music starts at 9pm, and I play at 10pm.
11/07/2007 - Days since last car accident: 0.
11/07/2007 - Hey everyone, I'm just popping in real quick to remind you about the big rock show tomorrow night with The Yum Yum Tree, Bain Mattox, and Rick Brantley at the Star Bar in Little Five Points here in Atlanta, GA. The show starts early at 9pm and goes all night. We play at 10pm sharp!
This Saturday night I'll be playing a solo show at a new place in Oakhurst called Kavarna. Music starts at 9pm, and I play at 10pm. It's a free show so come on out!
Last weekend I saw some good rocking, caught a festival, and attended the opening of one of my friend's art galleries. On Friday night Liz and I headed up to Lenny's to catch the always great Jupiter Watts and Cassavetes, rock the room. We bumped into lots of friends and a good time was had.
On Saturday we headed out to the 2007 Chomp and Stomp in Cabbagetown. I had never spent much time in Cabbagetown and I'd never been to the festival. It was a fantastic fall afternoon, and although we got there too late for the $5-all-you-can-eat chili, we had the best time. We saw some bands, like National Grain, enjoyed the dog show, bumped into friends, and just had a nice time.
(Photos)
Later that night we attended the opening of the Hushpuppy Gallery. There was some fantastic art, lots of friends from Super Deluxe and from The Preakness, See-through Souls, and many others. (Photos, Photos)
Sunday night was The Yum Yum Tree practice, and it was fun to rock the set as a lean and mean three piece.
Alright, that's it, maybe I'll see you tomorrow night at the show.
11/05/2007 - What's a Schmap? It's an interactive guide to your favorite city. They were nice enough to pick one of my photos to include in their latest Atlanta edition. Cool. Check it out HERE under the Photos for Smith's Olde Bar!
10/30/2007 - Pittsburgh rocked! Wow, what a fun two days I had up in the Iron City and parts thereabouts. I flew up early on Saturday morning and Andy picked me up at the airport.
We checked in to the hotel and made a beeline for the Duquesne Incline on the top of Mount Washington. We rode the cable cars and took in the breathtaking view of the city from the top. It was chilly, but sunny and wonderful. We grabbed some lunch at the Georgetown Inn and then headed down into the city.
We went to the Carson Street South Side neighborhood and checked out the great shops, cool record stores, and Pittsburgh Guitars. What a great neighborhood, cool architecture, and hip vibe the area exuded.
From there we headed north over the river, through downtown (some cool old buildings) and over the river again to the Andy Warhol Museum. This was an unexpected treat, there were so many great pieces from Warhol and others on display. I wish we had more time to study every piece.
After a quick break we headed off for the main course of the trip, The Weakerthans at Mr. Smalls in Millvale. We arrived a little early and grabbed some pizza around the corner from the club and talked hockey with the guys that were working the counter. Great pizza and conversation.
With a slight drizzle in the air we made our way back to Mr. Smalls just in time to see the opening act, Jim Bryson. Jim was great, he was affable and warm on stage, and the songs we're heartfelt and sweet. He stopped to grab his harmonic for a solo (I can relate), he played piano with the headstock of his guitar, and he invited people up to play percussion. I loved it.
Next up was Last Town Chorus. Megan, the singer/guitar player played a mean lap steal guitar "with an aquatic feel," and she really made an impression on the crowd! I'd love to check them out again if they come down to Atlanta. She's blogging the tour too, check it out HERE.
OK, it was time, the opening bands had rocked and I was ready for the Weakerthans to play. They were nothing short of fantastic. They played every song that I hoped they would and more. They we're humble and fun, and they pulled off the rock moves (synchronized guitars in the air!) with delight. I don't think I've seen a band have that much fun in ages.
The crowd sang along with every word, a difficult task, and requests were shouted as soon as each song ended. I cannot thank Stacey enough for turning me on to this band, but I did attempt it by getting her a t-shirt. Shhh... don't tell her, I haven't surprised with it yet.
Too soon the show was over. I talked briefly with Jim Bryson after the show, and we decided that food was in order. We headed back down to Carson Street, where the Halloween costumes were out in full force and ordered up some big french fry sandwiches from Primanti Brothers. Wow, what a great day.
Sunday we got up and out pretty early. I was going to catch an early flight home since Andy was heading back to Cleveland, but I saw the Hertz rental counter on my way into the airport and I couldn't resist. One of the things that I wanted to do when I was up in this part of the country was to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. It was about 60 miles south of town, and it was such an amazing fall day, I had to go.
90 minutes later I'm pulling up to the ticket gate, "Sorry sir, tickets are sold out today, but you can still buy a grounds pass." Done. I registered at the information center in case anyone didn't show up for a tour, and I was told that I'd probably get to go, "People always cancel." She handed me one of those buzzie-light things you get at restaurants when you're on the waiting list. Sweet.
For the next hour I walked around the house, explored the area and took pictures. BUZZZZZZZ! Hurray!
I scampered back to the info booth and joined a tour just as they we're leaving. For the next hour we explored every nook and cranny of the residence, and words cannot describe what an amazing building it is. If you are ever in the area, you have to go.
With the time before my flight dwindling I jumped back in the rental and high-tailed it back to the airport. I made it with 5 minutes to spare before the flight started boarding. Damn, I could have spent 5 more minutes at Fallingwater.
The flight home was quick and uneventful and I nearly finished David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by the time we touched down.
Good times indeed.
10/26/2007 - I'm excited, I'm going to Pittsburgh tomorrow morning to see The Weakerthans! Know any cool places that I should check out while I'm there?
10/25/2007 - I have a song called Holly's Tooth. It's a story about a girl that gives me a necklace made of hair with her tooth on the end of it. It's a silly little tune.
So today, a friend of mine sent me this article about Scarlett Johansson.
Life imitates art.
10/22/2007 - Whew, the last few days have been a blast. Starting last Thursday, Liz and I went to the EARL to catch the the (Still) Born in the USA comedy tour, featuring one of our favorite artists here at Super Deluxe, Jonah Ray and others. It was a fun evening.
On Saturday we attended the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade. There were crazy costumes galore and we bumped into quite a few friends. (PHOTOS)
Later that night, after two years of being in Atlanta, I finally attended the word famous Clermont Lounge. It was at least ten times more fun and insane that I would have imagined. The strippers we're terrible (awesome), the DJ was incredible, and I now have a profound dislike for peach cobbler. So much fun.
Friday and Sunday evenings The Yum Yum Tree got together to work on some new tunes and the prepare for our next show at the Star Barwith Bain Mattox & Shot from Guns and Rick Brantley on November 8th.
10/18/2007 - Last Tuesday night I was invited to the monthly gathering of the Atlanta People With Blogs Who Get Together To Drink (APWBWGTTD). Liz and I went, we had pulled pork, tater tots, banana pudding and some lovely beverages. It was really fun talking with all the folks there, finding out how they got into writing. Thanks to Mingaling for putting this together!
Check out some of the blogs from the folks that were there.
- shelbinator.com
- Penelope Plop Right
- David P Brown
- mingaling
- PTO Today
- Making Chutney
- chamblee54
- bobafred
- Lady Crumpet's Armoire
- eater.org
- Maigh
There's was many a good writer at the table, and many pictures were taken.
(PHOTOS PHOTOS PHOTOS)
10/16/2007 - Traveling is fun most of the time. This is true. Trying to book a flight the night before the flight leaves in the morning is not smart, or recommended. This is also true.
Whoever said computers and the internet make life easier never tried to transfer their frequent flier points online between merchants and have it work the first, second or third time.
"Hello, yes... I'm fine thank you, look, I... yes... they haven't? Uh-huh, well the website shows that they have. Well... hello?"
And so it went for about 30 minutes.
Saturday morning I got up and out early. The security line at the airport was long but it breezed along and quick enough I was on my way to my connection in Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati Airport, like the one in Indianapolis, isn't too big and it's quick to get around unless you have to take the shuttle bus to the C terminal. Every time I come into CVG I'm always startled by the short runway and the braking power these big planes have.
I got into Indy around 1:30 PM and by 2:00 PM I'm in the rental car and off. I swung by Reno's Music and Meridian Music to check out guitars and then I headed down to the Mass. Ave. district and picked up the new Black Lips CD (with bonus EP!), did some shopping at Silver in the City and got some coffee.
On the way to Broad Ripple, I stopped by the new Luna Music location on College Ave. and caught a good band called Rodeo Ruby Love. Next, I was off to Broad Ripple for the Fall Music Festival. I met up with Andrea and Ryan and the first stop was the Alley Cat Lounge. Prizzy Prizzy Please was the first band we saw. They sounded great and they rocked a fun version of Thunderstruck by AC/DC.
Next up was my friend Natalie's sister's band, Eisenhower Field Day. I absolutely loved them. They have a mid-90s Chapel Hill sound with great harmonies, and crafty guitar and bass interplay. Loved them. Their family was out to see them play and it was great to see everyone again.
I also kept bumping to Richard from Margot every 15 minutes for nearly the entire festival. I was tempted to quiz him about their new record, but I didn't.
Everything Now! played next and I really enjoyed them too.
Everyone headed over to Spin for Arrah and the Ferns (excellent), Beta Male (hot chicks, great tunes, hoola-hoops!) and We Are Hex (dark wave).
We had bagel sandwiches at Ripple Bagel & Deli and more coffee before closing out the night back at the Alley Cat to see Small Arms Fire and Red Light Driver.
Everyone said their good nights and cars were driven home.
I got up pretty early on Sunday and headed downtown to walk to War Memorial Plaza and the State Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Circle Center before heading back to Carmel to meet everyone for lunch at Paradise Bakery. Khali, Andrea and Ryan were there and we hung out, talked, and laughed.
After lunch I decided to check out the Indianapolis Museum of Art on my way back to the airport. I wish I had more time to spend there; they have a great collection or contemporary and classic art. After an hour I headed to the airport.
It was a quick and fun two days, I hope it doesn't take me long to make it back up there again.
(PHOTOS)
10/10/2007 - I can't wait. In just a few short days I'll be headed north to see some great friends in Indianapolis. I'm also hoping to catch a ton of bands at the Broad Ripple Fall Music Festival. There's a ton of cool local Indy bands playing, and just being back up there is going to be fantastic.
While I'm in town I'm going to try and see everyone and stop by Luna, Meridian Music, the Broad Ripple Brew Pub, The Wellington (Corner Wine Bar), and a ton of other places.
I miss that town, and I miss my friends.
10/02/2007 - Happy October everyone! Well, let me get you caught up on last weekends shows. The Yum Yum Tree had a very successful CD release show with Jupiter Watts and Orphins at the Star Bar on Friday night. We had lots of drinks, balloons, and tunes for the people. (Photos)
Saturday, we packed up and headed out to Columbia, SC for a show at a great club called the Art Bar. Playing with us that night we're Atlanta locals The Drownout and Columbia favorites Hot Lava Monster. My friends Marcus and Megan drove down from Charlotte to see us play, and thanks to them we've got some photos of us rocking. All the bands we're cool, and despite an overflowing toilet in the ladies room, we had a fun show, it was a late night by the time we headed out. (Photos)
Today marks the official release date of the new Yum Yum Tree CD on Two Sheds Records. Check it out and maybe even buy a copy.
And finally, there's a couple of write-ups posted online at EvilSponge for the Mary O. Harrison (link) and The Yum Yum Tree (link) sets at the Other Sound Festival
09/27/2007 - Hey everyone, just a quick note before the weekend gets started to let you know about everything that's happening with The Yum Yum Tree this weekend.
Tonight we'll be interviewed on the 88.5 WRAS from 6-8pm, tune in tonight and check it out!
Friday night we're throwing a CD Release Party at the Star Bar for our new CD. Joining us tomorrow night will be two of my favorite bands, Orphins, and The Jupiter Watts. Show starts at 9pm!
On Saturday, we'll be driving to Columbia, SC. to play at the Art Bar with Hot Lava Monster and The Drownout. Oh, and apparently Saturday night is Pirate Fest in Columbia, so expect some stupid pictures on the website by Monday.
09/24/2007 - Happy first day of Fall everyone. I can't wait for the cooler weather to arrive. I had a fun weekend kicking around with friends and The Yum Yum Tree had one of our final practices before the CD Release party this Friday night at the Star Bar in Atlanta. It's going to be a great show, I hope you can make it out.
09/19/2007 - Last night's show at Smith's Old Bar was a good time, thanks to everyone that made it out. My friend Brian took some PHOTOS.
09/18/2007 - Hey everyone, before I run off to play Smith's Old Bar this evening I thought I'd get you caught up. I had a fun weekend. The Yum Yum Tree did an interview on WRAS Album 88.5 that will be broadcast on 9/27, the day before our CD release show at the Star Bar. (PHOTOS)
Later that evening I headed down to the East Atlanta Strut and saw a ton of great bands like Parade, Envie, The Preakness, The Howlies and Anna Kramer. Good times! (PHOTOS)
09/13/2007 - Hey all, I've posted some Jeff Wood photos on my Flickr account. PHOTOS
I wish I could make it down to Florida tomorrow for the memorial, but I'm not going to be able to.
Al my best to everyone and his family,
John
09/13/2007 - Last night, former band mate, scene peer, and friend, Jeff Wood passed away. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.
Here's an mp3 of the last recording he did with my old band Spiller. We were still working out the arrangement in the studio, and this is probably the second or third take. The music is live, one take. The slow part at the end was his idea, and that drum fill he does right before the last chorus (2:45) always gave me chills. "Simple!"
Spiller - The One
John McNicholas: Vocals/Guitar
Martin Rice: Bass/Vocals
Marcus McCord: Guitar/Vocals
Jeff Wood: Drums/Vocals
Tracy LaBarbara: BU Vocals.
Joe Popp has put together a tribute site, please check it out HERE. Please have a look and contribute.
09/12/2007 - Hey everyone, I've got some people in my life that could use your thoughts and prayers right now. Send some my way, I'll make sure they get every one of them.
09/11/2007 - Wow, what an exhausting week of music! OK, let's catch up!
Last Wednesday evening my friends Rebekah and Rob rolled into town with a car full of ants, sticky seats, and a huge windshield, to play a show at 11:11 Teahouse. Before they started we caught up, someone went on a beer run, and we admired all the GutterPop artwork. I have to get one of the John Oates Will Fucking Kill You! pieces. We never did make it over to 80s Karaoke, so we headed back to my place, watched some Simpsons, ate hot peppers and made a pizza. (Photos)
Thursday night was the first night of the Other Sound Festival. Tonight's show would be at the Drunken Unicorn. The Mary O. Harrison Band rolled in early and got all our gear situated while Moresight rocked a killer soundcheck. Envie was the first band that played, and they sounded great. I had been asked by them to play bass on a few songs, but I was just too busy. All the better for them, the guy that filled in for them sounded great. We played next, and we had a fun set. The mix was good and the Fenders sounded lovely on stage. Pistolero kicked some serious ass after we played. As it got closer to midnight the club becomes 18 and up, so everyone with a drink had to kill them or move it over to the bar, which is through a door off to the right where you can't see the bands. Sort of weird, but hey, I understand. Moresight played last, and brought everyone away from their cool beverages for a great set of rocking tunes, furry suits, diapers, and fake bears. A very nice time.
Friday night's show was at The EARL. The Yum Yum Tree debuted their new four-piece line up, and I think we rocked it pretty hard. We had a great time and all the other bands sounded great. I was especially impressed with All Night Drug Prowling Wolves.
Saturday, everyone shifted over to Lenny's for the third night of rock. There were two stages, a giant pool, and tons of dancers. The second stage acts, Orphins and Club Awesome had the dancers our in full force, while the main stage hosted the rock bands.
Sunday, the final night of the fest came up quick and the show at 11:11 Teahouse, with Untied States, Tenth to the Moon, and others, did not disappoint. It was a great night to hang out on the porch, have some store-bought beer or tea and dig some tunes. I can't even begin to remember all the fun and funny details over the last week, so these pictures will have to tell the story for me. (Photos)
09/11/2007 - Kim, the drummer from the Mary O. band has posted some great photos from the Grant Park show a few weeks ago, check them out here! (Photos)
09/05/2007 - Is it seriously September already? Wow, time flies. As I get ready for the Other Sound Festival this week I figured I'd better recap last weekend before it's all just a fog.
I drove down to Florida last Friday afternoon and played a show at Kelly's Pub in downtown Tampa. I had a great time playing, but I had an even better time listening to Lance Rowland, Rebekah Pulley and Rob, and Ted Lukas tear it up for the rest of the evening.
Saturday, I did a bunch of running around over to Legend's Guitars to check out new wood, and to MacDinton's, and to see the Paper Stanleys rock the soho crowd into a frenzy. I didn't make it out to see some friends play in Clearwater, but I caught up with a few of them at the Globe Coffee Lounge for beers before calling it a night.
I spent the better part of Sunday over at Studio B, recording an old Factory Black song with Brian. What a blast! We put down some basic tracks for a song we wrote years ago, but never recorded, called 72 Girl. It sounds great, and as soon as Hunter lays down the drums it's going to sound even better! After recording we headed over to Limey's for beers and in the blink of an eye the weekend was over and everyone was heading home.
Well, this week I've been getting ready for the Mary O. Harrison show tomorrow night at the The Drunken Unicorn. We play second, at 9:20 PM. The next night at The EARL, we'll debut the 4-Piece The Yum Yum Tree. Michelle will be joining us on guitar for a few tunes before settling in full-time on guitar and keyboards for our next show.
OK, that catches me up. Tonight, I'm headed over to 11:11 Teahouse to see Rebekah Pulley and Rob play. After that it's off to the 10 High for 80's Karaoke!
08/31/2007 - Happy last day of August everyone! As soon as I get out of work, I'm jumping in the car, new and improved with air-conditioning, and heading straight to Kelly's Pub in downtown Tampa for a show. I've been asked to play with Ted Lukas, Lance Rowland and Rebekah Pulley this evening. Traffic permitting, I intend to get down there and strum a few tunes around 8PM. C'mon out!
The rest of the weekend will involve as little planning as possible, but it's going to include some great friends, some good food, and maybe even a little beach action. I'll hit everyone up with a full report next week before the Other Sound Festival kicks off.
08/28/2007 - OK, I think I'm about caught up. Last Sunday afternoon the Mary O. Harrison band played a fun show at the 2007 Grant Park Summer Shade Festival. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to check out all the artist and the second stage, but we played a fun show to a nice crowd of friends and random strangers eating corndogs and drink beer. About an hour after our set a pretty nasty thunderstorm came rolling through and brought things to a decisive end.
Next up I stopped by The Other Sound Festival meet and great at the 11:11 Teahouse. I hung out for a while and then I was off to Yum Yum practice. A full day of rock. (Photos)
08/27/2007 - I'm still trying to catch up from the last few week's activities. Two weekends ago some friends and I headed up to Wisconsin for a long weekend in the woods to kick back and relax. I flew in to Milwaukee on Friday morning, met Chris at the airport, and we headed to Madison to grab some great cajun food before heading north. The next four days were spent doing as little as possible. We played some golf, played Guitar Hero II (Mudfla rocks!), read books, ate, and had a great time.
On Monday I headed back to Milwaukee to catch my flight home, but I made time to stop by Wade's Guitar Shop and even spent an hour at the Milwaukee Art Museum. They had an amazing collection.
At MKE, I checked out a great bookstore in the airport called Renaissance Books before catching my flight back to Atlanta.
(Photos)
08/24/2007 - Better late than never, here's some pictures from the Neko Case, Rufus Wainwright show that I went to last week! (Photos)
08/22/2007 - I can't even begin to catch up with all the fun stuff that's been happening in the last two weeks, so I'm going to cut up this journal entry into digestible little bites. On August 11th The Yum Yum Tree, Jim Combs and I played a fun show at Aurora Coffee. Carrie made it up from St. Pete, and a good friend, Todd, from my days at Accenture made it out, as well as a fun group of friend. Photos here!
OK, that's it for today, I'll catch you up with more stuff tomorrow!
08/07/2007 - Last Friday's show at Lenny's Bar was a great time. Parade kicked things off with a wonderful set, The Yum Yum Tree rocked our second set and Club Awesome closed out the evening in a white tiger suit. Photos here!
08/03/2007 - Hey everyone, I'm playing at Lenny's Bar this evening with The Yum Yum Tree! There's two great bands on the bill with us, Parade and Club Awesome. This show is not to be missed!
I got a new camera! Expect pictures from tonight's show!
Oh my, registration for SXSW 2008 is now open!
07/26/2007 - Last night's show at Java Monkey with The Good Graces was wet and fun. The skies opened up just as we arrived, and for the most part, never let up from the time we soundchecked until I scampered off down the rainy sidewalk home. It was my first show with Kim and by all accounts it was a success. It was great to see so many familiar faces out and about on a rainy school night.
The folks over at The Yellow Stereo have a great blog entry about Wes Andersons' new film, The Darjeeling Limited, I can't wait to see it.
07/25/2007 - Come on out to Java Monkey this evening to see me play with The Good Graces. We start the show off at 9 PM and it's FREE!
Just to catch everyone up, I saw some good rocking last week around town. On Thursday night I went out and saw some bands from people here at work. The folks from Adult Swim kicked things off with a set from their in-house band Insane-O-Flex. Three words, hi freakin' larious. Next up were Three Dog Stevens, a parody band featuring the guys from Y-O-U. Fox Trotsky rocked the third position hard. Closing out the evening, and providing rock and some delicious chicken and waffles were Attractive Eighties Women. Awesome to the max, fur-sure.
Video, Photos, Photos, Photos
On Saturday night I caught a great show at the Star Bar with Bad Magic Number, The Preakness and Luigi. Fantastic. Photos.
07/23/2007 - Happy birthday Hugh!
07/20/2007 - The last few weeks have been filled with music. Last Wednesday night I caught the amazing St. Vincent at The EARL. She played a ton of songs off of her new release Marry Me, and it was every bit as good, if not better, than her show in Austin last Spring. (Photos) The opening act, Tacks, the Boy Disaster, was excellent as well.
On Thursday night the Mary O. Harrison band played our first set with the new lineup and it was a fun time. Mike, from The Eyes, joined us on lap steel and mandolin, and won the "killer gear" award of the night with some amazing Rickenbacker instruments. Warm in the Wake and Hymns played great sets, full of rock and hustle.
Last weekend's Corndogorama was insane. My final count was 9 corndogs over 4 days. I would have taken some pictures but my camera got stolen and I'm in no hurry to replace it at the moment. It's nice not to have a lump of metal in my pocket when I'm out and about.
If you do want to see some great pictures from last weekend, click it. (Photos)
Hope you have a great weekend.
07/10/2007 - The Mary O. Harrison band is playing with Warm in the Wake and Hymns this Thursday night at The EARL. It's going to be the premier show for the new 4-piece lineup, although we'll have a special guest playing with us on a few tunes. Join us!
Also, this is the weekend of Corndogorama at Lenny's Bar! The folks here at Super Deluxe where I work are one of the sponsors, so expect to see me down there covered in sweat giving away beer coozies and bragging about the time Joey and I hung out with famous comedians in Austin.
07/06/2007 - Last night Mary and I played an impromptu set at the Gravity Pub in East Atlanta last night. A few friends joined us for some beers and some tunes. We started off with some of her tunes and then I crashed the stage and played a few of my own. For the life of me I couldn't remember what songs I know. I need to write down some song titles and carry them around with me.
07/02/2007 - Happy July everyone, hope you had a great weekend. I was down in Florida last weekend to catch up with family and friends. It was a quick trip, too quick to be honest, but I was glad to see everyone and catch up. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Fourth of July.
06/29/2007 - Hey everyone, it's been a while since I checked in, the last month has been a busy one. I've posted some photos from some of the show I've been too on the photo page. Enjoy.
06/16/2007 - Happy Bloomsday!
06/11/2007 - I had every intention of getting down to Florida this weekend, but it just didn't happen.
In music news, Tom, the lead guitar player in the Mary O. Harrison band is leaving and I'm assuming the lead guitar spot. It was great playing with him and he will be missed. The Yum Yum Tree have been working on new material and there's some shows for both bands in the works over the Summer. Maybe I'll see you out and about.
Saturday, some friends and I attended the AVP Beach Volleyball semi-finals and had a great time. I never realized so many people followed the sport!
06/04/2007 - Hey there, I'm finally getting around to posting some photos from last Tuesday's show at Smith's Old Bar. Details escape me, so make with the "click-click" and check out the Photos.
Oh, and check out the Music page, I've posted some live videos.
05/30/2007 - A quick recap of my Memorial Day weekend, in 3... 2...
I flew down to Tampa on Thursday night. Carrie and Stacey and I headed straight to Dave's Aqua Lounge where Natty hosts a weekly singer-songwriter night. There was a really tall drunk girl dancing before the music started. I played a few songs, as did Natty, Carrie, Crash Mitchell and April. At the end of the night April got her car stolen. That sucked.
On the way home I saw a turtle in the middle of the road by my house. Thinking that someone might run it over, I stopped, got out, and grabbed it to move it out of the road. Suddenly a violent stream of water/pee shot out of its rear end about 6 feet out and soaked my pants. Nice. Thanks.
On Friday I headed over to Legends Guitar for a little while before a bunch of us headed out to St. Pete beach for the weekend.
We hit the beach, had drinks out of coconut heads, had some dinner, swam and had a blast. That night mosquitoes attacked us, and I definitely swallowed a few love bugs by accident.
Saturday night Marsha had a big pool party at her house and more fun was had.
I headed home on Sunday and on Monday I headed out to the final day of the Atlanta Jazzfest. Good times. (Photos)
05/21/2007 - Hey there, I'm just in from a fun few days in Savannah, GA. I was down for a friend's wedding and it was a lovely outdoor ceremony in a gazebo under a giant oak tree on a square near downtown. The weather was perfect, the ceremony was simple and classy and the reception was a great time.
Last Friday I attended the Bright Eyes concert at The Fox Theater. Openers Gillian Welch and Oakley Hall were great, but it was clearly Bright Eyes' show and their audience. They put on an great show, both musically and visually stunning. Two drummers, rear projection images manipulated in real time and a great setlist made the show fly by so fast.
The Yum Yum Tree convened last night to rock, talk about new shows, and to play new songs. Check the calendar for some upcoming dates. Hope to see you out and about.
05/17/2007 - You know what's cool? I'm one of the "top friends" on this MySpace page. Third row, first column. Cool.
05/16/2007 - Last night's Sloan show at the 40 Watt in Athens was fantastic. They played a million tunes and the opening band, Small Sins, was great. Small Sins gave each other back rubs, told jokes about the south and posed for pictures as Chris from Sloan climbed all over the stage. I picked up their CD and I'm anxious to check it out.
Sloan, from Canada, came out and rocked about 40 songs, joking, "We don't get down here often so we're going to play everything, in case we don't come back." I think I counted a 15-song encore. They were great. (Photos)
05/15/2007 - It's Tuesday, May 15th, and that could only mean one thing. I'm going to Athens this evening to see Sloan play at the 40 Watt Club! Speaking of cool shows, the Ben Gibbard show last weekend was packed out and really fun despite the drunks and teenage girls screaming during the quieter moments. (Photos)
05/12/2007 - I'm not one to gush, but g.d. it, it's so freaking fantastic to be in Atlanta this time of year. I love it, I love it, I... you get the point.
Sure, the traffic sucks, everyone is constantly on their cellphones, and the holes in the roads are covered up with 3-inch thick metal plates that destroy the tires on anything smaller than a pimped-out Escalade blaring an OutKast bootleg, but I can ride my bike to work suckas, and it's beautiful out.
There's a million things going on this time of the year and the weather is amazing. It's cool in the mornings and evenings, and just right in the middle of day. People like to argue that it's hotter here in Atlanta than down in Florida. "That's why we call it 'HotLanta'" they point out in a New-York-of-the-south-self-congratulatory tone while pointing to their t-shirt with the HotLanta logo on it.
"Sure, It gets hot here in Atlanta" (for three months) I concede, "But, in addition to the heat, Florida has 100% humidity, palmetto bugs, tornadoes, alligators, malaria mosquitos, old drivers, hurricanes, snakes, lightning storms, road rage, Orlando, and sharks?!" Mentioning sharks is always my ace in the hole. "Oh, you don't have SHARKS in ATLANTA do you?" Rolls eyes, shakes head, walks away.
I'll admit, the Kudzu in Georgia is pretty crazy, but at least you have about 30 minutes to get away from it once it spots you.
I'm rambling.
There's lots of exciting stuff happening at work and with my music. I don't want to jinx any of the music news so I'll spare you for the moment. Something exciting could happen soon, and if it doesn't in fact happen, I'll make something up. So either way you win.
At Super Deluxe I've been leading up the Funny Lunch promotion with CNN.com. It runs every weekday from 11am until 3pm EST. I'm working with some amazing folks and we're constantly trying to make more of you laugh at our funny videos. Check out Funny Lunch in the "Latest News" section on CNN.com and make with the "click-click-click" all over our website.
This Wednesday we'll be premiering the newest offering from Bob Odenkirk. You can be the first one on your block to check out his new series called The Derek and Simon show. You will love it.
I didn't intend to write a novella, so I'm going to stop. I think I'm heading over to the East Atlanta Beer Festival on my bike this afternoon. Yum. This evening I'm off to the Ben Gibbard (DCFC), David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Johnathan Rice show at Center Stage, and if there's time, back to Smith's Olde Bar for the conclusion of the 500 Songs for Kids benefit show. There's a rumor that R.E.M. is playing the final song.
Go buy your mother something nice today.
05/09/2007 - Once again I am just now recovering from the weekend. There's so much to report and I'm going to write so little about it. I played three shows between last Saturday and Monday. First up was a fun art show opening at ISP Space in East Atlanta for the opening of See Through Souls. There was some great music, great people, a keg of beer and some amazing art.
Later that evening, Mary O. Harrison, with Michelle on bass, Jenny from The Eyes on drums and me on guitar, played a rocking version of The Who's, I Can't Explain. There was so many great performances, I wouldn't even know where to start.
I headed out to Smith's again on Sunday night and saw Spy Magnet rip it up along with Blake Guthrie and Bain Mattox too.
Monday I played an americana version of Money (That's what I Want), and it seemed to go over pretty damn good! Once again there were some great performance, too many to list, but Clay Cook's performance of You are the Sunshine of my life was definitely a stand out.
I took tons of photos.
04/30/2007 - Last weekend was full of rock. There was the Mary O. Harrison show at Lenny's on Friday night, and my first show with The Yum Yum Tree at The EARL on Saturday. Good times indeed. Check out all the new photos.
04/27/2007 - OK folks, I should have posted this earlier in the week, but better late than never right? There's two rock shows to see this weekend featuring your truly.
Tonight I'm playing at Lenny's Bar in Atlanta with Mary O. Harrison. Also on the bill are two fantastic local bands, The Preakness and Silent Kids. We start the show promptly at 9pm.
Saturday night will be my debut performance with The Yum Yum Tree at the world famous EARL. We'll be opening up for the fantastic Magnapop and Sleep Therapy. These shows can't be missed! Srsly!
04/25/2007 - I went to Delaware last weekend to hang with my friend Ava. Here's what happened: I broke a wheel on my rollerbag walking from security to the D gate (4,000 feet) at the Atlanta airport. Problems with my plane's flight computer grounded us for a while. The flight up to Wilmington was a good one. We went to an art show opening in Wilmington at the DCCA. We toured a burned out building. We smelled fields of mushrooms in Pennsylvania on an late-night drive. Had coffee and chocolate chip cookies at Brewed Awakenings a few times. Got a tour of Ava's studio, very cool! Fixed an wiring problem in Dover. Drove to Rehoboth Beach, ate a sandwich from Wawa and got some sand between my toes. It was chilly and fun. I almost bought an airbrushed t-shirt. Checked out Skidfest back in Newark. CHAOS. Had some food and beers at the Dear Park Tavern and made some new friends. Ava pulled a huge splinter out of my foot. Saw a house that was getting new "siding" installed. Stopped to look at an old truck and made new friends with this couple who let us tour their house. Bought a ton of CDs at Bert's during their 50% off everything sale. Had a great time. Check out the photos.
04/18/2007 - If time flies, does space drive? So I'm mentally gearing up for the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Elvis Perkins in Deerland show tonight at the Variety Playhouse and I'm wondering if I've recovered from the activities from this week and last weekend. There was the Dogwood Festival, the new ATHF Movie, Yum Yum Tree and Mary O practice and all that damn spring cleaning. Hey, check out some new photos!
04/09/2007 - I did stuff this weekend. I saw some bands like Attractive 80's Women at the EARL and Bain Mattox and Shot From Guns, and Cary Ann Hearst at the 40 Watt Club in Athens. I also went to Chattanooga on a whim. Here's some photos.
04/08/2007 - Happy Easter everyone.
04/03/2007 - Status: not shot. Thanks to everyone that sent me an email wondering if I was OK today. The tragic shooting that took place today in the CNN center in Atlanta was in a different location than where I'm located, a bit farther north on Williams Street. Please keep the families of the today's victims in your prayers.
04/02/2007 - Hey there, just a quick note to say hello. It was a weekend full of music that culminated in a fun show on Sunday evening with Mary O. Harrison, Casados and Georgia Fireflies at the ISP Space in East Atlanta. It was Michelle's birthday so maybe drinks were had after the show at The EARL. I caught Hope for AGoldenSummer and a few other bands there on Friday night and had a fun evening out. Here's some photos.
03/29/2007 - I've posted some photos from the Dean & Britta show on the Photo page.
03/26/2007 - Wow, I just had a weekend completely jammed with music. Friday night I went to the Variety Playhouse and saw Dean & Britta. They played some songs off of their last two CDs as well as some Luna and Galaxy 500 tunes. They were great.
Saturday night I played a solo show at Aurora Coffee with Blake Guthrie and I also played guitar with Mary O. Harrison. We had a good turnout and it was a fun evening. After the show I headed over to the EARL to see Parade, Say Hi To Your Mom (loved them!), +/- and Bishop Allen. All the bands were great and almost everyone from work was there as was everyone from The Yum Yum Tree. Speaking of, we had Yum Yum Tree practice on Sunday and it's really starting to sound good. I'm really looking forward to our first show at the EARL on 4/28. Photos
03/21/2007 - OK, I'm finally getting around to getting caught up from my trip out to Austin for SXSW. It was hectic and fun and I'm not even going to attempt a play-by-play description. So, here's a quick rundown of what I saw and did out there each day.
Wednesday: I caught an early flight out of Atlanta, a very bumpy ride, and sat next to a guy named Andy that works with my friend Brett in Hilton Head. Small world. After getting in we attempted to get badges before I played, but the line was about an hour long so we headed to Yard Dog for the BAAMO showcase. I played, as did The Human Condition, Jon Langford, The Beauvilles, Geri X, Hangtown, Mojo Gurus, Nessie, and The Postmarks. That night, as part of the official SXSW showcases, I caught Future Clouds and Radar, Imperial Teen, The Rosebuds, Oakley Hall, and Peter, Bjorn & John. I even saw Laura from the 'Chunk at the Merge Showcase!
Thursday: I got up early and headed down to the convention center to get some coffee and plan the day. I headed over to the Fader Fort to see the Adult Swim folks and caught The Pipettes. I saw Wayne from the Flaming Lips a handful of times on 6th recording interviews and sketches for the Tonight Show. I caught Clem Snide and Tokyo Police Club at Emo's. At La Zona Rosa, Rachel Fuller hosted a hootenanny that featured Pete Townsend, Martha Wainwright, Willy Mason, Joe Purdy, Alexi Murdoch. I stuck around for the rest of the night and saw Elvis Perkins, Cold War Kids, Architecture in Helsinki, and Ghostland Observatory. Walking back home I managed to catch The Honorary Title playing my favorite tune of theirs, "Bridge and Tunnel."
Friday: Up early again and down to the convention center to hit the trade show. My work, Super Deluxe, was hosting a two-day day party and I had a blast on the first day hanging with the Nessie guys and meeting a ton of people. I got to see David Cross, Eugene Merman, Jonah Ray, Spindrift, Matt & Kim, The Gsossip, Brian Posehn, The Black Angels, and Les Savy Fav. I stopped by the Paste party too and saw Badly Drawn Boy and Eisley. Wayne from the Flaming Lips was everywhere today. The Fader Fort was rocking all day. That night I headed to Antone's to catch St. Vincent, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, My Brightest Diamond and The Black Angels. Next up I caught Sloan and The Apples in Stereo at The Dirty Dog Bar.
Saturday: As usual, by this point in the trip, I am completely exhausted and on cruise control. I picked up a few cool posters from Flatstock, I saw Atlanta's own Silver Lakes at the Paste showcase and then headed back to be a part of day two at the Super Deluxe party. I saw Fucked Up, Sloan, and The Walkmen. After that I headed over the Cedar Street Courtyard to catch a surprise show by Thurston Moore. Very, very cool. At the night showcases I saw West Indian Girl, Mew, Architecture in Helsinki, Eisley and The Polyphonic Spree. A final walk of the strip back to my rental and I was done. Thank you good night Austin, what a fantastic time.
Sunday: I slept in thank you very much. I packed up and headed out to Mount Bonnell. I went there last year on my Slacker sightseeing trip but it was so foggy I couldn't see a thing. Thankfully the skies were clear and you could see all the way to downtown Austin. I met Laura and JoEllen for lunch at Guero's, hung out at Yard Dog for a little bit and headed to the airport. Checking in and getting through security wasn't bad at all so I had time for a nap before the flight. A few of us from work, Jim, Daniel and I were all on the same plane. We got back to Atlanta and proceeded to wait for our bags for nearly as long as the flight from Austin. It's good to be back home. (Photos)
03/19/2007 - SXSW was amazing! I'll upload some photos and hit you up with a blog entry sometime this week. Right now it's time to rest up.
03/13/2007 - I'm sitting here at work, getting ready for my trip out to SXSW tomorrow, by drinking a vodka and cranberry and listening to music with the headphones blasting. What initially looked like a snoozer of a festival has turned a full 180 degrees with an outstanding lineup of great bands and fantastic day parties. My god there's going to be a million pictures and a huge blog when it's all said and done.
03/09/2007 - Last night's show at the EARL was a great time. Special thanks to everyone that made it out to see my first show as guitarist with Mary O. Harrison. I finally got to see Luigi and Silver Lakes, they we're both great! I talked with Michelle from Luigi and determined that her Vox guitar was the exact one that I owned about 10+ years ago. I had sold it to my friend Brian and it ended up one the cover of Barely Pink's Starduster CD. Photos
03/08/2007 - Photos from Tuesday's night show at Smith's have been posted on the photo page. Come out to the EARL tonight, we play at 9:30pm.
03/07/2007 - Last night's show at Smith's was pretty fun. I played some tunes, including a fine Brad Neeley jam called Cat People that my friend Brian sang. The headliner, a guy named Alex Nackman was really nice and he sounded great.
If you're looking for some trouble to get into tomorrow night I'll be playing my first show as the guitar player in Mary O. Harrison's band. Luigi and Silver Lakes, two Atlanta favorites are on the bill as well and warrant the price of admission all by themselves. I'll post some pictures from the last night's show very soon.
03/04/2007 - Damn you MySpace! Just a quick note to tell you my MySpace account got hacked and apparently it sent everyone in my Hotmail.com address book invites, emails and random crap. Please let me know if you got anything crazy or strange. I may have to shut down the profile.
I'm playing a few shows this week, hope you can make it out to one or both of them.
02/16/2007 - Hey folks, hope you are enjoying the cooled weather that's been all over the counrty right now. This week has been chilly in Atlanta, not like the NE, but chilly none the less. We even had about 10 seconds of snow on Tuesday. So, we had an interesting week a few weeks ago at work, thanks to the fine folks in Boston, but apart from that everything is going great. I'm going to start playing with a few different band here in the next few weeks. First off, I'll be playing acoustic with Mary O. Harrison and I'll be rocking the electric guitar with The Yum Yum Tree. There's a few solo shows on the horizon too so come on out and say hello when you get a chance.
01/31/2007 - Here's some fun party photos. If you look hard you can find me in a few of them. Super Deluxe Blog and Flickr Photos
01/30/2007 - Hey there, I've booked some new shows, aren't you excited? I am. Speaking of shows, last night's Jeff Tweedy solo shat was fantastic. He played a ton of tunes and the stage banter was great. Scott McCaughey from the Minus 5, my friend Amanda and her drummer from Tin Cup Prophette opened the show and sounded great. Last saturday night was the release party for Super Deluxe and it too was a great time. I might post some pictures at some point.
01/26/2007 - I've got a question for everyone out there. Have you ever been to Coachella Valley Music Arts Festival? I'm thinking about going and I don't know where to stay. Have you ever camped or stayed in a hotel? Did you have a good time? Was it worth it? Have you seen the line up - The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, Bjork, Brazilian Girls, Rufus Wainwright, We Are Scientists, Tokyo Police Club, and Silversun Pickups are playing, and that's just the first night! THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN! If I don't end up going I hope JAMC tour the states. The last time I saw them was in 1994 with Mazzy Star opening. The time before that was in 1990. The opening act was and unknown band called Nine Inch Nails.
Speaking of great shows, I'm looking forward to the Jeff Tweedy show this Monday night at the Tabernacle. SXSW is on the horizon as well, and so far there's a small list of bands floating around the internet. Here's a few bands I'm looking forward to seeing: Annuals, Apples In Stereo, Asobi Sesku, Badly Drawn Boy, Black Lips, Cold War Kids, David Cross, Emmylou Harris, Ghostland Observatory, Hoodoo Gurus, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Imperial Teen, Interpol, Margot & the Nuclear So And So's, Mates Of State, Okkervil River, Pete Townshend, Rocky Votolato, Sloan, Snowden, The Frames, The Stooges, Thunderbirds Are Now!, and Thurston Moore.
01/20/2007 - Hey there, it's been a while since I've checked in and it's been for a good reason. I've been busy with a little thing called Super Deluxe. A great group of folks and I have been putting together a website that will feature all forms of things funny. We are working with some amazing people. I don't want to brag and name drop, but you should check it out. You should make your own profile. You should upload some funny wedding videos. You should come over for a drink or maybe we could go see a show, there's some good ones coming up at the EARL. Seriously. Call me. Stalker. Me-Wow! (Photos)
01/01/2007 - Is this thing on?