Uhhhhhh....Paging Mr. Vollo

Funkabilly Playboys "What is Hip?"

I took the Gibson amp in to get fixed and when it was done, I went in to pick it up and decided I needed new speakers. I got some Celestions put in and ran to rehearsal for Grizzled Jim (long story). Ran to soundcheck at Bamboom with Gibson in tow. It sounded great so I used it for the show. I also found out the show was SOLD OUT (!). That's quite an achievement. Sometime when I have time, i'll give you my review of it. This morning, I got a call from the amp tech at the Amp Shop who told me he tried to get in to hear the amp for a few minutes and they turned him away. He also told me this was in today's paper.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/08/27/a6b_spoonbenders_0827.html

Not too shabby. I don't remember saying those words exactly and Bongo said most of it. Thanks to Judy Blem for dealing with the whole thing and providing this video from the show. I left there feeling not so good about our performance. I found out later that the staff was telling people to sit down when we were trying to get them up. I guess some of the staff were pretty nasty to people trying to get in. Bummer.

Micky's Second Season Hair.

Today was the first day of Kindergarten. No crying. No freak-out. Who is this kid? When I was her age, I went ballistic when I had to leave my Mom for the first day of school. I remember beating the hell out of the Principal and pulling his beard when he tried to separate me and my Mom. I'm so proud of her. Over dinner, she told us how she has a few new friends already. One minute they're in diapers, the next in college. This is going to be painful.

She Wears Denim Wherever She Goes or If I Lost My Mind, Would You Help Me Find It?

What is happening September 1st? I got it on my gig calendar but with no information and it's making me nutty! Anyone know? Friday was a rare night off. For some reason, I can't remember what we did. Saturday was spent cleaning out part of the garage for the arrival of bathroom parts. That night, I had a gig with Charlie Pickett at Alligator Alley. I usually use the drums there and bring my own stands and wouldn't you know it? The one night I get lazy is the night things are broken. I had to construct a cymbal stand with some parts and a mess 'o duct tape. It worked though and that's the important part. The gig was so-so. Rick was in the Keys with the Dillengers so his place was taken by a mess of people. Me being one of them. Since I've been blowing my ears out lately, I wisely decided to wear ear plugs. Earlier in the day, I bought some heavier-than-I-normally-use drumsticks (zildjian zak starkeys) so I wouldn't break them right away like I usually do. That didn't really work. Charlie plays quite loud so they were kindling by the third song.

John Salton and Kenny Lindvall(?) played lead first and then I was up. Bobby Tak from the Cichlids took over on the drums and I tried to keep up on songs i've never played the guitar to. Bobby left a trail of what was left of my sticks as he finished the night out. Debbie from the Cichlids took over on guitar and couldn't get it away from me fast enough. Sheesh! The best part of the night was my hanging out with Leslie and Karen. We talked music and records and stuff and it was great. Karen gave me a whole shitpile of Teenage Fanclub live cds and a DVD of some tv stuff I didn't have. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Leslie works at Blue Note Records and I found out they moved to Hollywood which is much closer....I can feel a road trip coming on....anyone up for it?

Today was a celebration of my family's August birthdays at Lucille's BBQ. That was fun seeing my Mom and Dad and sister and everyone. I got stuffed which mad me real tired but I had way too much work to do to nap. Tonight's Elwood's was almost completely unattended. It was hot as shit so I can't take it personally. We threw the game from the outset. Songs we've played for years were forgotten. Oh, well. I'm not gonna lose sleep over it this time. Just loaded the Ipod for this week with Soul Asylum and Buffalo Tom and that ought to hold me for a few.....minutes!

I've Completely Turned My Life Over To Satan or Have You Seen Me?

Who am I? Where have I been? I'm starting to doubt that I know. This week has been an overwhelming flurry of activity. I've spent more time traveling in the car than awake hours at home. Even now, I feel like i'm in motion when i'm not. When is the rubberband gonna snap? When am I going to show up at some stranger's house and walk right in? When am I gonna show up at a Funkabilly gig with a set of drums? When am I gonna be the guy on the interstate with the hollow eyes who doesn't know where he is? The answer: soon. Look at that fucking dead guy in the picture. I'm so tired. Worn out. When I do go to sleep, I wake up only a few hours later. I can't remember what good sleep feels like. Right now, I have a headache that feels like i've been shot in the forehead.

Tuesday, I had a meeting about a project with the Dillengers that's gonna take up even more of my time. I don't feel too good about it but it's gonna bring in money. I could use some of that right now as all my shit is falling apart. I've got a few guitars I can't use 'cause they need repairs. The new amp is a fucking disaster. I don't even wanna look at it. I'm so discouraged (you can stop reading now 'cause there's gonna be a whole lot more complaining...SORRY!...i gotta get it out somehow). Wednesday was a rehearsal for the gig with Jim Wurster at the Bamboom on Thursday. Thursday's show was a pretty good one. At rehearsal, we were sitting while playing and Jim thought it would be cool to do that at the gig so we did. We played Neil Young's Cowgirl In The Sand and I just made feedback noise for a full 5 minutes. I really enjoy the sound of feedback....and making it. We had Chris DeAngelis from the 18 Wheelers on bass, so the musicianship went up a few notches. He's just an over-all swell guy and I love talking records with him.

I didn't get home until the wee-wees and it showed the next day (today). I could not get a grip today. I was walking around at work like a zombie (rod argent? colin blunstone?) counting the hours till I could get out. During lunchtime, I went to Starbucks and had a coffee and that made everything right 'til it wore off. This is how i've given my life to SATAN. I even bought a renewable gift card for myself 'cause i'm always there. I never wanted to be one of those GEN X-GOATEE WEARING-PSEUDO INTELLECTUAL-POETRY READING-COFFEE GENERATION-BASEBALL CAP WEARING-POPULAR KID IN SCHOOL (educated) geehaws who sit around at Starbucks all day typing into their laptops like they're solving all the world's problems right there. Bastards! I wouldn't fit in with them either. If i was reading this, I wouldn't talk to me anymore.

Tomorrow, I have to clean out my garage to make room for bathroom renovating supplies. Tomorrow night, i'm at Alligator Alley with Charlie Pickett and that should be fun. His crowd has always been very nice to me. Sunday, Elwood's. Next week, Wash/Rinse/Repeat. Thursday, I have a possible Funkabilly rehearsal for our gig at the Bamboom on Saturday. Friday, O'Hara's. Saturday morning is supposed to be a rehearsal with this Dillengers project. I'm a little concerned about our Saturday gig. Tickets are 12 bucks and I hope some people come to watch us get blown away by The Spoon Benders. There's supposed to be some kind of All-Star jam at the end that i'd rather not have anything to do with. But I will.

Sunday, my sister is throwing a combo birthday for my Dad, sister and Kris somewhere. Lord (or somebody), help me. After that, RUN to Elwood's. l should really shut up now. There's starving people in Apopka.

Last night on the way home, I thought it would be cool to form a band with Pete on drums, Bob Wlos on pedal steel and guitar, Chris DeAngelis on bass and me on anything else.

Tralalalala.

Today at work, I was listening to John and Yoko's Double Fantasy and it brought back a load of memories. I remember it came out in the winter of 1980. Whenever I hear it, i feel cold and it reminds me of the the time leading up to John's death. The night it happened, I was watching Johnny Carson and the news scrolled on the bottom of the screen. I was completely gutted. John Lennon was my biggest hero since I could/can remember. I remember being in a daze and not believing it. Anyway, I also thought of how you have to have thick skin to be a Yoko Ono fan. I just love when idiots say how she broke up the Beatles. We all know they were tired of each other long before she came along. If John would have fell in love with a trombone, it would have taken him away from them. He just needed to do something else. I honestly feel that they would have stayed together longer if they would have taken a good size break from it all and regrouped after doing individual projects. We'll never know.

I really love Yoko's songs on DF. Kiss Kiss Kiss is like new wave from the period with excellent feedback guitar. I love her in the same way that I love Nico. Their stiffness and cold approach helps the material. Yoko can do no wrong as far as i'm concerned. The first brush I had with her is/was a signed book a friend of mine gave me a long time ago. He met her at an art show and got her to sign one of her books and he didn't want it. He had the same negative attitude most Beatlefans have. She's got fucking Ornette Coleman on her shit, for chrissakes! The second brush came when she was on tour for the Rising album (there's some heavy shit on that album and some yummy wurlitzer) and she had a stop at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. My roommate Mel and I got tickets and went.

During the show (which was awesome), I had the misfortune of standing next to this really weird guy from LA (who looked kinda like Jim Martin from Faith No More-the guy in the picture) with pink glasses and a very odd outfit. How'd I know he/it was from LA? He kept telling me over and over again. Apparently, he'd seen the show the night before and probably annoyed the crap out of everyone around him there too! He kept screaming "YOKO...YOKO, I LOVE YOU!!!!" whenever it was quiet. You HAD to be there. Sean was playing guitar and the rest of the band was made of John Spencer Blues Explosion members. At the end of the show, we waited out back for them to come out. I brought a Sharpie hoping Yoko would sign anything I had. An eyeball. An arm. A breast. She came out and saw this lady with a thousand lps going "Can you sign these?". She politely declined and moved towards the van that was taking them to the hotel. I got bold and asked if I could shake her hand and she allowed me to. I told her I loved the show and she thanked me. Sean came up behind her and said he saw me in there (we were near the front and I had fire-engine red hair at the time...hard to miss) and he liked my hair. Like a dork, I said "I like yours too!" Duhr!!! They split and all I could think about was I just shook the hand that touched John's penis. Granted, it had been washed many times since then but one can't help thinking of these things.

Early Morning, April 4.

I came home for lunch today and I continued watching the Stax Records Story I taped last week from PBS and, boy, it made me sad. I left off when Otis Redding went to Monterey and when it continued it talked about his plane crash. There was a hunk of it displayed at The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame when we went there. The guy was only 27 years old and had a family and everything. Shame. Then they went on to talk to a guy who was right behind Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was shot. He talked about what happened when that picture was taken and other people talked about how it was never the same after that. I'm glad I wasn't around then. I don't know how I would have handled all that. I know I would have been in a few of those marches and gotten the shit kicked out of myself for doing so. We need him now.

Everything Is Broken.

Last night was the debut of my new Gibson amp and it wasn't good. It started sounding really weird after the first few songs. Luckily, I had a spare amp in the car and I had to use it. I have no idea what the problem is and I can't afford to fix it right now so I guess i've got an oversize Gibson paperweight. After sounding like crap for a while, I threw the game. It did get better. That afternoon, we had a rehearsal that was actually productive. We tightened up a few oldies and learned Van Morrison's Domino. We ended up playing it at the show and it went OK. I can't really sing (?) that high. Pete came and played War Pigs and very nearly smashed the drum kit into Georgia. We had a good conversation about the local musician's elite and how we're not part of it.

I heard our Bamboo Room gig on the 25th is selling pretty well. Surprising. Tonight, Bill was out so Charlie played Elwood's with us. I had a fried pickle and broke a forest of drumsticks. I saw Chuck there but he didn't stay too long. Here comes another crazy week. I got rehearsals on Tuesday (w/Dillengers) and Wednesday (w/Jim Wurster), gigs on Thursday (Bamboo Room w/Wurster) and Saturday (Alligator Alley w/Charlie Pickett....The Dillengers will be in the Keys without me) and my boss is on vacation for two weeks starting Wednesday. I should be dead.

good and bad.

This last week was weird. Nice things happened to me. A co-worker of mine overheard me cursing my watch and he gave me a new one! My boss started talking about Ipods with me (i had a 40 gig dealie but i misplaced it somewhere...or it was STOLEN) and the next day he gave me a brand new one! Weird! I should probably start talking about 3 pickup Les Paul Customs or Paiste Giant Beat cymbals. I love my new Ipod. My last one was such a hassle. I went through three of them 'cause they kept locking up on me. By the time I got the last (lost) one I had, i was burned out on all the problems. This new one is a massive improvement. I downloaded No Direction Home (the bob dylan movie) and now I can watch it wherever. It's got a great feature where I can slideshow photos so now I can show Jojo (joy) to the world. Thank you Ipodgods!

I've been sleeping like total shit lately. I keep waking up in the middle of the night and I can't get back to sleep. I've been coasting on fumes most of the time. Last night, I took a Benedryl (which sometimes helps) and it just gave me a nasty hangover today. Blah! Tonight, i'll probably take two and wake up Tuesday. I hope. Tomorrow is the first Funkagig in a while so i'm sure i'll be freaked out all day. This is the first gig with the new amp. I hope it doesn't blow up. I bought new bandpants (scotchgard Dickies) and I pick them up tomorrow from the tailors. They're gonna be all stiff so i'll have to wash them a few times. We're actually gonna rehearse tomorrow afternoon so maybe we'll have a new song to fuck up at O'Hairy's.


Tonight, I introduced Jojo to The Monkees' TV show. She loved it and I figger we'll be listening to them for a while. HEAD is such a great movie. And the soundtrack is great, too. Porpoise Song is one of the great psychedelic classics. I've also been listening to Teenage Fanclub's Songs From Northern Britain and that's kept me happy.

And They Were.

Tonight, Keith/Gabby/Grandma/Jojo/Kris/and I saw The Fab Four at the Kravis Center in WPB and they were great. We were pretty far away, so they looked even more like the real thing. The George was spot on. They had pretty much the right instruments and suits and wigs and stuff. It was fun and also Jojo's first concert. It was great to hear her sing along to "Can't Buy Me Love". Totally worth the price of admission. I hope they come again.

What's Your Name? Who's Your Daddy?

And I Won't Forget The Way You Helped Me Up When I Was Down.

Last night's Bamboom was OK. There was a few people there and that made it easier. I bought these sticks at Rez Drums last week 'cause I liked the way they felt, but they must be stunt sticks 'cause I broke one in the first song. That's why they were in the bargain bin. Probably looked cool...to somebody. My friend Sean showed up and we ended up talking way over the limit (which happens just about every time) and I was/am way tired. I was dragging ass at work today. New MOJO came out and that's always cause for celebration. Right when I got home, we ran to the Hard Cock Restaurant/Museum/Casino/Gas Station/Encyclopedia/Sock/Banana/Cobalt China/Disco Stu/People Place to see the ZOMBIES!!!!!! Oh....YEAH!!!!!BABY!!!!!!

We ate some crummy pretzels waiting to get in. First up was Joey Molland's Badfinger. Listening to interviews and knowing his story, I was inclined to hate him/it but was pleasantly surprised. He didn't originally sing any of the hits, but he did a real good job. He gave Pete Ham credit so he's OK in my book now. "Baby Blue" and "No Matter What" were big highlights. A great start to the show. Next up: Country Joe McDonald's. Country Joe is a punk. He started his show with an instrumental. Bored the old hippies to sleep on that one. He only made a dent when he did the FISH cheer and when he was selling t-shirts. Next up: Felix Cavaliere's Rascals (basically the same backing Badfingers). He looked like a mean little shit who should be on the stoop smoking cigars with the other dagos. Country Joe invaded his set during "People Got To Be Free" and danced around like an embarrassing Dad playing air guitar and having no clue what the words to the song were. Felix did a great job and I got busted singing loudly to "Groovin'" which is a great fucking song. In the interim, I saw Sean up on the balcony.

Next up.....THE ZOMBIES!!!!! If I had big breasts, i'd flash them right about now! They opened their show with a failed single, "I Love You" and that was TOTALLY unexpected. Everyone was on top of their game and playing well. Colin's voice sounded amazing....like he was 20 years old again. Then they played Ray Charles' "Sticks And Stones"(one of me and kris' faves) and continued to lose the stupid hippies but we were going BALLISTIC!!! Next, they did "Time Of The Season" note-perfectly. My only complaint was the guitar player was closer to Eddie Van Hamburger than our dearly departed Paul Atkinson. They also did Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" and "Tell Her No" and closed with "She's Not There" which really got the Grandparents out of their seats.

A super-stellar show. Big highlight: Kris leaned over to me and said "Maybe we should fly to London to see them perform 'Odessey and Oracle' ". I tried to look around for any of the guys afterward to try and meet them, but they were out of sight. It would have been nice to tell them how much their music means to me. Oh, well. Maybe next time. After the show, we hooked up with Pete at City Limits and watched Crazy Fingers do their thing for a while. Tomorrow, Jojo comes home and I can't wait!