Saturday, the air conditioning at O'Hara's was half out so it was a scorcher. Waitperson Danielle provided us with drinking glasses which were tubes bent into an eyeglass shape you could drink through. I was drinking ice water out of them and it cooled off my eyebrows. Chuck's voice was still a mess. Time to have that checked out, pally! Lately, i've been doing a lot of sessions at Bob's for the cover cd and that's going well. Tonight, i'll be there working with the 18 Wheelers boys on Eve Of Destruction. I borrowed Rick's Danelectro baritone guitar and that'll be the secret ingredient if all goes well. This week is nutty! Tonight: studio. Tomorrow night: rehearsal with The Eat. Thursday night: gig at RadioActive records in Ft. Lauderdale. Friday night we leave for Weeki Wachee Springs for a little R&R. Sunday: Elwood's. Don't forget to check out the TGIF section of The Palm Beach Post for a Dillengers article. I may be bringing my Beatles Monopoly on vacation with us. Write more soon!
A: All of them. Today, I was doing deliveries in Stuart and I had my IPod going in the car. I have a playlist entitled "Songs" where I just dump random stuff. It was playing through the list and "Everybody's World" by The Grays came on. I must've listened to it ten times in a row. I haven't heard the Grays "Ro Sham Bo" in a long, long time. For a while, I couldn't listen to it for two main reasons. One: It reminds me of a time in my life when things were really confusing. I was living in Denver and not really knowing where my life was going. Second; Artistically, it was hard to listen to because it was so good and it made me feel inferior. Everything does but, at that time, I was feeling pretty good about my writing and this album came along and made me want to quit. It is so well written melodically and lyrically. Production-wise, all the instruments sound great and there's more than a few nods to the Beatles.
I was introduced to this album by my friend and songwriting partner, Pat Goodwin (he also introduced me to a lot of things I still listen to today....The Muffs, The Posies, The Fastbacks, etc.). The day it came out, he went out and got it and we devoured it. Soon after, they came to Denver (Mercury Cafe?) and we had to go. We got there early and Pat brought his video camera. The guys were just hanging around...I don't think many people knew about them. They said it was OK to film and we did (in the youtube clip (which was posted by Pat) you can see me whiz by at about 2:51 to save a falling guitar). The show was unbelievable. Afterward, we hung out with them until we had to leave (see photos). We ended up seeing them the next time they came to Denver (I think they opened for the Smithereens) and they remembered us and it was all friendly. It was Jason Falkner's birthday so we drove him to my apartment (I tried to wake up my girlfriend with "Jason Falkner's here!!!" to which she replied "Who?...I don't care") and I gave him my James Brown boxed set he was admiring. On the way back to dropping him at his hotel, we made him listen to our demos and he said he liked them. We didn't hear much from them after that and they quietly faded away.
A long while passed when Pat brought me Jason's first solo album and (the way I remember it) told me we could audition for his band. It never happened but it was nice that he remembered us and our music. Jason went on to have a solo career (he also plays on the new Beck album). Jon Brion is a big producer with lots of credits to his name. I never heard anything from Buddy Judge (last sighting was Amy Mann's Whatever) and Dan McCarroll I thought I saw on Austin City Limits a few years back playing with somebody I don't remember. I still love "Ro Sham Bo". I think it's an amazing piece of work. "Nothing Between Us" is still one of my all-time favorite songs and "Everybody's World" is a delicious slice of modern psychedelia (and sounds a lot like like "Rain" by The Beatles...another all-time favorite). Pat moved to San Francisco and I followed him there. Our band lasted awhile and I quit over something stupid and I burned a bridge that I really regret. Last time Kris and I went to SF, I ran into Pat at Amoeba Records and there was a strangeness there that saddened me (the photo was our "Carpenters" parody).
I really miss him sometimes. I remember us having a Lennon-McCartney type competition while songwriting. He'd bring in a great song and i'd go home and try to compete but I couldn't write as well as him. He was/is very talented and I hope to patch it up with him sometime in this lifetime. Someday, i'm gonna have to blog about my Denver/San Francisco days so i'll have a place to go back to when my memory REALLY fails me. Today, I picked up the Strat and Tele. All is well now. Tom turned the humbucker around and it really looks weird but it plays bettter. I'm gonna have to get a new pickup but I have to save some money.
So this Saturday, I went to Bob's studio with a whole car full of shit and we only got one song done. There was supposed to be some people there but only three showed up. Mark showed up and left. Jim wasn't prepared so we didn't do his song. Jeff was ready so we did a cover of Nowhere Man that was slower than usual and we changed the arrangement a little. I played drums, bass, acoustic guitar and I did some harmonies. It was fun but I wish we would've gotten more done. I got an email asking if I could play a gig with the Eat at Alligator Alley on the 8th. Right now it's tentative but I hope it comes off. I 'spose there will be a short round of rehearsals.
Last night, I participated in my friend Dave's podcast. I posted about the last one about a year ago. Dave, Keith and I get together and discuss albums that mean a lot to us. We did this one over the phone 'cause Dave is in Washington DC. This time I chose Meet The Beatles, Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols and Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. As soon as he edits it, i'll post a link to it for the severely bored. Charlie Pickett called me today and told me we're going to New York October 25th to play a record company thing in Brooklyn. Today I did a phone interview with Bill Meredith for the TGIF section of the Palm Beach Post. He's writing an article on the Dillengers that i'm sure i'll post here when it comes out on August 1st....which is the same day the Beatles' Monopoly game comes out. This is going to be cool. I'm gonna have to get some people together and have a game.
Today, I also brought the Strat in for a looksee... Saturday I strung it up like normal and when I got to the D string, I was stretching it and it made a weird sound so I cut it off and put on a new one and that one sounded the same...kinda dull. So I figured I probably messed up the nut. The guy (Tom) at the Amp Shop called me and said it was just a bad string. Two in a row? Hard to believe but I pick it up tomorrow and i'll figure it out then. I also brought in the Telecaster to possibly change a pickup. Since I went to a humbucker, I haven't been able to use it because it sounds real muddy. Who knows what the rest of the week will bring. Not to many gigs this weekend. O'Hara's on Saturday and Elwood's on Sunday. Round and round it goes.......
As usual, it's been a while and my memory is foggy so this may be disjointed and out of order (like a soda machine). The first thing that comes to mind is my amp. Years back, I bought this amp from my Mom's boyfriend at the time. He was a traveling musician and, if memory serves me, the first owner of this amp. A 1968 Fender Super Reverb. I used to play on it when he wasn't home. Eventually, I talked him out of it and bought it for 300 bucks. I used it for a good, long time but it developed this problem of popping fuses. I remember playing the Margaritaville in Key West for a weekend and popping a fuse every set. I eventually got it repaired and got some speakers replaced but I fell out of love with it and stuck it in a non-air conditioned storage unit where it picked up some mold. When I left Florida, I left it in the care of my friend John Tillman and I pretty much forgot about it until I moved back.
My bandmate Scott wanted a Super and I remembered I had one and I traded mine (non-working) for a 1973 Fender Deluxe Reverb he had. He reworked the thing and changed the grill cloth and got it to work. He used it on a few gigs and it sounded great. Some trading of equipment went on between him and a friend and I and eventually I got the Super back. I used it a lot (one recording session comes to mind; Fenders sound really great when you crank them up but I remember mine sounding shrill so I went with an overdrive pedal to get THAT sound) but I was never IN LOVE with it and would use other amps. I had a few speakers (the original ones were back in the amp) re-coned and did some tube changes and was pretty OK with it until a week or two ago. It just started to sound tired so I brought it in for a check up. I figured it was a speaker again or the tubes weren't properly biased or something. Today, I got a call and the first thing the tech said was "Have you ever been in love with this amp?" That got me thinking. Here's what happened. The mid '60's Super had a black control panel (mine was silver) and a different circuit design. The silverface models were never all that desirable once the circuits were changed. Mine was made in a transition period when they were introducing the new circuit. Many people have "blackface"d their silverfaces by cutting out some capacitors and resistors. That's what he did and my amp sounds INCREDIBLE!!!! I can't wait to play it on a gig. It really sings now and has lots of compressed sustain.
Last weekend, I went to my friend Steven's to give a drum lesson to Tess and that was a good time. We did a double drummer thing that sounded real good. Tess is really coming along and it sounds like she's really practicing (or i'm easily fooled or she's real talented or both). We practiced Ringo beats and Surf beats. I'm sure the whole neighborhood heard. And we made a trip to Rez Drums to get some sticks and such. They still have my drool-inducing Gretsch kit. WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I went to my friend John Tillman's house and came home with two new guitars to play with. This time it's a '66 Jazzmaster and a Firebird...both in beautiful sunburst. Weird how that works. He's got my Rickenbackers so it all works out. Tomorrow, we're going to see the Fab Four at the Kravis Center. We saw them last year and they were great. I'm sure Johanna will scream and mock-faint. Saturday, I've got a recording session at my friend Bob's place. Before the last election, we recorded a CD of original compositions that were of a protest nature called Wake Up! that was reviewed on NPR. We had a lot of fun making it and I contributed two songs and played a bunch of shit on it. Anyway, Bob wants to make a cover CD of the same nature before this election so that's what's gonna happen. I haven't made up my mind what i'm gonna do so I probably won't start mine Saturday. I know someone's gonna do Nowhere Man and someone else is going to do In The Year 2525. Charlie Pickett is gonna do a song so it'll be good to see him and Ed.
Due to overwhelming demand, I posted an outtake from our Beatlenight. On a good note, I got a call from Bob Wlos who wants to put together a collection of cover songs of a protest nature. I'm trying to think of a song to do. Maybe "Machine Gun" by Jimi Hendrix might be fun. Suggestions? In the meantime......
At approx. 11:59 am, I thought a lot about Peace and Love and Richard Starkey. I love Ringo. There. I've said it. When I lived in San Francisco, I had a cat named Ringo and never once did it sound weird to say. When I moved back here, I had him flown in where he lived the easy life until he kicked it old school about a week after Johanna was born. The Drunkabilly Gaylords cover "Don't Pass Me By" and when I brought it in, I might not have mentioned it being a Beatles song. We do it like a Cajun stomp. I used to do it in another band years ago like the way the Georgia Satellites did on their second album. I have made a decent living copying Mr. Starr and still do. I might have posted this before but I got to shake his hand the first time I saw the All-Starr show at the Sunrise Musical Theater. He was ending an encore and I reached up and he took my hand. I still haven't washed it. It's a long story...Tonight, in honor of the Ring, Johanna made it Beatlenight. We watched A Hard Day's Night and I made her sing a few Beatle tunes (see video). We posed with our favorite Beatle. Malley got saddled with Ringo and, as you can see, he didn't take it well. Everyone's a critic. We very nearly polished off a pint of Ben & Jerry's John Lennon Whirled Peace ice cream. I am FUCKING BEAT!!!!!!!! Like a jackass, I stayed up late to get my memory logged and it wired me. It took me forever to fall asleep and I was/am real tired today. I dragged ass at work and my boss was very understanding. I'm gonna hit the pillow with a POW!!!!!! My friend Keith wants to go wah-wah shopping and i'm excited. I hope he gets something really expensive so I can borrow it. I've got about five of them so i'm cut off.
These are some pictures from last night used with permission from the SHOOTER. I have changed the names to protect the shameful. First two pix contain your fat slob author with the toy drum kit and the real musicians. Rumor has it he makes stupid faces when he plays. We'll just call him Teddy. Third picture frames Freddy, Teddy, Jesus (pronounced hay-soos) and Twinkle. Last photo depicts Freddy beating the shit out of Teddy's drums and getting him in a fuck of a lot of trouble. He should have stuck with the violin. Or maybe the abacus.
Thursday night, we took Johanna to see Ringo Starr and the All-Stars at the Hard Rock thingy. This was her first real concert. We had pretty good seats stage left in the upper level but we could see everyone just fine. Jo was real excited to see a real Beatle in the flesh. But she was bored when Ringo wasn't the focus. She was mock fainting Beatlemania-style. Funny. It was a great show. I always try to see him when he comes to town.
Friday was the 4th and I had to do some music store shopping which I always dread. I HATE going to the music store. The employees are generally into one kind of music and, in their opinion, everything else sucks and they're not afraid to tell you so. I tend to use weird supplies like thin sticks or drumheads. Not cool. I like these picks that are almost shaped like a rounded Dorito. I used to be able to find them anywhere and now it's impossible. So I bought some unpopular drum stuff and I went to the guitar counter and asked for said picks. "Oh, nobody uses those things anymore". I wanted to smack the shit out of this idiot. Music stores only seem to cater to Metallica fans or idiots....OK, same thing (just kidding). I could rant on about this for weeks but i'll end up forgetting what I was supposed to be journaling.
So Friday we went to Mizner Park and watched the fireworks in the rain. I had to carry Jojo so my back still hurts. I'll probably have to carry her until she decides i'm uncool. What can I say? I'm a sucker. Saturday, I went to my friend Steven's berfday party. I arrived early and hung out with the Kramers. We ended up playing some music with Tess and Dani(?) and that was a lot of fun. I'm not a good socializer (NO!), so after awhile I was feeling nervous and I had to split. There was a house full of people I don't know and that freaks me out. And I had to go because I had a gig at Boston's (see pix by Judy Blem). I was hoping we'd do well and I guess we did. I don't think we played all that well and it seemed to take awhile for the crowd to warm to us but management and staff were happy and that counts. Chuck's voice was a goner before we even started so I sang more than I wanted to. We had some guests come up and do their thing and that helped. Scott's friend Jeff came up and played some. Kris told me I looked real upset when he came up and I kinda was just 'cause I wasn't expecting it. He was great and we played well together. Dee came up and tore the house down...always hard to follow her...Bitch! Just kidding. You know I love you (if you're reading this). I don't know why I was inclined to drop my pants. Habit maybe. It was a good night and I was real glad Kris was there. I ran into a lot of people I haven't seen in years. Crazy.
This morning, my voice sounded worse than Tom Waits from all that screaming. And I woke up with a big zit right in the middle of my neck. You get good tickets to Ringo and a zit on the neck. Life is funny that way. We played Elwood's and the Hollywood Contingency came out in full force. That was really nice that they made the trek. And they get to go home completely deaf. I was real tired from the night before so I bought an iced coffee with two shots of espresso in it and I was flying when I got there. Timing went to hell. Every song was a drum solo. Fuck it. Johanna decided we should have a Beatles night tomorrow night for Ringo's berfday. I'm trying to think of something English to eat that isn't fried. Kris nixed fish and chips. When we went to England, I ate nothing but fish and chips and bangers and chips. I came back weighing at least six or seven hundred pounds. We're gonna watch A Hard Day's Night and sing along to every song. I also found out tonight that my week is going to be busier than I thought. Thursday I have the Quillo theater again and Saturday night and Sunday at Elwood's. I'm tired. P.S. At noon tomorrow (as per Ringo's instructions), think Peace and Love. I already am.
Ok, so the title isn't exactly original. This was in my email box during my absence. We got out of town a little later than expected. We were supposed to caravan to Jacksonville with our friend Pete and some people he knows (who reserved our rooms for us...Thanks!) but we ended up going it alone. I put a few new tires on the Scion and we were ready. We coffeed up, put a David Sedaris audio book cd in the player and hit the road a little after 10 am. We ended up stopping in St. Augustine 'cause i'd never seen it. We kinda did a run-through but it was nice and old. We went to a hippie record store to scout out cool stickers but it was a no-go. We ended up going to the venue so I could take a picture of the marquee. Then went back to the hotel for a shower and some relaxing. I got a text from my friend Tina (and Steven) saying they were letting people in as early as 6:30 because the ticketing system could cause delays so we hightailed it over there. We got right in with no line and met Tina and Steven and the Eat's bass player Kenny and Joe Harris. We went out the back doors and had a few four-way conversations. Finally, we made our way into the theater. We knew we had good seats but they were REALLY good. We kept walking up and up. We were right by a speaker stack so I readied some TP for my left ear (not needed...this was one of the quietest concerts i'd ever been to). After what seemed like hours, the lights went down and we were transported to Tom Waitsland for the next 2 and a half hours. The show was incredible. Probably one of the best i've ever seen. He was really funny during his between song banter. I know both Kris and I did a fair amount of pinching ourselves not believing it was really happening and we were there to see it. Afterward, we hung out with Steven and Tina at their B & B and they fed us cheese sandwiches and pita chips (and an awesome biscotti...Thanks a million, guys!!!). Back at the hotel we tried not to wake Pete (didn't work) and we just ended up falling asleep. Pete had a plane to catch so we didn't see him in the morning. We ate breakfast and booked it back to town and picked up Jojo. Later, her and I went out to pick up a pizza and were rear-ended coming out of a parking lot. Luckily no damage was done but we were both scared.
