InBlogNegro

Open Thread

2010-06-08T19:44:00.001-05:00

Since I got my laptop stolen, I've been doing some soul searching. I looked at the theft as almost the universe tell me "You need a clean slate, you need to re-evaluate your processes, you need a reboot & rebirth."

This rethinking is manifesting itself in my bass playing. Last night was the 1st rehearsal for The Good Foot, A Live Funk Mashup. This is a wonderful project set up by my man Rick McNulty (I will link to his great radio shows later, I'm blogging from my iPhone now). I brought Clyde ('78 Jazz) & the new kid on the block my '09 P Bass ( I want to call him Paul). We are doing live mashups of Sly & the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, The Skulls, James Brown, Bobby Bird and a bunch of other folks.

As much as I love Clyde, I think Paul will be on the gig. I will be breaking out the vintage Roland Jet Phaser and the MuTron. Paul's thicker sound works better. It's the first time I will be using Paul primarily for a gig.

Going foward, I think I'll be using both on gigs a lot. This requires me buying a double bass gig bag (M Case) and a 2 channel bass amp. I've been shopping around and the amp I'm drooling over is the Mesa Boogie Titan 12. It has 2 separate channels, a lot of power, versitlity and made in the USA.
As far as cabinets, I love the way Bertelinis(sp) sound. I love 4x10 cabinets because I like precise, yet deep sound of 4 10" speakers. I like my bass sound to have definition. Actually, the sound I go for is more of a philsophical sound, than physical.

The sound is bold, strong yet flexible. The color for the sound I see is forest green. Don't ask me why, it the color I see when I close my eyes in the groove and the sound is trancending my fingers, my heart, my body.

My favorite music sounds are:

1. Cannonball Adderley's Alto Sax
2. John Lennon & Paul McCartney singing together-harmony & unison.
3. Jimi Hendrix's guitar sound.
4. Vernon Reid's guitar sound.
5. Stevie Wonder's voice.
6. Aretha Franklin's voice.
7. Marcus Miller's bass sound
8. Larry Graham's bass sound
9. James Jameeson's bass sound
10. Paul McCartney's voice.

In future post, I will write more extensively and provide examples of these sounds.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

2010-06-02T21:49:00.003-05:00

Well today was an interesting day.

It started with perhaps a great opportunity. It came so quickly, it threw me for a loop. Basically, contact made early Tuesday morning, reply Tuesday afternoon & meeting today. More on this later. This was the good (will hopefully turn into GREAT!)

A band I auditioned for picked someone over me to join the band. The band Boy+Kite is a melodic guitar texture band. I really enjoy their music and think they have something special. I will support them. It wasn't a natural fit. We all got along, I could play the music, but it wasn't perfect. I audition twice, so at least I made it a hard decision. It will hurt if they blow up. I've hit a real dry spell for gigs. I haven't played out since March. This was the bad, but it wasn't that bad.

The Funk Wagon, my ride, was a victim of a smash and grab. The passenger side window was broken and my laptop was stolen. And it was raining. This is ugly, but I can handle it. All the files are backed up, my demos, my music collection, my writing, etc. Of course I'm worried about my personal stuff. I will be vigilant about protecting my passwords, ID and whatnot.

I always get philosophical in June. I look at today as all opportunities-the contact, the rejection from the band (I find the right musicians for QOBT?, produce a friend? Get a big name gig?) and the loss of the laptop (clean slate, a sign from the universe to streamline my digital life, a new laptop!?)

Who knows? This guy always knew. I take my cue for Jimi Hendrix "They don't know, like I know.."

I Just Can't Quit You! I'm Back! & New Music (To Me) Tuesday.

2010-06-01T21:20:00.007-05:00

Back to the Blog.

Back to writing about my love, frustration, obsession with everything music and being a musician. Where have I been? Well...

I auditioned for Honeybrowne and didn't get the gig.

Getting gigs are not just based on talent. Like any other job, there are a multitude of issues why a person is chosen. This process was not the most professional. Fred Andrews emailed me tracks to learn, then didn't contact me for a for a week. Then he called me on a Sunday afternoon as he and the band were driving back from a road gig. It was around 12:30pm and he wanted to met for the audition at 2pm. I asked him if 2:30 was ok. I got there, played the 3 tunes he sent and had the audition cut early because Mike (a drummer I played with in Wendy Colonna's band in the early aughts) had to leave. Fred then ask me some questions about my working situation. He had to leave and so did the guitarist Cale. Derek, keys & accordion player, was left and I had a great conversation about his main project Alpha Rev featuring Casey McPherson. I knew Casey when I first moved to Austin and was a fan of his band Endochine.

I felt comfortable with everyone personally and musically. The vibe I picked up from Fred was that he was concerned about my day gig getting in the way of the touring. But you know what? I don't know because

I never heard from Fred again.

I understand I wasn't the right fit, but to not call or email or anything left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I had to email my man Mike to find out they got some young guy with no attachments. Mike was disappointed in Fred because Fred told him he was gonna call everyone. Oh well...

I'm still trying to get the Quart of Blood Technique of the ground.

Finding musicians is hard. I was pretty detailed in what I was looking for. I had a few emails, but nothing panned out. My man, Chris Trafton is eager to play drums. I was trying to schedule rehearsals with him and Sam Powell, keys player of Soul Track Mind, but since they have other gigs we couldn't get together. I did get offered a demo gig at Yellow Dog Studios for SXSW. I played it with Sam and Raymond Johnson from Soul Track Mind. We were the demo band for the CLASP system. since we didn't have a drummer Chris Estes, the inventor of CLASP. Filled in on drums. Not bad for 1 take of each tune-All Blues & Mercy Mercy Mercy

Endless Analog's Chris Estes demonstrates CLASP from Kelly Kerr on Vimeo.

While putting the band together, I've got a logo designed:

I started a myspace, reverbnation, twitter and facebook fan page. They are still in "beta" so I haven't gotten them to where I'm ready to release them. By the end of the month, I promise.

Mostly, I've been writing and arranging. That takes a lot of time. I have a meager studio at best and I'm a a meager engineer at best. Plus, I have hundreds of cassette demos I'm going through and digitizing. (Don't get me started on digitizing my media-I got my old radio show Crosstown Traffic, reel to reel interviews, VHS, pictures... ugh) I promise to have my 1st batch of demos ready for the public by the end of the month. I was offered a weekly gig at TC's Lounge, but it got booked because of my line-up issues. Trafton will be back from touring with Guy Forsythe and Carolyn Wonderland. Sam is ready and he suggested a saxophone player for the project. I'm still looking for a guitarist, though Sam is working on his left hand. I might play guitar while he covers the bass.

I've been auditioning for bands & got offered a project that is hitting in the fall. More on that later this week.
Everyone needs a bass player, but quality gigs are hard to find. I'm putting together my music resume, starting a myspace and facebook fanpage about me. Same as the band, I will have stuff done at the end of the month.

My Clark Kent got switch to a different department-not of my choosing.

The transition has been interesting and different. No pay raise. To be honest, I liked my old Clark Kent in marketing-I was the competitive media analyst. Now I'm in advertising as the business development analyst. Jury still out as I feel my way around. Plus, I'm trying to get consulting work and working on my Clark Kent business plan. Like everyone else, it's about the dolla, dolla bills ya'll...

Catching up on TV shows

I rewatched The Wire, got heavily into The Pacific, Treme, Justified, 24, Law & Order, Life & Times of Tim, Archer, Damages,..no I never watched a single episode of Lost. The great work on TV has really inspired me creative juices, a reason I've been writing so much music. Oh, this little thing called the NBA playoffs as well.

Twitter
If you see the left hand column, you know I'm a twitoholic

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of stuff (I have a ton of pics from SXSW, I bought a lot of music, attended dozens of shows, been reading a lot of music, social media, TV, economic, tech blogs, streamed the San Francisco Music Tech conference and made new twitter friends, world events, national events, etc). I will get to it. I have a lot on my mind. My birthday is June 30 and this month I always reassess my life & goals.

Now, let's back to my favorite thing to write about on Tuesdays-new music I bought. This week I went to Waterloo Records and Cheapo Discs.

From Cheapo Discs:
Mojo Presents: The Score Compilation-$3.95

I've been listening to a lot of soundtracks lately. This disc has some classic themes on it. Favs-Get Carter, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Truck Turner, A Fistfull of Dollars, Johnny Too Bad.

From Waterloo Records:

Booker T & the MGs-The Definitive Soul Collection-$10.99

You can never have too much soul. 2 Discs for the price of 1.

Frank Zappa-Strictly Commercial-The Best of Frank Zappa-$6.99

Great primer if you are new to Zappa. I was never that heavy into him, but always admired his musical vision. When I was in Rock Stardom & the Fashion Jerks, we played a killer cover of "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama".

Ocean Size: The Search Begins...

2010-03-15T18:00:00.004-05:00

Singing to an ocean, I can hear the ocean's roar
Play for free, play for me and play a whole lot more, more!

"The Ocean"-Led Zeppelin

It's time I tread into the wild wild sea of Craigslist. I need to find musicians in Austin Texas.

If I was a rich guy, I would hire the best available. But really bands are like any other group activity, chemistry is key. Usually a controlled volatility. No matter how much money is paid or how great the musicians are individually, they have to play and sound good together. They all gotta have the groove/philosophy of the music of the band-a collective vision. The band leader has to be able to communicate the musical and business agenda, plus manage expectations on both fronts. It's hard, a pain in the ass and when successful, better than sex.

I know some great players here in Austin, but they are busy because they are great players. I have a dream line-up of players I would love to have, but I need to keep it flexible. I want to have a couple of core people. Since I want great players, I know I will probably have some people in and out of the project. Hell, I'll hopefully be playing in more projects since I'm a music whore. The goal is to get album released by the end of the year. Since I'm the leader, I will handle the promotion and marketing, the booking, writing & arranging, incur the cost of rehearsals and try to pay the musicians in the band. I'll manage the Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation, Bandize, Twitter, etc.. It's a lot of work. But the hardest thing might be writing the Craigslist ad. I wrote about one I liked here.

I've actually been thinking about this a long time. I wrote a lot of drafts and was not happy. I might have to rewrite this one. Here it goes:

The Quart of Blood Technique seeks a drummer & guitarist.

Aesthetic:
The Quart of Blood Technique is an instrumental band-live, experimental jazz, funk/R&B, rock, sound texture music. Original music, arrangements of music from movie soundtracks-TV Themes and riff heavy music (reworking hard rock and jazz tunes). Basically danceable out-there in the pocket stuff…

Music influences: Medeski Martin & Wood, The Meters, The Funk Brothers, James Brown, Booker T & the MGs, Herbie Mann, Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis (Late 60s/Early 70s), Headhunters, the Screaming Headless Torsos & Vernon Reid’s Masque, T.J. Kirk

I’m a professional electric bassist. I’m in my 30’s, stable and my main bass influences are Marcus Miller, Jaco Pastorius, Larry Graham, James Jamerson, Tony Levin, Paul McCartney, Doug Wimbish. I also sing, play guitar and alto sax.

Ideally the drummer for this project will be in the vein of Clyde Stubblefield, Bernard Purdie, Tony Williams, Zygabo Modeliste, Stewart Copeland, Billy Martin, Gene Lake. Somebody the lives in the pocket, but can explore in the world of beats.

Ideally the guitarist will be in the vein of John Scofield, Vernon Reid, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, David Fiuczynski.

Business:
I have a day gig. I will play at least $50 a gig, pay for rehearsals, handle the booking, marketing, etc. I tentatively have a weekly gig starting in April, depending on how soon I get the group together. I am looking for experienced professional, career minded musicians. I’m working on the web presence (FB fanpage, twitter, Reverbnation, Myspace..) and none of them are quite ready yet. I have demos of originals.

Thanks for reading the ad.

qobtmusic@gmail.com

Peace

It's All Too Much...

2010-03-01T09:44:00.010-06:00

February was a BUSY month. My goal is to post everyday and I have a bunch of half-written posts. For example,

My Saturday posts: The Week That Was... would have included the following:

February 1: Don Everly Birthday
February 2: Tom Smothers, Graham Nash, Birthdays
February 3: Johnny Guitar Watson, Dave Davies, Birthdays. Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper & Ritchie Valens die in a plane crash (The Day the Music Died)
February 4: Alice Cooper Birthday
February 5: Al Kooper Birthday
February 6: Fabian, Bob Marley Birthdays
February 9: Carole King Birthday. The Beatles play Ed Sullivan & make their American TV Debut
February 11: In 1963 The Beatles record all the tracks for Please Please Me in 12 hours at Abbey Road. In 1964, The Beatles play their first live gig in the America at the Washington D.C. Coliseum. Gene Vincent (Beatle contemporary) Birthday.
February 12: Ray Manzarek Birthday
February 13: Peter Tork Birthday
February 14: Tim Buckley Birthday
February 16: Sonny Bono Birthday
February 17: Gene Pitney Birthday
February 19: Smokey Robinson Birthday
February 23: Johnny Winter Birthday
February 24: David Fathead Newman Birthday
February 25: George Harrison Birthday
February 26: Fats Domino, Johnny Cash, Mitch Ryder Birthdays
February 28: Joe South, Brian Jones Birthdays

Plus, I bought a lot of music and saw a lot of shows. I was also writing music for my instrumental band The Quart of Blood Technique & my solo project (Greg & the Get Downs) looking for musicians, hanging out & drinking with my wife and friends, going to Dallas for All Star Weekend, watching the Saints win the Superbowl, working my Clark Kent job as a media analyst, recording LEOGS, getting my black ass back in shape for my boy's wedding in August, trying out for Honeybrowne....

A lot of stuff. Now it's March and it's just gonna get worse with SXSW. I will post a collective New Music (to Me) Tuesday tomorrow. Thanks for reading and being part of the conversation.

New Music (To Me) Tuesday

2010-02-02T21:52:00.014-06:00

This week's shopping spree was at Waterloo Records. The goal is to always keep the price-point to $10.00 a disc.

Lady Ga Ga-The Fame & The Fame Monster-$19.99

Every since here Grammy performance, I thought I should listen to her music and see what all the hullabaloo is all about. To me, her music is well constructed pop/dance music. It's catchy. My favorite tune from these discs is "Teeth". The groove is hard & deep. I think The Quart of Blood Technique is going to do a cover of this tune.

Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble-The Real Deal Greatest Hits 2-$6.99

On August 27, 1990 I was driving either from or to work at a New Jersey mall when I heard the news about Stevie Ray's death. I pulled over and sat in disbelief. I just missed his tour with Jeff Beck the previous fall. Can't believe he's been gone 20 years. One of my best MTV moments is the video for "Couldn't Stand the Weather". I thought it was cool that he and Double Trouble played with swim googles on.

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross-The Hottest New Group in Jazz-$10.99

This is a great 2 disc set that contains 3 albums: The Hottest New Group in Jazz, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross Sing Ellington and HIgh Flying with Ike Isaacs Trio

Karl Denson-Dance Lesson #2-$5.99

Since I'm in the head with my new project The Quart of Blood Technique, I have funk groove soul jazz on my mind. I've been into Karl since his Lenny Kravitz days.

Name is The Game: Band Names

2010-02-01T20:51:00.005-06:00

"There's a thin line between clever and stupid." Nigel Tufnel

Band names.

The right one is iconic. The wrong one is stupid. Band names brand your tribe. Your fans will paste it on their cars, windows, bar bathrooms, clubs, telephone poles, guitar cases, Trapper Keepers, wear it on panties, t-shirts, hats, etc. There are many types of band names:

1. The (Your Name Here) Band, Group or Duo,Trio, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Octet or Explosion or Experience or Unit or what have you.

The easiest, most direct way to name a band. Jazz groups love this. It's also because jazz groups usually have leaders or feature players-those leaders are the band. The leader of the group could be dead, but it's still his or hers band. Rock bands that use this type of moniker like to, dare I say, jazz it up with funky adjectives for "band".
Ex: The Miles Davis Quintet, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Sonny Rollins Trio, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Jazz/Funk Unit, The Charles Mingus Big Band. James Brown & the Famous Flames, Hootie & the Blowfish. A personal favorite of mine-Rock Stardom & the Fashion Jerks. I was a Fashion Jerk

By the way, I actually like the name-The (Your Name Here) Band. Your welcome, use it.

Here is a list of eponymous band names

2. The name that defines your primary influence. Sometimes the name is spelled different, sometimes it's a combination of things boiled down to a couple of words or phase. Something that is important to the band or the leader of the band. A style of music or philosophical world view or a song or another band.

Ex; The Rolling Stones, Soul Track Mind, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Doors

3. The made-up name or phrase

Pretty simple in concept, whether it's intentional or found in a dream. Sometimes words are just cool together

Ex: Aerosmith, Metallica, Arctic Monkeys, Audioslave, Air Supply, Nine Inch Nails.

4. The obvious name.

A common word or phrase, sometimes in a different language.

Ex: The Eagles, The Police, The Band, The Cure, Helmet, No Doubt, Yo La Tengo, Pantera, The Time

These are just a few types of band names. There are some many reasons and choices bands make about their names. I keep a list of band names, song titles with me all the time. Ever time I think of one, I write it down.

Here is a list of band names and their origins from Wikipedia.

My favorite band names: Radiohead, Soundgarden, Living Colour, Sly & The Family Stone, The Jam, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Bad Brains, Public Enemy, Pearl Jam, Screaming Headless Torsos, Massive Attack, Led Zeppelin, Funkadelic.

The name I choose for my new instrument group is The Quart of Blood Technique. Here are the reasons:

1. I like a name that can be shorten by a fanbase-perhaps the QoBT, The Technique, etc. Like the The Rolling Stones go by the Stones a lot.

2. The music of the group will be live, experimental jazz, funk/R&B, rock, sound texture stuff. Original music, arrangements of music from movie soundtracks-TV Themes and riff heavy music (reworking hard rock and jazz tunes). I ultimately want some of the original music used with film. I wanted a name to reflect film, so I wanted something from a film.

3. I wanted a name to reflect my mindset. I have an absurdist, subversive sense of humor. It's why I love the human condition. The absurdity of situations, even the tragic ones. It's how I deal with stress,

4. One of my favorite movie scenes ever is from Trading Places. The first time I saw this scene I was hyperventilating. I was a kid, but the fact the Billy Ray Valentine could bullshit so much just tickled me to no end. What he says is so absurd, yet his jailbird minions hang on ever word of his heist story.

So be on the lookout for updates on my group The Quart of Blood Technique. The next step will be filling out the line-up.....

Thin Line Between Love & Hate: 52nd Annual Grammy Awards

2010-01-31T17:39:00.008-06:00

I attended the 40th Annual Grammy Awards February 25th, 1998. I was a head seat filler, so I had a lot of friends come and hang being seat fillers. It was a great experience. It was hosted by Kelsey Grammer and had these famous/infamous moments:

1. Wu-Tang Clan member Ol' Dirty Bastard interrupts Shawn Colvin's Song of the Year acceptance speech to protest the Clan's loss in the Best Rap Album category.

2. Immediately after performing "How Do I Live," LeAnn Rimes loses Best Female Country Vocal Performance to Trisha Yearwood's cover version of the exact same song.

3. Aretha Franklin performs the aria "Nessun Dorma" after standing in for Luciano Pavarotti at the last minute.

4. During a Bob Dylan performance, a shirtless backup dancer named Michael Portnoy rushes to the front of the stage with the words "Soy Bomb" written on his chest.

I had a lot of great interactions with famous musicians. I'll have to check my journal for specific stories (one day...). It was the closest I've ever gotten to a Grammy stage. It was maddening, intoxicating and yes a little depressing. I always felt kinda torn about the Grammys. It's like when I lived in New York City. I lived in Brooklyn (Park Slope, Flatbush, Bed-Stuy, Midwood), Queens (Briarwood) and Manhattan (Washington Heights & Soho). A lot of my friends lived in Brooklyn and Queens and made it "cool". All the "hipper than thou"crowd bemoaned how uncool Manhattan was. They loved scraping cash for long ass cab rides, taking the L, G, E, F to outer Mongolia late at night. Yeah, real cool. You know what was cool? Walking home from work, gigs, clubs. You know what was cool? Telling women "We can go back to my place on Sullivan Street, between Prince & Houston.." (Ok what wasn't cool was the rent-$850 for my share of a 4 bedroom joint that was tiered to what each person could pay. My share wasn't the highest and this was 1997-1998.) Most of my friends that liked living in the boroughs couldn't afford to live in Manhattan. They had to make it "cool" to put up with the P.I.TA. factor (pain in the ass...) If they had the bread, 99% would've lived in Manhattan.

It's the same thing with the Grammys. Most of my musicians friends haven't been to the Grammys, been nominated or won. I know a few that have won or were nominated, but they are established acts-nobody I came through the trenches with. It's easy for us independent musicians without deals, press or hits to bag on the Grammys (there's plenty to bag on). The truth is the worst thing about the starving artist thing is the starving. I never pretended that I didn't want more exposure for my work. I believe my role as an artist is to be a reflection of the human condition. I want that reflection to shine on as many people as possible. I want the opportunity to have someone blog about my musical expressions, criticize me, cut me down or love what I do and praise my music. Do I wish I was nominated? Do I wish to win a Grammy one day? Of course I do. Acceptance is not overrated. If just one day or week or year I could have an album that grabs people, it would be cool.

Another aspect of the Grammys plays into the ego. We artists/musicians believe we have something to say. To be honest, must of us think people should listen to us. And hey, we all think we're pretty good or great. We on the outside who think we have talent look at some of the performers and question everything:

Can't I sing better than that? I know I'm a better bassist/guitarist/vocalist/songwriter than these people...Why are they getting Grammys while I've been work Clark Kent jobs for 20 years? Why didn't any of the music projects I was involved with get popular or signed? Why am I still trying to do this?

So is there jealousy involved in watching the Grammys? Absolutely. The elephant in the room when I watch the Grammys with friends or family. I'm just trying to be honest with myself. To admit that my ego doesn't exist is ridiculous.

In the end, I like a celebration of music. I hadn't watched a whole Grammys Show since I moved to Austin. In my music sabbatical, I really checked out on pop music. My friend Megan decided to have a Grammy party and I decided to attend and watch the show with some Gen Yers. They schooled me and caught me up on the stuff I missed. I did tweet the show then watched it again on DVR These are my observations (some of them are tweets I posted)

I should note that I watched a lot of the streaming pre-telecast stuff and liked it very much. Kurt Elling should host more stuff and he has one of the best voices around. His co-host featured a Tia Carrere sighting. The backing band was great and the perfomances were grittier. It probably had to do to the fact that it was a smaller theatre.

The opening performance with Lady Gaga and Elton John

This was the 1st time I saw Lady Gaga. She is what pop stars should be though I wasn't particularly moved by her music. Maybe I'll pick up her record and listen to it, just to see if the kids are all screaming about. I do like the fact that she can sing and play piano. Elton was Elton.

Stephen Colbert made a great point about Susan Boyle. "Remember-you may be the coolest people in the world, but this year your industry was saved by a 48 year old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes."

Man I'm old, I had no idea Green Day is a musical now.
7:32 PM Jan 31st from Tweetie

I guess they are the Gen X version of the Who. Is American Idiot Tommy? I'm not a big fan of musicials, but this performance was aiiight.

Beyonce does Alanis M. Not bad.
7:35 PM Jan 31st from Tweetie

Beyonce was good. I think she outdid Lady Gaga, but Beyonce to me has no personality. She seems like a nice person, she's like a robot. She can sing, but there isn't a lot of there, there. That's why she's such a terrible actress. She can sing her ass off. And she had an all female band. I thing they were all females of color, which is nice to see. I wish Beyonce and the recorded industry would recognize more black rock/alt music (There are books written about the struggle of black rock musicians) By recognize I mean support with albums, marketing, touring, promotion, etc...

People in the audience are like "yo Pink, u know how much my hair cost, this suit and you are pullin' this flash dance sh*t?"
7:47 PM Jan 31st from Tweetie

She was ok, but the song bored me to death.

When did country dudes start dressing like dressed up frat guys? The Best New Artist Zak Brown Band looks like guys that hang out on 6th Street. Good for them, hopefully this doesn't kill their career.

I will never, ever ever ever ever EVER understand the appeal of the Black Eyed Peas. They dress like freaks, their music is like cotton candy-all suger and air. I heard they actually rapped back in the day:

Wha' happen?

Of course Colbert was going to win a Grammy. It's the only reason he showed up to start the show.

Kings of Leon- I know nothing about this band. I guess they are the kings of arena rock now. They music is a was to me. Maybe I need to buy the album the see what kids are all a flutter about. Congrats on the Grammy.

November Rain? With Jamie Fox , Timberland, TI, Slash.... man pop music is weird
8:33 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

WTF was this? I forgot to mention Doug E. Fresh and T-Pain. This performance made me feel so old. I stopped listening to new hip hop after Biggie died. That autotune, dirty south stuff was never my cup of tea. Strong Island, Brooklyn Took It, Boogie Down Bronx-that's me stuff.

Jamie Foxx is a talented dude, though. This guy's an Oscar winner, too.

Leon Russell looks like he's been hanging wth JD Salinger...
8:41 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

Hey Grammy Soundguys, please improve the mix in Taylor Swift's monitor. She is singing kinda flat....
8:50 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

She's sweet. She's cute. She's young. She's tall. And she was not good. I don't know if she sings flat all the time, but with Stevie Nicks (Not exactly the most accurate singer herself) She won big tonight. (Four wins including Album of the Year)

Hudson, Usher, Smokey, Underwood and Dion and a trippy booby Beyonce in the audience... Who needs 3D?
8:58 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

The Michael Jackson tribute was ok. I just wished they picked a better song. Earth Song is kinda a durge of a tune. I didn't have 3D glasses so I couldn't get the full effect. Smoke Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, User, Carrie Underwood and Celion Dion were all adequate enough, I guess. When his kids came out and Prince had the speech down, it was sweet. I guess Michael was a good dad to them. The crowd in 3D glasses was very 50's. Beyonce rocked them....

How did Bon Jovi go from hair metal to country pop? #grammys
9:11 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

RT @thecultureofme: richie sambora looks like an old lesbian these days. #grammys
9:12 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

So can Jon Bon Jovi not hit the high note anymore in Living on a Prayer? He let her take it...
9:16 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

Amen on people paying for music. It costs real money to make music. When recording, mkting & touring r free, music should be free. #grammys
9:46 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

I total agree with Neil Portnow

"Now, what if someone told you they really appreciated your work but didn't think they should have to pay you for it anymore. What would you do? How would you pay your bills, support your family? How would you survive?

This evening, you've seen performances by the most successful artists today. And you know about their generosity and giving back. But standing right behind them are thousands of unknown and up-and-coming music makers who face the question of survival every day (THAT'S ME!!!). In the coming decade, unless they can make a living at their craft, the quality and creativity of the music will be at risk.

Well tonight, we're all fans and music lovers who want to ensure that the future of music is a bright one. New technologies will bring music whenever and wherever you want it.

But as fans, let's all truly value the music and the songs that change our lives by supporting and compensating these gifted creators of the music we treasure. And together, let's make this next decade a time of renaissance for the music that plays as the soundtrack of our lives."

Dave Matthews band has always been a snoozefest for me and their Grammy performance did nothing to wake me up to their music.

Nice to see Maxwell and Roberta Flack together.

Man that Les Paul tribute was weak. They couldn't put a real band with Jeff Beck? Why not Al DiMeola who actually plays jazz on a Les Paul?
10:07 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

Tarantino is in his fat Elvis phrase doing a terrible Samual L Jackson.
10:13 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

I see Little Wayne & I hear "Pants on the Ground.."
10:15 PM Jan 31st from TweetDeck

The should've live twittered it with the lyrics since most of them were muted.

The complete list of winners are here.

The Week That Was: Birthdays & History

2010-01-30T20:45:00.006-06:00

January 24
Aaron Neville

Neil Diamond

(I always loved the melody of this tune)

January 25
Etta James

(Get well soon...)

January 26
Eartha Kitt

Huey "Piano" Smith

(Used in the ending credits of Snatch)

January 27
Elmore James

Bobby "Blue" Bland

Kate Wolf

January 28
Elvis makes debut on national TV on The Dorsey Show

Roy Eldridge

Ruth Brown

January 30
Rooftop Concert for Let It Be marks the Beatles last public performance as a group.

Show Report: Digital Antique at Pie Guys Pizza-Fri. 1-22-2010

2010-01-29T23:02:00.010-06:00

Digital Antique is a great instrumental soundscape band. In the small room above the University of Texas campus pizzeria, the band had command of the room.

It wasn't the best sounding room (the bass could've been louder), yet the crowd listened intently.

Here are the guys:

Payton Holekamp-Drums

Joey Reyes-Cello

Parker Randolph-Bass

Travis Kennedy-Guitar

The next show is Thursday February 11 at the Ghost Room in Austin, Texas.

Show Report: Bruce James Soultet at The Continental Gallery-Mon. 1-25-2010

2010-01-28T06:28:00.005-06:00

In January 2010 Mondays at the Continental Club Gallery were the home of The Bruce James Soultet. It's always cool for a band to have a residency, it builds fans plus the band gets a chance to stretch and perhaps try new material. This show was the last Monday (January 25) of their residency. A really cool thing about a residency on a non-weekend night with a great band is that brings out the cats to jam and to hang. I love that about a being musician, I love hanging with cats. All of my life I always wanted to be one, a musician respected by my peers. I was hanging with my man Sam a good young keyboard cat.

The lineup of the band:

Bruce James -- Keys and Vocals
Tim Spivey -- Bass
Chris Trafton -- Drums
David Jimenez -- Guitar
Fumi Sugawara -- Guitar
Dave Carrol - Percussion

During the break, I chatted up Chris, found out he saw me play with STM and liked my playing. I introduced him to Sam (Sam was rapping with Bruce about keys and Bruce invited him to come hang and learn with him at one of his solo piano gigs.) I mentioned my jazz/funk project and he was really interested in being a part of it. Very cool...

The band was hot, heavy in the pocket and drenched in soul. I love the 2 guitar line-up of the group. It's a testament to me that a group with 3 chordal instruments never get in each others way. David Jimenez is such a sick soloist. He tells a story all the time, he bends , prods and quotes in his solos (he quoted Blue Monk in one his solo.) Plus Chris and Dave had good rhythmic chemistry. Tim has that great finger-funk style of playing, dancing with the beat and chords. Fumi's guitar tone is nice deep sound texture. Overall this band just kicks ass.

After the show, Sam and I talked with the whole band and 2 other drummers about the biz, music and feel. Everyone changed information and had a good time. The show prompted me to buy one of Bruce's CDs. Some pictures of the show:

New Music (To Me) Tuesday-Again!

2010-01-27T23:59:00.001-06:00

This little tiny spree was done today. The location was Cheapo Records.

Branford Marsalis-I Heard You Twice the First Time-$7.95

Branford plays the blues with a cast of greats including, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and his brother Wynton.
Branford really covers the history of blues in the music. After thinking about Branford's influence on me, I decide he is on The Completion List. This album was also a cassette casualty, music that need replacement.

Ron Carter Sextet-Orfeu-$7.95

One night last week I was up brain noodling with band names, lyric writing what have you and I some how ended up on Ron's website listening to his streaming music. I heard tracks of this killa album and reminded myself about how much I love his playing and compositions. When I buy that acoustic bass this year and take lessons on it, his Building Jazz Bass Lines will be parked on my music stand.

Bruce James-The Wayside Drive Sessions-$9.99

This is a GREAT local Austin artist. I went to hear him and his Soultet at the Continental Gallery on Monday January 25, 2010. I was with my man Sam who is a good young keyboard player. Sam loves him and is going to start hanging with him to pick up some pointers. It was a night of hanging with cats. I knew Bruce just put out a new record, but he didn't have any on him that night. So I figure I'd go and pick up one at Cheapo. This disc is an early one, still slammin' though.

Here is a taste of The Bruce James Soultet:

New Music (To Me) Tuesday

2010-01-26T23:56:00.007-06:00

This is shopping spree is from Tuesday January 19. Some times I'm in completion mode-I buy music to replace stuff I have on cassette (yes I still have cassettes) or top off collections of my favorite artists (I have about 20 artists I gotta have every sound they've ever made on record...more on that list later). Like last week, I went to Waterloo Records.

The Police-Every Breath You Take-The Classics-$5.99

I'm not sure why I bought this. I have all the Police albums and can easily make a Police play list. I didn't have "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86". I know must people think it stinks and for the most part I agree with them. But this is a case of my music addiction. At the 4:12 mark in this track Sting's vocals sound so sweet. I wish they extended it more. Plus Stewart Copeland is in my top 10 for drum influences. To me, he plays drums like Thelonius Monk played piano. Rhythmic obtuse thought, plays the space. Some favorite moments from this collection-

At the 2:11 mark in "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" he drives into the chorus of the tune with 16th notes on the kick drum.

His crashing on the 4 or the and of 4 of measures and leaving space on the 1 of measures. It's everywhere in "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (original). Listen to the outro chorus that starts at the 3:15 mark, especially check his fills at 3:35 and 3:42 very Bernard Purdie

Stewart Copeland is awesome...

Paco de Lucia-John McLaughlin-Al Di Meola-Friday Night in San Francisco-$9.99

This is an album I wore out on cassette. I first heard this hanging out with some guitar players while I was at Berklee, a random dorm night where we dreamed and just got into the majestic, soaring music. This was my introduction to Paco De Lucia.

Isaac Hayes-Black Moses-$10.99

One of the best nicknames ever. This album is epic soul. The string arrangements are grand, his voice was strong. This album marks the man at the pinnacle of his powers. My favorite version of "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Part-Time Love" is just so epic.

Paul McCartney-Good Evening New York City-$14.99

2 CDs & a DVD of the show. Great value here. I think this live collection is very good. Love the song choices. His voice is strong and I always love watching him play and sing. He makes it look so easy. Plus, I love when he "covers" Beatle songs by John and George. His band is great, especially Abe Laboriel, Jr. He was at Berklee College of Music when I was there. I hung with him a few times, though I doubt he'd remember. Nice guy and great drummer.

Fela Kuti-Music is the Weapon-$9.99

This is another cassette that got a workout. Almost all of the text was worn off the plastic. I lost the jacket. All I knew was the title of the album. I got hip to Fela Kuti after he died. It was a case of his death moving to investigate the awesome influence of his music. I need to learn about him and his music. I have a general idea of the scope of him and his influence, but I need to dig deeper.

And the addiction grows....

Gig Notes: Soul Track Mind-The Hole in the Wall Sat. 1-23-10

2010-01-25T00:46:00.005-06:00

It was a wild one. The place was so packed the fire marshalls had to shut it down.

Both bands packed them in. T-Bird had never played the Hole in the Wall before, which was kinda surprising to me. The fire marshall cut about 20-30 minutes into their set. They fire marshalls were just doing their jobs and seemed cool about it. It was crowed in there, I was hanging in back or the front, not the performing room. While it was shut down, anyone leaving the club wasn't allowed back in and there was a line waiting to get in. I could see friends out side through the storefront like window. We called each other while looking through the glass, like prisoners of music.

After T-Bird performed a smokin' abbreviated set, we went on. The crowd was hyped and ready. We started with a couple of originals, then the set got bogged down because of the shortened time slot. That happens when a band is thrown a monkey wrench in the middle of a gig. All-in-all I thought the gig went well. Still, I had a hard time getting excited about it. The innate problems still exist-the drummer dropping beats, the singer focusing on cover tunes instead of originals, lack of CDs to sell in the club. The core TC's fans were there, which is mainly made of close band friends and they sing the covers. I was looking at the crowd and potential new fans were more into the covers, which is a problem in my opinion. When given the chance to play for such a crowd, the band should've been better prepared-musically focus on originals, have CDs with some stickers or T-shirts to sell, have a person roam/work the crowd and not just dance with friends. Opportunities work best when one is prepared. It's a drum I tried to beat but fell to deaf ears. Oh well, I took my $60 at the end of the night and ate a nice late-night meal at 24 Diner.

I guess it all comes full circle-STM is replacing me temporarily with the guy I replaced last year. He's a nice guy, but kinda a gunslinger on bass-he plays a six string bass, which is cool but his sense of pocket wavers like the drummer's. Like I said, Beat Don't Lie. A whack beat can't fool dancing feet and swinging hips & asses. Pocket & groove sticks and moves the crowd. Good luck to them...

Gig notes:
1. Cody Furr, bassist for T-Bird let me use his rig-Ampeg B-2RE head with a 4 x 10 cab (don't remember what it was...). The sound was good. It was nice not have to lug my Harkte 3500 with my ported Genz Benz XB4 cab. I gotta get a new amp/cabinet combo this year...
2. Played Clyde on the gig-my '78 Fender Jazz.
3. By the way, it irritated me to no end that we never documented the tunes we play or had solid set lists. It's like the key part of the show gets lost in time. Plus STM had a recorder so there was never a reason not to have recordings of the shows to listen to to get better & tighter.
4. It's always weird playing your last gig with a band you got fired from when it slow dawns on people that never really thought of it. "You must so excited about this year! What a gig to start the year off with!" Actually, not with this band....

Page turned.

Pardon the Interruption

2010-01-24T18:18:00.005-06:00

Cheers to the Saints, the football team for best music city in the United States-New Orleans, Louisiana- for the winning the NFC Championship and making it to the SuperBowl 44

American music really started in New Orleans. Congo Square was the seed of just about all original American music.

I had the great fortune to play in New Orleans a few times with Jim Lampos. I always loved the vibe & spirit of the people of New Orleans.

Some great musicians from New Orleans:

Louis Armstrong:

Professor Longhair:

The Meters:
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jeqJHajT5RY&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344">

Fats Domino:

Branford Marsalis:

I know there are a ton of great musicians from New Orleans, but these 5 came to my mind instantly:

Louis Armstrong-The King of American Music. He is the root from where we all grow.

Professor Longhair-King of News Orleans Piano

The Meters-Cissy Strut changed my concept of rhythm when I was younger.

Fats Domino-Always loved his music and he was a prominent face of Katrina survivors.

Branford Marsalis-The concert that changed my life was in 1986. I saw Sting on his Dream of the Blue Turtles Tour. I was a sax player at the time. I saw Branford Marsalis and I thought he was the coolest musician I'd ever seen. The next day I went out and bought Scenes in the City & Royal Garden Blues. It was in the liner notes where I read that he attended Berklee College of Music. He is the reason I attended Berklee and continue to pursue music as a career.

Aftermath in 4 Parts: Part 4-The Finale?

2010-01-23T19:55:00.004-06:00

"This is the end, beautiful friend..."

Tonight I play with Soul Track Mind for the last time, I think. I never say never, especially when it comes to playing with people. We musicians are loyal to music and money. Yeah I said it. Actually, playing on stage is pretty easy. It's the issues with personalities, the music business and all the prep work for the stage performance (writing, arranging, rehearsing music, etc..). All the stuff that puts us on stage to make the performance great. So when you see bands get back together, its for the love of the music and performing on stage. Or it's all that and the fact that a band can make a shit load of money-see The Eagles or The Police. The battles within those bands are legendary, but in the end-music and money can salve a lot of wounds.

The tonight's show at the Hole in the Wall with T-Bird & the Breaks was going to be a nice launching pad for a big 2010. Now, I think it will show the tale of 2 bands-one going up and one going down. There is a very interesting subtext that came to light recently. A little tidbit I got from Sam, the keys man. I'll see how it plays out and report back.

Just cause I'm a sentimental guy, here is a video of Soul Track Mind at Antone's September 7, 2009. The band had some promise and a bright future...Sorry Sam, this is before you got in the band...

The Week That Was: Birthdays

2010-01-23T17:45:00.006-06:00

The Week In Birthdays:

January 17
Mick Taylor

(This is a great interview, a lot of relevant stuff even for musicians of today.)

January 18
David Ruffin

(The note he hits at the 57 sec mark is almost holy.)

January 19
Phil Everly

(This song was written by Paul McCartney)

Janis Joplin

Dolly Parton

January 20
Paul Stanley

(Can you take a threat from Paul Stanley seriously dressed like that?)

Leadbelly

(Love this tune-Note how he name drops Alan Lomax)

January 21
Richie Havens

(Singing my favorite song of all time.)

Edwin Starr

( Love the line "Now when I kiss her lips, I turna back over flip" classic Motown lyric writing, turning a regular phrase into pop poetry.)

Billy Ocean

(Gotta love the background singers.)

January 22
Sam Cooke

(Love everything about this man's music)

January 23
Anita Pointer

Django Reinhardt

Open Thread

2010-01-22T23:59:00.001-06:00

As I walk to the see Digital Antique's gig (it's on/by the UT campus-
the streets are a Myan maze. Impossible to find parking...Headed
toward Pie Guys Pizza... ) I'm thinking about the benefit for Haiti. I
love these kind of shows though I hate the reason for them. I recorded
on cassette the whole 9/11 concert. At least I'll be able to catch the
rerun on YouTube.

Gig Notes: Soul Track Mind-TC's Lounge Wed 1-20-10

2010-01-21T23:28:00.002-06:00

Well, last night was my last gig at TC's Lounge for awhile at least. I won't say ever because I would love to get back here with the instrumental group i want to do. Our performance was better than last week's, but like B.B. King sings "The Thrill is Gone"

The power of the band at our peak is not there. We're like a married couple going through the motions, passing each other like ships in the night. It's such a shame. I think the crowd felt it tonight. The singer was not connecting with the audience like he's capable of doing. The stories between songs were falling flat. I tried to play as excited as I could. It's hard when the crowd is not hyped up. When that happens, the band would usually feed off of each other's energy, but the energy was sapped. It was a "dead bassist/horn section walking situation". Our gig on Saturday with T-Bird & the Breaks should be energizing since it's my last gig and we want to perform well for T-Bird's crowd.

Random Gig Notes:

1. Played both basses tonight. The P-Bass was thick and gorgeous. Thanks to Chuck at the Bass Emporium for the great set-up.
2. When STM was on it's break from TC's, Mudbone Hustler filled in for us. Jenni Jones (singer) & Mike Steel (Drummer) from the band came out to hang. During the break, they ask me to help with some arranging for the band. They're looking for an experienced outside ear to help them out. I told them I would. It's an honor for me to help musicians out. The opportunity to try some ideas out gets me excited. Kinda like a very very very small time Gil Evans.

That's why the STM break-up sticks in my craw. We were doing pre-production rehearsals for the album. I was going to produce the album because I've done it before. I was the only member of the band that recorded on commercially released material. It was a chance to try some of my ideas out. Oh well, I'll get the chance on more positive projects.

Aftermath in 4 Parts: Part 3

2010-01-20T13:54:00.004-06:00

Tonight is my last gig at TC's Lounge with Soul Track Mind.

Weekly gigs can be a grind, especially when you have a Clark Kent to be at in the morning. I was always proud to be part of band with a residency. It is a special thing and not common. People depend on you to provide the soundtrack to their night. Their night could be trying to forget a shitty day, trying to find a spark to light their way to a better place. People dancing, feeling free to find what they want or what they need. Booze, babes whatever. That's thing about being a musician that's so powerful-the chance to matter to somebody. Musicians are stewards of spiritual renewal. It's a responsibility I take seriously. "With great power, comes great responsibility"

It's a topic of one of my songs called "Song" (I tried to think of another title, really)

"Song" (c) GJAS 1997

You come to my world to cleanse your soul.
You come to seek me, to seek my control.
Tears, blood, visions, drugs are mixed in the stew.
Handle with the care of a child as I give it to you.

I carve a great stone.
I paint a thick wood.
My Song is in them.
My Song is in them. 2x's

When you crave a release, a release from a truth.
You come to me, the magic man-your spiritual sleuth.
I twist and churn, freeze and burn so you can be free.
All I need for my hunger feed is some love from you to me.

I carve a great stone.
I paint a thick wood.
My Song is in them.
My Song is in them. 2x's

Freedom from your soul.
Freedom for your pain.

I turn off the valve now, the cipher is drained.
The color schemes from the other world, the other world are gained.
Dreams and fears, standing near the omnipresent gate.
I'm in the constant state-a tour guide for fate.

I carve a great stone.
I paint a thick wood.
My Song is in them.
My Song is in them.

It's why we get into this stupid business. It's why bands get together and break up and marginal players want a piece of it. Every other profession wants to a piece of it (politicians, athletes, CEOs are want to be describe this way). The ultimate description of cool, control, style, culture king or queen, tastemaker, zeitgeist zinger, meme manipulator is

ROCKSTAR.

I'm off to lay down rockstar bass....

Sign 'o the Times: Follow-Up

2010-01-19T12:33:00.003-06:00

NPR.org is reporting a resolution to the massive & deadly Cleveland Orchestra strike.

WCPN.org's The Sound of Ideas had a feature on the story today.

Sign 'o the Times

2010-01-18T23:39:00.003-06:00

Not the cool Prince tune/album:

This article by Daniel Wakin from The New York Times highlights a strike by the musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra. The following sentences drill down to the main point-

"In Cleveland, the fight revolves around several thousand dollars a year in salary for each player. But implicit is a debate over the worth of exquisitely trained musical artists in our society and how much we are now willing to pay for them."

As all artists move into the world of easy distribution and expectations of cheap or free content everywhere, our society really needs to answer this question.

Soundtrack Attack

2010-01-17T18:49:00.011-06:00

This weekend I took part in filming a web series with some my friends. It's a 12 episode mini-comedy series. It's based on exaggerated versions of ourselves that appear on the LEOG podcast. On of the main creators asked me to create some music for the series. Soundtrack music is a field I've always wanted to get into. I listen to soundtracks all the time. I need to learn more about composing and classical music (I think I might look into taking some courses in composition online from Berklee College of Music)

He's looking for something similar to the Fratellis

Poppy, kinda silly happy rock. Cool stuff. I have some instrumental material like this already. What I need to do is upgrade my home recording gear so I can create soundscapes for images. Another film gig I want is music supervisor. I have a good feel for music & the visual image. What I need to do is get up to date on my copyright and licensing education. Here is a good primer from the LA Times about a career as as music supervisor.

The Week That Was: Birthdays & History

2010-01-16T09:46:00.013-06:00

The Week In Birthdays:

January 10
Rod Stewart

Max Roach

January 12
Mississippi Fred McDowell

George Duke

January 14
Allen Toussaint

L.L. Cool J

January 15
Captain Beefheart

January 16
Sade (Her new album Soldier of Love drops on February 9, 2010)

And on January 16, 1957 The Cavern Club opens on Matthew Street in Liverpool.

This picture is from 2000. As a HUGE Beatle fan, I was in heaven when I visited the Cavern Club. Yes, it was awesome.

Prepping the P-Bass

2010-01-15T22:13:00.003-06:00

I dropped of my 2008 Precision Bass at The Bass Emporium on Wednesday. My man Chuck is a great resource for me. I originally was going set the bass up like James Jamerson's '62 Precision Bass with flat wound strings. Chuck moved me from that idea because slapping on flatwounds sounds dead and I always love the occasional slap & pop to accent lines. Even on the deep, soul, phat lines I love to carveI will throw in a nice rhythmic slap. He recommended I put on Thomastik-Infeld Infeld Superalloy 45-105. They're long lasting and the winding gives the strings the flexibility I'm acostume to with my DR Hi-Beam strings on my '78 Jazz. For the time being, I'm just going to have the set-up and keep the original pick-ups. I was never the type of player that got super into gear. I tend to rely on reviews, what players I like use and knowledgeable people like Chuck.

Gig Notes: Soul Track Mind-TC's Lounge Wed 1-13-10

2010-01-14T09:33:00.005-06:00

Wish we had him last night.

Beat don't lie. I co-opted that phrase from NBA player/sage philosopher Rasheed Wallace's famous "Ball Don't Lie".

I wrote about it here-6 months ago.

Last night's gig was not good.

We had major tempo problems and dropped beats. We all made mistakes, but beat don't lie. When the drummer stops in the middle of a solo and I have to count us in, there is a problem. When the drummer still makes mistakes on the same songs we've been playing 2x a week since May, there is a problem. When the lead singer has to constantly turn around and scold the drummer about tempo, there is a problem. On the band stand, we all made mistakes. My hand slipped on the fretted board a few times, so did the guitarist's hand. Keys, horns even the lead singer we all made mistakes, but the drummer has made the same consistent mistakes over & over & over again. A house on a faulty foundation cannot stand.

As I was getting fired from the band, I had a frank (and not so subtle rant) about talent and focus. About if a person has "it" or not. A musician needs to have self-awareness of how they fit in a situation. If you haven't played the trap kit since high school, you go to college for music business and play percussion, then move to Austin-how do you expect to keep up with a professional weekly gigging band? The band is too advanced. A drummer needs time in the woodshed-build limb endurance and independence, work on keeping steady time, etc. If a musician is in over his or her head, the right thing to do is to bow out. Plus, lessons never hurt. If you are serious about getting your chops up, you can go to talk to great drummers at gigs, ask around for teachers. If you don't have bread for lessons, there are DVDs, You Tube.

STM had a nice build up of funds, things could've been worked out to help. But when the singer says he values loyalty (which is "do things the way I want even when I have no idea what I'm doing") over talent, one can see the issues that will arise in the future.

When I was at Berklee College of Music, I went as an alto sax major. I worked hard, practiced all the time, transcribed music, listened to all the greats (my fav alto player is Cannonball Adderley), yada, yada. As I was in those sweaty practice rooms, it dawned on me that I didn't have "it" as a sax player. I couldn't get all the sounds out of my head into my fingers. I was taking bass lessons with Ed Friedland outside of Berklee (He's in Austin now, when I buy a upright later this year, I will study with him again to get my chops up on the upright). In those lessons, I saw the light. I felt a better connection to music through the bass. I repeated my study habits for the bass and the results speak for themselves.

This all from my point of view, of course. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

Random gig notes:

1. I only took one bass-Clyde ('78 Fender Jazz). The '08 P-Bass is getting set up by Mr. Chuck from The Bass Emporium
2. Crowd was made up of mostly friends and was less than last week. Plus, when announcements are made from the stage, they're falling flat. No album recording, not other big gigs lined up after January 23 with T-Bird and the Breaks.

"Something happening here, but ya don't know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones?"

Aftermath in 4 Parts: Part 2

2010-01-13T19:52:00.002-06:00

Tonight is the Soul Track Mind gig. It's cold & raining-only music can get me to leave the crib tonight. Only 2 more gigs before my obligation is done. I know they're having a had time replacing me, which I must say, makes me kinda happy. Actually, going on my listening and music buying spree kinda gives me a STM rash. Plus, a bunch of acts are putting out new albums (The Soldier Thread, Spoon, Vampire Weekend, etc...). American Idol is back on the air. The album that we were planning was going to be very good. I had a feeling it was going to be special.

Another thing that drives musicians is a friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) competition. We all want to rock, kick ass on stage. We all want to upstage the band opening for us or coming on after us. We all want our album to change the world. Any musician who doesn't feel that should play in their room. Beatles vs. Stones vs. The Beach Boys, Stax vs Motown, Miles vs. Everybody, Tupac vs. Biggie, Soul Track Mind vs. T-Bird & the Breaks vs. Akina Adderley & the Vintage Playboys vs. Bruce James Soultet, etc. Truth is all us musicians love being part of the scene-New Orleans in the early 20th Century, Chicago in the '20s, Kansas City in the '30s, New York City ( jazz-'30s to '60s, punk/CBGBs-'70s, hip hop-'80s & '90s, Brooklyn '00s...), England, San Francisco and L.A. in the '60s and Austin, Seattle in the '90s. A hell of a lot of culture changing music came from those scenes (and thousands more). We all want to be part of it, get a taste of it and add some flavor to it.

Damn it's 9PM. Time for me to add some of my spice tonight on bass.

New Music (To Me) Tuesday

2010-01-12T20:58:00.011-06:00

For 2010, one of my goals is buy some music every week. There is nothing I love more than to comb the aisles of a record store with my iPhone music playlist on shuffle. I drift and dream, letting the waves of music push and pull me towards new adventures or visits to old friends. I love to touch the CDs or Albums, view the artwork and smile to myself about what I loved about the artist as a teenager or what girl I tried to get in bed with the killer mixtape (NOBODY was better with mixtapes than me.) or what respected artist told me to listen and learn a riff, melody or rhythm. That's the magic of music-it brings you forward, stays in the moment and takes you back-all at the same time.

This week's shopping spree was down at Waterloo Records in Austin and a download from iTunes at home (for me, iTunes purchases are total impulse buys)

1. Ten (Legacy Edition)-Pearl Jam: iTunes download
I was never a big Pearl Jam fan. I respect what they stand for and see their talent. This is the only album I really liked. "Jeremy" is such a great song. It moves me, makes me think and I have mad love for Jeff Ament's killer 12 string bass sound. Plus I love how Eddie Vedder holds the 3rd as he starts the the 2nd verse( at the 1:30 mark) of "Even Flow". I also dig "Black".-$16.99

All the rest were bought combing the aisles of Waterloo Records:

2. Contra-Vampire Weekend
I wrote about my 1st listen to this wonderful album here.-$10.99

3. All This Useless Beauty-$5.99

4. When I Was Cruel-$1.00

5. The Delivery Man-$1.00

Catching up on completing my Elvis Costello collection. By the way, Costello has the best artist wiki I've seen. It even has the concert set list when I saw him at the Backyard Oct 6, 2002.

6. Sorcerer-Miles Davis-$7.99

I'm always playing catch-up with the massive Miles Davis discography. I love this quintet-Miles, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams.

7. Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1-Traveling Wilburys-$7.99

In 1988, I was a 17 and my girlfriend at the time couldn't understand why I love the album (tape back then). I made her sit down and listen to it. She said something like, "Why do you like this old guys? I know you like the Beatles, so I give you this-George sounds the best..." Music should always be this easy to make. The feeling of this album is how I wish I can live life-easy, breezy, with a wink and a nod plus a wry sense of humor.

8. Kula-M.I.A.-$11.99

Last Saturday night after seeing a show, I attended an after party at my friend Travis Kennedy's (Hopefully, the engineer of the album I want to put out later this year) place with a group of cool people. We were all chatting and chillin' until Tara Lacy (music writer for Performermag.com and staffer at Austin360) came by and blew up the party. She put on this CD and we all danced to the whole disc. I admit, I'm late to the genius of this woman. "Paper Planes" was huge, but I think it's the worst song on the album. That's not a bad thing, cause that song is very good. Whenever I listen to this album, I will think of the great time I had dancing in the dark drunk with great friends.

Family Snapshots

2010-01-12T02:14:00.003-06:00

Not the awesomely creepy Peter Gabrial song

My guitars-

Here are four of them L-R: Blondie (Washburn HB-35 Semi-Hollowbody with Seymour Duncan '59 humbucker pick-ups), Clyde (1978 Fender Jazz, with Nostrand NJ4SV Pick-Ups & 2TEK bridge), My 2008 Fender USA P-Bass and my Washburn acoustic guitar:

The Brothers Bass:

The New Kid on The Block:

I have to get a name for this bass. I'm going to get him set up like James Jamerson's Funk Machine-La Bella Flatwound strings, but a low action. He played a '62 Fender P-Bass. I like this one because of the string-through construction. For me, it give the bass a full sound. I like having a sonically full instrument because when I pull it in and /or add effects, the sound holds up better. In my opinion, it's easier to take off fullness than trying to add it. After it's set up, I play it for the 1st time and then the name will come to me.

Listen to This: On the Beat

2010-01-11T23:21:00.002-06:00

I listen to On The Beat with Celia Hirschman every week. Her show covers all aspects of the music business. Her show last Wed 1-06-10 was great primer on what I think is the largest challenge for musicians-managing metadata.

This is an issue I've been intrigued with my whole life. The lifeblood of the music business is music. I've been fascinated with the music business since I was a kid-reading about what happened to the Beatles, John Fogerty and others with song rights (not to mention a bunch of blues & jazz artists). Writers & publishers need to keep track of the vital information to track record sales to get paid correctly. The real salvo in the digital rights/payment war was fired when SoundScan was implemented in 1991. The record business changed overnight. The next week when Billboard printed the SoundScan listings, some dude name Garth Brooks was all over the charts. There's always been fishy ways the record industry counted record sales-calling stores, paying DJs for playing singles to boost numbers, using shipping information (and not counting returns), etc.

With digital distribution, a guy like me can release a professional album to the masses, monitor sales and collect funds for those sales. SoundScan, though, figures to be less involved in the future of monitoring these sales. From the transcript of the show:

"Today, SoundScan collects data from their network of participating retailers and creates a myriad of sales reports for their clients. With SoundScan, labels are able to see which albums are selling best in what regions, artists are able to focus their tours in areas which have the greatest sales, and record stores can prioritize their album purchasing. Everyone can see just how well an artists' record is doing. This system works very well within the closed system of the old record business. But the digital age has brought a more disruptive philosophy in the music business. Many do-it-yourself musicians couldn't care less about SoundScan, and that's where the point of sales system falls apart.

Today, artists big and small release their music through digital retailers like iTunes, CD Baby and eMusic. And while these online retailers report all sales to SoundScan, SoundScan only recognizes those titles registered in their system. While the cost to register an album with SoundScan is free, it's that one extra step that many indie bands miss or ignore. And the result is a skewed landscape that doesn't accurately reflect true sales.

While this is disheartening, the SoundScan problem just underscores a much bigger issue in the record business. That is the issue of metadata management. Metadata is the bits of information that surround a song – for instance the publishers, the writers, the label, the musicians, the bar code and the owners. That metadata, while seemingly trivial, is actually the bread and butter of the new business. While protecting intellectual copyright is most definitely the overarching concern of the record industry, it's the good management of information behind the songs that will ultimately seed a strong and fair business environment. According to SoundScan, in 2009, over a billion tracks were sold. That's a lot of data to manage.

While many well-meaning organizations lay claim to managing pieces of the metadata pie, there's not one organization in the US that handles the complete scope. Not one. For musicians, accurately protecting the current landscape is one of the most important issues of the new year."

I'm watching my metadata for 2010.

Gig Notes: Soul Track Mind-TC's Lounge Wed 1-6-10

2010-01-09T15:35:00.008-06:00

Usually I like to have my thoughts on gigs up as soon as the gig is over or the next day. Thursday night I recorded the podcast for The League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen. It's a part of the Spill.com community. If you love movies, comics, TV and fanboy(girl) culture, check out the podcast and the website.

The gig was ok considering the band has played 2 sets together since November and the fact me and the horn section are being replaced. The crowd was ok, a lot of regulars with some newbies. We didn't record the gig, and that was probably a good thing. We made mistakes with parts, tempo and even a key or 2. I love to record everything. There is no better way to become a better musician than listening to yourself. When I listen to myself playing, it helps me visualize parts, solos for future musical situations.

I also take notes on the process of gigs:

1. This was the 1st gig with the my new 2008 Fender Precision bass. The P-Bass has killer deep bass sound and it's perfect for the R&B sound STM needs. I have to give it a name (my '78 Jazz is Clyde). It was rough, though because I didn't get it set up, so the action was a little too high.

2. With the addition of the my Precision Bass, I need to get a dual guitar stand to hold both basses when I'm on break. I have one stand that holds one of my basses and I lean the other on top. It kinda works, though the tuning pegs of each bass get knocked about, so I have to tune before plugging into my amp.

3. Speaking of plugging into my amp, I need to buy a new Monster 12ft. Bass cable. I have 1 12ft and 1 30ft cable now. The 30ft cable gets tangled too easier on such a small stage like TCs. I hate stepping on cables when I play.

4. I'm officially in new amp buying mode. I need an amp with 2 channels. For me, each tune needs a specific sound. My Jazz & P-Bass give me different sounds, but the amp settings need to work with the characteristics of each bass. My current amp (Hartke 3500) only has one channel, is pretty limited and lacks the subtly of sound that I want for certain songs, parts and basses. Plus, I like using pedals for sounds depending on the bass I'm using and I want to get an amp with foot-switching possibilities so I can use my pedals more effectively.

There will be a lot more about my quest for sound in future posts. I think the life of a musician is a search for sound-sounds of music, sound footing in a music career, to try to be of sound body and soul, etc...

Next gig, I'll get the set list.

An Appreciation Learned

2010-01-08T10:07:00.008-06:00

When I younger, The following lyric describe my feelings on Elvis-

Elvis was a hero to most
but he never meant shit to me
you see, straight out racist.. the sucker was simple and plain…

-Public Enemy Fight the Power

Actually, he was human, no better or worse as music legends go, had a great voice, killer phrasing and influenced the world. His influence on pop culture can't be denied. I visited Graceland in 1995 and got more into his impact on music. I've heard B.B. King reflect on hanging out with him.

Most importantly, I started listening to his music. I love the From Elvis in Memphis

Hell, if the Champ could hang with him, he couldn’t have been that bad of a guy.

Happy 75th Birthday Mr. Presley

Aftermath in 4 Parts: Part 1

2010-01-06T16:50:00.002-06:00

My last post before my re-commitment to the blog was July 15, 2009. What difference 5 months can make.

Tonight starts the countdown to my termination with Soul Track Mind. It's going to be very cold tonight in Austin and normally I would stay home. To be honest, the advice my friends gave me was to leave after the New Years Eve gig. The reasons I didn't leave:

1. I agreed to play until Saturday, January 23. That's a gig with T Bird & the Breaks, which is the best gig STM has to date.

2. The remaining gigs provide a great opportunity for me to advertise my skills as a bassist if someone needs one.

3. I have a new 2008 Fender American P-Bass I just paid off I want to try out live. I'm going to get it set up James Jamerson style at The Bass Emporium later this week.

4. I love to play. Music is the ultimate drug to me. I love to play.

The interesting story is the process STM is using to replace me. I'm still friends (and will work with) some members of the band. Yesterday I got an unsolicited call from a member telling me about an audition that didn't go to well and perhaps the back-up plan after firing me wasn't exactly thought out. They will do what they have to do. That includes an option of paying me or another professional player (plus a new horn section) to sit in. With a weekly gig like TC's, that will eventually present problems from a business and performance point of view.

STM had a revenue sharing agreement of 50% went into a band fund (covering expenses such as advertising, recording costs, merchandise costs, website, etc.) and the other 50% split evenly amongst the members of the group. Revenue is based on how many people STM pulls to each gig (STM is not on the level to have a standard fee). So if STM has to pay a standard fee to me, another bassist and/or a horn section (consisting of at least 2 horns) that's an overhead cost that effects the variable amount that will go to the rest of the band. Having contract players always effects the performance (it's difficult to get professional players to rehearse once a week and gig without paying for rehearsals.) Plus, since we are not talking thousands of dollars (more like tens of dollars)it will be difficult for the band to make money to keep paying for other expenses. Those expanses are critical-gotta keep the website up, an good quality album has to get done before anything close to a success tour can happen, tour expenses are not cheap (especially with a large band), to generate revenue merchandise will need to be bought to sell, quality posters and fliers to be printed and distributed, etc. Like most unsigned bands, STM has members with different jobs and income levels. This can lead to additional financial strains on some members. Uneven performances can lead to a crowd drop off "Man, they don't sound the same..." If attendance drops off at gigs, revenue to the band and more importantly to the club will drop off. Clubs tend not to like when attendance drops off.

If that happens, there could be a hungry band that says "Can we get a shot?" TCs, like any club will have to listen.

I'm not saying this because it was me who got canned. I've been fired before and I've fired people from bands. Like Hyman Roth says, "This is the business we have chosen." When you make a move like this, you have to be prepared with the consequences. More insights to come...

Burning in the House

2010-01-05T23:21:00.006-06:00

Digitizing my life is a very tedious process. I have hundreds of hours of live performances, song demos, archive videos and 1000s of photos from shows I played and shows I attended. I have hand-written song lyrics, poems, album reviews, brain noodles and word fragments I need to type in.

This doesn't even include the 100s of cassettes of my old radio show that aired every early Friday morning-3:30am to 6:00am from 1994 to 1999. That show was called Crosstown Traffic on WBAI 99.5FM. It started out being sponsored by the Black Rock Coalition, but then it ended being just me and my girlfriend at the time producing, engineering, interviewing artist and hosting the show. We broke up during the run and then just work on each show we hosted, kinda like the Beatles during the White Album sessions. My dream was (is) to create and run my own media company. Now content is easy to put out to the world. In my opinion, making sure the media is quality and rights management in are in place are very important. One of my goals is to really organize all the content I have access to for me, my friends, band mates, collaborators, etc. Another goal this year is to create a website that will feature samples of some of the cool bands and people I've had the honor to perform with.

Tonight, I finished up transferring 20 CDs of live recordings I performed on. I was the bassist for Ry Welch while he was in Austin. The band was called Rock Stardom & the Fashion Jerks. The band was fun, art rock. We play Ry's compositions and really great covers like Zappa's "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama", Lee "Scratch" Perry's "Big Neck Police" The band featured me on, Ry on vocals & guitar, David Box on alto, tenor & soprano sax and David Levy on drums. The band was a lot of fun.

Album Event: Vampire Weekend

2010-01-04T23:37:00.005-06:00

Today I discovered Vampire Weekend was streaming their new album on MySpace. The office release date is Tuesday January 12, 2010. If anyone is unfamiliar with their music go to the Myspace and get to know the music. For me, they have a Talking Heads/Paul Simon Graceland vibe. Afro Pop light or Afro Pop White (according to Christian Lander anyway...) Hell, they even mention Peter Gabriel in "Ottoman", though mocking "In Your Eyes" as a romantic moment. Gabriel's revolutionary mixture of world music mixed with his great pop sensibilities don't directly influence Vampire Weekend. Gabriel, Byrne and Simon did open an audio world to them, I would say. Elements of English punk/ska, also.

I like the album a lot. I have to listen to it more and I will buy it when it's released. I have software to rip it from the MySpace for free, but I have never participated in file swapping. I have made copies of music for friends (burnt a CD or gave MP3 files) but never free downloading unless the artist wants to give it away. Most file music files sound like crap. A lot of people don't really care about sound quality and the art of recording is suffering. Plus, I am a major advocate of artists controlling how they want their music distributed and to be fairly compensated for it. Always have, always will. I like to look at album artwork, I like to touch liner notes as I read them. I will buy the CD and burn it. I know I pay a premium compared to downloading it from iTunes. The extra $2 is worth the tactile feeling I enjoy about CDs or vinyl. I know it's old fashion, but album releases are events to me. Albums are little pieces of history and time that can't ever be taken away.

Last Bits of 2009

2010-01-03T23:26:00.002-06:00

I have a group of friends I exchange "Best of Music Moments" for the year. This was my email to the group for 2009.

Greetings,

I have been thinking a lot about my list. I think I'm slightly older than you guys. I graduated high school in 1989, so I was thinking a lot about the last 20 years musically. What I have done as a professional musician? What music still moves me? What new music am I attracted to? Like Matt, I was disillusioned by music and the industry as a whole from 2003-2008, not coincidentally coinciding with my return to school for my BBA/MBA. By the way Matt, I feel exactly the same about the about the sound aesthetic going around now. For some reason, a lot of Gen Y's revised Subpop dreamy romantic music lacks balls, attitude and a real emotional maturity. Like a lot of Gen Y's, the music seems to want to be crowned as deep and meaningful without really doing anything-kinda whiny-look at me-give me my gold star- quality about it. I digress

This year, I feel my music life has been reborn. The re-birth actually started in May 2008 when I saw Return to Forever live. Then I saw Fishbone live for the first time in a decade in December 2008 and it awakened the high school-like music obsession I've always had.

When I graduated high school in 1989, these albums were released:

Spike-Elvis Costello
3 Feet High & Rising-De La Soul
Oranges & Lemon-XTC
Choba B CCCT (The Russian Album)-Paul McCartney
Like A Prayer-Madonna
Full Moon Fever-Tom Petty
The Stone Roses-The Stone Roses
Disintegration-The Cure
Tin Machine-Tin Machine
Flowers in the Dirt-Paul McCartney
Passion Soundtrack-Peter Gabriel
Batman Soundtrack-Prince
Paul's Boutique-The Beastie Boys
Mother's Milk-The Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Steel Wheels-The Rolling Stones
Rhythm Nation-Janet Jackson
Let Love Rule-Lenny Kravitz
The Seeds of Love-Tears for Fear
Neither Fish nor Flesh-Terrence Trent D'arby
Pretty Hate Machine-Nine Inch Nails

I was really into all these albums, plus 1988 was huge (Truth and Soul-Fishbone, Vivid-Living Colour, It Takes a Nation...-Public Enemy)

2009 albums/music moments that made me believe in my religion of music

1. The Beatle Remasters, Rock Band release-The best just got better. (Special mention-I saw the Cirque du Soliel Love show in Las Vegas-AWESOME)
2. Living Colour-The Chair in the Doorway & live show (Sept. 2009)-What this band means to me as a black musician can (and maybe will) fill a book.
3. Solange Knowles-Sol-Angel & the Hadley St. Dreams & live shows at SXSW (Mar. 2009-I was surprised that Beyonce's younger sister was so good. Better performer, better songwriter and she had a great band. Plus she's crazy, if you follow her twitter feed.
4. Raphael Saadiq-The Way I See It-Nice classic soul album.
5. The Mercers-PrettyThings Walk-Local Austin band-Pop/Rock and melodic. www.myspace.com/themercers
6. Jazz Jamaica All-Stars-Massive-I attended this great dance performance(Garth Fagen Dance-www.garthfagandance.org) This album was the soundtrack to some fantastic moves. The mix of ska/reggae/jazz big band works very well.
7. Concert: Bob Dylan-Willie Nelson-John Mellencamp-Classic tunes by professional icons. Don't sleep on Mellencamp, he has many great tunes you forgot you knew. Plus Charlie Sexton was the guest guitarist w/ Dylan and stole the show.
8. Miles Davis-The Man with the Horn-One of my rediscoveries. It was Miles after a 5 year layoff.
9. The Dark Knight Soundtrack-Gritty textures.
10. Blk JKS-After Robots-love the rhythms on this album. The sounds made my mind travel to cool places.
11. X-Ecutioners-Built from Scratch & Revolutions-The art of turntablism at it's best. You don't understand how much I miss quality avant garde hiphop.
12. SiruisXM shows I like: Zulubeats w/ Africa Bambaata, Subsoniq on The Backspin channel (old-school hiphop)
13. Paul McCartney-That Was Me-Nice little groove from Memory Almost Full
14. The Fireman-Electric Agruments-I'm a shill for Macca, I know
15. Brand New Immortals- Early '00's bnad that never got their due featuring David Ryan Harris
16. Follow For Now-Another band from my youth featuring David Ryan Harris. In the LC & Fishbone vein...
17. Cannonball Adderley-Mercy, Mercy, Mercy & Inside Straight.
18. My whole Stax/Volt & Motown collection.
19. T-Bird and the Breaks-Learn About It-Local R&B band-The album is in the vein of James Brown-www.tbirdandthebreaks.com

The Art of the Craig's List Ad

2010-01-02T19:15:00.004-06:00

The best gigs I've ever had came from the roots of the classified ads. When I lived in New York City, it was the Village Voice and a bunch of regional New Jersey and Connecticut music papers. Now it's Craig's List.

Perusing the ads today, I started to think. Most musicians have such a hard time describing what they want and need. Some ads list such a diverse set of influences that it gets hard to believe the author is knowledgeable about everything listed. I have a diverse taste in music, but if my gig requires me to play Donald "Duck" Dunn type of bass lines, then my love/knowledge of Larry Graham playing is not relevant. It doesn't matter how cool I think Larry is. On the other hand, I'm not going to answer an ad looking for a metal bassist. Could I play the stuff? Could I look up whatever references they want? Of course, but I'm not part of the metal culture as a player. I enjoy some of the music as a fan, but I know it's not in my heart to play it.

It's hard because, in my heart, I'm a player and I want to play all the time. I know I have the skills to play anything, but gigs are more than just playing. There is commitment to a band, writing, marketing, logistics. Here is an example of an ad I would've answered, but didn't:

http://austin.craigslist.org/muc/1534452815.html

"If you are an established pro bassist with a track record who is looking for an amiable, steady and well-paid gig, we should talk. Rock, blues, R&B and funk covers for a mix of clubs and corporate gigs. Some roadwork will be involved, but only for good money and never for longer than a week or two. You should be willing and able to work with us 10-15 gigs a month. You'll make at least $125 a night - more if we're doing any roadwork. You'll need pro gear, skills, work ethic and attitude and have samples of your playing available online. With all due respect, I am too damn busy to respond to one-line e-mails or those who don't have these simple professional requirements.
Us? We're well-established professionals, family-oriented guys (a frontman and a drummer) and basically re-grouping after a band breakup. We like working together, we're a "diva-free zone" and there are no chemical problems, drama or crazy spouses allowed in the clubhouse.

We've basically got everything we need to get working immediately as soon as we can find a guy/gal who can bring the bottom end along with a sense of humor and a professional work ethic. We don't care about your age, race, gender or sexual preference - just be able to play well and not be a jerk doing it. Is that you? "

There's a lot in this ad I like-it's specific and lays out the commitment required. I've played in cover gigs before and they are good for money, but the time commitment kills my creativity. Playing 10-15 gigs a month is rough when you have a day gig and the money is just enough to survive on (in ATX) and only if those gigs are guaranteed. Plus roadwork can be rough. I'm fortunate to have a day gig that I get 3 weeks of vacation of year and is pretty flexible with me. I want to use my vacation time this year to travel, see friends and do strategic touring.

I'm going to write some ads looking for a drummer and a female vocalist for the projects I wrote about yesterday. I'm taking this weekend to really flesh the ads out. I have specific types of musicians I'm looking for and the right personality for gigs. Bands are very special entities and so crafting an ad requires some time.

2010-Back to the Blog: Fired & New Projects

2010-01-01T21:46:00.004-06:00

It's been way too long since I've put my thoughts down in this blog. 2009 was a very busy year for me. I really got into Facebook and Twitter. My friends and followers already track me with those two SoMe services so they have a nice snapshot of what 2009 was like for me (music/gigs, work, sports, hanging out, going to shows, my sister's wedding, dealing w/the economy, etc.) I haven't been on Spill.com as much as I like to, though I will correct that this year. I miss my LEOG fans a lot. This blog will allow me to flesh out my 140 character thoughts.

So to review my 2009-I played a lot of bass, worked in competitive media (my Clark Kent gig), attended a ton of shows, did terrible in my fantasy football league, played on Facebook/Twitter a lot, went to some kick-ass parties/bars and played guitar for my sister's wedding-my "Gig of the Year". The set list was:

Norwegian Wood-The Beatles
I Believe (When I Fall in Love...)-Stevie Wonder
Feel My Love-Bob Dylan
Cobalt Blue-My tune
Airbag-Radiohead
Language of God-My Tune
She walked down the aisle to me playing In My Life-The Beatles. It was awesome, beautiful and humbling.

As far as my main music project, Soul Track Mind-the above words don't come to mind. Those three words would be ego, stupidity and disappointment. The lead singer Donovan fired me from the band as we were in pre-production for the debut album, on the day I did this interview for Austin360 He reasoning was not based on any logic. It's based on ego. Let me put it this way:

Donovan and I are walking down a street. There's a hole in the street. I have a board in my hand to cover the hole so we can avoid stepping into the hole. Donovan would rather step into the hole to remind himself not to step in the hole.

That is basic it. He doesn't want advice or guidance unless he feels he generated the idea that he needs advice or guidance. I have other opinions, but they get into the pop psyche of comic actors that can't handle the idea of success (Dave Chappelle comes to mind...) I've been cut from bands before, but those times were different because I wasn't so heavily involved like STM. A lot of time, money, energy was used in trying to make STM better. I wasn't perfect-I was hard on the drummer Doug, I mess up parts, I was blunt about the music business and I guess I hurt some feelings. I'm a proud member of Generation X. We don't do well babying Generation Yers that need gold stars for everything they do. Things I take for granted as a professional musician-learning your instrument, playing in time, practicing with a metronome, taking lessons, investing in your equipement, studying the music business, etc. Overall, I think I helped STM from A to B. The horns are also leaving-Joe was fired and Raymond is doing his own project. It was a learning experience and I'm glad that I met some cool people.

For 2010, I have two projects in mind:

An instrumental band-live, experimental jazz, funk/R&B, rock, sound texture stuff. Original music, arrangements of music from movie soundtracks-TV Themes and riff heavy music (reworking hard rock and jazz tunes). I have a name, but I will release it when it is formed. The ideal lineup will be me on bass, occasional vocals/guitar/Alto Sax, a full time guitarist, drum-percussionist and keyboard-piano. I can hear the music also working with a DJ. A band along the lines of Medeski, Martin & Wood, Jaco Pastorius' mid '80s NYC Trio, TJ Kirk, The Bad Plus. Danceable Out-there Stuff...

A pop/funk/rock/R&B band-Have a few names. Meaningful lyrics, almost an audio magazine on the human condition. I know this is more of a single track era, but I still think there is an audience for well produced albums. The sound of the music will be grand, full and strong. I would serve almost like an editor. I have a lot of material for this band and will look to write with the band. We would do strategic covers-not "ironic" covers, but blends of 2 tunes together-like a mash-up. Bands/music like The Noisettes, Peter Gabriel, David Ryan Harris, Brand New Immortals, Earl Greyhound, Terence Trent D'arby, All the Beatles, Stones etc...The ideal lineup will be me on bass/vocals/guitar, guitarist, keyboard/piano,drums, female vocalist that plays guitar or keyboard.

Also on tap for 2010:

A website to serve as my media portal-my music/media projects. Something that combines my Clark Kent (I'm a competitive media analyst) and my Superman (music, writing etc.) I anticipate this blog going through some more changes (platforms, video, music, media, looks) I have other specific goals I'm sorting out this week. I might post them, I might not. I'm also finalizing some kind of blog posting schedule for myself. I'll try to keep up with my life as a musician on the blog as well-the search for gigs, booking gigs, licensing music, writing music, music philosophy, music culture, going to shows, giving interviews, music research/history, practicing, meeting other musicians, touring and all the heartache/exaltation in-between.

Gig Tonight: Soul Track Mind at TC's Lounge 10pm-1am

2009-07-15T20:41:00.002-05:00

The busy guy post-Copied from my Facebook Event Announcement.

Hey it's Austin Fashion Week!

After voting for Avant Salon and Connie Strang Fredericks ( or any of the fabulous Avant Talent) for Austin Fashion Awards on Sunday and attending whatever swanky party your going to on Wednesday evening, come get loose with Soul..

It was hot last week. The floor was quakin', bodies were shakin' to the sticky sweet, soulful beat.

Yeah we got some more for you, too.

Remember! Antone's Sun 8/2 Battle of the Bands gig. Tickets are $8 adv/$10 door.

We are offering a special for our loyal TC's customers:
Loyal paying TC's customer will be able to pick up tickets for the Sun 8/2 Antone's Battle of the Bands show for $3!
All of the band members have tickets, so come see us before the set, in the break or after the show each Wednesday leading up to Sun 8/2!

News for the Soul:

1. Demo mastering is finished! We planning to get it press up in the next couple of weeks and we will post the tunes on Myspace and Facebook as soon as possible.

2. The photo shoot to show off our total sexiness, is tentatively scheduled for this weekend. Yes, you want to see more of us.

3. Follow us on Twitter!

www.twitter.com/soultrackmind.

We will be having giveaways that only our Tweeps will have opportunities to win.

4. Updated Myspace-www.myspace.com/soultrackmind with updated gig pics.

We are working on getting all the media updated-New website, Facebook Fanpage, new swag with our fabulous new logos, coming soon...

As always-

Folks, the SOUL TRACK MIND express is gaining steam....

Jump aboard! All are welcome!

Follow us on:

Twitter:
www.twitter.com/soultrackmind

MySpace:
www.myspace.com/soultrackmind

It's a Soul Track World and you'll love livin' here...

For the Professional Party Person...

Every week:
$5 cover.
BYOBooze....They have beer...
and sometimes there is free food.

Directions:
You can take East 12th street all the way to Springdale Road. Cross Springdale Road and proceed to Webberville. Make a left on Webberville the soul shack is on the right-hand side.

The link to the map:
http://tinyurl.com/cgna7h

Soul Track Mind:
www.myspace.com/soultrackmind

TC's Lounge:
http://www.myspace.com/tcswednesdays

To quote Don Cornelius
"We wish you love, peace and soul!"

Beat Don't Lie.

2009-07-12T16:53:00.007-05:00

Bands are some of the most intimate relationships people can have. Music is like the raw energy of love/conflict/pain/joy flowing simultaneously. A band trying to lock into the vibe of that energy is often on the edge of volatility. If one person in the band is not focused, the energy will blow up. The stage is the eye of the storm, the center of the vortex. The audio experience for the audience is always different. The center of the vortex could be collapsing and the audience can be oblivious to this action. A dropped beat, a missed cue. An audience of die-hard fans or trained musicians will notice the hiccups. The lack of focus of one band member will create a black hole, growing and ever expanding.

I say this because at when all is said and done, we as musicians have to respect our craft. We should love to listen, study those who inspire us to play, track down and investigate sounds and get consumed in the sound of our instruments. Learning how to practice and what to practice is essential. Developing the focus and concentration to be a positive part of band energy comes from practicing well.

I thought about long and hard over the last weekend because of STM's last TC's show. The crowd was into it, but our vortex was collapsing, falling into the same traps, missed notes and beats that have plagued us for the last 2 months. We all need to concentrate and not fall for the biased opinions of our friends and fans. In the end, musical sloppiness catches up to everyone. To paraphrase basketball prophet Rasheed Wallace, "Beat don't lie".

Gig Tonight: Soul Track Mind at TC's Lounge 10pm-1am

2009-07-08T19:07:00.002-05:00

Every week, Austin's Best Soul Dance Party is in effect. Come check us out at TC's Lounge.

After last Friday's Momo's gig, we went back to the woodshed to work on some tempo and groove issues. Donovan, our singer, sent an open email to all of us about some of the issues we had at the Momo's gig. Let's see if things lock in better this week. More details tomorrow.

Hey Ritchie, Happy Birthday.

2009-07-07T12:29:00.003-05:00

I know Michael Jackson's tribute is all over the web today. After the last few weeks of fallen celebrities with troubled pasts, I want to celebrate one who is alive and well and lookin' good for a 69 year old man.

Is he the greatest drummer ever? Of course not (you could make an strong argument that Paul McCartney and even his son Zak are better drummers.) Drumming and overall musicianship is more than technique. It's about feel, it's about knowing your role in piece of music or a song. It's about what you play and don't play. It's about playing space and letting music breathe. Ringo did all that. His unique drum fill style came from the fact he is left handed and played a right handed drum kit.

Ringo Starr has always appreciated his position in life. I have never seen him in public, angry or surly. He is always positive when speaking about his past and he uses the word love more than most musicians. Yes, he was lucky to be in the Beatles, but wasn't John lucky to have Paul and vice versa? Wasn't Paul lucky to have a friend like George for John to meet? The Beatles are my favorite band and served as the gateway to music for me. The Bealtes, Motown, Stax/Volt and Miles Davis were the soundtrack my father and mother played in my youth. I am lucky that they encouraged me to become the best musician I can be.

Happy Birthday Ringo Starr, Peace and Love.

Gig Tonight: Soul Track Mind at Momo's Tonight-12:45am $5

2009-07-03T19:18:00.004-05:00

This was a last minute call by David Cotton, talent buyer for Momo's and The Saxon Pub here in Austin Texas. Some band dropped out at the last minute and Cotton had been sitting on an old demo Donovan gave him a few months ago. Celebrate liberty or the resignation of Sarah Palin tonite.

It's funny being a musician or in a band. We hop with a phone call. We hate missing any opportunity, it's worse than drugs. In every music scene, there is an elite musicians try to impress-tastemakers like bookers, writers and more successful bands. It's a private mafia of decision makers that can change their minds on a whim or make a lasting decision on you and can effect careers. The (successful) music industry is actually pretty small and tight, like any other professional artistic community. It's the "making of the sausage" and the kabuki dancing that makes it fun and infuriating.

Gig Tonight: Soul Track Mind at TC's Lounge 10pm-1am

2009-07-01T17:45:00.008-05:00

Tonight is The Weekly Soul Shindig. The Best Soul Dance Party in Austin Texas. TC's Lounge 10pm-1am. $5 and it's bring your own booze.

I love this time before gigs. I like to relax and concentrate on the show. On this gig, I play bass and singer back up. I warm up on bass and vocals. I have some solos so I work out some ideas on guitar. Since it's a weekly gig, we use the 1st set as a lab. We work on new tunes and new ideas. This week the new tune is "Ghost of Soul" It was written by our lead singer Donovan. It's a pretty good groove. The nature of this gig always depends on the crowd. We get a loyal college following. We have to be careful, though. We play covers and originals. We want to make sure the kids don't think of us as a cover band, so each we add more originals to the set list. Right now it's about 40/60 originals to covers.

C'mon out, if you are around...

Rebirth of the Blog: The Mechanisms of a Musician

2009-06-30T17:48:00.005-05:00

Today is a good day to reboot the blog. Yes, today is my birthday.

The voice of this blog has never really been focused. I am interested in a plethora of subjects and I wrote about them-the economy, Obama, Presidential politics, TV, film, race, sports, pop culture etc. This lack of focus started when I began the blog in September 2007. I was finishing my MBA in Finance. Back then, I was writing papers about a variety of subjects. My mind is a sponge and I'm an information junkie. Oh, I have an opinion about everything and I'm not shy about speaking my mind. The Presidential race was gearing up, the economy started tanking (we pragmatists studying finance saw it coming back then), race and gender were everywhere as the dream of a black or female President grew in country. In addition to all of that, I started dipping my toe in the deep pool of social media. In other words, I was trying to write about a lot of things and sound competent on everything by researching and linking articles. I realized that I was just regurgitating better writers and smarter people on certain subjects.

I did write some good and not so good posts as I navigated finishing graduate school, working in accounting at the Austin American-Statesman, becoming a delegate for Barack Obama, getting into fantasy football (don't get me started) and becoming a member of a group on Spill.com called the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen (I'm the Paul Schaffer of the podcast.) I wasn't really performing music like I did in my past. I felt the murmur of music under my skin starting to get a little louder. I recorded a one song demo at a friend's studio in July 2008. I cut the vocals, bass and guitar for my song "Augustine". The music murmur turned into an internal conversation.

That same month, I got robbed of a position that was promised to me in accounting department at Statesman. It caused a rupture in my program. Years of schools and piles of loans invested to qualify me for this promised position swept away. Yes, I was very angry and had somewhat of an existential breakdown. I took a sabbatical from music to pursue a straight gig and I still get screwed? My information junkie mind started commenting and writing about a lot of stuff on this blog to quell my anger. I was trying to get out of the Statesman because I didn't see anything else I was qualified to do there. The internal music conversation was getting louder.

Fall 2008, I started my current position at the Statesman, Competitive Media Analyst. This position in the marketing department is the first job, other than playing music, that I really like. It feeds my information junkie habit. My job is to stay engaged in media, pop culture, economic policy, race, politics, etc. I use all types of information to assist our sales reps in selling advertising. Plus the marketing department is the most open, idea generating department I have every been involved with. I really felt it today with the non-traditional Happy Birthday salute people in the department receive on their birthday. It's strange, but very cool. So I can exchange, write, talk about, analyze and debate ideas all day. The internal music conversation became external when I joined Soul Track Mind. It's the first band I have been in since 2004. We play every Wednesday at TC's Lounge in East Austin from 10pm-1am. We are rebuilding the website, mastering our demo and doing the things bands do as they reach for success. Now the focus of the blog is clear to me.

This blog is going to be about my life as a musician. I'm a 38 year old black man from Chicago, Illinois with a BBA in accounting and a MBA in finance. I'm a musician first. I've flirted with the idea a few times in past posts, but now the voice is clear. I'm going to share the trials and tribulations of being in a band, being a solo artist, writing songs, singing, playing bass, playing guitar, being a session man and everything in between. The mechanics of musical life. Of course I will have my lists of favorite songs, albums, musicians, etc. Since I'm in Austin Texas, I will post pictures and videos of shows I attend. I will try to be honest about musical acts I see and hear. I will also try to stay in the loop with new acts and music culture trends. I want to make clear my thoughts as a musician when looking at other musicians and commenting on music culture. There are some raw emotions, ego bruising and jealousy about success-perceived or real. This is a tough business and everyone thinks they're great and I'm no different. If musicians don't believe in their work, stop playing and go do something else.

I believe the voice of this blog will be different than other music blogs because I'm a fan, but I'm an insider and an expert. A lot of fans, writers and critics really don't understand the what it's like to create music. A lot of musicians aren't the most articulate in talking about the craft of music, the mechanics and the business. The conversations and debates about music I've engaged in the last couple of months motivated me to really dig deep into my relationship with music. I realize my life has wrapped around music. This blog will become my voice to talk about the journey.

These pictures are from my room in my parents house back in 1989. In high school, I wore my passion for music like a badge. My walls were covered with CD long boxes (remember those things?) and posters from the bins of bootleg record shops. This was the room that began my journey. I use to devour Musician Magazine and my life's dream was to be featured in that magazine. I was an primarily an alto sax player, then a bassist. Sitting in this room I practiced, wrote and dreamed. After 20 years, it's time for me to document, explain and bring an audience into this world.

Always in the Mood For This

2009-05-13T01:13:00.003-05:00

Sometimes at night, my mind runs back to when my life was simpler. When all I ever wanted to do was be on the cover of Musician Magazine. That magazine was the best American music magazine, ever.

I would stay up late and read the magazine with MTV on as my companion. This was when MTV always played videos. Videos started getting very interesting and kinda strange. MTV start August of 1981. Initially, there weren't enough videos (they didn't really start playing videos from black artists until Michael Jackson's Thriller took over the world in 1983. Then Prince had Purple Rain in 1984, but I digress). To fill the gap, older artists were making videos for their new albums. The 80's are littered with awkward videos from established stars like Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie (well, the videos from Let's Dance were pretty cool), The Rolling Stones (Harlem Shuffle, anyone? Yet Undercover is one of the greatest videos ever), Glenn Frey as a dope dealer?

One video that I always loved was Robert Plant's In The Mood. The song always let me drift into a simple state of listening to something beautiful. The video is like a dream. Even though Plant has bad 80's hair, I like the dream of the scenes. Break dancers boppin' to a melody guitar & keyboard solo? The watery guitarlick, the flash of "Mad Men" chicks lip syncing the backgrounds, the fun Plant has when he join the band lip syncing the backgrounds, the horse running to the damsel in the empty house in some latino paradise, the oil on the plastic wire simulating running water, the mirrored sheets, the close-ups of Plant...

I could go on, but this is why You Tube was invented.

Happy MILF Day...

2009-05-10T19:00:00.000-05:00

This is so wrong, it's funny:

Giddy Up, Muthaf*ckers!

2009-05-07T09:21:00.001-05:00

This Feelin' Never Gets Old....

2009-05-06T20:45:00.002-05:00

The feelin' right before I hit the stage.
I know the band is tight. Everything is everything
and it's alright.

The feelin' when we hit the stage.
The crowd is in the space. Everything is everything.
My band owns this place.

The feelin' after we burn the stage.
Givin' them good love. Everything is everything.
Now ya'll know what we made of...

Schedules, Schedules, Schedules

2009-05-05T20:35:00.004-05:00

No, the swine flu did not get me.

It has been a great and busy couple of weeks. Let's do a recap, shall we?

1. LEOG recordings.

2. Gigs with Soul Track Mind

3. Various competitive media projects...

4. Practicing bass and guitar. Putting money down on a new Fender Precision Bass. Also, branching into teaching bass.

5. Performing in a video for work. I will get the outtakes and post them. I got some pretty tasty guitar licks.

6. New tires for the Funk Wagon.

Now that I'm on twitter, I am basically micro blogging all the time. I am finally working on my website that will included this blog, all of my social media connects, my ongoing music projects (audio and video), my writing (papers and poetry), photos, calender, etc. I really want everything in one place with different channels. I look at myself as a media creator. I think of my body as the tree and the branches are my ideas.

My goal is to blog everyday. I have a lot to say and I think of the blog as a column of my thoughts. Reports of my life. I must schedule time to write like I do to workout or practicing.

Other thoughts:

Happy 100 days to President Obama.

I was immersed in the 7 game battle my dear Bulls lost to the Boston Celtics. I needless to say, I was happy to see the Celtics lose yesterday.

Congrats to LeBron on his MVP Trophy.

R.I.P Dom Deluise.

Two Words: Treasure Bath! Treasure Bath!

24 has gotten bizarre, but I will ride it out. Plus, I feel I'm the only one who watches this show I know. So I stopped doing the 10 Observation post. I started to track Soul Track Mind so I stopped the Damages 10 Observations posts for that. I enjoyed the season finale. It was neater than last year, but still left me wanting more.

I really want to keep up my 10 observation posts for 2 other shows coming back: True Blood and Mad Men. Make that 3, I have to include Entourage.

Great job by the Divine Jill Scott in #1 Ladies Detective Agency on HBO. Plus congrats on the new baby boy. I love this show because of the light touches and the positive images of Africa.

Yes, I like HBO.

In organizing this blog, I will create subject posts (10 Observations, The Mind of a Music, Social Media, etc..) on certain days. I will add more video, pictures and audio to the blog. I am trying to make the jump to really getting my media life together. I just need to schedule, schedule, schedule...

I appreciate anyone & everyone that takes the time to read my posts and journey with me.

Spector got Jokes!

2009-04-28T11:40:00.002-05:00

From Alex Leo of the Huffington Post.

Many people don't know this, but Arlen Specter fancies himself a funny man. In 2007 he competed in the "Funniest Celebrity in Washington Contest." He finished second after Joseph Randazzo, assistant editor of the "The Onion," but ahead of Ana Marie Cox. [VIDEO BELOW] "Arlen has always loved stand up comics," says Joan Specter. "If he has the chance to go to a comedy show, that's his first choice."

Sometimes this jovial nature gets him in trouble, like when he cracked some Polish jokes at New York's Rainbow Room while speaking at the annual meeting of the Commonwealth Club. The "New York Post" reported that Specter began by asking if anyone in the room was Polish. At that, around 10 people raised their hands. He proceeded to tell a few jokes about Polish people until one guest interrupted him, saying, "Hey, careful. I'm Polish!" Specter responded, "That's OK, I'll tell it more slowly." This was met with grumblings of tastlessness, and Specter eventually apologized saying it was a mistake.

Here is some video of senatorial humor that went over better with the people around him. It's from the aforementioned competition in which he mocked Trent Lott saying:

"Trent Lott was really despondent after the Hurricane hit. He had a lot of property damage but the thing he was most concerned about was that it destroyed his entire library. Both books. And Trent wasn't even finished coloring one of them."

2009-04-27T15:14:00.001-05:00

That's teeth cleaned. Damn touchscreen....

2009-04-27T15:13:00.001-05:00

Testing the blog texting ability. Hopfully this works while I wait to get me teech cleaned.

Humbling Awe...

2009-04-26T11:42:00.000-05:00

It is always very nice when people respond to something creative that I have the honor of taking part in. It can be with bands and musicians I play or have played with. In this case, the love was given to the group I play with on Spill. Now the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen is not for the faint of heart. It is for hardcore comic readers and gamers. Here is an earlier blog post about Spill.

Why am I there, since I don't know jack about comics or video games? Beside being the Paul Shaffer of the show (I play guitar behind the musings), I get to hang out with very intelligent and funny fellows on at least a bi-weekly basis. To enter this League, you have to be quick, smart, strong and cunning. For me, it is really an honor and privilege to hang out. On the website, the League Lounge just past the 1000 member milestone this week. I believe it is the largest group on Spill. To celebrate this milestone a great artist, graphic designer from the Puerto Rico, Jagr created this piece to honor the achievement:

This is another piece he did earlier:

Thanks to Jagr for his great artwork. It's always cool to see oneself in animation.

And There Goes Maude...

2009-04-25T19:54:00.002-05:00

The very funny and talented Bea Arthur passed away today of cancer at the age of 86. New York Times writer Bruce Webber wrote a nice retrospective here. When you think about revolutionary television roles, most actors would kill for one. She had two. I still watch the Golden Girls and I still laugh my ass off. Maude was a great show also. Remember the theme, song by the late great Donny Hathaway:

Maude TV Opening Theme - video powered by Metacafe

Clicking with Social Media

2009-04-19T01:28:00.001-05:00

I love the moment in life that "it" clicks. For me it is how to maximize my social media usage. My social media imprint so far: Facebook, Myspace, Spill, AfroPunk, LinkedIn, Twitter and this blog. I didn't hyperlink the myspace because I'm still switching my regular myspace to a music myspace. There is a link to my Twitter to the left of the posting space here on my blog. I will add buttons for my other profiles in time. Plus I will update my link on the side to include all of the blogs and news sources in my Google reader. The one thing need to get a grip on is sending articles, videos or what have you through services like Digg, Yahoo Buzz, Stumbleupon, Delicious.

That's the key for me. I have to be able to put a social media app into my everyday flow. I have been using social media for years now, but I always felt it fragmented my persona. Friendster for this, Myspace for that. My mind streams in a more linear fashion. I don't see my musician self any different from my competitive media analyst self or my runner/athlete self. The drive and love of competition, for instance. I believe as the web converges, I am becoming more efficient in informing and being informed. For me, it is the learning process that ties it all together for me. The way I studied music going up is the way I studied for my MBA or tests in school. That process of learning and teaching others was the same to me. I just adapted for the stage or the job or the class room. That's why I like to my minimize the places I input and maximize the places I output. For instance this blog feeds into my notes on Facebook, my Spill and my Afropunk pages. I don't write anything here that I wouldn't say to my boss, my family or my friends. I like to reference a multitude of different things because as I have said before, I am fascinated with the human condition. One great website for social media is Mashable.
This is a great one-stop information resource about the constant mutation of social media.

1st Gig Down: Soul Track Mind

2009-04-16T02:35:00.004-05:00

Yours truly with his triumphant return to gigging with Soul Track Mind. With Jonathon on guitar, a hiding Raymond on alto saxophone and a hiding Ryan on drums. Band members not pictured are Donovan, lead vocals and Joe on trumpet.

The gig tonight was great. December 2003 was the last time I played a live gig. I took a sabbatical from music to finish my BBA and MBA. I was a little nervous. There was a huge birthday party at TC's Lounge on the east side of Austin, so it was nice to come back to a full house. Over the last month, I have been practicing Mondays with the fellas. I learned 30 tunes for the gig. There were rough patches, missed keys, missed beats. Over all it felt good. I played with the regular drummer for the band tonight for the first time. We had a few miscues, but we got the people up and moving. We just found a new drummer we have been rehearsing with recently. The current drummer is going to be gone for the summer. I initially learned the tune with Donovan, the lead vocalist, on drums.

All the familiar senses came back: reading the crowd, my cross-legged trance stance when I'm in the groove, watching the hands of the Jonathan the guitarist as I followed his lead, following Donovan and picking up his cues, listening for the kick drum, the feel of my fingers caressing the strings, the weight of my bass with the 2Tek bridge, my amp being ok and my sound coming off as a little hollow, the excitement, the thrill of creating live art that moves people to dance.
And now my bed is calling, another sense from live gigging being the reason-tired workday afters from magic nights.

I love this stuff.
I'm back to my core calling in life.

My Sunday in a Dreamworld of Magic and Drinking til I'm Sick.

2009-04-12T14:57:00.005-05:00

I cannot watch one without the other.

My Mom Goes Existential On Me.

2009-04-10T18:56:00.002-05:00

Today is my mother's birthday, so I called her to chat a bit. In the middle of our conversation, she got sublimely deep on me. We were talking about my childhood. She once gave me Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss to read to my sister. She said I told her "This is stupid, there is no such thing as green eggs and ham!" During our conversation today, my mom told me I was always a "literal" child. My mom and dad never spoke to me as a child, so my imagination developed in a different manor. I never was and still not much of a reader of fiction. I have read most of the classics in school, but I never go out of my way to read new fiction. I love biographies and I always marvel at our literal world. I love history. That is why I love the human condition. It also explains why I'm a news junkie. When I write songs or poetry, I write about literal worlds-time and places. My abstract thinking comes from imagining what if people made different choices in their lives. How would a person react if put in a situation. I was never a fantasy world type person. Comics, D and D, and even video games have never really interested me. I appreciate the passion for those things.

One of the things I love about music is that is real and abstract at the same time. I can play notes, read notes, sing notes, play with rhythm, listen to recordings. Yet you never actually see music. You feel it. The imagination behind songs, compositions and bands. The myths and legends behind the creators of music are my comic books, my fantasy worlds. The great thing for me is that I can be part of it. I can create my own world and collaborate with others.

This leads into my thoughts on religion, since this is Easter weekend. The greatest gift my parents gave me is a sense of self. They always respected my autonomy and let me think for myself. Now music to me is my way to connect with the spiritual. Whether playing or listening to my favorite music of discovering new bands, I connect with a higher power. I respect a person's faith, though I will never get around how some organize religion is used to separate and marginalize people. I never believed in a middle man to tell me how I should live my connection to the spiritual. I am very glad I didn't grow up with some of the constraints organized religion can give folks. My sense of self lets me know its ok that I get my connection with the spiritual through notes and beats. When I need to connect, I pick up the instrument closest to me or play a recording.

All the green eggs and ham talk made me think of this reading by Jesse Jackson.

I Understand The Feeling

2009-04-08T23:02:00.002-05:00

Getting dumped. Fired. Let go.

Even when I knew it was coming, it was hard. So as I sit in the crowd and watch the gentleman I'm replacing in Soul Track Mind, I understand.

Getting dumped by a band is like getting dumped by 4 girlfriends at once. I understand the sunglasses on stage. I understand loose , sloppy playing.

Don't worry the right band will come around. It always does.

Finally

2009-04-08T17:21:00.004-05:00

The teaser digital remasters:
Yellow Submarine Soundtrack
The Beatles: 1
Let It Be: Naked
Love

I have been waiting for this for years. Just listen to Nowhere Man from the Rubber Soul CD and compare it to the Nowhere Man for the Yellow Submarine CD. Beatle fans, we are in for a treat. I might even break down and buy a video game console to play the Beatles Rockband.

The Beatles are the largest influence on my life outside of my parents and my godparents and my friends.

Michael being Michael

2009-04-06T23:13:00.001-05:00

Goes third person-$0
Reminds Stockton that he beat him in 1997 and 1998-$0
Reminds the world that Magic never beat him in the Finals-$0
Michael Jordan-Priceless.

Old School Video Shot

2009-04-05T14:00:00.002-05:00

Cruising my YouTube favorites and I find this clip. This is the Screaming Headless Torsos at the Knitting Factory in New York City in 1996. This is still the most unique band I have ever experienced. If you look closely at the zoom in at the 8 second mark, you will see me standing next my Japanese friend Yumika. I'm glad the zoom in is a little blurry, because you can't really make out the hideous shirt I was wearing or my terrible mustache.

Back to the Blog

2009-04-05T10:41:00.002-05:00

It was a nice week away from one aspect of my computer life. This last week has been pretty interesting for me and I guess culture in general. Here is a rundown of things of interest to me:

1. How progressive is Iowa? First, the 2008 Iowa Caucuses gave President Obama the springboard to get into office. I'm still amazed by that. Now, the Iowa Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage. This should make Californians feel ashamed.

2. The Obamas in Europe. Do they cut a figure together or what? Their mere presence is doing a lot to repair the US world image. The fact that President Obama didn't get more economic stimulus from European countries makes perfect sense. Those countries possess the social safety nets to help their citizens. The United States does not have universal health care or cheap access to higher education. Michelle did what any human being would do if a someone gives you a hug, she hugged back. Get over the Queen thing people. Steve Jobs must love the fact the Queen has an iPod. I can't wait to see the commercials. And she gives the French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy a Gibson guitar. Who said music the music industry is totally dead?

3. I haven't really commented on the economic crisis. There are enough people taking all types of potshots at the Stimulus Package, the Bailout of the Banks, The Auto Crisis and so on. I am worried like everyone else, but it doesn't overwhelm my thoughts. I feel lucky to have finished my MBA in Finance from Summer of 2006 to Spring 2008. That education gave me the tools to understand the problems and the knowledge of where to go to research what I don't understand. For everyday tracking and simple understanding of these complex issues I recommend these resources:

NPR: Planet Money the Blog and Podcast
Slate: The Big Money
Marketplace from American Public Media

Check out this podcast from Fresh Air featuring Frank Partnoy. Great explanation of derivatives and the other financial instruments that have push us close to the edge.

4. Speaking of close to the edge, the newspaper industry is getting hammered by everyone. I work for one of the successful newspapers, The Austin American-Statesman. What irritates me about the discussion is the omission of 2 key facts with the newspapers that have failed. They papers were either in 2 papers towns (Seattle, Denver) or the ownership had the had massive debt (Tribune Company, Philadelphia Newspapers). Since the Statesman has been up for sale, there has been a lot of speculation and rumors. Over the past month, there has been a back and forth between the Statesman and the Austin Chronicle about what's going on. That will be a separate blog post.

5. We are getting a nice tax refund.

6. The Bulls are in 7th place in the East.

7. The Bears got Jay Cutler! Yes, I'm excited and I'm going to draft Matt Forte, Devin Hester and Greg Olsen in my fantasy league next year.

8. Damages had a great season ending episode. Season wrap-up post this week.

9. Opening day in baseball never gets old. Steroids, expensive stadiums be damned. Does anything ever really stop baseball, expect the war and baseball itself?

10. The latest LEOG is up. Check it out, if you dare...

11. I will be joining Soul Track Mind either this week or next week. Depends on how the bass player reacts to his dismissal.

Pimping the Product: Austin Amerian-Statesman 10K Crew

2009-03-29T13:27:00.002-05:00

I have to give much love to my peeps at the Statesman. I work in the marketing department and I saw all the hard work and red tape the crew had go through. It amazes me how fast "Keep it Weird" Austinites get all NIMBY with a race that is an Austin tradition going on 32 years. All we do is raise money for charity. Speaking of charity, special shout out to all the volunteers and other organizations that help the crew.

Ten Observations: Running the Capital 10K

2009-03-29T10:38:00.003-05:00

Ok. I know I haven't kept up with my Ten Observations post for 24 and Damages. The season finale of Damages runs an hour and a half Wednesday April 1 and I guess 24 ends sometime in May. I will do my season ending Ten Observations for each show. Never the less, I like the Ten Observation format. It helps frames my thinking for certain events, like my Cap 10K run. Here it goes:

1. The weather was perfect. As I type this post it is 57 degrees in Austin and sunny. The timed race started at 8:45 am and I think the temperature was about 45 degrees. Here is a map of the race course.

2. The starting pen was great. Not to crowded. The bib numbers were color coded by speed. The elite runners were yellow and purple, faster timed runners wore blue, other timed runners wore red, untimed and fun runners wore white. I had a blue bib. I couldn't find anyone I trained with or any other friends, so I just chilled and meditated on the race I wanted to run. I warmed up prior to entering the pen. I train with music but never race with music because I like to hear the rhythm of my feet, the crowd noise and it helps me focus on my body. I like to visualize my race.

3. For those people who have not been to Austin, it is very hilly here. We have places with great views (The Oasis really does have the best sunset in Central Texas) but it makes running here challenging. I live in the northwest hills section of Austin, by the Green Belt on top of a big hill, so I run a lot of hills. That being said, this course is very hilly, sweeping through downtown and west Austin. Check out the elevation map.

4. Mile 1 is up the gradual hill of Congress Avenue, right toward the Capital Dome. The trick for me is not to go out to fast, don't let the adrenaline and the racers pull me faster than I want to go. especially since there is a hill after making the right from Congress to East 11th Street. My legs felt good and I got into my stride. My watch is not really good with splits so I'm not sure what the time is. Since my watch doesn't track mileage, I don't like to look for mile marker signs. It distracts me from focusing on my running.

5. Making the turn onto East 11th was were I saw the 1st casualties of the "too fast 1st mile". The hill on East 11th up to the left turn onto San Jacinto is short but pretty steep. One thing I always suggest is the run the course if you can. My training group ran the course 2 times so I knew the hill was coming and I adjusted.

6. Once on San Jacinto, there is a short, steep downhill. I try to keep my stride consistent and not over step and let gravity pull me from my stride. I like to run easy. I like my heart beat to be averaging in the 160s. My goal in training is to get my mile ideal mile time at the effort that keeps my heart rate in the 160s.

7. From San Jacinto the course turns left and heads west down 15th Street. This is hilly and about 2 miles. To me, this is make and break goal time stretch of the race. I felt good going over the hills past the cross-streets of Lavaca and Guadalupe. The uphill traveling west on 15th street, passing the cross-streets of San Antonio, Nueces and Rio Grande, is gradual then peaks at West Street. When I reached West Street, I looked back at the view of runners. The sea of colors, the flow of people was great. Then I headed downhill and ran toward West Austin

8. I headed up the continuing hill as West 15th Street became Enfield (crossing Windsor, Lorrain, Marshall, Murray, Lynn, Pease, Woodlawn,Hartford and Wethersfield). I realized I was not going to make my goal time of somewhere in the 51 minute range. That would require to me to run an 8:13 to 8:22 mile. I was slower than that. My legs were getting tired because of the hills. I stopped for water only once so far. Since it was not too hot, my hydration was solid.

9. The rest of the race was ok, though I know I was slower than I wanted to be. From Enfield, the course turns left and heads south on Winsted. This is another steady hill that can bite you. I used this stretch to adjust my stride and keep my pace. This is where the power of my legs can in handy. I have strong quads and glutes, so I muscled my way through this part. At the end of Winsted was Mile 4. Left on Veterans, traveling east, running past Austin High School on Stephen F. Austin. This is my least favorite part of the course. Right when you hit a wall, the scenery is kinda drab. I grab water for the second and last time. This was gut check time. Time to push through whatever walls I had for myself.

10. Mile 5, 6 and the .2 were hard yet gratifying. Most of mile 5 was on Cesar Chavez heading east. The course runs parallel with the Townlake Hike and Bike Trail, so this is familiar territory. I drive this road almost every day and again, it is sneaky hilly. My quads wanted some mercy, so I dug deep with my arms to push my legs, like pistons. I was breathing heavy. I was trying to figure out where to start my sprint. The course made the right onto the South First Street bridge and I was still bidding my time. right before the right turn on Riverside, I started to haul ass. I sprint in a controlled burst. I get my legs and arms pumping in rhythm. The screams and cheers of people are totally cool and really got me jacked. I couldn't tell what my time was officially but it was around 55:00 which is about a 8:50 mile. At least I hope so. Overall, this was a good race for me. It is my 1st race since I finished my MBA last May.

Preparation Recap:

My training was good. I really have to work to get into shape because I am about 10lbs heavier than my marathon weight. When I started training, I was about 20lbs heavier. My ideal running weight, at least I think, is about 155lbs. I am going to continue to train and I plan to do a half marathon in the fall. I want to hit my goal weight by my birthday, June 30. My recoveries we good. I really concentrated on eating the right food at the right time. I also make it a monthly expense now to get massages. That helps tremendously. My shoes are lighter, (Mizuno Wave Elixer III) and I know I don't like wearing regular running shorts for racing. I like racing tights. I know I want to upgrade my watch to record pace and I want to do some more lifting so I can get stronger.

Overall I am pleased with my effort today and I am pumped to maintain this activity. I will get back to swimming and I want to do a triathlon soon. Between music and sports, I need to rob a bank to finance all this stuff.

Cap 10 Feelings

2009-03-29T07:51:00.002-05:00

The easiest part was driving and parking. Because I work for the Statesman, I used the parking lot. Plus I have access to the bathroom for on last clearing of the bowls. Hey, better now than during the race, right?

Big Morning: Capital 10K

2009-03-29T07:06:00.003-05:00

Today is the Capital 10K here in Austin. I am running it with the goal of 51:00. The weather is perfect and I feel pretty good. I would love to tweet or blog how I feel each mile, but I'm running for a time. I will post as soon as I'm done.

Funk Brother Down

2009-03-27T11:08:00.003-05:00

Drummer Uriel Jones died on Tuesday March 24 at 74. He was one of three go to drummers in the Motown heyday (Benny Benjamin and Richard (Pistol) Allen were the other 2). Along with the immortal James Jamerson, he was the backbone to many hits. From Wikipedia,

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - both versions, by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell in 1967 and the 1970 remake by by Diana Ross, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye, "Cloud Nine" by the Temptations (in which he was augmented by "Spider" Webb), Jr. Walker's "Home Cookin'," "I Second That Emotion" by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, "For Once In My Life" by Stevie Wonder.

I had the honor to be at the premiere of Standing in the Shadows of Motown here in Austin at the Paramount Theatre. Uriel was there along with other Funk Brothers. They played with local Austin musicians after the movie played and had a question/answer session. I had them sign my original Standing in the Shadows book, which was a straight up bass book focusing on the style of James Jamerson.

The world is a little less groovy today...

Man Crush

2009-03-27T09:21:00.002-05:00

I can watch LeBron all day.

Picking Up Another Man's Woman

2009-03-25T23:47:00.002-05:00

That is what it's while I'm watching Soul Track Mind.

It's the knowing, sly eye play with Donovan, Ray and Jon. The longing for the deep groove I have shown them in the rehearsals. It's not their current bass player is terrible ( other than when massacres the classic bassline to Let's Get It On). It just I listen and understand the band's needs. I just "get" them.

On the Scene: Perez Hilton-Pics

2009-03-24T22:40:00.010-05:00

These are pictures from a few acts at Perez Hilton's party in Austin on Saturday March 21. The show moved at good pace and the room sounded good. Here is my review of what I saw.

Magaret Cho: I don't get her. I think her humor is just vulgar without any depth or relevance to anything meaningful. She is like Sarah Silverman, a potty mouth lady that thinks talking about sex in graphic terms is humor.

Indigo Girls: Quite a surprise. They were good.

Ladyhawke: I know she was getting a lot of buzz this year and her performance proved the buzz might be understated. She was great.

Thunderheist: They were ok. She was trying. I always feel it is hard for a DJ based group to follow full band becuase of the sonic differences. A good full band beats a DJ everyday.

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head: Overrated. I read about this band in an article about the origin of band names. I knew from reading the article this band care more about the band name than the craft of creating great songs or becoming good performers. They are young so hopefully they will get better.

Solange: Great. This woman has got the moves, the show, the tunes and the attitude. She has the charisma her sister lacks.

Margaret Cho:

Indigo Girls:

Ladyhawke:

Thunderheist:

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head:

Solange:

On the Scene: Perez Hilton

2009-03-22T21:07:00.008-05:00

This party is what parties should be. Engaging host, free booze, great DJ, good bands, great arty crowd. Prior to this party, I have only heard of Perez Hilton and never read his blog. I have become a fan. This party reminded me of dance clubs I use to go to in the early 90's in New York-Tunnel, Limelight, Shelter,Webster Hall and the Palladium. The feeling I had was of a little wonder and adventure, though this party was a lot tamer than New York club action, especially back in those days (Peter Gatien, Michael Alig anyone?)

My friend Belinda got me in as her plus one so I thank her for that. We didn't stay for the whole thing so I missed out on Kanye West. My crush on Solange was continued as she brought the house down for the second night in a row. We left after her set. I must give special props to the DJ Aaron LaCrate. The brother brought it on the wheels of steel...

Again, in my younger days I would have partied all-night. Perhaps with a little help, if you hear what I'm saying.

His blog post about the Austin party is here. Here are some pics. I'll post my pics of soon and my reviews of the performances up soon.

Aaron LaCarte-

SwingSet-

On The Wall For All-

Me the Swinger-

The Most Interesting Men in the World-

Perez-

Perez Warhol-

Perez is Hot-

Crowd-

Crowd Man-

One the Scene: Solange

2009-03-21T16:08:00.009-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen: Solange

On the Scene: Soul Track Mind-Pictures

2009-03-21T15:52:00.003-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen: Soul Track Mind

The target date for me to join the band is Wednesday April 8 at TC's Lounge in East Austin

On The Scene: Magic Christian-Pictures

2009-03-21T15:22:00.005-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen: Magic Christian

One the Scene: Solange Knowles

2009-03-20T22:42:00.002-05:00

I met up with my friend Megan and her friend Kristin. We go to the Bat Bar located in the Austin Convention Center were Solange is performing. Ok. I'm late to this party. I really like her. She is like black alt rock. She can sing and she has Beyonce's hips. She performs with an unhinged persona that Beyonce wishes she had. Pics to come.

On the Scene: Soul Track Mind

2009-03-20T18:39:00.001-05:00

SXSW: Shakespeare's Pub

OK. I'm biased. This band is such a throwback to greasy soul bands. Of
course they play every Wednesday at TC's Lounge in east Austin. Oh
yeah, they are about to get an upgrade at bass by this guy named me.
Hopefully sometime in April. Pics to come.

On The Scene: Magic Christian

2009-03-20T17:44:00.001-05:00

SXSW in Effect. I'm at the Ginger Man listening to Magic Christian.
Great garage band. Pics to come.

Information Overload

2009-03-20T17:41:00.001-05:00

On this first day of Spring, I'm suffering from too much information.
This from a professional information junkie. At work, we have a ton of
new projects coming up. I have the honor of being selected for our
Innovation Board. I'm running the Cap10k next Sunday and volunteering
the Friday and Saturday before. SXSW is making Austin a giant speaker
and parking lot. I'm battling my sister and my friend in a war of
bracket supremacy in the NCAA tournament. I'm learning tunes, writing,
arranging and practicing with a couple of bands. I'm putting together
a myspace music page. Did I mention my wife got her wallet stolen, she
needs new brakes, the air condition in or condo needs work? Plus 24
and Damages are climaxing and I'm behind on my updates for them.

Since I'm a junkie for information, I love this stuff.

On The Scene: Austin Music Awards

2009-03-18T22:03:00.002-05:00

I have been in Austin for 8 years. I lived in New York City for 8
years. I have been a professional musician all of my adult life. So
take these comments with this in mind.

I think the music scene here is very overrated. The same writers cover
the same musicians every year. The lack of music diversity is really
incredible. It is blues, alt country, singer songwriter, alt country,
blues, singer songwriter, waterdown jazz and country. There is what I
call the Austin Music Mafia. The winners and top ten finishers are all
the same every year. The only change is really the best new artist and
best indie band. The music of those winners tend to play the same
music as above.

The problem tends to be generational. Like in other media, the old
rules and old way of thinking still rule. Long forged relationships
tend to rule over innovation. My big hope us that the condos going up
downtown will bring new people with new tastes. Perhaps the music
scene will become as vibrant as the restaurant scene.

Tonights show is being hosted by local music empresario Andy Langer.
The Austin Music Hall has undergone a big renovation, but the sound is
still cavernous and midrangey. Why don't clubs understand basic sound
physics? Concert floors, high ceilings and bare walls create terrible
acoustics.

I came in during the tale end of the opening act of Carolyn Wonderland
with Suzanne Choffell and Ruthie Foster. They were good. Andy Langer
us doing a good job. The winners are grateful and yet the great Austin
fans talk all over the speakers. Bob Schneider performed and I still
don't understand his appeal. He has talent but his musical aura puts
me to sleep. The most annoying winners are the radio personalities-
the morning x crew.

I am cutting out now, so I'm going to miss the Doug Sahm tribute. I
bet that will be good. I do think the Austin Music Scene has the
ability to be more innovative and open. The question is, will it?

2 Sides of the Same Story...

2009-03-16T16:24:00.003-05:00

As one paper adapts:

Another one folds.

Somewhere in between these videos is a workable solution.

More information about: Texas Social Media Awards, the winner Michelle Greer, The Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Random SXSW Thought....

2009-03-15T18:32:00.001-05:00

I was at the IFC Party last night at the Karma Lounge in Austin. Me and my friends can to this conclusion:

If a bomb dropped on Austin sometimes in the next 2 years, the collective hipster, blipster, lister and any other cultural variation of hipster population would drop by about 80%. Austin is a sea of skinny jeans, Fro-Hawks, bad 80's makeup, terrible beards and porn moustaches. You gotta love it here.

Pimping the Product: Austin360

2009-03-15T14:01:00.002-05:00

How am I keeping up with the SXSW information? I log onto Austin360.com There is live video of select panels and events. Plus there are great recaps on the panel discussions, previews of music acts and film reviews. To stay informed, check it out...

In The House: DiggNation Party at Stubbs

2009-03-14T22:57:00.002-05:00

Bow down to the god Addidas...

In The House: SXSW DiggNation Party at Stubbs

2009-03-14T22:37:00.000-05:00

The crowd is a lot lighter than I expected. The party is open and free
to everyone so I guess it's safe to surmise this is effect of the
dimise of the economy. Addidas is the other sponsor. Let me put on my
marketing hat and say I liked the video being played on the stage
overhang.

The Times for Newspapers

2009-03-13T10:34:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows these are tough times for the newspaper industry. Layoffs, bankruptcies and closures are a part of the everyday vocabulary of the newsroom. So is voluntary buyouts. At my paper, The Austin American-Statesman, they have been a lot of people taking the voluntary buyout. One such person is the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Ben Sargent. I think his video farewell is a nice statement on the purpose of newspapers:

This week also had the list of 10 papers that are the "doomsday list". I think the best blog about the newspaper industry is Reflections of
Newsosaur by Alan Mutter. Mr. Mutter has a great take on the "doomsday list" here.

The New York Times had a piece on the state of newspapers and a great map showing the locations of some of the trouble spots, circulation and revenue information for the major newspaper companies. At least for the Statesman, the blurb is positive:

It has attracted several potential buyers, an extremely rare phenomenon these days.

Ten Observations: 24

2009-03-11T20:12:00.003-05:00

8:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Juma in the house. The White House that is.

1. Juma "releasing" one of the hostages was intense. This is why Dubaku was under Juma. Juma is a cold, heartless bastard.

2. The Vice President is a wuss. This is why he is Vice President. He uses the "My advisers..." excuse. Not very decisive. Agent Moss pulls a Jack Bauer "We're going in on my authority" after the explosion, speaking of which...

3. Man, I really liked Bill Buchanan. Solid guy. His voice was full of defeat as he realized that he didn't have what it would take to get to the heart of the conspiracy. He is resigned to his fate as he shocks Jack and runs into the trap room with the gas leak. This year 24 is handling the character complexity in a more complete fashion than season 6.

4. I didn't agree with the way Jack handled Juma. Jack is like a surgeon with a gun, he could have wounded Juma and then tortured him for information. I guess Jack was just pissed off at Juma and the death of his friend.

5. Jack took Bill's death harder than I thought he would. Renee just looked at him. I'm glad she didn't get all righteous on him. No slapping and yelling "Do you feel this.." from her. You see, Renee, Jack knows a wee bit about loss and sacrifice.

6. I love the power play between Jack, Agent Moss and Renee. Renee's head is spinning so much. She admires Jack, she hates Jack, everything Jack does is wrong, but maybe he has a point...Agent Moss is very threaten by Jack. Like a jilted lover, he takes Renee to the verbal woodshed about going behind his back. How long do you think the "indefinate suspension will last?

7. Jon Voight is so good, so subtle, scary and calm. He is like the Bizzarro Obama.

8. The assassin with a heart? "Hey I can't kill the guy with a family, so you, patient answering these questions are going to pay for your kindness!" I'm not sure how to feel about this.

9. Olivia is a tiger! After almost getting her eyes cut out, she goes after Ethan like a raw piece of meat. Especially after playing nice with him, she asks for his resignation. Her eyes and face turn vicious. I think this hearkens back to Sherry Palmer. Nice.

10. How would you like to wake up in the hospital with your torturer hanging over you threatening you? That was scary. Then,The Jack Bauer Set Up! Temparary nerve agent, Jack drools, fingerprints pressed to glass shard, neck is slit and the shard driven into the chest. Classic set up. Jack gets out and is on the run. Isn't that where we like to see Jack, on the run as the lone wolf?

Pimping the Product: Collective Vision

2009-03-10T13:25:00.005-05:00

Pimping the Product is my minor attempt to promote things on my blog that I think are cool. Some of these items and situations, I'm directly involved with while others will feature friends of mine. This one features my paper. The Austin American-Statesman, launched a cool new website Collective Vision. It is a photoblog that features cool pictures and the behind the scenes notes of the photographers that framed the scene. Check it out.

Weekend RoundUp

2009-03-09T15:40:00.005-05:00

1. The loss of the hour really sucked. I was hanging out late at the Red 7 in Austin when I actual watched my phone go from 1:59 AM to 3:00 AM.Damn you daylight savings time. My sentiment about the dastardly daylight savings time is summed up in this great letter by the Huffington Post's Jason Linkins:

Dear Daylight Savings Time:

Hello. My name is Jason. I am writing you this morning to express the emotions I am currently feeling to you, personally. These emotions include: confused anger, a tired and tragic sadness, a uniquely unquantifiable sort of hatred that I simply call "MMMMMMMMUUUUAAAGGAAAH." That sort of thing.

Why do we do this, again? Because we hate ourselves? Why has an hour of sleep been so cruelly and untimely ripped from me? Was this for farmers, or some crap like that? Argh. Argh, I say.

With the intensity of a thousand white hot suns, drowning in the throats of a hundred angry cats, I despise you, Daylight Savings Time. It is as perfect a hate as you shall ever feel in your lifetime. I want you to suck on that hate, forever and ever, until the end of Creation.

Gah,

Jason

Right on brother Jason

2. Why was I up at Red 7 in Austin cursing Daylight Savings Time? I was at the Live! Art Benefit Show for KOOP radio 91.7 FM in Austin with my friends from Spill.com. It featured DJs and instant art creation from some talented people. Pictures of the event are located on the Austin360 A-List section. Here is the link. This was the after party for the independent media showcase Staple! The only photos I took were of my man Korey doing his part for the benefit. I'm not sure what it was he drew:

3. The new LEOG podcast on Spill went up on Friday. Again, if comics are a major part of your life, this podcast is the best in the world. Plus they have a bad ass musician on it. Yes, that musician is me...

4. Speaking of music, tonight is the 1st rehearsal for 2 music projects. One is for Soul Track Mind, the guys I went to go see last Wednesday night. I really want this gig. The other is for a group tentatively called Clouds in HiFi. It will feature the great Ruby Rocket as the lead singer. I will continue to update as each project progresses.

5. Things are going to ramp up big time here in Austin. South by Southwest (SXSW) is going to take over for the next 3 weeks. Being the guest list whore that I am, I will report on all that I see and do.

In the House For: Kool Keith at the Mohawk

2009-03-06T23:53:00.002-06:00

I'm starting a new series of photos, videos and perhaps some audio of shows I attend or perform in-In the House For: This post features Kool Keith and kutMaster Kurt

Working My Way Back to You Babe...

2009-03-05T17:23:00.004-06:00

Music has always been my addiction. More than any woman (yes my wife knows this...), drug, drink, political cause, TV show, movie, etc. I have geared everything in my life to be involved in music as a player, writer, observer, critic, gigging beggar, sometime genius and everything in between. Last night was another step to me getting back into the life. Since I stopped playing publicly in December of 2003 to finish my BBA and MBA, the only consistent project I have is my Paul Schaffer sidekick role with the League of Extremely Ordinary Men on the Best Movie Website: Spill

I am in the process of restocking my array of music gear-new amps, effects, instruments, etc. Stuff I got read off to help pay for books and other college stuff. There are some major differences in my musical pursuits now than when I was in my most active gigging days, in the 1990s.

1. I'm not depending on music for my main source of income.
I really want to write a book about what it's like to be a Generation X working musician. Technology and music business structure totally changed in the last 20 years. When I started, the idea was to join or form a band and get signed. Things would flow from there. Everything has changed and turned inside out, but I digress and it will be in the book I'm going to write. The reason I went back to school was to get a position that would fund my music projects. This actually makes them more enjoyable and frees me up to be more artistic.

2. I have a car.
A newish car at that. In Austin, it is essential. Even when I moved to New York in 1992, I had a car and it made gigging so much easier. That car got totaled in 1994.

3. I have a great computer.

This leads to the greatest change: technology. Even compared to 2003 (when I stopped playing live), the opportunity to create,market and distribute music has made things so much easier.

Finding music projects the play in is easier also. I cruise Craig's List for projects and I found an ad for a soul band needing a bassist. I went to see that band last night at T.C.'s Lounge in East Austin last night. It is a real juke joint. The crowd is a mix of hipters and locals. The band is Soul Track Mind and they put on a good show. They play every Wednesday from 10pm to 1am. I must admit, it was thrilling to be back at a shake shack, groovin' scene. The smoke, the booze, the sound, the woman, the guys, the locals, the smells...It brought me back to when I was touring with Jim Lampos and we were able to sit in at the Subway Lounge underneath the Summers Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi. (A documentary film about the demise of the Subway Lounge is here.)
He is a picture of me at a jam there... (note the mustache... or not. Give me a braek, it was a phase)

Subway Lounge at the Summers Hotel-1995

The bassist for Soul Track Mind is leaving (I'm not sure if it is voluntary or not). I sat for the whole show. I have to admit, I wanted to get up and play. It is always a touchy thing joining and leaving bands. Members leave or are kick out for a lot of reasons. I have left bands and been fired from bands, so I try not to be harsh in musician criticism. I am an expert, though. I am not afraid to say that and I am a musician snob at times. Hey, I'm human. They did a cover of "Let's Get It On" and the bassist appeared to not understand the feel of the tune. The great James Jamerson played on that track and grooved the sh*t out of the tune. The bassist was murdering the feel. He is a nice guy, but I'm not sure if he really has the feel they are lucky for so I guess that is why they are looking for another player. The band has a lot of potential and I think I could really help them.

I will keep updating all my music projects, ideas and philosophies here until I find a better place. I'm working my way back to my mistress...

Ten Observations: Damages-Short Version

2009-03-04T19:07:00.000-06:00

I know I'm going short on my recaps of the last two episodes of Damages so watch these and I promise I will do a stellar recap for tonight's episode-Episode 9: You Got Your Prom Date Pregnant.

Episode 7: New York Sucks. This is a full episode.

Episode 8: They Had To Tweeze That Out Of My Kidney. This is a 3 minute recap.

Essentially, these two episodes are the Uncle Pete Chronicles. He is a scary old man. Don't f*ck with Uncle Pete.

How Gordon Lightfoot Massages the Mind of This Musician.

2009-03-03T22:28:00.003-06:00

Yes.

One of the perks of working in the marketing department is the
leftover swag that prize winners leave behind. Well, todays booty
yielded a couple of Gordan Lightfoot tickets. My friend couldn't give
them away so she just asked if anyone wanted them.

After all the "skewing old" jokes, I thought about one of my personal
maxims:

I will go see anyone for free. Anyone.

So scooped up the opportunity and I'm writing this sitting by myself
in some nosebleed seats in Bass Concert Hall in Austin Texas. So...

The music is mellow and the audience is as expected, older white baby
boomers. Gordon himself is 70 and I must say in fine form. It is what
it is, but as I sit hear listening to him run through the tune I know
him from "Sundown", I realize I am really watching a legend and one
should respect a man who has the fortune to do what he loves for over
40 years, make a significant amount of money and have the respect of
his peers. For me to be snarky would be stupid.

I have spent most of my life playing music and pursuing it as a
career. Would I take a gig with Lightfoot? Hell ya! I have played with
some great "should be well known" people- Jim Lampos, Kevin Johansen,
Michael McGlone, Daniel Yetnikoff to name a few. By the way, I'm a
damn fine bass player, guitarist, vocalist, arranger, songwriter and
overall music impresario. Ya, just like every else you know.

All I'm saying is that I have respect for all musicians who make it. I
do harbor some jealous feelings for some becuase I feel in my heart
some of the mentioned musicians above and those that are unnamed
should have the same chance to be heard.

I learn something from every show I see and this show is no different.
I have played hundreds of gigs myself and I can relate to all shows
as a professional musician. I played with a number of singer-
songwriter types. I know how hard it is to over play and Gordan's band
is so light and subtle, it's really impressive. The hard thing to do
in music is to underplay and Gordon's songs need to breathe. That is
what his fans respond to. The sound mix was odd because of how soft
the band was playing. The snare drum was too loud. Perhaps the drummer
could've used brushes or dampen the snare.

Gordan's amp broke down and his guitarist filled the switch time with
some flamenco guitar styling. The crowd react well. Then Gordan didn't
do the one thing every front person show do, acknowledge his
guitarist. Maybe Gordan was so put off by the disrupted flow of the
show, he wasn't thinking clearly. I have been on both sides off the
situation. I did learn that Gordon is good friends with Kris
Kristopherson and that Kris wrote " Me and Bobby McGee". I have played
that tune hundreds of times and never knew that. Gordan proceeded to
play it in a soft manner that worked very well. In the na nana na
refrain, the crowd sang along and harmonized in tune. Very cool. I
took this as my cue to leave, so I took off and finished tapping this
post in my iPhone.

For My Chosen Brothers and Sisters...

2009-03-03T14:00:00.002-06:00

Mad Men for Purim...

Ten Observations: 24 Deluxe Edition Part II

2009-03-02T19:14:00.003-06:00

Wow.

These might go down as the 2 best hours of 24 in the history of the series! They were that good.

6:00PM - 7:00PM

1. You didn't thinks Dubaku was going to make it, did you? That was an easy call. I tell ya, I don't every want to be in a hospital "under guard". Hey, the attack on his father in the hospital drove Michael Corleone to a life a crime.

2. Chloe vs. Janis. Timid confrontation, but funny. Chloe does more emotions with her pursed lips than anyone I have ever seen. The nervousness and twitching is funny.

3. Jack shocks himself with what he is about to do-"I'm driving off a cliff here, Tony..." He knows this Ryan Burnet guy is in store for a major ass-whoopin' By the way, did FBI dry clean his suit from earlier? Jack looking dapper for the mayhem he is about to unleash. The show borrowing from the Daniel Craig James Bond-Dapper Violence. It has come full circle. 24 took action up a notch and films have responded. Now 24 is following the films.

4. Speaking of ass "The President didn't call me up here at the ass-end of the day to drink her booze and flip through a briefing book..." Kurtwood Smith is such a great curmudgeon.

5. Ok Jack, why beat up Bill Buchanan? He is the nice guy. He was begging you man! But when Jack gets the Terminator Eyes, he won't be denied. Someone should have a count of how many of Jack's "friends" have had their ass kicked my him. I guess it is like being hazed in the fraternity of Jack Delta Die.

6. Renee Walker is sensitive about Jack. I like the fact that her character's head is spinning around this day. How would you process this day?

7. Jack and a taser. Taser meet Ryan Burnett. Jack is not f*ckin' around. " I can squeeze this trigger 128 more times..." Even the President on the phone is not immune. Jack tasers the phone to shut her up.

8. Jack is unhinged in this episode. After they blast the door to get in to him, Jack blast Senator Mayer "And you sir are weak! Unwilling and unable to look evil in the eye and deal with it!" He scared the hell out of Ethan, "Bauer says there's going to be an attack, I believe this, there's going to be an attack" and I don't want him kicking my ass if he thinks I'm in his way. The President is just as tough. She puts Senator Mayer in his place when he offers to help "I know the man.." She replies "Apparently, you don't."

9. Renee becomes Jack again. I'm impressed with her leaping skills and swimming skills. She outswims a motorboat.

7:00PM - 8:00PM

10. Aaron Pierce-the Barack Obama of secret service agents. Calm, cool and collected. Even tempered. I love this guy. He settles down the excitable Olivia. Even she has to say "Well done agent".

11. Jack is really a piece of work. After kicking Bill's ass, he asks Bill to become Jack. I like this character insight on Bill. You really get to know that Jack is cut from a different cloth. The way Bill sounds defeated knowing that he can't be Jack is genuine.

12. Random thought: Africa is really getting put on the American consciousness this year. The plot of 24 is based around Africa and Jill Scott's new HBO series is based in Africa. I actually looks pretty good. Perhaps things can finally start to change there. I think this is part of the Obama effect, which was kinda kicked off with 24 in 2001 with Senator David Palmer.

13. Renee tries to talk some sense to into Dubaku's kid, but he was doomed. Sorry son.

14. Ahh hell...it's on! Guns blazin', hostage takin' brothas in the (White) hizzous!
Aaron has to play John McClaine with Olivia Taylor. Plus, Juma's soldiers are high tech. I like that.

15. Love the Jon Voight cameo! Eating Chinese... Offers ups the best line of the show as he offers Juma the President's daughter. "Stress, is the fertilizer of creativity. Let's play some darts.." The casting of this should is great. Random thought. I like how Olivia has stopped becoming annoying. I guess stress will do that.

16. The VP is a wuss, nothing like Powers Boothe when he was VP to Wayne Palmer. Noel Daniels would've nuke the White House.

17. Olivia gets busted before the Morse Code can go out. Hey they did it in Executive Decision before the plane was going to get bombed.

18. You knew President Taylor was going to open the door. There was no way her daughter was going to get cut.

19. Juma's slap of the President was shocking. I went "Oh Sh*t!" It was the fact that he is a big man, she is a woman and the fact this General just smacked the sh*t out of our President. Could you imagine Putin taking a swing at Obama? Saddam throwing on on either of the Bushes or Clinton? The look on her face and the gasp of the hostages were classic. So was Juma's response "You...don't give orders to me." He was so calmed and controlled, it was scary.

20. Random thought, there was a great commerical from Sierra Mist with Abe Lincoln pulling a Wrestlemania at the Lincoln/Douglas debates. It had me thinking, which President would win in a fight? I know Teddy Roosevelt was a boxer. FDR was in a wheelchair, so I wouldn't bet on him. Washington was a big, strapping dude. Plus those guys from the Revolutionary War were tough. Andrew Jackson was a hothead. He probably would smash a glass in your face. Clinton? Bush I was a war hero. So was Kennedy. Ford, when he was younger was a college football All-American. Don't mess with the Texans, W and Lyndon Johnson. Nixon would probably shank you. Someone needs to figure this out. Doris Kearns Goodwin needs to write this book.

Whew...24 is getting back to the heart racing pace it had in the past.

Allergies Clouding My Brain.

2009-03-01T23:48:00.001-06:00

Austin is known for the allergies. After testing a new pair of running shoes (Mizuno Wave Elixer 3) on the trail, I felt alright. Then, my head started clouding up. Sometimes, the season passes me by. Not this time. The local allergy forecast is indispensable here in Austin. What a way to start March. I guess it is better than the massive snow hitting the east coast.

As Things Change, Things Stay the Same

2009-02-27T20:47:00.003-06:00

From the AP:

The mayor of Los Alamitos is coming under fire for an e-mail he sent out that depicts the White House lawn planted with watermelons, under the title "No Easter egg hunt this year."

Local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus Price, who is black, said Tuesday she received the e-mail from Mayor Dean Grose's personal account on Sunday and wants a public apology.

"I have had plenty of my share of chicken and watermelon and all those kinds of jokes," Price told The Associated Press. "I honestly don't even understand where he was coming from, sending this to me. As a black person receiving something like this from the city-freakin'-mayor - come on."

The Orange County Register first reported the e-mail on its Web site Tuesday night.

Grose confirmed to the AP that he sent the e-mail to Price and said he didn't mean to offend her. He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

He said he and Price are friends and serve together on a community youth board.

"Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP. "I'm sorry. It wasn't sent to offend her personally - or anyone - from the standpoint of the African-American race."

Grose, who became mayor in December, said he sent an apology e-mail to Price and her boss and also left her a voicemail apology.

Regardless, Price said it will be difficult for the two to work together.

"Now I am like - wow, is this really how he feels?" Price said.

Los Alamitos is a 2¼-square-mile Orange County city of around 12,000 people. The mayor is elected by fellow members of the five-seat City Council.

Worlds Collide!

2009-02-26T17:30:00.002-06:00

Check this video lineup
There are at least 4 Oscar wins in this group:

He was Fab.

2009-02-25T20:44:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday to the Great George Harrison.