Jacques-imos: Chris Thile & Polynesian Joe's

Leif, Lars & Mickey got into town and we're all decided to make it over to the Maple Leaf. Brian Haas, who we saw play in the Dead Kenny G's was playing there. I know how to get around New Orleans, but to get to that area I have to first go to Tipitina's... I know how to do it from another location. Anyway, for the first time I get turned around, mainly because of my navigator. They jump out and grab a cab. I think I beat them there. Brian and his group hadn't even loaded in yet, so I walked next door to Jacques-imos.
My favorite place to eat in all of New Orleans is Jacques-imos. If you haven't eaten there, then you really haven't been to New Orleans. Let me set this up for you...
Jacques-imos is in uptown on Oak St. Its an oasis in a pretty delopidated part of town. Its two doors down from the Maple Leaf and across the street from Frenchy's studio. You'll have to wait an hour or two for a table during Jazz Fest, but its worth the wait for their world class cajun cuisine.
Ryan Zoitus (Sax - Soulive) caught me outside the club. He was eating upstairs on the balcony with Kraz, & a couple of Nevilles. I checked my wallet and decided to run to an ATM before coming back. Jacques-imos spotted me a Newcastle for my walk down the block. I ran into this guy from Denver who knew people I knew and we walked to the ATM together and grabbed cash. I paid the bartender for my now consumed beverage and headed upstairs.
The side stairs at Jacques-imos lead into an office / study before leading out to the balcony and inside I was greated by an unexpected treat. Chris Thile, & Sarah Watson from Nickel Creek were serinading Jack (owner and head chef of Jacques-imos) with a song.
If you did not know this, Chris is one of my favorite mandolin players of all time... its because of him that I own my first mandolin (Madison). Anyway, they sing a beautiful duet before turning it over to their bass player who is playing body percussion. I mean he's stompin' his feet and hitting his arms, stomach, legs and anything else to make a beat before they wrap up the tune. The six others in the room erupt into applause when they're done. They're gonna wrap up and hit the balcony to eat, but I have to open my big mouth and ask Chris to play a tune that he did with Mike Marshall called Desverada. He launches into a very difficult array of arpegios that fill the room with sound. The six people sit back down and their mouths drop to the floor as we watch a master of their instrument run through the number. He makes it look so easy. That's the way I want to play someday.
After he's done, there's even a bigger applause. I shake his hand and tell him he's an inspiration to me before letting him go. I walk out to the balcony and sit with Zoitus, Kraz & co. Zoitus looks tired... it turns out he hadn't slept in two days! That's Jazz Fest for ya! Chris Thile is, for me, on mandolin what Eric Krasno is on guitar... the best. We chat for a lil while before I head back downstairs to see what's going on. I'm hangin' out with a bunch of people I met at Howlin' Wolf the night before. Including this girl Jennifer from Maui who claims I'm the clone of her friend Rod. I keep trying to explain what just happened upstairs, but I keep getting interupted by various people.
Finally, Chris Thile comes walkin' out of the restaurant. We stop a cab for him, but the cabbie won't let him in for some crazy reason. So I grab him and tell him I'll take him wherever. We're heading for Polynesian Joe's. I ask a Neville where it is. He says its on Magazine, so I just kinda wing it over there. We talk a lil bit about the road and Paris, FRA. And we listen to some Jimmy Smith & Herbie "Give Up the Booty" on the way over.
I really wanted to see Haas play, but it was already late.
Polynesian Joes is readily recognize it as a sports bar, but wait... what's that... a beach volleyball court? Hell yeah! After talking with a couple of people, it turns out this is a graduation party for some Tulane students. Everyone there is beautiful... the boys and girls there could have been picked out of an Abercrombie catalog.
I don't think I fit in with this crowd so I take to the volleyball court. Pretty soon I get Chris up there to play and shortly there after, Sarah & Sean are playing with us along with Lauren who invited Chris out in to this bar in the first place. Lauren is very pretty and sweet. She reminds me someone... I finally figured out she looks like Brian Berken's wife Becky and as such, she's seems very friendly and familiar.
By the time we're kicked out of the bar, our team has won our game of volley ball with Chris as our power server (and he said he couldn't serve!). I would have loved to have hung out with them for a while, but its already time to see Les Claypool play at TwiRoPa. Have I mentioned yet that Les Claypool and his crew also ate at Jacques-imos? Did I mention Jack Johnson ate there too? Ok, back to Claypool. I get to the show and its sold out. There are at least a hundred people outside with one finger held up in search of a ticket. I checked Will Call (cause I never know if someone is gonna come through for me) and I'm on the list! Hell Yeah! All sorts of thanks go to one of my favorite percussion players of all time, Mike Dillon! I'm looking around for Seth Stroika. I don't see him and can't get a hold of him so eventually, I miracled in Zack from Madison... he's a bass player himself so he's a natural choice. I have to get him in.

The show is amazing... there were kids trippin' around me, and I felt kinda bad for them, because trippin' at Les can really mess with your head. Take for example that Les is wearing a pig mask and everyone else is wearing wigs and party masks and dressed in white robes and that they sing lines that are hard to discern as anything else but troubling. The music is rocked! The band was on fire. I can't wait to get the tapes of the show.

Big Fisherman Seafood

I found the best boiled crawfish in New Orleans!
The Big Fisherman has it fresh and ready.
The prices are only $2.99 /Lb. Cheap!
They ship anywhere in the US by Fed Ex!
There ya go. I recommend it!
3-4 lbs/person.

Colin's Missing Cellphone & the Funky Junky

Colin & I jumped in the car and headed to Shiloh's... Colin left his cellphone plugged into his charger there. It wouldn't be that big of a deal because they're playing there later that night, but I knew how he felt, cut off. The venue was locked and empty when we pulled up around 1 pm.
This girl walked by, so we asked if she had their number. She said she knew someone who had the number and walked behind the venue after telling us to wait.
The area surrounding Tipitina's and Shiloh's is kinda sketchy to begin with and there are much better things we could be doing with our time. I've never really met a straight up heroine junky before, but she was that. The track marks she had on the back of her knees and arms were a dead give away. She actually did get us the number, but we wanted to walk away...
We talked to Dennis who said he'd be back there later and he would give me a call when he showed up. I don't really want to rip on the funky junky again, but, no, wait, I kinda do.
She smelled really bad like she'd been out three nights straight in the same clothes. Some unabashed loose dog on the street ran up to her and smelled her funk... I mean, ran his nose up her skirt, right up in her business like there was some dead animal up there and ducked his head back out with this dazed and confused look on his face and sneezed twice, turned his tail under his legs, stumbled a lil bit and then ran away.
I had to walk away before I busted out laughing.
We decide to walk in to Tipitina's to check it out... the junky followed us. The Radiators were playing there that night and when we walked in, they were starting soundcheck. After a few minutes being inside we left and drove off to get some crawfish!
After getting some delicious boiled crawfish we headed back to the hotel on Bourbon St. The junky made it clear across town and was there waving at us as we drove by. I would like to say I slowed down, but I did wave. Was she following us? We valeted the car and went upstairs to start eating our seafood.

Pullin' Up to Howlin' Wolf - Lettuce & Shiloh - Signal Path

I'm driving to New Orleans and I pull right up to Howlin' Wolf using nothing but instinct. Its about 9pm and I look around and don't see anyone familiar just yet. Chris Axtel is at Shiloh's with Signal Path and I'll make it over there soon enough and the Chi & MadTown gangs aren't due to arrive for another day at least so it looks like I'm rollin' in stag.
I know I said that I want a big group of all my friends here for Jazz Fest, but it might be better to fly solo, because scheduling tix for a big group is tough unless everyone comits to shows in advance. In other circumstances, I would be self conscious about walking in somewhere alone, but not in New Orleans, and not in during Jazz Fest. I've never been shut out of a concert and the Howlin' Wolf seems never to reach capacity. Plus, I'll see someone I know at the show anyway.
I walked in the bar to find Adam Dietch sandwiched between two beautiful girls dancin' to an old school funk favorite blarin' from the PA. He smiled in my direction like the filling in a very happy Oreo Cookie. A moment later I had my first Abita, a fine New Orleans Beer. We cheered to JazzFest.
It didn't take long to realize I needed some food to go along with the beer. I walked next door with Tim McKenna from Velour Music to the Red Eye. Their Motto is "The Last Place You Want To Be" on account of how late they stay open. We had a couple of Po Boys... not bad bar food! Tim told me about how he liked his job working with Breeze and Velour and his plans for the weekend. I hope I see him at the Duo on Saturday at Twiropa. I hope I see everyone at that show. Its the show I most want to see at Jazz Fest. I'd like to get a Fire Department Tour going in the Midwest, maybe Tim can help facilitate that and vice versa.
If I could stay for the whole show tonight, I might, but for the moment I want to go to Shiloh's and meet up with Chris Axtel. He's been working hard on the road for Signal Path as their tour manager for the last few weeks. I want to see how things are going. I don't think Signal Path had a tour manager before. Chris has not been a tour manager before, so I know there are going to be mistakes on both sides, but I haven't heard much of anything from my ears across the nation, so things must be going pretty damn well, because I hear lots. Anyway, Chris is there for two nights and then he has some time off, so hopefully we can hang out. I know if I were in the same position, I'd want as many outlets to de-stress as possible. I want some time to do something that isn't drinking or music on this tour so that leaves eating.
Eating in New Orleans is what you do when you're here... just like seeing the Pope when in the Vatican, or going to Times Square in NYC on New Years Eve.
Hopefully, we can get out to Jaques-imos. Bronko and Marco were raving to me about Dante's Kitchen a month ago so maybe we can do that.
I digress, I'm stopping by Shiloh's for the first set and then go back to Howlin' Wolf later for the rest of late night. I have no problem getting there. There's no traffic and I don't make a single wrong turn. I walk in and grab Chris. I swear for a second he doesn't recognize me because of my beard. He's never seen me with one. The first set of Signal Path at Shiloh is solid. I hang with this girl named Megan Cobb, an actor living in San Diego. She gets a massage because she was recently was in a car crash, though it helps that she's cute too. I leave shortly after the massage is done. Its about 2am and the band is on set break. I say goodnight to Chris and the band and tell Chris to meet up with me later.
I drive back to Howlin Wolf where I see Dave "Skatchimo" Scatch & Megan Rosado! If I haven't mentioned them in this blog already, then I should now. Megan has known me my entire life. Our parents have known each other even before then. I'd met Dave and Megan separately, but they found each other and they make a cute couple. I consider them friends, maybe someday we'll be good friends as opposed to old friends, but we're still incidentory to each other's lives, outsiders. Seeing people you know outside of where you expect them brings you closer. After seeing them, I'm now decided that I'm going to keep my plans simple and stay open to experiences for the rest of the weekend.
I start by gettin' my groove to Lettuce! Cheme Gastuleum from the 20th Congress gets up between Zoitus and Sean Ross and blows his sax. I see Tim later and he informs me that the Breeze is in the house, but I never saw him play. By the end of the night, most of the kids from Signal Path were at the Wolf along with a number of other musicians. After the music lets out, around 5am we head to a hotel on Toulese off of Bourbon St. Chris' bud Cory has got a room with some a lil floor crash space and that's all I need. I don't meet Cory until the next morning, but he's my new buddy for the rest of the trip!

Leaving ChiTown to Naples & Drivin' to New Orleans

For some reason I couldn't sleep the night before I left to Jazz Fest via Naples, FL. It was just a rush to know in a few hours I'd be wearing shorts for the first time this year. So I stayed up and went over the gear I'd take with me. Though I brought my cameras and a tripod, I knew I wasn't going to tape anything, but just in case something happened in front of me, I wanted to be prepared. I thought back to last year and the fun I had and all the random craziness that ensued. Would it be like that again? Would it be even better? Will it rain? These questions flowed through my mind throughout the night.
As soon as I got onto the plane I fell fast asleep, which is hard, because we experienced major turbulence the entire way to Ft Myers Airport. I zombied my way through the motions of getting my bags and finding my Dad, getting to the car and heading to my parents new condo in Naples. Its very nice, and will be even better when they get it remodelled. Eventually, I made it across the street to the beach where I laid out a blanket and slept for hours. When I woke the sky was cloudy and grey and I was covered in sand that had blown onto me. I have to be fresh when I get to New Orleans, and I'm pretty sure this is my last chance for a decent sleep. I slept until 8am the next day and got on the road three hours later.
I hit a few thunderstorms on my way to New Orleans, but nothing major. I stopped only for gas and pee breaks.

NOLA Jazz & Candy Festival

I'm excited to be on my way to New Orleans again for Jazz Fest. I'm excited to see old and new friends down there playing on stages big and small. I kinda wanted a few of you to come too especially seeing as I've been without a vacation for a while, but as you know, I've been able to manage the stress quite nicely with a healthy regiment of playing like a kid, dancing at concerts, late nights and Maker's Mark!
As you know, work has been booming, which is good... cause it keeps me busy, off the streets and out of gangs. Though I'd like a little bit of help on the technical end. I love the fun and creative end, but I seem to be alone in my isolated tower of comp-sci literacy which is gated by an ever increasing pile of EDI orders, UCC128 labels, CDs and print outs.
I'd like to do more marketing of our brand name... put it in lights!
Maybe we should sponsor a concert or a festival and maybe we should figure out some way of doing play days for disadvantaged city youths and dress up a park. These are things I'd like to do to make a name for the biz.
But that has to wait until after the road trip to and from NOLA Jazz & Heritage Festival. Hopefully I'll be back before the Bed, Bath & Beyond order ships out. I want to make sure everything is perfect. I would do it from the road, but my computer is kinda on the fritz and I haven't had time to get a new one yet... or even decide what I need to replace it... but it needs to be fast and it better be able to take a video signal and make it digital and audio and at least have 80 gigs... make that 160 gigs... yeah, that'll hold me for a lil while. Ok, as you can tell I want the computer for something other than just the candy biz. Though I have plans to redo the website with more of a branded image and something more animated!
Does FlickerLab do websites? How cool would that be?!

Best Game of Kickball Ever

So Tim calls me up while I'm cleaning the house and asks if I'm up for some kickball action... hell yeah I am! So I meet up with him and we grab some other folks on the way. The weather has been pretty gorgeous so I took the top down on the car as we drove. We made a pitstop to pick up some beverages. While they were inside, I ran into Clifford, the Big Red Dog on his way to a birthday appearance (pictured). I wanted to put Clifford in the back of the car and take him (actually a her inside) with us, but Clifford had to be on his way, and shortly after this, so were we. A few moments later we'd found parking (only in Chicago) got out and headed out to the field. We set up shop between the fields. We unfurled the blankets and busted out the snacks & bevs. I checked out a new kickball... I was excited. I haven't played kickball in a while. It became apparent that we didn't have enough people to field an entire team, but I noticed another group of kids playing kickball already... So I gregariously decided to be the playground ambassador and introduce myself.
One of the girls said those people looked scary... but those are just the tattoos. Most tattooed peeps are really sweet gentle pussycats that like art and have a sense of self-identity. Plus, I can already see this hot girl in short shorts... and c'mon... who likes short shorts? That's right... we like short shorts!
So I go up to 'em and set it up. They were totally down with the plan. We decided on old school rules. The guys that brought the kickballs were the team captians. Everyone got together and the last guy who was chosen (on purpose) was a rather inhebriated guy, not my friend Tim (T1), but "Timmy"... whose was nicknamed by his own team:"Eggplant," "Retarded Teletubby," "Sputnik," and finally just "Spud." He was the cause of much comedy. Though he was on the opposing team, I was informed midgame that he'd been traded to our team. I asked them what we had to give up on the trade and they said "our beer." That's not the kind of midseason trade I like to have happen. Everyone kept shoo-ing him away from their positions.
In comparasion T1-Tim caught a number of balls in mid-left field and kicked in two home runs and had five RBI's.
My only homerun came after beeing blocked at the plate by Timmy. To get to homeplate, my teammate Tommy and I had to rugby our way past Sputnik. Sure, I was beamed with the kickball during our scurm to the plate, but we counted the score anyway.
A friend of Tim's whose name I forget, but we called him Mr Mustache on account of his very stylish pencil stache scored several times, including one run that counted twice because he ran the field three legged with the opposing teams capt.
Nicknames are fun, but antics are even better.
I tried to tag a runner out by putting the ball under my shirt and nonchalantly walking over to the plate and tagging Mr Mustache out when he left the bag, but evidently its a little bit more obvious than a baseball.
I played catcher for a bit... I was able to use my favorite baseketball line to psych out the kicker at the plate. He'd mentioned something about the pitcher's mom. So I said, "Hey, I know your folks too!" As he was running up to the pitch. I said "Your mom is goin' out with Squeek!" He miskicked the ball for an easy infield popfly out to end the inning.
The onfield antics were pretty nonstop. And most of them weren't even mine (the aforementioned antics are were lame in comparison).
We did a good job of entertaining ourselves even after the beverages were gone. No one really seemed to concerned with keeping track of the score. Several times we told the opposite team that the inning was over and that it was three outs, even though it was only two. By the end of the twelveth inning it became apparent that the game would eventually end via attrition.
It was a good thing too because I had to make my way out to the Hot House to see Charlie Hunter Trio play... That was amazing, but a different story, for another time.

Whirley Ball - Dark Room - Caroline's - Burrito

I finally made it out to Whirley Ball! For those who haven't played or seen it, you get into bumper cars and brandish little plastic lacross sticks and a whiffle ball... there is a target on opposite sides of the court for each team. Its ridiculously fun!
The occassion: Vance's Birthday. Old friends of mine from Madison used to talk Vance up a bit, so I was glad to hang out with him finally. And Tim came out. I haven't seen Tim in a long while either, and it was good to have fun with him!
After Whirley Ball the group made it off to the Dark Room, which was by definition fairly dark. Basically, its a DJ joint and they spun house music the night we were there. I was really hoping it was James Brown Tribute night, but it wasn't. Believe it or not, I'm just not that big a fan of the repetative beat of house and most house isn't nearly funky enough for me.
Anyway, they wouldn't let me into Monty's because I was wearing gym shoes. I don't know why everyone decided to leave on my account, but it wasn't like I was good friends with any of them, but it was nice to know that they were willing to take a stand. Or maybe it was because I drove. As far as I'm concerned the night could have ended right there and I wanted to go home. However, the call on the table was to go to Carol's Pub where they have a late night band. I was told I might hear some Johnny Cash, and after the house music, I could have used a change... however, the change I got was bigger than expected.
This was a full blown honky-tonk country bar with the grittiest bouncer I've seen in a long while. The first thing I overheard as I walked into the place was "How many fights have you been in tonight?" The response: "3."
I knew I was in trouble, but strangely enough I saw some kids from Madison (we're everywhere). Tim caught up with us and I watched him quasi-two-step with one of our travelling companions for the evening. This was definitely not Vance's scene, and he left after taking in the scenary. Anyway, I had fun for an hour and the bar was closed and we scattered.
I was hungry so we hit the burrito joint next door. Just after our food arrives these two mexican dudes behind us start getting into a heated discussion in spanish. They were dressed in full length black leather trenchcoats. It reminded me of the TV Novella that was on Telemundo on the TV in the corner of the bar.
Sometimes you say all laid back "Take it easy." Hoping to change the volume of the conversation, but he turns, points his finger at me and says "Esta Malados-grave!" Ok, I got the point... mind your business, Stew. Then he turns right back to the guy who is still sitting at the booth and starts seething venting words... like "You got 1 hour to come up with it. You owe me a thousand dollars. I hope for your sake, you're here in an hour." The other guy was trying to defend himself saying "Its no problem." and "It wasn't me/my (fault)."
Then I heard the sonic boom of the guy just gettin' smacked across the face like a two dollar whore. Tim saw it. I had my back to the actoin. I can tell you he was hit so hard that the guy immediately dropped his keys. And the room went silent (with exception of the mexicali-polka in the background). He repeated viciously "One Hour!" while grabbing the collar of his coat and pushed him back. A moment later they stood up and stormed out.
We decided to give them a minute to clear out before leaving ourselves.

The Deep Sleep

Maybe its the fluxuation in the weather, or maybe its because I've had too many late nights in the past two weeks, but I'm under the weather again. I've gathered companions on my lil trip through "cold-land" including a hoarse lil cough, a box of tissues, and bottles of Day & NyQuil.
NyQuil put me into a deep sleep last night and offered up some odd dreams. I dreamt I was a gardener or an attendent to a small earth suspended in mid air, but all around me was dark except the earth which was all lit up. I knew that on the back side that white lights lit up the surface but whatever side I was on was daytime. I kept everything nice and groomed for a while, but there were spore-type-spider-mites. So I decided to trigger an earthquake to shake them off, but instead of just an earthquake I got a volcanic eruptions too. From my perspective cloud looked crazy with outstretching fingers that slowly hazed over the planet. So I put a hand pump into the water and filtered the smoke into the Ocean to clear the skies. Strangely, this ignited a chain reaction in the water which turned it green. Then I noticed that the green was actually a slimy mold which had tunnels and every once in a while if I looked really closely I would see a worm.
From my perspective everything looked wet and sticky. I felt very dry and thirsty, but I could no longer drink the water from the earth because of all the worms and slime. So I left, got a drink of water at a friends house. When I came back, I turned on the TV and watched Conan O'Brien (yes, I'm still dreaming). He was egging on Mike Tyson to throw a punch at him "C'mon hit me!..." "Am I too much man for you?..." "You can't mess up this pretty face..." and so on... while prancing around the studio with his "gallant 1860's boxer" style going on.
I felt the coldness creep around me as I sat and watched and the lights of the house grow dimmmer. In my dream I fell asleep into that dark place where you can only get to with OTC sleep aids. That's where I stayed for 10 hours. Today, I'm awake and back at work, but I'm stil tired.

CirKus on the Road with Signal Path

Congratulations to Chris Axtell aka Kus for putting together a great weekend for Signal Path two weekends ago. Everyone I've heard from who attended "CirKus Productions Presents: Signal Path" in Chicago and Milwaukee had a great time. Both shows drew amazingly well which is an attribute on how well Chris handles the media, grassroots and publicity outlets available to him.
This past weekend, the big news in Chicago was Widespread Panic was in town for a three night run. I didn't make it to any of their shows, but I did catch Melvin Sparks, a favorite guitarist of mine since I first heard him in the mid-ninties through a friend at UW-Madison. Anyway, I took the opportunity to meet him again and get him to sign a couple of LPs of his. Two blocks away from the Green Mill where he performed was Signal Path at the Kinetic Playground.
There were two late night shows for Signal Path on Friday & Saturday. Chris, fresh from his triumphs in Wisconsin, pitched them the idea of helping Signal Path as a tour liason / manager. I thought I was just going to lunch with him and a couple of the guys from the band, but Chris busted out the laptop and started into a powerpoint presentation detailing the ways in which he could assist and help Signal Path! Two things were very clear: Chris is passionate about this band and believes in ideas which may promote their future success. He is an asset.
Chris started immediately on the road. It'll be a smooth transition for him as he's a tested road warrior already. This marks the second friend from Madison in a month that hit the highway with a live organic electronica band. One would normally be shocked by this phenomena. Should I start rationalizing why people who've spent time with me gravitate towards music management? Should I start teaching a class? Offer college credit? I could certainly use some interns, but then who couldn't?

Leo Sidran Coproduces Oscar Winning Song

I finally saw the Motorcycle Diaries and an excellent movie by its own right, but impressed on me the talent Leo Sidran manifests in his production. He coproduced Jorge Drexler's song Al Otro Del Rio which won an Oscar for best song.
If you liked that I suggest checking out Leo's full body of work. I've known Leo for years in Madison. We were even neighbors at one point. I tried to convince him to teach me to play once. He's good at a number of different instruments and has an incredible ear which certainly helps as a producer. The past few weeks I've caught Leo playing at the Cafe Momartre in Madison on Mondays. I can't claim to have ever worked with him, but I've always respected his body of work. There are so many things I miss about Madison, and the ability to check out Leo, or the wealth of other talented drummers there is one of them.
It seems that many old friends are taking their graceful bow from the Madison scene and moving elsewhere... well, not exactly elsewhere, they're heading to NYC and even more specifically they have their eyes on the Park Slope/Brooklyn area.
Is this the place to be?

Happy Birthday Moona

Happy Birthday Moona!

My Brother Phil Stewart Reports on the Pope

My brother has been busy covering the Death of Pope John Paul II. You can click the link to read the full article, but again, my brother is covering important world events that significantly affect our lives. Even if you're not Catholic you can appreciate the importance and consequences of the moment.
I'm not a big Pope fan, but I appreciate him for the good things he's done and the apologies he's made on behalf of the church and the sins of catholics through out the centuries. He tried to work on common ground... at least most of the time. He apologized to the jewish folks for not doing enough during the holocaust and he asked the Muslims to pray together so we could work towards a common ground. His words helped bring down the fall of the Soviet Union. Not bad for one man making a difference... not bad at all.

Benevento Russo Duo

I had lots of fun with Bronko, Joe & Marco this weekend. They left on Tuesday... which corresponds to my first solid 8 hours of sleep I've had in the last week.
I'm looking forward to their new album (due out this month).
We met this cool circuit bender named Tom who I nicknamed "Tommy Too Toy" who tweaks out childrens toys (Like Speak 'n Spells) with capacitors, switches, & glitch circuits etc... so they make all sorts of crazy sounds. Anyway, we played with his toys all night on Monday at the Store during their open mic.
Word must have gotten out about Marco being there because all these jamband kids showed up to play infront of Marco. It was a riot!
Now, Marco played on some kids chincy yamaha keyboard... he even made that cheap thing sound good and have fun doing it.