general fuzz

New Home

2008-03-23T20:48:00.001-07:00

I've decided to start hosting my blog on my website. Please update your link/rss feeders to http://www.generalfuzz.net/blog/

Thanks much,
General Fuzz

New World

2008-03-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

I was presented with a very nice gift this morning from Jobob.

5 Things

2008-03-16T23:31:00.000-07:00

Healing is coming right along. We went to Macy's to get some new bra's. After I was rejected from the women's changing rooms, we had customer service cordon off our own private waiting room complete with very helpful sales lady who gathered bra's and was full of sage advice. I've become far more adept at putting bra's on/off a person and then attaching them neatly on their hangers. Cotton, underwire, tan - a whole new world was opened up to me.

Anywho, Gail memed me to disclose 5 things about me:

1. I love Fiji water bottles. They are incredibly durable, and I re-use them countless times. They are structurally far superior to every other water bottle. They are like little Nalagie bottles that I can lose/recycle without guilt. My naughty little secret is that I actually love the Fiji water - my favorite thing is when I get a new bottle.

2. I do a lot of my best thinking while lying on the floor. Since I work at home quite a bit, this I avoid the awkward work scenarios. People often take my behavior with a grain of salt, so it hasn't been too bad when it happens at the workplace.

3. In college I introduced myself as "Mr. Messy", and many people called me "Mess". What's lesser known is that when I was younger and went away to summer camp, I told everyone my name was "Trev." I've been very successful at self imposing a nickname.

4. I enjoy stacking things, like coins or poker chips. If given a huge container of change, I will happily sort it out into neat little piles.

5. I once saw Yanni in concert mid high school. I went with Stina, no less, at her urging. It must of been like '92. The thing is, is that I really enjoyed it. Middle aged women shouted out "I love you Yanni!" in between songs. He was cheese through and through, but cheese sounded good with an full orchestra.

I now tag PVitty and Keri. Ignore at will.

Fusion

2008-03-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

The Kahvi collective is an amazing net label dedicated to sharing high quality mostly downtempo non-vocal electronica. I've been listening to their releases for the past year or so, and I've discovered some real gems along the way. At the end of last year I released a compilation album of tracks spanning my four albums on Kahvi named "Red Balloon."

DJ Polaski creates seamless mixes of electronica tracks. He's released a number of Trance mixes which get played on mega internet radio di.fm. Over time, he has become more focused on making mid to downtempo mixes, and has become the resident DJ on the Kahvi collective. He and I have become friends through much internet banter, and he then surprised me by making a seamless mix of my tracks which clocked in at over an hour, full of clever interplay between the tracks. Now this is no simple task. My songs are not meant to mixed that way - each track is really an island onto itself - and it took an intense amount of work and creativity to make this happen. He sent me the mix, and I was really touched. After taking it in, I felt there was some room for improvement, and since he uses the same tool I do to create tracks (Ableton Live), I had him send me the project file and made some changes. Then we went back and forth a couple times on the project, tightening the mix and learning different techniques from each other. It was a really fun process.

So now I'm psyched to release "Fusion", a 65 minute seamless mix of General Fuzz tracks.

Download it here.

The Healing Has Begun

2008-03-11T22:50:00.000-07:00

Well, its been 4 days since the surgery, and each day has been better then the previous. She's now slowly moving around, and becoming desperate to take a peek at the new goods. TV has been our good friend. It was great and terribly helpful having Mama Rudden around. She's taking off tomorrow morning, and we're sad to see her go.

Pre surgery:

A couple hours after:

Stina sends her love to everyone, and thanks for all the support. Be sure to tell her how sexy she looks next time you see her.

From the waiting room

2008-03-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

After a nice restless night, a couple of delirious morning laughs, we headed into UCSF hospital first thing in the morning. Stina was duly marked, poked with a IV, and was rolled off behind the big metal doors.

I just talked with the surgeon, and apparently the great hooter reduction of '08 was a smashing success. Stina is now in the post op area, and will be moved into recovery in a couple hours. She'll spend the night here and go home tomorrow. My mocha tastes a little sweeter right now.

The most surprisingly thing about UCSF is that the main waiting room features a harpist. Well, at least it does today. You haven't lived till you've heard gangsters paradise on a harp.

We'll (me + Stina's mom) get to see her when she's in recovery.

Dr. Doug

2008-03-02T21:57:00.000-08:00

Dr. Doug came out for one his intense long weekend jaunts. It pushed the boundaries of gastronomically excessive, creeping into slightly punishing. We kicked the whole thing off with a shameful pleasure of mine - lunch at the Olive Garden. Later there was a fierce battle for supremacy between the insane Korean BBQ dinner and the Berkeley Thai Temple breakfast on Sunday. We managed to trek all over the city, Doug always having at least one hand on his trusty camera.
I even dragged him out to see Tea Leaf Green at the Fillmore on leap day.

We made a concession to nature and cruised up to Muir woods.

(Quality shots courtesy of DBK)

It was a great, rather packed time. Next up, Micha and Kelly . . . .

Happy 70th!

2008-02-24T19:27:00.000-08:00

I'd like to wish my Dad a very happy 70th birthday.

Happy birthday Dad!!

Bye Bye Boobies with Bourbon

2008-02-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

As we've been dealing with Stina's back issues over the last year or so, one option that has been brought up was having a breast reduction. Stina inquired, and it turned out our insurance would cover the procedure. Sweet! Everyone we've talked to who's had the surgery has been really glad they did. So, with that in mind, Stina is going to undergo the procedure in a couple weeks.

Our life comes in waves. We are currently experiencing one of non-stop visitors, both friends and family. In true Krudden tradition, when life gets busy, we intentionally make it busier. Stina, event planner extraordinaire, decided she wanted to have a small party to celebrate her current, well, ample set of mammaries one last time. She called it "Bye bye boobies with bourbon".

We currently had athletic visitors from Seattle visiting - Tom and Yuko.

Stina surprised me by having a cake delivered during the afternoon. Very amusing. Fairly tasty.

It was huge! We barely made a dent in it

That signaled it was time to party. We were both surprised and overwhelmed with our friends thoughtful and creative gifts. Folks brought pin the boobies on the model, boobie cups, and many boobie food items.

Lindsey was really excited about her boobie cupcakes.

Joe, Lars, and Rachel made a huge number of tee shirts and accompanying spray on cheese products.

We were even graced by Pat (Haber's mom)

Good times were had by all.

We even spotted a couple of parents escaping the clutches of their respective children :)

A-town launched the party into the next dimension with his extreme lego funk.

Shot bot 2.0 made a huge first public appearance.

Shotbot is amazing:

and amusing:

Stina's surgery is scheduled for Friday, March 7. Feel free to send some good wishes her way.

Dr. Doug on Boston TV

2008-02-21T10:27:00.001-08:00

Check it out

Tahoe

2008-02-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

Healthy love day

2008-02-14T18:10:00.001-08:00

EOTO and New Monsoon @ the Fillmore

2008-02-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

EOTO is the live looping project from the String Cheese Incident rhythm section. I went to the show mostly to check them out. I've only seen Michael Travis behind the drum kit, so I was totally unprepared for how talented he is playing every other instrument while orchestrating songs. He can play keys, guitar, bass, and random percussion instruments. He also really has a firm grasp of sonic manipulation. He builds up pretty fantastic loops in real time, while Jason Hann relentlessly wails away at the kit. I was pretty engrossed just from a technology standpoint. Pretty inspiring stuff if you geek out on looping. It didn't hurt that Micheal Kang played this set with them, though he primarily just added texture instead being up front. Only at the end did he rock out. I would have preferred a lot more of that.

In last year or so, New Monsoon has had to completely revamp their rhythm section. Marshall Harrell replaced Ron Johnson who replaced Ben on bass, and then their original drummer left to join Blue Man Group. He was replaced with a 22 year old firecracker named Sean Hutchinson, who kicked this band into high gear. He was going batshit most of the time, which is somewhat unusual for a jam band drummer, but it totally engaged me. Thus, I enjoyed them much more then I anticipated. An excellent rhythm section and the nonstop rotation of special guests made the show totally worthy of the Fillmore. The SF Jam Band scene is getting pretty powerful.

Audio Angel

2008-02-10T12:10:00.000-08:00

Over the years I've learned not to depend on other musicians to come through for me. Whats really important to me is not high priority to other people. Many musicians have a tendency to be flakey, and are prone to cancel at the last minute. It's a very frustrating lesson to learn.

By the end of '07, I had contacted three professional musicians that I really wanted to work with on my new album. I had mentally prepared myself for the fact that some or all of these sessions might not happen. This week I'm ecstatic to say I had a session with the third, and final musician, Rashida Clendening, also known as Audio Angel. It took my breath away.

After the last fully collaborative album, I've started to see myself both as a composer and a producer. When I have an artist in my studio, I record in a fairly untraditional manner. I like to have lots of material to work with, so I loop a section of a song and have a musician either play a melody/harmony that I've composed for them, or have them improvise for a while. I give feedback as we're recording to help ensure that I record audio that I'm confident I can use. At the same time, I try to give musicians the freedom and space to explore different ideas and use their voice. After the session I go back through the audio and seriously edit/re-arrange it so it sounds the way I want it to. For example, I'm currently working on a song that Dan Lebowitz recorded on. I've spliced tons of tiny bits of guitar line to make it sound like it has a natural progression with the song. Literally nothing you hear in the song was played in that way, but it should sound like it was. Of course, you still need excellent source material to make this process work. I consider this process producing opposed to composing.

Anyhow, I have composed a very short, minimalist song that is almost prayer like. This song is has become a little bit sacred to me, so I've been struggling how to produce it. I have been envisioning that the melody and harmony would be sung. I've seen Rashida perform in various ensembles over the years and really appreciated her ability to dynamically match the musical context (along with her truly magnificent voice). She's also incredibly outgoing, radiating positivity and beauty in every encounter. That means a lot to me. I wanted to find out how she would approach this "prayer" song (no idea what it'll be called), which would primarily comprise of her singing.

We did a session on Tuesday, and even though it was mostly her singing small bits of the song at a time, there were several times I got chills listening to her. That's never happened to me before during a recording session. I have great hope for this song reaching its maximum potential. I also have a deep respect for her, not just for the recording session, but when we were talking and learning about each other, she was challenging me to become more then I am. She left me with more then just inspiring audio - she left me with ideas to think about.

Deadheads for Obama

2008-02-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, the internet told me their was likely to be a surprise Dead reunion show in support of Obama. On Friday, I got confirmation it would happen on Monday at the Warfield, and spread the word to friends who were at the Phil and Friends show. The officially announced the show @ 3pm on Friday, and Tickets went on sale @ 5pm. It sold out in minutes. Enough of my friends got tickets so all of us could go. Sweet pickles.

The line the to get in was insanely long, what with 2300 folks retrieving will call tickets. The nice sketchy neighborhood tainted the exterior hippiesque vibe. It wasn't the peace and love experience you'd hope for outside a dead reunion concert.

They did a nice transformation inside the venue though.

The show opened up with a freshly taped Obama speech made from his plane. He thanked Phil, Bobby, and Mickey, said some inspirational words, and told us sit down and enjoy the show. The crowd erupted at that. Then the red curtain lifted and the boys vaulted right into Playing in the Band. It was Phil's current line-up sans Larry Cambell, with Bobby, Mickey, and Mark Karan, the guitarist for Ratdog. He had just sat out their last tour due to throat cancer, so it was great to him. The crowd was psyched, to say the least.

We sat next to these two. I like it when life does that.

First set was a fairly energetic but abrupt 45 minutes. Just as folks started heading out to the lobby for refreshments, Phil came out to get the crowd fired up about Obama. Bobby and Mickey eventually joined him.

We wandered out to the bar area, and somehow managed to run into all our friends, who had been scattered all over the venue.

Shortly after that, they played a mini acoustic set, which was perfect for the setting. The Friend of the Devil -> Deal > Ripple was simply beautiful.

Set three was the big one. My personal highlight was Sugaree, a song I normally don't care for, then Eyes Of The World. It was a bit much on stage, since they sometimes brought up Barry Sless. They would have two keyboards, two drums, and three guitar players. When Jackie Greene went back to guitar they had four guitarists. Nutty balls. They sounded like they were having fun, and everyone managed to come along for the ride. It was nice to see Phil and Bobby smiling and playing off each other. I wouldn't say it was an epic show or anything, but I was really glad to have been able to go. It was comforting to see to Rob and his flashing, spinning orb along with his light up suit meandering through the aisles.

What can I say? Deadheads get spoiled rotten in SF.

Music!

2008-01-30T21:42:00.000-08:00

This has been a really special week for Jimmy. Last night Dan Lebowitz brought his trusty guitar over to chez Fuzz to add some of his signature tastiness to a couple new tracks I'm working on. He's been #1 on my list of people I wanted to work with since I finished my last album. I'd been slowly crafting a plan to make that happen, and it was most excellent and satisfying that it actually occurred. I was surprised how even in the fuzzy context his guitar playing is so recognizably Lebo.

Today, pedal steel guitar jedi David Phillips came over for some work on a different track. He's a truly exceptional musician, and conveniently lives two block away. The ambiance he was able to conjure out his 14 string instrument was truly awe inspiring.

So, in two days, I worked with two professional musicians. Um, can you say solid? I can.

Solid.

I can also say tightly polished unit, but you know that already if you read my blog. Blog reader! Now, I don't say that with scorn. I say that with love. I got nothing but love for you, even though you don't leave comments, lurker.

Also, in other exciting musical developments, I've been working with DJ Polaski on a General Fuzz mix that he's created. Its gonna be stellar. He's really opened my eyes to the power of continuously flowing sound scapes. Whats not to like about a different type of sonic journey?

Nothing, my blog reading friend. Unless it sucks monkey balls.

So real good times, minus me mailing in Stina's unopened absentee voting ballot. Doh.

Phil and Friends - Mardi Gras Edition

2008-01-27T10:51:00.001-08:00

Its fascinating to me how choices I made a decade ago have an impact on my current life. Rob Levitsky, an ex-landlord of mine, was and is a major contributor to the Grateful Dead community. Being handy with both mechanical and electrical construction, he built an elaborate float called "the wheel" for a Mardi Gras parade that occurred during the middle of the Phil and Friends show.

He asked if I wanted to push the float for a free ticket to the show. I declined, what with my weak back and small stature. Then he asked if I would run a video camera on the float. Well, that I could do. Done.

He asked folks to show up in the late afternoon to help decorate the float. I turned up around 5ish, and there was no work for me to do. So instead, I soaked up the scene. The opener, Dumpstaphunk hit at 7ish, so I figured I'd just chill out, talk to folks, and score some sweet seats for folks who would join me later. I was really fired up for the opener.

There were lots of other people mulling around who clearly had been key members in the dead scene for a long time. After spending so much time learning about the Dead since arriving in California, I really appreciated the experience.

And oh look, there was Phil.

They practiced pushing the floats out on the floor.

I ended talking to several NES security people who worked for Bill Graham, helping set up huge destination Dead shows in the late 60's/early 70's. It was rad.

Eventually Dumpstaphunk took the stage, and life as I know it got particularly funky. These guys tore it up good. I was ludicrously psyched, and the place was sadly almost empty. Ivan Neville is a sick keyboard player. They rocked two bass players. It hit low and hard, and it was tight. There was even a sweet "Soprano's" theme song tease in the middle of a tune. I would see these guys ANYTIME they come around.

As Dumpstaphunk finished up their set, my friends arrived, and I was already somewhat spent. Cruising around, I ran into a ton of folks from all walks of life. Hanging out backstage was fun. They had a large wardrobe of costumes so folks could Mardi Gras it up, and when everyone's in costume festive feelings are amplified. Eventually Phil and Friends took the stage. It was the same incarnation as the last time I saw them.

First set was pretty good. It started out pretty mellow, which was not what Dumpstaphunk left me craving for. I wanted more umph. They slowly started picking up steam while I adjusted my internal dial from Funky to Hippie, and everything started coming up Millhouse.

During set break, I went to join the party backstage. There were TONS of folks, all in costume, celebrating with gusto. Stilt walkers, clowns, dragons, and giant face masks buzzed around while many of us hung out on floats, getting ready to kick this party up about fifteen notches. I hung out with Wavy Gravy and felt as connected as I ever am going to to this scene. His fish on a stick was MIA - instead he was rocking a gopher on a stick. Anticipation and excitement built up, eventually followed by impatience, as in true Dead fashion, everything ran waaay late.

Then they boys returned, rocked a killer Shakedown which made me think about all the ex-Shakedown cohorts who were present inside the venue. Then they launched into Iko Iko, the giant black curtain was dropped, and controlled mayhem commenced. It was REALLY cool to be up on the float. I tried to video capture the energy and excitement that was going down, and by doing so, it deeply infected me.

Stina took some video from the seats:

After the parade finished up, we were backstage, on a float, eye level to the stage. So we danced. They brought out Ivan Neville. We danced some more. Eventually, I made my way back to our seats, and collapsed. I was pretty done at that point. I made it maybe another hour, and then we left. I've just peeked at the setlist from last night, and they freaking played for another hour!? Show ended at 2:08am. Daaamn.

I spent 7 hours at the Bill Graham Civic center that day. It was time well spent.

The New Up

2008-01-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

Stiners decided we should try Dine about Town, and randomly picked the Poleng Lounge to break our cherry. This meant we had a ridiculous 5 course meal at very reasonable price. And, man, it was hella tasty. Hella. Who knew Balinese food was so good? Crazy spicy though.

Then we sauntered down to the Rickshaw Stop to see our friends in the New Up rock the hisbah. They are pretty serious about trying to succeed as a band, and its shows. They wisely space out their SF shows, so I tend to see them maybe once a year. It's fun to watch them tighten up their songs and become a really polished unit.

Yeah, I said really polished unit. Hot.

Its also nice that they are pretty prolific song writers, so its not always seeing the same set. Anyhow, they kicked some ass, and I assume will continue to do so down the road.

We now have Beantown visitors Britt-anya and Mike, who recently became all engaged, in the hizzy. Last night we picked them up from SFO and made an immediate bee-line for In'n'Out.

These are my kind of people.

Moe. at the Fillmore

2008-01-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

I've seen Moe many, many times, mostly cause Zaq used to work for them and always got me free tickets. I didn't like em so much at first, but eventually through repetition, I learned to avidly enjoy their song craft and jam rocking skills. So, I tend to see them when they come to town. And even though I flaked on getting tickets and it sold out, craigslist came to the rescue with a shiny face value ticket.

After the customary hour late start time, things got off to a sorta rocking start. The thing with Moe is that they are very hit or miss for me. And on Thursday, they really weren't holding my attention so much. The crowd didn't seem to elated either, though thats the report from the back. I'm sure the front crowd was raging. There were some good songs, ridiculous instrumentations, and then long ambling spacey jams that went on for far too long. They debuted a bunch of new tunes, some which sounded mighty nice. They do good with lyrics, those Moe guys. Much more so then most of the jam band flock. The light show was fantastic. It takes a lot to impress me with the lights, but their light crew is top notch.

I made through most of set 2, but bailed before poster, a mortal sin in Pat's eyes. Good thing I was solo.

An extra special bonus was that Roy McNeill was playing the poster room, much to my surprise. So I had a nice haven to zone out during the pre-show and set break. I like how he's rebranded himself.

I'm pretty amused how our approach to music is quite opposite - I'm all about virtualizing everything, so all I need is a laptop, a keyboard, and maybe another midi controller or two. Roy is about analog gear, so he always comes heavy.

I had some extra amusing encounters along the evening. I ran into Jason Parmar's old landlord, a sweet chemist lady with a very cute French accent, and a dude who was all about starting up the Big Afro and Beard society. Our goal is to enlighten others of our extreme amazingnesticity through inspiration.

I know DP is going to Saturday nights LA show. I'll be interested in his evaluation.

A Funky Evening

2008-01-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

After sampling all of Steve's fabulous beer and wishing him a happy 40th, Stina and I set off to the independent to catch On the One open up for the New Mastersounds. I've enjoyed both bands once before, and was pretty excited to catch em together.

Fortunately, they didn't disappoint. There was almost an excess of funk. It was too funky for my pants. Both bands played great sets, and there we collectively got down. On the One does more straight up accessible tunes with ample rounds of jaw dropping solo's, especially from the sax player. The New Mastersounds manage to create a far wider range of grooves, and though there was plenty of rocking from the organ and guitar player, it seemed more tightly composed. They brought out Martin Fierro on the sax, and that raised the energy level like 37 notches.

Together, they threw a killer party.

Good times. Followed by leftover sandwich.

All that sax got me amply prepped for a session with Tony J and his sax mastery the following day. The collaborations are underway.

Contrast

2008-01-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

Last night, I sorta ran the SF electronic music meetup. Erik, the guy who really runs it was out of town, asked me to cover. It was an interesting experience, attempting to gather folk and foster conversation about electronic music production. Most people were just getting started, so I had lots to say on the matter. I attempted to employ Stina's technique of asking lots of questions, but found myself talking more then not.

This morning, in my level 1 Yoga class, I got my ass handed to me. It was pretty painful, but mentally, I knew it was for the greater good of my body.

I am currently enjoying the contrast of teaching about a subject I'm well versed in versus learning much about a subject I know little about. At least by mentally reviewing last night, I learned a little about running a meeting, and what I should do better. Like talking less. My body is still physically reviewing this morning, and its asking me to eat some pizza.

I can do that.

Cafe du Nord

2008-01-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

Roy McNeill, a friend of a friend, is a real friendly guy who does live electronica type stuff. He put together a show for Cafe Du Nord called "Filter Sweep and Brush Strokes", and invited me to play it. Playing such a great venue on a Saturday night along side some seriously talented electronica acts was a rather appealing notion.

I struggle a lot with live shows. I've already ranted plenty about seeing laptop performers. I enjoy playing with a band, but I feel weird about having my laptop be most of my band. I don't compose music with the intention of performing it live. That said, I've now played a fair number of shows, and have gained some confidence and some insight into making a better show. I had a couple fun tricks up my sleeve, and a couple of excellent musicians to help propel the music to far greater heights.

Sound check was my first chance to really check out the other acts, and after seeing everyone go through the motions, I knew it was going to be a sick show. The mini buffet for the performers was super tasty. I can now heartily recommend the food @ Cafe Du Nord.

As the night pushed forward, friends started trickling in, which was a most excellent distraction from my slightly frayed nerves. It was a great excuse for folks to connect after the new year break, and I was both impressed and honored by the gathering that took place. Many long time friends, musical collaborators, peeps from the jam scene, MySpace friends, ex-coworkers, and even a guy from the electronic music meetup made it out. It really meant the world to me. I got pretty excited, and before I knew it, it was time to take the stage.

After clumsily marching through the first tune, I got my bearings, and an old forgotten feeling started sweeping over me. That intense joy I used to get when playing a slamming show with a band. This is the first time thats happened when I was playing MY music. I looked out on the dance floor, and there were a lot of people there, grooving and smiling. A reciprocal smile planted itself on my face, and didn't leave during the entire set. I really got into it.

I brought out JP Cutler and Adam Blomberg for two tunes. As always, they knocked it out of the park. It was so fun, yet so familiar, having them play with me.

I then brought out Noah Reid from The New Up to shred on my last two tunes. Things got pretty bumpin on the dance floor.

I had the time of my life.

The show was stellar. JDub warmed things up nicely with some great atmosperic ambient soundscapes. Roy McNeill sure knows how to throw down on the guitar and melodica. The beats were uplifting and rocking. He's such a nice guy to boot. Mochipet was sick, with the triple threat laptop, dj, and live drummer laying down the tastiest grooves. There was some fantastic art up on the walls. I loved Crystal's work - right up my alley. The DJ's kept things grooving nicely between sets and after the Mochipet. I talked and caught up with a lot of folks, and met a whole bunch of new ones. All in all, a night I'll never forget.

Many things could have gone wrong. The INTENSE storm that swept through the Bay Area was mostly abated by Saturday night. During sound check, my computer kept glitching and dropping audio while I was playing a tune. Thankfully a restart fixed this issue, but I didn't know that until I started playing my set. My body held up, despite several subtle indicators that it might not.

Things I could have done better - well, it would have been good to say: "I'm General Fuzz" and "My music can be downloaded for free of the internet". I'm not so good with the mic.

200 people came to du Nord that night. I hope they want some more.

Many thanks to Tony B for the sweet pics.

In Review

2008-01-01T15:15:00.000-08:00

Well, 2007 holds the record for number of concerts I attended in a single year. It was just a tad excessive. I'd be ok if I've peaked at this point.

It wasn't easy picking this years top ten, but it was really fun revisiting all the amazing shows. Without further ado:

10. Manu Chau @ the Bill Grahm Civic Center. That show taught me how much power a musician can wield. I've never seen a crowd riled up to that extent before.

9. The Bruce Hornsby jazz Trio @ the Palace of Fine Arts. I've always been in awe of Bruce, and his ability to flourish with two jazz greats simply floored me.

8. Joe Ledbetter (with many musicians) covering Into the Airplane Over the Sea @ the Rockit Room. I wouldn't have truly appreciated this if Lars had not given me the album for my birthday. This rendition was extraordinary, even improving upon the album with extra instrumentation and vocal harmonies. I still get chills thinking about when Joe sang the last song, a solo accoustic number, and the sizable crowd was dead silent until he finished. That is respect for a musician like I've never seen before.

7. The SEVA Benifet @ the Regency Ceneter. A killer line up of amazing musicians, and the VIP hookup made this night unforgettable.

6. Smashing Pumpkins @ the Fillmore. The thickest, meatiest sound I've ever heard/felt. OMG, it was so good. And they can jam! Who knew?

5. Moonchild @ the GAMH. There is no other vocalist like Mike Patton, and no other composer like John Zorn.

4. Mute Math @ Slims. Having never heard a note from these guys before, my jaw hit the floor. Amazing songs, amazing stage presence, amazing night.

3. Dragon Force @ the Warfield. We left our bodies in the Warfield and blasted into outer space after these guys took the stage. Epic fun.

2. String Cheese Incident @ the Concouse Exhibition Center Technically, a show from last year, but since it was an NYE show, and it was so incredibly awesome, I'm pushing it into '07. Being backstage experiencing SCI cover "Round the Wheel" all the way through still makes me a little teary. Unbelievable.

and, finally,

1. Los Tortugas @ Yosemite. We had no idea going into this that we were about to be treated to one of the most magical experiences of our lifetime. The music was steller, the location was magestic, the people were friendly, and we had SUCH a good time.

Album of the year: Muth Math (self titled). So what that it came out in '06. I first heard it in '07, and I fucking love it.

Electronica album of the year: Suunta by Planet Boelex. My downtempo collection has exploded this year due to eMusic, the Kahvi Collective, and podcasts. I've listened to this album more then any other I've downloaded this year. I feel like I learned a lot from absorbing this album, which is the highest praise I can give. This is a free release, so there is no excuse not the check it out if you like the downtempo/IDM genre.

I hope y'all had happy and safe NYE!

The Hanukkah Bush

2007-12-26T20:50:00.000-08:00

My house in Newton is full of history from our life, since my folks throw nothing out. Items that are no longer in service often get relegated to the basement, though there is also several large closets and crawl spaces too. I often chide my folks about the amazing amount of crap thats gathering more and more dust with each passing year.

When we were very little, my mom asked my brother and I if we would rather do presents on Hanukkah or Christmas, and like good little jews we said Christmas. So my dad, the physicist/engineer builds this clever little "electric tree" which we bring out every Christmas eve. This year, after retrieving it and plugging it in, I remarked that several of the lights were not lighting up. My dad opened up the "tree" and took out a bunch of seriously old colored light bulbs that are certainly no longer produced.
My mom looked at the lights, disappeared into the basement for three minutes, and returned with two small boxes of 30 some year old color light bulbs.

My dad replaced the bad light bulbs and the Hanukkah bush lit up withs its former glory for the first time in many a year. It looked spectacular.

Then my brother Doug looks at me and says: "And that's what the basement is for."

Brilliant.

I've started a new tradition of going through the house, and wrapping up a 20+ year old relic for my dad. This year it was a blue roll of toilet paper (complete with toilet reading lists printed on it) which had been sitting on the bathroom window for over 20 years.

One more time

2007-12-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

I'm just coming off a the haze of a total music immersion weekend - The Dan Lebowitz group and Zilla @ 12 Galaxies, working with JP Cutler on some new tracks, and all night jam with some old musical friends (and GF collaborators).

My music is popping up in all sorts of random places on the internet, which how I like it. I just checked out a gorgeous mix by DJ Polaski on the amazing Kahvi Collective, which included some very clever mixing of a couple of my tracks. Highly recommended.

The good folks at echoes have released a list of the staff picks for the year, and I made #5. That made me feel nice.

There's no doubt that 2007 has been a truly amazing year for general fuzz.

Beer Cheer

2007-12-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

Stina gave me the best Chanukah present ever. She took me to a magical place called City Beer in Soma. I cannot believe I've never been here before. It's a beer drinkers paradise. I've never been in the presence of so many beers I've never heard of.

That had five beers on tap which I've never seen on tap before. I sampled them all, and finished with a glass of the Delirium seasonal. All the beers can be bought as singles, and for a corkage fee of $1, you can enjoy it in the store. One of the owners very helpfully guided me through their vast selection to create a nice adventurous six pack. I was in such a state of delight, I helped myself to a few additional 750s. Then Stina bought it all for me.

Amazing.

Respect the interfaith marriage!

Echoes Poll

2007-12-11T00:15:00.001-08:00

It turns out that at the end of the year, Echoes runs a listener poll for the top albums of the year. I was surprised and delighted to learn that I made #20, especially since I made no effort at all to run a campaign on the poll. Even my wife was unaware. That means people I don't know actually like it. It is a true honor to be listed along with some my musical heroes. I love the latest Explosions in the Sky album, and it's insane to see my name in any proximity to an album made by Chick Corea and Bela Fleck.

Inner Sunset

2007-12-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

I am definitely feeling the neighborhood Karma tonight. First I befriended one of my Yoga classmates who turns out to live a block away. Then I happened to catch a listing on craigslist for a nearly impossible to find face priced Tool ticket for tomorrows extremely sold out show. I was the lucky first caller. Turned out the seller lived 5 blocks away. Then, on the way home from picking up said magical ticket, I ran into a friend from the jamband circuit, and we ending up talking and walking in circles around our neighborhood for almost an hour. Turns out she lives on the same block as me.

We were just coming off a surprisingly difficult weekend. I really appreciated the synchronicity of the evening.

Yoga

2007-12-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

Half way through last night's class I grazed my foot with my hand for the first time in my entire life. Awww yeah.

Happy first night of Hanukkah.

A limp rag

2007-12-02T23:56:00.000-08:00

We rode the Tom roller coaster for a little over 24 hrs straight - it was pretty intense, far too short, full of exuberant yelling, and I felt nauseous when it was over. Good times indeed. We fit in a little pool, a little poker, far too much football on the tv, kick ass food, Haber's birthday (and said birthday party), and the ceremonial destruction of Krudden furnature.

Here are some excellent shots by Stina:

and a personal favorite

We also saw Jersey Boys this week. I left my glasses at the Yoga studio, and we had serious nosebleed seats, so I had no idea what was going on. Stina kept an entertaining commentary running so I wouldn't feel too left out. I felt it could have been an hour shorter.

And just to add a dose of ridiculousness to my weekend, I went to two concerts tonight. One was the sweet cd release party of Ryan, or Chance's End. He's a talented violinist/electronic music producer whom I'm working with on a couple new tracks.

I'm right tuckered.

TOM!!!

2007-12-01T17:58:00.001-08:00

Tom is visiting this weekend. I couldn't be happier.

Phil and Friends

2007-11-28T21:26:00.000-08:00

Ah the joys of living in San Francisco. Seth and I bravely ventured forth through the tenderloin to enjoy a random one off Phil and Friends show, celebrating Jackie Green's birthday. He's 27, and undeniably a rock star. I ran into a ton of peripheral people - folks from Oberlin, other bands, and Los Tortugas on this fine Tuesday evening. The show was loooong, with three sets and all. Started before 8, I bailed at 12:20, and it wasn't over.

The first set was en feugo. I don't believe there was single ass to chair moment. They just tore up Cumberland Blues. Some dude (Steve Berlin) was wailing on Baritone Sax. Clearly the month long tour created some deep musical psychic connections, cause they we're able to pull some cirque du soliel style moments through the meandering jams. Steve Molitz (keys) never ceases to impress me in Phil's pocket - much more so then in Particle, which seems to be on their last gasp anyways. Jackie crept from guitar to organ and back all night long. The keyboard interplay was sublime.

The bonus acoustic second set was a treat. This video depicts two things of interest:

That spinning ball of lights is Rob, my old landlord cruising around the Warfield. He was, and is, an omnipresent figure in the Dead scene. He owns many houses in Palo Alto, all named after Dead tunes. We lived in Shakedown St for 3 years. It was nice hanging with Seth when the band busted out Shakedown. The other notable thing is that Phil is playing an upright bass. Who knew he could do that?

Set three started with a bang, lots of balloons dropping, a Mexican Girl surprising Jackie by jumping out a cake (appropriate as they were playing his composition - "Mexican Girl"). Then it got super spacey, Dark star into feedback into Dark star feeding into . . well, me getting sleepy. So I left. I probably should have stayed for Franklin's Tower. Guess I'll have to hope for a Franklin in January, when they play the Civic Center.

November 27, 2007
Warfield Theater
San Francisco, CA

Set 1: @Bertha
*Ball And Chain
*Cumberland Blues
*Mississippi Half-Step
*So Hard To Find My Way
*Chest Fever
*Sugaree

Set 2 (Acoustic): Peggy-O
Deep Elem, Friend Of The Devil
Seven Jealous Sisters, Ripple

Set 3: Shakdown Street>
Althea, Mexican Girl
%HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKIE!
Jam> Dark Star> China Cat>
Dark Star> Feedback Jam>
Unbroken Chain
Help on The Way>
Slipknot!>
Franklin's Tower

Donor Rap/Intros
E: Box of Rain
Brokedown Palace
@Steve Berlin On Piano
*Steve On Baritone Sax
%Balloon Drop, Bday Song, Girl Out Of Cake

Setlist courtest of Philzone

Happy Indiginous People Day

2007-11-22T14:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a most unexpected day. We woke up to take Stiners to the Hospital for her cortisone injection only to have her turned away because she had a cold. It would have been useful to know that you need to be healthy for a week before getting the injection. She had been pretty anxious about the shot, and it was really hard to have it postponed. She came back from work feeling lousy and sneezing a lot, canceling our plans to hit the town.

I attempted (and possibly failed) to make two new potato dishes. After two and half hours of fairly intense labor, scalding of the hands, and a thorough trashing of the kitchen, I made questionable chunky potato casserole with nuts. I'm currently attempting the second dish. Kitchen morale is low.

On a whim I called up Chris to shoot some pool. After some poor shooting, I broke his Underdog cherry, where they treated us to the best cheese cake I've ever had in my life. Seriously. Their friend had just graduated from Pastry school or something. The topping was like whipcream, only it was cheesecake. Then we sauntered over to Chris' house to play Mario, when I spotted Joe Baker from BRO in the Blackthorn. He told me to stick around, cause the Smokedaddies were going to play with Les Claypool's drummer. Somehow the new ownership led to them having one of the the best guiness I've had in my life. True to their namesake, the band was pretty smokin. The drummer was ridiculous. All for the cost of zero dollars. So there was a nice cap to a weird ass day.

Daa Daa Do Doo

2007-11-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

My hibernating inner video game junkie was rudely awakened when Haber invited me over so I could finally taste the awesomeness that is Mario Galaxy on the Wii. It was definitely worth the wait. It's the best Mario game yet, which pretty much makes it the best video game ever made in my book.
We met up with the H2 crew for dinner and a show, cause Heather's friend Matt the Electrician was back in town, this time playing at Cafe du Nord. I'm really not a fan of singer songwriters. Matt has become one of the rare exceptions. I've become a huge fan, and a proud owner of two of his CDs, which are excellent.
I've been going through a lot of cycles of how I've been feeling about both my music and my job. I've been running through these cycles for so many years now that I'm able to recognize the pattern while I'm experiencing it. I'll think my music is going really well, and a few days later I'll be working on it and think its crap, especially compared to the music that I'm listening to. Now theres a little birdie that laughs at me and says "just chill, step away, you'll feel better soon." If I ever catch that birdie I'll wring its stupid little neck for laughing at me.
On Friday, we attended the 9th annual Hip Hop Dance festival at the Palace of Fine Arts. I'm proud to say I've been to 8 out of 9 - Haber gets the perfect attendance award. I remember when it was at Theater Autaud, and was entirely a local production. Now it has blossomed into an international festival. I have to say that Friday's progam was the best I'd ever seen, and that really means something cause they've all been pretty fantastic. I was blown out of the water with a wild combination of insane dancing, choregraphy, use of costumes, interactive sets, and innovate lighting. Well freaking done.
I'm not really prone to playing general fuzz shows, but I was offered a gig I couldn't refuse. So for some serious advanced warning, I'll be playing with some other fantastic electronica artists at Cafe Du Nord on Saturday, Jan 4th. You should come. Really. Plan ahead.
Daa daa do doo

G Fuzz

2007-11-13T19:09:00.000-08:00

Its nice to hover on the internet and see that people are actually visiting the ole' website and listening to my music. I've gotten a couple of really sweet emails recently, and it's nice to feel like I'm making the world a little better. Some person's (no names were given) sister made a fresh cover for Inner Sunset:

I also discovered that John Diliberto, the guy behind echoes, did a nice writeup about their annual "living room" CD. I was truly honored when he asked if he could use one my tracks.

Everyone Orchestra and Albino

2007-11-11T20:00:00.000-08:00

Going to the Great American Music Hall 3 times in 7 days demarks a good week for sure. The fantastic Magnolia Brewery held court with its decade anniversary party on Monday. They brought $3 magnoila pints and the Everyone Orchestra to the stage.

The lineup for the EO was outstanding. Highlights were Melvin Seals, Josh Clark, Dan Lebowitz, Jamie Janover, and Audio Angel.

There was an outstanding squeeking rubber chicken solo. It was really a ton of fun. They did more covers then usual, mostly of a Grateful Dead nature. The highlight of the evening for me was when they played:

I grabbed a taste:

I made a return trip on Friday to catch Albino! featuring Karl Denson. They were a fun time as well. I'm not necessarily drawn to Afro Cuban styling music, but its hard not to groove when their playing. There's lots of synchronized dancing and horns o' plenty.

Karl Denson's endorsement of the band was what actually propelled me to the show.

Beyond going to concerts, things are going pretty well. Stina's back isn't doing super, but she's hooked up with some new doctors and shes rolling some healthy positive attitude. I've hit the sweet spot with my music, making progress on a number of songs simultaneously. I'm just starting the collaborative process with a couple musicians. I think this next album will be a little more cohesive then the last, more on the mellower/ethereal kick. And to my great relief, we capped off season 1 of Heros. Even though I was greatly disappointed with the ending, it is a particularly well made show.

Oh, and we dusted off Undercover Brother for an impromptu viewing with Tony and Elaina. It still remains one of my favorite comedies.

Here's a little Karl to cap off the post:

Dinner

2007-11-04T23:35:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling particularly blessed this week with our amazing friends. We had three excellent dinner parties. Gail would be proud of our first ever spring roll off. Probably less so of Heathers fabulous fisting of the chicken though. HUGE ups to Heather for her keen culinary prowess and for demonstrating that brussels sprouts can indeed be delicious.

I also discovered that I immensely enjoyed clowning around with Aiden, Dave and Alison's 18 month year old cackler. Its real fun to enjoy children and then leave them behind.

I can't wait to be finished with Heros. Its been rendering me useless. We even went out and rented the final few discs, cause I just need it to be over.

Moonchild

2007-11-04T23:15:00.000-08:00

Lars and I went to see John Zorn's latest incarnation of musical insanity, "Moonchild" at the Great American Music Hall. We went primarily because it involved Mike Patton. Lars will see him anywhere, anytime, and I enjoy stalking Lars. Anyhow, Mike Patton made quite an impression when we saw Fantomas.

It was a fairly surreal setting. We arrived at the beautiful GAMH, classical music wafted through the PA, and it was full of mostly men that defied easy classification. The show started at 8pm, no opener. We got a great spot on the right side balcony, and dug our heels in for the ride.

I pretty much lost my shit during this hour and twenty minute performance. It slipped right in to the epic category. I forgot how intense Mike Patton is. He shoves the envelope for vocal performance into the next dimension. It was often scary to be in such proximity to his raw emotion. This music is something you'd never ever want to listen to on a CD, but seeing it live was a life affirming experience. Intensely composed, atonal dark soundscapes in wacky evolving time signatures. You couldn't wipe the smile off the drummers face - he was having a blast.

I snagged a couple snippets for you to check out. They really don't convey the ferocity of the performance. Note that they we're using sheet music.

Anyhow, it surely wasn't for everyone, but I was totally bowled over. We had a fairly emotional evening following the performance. It was something special, to say the least.

F Productivity

2007-11-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I checked out a new piece of software by the good folks at Izotope, and it blew my mind. I was duly inspired, but was sidetracked with the whole Halloween thing. The good folks at "WebPage" threw a kickin patry, btw. So tonight I was all ready to make some serious headway with all the music that has been patiently awaiting the nice fuzzy touch. But the next disc of Heros arrived today, and there went my night. Its like crack. Or what crack aspires to be.

Save the cheerleader, save the world.

Los Tartugas, in Review

2007-10-28T19:05:00.001-07:00

Best festival ever. At least in our eyes.

When I was lugging Stina's pumpkins (literally) up the hill to the picnic benches, no less the 15 people called out to me on the way: "Nice pumpkins!", "You have a nice pair!", etc. I was both wheezing and laughing, which is something I can't remember doing, ever.

Then Stina employed her ninja pumpkin carving skills.
Stina's back was unfortunately bothering her all weekend. There was always ample comfortable places where she could sit to enjoy music or read stories about Dragons and Magic. Also, it turns out that chilling in the front of the fireplace for a long time is a good way to meet people.
I shared three sunsets with this dude Noam. Or I think thats his name. He works in Oakland as a special ed teacher. It was a nice tradition.
After bonding with a member of staff during Friday night, I was comped breakfast the next morning.
We got to hang out with various members of bands that we actively enjoy. That's the mark of a small festival. This is a picture I've always wanted - Sean Lehe and Sean Leahy, two of the finest guitarists in SF that happen to share a very similar sounding name.
Hippies + Costumes = good times.

This is me getting over my childhood fear of Cookie Monster
Oh yeah, there were bands there. This is Guitarmeggedon.
My love for our cabin has no bounds. As soon as we closed the door, there was silence, which is golden.
I'm not really going to comment on this one. I guess this one goes out to my homies.

Las Tortugas: Day 2

2007-10-27T02:01:00.000-07:00

This place kicks ludicrous ass. It turns out that Yosemite valley is a big deal after all. We ventured in, took many pictures, exchanged niceties with nature, came home, and napped. Epic. Napping at a festival in a bed in a cabin. This place definitely caters to our great interest in comfort.

All the food options are outstanding. There are all made locally in the giant kitchen. Its reasonably priced. The people who work here are incredibly friendly. We have even befriended a few of them.

I've been meeting more people here then I usually do at festivals. Tonight, I met cookie monster, my old childhood nemesis, and made peace with him. He even offered me a cookie. There are some spectacularly creative costumes. The moon is rather full like. My favorite quote of the evening: "in the same vein as fantasy rock and roll camp, cruising around Scotland was like whiskey fantasy camp."

ALO was on fire earlier. Hot damn. Check out tonight's (10/26) set to get a band in their prime. It was freaking awesome. I ran into Sean from Izabella during ALO, and he said they were about to "blow doors." I feel they achieved this on their second song, when they busted out a sick Jameroqui song. They place fell apart. Doors were blown. I don't think any one was injured. Safety first.

Tea Leaf Green is playing now. They sound pretty hot, what with their nasty yet sweet rock and roll flavors. Stina's sitting in front of a fire.

Life is good.

Las Tortugas

2007-10-26T01:26:00.000-07:00

Ever looked forward to something, then only have it exceed your expectations? Welcome to opening night of Las Tortugus, a tiny SF jam band festy right at the edge of the Yosemite valley. This place kicks ass. It's unbelievably beautiful. Its actually fall here, what with the trees and the colors. I tasted a fantastic new rare scotch while the Sox clinched game 2. We had a superb dining experience while listening to Izabella cover Shaka Chan next door. Right now ALO is rocking my face, in full pirate gear.

So why am I blogging about it at 1:30 in the morning?

Because I can.

Choose your own adventure

2007-10-25T09:36:00.000-07:00

Stina will unknowingly guest blog today, since I'm copying the email she sent.

On Saturday I was given my 30th b-day present by Jason, Lindsey, Rachel, Angel, Lars and DanT. I can't help but share this incredible day with all of you. They treated me to a day where I got to "Choose my own adventure" all day long. My choice's began at 11am when everyone showed up at our house and I was given the choice between RED or BLUE (I chose red, since the SOX asked all their fans to wear Red to last nights name to support them), everyone quickly changed into their all red costumes and the day proceeded from there.

Quick summary of all my choices (the first choice listed is what I picked):
Red vs Blue
Scrambled eggs vs pancakes
Mimosas vs Bloody Marys
Word of the day: Fresh vs Gnarly
We clean breakfast vs James clean breakfast
DeYoung vs Open Studios
Take some advice vs Give some advice
Lombard Street Vs Balmy Alley
Pet Cemetary vs Paxton Gate
St Francis Ice Cream Parlor vs Miette Confiserie
Photo Booth in Bernal vs Photo Booth on Haight
High 5s all around vs Hugs all around
Games at little Shamrock vs Cocktails at Alembic (somehow we walked into little shamrock about 5 minutes before last nights grand slam!!)
Keep going vs bail out now (just in case I wanted to stop and focus on the game - fortunately the game was being easily won at the time by the Sox so I was able to keep playing!!!)
Buffalo wings vs Dinner at Mescolanzas
Chill at home vs crash a party
Lastly, I was given a wild card choice - which I used to wrap up the night by having everyone play speed monopoly, which James won in under 90 minutes.

Photos from the day:
http://picasaweb.google.com/stiners/20071020StinaSChooseYourOwnAdventureDay

My wonderful day ended around 11pm, a good 12 hours after it started. As an event planner, I was blown away by the logistical smoothness of the day - and I just had to share this gift with you all. We have amazing friends.

Now, time to focus on some TV. Go SOX!!

Your friend, the Regular Expression

2007-10-21T20:04:00.000-07:00

I occasionally enjoy reading on the can. Lately I've been trying to up my game, and have been reading geeky computer books to make me smarter. Stina recently revealed that she was curious about the subject matter, cause I left the book open to the chapter entitled: "Your friend, the Regular Expression"
Lars is in deep smit with his current beau. He told us that they like to leave cute little notes for each other. We too like to leave cute little notes for each other. They usually comprise of notes that Stina leaves on the bathroom mirror. They read: "Do the whites. Buy fruit." It is possible to maintain that level of romance this many years into a relationship.
We made our annual trip to visit the sad looking turkeys and bunnies at the local Pumpkin patch. When we went to buy our decorative produce (I realized that all they sell at Clancey's - pumpkins then xmas tress) the couple ahead of us mentioned something about Newton. Stina inquired, and it turns out it was the brother of the girl who I had a crush on in seventh grade. Small world.
Jason took me to the best bowl of Ramen I've ever had. Before dinner, we hunted around for a place to have a pre-dinner drink. We wandered into a strange bar named "Dimples" with hot clueless bartenders and surprisingly expensive drinks. Something seemed off there, and it was a relief to discover that it was a brothel.
I saw Flowmotion at the Boom Boom Room on Thursday night. Best seven dollars I've spent in a quite some time. Give em a listen.
RIP Coco.

Rain

2007-10-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

The rain came down pretty hard a couple days ago. As did many things. Stina was real sick for a couple days. Then, after she got better, I got sick, though not as bad.

People I know and care about are experiencing difficult times. Stina set a deadline of Christmas to figure out what we are going to do in terms of the next steps of life. My company just made a public offer to buy BEA, who makes the same product that I work on.

So, I'm a little stuck in my head right now.

A bunch of good things happened too though. Galactic tore up the Fillmore. I met a bunch of new potential musical collaborators. We finally replaced our old mattress with a king sized Memory Foam monster.

We also went to the annual rock poster festival in GG park. On the way over, Stina was quite clear that we were not to buy any more posters, cause we have already amassed a small army of naked posters awaiting frames. She then deliciously proceeded to spend $100 on four new posters.

Nice.

Stop the catalogs

2007-10-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share catalog choice with anyone who reads this. It allows you to cancel catalog subscriptions hassle free.

Really useful.

200th post.

Allllright.

Music Glut

2007-10-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well, if I hadn't seen enough music yet this week, Saturday most certainly pushed me over the top. During the afternoon, I saw Bruce Hornsby with Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Los Lobos, and Belle Monroe & Her Brewglass Boys. For free, no less. Just a short walk from my apartment, through GG park. The annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival rolled into town once again.

I was really digging Los Lobos, but I bailed halfway through their set to catch some of the Brewglass Boys set. It had been a couple years since watching Jordon perform at the festy.

Here's a little taste of his fiery four string

It was fun talking with the band after they got off stage. They were riding a high like no other.

My set break consisted of a tasty meal with Hans. Then it was off for round two, this time at 12 Galaxies.

I caught JP Cutlers set, which is always fabulous, especially when he's flanked with some stellar musicians.

Then Garrin Benfield, with his mighty guitar and massive pedal setup. Finally, Izabella took the stage, and ripped it up with some help from the some of the Railroad Earth folks. That was a lot of people on stage.

Jesse introduced me to one the dudes from the Hebrew brewing company. I was a little starstruck.

It must be a special day with two separate Frank Chou sightings.

You know how I've come to terms with my oldness? You couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I sat next to Joe Baker (from the Bay Recorders Orginzation, who was taping the show), sipping my scotch and reading my book (currently reading "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore - absolutely hysterical) during set break.

How very rock and roll.

Dark Star Orchestra

2007-10-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

A small motley crew was assembled to get our hippie on at the Fillmore, where Dark Star Orchestra was in the middle of three night run. When Hans arrived in my hood for a pre-show bbq, he was accosted by a young man who wondered if Hans could spare a beer. Hans apologetically declined. The stranger informed Hans that there was a crazy dead show at the Fillmore. Hans agreed, and dropped that he was attending said show. The stranger was duly impressed and then offered Hans some acid, which Hans again gently declined.

My neighborhood kicks ass.

Anywho, we devoured several of Angel's remnant birthday sausages, watched the bike dancing scene from Rad, and headed of to the show. Stina was absent for the eating portion of the evening, as she was off cheering on the Red Sox at Kezar's. Post season is generally when she starts to pays attention to baseball. Interestingly, the few people wearing sports related clothing at the show brandished Red Sox logos.

Dark Star Orchestra will select an actual historic set list from a Dead Show and recreate it in its entirety. For some odd reason, it felt like seeing a DSO show was more hippie then seeing Phil and Friends. Or maybe the crowd was just more hippie. I dunno. It was a little surprising. And man, do they play a good dead show. They sounded phenomenal. Not that I have a huge dead knowledge base, but it felt like a real close approximation of a dead show. I really enjoyed DSO in the same way I appreciate Phix.

The setlist was from 10/8/89 Hampton, VA It was a real good'un. I boogied hard to Franklin's Tower, and got chills when they finished the second set with Morning Dew. There was even poster. And now I can instantly stream the original show at no cost. I heart archive.org.

mind = blown

2007-10-05T18:13:00.001-07:00

If you dig the IDM/downtempo electronic music, check out Planet Boelex's latest release: Suunta. Its a free download available off his website

I'm going back for a second listen now. It's simply stellar.

Ulrich Schnauss

2007-10-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

That's right. I saw Ulrich Schnauss. I know. Please put your underwear back on and scrape your drooling jaw back back off the floor. Unless you have no idea who that is, which is most likely the case.

Ulrich Schnauss produces some amazingly beautiful downtempo electronic music. His second album, "A Strangely Isolated Place", pretty much blew my mind. So I was most shocked to discover that he was coming to SF, what with him being German and all. I'd assume he touring to support his latest disc "Goodbye", which I honestly haven't heard. Its gotten mixed reviews.

I caught a little bit of the opener opener, "Manual", which seemed pretty much in the same genre. While I certainly enjoyed the fleeting glimpse into their world of psychedelic soundscapes, it was a stark reenforcement that I really have no interest in pursing a more active live performance route for my music. Watching them sit in front of their computers and keyboards, tweaking everything with that blank look on their face just doesn't do it for me as an audience member. I would prefer to simply listen to it at home, where the beer and the sound is better.

I ran into Art from Submodern, who is deep in the final stages of producing their new cd. I'll be psyched to check it out when its done. The second opener, fleeting joys!, went on at 10:45, and I really did not enjoy them. Thus I stepped outside for a time killing slice of pizza, which is just as tasty as a "I'm about to pass the fuck out slice" of pizza.

I was pretty beat by the time Ulrich finally took the stage at midnight. Its Wednesday and I'm old. So WTF. Being the headliner and all, he had some sweet projected visuals. Beyond that, he was blankly staring at his giant mixer, computer, and electronic gadgetry, twiddling it all around. It would have been perfect had I been able to lie on a couch and take it in, but alas, that was not the case. It sounded sweet, but I would have just preferred to buy a mix of the set and listen to it at home.

So I bailed at 12:30.

Widespread Panic

2007-10-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

I was going to pass on their latest bay area run, but then I remembered that they replaced their latest lead guitar player with Jimmy Herring, who ranks pretty high on my top ten guitar players whom are alive. So I took Rachel as a belated bday present, and BARTed over to the oakland Paramount. My favorite thing was the super sketchy 8 person "shakedown" assembled in the back lot of the venue. Anyhow, there's no doubt that Jimmy Herring brought fresh life into the group, and they rocked a lot harder for it. I might have once creamed in my pants during some epic Herring led jams.

My faith in this band = restored. The show was excellent. I'm gonna troll etree.org for some shows since they don't seem to be up on archive.org.

09/29/07 Paramount Theater, Oakland, CA
Set I: From The Cradle> Makes Sense To Me> Walk On, Dyin' Man, Heroes, Heaven, Papa Johnny Road> Papa's Home> Drums> Papa's Home> Rock
Set II: The Take Out> Pigeons> All Time Low> Bowlegged Woman> Impossible> Proving Ground, Pilgrims> Blackout Blues> Porch Song
Encore: Let's Get The Show On The Road, Postcard> Cream Puff War

Setlist Source: Everyday Companion

Harbin

2007-09-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

Stiners and I headed up for a mid week retreat to Harbin Hot Springs for a bit of r'n'r. I had totally forgotten that it was a clothing optional community until we arrived. I gleefully tore my clothes off upon setting down our bags in our room, but Stina gently reminded me that it was only clothing optional at the actual meditation pools. Right.

After settling in, we headed uphill for an evening soak. It is simply gorgeous up there. I was a little surprised to see so many people (maybe 30) in the meditation pools on a Wednesday evening. After soaking for a couple minutes, a lady enters the pool to say that they are about to begin the harvest full moon ceremony. She saunters around with some lit sage, and then instructs us all to make a circle and join hands. Then starts the giant "ohm" circle, which I was pretty psyched on, what with the yoga I've been doing. Then the leader wants people to start sharing positive thoughts that they will send out to the universe. That's the precise moment where it got a little too new age for Jimmy, so I quietly retreated to the side of the pool to continue my soak. People would say things like "kindness", and then everyone else would ohm in appreciation. After ten long minutes of this, they moved on to honoring the five directions (north, east, south, west, and up). They started by looking south, which means that they were all staring directly at Stina and I, who were looking right back at them.

For like 5 minutes.

Awkward.

Anyhow, after a day at Harbin we felt fully in tune with universe. Well, maybe less so then some of the other folks.

Mute Math

2007-09-27T18:37:00.001-07:00

Holy shit. Never have I ever been so satisfied by a scant one hour set. That it was a Tuesday probably helped a lot. These guys just fucking tore up the Fillmore, which was far less then 3/4th full. The sound was terrible, which is sad considering the juicy potential of the Fillmore room. I'm in love with their album, and their live show does it apt justice. The do exactly what a great band does - stretch out the songs, demonstrate strong musical chops, then go totally batshit. Lots of extreme catapulting over instruments and thrashing about. You don't get a sense of from the album how absolutely crazy the drummer is.

Anywho, the show totally lived up to my expectations. They are currently in strong contention for JimmyK's album of the year.

Color me Impressed

2007-09-25T13:23:00.001-07:00

Check out this new service for making stuff: ponoko

Yom Kippur

2007-09-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

I believe I've already waxed poetic about my Yom Kippur traditions here. I charged into Yom Kippur by going to see the Arcade Fire @ Shoreline, which was fine.

The motivation factor was the chance to catch up with Sharon, an old friend of mine who now happens to run the soundboard for the Arcade Fire. LCD Soundsystem opened up and were a real good time. Anywho, I checked my web stats app right before going to bed and saw the review which tore me a new asshole.

Needless to say, I was spun into a bad head space. I purposefully got up early the next morning with Stina (who needed to go to work where Services were being held) so that I would have time to reflect upon my year before heading off to Angel's 30th birthday bbq extravaganza. Unfortunately I spent the first hour or so trippin on the shitty review. Man, if you ever want to fuck with me, shit on my music. I was eventually able to recognize that it was simply mean spirited, and I needed to move on past it. Stina later put it in better perspective - if that review was about one of my friends projects, would I have taken it seriously? I kinda pulled myself out of it, and began walking through the calendar.

It was quite a year, especially with g-fuzz, what with the new CD, playing some big gigs, and getting more exposure. There were some stellar moments of joy and hilarity, coupled with some low moments with spousal and parental health. Yet in many ways, it was simply a linear projection of the last year - more shows, more general fuzz, and more health drama across the board. I guess the best way to derail that train is to have a child, which seems to be a concept that is looming on the horizon. I found that I spent less time reflecting on shows/events, and more on friendships. I'm starting to swallow the concept of moving to Boston, though mostly in the abstract.

I volunteered to run the grill at Angels party, which was epic with the 4 delicious kegs, customized celebratory cups, and her amazing (AMAZING) autobiographical zine. Many a sausage was blessed by my tongs of atonement.

Oh, and then we went to Phil and Friends the next day at the Greek. Summer has come to a close.

Somehow I squeezed in working on music, which needed to be prepared for tonights visit by Michele and her magical violin. I think Stina is feeling a little displaced right now. Tommorows SF Beta + Mute Math (I'm fired up over that one!) isn't gonna help.

Ouch

2007-09-22T00:45:00.001-07:00

Well, I guess if I put myself out there for reviews, some of them are not going to be so positive. This one definitely took the wind out of my sails. . . .

80's Party

2007-09-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

At this point, it should be pretty clear to everyone why Stina's an event planner. I think she should put this party on her resume. First you entered a long hallway that was plastered with 30 facts about Stina, to be greeted by someone taking a polariod of you in full costume. Wandering around through the various rooms, you would find a space dedicated to an 80's and Stina trivia contest, a custom fashioned arcade machine setup next to the full bar (with our amazing friends volunteering to bartend all night), a plush couch filled chill room projecting an hour long photo slide show, and an off the hook dance space complete with mirror ball and stripper poll (DJed by yours truly). 80's decorations and phrases permeated everywhere that wasn't already occupied by Anon Salon' insane art. Everyone brought their A game in terms of costume and attitude. It was an honor to be part of it. It even rekindled some fondness for the 80's, which I had really stopped enjoying a couple years back.

It was five kinds of kick ass to have KJ and AJ in town to help make it happen.

We really miss those guys.

My top moments (keep in mind that I was DJing most of the night, so they're from the dance floor):
1. Watching Jonny, the guy who was in charge of the space while the party went on, go absolutely ape shit on the dance poll then spasm on the floor. He later told me it was a true 80's party since he found a bag of cocaine on the roof.
2. Dancing to "Runaway" by Bon Jovi with Matty (and no one else). We've had a lot of history with that song.

3. Seeing Kate, Lars, and Hans utterly rock the stripper pole. Yes, indeed. Unh!
4. Being totally shocked that Salt'n'Pepper was what that party was craving. Who knew? Good call by Alison.
5. Rafi's spot on Morris Day dance impersonation.
6. Dancing with KJ to "I Feel For You" by Chaka Chan, and declaring it as our song.
7. Announcing that Jordan had won the Sports contest, but since I knew he left the party to play a gig, I said he didn't win shit. This satisfaction that Jordan didn't win a sports related trophy (he's rather passionate about his sports) was short lived, as he returned to the party as I made that announcement. Timing is everything.
8. Joegh's (the owner of Anon Salon) girlfriend went up to KJ, slammed down her champagne bottle, looked her in the eyes and declared "done." She then proceeded to join Heather on the raised stripper pole platform and licked her face. Repeatedly.
9. Slow dancing with Stina to "Every Rose has its Thorn", which was the first song at our wedding.
10. Anthony's big entrance to the party. It was pretty clear who was going to win the best costume prize.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to all our friends who helped make it happen. It was definitely a group effort.

A Reasonable Distraction

2007-09-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've become a bit of a google fanboy. I've discovered all sorts of useful google web applications like calendar, reader, and docs (not to mention gmail, blogger, youtube and whatever other useful company they gobble up). I'm even starting to mess around a little bit with some of their nifty programming APIs. When I prepared Stina's computer, I installed google download pack, which installed all sorts of practical applications. Fuck Microsoft Office - I'm all about Open Office these days.

I stumbled upon google docs when I uploaded a doc file and it asked if I wanted to open it in reader. Fuckin'a right I did. Thus I ended up wring Stina's birthday story using reader, since I wanted to work on it from multiple computers. Now I can share the fruits of that labor with a single click of a button. While its littered with lots of inside references that'll make little or no sense to you, it might be an amusing work distraction or something. So, if you want, enjoy my four part love letter to Stina.

Oh right, blogging

2007-09-13T01:17:00.000-07:00

Rachel kindly had some folks over to celebrate her birthday at her folks house in the sunny East Bay. I had no idea that Rachel had a sweet pool slide to accompany the sweet pool. Add Haber and Lars to the equation, and many a pool game will follow. I did not enjoy Lars version of lob the orange ball at Jimmy's nuts as he tries to catch the other ball coming off the slide. Payback is a bitch, Lars.

I attended a fantastic Electronic Music Meetup this week. Erik, our fearless organizer, had folks meet at a bar downtown in the base of the building that he works at. Once we reached critical mass, we headed upstairs so that we could use the conference room to demonstrate how were using our computers to compose music. We had a long demonstration from Chris Huelsbeck about the his composition process and ideas. Chris is a fascinating fellow - he's famous for producing the music soundtracks from Commodore 64 games, and he still makes a living producing video game music.

We also saw some serious visual badassery from Alessandro and some of his visualization plugins. There may be more on that front later.

Kerry Jo has swept into town and we've made a reasonable dent on our new bottle of Scotch. Its so good to have her in town. I eagerly anticipate Krusty's arrival tommorow. Stina is rather preoccupied with her upcoming birthday bash so its good to have KJ around to help maintain sanity. This is gonna be one sweet party.

I even saw a fabulous band called "On The One" tonight at 12 Galaxies, and danced my ass off. A quartet of pocket players, they know how to push a groove down your pants. My personal highlight was a ripping version of "Pass the Peas"

Righto. Hope to see most of my 5 faithful readers tommorow night!

Clinton Foundation Video

2007-09-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

Made by Paul Lynch

Vacation

2007-09-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

I had envisioned that once vacation kicked in, I was going to be seriously laid back and even get my tech learn on. This turned out not to be the case. Between setting up and executing the "bachelor party", wedding stuff, helping Ducey move, working on Stiner's b-day present, and prepping for her party, I had far less downtime then I had anticipated.

I had figured I'd take JW out mini-golfing or something for a night off, and it turned into a much more elaborate and satisfying send off. I figured I do my wedding toast off the cuff and then realized I wanted to put some thought into it. I wanted to write Stina a birthday story - I ended up composing a four part story (delivered over four days), surely the longest story I've ever written. Although I was pretty worn out by the time we left, I'm actually rather proud of what I accomplished during my time in Newton.

On the other hand, I wasn't the one who was given less then 48 hours notice that she would be the point person for the wedding. Holy smoke did Stina rise to the challenge.

The wedding was seriously rocking. Very upscale. Tasty kosher food. I strategically stood next to the door the caterers would enter the hall so I could mow on the very popular "pigs in a blanket". They even had a 9 piece band that could groove pretty good on some funk and disco covers. The bass player was simply bad ass. I spent as much time on the dance floor as I possibly could.

Congrads to the newly wedded couple.

Newton

2007-08-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

Vacation is sweet, but the east cost is freaking hot and humid. I try and combat this by sleeping in as late as possible. I really enjoy the night time though, strolling around comfortably in shorts and sandals. My parents are clearly feeling mostly recovered, cause the sniping never ceases. I've been yelled at at least once a day. My crowning achievement was when I accidentally tipped over a long florescent bulb that deftly exploded into a million little glass bits all over the kitchen.

Last night we took Josh out for a bacheloresque party around the town. We re-labeled all of our childhood establishments to their former and proper name. We played suicide at our grammar school, threw a Frisbee in the park, went on a w-a-l-k in the woods, peed in the Rudden's backyard (they were gracious enough to offer us a beverage afterwards), tried to get a hack between five people, and circled the ping pong table for quite a while. We visited store 2-4, and a woman told Josh that his hat was "slammin" (he was wearing a pirate hat all night). She then told the cashier that he should wash his hands cause she was probably covered in Poison Ivy.

He's now officially ready to get married.

Herbie to Hornsby, Coast to Coast

2007-08-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

I've had a very culturally fulfilling weekend. On Thursday I saw Bruce Hornsby with Christian McBride on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums at the Palace of Fine Arts. The concert blew me away. I'm already in awe of Hornsby. He's got ridiculous piano skills, really a cut above almost anyone I can think of. To top it off he's got his voice, which he could base his career on alone.

I've come to believe that its essential that an artist of that caliber stretch his musical wings to stay happy. He assembled a band of monster jazz players, and they knocked it out of the park. He sang only two songs. The rest were all instrumental, and were both freaking stellar and extraordinarily playful. They played some material that they had composed and a bunch of standards/covers that I hadn't heard of. Its clear that Bruce is a true scholar of music. I had been looking forward to this show all summer, and it didn't disappoint. He even brought out Bonnie Rait for the encore. Good times.

The next morning I flew to Boston. On Saturday, my bro and I met up in Boston for some pool and mohitos. He took me to Match for dinner, which is a fancy mini-burger and martini bar. The food was unbelievable. I actually ordered more food (lobster burger) after I ate my dinner, which is unheard of for me. It was that good. I also had a martini, which turned out to be two martinis since they give you a small shaker with the leftover drink in it. This means I was freaking smashed when we left and stumbled the two blocks to the Berkelee Auditorium, where we saw Herbie Hancock with his latest assembled band.

Let me take a moment to rant here. I went across the street to Sto' 2-4 to get some water (a necessity at this point) and munchies for the show. I walked into the theater and a security duder rips through my bag, finds the food and starts berating me. WTF? In SF, when you go to a fancy expensive jazz show, they do not search your bag. I can understand doing this in a club, but this totally shocked me, and the security guards was a getting in my face about it. I far prefer the SF laid back attitude.

Anywho, the Herbie show was very avante guard. It was a quartet this time (the drummer seriously blew me away), but it wasn't the high energy groove fest that my sloshed brain needed to stay engaged. It was all over the map, some times extremely quiet. The saving grace is that I think Herbie did far too much acid in the 60's. He really liked to talk before they played every single song. He talked for like 3-4 minutes every time, and the monologues often got very rambling and awkward. This pretty surprising for someone who's been in the performing business for like 40 years. Anyhow, it gave me ample opportunity to hit the water fountain after every song, and not miss a single note.

Its good times being back home though. I've really missed my folks. They've gone through all sorts of negative medical shit this summer, and it sucks being 3000 miles away. Its good to hang with my bro, see my in-laws, and catch up with friends.

Image Resizing

2007-08-26T22:46:00.001-07:00

Geeky, but amazingly clever technology

Boneless Children

2007-08-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

Biggie ups to Dave Siegel and the Boneless Children's Foundation on their CD release show last night at the Bottom of the Hill. Some random Stanford people whom I haven't seen in about a decade came out of the woodwork for this show. They all celebrated Dave's unfaltering commitment to his special brand of art rock. Zappa would be proud. Well, at least I am, and for intensive purposes I'm Zappa re-incarnated. At least for this blog post.

Overheard: "I'm starting to understand the secret to a long term relationship: to give in. Whenever we get into a tense heated argument, I ignore my stubborn instincts and take the blame and apologize. The funny thing is that I later realize that I really was at fault."

Back on track

2007-08-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Every once in while you have a life affirming moment. This one was delivered through the internet.

Blog Slacking

2007-08-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

We attended Zack and Amanda's beautiful nuptials. I was blessed to be in charge of the thing I care the most about - sound. Zack pointed me towards the unassembled PA and his laptop, which he suggested we engage shuffle for the dance portion of the evening. I did not jive with that. I put together a fly playlist (with some dynamic updates) that seemed to resonate positively with the dance floor. The staff and crew were in truly in awe that you could DJ with a computer.

I caught guitarmeggedon @ the Independent, which was a wanking good time. The local jam band guitar heros covered much of claptons career with the help of a kicking band and the guitarmeggedon-ettes (3 strong female singers). Definitely worth a download.
On a walk through GG Park I discovered a band setup on a flat bed truck, and an audience of maybe 500. There were many celebratory flag wavers and dancers, but no banners indicating what it was all about. I asked a lady if she knew what was going on, and thats when my day took an abrupt left turn. Apparently, it was the final day of "the cause." Once I opened the door, many people wanted to talk to me in succession. All of them wanted to pray for me (which involved touching me and saying an off the cuff prayer, whatever they felt moved to say). It was a surreal half hour to the least. Some even won CDs for their troubles.
We saw Avenue Q last night at the Orpheum theater. It was freaking hysterical. You haven't lived until you've seen broadway actors create explicit puppet sex while "Gary Colman" sings about his approval of loud sex. I had "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" stuck in my head this morning.
Stina had her first cortizone shot in her spine today. She spent the day in a haze, but seems to be doing ok. Hopefully this will do her some good. Fingers crossed.

Freedom

2007-08-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

We've been blessed with having Tom in San Francisco for the last week or so. Although he hasn't been the constant presence on our couch that I wish he could of been, we've seen a fair bit of him in different contexts. We finally had him to ourselves on Sunday afternoon, so we dragged him to Jerry Day, a free concert at Jerry Garicia amphitheater (a small open amphitheater nested in the hill of a park in South SF) featuring the JGB. They even played my favorite song - "Walking in the Mission". We enjoyed ourselves thorougly along with all our hippie brethren. Well, Stiners, Rachel, Brian and I did. Tom mostly looked bemused.

On Tuesday, I took Tom to 12 Galaxies for the premere of "The Smiling Man". It was a free event featuring a full 7 piece jazz band in (fronted by my friend Ann on vocals) between screenings of the movie. We arrived in the middle of one of the screenings, so we ducked into "Doc's Clock", where we monopolized the free shuffle puck table until the band started up. The Jazz Band = solid. There were only like 25 people there. Only one homeless dude took advantage of the lack of cover. He was real enthusiastic.

Today, I went to check out the Creative Commons Salon at Shine. Taking a page out of the book of Stina, I showed up a wee bit early. This enabled me to meet the hosts, who were able to direct me to people of interest. That, and aquire some free drink tickets. I had a good time, talked to some cool folks, and learned a thing or two about whats going on in the open source community.

Notice the theme of these events? They all cost me nothing, and yet entertained me greatly. I suppose this is the advantage of living in a major city.

How to Write a Concert Review

2007-08-02T15:06:00.001-07:00

This is the best concert review I've ever read. For Hall and Oates even. Hans gets a free ride on my garlic press for pointing it out to me.

Yogalicious

2007-08-01T18:53:00.000-07:00

Our summer seems to have really tapered off all the sudden. We've opted out of certain activities due to Stiner's back - like Stacey and Crow's camp out wedding last weekend. I hope it was magical, and was sad not to join in the festivities. Our trip to celebrate her dad's 60th in Colorado has also been canceled for other reasons. So it's both strange and welcome to have a mellow patch in our typically frenzied summer.

One of things I've been focusing on is my body/back. I need to step it up around the house, do most of the lifting, and such. I've had re-occurring back issues for the last decade or so, and now the activities that I usually avoid are the ones that I need to take charge of. Thus, I've decided to start doing Yoga twice a week to supplement my bi-weekly work outs. Its something I've had in mind to do for a while anyways - our current situation has spurred me to take action.

I've now been to a total of 3 classes at Bija yoga. I went to an intro class last week prior to Galactic, and decided to commit to 10 classes at the studio. My experience so far:

All the level 1 classes are sparsely attended. I think this is fantastic.
I've not seen another single male student yet.
I'm terribly unflexible.
Somehow I never correlated pain with Yoga before. I know better now.
The white folding chair is a fun prop.
I've a different teacher for each class. The teacher makes a big difference.
Never wear boxers under your sweats.
Every class starts with a chant. I have no idea in what language or why we're doing it.
An hour and a half yoga session goes by surprisingly fast.

I did a morning class today, and for the first time, I could feel my body thank me for going to class. That was most encouraging.

At the end of class, we do a silent meditation pose for a couple minutes. We are supposed to let our minds focus on our bodies and not dwell upon thoughts. At one class, the instructor kept telling us to let the [something in yoga] wash over us. For some reason, I kept substituting the [yoga phrase] with "tuna melt". This led to a fit of silent giggles during our meditation. I think I failed the lesson.

Galactic (Houseman Benefit)

2007-07-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

I caught one of the "Houseman Benefit" galactic shows at the Independent. No one really seems to know whats wrong with him, but I'm sure its nothing good. The boys definitely threw down pretty hard. I got my boogie on pretty strong. Houseman did take the mic a couple times for some galactic classics. While I do wish him a speedy recovery from whatever ails him, I was never too sad to see him leave the band.

There were too many special guests floating around the venue. At one point all the member of the Meters (minus the drummer) took the stage to do a couple New Orleans style covers.

Speaking of drummers - Stanton Moore is one of the best drummers alive. That man possesses too much style. Half the time he's out of he seat, he's hitting the drums with so much enthusiasm. I will always go see whatever band he plays in.

I even saw Les Claypool cruising around the little back stage area. Unfortunately, I took off before he hit the stage. Ah well. Such is life when you lack stamina, especially having been tapped from the Pumpkins the night prior.

Smashing Pumpkins

2007-07-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Smashing Pumpkins are holding court at the Fillmore, doing an eleven night run. I had a ticket for Wednesday, night seven. I figured they'd be a pretty well oiled machine by then.

I was not wrong.

The funny thing about this show was that there was two ticket limit, and all tickets were will call. I figured this would mean a super long line getting in. The opener hit at 9, so I figured if we got in line at 9, we'd be in by the time the Pumpkins took the stage at 10ish. When I showed up a little before 9, the line was no where in sight. I guess people were eager to get in, cause when Dave SG and I strolled in, the place was at least eighty percent full. We opted out of the opener whom I was seriously not impressed with and chilled in the poster room. I got the lowdown on the insane 9 month journey he and Erin are about to partake on, snaking their way through South America.

The Pumpkins hit at 10, and it started with a couple acoustic Billy Corgan numbers. Let there be no mistake - this might be the Smashing Pumpkins - but this was really the Billy Corgan show. The only other original member was the drummer, who was as truly nutballz as I had hoped would be. Things ramped up quickly, and soon, it was totally punishing in the room. I've never heard sound like this. Yes, it was insanely loud, but it was a really thick, meaty loud that rocked your core. It is the way you are supposed to experience the Pumpkins. They brought along a ton of speakers to flush out the already generous Fillmore PA. Their stage setup was like a stadium rig.

They played a some stuff off the new album (of which I'm not a big fan of), a couple greatest hits, and a bunch of material I'd never heard. I'm gathering some of it must have been new, since the die hard fans weren't cheering during the song intros like they did for every other song. Billy's in fine shape. I learned that when he feels like it, he can totally shred. I found that I liked some of the stuff I didn't know more then the ones I did. They did a solid two and half hour set, mercifully letting us go by 12:30. I'd heard that he often doesn't finish up till after one. I just can't hang like that. I really wanted the poster (sweet sweet poster), and I staggered my way to the finish line. Totally worth it.

In retrospect, it was an awesome show. It certainly stands out from many other shows I've seen. He stretches out songs pretty far - sorta like an extreme metal jam band. Lots of musicality there in that band, fueled by distortion and the desire to kick your ass. Anyhow, here's a little capture to get a very distorted taste (my sad little camera mic) of what punishing is all about:

Shout out to Bobbi-Sue

2007-07-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Heard you're sick. Hope yer on the mend.

Kerry Jo says you don't like it when she gets explicit.

That must be rough. I think your best long term approach is to employ the "Charlie Brown muted trumpet technique" the second you hear her say the word "butt".

Hippie Reprise

2007-07-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

Stiners and I (along with some heady friends) spent the rest of the weekend at the Greek, catching our final final String Cheese Incident shows. SCI stacked both shows with pretty big openers - Disco Biscuits and STS9 on Saturday, Railroad Earth and Hot Buttered Rum on Sunday.

The shows were ok. I wasn't floored with either. I enjoyed the STS9 set more then I thought I would. The peak SCI moments were when they brought both Railroad Earth and Hot Buttered Rum out for a couple tunes. The new years shows were far better IMHO.

I think I enjoyed the scene more then the music. It was gorgeous out - and it was especially fun on Saturday to be there from like 5 to 11. e had a nice amount of daylight, and then a gradual transition to night time. That's what summer shows are all about. Stina held up pretty good - we had reserved enough space so that she could lie down and do "dancing hands".

We ran into lots of friends and shared a lot of smiles.

So, goodbye SCI - thanks for all the good times. I'm glad Haber got to hula-hoop one last time at a SCI show.

Zack's Bachelor Party

2007-07-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

They say getting married is like running a half marathon. Or someone should. Cause Zack doing double duty running the SF half marathon and then getting married the following week.

Thus, Josh Cohen organized a fabulous mens night out on Friday to celebrate the upcoming nuptials. He wrote a truly outstanding waiver which Amanda had to sign:

The recipient hereby releases and forever discharges Joshua M. Cohen,his administrators, agents, assigns, and all other persons, firms,corporations and educational institutions, who it might be claimed tobe liable, none of whom admit any liability from any and all claims,demands, actions, causes of action or suits of any kind or naturewhatsoever and particularly on account of all injuries, damages, andnaked hot chicks known and unknown, both to person and property, whichhave resulted or may in the future develop from any accident whichmight occur as a result of any behavior becoming or unbecoming socialnorms to include but not be limited to generalized trouble makering,hookers, tequila shots, strippers, deities to include but not belimited to both baby and full sized jesus, cigars, drinking and whoring, eating sushi off of naked hot chicks, or any other event oractivity either encouraged or discouraged by Josh). The recipienthereby declares that the terms of this settlement have been receivedand regardless of whether they have completely read or fullyunderstood, they are accepted for the purpose of making a full andfinal compromise adjustment and settlement of any and all claims,stipulated or otherwise, on account of the injuries and damages abovementioned especially from tequila related activities, and for theexpress purposes of precluding forever any further or additionalclaims arising out of any possibility accident by the undersigned.

It is further agreed that the release expresses a full and completesettlement of liability, regardless of the adequacy of the aforesaidand that the acceptance of this release shall not operate as anadmission of the liability on the part of anyone, nor as estoppel,waiver, or bar with respect to any claim the part or parties releasemay have against the undersigned.

We went to Mortons for big ass steaks, which was pretty appropriate considering he's marrying a vegetarian.

Some of the crew. Note the snooty dress.

Clearly I wasn't so focused on the picture taking that night. The meat kinda took over. It wassooo good though.

Spinal Fun

2007-07-18T22:01:00.001-07:00

See that weird bubble on the right side of the 4th spinal chunk up from the bottom? Apparently, thats bad. The chiropractor has suggested surgery, but its too soon to know how this is going to play out. Many second opinions to come.

I decided to blow off some steam this weekend by doing a double feature of Transformers -> Die Hard. Both were satisfactorily entertaining, but I definitely give the nod to Die Hard. I sat in the large aisle gap in the front row where there were only 3 seats together for Die Hard. The teenagers occupying the seats next to me were doing naughty things under a blanket during the movie, which was both humorously and irritatingly created a distraction from shit blowing up. Ah youth.

I did two days of San Francisco electronica immersion by first attending Backlit Lounge on monday, and the Electronic Music Meetup on Tuesday. I always meet some interesting people at such events. Glad I made the effort to go.

We had travelling friends Dan Orderica (high school friend) and Abby over for dinner tonight along with DanT. There was some celebratory chili. Much of our conversation revolved around parental illnesses, running a business, and potentially having babies.

Yup.

Getting older.

Nice with the music

2007-07-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

A couple solid reviews of "Cool Aberrations" popped up in the last week - one on mellifua and one on netlabel review

This is excellent timing, as my concert recorded for echoes airs tomorrow. I plan on hosting a listening party soon.

I hope it sounds good. Clearly one track is pretty good, as I just got a request from John Diliberto to put acclimate on their annual living room concert cd. Nice.

sometimes it rains

2007-07-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

Stina's back pain really flaired up on the ride home from High Sierra. So much that we had to make a trip to urgent care. Since they were full, it was off to the ER. At this point she's pretty much off the morphine, and its time for an MRI and some doctor visits.

As my dad begins to recover from surgery, my mom is ordered to rest by her doc due to repeated swelling in her breast. Not so great to be on the other side of the country.

Then I discovered that Fimo, our pet rat, passed. At least she tasted pistachio before she left us.

There's all sorts of crazy work shit going on too.

I'm a little out of sorts.

Festivaaaaaaaal

2007-07-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

Summer time = festival time. Once again it was time embrace the hedonistic music marathon that is the High Sierra Music Festival. Stina was going to surprise me with tickets, but after I threated to buy them and go without her, she gently explained that we were already going. Ah. I'm a bad sport.

This was our 3rd time at the festy, nicely coinciding with our 3rd year wedding anniversary. Let me walk you through our grand adventure.

Stina was recently diagnosed with Sciatica, thus her back was not in good shape. She decided to persevere and push through the pain, so she spent much of the festival lying down on the ground. Her dancing comprised mostly of waving her hands around. It was quite endearing.

Apparently last year was a real bad year at the festival. There was a large invasive cop presence, and they brought the negative vibes in tow. This caused a drop in attendance this year, which ironically made it a far better festival for us. It was never too crowded = the lines for showers/bathrooms were never bad. The 5-0 presence was nil this year. I did not see a single cop the entire time I was there. Apparently this year they had a volunteer crew that tailed the cops, so that if anyone was arrested, they volunteers would immediately advise the arrested soul with sound legal advice. They also ensured that the cops didn't overstep their legal rights. This seems like the most effective police management strategy I've ever heard of.

Right then. On to

Day 1:

Stina, Angel, DanT and I drove up to Quincy. It took too long at 5 1/2 hours. We arrive at 9pm, find the campsite that Rachel and Aaron had setup on the off site campgrounds. Unfortunately, this year the off site grounds were a mile away from the festival, and so we would take a shuttle to and fro. We also carted up some bikes so we could have a little more flexibility. We hammer back a welcome to high sierra beverage or two, and shuttle over to check out Phix 's 10pm set at the Vaudeville stage.

I immediately run into Lizzie and Matt, and I'm swept into the festival spirit. We wander around the grounds a bit and run into some decent fire dancing.

Its amazing how much of the Burning Man culture/ideas has been integrated into this festival. There are art cars, ambiance crews, fire dancing, and theme camps. Its definitely a smart way to improve a communal experience.

We catch a little of the Surprise Me Mr. Davis (the Slip + Nathan Moore) and head back to camp.

Unfortunately theres a giant tree cutting factory positioned directly across from the site. Between that and the noise of the generators for the giant flood lights, neither Stina or I sleep the first night. Very rock and roll. Except that we're grumpy and tired, and Stina's back is flaring up. Boo. Its crazy hot out. Why did we come here again? We suck at this.

Day 2:

I start Friday off with some Mama's Cooking. They were pretty generic. Then some Brett Dennen.

He had sweet, gentle sound, and half of ALO backing him up. I liked what I heard there. Then a looper workshop with Lynx (beat boxer + flute) and That 1 Guy (crazy custom built instrument). Its inside and slightly cooler then outside, so I decide this room is a good spot during the day.

After a break at camp, it was time for Anders Osborne Band with Kyle Hollingsworth

A very New Orleans vibe, sick bass player, and I love me some Kyle. They even did a SCI song which was hilarious as Kyle was making letters with his hand to indicate what key he was currently in.

Panjea with Michael Kang - african dance hall vibe, didn't pull me in

Then some Jamie Janover. He had a great thing going on at Shady Grove - maybe 50 people were present, and his band was doing crazy rhythmic journeys. His drummer was world class - I was totally enamored with him. He had Dan Lebowitz, who was freaking everywhere at this festival, sitting in (High Sierra - now with 30% more Dan Lebo).

Chillin at camp during sunset.

I found Stina at Soulive.

She had discovered a gorgeous open tee pee at the back of the lawn area with rugs and pillows. This would be her new home for this stage.

We lumbered along until the Phix late night show (most late night shows needed additional tickets - she had gotten them as a special anniversary treat). We refueled with a couple tasty egg rolls. Even though we were pretty much shit dinner, we rocked out to Phix one last time with Angel and Dan (they are on their farewell tour - so sad, cause we always had a great time when they came through). I recall a sweet Reba. They even brought Asher (sick keyboard player) up for an epic Stash.

No way did we stay up for headliner Garaj Mahal. We passed the f out and slept real good on Friday night.

Day 3:

Kicked off Saturday by finally hearing Blue Turtle Seduction. They play all the time in SF, they've been the opener for a bunch of shows I've been at, and I've never seen 'em. They were ok. A little too blue grassy for my tastes. Its getting stupid hot again. I decide to check out the "how to promote your band" workshop, and I've stumbled upon the hidden gem of this festival: Music Biz workshops. Its in a small room, and its AIR CONDITIONED. OMG. I'm actually cold. Its fabulous.

None of the actual discussed information applied to me, since who tries to makes a living giving away your music for free and playing two dates a year? It was mostly this one lady who put everyone in their place. If you're not doing 200 dates a year, have a perfect website, an impeccable tour manager, stay home and play guitar hero. Really condescending, but probably true if your trying to making a living playing music. Who cares really? I was cold and out of the sun. Yeay.

Then another indoor event: Guitarmageddon. Josh Clark assembles a band to cover classic guitar heavy rock.

They played some cream and I read my book. I'm slowly discovering how to thrive in the festival environment.

Another sweet Brett Dennen set. I spend some quality time hanging with Ryan and Lizzie at Ryan's vending booth. If you haven't check out Ryan's art, click on the link. Its amazing.

Everyone met up for the Everyone Orchestra.

It turned out to be one of my favorite sets of the festival. Its always hit or miss with the EO - this time it was hit. Strangely I recognized very few of the musicians in this iteration. There was even a sick Tuba player.

Then the Budos Band.

They were great. An 11 piece afro-cuban groovin smile fest. They have true mass appeal - I would bring anyone to a Budos Band show.

Some Toubab Krewe (Afro Bowboy Ninja Surf).

I enjoyed their lively blend of eclectic African instruments and electronic music stylings.

I even ran across a renegade Reeble Jar set along the way to dinner.

They were fine, but they didn't inspire me to delay dinner for long. I had another incredible Gyro. I love the Gyro vendors, as does everyone else, what with the line.

I capped they day off with Stina at Tea Leaf Green.

At this point I was pretty burned out on music. I could go for some silence. A shower wouldn't hurt either. I feebly check out Bassnectar

and its just crazy in the tent. It was as if half the audience were on stage. I cowered in fear and retreated to the relative safety of our sweet sweet tent.

Day 4:

I wake up refreshed, finally feeling acclimated to the festival. I'm ready to rock today, unlike many of our fellow festival goers, who are looking a bit haggard. Its really smoky out, and apparently theres a raging forest fire 30 miles away. Thats not so far.

I kick the day off with some Albino! on the main stage. They've got the high energy afrobeat tastiness that I crave. A female is dancing like crazy on stage. I'm feeling good.

I took Stina to my secret special utopia, the air conditioned room for a workshop on music business legal advice. It was actually pretty facinating, led by an very experinced music lawyer. The insistent snoring from the passed out dude on the floor was a little distracting though.

We then went to the last minute announced music workshop given by Page McConnell. It was in a giant air conditioned music hall, and was not even a third full.

He took some questions and played some tunes. I even got to ask a question about his analog synth gear. He described his history with collecting analog gear and getting into electronic music. I got thanked for the question. Unfortunately, that was one of the better questions. The other ones were pretty poor ("can we write a song together right now?", "is Phish getting back together?"), giving Page the (possibly correct) impression that we are collectively all a bunch of knuckleheads. He played Velvet Sea, which was really touching since the last time we heard him play that was when he was crying at Coventry. Someone asked him to finish up with a piano solo from Squirming Coil, which he did. It was pretty cool.

While wandering around I happened across Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, where he was DOMINATING the organ. I had to stop and check it out.

I was damn impressed, which was hard to do at this point. Totally amazing stuff radiating from the band.

Then ALO.

I wasn't really into it at that point. I've heard them enough.

Time to head over to the main stage to hear Page McConnell with his band.

They were pretty great. I've always been a Page fan. He was a major influence during my years of piano assimilation. I was familiar with his new album (which is ok - strong lyrically, not so much musically) so it was fun to hear them live. It was at the best time of day - when the sun goes down and it starts to cool off. I stuck around for his entire 2 hour set. I ran into lots of friends and I was surprised to find that was lamenting that it was all almost over. Of course if you told me there was another day left I would have puked on your shirt.

There was a great moment during Page's set when I barged into a conversation with Lizzie and she was talking about "that one guy during the workshop." I told her I was at that workshop, and she looked at me funny. She knew I was there. I had no idea that she was there. We then determined she was talking about one of the dumb asses at Page's workshop. She had no idea that there was a performer named "That 1 guy" and I went to his workshop. Humor.

Finally, the true kings of high sierra: Leftover Salmon. They've been on hiatus for a while, and high sierra was their first gig back together. They were fantastic, and they fired me up. Festivaaaaaal! I danced harder then I had the entire time I was there. It was sweet relief. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face. They brought out a bunch of friends, including Page.

It was a perfect way to cap off our festival. Unfortunatly, I was too amped to fall sleep that night, and Stina's back started to seriously flair up. She got me up at daylight in a lot of pain, so we rapidly broke down our camp and fled home to Frisco.

There were a bunch of special moments for me during the weekend. I remember maybe a third of them. I ran across a lot of musicians who I have deep respect for. Most of them are pretty down to earth, happy to chat with a fan. Some of them even got CDs.

I recognize that a music festival really seems better on paper then in reality. I mean, how could I not want to see all these fabulous bands. But after the third or fourth band of the day, its hard to be engaged as an active listener. If the music doesn't lift me up and set my pants on fire, then it just washes over me. I'm not such a good camper, and I really like creature comforts. The sun is already a strong natural enemy for my skin, and it was stupid hot out.

So, in review, it was a real good time. It wasn't always easy, and I wasn't always happy, but I'm glad I went.

So there. Longest blog post ever.

Meta-blogging

2007-07-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

Its great having Gail and Dan around. For a multitude of reasons.

Two reasons come together nicely here - she'll cook for us (yum! and leftovers!) and then blog about it.

Here's a special "behind the scenes" look at the making of her blog.

Santa Cruz

2007-07-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

Our 3rd wedding anniversary is upon us. This means we have a 10 day celebration to attend to. We kicked it off with a weekend getaway in Santa Cruz. Stina, being Stina, did some research before we headed down to Santa Cruz. She checked the weather, and somehow interpreted the data so that it would be 60 degrees that weekend in Santa Cruz. She puts a lot of stock in the weather report.

As we were spread a bit thin this week, her packing lacked focus, and turned out a little lopsided. She packed 4 sweaters and no shorts/tank tops/etc. So even though the car was overloaded with luggage for a weekend getaway, she was totally devoid of warm weather clothing. Imagine her surprise when we arrive to 80 degrees beach weather.

So we checked into the B'n'B, and the gas fire place was kickin in our room. This would have been great if it was 60 degrees out, but it wasn't, so it was stupid hot in our room. Unfortunately, they couldn't figure out how to turn the fire off.

Our first stop - the thrift store. Everything was 50% off, so Stina stocked up on her wardrobe. $20 dollars later, we were rockin. Then we picked up some Tevas. My first Tevas. So exciting.

We walked down to the Boardwalk. We played some Fascination. We meandered down the beach and listened to a bit of a terrible free concert. We limped back downtown. I had a life affirming pee. We ate a pizza place (Kianti's) that had the 4th best pizza thrower in the world. Or maybe just US. Regardless, he was pretty fun to watch. In the middle of dinner all the wait staff did a synchronized dance while the advanced pizza tossers astonished us with their crazy funky mad dough skillz.

A wee surreal to say the least.

We planned on spending the weekend there, but our room was insanely hot, and sleep wasn't so handy. So we left on Saturday, and took route 1 back to SF. We stopped at San Gregerio beach for some photos, and came home to chill with Gail and Dan. We even got to attend Jason and Lindsey's house warming kegger up high in the mountains.

Good times.

Simublogging

2007-06-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm taking this rare opportunity to blog at the same time my blogosphere buddy Maui Gail is blogging. You see, we currently have some lovely house guests - Gail and Dan. I bet she isn't blogging about cooking. I would suspect it would be about SF adventures. But maybe I'm wrong. It could be education related. Who knows?

I can hardly wait to find out. I might just sit here and click the refresh button on my browser until the new post arrives. Or I could just peek over her shoulder. But that would be kinda rude, borderline creepy. I don't want to frighten my house guests. Well, not too much anyways.

I'll tell you about our wacky Santa Cruz adventures later. Now I have a sandwich and the refresh button to attend to.

Prostrates and Babies

2007-06-25T19:52:00.001-07:00

So my dad had his prostrate removed last week. It got pretty inflamed and it had to go. Its been a kinda intense week mulling that over. I'm so lucky to have an older brother that's a doctor that lives near my folks. Makes a bit easier to swallow that I'm 3000 miles away. Every day he sounds a little bit better. I feel like he's on the upward path.

Yesterday Stina and I starting talking a bit about the future, what with the possible child rearing and locationality issues. For the first time, "we'll do that later" turned into something more concrete, like "maybe we'll start trying in the next couple years." That in turn leads to "well, what does that mean to our life".

Whoa.

I mean, I shouldn't be completely in shock. This is part of an evolving conversation we've been having for many a year now. But, what with the getting older and eating cake all the time, its probably time to face (and hopefully embrace) the reality of raising a family.

I dunno. Its sounds kinda crazy, with the sacrifice and responsibility. I'm not there yet. But I'm on my way.

So then I went to see the John Butler trio at the Fillmore. Which is fairly symbolic, since the last time I saw him it kicked off my 30th birthday extravaganza (which went on for like 10 days), and I had a lot of intense thoughts going on with the turning of 30. John Butler is extremely talented. A joy to listen to. His band is stellar. His new CD is rather good. So I let the sweet sounds mix in with my many swirling thoughts and decided to be really happy, because I was at one my favorite places doing one of my most favorite things.

This was then followed by another one of my most favorite things: late night sandwich.

General Fuzz Interview

2007-06-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

For those who are interested, echoes is broadcasting the interview taped at my living room concert on Monday, June 25. You can see if you pick up echoes on a local radio station here. Otherwise, you can always hear it through their podcast, where I believe they make the interviews available for free.

I don't really remember what we talked about, so it'll be interesting (at least for me) to hear it.

The concert will air sometime in July.

Friends Bands

2007-06-24T15:28:00.000-07:00

On Friday night Stiners and I (along with many friends who we met on the way) did the friend's bands circuit in the Richmond. First we went to Cafe Velo Rouge to catch Brian's new band: Glenn Labs. The cafe was pretty tiny and it got mighty packed. We may have to return to sample the cuisine - it sounded pretty tasty.

Brian's band put out a strong, but short, debut performance. I particularly enjoyed the keyboard guy.

We stuck around for the next act: Sex with No Hands. The highlight of that set was when they covered a Journey tune with two accordions and a trumpet. They couldn't sing all that well - which they were very upfront about - but they made up for it with enthusiasm.

Then it off to the Plough and Stars for the Deciders (formerly the Jewgrass Boys) CD release party. The opener from Santa Cruz, The Down Beets, was really good. I'm not the big a bluegrass fan, so I was surprised that I enjoyed them so much. Their madolin player was ridiculous.

Then the Deciders. They were pretty spot on. They've got a bunch of gigs under their belt, and it shows. Really good pickers to boot. The lyrics were pretty damn smart - again, I usually don't pay attention. They could all shine when they tossed their salad along (that's blugrass slang for take turns soloing). In the middle of the set, they let the bass player sing a tune, and oh boy, does she have a set of pipes. They should have used her a LOT more. They place fell apart when she starting singing.

Check out devil Jordan:

Scary, huh? Well he sure can pick the 'ole banjo. . . up.

Which is no big deal really. I could pick up a banjo if I wanted to. I just chose not to. I don't have one near by right now.

So the Deciders have released a spanking new CD, and they made it creative commons (just like my music). This means its free to download. So go download it. Then bother them to make it a single zip file.

I had big plans to go out and see Sphongle @ 1015 Folsom late night, but after seeing four sets of music, the mustard jar was empty. F that. I ended up walking over to the Davis's residence where it turned out they were babysitting a Wii. Perfect. We ended up playing single bounce low score bowling for $1.

Granny's 90th

2007-06-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Oh my. We just returned Granny's (Stina's Dad's mom) 90th birthday celebration, which also doubled as a Rudden family reunion. I hadn't met most of the extended family, so I knew I was in for a huge weekend of meeting folks. We managed to pack a lot of living into our 49 hrs in Virgina.

We met up with Stina's folks (Michael and Martizie) in the Dullas airport, and made our way to the B'n'B which was our base camp. It was a historic home somewhere in the middle of Virginia.

First on the agenda was the Mexican Fiesta hosted at Pam's (Michael's sister) house. Pam has five children, four of which are married with children, some with several children. There are a whole mess of kids. My family is rather tiny, with a total of 3 nephews and nieces. This family is gigantic - its funny that Michael represents the smallest slice of the family with just one child who's not super into reproduction just yet. We had a whole a slew of inappropriate answers prepared for the inevitable baby questions (my favorite being "We feel that there are too many people in the world right now. Obviously you disagree"). Fortunately it didn't really come up.

The Rudden clan don't do parties half assed. This one had an absurd amount of Mexican food, complete with a Margarita machine.

I'm not really a huge fan of margaritas, but theses were dangerously delicious. OMG. I even dutifully obeyed Pam when told to fetch Granny another one. I was a little surprised to see a life sized Oooo (Granny's long deceased husband's nickname) doll in the basement. He seemed quite festive with a sombrero hat, so it was cool. Some of the little ones were scared of him though.

Carmen, Patti's (Michael's other sister) daughter brought a giant paper mache Margarita glass to the party (a Bunyata). Since it was too fragile to bust open, they placed it on the upper deck, and Granny tossed its contents (mini bottles of liquor) one at a time to the eager crowd below. Welcome to the family.

Brian (son of Pam) had brought along his Wii, so I felt right at home in the basement with some projected Wii bowling. We had a blast. Things got a little weird with the Oooo doll though.

The following morning was the Rudden family BBQ. It was at a beautiful spot in a park that kissed the Potomac river. It was complete with matching shirts and a giant Moon Bounce. There was some sweet wiffle ball action, more too much food, lavish artistic presents for Granny from Patti, an egg toss, and a pig Pinata also provided by Carmen.

Also a customary group photograph. My family has suddenly gotten much larger.

Granny and her children (Patti, Michael, Pam):

Then came the fancy dinner celebration. There was a Granny trivia competition and an open bar. There were speeches, word games hosted by Patty (I held my own in the question game), a sibling of the year award (well earned by Pam), and an induction into the mysterious family cult (the FOBSILS).

Our present to Granny was an enthusiastically sung reworking of "California, Here I Come". It was well received by Granny. Dinner ended only too soon.

Those without children to attend to were in no mood to call it a night. We wandered over to the first bar we found and heard loud music (drum machine and guitar) pouring out of it. Before we had time to asses the situation, the guitarist/singer guy/girl (I'm pretty sure it was a guy) came out of the bar (he/she had a wireless pickup) and rocked out with us on the sidewalk. It was beyond surreal at this point. Then he/she had us doing a kick line with him/her to "Naaaaa na na na naaaa". We followed him/her into the bar. Stina saw a piano, and requested that I join the jam. He/she seemed down, so I did. The crowd (we were half the bar patrons) ate it up.

It was simply ridiculous. He/she was super psyched that we came and sang and danced with great enthusiasm.

After we closed down the bar, we walked the block back to the B'n'b and hung out for a bit. Catherine (Pam's youngest) was the only one not officially staying there, so we sorted out a rooming scenario (possibly with the youngin who we all were guilty of pushing too many drinks upon).

When we called it a night at 3am, we headed up the stairs to hear knocking coming out of one of the bathrooms. Catherine had somehow managed to lock herself IN to the bathroom. It was the absolute icing to the cake. She was extracted some 15 minutes later after much debate and poorly attempted quiet yelling through the door.

Salvation.

We all looked a little haggard for Sunday breakfast, but there were smiles all around. There was a family Brunch/farewell at Pam's where the video that Stina made all weekend (interviewing family about Grannie memories) was aired along with a fantastic picture slideshow made by Johanna (a professional photographer). This family was truly amazing to pull this whole thing together. And then all too soon we were on our way back to Cali.

The whole weekend was much more fun and intense then I had anticipated. Everyone was extremely welcoming to me and helped me feel right at home. I felt like I had a chance to connect a little bit with almost everyone there. Granny was in good shape for 90, and was clearly really touched by all the celebration, filled with joy to have her whole family all together for the first time ever.

These kind of events don't happen with out lots of planning and effort. Its pretty clear where Stina gets it from.

I can't imagine a fuller 49 hours of my life. I feel blessed to be part of this family. Happy Birthday Granny.

Dan T + 3.0 = beer!

2007-06-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

It started with dinner plans. Stiners and I met up with Angel and Dan at their house at 7. Then Jordan happened to stop by, cause he was "playin a gig nearby". Then DanT was presented with the wicked home made keg-o-rater. It was all empty and sad, but certainly epic in promise. No more bottling homebrew for DanT (which apparently is a pain in the ass). Shortly thereafter more peeps dropped in. Then A Keg arrived, pizza was delivered, cake soon followed, and a party was in fully swing.

Hats off to Angel for the clever coordination a reverse surprise party. While most us reveled in the keg of beer, Stina was all atwitter because it was a birthday party with pizza and cake.

Happy 3.0, Dan T! Too bad you don't read my blog.

That Old Fear

2007-06-07T23:35:00.000-07:00

We went to our annual A's vs. Red Sox game this week. Unfortunately it was a pretty boring game, and the A's won 2-0. The only beers less then a mile walk away was bud or miller, $8 a glass. As we sat there, getting colder and colder, I couldn't help thinking, man, its so much more convenient to watch this on a TV, where I can see everything up close, the bathroom is nice and near, the beers are cheap, readily available, and far more delicious. On the other hand, when the hell would I watch a game on TV, really?

Yesterday we went to see Spidey 3. The collective feeling I got from my friends who had already seen it was that it was good, not great. This did not adequately prepare me for how terrible I thought it was. The action scenes were good, but the rest was just crap. We even snuck into Shrek 3 after, but only made it 40 minutes before we thought it was so bad we left. As we sat in line trying to leave the parking garage (even though the garage is free and is in the middle of nowhere, the gate lets one car leave every 30 seconds or so - WTF), after our $20 entrance fee, I couldn't help but feel it was a rip off to go to the movies.

So, now, as I mull over all the gripes I have with these experiences, it frightens me to no end that I'm turning into my father.

Very scary times.

The Sauce

2007-06-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

Chuck, an old Obie friend of ours, has been immersed in the San Jose rock scene for the past six or so years, playing in all sorts of funk/ska bands. It was time for Chuck to finally assemble a band of his own, and so, the Sauce was born.

The Sauce held its debut show on Saturday at the Blank Club in San Jose. To increase the likely hood of a SF presence at the show, he had his friend Drew drive a cargo van up to our neighborhood to ferry 8 people to and from the show. Now, as we to learn, this is not any old van. This was a fully tricked out van, complete with blue fur, blue track lights, mirrored ceiling, and DVD viewing capabilities.

View from the ceiling:

So we got to watch Anchorman, and all was excellent, minus one incident of car sickness. Drew is one amazing guy - willing to drive an extra 4 hours (after already driving 4 hours to get home from a gig earlier that day) to help support his friend Chuck.

The sauce opened up the show, and was pretty solid for their first live show.

You probably can't make out the female keyboard player on the left, but it was keys, chuck on guitar, a bad ass bass player, and drums. They kinda flowed in between funk, ska, and reggae. Its great to hear Chuck so up front on vocals. I was somewhat familiar with the tunes since he'd already slipped me a preview disc, so I really enjoyed hearing them live. I look forward to seeing/hearing their evolution.

Izabella & Meltone @ 12 Galaxies

2007-06-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

Back at 12 Galaxies for some more groovin.

Stiners and I met up with Ryan and Lizzie for some serious get down. Meltone, a Japanese jamband that's being traveling over to the west coast for the last couple years, made their debut appearance at 12 Galaxies. Randomly, they hired Nemo, the duder who did the album art for "Cool Aberrations", to do live art during the show. Nemo lives up in Portland, so this was the first time we've seen each other in many a year. It was fantastic to catch up a bit, and learn about the insane art projects he's got in the oven.

Sean Lehe, the guitarist who rips on "the grenabler", is the lead guitarist in Izabella. Its good to see how the new iteration of this band is starting to gel a bit.

Frank Chu was hanging around to make it a legitimate 12 Galaxies experience.

While I was rocking out too hard during Sean's epic jams to capture it, I did manage to grab a taste of his guitar prowess.

Then came on Meltone, complete with keytar player. They we're extremely high energy, and those in attendance seemed to soak it up. Again, I missed capturing most of the epic moments due to my grooving interests, here's a space rock taste of Meltone:

They were some seriously goofy fun.

Manu Chau

2007-05-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

It wasn't even on my radar. Then Aaron sends me an email asking if I'm going. He mentions that it was the best show he saw last year, which was brutally unfair. I cannot ignore such a thing from a seasoned concert goer. I check it out, and its sold out. Craigslist tells me thats is a sellers market, with ticket prices as much as twice as face. I put out a couple feelers, nothing comes back, and I'm resigned to not go. Until I get the absolute last minute phone call for a ticket for face, and I'm in.

And, man, am I glad I got to see this one. I've never seen a crowd so amped. From the first note, hands and bodies were in the air. The energy was unbelievable. He and his band was going full speed the whole show.

There's only a very few number people in this world who have that special something. The undefinable it factor that causes people to worship them. Manu Chau has it. I felt it was like seeing Bob Marley perform. A leader of positive social reform who also posses a powerful music presence as well. Most of the show was in Spanish. I had no idea what they were singing about, but I couldn't stop dancing.

He can also grab some mighty air.

There was also some good audience participation. A couple people managed to get over the barricade, thwart security, and climb on stage. There's about a 10 foot gap between the barricade and the stage. One dude, got up on stage, danced around, yelled the chorus in Manu mic (Manu always deferred to the people who got on stage), and performed a running stage dive, soaring over the 10 foot gap, landing like 8 rows back. It was unbelievable. The third most rock and roll moment I've ever seen.

Later in the show, the same dude was back on stage. Security wanted to clear him off, but someone in crew stopped security from getting him. This dude then tore off all his clothes and danced around the stage naked for the entire song. Don't believe me?

Epic.

Memorial Day Weekend

2007-05-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

Another bout with the fire and glass

Garaj Mahal at 12 Galaxies

Solid.

Living Room Concert

2007-05-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

I was rather pleasantly surprised when John Diliberto, host of Echoes, starting including some of the downtempo tracks from Cool Aberrations on his show. I was blown out of the water when he told me he was doing a short west coast tour and asked if we could do a "living room concert". Echoes does a series of recorded concerts every year, capturing intimate live shows in either artists homes or in the Echoes studio. I was extremely honored that he would even consider me for this series.

I had my work cut out for me preparing for this show. John selected 4 tracks which happened to have different performers on each track: acclimate (JP Culter and Adam Blomberg of guitar), flow tater (Sarah Holzman on flute), summer (Stara on vocals), and reflective moment (Steve Sparapani on cello). I was rather surprised and delighted that they all were interested in playing the show. Scheduling rehearsals with so many people is always an interesting endeavor, and in true rock and roll fashion, they all happened the week of the show. For a couple of songs, we ended the rehearsal with some homework for the musicians to do. Therefore, I had a little trepidation about the show. That, and I had no idea what to expect, really.

We spent much of Wednesday moving my studio from the office to the living room. Stina brought it huge, helping prepare a sumptuous buffet table of nibbles and wine.

People starting showing up at 7 for the 8 o'clock show. When John and Jeff (the engineer) arrived, things kicked into high gear. They had much more equipment then I anticipated, and cables and mic stands appeared all over the place. Our living room looked completely different. Jeff couldn't have been a nicer, more accommodating guy.

When the equipment was tested and the scene was set - it was time to play. John would do an intro, and we'd play a song. It was pretty exciting. Each song was a totally different head space due to the musician on the track. Everyone really brought their A game. There were plenty of flubs (mostly by me), but I really felt that the music was top notch. There was definitely an energy to the music that I've never felt before. John did interviews with the performers in between tracks. Then they went house with their cameras. We did lots of being perfectly silent as they recorded the sounds of our house/Irving street. They whole thing was pretty surreal.

After the music, there was an interview with me. Then the breaking down of much equipment and general merriment. Things went well enough that spirits were high all around.

It was especially cool to have these musicians meet each other for the first time. I had always wanted to bring them together, just cause I think they are all amazing people (aside from being ludicrously talented). John and Jeff are truly warm people, dedicated to the art of music and sharing it with others. Jeff has been engineer the show for almost as long as John has been running it (along with his wife). It was a truly special evening, that waaaay exceeded my expectations. Not a bad way to kick off Memorial day weekend . . .

I'll definetly let y'all know when its going to air.

Maker's Fair

2007-05-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Haber, Sam, and I went to the 2nd annual Maker's Faire. It was pretty inspiring. Its a giant fair which is all about DIY projects, from the simple to the very complex. Some cool stuff I saw:

Some cupcake bike vehicals:
A cool homemade kinetic maze:
Scary combat vehicals:
Cool objects that literally can not be made using tools. These were all created using 3d printers.

A giant reproduction of the mousetrap.

A robotic scarf dancer. This guy made some INCREDIBLE kinetic robots.

A trippy interactive projection system.

A knitting drummer.

Then Haber and I meyandered our way to Shoreline to catch Bjork. It was a pretty intense show sonically and visually, but totally sweet. The coolest part (besides her voice) was the rad electronics that one her crew was using during the set:

SEVA

2007-05-19T12:13:00.001-07:00

Last night, Stiners, Rachel, Casey, Aaron and I attended the SEVA foundation fundraiser. Well, actually Aaron sorta worked it, since he works at SEVA. This means that we got the killer hookup.

The lineup was stellar. First was Tea Leaf Green. They did a solid acoustic set.
Then came Chris Robinson and his Wooden family. They were excellent. Chris' voice was as strong as ever, and they even had some some solid sans drums jams.Then came Zero. They were fucking stellar. Way better then the last time I caught them. I took a smidge of video.

Finally, Mickey Hart and friends closed the show. He assembled a solid band to cover dead tunes. Steve Kimock pulled double duty with Zero and Mickey. I think he's raised ranks to my favorite guitar player alive.

This was one of the best concerts I've attended in quite some time. As a complete and utter bonus, Aaron got us into the VIP after party in the Red Room, the most beautiful room in all of SF. We traipsed upstairs to be greeted with tables and tables of FOOD! High quality food at that. OMG. Imagine a bunch of famished hippies arriving upon an incredible shmorgous board of food. It was both hysterical and incredibly delicious.
There was a couple giant cakes, cause this benefit was also Wavy Gravy's (spokesperson for SEVA, MC for the night) 71 st birthday.
Happy birthday Wavy!

Signature

2007-05-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

I just ran across the best signature I've seen on a forum, ever:

Go fuck a sunset, hippie.

The New Deal

2007-05-17T23:57:00.000-07:00

After some Chimay, MGD and pizza with Chris Davis, I headed out to what is becoming my home away from home - the Independent. Kid Beyond was opening, and was throwing down his jaw dropping vocal skills. His set has evolved over the years - now he sets up a song, loop by loop, first some drums, then a bass line, more drums, more effects, maybe a lead, all using his voice, a midi pedal, and an ingenious use of ableton Live. Then he sings on top of it. His songs/lyrics are now the focus of the act - and the amazing strength and range of his voice. Pretty crazy, considering how he's already redefined vocal percussion for me. Kick ass light show too.

The New Deal came next. Well, sorta. Two guys (the keys and drums) from the New Deal, and the bass player from STS9. They did a mostly improvised set in the style of Particle, STS9, etc. What I've come to learn is that this kind of music does not capture my musical attention at all. They are fine musicians, and the crowd eats it up, but if the music is to be all instrumental, I need some depth, complexity, and nuance. The music of last night was more repetitive, in the same key kinda stuff. I've already come to terms with my extreme musical snobbery. I'm good with it.

Its actually kinda nice that I can now cross off all bands of this electronica/jam band cross over nature off my show calender.

In the Aeroplane over the Sea

2007-05-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Joe Ledbetter assembled a 10 piece band (3 horns, accordion, cello, mandolin, theromin, bass, drums, and vocals) to cover Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane over the Sea". It has been described to me as an album you either love or have never heard of. Lars thoughtfully gifted me with the CD for my birthday and I studiously listened to it many times prior to the concert.

The show was simply amazing. They did total justice to the album. I totally look up to Joe as a musician - to have the drive and vision to do something like this and then totally pull it off. They even improved some of the tunes with extra harmonies and instrumentation. The audience stood in rapture. I heard multiple people in the audience sign along. The band plugged away, no breaks in between tracks, nailing each song, all hard and strong, and well, now my pants are chafing me.

The album ends with a solo guitar/vocal song. The ultimate sign of respect was that in the club, where at least 40-50 people were in attendance, there was total silence while Joe sang the final song. I don't think I ever seen that before, ever.

Thanks Anne for the photos - you rule.

Glass Beads

2007-05-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

Aaron gave me a really sweet birthday present - he took Rachel and I to a glass studio in Berkeley and taught us how to make glass beads. It was the perfect gift. It was something that I've always wanted to try, but never could muster the 'ole follow through.

It was totally rad. Its was fairly difficult to get started, what with glass + fire = liquid?, and the complete lack of skill/necessary coordination, but Aaron was equipment with crazy ninja teaching skillz. Not to mention an ill amount of patience. We had a great time. Or at least I did, for sure.

We made a bunch of "organic" shaped beads. Rachel even took some sweet shots:

What else did I learn? That glass blowers are a bunch of hippies. And that Planet Earth is like the best show ever.

Bustle in Your Hedgerow

2007-05-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

Stina and I warmed up Friday night with some tasty beverages, and then parted ways as I headed into the Independent. I even arrived on time for the opener - Rocket, an all female alt pop rock knock em on your ass kinda band. Their band genre description: "Powerpop", is pretty much on the money. They had a sorta edginess to the music that was offset by a very cheery onstage demeanor. I was shocked that their entire set was only 25 minutes long, cause they really packed it in. It felt like an hours worth of material.

I go to a lot of shows, blah blah blah, so it's funny some of things that get fine tuned. Like knowing when to go to the bathroom, where to sit/stand in the venue (especially if you are by yourself), when to hit the bar, etc. Its fun to assist other people enjoy their concert experience, as I did through out the night ("dude, hit the bathroom now. . .")

Anyhow, eventually the headliner took the stage. This is a band of true heavy hitters - the two guys from the Duo, the bass player from Ween, and the guitar player from Rana. Sick sick players. I think they are all in New York based bands, and I don't think they ever really played outside of NY - so this was a rare treat.

What they do is play completely instrumental covers of Led Zeppelin songs. Two kick ass sets of this.

It was pretty fabulous. I mean, these guys are all better instrumentalists then Led Zeppelin was comprised of, so the jams really got out there. On the otherhand, Marco (the keys duder) playing all the vocal parts got pretty old after a while. It would have been so much better had they had a kick ass singer present - it would have been the ultimate alternate Led Zeppelin experience. Besides that, those guys can play the living shit out of those songs. It got pretty rocking. I never realized how good a bass player Ween had.

I really wish Patry could have been there. He would have had more fun then anyone in the room.