The July 4th Parade and Show that Followed

Niks Place brought me up on their short bus for the 4th of July parade. It was fun. Towards the end, I got bored and started yelling at the crowd "come see a legend tonight at Niks! Me!"

I thought it was funny. Not many other folks did. Fuck em.

And then I played a show that night. I thought Melissa was coming, but she never made it. Instead I had Herbie Dorfman (sp?) on baritone sax. Oh man he's fun. We played all sorts of crazy shit, after burning through the usual suspects of the set list. Note to self: ALWAYS play Hell and Ecstasy then Are you Experienced. Because damn. Those are the stretch-out-and-groove songs, sho nuff.

And John Michael Rose got up and sang enough songs for me to eat dinner. That guy's a trooper.

This week, I'm in whore mode for a whole different project. YERMOMANEMS - the greatest band to ever come out of the Weather Channel! Will be playing on Saturday for a benefit show. Ahh the benefit shows. Always the funnest to be involved with.

Gotta run. There's more. There's always more, just, maybe not today.

View From The Stage #1

Played the acoustic night at Niks Place last night. I've been doing this since sometime in November or December, every other Sunday night. I liken Nik's Place to the Star Wars Cantina, not just in the way that people are freaks but in the way a man can lose an arm for saying the wrong thing. Freaky Scary Fun To Watch.

Observations for the evening:
1. No, not EVERYONE knows Allman Brothers Songs. No, YOU come on man.

2. Yes, "Bye Bye Miss American Pie" is the greatest song in the world, but no, that doesn't mean I know it.

3. "...play some shit that everybody knows!" equals FREEBIRD, every time. EVERY time. Oh, laugh and then say it again? FREEBIRD AGAIN. Everybody Wins.

4. Just because I'm in the middle of a song - in the middle of a verse, oh please, come up and start asking me questions. I'm not doing anything. Honestly, I'm just kind of rehearsing. I'm not really in the middle of a song. I'll be happy to stop and have a conversation with you Bud Light.

5. If you DO NOT KNOW the words to MORE THAN WORDS, do not get up and try to sing it. That's irony right there - not knowing the words to MORE than words.

Kudos to the Drunk Ass Skank of the Week: Tracy I believe was her name. It was hard to understand the Oxycontin-Budweiser slur. But trust me, if a girl keeps returning to request the same song over and over, it's not because she's a fan. It's because she's lit like a flare and forgot that she'd already made the request.

Public Service Announcement Number One: Just because there's a mic in the room, it does not mean you should run up, grab it and sing. Especially if I am already using the goddamn thing. You twit. Get off my stage. I'm a star. You are not. You are Greedo. (ps watch your ass, Han Solo shoots first)

It was a good night, all in all. I made good money in tips, I got free food and booze, I made it home in one piece, and I rocked the place until they needed to change their depends.

I'll update you as events become clearer.

So. Let's Get Busy.

I've got an album in the can, it's been in the can since Dec of '07. I've decided to get off my ass and do something about it. There's no point in being this awesome if I can't prove it to every person out there.

I spent the last year (08) noodling around, retiring, whining, planning offshoot projects that never happened, and here we are, a year later, but I'm back in the saddle, playing at least 3 times a month, everything's coming up roses. So what the hell, let's make a little noise and finish this stupid record.

When I last checked, there was 10 songs - 3 of which were covers. I think I'm going to go ahead and add "bonus tracks!" to the record to flush out all the other great stuff I've done over the past year. I mean seriously, how expensive COULD it be to make an album that's 50% covers? Especially if those covers are going to garner more attention and more sales - thereby paying for themselves, right? Sure sure. That's what I'll tell myself.

The ORIGINAL TAL3NT! track list:
As Good
Behind Bars
Does That Make You Feel Good
Fools Gold
Hotel Chelsea (cover)
I Don't Want These Memories
I Would Die 4 U (cover)
Make Me Laugh
My Dingaling (cover)
Nevergonnaletyoumakemehatemyself Again
Run Your Hands
Star 69 (which is now looking extremely dated no matter how you splain it)

And then the covers I've done because I kill me with my humor:
Don't Worry Be Happy
I'm A Lover Not A Fighter
You Shook Me All Night Long
Drive
I Just Can't Wait To Be King
Sympathy For the Devil
Hey You/Hey Ya
Daughters

So what are we up to - 3 hours of music? Maybe I oughtta be a little more picky? Pshaw. Maybe two albums at the same time? A Use Your Illusion - but call it Use Your Confusion ho ho ho. I gotta wake up.

But seriously - looking at my last year's output - I've done more re-covers than originals. I wouldn't call it a slump. I'd call it having fun messing stuff up. Is that so bad? Should I begin marketing myself as a fantastic re-arranger for people who want to re-interpret covers? Sure I could. For those four people in the world who'd have no ability to do a cover.

Sigh.