Quick Hits

Just a few things to report:

Saw a version of The English Beat a week ago at the Granada (I’m going there a lot these days). Songs were good. Show was mediocre. I guess when you only have 1 original member – Dave Wakeling, the performance won’t live up to the memory of the band you’ve romanticized in your head for 20 years. Still, I had forgotten how great those songs were. Oh how I wish David Steele had been there. My 3rd favorite bassist behind Bruce Thomas and Colin Moulding.

Came back to Granada this past Friday for Chris Holt and the Egos, opening for Charlie Sexton. Eric is becoming the fan favorite. He’s definitely a rockin’ dood. Carter Albrecht played in all 3 bands that night, though like a true pro said it wasn’t rigorous at all for him, as he’s been playing 3 hour plus shows on tour for quite a while. Shannon McNally appeared between the Egos and Sexton, with the same lineup as Sexton. Great voice, I just couldn’t hear the lyrics. I need to listen to her cd. Charlie Sexton was pretty damn good. I’ll admit that his music isn’t quite my cup of tea, but the live energy of the band kept me interested throughout the set.

Spent yesterday in front of the computer, writing a string arrangement for this song called ‘Hollywooden Dreams’ . I was in a foul mood beforehand and that tiny bit of writing killed a lot of the negativity. Songwritin’s fun PeeWee. The tune is meant to be a kind of supermarket shopping song, so the keyboardy strings sounded perfect alongside the goofy organ part I had written earlier in the year. Gonna edit the hell out of it today. Its easy to go overboard and keep adding parts to a song until you’re left with this miasma of crap and the original ‘good’ idea is nowhere to be found. So no horn parts ok?

The rest of this week should be kinda mindless, but I know Friday night at the Elbow Room will be a lot of fun – A new cd called ‘shuffled’ by my old pals Gentlemen Losers will be released along with several crates of free beer. Can’t wait to hear the new stuff. I’m sure I will love it like all previous albums. Two great songwriters that always manage to release a cd every year. More on Gentlemen Losers later in the week.