Guy Smiley

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Well that was a ton of fun last night- about 7 hours of rock and roll and I didn’t want it to end. We played a great set and I had the most positive feeling running thru me the entire time. Trey and Chris threw in some extra ending riffs that put a big smile on my face. Met a lot of really cool people – dudes from Sunday Drive, Eaton Lake Tonics, Handclaps & Harmonies. I don’t know what they’re putting in the Fort Worth Municipal Water System – but man, are there some really talented and unique bands coming out of that town. No egos, no posteuring – just good clean fun music.

I was really proud of Amanda – everything ran like clockwork. I know she has been under a lot of stress planning for this gig and launching her new venture with Texas Music Icon Cindy Chaffin – finelinelive.com.

I’m not sure when we’ll be playing live again after the Black Dog gig. Chris Holt’s gonna be a papa the following week, Trey, Eric and Holt will be gigging with other acts. We might try a reworked stand-in lineup, but I think Joe and I will attempt to create some new project or write some tunes together over the summer – a more stripped-down deal. Of course we’ve been saying that for months now.

In the next several weeks I’ll put up some jones demos, a few explications and other music-related stuff.

Rock.

Big Gig

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big gig

Boca Tinta has assembled a great line-up! You guys need to see every single one of these bands. We’ll hit the stage around 8pm – so everyone near and far, young and old should have no worries about a late night. We’ll get a nice tight 45 minutes, so I’ve asked Eric to compile a setlist befitting the time and um… time (duration). Look for First Five and Everyday (an oldie).

See ya’ll there!

quickies

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Dan’s repairing my old strat. Can’t wait to play with a ‘correct’ neck. I may use the old strat more often – for some reason it sounds better thru the new amp than the tele when played at low to mid volume.

Steve Reich’s ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ is the new favorite sonic background for my mundane yet agressive cardio workout.

Any chance of someone starting a Max Rebo tribute band? Chris?

Word on the street sez that the Gentlemen Losers are working on a hard rock album with the help of some Chomsky boys. I honestly can’t wait to hear the result.

Re-discovered artist Cabe Booth on MySpace the other day. Here’s a few of his portraits I commissioned several years ago. I call them my ‘Holy Trinity’.

Holy Trinity

Flea bitten varmit rambles on and on and on

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Got back from the vacation all bitten up and sunburned, but pleased with the amount of beer I was able to imbibe – so much so that I was able to withstand the entire ‘Micheal Bolton’s Greatest Hits” cd one night at the resort bar. The bartender liked MB, and since he was serving me drinks one right after another, I put up with it. I didn’t listen to the ipod at all during the trip, but heard a lot of JJ & The rogues, Clinic, Echo & the Bunnymen and other catchy-tuned bands in my head. The last time I vacationed, I had the ipod set to play the Shins’ 2 cds over and over and I will always attach the memory of European winter train rides and tours with them. It’s much better to do this sonic memory attachment experiment when you are in an interesting environment instead of the usual daily commute or errand run, replete with exciting traffic lights, pavement and crap.

Nothing much in the way of band news – until the June Gigs at dada and black dog tavern. Will pump those up later. I haven’t been very creative lately, a lot of phrases and snippets of songs pop into my head every now and then, but nothing has really grabbed me and demanded my full attention. That or they sound too much like the stuff I’ve already done. The cheesy method i use – singing melodies and other musical parts into a tape recorder during conscious or semi-conscious states, to be later re-worked with electronic or actual instruments and then recorded as demos – is working, but I’m just not happy with any of the ideas after I revisit them with a more objective ear. Mr. Muse ‘ll come back eventually. (prayer)

In other news, Chris Carmichael and Lindsay Graham have opened a new recording studio called dmeter studios. I haven’t taken the tour yet, but I can already guess it will be filled with all sorts of cool gear, backed by their own highly-proficient, creative engineering and production-driven minds.

Also, Trey mentioned that Sorta is gonna be playing a ton of shows and several out of town mini-tours in support of their upcoming release in the late summer/fall. He said, “Are you SURE you don’t want a fill in for me?” I’ll take that as an open invitation. If any of you readers like to bang on things and are interested, let me know. We’d love to keep the live thing going as much as possible, even though other members are quite busy with other projects.

listening to
Finally, I’ll be at Club Dada this Thursday night to see Amanda’s Boca Tinta produced “Listening To…” series featuring Dirt Blazers, Alamo Jet, and The Atoms – a Ya’llternative set. Should be a helluva lot of fun. C’mon out!

Some really great music

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Just a short note of thanks to everyone who came out for the show. I’m sure you’ll agree there was a lot of great music last night.

JJ & The Rogues (as predicted by yours truly) blew the minds of everyone and were very well-received. As producer paul said “there’s just a huge amount of professionalism oozing off that stage right now”. I think they made a lot of fans last night, especially a lot of musicans.

We played a helluva lot better. Short set, but rocking none the less. Was nice to see so many Dallas luminaries. Thanks again to Trey’s bro Chris for letting us use his amp – Joe sounded incredible.

Airline was as cool as ever, playing with energy and verve. (yoda) So many great songs they have.

I think Michael captured a lot of photos and vids again. Check out his myspace for updates soon. He got some cool shots.

There was some negative crap that happened at the end of the evening which I’ll mention later / rant about in another post – consider that a tease! Update: if you are wading thru the archives you’ll be happy to know I am no longer welcome at the club due to verbally abusing the bartender and soundman for stiffing us on pay and drinks.

I’ll be vacationing next week – type atcha later!

Holt dominates DOMA – Sorta too!

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Welp, in true badass fashion – our own Chris Holt (also of Olospo and solo stuff) won Musician of the Year AND Best Instrumentalist at this year’s Dallas Observer Music Awards.

Congratulations Chris!!

From Chris’ myspace blog:
Wow…in between strikes of the giant hammer that keeps pounding my head in the form of a vicious hangover, I’ve come to realize (again) that you fans are the greatest…I am so thankful that you guys showed enough support for me and the band to give me another two awards last night. I honestly felt like last year’s Musician Of The Year win was a freak fluke…the awards show equivalent of the one-hit-wonder…but now that you guys have given me a second round of praise fills me with the highest gratitude. Musician Of The Year and Best Instrumentalist?? Damn…I’m not sure I deserve both of those…but I’m not gonna refuse them…what an incredible honor. I’m also really happy for Salim and Sorta and Woodbelly…it was like all of our friends finally got their due. Thank you so much to everyone who voted, and for sticking with me and the band for so many years. Despite my current state of nausea, I feel great, thanks to all of you. Stay tuned for more music…there’s a lot more on the way.

Chris
5/10/06

Our Drummer Trey, who also plays in Sorta helped carry home the award for “Best Act Overall”. Long time coming for those Sorta boys. Congrats.

So everyone come out to the Cavern tomorrow and buys these guys a beer, then watch them prove why they are so deserved of such honors.