(...we watched Empire Records this weekend)
First just let me say… it is frustrating to not be able to post whatever I want here. There are certain things I just can’t/won’t talk about and I guess that’s just inherent to having a public “journal” like this. It feels like 60% of Phil sometimes. But, this won’t stop me from posting, at least for now…
I had a fun weekend… a little expensive, but fun. We’ve been practicing a lot more recently, now that our new studio is set up, and because we are getting more and more NYC/Brooklyn gigs (whoo!). After practice on Friday, I packed up my keyboard in hopes of being able to sit in with our friend Michelle V.’s blues/cover band that night at Casa del Sol (mentioned in many previous posts; the bar/restaurant right below my apartment). Dylan had told me she was playing and if nothing else I wanted to check out some of her set and enjoy a beer at the bar but secretly I was hoping to talk my way into jamming with her. My dad does this kind of thing sometimes, with his trumpet. I wanted to do it, I knew I could, so I prepared for it and showed up, ready to shmooze my way in.
Long story short… it worked, it happened, and it was wicked fun. She does a mix of originals and covers, mostly blues, but also some Alanis, U2, and Sheryl Crow tunes. She’s got a great raspy voice for the more mellow stuff but can also belt it out. Anyways, I sat in on basically the whole last set and got to flex my organ chops on about 5 tunes. Good stuff. It’s what I’d been envisioning all day. Michelle, her friend Tara and I stayed at Casa until closing and then hit Luna, a smoky dive bar for some dancing/chilling before heading back to our apartment to play a rousing game of… charades?! Bed at 4:30… oy. Hardly “rousing,” as Mateus and I were yawning the whole time. Heh.
The next day, Glint had some album art business to take care of… local artist Paul Kostabi is creating artwork for our album and wanted to do some more photos with us. He lives in a tiny little house in Piermont, one town over, and had us… well, I won’t tell you what the photos involved, but they are SO damn cool, and you’ll see them once the album is out. His house was so neat… art, canvases all over the place… a Hammond organ(!) and a bunch of other musical odds and ends (Paul is also a producer and was a founding member of White Zombie!)…
That night, Rob, Dylan, Mat and I decided to have a lil’ barbecue. We picked up one of those Magic Hat “Feast of Fools” variety packs… have I said how much I love Magic Hat? We experimented with this weird charcoal-in-a-box thing that unfortunately yielded some undercooked burgers. Between that, the beer, and Dylan’s almost-White-Russians, it was an… interesting night. At the end of the night (11:30, hehe) I grabbed my guitar and Rob and I began making up songs about Ally Sheedy (the actress from the Breakfast Club who’s not Molly Ringwald)…?! Exactly.
Aaaand Sunday… we decided to hit up the Museum of Modern Art. Thanks to Kevin, Rob’s apartment-mate, we got in for –free- since he works at Chase bank and they have some kind of corporate deal there. Sweeeet. We (Rob, Jase, Adam, Yael and I) hit the Stage Deli afterwards for some ridiculously oversized sandwiches. Everybody finished everything… I was proud of us. On the way back we played a rousing (for real, this time) game of “Rhetorical Answers” (a bit of a misnomer, admittedly), where someone starts by stating an answer and the rest of the group tries to come up with a wacky question to fit. Heh. “Every Friday.” “…Phil, how often do you shower?” You get the idea.
Psyched about Thanksgiving! Heading home to NH!
Monday, November 20, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
...huh?
How did Adam score a free lunch for 15 at his own workplace...?! Hey, free sushi, I'm not complaining... now we just have to convince them (probably some credit card company) that we all work for Rely Records... hehe.
More gigs, already! In the city! Another at Arlene's (they apologized for the door fiasco) and one at the Lion's Den, both in December, both on weekends! Solid. Even though they may prevent me from getting home for Chanukah.
And... I meant to post this last time... I will be shadowing a couple medical physicists at home in NH over the holidays. It's kind of a whole separate "kettle of fish," but suffice to say, I have been feeling a little restless about things and just, if nothing else, would like a "plan B."
Reminiscing about mod 10 days and goofiness with Sam, Becky, and Leah(nardo) my last year in college... good times... playing in the snow, disco-dance underwear(!) parties (fine, just the one, but still)...
Alright, off to practice.
More gigs, already! In the city! Another at Arlene's (they apologized for the door fiasco) and one at the Lion's Den, both in December, both on weekends! Solid. Even though they may prevent me from getting home for Chanukah.
And... I meant to post this last time... I will be shadowing a couple medical physicists at home in NH over the holidays. It's kind of a whole separate "kettle of fish," but suffice to say, I have been feeling a little restless about things and just, if nothing else, would like a "plan B."
Reminiscing about mod 10 days and goofiness with Sam, Becky, and Leah(nardo) my last year in college... good times... playing in the snow, disco-dance underwear(!) parties (fine, just the one, but still)...
Alright, off to practice.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Here's That Rainy Day
I think there's probably only one person who reads this blog (and I'm not even sure if he does) that gets these jazz standard blog titles I use sometimes.
...I like this weather we’re having. I’ve always liked the rain.
The left side of my car stereo stopped working. It’s a bit annoying, hearing only the right side of mixes for all these songs... maybe one of these days I’ll take some time and investigate. I’ve fixed things in my day.
I had a nice little night to myself last night. Took care of some car stuff, then cooked for myself. I concocted a marinade from some of the wine leftover from the wine and cheese party and some random spices in our cabinet and let the chicken I bought sit in that for a while while I spoke to Roberta, who just returned to Rio, on MSN. Mashed some potatoes... made some green beans (a little overcooked)... not too shabby. And now look who has a sweet homemade lunch at work today. Heh. I also spoke to Shara, who is working at a medical clinic in Brazil herself (in a state in the northern part of the country called Para that my Brazilian-Nyack cohorts laugh/shudder at whenever I mention it... suffice to say, not a nice part of the country), via Skype, and on the phone. Technology is pretty amazing.
The Arlene’s Grocery show went well. I couldn’t really hear myself, which was admittedly pretty annoying, but could tell we sounded pretty good to the audience. I think being a keyboardist, people (sound engineers at clubs) assume I’m playing less important parts or something... ?! I dunno. Anyway, we brought a lot of people out: the Nyack/Wasabi crowd, some old Brandeis peeps now relocated to NYC (Lindsay, Jordan, Nate, and my recent apartment-mate Becky)... I think due to a minor scuff with the door girl about money we may not get asked back to that particular venue (heh), but we made a nice contact on the Tuesday night before the gig that will help us get other NYC/Village gigs.
The Wednesday night big-deal-manager-guy showcase went pretty much how I expected it to. This guy works with Panic! at the Disco in some vein (I think business manager), as well as Warren Haynes/Government Mule, so I went into this hoping we could at least get some sound advice out of this guy. And that’s pretty much what happened. We played 4-5 songs and talked for a while afterwards about signing with a label and how it’s smartest to have a decent following/”buzz” before doing so. He talked about playing out more. I mostly nodded... it all made sense to me. If nothing else, it was good to hear these things reaffirmed by someone like him and cool we brought this guy out at all.
...why on this radio station do they play the –entire- Steve Miller Band “Fly Like an Eagle” intro and outro with all its silly drawn-out synthesizers and NOT the entire Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen jam by Santana?! It’s a TRAVESTY
Ahem. Intentionally leaving that without punctuation at the end bothers me. But I’m going to try and let it go.
Tyler called yesterday and told me my old music school in Concord wants our Celtic band to do an alumni concert sometime over winter break... this could be fun.
Our video guy Jonathon is coming down from MA at the end of the month to work on a video with us...
Can you believe they have an energy drink called “Cocaine” on the market?!
Fine, here’s a picture, to change things up a bit... this is Mat, Rob, myself, and Ines at the joint Mat’s birthday/wine-and-cheese party at our apartment last weekend.
...I like this weather we’re having. I’ve always liked the rain.
The left side of my car stereo stopped working. It’s a bit annoying, hearing only the right side of mixes for all these songs... maybe one of these days I’ll take some time and investigate. I’ve fixed things in my day.
I had a nice little night to myself last night. Took care of some car stuff, then cooked for myself. I concocted a marinade from some of the wine leftover from the wine and cheese party and some random spices in our cabinet and let the chicken I bought sit in that for a while while I spoke to Roberta, who just returned to Rio, on MSN. Mashed some potatoes... made some green beans (a little overcooked)... not too shabby. And now look who has a sweet homemade lunch at work today. Heh. I also spoke to Shara, who is working at a medical clinic in Brazil herself (in a state in the northern part of the country called Para that my Brazilian-Nyack cohorts laugh/shudder at whenever I mention it... suffice to say, not a nice part of the country), via Skype, and on the phone. Technology is pretty amazing.
The Arlene’s Grocery show went well. I couldn’t really hear myself, which was admittedly pretty annoying, but could tell we sounded pretty good to the audience. I think being a keyboardist, people (sound engineers at clubs) assume I’m playing less important parts or something... ?! I dunno. Anyway, we brought a lot of people out: the Nyack/Wasabi crowd, some old Brandeis peeps now relocated to NYC (Lindsay, Jordan, Nate, and my recent apartment-mate Becky)... I think due to a minor scuff with the door girl about money we may not get asked back to that particular venue (heh), but we made a nice contact on the Tuesday night before the gig that will help us get other NYC/Village gigs.
The Wednesday night big-deal-manager-guy showcase went pretty much how I expected it to. This guy works with Panic! at the Disco in some vein (I think business manager), as well as Warren Haynes/Government Mule, so I went into this hoping we could at least get some sound advice out of this guy. And that’s pretty much what happened. We played 4-5 songs and talked for a while afterwards about signing with a label and how it’s smartest to have a decent following/”buzz” before doing so. He talked about playing out more. I mostly nodded... it all made sense to me. If nothing else, it was good to hear these things reaffirmed by someone like him and cool we brought this guy out at all.
...why on this radio station do they play the –entire- Steve Miller Band “Fly Like an Eagle” intro and outro with all its silly drawn-out synthesizers and NOT the entire Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen jam by Santana?! It’s a TRAVESTY
Ahem. Intentionally leaving that without punctuation at the end bothers me. But I’m going to try and let it go.
Tyler called yesterday and told me my old music school in Concord wants our Celtic band to do an alumni concert sometime over winter break... this could be fun.
Our video guy Jonathon is coming down from MA at the end of the month to work on a video with us...
Can you believe they have an energy drink called “Cocaine” on the market?!
Fine, here’s a picture, to change things up a bit... this is Mat, Rob, myself, and Ines at the joint Mat’s birthday/wine-and-cheese party at our apartment last weekend.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Where has he been?
I’ll tell you where he’s been.
Well… the band has moved studios once again. This will be the fourth one I’ve been in since joining them, first in Boston, then the infamous Worcester firehouse, then the space above the Eisen’s garage in Nyack, and now, adjacent to Adam and Jase’s parents’ house in Orangeburg. This place is like a whole separate mini guest house, where Adam and Jase’s grandmother used to live. We just got a new PA system and things sound really clear through it. And I want to say this is the first studio we’ll have been in without extreme temperature problems… roasting in Boston and Nyack, freezing our asses off (or inhaling propane gas all day long) in Worcester.
Rob and I are going to see this ridiculous concert tonight, check this out… John Medeski, solo, on acoustic piano… and Kid Koala (DJ) on the same bill. I know little about the latter, I’ve only heard one track of his on a compilation disc, but he sounds cool. It sounds like they’ll perform separate sets first and then join for a duet at the end. Medeski is being billed as performing the “music of J.S. Bach and Ornette Coleman.” Heh.
Some noteworthy (pun intended?) events last weekend… I have been guesting with Dylan’s classic rock cover group from around here, Zero Volume Division (how much of a BAND NAME is this?), on some recent gigs. And by gigs I mean an impromptu balcony performance at our neighbors’ apartment (on a Tuesday night, no less) where we played to a crowd of about 30 people below on Main Street before getting cut off four songs in (the police guy came in and literally pulled the plug on us)… and one actual gig this past weekend in New City. The group plays Zeppelin, Doors, and Pink Floyd covers with some other random choice tunes thrown in. I played on Another Brick in the Wall, Comfortably Numb, Peace Frog… L.A. Woman –killed-, I’m sorry. I took the time, I learned the parts (mostly), I found the right sounds, and it really showed on that tune. There weren’t even a whole lot of people there, mostly Nyack-ers we brought with us, but it was just so fun to play with musicians (my age) who take covering songs like that seriously (enough). Andy, the guitarist, is ridiculous… he sounds just like the original recordings. It was a pleasure playing with all of those guys… Dylan, Andy, and Jaime, who is unfortunately returning to Chile very soon. I now have a greater appreciation for that kind of music, which until recently I had only listened sparsely at best… it just ROCKS.
Suffice to say, with a lot of these entries… life day-to-day is pretty good. The long-term freaks me out. Per usual, I guess. Glint has a show coming up next week on the 9th in the Village at Arlene’s Grocery, and is possibly playing a showcase before that for some big-deal manager, so, we’ll see…
Well… the band has moved studios once again. This will be the fourth one I’ve been in since joining them, first in Boston, then the infamous Worcester firehouse, then the space above the Eisen’s garage in Nyack, and now, adjacent to Adam and Jase’s parents’ house in Orangeburg. This place is like a whole separate mini guest house, where Adam and Jase’s grandmother used to live. We just got a new PA system and things sound really clear through it. And I want to say this is the first studio we’ll have been in without extreme temperature problems… roasting in Boston and Nyack, freezing our asses off (or inhaling propane gas all day long) in Worcester.
Rob and I are going to see this ridiculous concert tonight, check this out… John Medeski, solo, on acoustic piano… and Kid Koala (DJ) on the same bill. I know little about the latter, I’ve only heard one track of his on a compilation disc, but he sounds cool. It sounds like they’ll perform separate sets first and then join for a duet at the end. Medeski is being billed as performing the “music of J.S. Bach and Ornette Coleman.” Heh.
Some noteworthy (pun intended?) events last weekend… I have been guesting with Dylan’s classic rock cover group from around here, Zero Volume Division (how much of a BAND NAME is this?), on some recent gigs. And by gigs I mean an impromptu balcony performance at our neighbors’ apartment (on a Tuesday night, no less) where we played to a crowd of about 30 people below on Main Street before getting cut off four songs in (the police guy came in and literally pulled the plug on us)… and one actual gig this past weekend in New City. The group plays Zeppelin, Doors, and Pink Floyd covers with some other random choice tunes thrown in. I played on Another Brick in the Wall, Comfortably Numb, Peace Frog… L.A. Woman –killed-, I’m sorry. I took the time, I learned the parts (mostly), I found the right sounds, and it really showed on that tune. There weren’t even a whole lot of people there, mostly Nyack-ers we brought with us, but it was just so fun to play with musicians (my age) who take covering songs like that seriously (enough). Andy, the guitarist, is ridiculous… he sounds just like the original recordings. It was a pleasure playing with all of those guys… Dylan, Andy, and Jaime, who is unfortunately returning to Chile very soon. I now have a greater appreciation for that kind of music, which until recently I had only listened sparsely at best… it just ROCKS.
Suffice to say, with a lot of these entries… life day-to-day is pretty good. The long-term freaks me out. Per usual, I guess. Glint has a show coming up next week on the 9th in the Village at Arlene’s Grocery, and is possibly playing a showcase before that for some big-deal manager, so, we’ll see…
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