It has come to my attention that I am no longer happy playing for Mr. Anderson, who has not followed through on any of his promises.  As much as he badmouths Dwight Yoakum, I believe he should turn the eye of scrutiny toward himself.  Thus tonight, when I have decided it is time to make my exit, and I finished repairing my mandolin, I wrote and recorded this rough punk song as an ode to ex girlfriends and ex band mates.  Goodbye Petey, I will not miss the Moose.

(It has no mandolin in it yet, though I originally wrote this on said instrument at which I am hardly adept).

Adieu

Back to the Minutemen, I love how they sound punk and rough, but if you listen, these are three very skilled and tight musicians. They took the punk aesthetic of simplicity due to lack of skill and made it simplicity due to a careful mind and highly skilled playing.
Mike Watt and the Missingmen will be playing
saturday, february 20 at 9 pm
at harold’s place
1908 s. pacific av.
san pedro, ca
(310) 832-5503
FREE ADMISSION!
Go check out one of the great unsung bass heroes.

Last night in Long Beach was the most incredible musical performance I can remember seeing in some time, and it took place in my home town!  Really made me reconsider the idea of moving away.

Here’s the skinny:  I got an invite from the banjo player from my old band, Vast Atlantic, to come see his band , The John Meeks Band perform at the Prospector (a local dive and the first bar I ever went to at the tender age of 16).  A late addition to the bill was Sam Outlaw, featuring our former pedal steel player Bret Hendry.  An evening of great country music was to be expected, and it was a reunion of sorts between three out of the five members of Vast Atlantic.

And then there were three...

And quite a night it was:  A blustery wind from the NW set in around the early evening, sweeping a spell of magic upon the night, not to mention chapped lips.  I arrived early, (yes I know this is surprising) and milled about with friends before the show.  After watching Jake and Jess in a heated match of “Erotic Photo Hunt”, I learned some interesting tidbits of information scattered about through several conversations.

First, I learned from Jonah that he is dating a girl who actually listens to our old band.  I don’t know why I find this strange; we put in hours of work, meticulously crafting every piece of music.  It just seemed to me that a.) no one really knew who we were, and b.) the band sounded unhealthy to me.  Now, stepping back, I realize that both are not true.  This girl and her friend were at the sold out Troubadour show that we played with Rocky Votolato (her friend remembers being hit on by the bass player).  There were a ton of people at that show; I don’t know where they came from or where they went afterwards, but they are still out there listening to us!  Just shows you that today’s youth don’t need a record label imprint to legitimize a band.  Ah, DIY.

Next, Bret informed me that the OC Weekly ran a piece about our breakup recently.  They are a bit late on this, as we were done by June of this year.  But I just find it interesting that they thought so highly of us.  I know we were in the magazine several times in the past, but they were small features.  I never would have expected “They’ve been our favorites for a while”.  Where were these magazine reporters and their lackey’s?  Why did it seem that we had no one at most of our shows?

Link to original review: Locals Only by Erin DeWitt

Link to RIP article http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/local-bands/tustinlong-beach-band-vast-atl/

It is a hard realization that critical acclaim does not equal popular success.  It helps, but it is just part of the puzzle.  Our lack of good management and our confusion over where to find our fan base really held us back.  For a similar story, check out “A Good Band is Easy to Kill”, a dvd about the late band Beulah. (Warning: For educational purposes only on what not to do in a band.  Boring as hell.)  Better yet, check out “Dig”, the film documenting the rise and demise of “The Brian Jones Town Massacre”.  It will give you a good feel for the hatred and animosity that the close quarters of a struggling band can engender (as the ex members of Vast Atlantic all know only too well).  Similar stories, but they beat their heads against the wall a bit longer.  When you play shows to no one after playing to a crowd,  it is quite easy to become demoralized and throw in the towel.  What we needed (besides group therapy) was a tool to help us locate the loyal fans like the two girls at our Troub show who still listen and bring them out to more performances.

From Monday, November 9

If only we had had Band Metrics, which I discovered through a timely episode of NPR’s “On the Media” the following Sunday.

http://www.onthemedia.org/episodes/2009/10

Band Metrics <bandmetrics.com> is a computer program by Duncan Freeman in beta that is to be fully launched next year.  Using a complex system I’m sure I will never understand, it analyzes shows, radio play, word of mouth buzz, and language analysis of faceebook, twitter, myspace etc.  What you get is a plotted map of where you should tour to hit your superfans, those who will bring people and money to your shows.  Thank you technology.

Enough wool gathering.  The show at the Prospector turned out fantastic and ended in a raucous drunken jam featuring members of The Fling, Sam Outlaw, and Cold War Kids.  Sweetheart of the Rodeo was played almost in its entirety, and I left a happy audience member.  It’s been said by other vagabonds to me, but the more I travel, the more I realize we have something special in Long Beach.  If I could only turn the average temperature down 20 degrees and clean up the ocean, I would feel at home.  More to come.

I equate the feeling to being stuck on a desolate, sun baked island, with nary a coconut laden palm to quench my thirst and hunger.  The wonderful thing is, I have discovered that just about all of my friends in their mid twenties feel this way as well.  Now all we have to do is figure out how to build a boat.  I think I’ve found some raw material to start mine, and hopefully I can make room for a few others as well.

Here’s what’s going down.  The gig with Pete Anderson has proved to be frustratingly mundane and looks like it could, quite possibly, be a dead end.  Tonight marks my ninth gig at the Moose Lodge.  I know it is only supposed to be a “live practice”, but it isn’t.  Nobody shows up (it’s a Moose Lodge for God’s sake) and that is really demoralizing.  I can’t even begin to describe what a set back this feels like after years of building a musical career.  It is also hard for a person of my agnostic bent with a difficulty for faith based activity to believe it will pick up down the road.  But, when I got this gig, I told myself that Pete Anderson would be my “Personal Jesus” for a time.  He has faith in himself and I need to have faith in him. For a time.

It really isn’t all bad.  I have learned more about bass in the past month than in the past two years combined.  I could now go out if need be and nail any gig presented to me (except maybe Frank Zappa’s band if he were still amongst us.)  And there is still the promise of tours.  Once I finally have one tour with Pete under my belt I will feel a bit more confident about the future.

Another region of my artistic island has to do with my own musical work, which has fallen by the wayside with all the work I have been doing for Pete.  I haven’t worked on my own material since my last show in the beginning of September and it has hurt to say the least.  (In fact, I had a friend punch me and start a scrap because he felt that I shouldn’t push my work to the side.  The sentiment was admirable, his actions were not.)

So, I began doing some musical research to get myself inspired.  I started with U2′s Joshua Tree, at the behest of a friend, because they certainly are a musical behemoth and he felt I would do well to listen to their work.  I sat through the entire album one evening, taking it apart with a fine toothed comb, and this is what I found:

-I still loathe U2 and they make me physically sick

-There is a lot of musical appropriation of themes and ideas (“Bullet the Blue Sky” almost exactly rips off  both Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” and Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold”

-The lyrics are just pretty words, they don’t make much sense.

-Three hits start out the album, followed by slightly meatier/heavier songs.

-I still loathe U2.

It hurt me to listen to this, but I did take away some decent information.  One idea that stuck with me is that U2 is not the only band I have heard appropriate a riff from another band and I got to thinking that, maybe I have been to hard on myself.  I guess taking bits and pieces from your influences and couching them in your own ideas and phrasings might not be such a bad idea after all.  It used to happen all the time in Western Art Music (i.e. Mattheson stealing from Bach).  In fact, the Flaming Lips used to take whole chunks of recorded music from other artists and place them in their songs. (Theme from the Exorcist comes to mind).  Good to know.

Next, I listened to Nick Cave’s “Let Love In”, “Lyre of Orpheus”, and “Murder Ballads” and soaked in some good lyrical ideas.  Namely, his penchant for setting up a lyrical expectation and then hitting you with something completely unexpected. From the “Lyre of Orpheus” eponymous track:

Orpheus looked at his instrument
And he gave the wire a pluck
He heard a sound so beautiful
He gasped and said Oh my God

The way the cadence of the rhythm sets it up, you expect “Oh Fuck” and instead are hit with a stumbling non rhyme.

Brilliant.

Finally, Sunday concluded the listening marathon with Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”.  I played this album to death in my early college years; I mean it, I listened to this thing just about every day for two years straight.  I think you need to: I have never heard a more lyrically or musically dense album.  I had to stop listening to it out of boredom, but after coming back to it Sunday after a long hiatus, I was struck by it’s beauty and power.  Peter Gabriel penned some of the most fantastic lyrics ever set to paper.  Many people think that there is deep meaning to them all, but I really think that they are just fantastically obscure words and references that fit together in a pleasing nature.  In fact, Mr. Gabriel has been vague surrounding any meaning in the album, and I don’t think he intended much beyond using the basic idea of a New York Puerto Rican street kid as a launching point.  Like U2, the lyrics are just pretty and sound good together.  They convey a mood more than actually describing some incident or event.

I like this.

So Sunday night I turned out my own work.  Over a period of six hours I crafted two new songs using some of the ideas I had learned this weekend and I must say I am quite proud of what came out.  If you want, you can come hear it at Clancy’s Bar in Long Beach on Alamitos and Broadway next Thursday, October 22.  I’ll be playing with my collaborator, Allysandra Nighswonger.  We finally have a name for our project, “Anton’s Coin” , and will do a bit of recording tomorrow.

So I have a hull, now I just need to fill in the caulking and we’ll have our proverbial boat.  I need a cock-swain and oarsman, which is to say, I will need the help of photographers, graphic artists, recording engineers, producers, etc. to get the boat afloat.  Luckily I count those people among my closest friends, and together I think we can all get each other off of this blasted island.  More to come.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

The first question is easier to answer.  Located around the corner from our studio, the Moose is a great place to play to a few people while coming together as a singular unit.  After all the rehearsals we’ve done, we’re pretty tight already, so I’m hoping we can move out from the Moose in the next few weeks.  Apparently we will, as a Seattle trip is in the works for November.

Now the heart of the matter is this strange establishment known as the Moose Lodge.  The Burbank chapter seems to consist of a dive bar somewhere around the dank side of the dive spectrum.  It’s got a few neon lights, broken arcade machine, and on the bar rests the holy grail of moose appliances: a small refrigerator chilling a few bottles of prized bud light to 22 degrees.  Apparently, Moose place a high value on our domestic product.

Above the bar I’ve heard tell of secret meeting rooms and the like, but I doubt this, as I haven’t seen any members around.  Maybe they are cloisters for the Moose-monks to wander and ponder the infinite mystery of the Moose.  As a non Moose, I am sure I will never know.  Then again, I was too intimidated by the head Moose/bartender to inquire.

Now for some history.  According to the Moose International website http://www.mooseintl.org , the Loyal Order of Moose was founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1888.  The Women’s Auxilliary was formed in 1913 and was integrated sometime after draconian American laws began to fall (1980′s?).  They have a children’s home called Mooseheart, and all good Moose go to Moosehaven, old folks pasturage in Florida.  And that’s about it.  Not very exciting, is it?

But wait, there is a rival gang!  The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elk was formed in 1868.  Here is a vague statement of purpose from their site http://www.elks.org/

Our Mission

“To inculcate the principles of Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity; to recognize a belief in God; to promote the welfare and enhance the happiness of its Members; to quicken the spirit of American patriotism; to cultivate good fellowship; to perpetuate itself as a fraternal organization, and to provide for its government, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States of America will serve the people and communities through benevolent programs, demonstrating that Elks Care and Elks Share.”

So there you have it, two (in my opinion) incredibly boring organizations named after mammalian beasts.

I can’t tell the difference between the two, but when I arrived for our show Tuesday, the Head Moose/bartender was chewing out an ex-member who had called to decree his leaving the Moose fold for the greener fields of the Elk.

All this has reinforced one thought: Human’s are silly.

Sammy has sound board recordings of both shows, and I’ll get them up soon as I have them.  They sound fantastic and are much more exciting than Moose.

P.S. No hard feelings toward living or ideological Moose and Elk intended.

Here is a video of Pete playing with Dwight in the 90′s.  He’s the one playing the black tele. Guitars, Cadillacs

So, Pete and Dwight had an acrimonious split in ’02 and now he’s put together a blues band.

We hit the road pretty soon.

This blog will document our travels together, with my trusty flip camera at my side.  My first show is tonight.

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