Smoking!

I'm a little puffy this morning. Waking up here in grey cold rainy Portland, Ore.

Last night we played one of our favorite places, the Crystal Ballroom. We're here about once a year, so its a very familiar day, star to finish. But there was something different about this one. It was a sponsored event. By a cigarette company.

Very strange and fascinating, the sneaky things they do instead of actual advertising, which I think is largely off limits to them nowadays..for instance, on the Crystal calendar our show was listed, but with no mention of the sponsor....I'm not going to say who they were, it rhymes with 'Bamel'.....but at the bottom of the ad in tiny print the entire venue is proclaimed 'a smoking venue' for the evening.

They weren't kidding either....

these signs were everywhere. I think they should have added STRICTLY ENFORCED at the bottom instead of the smiley face. No, I take that back, it's an excellent smiley face.

Lets see....someone tripped one the fire alarms, and hilarity ensued as the air raid siren wailed away for 10 minutes. I got a free lighter and two packs of ------ (rhymes with Lamb-el) 'mellow' brand smokes for our merch dude, and all I had to do was get my id swiped into a Big Brother looking handheld device, and provide some fake phone and email info. It was pointed out to me that they do now have my address from the id though. Drat! And here's an actual picture of Chris working on the actual setlist of actual songs . We played Sharpen Up those Fangs for the first time, and it felt great. Two other new ones too, I would guess we'll be working in 3 or so New-ees every show from now until TATGTP drops in March. I said 'drops'. I'm whack! And a shot of Andrew from the end of the night, standing outside our hotel rooms. I wonder what is in his hand?















Going to have tacos before going home!

possible future blogging opportunities

It's been a nice little break from my hectic blogging schedule. Time to get back on the pony.


I spent several days on the East coast last week. Ate lots of amazing food, and saw a huge vehicle get blasted into space. Cool, man. That post will be next, for now all I've got is the slightly different route I ran this morning....just starting from Presse, instead of my house. I know, more groundbreaking behavior.

I must run now, so as to get to Jupiter for the LAST MIXING DAY of the record. Yeah! Martin is going to remix Sharpen Up Those Fangs, because we added horns to it the other day. That's a whole nother post, also coming soon.

Now that's more like it!

aaahhhhhhhhhhhh..................


What a morning! Classic Seattle! Solid grey, drizzly, maybe 50 degrees.....ahhhhh.....I love mornings lke this for two reasons.

The first reason I love mornings like this is that there are lots and lots of mornings like this, and if you happen to be born and raised here, there is an inkling of comfort to them. It's subtle, and in fact some folks don't even know they're feeling it, but I am convinced it is widespread amongst natives. Just a little voice going "wheew.....finally that ickey HOT WEATHER is over with. Back to flannel sheets and gore tex pajamas! Back to NORMAL."

(when I was a kid I came across my dad's Bill Cosby comedy records, the ones he made in the 60's. There is a bit about Seattle where he has a protagonist screaming 'what is that flaming orb in the sky!? It's drying out my sinuses!' classic stuff.)

Now, I dont want to sound like a grump about summer. I love summer. And not only is Seattle one of the most beautiful places in the world during summer, I spend a fair amount of time screaming as much to skeptical folks all over the world, who envision monsoons and muddy streets filled with flopping, suffocating salmon. I just always have this nagging sense that I don't quite deserve that amazing 81 degree beach day or boat jaunt or golf outing or whatever. We all feel like it's an anomaly, a mistake by Jeff Renner, anchorman....of course seems to be changing. What with climate change, and drowning polar bears and such, based on this last summer we may be desert-like in a few years. But for NOW, I think our intuition is correct....any sunny day is just not the way things really are here.

And if you don't like it, you can move back to LA. They are called seasons. There are four of them. Look into it.


whew.


The second reason I love mornings like this is that mornings like this are ideal for running. I took the weekend off, because my legs were feeling dead, so naturally I felt strong like bull this morning. I started what I thought was going to be a standard 6 or 7 miler from Gasworks, only to have the sucker reach epic proportions on me. I felt like a million bucks at the end, stretching at the top of the big hill there, and tried a couple of Victorious Hunter-style pictures with my camera's self-timer...



The first one's pretty good. The wind blew the phone off of its' little tuft of grass right before snapping the second one. I just wanted you all to see that I tried.

by the way....there were about a hundred candle nubs up on there on the tiles by my feet there, left by some pagans, or picts, or druids or whatever. PICK UP YOUR SHIT WHEN YOU ARE DONE, OR I WILL TELL JESUS!

press (done at Presse!)

Here's an email interview I just finished for the digital music seller Amiestreet. Thrilling reading.




Amiestreet interview version 1.0

So this is somewhat scripted but feel free to play with it. I'd love to make this a bit more organic but I wanted to make sure we cover some of the points and silliness below! Either way thank you for taking the time out to give us some words. God bless America.

I'm all about points and sillyness. And America!


So what's new for the Presidents? You guys obviously have more laurels to rest on than most but after breaking up and then getting back together again in 2004 there's obviously a purpose.

Well, we'd been working pretty steady since our Last album Love Everybody came out in late 2004. So, we had specific plans to take 2007 off as much as possible. I don't know whether any laurels were involved, but we did indeed manage to get through the last 10 months only playing a couple of shows. Yay us. It's nice to have some time to re-stoke the fires of inspiration! Extra important because next year will see us unleashing the New Album we've been working on all summer.




I know we're putting up 2 albums including the ridiculously popular multi-platinum self titled debut but isn't there something interesting about that first album other than just how much it sold (ownership is now back in the hands of band?)

Yeah, we got the masters back from Columbia in 2003 or so. I don't know if that's interesting though. Interesting would be something like the fact that one night at the Fillmore in SF many years ago, Sammy Hagar told me I had a LIFETIME INVITATION to CABO WABO. Awesome! Less awesome but also interesting: at the next table was Mere Winningham, of St. Elmo's Fire fame.

But yes, we do own the record.


So when fans buy the music on amiestreet they're supporting you directly like many of the artists on the site?

Sure, in the sense that the only 'label' that is a middleman in this case is PUSA MUSIC. I use the quotes because PUSA MUSIC consists of our manager and a phone line (that's why we're doing our New Album with a real label).


Awesome, that makes the consumer impulse I'm having right now to buy every single one of the songs so much more wholesome. So I understand that during the hiatus many an interesting side project was started, including something involving.... sir mix-a-lot?

buy! buy!

You are referring to SUBSET, which was the three of us with Mr. A-Lot, and another rapper named Outtasite. We did maybe a dozen gigs around the Northwest, ad a quickie trip down the West Coast some years ago. Super fun! Mix is an amazing performer, Chris really enjoyed being able to share lead vocal duties, and play funky funky bass. Unfortunately our brief attempt at getting the 'magic' on tape (tape being a quaint substance people used to preserve sounds onto) didn't get finished before it ended. I'm told there songs out there on the internet from the sessions. A determined hunter should be able to find and 'share' them.


When and where can I see the Mix-a-lot colab performed live. Seriously, tell me now.

Every time I see Mix there is loose talk about doing another gig. For now though, your best bet is Time Machine. Check any bookstore, under "H G Wells".




Have you guys had even two seconds to get away from being crazy rockstars that jump around alot to look at amiestreet? Is it not perfect in its austere majesty? Do you relish the challenge of having to climb the price ladder just like everyone else here does?

Dude, rock star is 2 words. Don't you know anything? Actually I think 'a lot' is too.

And oh my god I am obsessed with climbing the price ladder....even though I'm not sure what that means.




And for my final three questions a jarring challenge for each member of the band that lacks any semblance of continuity... Please list:

1. First song an amiestreet member unfamiliar with your catalog should check out (we'll actually link the songs you mention when the interview is on the frontpage)

Highway Forever (Love Everybody)......is a country bumpkin burner that we still play live a lot, sometimes with invisible harmonica!
2. An item that you bring on tour to make the road more bearable

Sleep mask, with a backup sleep mask in case you lose your sleep mask.

3. Something people aren't paying attention to but need to....

The little yard-y area on my back deck is getting really messy and weedy. Who's supposed to be paying attention to that?

Jimi Action

What's so special about this picture of the Kaiser multi-tasking?

Nothing at all.

In fact I wouldn't share it with you except for the fact that the person he is talking to is in fact Mitch fucking Mitchell. That's right, that Mitch fucking Mitchell.

The Kaiser is going to be tour managing some Experience Hendrix Tribute Concerts later this month, so he'll be rubbing elbows with a lot of Classic Rockers. Hopefully he will take lots of pictures, and tell us all about it.

this post is missing music

One of the great things about running is the meditative state that is so accessible so quickly. 10 minutes in, and I can start to observe things from a distance; the rest of my day, phone calls that need to get done, my novel, etc...so much can get accomplished during that time every morning.

I should say, so much could get accomplished if I wasn't always ass-deep in gadgetry on runs. I have an irrational fear of being stuck an hour away from home/car/campsite with no tunes, or other aural diversions. So I usually go out with TWO devices. My trusty ipod in it's trusty sport skin is clipped on at the waist, and right next to it sits an am/fm radio as back-up, or for any NPR or sports content I might need. Overkill? Definitely. And that's not including the heart rate monitor that rounds out the geekfest....

Not a big shuffle fan. Fuck, I'm running around with hundreds of my favorite records, there's always an oldie, or a recent add to get listened to. This morning though, I thought I'd see where the randomizer muse led me.

and it led me straight to this man.

Andre Nickatina. What a freak. What a genius...

Someone for god's sake help me upload an mp3! Frick! Stef! Muzz!

well shoot...the record I have is called Cocaine Raps, Vol. II......the thing that makes this so cool is that there does not appear to be a Cocaine Raps, Vol. I.

Now, I don't listen to very much hip hop these days, but there was a time when I kept pretty abreast of things. A.N. reminds me very much of Del Tha Funky Homo Sapien, except maybe meaner...Lots of slightly of-kilter orchestral samples and p-funk bass lines...and he rhymes like you would expect the crazy guy roasting chestnuts over a garbage can fire to.

Seriously....I need to know how to put music on here.....I refuse to finish this without embedding a song in this bitch!

Bellingham hurt us

On Saturday the squad trooped 88 miles North to picturesque Bellingham, Washington, neighbor to Canada. And home to a really big college. Our goal: Concert performance at really big college.

There was an amazing wooden statue in the corner of the dressing room. Chris was sure the model was a relative of mine. After some side by side comparisons I was forced to agree, although how he was able to keep his shoulders that square for the whole sitting is beyond me.

I don't know why this picture won't load upright....I am not going to let it ruin my day, it'll just be sideways until my tech dept. can get things shipshape.

Anyways, I took a bunch of pictures, and had STEF Rider video the show, so maybe that will make an appearance....but I missed the main documentation opportunity of the evening right after the set, when both Chris and Andrew cam back bleeding profusely from their respective left shins. I guess there was a protuberance on some weird part of the barricade, and when the fellows jumped out into the crowd at the end, POW. Chris actually had a hole in his leg, and eventually went to the ER for some stitches. The Kaiser elected to self medicate, and I got to help him, at an old favorite of ours, the RANCH ROOM (not the Royal Room which is a little tiny dive-y club we played our first B'ham gig ever at)......I got a snapshot of some of the medication here...Check out the totally gangsta-style c-note....I would like to add that neither one of us likes Jagermeister at all normally...not sure who's fault this round was, for sure one of our B'ham friends...possibly Kaiser's buddy GONZO who I kept calling GOMEZ for some reason.

In any case, it's clear to me I need to develop better camera instincts.....because Chris's wound was SPECTACULAR....

NEWS FLASH! Chris just came over for a meeting here at my pplace, and has volunteered to pose for a post-stitches photo-op.Not as incredible as when the blood was spurting, Monty Python-style, but you get the idea.

Long Day

Not much notice.....No. 13 Baby, my excellent Pixies cover band is playing tonight at the Crocodile. It'll probably be the last(public) one, as our singer lives in Atlanta now. As I type this, I feel like I've mentioned it before? Oh well, it's still true. It'll be a hoot, and then tomorrow morning there are 2 PUSA sets at Town Hall for little people 12 and under.

Today started 13 hours ago at 5am, when I got up to bust ass down to KJR for my co-host duties. I'm off to soundcheck in a minute, so I'll have to talk about this busy busy day tomorrow...wait a sec...I have three gigs tomorrow, counting the Birthday party the Baby is doing tomorrow night....ok, Sunday at the latest....here's a quick pic of me and Sandmeyer, the main man this morning at the station....gotta go, bro.....

baking

I am closing in on a really good pie. This one baked last night was my best ever crust. Flaky and light, and if I'd known it would come out so good I would have spent a little more time on the edges, thereby making it prettier. I used to make (shitty) crusts 24 at a time for pies and quiches at the Elliot Bay Cafe (under the book store). Those were very workmanlike, the dough having been mixed in a hobart so big I could have easily sat in it. The thing I got very good at was making the little pointy thingys around the edges. I'm just sayin, now that I'm zeroing in on a keeper recipe I'll be keeping more of an eye on presentation. My beef with this one was the filling. I had a crapload of blackberries from an excursion to Rattlesnake Lake on Sunday, and dropped the ball. In a last second nod to health, I tried fructose instead of sugar. I wish someone had been there to slap me. I mean really.....2 sticks of butter in the crust and I'm worried about some sugar? Dumbass=me.

I suck, Sounders suck

No, the Sounders don't suck...just me...

I seem to be getting worse and worse. Blogging is hard. Shoot, I thought I did a post just the other day, and here it is over a week...Well frick me runnin....I'm going to fire off great, insightful stuff all week. Starting tomorrow

Today, I just want to share some photos my dad took of my glorious kickoff moment with your Seattle Sounders last week.

First up: pre game beer w/dad at JImmy's On First, the recently-opened bar below that new hotel right across from the main entrance to Safeco field.

Safeco Field of course the BASEBALL field here in Seattle, not to be confused with Qwest Field, a block away, where they play FOOTBALL (Gridiron) and SOCCER (football). By the way, I think it would be awesome if Europeans all got together and decided to start calling American Football "Soccer". That'd show us! Might become moot, as NFL Europe is closing it's doors this year...

right.

So I go to JImmy's not just to have a beer, but to jump on KJR for a few minutes with Mike "Gasman" Gastineau, who is broadcasting from there to hype the game, and also (this is a guess) because he has a bar tab there.
Gas is an amazing broadcaster, always super fun to shoot the sh*t with. I thought this would be an extra smooth appearance since I had spent some time formulating an anecdote or two from my soccer playing past (one hundred years ago). I'm cruising, the beer is cold, we're riffing.....and all of a sudden he is throwing hardball 'real' questions at me about the future of Soccer as a spectator sport in this country, followed by wanting my opinion on the political aspects of our city's current crises with our (soon to be gone) BASKETBALL team. I'm ashamed to say I
stumbled to the finish line of this segment. Or to use a sports analogy, I 'dropped the ball'.

I should mention I'll be back on KJR this Friday for The very worthy Groz With Gas-A-Thon.

off to the stadium, where there were 10,300 or so on hand for the big US Open Cup match...this was record-setting attendance for them, or #2 or something. In any case, all the Sounders office people I met before the game could not stop grinning.

Here I am at centerfield as the head ref is telling the Sounders office guy (blue shirt) to tell me to "GET ON WITH IT". You'd think he'd give me more props, considering the PA announcer had just called me a "Northwest musical icon".

"Excuse me, mr. official.....no matter what you do, 80% of this crowd is going to be howling for your blood by halftime, while I am a 'Northwest musical icon.' I'll kick the fricken thing when I'm good and ready!"


I want to make it clear that they only open up one side of the stadium for Sounders games, which is why it looks like the stands are completely empty. I swear. Also, somehow my dad managed to not gt a single player from either team in this shot, the Sounders forwards are about an inch to the left of the frame.

We lost, 2-1. BUT I got a picture with the guy who brings a bass drum to every game, and heads the cheering in the superfan section. This guy is amazing! I think he may have been drinking!

go Sounders!

Sports stuff! The Seattle Sounders are in this tourney called the US Open Cup....it's like the EU cup in Europe, except tiny. Anyway your Sounders are in the Semi-Finals, having won four matches in a row, including 2 against MLS (1st division) sides. Here's the tournament bracket.

The semi match is against another MLS team, FC Dallas, tonight here in Seattle at Qwest Field...

and guess who is going to kick the ceremonial first ball?

me!!!

I'm not sure how this works, probably alot like a first pitch at a baseball game. Pretty cool.

I'll also be dropping in on my dog the Gasman who is broadcasting from right beside the stadium. Thats 950am KJR, at 6:20.....

beautiful day for soccer, too....grey, rainy....fall is in the air, and I love it.

running

I run alot.

Lately it's been extra-alot.....weekly average is up around 35 miles, definitely uncharted territory for me. While I've been into it for some years***, I've always been limited by my legs. Or rather the litany of little aches and pains and bangs and pulls and -itises that are a normal part of a runners' world. A shin splint here, a knee tweak there, maybe a bruised toe (trails!)....after last years Seattle (half) Marathon I was hobbling for months ( I put up a kick-ass time though! Beat my goal by 4 1/2 minutes!). Currently though, I am enjoying unprecedented injury-free leg action, and I'm 90% sure it's due to yoga. Yay yoga.

I mention this because...

there are a million cool sites people have put up using google maps and other map apps. Hmmm......map apps..... I've been using this one to keep track of my mileage lately....here's my route from this morning. Thats right, I am a big enough dork that I will sit and plot out the route I've just done. Just started saving them this week, thereby upping the dork ante considerably.
















***Running is absolutely the best thing you can do if you are quitting smoking! And I should know, I've quit smoking dozens of times!

Go M's, Go Pixies

So yesterday I had a vague notion of busting out Download Recap pt 2. It was not to be, since I fried my brain at Mariners game. As it turns out, I would have been better served going to the beach. We got killed. On the one hand, it was a bummer to watch the massive suckfest that was this very important series (I went Tue night also). However, it must be remembered that it's been years since there has been an important series in late August to suck in. Our Boys in Blue have been in it all summer, and it's been awesome.....I am trying to keep sight of how much fun I've had listening/watching/going to games this season. So there..

See how fun it was? My friend Jackie begged for me to destroy this photo. Suck it, Jackie!

Anyways....it was a million degrees(a couple beers in the mix too), and by the end of the game I was too brain damaged to consider any typing activity. Which was just as well, since I remembered at the last minute that I had to go play Pixies songs! Thats right, I play with a Pixies Tribute band called No. 13 Baby......we havent played for a couple years because A) The fricken Pixies got back together, and B) our singer moved to Atlanta. BUT since they seem to all hate each other again (weird!) and our boy Jeff is visiting, we're doing one more gig. It's weeks away and I thought rehearsing this early was nuts. Whoops! I forgot that most Pixies songs are really fucking hard. Well, that might be overstating it, they tend to have alot of off-time weird little bits that you thought you would remember that you don't, and arrangement quirks that need to be re-learned. Plus, as mentioned I was a little brain drained anyway, so I did very little to distinguish myself musically at this practice. I'll get 'em next time!

Download Recap, pt 1

I can't seem to find an hour to chill out with laptop and crank out some yarns about last weekends' Download Festival at the Gorge. You'd think I had a job or something. For now I will say simply........


I didn't think it was possible for me to become a bigger Nada Surf fan than before....then they left us their last six beers, along with a nice note on our trailer door. I am a huge, huge fan. Of beer.

party house, where there was a party

Can your band fit their entire backline into the back of a Mini Cooper?


I DIDNT THINK SO......SNAP!

ok ok.....this is a very small version of our backline. A couple teeny acoustics with amps, and a new rig I bought the day before. The best toy drum kit that 85 bucks could buy, as far as I'm concerned....this thing is small. The kick drum is 13 inches (diameter, duh), and just to put it into perspective, that's an inch smaller than your average snare drum. I swapped out the ridiculously thin heads it came with for some 'real' ones, and it sounds great! Well, the tom and snare are great, the kick sounds like a tiny drum being hit with a pedal. It'll do though, because the idea is to come up with a rig that is really portable, for use when we do little acoustic performances, like for radio stations.

Oh my god, that's exactly what we did Friday! Why am I writing about this on Tuesday? Because I suck eggs!

sooo....we played all country versions of our stuff, and wore cowboy hats, and ate chicken wings, and drank beverages provided by a large beverage company, and generally had a good time. Stef took a bunch of pictures with my phone, for which I am extremely grateful, even though she kind of owed me for blowing it on the pic front at the TFH gig last month. Here is one. Note the very fine sense of composition and style.

afterwards I met some friends at a Mexican bar down the street and had 3 Mohitos, which made me feel I had been beaten severely about the head and neck with a baseball bat the next morning. Sugar and Liquor don't mix as nicely as they used to.

Late plug

shoot..I forgot to mention: We're doing a very short acoustic set at the END's "Party House" tonight around 8. It's somewhere on Alki in West Seattle, and I think people can watch from the street....but your best bet is probably tuning in. We practiced for this on Wednesday, and every tune came out country. So, it'll be a pretty iinteresting little set.

Back that thing up!

Monday night was Biscuit night.

I ordered a ridiculous amount of these special biscuits from this company that my friend Von pointed out in a magazine. I should point out that she was on day 5 or so of the Master Cleanse, and had brought a cooking magazine to the beach with her. I couldn't tell whether she was extra nuts that day or just showing off. Anyway there they were....4 kinds! Easy online ordering was promised at the end of the article, and thus Biscuit Night was conceived.


They were tiny, barely 2 inches square, and weighed about a pound apiece. very deceptive. The consensus was that the traditional buttermilk (with butter and preserves of course) was the best, but the heavier savory types (cheese, ham) were good too...fricking huge meal, especially after adding the fried chicken and mashed potatoes into the mix (there was salad too, in a last minute nod to the nutrition authorities). THEN dessert....

strawberry ice cream, scooped onto more biscuits...the secret weapon flavor: cinnamon. mmmm...

I just realized I don't have access to pictures from biscuit night, except for one I took with my phone while prepping, before anyone showed up: noteworthy because the scoops of butter look like an ass! Sorry.

Totally pro percussion(ist)

Check out this mish mash kit I was using for our acoustic session earlier this week (I'm also using this as an oportunity to learn how to hot link a picture, so try clicking on it, to see a larger image). Note the little wooden block propping up the silver and red drum on it's stand. Nothing sketchy about that as long as you're not planning on striking it more than once or twice. In this case we'd set it up to augment the main kit for a short drum solo that was (for about 15 minutes) to be part of the arrangement for a tune called More Bad Times. Fortunately it was decided that, like most drum solos, it was more funny than good, and was 'edited'. Now, there are lots of great drum solos...like this one...Jon Bonham...The Greatest....I mean, along with Ichiro.

Onward! Did I mention how Pro I am? Only a Pro would tape together two tamborines, for that extra tamboreeny tone! Nestled onto the couch cushion no less, to be struck with stick or palm. But that's not even the most Pro thing. The Most Pro Thing is below: The Pro Cowbell Thing. Again, nestled onto the couch cushion, this time because it was too freaking loud unmuffled. But how do you keep it from slipping off the cushion! Duct tape, baby! Obviously Pro Percussion is alike with every other segment of Human Endeavor in that it would be impossible without duct tape. Remember Apollo 13!

This is also a good spot to reference the Christopher Walken more cowbell skit. So let's all do that. Silently.

Ok...out of time, I'd like to dash off a Big Finish to this post, but must run.

more songs, tacos

personally, I'm still really happy about Ichiro's contract extension. And as anyone who occasions to look at my various screensavers knows, I get endless enjoyment from gazing at him.

HOWEVER

not everyone agrees with me on this. So...I am going to press on, even if it means Ichiro gets knocked off the top.

......


Monday and Tuesday this week PUSA was back in Chroma taking an acoustic whack at a couple of songs that for whatever reason didnt quite Raise The Roof at our sessions last month. I was particularly excited by how a little number called Scrappy Puppy turned out. it was a favorite of mine while we were demo-ing in our practice room.

Sample lyric:

eyes drippin all brown and runny
get distracted by the smell of a bunny
small puppy.....wish he had some money
too take a taxi home

what's not to love, right?

anyways, we didn't nail it last month, and I had despaired of it's ever rearing it's puppy head. There is a groovy drony trippy element that is delicate and and has been tough to capture. In fact while the "tape" was rolling* i was pretty sure we still werent going to be able to use the stuff. Lo and Behold! I believe we captured a really nice vibe. I even got some footage with my phone of our musical genius unfolding! I'll see if I can put it up, I have yet to try any video here....

I'll tell some fascinating stories about my percussion skills tmorrow.

I should mention to that on our lunch break yesterday I snuck out for lunch with a friend at the taco place next to the Sunset.





enchilados!



*no actual tape has been been harmed making this record. We've been beating the shit out of a couple hard drives, though.

yes!

YES!

This Day in Photos

We're going to learn about embedding photos in a post tonight. Well, I am going to. Everyone else just relax and if there is a photo or two somewhere further down, give me a golf clap.

I started the day with a coffee at Liberty. Delicious. They have been doing the cafe thing days for a couple months. Everyone go there, because it's good coffee made by good people (except Doug. I hate Doug.).

Anyways...

drove down to Gasworks, my selection du jour as a run start point. Getting out of the car and on the road always takes a couple minutes...ipods, heart monitors, shoes, drink some water etc...anyway I'm noticing during all this that the helicopter noise I was hearing as I shut off the car not only isn't going away, it is now really loud. Stepping through the trees into the park proper there's the chopper, circling the whole place like cops in LA, except without the spotlight, and small arms fire. What the frick are they up too? This is when I notice that: a) the bird is circling tighter each time. b) it's focus is the big hill with the sundial on top (you know, the one people fly kites off of). c) this is because there are some dudes with shaved heads and dressed all in black jumping around at the top with guitars and crap. Holy shit! "big budget" ROCK VIDEO! Whoo! Then I notice the crew-y looking folks off in the distance, a director-y looking guy with a megaphone gesturing at the copter, while yelling (presumably) at the copter on his cell. I could only see the tops of the rock dudes from below, but they sure were rocking. Grrr...they were mad.
the the copter got so low I thought it was gonna land on the side of the hill. Check it out on the right side of the hill in my shitty camera pic. Unfortunately the rock dudes are hidden by the hilltop. I should have stayed and rocked with these dudes, but went a-runnin instead. Got back about an hour later (actually closer to 50 min, I'm trying to do 6 miles/day. I am huge) and as always when ending at Gasworks ran up that hill to stretch and check out Lake Union. The rock dudes were gone, but they left behind some
rocking clues that they had been there. I saw megaphone guy in the parking lot, he was yelling at (presumably) a different person now on his cell.




Later I had tacos.

They were delicious, too.

a fragment from a couple weeks ago (oops)

so that show I talked about with THE FEELINGS HIJACKERS ended up being SATURDAY night. I had entered it incorrectly in my calendar. Imagine Chris's surprise when I call him Friday about 5:55 to say I'll be a little late (for soundcheck)....silence on the other end......

"uh....for what?"

"soundcheck. at the venue. I'm almost there."

".......dude.....it's tomorrow."

"riiighhhht. I knew that! See you then!"

cat-like reflexes! Finn lands on his feet again!

not really. The next night though, was really fun..

did I mention?

I have 23 rough mixes of the PUSA record in hand. More on that tomorrow.

Enjoying some homework

ahhhhh...wotta night. The start was not promising. As my bloodsugar was plummeting around 7:00, I thought I would hop around the corner to my newest local pub, SMITH. They have some fancy way of doing french fries that I want to check out! dumb dumb dumb....like every other night since they opened it was like Mardi Gras in there, jammed butts to nuts and spilling out onto the sidewalk...arrggh. I won't tell you where I ended up dining. It's a little embarrassing..although I did get some shopping done at the same time.

Had a drink afterwards at Poco, a little winebar near home...ran into Steve Severin, one of Neumo's owners and Booking Dude around town. Briefly discussed the drama over an article in this weeks Stranger that features him. I'm not up to speed on it, but it sounds juicy so after this I'll be heading over to the SLOG to read up!

which brings us up to right now...

I'm on my deck enjoying a beautiful Chateu....chatue....chautue...nuef...nuff....des Pape?

enjoying a glass of wine.

it's gorgeous. Not my view of the crack building across the alley but the evening air. ahhhh...wotta night indeed.

anyways

listening to some TFH on my cool little ipod/radio playing thing. For anyone who doesnt know....this is The Feelings Hijackers, my singer Chris's other band. They are doing a record release gig this Friday at the Hi Dive in Seattle's historic Fremont neighborhood. It's a duo, singin and rappin over tracks. BUT they have asked me to play drums on 6-8 songs to mark the specialness of the occasion. A little nerve-wracking, since they have a strict no-practice rule. "save it for the show" they say. Fine if you are a rapper or singer who has heard the tunes a hundred times making the record...for us 'hired guns' a run through of some sort would be appreciated! oh well, just gonna let my musical genius carry the mail on this one.

As it turns out it's perfect music for this warm mellow night on the deck....I am going to say goodnight and try to listen for a bit without the learn the tune part of my brain, just the summer wine night part...shouldnt be too tough.

I Swear By All That Is Holy That I Am Never Drinking Again As Long As I Live

So it turns out that what I meant by making a commitment to regular posting for a week or so IN FACT meant that I would be waiting week or so before posting again. Just clarifying that. OK.

I will lay as much of the blame for the breakdown of the "mini commitment" as I can squarely at the feet of the following establishments, who (whom?) all had their opening parties last week:

Cafe Presse (mon night, early eve)
Smith (mon night, late eve)
Via Tribunali II, Queen Anne location (wed)

Here's the alarming thing..the really distressing, scary thing: I probably had no more than four or five glasses of wine on any one of those nights....At no moment anytime during those nights would I have described myself as 'loaded'. And yet here I am days later, lip quivering like a little lost cub scout, moaning about my toxicity (update: feeling better, reroactive to about Sunday). Comes a time, I guess, that one must face up to the reality that one has possibly become a lightweight, a 'cheap date', a creampuff.....a bad partier.

oh, and there was also Friday night, where after watching the Mariners get drubbed I went bouncing around Capitol Hill bars until 4 in the morning...maybe that had something to do with my general feeling of malaise...

I just found this cool text size tool. I am really getting the hang of this!

robot picture included

Well, apparently blogging is like playing music, or painting, or mowing the lawn: it doesn't up and do itself. Nor do I yet have my own robot to help around the house, or post for me when I blow it off for a couple days. So, I'm making a little mini commitment to myself to add to this little enterprise daily for the near future. Like a week or so. It'll be a nice little exercise in discipline and focus, although anyone who knows me would say I'm loaded with both those qualities.
or not.

There may be some retooling of the premise, though...not enuff pusa to go around...I may be digressing into personal rant and rave land. Might retitle it too...hmmm FINNLOG.....FLOG....FNOG FINNOG ....

Really Good Lyric of the day:

I heard you're back on your feet
I'm really glad to hear it
You're in the driver's seat
And you can barely steer it

Brendan Benson, THEM and ME .... The Alternative to Love

dude has some hella prose chops.

I can't seem to turn off the italics, or the bold...I don't feel that strongly about this sentence. Shoot. I'm done anyway i guess

Free stuff

The daytrotter session is up, since last Friday I think, forgot to plug it before. Usually these things end up pretty uninspired sounding. But we hear at PUSA Inc are here tot tell you that these tunes sound pretty good! And you can download them! For Free! There's a new song! And an old hit!

Sharpen up yer fangz

Really cool thing happened right at the end of basic tracking, earlier today...

We had just finished the drum track for a tune called unstoppable female. A sorta old tune that CB wrote on a tour bus while we were touring behind "II" in about '97. Now, it's not that anybody was disliking the tune, but there's a reason it was last of twentysome-odd songs to be tracked. The material that folks are more excited about tends get 'got to' sooner than lesser, just like in Life, Man. Anyway.....actually the track track ended up sounding really good, surprising me a little even. But: personally I wasn't having any particular euphoric feeling from being done with a stressful part of making an album. I walked away from my kit, back to the control area to check my performance out. So far so good...I strolled back over to the play area, and CB says something like 'indulge me for a minute, and play along with this'. He played a very simple 3 chord groove, with no 2nd part or changes...Andrew and I comped along....

....and oh my god.......out of Chris' mouth came one of the greatest songs I've ever heard. We ran through it one more time in a better key for the instruments and there she is: Sharpen Up Yer Fangs...the lyrics are SO COOL....poignant, witty but a little sad....great groovy feel......I had goosebumps for at least 30 minutes, and later while on my (almost) daily run I got all choked up listening to it, rough and all.

a sampling:

he's the boy with the messy mind
it's hard to find
the time to clear it

he's the boy with the broken brain
not insane
but never happy
sharpen up those fangs
not insane
but never happy

It is amazing how often the tunes that end up being the essence of a record show up last, or unlooked for.

technology!

Whoo! Basic drum tracks are done for the 22 songs we're doing this session. Most of the bass as well, and Andrew is slicing away at guitars right now. My brain is a little scrambled from thinkin drum for all these days, but its worth it having the glowing feeling of accomplishment. As usual I hear dozens of blemishes on every track. It's ok though....most of it would only be questionable to a very anal drummer, or critique-er. We tend to try to get as much as possible of the whole band playing together, even with some human err intact. So, we tend to end up with alot of 'human' moments on the rhythm tracks. Also, it's amazing what you can do with Protools these days, moving errant kicks or snares around to wherever you like. I remember making my first major label record in 1993 (or 92?), when the only way to edit or combine takes was to slice up the 2-inch magnetic tape with an exacto blade and hope you werent destroying the whole track. We had an engineer who was really fast, so he could do a tape edit in about an hour. Now you can point and click and drag and drop and cut and paste and fade in as many seconds. I love computers, even if they still can't mow my lawn.

Texas is a nice town...SxSW stuff

This Friday the excellent site Daytrotter will be putting up a 4 song live in studio session we did last March at South by Southwest. They want some text to accompany it, so I'm jotting down some fuzzy memories...two birds....one stone.....

TEXAS IS A NICE TOWN

We've been to SXSW three times in the 15-odd years we've been a band.

In '95 we were in the midst of a vicious, old-school style 'bidding war' with A&R dudes elbowing each other in the kidneys to get position in the sardine-packed, smokey sweaty juke joint in the middle of 6th street we played at. I think The Refreshments played right after us. Some major label or other got us a room at the Westin, and a middle management guy from ASCAP gave us our first nuts and bolts of publishing speech. For years afterward we referred to it as the 'bean counting speech'. That's about all I remember....

Then in 2003 right after we had decided to end our 5 year 'break', we got a very weird and excellent gig playing on a huge stage in a field, between The Motels and Joe Jackson (!) with his entire original band playing all the songs from that one album. There were about a million people there, and I brought down the house by whipping out a U of T Longhorns cap and putting it on mid-song.

This year for the first time we got to stay for 4 days and enjoy the town. For me this was 80% about food. Tacos or Barbecue, every 6 hours or so, day and night. Went to all my favorite taco shacks (Maria's, "Taco shack #2") and some new ones. Went to one BBQ place quite far from the city and all 6 of us got a ride back from the proprieter, jammed into the back of her pickup. I ran along the river every morning no matter how bad it hurt, partly to work off the brisket, and partly to reinforce that yes, even one little ciggie makes one feel awful the next day.

I was going to try to fly home with some ribs in my carry-on for my friend at the airport, but chickened out.

Had some beers too.

Hiccup

Sometimes I hit little walls in the studio, where a part or a beat , or maybe just a little fill goes from being routine to being impossible for no good reason.

Just happened an hour ago...(edit: finishing this post at the end of the night, many hours later)

We were working on our 2nd track of the day. It's a tune called What The Hell, that Chris and I have played for a LONG time, originally in our "rap/rock supergroup" Subset (that was a band we had with Sir Mix-Alot some years ago...I'll tell ribald stories about that someday soon). Anyways, we'd demo'd it 7 or 8 times in rehearsals last month, so my thought was that no matter which of the various feels we ended up going with It'd be chop chop, a couple run throughs and drums done.

not so much. I had a little hiccup on a transition that features a long fill....no problem, run it again and we'll naill it. Except the next time's worse. Ok, same spot..2...3..4.. fuck. Ditto next one, ditto next one...after about 5 attempts from the same spot, I needed a little 'time out'. everyone was very understanding, and moved away towards the control area of the room, while I sat at the kit and took a bunch of deep breaths and swore quietly to myself. I toyed with the idea of stepping outside and hurling my sticks across 15th ave NW. Luckily, just the thought was amusing enough to have the same cathartic effect as the action would have, so I got to look mature and save 6 bucks at the same time. Sticks are not cheap, people.. Of course, we nailed it next try.

And....we've tracked 5 tunes today, so the train stayed on the tracks, although my noggin is fried now, and as Andrew says: "music-ed out".

Chris is doing lead vox.....jumping around like a.....i dunno...jumping bean?

I'm going home...

Day One: Hearting Davey B.

1:00, and no noise has been made yet. We have spent the morning moving slowly. No; moving methodically. I got here about 11:00, an hour or so behind Davey, my tech, who has spent the morning fine tuning my main kit and a couple others for variety. As a drum tuner, he is a genius. It would take me much much longer, and sound much much less kick-ass if I was to tune them myself. I have battled over 20+ years to a workmanlike, very ordinary tuning ability. But folks like Davey just have an instinct that amazes me as it pisses me the f-- off. I should mention also that he is not really my tech. I wish I was BIGTIME enough to have a tech, like Ringo or the dude from Tool. Davey is one of the people we hire to roadie, or "stage manage" when there's gigs. He is however, the only drummer amongst them, and as stated a pro's pro with my shit. I heart Davey. Awwww.

Chris has been running around with the camcorder already, could be QUALITY CINEMA someday.

And we're off!

Ok...now I am impressed.

I just spent about 20 minutes at the computer, tops... and I now am the proud father of my very own blog, complete with a flickr account so I can show you all pictures, like this one of my couch. I cannot promise that any of the pictures here will be more interesting than that, but I hope so.

Wait, I take that back! There will be tons of fascinating photos and video footage coming nonstop soon. You see, a quick trip to a large electronics retailer yielded a brand new Digital Video Camcorder (those three words were capitalized on the box, which I consider bad grammar, but whatever. Maybe they were just Excited Like Me).

Anyways....

I'm blogging in order to document for you, the universe, the making of a record by my band, The Presidents of the United States of America (henceforth PUSA since it is a huge pain in the ass to type that all out). Perhaps you have heard of us....maybe not. That's ok. Maybe we are your favorite, or were your older sister's favorite in high school, or maybe the very mention of us makes your blood boil with indignation. All also ok. More likely somewhere in the middle, we're hoping. In any case, welcome and no charge for the wealth of insight into the mysteries of life and the recording process you should find here. Actually, the whole shebang may turn into a personal soapbox anyway. Dunno.

Boy it sure is easy to go on and on once ya get started...no accident that blog rhymes with blah. Also similar to blather. Weird.

ANYWAYS...

Tomorrow is day 1. Very excited, and a little nervous. I've been laying low for several nights in order to feel tip top when we start the session. So tonight I was feeling a little antsy. What did I do? This may seem cliche, and you may roll your eyes at this classic rock n roll solution to cabin fever. That's right, I made scones. And it got very messy. The fellows are in for a treat when they show up tomorrow! It is customary for the drummer to show up at least an hour or two before the rest of a group on the first day of recording, owing to the massive, crushingly anal setup required. So, I'll have plenty of time to nestle the scones into a 'welcome' basket of pouporri (that last part was not true, just the scones). I am not going to bother with looking for a correct spelling of pouporri, since I expect that was the last time I will ever type that word.

Motley Crue, eat your hesher hearts out.