Thursday, December 29, 2005

art of the jam 32

we wound up playing the little room a.k.a. "wreck west" again this week 'cos wreckroom wizard o' sound andre edmonson was laid low by some sort of inner-ear malady upon his return from touring the snow-capped peaks of colorado with a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture last week. (feel better soon, dre.)

the absence of joe "drumzilla" cruz (holidaying in noo yawk) was more than offset by _a whole night with dave karnes kicking the traps_. jam-meister lee allen's fort worth academy of music pardner, a ubiquitous presence on the local jazz (dave and daver, his own trio) and rawk (sunward, rahim quazi) scenes, has been a jam participant before -- indeed, that's how he met lee at an earlier incarnation of the jam 7-8 yrs ago -- but never for more than 15 minutes or so of late, so this was a rare treat.

at first it seemed like it was gonna be a night with nothing but bassplayers in the house. eventually, a coupla gtrists -- clear thinker ron geida (fresh from rehearsing w/jasper stone, who'll be joining catfish whiskey at the moon tonight) and soulful groover john stevens (vibing up for confusatron's end-of-yr extravaganza with pablo and the hemphill 7 at the wreck this saturday night) -- made appearances. always dig playing with both of those cats, whom i met hangin' out at zoo music nearly a decade ago. since then, we've all been through loads of blooze 'n' cover bands before coming over to "the dark side." if i was a li'l more reluctant than usual to cede my onstage spot, it was only 'cos i dig playing w/karnage so mightily, and haven't had many oppos to do so since the nathan brown tour i wound up quitting almost 2 yrs ago. while i've been even less satisfied than usual with the sounds emanating from my amp since i fukkked up my leg (amazing what slaves we are to our biomechanics), playing "maggot brain" with dave throwing an elvin [as in jones] groove on it felt like somethin' special.

ok, bassists: to begin with, sally majestic's p.j. fry has been hangin' at the wreck more than usual in recent weeks, the better to promote his band's upcoming gig there (that'd be this friday, the 30th), so it seemed the thing to do to open with our slowed-down, reggaefied version of sally's peppy ska toon "bobo." after timely pause, the jam-meister was able to coax p.j. up to the mic to sing a verse before returning to his video game. kulcha far i / jasper stone low-end theorist john shook was propping up the bar during the first set and had his axe in tow, but wound up splitting before we could get him onstage. feh.

head me-think / pussyhouse propaganda art criminal ray liberio was in the house, too, fresh from his victory in the "mustachio 7" costume contest, his pal wheatley in tow and his voice raw from recording more tracks for the much-anticipated double e.p. (i dreamed i was playing stooges songs with the me-thinks in my maidenform bra.) also on hand were a coupla brokers: bassist mark mcpherson and trombonist marcus brunt. in the event, mark wound up not playing, but marcus did. (i never imagined i would finish out a jam night playing "war pigs" with ron geida, dave karnes, and a trombone player. but as ray pointed out to my sweetie, there's actually precedent for such a collision of black sabbath 'n' brass -- cf. the set the extra action marching band once played at the wreck, wherein they covered the entire first sabbath alb in marching-band style.) mark told me he did high school jazz band with future bindle drummer kevin geist, and that he's thinking about starting a side project modeled on jamaican ska-jazz gtr ace ernest ranglin's trio. sounds intriguin'. in the meantime, the brokers (fronted by new dad adrian valdez) will be at the wreck on sunday, january 29th.

the jam-meister actually went to the extent of preparing a setlist for the evening, which in the event got left at home, so we wound up winging it (as per usual), pulling a set heavy on fonk and old-school rockaroll quotient out of various orifices. absent carl pack, dave's pal riley shaw fronted the band for "come together," and later on, lee sang a version of "pepper" that wound up morphing into, um, "sweet emotion" (which we'd actually discussed having riley sing at one point, but by the time we played it he was gone -- maybe next time). on january 7th, lee's austin band "impulse of will" (with karnes on drums) headlines at the wreck, doin' a similar thang to our wednesday night deal but in a more metallic vein. we may get to do an opening set, too. film, as they say, at 11.

oh, yeah -- congrats to wreck bartender and ex-woodeye (r.i.p.) bassist graham richardson, who announced last night that he and his squeeze / kai's mama robin are tyin' the knot on june 30th. "so her mom asked me, 'was it planned?'" he said in his best "so _i'm_ the asshole here?!?!?" voice. "i told her, 'yeah, we're both slingin' drinks for a living, we figured this was a good time to start a family. we've been thinkin' about it for...weeks...."

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