art of the jam 62
the character in this scrawl that never really gets talked about but should is the li'l wreck room its own self. my living-room-three-miles-from-my-house isn't going to be with us much longer -- cat who owns the bldg finally got an offer he couldn't refuse from the developers who are gentrifying/yuppifying west 7th, and forella's lease is up in a yr -- and graham the master o' libations got me thankin' 'bout that fact when i fell by the bar to set up my shit and wait for jam-meister lee allen to get there from fonky fred's.
graham's making a list o' bands he's seen (or heard from behind the bar) at the wreck since it opened back in '97, with an eye toward exploiting a local connection to get spin magazine to do a piece on the j'int before it closes. sounds like a good idea to me. in fact, somebody oughtta write a book about el wreck -- the story of a community with a lotta heart, as well as all the boo-shee you'd more commonly associate with a rawk room. but i digress.
so anyway, seeing graham's list, i started asking ppl at the bar what was the best show they ever saw at the wreck. graham was telling his story about the time he showed sexaganarian swedish psych-rockers trad gras och stenar how to do tequila shots ("the dude was telling me about watching elvis on his comeback tv special back in '68 and how he saw _lights shining around him_; some ppl don't _need_ to do psychedelics"), upon hearing which my former editor was once moved to remark, "wow, things like that never happen at the aardvark!"
other bar patrons remembered nights like the one when the boss martians played their hearts out in front of eight ppl (including graham, wizard o' sound andre edmonson, forella, and yr humble chronicler of events); a doosu / phleshpipe show "where everybody i went to high school with showed up"; the night extra action marching band came to town with a 300-pound elvis impersonator in tow and marched down west 7th; the one when mark growden played accordian on the bar; the last-ever woodeye show; and loads of others with the likes of slobberbone, spoonfed tribe, sub oslo, yeti, and loads more.
myself, i first went to the wreck with coworkers from the rekkid store where i usedta moonlight. we'd drink black 'n' tans and sit on the moldy couches back when it really looked like somebody's rec room, e.g., the room in a suburban house that gets taken over by the teenagers. there was no stage then, no soundbooth. a lot has changed since then, and the dump has mutated 'n' grown into one of the best rawk rooms anywhere thru the love 'n' care of cats like andre and graham and carl and michael contreras and tim burt and elvis who've poured their hearts 'n' souls into it like a "band shot" of whiskey. my sweetie 'n' i had our wedding party there 'n' i plan to have my 50th berfday party there before they strike the tent.
things are slow this particular wednesday night, however. maybe it's the goddamn heat; when we leave at 2:30 the ground is still fuckin' _hot_. the josh clark jam at fred's runs from 7 till 10:30pm and has drawn away some of the musos 'n' audience we usedta get. and the jam-meister allows that "maybe there just isn't an audience for what we do," a down thought but maybe realistic.
we were drummerless for awhile; joe "drumzilla" cruz was in the bar earlier but split. says his back's feeling better, anyway. we tuned up and waited until william bryan massey III walked in the door with one of his poetry books in hand, figuring to flow some verse; we dragged him up onstage and plopped him down behind the drums instead. 'twas cool playin' trio with lee 'n' lizard. a dude with a dog showed up and played drums for awhile; later, dre told me it was evan jones from peach truck republic. i'd heard them play once at a katrina benefit while we were playing in the li'l room next door. dug evan's style 'n' groove and hope to jam with him s'more. i actually played a solo on "la fiesta" that wasn't embarrassing. i think stoogeaphilia has opened me up, or at least made me less self-conscious about playing sloppy.
my back's been hurtin', too, and after getting a therapeutic massage (!) tuesday, i was thinking about body mechanics and realized that maybe some of my problem comes from my propensity for turning sideways to look at the other jamcats while i'm workin' the wah. might start setting up my pedals facing the other musos instead of the audience (what audience?). in stoogeaphilia, this isn't a problem because i stand stage left and don't have to hyperextend anything to see the other players, plus we actually rehearse (well, sometimes) so there isn't as much necessity to cue visually.
daniel katsuk from a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture was back from denver with his g-f jordan, who sings 'n' plays acoustic. she got up with evan, lee 'n' me and we followed her thru a couple of her 'riginal compositions. she's got a cool, percussive style on left-handed acoustic, and writes 'n' sangs her own in a fonky, patrice pike-like vein. she's easy to play with and we made a few connections before the backing musos left the stage so she could play a couple solo. then katsuk got up to front the trio and laid down some real nice freestyle over a funk groove. definitely a cat with a beautiful spirit. finished out with josh clark on traps and the jam-meister inventing a form on the fly (something we hadn't done in awhile). adam the actor got up to versify but we were outta gas; i started "maggot brain"-ing but the jam-meister said, "i'm not gonna play that." finis.
oh, yeah: it wasn't recorded, because somebody stole the fuckin' video recorder out of dre's booth. so if you weren't there, kid, you really 'n' truly missed it. so there.
graham's making a list o' bands he's seen (or heard from behind the bar) at the wreck since it opened back in '97, with an eye toward exploiting a local connection to get spin magazine to do a piece on the j'int before it closes. sounds like a good idea to me. in fact, somebody oughtta write a book about el wreck -- the story of a community with a lotta heart, as well as all the boo-shee you'd more commonly associate with a rawk room. but i digress.
so anyway, seeing graham's list, i started asking ppl at the bar what was the best show they ever saw at the wreck. graham was telling his story about the time he showed sexaganarian swedish psych-rockers trad gras och stenar how to do tequila shots ("the dude was telling me about watching elvis on his comeback tv special back in '68 and how he saw _lights shining around him_; some ppl don't _need_ to do psychedelics"), upon hearing which my former editor was once moved to remark, "wow, things like that never happen at the aardvark!"
other bar patrons remembered nights like the one when the boss martians played their hearts out in front of eight ppl (including graham, wizard o' sound andre edmonson, forella, and yr humble chronicler of events); a doosu / phleshpipe show "where everybody i went to high school with showed up"; the night extra action marching band came to town with a 300-pound elvis impersonator in tow and marched down west 7th; the one when mark growden played accordian on the bar; the last-ever woodeye show; and loads of others with the likes of slobberbone, spoonfed tribe, sub oslo, yeti, and loads more.
myself, i first went to the wreck with coworkers from the rekkid store where i usedta moonlight. we'd drink black 'n' tans and sit on the moldy couches back when it really looked like somebody's rec room, e.g., the room in a suburban house that gets taken over by the teenagers. there was no stage then, no soundbooth. a lot has changed since then, and the dump has mutated 'n' grown into one of the best rawk rooms anywhere thru the love 'n' care of cats like andre and graham and carl and michael contreras and tim burt and elvis who've poured their hearts 'n' souls into it like a "band shot" of whiskey. my sweetie 'n' i had our wedding party there 'n' i plan to have my 50th berfday party there before they strike the tent.
things are slow this particular wednesday night, however. maybe it's the goddamn heat; when we leave at 2:30 the ground is still fuckin' _hot_. the josh clark jam at fred's runs from 7 till 10:30pm and has drawn away some of the musos 'n' audience we usedta get. and the jam-meister allows that "maybe there just isn't an audience for what we do," a down thought but maybe realistic.
we were drummerless for awhile; joe "drumzilla" cruz was in the bar earlier but split. says his back's feeling better, anyway. we tuned up and waited until william bryan massey III walked in the door with one of his poetry books in hand, figuring to flow some verse; we dragged him up onstage and plopped him down behind the drums instead. 'twas cool playin' trio with lee 'n' lizard. a dude with a dog showed up and played drums for awhile; later, dre told me it was evan jones from peach truck republic. i'd heard them play once at a katrina benefit while we were playing in the li'l room next door. dug evan's style 'n' groove and hope to jam with him s'more. i actually played a solo on "la fiesta" that wasn't embarrassing. i think stoogeaphilia has opened me up, or at least made me less self-conscious about playing sloppy.
my back's been hurtin', too, and after getting a therapeutic massage (!) tuesday, i was thinking about body mechanics and realized that maybe some of my problem comes from my propensity for turning sideways to look at the other jamcats while i'm workin' the wah. might start setting up my pedals facing the other musos instead of the audience (what audience?). in stoogeaphilia, this isn't a problem because i stand stage left and don't have to hyperextend anything to see the other players, plus we actually rehearse (well, sometimes) so there isn't as much necessity to cue visually.
daniel katsuk from a-hummin' acoustical acupuncture was back from denver with his g-f jordan, who sings 'n' plays acoustic. she got up with evan, lee 'n' me and we followed her thru a couple of her 'riginal compositions. she's got a cool, percussive style on left-handed acoustic, and writes 'n' sangs her own in a fonky, patrice pike-like vein. she's easy to play with and we made a few connections before the backing musos left the stage so she could play a couple solo. then katsuk got up to front the trio and laid down some real nice freestyle over a funk groove. definitely a cat with a beautiful spirit. finished out with josh clark on traps and the jam-meister inventing a form on the fly (something we hadn't done in awhile). adam the actor got up to versify but we were outta gas; i started "maggot brain"-ing but the jam-meister said, "i'm not gonna play that." finis.
oh, yeah: it wasn't recorded, because somebody stole the fuckin' video recorder out of dre's booth. so if you weren't there, kid, you really 'n' truly missed it. so there.
posted by stashdauber at 6:21 PM
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