The Flavelian!

Last night.

2010-09-17T16:34:00.001-07:00

Played a private party on a rooftop attended by the mayor (he told me "excuse me" at one point). Also notable was the improv rap performance we did. It went on for like a good 15 minutes.

Now off to Oly and futher destinations(-s).

New Company

2010-08-25T17:45:00.001-07:00

Trying to come up with the best name for my new entertainment company/one-man talent agency. That is to say, a talent agency that specifically centers on capitalizing on my talents. Needs to somehow sum up the following themes, hopefully in one compounded invented word:

- Star
- Edutainment (I realize that's already a compound)
- Christian-based
- Stadium/Jock Jams
- Incorporating my last name with a 'Z' instead of an 'S'

All I have so far is maybe changing a T out (in eduTainment) with a crucifix?

Diagram for special ballot night

2010-01-26T21:42:00.001-08:00

Radical Sho'z

2009-08-30T17:28:00.001-07:00

Couple weeks ago, rocked a couple sets with the SP posse.

The Hawthorne show, which was on a Friday, adopted a tone early, with specific rules and generally cold nature from the staff setting the stage up. I guess I wasn't offering any olive branches (is that an expression?), but I believe someone in the band was specifically told not to vomit in the parking lot. It seemed we had about 5 seconds to move all of our gear (dialed in HOT) to the stage and start performing, or else suffer the career-ending consequences. And I believe it was even less than 5 seconds elapsed after the end of our set, that I found most of my drum set strewn about the parking lot-- not violently of course, but I do mean that I got the pleasure of breaking my kit down in the outdoors, with no separation to my v.i.p. backstage area and the 14 Hawthorne line, whizzing by. Good stuff.
Our set that night seemed to be not of our best caliber, but I've been trying my best to not beat myself up after shows, just because of little snags such as mics falling off drums (which happened more at this show, that maybe all Search Party gigs combined) and rushing into new jamz before they are maybe 100% fully hatched. Anyway, a good night, and made even better by post-giggin' hang out sesh at nearby watering hole with the crew.

Saturday night was the exact opposite. Well, not exact, because I'm not officially writing Friday night off as an artistic flop entirely. It was a good night. Saturday night was a ROCKIN good engagement though. Opposite more meant like.. all the time in the world to set up, relaxin with jello shots, DFH 120 min IPA, Anchor Foghorn, etc. We got to stroll up from our little practice room at Audiocinema and play the "main room" or "big room" or common area, or whatever. Anyway, we were all in terrific moods, and had some good band/audience stage banter, and even the chance to rock some older jams that we've sort of abandoned as of late. A good return to the 25ish minute set too, which is where I think Search Party should try to always play into it, as it seems to fit us well. Sean and I toyed with the idea of sabotaging Chuck's keyboard playing (during Casper's set, later on) with a child's bouncy ball, which basically happened, but of course to nowhere near the effect of the legendary football-to-Scott at what was probably the only 3TQ gig I ever missed (damn it).

Up next is San Fran, where we'll spend some $$ on a van rental, and no $$ on records at Amoeba unfortunately, as I doubt there will be time. Sheeeit.

Highlight of the day

2009-03-04T22:02:00.000-08:00

Pulled into the Jackson Tower lobby with a handtruck. As I waited for the elevator to come, a woman walks out of another door, keeps moving, then turns around to double-inspect me. Whatever she sees about my character (handtruck? week-long stubble? plaid shirt!??) makes her briskly run back to the door, and escort it shut, as it wasn't closing fast enough for her comfort. You know, to keep the riff raff like me from doing my evil deeds inside the building.

This is the kind of respect I command around my place of employment of 6 years! For pete's sake!

Show wrap ups, and million other things

2009-03-02T21:37:00.000-08:00

There is nothing lamer than a blog that ever apologizes to itself for not updating. SO that's never going to happen. I have no regrets.

Search Party has played three shows since the last time I've written here about our shows. The first one was an Ash St. engagement back in January. It was a 4 band bill, and was full of dudes and dudettes that were all incredibly nice. It seemed that all the bands watched the other bands that night, which is kind of a rarity. And I was mega impressed by my friends' patience (or sympathy?) to show up on a weeknight, downtown. So cool! We debuted a new one that we are really happy about at this one- "Predictable".

Up next was a recording session at the famed Long St. hit factory (tagline/motto - "Where we shit gold!"). Recorded skeletal beginnings of 6ish songs, some already have some vocals and other things overdubbed. Easily lightyears beyond the kitchen sesh from exactly one year previous. Actually, our two recording sessions have been recorded on the afternoon of the NBA dunk contest. Which led me to believe our CD should be titled "DUNK CONTEST", which was not received as well as I'd hoped. Took a brief pause on these to play two shows this last week-

Show #1 was at the East End, which is probably my favorite place to play in town. I think it hadn't even been two months since we last played there, but I was eager to get back. We played a nice in and out sub-30 minute slot that basically featured only new songs that we had recorded the week previous, plus two old ones ("Look Out" and "Step Down" for those keeping track). My front bass drum head that has been with me since the inception of the band had dissolved into about 98% duct tape and 2% actual drum head material saw its last days of service this night.

Show #2 was a super fun, but slightly less tight than usual, sold out show at Lola's Room. I mention the sold-out aspect not to boast or anything, because really the draw comes from the band we were out to support- the super nice lads of Audiodub, once again. I hate to always dwell on the things that people probably don't notice or remember (such as me flinging a drum stick in the air.. so amateur!! Or John's effect pedals and and cables acting up at inopportune moments), so I will choose to remember some good feelings. Such as opening with "Relax" (not a Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover... yet.), and having the audience actually approach us during the beginning of our set as opposed to the end of our set. Also memorable fun was the new sing along "All My Friendz" (the 'z' is editorial on my part, keep your fingers crossed). Oh, who could forget the tequila post show as well? Tommy had gone off to cooler digs to wait for us, but we did one for Search Party in his honor without him.

What's next?? We're not going to play any shows for a few months. We want to put our "all" into everything we do, whatever the fuck that means, and maybe not dilute ourselves quite as much. Actually, if anything, it is kind of a courtesy for club bookers. They have no clue what shows we are doing generally, and are really out for the $$ in general. No mystery there, so it's not like I am bummed or cynical towards that or anything. But anyway, hopefully will be back in July or August with a CD or something disposable for people to listen to if there is any interest left at that point. Cool stuff. If anyone is actually reading this ever, and if you happen to be someone that has gone to one of our shows in the last 14 months, thanks x10000 from the bottom of my heart. It has been a total blast.

---
Now, for around the house. Gilly has gone off to bed, and I am listening to Deerhoof whilst wearing a Deerhoof shirt. So nerdy! Earlier I was drinking dogfish head beer while finally reading that article in the New Yorker about Dogfish Head brewery. On the beer tip, I still can't describe my beer beyond the most basic and clinical terms without embarrassing myself.. but I can always write out what I have been drinking. Lately, have been trying to stay economical, I guess. Full Sail Boardhead lasts me about 3 quarters of one Blazer game, and still is the best price to quality ratio you can get. Safeway started selling 6 packs of Stone IPA 12 oz'ers, right in time for IPA season (meaning my "IPA season", which is totally not a universal thing. Gilly has two seasons, whiskey and ginger ale in the winter, and vodka/tonics in the summer. I think of things in barleywine and ipa seasons.). Old Rasputin 4 packs from North Coast are tiding me over until Chuck and I can afford to split a case of Palo Santo again. The beer cupboard is getting a bit out of control, which is basically the best problem I can ever imagine having. Now if only I could figure out how to (economically) keep 'em at 55 degrees, I could start feeling like a true snob.
I am about as confident with writing about bands and music in blog form, as I am with describing beer in foodie-adjectives, so I will instead do my usual rundown like so: Eat Skull is fuckin awesome, can't wait for LP2. Speaking of Siltbreeze, finally got my Times New Viking late pass. New People Under the Stairs of course didn't disappoint, several laugh out loud lines, and lots of "we make hip hop the right way" bravado.. great sample-based shit. Maybe not as good as Stepfather, definitely doesn't touch LPs 1-3, but worth the 19 bucks 360 was charging for the double vinyl, which is saying something. New Q-Tip is like 80% great, which is about 30-40% more than I expected. The singles are the best joints though, which is no shocker. New Black Milk is kinda so-so, but his beat on GZA's "Pro Tools" is probably the best Wu the past year or so.
I'm on a Stereolab f'in KICK which happens every few years or so. Everyone thinks moogs and those hypnotic french chants when they think Stereolab, but what I love (especially on the older pre-Elektra records) are the songs with the massive guitars doing like one, maybe two chords tops. It makes me dream about a day when I can be in a band that I can be in the background playing the open A chord for like 8 minutes straight while everyone else onstage rips all this technical precise shit.

Okay, enough for now. Soon, like a week from now soon, Joe and I have 10ish track CD, done all on 4 track cassette. Easily the worst fidelity of anything I've done since high school, and easily probably some of my proudest moments band-wise thus far.

Dependents? (Rough Draft)

2009-01-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

-Tac
-Spalding
-Big Mister
-R.O.B.
- .. who else am I forgetting?!

Show wrap-up: East End 12/27/08

2009-01-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

Fun show, and perhaps marked the last time I will ever play the drums in a smoky room? Until our Vegas run, that is. Search Party closed out a four band bill, doubling as a birthday party as well. This show had a nice tight-knit vibe, and it was great to finally play the East End, as that was a room that I have been wanting to play for some time. Got to see some faces I don't usually get to see too, as it is that special time of year that many out-of-towners descend back on their hometown for Christmas family visits. Nice.

Firsts for this show:
-No practices in between this one, and our one a couple weeks earlier at the Tonic. That is because the snow started less than two days after we were off the stage that night, and didn't really melt until the afternoon of our East End show. That made for an interesting "lost" two weeks.
-No setlist for this one either, save for deciding on maybe the first two or three. I was in charge of calling them out, but somehow I think I was overruled on basically all of my picks. That's okay though, whatever man.
-Did not use a drink ticket. What??

Okay.. up soon, a midweek blowout at Ash St.

Christmas with the Long St. Community Choir - 2008 Edition

2008-12-24T18:20:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Please enjoy a 9 track CD I helped work on with some friends, consisting entirely of Christmas music. I have to say, as a big fan of Christmas, I actually don't relate too much to Christmas music. Until now.

Behold the Long St. Community Choir's first album- "Christmas with the Long St. Community Choir, 2008 Edition". I have to say, while I put in only a fraction of the work that executive producers Ken and Chuck put in, I am still immensely proud of this disc. Kudos to everyone involved (including Justus's mom via telephone), and to all a Merry Christmas!

(right click here to download)

(also, many thanks to fine folks at qbeagles.net for the stolen hosting)

From the archives #3: John Weatherproof "Poorly Executed Moments of Self-Reflection"

2008-12-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

This is a jump to digital recording, recorded by our pal Demetri, who was also playing bass for us at the time. I want to say done in 2004? While I won't labor too much over what I dislike about listening to it, I will say that it was definitely un-finished. Which is a shame, because this was a definite leap in song-writing/performance/fidelity/everything. Still pretty primitive compared to your average guitar music, but anyway..
This was basically the end of this version of Weatherproof, as it became harder for the two of us to schedule time to get together. Some rockin' stuff here though. If I can say anything, at least it has some slick ass bass lines.

Highlights:
"Mating Arena" - the "show" opener.
"All Systems Go" - "...wild shirts from the conformity playhouse". This goofy line makes me feel uncomfortable, don't know why.
"Lords of Impermanence" - Best Weatherproof song? And the only one I don't sing. Coincidence? Also, my favorite guitar playing.. peppered by some nice Schoeck overdubs on the axe.
"Shoe Budget" - A fun one, missing some key guitar overdubs for some reason.
"Non-Confrontational" - Underwent lyric changes at the last second, some improvised on here.

Final thoughts: I remember being pretty tired of this one at first, but I love listening to it now... with the exception of some vocals making me cringe (things that I meant to change), and entire guitar parts missing. Plus we, of course meant to be a lot more ambitious. I think there was at least 10 more songs I wanted to record. Oh well, I'm pretty stoked about getting these seven down now! Enjoy.

Track #1: Mating Arena
Track #2: Script Flippers
Track #3: All Systems Go
Track #4: Lords of Impermanence
Track #5: Maestro's Bakin'
Track #6: Non-Confrontational Party Time
Track #7: Shoe Budget

Show wrap-up: Tonic 12/12/08

2008-12-15T20:33:00.000-08:00

A big Flavelian shout-out to those that came out last Friday night. We had a good time rockin the last spot of the night, again debuting a new one. Also, we were super stoked to share the stage with our pal Matt on cello. I keep meaning to make cracks about the Portland Cello Project to him, but I'm not sure if that would be uncool. He kicked off our set with a few songs solo, a nice rendition of "Midnight Special", followed by a frenzied big muff-infused solo, and then closed with a song I wasn't familiar with. Matt stayed on stage with us for our first, and then closed the night on a new song by Tommy (so far titled "Tommy's Newest", not to be confused with "Tommy's New One").
I would say each show we play, we get looser and looser, which I think ultimately is a good thing. I think maybe it was the goulash I enjoyed before the show (from Two Brothers restaurant, 39th & Belmont -- yum!).
We have one more show booked in January, at the Ash St., and then we take a break from shows for a while. I believe that's been one a month for about a year now. Cool stuff. I really intended to more carefully document every show this band played, since I'd never done that with any band, but this has been the only extent I got around to.

Totally unrelated:
2 good singles from a new album: Q-Tip
2 shit-ass singles from a new album: Kanye
Blazers: Will snap out of it. Please don't trade Travis.
First on Flickr with snow pictures: John V- beat me to the punch.
Amount of calls I received from work today, since I was "snowed-in": 5
Extended weekend booze roll-call: Hot toddy, chocolate egg nog, Santa's Private Reserve from Rogue, Old Foghorn from Anchor, some of that '05 Doggie Claws from Hair of the Dog, Merry Xmas/HNY from Anchor, and a shot of Ketel One with Gilly (for digestion purposes only.)

From the archives #2: The Drunkards - Live @ Weatherproof 08/15/1997

2008-11-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

The year: 1997
The setting: A basement in southeast Portland, nighttime, but not too late, cause we didn't want to be loud for our neighbors.
The band: The Drunkards, straight outta Milwaukie Oregon. A three piece that was discovering hardcore, but still had obvious influence from NOFX to Nirvana. So, you know- fast, childish, drunken, hooky. Good shit!

The idea: Littlewood had a new cassette 4 track, that neither of us knew too well. He also had a Maxell XLII 60 minute tape (half that remember, when you are recording on both sides simultaneously), and a couple SM58s. Let's do a live session and discover alcohol together.

How it went down: Relatively seamless, if I remember correctly? I remember (and you'll hear it documented on the recording) that Abe's guitar strap kept malfunctioning, but he refused offers of duct tape. We managed to get a good even sound, if not still pretty lo-fi. If my memory serves me well, I think a lot of these songs changed somewhat as the band continued on for the next year or so. And of course, I believe they added more songs to the repertoire later on, but this was a good 11 song jump off for the dudes.

Now: Kerry asked me to digitize this, as I guess all of our copies before were just cassette dubs. I'm glad I took care of it now, as the tape doesn't seemed to have aged perfectly. Going back to "master" it now, it seems that all of the drums and guitar were mixed and recorded identically to tracks 1 and 3, and the bass and vocals were put together identically on tracks 2 and 4. Made for some weird phasing issues, but a little EQ and panning solved that for the most part.
Even though these are mostly just fairly fast, sloppy-ish (sorry guys!), 3 chord punk jams, I must say that I always look back on this tape pretty fondly. I think it's a Biggs brother thing. Now, if we can just unearth some Planet of the Abes sessions, cause that was a killer ass band. Anyone bootleg the 17 Nautical Miles shows? ha-ha

But seriously, get me some PotA if you've got some.

The jams:

THE DRUNKARDS
Live! @ Weatherproof
08/15/97
(recorded by Littlewood, executive produced by the Biggs bros.)
(right click to download)
01 - Intro
02 - The Drunkards Theme Song
03 - She's For Free
04 - The Night
05 - Leech
06 - Kelly
07 - Buttslut
08 - Lightweight Dave
09 - Milwaukie Community
10 - Who Needs a Penis When You've Got a Vagina?
11 - Gin & Squirt
12 - Mommy

UPDATE: Further research lead me to this: www.myspace.com/thedrunkards

We went through so many damn forks

2008-11-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

We went through so many damn forks yesterday, that I am eating a microwavable burrito with a spoon right now. And before anyone accuses me of being too lazy to wash a fork, you should be damn aware that they are all locked up in the damn dishwasher. And once that thing is going, there is absolutely no way to open it without causing some sort of disaster --science.

Currently rockin some Teenage Fanclub, and getting ready to drink some fancy ass beers (big surprise).

Show wrap-up: Ash St. 11/20/08

2008-11-23T22:44:00.000-08:00

Good show, the other night. Had a nice turnout, weekday or not. We played last too, but friends of the first band seemed to stick it out for the end, which was nice of them. I fought the temptation to get a drink, as I am increasingly realizing playing without beer weighing you down makes for steadier performances. I think it might not be so much the alcohol, but rather just the dehydrating qualities of it, wearing me out faster. That, coupled with nervous energy just makes me winded a lot faster. I finally opened a couple longnecks right as we were going onstage, looking forward to taking my first few gulps after our now typical "play 5 songs before you even take a breath" show beginnings. Anyway, this was no easy feat, as we got there for load in at around 8:00 pm. Mission accomplished though.
Enough about beer (for now). We continued our goal of playing a new song at each show, this one narrowly making the cut. I had a mic behind the kit (another addition to my setup. Boo!) for the first time, which sounded nice and loud and clear back in my monitor, but apparently wasn't so loud out front. John hated his little temporary bass amp. On the other side, Tommy (rockin the Tele) tried out a new leslie speaker. Good stuff! I made jokes about it being the world's heaviest chorus pedal. It's a pretty sexy dude though.
We are looking forward to some fun stuff in the near future. Trying to lock up some studio time, so we can get around to that follow up disc. In the meantime, I'm supposedly going to get the recording of last week's show, and I might put that up temporarily if there is anyone interested in that sort of thing. Also, we are playing another show at the Tonic. This time on a Friday! Nice! December 12th to be exact. See you then, or hopefully before.

Show Update (11/20 @ Ash St.)

2008-11-17T17:54:00.000-08:00

Just got the heads up that our show for Thursday has a new mission. While I'm not sure how public the details are at the moment, I can say that we have received some scary news about someone very close to a band we are performing with. While I'm sure we weren't looking at raising enough to foot some entire hefty medical expense for our friends, we have to look at it with a "every little bit helps" kind of approach.
Anyway, not trying to use tragedy or guilt as a measure to get some people through the door, but if you were already planning on making it out, you can now consider your entry fee being on its way to some good folks in a time of need.
Word up, and see you on Thursday.

Upcoming: Search Party @ Ash St.

2008-11-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

11/20 will be a special night, my friends. It's a Thursday first off, which is always amazing. And lastly, we will be jamming some rock music in old town Portland. Looking forward to this one. Gonna have a sangin' mic back my kit. Hopefully there won't be any issues with the door this time 'round. We have a couple new ones to debut as well.

The details:
-Search Party
-11/20/08, which is this Thursday
-We play last, at 11:00. Don't front like this is late for a weeknight, cause you're probably just gonna be watching Sportscenter, and not asleep like you pretended. Oh wait, that's me, not you.
-5 Dollars
-Nobody over 21 allowed. Just kidding.
-Bring some earplugs.

From the archives #1: John Weatherproof "Contest Results"

2008-11-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

If anyone looks at this, and has somehow not had CDs of mine pushed on them, I'm intending to put them up here, in the form of mp3 links. These links will work for sometime in between a few days or maybe a few decades.

First up is the CD "Contest Results", made by John Weatherproof in 2003. This is the duo era- me and B. Schoeck's mission statement at the time. I was still getting used to singing and playing guitar at the same time, and generally trying my hardest not to play a half-step off coming out of the chorus. This was recorded as we moved into a big house in the Irvington neighborhood in Northeast Portland. It was my first time having a basement in a couple of years, and somehow, even living with my bandmate, we still labored over this for long enough that we stopped with only 6 songs. Most of the tracks were recorded onto cassette 4-track for its lo-fi analog compression, and then dumped into 8-track minidisc (technology already semi-outdated for its time) to do the vocal and extra guitar overdubs. All SM58 mics/no mic pres if I remember correctly.

Random highlights (/lowlights):
- "Rhymez" (pronounced "Rhyme-ezz" if you were Schoeck) featuring a rather football-huddle sounding vocal overdubs. I think it was 3 each of the two of us overlapping. A friend when I was very young criticized my first band for having all rhyming lyrics, which is a trend that continues to this day.

- "Caught in a Trap", resurrected from a previous band, Haphazard. The acoustic outro was high-concept to me at the time.

- "U-haul", resurrected later by QBE. Eerily virtually unchanged.

- "Make Sure". Features no right hand (edit: Features my right hand on the "whammy", but not on the strings. Guitar Pro Magazine insider info!). This was a lot different when we played it live.

Final Thoughts: Definitely the most cohesive Weatherproof disc. This one actually had artwork (spraypainted in limited numbers- totally ripped off by me on the first Search Party demo) which I of course don't have anymore. I was pretty proud of this one start to finish. Now, only if we could have capitalized on our own self-momentum and kept recording. Oh well.

The songs (right click to download, etc.):

Track #1: Rhymez Don't Lie
Track #2: Same Place
Track #3: Caught in a Trap
Track #4: Tricky Rock Miniskirt
Track #5: Lady @ U-Haul
Track #6: Make Sure

Get off of this planet, 10/28/08

2008-10-28T22:55:00.000-07:00

Get off of this planet now, please:

Beyonce Knowles - It's uncommon to hear such an annoying song as *one* of the songs she has out now, but the 1-2 punch of "If I Were a Boy" (or whatever the hell it's called) and whatever the hell song goes "all the single ladies... if you like it, you shoulda put a ring on it, etc..." are probably the worst dual assault on my ears on commercial radio in like.. maybe forever. It's like an incredibly huge whiner that happens to also have an incredibly strong voice, making her whinyness ramped up x1000.

Gordon Smith - I'm always terrible in political arguments. I'm terrible at arguing or debating basically for anything. I get too flustered. I'm just glad that I can vote in peace, without having to feel like I need to argue with someone. But if I had one argument out there, to somehow reach Oregonians specifically, it would be to wake people up about the importance of the senate race, as everyone is swept up in Obama fever. I mean, it is good to be swept up in Obama fever too. Plus, it should be noted, that Gordon Smith's campaign's commercials look like something that was taken right out of a Mr. Show sketch- they are that fuckin hilarious.

The NBA - Off this planet Lakers and Celtics. What the hell is this?!?? Just give those two teams their own league or something. BORING. I hope Kobe and Garnett fall into a pit.

Show wrap-up: Lola's Room 10/18/08

2008-10-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

Man, I feel like I owe a lot of people a round of beers after this one. I got a few versions of the story, but apparently there was a problem with the computer that generated the tickets outside, at the box office, causing people to basically miss most of our set. And in the case of other people I talked to later, some actually missed our entire set and went home before even getting in. Suck city!
I have two problems onstage generally, which makes for a bad combination: one, I feel like I am especially bad at seeing people in the audience with stage lights pointed at me, and also, I am generally sort of shy at making eye contact with people while I am performing. I am not very stage-shy, and I like goof off and everything, but I am kinda lame with the interactions, whether that be talking into the mic, or even just simple eye contact. Anyway, point being that I didn't even realize people were missing our set, and figured that everyone that was going to make it was in with plenty of time.
We played a good, maybe slightly rigid set. Overall, pretty pleased with this one though. It's always a little tight when you're playing first, and at the 9:00 slot, rather than the more forgiving 10:00. People are still working on the first half of their beer, and they're still saying hi to their friends and what not. We played a couple of the new ones we debuted at the tonic a month back, and a brand-new one of Tommy's that came together only a week or so before. Nice! I dig that one too. I don't know the name, and we are admittedly getting worse at getting around to naming our songs at all. I skipped right through an entire part of "On&On&On" (is that title??!) and tried to do this bip-bip-bap-bap part well before the other guys were set to do it-- and gave everyone my best "I totally didn't mess up" look on my face. By the end, we did sneak an extra song in the set, and apparently still finished before our allotted time (sorry AGAIN to everyone we screwed over waiting outside- had we known, we would have played the 20 minute version of our last song.. or at least, made up a 20 minute version on the spot!).
Audiodub was the band that played following us. They are also the members of the Lou Dog Trio, which is a Sublime tribute band. Very friendly dudes.. the drummer recognized me from an Accolades show that I filled in for on the drums over a year ago. We talked drum set ups, and did some well-wishing for our respective sets. It was nice to see that they are devoting a portion of their show to original material now, as they are all pretty ace musicians. On the other hand, say what you will about bands that do covers, but you can't pity people that have that much fun and energy onstage. And you can't argue with how happy the crowd is to rock out with them. I imagine it would get a little tiresome to have only a few (what, 3 right?) albums of material to draw from. But these guys didn't let any sense of "going through the motions" or lack of energy ever show. Pretty impressive. I myself could only consider myself having casual interest to them (the original Sublime, that is).. always thought they were a band of a higher caliber, as far as bands on commercial radio, but never owned anything by them. Anyway, fun to hear all those songs that I slightly know (and some I know word for word of course, thanks to mid 90s 94.7 fm). And also fun to see those that were let down by the lame ticket situation be pleasantly surprised by a cover band (and one that does their own originals to open up too!).
Finally, I should mention I got some serious leg injury from drummin', which I think could have been avoided by simply having my snare maybe one inch taller. It seriously looks like a cannon was shot at my inner thigh about six inches away from me. I would post a picture, but that might turn my blog more PG-13.

Off topic:
New Deerhoof and Blitzen Trapper do not disappoint. The former's "Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back" will be my unofficial theme song to the Portland Trail Blazers new season (though they are probably by default Warriors fans huh?). The song makes me want to learn how to edit sweet youtube videos featuring Joel Przybilla. Blitzen Trapper's new one is a little less ramshackle, and a little more singer songwritery, but definitely a grower.
Beer: Double Dead Guy by Rogue was killer on tap, but maybe a little less interesting in the bottle (besides its cool opaque pinkish red bottle, of course). Jubelale is already fuckin good. It's almost barleywine overdrive time too, which to touch on a topic already touched on, means that it is just about Blazer time with Mike Barrett and Mike Rice.
Back to music: Search Party is digging its new digs. Have me give you a tour before our sweaty bodies start contaminating the place too bad. We are also going to be making demo #2 here shortly, just tentatively picked out the jams tonight. Also, I will be remastering the legendary Drunkards live party tape from... ohh.., what? 1997? That will probably be the subject of an upcoming blog post as well. It is a story of kegs, punk music, Milwaukie teen angst, and so much more.

See you soon!

Search Party@ Lola's Room 10/18/08

2008-10-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge this badass show poster. Or check virtually any phone pole in the greater Portland metro area, cause you're gonna see it tacked up.

Updated

2008-10-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

So much is going on, that I had to race to my keyboard and get this all down.
1) Tac & Spalding are going outside on a regular basis now that they are all chem'd up with flea medicine. I think all they do outside is roll around in the dirt, cause they get all kinds of debris dreadlocked into their long fur. Spalding likes to dissapear all day, and Tac prefers the porch. Neither seem to be phased by rain.
2) Beers I have enjoyed lately: Full Sail's 21st Anniversary Doppelbock (in a 22 oz. bomber- a more complex lager, nice and alcoholy). Also from Full Sail, I had a Prodigal Sun IPA (also 22 oz'er)-- decent, but so hard to choose IPAs nowadays with your Ninkasis and TGs and Stones of the world. Special ordered with Chuck a case of Old Stock Ale from North Coast-- tastes Barleywiney, but apparently is an Old Ale (which I've never heard of). Again, nice and alcoholy, and one of those great beers that improves as you hold the pint glass in your hand, warming it up. Also, can't leave out Palo Santo from Dogfish Head Brewery, which is fast becoming my fav. Totally woody, apparently has moved from seasonal to regular status.
3) Some guy tracked me down after finding my passport and other documents discarded off of NE Halsey street. That's awesome. Didn't see any new stamps in the book, left there in the 5 or so days I was without it. Now at least I can marvel at the couple places I've been (stamps-wise), while I get around to applying for a new not-voided one.
4) Blazers first pre-season game is at home in just a couple of days. This seemed like the longest summer ever, as far as anticipation for the new season goes. Stoked to know more about Oden and Rudy, how well they will actually work. Life hint: Don't listen to sports talk radio in the morning.
5) John's V's October annual movie freakout has officially begun, which is exciting. Maybe I can look forward to some more boobies screen caps in my inbox at 7 am on a Monday morning, in one of his now legendary movie-night preview emails.
6) Front Mission almost done, DQ4 next I think. Also, my two lifegoals was once owning a house and beating Mario 3 without warping or dying once. I need to get on the Mario thing.
7) Rooting for the Phils, with my vicarious fandom through Joe and Madison. Hopefully I will get a chance to watch more of the NLCS than the DSs.
8) Search Party moves into our new centrally-located digs tomorrow. I guess it is literally new, too. More on that, as I see what it's like. We are playing at Lola's on the 18th, which is a Saturday. This time we are playing first too, so let's totally hang out with some cold ones, and then do something fun afterwards, cool?

That's all for now. I'm not actually voting Republican, believe it or not.

Tough Economical Times

2008-09-24T23:47:00.000-07:00

These though economical times remind me how important it is to vote this time 'round in '08. I know this time 'round, I'm gonna vote Republican, cause that's what's smart.

R.I.P. 3TQ

2008-09-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

Triple Threat Quartet disbanded last Wednesday night after a small show at the White Eagle, late at night. It seemed surprising, and kind of not that surprising at the same time. Quickly estimating, it has been around 4 years the guys have grinded it out (they began roughly around the same time as QB Eagles/Rarities), and decided that this is the time to pack it in. The members of the audience that night were either oblivious to the decision (which was essentially made on stage as they were packing up), or uncaring.
The whole scenario leaves the inner-musician/bandmember in me a touch sad. Not just because I am arguably the number one Triple Threat Quartet fan, but rather because of all the questions raised internally when you have a band of your own.
Where does a small local unheard of band go when it dies?? I mean like.. legacy-wise. Especially a band that never made a CD!! Did the band exist just so it could be cherished only by the ones that were apart of it? Like, years later, only in the form of memories? What's the damn point, right? Obviously, when you ask any non-jackass musician a question like "why do you play in a band" or some sort of variant, the typical answer is "because it's fun" or maybe even something like "because it's a fun excuse to hang out with my friends (and have beers)" or even "because that's the best way to express my creativity, or something". Those are all good reasons. All that works fine, but eventually most musicians get the urge to play in front of people in a live setting. Or is at least invited and feels obliged to perform. I don't know why the performance bug strikes. Validation of some sort perhaps? None of my bandmates are egomaniacs (as far as I can tell), and I don't think Triple Threat was onstage ever purely to show off. I personally mostly perfer to have small doses of attention, and be able to be comfortably in the background in general. I don't know why I look forward to every show, but I certainly know why I get nervous before each and every one. It is a rush every time, whether it is to a nice sizeful audience full of all of your friends, or to a Wednesday night room, when pretty much everyone decides that it is too much of a burden to leave the comfort of your couch (and I have no problem saying that I have been that guy countless times!).
Point is, for some reason, these five guys decided to put themselves out there. They may have acted nonchalant about it, and they may play it off like they aren't doing anything special to save face to people who might think it was uncool to express yourself. They weren't Fugazi or anything.. or some band on an important mission. But it still can give you a bit of melancholy thinking that eventually some one or a few of them decided that it wasn't worth it anymore. I'm not talking about suicide or anything radical, but still. Why do you join a band? Why do you play live? Why is it suddenly not worth it anymore? The original quartet have been friends forever, and the +1 member seems to be more or less cememted as a permanent fixture. They will most certainly be telling their own war stories well into their senior citizen days, probably between playing whatever the latest Nintendo is, and looking at some sort of future-porn together.
Anyway, before I get too sappy or sentimental sounding, I should probably remind myself that by the time I've finished writing this, there will already be some sort of new band in the works featuring at least 95% of the original band. And Rebenge's reunion stint seems to be more or less a regular deal now too. Whatever incarnation takes place, I am fully expecting to still be the guy awkwardly standing 5 feet in front of everybody else, right in front of the stage. Singing along to lyrics and what not.

Here's my favorite things about the now defunct Triple Threat Quartet, only because I know that no one in that band would ever make a list or write a blog or even be sentimental (about anything non-sports related that is).
-Triple Threat Quartet had a truly unique sound. Maybe it wasn't the most polished sound, and maybe it wasn't even some (theoretical) person's cup of tea. But it is definitely a certain sound. And that is incredibly hard to do.
-The songs "Jogging", "Yamahawk", and "81s". They had a lot more than three good songs of course, but those stand out as three fuckin' catchy gems.
-The fact that they never tired of playing with my bands over and over and over and over again. Or at least, they never told me that- ha. And of course, I will always be grateful for all the shows that were booked by them, that they extended an invite to me to share the bill.
-Scott's better than average stage banter, which obviously is still intact for his next project (or at least Juice & Milk). He may have occasionally been too apologetic on the mic for how late they took the stage, or how it was a weekday, etc.. But for the most part, good stuff. "You can't count us five out!!"
-Shouting "Hate-core!"
-"Dude Jazz", the new genre.

One thing that pissed me off about Triple Threat Quartet:
-I never got invited to play tambourine on "81s".

Edit: Minor complaint

2008-09-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

Makes me laugh: green hearted Oregon stickers placed on SUVs.

(disclosure: there used to be a much longer rant on this here, but I couldn't think straight about anything until I deleted it, and replaced it with this much simpler translation.)

Eat shit and die

2008-09-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Flavelian HQ has experienced its first reality call to what neighborhood it is located in. After 15 or so months of describing our digs as being just a stone's throw from Woodstock, I can now be tempted to refer to it as being.. well, on the cusp of Milwaukee, or maybe even saying "felony flats".
Yesterday afternoon, while Gilly and I were naively working our typical 9 to 5 routine, some fuck face decided he or she desperately needed to enter our premises. Even if that meant the only way possible was taking some sort of portable jigsaw to our door to cut a hole into it. And then proceed to smash up some glass to get inside of our kitchen, and main living areas.
I keep going back and forth feeling lucky that, we ourselves are safe, to exploring the darker sides of my mind and vowing revenge from the porch with a shotgun, rocking slowly in a rocking chair (at this point fictional items of course) and snorting at innocent strollers in our hood. I don't really have a violent bone in my body of course. I do have a mind that races to all sorts of imaginary scenarios, some involving super sleuthing to catch our intruder, and some involve much uglier aforementioned fantasies.
On to the physical losses. In a perfect world, this would be some sort of like.. "oh, now I realize I don't need physical belongings, and I should just be happy to be more free" type moments. No, they left the probably unnecessary clutter, such as the 500+ NES Carts, the cds, the vinyl, etc.. They snagged my first ever guitar (not counting the two axes my dad had lying around as a youth, that were swindled and somewhat swindled away from me respectively). They snagged a clean ass Mexican bass guitar that had been in the Weatherproof fam for longer than I know some of my best friends. They fuckin jacked Littlewood's huge cumbersome combo bass amp, (thoughtfully?) not even knocking over the iron/ironing board that is prone to fall-over, right in front of it. Perhaps worst of all, they snagged Gilly's axe, AKA her badass violin that her folks gave to her when she was younger. Jewelry, other assorted music bits and pieces, a stick of deodorant (really?!), and on some scary ID life-stealing shit, my passport (with SSN) and bank account info. My last couple of days were instantly turned in to a 1-800 hold music jam session.
Our new roomies Tac and Spalding were given quite a fright. Tac barracaded herself into a small corner of the back room's closet. Spalding managed to discover the lowlife's exit route (left open of course) and hid out nearby the wheelbarrow. Luckily after barely 48 hours of chillin with these kitties, it seems that they already are recognizing the crib as home. Spalding sprung into action as I approached her in the backyard, but luckily beelined for the garage door- yay! Loyalty from our cool new pals.
One affirmation we've repeated to ourselves is "well, they may have our treasured possessions, but at least they are addicted to meth, and are pathetic." Grim maybe. Kinda helping now. Oh yeah, and we're really hoping that when they try to sell Gilly's huge ass Chris Brown-style diamond earrings, they will feel a damn fool for even a second thinking that they are real, and not glass or zirconium or whatever. Diamonds!? Really now, please. You did know that The Flavelian rocks zirconium (or even cheaper zirconium knock-offs!), and that my acoustic guitar cost me $175 brand new. I mean, I know japanese Fender acoustics from the mid 90s that cost $175 have a huge collector interest right now. If you even get 20 bucks for it, I'd actually be proud. Maybe I should have included a note, talking about how I worked all summer during my high school years on my very first job to buy that guy. Maybe that note could have driven up its sentimental value (instantly translatable into hard pawn ca$$$H).

Anyway, I've thought about this way too long. Mom suggested I set up a booby trap that shoots a gun at you when you illegally enter the house. Don't think it's going to come to that, but if you're a meth addicted robber, livin in brenthood-darlington, aka the flats 4eva, don't bet on it!!

Show wrap-up: Tonic 09/05/08

2008-09-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

Overall, like last time we played the Tonic, I would rank this one up there with the "better" shows we've done. Something about that room's sound and their willingness to book us on much coveted Fridays combine for fun nights! A good turnout from co-workers again, and the usual crew. I can't believe we have such nice friends. Hopefully we'll all still be hanging out in our forties and fifties, but one thing I'm not looking forward to by then, is constantly apologizing for ruining all of my friend's hearing. I tried my best to save everyone's ear drums by flashing around my now patented ziploc baggie of earplugs (copied from Joe actually). Not too many takers, but oh well.
The night started with John and Tommy exiting early after load in (a meal elsewhere, and a pre-show nap respectively), and a warm-up beer for myself with some co-workers and pals. Apparently the bar generously sells half-price food to the performing musicians, though I did not take advantage. I saw Chuck and Eric thoroughly jammin hard on some burgery sandwiches though.
I ended up missing a signigicant chunk of Crudelaque, the first performing band of the night. From what I saw, I caught of a glimpse of a polished sound with surprisingly nice vocal harmonics on some good ol' bar rock. I also scoped out in their arsenal of equipment, a sweet vintage Rickenbacker guitar amp! Cool!
Triple Threat Quartet rocked a nice 45 minute set. They enjoyed the famous 10 foot gap between audience members and band on stage phenomenon that plagues band after band after band. I did my best to look like a weirdo and buck the trend by standing directly in front of the audience, hovering over the stage monitors. We were treated to now familiar opener "Yamahawk". This has been song one on the setlist a few shows in a row now. I believe I later drunkenly told the band that I found this to be a good quality in setlist construction (-- opening with the same song a few times, that is). Also, coming soon is my blog entirely dedicated to writing out setlists.
Anyway, 3TQ performed the hits- no new songs still. That's cool. They'll get to it. Jogging still gets me pumped up, with its pre-choruses and what not. I forgot to razz them about making a CD sometime while they were on stage, but I did remember to bother Eric about it post show. I was all like "Yeah, you guys are a new band, but you should really get around to making a demo sometime." har har har.
Search Party rocked its first "closing" slot. This was also our longest set, bumping our typical almost too short set of approx. 7 songs up to about 13 or 14 or so. Needless to say, the sweat was pouring, and I conciously had to try and pace myself behind the kit as well. I would put this one above our other recent shows, as far as satisfactory performances go. I have yet to truly have a bad night with these guys, but this one felt loose and fun. We did the now overly-predictable move of saying "last song!!" but then playing like 3 or 4 more, and got shit for it later. Whoops! Anyway, I hope we didn't overstay our welcome (that's the point with the intentionally short sets anyway). Also notable of the night was debuting 3 new songs: On & On (& on??), Paper Planes (kind of like paper car??), and our closer, the song that John introduced as "My Morning's Awesome", which I'm assuming won't be the final name. The name came about from John thinking it sounded like My Morning Jacket (yawn), and myself thinking it sounded like Boston (uhm.. yuck? I like our song though.) Somehow that morphed into My Morning's Awesome. Cool story huh?

Up next is Lola's in October. More on that soon.

New word

2008-09-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

"Uh-mediate", which is like immediate, but combined with the tone of saying "duhhh" to someone. A good example would be like, say.. "We need to get those Dawson's Creek DVD sets uh-mediately!", and making it sound like we are totally dumb for not having them yet.

I swear to god I don't know how to log in

2008-09-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

I don't know how to log into Search Party's myspace. It would be cool to like.. put up something about our upcoming shows. Or maybe like make tons of friends. But I don't know how to log in. I don't know how to even ask for the password, cause I don't know what email we used to make it. And I've already asked John a million times. He usually forgets too. And then he has to figure it out, and then everyone is upset. Maybe we should just quit.

Weekend after weekend

2008-09-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

No complaints recently with any sort of shortage on excitement the last several weekends. Got to enjoy a couple of long-time-coming weddings, a successful bbq/movie fiesta, a fried food gorge and beach frolic, etc.
This weekend brings the aforementioned rock show, which I'm looking forward to like crazy. I just plunked down 91 bucks on "gear" (which is probably better described as "repairs" that happen on a way too frequent basis). This means my hobby of playing music remains a money-losing affair yet again. Not that I hopped into it with any grand notion of serious financial gain. Or any financial gain. Sometimes I do wonder just how much dough I have invested in this whole deal, especially with multiple kits (from the multiple bands) to upkeep. At any rate, it would take some serious entire-drumsets-burning-up-in-a-fire type disaster to sideline any enthusiasm for doing this. I'm just gonna have to be content with top ramen on the occasions I decide I can't possibly play another show without replacing these dull 20 year old drum heads (both goddamned sides! sheeit). Or maybe I can think about not breaking 3 sticks every time we rehearse.

Oh well, enough gripes. I am now officially straight to run through our jams, new songs, old songs. Maybe a few numbers more than usual, since we are playing last (for the first time?). The goal is to enjoy my week's first beer when we get on stage. Monday doesn't count, cause that was totally Labor Day- still part of the weekend.

Is it nerdy to make an excel sheet of the beers I am storing for aging purposes? Maybe if I catalog them with some sort of elaborate numbering system like, bottle# A200T3 or something.

Sucks: Project Runway
Sucks Less than Project Runway: Million Dollar Listing
iPod of beverages: Kombucha. Ain't no one gonna be fuckin drinking that shit in 2 years. At least people will still listen to ipods though (not me though).

Currently drankin'

2008-08-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

Grocery store: Deschutes Green Lakes Organic Ale (yum- repeat customer)
Specialty store: Rogue Jazz Guy (good, maybe not as good as I remember it?) & Ninkasi Tricerahops (so good it kind of ruins their standard IPA, the Total Domination)
Special order: Dogfish Head 120 min. IPA (beer from God, or at least outerspace good. Over 20% apparently -- gonna age 4 bottles of this) & Stone Old Guardian barleywine (delish!!! gonna age at least one of these deuce-deuces.)
Convenience store: Full Sail LTD orange label (a good band practice beer)
Homebrew: Good, if not a little strange. Gonna force this on BBQ goers.

September 5th, 2008

2008-08-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Getting rather stoked for Search Party's second evening with the Triple Threat Quartet Revue at the Tonic Lounge. If it ends up being half as full or half as fun, it would still probably rank up there as being "pretty damn sweet". Last January I think it was, we played together with Vice Riot (now RIP?), and had a hell of a time.
Now we attempt to relive that glory. Especially important to me to have a good show, as John's stab at solo glory is right on the horizon. We'll see if I can sweat as much as I did last time. I think the last show we played, Jojo asked me if I ever considered bringing a back up t-shirt to change into once we were done playing, and somehow I had never thought of that before! Good idea. As much as love the post-show hugs with my transparent sweaty shirt, I could probably do people some favors.

More on this one as it approaches.

Alter-ego Roundup

2008-08-11T12:28:00.001-07:00

I've got two new alter-egos. My new R&B singer name is going to be P.M. Showers (or possibly Shaowaz), and my new stage dancer name is going to be Ginger Streusel. I'm working on some mock-up illustrations for these guys (me). I don't have photoshop anymore, so this may be an analog affair.

Enter Flavelian

2008-08-10T22:41:00.000-07:00

After carefully weeding out people's names and likenesses slowly from Caruthers World and our picture page, so no one loses their jobs over anything illicit/pornographic, I decided to start fresh here. Gilly is watching the new Menudo video (no, I'm not going to link), and I am procrastinating. I might talk more about my bands here than on the previous blog, which is boring, but things are less bloggable when you don't live with Kev and Em (or Sexy Wolf or Lil Entree). Not that we are boring here- we grow vegetables and watch digital cable now, afterall. We still watch QVC and Lifetime, speaking of cable.

We've lived here for a year. Mosquito bites have gone up 1000x, and I didn't know Portland had so many motorcycles.