12/14/14

One day at some practice Lance asked me if I'd play with this drag queen that was coming to town. Apparently there was a benefit for the Austin Drag Fest and they brought Miss Tammy Brown out to do her Christmas show then a set of her songs. She was bringing a guitar player but needed full backup. That was me and Lance.

We had one rehearsal where we plotted through some of the worst written charts I have ever seen in my life. On most of the songs I ended up rewriting the whole thing... They were so bad it was almost amazing. We played through everything three times, shook hands and met up at the show.

They had Lav mics for the play, but the soundguy was really a DJ and he didn't have a clue how to work them. Bad sound was a theme for the night. They did the show (a pretty funny riff of Charlie Brown Christmas) and only a couple of mics worked... for a dozen people... After the play the DJ, I mean "soundguy" took off... and didn't set anything up for the music...

It took about an hour and a half to figure shit out. Tammy's guitar player, Michael didn't have anything to plug in to then there was the "regular" mic problem... Some genius had a mixer with only two inputs... and Michael had to go direct so that left one mic for Tammy, Michael and the two backup singers (Cunty and Natasha). Well planned...

You could tell Tammy was not happy with the problems. She (and Michael) flew from LA to do these two sets to a sold out crowd (Tables were $400, this was no cheap affair) and the sound was absolute shit. And there was and HOUR AND A HALF BETWEEN SETS!!!!!!!!!

By the time it all got straightened out over half of the crowd was gone. Tammy, Michael and the ladies had to play on a bar while Lance and I played over to the side and on the floor. Tammy had everyone that stuck around come right down to the front so half of the crowd had their backs to us. It was so weird.

But the best part of it all was that it worked. We played the tunes (from a combination of old/reworked charts and visual cues) amazingly well. Lance and I even made up a couple of songs on the fly. At the top of the set Tammy came over with the wireless and had me "play something that makes people shake their hips. I said "That's my specialty!" and I kicked something off that Lance and Michael jumped all over.  And at the end of the set we just kicked in to a groove that eventually became Iko Iko at Tammy's request. So much fun!

So that was it a weird and wonderful night that was loaded with problems that were overridden with a little musical greatness. Lance and I are ready for Tammy (and Michael) to come back anytime.

11/15/14

This is way late because I didn't want to write it up. It was the last Hickoids show of the year and it was kinda boring and uneventful.

It was a benefit for KVRX so they could get a new transmitter and it was in the studio where they use to film Austin City Limits. In a place like that there are a bunch of load in/out regulations and parking permits and security checks but they had people helping us with the gear every step of the way. It's kind of annoying but everyone was nice and you could tell they were ready for a good show.

We were on first of three and the last band already had their gear on stage. By on I mean powered up... Silvertone tube amps from the early sixties that were "warming up" for three or four hours before their set. Someone has a lot of money for tubes. Or not... the bass amp was humming away and I couldn't find it's power switch to turn it off (it was "modified".) I'm doubting it made it through the night...

We did our sound check, waited around then rocked our set. There were only about fifty people when we played and in a space that big it looks like five. Most of them were in the bleachers so they were far, far away... in other words zzzzzzzz.

After the set it was get the gear off load out with lots of get here to wait for the security and/or elevator then get the truck load it up and go home.

The Hickoids are done for another year and it kinda ended with a whimper.

Boo.

11/8/14

Back before this show was booked I'd heard all abut the eventual demise of the Triple Crown, San Marcos' finest place to play. It was falling victim to the same kind of property development that's been happening up here in Austin, clear out the old crap and build the new/fancy and rich folks will buy it up as fast as they can.

So it was a bittersweet drive when I headed down for the show. After (literally) hundreds of late, sweaty nights the last time I would play there would be with the Hickoids and we were opening for the Beaumonts.

Since the Dog and Duck closed on Halloween (and with this last show looming) I'd been bummed out about all the change in central Texas. I was getting all sentimental and missing cherry picked parts of my past. I even Tweeted about the show with the hashtag #anothergreatbarcloses.

I pulled in to the parking lot and loaded my gear then headed outside to talk with the fellas. At some point I said something about our last night here and I was told...

"Oh no, it's staying open. The guy that owns it decided not to build condos."

I was thrilled! The Crown was staying! And I had just posted the stupidest tweet possible in that situation...

It probably wont be the last time.

11/1/14

Bigfoot Chester was back for an "All Saints Day" show. We went on at the Longbranch around 11, first on a bill of three.

With Davy still "out of the loop" we played as a four piece, like it was 18 (or so) years ago when I first started out in the band. Except we are all older and the drummer is a different guy.

The crowd was good and our set was solid as we rocked through our regular stuff. A couple of songs were a little on the lean side, but I think that kind of thing can get ironed out with practice and we didn't practice for this show... It's a recent theme.

Speaking of themes, a bunch of people dressed up, including us. A few hours before the show (and twenty minutes before we were gonna practice) the texting began. "Are we gonna dress up?" Over the next hour there were forty eight texts about it... Literally, 48. FORTY EIGHT TEXTS ABOUT DRESSING UP FOR THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN!!!! (I wish I was kidding...) it was decided (and not by me) we were dressing up for the evening.

Bill did Lucha Libre, Walter did Harpo, Trey was some kinda fighting guy (I barely talked to him off stage and I couldn't figure it out on my own) I wore a suit and told people I was in Churchwood.

El Pathos and the Flash Boys played off in to the night and I stayed for both 2AM closing times (DST was over so we saw it twice). I got home at 4AM, but it was really 5AM in yesterdays reality. I was whipped and slept most of the next day.

10/18/14

The second South Filthy show was up in Memphis at a place called Hi-Tone (not to be confused with Hi-Tones in SA.) I made the drive from down in the Delta and wandered around Memphis for a few hours. It's weird to be touring with a band and your by yourself most of the time. Usually there are a couple of other folks around to help keep you from boredom. Not this trip... I did a lot of napping in a few parking lots around town to eat up some time.

Eventually I hit the club and hooked up with the other fellas. We went on 11ish to a decent crowd and had a set similar to the night before... Not so great, but it had some moments. One in particular was when we did "When the Saints..." and they threw me a solo.  

Bass solos are the worst. Especially if I have to play them. We did that tune seven years ago when we were touring Europe and I'd totally spaced that I was gonna have to step out for a verse until Walter pointed at me and shouted over the mic "Rice Moorehead". I made it to the end and I don't think I was too awful...

We finished up, got paid (poorly, Memphis is like Austin) and Jack offered me a place to crash, but I wanted to get on the road back to Little Rock. On my drive in I saw the interstate headed west had a couple of long construction spots that had traffic backed up for miles so I wanted to avoid that (even at 4 AM all traffic ended up being stopped...)

I got to Downtown LR and found a spot next to a building that would block the sun when it came up and I slept for a few hours. Then I bounced around "the rock" for a bit before I headed home.

Hopefully it won't be another five years before we do South Filthy again. I really like playing in that band. And, maybe, just maybe we can practice once before the show.

10/17/14

South Filthy hadn't played in over five years and we were booked for a reunion set at the "Deep Blues" festival in Clarksdale MS. This fella, Chris has put this thing on for the past few years up in Wisconsin but now it's down in the Delta. And it's out in the delta, as in out in the sticks at a place called the Shack Up Inn. Look it up online. You can stay in a spruced up sharecroppers cabin out by the cotton fields and your not expected to work and that's a huge plus. 

Like all things South Filthy it was a seat of the pants kind of affair. I flew in to Little Rock Thursday afternoon and drove down to Tunica where I stayed for a couple of nights *

We played the Friday night after Guadalupe Plata and Scott Biram, both put on great shows then we went on. The first five or six tunes were fine. But once we got into some new material we were pretty lost and it ended anticlimactically. Thats what happens when I am hearing half the set for the first time on stage AND I met the drummer for the first time a couple of hours before we went on...

It wasn't horrible but it could have been better. But once again I need to just shut up about how I think things  went, a lot of people had fun and told me it was great and that's all that matters. 

We have another show tonight, up in Memphis. Now that we've had a practice maybe the crowd AND I can agree how things went. 

* quick aside here. According to my phone it's an hour between Clarksdale and Tunica and I figured it would be no big deal since I make the  Austin/San Antonio drive all the time. I was dead wrong. Austin to SA is a busy highway with a ton of traffic and business all along the route. Tunica to Clarksdale is a four lane state road that is surrounded by cotton fields with very few business along the route. It's also dark as hell at night and the landscape is flat. Flat flat flat. And is so bleak out there at night that you could easily drift off to sleep. I had to fight it most of the way. 

10/11/14

ACL Week 2 Day 2

Once again the last night of the Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta was at the White Horse. I got there after Stevie T had finished and Mitch Webb was setting up. I shot the shit with Stevie and Joe Reyes (Mitch's lead player, truly one of the best guitar players in Texas) for a bit, hung out and watched some rock. Then the Hickoids were up.

We had a decent set and by the time we went on the crowd was packing in the front of the stage. They needed our love and or corn... and we gave it to them. Good.

The night want on an on. Javier Escovedo, Sean and Zander (really great work on the 12 string and bouzouki) and the incomparable Cunto! They were doing their last set with the "new" bass player. Those guys have has some shit luck keeping bass players. They also did a bunch of cool new songs (and many of the hits!)

There was a threat that we were gonna finish things off, The Beaumonts had the last spot on the bill, but Steve Vegas had a kidney stone so there was a decent chance they wouldn't make it. Apparently he loaded up on whiskey and pain pills and was driven to the show like a strung out fake country music superstar. They ended the fiesta in a blaze of spilled beer, oxy and irreverence, just like they should.

10/10/14

ACL Week 2 Day 1

The show was at AGBG and I didn't play! Hell, I didn't even show up until the last two bands were on, lazy lazy. The Gay Sportscasters (without Bill) did the Sportscastin thing with all the boobs flying everywhere and they played all the hits (even though it was odd without Bill.) 

The Pocket Fisherman played five new songs! They had enough of the "good old stuff" in the set so the regulars didn't miss out on all of the big hits, just some of them. The the five new tunes were really strong and had the Fisherman sound in spades. Beautiful.

It was a good night. Having some beer and watching some bands is fun. No wonder people do it all the time.

10/4/14

ACL Week 1 Day 2

The bill was packed with bands at the Lost Well, at least it started out that way... When I pulled up Tom was walking out and he told me we were on , NOW! I thought I would be there for the start of Black Salve but they didn't play... I knew I'd miss the openers, We are the Asteroid, because day jobs suck.

Tom was wrong and we waited for our scheduled start time of 7. It's early for Hickoids, but apparently it was a good time for the Swishbucklers fifth practice/second show. Lance got to sing! "Shame, shame, shame" went off reasonably well. I started playing the chords while there was some "banter" going on. Then I popped on the tuner without realizing they had counted it off. Oops.

We finished up the pirate booty shake and I hung out to the bitter end for some beautiful music. I really wanted to see Texacala's "new" band, Hey and  the Poor Dumb Bastards. They didn't disappoint. There was a pie stand out front so I spent some quality time luxuriating in some sweet and sticky goodness in between beers and bands.

At the end of the night Byron from the PDB found his window smashed out. What a shitty end to a decent evening.

More next weekend.

10/3/14

ACL Week 1 Day 1

Hole In The Wall

Hickoids were second to last on a bill loaded with ass-kickers. With Purple Stickpin, The Hares, Wreckless Eric and The Sons of Hercules it's pretty much a guarantee to be a near explosive night. Add the Hickoids and .... 

We started our set rockin with "Stop It" and we kept the pace up throughout the fortyish minutes we were on stage. No slow stuff, just a bunch of good and punchy rock and roll. We also played a world better than we did Wednesday night, most likely because we went on at midnight. A starting time way more appropriate for us. 

The crowd wasn't just along for the ride, they were pushing it! It wasn't the orgy of free love we've had during the ACL's of the past, it was more of a "I'll jump if you jump" vibe. Not an adversarial thing it was a friendly "do you dare?" We dared, they jumped and the beer went flying. It was a shit ton of fun.

The Sons played after and they brought their usual glory. It cracks me up every time I see Frank spit into his hand and fling it out at the crowd. So fucking funny. 

Day two is at the Lost Well tonight.

10/1/14

Hickoids did an abbreviated set for Sun Radio at Gueros the other night. We went on before the sun went down and that's pretty early for a bunch of idiots like us. Gueros fed us and gave each of us a couple of drinks (yeah!) so we were set up for success, but it didn't really work out that way...

First off, no cussin. It's a radio show so we had to keep it clean, that is a hard request for the Hickoids. More than anything the format threw us off. We played two or three tunes then Smitty was interviewed for five minutes, repeat. We did that three times. We would get close to playing together and then we stop for five minutes of talking... Not the greatest but we played OK and the people watching had fun.

When the radio show was over we did three more and we played that portion of the show a whole lot better (of course). I'm sure it all sounded fine but we have a history of crapping out when we are being recorded for a live show and that seems to hang heavily over some of "our" heads. It's almost a fuck up guarantee. The Hickoids fuck up guarantee.

If nothing else we got some free PR for ACL (starts today!) and that is a very good thing.

9/19/14

Last Friday night a "new" band I'm in played a show. It was the inevitable return of the Swishbucklers  and it was "Talk like a pirate day."

The line up is Lance on drums, Tom on bass, I'm playing guitar, Smitty is being Smitty and we have the only person on earth who was fired from the Hickoids twice on guitar, Tom Rowsey. This band is kind of a Hickoid placeholder while Davy recovers.

The show was at Opals South, we got up and did an abbreviated set in between two sets by the Jolly Garogers (they played one, we did one then they did another, it was weird but it worked) and Shoulders finished off the night.

Our set was ok, none of us could really hear and we didn't know the songs all that well (you could have called it our fourth practice) but we did it and didn't fuck up horribly. We have another set during ACL and we'll probably go back on the shelf for a while, but you never know when your gonna get Swishbuckled.

8/10/14

I made the drive solo to the South Texas Popular Culture center. It was a quick, hot drive. Like really hot, like middle of the summer in Texas on the asphalt hot. It was hot. I hit the door with ten minutes to spare. Apparently we are going on sooner than I realized... Ahem... Well I made it!

Today kicked ass. It brings up the question "why couldn't this show be filmed?" A small sweaty room packed with people who want to rock and roll and have a good time. THAT'S the kinda place where we need cameras! But there weren't any and if there were we would probably just fuck it up anyway. It just as well we played and people liked it and only pictures were taken.

This was a benefit for Davy who is still out of commission (and will be for some time) there was a little over $2000 raised for him to cover the huge medical bills he is facing. It's good we could help with a little chunk of it.

The current version of the Hickoids is rocking along nicely. After one practice and five shows we sound like a coherent band. Everything is different without Jones (duh). None of the intros are the same and (obviously) the tone and the playing is "off". But Cody kicks ass and Tom has really stepped it up. Lance and I are awesome (no bragging... well...) And Smitty... still puts a smelly ass (and smelly from ass) microphone in my face. People like it.

8/9/14

Tom met me at my place when I got off of work and we headed to Houston. The drive was OK. At some point outside of the beltway they made everyone get off of the interstate and drive down the access road. It wasn't horrible and traffic was moving along nicely until they knocked it down to one lane so the closed interstate could exit... That added about forty five minutes to the drive.

The Hell 'n High Water Saloon isn't really a club in the traditional sense, it's a TV studio. And it isn't technically in Houston, it's way north of downtown in Humble. I was on the phone with a friend who lives in Houston before the show and he said "Shit, that's and hour and a half from where I live I ain't comin out". Houston is huge.

There were three bands being filmed and we were the last. We got there a little after eight and we were "going on" at nine, but the first band was just setting up. It was gonna be a long night. I spent my time talking with some folks (including this one gal who once worked at NASA!) and bumming around. Generally this is the time I down a few beers or wander off somewhere and check out some part of town I'd never seen, but we were basically in the middle of nowhere and since I was gonna drive home after I stuck with one beer and water. Clean living (and a bunch of weed) Good clean living.

It's finally our time and we set up. The stage looks a little like someones home, my one stage beer fit comfortably on the mantel. It looked nice up there not getting kicked over. We had an OK set. There seems to be a Hickoid tradition that we fuck up a lot when we are being filmed. This time was no exception... I clammed a half a dozen times and Tom kept bitching about all of his on the drive home. It happens, sometimes a lot, but the crowd was happy an the crew loved it, that's all that really matters.

After the show the had us stick around for an interview. It was pretty lame but we were already there two hours later than we were supposed to be so screw it, let's have some fun. Loads of bad jokes later and Tom and I are back in the truck and headed home. I was at my door by 4AM and in bed a half hour later. Up by noon to make the next show in...

8/2/14

Day two, Seattle

We finished the drive to Seattle, napped it up at the hotel then headed to Slims. What a cool joint with some really good porter on tap! We played here the last time we were in town five or six years ago. That time we were on the inside stage and this time we were outside (it was so nice outside) where the stage is the bed of a truck. 

First off was Adrian Conner, she played an SG through a Marshall half stack and she played it exactly like that kind of rig should be played. At first I thought the bass player was just solid as shit, but it quickly became clear that she was really just a badass. And the drummer played like an animal. I really liked their set and I wish they played longer. 

Communist Eyes were next and they had a real punchy set. But before they went on I was told my old buddy Miss Xanna was there! Apparently she and her wife moved up there a year and a half ago and and they are digging it. She also hooked me up with some very tasty, legal weed!!!  Washington state, you are a brilliant place. 

We got up and it was the first time I've ever played a show when the stage was an all metal truck bed (I have played on several other truck beds in the past but this was the first all metal one.) It was nice and bouncy up there and it kept throbbing a little after the beat. That really kept my head in the songs, I didn't want to screw up too much. 

After we headed back to the hotel and I got three hours of sleep before I went to the airport for a shirt trip to Vegas! I've been working hard, I NEED a break...

Lance, Cody and Smitty are hanging in Seattle for another day. Tom had it the worst. His flight home was at 6am and he has to do inventory right after he gets there. Awful.  

One more little thing. I guess I was a little to harsh on the Austin airports security. SEA made me break my case down and they swabbed it (I'm assuming it's gonna happen in Vegas as well) so it's not an AUS thing, it's a TSA thing. 

8/1/14

Day one of a mini Hickoid tour in the Pacific Northwest. 

We all met at the Austin airport at a ridiculous hour to make our 6AM flight. The Austin airport has a strange policy of checking every guitar case that goes under the plane for explosives residue. I get it at some level, you don't want a bomb on an airplane (duh) but EVERY guitar out of AUSTIN???!!! That's a whole lot of swabbing. Anyway my bass case is a weird vault kinda thing and it's a real pain in the ass to put back together so I always have to go to the back room to help them out. And that means I've got to get there earlier than usual. Let's just say that at 4:30AM I am pretty useless...

We finish the first flight and have a three hour layover in Vegas. Then another two hour flight to Seattle. We grabbed the rental and make the drive to Portland. It could have been easy but it took around two and a half hours to go 40 miles...

Traffic clears eventually and we make it to the hotel and later to the club, Tonic Lounge. Nice place! We were the last of three bands on the bill. First up the Lovesores. Some pretty sweet rockin punk and the lead player was amazing! Then our old buddy from Austin JT (whom I hadn't seen since the last time we hickoided it up in the PNY) latest band Adios Amigos, an (almost) all instrumental four piece with a bass 6 holding down the low end (and a real badass on lead, it's a theme) Some sweet shit. 

We finished things up with a pretty good set. We were all feeling a little punchy by that time (we'd been up for more than 20 hours at that point) we were mostly semi-reacting for the majority of it. But the crowd liked it and that's what really counts. 

Currently we are in the rental heading to Seattle for tonight's show at Slim's. We are all fairly well rested and our stomachs are full from a great breakfast at the restaurant (Montage Cafe) where JT works. He even comped us the meal!!! It's a fine way to live. 

Another gig I don't want

Last night after Hickoid rehearsal a panel van was blocking our way out. A couple of the fellas walked over to see what was up. Apparently a band was loading a piano (and other gear) in to the truck to play a show later that night.

It was a little after 11 by the time we could get out and they were just heading to the club. To a show that starts at midnight at the earliest. On a Thursday. And they had to move a piano...

Add that to the list of shows I don't want to play.

7/11/14

It was the Bigfoot Chester 20th anniversary show at the Hole in the Wall. Guests and Bigfoot alums made it up on the stage for three sets of musical goodness and to raise a little money for Davy who is still doing his best to whip cancer. The best part of the night was that a ton of people showed up! We are popular once every 20 years!!! It's not much but we'll take it.

Walter and Bill were the only ones who played the whole time. I think either Trey or Billy Steve (who isn't in Bigfoot, but played all of the last two sets) played a little less than them and I probably came in fifth on the who played the most list. I think I did about twenty five songs with Walter and Bill topping out around 35.

The first couple of Bigfoot lineups played as well as the Giblets (which is a Bigfoot hybrid with Billy Steve added and Cindy Toth (my old bass player) on bass.) The slow orgy that is the Austin music scene continues to roll on...

Special guests included Joe from Meat Purveyors (who was dressed as Davy which was kinda freaky, especially when I would just catch a glimpse of her from the stage) Joe from Churchwood, Ted Roddy and a couple of others I'm forgetting (it was a late night.) Texacala showed up too late for her songs, we played them without her. It's unfortunate, but there was a tight as hell schedule that we tried our damnedest to adhere too, she ended up the only "casualty" of the night. 

So that's pretty much it. We raised a decent chunk of change for Davy and took over the Hole for a Friday night and rocked a whole lot of people. More Bigfoot to come!???

One more thing, The beer they now give to bands at the Hole is atrocious. You use to get Lone Star and now it's something called Mexicali (I think that's the name, but every sip I took got me closer to permanent blindness so I'm not 100% on that.) It's the kind of beer that makes you wistful for Black Label, Schaefer or some other swill. 

Sad.

6/28/14

It was good to be back with the Hickoids. It felt like I was putting on an old boot that was lost under the bed for years. It felt familiar and a little odd. And I think a cat left something in there a few months back...

We went on after the freight train that is Mojo Nixon and the Toad Liquors. They tore it up on the front stage and played a bunch of the hits and Mojo said all the dirty things in the middle of the songs that you want and need to hear. It's always good seeing them, but it was hot as hell and I was literally dripping with sweat so I only made it through a few songs up by the stage. Stupid Hickoid costume.

We went on in the back. Obviously we played without Davy and we didn't get a practice in between them getting back from Europe and this show four days later, but we did just fine. There was a good crowd for the first part of our set, I think we went on a little long because there were only a handful left at the end. That's the what you get by going on after Mojo.

I'd never played with Cody before and we even did one of his songs (that I'd never heard) near the end of the set. He gave me the cords before we started and it turned out they were wrong... I came in hard on the wrong note, never a good thing.

At some point in the set I was sweating so bad (and I'd taken off my sport coat and tie many tunes earlier) I asked if it was the 40th anniversary of the Hole's air conditioner. Smitty set me straight by pointing out that anniversary passed five years ago.

Anyway we did our thing and it felt pretty good, it's good to be back to Hickoid normal. Or I should say Hickoid normal for now.

6/25/14

Bigfoot Chester was at the Hole last night. We played the back stage, third on a bill of four. I knew it was gonna be a weird evening when I showed up. I got there and the first band was getting close to finishing on the front stage. The place was jammed with people and it was hot and sweaty everywhere. It wasn't weekend, crazy, sardine packed in, but you had to rub up against everyone you passed when you went from room to room.

The Founding Fathers went on in the back. Those guys look really old with that white hair and the tricorn hats (and long woolen coats...) I don't think any of them invented electricity, but they still rocked them electric guitars pretty hard. Then Black Joe got up with them (Walter and I played with him years ago) and I should make a really inappropriate joke about Andrew Jackson here but (this time) I'll leave it alone...

Bigfoot went on a little late. We knew we would have a short set ahead of time, but we only got six songs in... And one of them we played at double time... it was rough. I had to change the bass pattern because my hand would have fallen off if I tried to do it the regular way. That was by far the lowest point of the set. We really whipped Whale and Harpoon Man so at least we ended things on a high note.

It was a little bit painful, but it was our first show as a four piece in ten years, we were gonna fall on our faces it was more of a matter of how hard. We got a little scraped up, but it wasn't so bad.

Mixing the Ladies

There have been a couple of good mixing days on the new "Ladies" recording. Everything is at the tweaking stage and we (may) have something out soon.

The recording process is pretty cool. You put down layers and layers until you get some you like then you massage them in to a coherent track. Inevitably in the middle of all that there are some moments where your thinking "umm, we thought that was a good idea?" But after a little finessing you can generally make the pieces fit into something cool. Just like life, working with what you got is all you got. We got something pretty cool with this one.

It's possible that we are riding on the creative edge of music and we may have invented a new style, Jungle Soul! All of those drums (that really come out heavy on the recording) mercilessly beating away with sweet soul rhythms gliding over the top. It's a powerful sound that makes your ass bounce at the same time. That is art to me.

Kurtis is still a lot of fun to work with. There are definitely times when we are fucking around and not getting much done, but that's balanced by knocking shit out fast and right. It's all about knowing what your doing.

Hickoids in Europe!

The Hickoids are back in Europe. They flew out yesterday to do a bunch of shows over the next three and a half weeks. The line up is a little different, but the feeling is still there. I mentioned before I had a bunch of obligations that prevented me from going on this tour, but recently Davy came down with an illness that is (temporally) kicking his ass so he isn't making it either...

The Hickoids are 40% different.

Last Friday the "new" version had a show at the Longbranch and it was a trial by fire kind of an affair. They only had two practices before it so there were a bunch of mistakes and miscues, but the feeling was still there and they rocked it! The strangest part for me was watching and not playing. Really weird seeing it from the "other side" and only hearing some of the regular parts in my head (instead of hearing it in the room). I'm not complaining at all, I had a really fun time even though it was a very surreal evening for me.

If you are in Europe and you need a little dose of Cow-Punk over the next few weeks I'd recommend checking them out. Check out the schedule here !  It wont be the same as it was last year, but it's gonna be pretty damn cool.

Davy and I will be hanging out in Austin riding bikes, swimming, working on our mustaches and writing songs for "Snuff Box". But mostly we will be waiting for the other fellas to come back so we can play that Mojo Nixon show at the Hole in the Wall at the end of June. Basically it's business as usual.

5/9/14

I knew it was coming and it had to happen eventually and now that it's done it feels a little weird. Last night was my last show with the Hickoids before they head off to Europe with the temp bass player.

The show was at the Dirty Dog, it was some kind of a rock fest with a bunch of bands on the bill. The "fest" had a girl with steel plates on her clothes and a grinder set up on the stage. During our set she spent a couple of songs spitting out sparks for the crowd. It was cool and she was really cute, but that kind of act was news in 1996 in New York city... Austin is a little behind the curve.

They had an SVT with one of the big solid state heads on stage ready for me to use. It sounded really bad on stage (why are these so hit or miss?) but I was happy I didn't have to load my rig and carry it to 6th street.

We did our 45 minutes and the whole time I was thinking  "this is the last time I'm gonna play "Stop It" for almost two months."  I was thinking that after every song. After almost seven years of playing in the Hickoids it's grown on me. Like a fungus or rickets.

The band after us played and they paid for everyone's drinks during their set. It's a kind gesture and a good gimmick to get bodies in the door, but barely anyone was paying attention to them. It was kinda sad to watch... and I'm not even talking about their set...

After the free beer tap was shut off, I said goodbye to the fellas, grabbed my crap and headed home. I'll be back to playing obnoxious music with the Hickoids in no time (Next show is at the end of June with Mojo Nixon!) but on this side of the break it's seems like that is forever away.

5/4/14 part two

We got up to Dallas and and made our way to the Kessler. It was a fancy kind of a night, we were opening for The Flamin Groovies! That's right, little old us is opening for the Groovies on the same day we didn't get to see Billy Gibbons. It's a charmed life...

We brought our gear, the Groovies were gonna use our backline, but when we got there they had a backline already set up. So we added 400 pounds to the freak van for no real reason, it won't be the last time.

I was out by the backstage door talking with George, the Groovies bassist and he was telling me about how after they stopped playing, thirty years ago, he got a job at the post office and put in 23 years and is now retired and living off a post office pension. He's only out playing because it's a fun way to earn some extra cash! It sounds like a dream to me.

We go on to a decent crowd, it just didn't look that way. That's the problem with a place as big as the Kessler, a hundred people look like fifteen. You really need three-four hundred folks to make it look like anyone is there, five hundred would make it look packed, but there weren't that many people out on this Sunday.

We finished our set and the Groovies went on. It was a pretty ass kickin set. For a bunch of sixty year old dudes (and a thirtyish year old drummer) they really whipped it! The crowd was way in to it. There were only a few of them, but they were completely caught up in the moment.

The show ends and we pack up the freak and head back south. We stopped in West for the second time this trip and got a second round of kolaches from a second kolache shop.

That's how we roll.

5/4/14 part one

Hickoids just finished up a little set at the Continental. We went on at two and did a half hour set. Now we are in the freak van and headed to Dallas to play our second show of the day. Thats a lot of action for the Hickoids on a lazy Sunday afternoon. 

The Continental club show was pretty cool. It was Margaret Moser's retirement party and we were first on a very cool bill. There were a bunch of bands on it so we only had a half hour to play. Apparently we went long.... And I got bitched out for it... 

That's right, the bass player got shit for us going long. Not the singer or the sound gal or the shows MC. It's the bass players fault. 

Anyway we had a good little set. We are gonna miss the two big surprise guests. The first is Billy Gibbons!!!! That's huge, I really wish I could see him play. Especially in a place the size of the Continental you could practically be on top of him! Christopher Cross is the other surprise and that's not to thrilling to me. 

Part two later. 

5/2/14

Last night it was the Hickoids in San Antonio at Hi-tones, we were in the middle slot between Fea and Pinata Protest. The Protest were doing a secret show and the secret was out, big time.

I showed up about a minute before Fea went on, loaded in and had to park a few blocks away. The place was PACKED, I tried to get inside for a beer and to watch the band, but I could barely get in the door! So I just stood outside with the rest of the fellas.

Fea finished up and people were pouring out of the club. I ran in and scored a couple of beers and got setup. My gear went on the floor. The stage is too small for the five of us and all of our crap. I spent a couple of tunes just standing on the floor by my rig. If I wasn't singing I wasn't gonna keep bumping in to Tom for no reason.

One of my favorite drunks of the night was standing right in the front and he was holding three opened Lone Star tallboys. He was wearing a backpack and you could tell he was camped out for the Protest. But he was so drunk he could barely stand. He was basically on the edge of passing out and I could see him slowly getting a little more "relaxed" and he'd start to slip in to unconsciousness but he'd catch himself right on the edge, just before he was out. Every time he did it he would squeeze the tallboy cans and beer would shower up on him, everything and everyone around him. He did it four or five times during our forty five minute set. Pretty funny stuff.

I don't know how he "thought" he was gonna keep his spot, after three tallboys (and whatever else he had to drink) he'd have to be some kind of a piss-camel to make it to the end of our set and then through another hour and a half of gear moving and Protest rocking. Then again he squeezed eighty percent of his beer out before it got in to his mouth so pissing may not have been much of an issue.

We finish up and load the Freak for this weekend's shows while the main event loaded in. The place was razor blade packed. Crowbar packed. Sardine packed. The place was... packed! The Protest got up and started to whip it, there was no way I was gonna get back in so I took off and headed home. Kinda anticlimactic, but that was my night

4/11/14

This one is way late, it couldn't be helped. 

The ladies and I had a couple of sets at the Carousel Lounge. I haven't played this place in years. I've always liked it, but it's a little hard to get a crowd in there. The location could be partially to blame, or the lack of liquor but most likely it's the lack of a given bands draw. 

Anyway we had a really nice crowd of folks and their sole purpose of the night was to see us and have fun. That's pretty much guarantees a good show. 

Draya and I set up on the side where the women have to walk by when they go to the bathroom (!) that's by design. Occasionally it's fun to stop them on the way in or out. You have that power when you play guitar and have a microphone. At least for a couple of seconds. 

We finished up and the crowd took off. There were three other bands on the bill after us. I felt kinda bad cause suddenly there were eight people in the place and the bartender was telling them they were too loud. That was us not too long ago. 

4/5/14

I made the drive to the Triple Crown and got there right before we were gonna play. There was some lineup juggling going on and at one point we were third, but in reality we were second (and I sadly can't remember who was first...) We got up and Hickoided the hell out of it for about forty five minutes. Nice set. There weren't as many people there as last month, but they were drunk and happy and therefore they loved us.

Gringos were next. The set was a whole lot better getting to hear everything and I think they played better than the night before because of it. Also there were no "surprise instrumentals", a huge plus.

The Beaumonts were last. I wasn't gonna stick around for the set, but I did anyway. That's the second time in a row I was gonna ditch their set and I didn't, I'm hardcore. Well, in reality there was too much love in the room to go. I'm really happy I stayed, they played three new songs!!! It was a beautiful, baby Jesus kinda miracle. I don't think they've changed the set much in the last two or three years so this was a really cool surprise. I think they did it all for me...

Fortunately there were no asshole-egomaniacs on the bill. Everyone was happy to be there and ready to play. You know, like they are supposed too. It also looks like the Crown might have a small reprieve on the building. Apparently there is a lot of opposition to condos being built that close to the river. Let's hope that fight goes to regular people and the condo building folks lose their asses.

I can dream.

4/4/14

Hickoids played at Giddy Ups last night. There is a classic car festival in town this weekend (there is crap going on EVERY weekend in Austin) so the field behind the club was packed with really cool looking cars... and the cars from the bands... Bands don't have really cool looking cars. They are either vans or hand-me-downs with over a hundred thousand miles on them. I have the latter.

We are playing two shows with the Loco Gringos this weekend. They were gonna play right before us on this one, but the opener was stuck in traffic so the Gringos went first. The sound was terrible. The wind was blowing more than 20 miles an hour and that alone was making the mics howl. Early on the soundguy had overheads on the drums... Howl. All the amps had mics on them and were way too loud, the bass rig was direct and it was too loud, the toms on the drum kit were louder than the kick or snare and the PA speakers were designed for an indoor space that was about 20% the size of the area they needed to cover...

The worst part is that since everything was turned up so loud the vocals were completely buried. I heard a couple of Gringos tunes that were suddenly "instrumentals", sad.

They finish up and the next act was the worst carbon copy of a hillbilly rocker I've ever seen. I'm not even gonna mention his name, but what a bunch of shit. He was going for that Hank III, Wayne Hancock vibe that is still popular amongst the folks that like to play dress up, but he had none of those guys skills. His band was lame. He made his lead guitar player set up his guitar before he set up his own (what a dick) and he spent most of the set bitching about how awful the sound was...

He wouldn't let up about the soundman. Even after he was finished he was trying to bitch to us about how bad it sounded. I get it, the sound sucked. But bitching about it the entire set (and after) ain't gonna fix it. Move on and play.

He was trying to be our best pal in between the sets, saying things like "That's how it is on the road" and "Just another night of rock and roll". DEAR JESUS LORD THAT I DON'T BELIEVE IN, WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a fake little ego maniac of a hack. Pitiful, just pitiful. (I could go on for an hour about this jackass, but I've already wasted too much of my energy on him.)

Anyway, we went up and did our thing. The sound sucked but we knew that going in. We had a pretty good set and the crowd was really in to it. It was cold as hell out (well, for a thin blooded Austinite, it was windy and in the low 60's) so I kept the jacket and tie on the whole set. That's a first. Smitty tried to get some women up in the front to take off their tops and the only person that got to do it was a guy in a wheelchair.

That's what you get when your a Hickoid.

Dale Watson finished things up. Incredible as always. His band it tight as hell and all of them are solid bad asses. And they didn't bitch about the sound once.

More with the Gringos tomorrow.

Studio and Euro updates

I went back to Million Dollar Sound to knock out the vocals with Kurtis last night. Almost got everything done in one take which is a very good feeling. Kurtis said I must have been ready to nail it for a while, I don't know if I'm that impressive, but he is that kind.

We still need to proof it all before we get in to mixing it, but it's sounding really good at this point and I can't wait to hear what happens with it next. The ladies whip ass.

In other news I am not joining my fellow Hickoids for the European tour this summer. I know I said I was going for part of it, but when you compare the price of flights with the current state of the Hickoid band fund, it isn't worth it to fly someone out half way to replace me. That could literally be the difference between losing and making money. My ego isn't so big it's going to put the band in to bankruptcy. So I will "take the hit" and stay home for one tour.

I'm gonna miss not going. I understand they are headed to Italy and France, two places I haven't been yet and apparently a couple of the Italian clubs are primo. I'll miss the hell out of that (and all the pretty Italian chicks...). They are playing the Sonic Ballroom in Klon. I played there once on a South Filthy tour and what a craphole! The folks that work there are very kind, they feed you and there is a dorm upstairs so everything is taken care of, but it was the only place on the tour I didn't shower after the show. It felt better being dirty than hopping in that nasty shower.

I'm not gonna miss that at all.

3/28/14

It was the thirtieth anniversary of the Hickoids first show so we played a little set at the Lost Well. After all the SXSW, HOF crap we decided to not go over the top with hype, it was a simple night for some good, old fashioned cow punk. No more getting our backs slapped and no more public handjobs from people who only like us because, for the moment, we have a little bit of traction. This show was for rock and roll!

The place was loaded in more ways than one. There were four bands on the bill and I showed up when the second one was finishing. The Bulemics went on to rock the house and by the time we got up the stage was a beery mess. It was expected...

Somewhere during the second song it smelled like an amp was on fire. There was that "electronics gone bad" smell in the air and it stayed for most of the set, but there was no visible fire and the amps worked for the rest of the night. It gave the set this underlying feeling that everything was about to go wrong in about sixty seconds. Granted most Hickoid shows have that feel, but there was this extra element of mayhem/danger in the air with the possibility of fire or an exploding amp.

Speaking of mayhem there was this girl who kept getting up on stage and she was either standing there and staring at Smitty or Tom or she was rolling around on the floor (in all the beer) with a couple of other people. At some point there was a five person pile up on the stage and I jumped in and rubbed my ass all over everyone and I never lost the beat! It felt really good and made a bunch of folks laugh and that's pretty much why I do anything.

3/21/14

Hickoids got added to a last minute bill at Stubbs. We were playing inside on the small stage right after Flogging Molly finished outside on the big stage. They had a sold out show and a couple thousand people going nuts, jumping around and fist pumping all over the place. We played to about fifty folks and Smitty told them that fist pumping was not allowed. They complied so we rocked them.

Our set was very short. "Molly" went a little long and the sound guy cut our set after about a half hour so the next band could get up. Black Irish Texas was next, but they were missing a fiddle player and they wouldn't go on without him. So there it was 12:45 AM, the big show is long over, the recently inducted hall of fame band is done... and there is about forty minutes of dead air... the week after sxsw... and nobody wants to wait to see another band...

ouch

SXSW Wrap Up

Here it is, the big wrap up. As always it was a clusterfuck of a weekend. I had a lot of fun running myself in to the ground and I saw some pretty cool bands, but the festival is just too big for Austin. It's been that way for the past ten(ish) years and it's just continued to multiply. If you've read any of the post-festival fallout (examples here and here) you've probably noticed a trend towards the negative, there are some very good reasons for that. Austin and SXSW are changing and it may not be for the better.

It's not easy to see the changes when your living here, they can be too small and/or subtle. It's like plastic surgery. At the beginning you may notice one or two small changes here or there then suddenly one day you look up and you can't recognize Joan Rivers anymore and it scares the hell out of you. She may have the same personality but something isn't right... That's what Austin is like right now. I still love her and I don't want to move, but the grievances are stacking up. I know I'm gonna sound like a pissed off old man by writing the next few paragraphs, but they are accurate and my grievances need to be aired.

Read this first http://i.imgur.com/KRWNNiR.jpg

Imagine that in the "land of the free". The city is forcing a business owner to dedicate one of it's parking spaces (on private land) to another businesses vehicle. It isn't even an Austin (or US) based company, they are from Germany. I like the Germans a lot, but they should not be able to force another business to store their cars and prevent an actual customer from using a parking space and the city shouldn't be writing policies for it to happen in the first place.  The Car 2 Go folks have also taken a number of the regular downtown street parking spaces and converted them into Car 2 Go only spaces (as in if I park my truck in one I will get towed.) If you drive a Car 2 Go you can park in any of the regular spaces and not have to pay for it... So one Car 2 Go can prevent two regular cars from parking. Are you pulling your hair out yet?

Last year I pad $20 to park, all night,  downtown a week and a half before the music fest. It was a total ripoff, but I justified it because it was very close to where I was playing and I was getting paid. This year I saw signs that were offering $35 parking for three hours. When did this become Manhattan? I parked on the street in San Fransisco for three hours for less than five bucks just a couple of years ago. The last time I checked there are a lot more people in a lot less space in SF and NYC then there are in Austin, why are we paying this much for parking?

We have the metro rail. It was screwed up as a concept when I moved to town twenty two years ago, now it's a screwed up reality. This is a two parter.

#1

They never bought the proper sensors for the trains. They are loaded with the gear that is meant for freight trains. The sensor is different because a freight train travels long distance at a fast speed, so people at an intersection a half mile away will be stopped from crossing the track when a freight is barreling down. This makes sense. Metro Rail trains don't travel at freight train speeds. They also stop at multiple stations along the track, so they need a different kind of sensor. Currently when a metro rail train is stopped at a station you are not allowed to cross the tracks anywhere near it.

On my daily (bike) commute to work I cross Guadalupe at Airport four times a day. This intersection has two stations about a quarter of a mile on either side of it (this is also pretty stupid, it's miles in between the stations on either side of those.) If there is a train at either station I am not allowed to cross the tracks. There have been days where I have literately spent a total of twenty extra minutes out in the sun waiting on the metro rail to leave it's station and go past. It sucks in February, it is misery in August.

#2

But part of me was ok with it. Since I live near two stations I would head downtown on Mondays and get my mail from the PO box and get a little lunch and head home. It was nice and it was $2 a person to do the round trip. That's all changed. Now it's $5.50. There is no longer any "local" service. If you come in from the Lakeline Mall stop (the northern, end of the line) it's $5.50 for the round trip. If your headed all the way downtown, you will save a lot of money on the 30-40 mile round trip and you won't have to pay for parking or screw around with traffic, it's a great deal when you factor in everything. But when you get on in my neighborhood and your charged $5.50 for the ten mile round trip that was $2 a month and a half ago it can piss you off.

The train is no longer meant for local use. It's only purpose is to move people who don't live in Travis County, or pay taxes in Travis County to and from their Travis County jobs. Sure there is a little less congestion on the roads and that's a good thing, but it does very little for the people who actually live AND work in Travis County. It just makes it harder for the "locals" to get around.  Why are we making it easier for people to use the services of Austin when they don't pay the taxes that fund them?

I am not even gonna get in to the toll road fiasco... it is awful and depressing on a whole different level.

So how do I feel about this year's SXSW? I liked getting to see a few new bands, but I didn't really take advantage of anything. If I wasn't playing I wasn't gonna be in the middle of it. Especially since there was no easy way in or out of downtown (or parking when you got there.) It was too easy to say fuck it and just stay home. So that's what I did.

Hickoids getting in to the Hall Of Fame was pretty cool, but it wasn't that special and we had to pay for booze and food. Sure they had us stand for pictures in front of a banner covered with booze and food manufactures names and now my picture can be used for advertising, but we couldn't get any of those products for free... I would have had more fun if I stayed back at the White Horse watched some music.

One of the stupidest things I saw had to be the SX Subway thing that was set up right next to the convention center. It was a little, fenced in "village" with banners all over the place.  I'm guessing that since there was all the bad press over having rubber in their bread they spent some cash trying to make Subway "hip" and "friendly" again... Pitiful. Don't forget that SXSW let Subway coop part of the name so they got paid and allowed to allow it to happen. Pitiful times two.

So all of this bitching is coming from someone who still loves Austin. I have no desire to move and I have no idea where I'd move to if I did. I am also an optimist (believe it or not). No matter how many times my nose is rubbed in to the figurative shit that is humanity, I still want to believe things will turn around for the better. I'm hoping my grievances are just Austin's (and SXSW's) growing pains and that things WILL improve in the future. Let's just hope that we as a city can grow up enough to fix some of this before our souls are gone.

3/15/14

Yeah this one is late. I'll have a SXSW wrap up coming tomorrow (I hope) Saturday night kinda knocked the crap out of me.

The Hickoids first set started at 6PM at the '04 lounge. The drive was ok, I found decent parking and for the first time during this years fest, I used my own bass rig! We set up and played after A Pony Named Olga, again. Our set was ok, it was a little early in the day and I think we were all in the marathon mindset, as in don't blow your wad too early boy, you got three shows today. 

The '04 is a cool place, but where the bands set up is right where people walk by to go to the bathroom. So your rocking out with your eyes are closed and when you open them back up someone looking at you like "Get out of my way, I have to piss" It's strange.

Johnny Hell was there and he got up for two songs (Lance played a show before this one, so he was happy to take the break) as always it was nice playing with him. He and Lance even did a little double drumming on "Stop It", the world needs more double drummer lineups! After the set we quickly packed up and headed to...

ABGB on Oltorf. We were on at 8. I parked in the back and loaded just my bass and cords in (backline!) I was immediately asked what I wanted to drink and eat. I could get use to this. I had a couple of lagers but I held out for the pizza until after we played. When we showed up DD Dagger was on the stage and whipping ass. I haven't seen Allison blow sax in years and I really, REALLY liked this band. I've got to do a show with them and the Ladies it will be an "Animalistic Rock-A-Thon"! 

This set was a lot better than our first one. All of us were giving it a little extra gas and the sound was really good which makes the job a whole lot easier. It also felt more like a real show, ABGB has a stage! We did our thing and the crowd was in to it. We finished the set, ate some pizza and head to...

The Triple Crown. "Olga" was up when I got there. I settled in to the back and hung out with the Grannies and a Beaumont until they finished. Grannies were next, I hadn't seen a whole set from them since Europe last year so I caught every song. Sluggo was playing a cheap SG copy and I knew it wasn't gonna last. During the solo on the last tune of their set Sluggo jumped up on the bar and started playing the guitar with an ashtray. Then he hopped to the ground, took it off and started swinging. Pop, Pop, Pop. The satisfying sound of a cheap guitar hitting linoleum. 

We were next and we played fine. I used Tom's bass rig because it was still on the stage and no one, including me, felt like moving it. There was some definite ass dragging going on in our third set (fourth for Lance!) But we survived the full 45 minutes and broke our shit down. SXSW was over for us. Now all we had to do was watch the Beaumonts! They were great as usual. Nothing new, just regular old, bad ass Beaumontin'.

After that Smitty and I went to IHOP and got some food. I drank almost a full pot of coffee and I was still buzzing from it after the 45 minute drive home. I drank three beers after a shower and finally went to bed around 6AM, twelve hours after the first show started (and that doesn't include me being at the day job from 10-4). The next day I woke up around noon, ate and managed to stay awake for a couple of hours before I fell asleep again. When I woke back up it was Monday afternoon and I was still on the couch. It's kinda a SXSW tradition.

3/14/14

For the second year in a row Peelander-Z hooked up Bigfoot Chester with an afternoon show at the Grackle. It's the fourth year they've had this party and they always have really cool bands on the bill. This years lineup did not disappoint.

I snuck this show in on a long lunch from the day job and I made the ten minute drive in twenty five. But, I got some serious princess parking, right on the street by the club! Last year I parked and had to walk a half mile to get to the gig. It's a small but glorious victory.

I get there and The Otonana Trio from Japan is on. The singer has a mic stand attached to his guitar and is jumping all over the stage. The rhythm section is tight as shit and on fire. They get to their last song and it's a mini-rock opera about ramen. The first part was about how great ramen is and how all of the world loves and celebrates it. The second part was about how the bad people came and said ramen was no good for you and it was made by people who wanted to hurt you. In the third part a ramen superhero came and saved ramen by defeating the bad, anti-ramen people and made all of the world love ramen again. A super cool comic book in a song.

The next band was Wolf Face from Tampa. They all had their faces covered in hair and wore basketball uniforms. The singer's name was Michael J Wolf and the songs were about things that happened to them in high school. As in "This song is about what my basketball coach said to me..." What a rocking/funny set.

We were next, we did seven songs and pretty much whipped it. I used Purple's bass rig. 6 x 10" with 500 watts! I nice, loud, warm and thumpy. A huge improvement from yesterday's rig AND I didn't move shit! During "Harpoon Man" Walter jumped off the stage, blowing his harp on the big solo at the end. Yellow ran up and started faking a harp solo with his Iphone. It was a real vs fake harp off! Pretty funny shit.

We finished and I pack up my crap and say goodby to the Bigfoot fellas and Yellow comes up to me with a concerned look on his face. We have the following conversation (keep in mind Yellow speaks broken English with a Japanese accent and he is a highly animated fellow.)

Yellow "Are you going to play somewhere else?"

Me "No, I've got to go back to work"

Another gig?

No, My day job.

What do you do?

I sell stereo's.

Oh, You very busy!

Yeah, I came here on my lunch hour.

(Smiling and laughing so hard he is almost on the edge of hysteria) Your lunch hour?! You a very busy man!!! VERY BUSY MAN!!!!!!!

He shook my hand again, slapped me on the back and said "Have a good day, busy man."

I did!

3/13/14

Day two was easy, I only had one show and it was earlyish. HIckoids were gonna go on at the Spider House around 5:30, but that got pushed back to 7. They had three stages set up (usually there are only two) and all of them were rocking, hard. They were rocking so hard hard that during our set you could hear the other two bands playing between songs. There was another temporary venue across the street, in a parking garage under a building and you could hear them as well.  Antone's Records had stuff going on. You couldn't hear it but it was still happening right there on the same block. During SXSW there is music everywhere. Do you have a trailer? Can we put on a show I. It? I know some bands that are coming to town and...

We got up and did our thing on some pretty sketchy backline equipment. They had me going through a 2X10" cab... Tom was using a Chinese Vox amp that was an equally horrible piece of shit as the amp I was using and the drums fell apart on Lance three or four times during the set (in the middle of the break on one tune, Smitty put part of the kit back together so Lance could keep playing.) 

I know it sounds like I'm bitching about the "inferior equipment", I'm not.  Getting to use a crappy backline beats the hell out of having to screw around with my own gear during the fest. It's a lot easier to park and walk to the show then it is to load, drive, unload, park and go do the show and then do it all again in the reverse order when you're finished. And there's a multiplier on that when your doing it in a town that's overrun with folks trying to do the exact same thing that you are... And your all fighting for the same parking place.

I only got to see two other bands. A Pony Named Olga, and Crying Nut. Olga is from Germany and they are a surf/rockabilly trio with an upright bass (and are on Smitty's label) . They whip ass in a big way. Their version of "Caravan" has been running through my head on a loop since yesterday. Crying Nut is a band from South Korea that plays Mexican music. And that is the reason I love SXSW.

3/12/04

Day one was pretty interesting. It stared with a thirty minute drive to the White Horse, it usually takes ten in normal traffic... Needless to say SXSW traffic is awful.

The Ladies and I got up and did our thing. There was a decent crowd of people who had been day drinking and they were digging our sound. It's easy with folks like that, all we had to do was play "Bouncin" and they were hooked. "You Make Me Feel..." and "Selfish" just put them over the edge. Day drunks love songs about sex and drinking and we have a lot of songs about sex and drinking.

We finished up and I said goodbye to the ladies and Smitty, Tom and I hopped in a pedicab and went to the convention center. It was really nice that the Hickoids were inducted in to the hall of fame and on paper it seemed like it was gonna be really cool, but...

We go to the check in desk and get our passes then we were escorted upstairs to the green room. Escorted, as in they stuck some poor, adorable 20 year old intern with us. She led us up the escalators and over to the place where they gave us some wristbands. I'm pretty sure we could have gotten there ourselves, but this is a classy affair and they don't want to leave us to our own devices for too long. After that we just hung out in the green room for about an hour and a half bullshitting with folks.

The green room was pretty big and probably had a hundred people in it. They had a bar! But after we waited in a twenty minute line there was a cash register... My Hall Of Fame winning ass paid $14 for a rum and coke. They had food and I got excited about it until I heard they were charging for it as well... Pretty lame stuff.

We were told it was time to get ready and we were posed for pictures in front of a big banner (they were really trying to make it like the Grammy's or the Oscars with all of the silly pomp, but it doesn't work at all, this is Austin not LA) then we were told to wait. About thirty minutes later we were escorted by a different escort from the green room to a staging area. Then we waited in about three different places for about ten minutes each before we finally got up to the stage. In other words, there was a whole lot of hurry up and wait. And we were escorted every step of the way.

We accepted the award then they had us step down to a second stage that is right in front of the real stage so the same people who took pictures of us in front of the banner could take more pictures of us again. Then our escort (yes, she was still with us) walked us off the stage as they were announcing that Blondie was next! Holy Shit! That's Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Clem Burke!!! I had no idea that was coming and neither did our escort. As soon as they were announced we looked at each other and she said "Well that's about the best fucking thing in the world!" She was right, it was pretty exciting.

Since we were finished with the awards show it was time to head back to the White Horse. Got there and the Grannies were on! They whipped it and we went on after. Our set was pretty short, but the place was packed and really in to us. It made the whole ordeal of the Music Awards worthwhile.

This probably isn't shocking to anyone but it's a lot more fun playing music than it is being awarded for it.

SXSW week

SXSW is here. It's been here, but I'm just now writing about it. The music side of things starts today and that's all I really care about/all I am involved with. Here is my general schedule.

Tonight the Ladies and I go on at the White Horse at 7. After that Hickoids run off to the music awards to be showered with love and inducted in the Austin Music Hall of Fame. Then we head back to the White Horse to play at midnight.

The bill at the Horse is pretty amazing, but I'm gonna miss most of it because of the HOF thing... That's what "sucks" about SXSW, I'm usually too busy to enjoy any of it. (Disclaimer, the traffic, parking, price gouging and general drunken stupidity also sucks, but what you gonna do.)

I only have one show each on Thursday and Friday. Hickoids play at the 29th St Ballroom/Spider House around 5 on Thursday and Bigfoot Chester is playing the Peelander Z party at the Grackle on Friday at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Saturday there are three Hickoid shows. The 04 Lounge at 6. ABGB at 8 and The Triple Crown in San Marcos at midnight.

That's it for the moment. Details will follow. Be prepared for action.

3/9/14

Hickoids made the drive to Bend to play at Bob's again. He was having a festival at the store/bar and we were giving them three hours of musical love. Smitty brought a bass amp so all I needed was my instrument and some cords, It's a semi-backline!

We jumped in to Freak 3 (she just had her one year anniversary!) and made decent time on the drive. The weather was amazing, the cold rain that had been hitting Austin dried up, the sun came out and it was in the mid 60's. Everyone was happy about that. The freak got unloaded and we started in on our first set. It had a nice, leisurely pace and the crowd was small, but appreciative. At the end Bob, was gonna jump up and play some with us, but Tom's rig started giving him problems so we stopped for a bit.

After the break we hopped up and did a few and THEN Bob got up to help. The second set ended (without amp failure) and we pretty much did the same thing again for the third set but we played different songs. I can't remember the order, but we did a couple of Hickoid songs then some covers like Gloria, Wild Thing and Knockin on Heavens Door. The Hicks (with Bob) were a classic rock band for one glorious Sunday afternoon in Bend TX. 

3/7/14

Friday night I played at the Local with the ladies. We were the band for the night and played from 10-1. When I got there all if the ladies were set up and already drinking. I had some catching up to do...

I got my rig together and hit the bar. Both of the (lovely) bartenders were old pals of mine, it was great seeing both Janna and Tiffany again and having them give me beer all night!

We got up and did the first set. My old drummer Jill was there and she brought some friends, good to see her and she loved seeing the double drummer lineup. There were a number of other folks who were watching us and enjoying themselves and we played pretty well. Nothing glorious, but nothing shitty. 

Second set Jill left and took her pals. The other folks slowly dissipated all over the place and our quality started slipping... Nothing awful just some overplaying here and there and we were missing some of the stops. It happens, we moved on. 

Then set three happened. I don't want to be too melodramatic here but it was pretty bad... I'm pretty sure it was the booze. I wish (and planned) for it to go better, but it didn't. No excuses. It kinda sucked. 

After everyone loaded out I had a beer at the bar talking with Tiffany and Janna. They noticed the sloppy but they didn't seem to care about it too much. Janna books the place and she asked if we wanted to do it again. I'm up for that, but we got to do better. 

Wiley on recording

One of "the ladies" wrote a blog about the first recording session.

Check it out!

More ladies in the studio

BC and I went back to the studio last Saturday. She knocked out all of the keyboard parts and I'm pretty sure, I knocked out all of the guitar.

We got there around eight and BC set up in the control room. She'd never played keys on anything with me, just bass. So there was a fair amount of figuring things out in the early stages, but she quickly got past that and moved on to whipping some keyboard ass!!!

It was my turn so I set up the vibroluxe and got my rig ready. We started with doubling my earlier rhythm parts and then nailing each of the solos before we moved on to the next tune. Usually I would do all the rhythm then all the leads, but I guess I was kinda feeling it when I was playing the rhythm parts so we just went ahead and finished all the guitars on each song before moving on to the next one. 

I did a bunch of the guitar parts on the Tele (it's what I play most of the time with The Ladies) but I did a couple of them with my hollowbody Guild. Kurtis had a mic on the amp and a mic on the room so I stood by the room mic with the Guild, getting the sound out of the amp and right off the wood. It sounds extra thick and glorious.

I did a solo that was four bars of call and response on "First Time, Next Time". The odd numbered solos were slide on the hollowbody and the even ones were straight on the Tele. I nailed that fucker in one take for each part! That really feels good, like I know what I'm doing.

When I took a pass on the solo in "Wonderful" Kurtis really like what I did and he asked me to double it. I told him I had no idea what I'd just played, but I'd be willing to give it another shot. I did and failed miserably. I had no recollection of what I'd played just a minute before! We laughed for a couple then moved on...

This is why you work with someone like Kurtis, his only agenda is to get your music on tape. He doesn't have a specific way it "needs" to get done (although he is great with suggestions). If you say "I have and idea" he says "let's try it." That is the most important thing in a recording engineer. 

I'm headed back this Saturday to do the vocals. At that point we should have a nice little EP.

2/23/14

Another Hickoids show in San Antonio. It was a benefit and we were going on nice and early at 1:30 in the afternoon. I made it to the Pop Culture Museum (just like in Austin, it's next to a Planet K) with just my bass and cords and I was set up in seconds. Gotta love a back line.

My old pal Eddie was running the turntables and playing some sweet ass Latin rock (ever heard of El Chicano? Bad ass stuff) as we milled around before starting time. 1:30 rolled around and we were off!

The crowd doubled in our first couple of tunes and it doubled again by the end of our set. By the time I was leaving it looked like even more folks were piling in! A very good sign for a benefit.

 We played pretty well for that early in the day and the only thing that was a little screwy was a nasty room node that would pop up and get multiplied by the PA. It was an A and since three of the nine songs we played were in A those tunes were a little lost in the swamp. No big deal, that kinda crap happens all the time and you just play through it.

I took off right after Sexto Sol went on (Eddie's band). Things looked promising for a kick ass set, but I had a rehersal back in Austin, so I was gone!

2/8/04

It was an easy drive to San Antonio, traffic wasn't too bad and I was parked behind the Mix in no time. There was some sharing of gear so I only needed to bring my bass and some cables. Easy!

I got there and the Hormones had about four songs left. Tom was (is?) playing bass with them and this was his first show. I thought it sounded pretty good from the outside. According to Tom I heard the best part of the set, I think he said "The first part was shitty". I'll have to take his word on that.

Next up was our old friends the Guillotines. They now have THREE guitar players with THREE Marshall half stacks!  Talk about a load of sound, they were supersonic.

We were last. The side of the "stage" (there is no stage, you stand on the floor at the Mix) we were on had the stickiest goddamn floor in the world (only a little hyperbole here). Tom and I were leaving chunks of shoe behind. I tried to spend most of the set in front of Lance and away from the glue trap floor, but every time I sang I had one food stuck...

I survived the set/floor, helped with the load out (after all I brought barely anything) and made the drive back home. An easy Saturday night.

The Ladies go recording!

I got down to Million Dollar Sound after work on Saturday. All of the Ladies were already there and set up for the session when I showed up. I figured it would take a while to get both drum kits ready for tape, but Kurtis knocked that out in no time and when I got there he was making a beer run. The kind of pro I like!

I set up and we got to it. We knocked out the basics for five tunes and about half of the overdubs in a very casual five hours! We did three gang vocals (including doubling on all of them) I finished the vocals on two songs and we got percussion on two others.

Now all they need is some organ, a few lead and rhythm guitar parts, and vocals on the three I didn't already get. I might do a little solo acoustic instrumental I've worked up but that would be the last of the tracking. Then we'll be ready for mixing.

Boom. Another one in the can!

I have no idea what I'm gonna do with it... I might send it to some folks and see if they will put out an EP (or 45?) We might record six or seven more and make a full album. I'll have a better sense of it when they are all mixed up and pretty. Right now it's emailed mp3's played through computer speakers and it sounds great so it should sound a whole lot nicer when it's finished up and polished.

Recording is a ridiculous amount of fun and I can't wait to go back!

1/18/14

I made the drive to Houston to play a solo show at Notsuoh. The building was a shoe store on Main street and they have a ton of the old stock still sitting around. Back in the '60's this must have been a swinging part of town. I was in the area a few years ago and it was a ghost town. Back then we were lucky to get some pizza from a place that was closing at 5PM on a Saturday, now there are fifty or so places that serve through most of the night. I guess things are improving in Downtown Houston...

I was here to play a benefit for a friend who has some nasty lung cancer. She has the worse possible kind, but she is getting kinda lucky with it (if there is such a thing). Somehow the chemo she takes isn't knocking her on her ass and she still has most of her hair... It truly is the little things that count in this type of situation.

I get up and did my little set... Damn I'm rusty playing solo. It's so easy to get use to playing with a band. I can go from rhythm to soloing easily with the Ladies, but when your by yourself it's a whole different world.

My favorite part of the night was doing a couple of duets with Hilary York. We played a bunch of songwriter Sunday afternoons together a few years back and ended every week by playing some together. It was really nice dusting off the Parliament classic "My Automobile", after all this time we still remembered those sweet ass harmonies! It really felt good.

The show I'm gonna miss

On Saturday night this is gonna happen. As a last minute addition, the Hickoids were asked come and play a Dicks song on a huge bill. Hot Damn! Look at that lineup! Lucinda, Rosie, Butch, Terry, Alejandro, Roky (and so on...)  What a show!!

But there is one little problem. I'm headed to New Orleans on Saturday and I can't do it. This trip has been planned for a while now and there is no getting out of it (not that I really want to, it's been months since I've been to NO and we are only playing one song and it ain't even ours.)

So, what happens? The Hickoids do it without me.

Hunter Darby is stepping in. He was a Hickoid before I lived in Austin. He's also a bad ass player who will pull it off with ease.

We split the practice last night, the first half with me the second half with Hunter. It was really weird leaving with everyone else still hanging around ready to play, but since there are a few shows I won't be able to do this year, it's time to get use to it.

I'm still in the band, 100%. And if you see us in the US (other than this weekend) I will be the bass player. But this summer we head to Europe and I'm only gonna be there part of the time. They are planning to go for four weekends and between my day job and personal life there is no way I could swing that amount of time away. If I was getting paid (as in PAID, not $50 a show) it would be a very different story, but that's not how things work in our end of the pool. So we move forward.

I'm gonna be in Europe for some of the tour, but someone is gonna come and replace me (or I'll replace them depending on the schedule.) It will be cool, I'll get a chunk of time playing over there without fucking anyone over in the band or fucking up my life and finances (not to mention The Ladies!) It's not the best of options, but it's as close to a win/win as we're gonna get.

So this weekend, when my band mates (and Hunter) are hobnobbing with some of the biggest big shots of the Austin music scene (at the Moody Theater no less, where they film ACL) I'm gonna be in NO watching a bunch of brass bands at The Howlin Wolf.  This show will be one hell of a substitute.

12/31/13

It was the big fancy NYE show. We all made the drive separately and took along our ladies. Downtown Dallas was packed with folks ready for the big night. I saw multiple people walking in to our hotel with CASES of booze. These were not employees, these were guests and they were going to party. The drunken stupidity was inevitable.

Our hotel was a half a mile away from the HOB. I hoofed it over to set up my gear (Smitty brought the heavy stuff in the freak) and to check the place out.

The House of Blues in Dallas has three venues in it. One had a grunge show another had an oldies show and the big room had us opening for the Old '97's. I walked in the back stage entrance and off to the Hickoid green room. A lovely place with chips and salsa, a veggie tray, a coffee maker, a second coffee maker (for toilet coffee), a lovely assortment of soda and water.... and no beer... zero... we had to buy our own... NYE and no free beer for the band. Interesting decision since generally a "Blues" club feeds it's musicians booze like it's water and asks them if they want more when they are drooling and laying on the sidewalk (or ground if it's out in the country). We got food so it wasn't all bad but it still seemed odd. I never left the backstage area the whole night. The club looked like a cool place, but by the time I could check things out it was packed so I hid in the back.

RTB2 Kicked things off. They played the Saturday show at Antone's but I missed them then. This show they kicked ass! A little blues, a little rock and a little pop. A lot of sound for a two piece.

We were second and did pretty well. It was obvious that people were there for the '97's and wanted them on NOW! But we did our thing and did it good and by the end they were in to us.

The 97's went on and BOOM! The folks that were all reserved for our set boiled over into the drunken mob I knew was hiding under the surface. It's New Years Eve and these people ain't fucking around.

While they were rocking the Hickoids started drifting off into the night. We left by cab, van, car and foot. NYE would soon be in the past and another year of kicking musical ass is out there waiting for us.

Some BIG opportunities are on the way! Stay tuned.