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.

12/27/13

Hickoids at Antone's, Austins semi home of the blues. Someone bought it again and they are shutting down for a few months to change things up. It's been a rough go for that place and now a bunch of people are gonna be out of work for the new year... ouch.

We were invited to play with the Old '97's for two of their three NYE shows. So we did this one and we will be doing NYE proper in Dallas at the House Of Blues. Hickoids are getting fancy on ya...

The first act was Sealion from Dallas. The had some sweet poppy tunes and a chick bass player! Always great. One of the guitar players had one of those reissue Fender '68 Princeton amps (I had an original, but it got too old to play out.) He said he picked it up when they were on their way to Austin. It sure sounded sweet with his Tele, no real shocker there.

We were next and did the Hickoid thing. It's always nice to play to a crowed club but a BIG crowed club is even better. There were a ton of people ready for fun and we gave it to them. You could tell that most of them had never heard of us up until then, we should stick in their brains after last night.

'97's were next and since pretty much everyone that was there was there to see them the place went a little nuts. They delivered the Americana Rock and the crowd wanted more, so they gave it to them. It's a very simple formula, but it seems to work every time.

I'm looking forward to Dallas on Tuesday.