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.