1/29/16

It was a fast forty minutes of rock and roll for the Hickoids last night. We were at the Spider House Sonic Ballroom with a bunch of bands I'd never heard of... and Javier Escovedo. Strange night.

When I showed up about 80% of the crowd had the giant, under-age X on their hands. Another 15% were drinking and the remaining 5% had grey hair. Most of the grey hairs were unknown to me since they weren't the usual type of Hickoid fan, these folks were with their under aged kids at the rock show.

Speaking of that.. The seven or eight bands on before us were all unknown to me and since I am/feel like an old man I sat outside and watched the casualties. First was the dude bumming cigarettes with dried blood on his face. Then there was the girl who came out crying with fresh blood all over her face. Her three friends were basically flipping a coin to see who had to take care of her...

Then there was a fight where the kid who got stomped wouldn't throw a punch but kept yelling at the dude who was hitting him. He kept yelling that the other guy was a "pussy and he should try to start something, motherfucker!" Poor dumbass... I wonder if he is just unstable or if starting a fight and not fighting back is some kind of fetish. I'm guessing both. He was kicked out but kept prowling around the front for a while... I don't know why he didn't just ask his mom to take him home.

After we played some girl got rolled out to an ambulance on a gurney. She'd passed out in the bathroom and no one could wake her up...

Eventually most of the kids with the X's on their hands left and the regular grey haired people (most of which I actually knew!) showed up. Our set was pretty crappy. Personally I played like shit and couldn't get any traction going. It happens at times but I don't have to like it.

Javier had a great set. Mosh pit free and rocking. We have a second show with him tonight in SA. Looking forward to another one!

Bigfoot Chester in the Studio 1/17/16

Bigfoot Chester went to the studio the other day. Currently the line up is Me, Bill, Walter and a random drummer... Any drummer that's cool and can play a Blues groove. This time it was Matt Puryear. A couple of special guest showed up for a couple of the tunes. Gary from Black Eyed Vermilion and Scott Biram (from Scott Biram).

Ever since I started playing with them (20+ years ago) Bigfoot has been on the edge breaking out in to the international superstar market and those guys should be the secret weapon needed to send us over the top!!!! That or some people who actually love Blues music (and/or Scott and Gary) will pick up a couple of good singles. One of those two scenarios seems inevitable.

The session went well. We did it with Kurtis at Million Dollar. Five tunes in five or six hours, not bad. It was another relaxed session where we just knocked shit out. The two tunes with the "hit makers" took a longer than the others. There was a lot arranging and learning goin on even after we made a couple of passes at those tunes.

It would have been nice to practice with the drummer (this time Matt) for more than an hour the week before we went in... Gary made it for about twenty minutes of that rehearsal and Scott showed us how the tune was actually played once he got to the studio. Our shit isn't always the tightest and planning is not our strong suit.

I'm not complaining, all of us knocked it out of the park considering the amount of prep involved (and I'm sure mixing will cover most of the "glitches"). Someday I'd love to go in with a few rehearsals under our collective belts. That record could be amazing!!!

12/31/15

t was the grandest night of all. The big, fancy New Year's Eve. The night where all of your hopes and expectations fall flat and leave you thinking "this is it?..." And the Hickoids were playing... As you can probably tell, I don't like NYE. I'd rather stay at home and hide, but if I'm playing...

We were a part of a two stage party at the Spider House. This was the place where I first played a left handed bass. It was during a NYE house party back when the Spider House was just a house and someone had a left handed bass and someone else told me to play it. I was hooked! A couple weeks after I went to Southpaw in Houston and bought my very own. BASS!!!

The big headliner was Roky Erickson but he was going on a couple of hours after us, but I was at home and on the couch by the time he went on...

Hickoids went up on the outside stage. It looks like it was designed by a Fairy in an enchanted wonderland. It's nice, but a little weird looking for a place where Hickoids would play.  It was cold but we've played colder. There was a good crowd who was pumped for the big night and ready the rock and roll. We gave it to em.

We were on for about 45 minutes and hit them pretty hard for most of the set. Finished up and stood around the fire pit until I finished my beer, said some goodbyes and headed home for the night.

12/19/15

Last post of the year and I might as well keep with the theme of 2015, this one is late... Life has gotten in the way in more ways than one...

I was asked to re-join the Gay Sportscasters for a "super" version of the band for a party at the Hole in the Wall celebrating Debbie's birthday. Since she booked me (literally) hundreds of times when she worked there I was happy to rejoin the biggest, messiest band I've ever been a part of.

I played bass and there were drums, keys, four guitars, a singer, two dancers and no room on the stage. The stage was packed with gear and bodies. I barely made it up to a mic to help on some backing vocals. It was a hell of a lot of fun being in the middle of the maelstrom and getting to push it around with my bass.

The room was loaded with folks reeling from the orgy-like sensation of this lovefest. Both stages were going and there was basically a minute in between bands. Pocket Fishermen, Wannabees, Peenbeets, Superego and many (many) others were on the bill. All of them were big bands that people wanted to see. I showed up when the Wannabees were about halfway finished, fought my way through the crowd and stashed my gear. I thought I'd check out the rest of their set, but I never actually got to see ANY of the other bands while they were playing, it was way too crowed for the casual fan. I even had a little trouble getting to the stage when we were going on!

Let's do it again!

10/30/15

Played a couple of sets at the Lost Well last night. Actually Lance and I played a couple of sets at the Lost Well last night and the Ladies weren't even on the bill!

Lance subbed for Trey in Bigfoot Chester. We rehearsed twice (once right before the show) and had a great little set. Not surprising Lance knows what he is doing and the majority of Bigfoot tunes are simple. The only "tricky" parts are the dynamics and those are easy to figure out if your paying attention (The trick is to watch Walter, or be in the band for eighteen years, either way it's not that hard.)

Hickoids were next and it was the pretty standard ass-whipping set. The crowd was happy, drunk, sloppy and a few of them made it up on stage. 

It only takes one and there were several of the usual stage crowding suspects in attendance so it was inevitable. It started when this one girl hopped up in the second or third song and within a couple of tunes she was licking Smitty's chest. Then one of two dudes started putting a foot up, like he was testing the water. A couple of tunes later he was standing on the edge of the stage and he was looking at my microphone like he needed it. Meanwhile, several times during the set the second dude would hop up in front of my mic and start yelling at it from the other side. 

By the end of the night all three of them were on the stage with us and the two dudes were fighting over who go to use my microphone. I was gonna sing my part, but they needed it more than me.

10/12/15

Dave, the dude who owned Trophies died a few months back and someone decided it was time to have a memorial for him. It was at C-Boy's which was Trophies but they really cleaned the place up. It's the small things, like not having to stand in someone else's piss when your using the bathroom, that makes the new place feel better...

The tribute had a few bands on the bill and almost no one (other than the bands and employees) in the club. Hickoids were asked to do a little set and we figured we'd do "Stop It" for the whole fifteen minute set (we've talked abut doing the one song set for a while, but it's never happened, thank the lord I don't believe in!!) We get up after Chad Holt told another racially "rough" story about the departed. We did our fifteen minute tune and started packing up, but the two or three actual crowd members wanted more so we did a couple more.

After I started hearing about how the apartment complex next door is now the "grandfathered" business so when they complain about noise from C-Boy's the are actually listened to. Huge change. At points during SXSW there would be three bands at Trophies. Two of them outside! Big loud Marshall and SVT amped bands with distortion pedals and Les Paul's. And the complex couldn't say shit.

So now you can move in to one of the big entertainment districts of Austin and legally complain about the noise... Can I start complaining about the train that passes my house? If you live under the flight path of the Austin airport and you complain enough about the jet noise will ABIA get shut down? The answer to both of these questions is obviously no. But (apparently) it's ok to bitch about the noise of a nightclub you moved next to... That's some screwed up shit.

Ten years ago there were hookers walking on the sidewalk out front and a porno theater a block away. Sometimes I wish that crap would come back. At least then the rents would go back down.

10/9/15

There were four bands on the bill for the second Friday of the Corn Lovers Fiesta, the show was at ABGB and we were on third. I got there as the Surlys were going on They had a tight little set and the crowd was way in to it. I missed the first band... work is lame... time moves on.

Hickoids were next and our set was a dandy. We played mostly the "classic" Hickoid hits from way back before anyone other than Smitty was in the group and crowd was eating it up! Lot's of fast cow punk for people who were screaming for it. It's a symbiotic thing. I don't think I've ever seen that many people at ABGB before. And I know I've never see that many people at the front of the stage while a band I was playing in was there. Really impressive turnout.

Pong finished things up. Such a good band. They are still rocking the (mostly) one cord jam/modal tuns they've been know for. There were lots of smiling, ass shaking people enjoying a fucking great set! Pong!