It's Been a Long Time Since I Wrote and Rolled

Yes, it's been a long while. Three weeks. Has much happened? Perhaps; depends on how you look at it. I believe I wrote about fish and the blues last time. I'll mostly avoid that this time.

Two weeks ago, the Pocket FishRmen played a benefit at C-Boy's for the employees of Casino el Camino downtown, which suffered a fire earlier in the year. Of course, the building itself had insurance, etc., but the employees needed a hand making bills while said reconstruction was going on. So, the PF pitched in. Very fun show, including some acts we would almost never play with, at a place we would probably never play. (On a side note, this concludes each of my bands playing C-Boy's. Interesting.) The show was backlined, making everything easy, and Michelle was working later, so she saw us play, then skedaddled upstairs to work. Some of us hung out afterwards. It was nice. (This is now sounding like every other boring blog post you read.)

Last weekend, I went to visit Mom in San Angelo. Usually, I dread these visits for reasons I won't go into here, but this one was a bit different. I had a good time overall. We watched a lot of baseball (College World Series and a good Mariners-Red Sox matchup), a movie ("The Ox-Bow Incident," which I'd never seen), and some interesting TV shows, including one profiling the Dublin bottling plant in mid-north Texas. The drives weren't bad; I'm finding podcasts are the best thing to put on for a long drive - even better than music....for some reason, the time moves faster that way.

This week has been busy. Each band rehearsed, and the Pocket FishRmen played last night at the Lost Well for the Free Range Bastards' 20th anniversary show. Kind of funny for the PF to be hitting a 32nd anniversary soon and playing someone else's 20th anniversary.

It was a great show, though, and I finally got to play the electric green drum kit with the matching snare drum fixed up. Travis Garaffa got the right lugs to put it all back together. I had to pick up another snare throw-off for it, but all seems to be working properly now. I still need to work on the sound of the drum. There's no internal muffler on it, which works to a bit of a disadvantage for how I like the snare to sound. At least for the PF, I want that snare to crack, with very little overtone. I'm thinking I might have to use a head with a dampening ring, or even a bit of moon gel....which I've never used in a live setting. Nice to have the full kit together, though.

And speaking of drum kits, I finally made the big move and ordered the drum wraps to convert the Sonor kit into a "corn cobbette" kit for the Hickoids. It'll be my first drum kit to wrap, so it should be an experience. The type wraps I'm getting are ones where you merely lay the wrap on the existing finish and the end of the wrap has some adhesive you press down at the end. The company I ordered from has a video of a guy wrapping a tom to show how it's done, and it does look pretty simple. Other than needing some clamps to hold the wrap while you work, and an X-acto knife to cut holes for hardware, it should be a simple process. Time-consuming, but simple. I'm thinking it'll take me a full day to do it all. Actually, I'm mulling over stripping the shells down while I wait for the wraps. I can use my Vistalite kit for the upcoming San Marcos show, and the July 4th benefit should be backlined. Well, I hope it is. After that, my next gig is July 21st at the Empire Showroom downtown (ugh), but maybe that will the debut of "full drum corn."

Work (I still have a full time job) has been, well, interesting lately. And that's saying something. I've flown under the radar for so long at work (for various reasons) that it's nice to be a bit "back in the light." We have a new process for building our elearning modules, and I'm down with it. One of our programmers bascially saved the federal government a couple of million building this, and I hope he's rewarded justly. It's, dare I write it, fun to work on something in a new fashion. So, there's that. Plus....

I've been using my combination recumbent bike/desk for work at home, and I'm seeing (really, feeling) the results. My right leg is almost without pain now. I haven't seen the physical therapist in two and a half weeks and may not need to again. We'll see. But this pedaling while working seems to be paying off. I'm a bit surprised, but the therapist thought this would help. Seems he's right. I'm kind of astonished, but don't want to celebrate too much.....yet. I haven't mowed the yard in a while....that will be a serious test.

Let's see.....what else? This post feels like a keyboard diarrhea attack.

I still feel in the middle of a "music renaissance," although I have to confess to getting back into the movie game a bit. I've watched several things lately, running the gamut from a popcorn thriller like "Jurassic World," to a W. C. Fields silent, "It's the Old Army Game" (with Louise Brooks!). Watched a sort of dull but sort of interesting sci-fi-er from 1962 titled "The Day Mars Invaded Earth." And, maybe due to recent political events or simple masochism, re-watched "The Final Solution," from the "World at War" set. It's the most interesting documentary on the holocaust I've seen (and yes, I've watched all of "Shoah"), taking it from the roots of the persecution through to the end. In general, anything from the "World at War" series is gold, largely due to its being produced 30 years after the war ended giving it both perspective and loads of witnesses still being alive.

I feel like I've spilled it. Michelle and I are heading to Wimberley later for a Sunday fun day. We discovered a place out there that has great food and atmosphere, so we'll hit that. I need to get back to movie reviews sometime....

Fish Was Fried and Lance Gets Into the Blues A Bit More

Yesterday, fish was fried, rock was played, friends cavorted, merriment was had. It was the 10th Pocket FishRmen Fish Fry, and was it ever a success. After this many Frys, I think we're getting it down to more of a science. The Fry is primarily hosted by guitarist Cris Burns and his wife Kelly Davis-Burns. Cris books the band, sets up the schedule, etc. Kelly organizes the silent auction and does the promotion for it; the Fish Fry benefits the Bill Hicks Wildlife Foundation. So, there are people who work wildlife rescue there, as well as some furry friends hanging out. Brant Bingamon, singer, is in charge of the cooking, and usually has some fine help...although this was the first year without Lawrence Heads. His absence was felt.

This year, I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a job at the Fry. I did transport the rental drum kit (which weighed a ton!) to the Hole in the Wall, but that was my official duty. So, I had talked to Cris earlier on about doing announcements at the Fry, mainly so I'd have something to do. He asked me to go ahead and introduce each band. And I did that, excepting Free Range Bastards, who have Fonte introduce them. It was nice to have a purpose, along with thumping for the FishRmen, of course. Jason, bassist, became the de facto stage manager and kept the schedule on time. Yay, the rhythm section had jobs!

This Fish Fry went the way of the last few; great bands playing all the way through, but the momentum sagged toward the end. No fault of the people playing; I just think the heat had taken its toll on everyone. Once we had played, I think many people bailed. Hell, many had bailed before we played, but several had gotten there later in the day. Pretty typical of a Fish Fry, and I like that. People come in, people go out. As long as there's a steady crowd. The end was a bit of a whimper for Utley 3, but I stayed and enjoyed their set (after I'd packed up the big stage's rental kit).

But so many highlights yesterday. All Monsters Attack set the tone with a roaring set in the back. Dicky Wayne Vice country-rocked the front stage and set a bit of an intimate tone for bands up there. I love the English Muffin Divers; fun with a capital "F." The Free Range Bastards put on possibly the best show I've seen them do, and I've seen them plenty. G.O.M.E.Z., wow....there were some issues with Chepo's bass, including some classic Chepo response, but I loved the set and seeing Ron Chandler and Ryan McDaniel play again. Jesus Christ Superfly rocked the front with their own career "retrospective." Mary and the Scaredies was basically Scary Mary in a new configuration, with Chris from Uglor on guitar. Great line-up. Grant Dorian, for one, if I may quote R. Lee Ermey from "Full Metal Jacket" is definitely "born again hard." Man, did he slam. Suckling played the inside stage, which might have not been the best place for them, but that didn't matter. I think they might have been many people's favorite yesterday. And then, the Oklahomos on the back stage. Don, where have you been? Wow. Just wow. So much fun. Plastique brought back the intimacy to the front stage, and then your hosts, the Pocket FishRmen tore up the back stage. I ran back to introduce Richy Vegas on the front stage after we were done. He held a nice-size crowd up there. Then it was the Rood Papa Band, with Marcus Trejo on drums, following on the back stage; I got to say a nice tribute to Marcus creating my PF position while introducing them. Monkeyshines then played the front stage and rocked thoroughly....still a little rough in the new line-up, but when you have musicians of that caliber playing......they'll find their way out. Nice job, indeed. Ten Foot Rooster took the back; by then, folks had drifted out, but TFR had their own fans there, too. A fun set. I loved the one about "kicking all my girlfriends' husbands' asses." Oh, man. And then Utley 3, closed it out up front. Cordy's guitar has the most interesting tone, and it's always great to see Steve Chapman play. Killer line-up, lovely playing, fun time. I'm beaming today. And maybe a little red from the sun.

And now, on to personal writing. I've been having a bit of a musical renaissance lately. A bit of "feeling like a kid" again, and it feels nice. Might've written this here before, but for a few years I haven't really been into music. Movies took over a certain section of my brain....and while I'm still quite the movie fan, I find myself back to discovering music I've not really dived into before....and it feels good. Lately, I've started investigating the blues more than ever before. I recently purchased a Muddy Waters Chess box set and will probably pick up the Willie Dixon one soon enough. I've looked into some Howlin' Wolf releases but haven't decide on that yet. Might just spring for the Chess Box there, too. The blues is a nice balance to my extensive progging and jazzing.

Before jumping into these muddy waters (I crack myself up), the only blues I'd really heard was either the Robert Johnson (now, that's rawness) or the White Imitation variety. Listening to this Muddy Waters stuff was pretty revelatory. Before hearing this, I did have and periodically listen to, the Electric Mud album, but that album is almost a genre unto itself. The Waters Chess box has all kinds of Muddy classics, several of which were made into other songs by American and British groups of the 60s and 70s. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" sticks out, in particular, because being a Captain Beefheart fan, I was stunned that "Sure 'Nuff 'n' Yes I Do" is a complete rip of "Rollin' and Tumblin'." I mean, the guitar rhythm, the vocal melody, everything. I had heard some versions of these songs by later musicians, but I didn't realize that some were completely purloined. It's not even questionable. The lyrics to "You Need Love" are the lyrics to "Whole Lotta Love," etc. I knew all this stuff from reading about it, but to finally hear it.....wow. Granted, these blues musicians back then were ripping each other off all the time, so it's hard to say who exactly originated what, but yes, what they say about the white groups taking these songs, sometimes wholesale, is true.

I think I'm sunburned from yesterday. I need cooling, and woman, I ain't fooling. See you soon.