Upcoming Show alert!

Keeping in tonight's theme of shameless self-promotion, I'm giving ample notice of an upcoming gig: Killbossa will play The Layover in Oakland Thursday 1/27 as part of Carne Tremula- a monthly DJ night held on site. I think this is going to be a fun one and I'm trying to have the band present a groovy, dance-oriented set plus a new arrangement of Gilberto Gil's Volks Volkswagen Blue I put together. Do it! 9:30PM.

Whoa, busy one this weekend. Saturday Gojogo played the Subterranean Arthouse. It's a great room in downtown Berkeley with an audience that was there to listen. What a nice thing that is. Sqwonk was really impressive- displaying great musicianship and blending beautifully in the high-ceilinged room. Jon and Jeff are putting on the 4th annual Switchboard Music Festival in Spring which promises to be an overwhelmingly impressive affair. Sunday was a raunchier affair at the Argus. Celebrating professor Hudson's birthday, The Cannery played an opening set and I also joined the good man himself on stage for a "There's No Such Thing As A Holiday Set". Good times were had by all.

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Playing at good ol' Cellspace tonight. Art + Music.

Magic Mirror

Hard to believe it's been over a month since my last post. I have kept myself busy. Saw Dungen at the New Parish, Arcade Fire and Calexico at The Greek. Gojogo played a concert at the DeYoung on October 3rd and then I walked down to see some great stuff at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Killbossa played at the Make-Out and Aca at the Rev. This is starting to feel like a Romper Room Magic Mirror post! Also Dina band (with Cello!) at the Knockout and Dave Hudson at the Argus- all elements distorted- what were we thinking? Anyway, I'm looking forward to tonight's Full Harvest Moon show at Viracocha. Chasing The Moon is a really beautiful podcast and Seaweed Sway shows are always classy and interesting.

There is a nice music community here.

I had a real nice time playing and listening to music at the Make-Out Room last night. We (Mercury Falls) seemed to find some interesting new routes to take through the tunes after 8 weeks of fermentation. Maybe it's just having an attentive and engaged audience and sharing the bill with such inspiring musicians but it seemed like a little taste of the good ol' days on 22nd street. With improvisational music you're often rolling the dice. Will we have a good show or a transcendent one? This was somewhere in between but it felt like a success. We were able to hear each other and the samples, good. We alternated short sets with Shimmering Leaves, very good- there was a subtle exchange of ideas happening between the bands. We were relaxed and open-hearted, so the music spoke. Thanks to Porto Franco for supporting local music.

Mercury Falls CD release Thursday 9/16

Mercury Falls will be alternating sets with Dave Mihaly's Shimmering Leaves this Thursday at the Make-Out Room. This is a Porto Franco Records CD release event for both groups. I'm looking forward to revisiting the Mercury Falls music a couple of months after our summer tour.

Many (S)Miles

4617. Imperfectly precise. That is the number of miles I have traversed in various vehicles in the last 3 weeks. Moving very quickly while staying mostly still. Close quarters with various comrades. Hurry up and wait. New languages of insanity. This is the life of a band on the road. In late July I spent a week playing shows with Mercury Falls. We made our way up and down the left coast- as far south as LA and up to Vancouver. One of my favorite aspects of touring is the meeting and hanging out with new, great folks. We had plenty of that on this one, especially in B.C. where we played a couple of shows with The Inhabitants. They were impressive and inspiring and Skye and Karma were kind enough to host us at their idyllic home in the country, as we fortified ourselves for the punishing non-stop trip back to California.

After a brief trip to SD to spend time with family and celebrate Bomma's 89th b-day, I flew to Chicago to begin another mad-cap run with the Dina Maccabee Band through the Midwest and Northeast. The characters change but the script is strangely similar: in the first 24 hours, a secret language of references and gestures is developed. This will be the glue that binds us together when the road shows it's teeth and showers are sorely missed. Music is shared and gives added meaning to the monotonous or beautiful landscape. The vehicle starts and stops but mostly just goes and goes...We arrive just in time for load-in and then wait, wait, wait. Jargon is flung about: strike, check, wedge, downbeat. Then find a place to crash and start it all over again.

Amazingly, I almost always come away feeling inspired and renewed despite being roadworn and sleep-deprived. Generous people, seeing new cities & lands, getting to know your cohorts more completely, and playing music every night is a beautiful thing. When do we go again?