What the hell are we doing?!

In case you haven't noticed, we don't have another gig booked until February. We know...Sad, sad, sad!!! The good news is that we're going back into the studio to records a few songs.

So, we're rehearsing just those songs, honing them to perfection so that the recordings will tickle your ears in just the way we know you like it.

We'll spend a weekend in mid-December at Coney Island Studio with Wendy Schneider at the helm. Then, who knows what we'll do with it. We don't have the funds for CD duplication. Maybe we'll keep 'em in a vault to be released after our death. By then, we should be more popular than Jesus.

Maybe we'll burn one CD at a time, hand-draw different things and market them as collectors' items. Maybe we'll offer them in digital form only and all you retro-grouches that have never burned a CD before will have to embrace technology (it'll be good for you).

So, no shows for now.

Vote Dang It!

Ozomatli Rulz!

Friends and I went to a show last night at the Orpheum Theater. A friend of mine is a fan of Los Lonely Boys and also had been strongly encouraged to see the opening band live. What I know of Los Lonely Boys is just the two songs that get radio play. They sound like their "together" enough but it's not something that really trips my trigger.

The opening band was Ozomatli from L.A. and all I can say is holy shit are these guys fantastic! From the first note they had the crowd up and moving with an energy level that hit the ceiling and never came back down. At one point, I though the stage was going to fall over because they were dancing so hard the speaker stacks were swaying. They finished their set by breaking down pieces of their percussion instruments and leading a procession out of the theater and into the lobby where their sound just echoed madly off of the high, ornate ceiling. This band alone was worth the price of admission.

There seemed to be a long delay before Los Lonely Boys hit the stage. Perhaps they were trying to kill the buzz because they new they wouldn't be up to following Ozomatli. LLB took a while to warm up and the sound wasn't that hot for them. The guitarist/vocalist was hitting a few sour notes during the first couple of songs and then the set turned in to the most egregious display of guitar wankery that I've heard in a long time.

At one point, the drummer, organist and "bass player" (real bass players don't need six strings) left the stage. The guitarist was lit by one spotlight and he began to noodle. Noodle, noodle, noodle...I got up and went to the bathroom...Noodle, noodle, noodle...Then went to the bar, ordered a mixed drink (they take a little longer to make)...Noodle, noodle, noodle...Wandered upstairs and into the balcony...Noodle, noodle, noodle! What the hell! From the balcony, I could see the faces of the fans closets to the stage. They looked bored even though they were trying to engage. Lead guitar wanker was contorted around his instrument, technically proficient as he zipped up and down the fretboard, sweat beading on his forehead. Yet, there was a complete disconnect between the audience and the musician. The tune went on for an uncomfortable 15+ minutes. When the drummer came back on stage and started a drum solo people were actually relieved. What a waste of electricity!

In short:
Ozomatli=Great!
LLB=Now we know why their lonely

BTW-LLB's cover of Superstition was completely souless, BLAhhhHHHK!

Artful but Oblique

We got a little bit of good press from this week's Isthmus! They ran an article about album art and Be The Engine was mentioned. Also mentioned was the album art work for Madison punkers, Tar Babies. These bits 'O good-ness exist because of our very own Robin Davies (a.k.a. Newlow).

Here's what Dave Benton said about the Be The Engine cover art:

“It’s basically just a silhouette of a person on a swing against a blue background. The image speaks to me because the person is at the widest arc of the swing, and anybody who has sat on a swing and felt that motion knows the kind of freedom that represents. The image suggests possibilities as to what people might find in the music. It’s artful but oblique.”

Nice!

Actually, I do remember the feeling of sitting on a swing and hitting the uppermost point in the arc, freezing in place and then, the return to earth.

I get motion sickness pretty easy and swings definitely do it for me. Dave is right. There is no greater kind of freedom than a violent heave of vomit!

I like the album cover though.

The cover piece that this little article accompanies can be found here.

Video: UW Union Terrace

Below is the video that Mike shot during our performance at the Students for Tammy Baldwin Rally on October 6th. The video was shot on a digital still camera with a mic the size of a #2 pencil eraser. Hey, if you want Hi-Fi, buy the record.

Halloween, Part 3

Word from the community center is that we all raised $1000 for them. Way to go peoples!

Here's more pictures by Mike Barrett: