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Monday, November
28, 2005 at 15:38:43 (EST) |
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You're gonna carry that weight a long
time
I'm sure the Pilgrims would have
loved this
We survived another Thanksgiving and another long weekend
that was downright dormant in my activity level. Hardly any
bands were playing and on the night itself it was too cold
to venture out to the bars. Not that we needed to, as we were
all holed up at Zack & Abby's
house for the night. I went off my usual routine and consumed
several varieties of alcoholic beverages, ranging from wine
to rum. Normally this is anathema to me, as such whimsy often
leads to Hangovertown (population: Me). But there was too
much stuff to eat and drink not to sample a wide range of
goods. I lucked out and was not hungover at all the next day,
but the booze did have a mortifying effect on my body which
kept me confined to a chair during the Thanksgiving processions.
Abby singlehandedly cooked the whole of the dinner, which
probably had something to do with the dazed expression on
her face. And get this, she had planned on buying a pre-cooked
deep fried turkey from local poultry purveyors Jive Turkey.
But due to overspeculation in the turkey market, the shop
ran out of said birds (after she'd waited in the freezing
morning for hours with many other disgruntled folk), so she
had to add cooking a whole turkey into her already long list
of menu items. But she pulled it all off, and nobody got hurt
(except perhaps for the people at Jive Turkey, who have forever
lost a customer
it seems). I hear the turkey turned out perfectly, but alas
I could not partake since I'm trying to do this vegan thing
nowadays. To that end I made a vegan pizza from a recipe in
Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan
with a Vengeance, a resident right down the street
in Prospect Heights. I modified the recipe a little with added
red peppers for color, and the last-minute inclusion of Tofurky
kielbasa (it's not bad!). I also made a dessert, a vegan chocolate
cake from the venerable Joy of Cooking. That recipe
called for cocoa, and as god as my witness I could not find
any of it within a mile radius of my house (okay, 2-block
radius). Is there a cocoa embargo or something? Anyway I got
some baking chocolate and figured out more or less how much
to use so it wasn't a total loss. I probably could have thrown
in some additional chocolate but the cake was pretty good
in any case. Of course, my brand of veganism allows me to
eat a bunch of stuff that shouldn't really qualify, but does
as long as i can't readily see the prohibited products. This
means I ate a bunch of stuffing and pumpkin pie, even though
I am vaguely aware they don't count. So sue me.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Wednesday,
November 23, 2005 at 13:25:40 (EST) |
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Family affair
We weren't really clear on what the scene would be like at the
Knitting Factory last night, and at first I was a little wary.
The crowd that was forming, frankly had a lot of older people,
small children, and families, not our usual target demographic.
The other band was comprised of teenagers, none older than 17.
We had to go on first, which bummed me out until I concluded
that perhaps it would be better to get our particular brand
of Over-30 Angst-Rock out of the way.
We
had a set list that was perhaps a bit too aggressive for the
scene. We knew we wouldn't be able to be as loud as we are
normally, not to mention the fact there was a grand piano
taking of 3/4 of the stage up until a half-hour before our
set. This prompted a removal of such Motico classics as "Stop"
and "Our Problem is YOU," in favor of the ostensibly
less irritable "Buildings" (which is also about
twice as long as our normal songs). This all proved to be
a good move; and when the crowd actually seemed to take our
music in stride. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by
the performance. We kept our volume in check for the most
part and the audience didn't flee the room. And Trazy got
up and did a cover song finale with us, Lyn Collins' "Think
(About It)," the song from whence Rob Base got that sample
for his "It Takes Two" song (which I'm pretty sure
everybody in the world has heard at least several times by
now). This was a good move, not just because we pulled the
song off pretty well, but also because folks love cover songs,
even if they're not too familiar with what's being covered.
So we survived the evening and it wasn't a total disaster;
some of the high school kids even asked us when we were playing
next. Maybe we should do more all-ages events.
<GEEKTECH>
My new cheap guitar
Last
night was also the first time in about 12 years that I played
a set without my trusty '77 Les Paul, or my Stewart-Macdonald
Telecaster copy. I recently purchased a bargain-basement Epiphone
SG Special for even less than I paid for my very first guitar,
a paisley-covered Tele copy by Cort Guitars (it was so cheap
it even said "Electric Guitar" on the headstock
in case you forgot). It doesn't have the solid feel of the
Les Paul, but this SG is lighter and doesn't have the feedback
problems of my other axe. The other day my old pal Rich came
over to try out some replacement pickups for the SG (the stock
pups are a little to muddy for me). We tried a couple of his
pickups and they were an improvement, but then I remembered
my old roommate had left behind an old Stratocaster, which
contained some version of a Hot Rails pickup, a humbucker
that fits into a single-coil slot. I remember not liking it
when I played it before, but we dropped the Hot Rail into
the SG and it made all the difference in the world. I know
guitarists tend to confuse more than illuminate when they
speak about such things, but I must say this alternate pickup
gives the guitar more good overdrive distortion while preserving
a sonic clarity that actually refines each note individually
without too much break-up but lots of crazy harmonic action
in the high-mid range. In short, it kicks butt. I'm probably
gonna swap the pickups out in my Les Paul next to see what
will happen then. Unfortunately I've exhausted my supply of
guitar parts found in the basement, so i guess I'll have to
buy some.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Monday, November
21, 2005 at 14:48:43 (EST) |
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Up jumped the devil
Even more sporadic than posts to this web site are public appearances
of my band. But that will change tomorrow night, as Motico
performs at the Knitting Factory Tap Room. Sadly, I doubt
many of you will make it to this event. Not because you don't
love my band, and think we're the Most Amazing Thing Ever. But
because the ticket price is $20. Yes, it's an absolutely ridiculous
cover price, and only the very wealthy among you should pay
it. It is, however, a benefit show for the Children's Epilepsy
Program at Beth Israel Hospital, which tugs upon the heartstrings
and makes one think twice about the metaphorical value of money
vis à vis the larger make-the-world-a-better-place ethos
implied from such events as benefit shows (to which Motico is
no stranger). Does that make you A) More likely to come, B)
Less likely to come, C) The same? While I certainly can't insist
on anyone's presence tomorrow night at around 8PM, I can't in
good conscience tell you not to come, either, both because it's
a "good cause" and, after all, it's "my band"
that's playing. Of course I hope the benefit itself does well,
but I will be very interested to see who the paying customers
are. It should also be mentioned that at this performance we
will be performing a Very Special Cover Song with a talented
guest singer that in the opinion of many will more than make
up for the cost of the show.
Motico
will be back again, exactly one month later, to play the miniscule
169
Bar in Chinatown on December 22. Sadly, many of you will
have already fled the Big City, to return to your housing
developments and corn silos in the Heart Land, where you will
enact the age-old rituals of Playing Nice with the Relatives
until you can get back here in time for New Year's Eve, wherein
your revelry will be not so much for the supposed glee of
entering upon another year so much as congratulating yourself
for not still living in that podunk town. But if for some
reason your plans differ from this track, head over to Chinatown
on that Thursday night and pay what I assume will be a nominal
cover fee to see my band and some other bands, which have
yet to be decided.
Further to that end, almost exactly a year ago, some guy
came up to Zack after a Motico performance specifically to
chastise our band. He said our music had no 'soul,' that we
were merely going through the well-traveled indie rock motions.
He then segued bizarrely into a laudatory declaration of Kenny
G's breath control and his record-breaking holding of a single
note on the soprano sax. Due to this coda, I always assumed
the guy was joking, but fate, it seems, is also not without
a sense of humor. The Kenny G-Lover turned out to be a guy
who lives in the neighborhood, and true to his promises since
the incident, Zack confronted the guy at the park over the
summer. They guy went for the usual explanations: he was drunk,
he's known to shoot his mouth off when he's loaded, he never
expected to run into Zack or our band again ... But as most
of us know, this is in many ways a small town (though perhaps
not small like the Denny's-infested strip-mall hellhole wherein
many of us will spend the upcoming holidays), and we all must
expect that sooner or later we'll run into people we'd least
like to see. I dunno, maybe the guy is new to town, but he
did not realize this. Now we see the guy with some frequency,
which seem to unnerve him (or maybe he's just always like
that).
Now, my question is: Would it be the epitome of bad taste
to ask this guy's jazz band to play a show with Motico? We
need additional bands for this gig, and few will be available
due to the date. Would that make you A) More likely to come,
B) Less likely to come, C) The same?
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Wednesday,
November 09, 2005 at 12:49:54 (EST) |
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Everything you wanted and more
I waited around politely for months, hoping somebody on Flickr
would offer me a Pro account upgrade. But alas, no one offered.
I was under the impression that Flickr occasionally gave existing
Pro users the ability to bestow Pro accounts on other nonPro
users. Alas, I was never so blessed, so I just went ahead
and paid for a Pro account. This means some of my older photos
that were locked due to a 200 photo limit are now available
to all. Thus we can enjoy such memories as:
JoshB's private moment during Jose's
bachelor party trip
Sweaty Japanther shows I attend
with children half my age
And of course, new memories, such as Mr Bones new hobby:
Mr Bones crushes the life out of
his prey before consuming it
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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