Uncle Francis is Gunfighting at Dawn

I took a drive today with Uncle Francis. He's a longtime Oakland resident and a retired therapist. Back in the day, he was hired by various bay area schools to work with at risk kids. One of his mentors worked with drug addicts back in the '60's and conducted the therapy sessions sitting on a park bench--the drug addicts natural habitat. That put them at ease and communication started to happen. In his wisdom, Francis decided to put a killer stereo system in his car so that he and the hard to reach at risk kids could cruise around and listen to Tupac and Biggie Small. Somehow this worked. Released from school for an hour, ride around in a rad Lexus with a killer LOUD ASS stereo and go to McDonalds. Sounds like fun to me (except the McDonalds part). The kids started to communicate with him and the parents and teachers began to see a positive change in their kids.

Francis is a hardcore music fan. We bonded over music about a million years ago when we first met. So today we drove roundtrip from Oakland to San Rafael with the sole purpose of listening to Felsen's new album, I Don't Know How To Talk Anymore. It was a real treat to listen to the album on such a great stereo. I LOVE BASS and that stereo has got some serious low end! For a 72 year old guy, Francis likes to listen to music at a very high volume (bless him). God so do I and I think he likes to listen to music louder than me. And he really listens. I'm so totally narcissistic about Felsen's music, that if you ever suffer the unfortunate great displeasure of having to listen to any of that stuff with me, I will need your UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. Turn that cell phone off. Clear your schedule. Your world now revolves around ME, at least for the next unsuspecting 40 minutes of your life. Francis obliged me with great attention and focus. Verdict: good album to listen to in the car. I wouldn't argue with that.

I haven't listened all the way through in a while. I've had a few months away from it. We play the songs on stage and we rehearse, but that's different. The album is it's own animal. It was nice to come back to it with fresh ears. And it made me reflect on making the album and writing those songs and some of the personal price you gotta pay to make art. I'm not talking about the major hassle it is to get something completed, funded, etc...or the personal havoc it may wreck upon you and your family or personal life being so obsessed with something that vehemently consumes your time, mental energy and money. No I'm not thinking about that, but rather the life you gotta pour into it to make it real. Kinda hard to describe. You gotta earn that stuff and it doesn't come cheaply. You have to go live a little bit, experience some of life's joy and sadness, love and loss, life and death and while you're at it, go smell a new born baby's head; this all somehow mysteriously morphs into songs. And it's still no less mysterious a process to me all these years later. Maybe it's a mystery now more than ever. The more you know, the less you know.

Uncle Francis really liked Gunfighting at Dawn. He said it kinda reminded him of Leonard Cohen. I'll take that. I'm real proud of that tune. It's about Katrina and the great flood and all those people stranded on the bridge (shame on us). It must have felt like judgement day for them. Police officers from nearby Gretna, LA blockaded the bridge, preventing thousands from fleeing NOLA. "Meanwhile I'm stranded on this bridge now three days. Across the overpass a well-armed militia's waiting for me." "If you got a weapon to use dear Jesus, use it on your enemies." (That's right. You read that one correctly.)  Although their crimes against the gulf didn't come for another few years after Katrina, I name check British Petroleum too, just for good measure. Uncle Francis really liked all Dylan's guitar playing on this one. I think Dylan was mad when he was playing the guitar that day. At least it sounds that way to me.  Gunfighting is an easy one for me to get worked up over.  It feels real good to sing on stage and get a whole room of people singing along.

Need to work it out?  Feeling a need for some group catharsis and drinking a few beers on a Friday night?  Please join us Friday January 3, 2014 at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco. Francis, you in?  This is how Felsen conducts OUR therapy sessions thankyouverymuch.

Gong Hits anyone?

A few years ago I got a lovely Han Chi gong as a Christmas present from my family.  I love this thing and I always wanted one.  At the time, I was putting together a band to play a bunch of Led Zeppelin tunes for a benefit concert with my dear friend Jo Ann “Mama” Pacho.  What self-respecting drummer playing Zep tunes would perform sans gong?  I used the gong on stage with that band and I have since used it on stage with a few other bands, but have also used it many times on different recording sessions.  It’s on two Felsen albums--Breaking Up With Loneliness and I Don’t Know How to Talk Anymore.  

Ear buds in now please.  And while you're at it, turn the lights down low.  You can hear Han Chi especially in the intro and also the very last sound at the end of Gimme Shelter for the Devil from our new album.  This is how i like to use the gong.  Kind of shimmering quietly and slowly not really bugging anyone.  No big clang "dinner is served!".  Subtle, spacey, spooky perhaps.  Polite, charming, decent, lovely.  Ambiance I say!

Recording the gong was a beautiful moment for me and Felsen bassist alumni Cristian Hernandez. Cris was kind enough to masterfully record and mix the entire album (at no cost to us, thankyouverymuchdearfriend) this past spring at his old house in San Lorenzo, CA. Recording in his house was a real pleasure, a dream come true really as we weren’t constantly staring at the clock wondering how much time and money we were spending and therefore could allow ourselves the luxury of experimenting and fooling around with interesting sounds, mic choices and instrumentation. When you’re on a tight budget at a bigger studio, you often end up taking the Henry Ford assembly line approach to recording and the creativity can get really squashed.  With the freedom of experimentation, I played Han Chi real lightly throughout the entire song.  It kinda ebbs and flows, beautifully shimmering in the background, like ocean waves breaking around you.

Work on the album began last Christmas with me sending out demos to Cris, Art and Dylan. No real songs were written at that point. Some of the songs were just little embryos, some more song like, but none were really "done" per se. The first time we all played Gimme Shelter for the Devil was at the Felsen hurt locker (rehearsal space) in West Oakland in January.  As we did with all of the new tunes I wrote for the album, we huddled together with just acoustic guitars and a snare drum with brushes.  Everyone played real quiet.  We knew we had something really special.  It's quiet, like non violence.  America: lay down your arms, surrender to the void, relax and float downstream.   We kept at it and by May 31 we had a recorded and mixed album of 12 new Felsen songs. We had copies in hand around July 1. We pulled that one out of thin air!

We’ll be playing Gimme Shelter for the Devil on stage at our CD release party on January 3, 2014 at the Rickshaw Stop in SF. Please join us and sing along at the end of Gimme Shelter for the Devil. It's easy. You'll know what to do.

December 2013 Portland Shows

Sunday early afternoon driving through snowy Oregon winterland, listening to Rogue Wave and heading up into the mountains now for our return trip to Oakland after a few days on the road.  These were Felsen's last dates of a very busy and productive 2013. We played 2 shows in Portland this weekend.  

The original forecast of 0% chance of precipitation for Friday kept getting more and more grim as the week went by.  We decided to leave Thursday night for Friday's show.  Somewhere on the drive the 20 degree cold really hit me for the first time at a rest stop on our way to spending the night in Redding.  I couldn't stop shaking. Being a long-time Bay Area person, I've lost my ability to deal with cold weather temperature despite my lake-effect snowy Indiana upbringing.  A troupe of pansies we've been called by a cold weather tough gal.  Unusual cold all the locals said. Driving conditions on Friday in the mountains were pretty bleak.  What should have taken 6 hours took 10.  We lost about three hours in a 20 mile stretch of snowy mountain pass clogged with jack knifed trucks and cars being pulled back onto the interstate and trucks stoping to put on chains.  

We got to the Ash Street Saloon for our 9pm set at 8.30.  Good times.  Needless to say we were pretty frazzled from the drive and also just tired.  Typical Griffin, I barely sleep under the best of circumstances, getting ready for a few days on the road meant a few nights of minimal sleep. When we got to the gig on Friday I was tired, stressed out and hungry.  I hadn't eaten well in a few days either.  Despite all that, we had a great sound check and were pumped to play.  The sound system, stage and lights were totally pro.  I'm essentially a drummer who plays some guitar and can sing a little bit.  I got into this Felsen front guy thing by default, without making any plans.  It just kinda happened and has slowly engulfed my lifetime of playing drums. The gear aspect of playing guitar is still a bit of a mystery to me. Hell, half of my gear is borrowed.  what can I say? I have a sugar daddy.  Amazing how everything works during the sound check and then you come back 20 minutes later to do your set and voila, you got equipment issues that shut down your show.  All you gotta do is smile.  Remain calm.  Pull it together kid.  I cobbled together my rig and muddled through the remainders of the set. My rig crapped 2x during the show.  We decided to finish with one of the quieter tunes on our new album, Gimme Shelter for the Devil, perfect as my sugar daddy's amp mysteriously wasn't putting out much volume.  Despite that, playing that song quietly was a beautiful moment that made us all feel somewhat vindicated for an otherwise clumsy show.  Friday we had our gal pal numero uno Dara Ackerman onstage with us singing backing vocals.  She killed it. The felsen gender barrier has been officially been broken!  

I play drums in Dara's band.  She's returning the favor.  win win.  This weekend was actually a whole crew of east bay musical misfits on the road bringing it to the good people of Portland (you're welcome!)  Saturday's show was a house concert or at least that was the original plan.  The party givers decided to move it to a venue that was rented out for the show, Bamboo Grove Salon.  Really neat place.  Dara pretty much organized the whole thing.  Also joining in on the fun was our pal, Scarth Locke --I'm also his drummer. Dara sings with Scarth and vice versa.  My dear friend and beloved bay area bassist Pete Canton came up to do double duty playing with Scarth and Dara.  (Pete played bass on Felsen's Accidental Drowning album). It was nice to be with friends and bring this crew of people i work with together with Felsen.  Scarth and then Dara each put in real nice sets.  The small crowd gathered in the room listened attentively.  Felsen eased into our set.  Rock and Roll's Not Dead, All you Gotta Do is Smile.  The energy and enthusiasm were starting to ramp up. people were starting to dance during Tokyo Electric, which was sounding really great and groovy at both shows this weekend, thankyouverymuch. The show was real easy from there on out.  I gave a special shout out to my niece, a recent portland arrival, who at about 3 AM on only her 3rd day in town, managed to successfully evacuate her entire apartment building which was soon to be engulfed in smoke and flames.  May she never have to pay for another beer as long as she lives in Portland!  We focused mainly on the new songs:  Gunfighting, Lorazepam and absolutely crushed it with Better Thoughts.  We had a posse of goofy solid gold dancers by the side of the stage.   The extended outro "Better Thoughts will keep you happy and alive" became a mantra that the whole room got into.  that's powerful juju to ward off evil spirits and keep out the bitter cold.  We finished the night off with Gimme Shelter For the Devil.  Which for me, might have been the musical high point of the whole road trip.  It was really deep and spiritual and cathartic to sing that song. I'm still not exactly sure what it's about.  fear of death...fear of life..growing old...trying to just keep your shit together...loving your enemies.  I guess all of those things.  Who isn't going through something complex and crazy right now?  needless to say it felt really good to sing that one.  I had Scarth up on stage too singing the outro.  The whole room sang along.  thank you portland.  what a fun really beautiful freezing cold weekend to warm up the collective heart of this troupe of pansies. 

Felsen Bids Farewell to The Red Devil Lounge.

Felsen played on Thursday night at the Red Devil Lounge in SF.  We performed at a monthly variety show called W*A*S*H* curated by local musician Kevin Seal.  Each month’s show has a musical theme, this month’s was Talking Heads.  Multiple bands performed a tune or two by Talking Heads as well as a few of their own songs.  There was also burlesque dancing to TH.  I’m still a little freaked out/oddly aroused by the knife-wielding, tassel clad vixen’s scary/sexy performance of “Psycho Killer”.  Thank you ma’am.  Felsen performed as a trio as Dylan was unable to join us. It’s a different sound and vibe for sure.  My guitar playing is pretty meat and potatoes so when it’s trio time, the sound is more punk rock and less artsy spacey sound effect-y.  Our 30 mins of music was really fun and we rocked extra hard.  

We played “Heaven” by TH and we brought up a few friends to join us:  Dara Ackerman on backing vocals and Michael “Pie Face” Fiorentino on guitar.  When Kevin asked me to get Felsen on the show and told me it was Talking Heads night, I knew right then that I wanted to sing “Heaven”, a song I’ve loved since I first saw “Stop Making Sense” in it’s initial cinematic release (yeah, I’m that old) with my cousin Ann at the Fine Arts Cinema on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.   It’s a really beautiful idea for a song which compares Heaven to a bar where everyone goes, all your friends are there, your fav band is on stage playing your favorite song....When I was learning the song and digging into the meaning of the lyrics, I knew it would have a special meaning for me on stage at the Red Devil Lounge which is sadly closing at the end of this year.  This one is real sad for me as I’ve performed on that stage with easily 30 bands since 1999.  A partial list:  Jesse Denatale, PC Munoz and the Amen Corner, Rich McCulley, Dave Armanini, Paul Manousos and the East Bay Wrecking Crew, Hey Hey Mama, Dog Man Joe, Luce, The Delta Wires, Brad Brooks, Victor Jon and Greg (of Camper Van Beethoven), One Velvet Down, Dry County, Viv, Felsen...This is a special place to me.  When I would get a new band together, we’d call RDL and they’d give us a gig--including Felsen.  About 6 years ago when I was very sick with cancer, Pie Face organized a benefit concert for me, Coconut Bangers Ball.  The good people at RDL were gracious enough to host that event, one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.  That night 14K was raised to help offset medical expenses and keep me and my little family afloat (we pretty much lost all of our money during my long illness). So many friends came out for that show and that really lifted my spirits.  We finished the night with a really incredible version of “Good Vibrations”.  We had about 15 people on stage, possibly still being the highlight of my humble musical career. A few years later when my health was SLOWLY improving, I organized a benefit for ongoing cancer research done by my doctors at UCSF.  Again I turned to RDL and they obliged.  I was also a performer at another cancer research benefit hosted at RDL, Cancer is My Bitch.  That night was also the debut of me and Pie Face’s new Zep Tribute band, Hey Hey Mama.  What a fun night that was!  The Owner Jay Siegan is also the manager of a slew of high-end cover bands.  He uses RDL on weekends to showcase these bands bringing in lots of potential wedding clients and lavish corporate parties.  The place is pretty much always packed on weekends.  Jay once posted online that it’s these cover band shows that allows him to gamble on booking local original rock bands.  Gamble he did with the many local original rock bands I’ve brought to him.  

good vibrations.

I’ve known Pie Face since 2002.  To be precise, I met him (as well as bass player/vocalist Eric Semo) on Sept 13, 2002 at Albuquerque Airport (that’s ABQ for you frequent flyers).  I’d flown out there to do a gig with Viv, a new band put together by Matt Ostrander, whom I’d then known for about 3 years.  Viv was starting to really take off and they needed a sub for one gig in Albuquerque, NM, the last stop on yet another one of their non stop tours.  At that time, Viv was hosting a weekly Monday night indie music, film and art showcase, called Viv and a Movie at, you guessed it, RDL.  This went on for about 2 years.  Classic Viv disfunction/disorganization, I had this ABQ gig on my calendar for a few weeks, Ostrander promised to send me a CD and I promised to learn the tunes and show up prepared to do the gig with no rehearsal, I waited and waited for that CD to arrive, but no luck.  I’m a prepare-aholic and I wanted to do a good job. Where’s that CD Matt?  Finally the CD arrived the night before the gig.  I got in late at night and just had time to listen.  I instantly loved the CD.  Have you ever had a crush on a band?  I sure did.  I couldn’t sleep that night as the songs just kept swirling around in my brain.  Maybe this was the band I’d been waiting and searching for all these years.  I was hooked. How long is a non stop flight between OAK and ABQ?  Not long, right? Long enough to transcribe a whole album’s drum parts?  I furiously scribbled and erased and scribbled and rewound and fast forwarded and ate the peanuts and drank my obligatory apple juice and scribbled some more until those big wheels touched down.  The people on the plane must have thought I was nuts.  Team Viv picked me up at baggage claim and took me to lunch.  I immediately felt right at home with these guys. I took a nap under a tree on the lawn at UNM where we would later perform outside on a little stage in the middle of a field to about 30 college kids.  We stayed at a motel by the airport.  We drank beers and played cards.  The glamorous world of touring.  Check in hand, I got up at O dark 30 to catch a flight back to OAK and that was it.  I didn’t see or hear from those guys for another couple of years.  Flash forward now to spring of 2004 and Viv was just on the cusp of blowing up.  They had a new album coming out and just had a shake up in their band’s lineup.  They had a new drummer, former Counting Crow, Steve Bowman.  Bowman had a knack of swooping in on another drummer’s gig at precisely the moment when it was clear that that band’s star was on the rise (he usurped his drum student’s gig--Classy!)  I had played a few times at RDL for Viv and a Movie with my band Du Jour, Rich McCulley Band, whom I had been touring with since January 2003.  In 16 months we did 180 gigs and put 70,000 miles on his van.  I co-wrote maybe 20 tunes with Rich and we were working on a new album.  I was studying with a great drum teacher, Alan Hall and I was practicing and gigging and teaching non stop, probably doing about 200 gigs a year at that time. I was starting to produce other people’s music.  I’d grown up a lot as a musician.  My stock value as a bay area drummer was on the rise. I met Bowman at Viv and a Movie one of those nights playing with Rich but didn’t get to hear him play.  I inquired about drum lessons. I went out to his place in Walnut Creek for a lesson and was totally knocked out.  Finally I got to hear him with Viv a few weeks later at, you guessed it, RDL.  I remember walking up Clay street and hearing Bowman absolutely crushing it.  I went in and was totally and completely knocked out by Steve’s playing.  This was how rock drumming should be: powerful, propulsive, exciting, simple and song oriented.  He didn’t overplay. He didn’t underplay.  Damn. Viv now was a world class band.  They had Danny Eisenberg (google him) on keyboards and the giant Hammond B3. These guys were now days away from becoming huge, huge stars and were, IMHO, way better than the other really big SF bands at the time:  Train, Counting Crows, 3rd Eye Blind...They were on par with Radiohead, Weezer, Blur, Wilco... Their new songs were deep, profound, really honest...I couldn’t think straight. That night changed everything for me.  Yup.  That year I continued to tour heavily with Rich and then got sucked into LA based band the Bloody Lovelies.  I was in the middle of a 5 week east coast tour with the Lovelies when I heard from Bowman that he was quitting Viv.  He told me to go for it.  I called Matt and we made plans to get together once I got home from my tour.  I ended up doing a 5 and half week east coast tour with Viv and stayed with them until the band imploded in the fall of 2005-winter 2006.  I loved the band.  This was the band I had been looking for.  We could do anything.  Fearless ensemble.  We were working on a new album, meanwhile wives got pregnant and there was no money despite how great the band was and the multiple record contract offers didn’t pan out and the level of stress and friction between Pie and Matt and Eric just got the best of them and it was just too impossible to keep it together after 6 years of major effort and crushing credit card debt accrued, and lots of people wanted their money and…oh and some lawsuits were filed at them...the list is long. There was some major carnage at Viv inc.  Blood on the Tracks.  To me, Viv was like the fish that got away. That’s one of those great mysteries of my life why that one didn’t blow up huge and take it’s place with all the greats.  This all came flooding back to me yesterday morning hanging out at Felsen’s West Oakland HQ thinking about the previous night’s gig at RDL, playing music with Felsen and hanging out with my dear old friend Pie. I had a few minutes to kill waiting for a rehearsal and I listened to some Viv for the first time in a long, long while.  I got kinda verklempt.

Dear Jay and all at RDL:  Thank you for all the wonderful gigs.  Thank you from all of us musicians.  Thank you for allowing us to hone our craft and advance the artform. Thank you for hosting countless benefit concerts.  Thank you for great sound and lighting.  Thank you for all the many great times I’ve had hanging out backstage with my friends.  Thank you for the nights that sucked when the draw was really low and you allowed us to try again another time.   I am proud to say that as of today, Rock and Roll’s Not Dead.  Thank you for doing your part.  I will continue to do mine.

Sincerely,

Andrew Griffin & all at team Felsen.  

   

ULUV BETTER THOUGHTS DONT U?

Felsen played last night at the ULUV festival in SF.  This was an all day festival put together by my friend Robin Applewood.  I’ve know Robin for about 5 years.  Back then he was going by the name of Dogman Joe and I was the drummer for a few years in his band until Felsen responsibilities drew me away.  Robin’s a great musician and songwriter for sure, but then there’s this whole other level to the man.  He truly cares about our local music scene.  He’s like the patron saint of the music scene.  What a breath of fresh air.  For as long as I’ve known him, he’s been putting together shows and trying to really uplift the bay area music community.  The shows he puts together have always been a celebration and feel like a family reunion for all of us long-time bay area musicians.  Last night was pretty much the grandaddy of all such events: 3 stages with music going from 1pm til 2am.  Felsen went on around 10pm.  

This was our first show back after our September Tour, Dr. Fujimoto’s Travelling Medicine Show.  We’ve been laying low, doing some rehearsals, licking our wounds, retelling old war stories from tour and plotting and scheming what’s next for Felsen.  It felt really good to reconnect with one another again and of course play the songs.  We compressed so much playing into a short period of time on the tour (and the lead up to the tour), that I feel pretty confident of Felsen’s abilities at this point.  The ULUV gig was pretty punk rock for Felsen.  The soundman, bless his heart, had to mix about 20 bands yesterday.  I think by the time we got up on stage, he was probably fairly fatigued and the system that he was using was probably not quite as optimum as the size of the room demanded, at least from the performers perspective.  Although, all the acts I heard sounded really good, stage sound, monitors etc...were pretty challenging.  (I.E we couldn’t hear shit on stage.) I trust that it sounded pretty good out front???  The soundman had 20 minutes to get one band off stage and get another on stage, plugged in and rolling.   Honestly, I didn’t really care.  I was just happy to be there, performing for a crowd, seeing lots of old friends, drinking beer, having a good time, just being alive...With that said, the fact that we couldn’t hear much didn’t help the good ship Felsen sail any tighter.  Like I said, fairly Punk Rock.  We jumped around a lot, guitars fell over, microphones got knocked over (ok that was me) and I fell into the drumset at one point--ouch.  Kind of a comedy of errors, but really fun and engaging in it’s own way.  I got down into the audience a few times, probably freaking people out, making it kinda awkward and uncomfortable--I like that.  You’re either with us or against us.  Mainly the audience was all newbies.  We did have a handful of hardcore Felsenistas there.  People I didn’t know were singing along.  That was rad.  Who were these people?  We played tunes mainly from the new album: Rock and Roll’s Not Dead, All You Gotta Do is Smile, I Don’t Know How to Talk Anymore, Tokyo Electric Power, Lorazepam….and a few oldies.  

For me the real highpoint was our new tune Better Thoughts.  As is often the case, after much rehearsal, rewrites, edits, back and forth bickering about song form, arrangement, instrumentation etc….we satisfactorily record the tune and then at some point go out and start performing the tune and realize that it’s just not quite working on stage.  We usually stumble into a solution;  often just from mistakes in rehearsal or just noodling around on the tune, we come up with some little twist on the song that makes it work on stage.  Finally, we’ve hit our stride with Better Thoughts.  We play the tune pretty much as we recorded it up through the last chorus and then we inserted a whole long section where it’s just me and the guitar singing over and over “Better Thoughts Will Keep You Happy and Alive”.  It come out of a really loud section of the tune and then breaks down to me in the quietest part of my voice, with just a little bit of guitar in the back (ooh dynamics).  Gradually the volume and intensity of the singing and guitar starts to gather.  It was awkward and uncomfortable and really revealing and vulnerable and kinda terrifying for me, but it’s also cathartic and powerful.  The melody is kinda creepy, but is easy enough for people to start singing along and by the end we had pretty much the whole room singing.  My instructions to the band were “wait til it gets really, really uncomfortable and then wait some more before you come back in.”  By the end of that section I was singing as loud as I could and beating on the guitar like it owed me money.  It seemed like it went on forever before Arthur brought the band back in (the drummer is always the QB).  The energy during that section could make you bug out--that’s the idea at least.  It was frenetic like a swarm of bees gathering around your head ready to pounce. I hope you’re not allergic to bees.  When the band kicked back in, it was like the hammer came down.  Dylan Brock of Dylanbrockmusic.com said, “that right there is confidence.”  We’re coming up on Dia De Los Muertos, something kinda dark and creepy came unhinged in me in those few moments.  Hard to explain.  It felt right.  

Thank you for a great night ULUV.

RIP Lou Reed.   

enjoy some better thoughts

AG's HSBG gig

I played drums yesterday at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate park. I was backing up one of the finest songwriters I've ever known, Jesse Denatale. How this guy has essentially remained under the radar screen for as long as he has, is a complete mystery to me. I'm honored to be his drummer.  I love his songs so much that I would gladly give up what I'm doing (yup, Felsen) if he could somehow keep me busy enough to satiate my ever-hungry musical Jones.  How's that for love? Drumming is this whole other thing I do separate from my Felsen singer/instigator/guitar holder identity. This is how I pay my bills and try to keep my little family afloat. It's not easy.  It's also something that I love very much, has brought me many beautiful friends and has taken me on an incredible journey all over the world.  I'm very grateful for the very, very meager skills I have:  playing in time, playing dynamically and making the singer sound good. Showing up on time and doing the homework also helps. My dad taught me those last two, non musical skills.

Yesterday was one of those rare, beautiful, warm Indian Summer days in SF. Spending time in GG park can be a risky venture if you don't like frigid, bone-breaking winds.  Yesterday couldn't be improved upon IMHO.  I've never actually been to the festival.  I'm essentially a loner.  I'm not much for big crowds.  I love seeing live music, but mainly when it's in a tiny club.  I do love to perform to big crowds, and yesterday was a treat, a gluttonous feast.  I never, ever take those type of gigs for granted and I'm very grateful to the universe for putting me on that stage.  To put it in perspective, I got home about ten days ago from 17 days on the road with Felsen.  We're a small indie rock band.  No record label support, no radio, no booking agency, total DIY hodge podge affair.  Our tours are fairly punk rock: mini van, couch surfing (or floor surfing), eating shitty truck stop food and playing for small audiences.  Generally it's a fun time, but it wears on you though.  The small audiences can mess with your head and to put it mildly, our heads are officially messed with.  That tour was a huge, Herculean effort.  Looking out on the sea of people yesterday at HSB, there were more people in that one audience than we performed for on our entire tour! One gig like that and Felsen could meet our yearly audience quota and take the rest of the year off, never leaving home and not jeopardizing our jobs, etc, etc...I felt bad for my Felsen bandmates that somehow I couldn't give them that type of gig to lift their spirits. Catholic guilt? I do know though, that had we been on that stage, we would have absolutely crushed it. Seriously, when you can crush a roomful of 20 people in say...Columbia, MO on a Wednesday night, playing to 4000 die hard music fans, with their musical ovens preheated with booze and weed on a beautiful, sunny day in Golden Gate Park would have been like shooting fish in a barrel.   

It was fun to play rock star for the afternoon. Jesse was on the big stage.  I assumed they would have put us on the dog and pony stage just after puppet theater because that's how my jaded, aging brain thinks. Again, my head is so messed with, that I was worried that there would be no one in the audience.  I usually assume that will be the case.  I remember even when I briefly played with CAKE in 2007, I worried that there wouldn't be much of a crowd at the shows. I told them that and they all thought I was nuts.  Xan, the guitar player, told me it took a few months for him to stop thinking that way after he joined the all ready successful band.   

They really do it right at HSB.  Fantastic sound, wonderful backstage area, great food and beer.  They make the artists feel really welcome and appreciated.  The musicians, in turn, dig a little deeper and return that kindness back with a deeper level of performance.  Music venue proprietors take note: that's how it works!  I'm not asking for a full catered meal at your little club in Reno on a Tuesday night, but some simple acts of kindness and hospitality can go a long way, thankyouverymuch. You get what you give and the good people at HSB got great returns on their investment in artist hospitality.  The natural environment in GG park is, in itself, awe inspiring and also helped bring out a whole other level of performance.   All the other acts I heard yesterday were really inspiring.  I felt honored to be on that stage.  Steve Earle sat on the side of the stage while we performed.  He shook my hand and told me nice job.  That's it, I can retire now knowing that my my musicality entered that guy's brain, even briefly.  Do you remember his album The Revolution Starts Now?  Remember when he stood up to the Bush administration?  Kids, that's what artists do.   HSB's founder, Warren Hellman would be proud of the type of artistry that Earle represents gracing the stage that he built.   It was a family reunion for us Bay Area musicians.  I've been here for 15 years.  I feel like I know everyone. Lots of old friends were backstage, working the festival and in the audience.  Some new ones too. Some present only in spirit. Thank you Warren, wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to take my kid to soccer practice.  I'm sure you understand.  

  

Home From Tour

We're home now from tour.

I was driving to the Felsen HQ in west oakland this morning.  I hadn't driven my car for about 2.5 weeks and I turned on the car stereo and in the CD player was a demo of our tune Rock and Roll's Not Dead that I recorded around Xmas of last year--just me and an acoustic guitar.  On January 1st of this year we had exactly one song written and a rather vague plan to record a new album and then do a national tour soon thereafter.  I sent out a batch of rather awful sounding demos to Art, Cris and Dylan around that time.   Most of the demos were just little song embryos, some were more completed, all needed a lot of TLC.  And then there was the fact that we had no label (got dropped a year earlier--shame on you, you know who you are) and no money, no studio, etc...just a plan and a bunch of demos.  Cris came forward and offered to record and mix the whole thing at his home in San Lorenzo.  Wow.  OK. We began to workshop the tunes.  We would rehearse a few songs, get it sounding good and then go to Cris's house and record basics. Repeat the process another 3-4 times until we had a whole album of songs.  I spent a lot of time with Dylan fine tuning the songwriting, chords, lyrics, etc...over lunch or coffee we had tons of great conversations about being bay area artists,  trying to keep our sanity & humanity while floating precariously on a cracker, keeping the art of rock and roll alive. The songs were shaping up and starting to tell a story.  There was an underlying theme now, a sense of purpose: Art wins, humanity prevails. All 4 of us were feeling it and deeply invested in the concept.  Rock and Roll's Not Dead. Around March Cris had to make a tough decision about his family and future and after 17 years of living in the US decided that it was time to move back home to Mexico to be with family and start a business.  He made a grand bargain with the family to honorably finish our record and do the big tour and then to move on.  Art and Trish got married in May.  This was basically the dead line: get all the basics for the album done before the wedding and then we'd finish up all the overdubs and Cris would mix for the rest of the month before leaving for Mexico.  Dylan and I made a bunch of visits to Cris's house in April and May to finish the album.  I spent a lot of late nights recording and re-recording vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion, vibraphone, gong, samples and sound effects.  Throughout the summer, Cris would commute a few times back from Mexico to the east bay.  We decided to launch an Indie Go Go campaign later in the summer to help cover the costs of PR, printing and tour expenses.  After Art got home from his honeymoon, he got out the big map on his desk at work and started to block out dates and a route.  Much negotiation began with our families and jobs and eventually the four of use were able to carefully carve out 17 days in our all ready hectic lives for a tour in early September.  Art worked really hard booking the tour, sending out over 1000 emails.  Seriously.  You ever booked a DIY tour for an unsigned indie rock band?  No fun.  Dude never complained though.  Meanwhile, I worked with 4 graphic designers who voluntarily formed a tag team to get the artwork for the CD together.  I also hunted down a PR firm to help promote the album, designed posters and Tshirts, got the Indie Go Go thing together and launched,  did interviews (called in a lot of favors from writers, podcasters etc), recorded a string section--again called in some big favors from all of those talented people and our pal Adam Rossi for hosting that incredible day of recording at his fancy SF studio.  The record was skillfully mastered by Ruairi O'Flaherty in LA.  Again, called in a big favor. A corporate gig fell into our laps and that payed for the mastering and the first PR payment.  We had the CDs printed and in hand around mid July. I put 225 CDs in the mail a week later.  Good reviews started to come in soon thereafter (and are still rolling in).  Around Aug 1st we completed the Indie Go Go campaign, raising a bunch of money to make the tour possible.  Cris arrived home a few days before the tour started for a few rehearsals and we left for tour on Friday Sept 6,  arriving safely home yesterday.  I think I can speak for everyone that we're all really tired, but satisfied in the fact that we truly gave it all we had to give.  Some gigs were amazing, some less than amazing.  The band always played at it's peak.   I know all of us are extremely grateful to the many people who gave to the Indie Go Go Fund, housed us on tour, fed us, came out to the shows, helped to promote the tour, shared our tweets and messages, forming a grass roots impromptu cyber street team, booked our band, helped with the artwork and technical stuff, played on the album, partied with us and drank the moonshine...the list is long. That was a 10 month effort for us.  Thank you America, Felsen loves you.

Updates #'s 10-11. September 2013 US Tour

Update #10.  (Wednesday)  We are currently blazing across North Dakota on yet another 10 hour drive, this time heading to Missoula, Montana.  Yesterday was another long drive day.  This tour has been pretty intense with a lot of hours in the van.  We're all feeling it now.  Four more shows to go and a lot more miles yet to drive. We woke up in a motel in Sioux Falls, SD and had a leisurely late check out, catching up on well needed rest.   We played at a really neat little venue last night in Aberdeen, SD.  This tour has been pretty intense with a lot of hours in the van.  We're all feeling it now.  We played last night at the Red Rooster Coffee House, a really neat little music venue in Aberdeen, SD.  It's also a book store with a great kitchen--some of the best, healthiest food we've had on tour.  The opening act was a US constitution quiz for any willing audience volunteers.  Books, music, great healthy food and civilized political discussion all in this small shop in Aberdeen, SD.  Go figure.  There was just a small crowd gathered in this little place on a tuesday night.  They were a bit on the reserved side, not like some of the more raucous crowds we've performed to on this tour.  Oh yeah, they don't serve alcohol at the Red Rooster, that explains it.  This was more of a listening audience.  One fan at a time we keep reminding ourselves.  We played really well and dynamically.  Always play the room and this room couldn't take a lot of volume.  Art did a great job of keeping the sound tucked in.  I attempted Shenanigans, we sold merch and quickly packed up and drove into the night, arriving at our motel in Hettinger, ND four hours later.   There was the most intense heat lightning bursting out orange-blue-white bolts of light over the plains last night.    The storm seemed to last for hours, all the while we were listening to Johnny Cash.  It was kinda spooky and apocalyptic.  Nostradamus would have been weirded out.  It's lonely and desolate out here in the Dakotas, but beautiful in it's own way.  I miss home.  I miss my family.  Pushing forward towards Missoula, 565 miles left!

Update #11.  Watching TV now at a motel in Bellingham, WA.  Today is the last day of the tour.  Tomorrow is a drive day home to Oakland/SF.  It kinda feels like the last day of summer camp.  Kinda sad, kinda happy.  We've had an incredible experience, met so many great people and thoroughly enjoyed making music and spreading our left wing Bay Area musical agenda.  

So...to get you up to speed.  Wednesday was a long 10 hour drive to Missoula, MT.  We kinda hit a low on the drive.  Everyone was really pretty bummed out and tired and feeling really trapped inside the van.  We had a stop in Billings for lunch.  The proprietor made us feel like stars when she asked us to autograph the menus.  We'll be right up there next to Carrot Top.  Montana is a big state, really beautiful, but really big and Missoula is pretty far on the western side.  That's a lot of Montana to travel through.  Missoula has changed a lot since i was last there 20 years ago.  It's much more downtown Palo Alto than it was in 1991.  Much dumpier back then.  We played at a really beautiful, big, killer music venue, The Top Hat.  Great PA, lights, backstage, food, local beers....all the ingredients for a great show on a Wed night, except a big crowd.  Our pal Don Zimmer at Floating Records in Mill Valley, called ahead to the Top Hat and pre paid for a bunch of food and booze.  Don you are an angel.  The staff apologized numerous times for the lack of people and promised to have us back on a weekend with some local/national acts and put Felsen in front of a crowd.    The streets were pretty much empty that night. No one was out and about.  One fan at a time.  We spent the night at Stu's house (Art's old friend).  Thank you Stu of the Stu Jackson School of Music.  Thurs was a 6 hour drive to Leavenworth, WA.  The drive was amazing.  Art and I have been doing this Felsen touring thing for 2.5 years now and we both felt that was the most beautiful drive we've done.  Leavenworth is a mountain town, fully decked out in faux Bavarian Alpine kitsch, but oddly endearing.  Love it there.  We played at the outdoor beer garden, Der Hinterhof.  Small but really, fun, young and drunken audience.  It felt really good after the bummer in Missoula.  We needed that one.  AND we really needed the late night of drinking and dancing post gig shenanigans that some of our new fans rewarded us with.  I never go out dancing.  Why?  Totally fun.  Thank you Leavenworth.  We had a lot of band funk mid-tour malaise mind fuck that needed to be worked out.   Friday was a three hour drive to Bellingham, WA for a show at Tubb's Whiskey Bar.  It was kinda a divey, vibey college bar.  Really good crowd.  This was the first show all week where there were other bands on the bill.  Nice to hear some other musicians doing their thing.  There was a singer songwriter girl who started the show out.  She brought pretty much her entire extended family and all of her girlfriends, etc..  The room was pretty much at capacity.  And then as soon as she finished her set, they all left.  Nice.  No shout out to the other bands.  Bad form kid.  "Hey everyone please stick around to hear the other bands".  Trust me Ashley, if you're ever on the road, you will learn this etiquette.  Oh and she borrowed my amp and cable.  Nice.  Her hot mom held up the lyrics to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".  You gotta learn those lyrics  AND PLAY THE DIMINISHED CHORD.  C'mon kid.  Those chords and words are SACRED.  They can't be improved upon--trust me on this one.  She probably knows it via Jeff Buckley or maybe Rufus Wainright's beautiful version in the cartoon Shrek.  We love Jeff Buckley, deeply.  Dude personally changed my musical DNA.  We were just listening to his Live at the Cabaret Metro and it was a deeply, personal moment for all of us traveling somewhere across the Dakotas.   All of us loudmouths in the van just listened and were reminded why were out there, thousands of miles from our homes and families, jeopardizing our jobs, sacrificing much to help keep the art form alive, and possibly push it forward a little bit in our own way too.  After her set, she promptly split, taking her posse with her, blowing off both the bands after her and then magically arriving back just when it was pay time at the end of the night.  Bad form kid.  You're gonna need those dudes in the other bands to sit politely through your set, when you're thousands of miles from home and your family and friends aren't there anymore.  Oh well, I'm sure I did way worse when i was just getting going though.    Felsen did our thing.  We had to get all up in people's grills to work it out.  I'm a button pusher, we had to work really hard to win them over.  They were all new to us, no family and friends there to support us.  It took some major shenanigans (and all those rehearsals at our late night hurt locker in West Oakland) to gather the crowd.  I reminded them to come to the band.  We had a herd of people right in front of us.  People were pumped.  I got on top of the pool table at one point (bad form kid).  That was about as punk rock as Felsen gets.  Total punk rock show in fact.  There was no stage,  We were on the floor with the crowd huddled around us, lots of fists pumping.  There was a very high tattoo ratio in there.  One drunk got so moved by the rock that he crashed into Dylans mic, knocked it over.  Classic punk rock.  They screamed for encore.  We declined because it was time to get the other band on stage (good form kid).   We stayed through their set, drank with the boss and booker (True Believers! Thank you gents).  And had a great time dancing and getting into the other band.  Their drummer broke one of his two drunk sticks, Art gave him a new set of sticks (good form kid).  The booker declined his pay for the night to give to us--clearly he knows what it means to be a touring musician.  Fun night.  We got pulled over on the way back to the hotel.  34 in a 25 zone.  I was behind the wheel.  I immediately kicked back into very respectful Yes Sirs just like they taught me at Culver Military Academy when i was a kid.  Turns out the cop (who was about 25) is a guitar player, owns a Les Paul and is currently redesigning his pedal board.  We had a lot in common.  He let us off with a warning.  I think he just friended us on FB too.  Thank god he didn't look in that van.  Jesus we got lucky.  Go figure.  Onwards to Cottage Grove, OR

Update from the Road # 9 September 2013 US Tour

Update #9.  Today is a long 10 hour drive day.   We've played our eastern most show and are now on the long trek back west, barreling across Minnesota tonight heading for a hotel in Sioux Falls, SD.  We played in Chicago on Saturday. It was a return engagement at Goose Island, where we performed on our summer 2012 tour.  Not one of my fav gigs on the tour, sadly, as we all really love Chicago.  It's kind of a neat bar, but the sound was really, really distractingly bad for us.  They herd bands in and out pretty quick with 4 bands playing 40 minute slots.  Bad sound, not much time to get into our mojo, some technical equipment malfunctions and we were really feeling the tiredness at that point.  My voice was kinda shot at times.  Shit happens. We played through pretty uneventfully,  sold our merch, said good night to the handful of friends and family, packed up and headed down to Valparaiso, Indiana, vowing to upgrade venues for the next Chicago gig, whenever that may be.  

We stayed at our good friend Amy's farm in Valparaiso.  This is my hometown and I've known Amy since junior high.  It's hard to describe how beautiful it is there and how peaceful, quiet and relaxing this was for us.  We slept, ate really well and most importantly, did our laundry.  (You can only use so much fabreeze.)  We played a house concert in Valparaiso to about 50 people.  This was, for me, the funnest gig of the tour so far.  There were lots of old friends there, some of whom I've known since I was in grade school.  The hosts of the party, Cathy and Mike are professional-grade party givers and total true believers in rock and roll.  They've converted their basement into a really cool small performance space, complete with a stage, lighting and PA system.  How cool is that?   We played two sets in the afternoon and early evening.  We eased in during the first set.  I played Mike's beautiful Gibson acoustic guitar.  We played a few tunes we haven't played much on tour:  Temporary Diamond, Secret Life of Guns, Water Fit For Babies.  People were with us from the very first note.  Alcohol was flowing.  The energy, volume and vibe of the music was starting to pick up.  It was Mexican Independence Day, and seeing as Felsen is 25% Mexican and 75% Californian, we had much to celebrate.   The second set was really incredible. More people arrived and more alcohol consumed.  We focused on a bunch of tunes from the new album:  Rock and Roll's Not Dead, All You Gotta Do is Smile, I Don't Know How to Talk Anymore, Gimme Shelter for the Devil, Tokyo Electric Power.  The crowd was pressed right up on top of us.  There were a bunch of teenage kids there really getting into the Felsen spirit for the first time and that felt really great knowing that our music wasn't totally irrelevant to them.  There was even a 75 y.o grandma who also got bit by the Felsen bug. I made a toast to the Valparaiso slum lord who, on Christmas Eve, evicted my father, mother and their 6 kids.  Nice guy! I felt I vindicated my family.  Revenge of the Nerds:  Art wins, humanity prevails.   The stage was surrounded by Mike and Cathy's record collection.  At one point while Dylan was bending both time and space during one of his, epic, spiritually transformative guitar solos, I noticed all the records and realized we'd been invited into their music sanctuary.  I saw a copy of The Concert For Bangladesh and that brought back a flood of memories of living in an apartment at 1419 Laporte Ave in Valparaiso when i was 20 and hearing that album for the first time: Ravi Shankar, Dylan, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Ringo and George.  We ended the concert as we've been doing often on this tour, with an acoustic version of Take Me Back.  We went out into the audience and asked the crowd to huddle up around us.  You could have heard a pin drop.  All that energy in the whole room focused just on that one thing for 4 minutes was really, powerful, spiritual and deep.   

We played Waterfall yesterday.  Singing the lyric "I Come from the country, went to city, seeking refuge" felt especially confessional yesterday, singing it to all these people I grew up with in a little Indiana country town where my father was the town doctor. 

Updates from the Road #'s 6-8 September 2013 US Tour

Update #6.  We kinda hit the wall yesterday from exhaustion in Sioux City, IA.  This was our second time performing at the Chesterfield.  We played there on our summer 2012 tour.  Really great venue.  Pro sound, lights the whole shabang.  The gig was sparsely attended.  We gave it all we had and reminded ourselves it's one fan at a time.  We had one hardcore fan who drove a couple of hours from Omaha to see us for the first time.  How cool is that?  22 year old college kid:  proof positive that felsen's music isn't entirely for the moms and dads of America.  Don't get me wrong, I love the mom and dads, seriously I do and i'm extremely grateful, but y'all are hard to get out to a gig on a weeknight.  It would make these Tues night gigs a little easier say if we had a few more friendlies in the room.  One thing that I love about Felsen is that for the most part the low attendance gigs don't flap our feathers.  I think we leave the stage generally feeling like we delivered.  We held up our end of the bargain.  And that's real satisfying.  For the handful of music nerds there last night, they got a great show.  Oddly we sold a gang of merch for such small numbers.  (I'm a former used car salesman.) I keep pestering our audiences and reminding them that are all potential noble patrons of the arts helping us keep this thing alive a little longer.  Saving rock and roll is serious business--some fool's got to try and do it and I'm your sacrificial lamb.  In the immortal words of Geroge W. Bush "You're either with us or against us!"  America, form a line at the merch table, Arthur is hungry for Huevos Rancheros and we've got a long way to drive.  

Update #7.  Last night's show in Columbia, MO was an epic showdown at the OK Computer corral.  Felsen prevailed.  We played at the Bridge, a really, beautiful and unique venue in the downtown area. The Bridge is a music school offering private lessons and they also have a totally pro small music venue/performance space.  Wes and Kara, the proprietors, are rock and roll true believers, obviously.  They're educating the kids in their community, helping keep rock and roll alive a little longer.  Our backstage area was right next to a practice room where a 10 year old rocker was fine tuning the drum parts to Roxanne and Come Together.  A place like this keeps a bunch of local musicians employed , allowing them in turn to hone their art and make a decent wage.  Dylan, Art and I are all music instructors; we felt a personal kinship to Wes and Kara. We'd probably be employees if we lived in Columbia.  We thanked them from the stage for serving their community, educating the kids, and offering employment to local musicians.  Keep it weird. Keep it local.  Stick it to the man. 

There was a great band that went on right before us, Mathien.  Also on a 17 day tour, hailing from Chicago.   It was nice to cross paths with another of our ilk.  They were kinda pop R&B-ish, Maroon 5/Bruno Mars meets Cameo.   Really dialed in, great players and put on a real polished, tight show. Gotta admit, we were a little intimidated back stage, not sure how to follow them.   Felsen has been through a lot in the past week alone, not to mention the previous 4 years.  We're always up for a challenge. Right now we're playing at our peak and putting out a ton of energy with each show.  The gigs are becoming like athletic events.  Really physical.  The tunes are becoming really powerful and deep.  There was a decent small crowd there last night who obliged us and came right to the foot of the stage and stayed there til the end.  They sang along with the chorus of Gunfighting, which was really powerful and cathartic. 

We stayed well past last call, hanging out with the staff and the other band.  The owners bought us many rounds of drinks.  Shenanigans ensued. Kara told me, we're her new favorite band.  HIgh praise.  Swoon. We took a whole crew of people out to the van at load out time and finished off our signature low grade corn liquor in the alley behind the club.  We're not good people. Felsen's gonna save you some moonshine. Time to restock. 

Update #8.  "I hate you, daddy hates you, and the horsies hate you."  The joys of balancing home life and touring.  Oh look we got a bounced check.  My student loan is late and i forgot to pay my studio rent.  And the horsies hate Cristian's wife.  My kid got hit in the face with the soccer ball 2X yesterday. "Mommy i want sushi."  That's my boy. Nothing makes a 6 year old bay area kid feel better about getting hit in the face than some really good Unagi.   He's a smart little guy.  He came up with a term to describe what daddy does on stage:  Irritain.  (one part irritate, one part entertain.)  Yup, that's me in a nutshell.  He knows me best and I miss him so much right now.  

We played last night in St. Paul, MN.  Fun gig.  This was the 2nd time we've played at Wild Tymes.  We were joined by a few local Twin City bands:  The Jeffries, Shakin Babies and Trainwreck. Nice gig.  Good crowd.  Sold a goodly bit of merch. The show was presented by DEMO which is an organization started by Steve Mclellan, a local MNPLS booker/promoter type.  Clearly a true believer.  According to his calculations, he has presented over 9000 bands in the Twin Cities over the past 30 years.  Wow.  What an institution!  He loves Felsen.  Knowing this, we felt a special obligation to throw down.  I gave a special shout out to some of the greats from MNPLS: The Replacements, Husker Du, Trip Shakespeare, Mint Condition, Prince, The Time, The Jayhawks...I guess these are all bands that we (a bunch of ancient rock and roll dinosaurs) grew up with.  Not sure if the kids in the audience knew any of these bands. There were some blank stares.  One Indie/Punk rock girl, flipped me off while i was giving my shout out. Indie?  Do you not know the Replacements?  Shame on you!  They're from your home town and they CHANGED MY LIFE!  According to Steve (the promoter), times are tough in the MNPLS music scene.  He's having a harder and harder time getting people out to the gigs, which makes me sad.  I guess I have this fantasy of what it must have been like to live in a city where there were soooo many amazing bands.   In my head, it's like rock and roll mecca.  Or it was.  Things change.  Still makes me sad though.  One of my old bandmates, a native Minnesotan, was there last night.  Haven't hung out with him since Copenhagen in 2005.  He introduced me to Trip Shakespeare a long, long time ago.  We became like the cult of Trip Shakespeare way back.  I saw them a bunch of times in Chicago back in the day.  Looking out at my old pal last night, thinking about Trip Shakespeare, i realized that about 75% of my playbook came from those guys--at least the onstage, crowd interaction irritainment.  Do your homework kids. Gotta get in to get out.   Onwards to Chicago, Muddy Waters adopted hometown.  

.  

updates from the road #'s 1-5. September 2013 US Tour.

update 1. friday afternoon picked up and packed rental van for the first time--always stressful.  Why is your back pack so huge? What do you got in there?  Extra shoes? dude you're the Imelda Marcos of indie rock.  we decided to just stuff it all in the van, crammed like 4 giant sardines driving frantically across California I 80 to  Gardenrville, NV (reno/tahoe area).  arrived at venue 30 mins late, informed that there was no opening band, people were sitting there waiting for us.  loaded in, sound checked in front of the audience.  kitchen was closed, played 2 set gig on very empty stomaches.  A Lovely fan brought us 2 dozen homemade cupcakes (god bless our fans--you know who you are).  top notch sound man took mercy on us and bought us a pizza for the set break.  small, but very appreciative audience.  every single person bought merch.   one dude paid in nickels and dimes.  band bank account officially no longer overdrawn--thank you!  we ended the gig busking in the audience--with the whole crowd gathered around us in front of the stage.  Dylan on banjo, AG armed with the thankfully not jettisoned acoustic guitar, Art and Cris shaking various tambourines etc..packed the van after the gig with amazing focused team effort, utilizing every nook and cranny.  proud of ourselves that we worked it out like adults.  ate more cupcakes, drank moonshine.  drove 90 minutes to motel.  2.15 am woke up very sleepy disoriented motel clerk.  stuffed 4 guys and 6 guitars into one room for 5 hours sleep.  breakfast and then drove until stopping for class C fireworks and iced lattes and now currently driving through Nevada moonscape eating beef jerky, listening to air supply, bad brains, bob mould, neutral milk hotel, the Kinks and the hobbit soundtrack. mentally preparing for our assault on salt lake city.  

Update 2.  really fun gig last night in SLC at Burt's Tiki Lounge.  (Touring bands take note: killer rock and roll venue.)  We were 3rd of 4 bands.  all the other bands were really great and totally original: Andy Lynner, Swinging Lights and The Watches--all local SLC bands.  What a pleasure.  The crowd obliged us and came forward when asked, sang along and then bought a bunch of merch.  So far merch sales have been really good, thank god.  Everybody seems to really dig the bastardized Pan Am logo Tshirt. We stayed with old friends of the band.  Much liquor was consumed in the kitchen of our very lovely hostess unto the wee hours of the morning.  AG slept in an old airstream trailer in the driveway, rain shower drumming on the trailer's roof. woke up early sunday.  Cristian travels with his own French press, coffee grinder and beans.  so good.  drove about 9 hours to Denver.  Really amazing drive across Utah, Wyoming and Colorado passing through tremendous thunder and lightning.  Looking forward to the show tonight at Quixote's True Blue for lots of old friends and some newly minted Felsen fans. 

Update 3.  Greeting's from the van, driving across the vast open fields of Kansas. We just saw our buddy Wheat Jesus again on a truck stop billboard.   We've seen him now 2 years in a row. What would wheat jesus do?   Thinking now about the fun gig last night at Quixote's True Blue--the official home of Denver's Grateful Dead Hippie Jam Band Scene. Not being much of a jam band, we didn't know what to expect from this one.  It was a really cool venue though with great sound, nice staff.  There were two stages.  Felsen on the smaller of the two, Shakedown Street, a Grateful Dead cover band, on the other, larger stage.  The powers that be gave us about 2 hours for our set.  We've got so much material now that it's a bummer to only get the usual 40-45 minutes typically allotted.   We eased into the first set, not too raucous at first, saving the louder more dramatic stuff for later in the evening.  Some old friends were in the audience, always nice to have a few friendlies there for support.  More people started to wander in during the set.  volume and intensity creeping upwards.  Art's wife flew out from SF and brought in a posse of friends.  people were now on their feet, fists were pumping.  AG climbing from the stage on top of the bar bringing rock and roll to the people.  In the second set we played with a lot of intensity and volume. people seemed to want it.  locals were hanging out and getting into the felsen spirit.  Rock and Roll's not Dead, All You Gotta do is Smile, I Don't Know how to Talk Anymore, Gimme Shelter for the Devil, Tokyo Electric Power, BFF OMG.  People were really into it and amped up!  We finished with the slam dunk of  Don't Turn Your Back on Me Today.  People were screaming for an encore for about 3 minutes.  The powers that be shut us down right on schedule, just in time to get another hippie jam band to take the stage to play covers of Joe Cocker, James Taylor and Phish. We sold a bunch of the new shirts and  CDs--thank you noble patrons of the arts for helping keep the good ship rock afloat to sail another day.  Much sleep was had by the band (thank you Lorazepam), a great breakfast at our fav Denver breakfast spot, Snooze. Making a plan for a return to the mountains next spring for an extended tour in Colorado.  Now driving frantically to get to Wichita.  We'll probably arrive around 9.30 to make our 10.30 set time at Kirby's Beer Store--great tiny venue we played last summer.  You like Mickey's Big Mouth Beer?   Wheat Jesus is watching over us.  So is Vishnu.  

Update #4.  Our van has just been thoroughly Fabreezed.  "What did you do with YOUR life?"    "I invented Fabreeze."  "Table for two?  OK, that'll be a 45 minute wait. Oh, what, you invented Fabreeze?  Well right this way sir."  We're all starting to really feel it now.  We've been drinking too much every night and not sleeping enough. We've slept on the floor a few times each now.  it's catching up.  Being a west coast touring band is tough as everything is so spread out.  It's a totally different game for Northeast bands where everything is so close.  So far getting east has been 8-9 hour drives per day and then you play your set and THEN you want to, or feel you need to, or deserve to drink to just blow off some steam.  I love my bandmates, seriously I do, but I'm a loner primarily and this van is starting to become a cage.  Careful what you wish for kids.  Keep practicing your instruments and showing up on Saturday mornings for your weekly drum lesson and you too will someday get to drive around crammed into a rented minivan with 3 other dudes soaking in Fabreeze. Many are called, most are smart enough to quickly hang up on that desperate late night prank caller.  I took the phone call (remember this was before caller ID).  I drank the Kool Aid. I got hooked and now i'm in the van and I just sprayed Fabreeze in my shoes and I'm contemplating spraying some in my mouth.   Anyhoo... wichita. yeah that was...well a monday night in wichita.  we played the smallest venue in the history of smallest venues to an audience of maybe 8 people.  Highlights:  well I'm stretching here but...ahh... I stood on the bar (right next to the ceiling air conditioning vent)?  We played 2 shorter sets and actually sounded really good.  (Monday night is rehearsal night anyway right?) The owner was there and watched every note, tipped heavily and bought lots of merch.  He's a true believer.  He kept telling us about all the great up and coming bands that played at Kirbys over the years:  Superchunk and Yo La Tengo to name just a few. I think he was trying to console us for the lack of audience and let us know that we're right there with those bands.  There's only one BIG difference: there's a lot fewer crumbs to fight over now in the indie rock biz than there were in the 90's when those now legendary bands were up and comers.  Oh well it was fun and crazy and we got to drink from Mickey's Big Mouth.  Onwards and upwards to Fayetteville Arkansas.  I've never been to Arkansas; for me it's a pilgrimage to Levon Helm's home state. Pilgrims crawl on their knees in Mexico to venerate the saints and the Virgin of Guadalupe.  God bless you Levon, today I'm crawling on my knees.  Rock and Roll's not dead. Thank you Fabreeze. That is all.  

Update #5.  Obviously I've got a lot of time on my hands driving around in the van.  There's been a lot of really long drives on this tour so far.  Yesterday was the first day in about 4 days when we had enough time to eat a second meal.  Yeah, you read that right.  Not three meals, a bunch of these days have been just one meal.  There's no time.  We snack.  I just haven't been eating much in general and not sleeping much either and drinking too much.  Not today.  We need to start behaving so we can make it through this marathon.  

Yesterday was a pretty fun day in Fayetteville, AR.  It's a really neat town.  We played an instore performance at Sound Warehouse. Well, actually an outstore performance as we played on the sidewalk in front of the shop.  When we first walked into the store they were playing our CD.  That felt cool.  All You Gotta Do is Smile.  Sound Warehouse is a really cool store.  You really feel the deep love these guys have for rock and roll music.  God bless them.  Us true believers stick together.  We can sense each other.  We're like the last of the dinosaurs still holding on after the big meteor hit.  It was really fun playing on the street.  The boss's 9 year old daughter was standing right up front for the whole show and she's now our newest, biggest #1 fan in all of Arkansas.  We're starting to take ownership of some of the new tunes:  Tokyo Electric Power, Gunfighting at Dawn and Lorazepam are sounding really good.  We're past the stage where you're thinking about the notes, the chords, the lyrics and just riding the wave where it takes you.  All three of those tunes I've had some real doubts about.  Not sure if they were in fact good live tunes, but they're proving themselves as really solid and compelling live.  Gunfighting can get really deep and angry.  It's about Katrina and the great flood and all those people stranded on the bridge. Shame on us for failing those people. I'm still pissed and it's an easy one to play aggressively. There's a real easy sing along part of the chorus that can get kinda cathartic for people. It's an outlet.  I'd like to think it feels good for the audience to sing that.  Maybe they're still pissed too.  We've really hit our stride musically.  i love that about being on tour.  Obviously playing as much as we have in the past week, but also the collective hangout time has a unifying effect on a band.  Ideally.  You gotta just keep it cool, get along, look out for each other but give each other space, have fun, get stupid but not too stupid and get safely from point A to point B. (That's also good advice for newly weds.)

After the afternoon show, we had time for dinner, checked into our hotel and chilled out a bit.  The tired factor is really starting to kick in.  We played last night at a big club in Fayetteville on a tues night.  Out of town band, first time in town, with no local bands as support. What's up with that you talent buyers? 3x so far on this tour--Do your jobs!!!.  The attendance was pretty grim.  We self medicated pretty heavily on the set break.  Southern hospitality!  The second set was really fun though.  We successfully straddled that fine line between really loose and really tight.  That's rock and roll in a nutshell kids. Mick and Keith, Paul Westerberg and the ghost of Jay Bennet would be proud.  They'd tell us we need a better booking agent though.  We put the handful of people in the audience on the stage with us for about the last 30 minutes of the show.  It felt really great having that extra energy right there with us.  We rocked really hard. It was special.  Playing Ghost of the American Experience in the deep south (tune about Oscar Grant) was pretty interesting.   Onwards to Sioux City.  We'll be driving through Arkansas, Missiouri, Kansas and Iowa.