OffBeat Review!!!

(this is what comes up if you google image "les poissons rouges." i don't really know what to make of that...)

Check out the review of our album, "Nashvegas," from OffBeat magazine! Just click on the title of the post...

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In other news, we are planning on recording this summer, hopefully at a rural site in AL, close to some water that provides swimming and fishing. We've got tons of new material, and I can't wait to actually put it down to give to people.

And in other other news, Jeremy (drummer, piano player, birder, magician, lover) had a birthday this past weekend, that was spent in Baton Rouge with multiple friends (including myself) and our friend Khari Lee's band Gov't Magik tearing it up at Chelsea's. In honor of that, I will post my favorite picture of Jon and Jeremy...

Mustaches galore, Pt.1

As promised, here are the 1st set of pics from the mustache party, with the normal cast facial-hairing it up. I want to show it all, so this will have to come in installments...

Blair, with the subtle yet effective 'stash:



Jose (who put most of this party together; superb job fellow--it was mantastic), always swarthy looking:




Bridget, looking quite stylish even with the mustache:




Samuri, with a nasty crustache:




Josh, with a nastier crustache (this stash, besides my own, is the one that creeped me out the most...theres just something
about the way its a little too dark...ugh):

Mustaches Galore, Pt. 2

Lee, sporting a fantastic mustache, and looking quite comfortable with it too:




And it happened to be Lee's birthday! (Thats right, thats a hamburger-dog with a candle in it. He just ate the whole thing...):



Caroline, also creeping us all out with her Jerry-stash (how angry does she look in this pic? "Get away from my beer..."):




Misty, who did have a mustache on for most of the party, but who apparently traded it for a tiny dog:




Galleros, who should be working as a short order cook somewhere in Chicago:

Mustaches Galore, Pt. 3 (the LPR installment)

And this will be our new press photo...




Jon, who won the award for "most plausible mustache if I lived in the 70s" (also won the "it only takes a mustache to make me look Mexican" award):



Jeremy, who left his striped full body bathing suit, barbells, and one tall wheel bike at home. Hup hup!:



And me, seriously grossing everyone out (including myself). I really miss my beard...



Again, I really miss my beard.

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Thanks to all who came out to the past shows...here's a little pre-shave picture from Zydeco's:

Shows--and mustaches!!!

We've got a few shows coming up this week/weekend that I just know you want to check out.

May 23rd (Wednesday)
Kerry's Irish Pub--331 Decatur St. (in the Quarter), NOLA
-As always, this is the best oportunity to catch LPR at their most relaxed. And the best opportunity to hear odd covers. And to have a good time on a Wednesday night.

May 25th (Friday)
Zydecue's--on Iberville a 1/2 block off of BOURBON ST. (thats pretty hilarious to me)
-How can you pass up LPR on Bourbon? If anything, the opportunities for good pics should abound. And theres never any reason to pass up drinking with tourists.

May 28th (Monday, Memorial Day)
Dragon's Den, NOLA
-This is going to be a great show, mainly because the Dragon's Den is a great venue, and because of our amazing showmanship. Also, we will be memorializing things through song in order for the crowd to have wonderful memories of the event. Uh-huh.

Come on out!!!

Also, this Saturday will witness the 5th (!) annual mustache party, to be held on top of a building in the CBD, with pool and other fun things. Honestly, theres not much more that you need besides a pool and mustaches. Pics of the party to come. Just let me know if you want to attend...

Just try to tell me you wouldn't want to see Jon sporting one of these...


Or something like this...


And i shit you not, I could see myself looking like this in a few years...


(Seriously, go check out the World Beard Championships website--click on the title up top. It is ridiculous.)

May 12th--Auburn @ Roosters!

We will be playing at our favorite Auburn stomping ground, Roosters, on Saturday, May 12th, show starting around 10pm. Joining us in the fun will be our good friends Hotel Palatine from Birmingham! Those guys really know how to expand the mind through rock. If you're in the Auburn area, come on out!

Hotel Palatine:


And just for fun, Jon and I looking mysteriously like Becker and Fagan from The Dan:



Weird huh?

Jazz Fest--Redux

Its been a long 5 days now, so I can say I've definitely had time to process my Jazz Fest experience from this past Sunday. Hot, breezy, chock full o' people, mangotastic, music filled--overall a great time. Let me give you the rundown:

HOT!

It was really hot. With lots of people around you. All the time. Hot enough to where I didn't really even feel like drinking. A four dollar Miller Lite (does anyone else feel like that is the worst domestic beer of all time? Above and beyond anything else I feel like it has the worst taste...Busch kills it) just does not seem worth it when you can buy a $2.50 bottle of water and hopefully rehydrate. I'm pretty sure I drank four that day, and they all were hot within 5 min of purchase, bu worth it. I know, I know--I live in New Orleans, this climate is the one I chose, I should be used to it by now, blahbidy, blah--but regardless of your conditioning, when its hot, its hot, annd it was on Sunday. Thankfully it was occasionally...

BREEZY!

There was a really nice breeze happening, especially later in the day. I know this doesn't sound like the most interesting thing to talk about (its not, that comes later), but when its that hot, and you're surrounded by thousands of people, and The Dan is playing, a nice cooling breeze really makes the day seem perfect.

CHOCK FULL O' PEOPLE

There were TONS of people at the Fest on Sunday. I've been a few times over the years, but I've never seen the Fairgrounds this packed. Maybe it was the day, maybe it was me, but apparently they matched the record from 2004 of 375,000 people overall.

MANGOTASTIC!

A lot of times you hear that at Jazz Fest the music is good, but the food is great. There are many, many food vendors there, and plenty of interesting items that people rave about all year (see: crawfish bread, crawfish puff pastry, crawfish monica, crawfish boat((!)), crawfish poboys, many other crawfish variations, fried chicken, fried catfish, other poboys, jambalaya, etc.), but I'm just not that into it. I do live in this city and can get those things most of the time at restaurants for a cheaper price, so I'm probably biased, but even so, I also just don't think the food is that good. BUT...there is something there called a mango freeze that is perfect for the Festival day: mango, sugar, ice--its like sorbet but sweeter. I had one. I could of had five.

(On a side note: At Jazz Fest, those foods that I mentioned, as many of you already know, are only in ONE SPOT AT THE FAIRGROUNDS. The Fairgrounds are pretty big, and its hard to see the signs that show what each vendor is selling, and the food is only in two specific areas, so basically, if you see someone walk by with something that looks delicious to you, the best thing to do is to ask them where they got it. This happened to me about 5 times with the mango freeze.)

All of this is of course a side note when compared to...

MUSIC FILLED!



I saw Steely Dan. Live. Performing songs that I've been singing along to or playing along to or live for the past ten years. "Peg", "Bodhisattva", "Josie", "Monkey On Your Soul" (with Becker singing!), "Bad Sneakers", "Hey Nineteen". It was really hard to not smile while watching that band with my good friends around me (we've all been listening to the Dan together for years), and it was just an amazing experience. One of my best moments of the day. The other was watching my good friend Khari Lee play earlier in the day on a stage at Jazz Fest with the Louis Armstrong Quintet, and realizing how captivating he is to an audience. Its nice to have him down here, and wonderful to see him take the New Orleans jazz scene by storm.


It was just a great day, capped off with beers, food, air conditioning, and people watching at a friends house thats right next to the Fairgrounds. Even with all the boohoo-ing of the Fest, I really did have a good time--I think I just needed a really good draw, and the Dan did not let us down.

Standing in the Shadow of Greatness

This past weekend I happened to be in Lafayette, LA for the Festival International de Louisiane. It was a great time, kind of like the anti-Jazz Fest, mainly because:

a) It was free, yet there were five stages and many good acts to watch, AND this meant you could come and go as many times as you pleased, you're not just locked into the event.

b) At many free festivals, you HAVE to buy drinks there (its how they pay for the acts, I'm not against it but...). Here? Nah...they let you bring your own drinks if you want to! Amazing...

c) It was in the downtown of a city, which provides other things to do (bars, restaurants, etc.) at regular prices when the world music gets to be a little too much.

d) The drinks at the festival were actually pretty cheap.

e) Vendor food, Lafayette style: crawfish tamales, fried catfish, red beans, boudin, jambalaya, alligator/chicken/fried chicken/shrimp/anymeatreally on-a-stick, funnel cakes (which they called dutch cakes--anyone ever heard of that before?), crawfish boats (bread bowl filled with creamy crawfish spinach concoction), and many other things that I've never heard of.

f) Everyone was nice. Everyone.

g) There was shade (sort of).

h) And there was this...



THE WORLD'S LARGEST BOOT!!! How hilarious is that? This kind of kitchy crap is definitely not at the Fair Grounds.


If you can't tell already, it was a great weekend. Now I just have to shelve my complaints because Sunday, it is imperative I go to the Fest. Becker and Fagan wouldn't be able to perform without me.

Jazz Fest, etc.

So Jon is becoming a lap steel genius, and displayed his prowess last night at Kerry's Irish Pub. I was super blown away, especially with the way some of our songs sound with that instrument in a more laid-back situation. Now if only the gig wan't four hours long...

In other news, Jazz Fest starts today! And like the past few years, there are quite a few big name acts that cause an instant "why would they ('they' being the Jazz Fest selction committee) do that???" or "snoresleepahhhgg..." moment:


1) Rod Stewart
Age: 62

You're thinking "Rod Stewart? That guy who when he does something, he does it for you? Him?" And I say "Yeah, he'd cry for you, walk the wire for you, die for you...you know its true." And you say, "Yes! That makes perfect sense to have an aging used to be rock star be one of the headliners of the biggest music festival in New Orleans! Brilliant!" Also, is anybody else weirded out that this guy has looked exactly the same for the past 25-30 years? He's gotta be 65!!! Ahhhh!!!! (Not the biggest Rod fan here. Jeremy on the other hand...)

2) ZZ Top
Avg. Age: 57

Wow. Those beards just never get old do they? (I'm actually secretly trying to grow one...look for progress photos soon!) And the guitar spinning! Love the guitar spinning! But seriously folks, I love the songs "Cheap Sunglasses" and "Those Other ZZ Top Songs That Sound Really Similar" as much as the next guy, but when was the last time the Top was even remotely culturally relevant, at least enough to warrant headlining a stage at Jazz Fest? (The only reason I could really see them being invited to play is because of their stellar performance in the third installment of the classic "Back to the Future" trilogy. Wait--even back then that was seen as an out of touch choice for good music!)

3) Counting Crows
Avg. Age: 45

Where have these guys been? I think they were on one of the Shrek movies, and there was that Joni Mitchell cover song that was on the radio (I really hated the fact that wherever I heard that one, it would instantly stick in my head. Buying detergent at Target? "Paved paradise, put up a..."), but its been at least ten years since they were headliner material.

4) New Edition
Avg. Age: 40

So these guys are still around. Didn't they do their comeback "Behind the Music" special, like, 3 years ago? (Didn't it always bother you that the "Behind the Music" specials were almost always tied into that artists comeback album/performance? I mean really, I'm not going to buy the new Leif Garrett album). Now if it was Bel Biv Devoe...


5) Van Morrison
Age: 62

Yeah, he still makes pretty good music. I'd be a lot more excited to see him if he would wear the same super tight one piece jump suit he wore in "The Last Waltz" while singing 'Caravan'.


6) Steely Dan
Avg. Age: 57

No one should be surprised that we're super pumped for this one. Even if the picture for them on the Jazz Fest's official website is hilariously ugly.

7) John Mayer
Age: 29

Not a big fan of the music, but seriously (and I can not tell you how many times I've been made fun of for saying this...) check out his blog! Its really funny. He kind of bucks the age trend, but I would lump his music into a "safe enough for soccer mom and daugther to both enjoy" category.

8) Jerry Lee Lewis ("The Killer")
Age: 71

This guy is seriously rad on the piano. And he shoots people. And he marries 13 year old cousins. And has been crazy for the past 40 years. I just want to hear about what happens to him and the people around him while he's in town.

9) Ludacris
Age: 29

Trend bucker as well--pretty safe though. Another hilarious picture on the official JF website. Seriously, go check out the site (just click on the title of this installment...). Is his hair air-brushed on?


So, what do these headliners mean? To me, it means the Jazz Fest selection committee really wants a certain age group of fans at the Fairgrounds (with a few exceptions). Not my age group, or better said, not my music age group. I would hope that in the years to come the selection committee would follow the example of VooDoo Fest from the past few years, and get some current, "hip," bands that would cause some excitement among a different demographic. VooDoo pretty much sucked for its first 6 or 7 years (Snoop Dogg followed by Govt. Mule anyone?), but the past two have been great. I'm not saying thats all it should be, but at least throw a couple in there for the kids.

Blair

Go check out a review of Blair on one of our favorite music blogs, Aquarium Drunkard (the link is to the right, under favorites). Its short, but sweet. Also, Blair is opening for Calexico tonight, April 27th, at the Republic in New Orleans, starting around 9. Come on out if you can.

Savage Bees!!!

"More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives." --NYTimes, April 24th 2007

Um...does this scare anyone else as much as it scares me?

In all of the apocalyptic movies, something weird starts happening to or with the animals before something bad happens to the human race. I guess I also didn't really realize how important bees are to the agricultural economy of the world...what happens if there is no pollination? No plants, no fruit, no vegetables, no food--I'm seriously freaking myself out now.

Check out the 1976 made for TV movie "Savage Bees" for a simpler time, a time when bees were just man's mortal enemy. It takes place in New Orleans! (with some sweet vintage shots of 70s Mardi Gras and the brand new SuperDome!)

www.imdb.com/title/tt0075166/

Song Origin #1: "Oh, Alabama"

In the late summer of 2005, the lives of most people living along the Gulf Coast were interupted (some permenently) due to a little hurricane named Katrina. My life was uprooted from my comfortable uptown residence to my parent's house for a few weeks (not a good time--my mom even admitted I was being an asshole...I feel like a had some liscence due to the situation though, right?), and then to a large farmhouse 25 minutes outside of my hometown, in the country, surrounded by cows, catfish ponds, silos, barns, and 20 acres of land. I can't lie; when I first arrived, I was excited about the situation--who wouldn't want to live in a farmhouse with two friends that you already play music with? I was also trying to make the best of the situation--too much thinking about what was happening to the city that I (had) lived in caused extreme anxiety and depression (see: weeks of binge drinking/eating trying to supress fear of your life being over/ruined).

Don't have a job? No problem--farmhouse life has the answer for you! Lots of reading, playing music, playing golf, gardening, throwing horseshoes, talking for hours about what to do with your life, staring at cows, drinking coffee, eating whatever happens to be at the country grocery, smoking cigarettes, driving into town to do various things (internet, buy meat and alcohol (!), see my family, other things you can't do in an unincorporated community), more reading, drinking, more talking about life, mroe drinking, a little PS2, sleeping, firepit, hotpot, being harassed by our fundamentalist landlady, other more boring stuff.

Sounds pretty fun eh? Well...it was. Most of the time. But it was also extemely unreal. I wasn't working; I read about the destruction of my city everyday, yet I was doing nothing--I was in complete stasis, just observing everything. So unreal that it began to wear on me, enough that it started to creep into the songs that I was writing. Hence "Oh, Alabama."

The problem with this song is that I do, truly, like Alabama. I wouldn't even mind calling Alabama home. It was just that at that moment, living on a farmhouse in Notasulga, not being able to see my girlfriend, friends, bandmates, and fellow New Orleanians, and being in a drunken haze sometimes, really put some bad thoughts in my mind. One of them was, "Alabama ain't no home." And it wasn't for me, then. Maybe not ever. We'll see.

Check out our official site over there to the right for the song. More origins to come.

On a side note: We recently played a show in Tuscaloosa, AL (home of the University of Alabama). It was a good night, people dancing, band was on, etc. We start playing this song, and there are some people up front that just start getting into it, moving it, just plain dancing--the songs got a groove, I can understand that. I didn't even think about the lyrics of this song until the moment was on me, "Oh Alabama you ain't no home!" The little dance party just sort of stopped. Then I got a big F#&K YOU from one of the girls. I thought our tenure in Tuscaloosa was over. But then they started dancing again, and they just got a kick out of yelling at me every time I sang the chorus. Roll Tide!!!

33 1/3

I finished the book 33 1/3, which is about Neutral Milk Hotel and the album Aeroplane Over the Sea, recently (last Friday). It was pretty intense. Great read. Very informative about the band's beginnings, recordings, tidbits, what-they're-doing-now, etc. And I've listened to the album. Multiple times. So I understood what the author was talking about.

But then I listened to the album, the entire album, uninterrupted on a recent solo drive to a show in Lafayette. THAT was intense. I haven't let an album of music take over my head-space like that since, well, probably since I first started delving into Zeppelin and Steely Dan in high school, listening reverently in my car or at my house or someone else's with my friends. Its just always so amazing when a group of songs, friggin' music, can make you feel a certain way, can take over your being for a while. I had kind of forgotten about that feeling--its comforting when music can bring you back.

Anyone have a good album they've been listening to that they just can't seem to get out of there head? When was the last time you had this kind of experience with music? Comment on it...

French Quarter Fest! April 15th!

We will be playing at 1:30 on Sunday, April 15th at the Konica Minolta stage during French Quarter Fest. Its located at the corner of St. Phillip and Royal St. in the parking lot of a school, McDonogh 15.

French Quarter Fest is really fun every year--there is nothing better than lazily walking around the Quarter on a weekend afternoon with a drink in hand, taking in some good music. Come out and enjoy it!

So it goes...

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. died yesterday.

I have to admit that I've been pretty shaken up by that all day. Vonnegut was one of the first authors that I was truly captivated with, to the point that I had to read whatever I could find that he had written. "Breakfast of Champions" was the first novel I read (thanks to seeing my brother read it--basically I wanted to do everything he did--he's pretty much the reason I play music as well), then came "Slaughterhouse-Five" (classic), then "Welcome to the Monkey House" (still my favorite collection of short stories), and then "Cat's Cradle" (that one pretty much solidified my love of anything Vonnegut for the rest of my life). Everything in life that I was starting to question: religion, society, class, universal truths, the big "why?" quesions; all of these novels dealt with these themes, and in a dark, humorous way! And there was science fiction thrown in! It was all too hard to pass up.

I honestly feel that my perspective on life was permanently changed for the better by Kurt Vonnegut's work.

From "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater":

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

I really believe that.

So it goes, I guess. So it goes.

Bottle Tree in the Sky

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic here in LPR land. Jeremy had a French guy (who he really didn't know) crash at his house from Ash Wednesday until March 3rd. I (Adam) had a good college friend of mine and his girlfriend come in to town a few days after Mardi Gras and stay until the 3rd as well. Not that these things are necessarily bad...its just that after the Mardi Gras, there is some sort of depression/anxiety/general mailase that people seem to get that causes individuals to shutter themselves from the outside world, not to see the light of day for at least two weeks (maybe 40 days?), or until the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Anyway...the bright shining moments during these days have been some shows, and Jon's radio interview on WTUL.

Feb. 23rd: LPR in Auburn, Alabama at Roosters. I love this place; the owner is very hospitable, he has ties to New Orleans so he likes us even more (he plays bass for CrowBar), everyone likes to drink alot, and the crowd is always great. That night we played with Chris Porter and The Stolen Roses (www.myspace.com/thestolenroses), who kicked it hard and left me with no other choice but to get a little too "loose" on stage and start making up lyrics to our songs ("Bottle tree in the sky, blye biddy blye...") on the spot. I think I may have been creating something beautiful--everyone else is pretty sure I sounded like a moron. Either way, that only lasted for a bit and the show went off great. Hopefully we'll be playing some shows up in the Birmingham area with Porter soon.

More on our other recent shows (with pictures! maybe even of an alligator!!!) and Jon's WTUL interview soon...

Mardi Gras....finally!

The Thursday before Mardi Gras is finally here! In order to officially kick off the Carnival season, LPR will be playing at Kerry's Irish Pub in the French Quarter (331 Decatur St.), after the Muses parade. We're looking forward to a good time, with I hope as many drunken revelers as possible. If thats you, come on down. I'll have a post about the show later (with pictures!).

Muses is the perfect parade to start the weekend off with (because we all know the weekend starts on Thursday...). All female parade, great throws (those are the individual items thrown by krewe members...get it?), hilarious floats, and bands, bands, bands. I always cringe during the year when I hear that shuffle beat of Mardi Gras songs being played, but when its Carnival season, there is nothing better to dance to. Except LPR of course. Maybe.

Les Poissons Rouges to perform free show at Circle Bar!

We will be performing a FREE show at the Circle Bar on Friday, March 2nd. Be sure to stop by our favorite NOLA hangout and get a couple of extra High Life's with the money you'll save. No reason to wait for LPR to hit the Circle Bar, however. Check out their myspace page for other upcoming shows. Hands-down the coziest place to catch cool music in NOLA. http://myspace.com/thecirclebar