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.