CleverZenMonkey

Here’s what I’ve not been able to get enough of this week, as I fight my election year angst:

Same song, live in Italy:

Two nights ago, the lovely Tasha and I had our first practice session since our deranged drummer disappeared on April 27th, 2007, the evening of Buddha Witha Gun’s CD release party at Flag Brewing Company. We’ve been laying low in the wake of Matty Keebler’s flight into madness. His tailspin into the Void was just another weird chapter in the BWG story. Now, we’re ready to write a new one.

If you’re a drummer, or know a drummer in town who might be interested and qualified, please contact us. He/she has to have own equipment, transport and time to work on this project. No psychos or meth addicts need apply. We play rock, firmly rooted in blues-based ’70’s four-on-the-floor, with bits of New Wave and psychedelia. Our biggest influences are The Pixies, The Toadies and KISS.

(left: Matty “Thunder Roach” Keebler, right: Tasha Zarathustra)

Tasha and I went out to the Orpheum on Thursday night to see Meat Puppets and Built to Spill. Some band from Portland (?) opening up— they reminded us of Dinosaur Jr. We hadn’t seen Meat Puppets since the first time they played in Flagstaff, about 18 years ago, at the Monsoons (back when Jake owned it, before Steve bought the place and later dismantled it as a music club). Curt wasn’t as lively as he’d been then, but Cris certainly was. We thought that his head was going to fly off. At one point, he leaned into the microphone and said, “So, we meet again!” in a villainous voice. They opened with “Sam,” which by itself was well worth the price of admission. I was surprised to see Curt wielding a Seafoam green Stratocaster instead of his trademark Les Paul, and playing into a Fender amp instead of a Marshall stack. A sign of the End Times? Perhaps. Still sounded amazing and for all the snobs out there, exactly like him regardless.

Built to Spill was great, but we left halfway through.

A note on the sound. I’ve heard frequent complaints about the mix at the Orpheum, and at the risk of again making politically disastrous comments (though honest and usually dead-on accurate), I’d have to say that this night of banjo-less music was marred by sub-par mixing. Having played on the Orpheum stage with Buckethead and Major Lingo, I can speak from experience about what it’s like from the musician’s perspective. From having seen a wide variety of acts at the Orpheum since it opened, I canoffer a sound engineer/ audience member’s perspective. The main vocal mix was tinny, distorted and buried in the mix, especially for Built to Spill. During the Puppets set and BTS, the bass was WAY too loud and muddy, effectively drowning most everything else out. The Orpheum is acoustically prone to huge bass loading, and I’ve seen too many shows where this wasn’t taken into account. This was one of those nights. Other than that, it was awesome to see the Meat Puppets together again, and Cris looked terrific and supercharged. All the usual suspects were in the audience, and a surprising number of people left after the Puppets ended their set.

This Saturday, Sept. 8th, I’ll be performing two solo acoustic sets during the second S.S.S.W. at Custom Sound Instruments, which is just across the street from Morning Glory Cafe and just next to the topless bar on South San Francisco Street.  My co-performer (the songwriters perform in sets of two, usual paired Male/Female for fun) is Mary Kate, who’s known to play the saw.  But I could be wrong about her name.  Wouldn’t surprise me.

The show starts at 6pm and ends at 9pm.  CD compilations will be available for $10. apiece.

The studio air is full of the aroma of the Chipotle tacos that Mrs. Monkey is whipping up in the next room. She usually uses hot New Mexican chili powder, but tonight, she’s veering into new territory. Tecate and lime is in order.

I’ve returned to Northern Arizona University, where I’m pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in English, and taking journalism classes on the side. I picked up some info on German exchange programs today, so maybe one day I can catch up with Scott Staley in Deutchland, and we can play some dates together.

I’m tentatively writing in the Op Ed department of the school newspaper, The Lumberjack. I say tentatively because I’m part of an initial wave of new writers, and who knows how the whole affair will shake out.

It’s been an extremely long time since I paid any attention to my blog, as I’ve been very busy with far too many pursuits. Now that I’m in school for writing, it’s time to remedy the situation.

Here’s a test from Wired magazine to determine how autistic you are. More serious than all those goofy tests on MySpace, but not as serious as what a psychologist might have you take.

Take The AQ Test

Since reading an article about all the Asperger’s Syndrome cases coming out of Silicon Valley in Wired magazine a couple of years ago, I’ve been casually following the phenomenon, and wondering what the connection between high intelligence and autism might be.

After losing all contact with our drummer of six years, Matty Keebler, we’ve replaced him with new drummer, Doug Hall.  We’re changing our format a bit, and the band name.  It’s been an interesting run, and we’re planning to kick twice as much ass in the new configuration.

The trio will play the FlagBrew for the first time since we debuted the band there six years ago. Here’s a little blurb from Flag Live about the whole shindig:

And here’s the poster, which was a lot of fun to whip up in Photoshop:

It’s become a monthly gig at the Vous. Which I’m very glad about, because the Vous is a great scene. I dig the interior, the bartenders are supercool, and the crowd is always top shelf.

Okay, so we only have a couple of songs that qualify. But we’ll be joining forces with Eric Moeller and the F-Holes at The Boardwalk to lay down the rock and roll law.