Gorevette Ann Arbor CD release party + jamming with Ivan Kral.

I had a fun weekend.
It started off on Friday night when Theresa and I went out to dinner with her folks. We are watching their little dog Izzy for a month while they are out in Palau.



After dinner we relaxed at home with Izzy for the rest of the night and watched TV.

Saturday morning I watched the animated movie Planet Hulk. It was a good flick. You get to see the Hulk fight as a gladiator on some far away planet where he does pretty much nothing except beat the shit out of anyone who fucks with him and then he becomes the king of the place. Someday I'll get around to reading the comics that the movie is based on. After that Theresa and I watched a documentary about Zombies in popular culture.

Later that night Theresa and I went out to the Gorevette EP release party at Goodnite Gracie's. I've lived most of my adult life here in Ann Arbor and that bar is one of the places I've managed to avoid. It always seemed to posh for my taste. I tend to prefer the dive bar. Then again I never really gave it a chance did I? It was a nice little spot. Not as lame as I imagined. Except they don't serve any cheap beer, so don't ask for a PBR or Rolling Rock unless you want a scornful look from the bartender. To me it seemed like an unusual place for a local rock show. I don't remember them ever having local bands perform there before. Someone told me they sometimes have jazz bands play there or DJs. The Gorevette show was moved there last minute due to the Heidelberg being turned into seven night a week poker night venue (?) virtually overnight. The bummer part being that the Heidelberg owners didn't inform anyone including the booking agent till the last minute and all the shows that had been booked had to be moved to a new venue. Enter Goodnite Gracie's. Good for them. I hope they continue to have bands play there.

Anyway, our friends Ryan and Casey, who used to be in the Riots were opening the show as part of a new band with singer Freddy Fortune called The United Space League.



I loved them right off the bat. The group plays a mix of 60's psych sounding jams with two guitars, one playing a cleaner tone while the other is fuzzed out, while also throwing some nice vibrato sounds into the mix. Freddy is a great front man with a loud commanding voice. It reminded me of the rocking side of the 13th floor Elevators musically with a Sonics like vocal delivery. Ryan said they should have a 7" coming out soon. Watch for it. These guys and girl know how to rock.

Up next was Silverghost. I've seen them play a few times now. They are a two piece featuring Marcie Bolen on guitar and vocals, and Deleano Acevedo on keyboards, vocals and drum machine. Normally not my type of thing, but I actually enjoy their music. The vibe is playful, quirky and new wave sounding. I like the way their two voices go together. They did a Devo cover of Mongoloid that was great.



After Silverghost it was time for Gorevette.



The ladies and dude got up there and wasted little time blasting out their girl-pop-rock 'n' roll. The songs flowed out one after the other with sparse stage banter, mostly just drummer Al King snapping out the count on his sticks and launching the band into another rocking tune.



The crowd loved it. I thought the band played very well. I heard they sold a lot of copies their new EP although I forgot to pick one up (Doh!). Two of the tracks on the EP feature Deniz Tek on guitar.
After the show we had a few friends over for drinks and stayed up way to late.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon Retro Kimmer rang up and asked if Al King and I would like to participate in a little jam session on Sunday with the legendary songwriter/guitar player Ivan Kral, along with Mark Sisto, singer from the Visitors, and guitarist Gary Quackenbush from the 60's Ann Arbor rock group SRC. It sounded like something cool to do on a Sunday afternoon. The only catch being we would have to do it at the Bang studio, which wasn't a big deal. It actually made it easier for me. I knew who all those dudes are, so I agreed right away.


(left-right, Gary, Chris, Mark, Al)

Before Ivan showed up, the group got to know each other and then warmed up by learning an old SRC song. After jamming a bit, Ivan and his wife Cindy showed up with some pizza and soda for us and then we learned a few of his songs.




I'm not sure what this collaboration might lead too, but I really enjoyed playing music with all these guys.

After the session I went home and crashed out in preparation for the coming work week.

Ann Arbor Rock 'N' Roll Revival, 2009

I've got an awesome show coming up at the Blind Pig on December 18th, The Ann Arbor Rock 'N' Roll Revival for 2009. It's hosted by Stanley the Madhatter and will feature, Deniz Tek (from Radio Birdman), Scott Morgan and the IrRationals, Gorevette and Mazinga. Hiawatha Bailey (from the Cult Heroes) will also be joining Deniz and Scott during their set to perform a few Stooges songs in honor of the late Ron Asheton. DJ Jeremy Wheeler of the Bang Dance party will be spinning records inbetween bands. He also designed the amazing hand drawn limited editon poster which will be avalible for purchase at the show.
It's only $10, doors are at 9:30, Mazinga goes on at 10pm. Advanced tickets can be purchased on the Blind Pig Web site. Don't miss this show. It's going to rule.

How I spent my Christmas vacation...or the longest post ever.

This post is long overdue. I've just been to busy with things to get to it. Now it's Saturday and I have a time to complete it.
My Christmas vacation started early with a snow storm, which caused me to miss work on the last Friday before the break. Cool with me. I had the extra time off to cover it, so fuck it. That night was the Back in Spades, Gorevette show out at Small's and Alex really wanted me to go with him and hang out. I was all most a party pooper, but ended up going at the last minute. I decided to take my old crappy camera to see if I could capture some Rock 'N' Roll moments in time. I'm glad I did. The show was great. Running With Panthers opened the show with some high energy rock that got the crowd fired up. They reminded me of Electric Frankenstein kind of fired up punk rock.

RWP's fires up the Small's crowd.
During RWP's set I was asked to help a friend dig his car out of a snowbank down the street.

After trying for about 30 minutes we still couldn't get his car unstuck. It doesn't look that bad, but his car was on top of the snowbank and the front wheels had nothing to grip. I felt super bad for him. He was very grateful for the help anyway and to reward me for trying, he hooked me up with an incredible Star Wars collectible. An original Star Wars film reel projector. I had one when I was 4 years old and when he presented it to me I almost shed happy tears because it's so awesome! Here is a photo of me at 4 years of age, totally absorbed watching Star Wars on the little projector. This is pre video/DVD and back then the only to watch Star Wars at home.

Up next was Gorevette. Having Nikki Corvette and Amy Gore team up in a band is a great idea and it shows in the results of their jams. Their song "Fake it Now" is a instant garage rock classic. They put on a really good show and people seemed to really dig them.


Amy Gore rocking out.

Alex King on the drums.

Nikki Gorvette, and Lianna Castillo on bass.

Up Next was the main attraction for the night, Back In Spades. These guys were the shining light of the Future of Detroit Rock music back in 2003-04, but the broke up back then and all hopes were dashed. Thank goodness they decided to bring it back one more time. They put on a great show. They played all the songs people wanted to hear. I was totally amazed by the technical ability of the two guitar players. Watching Jackson Smith casually finger pick his way through amazing guitar solos was very inspiring. It made me want to go home and practice my ass off. Here are some photos. Too bad my camera kind of sucks.



It was a killer show.

On the 23rd I played bass for Devil Elvis at the Magic Stick. It was cool. The Gepetto Files and the Amino Acids performed as well. It was a rocking good time, except for another damn snow storm which scared me into leaving early and missing the Gepetto Files.

Christmas was super laid back. Theresa and I went out to my folks house to spend Christmas morning. After we opened some presents, we decided to watch Crank because my folks hadn't seen it yet, and we need to charge things up a little. Good times. My folks rule. Dad loved Crank.
It might be a new Christmas tradition.

Up next, on Dec 26, I found myself back at Small's when Mazinga opened up for the Meatmen and Chapstik. We had a great time, except I forgot the Mazinga CDs and some other stuff. Then I wigged out on the rest of the band for a minute. Not cool. I was to stressed out. Luckily we had Mr. Greenjeans there to calm us all down. Then everything went smoothly after that. Here are some Mazinga photos Theresa took with her new camera.



After Mazinga slayed, Chapstik came on and laid waste with a sonic wall of devastation. Check out the photos.




Up next, the Meatmen. The legendary Tesco Vee didn't spoil any expectations arriving on stage wearing Santa suit with a gigantic penis and ball sack full of goodies. The band blasted through all their classics from the "You Suck" album. Here is some photos of the mayhem.


After the show the weather turned totally strange and the outdoor temperature shot up to nearly 60 degrees. This caused all the snow to melt extremely fast which resulted in the thickest fog I've ever seen in my life, which of course I had to drive all the way back to Ann Arbor in. Seriously, I didn't feel comfortable going over 25 miles an hour, although that didn't stop other drivers from driving like complete assholes. I couldn't help but wish death on each SUV that barreled past at high rates of speed.

After recovering for a few days it was time for New Year's Eve and the Bang. It was totally rockin' this year. We kept our set up simple and invited two killer bands to perform, Kiddo and the Friendly Foes. They ended up combining forces to make one kick ass band instead of two. I had heard that the Friendly Foes were really good but I had no idea just how much they actually rocked. I was blown away. They did a bunch of covers, including opening with Green Day's "Welcome to Paradise". I've never really liked Green Day, but the Foes made their song quite likable. I can't believe I was suckered into enjoying a Green Day song. The jam of the night was when they played the Kiddo song "This Could Take Forever". The song is simply one of the best, most catchy songs I've ever heard. For real. That song should be HUGE! It's got a great sing-a-long choirs and infectious hook that you can't deny bobbing your head along too.
After the band were all loaded out, the Bang kicked into high gear and the rest of the night is an intoxicated blur. You can check out all the action photos over at the Bang flicker page.

The rest of my Christmas break from reality was spent chilling and house cleaning. My Truck crapped out on me on Saturday night, but I was able to fix it on the cheap thanks to a friendly mechanic who helped me out big time and cut me a huge deal!
Going back to work sucked. Ron Asheton passed away. What a shitty way to start out 2009. Let's hope it only get's better from here on out. I payed tribute to Ron last night by performing with The Hard Lessons over at the Blind Pig. We did the song "No Fun" and it was great! Big thanks to them for inviting me out for that. I love those folks.
I think that about covers it. Hope you enjoyed reading.
Thanks.

Weekend recap

Damn, it's only Tuesday? I guess I'm still in sleep-in Sunday mode.
T and I, along with C&C went and saw Gorevette last Friday and they were great, good time Rock 'N' Roll music. They did some covers like "Neat, Neat, Neat" from the Damned, "What do I Get?" from the Buzzcocks, as well as the Nikki Corvette song "Girls like Me". They did originals too. The song "Lustfully Yours" is a jam. You can check it out on the bands myspace page. I know that Gorevette recently recorded a bunch of songs with Jim Diamond so I expect something should be coming out early 2009. They're playing again soon at Small's for the Back In Spades Reunion show on Dec 20th. That show should rule. Back In Spades should pack em' in and justifiably so. They were/are a great Detroit Rock group with two of the best local guitar players in their ranks. They broke up way to early so it's nice to see them do a show. Hopefully it'll lead to more.
Also at last Friday's show, we caught the last half of Silverghost's set. I enjoyed what I heard. I normally don't dig on synthesizer-indie pop kind of stuff, but they do it really well. At one point I thought it would be cool if they had a drummer, but I guess that might take away from their electro sound. Silverghost lands in A2 on Friday at the Halfass with Charlie Slick and Tyvke. After Gorevette threw down, The Grande Nationals came out with a full Marshall stack bombardment and laid waste to the Magic Bag with their rock n roll barrage. Good times. The drive back to A2 was fine, but when we dropped of C&C, we somehow ended up inside their place where several rounds of a strange European liquor were consumed. Not by me of course, but needless to say some folks woke up Saturday not feeling so well. No pain, no gain right? At least you had fun right?
The rest of my weekend was pretty chilled out. Lots of house cleaning, stoner jamming, homework, and relaxing. Oh yeah, I did make the mistake of going grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon.
People suck.