Les Claypool (with Tim Fite opening) at Stubbs

Tim Fite

This is the third time I've seen Tim Fite and side-kick, Dr. Leisure, perform. Since he evokes memories of Andy Kaufman, I really enjoy his act. It took about 15 minutes for him to win the crowd over with his zaniness. (A little longer than the other times that I've seen him).

If you've never seen him and get the chance, do it!

Les Claypool

I was tentative about going to this show, because in the past I have found some of Claypool's music to be repetitive and annoying. His band looked interesting enough with 4 players on sax, marimba/vibraphone/percussion, drums, and bass. Unfortunately, my worst fears were realized, and were combined with bad lighting, bad sound (the sax player may as well have not been there), and inaudible vocals.

I estimate that he played about 2 hours, but I found myself wanting to leave halfway through the show. A large part of my irritation was Claypool's sound selection. I don't think I will be going to another Claypool show for a good long time.

U2 3D

Over the past few months, I have tried to talk several friends into going to see the U2 3D movie at the TX History Museum IMax Theater. With this being the final week of showing, I said screw it and went by myself. All of the reviews I have read said this was not to be missed.

I enjoyed it immensely but it wasn't quite what I expected. They still use stereoscopic technology, so the glasses were required. Unfortunately, a calibration problem at this facility resulted in some images appearing with pink shadows or halos rather than a sharp 3D image. Perhaps it was better in other parts of the theater, although I'm not 100% convinced of that.

In general, U2 is a great live band. They are always tight, have an excellent song selection, and look like they truly enjoy being on stage. This was captured on the movie which from the credits appeared to have been derived from two shows, one in Argentina, and one in Australia.

The biggest disappointment for me was the camera angles. In some cases, like the shots of drummer Adam Clayton, they did a fantastic job. In other cases, however the 3D effect didn't work that well. U2 is very fond of using large light displays behind their stage. In many cases, this seemed to distract from the 3D effect.

Bottom line: If you haven't already seen it, I would still recommend that you go. This is obviously the future of entertainment. There is more to follow ...

Albino Squirrel Sighting

Well, I saw an albino squirrel today, and took these 2 pictures as proof. I tried to get closer, but the little critter was pretty cagey, and suspicious.

SxSW Music - Day 4

The final day, and the weather is still holding up. In fact, I'm wearing shorts

Panels

• I started the morning with the Daryl Hall interview. It was great to see that Daryl is still an Indie musician at heart, and is one of us in spirit. Lots of questions from the Interviewer and the Audience about the whole Sacred Songs and Exposure debacle. Daryl is quite an interesting guy, and I give him major kudos for the Live From Daryl's House webcast site. Here is a major artist that gets the Internet, and wants to bring back shows like Don Kirchner and the Midnight Special.

I would have liked to have stayed for the Alan Parsons panel at 3PM, but was on the hook to go watch my friends in Proteus and Coalition play at the Hi-Lo.

Music

• I started out the afternoon, to watch Ed Martinez, Dave Johnson and their bands, Proteus and Coalition. Both bands are tight and play great fusion/prog music. Like One2One, Hi-Lo is a bar where the windows can be completely opened, so that people can see and hear the band from the sidewalk. People were stopping and then jammin' along to both bands. What a great afternoon.
  
  

  Here are 2 pictures of Proteus in action:
  

• Ran into my good friend, Ted from Thirteen of Everything, and went to see the experimental group, Jandek. I like some pretty strange Avant-garde music, but this was beyond me.
• I then trekked down to Stubbs to catch another friend Scott Brackett and his band, Okkervil River. They're a high energy, folk influenced pop rock act and won the best Indie Band, in this year's Austin Music Awards. They were followed by Austin legend, Roky Erickson, who sounded much better than any previous videos I had seen.
• I managed to catch one song of the Pedro Menedez Ensemble at the Elephant Room. I probably could have caught more, but they seemed to be on Jazz Time while setting up.
• For the final show of SxSW, I went to the Hideout and caught AMF friend, Josh Robbins and his band the Invincible Czars. Very Zappa-esque, crazy and fun. Josh you're a madman and great guitarist.

SxSW Music - Day 3

A third straight day of fantastic weather, what could be better.

Panels

I attended 2 panels.

• What is the Future of Record Companies and Artists Deals - actually a CLE for the lawyers. I just found out from my friend Alissa, that this was the first year they were open to non-lawyers. Kind of funny, I never realized that in previous years, and attended anyway.
• Mobility, Ubiquity and Monetizing Music - great talk. Only Pearlman really got it. Had interesting stats from Ed Felton out of Princeton and China. 30 Million classic music hobbyists and aficionados.
  

  I was very annoyed at the typical rhetoric against the Free Market, from some of the pundits on this panel. If I hear another lawyer arguing about how government saves us, I'm going to puke.

Music

• First act I saw was Paddy Casey, on the DirecTV stage. I'm not normally a fan of singer songwriters, but this guy is just Incredible. He sang and played acoustic guitar, with a background singer/pianist. I would buy this guy's CD in a heartbeat.
• I went to the Brush park party, hosted by the Australians. Can't remember much other than some free Vodka samples and food.
• To begin the evening, I went to the Tim Fite Hosts show at Antones. Bear In Heaven was the first act, after a humorous intro monologue by Tim. Finding no honey with these bears, I left.
• I stopped by Cedar Street, and caught part of Fastball. They are an Austin band that had a Top 40 hit in 1999. Pop rock, that is very well done. Cedar Street was even more crowded than the night before with Tim Fite. At least 3 rows of people on the 4th Street sidewalk.
• I then went to the Tiniest Bar in Texas to catch deSoL. Apparently, I screwed up and they had played the night before. I stayed a bit and watched the White Ghost Shivers, instead.

St. David's

I finished the night catching 3 fantastic shows at St. David's Church. This is officially my favorite venue.

• First up was Sxip Shirey. Holy f*cking crap, was this guy amazing. He basically has some pedal effects, a microphone, harmonica, and table of toys. A former guitarist who came up with career ending tendinitis, he turned to making music in non-traditional ways. I would fail miserably to describe what he does in words. (He does for Music, what Tim Burton does for film). He was joined by an equally amazing Human beatbox performer for several songs. This show totally blew away some of my previous conceptions about live musical performance and instruments. A must see, if you ever get the chance. He lives in Brooklyn.
• Graham Reynolds and the Golden Arm Trio were next. Another amazing Austin musician who I have gotten meet through AMF. The Trio was actually a quartet, with a Cellist, Trombone Player (Wayne Myers another AMF acquaintance), Saxophonist, and Electric Bassist. Graham plays Piano and Drums and is an unbelievable talent. He is always entertaining.
• The Brannen Temple Trio with D Madness on bass. An Austin Jazz Trio with Drums, Steel Drums and Electric Bass. My friend Brian over at Mixtank has been ranting about D Madness for a while. Now I know why.

Screw ups of the day

Not putting the deSoL show on the right day in my calendar.

SxSW Music - Day 2

A second awesome day of weather. This makes up for a SxSW I went to 10 years ago, where it rained every day

Panels

• I caught the tail end of Lou Reed Keynote, no need to book the Hilton Ballroom, this year! LOL ;)
• The first panel was the Performance Royalty Debate, led by AMF Board Member, Chris Castle. Very interesting talk with reps from SoundExchange, A2IM, AFTRA, and others. Chris Castle did a great job as host and antagonist, keeping the whole panel on their toes. Each group was still protecting their own interests first, exactly as you would expect.
• I then attended the Steve Reich Interview. (This is how I discovered that I had missed the night he had hosted at St. David's. Doh!) Fantastic interview, I took some notes, but hope that a Video Podcast will eventually appear on the SxSW site. He had lots of interesting things to say about the Beatnik generation that he grew up in, and particularly Jazz great, John Coltrane. I stand in awe of the great Composer, and Musicologist!

Music

After the morning lightning round of panels, I went to go see more music.

• It started with the Austin Music Foundation Party at the Music Gym. Austin music diva and Rockstar SuperNova contestant, Patrice Pike. Great day outside, and great music.
• After the party wound down at 4PM, I went back to the Convention Center and caught, Martha Wainwright on the DirecTV soundstage, the Long Star Lounge. I had seen her last year at La Zona Rosa show with Rachel Fuller. She was fantastic and her band was awesome.
• I went upstairs to look over the Trade Show. It has gotten worse each year. Lots of booths with irrelevant vendors. Most hawking nameless digital music services, that I had never heard of before entering the room.
• I started the evening at Stubbs for the Body of War show. This is part of the promotion for a documentary film with the same name, produced by Phil Donahue. (Who was in the audience). The music consisted of Tom Morella (Rage Against the Machine, Audio Slave), Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Ben Harper, Billy Brag, and others. Interesting Serj played piano, Tom played the blues and sang, Billy Brag was awesome. A group encore completed a very enjoyable show.
• I managed to walk across town to Cedar Street and caught the end of Tim Fite. I was blown away by Tim, 2 years ago at Antones. Word has gotten around, and the house was packed. He was entertaining as always, but Cedar Street is probably not the best venue for his multimedia fun.
• On the way back, I happened by One2one (non-SxSW venue) with the windows open, and the house a rockin' with the Everyday People. Outside, I ran into the drummer from Cellus and Loose Grip, Mike Burnall, whom I had met at the Ron Paul fundraiser in SA. They were on a split bill at the same bar. Mike introduced me to del Castillo bassist, Bert Besteiro. Both bands were interesting enough to make me stay for a parts of both sets.
• I finished the night with the Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck show, at St. Davids Episcopal Church. There was a bit of a line, that included Jackie the Jokeman Martling. This room, a chapel, had incredible acoustics and the show was unreal. A very memorable experience. (Driving home the realization about what I probably missed at this venue the night before with Steve Reich).

SxSW Music - Day 1

Today was the first day of SxSW. It started out slightly overcast, but cleared up nicely as the day moved on.

Panels

• I started off the day, with the Tour Smart panel hosted by ex-PiL drummer, Martin Atkins, Eddie Spaghetti from the Super Suckers, and some nameless manager from Live Nation. All I can say is Wow, Martin is the bomb. He basically monopolized the time, but thank god he did. He had a very engaging set of slides, had a great humorous delivery, and showed real creativity. This was the best panel I've ever attended in 4 years of attending the Conference.

  I had no problem forking over $20.00 for a copy of Martin's book and DVD afterward, because what he said was so valuable. He is continuing the Punk, DIY attitude that I love.

• For the second session, I attended a talk by three lawyers on Red Flags in Contracts. Honestly, even though they had huddled beforehand and had handouts, they didn't really make the subject accessible to those in the audience, who weren't members of the Bar. They needed someone like Martin Atkins on their panel. Too bad, I think it is important for artists to understand this stuff.
• The last session I attended was Accounting in Record Deals. It was another case of being dry, but important. Fortunately, the presenter actually had examples of real deals, with a brief explanation. I have a set of the slides hopefully coming via email. Of course, maybe the whole subject is moot, because the whole concept has changed in the Digital Age.

Music

The panels are interesting, but the music is king.

• I started out the night going to see Van Morrison at La Zona Rosa, with some friends. Apparently the show was under Martial Law. The bar was closed during the entire show, by edict from King Van. There was also some heavy handed enforcement of the no photographing policy via cell phones. While I understand the objection, this was a little over the top.

  I guess I would of overlooked this, if I felt like I attended an exceptional show. Frankly it was boring, and lacked passion. Talking to some other people, it sounds like this is par for the course. (Next)

• The refurbished Austin Music Hall, was next on the list with the Austin Music Awards. It was crowded and I was able to see Lyle Lovett and Pinetop Perkins, as well as several other acts. Not stellar, the acoustics weren't that great. This is the first time I went to check out the awards, and it will probably be the last.
• During the walk back towards Red River, I happened across The Photo Atlas at the Cedar Door. They weren't bad, just not my cup of tea.
• I also randomly walked into Buffalo Billiards, and saw Goldspot, a band from LA. A very well done light rock/pop show. Austin beatbox artist, John Pointer joined them on stage for one number. I enjoyed it, but can't say I would buy their CD.
• Hopewell and Earthless at Bourbon Rocks. Both of these bands were interesting, but loud. This was the show that made me regret forgetting my earplugs.
• I attempted to get in line for REM at Stubbs, and after seeing the futility there, ended up seeing The Acorn from Ottowa, CA at Habana Patio. These guys were great. Easily the best act of the night on my itinerary.

Screw ups of the day

• Forgetting the earplugs!
• Going to see Van Morrison
• Not seeing Daryl Hall
• Not noticing the Steve Reich show at St. David's Church

Brain Science

Brain science seems to be a popular topic in the Blog/Podcast Sphere. I recently ran across the following:

• A two part episode of Geoffrey Grosenbach's Rails Podcast featuring Brain Rules author, John Medina.
• A very cool blog post pointing to a research paper about how the brains of improvising Jazz musicians work.

I found both of these to be very interesting. Much to ponder.

In other news, my mood is both excited and happy, with SxSW Music commencing tomorrow morning!

Barcamp Austin III

Having attended the SxSW Music Conference for the last 4 years, I have often considered also attending SxSW Interactive. Being a contractor however, I couldn't justify taking over a week off from work, since the 3 days off for the Music Fest are bad enough. After hearing about the Austin Barcamp, I was immediately interested.

Barcamp is an Open Space Conference (or unconference if you like). It is chaotic, anarchistic, emergent, and free (although attendees are encouraged to leave tips via PayPal, if they find it useful). I liked the concept, as soon as I read about it. Since I enjoyed the experience, I plan on leaving a donation.

This installment was held in the GDS&M offices on West 6th Street in Austin. I arrived around 1:30PM and ran into many old friends from the Austin Tech Community. In addition, I was also able to meet Michael Cote from the Drunk and Retired podcast, and rub elbows with other Internet Celebrities.

After attending 3 adhoc presentations, and engaging in multiple chats around the water cooler, the evening was topped off by the Karaoke Apocalypse, where a few lucky attendees got to sing, backed by a four piece band. A good time was had by, and I plan on attending future Barcamps, and other Open Space events.

RIP: Led Zeppelin Reunion Tour

First Roger Waters said no to a Pink Floyd reunion, now Robert Plant has said no to THE reunion tour. The people that saw the London show should consider themselves lucky.

RIP: Jeff Healy

I heard about this first from a Facebook post by Paul Garay, from Inside Home Recording. Last night, guitarist Jeff Healy, passed away. It was always inspiring to watch Jeff perform, given his challenges.

Another great one that will be missed. It is truly sad because he was still so young.

RIP: George Allen Buddy Miles

Good thing I listen to podcasts or I would have missed this news. Former Band of Gypsys drummer, Buddy Miles passed away this past Tuesday. When I hear his name, I will always associate it with Jimi Hendrix and the song Them Changes, which I played on many occasions with Tom Limbaugh.

The biggest surprise for me however, was finding out that he was an Austin resident. I was totally unaware of that fact.

A new type of Flash Mob

I participated in a very interesting experiment today, and am still pondering what to make of it.

I really enjoy new media, and love Podcasts. I listen to Adam Curry's Daily Source Code (for over 2.5 years now) and No Agenda podcasts. I was at my computer, and actually listening to the DSC 724 and was also following twitter.

Strangely enough, Adam tweats about working on a new studio setup and I responded about how funny it was that I was listening to his show. He then tweats again a few minutes later that he is testing a Live Podcast on Talk Shoe and posts a tinyurl. I was one of the first people to jump in the room, but was amazed to see that there were already 3 others joining me. Within about 3 minutes there was easily 30 people in the room, from all over the US and Europe, and I'm in a live conversation with 4 other people and Adam on my cell phone, while the whole things is being streamed out to the Internet. I estimate that the crowd grew to 70 or so people.

I was simply flabbergasted at how quickly a virtual flash mob was spawned by one random tweat. The implications of this are staggering to me.

Off Season Thoughts

Well the SuperBowl is over (good game, but I found it hard to care about the outcome), and the Ravens have their new coaching staff in place. So far, things look good. I like what I've heard about John Harbaugh, our new OC, Cam Cameron, and am happy that we retained Rex Ryan. I like all of the moves we made on the offensive side of the ball with the Quarterback, Running Backs, and Receivers coaches. If we're healthy, we could easily be the number 1 Defense again.

The big question for Raven's Nation will be, "Will we finally have an NFL caliber offense?"

Stomach Virus thwarts VH Plans

I came down with this nasty Stomach Virus after seeing Ari Hoenig. Despite having tickets, I was unable to see Van Halen at the AT&T Center, in San Antonio. C'est la vie!

Snarky Puppy and Ari Hoenig at the Flamingo Cantina

A least minute email from a friend tipped me off to this show, this past Monday night. I arrived at 9PM and the opening act, Snarky Puppy had already begun. They're a groove oriented, Jazz outfit which normally has 9 members. They were supposed to have 7 people at the gig that night, but the Percussionist was ill. (Strangely enough, I came down with a brutal stomach virus the next day that put me out of commission for 2 days).

The lineup I saw, had Keys, Guitar, Sax, Trumpet, Bass and Drums (and guest Trombonist, who came up for one song). The music was very creative and I would go see them again. The Rhythm Section, Saxophonist and Keyboardist really stood out. I enjoyed the textures and the polyrhythmic chops of the drummer.

The headliner was Ari Hoenig, who appeared with his trio, Punk Bop. I really enjoyed his show and his playing. He was accompanied by an Electric Guitarist, Gilad Hekselman, and Bassist, Orlando LeFleming. They performed for about 90 minutes with some originals as well as classics from Coltrane and Monk. All 3 were exceptional musicians, but I was really impressed with Gilad. He was a master of playing in an understated way, no pyrotechnics, but everything spot on.

I would go see both of these acts again. Very well done.

Billick Era Over

You may have noticed that I stopped blogging about my Ravens, when their 9 game losing streak was in full force. It was quite depressing to see a team go from 13-3 last year, to 5-11 this year. Since I refuse to be a bandwagon fan, I still watched every game. Having to "take it like a man" just like the DirecTV commercial guy, says.

To make matters worse, this is the first time in 8 seasons that I was unable to get back to Baltimore to see at least 1 game. Strangely enough, fate intervened when I was supposed to see them play the Rams, which ended up being the last win before the losing streak.

Anyway, Steve Biscotti pulled the trigger and fired Brian Billick and all of his assistants, with the exception of Rex Ryan. I have mixed feelings about this, since Billick had a winning record, a Super Bowl, two Wildcards and two Division titles. But, our offense has never been more than putrid since his arrival. Rumor has it that he had lost the team.

Now the speculation begins ... Rex Ryan? Cowher? Marty Schottenheimer? Marv Levy?

RIP: Oscar Peterson

Being on Christmas vacation with my family, it took me a few days to get near a computer to post. Another Jazz great, Oscar Peterson, passed away on 12/23.

I'm still kicking myself. Although given ample opportunity to try and catch Oscar, I never saw him live. I have seen multiple videos, he was truly a frightening player. I wonder if there is really is anyone else who will be able to carry the torch of Art Tatum, like Oscar did.

MPTU at the Saxon Pub

I trekked over to the Saxon Pub last night (actually this morning) for a midnight show of the latest Austin supergroup, MPTU. The lineup is Pat Mastelotto (from King Crimson, XTC, Mr. Mister), Malford Milligan (Storyville), Phil Brown (Little Feat), Mark Andes (Canned Heat, Heart and others). I joined a small crowd of approximately 25 people, to listen to the 75 minute show.

They opened the set with instrumentals, a rendition of Jeff Beck's Pump. Phil is mainly a Strat player and is obviously into Beck, Clapton, and Allan Holdsworth, and is also a great singer. I'm going to have to go back and see if he's on any of the Little Feat albums that I own. He was surprised that I recognized his quoting of Holdsworth's song, Fred, when I spoke to him after the show.

Malford's singing as always, was amazing. He did manage to fit some Storyville songs like Bitter Rain, into the set. For the remainder, I have to admit that I didn't recognize too many of their songs, yet. So I guess I will have to buy the MPTU CD when it's released, but I believe they played everything up on the myspace page. They sounded great, and delivered the goods despite the crowd size.

P@ surprised me with his versatility. I have seen him with KC, ProjeKct 3, Terry Bozzio and KTu. All progressive or "art" rock type of setups. In MPTU, it's straight forward rock, blues and soul. As always, his drumming is powerful, but tasteful.

One thing is for sure, I will try and catch them again, next Tuesday, and at Momo's and/or Antones this month. I'm hoping that perhaps I will be allowed to take a Picture or two, at a future show.

Wow, this jogged my memory

I followed a link over at the DGM site to Trey Gunn's site and stumbled across this entry about the formation of KTU:

Seeds for KTU took root at SXSW in Austin Texas in March 1999 when Kimmo Pohjonen shared a billing with Mastelotto/Gunn/Fripp's Project Three at the Electric Lounge.

I then had my holy-crap moment, since I was there. I clearly remembered seeing ProjeKct 3, but had forgotten about the opener, Kimmo, until just now. Everyone in the crowd was raving about him. I guess he made an impression on Trey and Pat too! (or is that tu?)

To complete the circle, I was able to catch KTu last year at SxSW.