Month: August 2003

John Shaughnessy brought the news that the Newton Colony Arts Festival, which many local performers played in last year, has been cancelled.

“Newton Colony regrets to announce that we are canceling the Festival for this year. Unfortunately, funding we planned on fell through. Thank you for your interest in the Colony. We hope to continue our mission of bringing arts and music to South Jersey.

Any fees that were submitted to participate in the event will be returned”

The Tree House crowd is usually sparse from 8:00 – 9:00PM, but last night it was packed. Roz kept his promise of being loud, but I don’t think his plan included getting shocked in the lip three times. I suspect one of two things.

1. His 1963 amplifier puts out some serious juice.
2. His homeworld was trying to contact him through electronic equipment.

In any case, I hope he’s ok. If they were alien signals, I’m sure space medicine can handle the side effects. On to the performers!

1. Ben Garvey (host) – I played “I Hope I Die on the Moon,” “The Genius of it All,” Nirvana’s “Serve the Servants,” and ended the night with “Why Now Satan?”

2. Leo – I liked him last week, but he sounded even better this week. Pat Rich told me the PA sounded better than any other night he’s been there, and I agree. Leo’s guitar came through loud and clear.

3. Jason Wheatley – He stopped by and used my guitar to play a few songs. I think he sounds better with my guitar than he does with his own! I could be biased, though. His voice was terrific.

4. Roz King and David Cram – Their performance was electric. No really, everything sounded great (it would have been perfect with drums) except the screams of pain Roz made with each eletric shock.

5. Matt Winn – Matt had some new effects box that really improved his sound. You could really hear what he was trying to do on the guitar.

6. August Sky – A fantastic couple (I think they’re married, but I’m not sure) with a CD coming out in a few weeks. They’re huge Matt Winn fans, but you wouldn’t know it if you saw them.

7. Siznarah Iznallen – I had the mic turned up pretty loud for August Sky, so I turned it down a little for Sarah’s performance. Her sound came out perfect. She opened with a very loud, powerful song that I loved. All of Anthony’s fans were cheering her on.

8. Ray McGeehan – Never heard this guy before, and I hope it wasn’t the last. He used a fake accent between songs and that amused me.

9. Willie Tapps – This born entertainer put on a great performance, despite a family tragedy.

10. Pat Rich – Just landed a recurring gig coming up over at Coffee Works in Vorhees. I laughed when Anthony’s fans said to Pat, “You’re my boy Blue! You’re my boy!”

11. Anthony – Anthony had a crowd of at least 15 to see him. Some were tossing underwear and giving him the rockstar treatment. It was very odd.

12. Cathy McCleod – I always thought her song, “Jack and Jill” was called “Awfully Nice.” That shows how much I pay attention. It’s still a good song and her voice was great last night.

13. Keith Lewis – Eventually Keith’s new guitar will just become his guitar. Until then, it needs to be repeatedly mentioned how awesome it sounds.

14. Dom – Popped in to play a few songs and plug his Thursday open mic at Port City Java in Deptford.

I want to thank everyone for coming out. I can’t believe how lucky I am that the regulars are so talented. So far everyone who comes each week can really play, and I’m sure you’ve been to open mics where this isn’t the case. I hope it lasts!

Later this month, the Tree House is having an awesome weekend of music. Check out the lineups (I hope I have everyone right. Email me if it’s not!)

Friday, August 29th
Jason Wheatley
Adrien Reju
Roz King
Sarah Allen
Cathy McLeod

Saturday, August 30th
Ben Garvey
Willie Tapps
Keith Lewis
Dylan O’Hearn

If don’t go, someday you’ll have to lie and say you were there.

Another reminder, John Shaughnessy is playing the Tree House tomorrow night (Friday)! He says he’ll be playing alone, but I bet his daughters will make an appearance.

Collingswood is the place to be on Wednesday nights for hot coffee and great music. Sign up for the Tree House open mic here. If 14 or more people are on the list, there will be a 2 song limit after 9:00PM. Before 9:00 you can play three songs, and if there is time left at the end of the night we might let people come back up to play. The following people are already signed up to play tonight!

leo
Joe McGarvey
Siznarah Iznallen
dogwallet
Pat Rich
Brenda Cohen
Matt Winn
Matt Parrish

The show starts at 8:00PM. See you there!

I finally got around to seeing Radiohead. They only play around here every 5 years or so. I remember in 97 they were opening for Alanis (hah) and I definitely wasn’t going to pay to see that. Tweeter isn’t the best place to see a show, but I think Radiohead would sound good anywhere. They killed. I loved the light thing they had going on behind them, because it reminded me of the communication thing from Close Encounters. Kevin’s friend Harry disappeared during the concert, but Kevin was confident Harry could find his way home through Camden.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks opened up, but it was sad to hear them from a few hundred feet away instead. Seeing them at the Troc was so much better.

In any case, you should pray to this that Radiohead comes back soon.

I’ve had this thing for years, but I finally got around to setting it up. It refreshes the picture every 30 seconds. Don’t worry, you won’t have to worry about seeing anything indecent.

Webcam Photo

Update: It turns out the crummy software my camera came with only lets me use it for an hour at a time.

Also, I finally found a CD I lost for over two years.

It turns out that Courtney Love is the grand daughter of Marlon Brando. That’s pretty odd, and Courtney Love’s daughter already had interesting genes before this news came out. If you haven’t seen her picture in a while, Francis Bean Cobain looks just like her dad.

Last night Jeanne and I went up to Grape Street to see Reju. They sounded awesome and they played a few songs I never heard before, including a rocking country song Adrien wrote on dare. It reminded me of the time I saw the Damnations (then called Damnations, TX) open up for the Meat Puppets.

We stuck around to check out the 2nd band, the Carbondales, who were signed to RCA records. This is the 2nd RCA band I’ve seen at GSP and so far they’re 0/2. They were dressed straight out of the hipster handbook (I swear I didn’t know that book existed until I decided to check it on google). The lead singer wore goggles and someone forgot to tell the guitar player that Trucker hats are over. I went to a trucker party 4 years ago, although at the time I thought someone told me it was a Trekkie party and I was really confused. Later the party was invaded by a bunch of guys dressed as East German hipsters like Dieter from Sprockets. Anyway, their music was pure, boring, pop music aimed at no one of bar age.

One highlight of the night was catching Mike Borgia upstairs. He sounded like 3 parts Jeff Buckley, one part Chris Cornell. I really liked “This is Not a Song.”

So the White Stripes concert last month was cancelled when Jack White broke his finger. They still haven’t credited Jeanne’s credit card with the money for the tickets and I just read on the White Stripes website that unlike many of the others, new tickets need to be purchased for the Philly show. The biggest scam of all is when Jeanne gets her credit, she won’t get back the insane Ticketmaster service charge. I hate Ticketmaster so much.

Update: Doh. The Tweeter Center box office isn’t even open on the weekends. It’s open Mon – Fri from 10:00AM – 3:00PM, which is very convienient for about 10% of the population and Ticketmaster. So I have to decide if I want to pay over $65 in service fees or get someone to drive over there during the day. Ticketmaster is evil.

My primary responsibility as host of the open mic is to make sure everyone gets to play and the night flows smoothly. I don’t think I did a great job last night of scheduling a slot for everyone. The place was packed and we ended up getting 16 people up on stage, but from now on I think if there are more than 14 people on the list we’ll be doing 2 songs each after 9:00PM. That’s what I planned to do last night, but I had a feeling some people weren’t going to show up. My intuition sucks. I had to squeeze in a ton of performers at the end, turn a duo away, and have John Shaughnessy leave before he could play. I felt bad about John not getting up there, because he has a gig coming up at the Tree House and he signed up for the open mic online. I’ll definitely give him a decent slot the next time he comes in.

1. Ben Garvey – I played “Thesis,” “99%,” and “The Genius of it All.”

2. dogwallet – With his treble kicked up from last week, the dogwallet sounded much better. I feel weird calling a man “dogwallet,” and it makes me wonder where the name came from. Maybe he’ll tell us.

3. Leo – Classical guitarist coming off a long hiatus. Leo was pretty nervous, but he sounded good. I like hearing different types of music, so I hope he comes back.

4. Craig Gaskill – Craig had his friend videotape him, and I hope that turns out well. I think we solved the problem with his tinny guitar sound.

5. Mark Steinhagen – There are now two rules for performers who want to borrow my guitar. 1. No Good Charlotte. 2. Have your lyrics memorized before you play. Later on in the night Mark made a bold claim to have written a hit song, and was worried about playing it because someone might steal his masterpiece. Hah. The question of copyright came up and many people still do not know that you don’t have to register your copyrights for them to exist. If you don’t believe me, read this.

“When is my work protected?
Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.”

All you have to do is record the song and its copyrighted. Everything else (registered mail, Library of Congress, etc.) is unnecessary and all it gives you is additional proof. I think this article should be dedicated to Mark.

6. Keith Lewis – According to Keith his new guitar is “definitely a guy.” Whichever gender it is, it sounds great.

7. Roz King – Roz and Keith sounded great. They used to play together all the time and I hope they start doing it again.

8. Willie Tapps and Danielle – Danielle is really getting good at the flute! Willie sounded great as always. I wonder how many times Willie has played the Living Room/Tree House’s open mic.

9. Phil – Although his songs tend to drag on a bit, Phil plays emotional, depressing music better than most. Nice job.

10. Sarah Allen – Could Sarah be the best regular we have? I think so. Everyone comments on how good she is. I like her guitar work, but her piano songs are amazing.

11. Matt Winn – Matt brought back the digital delay to the Tree House. Last summer he used delay in almost every song he played, so it was nice to hear it again. Too bad I had to bump him down to 2 songs. We went ten minutes late as it is.

12. Matt Parrish – I was rushing around getting ready for Every Other Thursday, so I couldn’t pay attention to what he was doing. Matt is a performance artist who talked to something he had in his hand. It looked like a little snake, but I’m not sure. It sounded funny from what I heard, so if you remember what it was about, tell us.

13. Every Other Thursday – Last time they we had some serious sound issues when they played, but we got a lot of it under control this time. Every Other Thursday is a talented group, but they need to get their name out! Two weeks now I’ve had people come in saying they came to see so and so and I have no idea who they’re talking about. There are two solutions to this problem. 1. I could learn their names. 2. They could tell their friends they’re called “Every Other Thursday.”

14. Jerzy Jung – Whoa! She told us she couldn’t play guitar, but I doubt anyone believes that now. With a voice as good as hers, I doubt most people even paid attention to the guitar. It certainly didn’t get in her way. She might come back with her keyboard, and I hope she does.

15. Tony DeSanto – Does anyone know who wrote the song Tony plays each week that goes, “You don’t have to grow up to be President, if you’re a President’s kid.” It’s a great song.

16. Cathy – Too bad I cut her to one song. At least she played my favorite, “Awfully Nice.” That song will always remind me of the summer of ’02.