Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a good party on Devil's Night last night. We had a rip-roaring time at The Annex. We'll get some pictures up as soon as we get them transferred. It was the first time I got to hear the Sin City Injectors, and I thought they were really great. Timmy calls them "hot-rod" rock and I don't think I could describe them any better. They'd be perfect on a double-bill with The Supersuckers or a band like that. That was their last Madison show ever, though, because they said they were breaking up. Too bad.

We dressed up each as a Terminator. Ben was Arnold, I was the T-1000 (Robert Patrick from T2) and Wendy was the T-X (the uber-hot Kristanna Lokken Terminatrix). I felt good about our costumes, but some people went balls out and really made awesome ones, we'll have to post the pics.

Ben's wireless fritzed in the first song (in true Halloween fashion, we were covering "Skulls" by The Misfits (oh and for the peeps who asked, the opening monologue was George C. Scott talking near the ending of Exorcist III)) and then my bass strap broke right on the first note of our second song (I rested my foot on the monitor to support my guitar on my knee, I looked like a total wanker), so the first two songs were a little shaky due to some technical issues, but the crowd was completely non-plussed. It went just fine. We kept the drums and the bass going and it gave us a chance to get people to cheer and joke a little bit. Everybody was sincerely ready to party, it was Halloween weekend! The show went off famously and easily my favorite Halloween gig since Dudley's in 2000.

Madison was even mentioned as the best place to party on Halloween in that bastion of intelligent commentary (sic), Maxim. And honestly, it is the best place to party on Halloween. It's fucking crazy, State Street is a goddamned insane asylum, police are pepper spraying people everywhere, and half the people you meet are people who came to town specifically to go crazy. All of the Gen-Y'ers know that it's the wildest Halloween party probably nationally.

That, taken on face value, is awesome. Halloween's the coolest holiday and having everyone wanting to come be in your town for it is a wicked feeling. However, why people feel the need to break shit, I'll never understand. How surly of a motherfucker do you have to be to throw a brick through a window or set something on fire just because you're wasted? What are all the white, middle-class, Midwestern college students so pissed about that random acts of wanton destruction seem like the behavior of a reasonable and intelligent human being?

I think a big part of it is the attraction to the electricity of a huge crowd- the feeling that you're part of something, even if it's monumentally stupid. If nobody gets killed and the only things hurt are windows of some faceless businesses and the worst thing that happens is that you might get a pepper spray facewash, it's pretty cool, right?

How much of this attitude was represented by the riots and demonstrations of the 60's? How much was belief and how much was the human desire to go with the mob? At least they pretended to have a cause, we don't believe in shit. We watched the hippie idealists fail in their quest to change the world and they had amassed such a huge bloc of people and imaginations and media. If they couldn't do it, how the fuck can we?

We'll join up with anything that makes us feel like we're part of something.

Even if it's putting a brick through a window because we're drunk.

Partied a little too hard last night

Wow, I feel like shit today. However, we're definitely gonna go buck wild tonight, so it looks like I'll feel like crap tomorrow too. However, the Pack is gonna be on and nothing cures a hangover like the Green and Gold whooping some Redskin ass.

Halloween's the best holiday. I hope to see a lot of our friends at the show. Plus, this year we're combining it with Daylight Savings Time (where the bars stay open an extra hour.) That can mean only one thing...

...tonight might be the last night of our lives.

I am now within Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

I just remembered this and now I have to get it down before I forget.

Ben and I are sitting around watching TV the other night eating dinner. I had just finised re-watching a Sopranos episode On Demand and Ben sat down next to me. He's not that into The Sopranos but he does enjoy violence, foul language, and nudity- so you know he's gonna like the one from the second season where Janice "takes care of" Richie. So, the show ends and we're flipping around the channels, chatting, and started watching CSI:Miami (the dead hooker on the screen caught our attention.) That made me start thinking about this dude that went to our high school in Mukwonago that's a regular on CSI. And then I realized that because of him, I can now be linked to Kevin Bacon. I am NOT shitting you. Sure, I have to use high school plays to get there, but that still counts. So, that night I was linking through the Mukwonago guy into William Petersen, and the closest I could come to was about 8 links, and that had me going through Arnold Schwarzenegger into Tom Noonan and DeNiro, blah, blah, blah... It was tough and I couldn't get it down into six links.

I can now.

Me

LINK:Meet Me in St. Louis

Erinne (chick I dated in college)

LINK:Moon of Ourselves Alone

Eric Szamanda (Mukwonago guy on CSI)

LINK:The Rules of Attraction

Eric Stoltz (dude that's in every 90's sensitive movie)

LINK:Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Sean Penn (hyper-dramatic, better actor than director)

LINK:Mystic River

Kevin Bacon (the man, himself. Ever see Wild Things? They totally show his hog.)

F.u.c.k.i.n.g. s.w.e.e.t.

Could a bar owner actually be thinking?

So, Ben and I went on over to The Annex after band practice (where we worked on some new stuff, yes, contrary to popular belief, we still write songs) last night to hang out and promote our Devil's Night show on Saturday... and there's no cover and alcohol is $10 for all-you-can-drink. Yes! Someone is actually thinking about how to create a regular scene. Sure, the bands aren't gonna get paid much, but who cares? The big deal is to get local acts in front of more people and also to show non-musicians that local rock shows can be a lot of fun, the covers don't have to be expensive, drinks don't have to be alot of money, and the sound doesn't have to be shitty (because they have a great system at the place.)

We have three 400+ capacity night clubs in town now, I think it's forcing everyone to be more creative and compete for ways to attract people. There's also a reason to go see a live band now on most weeknights (well, not really Sunday and Monday, but who needs an excuse to drink on those days? Sunday, I drink for Jesus and Monday I drink for Garfield.)

Speaking of Garfield, did anyone see the movie? I love Bill Murray (he's so weird, though, how about The Razor's Edge? what the hell was that about, Bill?), but who's the douchebag they have playing Jon? That guy from Go? Now, I liked Go as much as the next guy, I did, but that may be because of Sarah Polley. (Yeah, her and Katie Holmes! I totally wish there was a deleted lesbian shower scene on the DVD. (God, I sound like Howard Stern, I'm such a fucking cliche sometimes.) I have a friend, who will remain anonymous (but his name ryhmes with Mike Wagner) that went to see The Gift on opening day, just because of the topless scene with Joey from Dawson's Creek. Myself, I waited to download it on the Internet.) Wait, I know the dude's name... isn't it something fucked up like... Breckin Meyer... that's it. I didn't have to go to the IMDb, I swear, I didn't have to go to it. I'm serious. I know this shit. I'm on it.

Great band

Went to the High Noon Saloon again last night to check out a band called Two Cow Garage. I ran into some of the usual hipsters, but otherwise it was a small (but appreciative) crowd. They're kinda country rock, but more straight-up rock n' roll than anything else. I even wore my cowboy hat cuz I thought everyone else would, but naw, it was just me and some chick that was traveling with the band. Anyway, they're badass. I have their second album that I got for Max Ink but in my infinite laziness I haven't reviewed it yet. It's a winner. Songs to check out: "Make It Out Alive", "Brand New July", and "Saturday Night". Straight up, it's the best cowpunk album I've heard in a long time. I bought their first disc and I'm looking forward to hearing it.

Ya know, speaking of country-rock, which I can sometimes totally dig (except for the fucking Eagles, yeah I liked them at one time, but I never have to hear them again, they're playing every hour on the classic rock radio station that's been implanted in my head), but I just don't get what everybody sees in the new Wilco. I know I might get my ass kicked for saying that, but it's true. Jeff Tweedy just kinda puts me to sleep lately. He and Thom Yorke should get together and have a bore-off... two formerly great artists that decided to be "post-modern" and became "post-listenable." Aha! Here's an article to back me up from Slate. Their critics are always interesting, especially David Edelstein- he's da bomb (you can hear him on Fresh Air usually on Fridays!) I like their TV critic too, but when she gets political, she's out of her element.

Holy shit, I just fawned over Public Radio and a Microsoft-owned media outlet. I need to be shot.

Enough of that. If you like country-rock, check out Two Cow Garage if ya don't, then forget it.

Thoughts from a Chick on The Road

Well, we just got back from the this weekend's Chicks on the Road dates that we did this weekend in Chicago and Milwaukee. An offshoot of the highly successful and sweet Chicks Rock! Fest that we performed at in Cincinnati in January (holy shit, that was already over nine months ago!), these shows were their next attempt at making the fest into something national. They did a good job of it too, there were shows in 21 cities with 40-odd bands participating. A very cool idea.

Friday night, we played at Gunther Murphy's in Chicago, which we'd never played at before. It was a pretty hot bar, but split-room (with a soft cover- meaning people didn't have to pay to get in, more like a suggested donation.) Anyway, you should have seen the wasted Irish guys, wow. These dudes were so fucked up, they could hardly talk, and when they did, their brogues were so fucking thick that it was impossible to understand them. I know girls get all moist over Irish accents (kinda like a lot of guys dig the French 'ooh-la-la' thing) and there is a nice quality about the Irish lilt, but when Patrick gets all pissed up and is spitting in your face every time he says "fella", things get gross fast. Anyway, everybody was really nice, the alcohol was flowing freely and we were the last band to go on.

That's right, we went on, after five bands at 12:45am. Six bands makes for a long night. In fact, one of the acts didn't even stick around to the end to hear everyone(either night, you know who you are. Rude.) Anyway, most everybody stuck around and we had a good time playing. All the bands were talented and enjoyable. There were some awesome chicas we had played with before who were on the bill and it was fun listening to them. So, we made some friends, I got entirely too drunk, ordered a pizza, and we passed out at the hotel before it even arrived... over an hour later. Then we proceeded to start mowing down, but Wendy was still out. She woke up to a sound she described only as "zombies feasting on brains." Appropriately said, we were famished and wasted. Wendy ate a little sloppily and got pizza all over her side of the bed, ha!

The maid woke us up at 9am and we couldn't fall back to sleep. RULE: Put up the Do Not Disturb sign right away. We never leave before our late check-out and we never wake up until an hour before out late check-out. We should let the maid know that right away instead of verbally abusing them when they give a knock-knock.

During the day, we went to check out our friends in Shooting Blanks for a breast cancer benefit that they were participating in. The first two bands didn't show up, so we actually coulda played if we woulda been there a half-hour earlier (we got caught driving around the terminal in O'Hare... twice... don't ask.) It was cool seeing them play again. They've got such tremendous energy, and their livers are rock solid. I'm looking forward to rocking with them back in Chicago in November.

The Milwaukee show went fine, there were some friends out we hadn't seen in awhile and our WAMI buddies in Fat Sandwich came out because they hadn't see one of our sets yet. All the bands were good (I did spend a good portion of the evening talking about Iron Maiden with our new friends in KK and the Flying Hamsters of Doom. They've really got the right attitude and have a good sound. Heavy and melodic, they would be awesome with Vile Red or Thoughtcloud. A triple bill of hard rock with three great female lead singers... fuckin' tits. I'd be there. Hopefully, we'd be playing too! Anyway, so there was a lot of good music this weekend, no question. Everyone was talented and entertaining... here's the thing:

Too many bands. That was the problem. Not that any of the bands should have not played, but it's hard enough for a coupla bands with a draw to keep people's attention for 5 hours at a night club, it's even harder when there's so many acts on the bill. Jem (the organizer) really worked her ass off to make the shows successful, but a show that long is really tough on the crowd. If everyone is local then it can work because everyone can draw, but if only one or two acts on the bill are local, then you're going to get a lot of people for one set and a few people for the rest.

We had a great time, both nights were successful for us and we'd do it again because Jem is such a pleasure to work with (#1) and we felt solidarity with the other groups performing (#2). Next time, I think trying to host an event in each city with shows featuring locals might be the way to do it best. Kinda like the GoGirls concerts. However, it was great meeting some bands that otherwise we wouldn't have had the chance to party with and to listen to. So, it was worth it.

Rockstar Karaoke is kickass

Highlight of the week so far: probably going out for Timmy from BoRd's birthday on Tuesday night. We went to Gomeroke at The High Noon Saloon. It's karaoke but with a live band backing you up and I've heard that it's pretty popular. It should be because it's fucking cool. It's a lot more exciting than regular karaoke because if the singer sucks, then at least you can watch the band. There was a bunch of people at the bar, but there should have been about a thousand more. The Gomers have been around Madison for decades now, and they have to know like two or three gazillion songs. What other karaoke place is going to have Frank Zappa as a choice?

None.

I watched Timmy do "Johnny B. Goode" and I only wished he woulda played guitar too, because he quoted some Back to the Future before and after and I bet he knows Michael J. Fox's moves too. It was pretty sweet. I think that BoRd is regrouping for a major assault too, so keep your eyes out for them and if you haven't heard them, click here immediately.

I did a little Rocky Horror up on the mic, it was fun. Next time we go, we gotta bring a huge group and get everybody to go up at least once, for real, it's way better than sitting at home on a Tuesday night and doing "you know what". And if you don't know what, you're lying.

A Good Place to be a Peeping Tom

The Miss Madison pageant is looking for contestants. And this is front page news on My Yahoo! today? WTF?

I'm looking for girls too, I don't write a press release about it.

Do you think that might work?

"feeling young" and "feeling old" weekend

What a boner move we pulled on Friday. We figured that we wouldn't be first... playing in Minneapolis. Check in to the venue was at 5pm. We left Madison at 3:30, yeah, that's right, 250 miles in 90 minutes. Not likely, even driving at the warp speeds we were rolling at (plus we stopped at the reservation gas station in Baraboo for cheap gas.) We were supposed to go on at 7, we didn't get there until 8:30. So we still went on, at 11, and when you're playing an all-ages place, the patrons tend to have curfews (plus, it's Minnesota, those old ladies close their bars at 1, so even the drinkers lack our robustness. Is robustness a word? It's gotta be.) We still ended up making some friends with the cool people there and played a good show, but we could've had a much greater impact if we woulda been there for the slot we were supposed to play at. That's a 4.5 hour lesson. It was probably the sweetest all-ages place I've ever seen (or at least we've played, well The Ranch Bowl might have had better sound, but they also have alcohol so I can't compare.) Two stages, a massive screen in front of the main stage that was playing skate videos, acting as a curtain between bands. Somewhat of an actual backstage. It was better than most bars we play at. The energy and the sheer love of live music that these people were showing was invigorating. Nobody was jaded or a dick, everyone was excited to be there, to be playing or listening to music. Infectious.

Anyway, the moral of the story? Make sure you know what time you're expected to show up and what time your slot is. It's not only important so your peepz know what time to come see you, but it's important to have your shit together and make maximum use of the time you spend in front of people.

Now for the "feeling old" part, so we drive back to Milwaukee (leaving at a very unpleasant 8am from the Cities) to attend a coupla weddings of some friends. All the reminiscing and seeing people that you haven't seen in years was kinda depressing. Some people look like their energy has been drained from them (not the couples getting married, they actually looked like they were looking forward to something... of what, I have no idea. (Sorry, didn't mean to channel our recently departed Mr. Dangerfield.)), half the people are engaged or married, some have kids, I guess I just wasn't ready for all the maturity. Maturity? If I have to hear about people's investments or real estate or some other shit one more time, I'm gonna blow my fucking brains out. If I haven't seen you in ten years, you don 't have to impress me. I'm glad you're doing well, but if I cared, I woulda called you in the fucking Nineties.

The weddings were really nice though. The couples looked really happy and I'm happy for them. I'm probably envious of their happiness or maybe I'm glad I dodged a bullet, I dunno. I guess it's wedding overload lately and it's kinda freakin' me out. I still don't think that I've made decisions that are gonna affect the rest of my life, I always have an exit strategy. Maybe that's the excitement of doing things like getting married, because they're no turning back. But that's not even true, a coupla years back, I read in Ann Landers (like you never read Ann fucking Landers at breakfast, don't look at me like that, douchebag!) that three marriages now is like two marriages. That most people get married right outta college and then realize that they don't like each other. Well, I don't give a shit if people wanna get divorced (but please, try to figure out if you're committed before you pop out some kids) but think about how much money the bride's family has to shell out and how tough it is on your family because you decided to hump your husband's best friend or how you wanted to nail that chick from Peoria you met on a business trip. Have some fucking manners. This isn't Days of Our Lives. You're married. It's supposed to be a "once in a lifetime" experience. At least try.

Anyway, the couples that I've seen get hitched lately look like they're in it for the long haul. I guess I do envy that.

Leaving Work Early

Sweet. I get to leave work early today because we have to drive to a show in Minneapolis and it's earlier than usual. It's a show at a teen center. What's not sweet is I'll have to make up the hours on Sunday. Oh well... Teen centers can be great or they can be totally shitty. Sometimes they are the coolest and they've got open minds and are into seeing live bands and are still excited about music... and sometimes the people are pricks. I used to be one of those people who was excited about seeing live bands. I still am. I love moshing and headbanging. It's like when we went to see Andrew WK at The Rave last year. I didn't feel that I completely experienced it unless I went buck wild, jumped around, slammed some people. When do we get too old for this? When does the music that you hear stop being about you and start being about other people's experiences?

When is music going to stop being so personal and I'm going to start liking adult contemporary? Background music, I understand it's significance but not it's relevance. I don't want to listen to whoever's cool to listen to when you're not in high school/college anymore and talk about new music like it all sucks. I mean, there was a period where I felt like that (I'm still working on getting into nu-metal), and I don't wanna be an arrogant indie hipster or a Jack Johnson pussy or one of those old dudes that's still clinging to their moustache and mullet (well, mullets are gonna make a comeback, trust me on this one, but Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck don't even wear moustaches anymore, what does that tell you?) I dunno.

Anyway, more on that another time. I got shit to do. I bet the show will be cool tonight. I really love the Cities, we tend to meet a lot of great people up there.

Adult Swim Pub Crawl

I was hoping this was gonna be a wild night of Family Guy-antics, good drink specials, prizes, and other cool shit, but it was kinda lame, unorganized and not very interesting. There was some alright drink specials, but nothing different than what you usually get on Thursdays. It was fun, though. But it was more just hanging out than watching Bender shit bricks.

Madison might be the best value town for drinks in the universe. Really. The hot:skanky ratio isn't LA (no wannabe actors here), but it's the best around and the oz. of alcohol/dollar spent ratio is hard to beat outside of formerly Communist Eastern Europe.

We also have more live rock venues now than ever before, with a decent band playing every night. The problem with that is that you just know that some of these places are gonna be outta business soon. There's not much of a weeknight crowd at the rock clubs, though. There's just enough people to make the bar break even on electricity, but you know the bands are making absolutely nothing. Why do they take these shows? We need less clubs, more quality control in booking, and promotion! How about some regulars, too? Would it kill a bar to try and cultivate that a little? They depend entirely on the band to bring people when it should be a joint effort. Some bands think they deserve an audience, that's bullshit of course. But it really needs to be a group effort, more than the band just calling their buddies and more than the bar putting a listing in the paper. What makes shows attractive to new people? Why aren't more bars and bands asking that question?

WAMI Meeting

Tonight's meeting was about sending presskits to festivals, the fact that they only care about money and food sales, etc... Pretty interesting, met some nice people.

Here's the kicker, though. Usually it's a coupla people handing out CDs and fliers for upcoming shows (most of the time it's just us), this time it was EVERYONE. No shit? Yep. Looks like everyone's getting wise to the CD flier. It's a good thing too, more free CDs for me AND it lets me know right away whether or not a band we meet would be a good stylistic fit, shows how much they want to promote, and whether we wanna do a show with them. It's just nice to see everyone network and really work their shit.

When we got back from Milwaukee, Wendy and I went to a joint called the Hody in Middleton. There were like 8 people in the place and the crapola booty music was so loud you had to scream to talk, drinks were watered down, and the ambience was way too sporty. Cute bartenders though.

Seriously, it was a great bar...

...for me to poop on.

Ugh

Last night, I totally dropped the ball. I was going to make up demo CDs and fliers for the WAMI meeting tonight (WAMI is the Wisconsin Area Music Industry, which is a music networking organization that's based in Milwaukee), but after dinner, I decided to have a coupla drinks to "unwind" and was sitting in my room watching the Frontline election documentary on PBS and sorting through emails. I didn't eat much for dinner, I ended up making a bowl of soup with some frozen bread and I obviously didn't eat enough because by the end of my second screwdriver, I was a waste of space. So, instead of doing the bandwork that I needed to do yesterday, I got drunk watching public television.

I was gonna do it after a "short nap" but that nap ended at 8:45 this morning.

Now, I've gotta burn CDs, print the CD labels, and print handbills for our Milwaukee show on my lunchbreak, which sucks ass, because I'm starving and there's no time to make anything good. Plus, I was hoping to take a shower. Actually everyone around me at work was probably hoping I'd take a shower. I guess that's why Jesus made Axe.

Greetings and Salutations

Word up, my friends.

Well, we've decided to join the 21st century and create a Sunspot blog. I've been reading them long enough and always wanted to make the discussion board a kind of blog, but it lacked the personality that a weblog has. Blogs are sweet because they kinda bring the Internet back to the way it originally was (before everything started to be just ads to buy stupid shit like the X-10 Camera (even though that girl on the ad was superhot), where homepages were sites that people put pictures of their girlfriends, their moms, and their dogs. So, loseroftheyear.com is going to be a little more unfiltered view of what we do. We've done this periodically from time to time, by making a Studio Diary of the Radio Free Earth recordings, or sometimes our random posts. But I just want to let you know that this is going to be more than that. For awhile, I've been keeping a private diary on livejournal.com for my personal purposes, but it's not really that satisfying. I hoped for something a little more personally edifying and to be honest, most of the time the things I write to myself aren't even that honest. Sure, I describe my feelings, but I keep thinking about how I'd want to read it later on in life, and now how it feels right now. I had never kept a diary of my life before, I thought it was going to be something really special. I was wrong. So, this is the better option. One thing I can promise is that we're not gonna lie about how things are or how we're feeling. If we're going to give updates on how things are, they're not going to be a sugarcoated pussy-ass version of sweetness and light. Life sucks a lot of the time, we all know that. And the older we get, and the faster that the days go by, and the way that the people that matter to us seem to fade away against the backdrop of accelerating moments, the easier it is to get bogged down in calls to health insurance companies, or days that we thought would be the pinnacle of our effort end up being marathons of passive watching of TV Land or the Sci-Fi Channel, not even fucking PBS where we can tell ourselves that at least we learned something.

It's going to be the life of independent musicians who are dividing their lives between work, music, having fun, and significant others (or sometimes, the sad lack thereof, haha.) This life is too short to lie and be something we're not. Sometimes, we'll seem overly positive, sometimes it'll feel like a bad show is the end of the world. But I guess that's how it works. We want to give you a real look at what it's like to try and create a career out of rock n' roll in Madison, WI. I don't think it'll ever be as good as Dan's rants at ratbelly.com because he was truly a brilliant writer, but we can do our best to tell you what it's like to slug it out in the world of music where there are no massive crowds, there is no cocaine to bullshit through rough nights and unsupportive crowds, there's just the raw belief in your words, and your chords, and your performance. There's just the pure will to create and entertain and enjoy. There's only the nights and the days and the moments that we can survive through.

So, this is loseroftheyear.com, I've had the domain name for over a year and done nothing with it. I guess that says enough in itself.