I worked Monday and taught a lesson on my way home. We started work on my student's second original song and I am encouraging the young songsmith to take the reigns more on this one and he is doing a great job. After work on Tuesday I headed up to Minneapolis with my close friend and RVM bassist, Jason Ptacek, to see Midlake's show at the Cedar Cultural Center. The Cedar is one of my favorite venues because it sounds amazing and you can literally stand at the foot of the stage with no one pushing on you etc... The show was really good and I was impressed by the tightness of the 7 member group who often had 4 guitars going at once. The drummer was also very impressive and seemed to play a larger role in the live situation than he does on the records.
I had the day off Wednesday and continued working on new songs as well as the seemingly never-ending laminate floor project. Wednesday night was a Moth Mountain practice sans Evan who was otherwise engaged. Joe and I worked through the 4 finished songs a few times each and were starting to feel more comfortable with the material again by the end of the night.
Thursday night I headed down to Del's bar in La Crosse, WI to drum for Michelle Lynn with Adam on bass. The show was a lot of fun as our weekly rehearsals have continued to increase the amount of material we are comfortable performing together. Driftless Music founder Adam Wiltgen has been kind enough to tape some of these performances, check out Black Hole from our set at the Acadia Cafe last week below:
Friday was spent doing work around the house. I was also able to make it down to the Root Note to catch a portion of the Adam Without Eve CD release party where I watched 3/5 of Mouse Pocket deliver a quality set followed by good sets from a collection of local rhyme slayers including Hyphon and Efftupp. I spent the rest of the holiday weekend relaxing around the house doing cleaning, laundry and playing some music when I could.
I am taking the month of June off from playing any Brahman Shaman shows to focus on recording a talented local band, Neon. More soon...
This past week ended up being fairly busy music wise. Taught a lesson on Monday afternoon. Did a rehearsal with Michelle Lynn on Tuesday evening after a nice long walk with her and Adam as we awaited the closure of the retail store below their apartment. Wednesday I spent the morning enjoying the outdoors while working on the arrangements for some new in progress songs. Spent most of the rest of the morning being frustrated by baseboard trim installation in the house. Got the yard mowed before it got too hot and had a good Shaman rehearsal with Jaran and Joe in the evening.
I also had Thursday off and again spent the morning working on songs and the most of the rest of the day being frustrated by baseboard trim, alas a carpenter I am not. Friday, Joe, Jaran and I headed up to the Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis to play at a Driftless Music showcase put on by Adam Wiltgen. Unfortunately the sound man for the show decided not to show and left the bands to sort of figure out on our own which we did with varying degree's of success. Had a lot of fun drumming for Michelle Lynn during her set and also had a fun electric Shaman set, however, the late night drive home was about 3 hours longer than I would have liked.
After unsuccessfully trying to catchup on missed sleep Saturday morning I headed down to Iowa for another Rearview Mirror rehearsal with the original lineup. Practice went well and it is always fun to hang out with Jason, TJ and Adam all in one place.
Made it back in time Sunday to teach a quick lesson and unload and set gear back up in the studio. After getting most of a large branch which had fallen cut up I retreated to the air-conditioning for a lazy end to the day.
Will be drumming this Thursday at Del's bar in La Crosse, WI for Michelle Lynn and with the other Bad Passenger, Adam Ptacek at 10pm.
This past week was fairly uneventful. No live shows to play. Had another fun practice with Michelle Lynn on Tuesday after work and she has approved of Adam and I calling ourselves the Bad Passengers, so any shows we play with her will likely be billed as Michelle Lynn & The Bad Passengers... "are we there yet?"
Wednesday, we attempted the first official Moth Mountain rehearsal with a lineup of Joe Dawson on Guitar and Vocals, Evan Klug on Bass and me on Drums. It was a fun first practice and I am looking forward to getting more comfortable with the material and hearing some of Joe's new ideas. May try to do a show or two late this Summer or early this Fall.
I haven't been getting as much time to record and work on new ideas as I would like as I have been spending most of my free time installing laminate floor in the upstairs of our house and my limited construction skills and the slanted walls have made the job take longer than it should. However, I do have about five new songs written and I am trying to focus on a more defined groove for the songs. With this in mind I have been working on singing while drumming to spark some new ideas. I was attempting to video one of these sessions on Friday with the Iphone and inadvertently spilled a whole cup of coffee on my studio laptop, bah! Luckily after a few days drying out in front of the dehumidifier it seems to work like new and now has quite the delicious coffee aroma!
This week I will be playing with the Brahman Shaman electric trio (Jaran Carson & Joe Dawson) at an Adam Wiltgen established Driftless Music showcase at the Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis. I am really looking forward into taking in Chicane Theory's acoustic set as well as playing drums for Michelle Lynn's set if I can get up there in time.
Last week was filled with musical fun. I got to teach a lesson on Monday and my student has completed his first song and is now anxious to work on more. Tuesday I had a fun practice with Michelle and Adam until the lightning shut us down. Didn't do the usual Wednesday practice but still got to hang out with Jaran for a bit and chat drums. I spent Wednesday morning working on new song ideas and spent most of the afternoon working on home improvement.
Thursday night Jaran, Joe and I headed over to Ed's No Name Bar in Winona to play some Brahman Shaman songs opening for Danelectric and The Brilliant Beast. We had a lot of fun and I was happy that my new two amp set-up worked out as well as it did.
I spend Friday demoing a newer song as well as spending some more time working on bass parts for the Wiggle Puppy songs. Friday night Jaran, Joe and I headed down to the Root Note in LaCrosse to play two sets, the first as a WigglePuppy and then another electric Shaman set. The show was a lot of fun, I got to play bass for a set, play guitar and sing for a set, if only I had played drums the night would have been a real turkey... Imaginary Jack and Brilliant Beast both played great sets as well.
Saturday was spent cleaning the basement and setting up all the gear that had been brought to the shows the previous two nights, which was a surprisingly large amount. Also got a quick chance to try out the 1960's Zildjian Hi-Hats I got off of Ebay and while they sound awful paired together they sound pretty good matched a variety of ways with my Paiste hats... Sunday was Mother's Day...
I will keep this brief as this past week was pretty routine.
Worked and gave a lesson Monday. Worked and practiced with Michelle Lynn on Tuesday. Had the day off Wednesday, worked on new music and had good Brahman Shaman and Wiggle Puppy rehearsals. Worked Thursday. Had the day off Friday, spent some time playing music and was on 95.7 The Rock in LaCrosse, WI with Dio, spinning a few songs off of Animist. Spent the weekend at my cousin's wedding in IA.
Two shows this coming week:
May 6th @ Ed's Bar in Winona Brahman Shaman Electric Trio w/ Dan Edmonds Band & The Brillant Beast 9pm
May 7th @ Root Note in LaCrosse, WI Brahman Shaman Electric Trio & WigglePuppy w/ Imaginary Jack & The Brillant Beast 8pm
Monday and Tuesday were spent working. After work Tuesday I headed over to Adam & Michelle's new place in Decorah and we attempted our first rehearsal in the new space. I quickly realized that the drum kit that Michelle bought was going to need a little TLC to function correctly, but we still managed to get through a handful of songs before deciding that a room rearrangement might allow things to run a little more smoothly.
Wednesday was my 29th birthday and I had the day off and thoroughly enjoyed it. The early morning was spent sitting outside with a cup of coffee working on a new song. I made it down to Dave's guitar shop in the late morning and managed to find some great bargain items that will fill some roles nicely in the armory of rock. After lunch I fired up the mower for the first time in 2010 and decapitated my fair share of dandelions. Jaran and Joe were over around 5pm and we had a great time rehearsing the Brahman Shaman and WigglePuppy material and are definitely feeling more prepared for our upcoming shows.
Thursday was spent working although I did have the opportunity to teach a lesson to my Decorah student on the way home. I had a couple hours of relaxing at home before heading down to Del's bar to drum for Nick Shattuck from 10pm-2am. The show was a lot of fun, especially with the ace of Bass Patrick Longmire Jr. adding some sweet harmonies. This may be my last show with Nick for awhile as I will be otherwise engaged during his next two shows and then he is leaving for Catalina this summer.
Friday I had the day off and after sleeping in late to recover from the show at Del's I had fun working on some new music before a birthday dinner with my folks in the evening.
Saturday morning I continued work on a new song entitled BigOceanWave. I recorded a rough version of it on my iphone, however it doesn't seem to have reoriented it so it is sideways. Check it out below:
Sunday was mostly spent doing errands and relaxing and teaching a guitar lesson. Pretty great week overall, gearing up for a bunch of shows in May and my appearance on La Crosse's 95.7 The Rock Local Lixx on Friday, April 30th @ 11:00pm.
Monday and Tuesday were spent working. Tuesday night Jaran & Joe were over and we did a split practice focusing first on the Brahman Shaman material and then on the Wiggle Puppy tunes. Things are moving along pretty well and I think we will be prepared for our upcoming shows at the beginning of May.
I had the day off Wednesday and spent the early morning working on a new song "Love it or Leave it".
It was a beautiful day outside and I was happy to get my container garden planted, now to see if anything sprouts.
I worked Thursday but had a chance to see both Adam Ptacek and Adam Wiltgen before I left Decorah for the day. After that I had a great meeting with local talents Neon at the Root Note. These guys write great songs and I am hoping to have the opportunity to help them get some good recordings done this summer at Ghost in My House Studio.
I had the day off Friday and my brother and singer-songwriter Mark Vana arrived early in the afternoon and we immediately set to work on recording nine songs. This project took us through Sunday noon and it was exhausting and rewarding all at the same time.
This next week is already looking busy, but maybe some relaxation time on the weekend...
