Martin with The Trike Shop

The Felsen Rabbit

Scott with The Trike Shop

It was a night of terrific performances.

Next up was the impossible-to-categorize and wonderful music of Matthew Embry.

John Shafer playing at the Food Not Bombs fundraiser.

Recording session with Suicide Lounge. Clock-wise from bottom-left: Joy Mohler, Robert Paul, Nate Butler, me holding tape

 
Sunday was the annual Food Not Bombs fundraising party. Opening the show was Mike Glendinning from the East Bay.

After his set, Mike Glendinning (far right) joined us on one of our tunes.

After our set (in which we had a whole pocket-full of new songs–and  re-worked a couple ”deep catalogue” Trike Shop numbers), was Frezmorim—yes, the klezmer band we fell in love with at Tokyo Garden back in October.

Our klezmer friends Frezmorim tearing it up at Full Circle Brewery.

Good fun, and good food was had to all. Thanks to  Kelly and Tina and all the good folks at Food Not Bombs and Kenny and Joy and all at Full Circle Brewery. As Tom Magill says, “It takes many stones to make an arch.”

Scott gives the benediction as we play on with the theremin.

And then on Sunday, another all afternoon recording session in the legend-in-it’s-own-lunchtime Whispermaphone Studios. Today, my guests were Suicide Lounge. They recorded three tunes for a couple of different compilations. One, the much-looked-forward-to Fresno Covers Fresno project, and the other, a sampling of music from the Rogue Performance Festival. What band expects to record three songs in one afternoon? These folks do. Crazy. But we did it….at least up to the rough-mix stage. They recorded a couple of Fresburgian tunes that have been in their live sets for some time: one of mine (“Your Sad Party Dress”), and one from early 90′s Fresno goth band The Shroud (“Falling Dream”). The third was a tune that Nate had recorded before on a solo album that Suicide Lounge really makes their own.  I’ll be listening to, and enjoying these tunes, for a long time to come.

putting the music on tape

Thanks again to Mike Glendinning for coming all the way down to Fresno to play for us!

with members of The Clarences and Stallone's Holy Rollers . Thanks to Robert of the Clarences for the photo!

thanks to Robert of The Clarences for this photo.

We had a great time playing with some in-town and out-of-town bands
in what amounted to a sort of ‘residency’ at the classic downtown Fresno venue:
Tokyo Garden. Thanks to our out-of-town pals The Condors (Los Angeles), The Kavanaghs (Argentina),
The Clarences (Oakland), Stallone’s Holy Rollers (Bay Area) and our in-town pals: Sparklejet,
Frezmorim, Matthew Embry. (Thanks as always to Toshi & Tommy of Tokyo Garden for their support of local
music!) Here are some fab pix of the good times.

The Kavanaghs--great power popsters from Argentina stopping here in Fresno during their U.S. tour.

members of the Kavanaghs make friends with the theremin

Frezmorim! (a 9-piece klezmer band!) overflowed the stage at Tokyo

Sparklejet. intense. good.

The Condors---smart band, cool people..from Los Angeles.

Robert of the Clarences...creative guy with enthusiasm enough to drive us all! (and it was his birthday!)

Stallone's Holy Rollers--more friends we made in a laundromat in Oakland!

Matthew Embry..local guy back after living in Santa Cruz---amazing voice, amazing songs.

Fais Do Do in Los Angeles (thanks to Cindy Schonmacher for the onstage shots )

John Shafer

The last few months have seen the band playing all over the state. Happily, our efforts at increasing the amount of our  out-of-town gigs has been paying off. Lately we’ve played in Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as keeping up a steady pace in our own home stomping grounds of Fresno.                                   
One of the great helps in getting us into some great clubs lately has been our friends in the International Pop Overthrow Festival. Here are some pictures and moments from some gigs at Fais Do Do in Los Angeles, and in San Francisco at the Hotel Utah. (Watch our website news as we bring a number of these out-of-town bands *into* Fresno.)


and jumping out of order just a bit to show David Bash–the originator and C.E.O. of the International Pop Overthrow Festival (at the Hotel Utah 8-9-12):

The last couple of times Bash introduced the band, he used the term 'synapse bursting'. I can live with that.

and the obligatory post-show meal: this time, it was Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles in Hollywood! from left: Corine, Scott, David, John, Cindy, Martin, Doc, Neptune.

outside the Hotel Utah in San Francisco

picture from Joe Rosato's camera!

thanks to Aaron from the Honey Wilders for figuring out the flash on my camera!

and the ever glamorous (and essential) after-midnight roadside hamburger stop

(thank you Ross Garcia for the Godzilla, and Martin Hansen for the flyer!)

Imagine a local band compilation album that everyone will
be excited about.

It would have to include a lot of bands.

It would have to have exclusive tracks:  tracks that local band fans couldn’t get
anywhere else.

It would have to be, like the FUSE festival, a rich and
diverse sampling of local talent.

Here’s the idea and a working  title: “Fresno Covers Fresno”*, a compilation
in which local bands cover

*other* local bands. Maybe Strange Vine covers
Achievement House. Maybe It’ll Grow Back does a songby Pinkeye.

The combinations are endless, and fun to
imagine.

Over the next few months we’ll be soliciting bands to do
just that: submit a recording of themselves covering another local act (past or
present). In this way: twice the amount of bands are represented,

fans get a unique recording from some of their favorites,
and we all enjoy the fascinating re-interpretations.

Our plan:

Have the project done by mid-2013—ready to promote  FUSE Festival #6.

Selected recordings will be pressed up on a CD.

All submissions  will be available online for download.

All profits will support the FUSE Festival.

To help fund the project, a series of shows will be held at
Tokyo Garden.

The first one is Friday, August 17. Come out to support.

*Audience participation note: we’re considering having
the audiences at the Tokyo Garden shows contribute ideas for the final album
title.

Questions and submissions can be sent to Blake Jones at :
whispermaphone@hotmail.com

Last night, we got down to some recording. We were taping a new song for our contribution to this  year’s International Pop Overthrow Festival’s CD compilation. (This tune might also find it’s way onto the next Trike Shop album, but considering the pace at which we finish and release records, it might be a year or so before that comes to fruition.) The song is “(Dale said) Things Grow in Fresno”, based on a phrase our friend Dale Stewart was throwing around.

We recorded the basic track last night–did about 6 complete takes only to agree that ‘yeah, the first one was the best.’—a typical rock n’ roll story. The next job’ll be to get the harmony vocals, an acoustic guitar overdub, and then the lead vocal.

The rest of the eve was devoted to looking at an even *newer* tune. Maybe a new Trike Shop collection ain’t so far away after all.

playing over the internet at Twirl Radio in Sacramento

Our Sacramento adventure began with Martin and I heading up
the 99. As Martin would say, “It was a good day for a putt.” There had been a
spate of rainstorms on the previous few days, but today, it was all billowy
clouds and intense, blue skies. We were stopping first at James and Raina’s
house in Elk Grove. These are the kind of friends you gotta have: ones that’ll show
you the local record shops, and even let you bed down at their place after a gig.

They took us over to Broadway and 16^th, the site of the
original (as in, first in the whole-wide-world) Tower Records. The drug store
that once  had a record department
destined for fame is gone, but the building with it’s tall, white deco-style
tower that gave it its name, remains. Just next door was a great place simply
called “Records”, cuz that’s what’s inside…and we dug through a bunch of ‘em—best
prize might’ve been James’ “Star Wars Funk” album…just for the cheesy cartoon
cover.

record store cat

Next, it was off to see Mike Lidskin (and the rest of the
band) at Access Sacramento, home of the internet-streamed show “Twirl Radio”. Mike
was his usual super-welcoming self.  We
played a couple-three songs, talked a bit on-air, and generally had a
Twirl-of-a-Time. Simultaneous to Mike playing a bevy of independent pop-centric
music, there’s always a rapid discussion happening on his Facebook page. Here’s
where many of the folks who’s music he
plays and their friends connect. It’s a real nexus for this fervent
bunch of popfans—people chime in from all over the U.S. and all over the world.
Music is traded, connections made, and plans are hatched.

When it was time to go, Mike’s gracious and lovely wife
Amber gave us directions to a good place to eat and relax until we had to get
on to the gig.

The show itself was at Shine, a café in an older building that
was cozy, arty and inviting, with an old fashioned counter/display case that promised
plenty of good eats and drinks.

Trike Shop at the Shine Cafe' in Sacramento

I believe they were set up primarily for smaller, acoustic
acts; special thanks to booker Josh and owner Rena for letting us stretch the
template a bit.

It was a good gig: we got to play in a new place, made some
new friends, had some fun playing an extended set, and it seemed like
management would be happy enough to  have
us come back…so it’s all good.

It’s true, we started off a bit tentatively (or maybe it was
just me), ‘cuz: feeling out a new place, playing a bit soft at first so as not
to overwhelm the PA, having a smallish crowd that hadn’t yet built for the
night ( usually on  your home-turf, even
smaller gigs are well-peppered with friends to hoot and holler you on to
something good)—all of these things kept me from finding my groove for the
first couple of songs..

But in the end, the crowd
built up a bit, and we had some people singing, clapping and reaching a general
state of Rock Ecstasy (ok, but on a really small café’ scale! [laughs]) –and BONUS:
Mike from Twirl came out and sent the show streaming live on the ‘net—thanks
again Mr. Lidskin!] special note: the band that closed the night: J.B. & the Wash..were a young band with a soulful singer-songwriter and a funk-tight bass&drum combo—check them out if you can.

The evening was young, and there was more fun to be had. We
went down one block, and around another, and we were at the Torch Club. As luck
would have it, Fresno boys the Mofo Party Band were bringing their
Chicago-style blues to Sacramento that same night. This small club (reminiscent
in mood of the original Olympic Tavern in our own hometown), was full of folks
dancing and eating it up. After having a couple of unsure moments playing at
Shine, it really made my night when in an extended set-closing number, Bill
Clifton was out in the crowd doing the whole bit: walking on the bar, playing
amongst the crowd, and when he came upon me, he slipped his guitar strap over
his neck and handed me his guitar—oh man! Nice. I slipped it on and played
over a few choruses. (If you’re reading this Bill, that *did* make my night!)
In the words of the Mofos “We’re known all over the world and in parts of Ripon.”

on the club floor at the Torch Club with the Mofo Party Band --Sacramento

And still more was to come. Martin and I headed 15 minutes
south to James & Raina’s place where we were promised a late night in their
lounge…spinning the records we’d bought and having some nice and cool, after-midnight
refreshments. Thank you James & Raina, for spoiling us well!

James and Martin and Raina

So, thus ended this music-filled April weekend.

And now, a short epilogue: On our drive home, I did have to slip in the appropriate
Creedence  CD as we approached Lodi. But this time, I took the off-ramp…and I
tells ya, Lodi is a *lot* more charming than I’d ever expected….for you Central
Valley folks, it’s a lot closer to ..say Hanford than maybe…Chowchilla (which
is more of what I expected from the tone of that old song). There’s a nice and
very alive downtown with 2-3 story brick buildings that have that early 20^th
C. look and tree-lined streets with gracious, old homes that look to be from
the teens or twenties.

my newly-signed old LP copy of "Ragin' Full-On".

Friday began a musical weekend deluxe! On this evening, Fulton
55, the downtown Fresno club at which we’d just played that KFSR benefit, was
bringing in punk/funk/indie legends, fIREHOSE. Mike Watt and crew have been
heroes of mine for decades now.

Way, way, back-when, on a day-off putt to Ventura to check out
record stores and what-not. My old pal Ross lit up our freeway ride in his VW
bus with a  cassette of the Minutemen.
Here was a band of such energy, rawness and creativity, *and* it sounded like
three actual human beings playing the music they loved in someone’s living room
(and believe me, that last was a rarity in the mid-80’s). I loved it and felt
an immediate kinship (esp. since most of our music happened in a living room).
Later, the Minutemen lost their guitarist D. Boon to a road accident.
Eventually, along with Ed fROMOHIO, the surviving Minutemen formed fIRHOSE.

I only had the chance to see them live once before: at
the Palomino in North Hollywood. A few memories from that night still stick:

*Mike Watt breaking his bass—Nobody does this, esp. to a P-bass.  You can drive over one of these things with a
truck. And I don’t mean he pulled a Pete Townshend. No, just by his relentless
smackeroo-ing, he busted the bridge or the nut or something—had to borrow the
opening band’s bass.

• They covered the
  Who’s “A Quick One”, not once, but twice! They had said that they were
  recording that night for a CD release. When they did the song for the second
  time, for their encore, I thought they were making sure they got the perfect
  take for the record (though both takes were breathtakingly aggressive and
  wonderful). And when the record came out (Live Totem), it wasn’t on there!
• After the show,
  Watt didn’t go off to any back-stage or private retreat, he stepped off the lip
  of the stage, and started talking with the mob of kids around him. He was like
  the cooler, experienced, older Uncle of Indie. So down-to-earth. So proletarian.
  I loved it. Made a big impression.

It was this everyman approach
that made this impression so deep. Their “Indie” wasn’t a marketing term/radio
programming category, but Indie as a way to conduct your Music Life—real people
doing real honest things independently– bypassing marketing firms,  and fakeness. (One time we sent a tape of our
then-band to SST Records. We got a handwritten note from Watt himself…isn’t
that crazy? I hope Ross still has that somewhere…)

Stuff that stuck with me
about last Friday’s show:

• George Hurley ,
  the drummer, volunteering to get up out of his comfy pre-show relaxation chair
  and go look for Ed when I was seeking a full-set of autographs on the LP I was
  lugging around. I had to convince him to sit back down. He nodded but said, “We’ll make sure it happens.”
  Crazy, right?
• Watt watching
  Hurley the entire show. The entire show. Ok, not when he did the vocal on the
  maybe three songs he sang on, but the rest of the time.
• There was the occasional music cue: a nod, a mouthed “One, two, three..”, but mostly, he
  had a funny smirk on his face. It was all eye-contact and beyond-lingual
  communication with this guy who’d been his friend and musical partner since kid-times.
  Like some older guys sittin’ on the porch, watching a crazy world, and giving
  each other knowing looks.
• I finally got my other two autographs from Ed and Watt as they came off the stage –my pal Fran
  laughed and said “ah, I’d never seen the fanboy in you come out before this!”(Actually
  owner Tony Martin helped me get the last of the three by handing the record
  cover over to Ed as he was gathering  his guitar and pedals and stuff off of the stage.)Watt looked tired—a couple weeks of straight gigging and they were about to go on to Coachello the next day—not sure if he was trying to conserve his energy, or the touring had been exhausting, but he graciously signed a few autographs and posed for a couple of pictures with folks. I wish him well, and as it is with heroes that you don’t know personally, you can’t really *tell* them thank you so much, but you sure do feel it.

see "The Golden Strings of the Forbidden Planet"...part of this year's Rogue Performance Festival--the first weekend in March.

I’ve been spending hours obsessing over these tapes– every single night for about two weeks.

These recordings are the first fruits of our labors. Ellie Choate (harp), John Shafer (percussion), and myself are working up a body of material that will feature the harp and the theremin. One of our first public performances will be for the 11th annual Rogue Performance Festival. My friend Brad Hufft, through the non-profit new-music assosiaction “Orpheus”, is sponsoring this show, along with some others in the festival. Our recordings, along with the works of some local electronic music composers, will be released on CD compilation available in March. Our show is called “The Golden Strings of the Forbidden Planet!”..click here for more info.

So, on top of trying to put together a set of music to perform, we’ve also been hustling to get these tapes in shape. And while the theremin can sometimes be forgiven its rather ….unique approach to ‘tuning accuracy’ in-person (you know, with all that magical arm waving to distract the audience), on a recording, you need it to be just right—and this is straight to analogue tape. No Pro-Tools. No ‘auto-tune’. This brings us back to those words “obsessing” and “every single night”. But as of this morning, when just a couple more lines were re-recorded, and one last piece mixed (for the…upteenth time), it is signed, sealed and delivered.

Here is the list of our first performances. Come see them all—and buy the CD!

Sun., Feb. 26 at 3pm in the Ellipse Gallery of Fresno State’s Henry Madden Library.

Fri. March 2nd  6:15pm at Veni Vidi Vici–part of the Rogue Performance Festival

Sat. March 3rd at 3:45pm at Veni Vidi Vici–part of the Rogue Performance Festival

Sun. March 4th at 2:30pm at Veni Vidi Vici–part of the Rogue Performance Festival

Thurs. March 8th at 8pm at The Tower Theater–opening for Herman Rarebell of The Scorpions

So , we’re pursuing this goal: to establish a toe-hold for the Trike Shop in the Bay Area . Little did we know
it would lead us to The Great Laundromat Gig!

I knew it was gonna be a good
day when , after finding the Norge Laundromat on Grand Street, we found parking right away! (That’s always a good thing
in the Bay Area.) The Norge itself was classic:
cool old machines with the cool old logos and looks—these
machines were definitely analogue not digital, tube not transistor (har har).
The ladies who ran the place were very cool as well. The place seemed like a
very neighborhood-y place—they knew the customers by name, and seemed to be
friends with many of them. So much so, that they were happily open to the idea
of a rock show in their store!
Thanks to the Clarences (Robert and Krystal) being one of
these friend/customers, it all came together.

We’d met The Clarences through our mutual connection with the International Pop
Overthrow Festival (now, how many times has that venerable organization played
this role? All you have to do is read this blog to know the answer. Thank you
IPO!).

We showed up, met the good folks of the establishment, and began setting up all
the doo-dads that make a music show (microphones, keyboards, speaker cabinets,
etc.)

The Clarences are a keyboard duo. Their glam-rock costuming and the action figures that
decorate their gear add to the spice, but the real substance here were the
quality songs. My favorites included one of my fave  pop devices: the counter-melody– Krystal’s
vocals coming in strong over Robert’s.

The Clarences!

Not only did their music satisfy, but their
hospitality was greatly appreciated.

A fun bonus was to have Fresno ex-pates John
Paulson and Paul Ruxton (ex-Central Valley trail-blazers in the world of
New Wave with their band The Directions) come by (along with a bevy of family
members) to see the show.

Our set was solid (even if I started off with a terribly out-of-tune E string).
John tore it up as usual, Martin laid down his flawless bass grooves, and
new-to-the-group Scott Hatfield did a terrific job. (This was Scott’s second
gig with us. He’s filling Leland’s shoes for most of our out-of-town gigs these
days.)

Scott and the soap machine

We even had one of those heart-felt stadium-rock moments with the
laudromat folks singing along to our rendition of “3 is a Magic Number” –even having
our new friend Tasha come on up and sing along!

She knew the verses of "3 is a Magic Number", so we had to invite Tasha up.

After the music, we headed into the heart of downtown to check out the newly famous
Occupy Oakland. It was a sobering experience. It had began to drizzle outside by
the time we got to the tent city that filled the square outside of City Hall.

There were some young activist folks, but a good deal of the people here looked
like they probably lived like this year-round. The area’s homeless were making
up a goodly portion of the crowd. Considering that this protest is a reaction
to the increasingly unbalanced proportions of wealth and opportunity in our
country, that made a lot of sense. I don’t think I felt inspired; I felt sad.
Here was a serious problem with not much hope of any immediate or easy answer.

Martin at Occupy Oakland

I wonder if we as a people have the moral will to confront it and deal with it.
It seems we often try to excuse it away, blame it away…or worse yet as we see
here in Fresno, sweep it away by destroying yet another ad hoc camp.

We spoke with a few people. Walked around. Checked it out.  My daughter had been  here at a more euphoric moment—the
Wednesday before when, as she described it, thousands of people were dancing in
the streets. (This was earlier in the day. It wasn’t until much much later that
apparently some things got out of hand—blame who you will.)We
ended our time by driving up to Berkeley, getting soaked (it was really raining
by now),  rummaging through Amoeba
Records on Telegraph, and then by having some Thai food just down the way.

The way home was fine, but I was exhausted. And why do I insist on occasionally
missing that turn-off for the 152….ach, that’ll add a few miles to you trip.

Thanks again to the Clarences. I look forward to setting up some equally cool and
creative kind of gig again soon!