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0361It turns out that you never really know what’s gonna happen until it happens. At least, that’s how it usually goes for us. Next show, what’s gonna happen? There are always surprises along the way. Last night we performed at the Cake & Whiskey Club’s “The Peat Goes On,” at the Ugly Mug Cafe, hosted by the Actor, Director, Producer, all around impresario and “Wunderkind” Carlo Lorenzo Garcia. It was a night dedicated to fine whiskey, tasty cake and “1960’s beatnik stuff.” There was a healthy smattering of perfectly out-fitted beatniks in the audience. How to describe the audience? Beautiful, cool, artistic, sexy & swanky.

What is 60’s beatnik music? We wrestled with that one. If you do a Google search you will find all kinds of jokey, hokey 60’s tunes. Seems by the early-mid sixties, the beatnik thing was basically a fad of coolness. The mainstream culture didn’t take it very seriously. It was right up there with hula hoops, Slinkys, and Silly Putty.  Think Maynard G. Krebs. Berets. Striped shirts. Bongos. Sort of a daffy, goofy coolness. No threat. A sort of “down-market” fashion statement.

We weren’t really up for learning “Bongos, Bongos, Bongos,” so our idea was to go back to the original beats. Ginsberg, Kerouac, Ferlinghetti. These were the voices, a sort of beat counter-culture before the big sixties counter-culture. The beats were kind of “dirty,” they talked about sex & drugs, and spontaneity, and living in the moment, and risking it all for a poem, or a glimpse of some kind of transcendence. Street life & Eastern mysticism mashed up with crazy, mad, emotion and the daily muck of life.  Real stuff. An alternate vision of life in America. A mad, schizoid narrative – overflowing with life, and joy, and pain.

So Carla and I picked a handful of poems including “Footnote to Howl,” and “Mexico City Blues,” and then improvised some jazzy-type jams with the band. It was all sort of off the cuff and spontaneous, and it pretty much worked, it worked better than we thought it would work. The audience was loud and doing their own thing while we played, it was like we were in some mad ecstatic dance with the crowd, but afterwards, we found that some people really did listen, that some of the words really did penetrate. And detonate. It was cool. We gave the beats new life. For a night. It was mad and fun. Surprising. You never know what’s gonna happen… until it happens… – Jammer

 

Footnote To Howl By Allen Ginsberg

The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy! Everything is holy! everybody’s holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is eternity! Everyman’s an angel!

etc.

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wwsp @ the denToday we are releasing “Inner Light” as the first official single from our record 10+1. The single is being launched out into the international radio universe by Danie Cortese Entertainment. The full album is available as a limited-edition CD, or high-quality digital download, on bandcamp! We are so excited to be working with Danie and DCE. “Inner Light,” features just the four of us: Carla, Tim, Rich and I. The song is near and dear to our hearts. It’s a little message in a bottle. Wonder where it lands? What’s the sound of “one hand waving free?” – Jammer

“A voice said to me, ‘I am the one,’ was it a holy one, was it a demon… I follow an inner light…”

 

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jammer & carla @ jerrysWhat do you get when you add 3 Gunnelpumpers to the whitewolfsonicprincess core line-up (Carla, Tim & Jammer)? I know it sounds like a set-up to a joke. But no joke, our Saturday night set at Jerry’s featured 3 Gunnelpumpers (Doug Johnson on Clevinger bass, Randy Farr on percussion and Steve Rutstein on drums). Someone remarked that it all sounded a little bit like “Desire-era Dylan,” which to my ears translates to Rolling Thunder Revue. Which is music to my ears. If we are even anywhere close to that raucous, rolling circus of a band, we are on the right track for sure! – Jammer

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uncommon 4.25A lot of love.  There was a lot of love in the room last night at our Uncommon Ground show. We shared a bill with the powerful, natural force of sound that is Nicholas Barron, and it seemed that all the cosmic forces somehow converged for an extraordinary evening. It was the kind of show where we should have put the audience on stage. There were actors, writers, directors, clairvoyants, painters, poets, film critics, singers, musicians, teachers, and a few amazing “regular citizens” in attendance. There’s nothing better than performing for an inspiring, engaged, audience. What a lively crowd, what a rollicking good time! A great music room, excellent sound, superb food and drink. One of our best outings for sure. Randy Farr from the Gunnelpumpers joined us on percussion for this one, and he provided such a natural groove to our songs, there was an ease, and space between the instruments that just felt so right. We were tight, focused and alive. Nothing better! – Jammer

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vision of lightChicago is a great town for doing the work. Especially in winter. Brief visions of light. An over-powering darkness. Makes you want to stay inside and apply yourself to dreaming. Our band has been busy recording songs in the studio, and writing and rehearsing new songs.

It’s best to just do the work, and not talk about it. I mean, talking about it can kill it. Still, I’m pleased to say that we continue to come up with new songs, and the band is riding a cool groove.

We came up with one song, a Fairport Convention/Celtic blues kind of tune. We thought it would be great to add a Celtic drum to the sound. Tim, our one of a kind bass player, said that he owned one, and that, of course, we could use it. Extraordinary. We are that kind of band! – Jammer

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rollingstone-7475Lately some friends of mine have played that game of naming records that “changed their lives.” It’s been kicking around in my head. Yesterday, taking shelter from the bitter cold, I decided to fill the CD carousel with my choices.  This carousel only holds 5 CDs, so here are the 5.  I put them on shuffle and listened to the tracks in a randomized order.  All the songs stood toe to toe with each other.  All of these records still resonate with me very, very deeply.  They help make me who I am today. Yes, really.

1. John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band — Lennon’s first post-Beatles record. Stripped down, elemental, brutally real. Powerful, razor-sharp, with great production by Phil Spector.  The wall of sound meets r&r minimalism – bass, drums, guitar, piano and Lennon’s amazing, heartfelt, cutting voice.  Still brings chills.

2. Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited— A blast of exuberance. Funny, over the top, genre busting. No one ever recorded songs like these before. Dylan fronts an incredible band featuring Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. A shock. A blast. Mind-bending. Dylan never sounded more engaged, more intense, more alive and funny.

3. Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night — Shakey’s “dark night of the soul.” A death-haunted record. A great shaggy band of misfits pushed to the ragged edge. Raw, bleak, darkly funny. Neil opens a vein.  Spooky and cool.  L.A. Dark shades. Bleary nights. The record is filled with flaws, quirks – perfect.

4. The Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed — The Stones at their darkest. Decadent blues, desiccated country. Perfectly realized rock and roll.  Jagger and Richards at the peak of their amazing collaboration.  Perfectly recorded. Produced by Jimmy Miller.  The Stones made other great records, but this one is complete. Flawless. Thrilling.

5. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows this is Nowhere — Neil emerges into the light with the first, and greatest, Crazy Horse lineup. Danny Whitten on vocals and guitar is the secret weapon.  Long guitar jams. Overpowering sound. Produced by David Briggs & Neil Young. Blistering. Raggedy. Elegiac. When the “Horse” kicks it up, there is nothing better.

— Jammer

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elvis-performing-white-jumpsuit neilyoungIf they call you King, or King of Pop, it’s kind of like they kill you off. I mean, it no longer matters what you do, it’s not about the work, or the art you create, it’s only about who you are and what you own… and well, it’s deadening, invalidating and embalming!

So yeah, it’s weird. I’ve been reading Neil Young’s book, and listening to his records, and learning some of his songs.

At the same time, the Lovely Carla and I have been working on Elvis songs for the upcoming Cake and Whiskey Club show. We have been cruising YouTube, watching Elvis performances, (it’s kind of sad and invalidating to watch the Hollywood and Las Vegas versions of “The King”) trying to select songs we can relate to.

I realized I needed to learn some new Neil Young songs as an antidote to working on Elvis songs. It’s The King and the Anti-King. One wears big white suits. The other wears flannel shirts and jeans. One has a big, over-powering voice, the other has a shaky, mournful, fluttery kind of voice. One recorded lots of songs, but all of them are covers, the other pretty much, or almost exclusively, wrote all his own songs, and his music is a record of his mood, his mind and his days.

One represents glitz and in-authenticity, and the other seems homemade, authentic, full of heart and soul. At least this is how it seems to me. I often find the King over-blown and ridiculous, and Neil Young is always compelling and inspiring. One sort of invalidates the whole pop culture/celebrity thing, and the other seems to be working in another realm, deepening the mystery of living and working and getting thru.

Both indulged in lots of mind-altering substances. Legal and illegal. One died fairly young, (43 years old), and one is still doing great work all these many years later. Turns out “It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” is a pretty good line for a song, but not a great blue-print for living! I’m repelled by the pomp, circumstance and drug-addled excess of the King, (although I do love those early r&r Sun Sessions) but I gladly, whole-heartedly embrace the soul-searching, drug-addled excesses of the Anti-King! – Jammer

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microphone in studioWe recorded a slew of new songs over the weekend at Victor Sanders’ Chicago studio.  It was an intense experience. It was just the core band – guitar, bass, drums, with Carla on “guide” vocals. Two 4 hour sessions spread across Saturday and Sunday afternoons. We laid down basic tracks for 14 or 15 songs. Some of these songs we know well, we’ve played them out live over the last few months, and some are really, really new.

Not sure what we have, we will be listening over the next few weeks, but it felt like we captured some cool sounds. We worked with Victor on our debut CD, and that experience was super-positive, and we all know each other even better this time around. We are trying to capture an organic, live, band sound: big, bold drums, a fat, powerful bass, a warm, lively guitar and silky vocals.

Victor’s studio is cozy; we played together live in a little room, with Carla behind glass. We all wore headphones, we were simultaneously together and isolated in our own worlds. The music was the meeting place! Music was all around us. And the sounds were slightly different depending on where you heard them: in the studio, in the headphones, in the control room.

There is an ease and simplicity in some of our new songs which I hope comes across. I learned this time around that simple can be powerful. Trust the note, trust the words, trust the sound. Quiet and soft can actually be big and powerful. I also learned that “silky” beats “honky” every time.  Little gestures can have seismic effects.

Now it’s up to the songs to stand up and demand to be counted. Which songs will emerge? And did we capture the band in peak form? Did we catch the “vibe” the “feel” the “groove?” Did we capture any moments that transcend the moment? We shall see… – Jammer

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shane macgowanYou do not want to be Shane MacGowan’s liver. You imagine it to be a beat-up and scarred little organ; a poorly-used, spongy thing, old before it’s time. Shane is known to have the “curse of the Irish,” no, not a smaller than average penis, but an insatiable urge to overindulge, and you imagine him swimming in a vast, foam-topped sea of Guinness. You imagine he’s happy to be adrift in that sea.

Shane is also a poet, an Irish bard, a singer and songwriter of great distinction.  Just listen to the Pogues records, especially, (my personal favorites), “If I Should Fall from Grace with God,” and “Hell’s Ditch, “ but also his work as frontman for Shane MacGowan and The Popes. 

Anyway, we opened our set for the 2013 Toys for Tots show at the Red Line Tap on Saturday with Shane’s great song “Fairytale of New York.” It’s something we did last year too, let’s just say it’s a new tradition. Love the song, there’s great poetry, humor and sorrow in those lines…

It was christmas eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me: won’t see another one
And then they sang a song
The rare old mountain dew
I turned my face away and dreamed about you
Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I´ve got a feeling
This year´s for me and you
So happy christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
Where all our dreams come true.

Anyway, the show rolled out perfectly. Lots of music from some great performers, plenty of toys for the kids, and sexy, beautiful and very limber Go Go dancers.  I mean, it was glorious! – Jammer

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Picture 5Recently finished reading  David Byrne’s book, “How Music Works.” An inspiring, informative and thoroughly enjoyable read. I learned something on just about every page. Loved Byrne’s description of how CBGB’s became a “scene,” and was reminded of my own rock and roll education. Growing up I “inherited” and embraced The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and Bob Dylan, but I “discovered” and embraced The Ramones, Talking Heads, Television and the Patti Smith Group.  Not a bad musical foundation! “Hey ho, let’s go!” – Jammer