Gidget Gone-zo

On the same day, we say goodbye to Hunter S. Thompson and Gidget.

Yep, just two peas in this crazy ol' pod we call life.

No More Mavis

As it turns out, there's a band in town called Mavis Drive. It's a street out in Etobicoke. I'd heard of Mavis Road, but not Mavis Drive. They've been around longer than us, have a CD out and a web page and everything. They're "Sabbath-style hard rock". So it's back to the name game for us.

I think we may end up going back to The Braveyard Whips. It's original, and it fits the way we sound. Although tonight at rehearsal we all seemed to like The Goers as a name as well. I suggested we could make t-shirts that say "I'm a Goer" on them. But I'm kind of partial toward The Braveyard Whips myself.

I also have to go back to the drawing board on the CD art I created for our demos we recorded at Bertie's. I burned CDs to give to each band member, but I left the drummer's name out of the credits. Oops, sorry Gerry.

So...

I wasn't sure how I'd start back into blogging after the last entry. Jumping right back into some mundane entry about work or the band or something just didn't seem right. "Sad about Mike, but moving right along, this is what happened to me on the subway today..."

Uh-huh.

But, knowing how Mike loved to deconstruct awards shows, let's dedicate this entry in Mike's honour: The Good, The Bad and The Grammys.

Let's start at the beginning: The opening.
Well, I suppose it wasn't as lame as some from years past, but that's about the best I can't say abou it. Does anyone else want to strangle the singer from Maroon 5? The guy just bugs me.
Gwen Stefani. Please go away. This woman cannot sing without sounding like she's sitting on a washing machine on agitate.

One thing about the Grammys is that when people do perform live, you really get see the wheat parting ways from the chaff. To wit:

- Gretchen Wilson: The Nashville marketing gloss is stripped away to reveal a glorified bar singer. Course these days in the music biz, as in the entertainment biz in general, it doesn't matter if you're flat; that can be fixed.

- Tim McGraw: Visually: beefcake. Musically: deflated souffle. Or as some say... all hat, no cattle.

Speaking of wheat and chaff, the Janis Joplin tribute was a prime example. Joss Stone is supposedly the new soul diva? She's got the style, but sorry honey, you ain't got the soul. I'm not even that big a fan of Melissa Etheridge, but at least she has the balls to be able to sing Joplin as it should be sung (not to mention to show up bald, after undergoing breast cancer treatments). Maybe not the Janis heiress, but at least her voice has the power to get her in the ball park. Joss Stone just doesn't have the... stones, to sing that stuff.

Loved the Loretta and Jack show. That was hilarious. One of the night's best moments for entertainment value and for seeing a real musical treasure get her due.

Kanye West. Get over yourself. Tool.

Queen Latifah: Nice job hosting. Very nice job singing that jazz song.

U2. Great performance. Deserved wins. Are there any real rock bands anymore?

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. Big hyped duet. Big yawn. Where's the wardrobe malfunction when you need one?

Alicia Keys: I liked her performances. She poured a lot of soul into her singing. She was spending some stuff there. The duet with Jamie Foxx wasn't quite as great as it should have been, mostly because it shouldn't have included Jamie Foxx.

Ray Charles. Nice to see a legend get his due (especially at the expense of a tool like Kanye West), but it was all a bit predictable and safe.

The big "We Are The World Across The Universe" ensemble: A Simpsons episode comes to life!

See you next year!

Mike Wolf

I was out all evening, and arrived home to the sad news that fellow blogger, regular visitor here, and long-time online friend Mike Wolf passed away last night.

I don't even know where to pack this away emotionally -- other than in the general area of shock and sadness and disbelief -- given that I never met Mike in the flesh. But I've "known" him for about 10 years, going back to the days of the Elvis Costello email list, which I was quite active in back in the day, along with other regular visitors here, Dean and Vernam (Tom). Was in touch with Mike more often in recent years since we both started blogging. I read his blog almost every day.

He had extended a standing invitation to me to come visit and stay with him in Stamford, and hang out in NYC. Wish I had taken him up on it.

I don't know what else to say. We'll miss you Mike.

More Mavis

Here are some more live demos. We recorded these last Sunday at our keyboard player Roberta's place. I took my portable Boss digital 8-track studio over there and we used only one mic, because it only has input for one mic. Didn't have access to a mixer. But they actually sound better than the previous demos when we had 2 mics set up. Go figure.

Took another run at "Masterpiece" (I replaced the old "Masterpiece" file in the folder with this new version) and "Just My Imagination". I added the newer take on "Imagination" to the folder because it's a better recording (despite some cable crackling coming from somewhere), but I left the older one up because it has a nice vibe to it. We also ran through Murray McLauchlan's "Down By The Henry Moore". "I'll Be Back" is a song we've been doing in our set, written by Pat Temple. We also recorded our originals, "Thelma Jane" and the new one, "Saved By A Song" (subtitle: "Lanois Song"), but I'm not going to post those until we have them registered.

I'm playing my Epiphone again, through my little Fender SKX amp. Not a great amp, but it only weighs about 7 lbs, which is I why I got it, to take to rehearsals at Bertie's. Beats lugging my 30-lb Blues Jr. amp on the bus.

Overall, I think these recordings sound pretty good. Boag's voice is more prominent, which is the main thing. Bertie's keys could have be a bit louder. But until we do some multi-tracking, these will suffice. I think we're really starting to find our sound, kind of a country-soul-rock thing.

Enjoy.

[click on the link, then, on the page that opens, go to the "page" icon in the middle, right-mouse click/save file to disc, etc.]

Down By The Henry Moore
I'll Be Back
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Just My Imagination

Sound Off

Sorry for the problems with the Yahoo files. Yahoo says they're trying to fix my Briefcase access problem. It's been several days, though, and nothing has been solved. Took me forever on their Help page just to find a way to contact them. Maybe that should give me some indication of what kind of help to expect.

If you're really interested in hearing the demos we recorded, let me know (click on my name below to send me an email). I can email you a link to the files that apparently works.

Sounds Of Mavis

As promised, here (in the Music folder) are a couple of the live demo tracks we recorded last Sunday at Tim's place. Obviously not professonal studio recordings, but it gives some idea of what we're up to. Don't forget to do the right-mouse-button-click "save as"/"save link to disk" thingy.

If my memory serves me well, we only did one take of "Just My Imagination" and two takes of "When I Paint My Masterpiece", the keeper being take 2. We may try re-recording these. I think Boag's voice should be more prominent. There's talk of maybe doing some multi-track recording, which would yield a much more professional sound, of course, but for now, these will suffice.

That's me starting off "Just My Imagination" with the tremolo guitar. Nice job on the backup vocals by Roberta, Sean and Tim. I think my solo sounds a little thin, and maybe lacks some "verve". I wasn't quite sure how long I'd be soloing. Was expecting Kenny to take over half-way through, but then Boag was gesturing for me to keep going as well, so my solo doesn't quite "tell a story" like it should (beginning-middle-end), but we kind of got into a bit of a groove near the end.

Please feel free to share your impressions. Feedback is always welcome.

Making Tracks

Instead of our usual Sunday rehearsal, this evening we gathered at Tim's place to lay down some tracks for a little demo CD to shop around to club bookers, etc. Tim has a recording board that he runs into Garageband on an eMac. We just set up a couple of mics in the small den off the livingroom and played live -- myself and Tim on guitars set up in opposite corners, Sean on bass in another corner, Boag sat by the wall, positioned between both mics, Kenny sat on the couch and blew away on his harp, Roberta played a little Yamaha keyboard to my left, and Gerry set up his snare in the doorway to the livingroom, so it wouldn't be too loud. A couple of the songs needed a few takes, but we got pretty good performances of "I'll Be Back", "Just My Imagination", "Thelma Jane" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece".

Tim's apartment has fairly high ceilings, and even though the den is a pretty small room, and we were all crammed in there, we actually got a fairly decent sound. Add some reverb in Garageband, and it came out with a pretty nice vibe. Far from Abbey Road, mind you, but we were all pretty pleased with the results. If I get a copy of the disc, I'll see if I can post the results.

Meet The New Boss...

So I met my new boss earlier this week. She was taken around on Wednesday to meet everyone. She seems quite nice. Hard to tell how old she is. Possibly my age or maybe even younger. Late-30s? Good sense of humour, it seems. Isn't a stickler about making sure we come in at 8:30 on the dot, which is refreshing.

Strange though that she didn't hold any kind of meeting with all of us in our department. I would have thought she'd want to hold some sort of pow-wow, even just a brief little pizza lunch just to get acquainted with us all, her new underlings. In fact she was oddly invisible for the remainder of the week. To be fair, I'm sure she had a lot of stuff to get up to speed on, being a newbie to the company. Lots of meetings. As well, there are several people in our department who were still away on holidays last week, so maybe she decided to wait until they returned.

So we'll see how things go. I assume she has the background to do the job, and she seems a lot more easygoing than my previous boss. I liked Phil personally, and I was sad to see him get canned after 17 years there, but the truth is that he could be a real hard ass, and it was quite frustrating to work for him sometimes. Maybe this will be a nice new beginning. Stay tuned.

Blood On The Boardroom Floor

Major restructuring at work today. "Streamlining". "Efficiencies". Those words scare me.

They canned my boss, Phil, Creative Services Director, as well as the director of A&R, a marketing manager, and the web manager. A couple of other people "left to pursue other opportunities". And they're bringing in outside people to fill the newly "streamlined" management positions. Yikes.

Bit of a shocker. I meet my new boss tomorrow. Better get some sleep so I make a good impression.

Promises

All is quiet on New Year's Day
A world in white gets underway
And I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year's Day
I will be with you again
I will be with you again

Under a blood-red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few
Newspapers say, it says it's true
And we can break through
though torn in two we can be one
I will begin again, I will begin again
Oh and maybe the time is right
Oh maybe tonight
I will be with you again
I will be with you again

And so we are told this is the golden age
And gold is the reason for the wars we wage
Though I want to be with you
To be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year's day

End The Beguine

R.I.P. Artie Shaw. Quite a dude.

Mavis Lives

The Horseshoe gig last Sunday went pretty well overall. There were a few rough spots, but a few sweet spots as well, including some of our best playing to date, at least from my perspective on stage (we have a DAT recording of our set, so we'll review that at some point). I always seem to play a few bum chords (like, "oops, that was supposed to be a B and I played an A" -- just mental mistakes), and messed up in a few other places, but nothing I'm gonna beat myself up over. Hey, Ronnie Wood is apparently renowned for playing bum notes, and he's doing all right for himself.

But the sweet spots were nice. We played "I'll Be Back" with a more rock-y feel, more of a snarl to it, more aggression--and it sounded great. Felt great. And our version of "Just My Imagination", which always sounds nice in rehearsal, came off equally well on stage, if not better. Nice vibe.

The Tele performed well in its debut. Sounded good, although I still find my sound at times is a bit dirtier than I woud like, so I'll have to work on that. I played the Epi for a 4- or 5-song stretch in the middle of the set which included Run Rudolph Run, I Can't Dance, Fed Up Blues--songs that call for that fuller sound. Felt like such a pro, switching guitars on stage! :-)

So our debut as Mavis came off pretty well, at least from a band perspective, which is key at this point in our evolution. We seemed to be received generally well, although it was impossible to see the small but appreciative crowd behind the bright lights. A couple of people got up and danced, so that's always good. We didn't hit the stage until about 11:45, and apparently by around midnight--our 4th or 5th song--people started leaving. I'll assume that had more to do with the hour than with the music.

And check this out: we got the blessing from THE Mavis. The previous Thursday night, Mavis Staples was playing Massey Hall, and Boag and Tim went to see her. Boag hung out at the stage door and got to meet the lady in her limo. She said she was honoured to have a band named after her, and she even signed the poster!

There's no stopping us now baby!

Jimbuck2's Picks Of 2004

In no particular order...

A Ghost Is Born - Wilco
Smile - Brian Wilson
From A Basement On The Hill - Elliott Smith
House Of Ill Fame - The Trews
Ghosts Of The Great Highway - Sun Kil Moon (late 2003 - you wanna make somethin' of it?)
The Tigers Have Spoken - Neko Case
All Of Our Names - Sarah Harmer
Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn
Get Away From Me - Nellie MacKay
Let It Die - Feist

Haven't yet heard: U2, Tom Waits, R.E.M., The Arcade Fire, Paul Westerberg


TOP MUSICAL MOMENTS OF 2004:

The Sweet Harmony Review concert, Detroit
Daniel Lanois, surprise appearance at Rivoli Christmas show
Los Lobos, free show at Harbourfront
Neko Case w/The Sadies at Lee's Palace
Broken Social Scene at the Sloan/Sam Roberts fest, Toronto Islands
Blackie And The Rodeo Kings at the Horseshoe
Wilco at The Mod Club
Bob Dylan at The Phoenix
Greg MacPherson at Healey's, NxNE
Hawksley Workman, Toronto Streetfest, corner of Yonge & Eglinton

Darlings

Look who got the "Best Bet" nod in the NOW magazine music listings for Boxing Day.




And to make it extra-special, we edged out the "punk rockers get their big break accompanying strippers". I've been telling Boag that he needs to show more skin, and now it's fnally paying off.
Before ever playing a note as Mavis, and the critics love us already!

Bloody Irony

Assailants kill 28 in Honduras bus attack

[From CTV.ca News Staff]
At least 28 passengers, including six children, were killed when assailants opened fire on a public bus in northern Honduras.
The shooting happened Thursday night in the city of Chamelecon, about 200 kilometres north of the capital Tegucigalpa.
The bus was driving through the neighbourhood of San Isidro when a car carrying an unknown number of armed attackers pulled in front of the vehicle and forced it to stop, police spokesman Deputy Commissioner Wilmer Torres said.
Torres said the attackers jumped out of the car and began shooting. Attackers in a second car fired from behind and alongside the bus.
Most of those on the bus were coming home with bags full of gifts and food for Christmas, Torres said.
The assailants left a taped sign on the windshield of the bus saying they were part of a revolutionary group against the death penalty.

Boxing Day Blow-Out!

If you're in the Toronto area on Boxing Day, the 26th, and got nothing to do, drop by the Horseshoe. We're headlining the Boxing Day Blow-Out, along wth our friend Heather Morgan and her most-excellently named band, and a solo opening set by Amer Diab. That's us, Mavis!




(Thanks to Greg for the poster design. Great job!)

Coincidentally, Mavis Staples is playing in town tonight, at Massey Hall. Boag's going to try to get her to sign the poster. Apparently though, the name Mavis refers to the songbird known as the Thrush.

ma-vis n. See song thrush.
[Middle English, from Old French mauvis, probably from mauve, seagull, mew.]

mavis n : common Old World thrush noted for its song [syn: song thrush, throstle, Turdus philomelos]

Okay, that's a nice association. It's also a common name in Africa, I'm told.

Running Deep

Because of this, I'm working from home today. This is brilliant! Normally I wouldn't be able to do this, due to proofreading duties which pretty much require actual eyeballs on actual magazine layouts. But the only major thing on my plate for today was writing a few SOMs (Selections of the Month), which I can easily do in Word at home. And I finished those about an hour ago. Woo!

Now I get to go trudging through the snow to get some groceries. But that's all right. Hey, it's Canada. It's winter. Trudging through snow...it's in the script.

Had a wonderful time last night at the annual Rivoli Christmas show, normally hosted by Tamara Williamson, but in her absence this year, guest-hosted by the lovely and talented Mia Sheard. The usual suspects performed: Kurt Swinghammer, Lori Cullen, Mia, Kevin Hearn, and the ever-humble and wonderful Ron Sexsmith, who sang a Chris Rea song called Driving Home For Christmas and his own neo-classic Maybe This Christmas. Kevin Fox did an impressively beautiful rendition of Joni Mitchell's River. But the highlight was a surprise appearance by none other than Daniel Lanois. He was apparently just there to meet a friend, and decided to do a number. He grabbed an acoustic and sang "Still Water" from Acadie. A fine, fine time.

I'll go out to my brother's place in Oshawa on Christmas Day. Will spend Christmas Eve alone at home, and that's exactly what I need. Between band rehearsals, Christmas running around, working late, etc, I can't remember the last time I had a quiet evening to myself. Plan to just chill and maybe get back to writing those songs I started but never got back to. Might be a good night for that. Have to be in the right headspace.

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and all the best for 2005.
Personally, I think 2005's gonna rock!

Merry Merry Happy Happy and all that!

Me On Tele

I posted a while back about looking to pick up a Fender Telecaster one of these days. Well sir, that day was Saturday.

I am now the proud owner of my first Fender guitar, a lovely four-year-old, black-and-white, American-made jobbie with a rosewood neck. This is her.

It's real nice. I'm kind of partial to rosewood fretboards, over maple ones, I guess just because I've only ever owned guitars with rosewood. The bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan that I assume the previous owner had installed. It's pretty hot, in terms of output, almost like a humbucker, though it has that Tele snap to it. Only problem is, it's noticeably louder than the neck pickup. It's just that much hotter. So if I were to switch to the neck pickup, or the middle position, during a song, there would be a significant drop in volume. Not cool. I'll leave it as is for now, wanna see how it performs at our gig on the 26th, then I'll look into either replacing the Seymour Duncan with a normal Fender Tele bridge pickup, or maybe replacing the stock neck pickup with a Seymour Duncan Tele neck pickup, which would likely have a similar output as the bridge pickup.

I had had my eye on an incredible and purty pink paisley Telecaster that was for sale in the same store when I dropped in last Saturday. I picked it up out of curiosity, and man, did it ever feel nice! Some guitars just have a vibe to them, and this was one. It's a 1990's Japanese-made reissue of the discontinued 1969 model James Burton played with Elvis in the late-60s, early-70s. (I believe that picture is actually of Burton's, which features the older-style bridge. The reissues have newer, modern bridges.) Maple neck, but it felt pretty awesome to me. If it had been in the store when I returned yesterday, I may just have walked out of there with it instead of the one I bought. But, these pink paisley Teles are apparently hot commodities and well regarded by those in the know, and someone had snapped it up during the intervening week. It was even about $100 cheaper than mine. Oh well, I don't know if pink is my colour anyway, and I was a bit hesitant about making that my guitar. Seems like the kind of guitar you can justify playing only if you're a real hotshot guitar-slinger. I don't really see myself like that. I ain't no James Burton. Tim Burton, maybe. Still, if I ever see another one of those pink paisley Telecasters, I might just have to snap it up.

But I'm pretty happy to be a Tele owner. I feel bad for my Epiphone though. It's stood by me and served me well during my first forays into the world of live performance, and now it's relegated to back-up status. I'll probably still play it for certain songs that call for that fuller sound and the bite of humbuckers. Maybe for "The Fever" or for straight-up blues numbers like "Fed Up Blues", or maybe for "I Can't Dance" to conjure that Chuck Berry thing. Great to have two such different guitars though, to cover off different types of sounds and types of music. They complement each other well.

Sorry for the guitar-talk for those of you who aren't axe-inclined.

Dixie Hangover

Had a merry ol' time Thursday night. Our new keyboard player, Roberta, had a Christmas gathering at her place. She plays in a New Orleans-style jazz band called The Happy Pals, so a few of those folks were there, along with some players from another jazz band called The Silver Leaf Jazz Band. After some obligatory socializing, out came the trombone, tuba, sax, banjo, cornet, snare, guitars, with Roberta on piano directing traffic. What a blast! It was a small basement apartment in a house she shares with her sister and mother, who live above, but everyone was down in the basement. Space was at a premium, but thankfully nobody was skewered by the trombone.

I sat in on nylon-string guitar for a few bluesy numbers (couldn't play real jazz to save my life), and then later in the evening (morning by then, actually), I sat behind the snare and had fun holding down the beat or a while. It was a great time. I left around 3 a.m., had to run like a bugger to catch the bus down Coxwell. Woke up at 7:30 a.m. on my couch with my head on the arm rest. My first thought was 'oh my god, I'll be late for work', then remembered with much relief that I had taken Friday off. My ear was numb for the rest of the day and part of the next, where I had slept on it on the couch. My back was killing me, also from the posture I had slept in, my left calf muscle was sore as hell, likely from the sprint for the bus, and I was hung over like a bastard. A hurtin' unit I was.

Got up from the couch, threw some food in the cat's dish to shut him the hell up, and crawled off to my bed. Woke up around noon to a dreary, rainy day. Rest of the day was a write-off while I recuperated, though I had to slog out to buy cat food and groceries. Felt good to get back inside, warm and dry, and spend the evening watching a tape of the Gram Parsons tribute on "Sessions At West 54th" and the "VH1 Storytellers" with Tom Waits. A night to explore one's inner raindog.