Archive for January 2006

Few more shows to report on the western leg of the U.S. tour…

3/24 Sokol Underground, Omaha
3/29 Lo Fi Cafe, Salt Lake City
3/30 Neurolux, Boise
4/6 Spaceland, LA
4/7 Plush, Tucson

I’ll be posting these to the sidebar and creating the links later today.  Now we’re just waiting for confirmations in the April 8th-14th range.  And Europe of course, but that’s later-later (in May probably) so it’ll be awhile before I have solid news to report on that.  No questions please!  No autographs!  When I know, it’ll be reported here, no sooner and no later.  I am soooo drowning in a sea of e-mails over this stuff, but the water feels fine.  :-)

Oh BTW, tickets for the April 15th show at the Old Town School went on sale yesterday for OTS members; the general public can dig in starting tomorrow.  Better snap those up if you’re planning to go… I’m sure crossing my fingers for a sellout but we’ll see.

HEY did y’all see my buddy Emmett Kelly playing guitar with Beth Orton tonight (=last night) on Letterman?  WOO-HOO!!  I TiVoe’d it.  Leroy Bach played too, he was on bass but Emmett got more face-time I think.  I’m so proud of that kid… I always tell him not to forget I taught him everything he knows.  (”How could I forget?" he sez.  Ha ha.) Oh, while I’m on a roll with the namedropping: I saw Glenn Kotche, my old drummer and now-member of Wilco, he was at Gary’s benefit show the other night with his beautiful wife Miiri.  I also requested that he not forget that I taught HIM everything HE knows too.  And he played right along with a big grin, rattling off all the reasons why that might actually kinda sorta not be a big fat lie… I mean, if it weren’t for me he might not have met a certain someone which led to him meeting another certain someone which catapulted him into joining Wilco etc. etc.  Oh fuck it, I know I’m just a teeny lil’ cog in a very big wheel but you know what?  I love those guys so much, I’m so proud of everything they’re accomplishing, it just thrills me to pieces.  And I like to joke about it, nothin’ wrong with that.  :-)

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For what I’m pretty sure is the first time in the history of this website in all its many iterations, I have gone beyond the allotted bandwidth doled out monthly by my webhost.  They’re not going to turn it off right away but I do have to pay extra, and that sucks.  The big spike seems to have come courtesy of a well-meaning blogger who posted direct links to an old video of mine which a couple of hundred people then downloaded.  Said blogger had no idea that it would screw me over but oh well, I am glad so many people got to enjoy the video.  Still, in retrospect I really wish they’d just asked my permission to host it themselves fer cryin’ out loud.

Please note: I’ve temporarily removed my video and MP3 folders to conserve bandwidth until the end of the month so I won’t have to pay any more than I have to.  Sorry sorry sorry if you’re trying to download something, but I just can’t afford the extra expense right now.  If you gotta have something before then, post a comment and maybe I can e-mail it to you.

Just for the fuck of it I took this IQ test today.  And… ughhh… it’s a number I’m not ashamed of — otherwise I’d be crawling under a rock right now — but I’m still disappointed because it’s 6 points lower than the last time I took an IQ test.  I can’t remember when that was though.  I know I took one in high school and then another one on the internet, probably in the early-to-mid 90s, and got the exact same number as the first time.  So if this really means I’m six points stoopider than I used to be — when I was smoking pot all day long every day!! and drinking a lot more than I do now — then I’m pretty disappointed.  I know, it’s been twenty years since I was in college and had to exercise my brain full-time, but damn.  Though who knows if this is the same type of test with the same numbering system.  Plus, I’m really tired today and just blew though three or four math questions that I couldn’t figure out right away… those number-series problems always make me want to tear my hair out!!  I probably should’ve just taken wild guesses instead of leaving ‘em as "I don’t know".  Meh.

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Gary Schepers is an old-school Chicago soundman and musician who’s been hospitalized due to complications from diabetes.  I’ll be playing at one of MANY benefits for him, on a bill with Califone and Chris Mills at the Hideout.  Doors are at 8pm and tickets are $20 — all proceeds go directly to Gary and boy howdy, he really needs it now.  There’s more info about him and all the benefits that are coming together over here.  Please come out to one of them and show your love… whether you know him or not, this is a person who’s helped a great many of us Chicago musicians get to where we are today.

My band: Nathaniel Braddock (guitar); Ryan Hembrey (bass); Jason Toth (drums)

I’m all verklempt about all the support that’s bubbling up in Chicago, all the benefit shows that are coming together to help Gary Schepers defray his horrendous medical bills.  Here’s a list of shows in the Reader.  Here’s a longer profile in the music section, from a few weeks ago.  Here’s an article in today’s Tribune.  Another one in the Sun-Times.  There are dozens of shows happening and more being planned.  I’ve honestly never seen anything like it, but I’m not at all surprised either.  Because we, the music community here in Chicago, do tend to pull together in good times and bad.  So I’m going to make one last plea to you guys, whoever can come out to one of those shows, please do.  The one I’m playing is on Sunday night at the Hideout starting at 8pm… I’m pretty sure it’ll sell out so get your tickets now if that’s the one you want to see.  Frankly I don’t care which one you see, just get yer ass out there!  If you’re out of town and you can help with money, any amount would be very much appreciated.  Bloodshot has helped set up a trust for that purpose; donations can be made payable to the "Gary Schepers Trust", you can take them to any National City Bank branch or send ‘em via snail-mail at National City Bank, 1520 N. Damen, Chicago, IL 60622.  I never do this, I don’t beg people to come out to my shows, but this is obviously a time to put all modesty aside and ask for y’all’s help.  I know, this is just one guy and maybe you don’t even know him, and yeah maybe there are a lot of people who need help and aren’t getting this kind of exposure from the local media… but still, that’s neither here nor there.  Let’s do this, let’s help get this guy back on his feet.  Okay, rant over.

Photos by Eric Ziegenhagen

Went on a pilgrimage to Hot Doug’s this afternoon (=yesterday) with Eric and a couple of his housemates, Donna and AbbyG.  This was only my second trip.  Hot Doug’s is famous for some rather exotic choices in encased meats… Donna got the RABBIT sausage dog, and unfortunately something about the smell of it grossed her out and she couldn’t eat it, but everybody else enjoyed their creations.  I had the "Habanero and Tequila Smoked Chicken Sausage with Sweet Chipotle Mustard and Extra Sharp White Cheddar Cheese", it was absolutely delicious.

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I had a pretty fun weekend.  Sarah comped me a ticket to see Otis Clay open for Marty Stuart last night (=Sunday) at the Old Town… Eric tagged along too, and I finally got to meet Sarah’s friend Mark, he was nice.  The show was soooo goooood.  I knew Otis was going to be awesome but I had no idea about Marty.  I vaguely remembered seeing him talk about older artists on various documentaries, but had never heard his own stuff.  I guess I saw the mullet and didn’t think I needed to… what a mistake that was!  Remind me next time not to judge a mullethead so quickly.  He was totally great.  The real deal, no doubt about it.  An amazing musician (mandolin mostly) and a super-crack band too.  Loved every minute.  There was a group of fucking assholes sitting next to us who couldn’t stop cracking up during the most inappropriate times despite our intense glares, but oh well.  It wasn’t so bad that it ruined the show for me or anything.  You gotta wonder what they were doing there though.  Maybe they were just too drunk to give a shit, who knows.

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I dreamed I was a farmer’s wife, and the farmer had a gorgeous pet falcon.  He decided over the course of time that he was going to fly away with the falcon.  I loved them both so much and I wanted them to stay.  So I stood out in the field and waved my arms and threw out corn or something to attract the falcon and make it come over to me.  It did, and eventually the farmer followed it over to me and I flung my arms around him, sobbing and begging him "please don’t leave me!  I love you, you can’t go away!" Then as I was embracing him I realized that under the overalls, the farmer was made out of balloons.  So he was already gone, he was no longer flesh and blood like me.  :-(

Poster by Clinton Reno at GalaxyReno.com… it’s for a show I’m playing in Columbus.

I did the stupidest thing today.  I couldn’t find my damn van!!  I went to where I thought it was, it wasn’t there.  I took a look down the other street, my 2nd choice parking spot, and did not see it.  I started freaking out a little and walking in random directions.  I started walking in bigger and bigger circles around where I live trying to find the fucking thing.  Wracking my brain trying to remember where I’d put it.  Could not find it.  Started thinking the worst, either that it had been towed for some wack reason, and then concluded it couldn’t have been towed, it had to have been stolen.  What the hell was I going to do?  My amp is in that van, I have to get it fixed and go on tour with that amp!!  I started crying.  And it was snowing, but the wet kind of snow that’s just gross and cold, SLOPPY snow.  So finally I decide to take one last whole circle around the block by my apartment.  And there it fucking was, right there where I’d put it on the 2nd-choice street.  It was parked a little closer to the far corner than it usually is, and behind another (bigger) van so I hadn’t seen it the first time I peered down the street.  Stupid, stupid me.  FUCKING Friday the 13th.  Yes.  So now I’ve made a little series of signs to put on my stupid fucking door inside my apartment.  With the names of the streets around me, and "North of…", "South of…" "East of…" "West of…" I figure if I go to the effort to tell my future self where the FUCKING van is, my retardo brain will not forget.  Ay yi yi.

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An elderly and apparently homeless woman passes me on the sidewalk today, looks me right in the eye and earnestly mumbles something.  All I caught was: "Maple syrup!  Sweet syrup ONLY." I smile, shrug and keep on going.  WTF?!

The past few days haven’t been nearly as nerve-wracking as Thursday was, thank god.  Luckily I hardly ever have shit days like that.  I got another ticket, yes, and that fucking sucked — the cop must’ve been a real prick because I had the older ticket right on the dashboard where he could easily see it.  So I guess they feel perfectly fine giving you one ticket per day.  I mean jeez, it’s right after Christmas, nobody has any money, show me a little mercy willya?  But whatever, it’s my own damn fault.  I have the sticker now AND got the headlight fixed, so I’m no longer "running from the cops", though I will need to pay the $100 in tickets to keep that secure feeling!  Yeah.  I think it’s been at least three years since I got any tickets — if I do, it’s always about some sticker or another, or possibly parking and overstaying my welcome on the meter, or maybe due to street-cleaning when I never saw the signs.  The last time I got one, I was all… AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, I WILL NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!!  But it did.  Oh well.  Could be a helluva lot worse I suppose.  Could be raining… ;-)

A few words I’ve looked up recently: soporiphic; aphorism; lubricious; splenetic; fulsome; mien

Words I already knew, but wanted to hear the official definition and/or spelling: livable vs liveable; it’s vs its; apostrophe; hyperbole*; itinerant; prerogative; perquisite; respite; treatise; ostensibly

* When I tagged along with Sheila and Sarah to visit Gary in the hospital, we were joking with him about his hyperbaric chamber treatments, replacing the word "hyperbaric" with "hyperbolic".  It was pretty funny in a very gallows-humor kinda way.