Saturday night get together after the break and things were hopping good; great playing together again. Rather than revisiting the set, we launched into learning 5 new tunes. "All My Life" (one of the earliest Pulsating Love Flower songs and one I haven't done since 1984 I'm fairly sure), The Nerves' "You Keep Me Hangin' on the Telephone" (with awesome punk rawk vocals contributed by Holly and a cool surf guitar break), Sixpence None the Richer "There She Goes Again" (a sweet little tune) and briefly "Free As a Bird" (The Beatles), as well a very convincing Entropics intrumental, "Entropy"! The highlight of the evening however was learning (on the spot!) Adrian Belew's "b" off the "e" album. I'd sent a YouTube clip to Holly because I love Julie Slick's stage presence and Holly responded "Yes, please"... so we got the basic riff going and jammed a good 20 minutes on that one. This tune is a real proggy departure and quite a stomper. I might need to work the Ditto looper back into the rig, since Ade utilizes looping a good deal throughout the piece. Excitements. Had to take a couple of days off from playing after the session, because the middle two fingers of my fretting hand are properly shredded. And that, kids, is how you KNOW it was a good practice!
Saturday January 30, 2016 Saturday night Hols came over and we began work on the Johnny Love material; several possible gigs upcoming this spring. Hols has accepted the challenge whole-heartedly and two songs are being worked on … “Mandalas” and “Come & Go”. Great joy; I have so missed working with a bassist. Already Holly has added a cool groove to the tunes, just what the music has been asking for. Hoping to really begin gearing up to get a complete set-list down by the end of February; totally do-able. In a few weeks we’ll bring in Scott on drums. February 10, 2016 Progress continues; we've added "Heart of Tao", "Freedom" and "Lost Madonna of the Wasps" to the set-list, with our first gig on April 10 at the Paper Tiger (Taco Land Ram Jam) along with I Ching Gatos, Lost #3 Dinners and a bunch of other bands. Thinking adding "Mysterious", "Human Beings" and "Here and Now" should get us to where we need to be...maybe another cover or two, like "You Keep Me Hangin' on the Telephone" February 19, 2016 Awesome first full-band rehearsal last night, adding "Wish you Were Mine" to the set; sounded just incredible. Man oh man, I am consistently humbled by the presence of these guys who truly have brought these tunes back to life. Sound even better than ever. Continue to work with vocals and solidifying the lead guitar breaks. I seem to have hit a groove in that department. Watching old Joy Division videos provided some inspiration. Definitely getting a cool New Order/Fripp sound, heavily chorused. Next to add a flanger to Hols' bass! February 21, 2016 Two Lovecasters in attendance for a Sunday afternoon working session. We now have nine tunes on the ever-growing set-list! Enough to fill 30 minutes (if you don't count tuning-up). Getting a real handle on the songs. Still trying to find some warm up gigs; clearly I am ready to play! March 5, 2016 Another full-band practice; throwing around a lot of ideas for parts, hammering out some loose ends. Added "Human Beings." "World." "Here and Now" and "I Wanna Be with You" you the set-list. Sounding really good. Reaching out to fellow gigsters for opening slots and wanting to record a little demo. March 13, 2016 Rock-out with Hols to an audience of one. We respond to encouragement. Great little impromptu photo session by our semi-official band photographer, Karma Delilah. Sent clips to Willie, who is digging our sound and the bottom end. Will recommends no flanger, "just get an Ampeg tube bass amp... to get a clean low-down groove tone." That said, totally digging Holly's sound. Comparisons to Sara Lee are not off mark; now to add some of the more Frippy League of Gentlemen-ish tunes, like Marcell/Cruttenden "the Pithy Code". March 19, 2016 Seven songs into the set list things really took off tonight; I don't know what it was but we had an immediacy and urgency we haven't yet had and really rocked it up on Human Beings. Michael Escamilla's words once spoken about me came back to me and this time I really felt what he meant internally: "I miss the old angsty Johnny Love." Definitely was channeling a bit of Arto Lindsay as we proceeded to do more passionate and sensuous versions of "Come and Go," "World" and "I Wanna Be with You." I like this new, hot Lovecasters Band. Tonight we were smokin'. Now to re-work the set list and trim it down a bit for the show. April 4, 2016 Holly and Johnny took another pass at the tunes tonight; definitely on, definitely hot and smokey vibe continuing. Songs have a new intimacy and grooviness... whatever it is we're doing I want to keep it up. Again getting into massaging the tunes and going for more dynamics and passion. We are into a groove; tomorrow hoping for another full band rehearsal for the big show on Sunday! April 5, 2016 More sonic boomba tonight; did not make it to Bang Bang Bar, but a good practice and review. Still tweaking the set-list; more talks with Scott with what to drop, what to keep... April 10, 2016 Sunday afternoon final rehearsal with Scott & Hols (pre-show warm-up) and to refresh my memory as to where exactly those solos go. Felt good to run through the songs. Confidence level is high. Used a strip of blue painter's tape to hold some extra picks onto the body of my Lovecaster (tm) guitar; gig bag packed, tuner, chorus pedal,extra strings and batteries. Good to go. Off to Southtown 101 in the Scott-mobile.... Arrived to hear the last few tunes by the Country Giants and get a sense of the room. Checked-in with Eddie and AC, got our wrist-bands. Hols arrives and we gets to hang with Karl ("Yelders") Yelderman who buys me and Scott a beer. Cindy Osborne performs an enjoyable set and then The Lovecasters are on! Quicky tune-up, plug into amps and we're off... current definitely on, especially by the time we got to Mandalas and Lost Madonna; closed our abbreviated set with Freedom... a bit bummed we couldn't squeeze in Human Beings and Heart of Tao, but a good set nonetheless and Scott and Holly both rocked it! We had a really good response. Great crowd, totally awesome reviews and support. Finally got to meet some Facebook friends in real life (Mark Weber, and Lawrence Michael); Kevin Kosub's band was great. A relaxing post-show hang and even got to meet the great Augie Myers! Can't wait to do Ram Jam in 2017. Now to get some more gigs! Hopefully play Greg's backyard event in June! May 6, 2016 Played a fun ambient gig at the Webhouse on April 24 with Francesco Perdona, Justin Burke and friends; Lovecasters also got to play our set (our second gig!) and we have a few new converts/friends as a result. Hoping to play there again soon. Back to working on expanded set list; excited by the further addition of Another Way of Loving You, No Distance, All My Life, Lost in the Valley and some pretty sweet covers ("There she Goes Again", "Frame by Frame", "You Keep Me Hangin' on the Telephone" and "Free As a Bird"). Looking forward to practicing tomorrow with Scott and Holly. Great show at Big Z's for Kimberly's Rockin' Birthday Bash!! Lots of great music and friends and exposure for the band!
Spent part of Saturday out in the small office re-organizing, cleaning and shuffling papers out in my office. I'm about half-way there on having a more efficient work-space. Still need to re-boot the studio and see where I'm at.
A wet South Texas morning in mid-November. Perfect coffee weather. No band practice this weekend, but I've been trying to keep my fingers moving nonetheless. Tonight we might swing by and check out James Sidlo perform at "San Antonio's First Ever Live Looping Festival" over at Boneshakers.
Enjoying a relaxing three-day weekend at home. Doing a bit of puttering around the house, laundry and actually working on some music projects pending for three years... later, phone calls to Will and to Anthony on possible futures.
And this afternoon, out to the little shed to run through the set list. This year I've been really enjoying the sheer "getting-in-tuneness" with my body and my instrument, the physical joy of just playing. The tactile-ness. Touch. Somatic. It really is about quality of attention; quality is a specific word which has a specific meaning for me, which embodies something precious, like being fully-awake in this very moment. If I am awake to the music and play in the here and now, a certain quality is also present. Attention is the witness. Attention and quality are the twin flames of awakedness/awakening. |