Alana..other stuff

Amazing time last night at Rumba for the Alana Howard beneft. Alana looked great, I was so amazed how good she looked her recovery has been amazing it seems. Apparently she has had the fastest recovery at OSU hospital from that sort of injury or something like that...I heard it through a second hand source so did not get full details, but wow! The support was amazing last night, I would love to hear an official number on what was raised monetarily but if everyone paid atleast $7 at the door they had to have raised atleast $700, here is hoping it was more than that! I had a blast playing with Mat Monta and HCB, Andy Shaw Band, and a surprise performance with Jesse Henry and Steven Fox of the Spikedrivers (with Tom Lasky from Floorwalkers on drums). The Spikedrivers were booked but for some reason could not play and I saw Jesse, Steve, and then later Tom jump up on stage on drums. I went up to the stage and was like "I got my fiddle...just in case..I'm just saying if ya need it" and good ol' Jesse was cool enough to let me up on stage. I have wanted to play with Jesse/Spikedrivers for a long time so I was really happy. I really wanted Jesse to pull out some tunes from their cd (I know their cd like the back of my hand) but instead he pulled out some lesser known (atleast by me) ones like "Dicks Den Waltz" and "Monster Trucks" ..I love Jesse, hell of a songwriter. At one point Steve was playing "Mountain Dew" and I could not tell what key he was in cuz some times the way he sings is kind of indescript, awesome ...but sometimes I can't tell what key he is in. And Jesse's guitar was not loud enough, I had a solo and luckily was in the right key (G). Anyway, good times had by all it was like a family reunion w/all these awesome musicians in the room, maybe a giant jam with everyone in the room woulda been the cherry on top...or maybe just a cluster fuck..ha. ASB plays Saturday with Jason Quicksall at Thirsty Ear, I'm off to see Floorwalkers LAST Ruby's show.

For Alana

Tonight there is a benefit for our friend Alana Howard at Rumba. Alana is a good friend who was in a sledding accident recently and was in the hospital for quite a while. She fractured her skull and was pretty badly hurt. So tonight the great music community of Columbus will have the first (of hopefully many) benefit to help with some medical costs for her. Here is the facebook event. I will be playing in Matt Montas band as well as Andy Shaw Band. Floorwalkers, Spikedrivers, The Wet Darlings, Jason Quicksall, a ton of good bands so please come out and donate, $7 at the door but donate more!

Lately..

Thursday night ASB played at Thirsty Ear Tavern with the LES Crew. These guys are sooo good, another grrrrrrreat (Tony the Tiger anyone?) C-Bus band, man this city is oozing with talent. This hip hop crew started as a three piece and grew quickly to a live band with up to eight members. First of all, everyone in the band but the guitarist, drummer, and bass player raps...WTF? AND they are all good, and one of them in addition to rapping, Ev Jones has a beautiful soulful voice ala Ceelo. Oh yeah, and DJ Red Sun also has a great voice, this band alone is oozing. My good friend Carlos, a recent import from New York, who is a great supporter of ASB is now helping out with management for LES. Not only is he great support, he also is a great performer. Carlos hopped on stage w/LES and blew the roof off the place, such energy, look for good things from him in the past, he is currently working on his own band with members of LES and other local C-Bus favs. So before I got on that tangent, the Thirsty Ear. It was a great night, tons of supportive people. I worked all day today on a video that will be coming out soon using footage from that night. Thanks to Ginger and everyone else who helped film the night.

Friday night I played with Matt Monta and the Hot Coal Band at Mickey's Bar on 5th in Grandview. This place is interesting, Bree (singer/cello/goddess in MMHCB) described it in a text asking people to come out to the gig Friday as "just like grandpa's basement". Only such characters come out at Mickey's, you have to just go to experience it. It is normally a karaoke bar but has a decent sized stage and room. The Resistors played after us and jammed out the rest of the night. We ended early at around 11pm and I left during the Resistors set to catch Tony aka G. Finesse and his N.S. Crew. AGAIN, with the live hip hop bands, so good to see this stuff coming up in the local scene, and by that I mean the scene I am involved in. I am sure there have been tons of live hip hop bands (have there?) grace Columbus but I am just getting hip to this and I love it. I know Stretch Lefty has been doing there live band hip hop thing for a while which I love. Also rappers like Envelope and Catalyst blow it up but I don't believe they have live backing bands. For me it makes a huge difference. I caught the last part of G. Finesse's set at Ruby's and it was great. He even threw in a cover of "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" by Chili Peppers and spit his own verse on top of it, niiiice. Tony has amazing stage presence and you can feel his passion for the art. The horns (Evan Oberla, Terrence Farmer, and Colin (forget his last name)) in addition to the guitar, bass, drums (Mike Twice shout out) just rounded the groove out. Oh, and I missed Kristen Marie but if there weren't enough going on for you, she plays cello with this hip hop crew. Something to definitely see.

Tonight I play at Bernies, last time I played there there was barely any sound equipment, I think the sound man was sleeping during our set, and plenty of charm...if ya want to call it that. Actually, if ya put that stuff aside Bernies aint that bad. It does not pretend to be anything it is not, a basement under High Street on campus. The vibe is usually pretty chill there and you find some cool people that are into the music so I am excited to see what happens tonight. Matt Monta and the Hot Coal Band can be found here if ya haven't heard it.

I am having a songwriter night coming up at my house where people gather around and share new songs/old songs or whatever they want in an acoustic setting. It has been a great thing every time I put one together. This time it is a pot luck, let me know if you want any info about this, anyone can come. My duets project is coming along as well, not sure if I wrote about it but Kerry Henderson and I just recorded a track. 5 tracks down, about 5 to go, ideally. That's it for now PEACE.

The Floorwalkers

The Floorwalkers - Behind Beyond from Ohio Sessions on Vimeo.

You can not deny Jon Elliot's voice is smooth as butter, rich as chocolate, and as smooth and silky as anything. The Floorwalkers have been doing their weekly residency at Ruby's on Summit for two years or so and are about to have their "Last Stand". They recently did some sessions with Ohio Sessions, can't say enough good things about Andrew Baasch. I picked this video because it is a newer tune and I just really enjoy it. The comic relief halfway in provided by good ol' Theo is also a plus. I particularly like the video of them on the Cota Bus as well, if you have not seen them in a while please go check them out soon. The last Ruby's would be a great one to go to. Yes, it is a Wednesday and I don't care you have to work early. Look for big things from these guys, they are super nice guys and really talented, humble musicians.

Super Desserts

Super Desserts - Gotta Lotta Sun from Ohio Sessions on Vimeo.

Super Desserts is a really cool band. All acoustic, fiddles, banjos, woodwinds, poppy, catchy, fun, and well arranged. Any more adjectives to describe them? Sweet I guess. I actually sat in once with this band at a gig at Wild Goose. I walked into the space, and my friend Dan (viola in S.D.) asked me if I wanted to hop in on some violin and luckily they had written parts. I jumped in and it was one of the funnest most spontaneous gigs I ever played. This is one of their Ohio Sessions videos they did. It is a great video and if your from C-Bus you may see some familiar faces in the whistling part. Nice whistling there Tiffany, Monica, Kevin, and Jess..ha!

Phantods - Lone Highway

"Few musical groups can jump from genre to genre and still sound like the same band. Phantods pull off this feat several times within each song, cherry-picking sounds from metal to punk to polka to surf rock to cabaret to circus music and back." I think this quote makes sense. I would say it is like prog-rock/circus/really creative guitar riffs with amazing soaring female vocals over it. A band that is hard to put into a box. That is music that takes chances, is creative, goes outside the box, but at the same time pulls you in with catchy lyrics and vocals and singable songs. By the way the bass and drums (Keenan, you are awesome) are also really great as well, I just mention the guitar and vocals because they are the most catchy part of the songs in my opinion. So anyway, good stuff I saw this show at Skully's (from the video) and it was packed, these guys are just awesome. They just got a song on the Real World, nice. Check it out here at minute 30:17..just skip over the episode, it's not worth the watch but the music is great! :)

Pezzetino