Kaveh Rastegar: Blog/News

I'm in Verona this week playing seven concerts with Ligabue at the Verona arena. We played the first one last night. We're here playing with the Verona Opera Orchestra. I've had such a great time working with everyone. It's such a beautiful production and I'm really proud to be a part of it all.

Here's a clip from the crowd of us playing Certe Notti. I love this because even though these guys are in the back, they still seem to be having a great time. And it is all really beautiful to watch:

Hi Everyone -

This Tuesday Kneebody will be playing at The Temple Bar. It's going
to be our last concert there and it will probably the last time I'll
ever play at The Temple Bar because they've announced that they'll be
closing at the end of this month.

It's been really strange thinking about that over the past week. The
Temple Bar has always been here while I've been living in Los Angeles.
They opened the year I moved here. Before it was the Temple Bar, the
bar at 1026 Wilshire was called At My Place. I never knew it as that
but I heard that in the seventies, while he was here in LA living his
"lost weekend", John Lennon played there.

My friends and I were some of first bunch of musicians playing at The
Temple Bar when they opened. For the first few years I think that I
was there almost every night of the week; sometimes playing in three
bands in a night. At least it felt that way. I was there when we
put together a 20 growing to 30 eventually making it to a 70 piece
orchestra filling the bar. I played with some of my childhood heros
there. I was also there on many nights playing duets or trios with
singer songwriters. I also heard some of the most world class
inspiring live music I've ever heard there.

Early on, the owners Louie and Nettie Ryan and their booking agent
Megan Jacobs created an atmosphere that embraced the music scene and
the musicians that helped create it. There were many times when
Louie and Nettie would tell me and everyone else that we were all
family. That was their way to nurture and reassure all of us. And it
really did make me feel special to know that in this giant sprawling
city at the edge of this big continent, there was a place where we
could all play, anytime we wanted. We all felt how special it was.
And with music communities being as close as they are, word spread
quickly. Soon, the Temple Bar became a great destination for touring
bands from other parts of the country and the world.

Kneebody, in it's earliest stage played there every Monday. It was
during the time of those Mondays that we were able to write and learn
a lot of our songs. It was a weekly composition deadline for us to
write new music and try it in front of an audience. If we didn't
have that comfortable workshop environment, I'm not sure what the
band would sound like today or if the band would still exist.

Over the years, everyone started getting busier and busier.
Between spending time on the road, in the studio or just being
somewhere else that life has taken me, there have been bigger
intervals between my gigs there. The Temple Bar has always been a
place that I've kept coming back to. It definitely has been that way
for Kneebody. It's always been the best Los Angeles venue for us.
And because of how easy it's been to play there, it's been a palce
that we've kind of taken for granted. We've been able to create some
great nights of double and triple bills there inviting our friends
from out of town to play with us. It's going to be tough to find a
new place to play.

I want to say that for the record, I'm very happy to have played
there and am grateful to Louie, Nettie, Dexter, Swan and everyone
else of the The Temple Bar cast over the years. Thank you all so
much. It will be hard to picture anything else there at 11th and
Wilshire.




Here's the info...

@ THE TEMPLE BAR
Nels Cline w/Norton Wisdom
Todd Sickafoose's Blood Orange (featuring Jenny Scheinman)
Kneebody (Minus Shane)

Tuesday, September 9th
$10
ALL AGES
Doors open at 8pm
1026 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles
Info/Tickets: 310.393.6611 or www.templebarlive.com

www.kavehrastegar.com
www.kneebody.com
www.myspace.com/kneebody

There is an election coming up. Tonight I was trying to have a conversation about the Republican Convention and I realized that everything I was saying was something someone else said on the radio I was listening to that day but in a more watered down-less fully understood Kaveh sort of way. If you were to ask me to really defend or elaborate on what I was saying, I would most likely repeat what I had said and eventually start muttering hoping that you were satisfied with my answer. I am out of touch with politics. I am really left with knee jerk reactions to the candidates and I’m feeling like I really couldn’t say why I’d vote for one candidate over the other let alone argue with someone who really knew what they were talking about.
Does anyone else feel this way? Why would you vote for Barack Obama? Why would you vote for John McCain?
Anyhow, just now I found a website that could help me form some more opinions or could also give me more stats to draw from if I needed them. It’s called Project Vote Smart (http://www.votesmart.org). It has the biographies and voting records of all of the members of the congress as well as some other useful stuff.

If anyone else has informed opinions on these guys or places where I could make some, let me know!

Thanks

OK, I’m on a Paul Simonon binge right now. I think he’s my favorite bass player. I can’t stop listening to The Good The Bad and The Queen. It’s a really great artist collaboration record. DangerMouse is the producer. He never over does it. The songs are all there, bare elements and bits of sound and beats that sit perfectly. The guys playing are really showcased. You can hear where they put beats how they phrase and what notes they choose… It’s a total Paul album. His bass lines are right there in the front of every song and they are stark and beautiful. Also his illustrations are very very cool. I just read an interview with him in bass player (www.bassplayer.com/article/paul-simonon/Aug-03/784). In it he reveals a lot about his relationship to music through the Clash and the reggae he was always drawn towards. Listening to this reminds me of talking to my buddy Lonnie Marshall who played bass with Joe Strummer on the album “Earthquake Weather” after the Clash officially dissolved. He said that when they played in London on that tour, people would yell at him on stage and yell “Where’s Paul??!!!”. He said that later when they were playing in Japan, he finally ran into him at a show and that Paul was a really nice sweet guy.

Here's a clip of my step dad's band Thinking Plague at a concert they played last spring. This is an old song of theirs from the album "In This Life" I think. The dog is Bob Drake.

Here's the first song, my favorite song from Joe Strummer and the Mescalaros first album:





And here's "Kingdom Of Doom" a really cool song by The Good the Bad and The Queen with Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon, Simon Tong and Tony Allen. I can't stop listening to this album.

While I'm at it, I found another clip of a show I did a while back with Keaton Simons on the Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Keaton sang and played guitar, Nate Wood sang and played drums, and I kind of sang and played bass! That was a lot of fun. We had a good time playing in that band. Tons of stories and good laughs too.

Hey Folks,

Just for fun, here's some footage of something that just surfaced on youtube of Matt Demerrit (sax www.mattdemerrit.com), Pablo Legaspi (drums) and myself recorded and shot at the Temple Bar six or seven years ago. This was a demo for a film that never was made. That's Billy Zane playing the Jack Kerouac role next to me as I destroyed the bass. Just look closely at the opening panning shot and you'll see my giant beast-like hands. Also our Denver friend, the great Jeff Mince is there playing drums for the shoot because as I remember, Pablo couldn't make it out that day. It was funny the way they transformed the room that we all played six or seven nights a week and made it look like that. The thing that makes it not look like Santa Monica is all the smoke in the room! Billy Zane was a nice guy as I remember. Oh fun fun.

Hey, So I got back this morning from New York. I was subbing for my friend Eric Kertes playing some show cases with a new artist named Lenka. She's great. Her album is going to come out on Epic Records at the end of next month.

Anyway, we had fun playing. A friend of mine, Matt Mayhall's playing drums in the band. We played some great games of Uno at the airport last night. Also out with us was Lenka's boyfriend James (www.jamesgulliverhancock.com). He's a great visual artist who among a lot of other work, provides art work and visual elements for Lenka's music. I had fun hanging with James talking about drawing and getting to draw with him on a couple of occasions last week.

To get to check out some of his art work and Lenka's music, check out www.lenkamusic.com.


And here's some footage of us playing there in New York at Dylan's Candy Store in Midtown:

Last weekend, I flew to Edmonton, Alberta with Colin Hay and the lovely Cecilia Noel to perform at the Edmonton Folk Fest. A couple years ago, while touring with the Ditty Bops, I was able to play at some folk festivals. The big one that sticks out in my mind was Merle Fest in Wilksboro, NC. That was during our last tour with Nickel Creek. For me, getting to jump into that world, see and play with musicians that were there was an amazing experience.

From the moment that we got to the hotel in Edmonton, I had the same feeling. People were jamming in the lobby. It was a group of people like Sara Dugas and Leonard from the Duhks playing folk songs from Quebec. At the desk checking in was Mark Shatz who played bass for Nickel Creek. It was good to see him. I also hung out with Jason Mercer who was there playing bass with Ron Sexsmith. It was a hootenanny. Later that night I hung out with Michael Morris who plays drums with JC Chenier, Christian, the new drummer from The Duhks, and Canadian singer Romi Mayes.

I heard the Jerry Douglas Band play in the hot sun. His guitar player rips. I heard Dan Tyminski of Union Station fame play along with a big group of musicians in a workshop.

I played a concert with Colin and Cecilia which was a lot of fun. We played a lot of different songs. Some of my favorite to play with him were the sad songs like "Maggie".

The next day I saw Martha Wainwright (www.marthawainwright.com) singing at a workshop with some other musicians. We knew each other a long time ago when I was seventeen living in Montreal. About five years later, I wrote music for a movie that she was in called "Close From Here". This was a short film by our friend Sara Mishara. Not sure if it's possible to see. But it was fun to write and record.

I haven't seen Martha since then so it was really cool to hear her play her songs. She's been doing a lot of stuff since then. Her songs are really cool. At the workshop , she played a cool song saying something about you being in her home town...or maybe it was hotel. Not sure. But it was cool. Anyhow, I ended up playing duo with her for her concert later that night. It was rad!

On Sunday, Colin, Martha, Brett Dennon and Eliza Gilkyson played a workshop. This was fun because artists trade songs in the round, and all of the musicians on stage accompany each other learning the song as they hear it. Playing with Eliza was a guitarist named Nina Gerber (www.ninagerber.com). When Eliza started playing her first song, the first huge beautiful, soaring, interval played by Nina made Colin and I turn around and look at each other. This woman is an amazing guitar player. It was such a pleasure to share the stage with her.

Then we all saw Chris Isaak play. His band is bad ass. I remember about five years ago, Keaton Nate and I opened for Chris in Tucson and we were all blown away by his show. The band is all so good and pro...Nothing more to say. Just great songs and playing.


There was also a lot of free beer.


Here's a clip taken from the crowd at the fest of Colin and I playing "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You".

When I was eighteen some musician friends of mine moved from Denver to Bari to play and record with an old friend of ours. Our friend had moved to Italy a few years earlier and stayed. He had gotten married had a child and was living happily, playing music in Europe. For us, young musicians in Denver, Europe was and still is a far away place where anything could happen. It was full of interesting places, possibilities, tastes and women! And for a friend of ours to be able to move to a new land and never return home was an amazing thing. It turns out that my musician friends ended up staying in Italy for nearly a year. Each of them came back with stories of wonderful people, late nights, huge meals and each of them fell in love. I think that they eventually moved back because they ran out of money. These thoughts were in my mind when I was driving to Bari.
Looking out the car window from Florence I saw the beautiful Tuscan countryside go by in the afternoon sun. The golden light brought out all of the green and yellows of the hills. Every once in a while we would stop at Autogrille. So many kilometers, coffee and pizzas later, we arrived in Bari at around two in the morning.
When we got there, I spent a lot of time at our hotel. This was a villa located on the outskirts of town. There was a really nice swimming pool there where Jarno a former champion swimmer showed me how to do underwater turns. I practiced these too much and got a lot of water in my ears.
One night, all of us drove to the sea past the Trullis to a restaurant on the coast. This was a place that specialized in seafood. I didn’t know what to expect but when I got there and saw all of the fresh fish that was near the kitchen, I knew it was going to be serious. We sat at a long table and the feasting began. We had Scorfano. We had fish “crudo” that had been marinating in lemon and olive oil. The mussles, everything that came was incredible. We were all drunk with the taste. I took a lot of pictures of our friend Umbi that night. He uses his hands a lot when he talks. In each photo, he is saying something and his hands are blurry in front of him. And when I flip through all of them one after the other, they form an animation that’s cool to watch. At dinner I sat next to Luciano and he told me that he thinks that the restaurant we were at may have the best seafood in all of Italy. I feel about as lucky as I ever have.
The day of our concert was very hot. It was at the older soccer stadium on the other side of town. We drove through the sunny city. There was still water in my ears. When we got there in the van, there was already a group of fans waiting out at the fence. It was so hot that people from the stadium were spraying them with water so they wouldn’t over heat. Inside, before the concert, I was interviewed for Ligachannel TV. I said some silly things about a cookie I was eating being a metaphor for the rehearsals for Luciano’s band. Of course that ended up on youtube and now I have a long time to eat my words! Our concert rocked. I felt energized after having some time after Florence. All I wanted was for the show to feel like I knew it could.

A couple days later, we headed towards Calabria and Cosenza!



Here's some footage I like that some fans took after our show in Bari:

I’m in Florence and I’m running in circles. Next to the Stadio Artemio Franchi is a small park. It must be 100 degrees outside, I think it is noon and I’m outside here, running. I’m trying to sweat. In my hand I have my phone and my backstage pass which I took off my neck so it wouldn’t keep hitting me in the face while I jog. My phone is set to a stopwatch. I’m trying to do what Fede says, to “Run at least forty minutes!!! Less is no good!!!”. That guy is an animal. When he runs, he makes it look easy. He’s an Italian Stallion.
I’m running in this little park because the night before we all met at a restaurant in Florence and had a big meal. There was everything. I’m sure you Italians all know. There was something unexpected during the meal. Though I’m getting a little better at ordering from a menu in Itailan, I didn’t know that after eating plates of meat, cheese and bread and pasta that I would then be served the biggest steak I’ve ever seen in my life. The “Fiorentina” steak that came to the table was no ordinary steak. As thick as a phone book, it wasn’t big enough for the plate. It was a piece of meat from the Flintstones. It was so big that it really makes you remember the animal that it comes from. And of course, it was amazing to eat. I ate an obscene amount of food last night. That’s why I’m running in this heat. I’m going around and around. Five old women sit together in benches in the park and because it is so small, I pass through them briefly interrupting their afternoon conversation while I jog.
Pretty soon, I’m too wiped out to go any further. I decide to head back to the stadium. On my walk back, I am among Ligabue fans who are coming to see the show. Kids dressed for summer with headbands and tshirts. Groups of fans come down the street with banners that they’ve prepared for the concert. Written on bed sheets are titles to songs and messages to Luciano and other members of the band that I read while I’m playing. Walking down the streets with them, they look like revolutionaries on their way to a demonstration.
Our show in Florence was awesome. There is a beautiful view of the mountains behind the stadium while we played. During the show there was a real rock and roll moment where there was some open space at the beginning of “A Che Ora La fin Du Mondo?”. It was just Michael and I playing for a few seconds. And it was a moment of uncontrolled spontinaiety. The guitar players and keyboard players were waiting for their spot to jump in. And then, in a split second, taking control of it all and bringing it all together, Luciano counted “ONE. TWO. THREE. FOUR!”. And the band jumped on it and we started rocking! I really love those moments. That is when you really know that you’re alive and that music is fragile but can also be as strong as you make it! As a bass player playing with a singer it’s moments like those that make you love the singer more and more. It was a moment that that makes a band a band. It’s when someone has the balls to take a chance and take control and when everyone else follows.
The next day still in Florence, we met one of Fede’s friends for lunch at an amazing restaurant called Canapone. We took some pictures in the sun at Piazza di Michaelangelo. We drove through beautiful Tuscany country south, south, south. We had an amazing pizza in the mysterious streets of Naples and headed east to Puglia, to Bari.

Here's footage of Niccolo soundchecking in Florence:



And here's part of the encore from that night, "Tra Palco E Realta", and "Baillamo Sul Mundo"...

The folks working with Ligabue asked me to write blog of the tour that I'm on right now. They thought that my perspective and experiences would be cool to have for his website. I didn't know that what I would start writing would be so long winded....I have to edit it all down! Anyway here is the unedited version of what I wrote about the concert I played last night. And following is a clip of someone put on youtube from the last song we played called "Buonanotte A L'italia".



Painted on the sidewalk near our hotel are outlines of bodies. Walk a few steps and you see the outline of Marylin Monroe and the edges of her dress near a vent by a building, a few steps later it’s Placido Domingo. It reminds me of an artist, a woman in Denver where I’m from. When I was a kid, I would see that a lot of the dumpsters and trashcans around the city that she would cover with bright ostriches and dinosaurs. Anyway, here in Milan I’m not sure which neighborhood we’re in. I’ve been here a handful of times now but it’s always been to play. My band Kneebody recorded an album here and I have played shows but it’s always been a quick couple of days here. This time, I hope that I can actually take out a map for a change and figure out where I am!

The day of the show was like any other day. During the week of rehearsals at San Siro, everyone was talking about how they were afraid that it would rain. I woke up late in the day. I’m still not used to the time change from Los Angeles, and I’m not trying to force it. Luckily it was very sunny and hot. The day was really spent like any other day. I wandered around, found food, found coffee (!!!) and waited. That is a lot of what being on tour is like. Learning to wait. Practicing waiting! In the States we say: “hurry up and wait”. For a concert like San Siro, I think that the art of waiting is not so subtle…it’s hard to not jump around and hit your head on the wall. There is no adjective for the feeling. “Anticipation” really doesn’t sum it up. How can you ignore that later in the day you will be playing, exercising, emoting for such a large group of people? Also, you can’t help but wonder: “Am I prepared? Do I really know these songs? Is all of my gear together? Am I forgetting something?!!!!”. But like anything else, as a human (or as an animal), you adapt and life continues along…soon it’s 5 in the afternoon and the van is here and it’s time to go to the stadium.

I rode in a van with Jose and Niccolo. On the radio we heard “Centro Del Mundo”. We were rocking and rolling in the car, singing along and also shaking our heads a little in disbelief. It’s like I’m being prepared and shaken out of my comfort zone; everything and everyone is reminding me that this is a really big deal! Jose told me about his first show with Ligabue in the Colleseum in Rome. It was such a big moment for him. During the concert, when he looked into the crowd and spotted his girlfriend Yuna in the middle of all the people, he was overcome with emotion and couldn’t help but cry.

When I was a kid the first the big stadium show I saw was Eric Clapton at Mile High Stadium in Denver. That’s where the Denver Broncos played! I was fourteen and I remember watching the show and getting into the music. I had been playing bass for a few years then and I couldn’t wait to hear some of the songs that I was jamming with my friends at school. Would he play Cream songs? Derek and the Dominos? I don’t think I ever wondered if any of those guys up there on stage were freaking out that they were playing for such a crazy huge packed house!

Anyway, through Milan traffic (crazy driving!!!), we finally made it. San Siro was there. A castle, a fortress, a temple, an analogy, a symbol… San Siro is the show that everyone I knew around Ligabue was always talking about. With all of the fans I met, all the guys in the band, it was always “Wait till San Siro, then you’ll see….”. In the parking lot under the sun, people were making their way in. Dressed or undressed for the summer, the people looked relaxed and psyched! Inside, we all made our way to the dressing room unloaded all of our stuff and started waiting! Yes, there was about another three hours or so to wait and think with the sound and feeling and volume of the people just outside the door.

Anyway, time passed like it does and soon it was minutes before we had to start. We were doing the pre concert ritual, just the band in the room together. And that’s when it hit me. My breathing got shorter. It must have been the way that the first person to fly ever felt before taking a jump off a cliff. It was danger. And it was pure excitement. Fede, having experienced this kind of thing many times before looked at me with wide eyes and said “Adrenaline!”. I kept saying “Oh my God, this is crazy!!!”. There is no way to hide the excitement that you feel when you’re about to play a concert in front of 70 thousand people! We shouted and yelled together in a huddle. Then we made our way to the entrance of the stage. It really did feel like a dream. People aren’t supposed to do this.

Soon there I was, on stage. People everywhere!!!!! For the first song I had to remind myself to breathe and remember the chords I was playing…remember to listen! To be honest I could only look out to the first few hundred people out in front of the catwalk. If I looked up to see everyone else, I would get dizzy. For the beginning of the concert, it’s all about getting used to our surroundings and feeling comfortable. Eventually everything else took over and I felt like I had more control over the music I was playing and could really participate with everybody. Looking out at everyone, it’s like all of the Ligabue shows I have played in the past. Everyone knows the words (I’m still learning them!!!). Everyone is singing and there is so much emotion. There is a moment during the show that is more emotional than others. I can see people in the crowd weeping. I look to Jose to see if he is. He is right next to me with a giant grin on his face. By the second half of the concert after a couple of breaks, it feels like the first moments of the show happened weeks ago.

It’s quiet right now in my hotel room in Milan but I can still hear the sound of everyone. Today was the culmination of myexperience in Ligabue’s band so far. It really seemed like a different world; and I feel really lucky. Tomorrow, I’ll wake up, look for coffee walk past the painted the outline of Maria Callas on the sidewalk and play there again.

I’m Kaveh, I play the bass. I live in Los Angeles and have been having a blast playing with Luciano. The first rehearsal with Luciano’s band was in Oakland, California near San Francisco. I had just finished a show with my band and had driven through a snowstorm to get there. Through the crazy European tour with Ligabue, I learned a lot about my new friends; my new family on the road. These guys have taught me so much about culture and also about life!

I met Michael Urbano in Berkeley during a concert I was playing with a band I’m in called the Ditty Bops. He came out to the show and said hello. Right away he reminded me of my good friend Tim Young (amazing guitarist also from northern California). He’s a badass. He jumped into my car the first day of rehearsal and was psyched to see that I had CDs by PIL, Electric Light Orchestra and DRI as well as Bill Evans jazz CDS. Michael has played on so many great albums and done a lot of cool stuff. He also has so much energy and plays the hell out of the drums!

I remember seeing Jose Fiorilli and thinking “This guy is really cool”. A huge smile that says that he loves to laugh. We talk a lot about music and also about life. . In his openness to everything, Jose reminds me of my Dad a lot. He told me that in Italy there is a saying that “All the world is a village”. Nowhere was this saying more true than on this tour. Jose has a love of seeing the world and tasting culture. He also loves cactus a lot! Now every time I see a cactus, I’ll take a picture and send it to him.

During the first few minutes that met the band, everyone was talking and laughing a lot…everyone except for Niccolo. When I first met him, I thought that he couldn’t speak English. It was the way that he politely shook my hand but didn’t say much. I was surprised when later in the day during a break, when he spoke perfect English! Perfect English with a great British accent! Niccolo became a close friend right away. He’s a complicated person! Great guitar player. The first words he taught me in Italian were all of the bad words! I think that those are the best words to learn in any language because you can really say a lot of things right away.

Luciano Luisi rode with me to the hotel after the first rehearsal. He is an excellent musician who has played with some of my heros (the bassist Pino Palladino!!!!). Luisi is one of the funniest guys I know. Even better, it’s the way that he tells stories that is so funny. He has such a good sense of humor that we both start laughing before he’s even said anything!

Fede Poggipollini is a gentleman and a saint. He’s Keith Richards to Luciano’s Jagger, but he’s way more than that. Fede’s always full of surprises. When I first arrived at the rehearsal, he put everything down and helped me with my amp. The whole time he had a big smile on his face. When we were in California, a lot of big things happened in Fede’s world; he had a birthday and also an important addition was added to his family! During all of this, he was so professional that it all set the standard for what this band was capable of. It was a lot of fun to go running with Fede in the different cities we played. Also he’s a fan of The Clash, and anyone who likes them is a GOOD friend of mine!

I first met Luciano Ligabue at lunch! He walked into the room and I stood up to shake his hand. I’m very tall and I saw his eyes grow wider when he saw me! During lunch I heard him talking to Michael about John Hiatt’s rhythm section with Jim Keltner and I was thinking, “man, this guy really knows music!”. A few days later during dinner, he and I had a great conversation about Italian films. When he talks to you about something that he loves and is interested in, his eyes grow wide and you feel the power of what he is saying. When he talks to you, you can feel like you’re the only person in the room. It’s so much fun to play with him. He is serious but also has a great sense of humor. Musically, he knows what he wants to do but he’s also open to what musicians bring to his music. I remember being really excited about playing when he told me early on: “Kaveh, I want you to do your thing and be happy with the music!”.


Here's a clip someone took from the last concert we played in the European Tour in London.

Fergie, Beyonce, Ashlee Simpson, Clay Aiken, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Akon, Soljah Boy, Jay Z, Mariah Cary....This was from a show filmed in 1969. These were two popular artists. The United States had been at war for four or five years. What has changed? Was America smarter then? Is it really this impossible to see relevant, amazing and unique artists on television performing and completely owning a song? I think that these clips are beautiful and sad at the same time!!

I remember when Siskel and Ebert dedicated an episode of one of their shows to films of the seventies. At one point during the show, Siskel said that the 1970's were the last great era of film. Among others, his reasons were that back then, studios were dedicating budgets to film makers to tell any kind of story they wanted to pursue. That is why you had really interesting and strange stories with big name actors being shot beautifully. My Dad and I watched Fat City tonight. From the opening scene with the location dissolves of Stockton (below) I said that I already love this movie. Stacy Keach and a young Jeff Bridges are in this film. My Dad said that the director John Huston was a boxer at one point and at different stages of his life, he had all sorts of strange odd jobs. Its a film about two boxers at very different points of their lives. This is a really great movie with a story that could have been written by Bukowski.

Nate and I were asked to play drums and bass for the band Hour Of The Shipwreck (http://www.myspace.com/houroftheshipwreck) last night. This is a band that plays music written by Richie Kohan. Marcel Camargo played as well as Alex (last name soon to be learned...!) on keyboards and Richie playing electric 12 string and singing. Really pretty chords and patient and brooding music. Loud picked bass... It was a lot of fun for me to channel my inner Chris Squire.We played at the Knitting Factory here in Los Angeles. We were opening for the band Faun Fables. I was excited to see them because I had heard them before. Abby and Amanda from the Ditty Bops showed me one of their albums on tour. I really loved how it sounded as well as the voice of the singer Dawn Macarthy. Beautiful pagan punk hobbit music! Anyhow, I ended up buying one of their CDs called the "Transit Rider" which I soon lost. So it was cool to be able to get something else of theirs and get to see them perform last night. Despite the sound being pretty rough with mics feeding back and acoustic instruments not being miced well enough, their music was really cool to hear and I liked their performance a lot.Here is a cool video for one of their songs:

Amanda Barrett's old buddy Michael Lucid has a comedy show called "Pretty Things". Amanda has collaborated with him a lot as well as some other folks. I haven't checked in to see what he's been up to in a while but these are some of my favorites:


"Always A Bad Girl"





"Straight For a Minute"




And now my all time favorite clips, "Getting To Know You" - Baby Goo Goo Parts 1 and 2:

You all may have seen this but I really want to put it up here again because it is amazing and worth the time to watch.

Here's footage from a show that Kneebody played in New York a couple months back. It was the 55 Bar. So much fun.

"No Thank You Mr. West":



"Blue Yellow White":