While this is on my mind, as I type I am listening to Ash's new set from a DJ even in Boulder, CO. You should download it and give it a spin as it's really ace: http://bayemv.wordpress.com/
Where have I been? You know, clowning around. I did some fun stuff in LA. Honestly, I spent a lot of time with kids during any of my free moments! I finally made it out to the new awesome new Cramp compound and saw the entire Cramp gang, including the twin lads, who I met for the first time!! The were awesome and it was a blast seeing Denise after a long spell. Of course, Ms. Bella Cramp, who is awesome and hilarious and charming, was a blast to play with. Here she is getting Uncle Frank a brownie:
After the Kids went to bed, Brad and I watched the wonderful CURB premiere as well as the new BORED TO DEATH, which has a lot of promise and you should check out. Good stuff. I also spent some time with Brad after this, hanging with our classmates from NYU, with whom we had our second reunion lunch, as seen here:
The weekend after was crazy chaotic! That Friday night, I finally saw the Manic Street Preachers for the first time ever at the Avalon in Hollywood. It sucked going by myself but they more than made up for it with a career spanning set that was played with a lot of energy and talent. They were worth the wait and I was really excited to see them again in NY, which G, Lurch and I did last night. And they were even better this time! NY, being that it is always the best to begin with, also has the awesome X-pats who go nuts, so last night was singalong for the ages and one of the best times I have had at a gig in ages. I literally only had one complaint and that is that they didn't play anything off of LIFEBLOOD, which Brandt and I swear by is their best album. Also, James Bradfield is a SICK SICK awesome guitarist, which was the pleasant surprise of the gigs. But it is interesting to note just how much better the NY crowds are.
Anyway, back in LA, I went to Disney for the first time in my adult life, this time with the wonderful Kruger kids. We had a lot of fun and while Ro and Avy are big time now and don't need to snuggle with an uncle, little Leia has taken up the slack. She loves me. I love her. We're tight and I got to carry her all over the place. This is what I saw waiting for me when I arrived and boy did my heart sing when I saw this little face:
I had a lot of fun watching the kids rock out. Eventually, Dr. Fury and I snuck off an did the INDY ride, which was huge and cool but a bit too short, and STAR TOURS which was hilariously out of date, but I was glad to see before they updated it. Then we had a fun dinner at Goofy's cafe. My comments about being in a gang with Goofy back in the day and telling the kids Goofy and Pluto were going to have a knife fight was met with puzzled looks. The food was actually really good, for some reason I expected it to be whatever, but I guess what these parents have to pay for all this shit, the least they can do is give them some good food, yeah?
Special thanks to Mr and Mrs Fury for inviting me and buying me a ticket and, as always, treating me like a rockstar. Also, it was cool meeting Fury's sister and of course I love these 3:
From Disney I fucking RACED in Saturday night traffic from Anaheim back to Hollywood to attend the Scott Ford Benefit gig at the Roxy. Scott is the bassist for the Twilight Singers, who for anyone who has read this blog more than once knows that they are a favourite around here. Scott has had horrible dental problems as late and his friends, many LA rock luminaries, put together a star studded gig to help raise money to pay for the tens of thousands this poor guy is going to spend to fix his mouth up. You can read all about the gig and Scott's plight here:
http://www.billboard.com/news/hollywood-rock-royalty-band-together-for-1004015137.story#/news/hollywood-rock-royalty-band-together-for-1004015137.story
Obviously, I went because Mr. Dulli himself was appearing. and appear he did, as you can see below:
The gig itself was fun and really well put together. Everyone from dulli to members of Guns N Roses, The Cult, Sex Pistols, MC5, Janes Addiction, and others all appeared and it was fun. Again, it kinda sucked being by myself, where the fuck is G when I need him, but it was worth it in the end for this :
But it got even better because, Yes, I finally met Dulli and he was cool. We had a brief chat in which we discussed WATCHMEN, BAYOU, the new album, and "THE AWESOME RESURRECTION OF JACKIE EARL HALEY" of whom Dulli is a big fan:
Obviously, as you can see, he was excited to meet the guy from Hypefactor.
So after a whirlwind few weeks in LA, and thanks as always to Vik and Em for housing me. I came back for my cousin Josh's wedding. He married a cool chick, Lisa, and it was fun getting my dad drunk.
Then we raced back from upstate to get to Carnegie Hall to see, AT LAST, Mr. Gavin Friday as he celebrated his 50th birthday. I think we had super fucking high expectations for this and it was going to be tough to live up to. For some, like the Kidd, it sucked, so he walked out at intermission, but for others, like me, it was fun, if poorly organized mixed bag of fun and silly. Honestly, it could have used some more Gavin on his own. Too many guests sometimes that took away from his awesomeness. However, I will give U2 a lot of credit as they played a bunch of Gavin covers and did a super job. Bono singing THE LAST SONG ILL EVER SING was a highlight. The best part was Gavin and Eric Mingus doing Caruso. Overall a good time, read about it here:
http://gavinfriday.com/2009/10/08/gavin-friday-and-friends-at-carnegie-hall-in-pictures/
And so, here I am, back in NY, for now, plotting the future out and hoping to get deeper into the mixing of the HF album this week. More soon!!
F
