disclaimer: don't read this if your feelings get hurt easily or you think your religion is superior to other religions and get all huffy and puffy about it...
Looking below, I haven't blogged since January. I'm not sorry this time, I just counted and played 63 shows since Jan 9, my last post, or a little more than two shows every three days, if you're a geek like that. It's been a fantastic winter playing with Frogs, The Sessh and Ape Tit and now that the weather is warming up on this Easter weekend, I'm starting to think about summer festivals and our yearly tour to New Orleans, leaving later this month. I had a wonderful Easter brunch with my parents, on the rare occasion I get to take time to visit with them in person. During my busy schedule I always make sure to do one thing, and that is meditate. Whether for 5 seconds or 30 minutes, I try to spend some time every focusing on nothing but breathing. It's part of being a Buddhist, and if you try it you'll find that oftentimes you're not really breathing, and specifically, not breathing out as fully as you can. It's like we spend part of our lives in partial hyperventilation. Try checking your breathing next time you're driving home from work.
Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion. I was raised as an Episcopalian, a word I had to spell check just now, and after serving as an acolyte (alter-boy) I became skeptical in my teens. Now I'm a firm agnostic, and have trouble accepting any of the scientific impossibilities involved with Christianity. We know the human body is irrecoverable once lifeless, and furthermore, accounts of Jesus weren't written until 60-200 hundred years after his death. Could you write an account of Abe Lincoln's life in 2012, without use of computers or even a good number of people who could read and write walking around? I think the view that only followers of Jesus, or Allah or Gumby for that matter, get into heaven accounts for some of the worst historical events ever recorded. If you're enemies are all going to hell, who cares how they die?
But there is another movement which concerns me, as much as narrow-minded Christians, extremist Muslims or unwavering, militaristic Zionists. It's atheists who have a strong, yet completely non-human view of god which is equally as destructive as any of the above listed groups. They are doing the exact thing they sometimes preach against, the active conversion of others to their viewpoint. People need to decide what they think on their own, a billboard stating "God Doesn't Exist, Stop Worrying About It" doesn't help anyone. Just like I don't think anyone has it truly figured out, I don't think atheists are correct in their assessment. Yes, the burden of proof should fall on someone claiming something DOES exist. If I came to you and explained that purple aliens, or Zeus or Satan DOES exist, I better back it up. But to aggressively claim you have proof that something unprovable doesn't exists is complete BS, as well.
Atheists miss the point. To say that something unobservable is real, or not real, is an egotistical move. What are you, a god scientist? Is there still oil under the surface of the ocean, thanks BP, in the Gulf of Mexico? Was Osama in Pakistan? You don't know jack, Jack, and to think that life is anything but the case would be to really bum out Plato who said:
"The only thing I know is that I don't know jack".
But don't we feel something more, as human beings, than simply our flesh and bone desires and day-to-day monotony? Next time you're drowning your morning-after hangover with a latte, staring at the foam patterns, getting all philosophical about why exactly we do this alcohol-driven evolutionary dance of work and sex called life week-in and week-out, ask yourself if you're not really inquiring about the existence of something more. I would also argue that the self-confirmation of that "more" is what keeps us alive, what keeps us from going lemming-status out the airplane or bus door on some days. We have to relish that with art and music, food and sex, love and compassion and find that "more" and instead of thinking this a hedonistic exercise, enjoy what this life has to offer, instead of conjecturing what the afterlife might hold for us. Find the beauty herein and overlook the ugliness, find the godliness inside. Then, instead of telling others about it, show them, walk humbly and help others. Jesus, Buddha and Allah, "the compassionate and merciful" one according to the Qur'an all taught this.
It's us humans who keep putting our egos in the way.
http://www.mormon.org
http://www.televisiontunes.com/South_Park_-_Hippitus_Hoppitus.html
Showing posts with label Frogs Gone Fishin'. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frogs Gone Fishin'. Show all posts
Sunday, April 8
Monday, July 11
Festival!: Gish's Getaway 2011
It's mid-summer and while the politicians are trying to save the budget, and more important to them, their jobs, we've decided to go where there is no news coverage, barely any cell phone service, and no budget negotiations to speak of. Enter the Getaway. Gish's Getaway.
Getting your band into festivals can be a daunting task, if only for the fact that most or all other bands in a given scene are trying to do the exact same thing. One way to circumvent this problem is to throw your own party. Some out there might be aware that we threw a Mardi Gras-style festival in 2009 at Red Rocks. In some ways it was a big success, some a failure, but it certainly taught me that I want to be an artist in life, not a promoter. Since then, the people I find to be the biggest hypocrites in this business are those who use their position of promotional power to give their own band preferential spots in the very events they are in charge of. I purposefully didn't give Frogs Gone Fishin' a spot at the first year of our fest, it would have been a conflict of interest. I can think of at least three individuals who do this regularly and it's bad for the music scene and ultimately the public's perception of their band.
Gish's Getaway will be an alignment of interests. The fest is by and for Frogs Gone Fishin' fans.
First, a little about Gish himself. He looks like a GI Joe. Talk about ripped. I'm not sure I could do enough sit-ups and drink enough raw egg smoothies in my life to ever look like the dude. But his jacked appearance belies his warm heart. The Gisher made sure we had a non-profit to donate proceeds toward before we ever laid a plank of the dock or a piece of the stage down. We picked a favorite of Frogs Gone Fishin's, No Greater Sacrifice, which educates the children of fallen soldiers. It's a great cause and one of many reasons to come to the Getaway this weekend.
Frogs Gone Fishin' will play both Friday and Saturday night. Filling multiple nights with different, interesting songs is a challenge I've always looked forward to and a good opportunity for Frogs to exercise a repertoire which is sometimes stunted in presentation by short, hour-long summer festival sets. We'll have myriad other groups and musicians performing, not to mention our good friends, "The Revivalists", from New Orleans on board.
Our theme for the year is "Boats and Lasers". American? Yes. Fun? Of course.
Positioning the musical festival on a lake has some serious advantages. The weather stays breezy and cool. The activities will as much fun as the music: wake boarding, cliff jumping, BBQ'ing, fishing and swimming are all part of the experience this weekend.
The best part about The Getaway, and what sets it apart from other gatherings this summer, is that there is no schedule. Want to skinny dip at 6am? Wake me up first. Want to jam late at night with banjos and kazoos? Let me get my kazoo.
Frogs will play long sets and take long set breaks. The lack of schedule makes sure everyone is ready to get on stage and the audience is feeling the vibe, in full, before the first note. Can't handle not knowing the exact minute an act is going to go on? I hear the senior living center up the road in Silverthorne starts Bingo more or less on time every night...
If you're not a Frog friend or fan, chances are you don't know about this fest through any popular means. It's not on Jambase or in the paper. Some unpaid wook will not hand you a flier on your way out of the next Disco Biscuits show. You have to know someone who knows, find directions yourself. The trip might not be as easy as for other, pre-fab, commercial festivals, but what worthwhile journey is easy? Once you make it you'll be far from rules and society, schedules and deadlines. It will be a lost weekend and a living lakeside community.
Grab some chicken, beer and sunscreen and we'll see you this weekend!
Getting your band into festivals can be a daunting task, if only for the fact that most or all other bands in a given scene are trying to do the exact same thing. One way to circumvent this problem is to throw your own party. Some out there might be aware that we threw a Mardi Gras-style festival in 2009 at Red Rocks. In some ways it was a big success, some a failure, but it certainly taught me that I want to be an artist in life, not a promoter. Since then, the people I find to be the biggest hypocrites in this business are those who use their position of promotional power to give their own band preferential spots in the very events they are in charge of. I purposefully didn't give Frogs Gone Fishin' a spot at the first year of our fest, it would have been a conflict of interest. I can think of at least three individuals who do this regularly and it's bad for the music scene and ultimately the public's perception of their band.
Gish's Getaway will be an alignment of interests. The fest is by and for Frogs Gone Fishin' fans.
First, a little about Gish himself. He looks like a GI Joe. Talk about ripped. I'm not sure I could do enough sit-ups and drink enough raw egg smoothies in my life to ever look like the dude. But his jacked appearance belies his warm heart. The Gisher made sure we had a non-profit to donate proceeds toward before we ever laid a plank of the dock or a piece of the stage down. We picked a favorite of Frogs Gone Fishin's, No Greater Sacrifice, which educates the children of fallen soldiers. It's a great cause and one of many reasons to come to the Getaway this weekend.
Frogs Gone Fishin' will play both Friday and Saturday night. Filling multiple nights with different, interesting songs is a challenge I've always looked forward to and a good opportunity for Frogs to exercise a repertoire which is sometimes stunted in presentation by short, hour-long summer festival sets. We'll have myriad other groups and musicians performing, not to mention our good friends, "The Revivalists", from New Orleans on board.
Our theme for the year is "Boats and Lasers". American? Yes. Fun? Of course.
Positioning the musical festival on a lake has some serious advantages. The weather stays breezy and cool. The activities will as much fun as the music: wake boarding, cliff jumping, BBQ'ing, fishing and swimming are all part of the experience this weekend.
The best part about The Getaway, and what sets it apart from other gatherings this summer, is that there is no schedule. Want to skinny dip at 6am? Wake me up first. Want to jam late at night with banjos and kazoos? Let me get my kazoo.
Frogs will play long sets and take long set breaks. The lack of schedule makes sure everyone is ready to get on stage and the audience is feeling the vibe, in full, before the first note. Can't handle not knowing the exact minute an act is going to go on? I hear the senior living center up the road in Silverthorne starts Bingo more or less on time every night...
If you're not a Frog friend or fan, chances are you don't know about this fest through any popular means. It's not on Jambase or in the paper. Some unpaid wook will not hand you a flier on your way out of the next Disco Biscuits show. You have to know someone who knows, find directions yourself. The trip might not be as easy as for other, pre-fab, commercial festivals, but what worthwhile journey is easy? Once you make it you'll be far from rules and society, schedules and deadlines. It will be a lost weekend and a living lakeside community.
Grab some chicken, beer and sunscreen and we'll see you this weekend!
Tuesday, November 9
Tour Time and Time Warner
This week, the Frogs are headed to Texas. Things have stabilized in the FGF camp since moving into a new house and getting robbed several months back. The Denver police found one item (the largest and most expensive) and Steve and I were more than happy to sit at the cop-shop, haggard and anxious for hours, in order to tow our PA back to it's rightful pad. We have an awesome new roommate moving in, Calvin, who works in finance and can probably provide some perspective to us about what life in the corporate world might be like. The first time he came over we bonded over his "existential breakdown" in NYC, where I had just returned from a wild trip, running back and forth between Brooklyn and Manhattan, recording two full songs and playing two shows. Producer Will (Will E. Beats) and Engineer Klem should be sending me some tracks this week and I will post the new tunes as soon as they are in my eager paws, or Frog toes to be more specific.
On that note, the amount of Frog memorabilia we've obtained over time, a relatively short time, is astounding. From where I sit at my computer in our living room I can see:
- A giant stuffed Frog from one of our youngest fans, a kick-ass little girl name Willa
- Posters from over a dozen shows, We've only begun to put them up. our buddy Kevin in the mountains has stacks and stacks in the archive.
- A wall-sized, sewn blanket of our South Park-style caricatures, replete with our Frogs Gone Fishin' logo. If Trey and Matt came in the door we might have a lawsuit on our hands.*
Any number of amphibian-related books, holiday-cards, painted Mexican leaping Frogs and hygiene accouterments like candles or soap decorate our house, bathrooms, Suburban (Leslie) and RV (Bertha). I am a Frog. It's not a question if I want to present myself that way. People refer to the group as "The Frogs", individuals as "a Frog", and make checks out to us as simply "Frogs".
These are physical indications of the world that your band becomes. It is much more than a physical world, however. Your world as a musician is defined by concentric circles around which are your band and it's family. Family goes way beyond the conventional definition at this point. And just like you love your real family, as it's the only one you've got, you love your fan base and business associates, even the annoying step-brothers or creepy uncles in the bunch. From the moment you wake up to when you go to sleep, you take stock of this family, figure out how to make it work together for a greater experience than any fan or band could achieve by themselves. Most often this happens in the form of live concerts and your job as musician is to make fans feel like you are watching them, as much as they are watching you.
It's so cliche to discuss, but that reciprocality between band and fan is the ONLY thing keeping you as musician from disintegrating into some sort of repetitive, guitar-playing robot. And when fans come to multiple shows in a row, your art becomes more comprehensive because you have the arch of time to work with, days in between shows, as a new factor to manipulate. Active fans will guess rabidly about which songs will be played in what order, which songs will open and close the next show. Some bands have whole archives, dedicated to information about those very statistics.
That is the source from which your world as a band should emanate, the catalogue of songs you maintain to play at the moment that is just right for band energy and audience atmosphere. In fact, that is where you can draw the line between real musical artists, and corporately created pop-stars. Real artists operate on a catalogue built-up over time, pop-stars are ushered into the public domain on a cascade of dollars, not musical aptitude or hard work. It's also pretty cliche for artists like me to bitch about said pop-stars but none of it is relevant anymore, anyway. Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift sell a fraction of the CD's Britney or N'Sync did, the model has gone out the window.
What we are left with are hard working bands (we're now on hour seven of the 15-hours to Texas, in the middle of Kansas, as I finish this post) and independent-minded labels who might get their cash from the big boys, but certainly make their own decisions, sometimes for the worse. One of the more famous examples of this twisted carnival-industry came when alt-rock band Wilco was released by their label, only to be picked up by another owned by the same parent company, Time Warner. Not only had Time Warner financed Wilco's record, they had to essentially buy it back from themselves when the band was let go due to poor management.
Many years ago... OK maybe 6 or so, when I was (hopefully) less wise to the ways of this world, I thought being signed to a major label would be the best, the balls, the brass ring and not knowing what that would mean (large-scale debt to a corporation) I was probably disappointed when my amateurish emails to Sony or Disney Records or who knows where weren't returned promising studio time and world tour. Now, after seeing what happens to bands who are signed to contracts they can't fulfill, oftentimes because a major won't market them correctly, I realize that there's nothing better in the world than being able to call my producer Brad, or lawyer Eric with a problem and have an advocate on the other line, rather than some money hungry scum-bag whose utterly disinterested in music or art.
After returning from TX, Frogs will spend some quality family time for Thanksgiving at home and tour around Colorado during the winter. NYE will take place in Telluride for two nights straight of celebration with the FGF band. Everyone who attends will receive a live CD of the show. Also, check out a pair of new music videos, produced by L.A.-based filmmaker Travis Milloy:
"Never or Now" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYB1thJbVHA
Enjoy!
*Trey Parker and Matt Stone must have some ballsy lawyers. The creators of South Park are also from Colorado... must be something in the water.
Wednesday, October 6
NYC - Fall Update
I'm cruising out to NYC on the 18th of this month record some new music with producer Will Boyle in Brooklyn and a good friend from college, Jason, who works way too hard and plays too well to be out of the industry itself. I also had lunch with DJ Logic and his girlfriend Diane, a friend from Vail, so maybe we can convince to come over from his joint in Brooklyn to do a track.. wink, wink, nudge, nudge...
Side projects are really important. While I'm in Brooklyn, holed up in a warehouse studio, Mark and Steve (drums/bass in Frogs) will be touring the West Coast with their side project Oak Creek, making it as far as LA. Beyond being a sort of blow-off valve for creative energy, side projects are expanding our horizons coast-to-coast, something that will inevitably benefit Frogs Gone Fishin' down the road.
The Indian summer in Colorado this year kept the leaves on the Aspen trees yellow for a longer period than normal. Driving around the state playing shows from Ft. Collins to Telluride has been memorable all summer long, and we've had some out-of-control shows involving lake houses, crazy club owners, hippies and their dogs and lots of dancing people.
Along with the heavy energy that autumn always brings, bands start planning some important shows in their yearly cycle. This time around we'll bring a Wizard of Oz theme to our three Halloween shows in Boulder, Denver, and the Vail Valley. I suppose I won't say exactly who I'm going to be, but I need a blue dress, soon...
It's been almost six month since Actual Natural was released on our dedicated independent label, Mountain Size Records. We have a great relationship with our larger family in MSR and we face lots of challenges together. Today's music market in a word, sucks. CD's used to sell hundreds of thousands of physical copies. Because of music piracy and also some pretty greedy lending practices on the behalf of labels, the industry fell apart in the 2000's. Combined with a larger economic collapse, not too many people are shelling out $10 for a whole album anymore. Labels are forced to rely on creative marketing methods and persistence, where they used to be rely on throwing lots of cash at the problem. I'm still of the opinion that a little cash can go a long way, not in terms of ad space, but creative ideas that engage the consumer. I've tried to get our label to see this and I hope they understand but given their busy lives and day jobs, I have a strong feeling the entrepreneurial burden will consistently fall with the band. In fact I don't think that will ever change and I don't think it's a bad thing.
In that respect, we gotta keep it movin'. We gotta raise the roof, kick the tires and light the fires. We have to be social net-workers, performers, salesmen and somehow maintain some sanity and a friend or two. And forget dating. Or a part-time job. If it doesn't have to do with music, chances are your boss will see the disconnect in a hot, quick minute and quietly ask you to resign. This means you better be booking your side project, duo and solo gigs months in advance and then spend all day on the computer and phone promoting them. A big budget would help, but virtually no one has that these days, save for the one or two major promotion players (Live Nation and AEG). It's time to buckle down and focus.
Dorothy and touring musicians both know there's no place like home. Back in August I enjoyed a sublet, courtesy of the gracious Tim Dixon and his two distinguished brothers. I was in my bed at home a total of three nights out of 31 days that month. Thanks guys, I hope I didn't overstay my welcome.
Now that Frog's have moved into our house north of Denver, life is settling down a bit. It's good to finally get to know the town I grew up in. My experience in live clubs and bars didn't really begin until I grew up musically in that wonderful, energetic town of New Orleans and so seeing Denver for what it is in terms of the live music scene is eye-opening. I'm going to start blogging about the scene here in Denver, my travels to NYC, and a topic I can't help but write about, politics. Things have gotten so weird in that last realm, I'll reserve future posts for the topic.
The dudes up at Mountain Size Records are running a promotion on Actual Natural right now. Check out the store and type in FGF1OFF to get a discount on the disc. Go getcha some!
Wednesday, March 31
NOLA BOUND
from frogstour.com:
Last night was our final stop of tour and we're now headed down I-85 toward Atlanta. The crowd in Greensboro, NC was super responsive and and a nice way to end a tour of varied crowds in lots of new venues and markets. There's an adjustment all musicians have to make when they leave their comfortable home pond for other lily pads. The crowds will always be smaller and less receptive than your good people back home. We miss Colorado most on nights when the creepy sound guy, over sized door man and randy bartendress are the only three souls in the club, most likely peeved they have to work at all with such poor attendance. It's not your fault... March Madness, rain, certain other jam bands who seem to follow your every scheduled stop on the road, all compete for people's attention. More than likely these people have never heard of you, so you make sure and treat the ones who have as best you can.
But there are those nights... Dayton, Chicago, Charleston, Greensboro.. when people get DOWN! The crowd dictates how you play, they even play you. Even when just a few people are dancing hard, it can be better that a packed room full of sedentary listeners. And watching four girls dance makes it easier to play than a whole room of dudes who just want to know what kind of Monster Cable you use, trust us.
Other shows... Nashville, Milwaukee, Aimes, Cedar Rapids... are for friends. Some of these people have supported us unconditionally from the beginning and show up, rain or shine, competing John Mayer concert or not, and give us hope. Hope sounds like strong language, like we are in a life or death situation and this is just music, people. But making that adjustment from comfortable regional musician to striving touring artist takes a commitment to rejecting attachments like knowing exactly where you'll fall asleep that night or where you'll be in three day's time. Fans and friends really help that process along and make the whole ride fun.
So, in addition to friends and fans, we'd like to also acknowledge all the beautiful freaks we've met this time around the nation. You make touring REALLY interesting. Whether it's walking into a house filled with sleeping bodies all over the floor, dreadlocks and patchwork pants everywhere, or rowdiness that only college parties can really accomplish, thank you, funky freaky people of the USA.
Tour isn't technically over just yet, because it's that time of year again, time for our yearly residency in the musically epic city of New Orleans. Last year we finished up with a gig at the historic Maple Leaf Bar on Oak St., uptown. Since then, we threw a 10-band festival at Red Rocks and Trevor even sat-in with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Now we are kicking off our NOLA stay with two Wednesdays in a row at The Maple Leaf and returning to CO in May with a gig alongside the Dirty Dozen Brass Band! That will all correspond with the release of Actual Natural on Mountain Size Records which was just mastered by two-time Grammy winner David Glasser and is being pressed as we speak with artwork by TRIPP, the psychedelic poster czar of Colorado himself.
New Orleans is always a productive time for us and new songs are always learned and written. There is so much to pick up down there, both musically and otherwise. The colors of the flowers and houses are even visually overwhelming. We look forward to playing with our musical friends , as well. The level of musicianship in NOLA is unparalleled in most parts of the nation. For now, keep your eyes peeled for the release of Actual Natural in a couple weeks and come visit us in New Orleans. Yeah you right...
Last night was our final stop of tour and we're now headed down I-85 toward Atlanta. The crowd in Greensboro, NC was super responsive and and a nice way to end a tour of varied crowds in lots of new venues and markets. There's an adjustment all musicians have to make when they leave their comfortable home pond for other lily pads. The crowds will always be smaller and less receptive than your good people back home. We miss Colorado most on nights when the creepy sound guy, over sized door man and randy bartendress are the only three souls in the club, most likely peeved they have to work at all with such poor attendance. It's not your fault... March Madness, rain, certain other jam bands who seem to follow your every scheduled stop on the road, all compete for people's attention. More than likely these people have never heard of you, so you make sure and treat the ones who have as best you can.
But there are those nights... Dayton, Chicago, Charleston, Greensboro.. when people get DOWN! The crowd dictates how you play, they even play you. Even when just a few people are dancing hard, it can be better that a packed room full of sedentary listeners. And watching four girls dance makes it easier to play than a whole room of dudes who just want to know what kind of Monster Cable you use, trust us.
Other shows... Nashville, Milwaukee, Aimes, Cedar Rapids... are for friends. Some of these people have supported us unconditionally from the beginning and show up, rain or shine, competing John Mayer concert or not, and give us hope. Hope sounds like strong language, like we are in a life or death situation and this is just music, people. But making that adjustment from comfortable regional musician to striving touring artist takes a commitment to rejecting attachments like knowing exactly where you'll fall asleep that night or where you'll be in three day's time. Fans and friends really help that process along and make the whole ride fun.
So, in addition to friends and fans, we'd like to also acknowledge all the beautiful freaks we've met this time around the nation. You make touring REALLY interesting. Whether it's walking into a house filled with sleeping bodies all over the floor, dreadlocks and patchwork pants everywhere, or rowdiness that only college parties can really accomplish, thank you, funky freaky people of the USA.
Tour isn't technically over just yet, because it's that time of year again, time for our yearly residency in the musically epic city of New Orleans. Last year we finished up with a gig at the historic Maple Leaf Bar on Oak St., uptown. Since then, we threw a 10-band festival at Red Rocks and Trevor even sat-in with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Now we are kicking off our NOLA stay with two Wednesdays in a row at The Maple Leaf and returning to CO in May with a gig alongside the Dirty Dozen Brass Band! That will all correspond with the release of Actual Natural on Mountain Size Records which was just mastered by two-time Grammy winner David Glasser and is being pressed as we speak with artwork by TRIPP, the psychedelic poster czar of Colorado himself.
New Orleans is always a productive time for us and new songs are always learned and written. There is so much to pick up down there, both musically and otherwise. The colors of the flowers and houses are even visually overwhelming. We look forward to playing with our musical friends , as well. The level of musicianship in NOLA is unparalleled in most parts of the nation. For now, keep your eyes peeled for the release of Actual Natural in a couple weeks and come visit us in New Orleans. Yeah you right...
Friday, March 5
Back in Business with Bertha, Baby!
We got great news yesterday morning. After a reserved but fun crowd in Lincoln, the Frogs headed to the Nebraska-Wesleyan dorms for some rest, leaving all of our equipment in the bar because we had no trailer attached to an RV to put it in. Bertha was in the shop and the band was uncertain about our immediate touring future. We had to be in Omaha the next day, not to mention 15 more cities in the next three weeks.
I woke up on the floor, as often happens on tour, but to great news as Mark announced that our transmission was not shot as we had feared. Simply a fan clutch! Only the fan clutch? What the hell is a fan clutch? Who cares? It's way less expensive to fix than a tranny and so like that, we borrowed a car from one of our wonderful hostesses and moved our still functioning RV over to the good old Lincoln Lube for some lube and fan clutch work costing a fraction of the time and money the tranny would have.
Two hours in daily life can seem like a long time. Some people only get thirty, maybe forty-five minutes for lunch at their day job but on tour, two hours is just enough time to get settled. Most drives are four to six hours and so sitting for two hours at an auto-shop is not nearly as painful as it sounds, especially when you have the knowledge of exactly what's wrong with your vehicle. It's that awful fear of the unknown, the fear we played through and went to sleep with
that really eats you.
In less than a day after we got Bertha back, she became our life support vehicle. We charged her batteries and filled her with nutritious food. You can relieve yourself at 60 m.p.h. and look out the back window to see the Midwestern skyline slowing sliding backwards. We even took on another soul in Omaha, Travis Jones, our all-around road helper. Watch out for some upcoming Vlog's on Mountain Size Record's website because they might include an interview or two with Travis. He's a character to say the least.
Now we're back in business, baby, blogging while flying down the road near the Iowa/Nebraska border, enjoying the comforts of a life largely left in the last century by generations of RV lovers. It's easy to see why they loved it. It's easy to see why they left it, opting for frequent flier miles and a Prius in the garage instead. We were able to enjoy fajitas on the rig before the show last night, we also get 8 miles to the gallon...
At this very moment, I'm sitting behind Travis while he mouths "ooo.. la la la" in the front seat along with some Fugees tunes pumping out of Pandora on our surround-sound speakers (old Technics for that matter, they sound GREAT). This is the life. And this is mos def' tour season. Whether it's a tranny or a toothbrush, every day is filled with logistical problems while trying to promote your shows in the future. Making great music and meeting new people make it all worth it, so we sincerely hope to see you out there! You can keep and get in touch with the Frogs like this:
Frogs Gone Fishin' Official Website
Mountain Size Records
Facebook
Twitter
I woke up on the floor, as often happens on tour, but to great news as Mark announced that our transmission was not shot as we had feared. Simply a fan clutch! Only the fan clutch? What the hell is a fan clutch? Who cares? It's way less expensive to fix than a tranny and so like that, we borrowed a car from one of our wonderful hostesses and moved our still functioning RV over to the good old Lincoln Lube for some lube and fan clutch work costing a fraction of the time and money the tranny would have.
Two hours in daily life can seem like a long time. Some people only get thirty, maybe forty-five minutes for lunch at their day job but on tour, two hours is just enough time to get settled. Most drives are four to six hours and so sitting for two hours at an auto-shop is not nearly as painful as it sounds, especially when you have the knowledge of exactly what's wrong with your vehicle. It's that awful fear of the unknown, the fear we played through and went to sleep with
that really eats you.
In less than a day after we got Bertha back, she became our life support vehicle. We charged her batteries and filled her with nutritious food. You can relieve yourself at 60 m.p.h. and look out the back window to see the Midwestern skyline slowing sliding backwards. We even took on another soul in Omaha, Travis Jones, our all-around road helper. Watch out for some upcoming Vlog's on Mountain Size Record's website because they might include an interview or two with Travis. He's a character to say the least.
Now we're back in business, baby, blogging while flying down the road near the Iowa/Nebraska border, enjoying the comforts of a life largely left in the last century by generations of RV lovers. It's easy to see why they loved it. It's easy to see why they left it, opting for frequent flier miles and a Prius in the garage instead. We were able to enjoy fajitas on the rig before the show last night, we also get 8 miles to the gallon...
At this very moment, I'm sitting behind Travis while he mouths "ooo.. la la la" in the front seat along with some Fugees tunes pumping out of Pandora on our surround-sound speakers (old Technics for that matter, they sound GREAT). This is the life. And this is mos def' tour season. Whether it's a tranny or a toothbrush, every day is filled with logistical problems while trying to promote your shows in the future. Making great music and meeting new people make it all worth it, so we sincerely hope to see you out there! You can keep and get in touch with the Frogs like this:
Frogs Gone Fishin' Official Website
Mountain Size Records
Monday, November 30
Tech Troubles, Automated Attachements
So I open up my MacBook to write this post and lo', behold!, the mouse button is sticking and the computer itself will not charge. Realizing I had to pack up the nice work area I'd carved out for myself in the coffee shop brought about a sense of rage, deep inside, that I had yet to feel in my lifetime until this very moment. I soon realized this rage was not because I was required to relocate to the public library (where I am currently seated and not a bad place if you never go), but because my access to a technology that I have been taking for granted for the past 2 years was suddenly cut-off, cold turkey. It brought to light just how much we take tech for granted and are attached to our automated arenas in life.
Music and technology have become inextricably joined at the hip now for at least 20 years. I wonder how our newly found human attachment for screens and buttons (read: iPod) affect our listener-ship. The main question, which analysts have been pondering since Mp3's came around, concerns the next step in recorded music media. We all know the historical transition from phonograph to 8-track (the unfortunate butt of many jokes), tape to CD, and ultimately CD to Mp3's. No one doubts that the "album-as-a-whole-experience" was destroyed by the digitization of music on the internet. Singles are popular and most people are unwilling to buy a whole album for just one song (which you used to have to do at your local record store).
But as Frogs Gone Fishin' puts the finishing touches on the tracking stage of our forthcoming album, we are left to wonder exactly how (CD?, iTunes?, our website?, little green Frog-themed flash drives?) to release our music to the masses.
While we ponder our methods, check out a preview of the album here. I gotta go schedule an appointment with an Apple Genius. I'll ask him about the future of music distribution and get back to you...
Tuesday, November 3
On The Road Again
Well not really... the proverbial blogging road, maybe. The point is I now, thankfully, have enough time to do what I really love to do: write, write music, and in general have the time to do what all artists need to do to succeed, namely taking the time to observe the world and enjoy diverse experiences, experiences which are interpreted again later, in the form of relevant art output.
If anything, that is what the last year since graduating college has taught me. The more I try different jobs, whether running an independent promotion company, competing in the ferocious music industry jungle or working with special-needs children at an elementary school, the more I realize that I just want to be an artist, a musician who spends the majority of his time on music, not hoping that one day my part-time focus, music, will somehow overtake other jobs with more money and security. IF YOU WANT MUSIC TO BE YOUR FULL-TIME JOB, IT HAS TO BE YOUR FULL TIME JOB.
Creating, organizing, running, and executing a promotion company and its associated festival, Mountainside Mardi Gras at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, was one of the most intense experiences of my life. The pressure, risk/reward and fickle nature of the music industry makes it one of the most unpredictable industries in the world. Mountainside Mardi Gras took place on Aug. 8th, 2009 and the outcome of all our hard work and vision can be seen in multiple lights. On one had, 1,500 people showed up that day. That's a lot of people. But not nearly enough for us to have broken even and kept For/Sure Productions afloat.
Sometimes every fiber in my body tells me to find capital, refinance the company, have another go. I'm sure it'll happen at some point in the future, but I am just now, four months after the fact, understanding the impact and implications of what we did that day at Red Rocks. For me personally, the concert had many benefits which ultimately outweighed the ocean-sized financial bath FSP endured in August. We brought enough artists from NOLA to CO at one time to make residents of New Orleans wonder if all the musicians in town had just packed up and left for good. I had the amazing opportunity of playing alongside the world-renowned Dirty Dozen Brass Band and my good friends CR Gruver (Polytoxic, Outformation) and DJ Logic, spinning on the other side of the stage. If in the past you told me I would play music onstage at Red Rocks at the age of 23, I might have slapped you silly, right across your mouth.
And so there I was, a young entrepreneur with respect and love from the musical communities in Denver and New Orleans and that much richer... in contacts and networking, certainly not in money. I was disgruntled with the outcome of the festival, although the vast majority of festivals around the world lose money in their first year. Shortly after, Frogs Gone Fishin's first record deal with Oh/Ya Records dissolved, before we could secure financing for a second album.
Losing the deal with Oh/Ya seemed to be a fatal blow to the band. Without money to make a new record, everything started to seem redundant because no new music, fresh material, could be presented to our fans. Frogs canceled tour to the Northwest, an area I was particularly excited about absorbing. I moved deep into the mountains, 2.5 hours from Denver to a tiny town called Gypsum and actually employed my college degree in a productive way by getting a job teaching Special Ed at an elementary school. I wanted to get away from Denver, a city which we are just now starting to break, as Frogs. I moved in with a Buddhist songwriter and his family and worked hard from 7 in the morning t0 3pm, every day. This became exhausting. After Frogs would finish a show at 2am in Denver or Boulder, I would proceed to drive, tired, back up the mountain for two and a half hours, before getting up mere hours later to go work with kids.
It goes without saying that working with cognitive-needs children is challenging. I'm going to write a separate post about this altogether because the amount you pick-up and learn as their advocate is impressive and wondrous, while conflicting factors outside of the school can make the job impossible, to say the least.
Just when I was positive I was going to perish on the roadside from exhaustion by driving the 200 miles between Gypsum and Denver in the middle of the night, every other night or so, a miracle happened for Frogs Gone Fishin'. Our friend and adept producer at Evergroove Studio, Brad Smalling announced that he and an attorney wished to start a record label and sign FGF as their only flagship act. This divine act set into motion the wheels of a new album and a tour in the Spring, reversing the gloom that had settled in early Fall.
Another great relationship has developed between Frogs and movie maker Travis Milloy, whose recent picture, Pandorum, hit theatres a couple weeks ago. He will be shooting a music video for Frogs, starting this weekend on Saturday at Finnigan's Wake in Avon, CO. Incidentally our largest fan base, by far, is in the High Rockies, Vail and the surrounding area (Avon, Edwards, Eagle). Given the opportunity for great recreation in a beautiful landscape setting, we're not complaining. Ski season is upon us, after all.
Frogs couldn't be more excited to release a follow-up to Tell Me True in the first part of the new year and get on the road again to 14 states in two months. Tour is a part of my life which I cannot deny; it calls me from down South to hop in the TOURMOBILE and get after it.
I'm working on a number of other projects, the most exciting of which is the opportunity to compose the soundtrack to a monster movie being filmed in CO next year.
Remember to wear sunscreen and stay hydrated people, we'll see you out there on the road...
If anything, that is what the last year since graduating college has taught me. The more I try different jobs, whether running an independent promotion company, competing in the ferocious music industry jungle or working with special-needs children at an elementary school, the more I realize that I just want to be an artist, a musician who spends the majority of his time on music, not hoping that one day my part-time focus, music, will somehow overtake other jobs with more money and security. IF YOU WANT MUSIC TO BE YOUR FULL-TIME JOB, IT HAS TO BE YOUR FULL TIME JOB.
Creating, organizing, running, and executing a promotion company and its associated festival, Mountainside Mardi Gras at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, was one of the most intense experiences of my life. The pressure, risk/reward and fickle nature of the music industry makes it one of the most unpredictable industries in the world. Mountainside Mardi Gras took place on Aug. 8th, 2009 and the outcome of all our hard work and vision can be seen in multiple lights. On one had, 1,500 people showed up that day. That's a lot of people. But not nearly enough for us to have broken even and kept For/Sure Productions afloat.
Sometimes every fiber in my body tells me to find capital, refinance the company, have another go. I'm sure it'll happen at some point in the future, but I am just now, four months after the fact, understanding the impact and implications of what we did that day at Red Rocks. For me personally, the concert had many benefits which ultimately outweighed the ocean-sized financial bath FSP endured in August. We brought enough artists from NOLA to CO at one time to make residents of New Orleans wonder if all the musicians in town had just packed up and left for good. I had the amazing opportunity of playing alongside the world-renowned Dirty Dozen Brass Band and my good friends CR Gruver (Polytoxic, Outformation) and DJ Logic, spinning on the other side of the stage. If in the past you told me I would play music onstage at Red Rocks at the age of 23, I might have slapped you silly, right across your mouth.
And so there I was, a young entrepreneur with respect and love from the musical communities in Denver and New Orleans and that much richer... in contacts and networking, certainly not in money. I was disgruntled with the outcome of the festival, although the vast majority of festivals around the world lose money in their first year. Shortly after, Frogs Gone Fishin's first record deal with Oh/Ya Records dissolved, before we could secure financing for a second album.
Losing the deal with Oh/Ya seemed to be a fatal blow to the band. Without money to make a new record, everything started to seem redundant because no new music, fresh material, could be presented to our fans. Frogs canceled tour to the Northwest, an area I was particularly excited about absorbing. I moved deep into the mountains, 2.5 hours from Denver to a tiny town called Gypsum and actually employed my college degree in a productive way by getting a job teaching Special Ed at an elementary school. I wanted to get away from Denver, a city which we are just now starting to break, as Frogs. I moved in with a Buddhist songwriter and his family and worked hard from 7 in the morning t0 3pm, every day. This became exhausting. After Frogs would finish a show at 2am in Denver or Boulder, I would proceed to drive, tired, back up the mountain for two and a half hours, before getting up mere hours later to go work with kids.
It goes without saying that working with cognitive-needs children is challenging. I'm going to write a separate post about this altogether because the amount you pick-up and learn as their advocate is impressive and wondrous, while conflicting factors outside of the school can make the job impossible, to say the least.
Just when I was positive I was going to perish on the roadside from exhaustion by driving the 200 miles between Gypsum and Denver in the middle of the night, every other night or so, a miracle happened for Frogs Gone Fishin'. Our friend and adept producer at Evergroove Studio, Brad Smalling announced that he and an attorney wished to start a record label and sign FGF as their only flagship act. This divine act set into motion the wheels of a new album and a tour in the Spring, reversing the gloom that had settled in early Fall.
Another great relationship has developed between Frogs and movie maker Travis Milloy, whose recent picture, Pandorum, hit theatres a couple weeks ago. He will be shooting a music video for Frogs, starting this weekend on Saturday at Finnigan's Wake in Avon, CO. Incidentally our largest fan base, by far, is in the High Rockies, Vail and the surrounding area (Avon, Edwards, Eagle). Given the opportunity for great recreation in a beautiful landscape setting, we're not complaining. Ski season is upon us, after all.
Frogs couldn't be more excited to release a follow-up to Tell Me True in the first part of the new year and get on the road again to 14 states in two months. Tour is a part of my life which I cannot deny; it calls me from down South to hop in the TOURMOBILE and get after it.
I'm working on a number of other projects, the most exciting of which is the opportunity to compose the soundtrack to a monster movie being filmed in CO next year.
Remember to wear sunscreen and stay hydrated people, we'll see you out there on the road...
Saturday, November 8
Tour Visuals
This is what tour looks like...
Cheers everybody! Frogs Gone Fishin' Tour '08.
Portwood sometimes wears a flag on-stage, to show his patriotism.
Playing music makes me smile.
Oftentimes tour is a blur; it's not so black and white.
The Mustache Dance.
Frogs in Minneapolis, MN.
Colorful attire keeps things spicy at work. Photo by Sari Blum.
A nap can help keep you refreshed......and ready for the next show!
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