I've received lots of different reactions after telling people that I'm going to India by myself in December. Most of my friends are excited for me, if not confused about why I would chose India of all places to take a month off. Others warn of the dangers there and I've even perceived some resentment from those who would like to travel more (but choose not to) or think I'm somehow disrupting business for what is only a short time away in the grand scheme.
But in reality the trip is selfish. I've earned it. We've been on the road and playing shows, sometimes more than there are days in the week, for years now. Even in college I put a premium on my music career, staying in New Orleans and rejecting any opportunities to study abroad so I could network and play out, a strategy which has presented plenty of benefits. I'm not claiming I've reached some sort of complacent plateau and can take 'er easy now, but this is the first time, ever, I've felt a month off would do everybody right, even our fans who get bombarded by messages for shows and updates on a weekly, if not a daily basis. No one is going to forget about Frogs Gone Fishin', if anything they might check up on us and become active in a discussion about what we're going to do next, which is gonna be BIG, by the way.
I'm writing this in the RV as we cruise through the beautiful autumn foliage in upstate New York on our first tour to the northeast, by way of the midwest and to return through Texas. After some preparation in November it will be time to traverse another massive subcontinent. The trip I'm taking is not to relax, or find enlightenment or for any one specific purpose. A main tenet of my trip is that, to a large extent, I don't know what I'll find or be undertaking while I'm there. That's the beauty of traveling by yourself and while I travel a lot here in the US as a musician on the road, it's a constant logistic negotiation to make everyone in the band happy. Where to eat, where to get gas, where to sleep, what to do during the 22 hours a day we aren't playing music... all of these decisions are one big democracy which I won't deal with on the road in India. Me, myself and I will be responsible when things get shitty, and likewise can pat myself on the back when I'm having a great time.
And things can get shitty in India. Bugs (inside and outside of your body), petty theft, long wait times and lines and general culture shock will all be factors to watch out for. But something I learned becoming an Eagle Scout while slogging through waist deep moose-muck on backpacking trips in Canada is that it's the journey, not the destination, that counts.
So I picked a difficult place to travel for the challenge and the ultimate reward that only people who intrinsically choose to do something difficult receive. Call it getting out of your comfort zone. And as it turns out my comfort zone includes being able to sleep in an '87 RV with FOUR other full-size, methane-producing male adults for a month, so traveling stag will be all the more liberating.
And CHEAP. You can live, and I mean LIVE, in India for as much a day as it cost to feed the band for ONE meal in the USA. If you really stretched your comfort level you could exist on 450 rupees a day, or about 10 dollars.
But India is a land of extreme duality, poverty and development, tradition and growth, and my trip has some duality to it, as well.
After I land in Mumbai I'll head northeast by train to Bodhgaya, a holy place for Buddhists where the Buddha himself is said to have attained enlightenment, the supreme realization that we are all bound to suffering in this life, but can overcome it if we remove our most deep seeded of attachments. No matter how much of a minimalist, new age, vegan, psudo-hippy lifestyle you can pursue here at home, a Buddhist lifestyle is at best, misunderstood and at worst, unattainable in our society. No matter how you slice it, if you are unemployed and not financially empowered from some other means, you'll be homeless and hungry in no time. The idea of the wandering ascetic is both unattainable but also misunderstood. Buddha taught a concept known as "The Middle Way" which states that just as you shouldn't live as greedily as possible, you shouldn't necessarily wander and starve like some sort of monk, either. Buddhism is all about being happy in whatever station you find yourself in life.
After Bodhgaya I'll head north toward the Himalayas and Nepal, possibly crossing the border into Kathmandu. But it won't all be meditation and reflection for a month. For the latter half of my trip it'll be the beaches in Goa, the southwestern coast, where I'll soak up some sun and meet not only Indians, but the Europeans, Australians, Israeli's and people from all over the world that come there to warm up during the winter months. Meeting as many people as possible is a primary goal of my journey. I want to see how another society functions on a daily basis. From my experiences on the road in America and other places abroad, one of the best ways is to pop into a pub and have a beer with the locals, the working class, for lack of a better term. And class is somewhat of a highly sensitive topic in India, some are even considered untouchable by the rest of society. But you can't turn a blind eye to a system that contains 1.2 billion people, a sixth of the world's population, and so it's time to go see it for myself. India is vast and a looking glass into the effects of colonialism in our recent world history. It's a nuclear power that shares a border with Pakistan, increasingly the most mysterious and ambiguous ally, or maybe enemy, of the US in the region.
On a far less serious note, I'd like to pick up a sitar, or at least some of the most prominent melodies played on that most serene of instruments and translate what I learn to a travel guitar.
I'm excited not only to experience a new culture, but to take a break from smart phones and actually ask living, breathing people where I should go, not to mention a break from the McDonald's and WalMart-based economy I see EVERYWHERE on the roadside in America. It'll be just me, a backpack, and a brand new place to explore.
Friday, October 21
Thursday, October 13
On the Road Again
"cause I'll be gone 'till November"
-Wyclef Jean
Bertha, the Frogs Gone Fishin' RV is cruising east. It's 7:05 PM and there is a massive, crimson harvest moon firing up the horizon directly in front of us as we head out of town on I-76 toward I-80, Iowa, Chicago and the rest of tour. Call it East Bound and Down, call it National Tour. Call it what you want but this is our most ambitious undertaking, yet. We've hit Chicago and Cincinnati before, but the area east of Ohio is largely uncharted territory for FGF. That's all about to change. Some other things have changed recently and because we've intentionally been on the down-low about personnel changes in our organization, it's time to come clean with what's been happening, and what's going to happen inside and outside Frogs Gone Fishin'.
Steve and Mark don't play music in FGF anymore. It's something you don't foresee, but every band, it seems, goes through it. At some point life bumps up against everything you thought your band would be as a kid and you deal with what all of our twenty-something friends deal with, the idealism of youth fading into the harsher, but ultimately more satisfying world of getting business done. I will always love those two guys and wish them nothing but personal and musical happiness.
On bass and drums this tour are the Double D's, Dax and Dave, and at the helm of our eastbound ship is Double A (Aaron) our ever-trustworthy and efficient road manager. The man can cook, drive for HOURS, fix anything and helps keep us oriented toward our goal of playing as much music as possible, in as many places as possible, planned and unplanned.
Frogs have been as far east as North Carolina (we'll do Asheville on Halloween this year), and as far north as Cleveland, but never to New Jersey or New York as we'll do this month. The band is especially excited for a gig at Sullivan Hall in Greenwich Village, NYC, on Halloween weekend. Bringing Bertha and a band that's not exactly on a New York budget will be a challenge, but I wouldn't consider myself a touring musician if we didn't at least try and make this a viable route for ourselves so we can keep coming back in the future to build a fan base.
Frogs plan on taking a short break during the winter months, to solidify our lineup and add additional instruments to our sound. The only way to keep from calcifying is to grow and it doesn't ever hurt to build demand by restricting access. Again, you bump into the reality of paying your bills when you want to restrict the number of shows you play in a given market, but it's a big country! Then the reality of how much gas really costs us as a society manifests like some sort of giant pink elephant in the room which no one wants to address.
It was tough to hear when our business banker told me that it's harder to acquire small business credit under Obama than it was under Bush. I've given this administration the serious benefit of the doubt but, in the financial sector at least, they are failing. Not to mention the fact that the crooks who did serious damage to the world economy still have their jobs. Small business is what drives our nation forward, along with corporations. But I do know that in a nation plagued by debt and few job opportunities, new prosperity must come from a different place than corporations. Companies like that are too massive, too dense to move quickly in a world changing as rapidly as ours. We are one of those small businesses, and can attest first hand to the difficulties that entrepreneurs face these days.
But luckily for we musicians, our business is not a cyclical one, in terms of the entire economy. People, in general, want to go out, have a good time and listen to music, and I would suppose more-so in times of economic distress. But we are always striving, trying to book better gigs, farther in advance for more money. Being in Chicago and New York should refine our business sense, and what it means to be a musician in a highly, and in the case of New York, the most competitive scene in the world.
Bertha feels solid in the dense fall air, the engine aspirating that much better. There are so many variables on tour and all I can really hope for is Halloween not being that scary for the Frog's bank account as we journey to New York and beyond.
-Wyclef Jean
Bertha, the Frogs Gone Fishin' RV is cruising east. It's 7:05 PM and there is a massive, crimson harvest moon firing up the horizon directly in front of us as we head out of town on I-76 toward I-80, Iowa, Chicago and the rest of tour. Call it East Bound and Down, call it National Tour. Call it what you want but this is our most ambitious undertaking, yet. We've hit Chicago and Cincinnati before, but the area east of Ohio is largely uncharted territory for FGF. That's all about to change. Some other things have changed recently and because we've intentionally been on the down-low about personnel changes in our organization, it's time to come clean with what's been happening, and what's going to happen inside and outside Frogs Gone Fishin'.
Steve and Mark don't play music in FGF anymore. It's something you don't foresee, but every band, it seems, goes through it. At some point life bumps up against everything you thought your band would be as a kid and you deal with what all of our twenty-something friends deal with, the idealism of youth fading into the harsher, but ultimately more satisfying world of getting business done. I will always love those two guys and wish them nothing but personal and musical happiness.
On bass and drums this tour are the Double D's, Dax and Dave, and at the helm of our eastbound ship is Double A (Aaron) our ever-trustworthy and efficient road manager. The man can cook, drive for HOURS, fix anything and helps keep us oriented toward our goal of playing as much music as possible, in as many places as possible, planned and unplanned.
Frogs have been as far east as North Carolina (we'll do Asheville on Halloween this year), and as far north as Cleveland, but never to New Jersey or New York as we'll do this month. The band is especially excited for a gig at Sullivan Hall in Greenwich Village, NYC, on Halloween weekend. Bringing Bertha and a band that's not exactly on a New York budget will be a challenge, but I wouldn't consider myself a touring musician if we didn't at least try and make this a viable route for ourselves so we can keep coming back in the future to build a fan base.
Frogs plan on taking a short break during the winter months, to solidify our lineup and add additional instruments to our sound. The only way to keep from calcifying is to grow and it doesn't ever hurt to build demand by restricting access. Again, you bump into the reality of paying your bills when you want to restrict the number of shows you play in a given market, but it's a big country! Then the reality of how much gas really costs us as a society manifests like some sort of giant pink elephant in the room which no one wants to address.
It was tough to hear when our business banker told me that it's harder to acquire small business credit under Obama than it was under Bush. I've given this administration the serious benefit of the doubt but, in the financial sector at least, they are failing. Not to mention the fact that the crooks who did serious damage to the world economy still have their jobs. Small business is what drives our nation forward, along with corporations. But I do know that in a nation plagued by debt and few job opportunities, new prosperity must come from a different place than corporations. Companies like that are too massive, too dense to move quickly in a world changing as rapidly as ours. We are one of those small businesses, and can attest first hand to the difficulties that entrepreneurs face these days.
But luckily for we musicians, our business is not a cyclical one, in terms of the entire economy. People, in general, want to go out, have a good time and listen to music, and I would suppose more-so in times of economic distress. But we are always striving, trying to book better gigs, farther in advance for more money. Being in Chicago and New York should refine our business sense, and what it means to be a musician in a highly, and in the case of New York, the most competitive scene in the world.
Bertha feels solid in the dense fall air, the engine aspirating that much better. There are so many variables on tour and all I can really hope for is Halloween not being that scary for the Frog's bank account as we journey to New York and beyond.
Wednesday, August 24
Nuts
Things have been nuts lately. Last week I played with two groups, The Sessh and Frogs Gone Fishin', in Aspen for over 250 people... on a Monday! This was all after headlining gorgeous State Bridge Amphitheater for our good friends and fans near Vail on Sunday.
Frogs have acquired a wonderful booking agent, Ryan Williams, and are making headway in new Colorado markets like during night's show at the Belly Up and an upcoming bill on 9/11 at the venerable Mishiwaka Amphitheater in northern Colorado. We'll open up for Bill Kruetzman's (drums, Grateful Dead) new project at the Gothic Theater with a favorite bass player of mine, George Porter Jr. (Meters) outta New Orleans. After that we'll head toward Joplin, MO to play a benefit for the victims of the tornado disaster there. Having evacuated New Orleans for Katrina in 2005, I'm acutely aware of the struggle and sadness that natural disaster can bring. Music not only helped, but saved New Orleans after Katrina and I'm positive it will help Joplin. In October we'll head out on our most ambitious tour in almost half a decade, all the way to New York City to tour the region and rock out on Halloween in a city full of year-round characters. My electronic-funk group The Sessh will be releasing recorded music soon and will tour Europe in 2012.
All of this booking requires a commitment to risk and entrepreneurship that is comforting during a time when corporations seem to be reluctant to hire, the unemployment rate is relatively speaking, very high, and the financial markets are struggling. Factors outside of my control have a tougher time influencing the outcome of our business. There is no market or instrument attached to music, only a quotient of people's desire for entertainment (high during times of financial strain) and our desire to succeed (high when you're a [literally] starving artist).
Now now, I'm not really starving. I had salmon for dinner tonight. It was delicious. And we aren't in some doomsday scenario where people go to the bar and drink and dance because the financial excrement is hitting the global fan and all they want to do is forget their lives. We still control our destiny. I am my own boss, as are many people, and that feels great. But you have to watch any stagnation. Getting comfortable isn't an option. Calcification in any moving system is the beginning of the end. I'm planning on taking a break from music for a month in December and traveling to India to gain perspective about my life and station here in the US, study the beautiful, holy and ancient tonal relationships in the music of the sitar and walk the path that my personal spiritual leader, Buddha, did in during his lifetime in the northeastern part of the country.
I know what you're thinking. How unremarkable and cliche: 25 year old, bearded American rock musician goes to India seeking enlightenment and musical guru. But I'm going because I know it will have an impact on me whether I like it or not, whether I want to let India in or not, all I've heard and read is that it will assault your senses. Pretty nuts.
The Indian system and way of thinking is foreign, if not unnecessary for America, but I wouldn't stop short of saying we need an attitude adjustment. We need to stop pinning our newfound waning hegemony on our leaders and start businesses, make some money and create jobs ourselves instead of waiting around for the job market to get better. I think the media plays poorly into this, reporting ever increasing joblessness, as if we are to take a rise of .3 percentage points as cause to stop looking for jobs altogether. Income can come from different sources and the idea that our white-collar-with-benefits world would last forever, while giving illegal immigrants the jobs white America didn't want, was ludicrous. We are all taught that it's better to make a living with your skill set in Microsoft Office when there are roads to be built, bridges to be fixed and a new "green" infrastructure to create for a sustainable world. But green business isn't yet profitable and so the seemingly obvious pairing of joblessness with new green jobs is shattered by the very thing shattering our perceived hegemony: greed.
When we start looking at a sustainability index instead of a consumer confidence index, we'll be living in a better world. Life is a zero-sum game on Earth. Our quest for "growth" every year as an index of economic health is bringing about our demise quicker than we can ever predict. There is a beautiful alignment between saving our world financially and environmentally, if only we could get our leaders to do what us entrepreneurs do daily: take risks.
Frogs have acquired a wonderful booking agent, Ryan Williams, and are making headway in new Colorado markets like during night's show at the Belly Up and an upcoming bill on 9/11 at the venerable Mishiwaka Amphitheater in northern Colorado. We'll open up for Bill Kruetzman's (drums, Grateful Dead) new project at the Gothic Theater with a favorite bass player of mine, George Porter Jr. (Meters) outta New Orleans. After that we'll head toward Joplin, MO to play a benefit for the victims of the tornado disaster there. Having evacuated New Orleans for Katrina in 2005, I'm acutely aware of the struggle and sadness that natural disaster can bring. Music not only helped, but saved New Orleans after Katrina and I'm positive it will help Joplin. In October we'll head out on our most ambitious tour in almost half a decade, all the way to New York City to tour the region and rock out on Halloween in a city full of year-round characters. My electronic-funk group The Sessh will be releasing recorded music soon and will tour Europe in 2012.
All of this booking requires a commitment to risk and entrepreneurship that is comforting during a time when corporations seem to be reluctant to hire, the unemployment rate is relatively speaking, very high, and the financial markets are struggling. Factors outside of my control have a tougher time influencing the outcome of our business. There is no market or instrument attached to music, only a quotient of people's desire for entertainment (high during times of financial strain) and our desire to succeed (high when you're a [literally] starving artist).
Now now, I'm not really starving. I had salmon for dinner tonight. It was delicious. And we aren't in some doomsday scenario where people go to the bar and drink and dance because the financial excrement is hitting the global fan and all they want to do is forget their lives. We still control our destiny. I am my own boss, as are many people, and that feels great. But you have to watch any stagnation. Getting comfortable isn't an option. Calcification in any moving system is the beginning of the end. I'm planning on taking a break from music for a month in December and traveling to India to gain perspective about my life and station here in the US, study the beautiful, holy and ancient tonal relationships in the music of the sitar and walk the path that my personal spiritual leader, Buddha, did in during his lifetime in the northeastern part of the country.
I know what you're thinking. How unremarkable and cliche: 25 year old, bearded American rock musician goes to India seeking enlightenment and musical guru. But I'm going because I know it will have an impact on me whether I like it or not, whether I want to let India in or not, all I've heard and read is that it will assault your senses. Pretty nuts.
The Indian system and way of thinking is foreign, if not unnecessary for America, but I wouldn't stop short of saying we need an attitude adjustment. We need to stop pinning our newfound waning hegemony on our leaders and start businesses, make some money and create jobs ourselves instead of waiting around for the job market to get better. I think the media plays poorly into this, reporting ever increasing joblessness, as if we are to take a rise of .3 percentage points as cause to stop looking for jobs altogether. Income can come from different sources and the idea that our white-collar-with-benefits world would last forever, while giving illegal immigrants the jobs white America didn't want, was ludicrous. We are all taught that it's better to make a living with your skill set in Microsoft Office when there are roads to be built, bridges to be fixed and a new "green" infrastructure to create for a sustainable world. But green business isn't yet profitable and so the seemingly obvious pairing of joblessness with new green jobs is shattered by the very thing shattering our perceived hegemony: greed.
When we start looking at a sustainability index instead of a consumer confidence index, we'll be living in a better world. Life is a zero-sum game on Earth. Our quest for "growth" every year as an index of economic health is bringing about our demise quicker than we can ever predict. There is a beautiful alignment between saving our world financially and environmentally, if only we could get our leaders to do what us entrepreneurs do daily: take risks.
Tuesday, July 26
Late Summer Classic
Starting to feel like I know this country pretty well. I certainly haven't been everywhere, but I've met a lot of people from every strata of life and the middle of the US is a great place to get to know the essence of America. The coasts: East, West and Dirty (my favorite and where I went to school) are full of bustling port towns. Even in a global society, it takes more time for outside influence to reach the interior of a country. For better or for worse, the middle of America is decidedly more "American" than even some of the populous coastal cities in our country. A touristy tour from Europe might bring someone from across the pond to New York and San Francisco which are very, very American cities, but places that share many traits with the European capital our bon tourist would have flown out of.
Let's bring 'em to Wichita, to Dayton or Sioux City or El Paso or Albuquerque. Places with Triple A baseball teams... that's the real America and if you don't believe me go talk to Billy at the truck stop in Wichita. He fixed the electric connection to our trailer for $20. He only charges us that cause "the boss man is here, otherwise I'd send ya on 'yer way!". Talk about good people...
We got pulled over for a burned out taillight last night, raising the tally to twice in 2011 that we've had to speak to the nice officers, and the eastern Colorado cop couldn't have been more cordial. I'm not saying we scream probable cause, but four hairy dudes in an RV are both intimidating for and a target of law enforcement. We don't keep any band related stickers on the outside of Bertha or the trailer and when police run our registration they typically get a chuckle when "Frogs Gone Fishin' LLC" comes up. Make any administrator laugh, and that's your ticket in life. Don't try to be logical, their job sucks as jobs are prone to suck, but make them smile during their routine day and you're free to continue down I-70 into the heat of the night and the smell of the Kansas air. If you can keep a positive attitude while inhaling some of the olfactory delight Kansas has to offer, my hat's off to you, sir.
This tour we are headed to Stillwater, OK and then on to four stops in Ohio. I've delicately dubbed this the "Big O" tour, hopefully inspiring some dirty jokes and maybe a tire sponsorship. Stillwater likes to party, that's for certain. So does Ohio but we'll see if Cincy and Cleveland can keep up with that Big 12 beer-bong spirit. I can't wait to find out.
If our route seems illogical, it is. The Oklahoma show was booked last minute because of aforementioned reasons, the kids like to party and seem to like us. If there is anything that's endeared me to small towns across America it is the fact that when a rock and roll band comes to town, it's on like Donkey Kong in 3D. In essence we are entertainers and go where people like to be entertained. Sometimes in a place like Chicago or New Orleans, there is so much entertainment it's hard to cut through. But pull Bertha into Stillwater on a Tuesday, and some people recognize her from last time, from the time we packed 16 people in after the show and drank High Life till dawn.
Ohio will be more of an experiment. We've hit Dayton and Cleveland before. Did you know if you're in a rock band, all you have to do is bring in a CD and they let you in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for free? My favorite are ZZ Top's fuzzy drums from the 80's. We'll be traveling alongside the hilarious and always energetic Revivalists from New Orleans. They rip it up so check them out online.
At any rate it's nice to get out of Colorado. July and January are always the craziest months for gigging musicians and this July was no exception. I spent a solid three or four nights out of the month at home in Denver and while I'm not complaining, I'm not a coal miner or a 13th-century rat catcher here, a change of scenery is always nice.
Colorado is heaven. The mountains never cease to amaze me and our fans and friends are nothing short of incredible, mobile, aggressively smart, fun-loving people. My idea of an amazing time is traveling in a car much lighter and quicker than the one I'm in, from Vail to Steamboat, friends on board on the way to State Bridge or some such divine slice of real estate unknown to much of the rest of the world.
But as the Revivalists so eloquently put in their blog after visiting us in CO:
Let's bring 'em to Wichita, to Dayton or Sioux City or El Paso or Albuquerque. Places with Triple A baseball teams... that's the real America and if you don't believe me go talk to Billy at the truck stop in Wichita. He fixed the electric connection to our trailer for $20. He only charges us that cause "the boss man is here, otherwise I'd send ya on 'yer way!". Talk about good people...
We got pulled over for a burned out taillight last night, raising the tally to twice in 2011 that we've had to speak to the nice officers, and the eastern Colorado cop couldn't have been more cordial. I'm not saying we scream probable cause, but four hairy dudes in an RV are both intimidating for and a target of law enforcement. We don't keep any band related stickers on the outside of Bertha or the trailer and when police run our registration they typically get a chuckle when "Frogs Gone Fishin' LLC" comes up. Make any administrator laugh, and that's your ticket in life. Don't try to be logical, their job sucks as jobs are prone to suck, but make them smile during their routine day and you're free to continue down I-70 into the heat of the night and the smell of the Kansas air. If you can keep a positive attitude while inhaling some of the olfactory delight Kansas has to offer, my hat's off to you, sir.
This tour we are headed to Stillwater, OK and then on to four stops in Ohio. I've delicately dubbed this the "Big O" tour, hopefully inspiring some dirty jokes and maybe a tire sponsorship. Stillwater likes to party, that's for certain. So does Ohio but we'll see if Cincy and Cleveland can keep up with that Big 12 beer-bong spirit. I can't wait to find out.
If our route seems illogical, it is. The Oklahoma show was booked last minute because of aforementioned reasons, the kids like to party and seem to like us. If there is anything that's endeared me to small towns across America it is the fact that when a rock and roll band comes to town, it's on like Donkey Kong in 3D. In essence we are entertainers and go where people like to be entertained. Sometimes in a place like Chicago or New Orleans, there is so much entertainment it's hard to cut through. But pull Bertha into Stillwater on a Tuesday, and some people recognize her from last time, from the time we packed 16 people in after the show and drank High Life till dawn.
Ohio will be more of an experiment. We've hit Dayton and Cleveland before. Did you know if you're in a rock band, all you have to do is bring in a CD and they let you in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for free? My favorite are ZZ Top's fuzzy drums from the 80's. We'll be traveling alongside the hilarious and always energetic Revivalists from New Orleans. They rip it up so check them out online.
At any rate it's nice to get out of Colorado. July and January are always the craziest months for gigging musicians and this July was no exception. I spent a solid three or four nights out of the month at home in Denver and while I'm not complaining, I'm not a coal miner or a 13th-century rat catcher here, a change of scenery is always nice.
Colorado is heaven. The mountains never cease to amaze me and our fans and friends are nothing short of incredible, mobile, aggressively smart, fun-loving people. My idea of an amazing time is traveling in a car much lighter and quicker than the one I'm in, from Vail to Steamboat, friends on board on the way to State Bridge or some such divine slice of real estate unknown to much of the rest of the world.
But as the Revivalists so eloquently put in their blog after visiting us in CO:
"Colorado is sort of like the Ned Flanders to your state’s Homer Simpson. Its yard is cleaner, its family is nicer, and no matter what you do, it always seems so much happier than you. Everything is clean and healthy. Everyone is good-looking and nice.
It’s kind of annoying after a few days."
Now, I grew up in Colorado and went to school in Louisiana, the proverbial "Homer Simpson" in this scenario. The funny thing is, The Revivalist boys are right in their blog. Of course, they go on to mention that they are joking, but compared to CO, Louisiana is much more of a "real" place in terms of a mass of diverse humanity trying to get along together in one place. It's much more reflective of the rest of the world.
A global influence truly takes times to creep into the center of such a massive country. Traveling east to west it's easy to see, architecturally and culturally, how each city looks slightly less northern European. Cincinnati even has strong elements of Protestant immigrant culture and edifice. Make it to Iowa City and the buildings are akin to what you will see until you arrive in the west, where Spanish and much more modern architecture are present.
I love Denver but have always thought of it as a confused mix between Los Angeles and Lincoln, Nebraska. But in a way, the liberal free-thinking people you meet out there on the road in America are post-nationalist. They think of their community and jobs and families first and for better or worse, nation second. It might just be better that way. Norway is grappling with the manifestation of extreme right-wing nationalism in the wake of last week's deadly shooting. At least one European country has outlawed the construction of Islamic minarets completely. Can you imagine our government outlawing Catholic cathedrals for Mexican immigrants or Buddhist temples in San Francisco because of the overwhelming presence of one type of people in our country?
Here comes the cliche conclusion to my mid-western monologue. America is great because people focus on making themselves better. We are an individualistic society who despite the nationalistic lingo, jingoistic politicians and right wing Fox News nut bags, don't care as much for American hegemony in the world as even a few years ago.
I do feel like I'm getting to know the people in my own country better than ever. I see it all. We play in five star hotels and dive bars where no sane human should ever consider consuming food or beverage. I see people tripping so hard they can only lie in the grass for hours in hilarity and I see those so depressed by the weight of existing in this individualistic place they can barely breath or stand up on their own two feet to face the day.
I suppose that's why I like being an artist and my own boss. I am, by the very nature of my job, an observer. I enter the realm of luxury and poverty every single week. As I get to know the country better I realize we need two things, education and compassion. A smart populous will only care more about their brethren because we all learn that everyone is simply a victim of circumstance. The observers, the wanderers and nomads in this world are sometimes looked down upon by a society that values hard work, a wife, two kids and a mortgage. I want all of those things one day. But for now it's time to wander and observe and to figure out how we can help each other better.
FROGS GONE FISHIN' WILL BE ON TOUR UNTIL AUGUST. THE NEXT NATIONAL TOUR IS PLANNED FOR OCTOBER.
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!
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