Show Friday Sept 5th!
Here’s the info!
STILL Live Video from LONG ago…..
Here’s the best live video of probably the best lineup of STILL I ever had; Erik Eldenius on drums, Dave Odegaard on lead guitar, Mick Linden on bass, and me playing rhythm guitar, big fun!!
Shot by Aaron Weisblatt, the audio is live, I just eq’ed it some in Logic and that’s what you hear….
Rush Documentary
First off – RUSH FUCKING RULES – FUCK OFF!!
Ok, got that out there.
So yeh, I was a fan the second I heard the first Rush thing I ever heard, which was 2112, at Herman’s little place in Juneau, which was where a bunch of us heard a lot of things for the first time….(and a LOT of other stuff happened) I loved it, and although I’ve frequently kinda felt the lack of certain things that I value very much in terms of songwriting and arrangement etc nowadays, they’ll always be a band I like listening to…
Watching the documentary I was struck by something that has always haunted me throughout my life as a musician….I ALWAYS wanted to be in a great band, and I always wanted to do that as how I went through life, and although I’ve had a truly amazing life and wouldn’t give it up for any money, that’s always been a goal I never really attained, and I really wish I had.
I was in some great bands that never really took off for various reasons, The City with Billy Trudel (lead vocals – Elton John and MANY things as a singer), my way way back buddy Stuart Mathis (guitar vocals with so many HUGE things I’m not even gonna try, look him up), Jerry Speiser (drums – fresh from “Men at Work” at the time), and the band’s svengali/writer/producer Peter McIan (producer/writer/keys, had produced the first couple Men at Work records)…..Life by Nite with Tom Croucier (GREAT singer/writer who should be huge if the world was fair), Stuart again, Bryan Hitt (REO nowadays), Jeff Nadieu (now passed but spent a long time with Eric Burdon I think), Kevin Anderson (does a ton of work in production and has a studio), a really cool little band I had with Stuart, Bryan and Joellen Friedkin (keys, spent a long time with Keb’ Mo) that never really saw the light of day but had a ton of potential…and of course my own efforts with STILL, which has had a number of people in it (Erik Eldenius – Billy Idol, Micheal Martinsonn – Dilana, Mick Linden – Bad Haggis, Mike Owens – very talented drummer, Billy Steinway – tons of stuff, Dave Odegaard (monster shredder with a number of guitar CD’s out there that are fairly popular, and who interestingly just the other day said those famous words to me “Dude we should put the band back together and do some shows!”, and maybe we will) and a LOT of folks helping out along the way…but none of them ever really jelled and/or took off. There’s a bunch of other things but those are the ones that stick out right now as I write….
(Edit/Update) Fuck, can’t believe I didn’t mention “Different Size Gods” which was a group that kinda just fell together by weird chance and was really really cool…myself, Stuart, Tony Obrahta, Fred Eltringham, and Mike Webb (these guys have SOOO many credits I’m not even gonna try, just Google them), we did that record so quick and in my case literally on the fly, luckily Fred and I played together like we’d known each other for years instead of hardly met before tape rolled….that band shoulda def done more than it did….(/Update)
A lot of that has to do with the musical environment of LA, which is so money and success driven, and maybe less interested in just being great and let the pieces fall where they may…and a lot of it has to do with me being an aggressive opinionated dick for most of my life…and fact is, not many of us EVER get to be in that band, and certainly very few get to succeed at it, and maybe 10 or less like Rush has….
But yeh, I always wanted that…
Watching the documentary, you can see the enormous respect and affection they have for each other, and how much fun they still seem to have doing what they’ve done for like 40 years or so, and it’s striking to think about what a great life that is, and how they seem to “get it” as well….they know they have it going on….THAT’S what I wanted to do….
So yeh, more power to them, I love to see it…I’m a bit jealous, but I’m glad SOMEONE got to do it…it’s very rare that these things are all in the same place at the same time, many people get some of those pieces, but very few get all of them that right.
SHOWS!
I’m playing a coupla songs at Genghis Cohen with some friends, (and a LOT of other talented people) @ around 9pm – here’s a map –
View Larger Map
and I’m playing a longer set at Arnie’s in Tujunga, some songs will be with the house band, here’s the info on that –
Come out and see some music goodness!
“My Ecstasy” makes it into a BIG CONTEST!!
My song “My Ecstasy” has been accepted into the contest below, and I could sure use your help.
“ReverbNation, the leading marketing platform for more than 500,000 artists, labels, managers, and venues, has announced the launch of a new music discovery program called Playlist 7 sponsored by Microsoft Windows.
Congratulations on inclusion in next week’s Song Pool! Your song will go live on the Playlist 7 site on Monday 1/18/10 at 11:00 am EST.”
These things tend to turn into popularity contests, with basically whoever can get the most downloads moving farther along……so acts tend to really get into this, and now ME TOO!
So what exactly do I need from you?
On or after (for 1 week) Monday 1/18/10 at 11:00 am EST/8 am PST, go to http://www.reverbnation.com/playlist7, sign up and download “My Ecstasy” by “STILL”.
That’s it!
You will be helping massively, because each download counts as a vote. Some of the songs that have moved into the next round didn’t need many votes to move up, so every one counts! The sign-in is really easy in this contest, if you have a Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter account you can do it with that without another step…..if not, maybe this is a good time to get into whichever of those you’ve been thinking about….?
If you would like to go the extra mile (awesome of you!), please go to my ReverbNation page at http://www.reverbnation.com/still (it actually IS a pretty great music site, even for the artists…), sign up as a fan, and add yourself to my “Street Team”, where I have a “mission” about the contest, with goods for the team if we can move on to the next round. In the mission there will be ways to get the word out, banners, and other things you can easily do that will help tremendously.
So yeh, reading the rules it looks like I’ve made $57 just to get this far (WOWWWWA…. Vienna’s going to YALE now dude), and that’s cool, but I would make much more ($507) if I can move it to the next round (enough to pay for the Pro Fools junk I just bought) but it’s really not about that….as you can guess it’s all about the EXPOSURE, and this thing will be getting a lot of that from Microsoft. THAT could help things along for me a great deal, and THAT’S why I’m bugging you with hat in hand, hopeful you can take a minute and help.
Here’s more blurb about the contest –
“The program will showcase emerging artists from the rock, pop, alternative, hip-hop, latin, jazz, and electronica/dance genres. Music fans from around the world will choose 7 artists each week to appear in ‘Playlist 7’ and receive additional promotion and cash compensation. The first fifty songs are already available:
“The artists get exposure and cash compensation every step of the way. Everybody wins with Playlist 7.”
“The fans get free music from up and coming artists every week, plus they get to decide which Artists make it to the top of Playlist 7,” said Lou Plaia, vice president of Artist Relations at ReverbNation. “The artists get exposure and cash compensation every step of the way. Everybody wins with Playlist 7.”
How it works:
During each week of the program, 50 songs from emerging Artists will be made available for free download at http://www.reverbnation.com/playlist7. Music fans will be able to download 7 free songs of their choice from the pool of fifty. Each download will act as a ‘vote’ for the Artist. The 7 Artists who receive the most downloads during each week will receive an additional cash prize and will have their song featured and promoted the following week inside of ‘Playlist 7’.
“Windows’ generous sponsorship of this program means that more emerging Artists will be heard as well as compensated for their art,” said Jed Carlson, co-founder and chief operating officer of ReverbNation.com. “It’s a great way to bring bands and brands together for mutual benefit.”
OK there it is, please help out if you can, I truly appreciate it!!
WB