Gosh Dang! I think I have met the ULTIMATE WEB DESIGN GODESS OF ALL FREAKING TIME!! Ok, I haven't actually met her, like, in person or anything but my buddy Casey C. who is a web sauve individual living in Seattle - he sent me a couple links and, gee, this is some HOT SHIT - the designer is Jordan Stone and her partners are probably various, her home page is sofake.com and here and here are a couple of links - this design quanta is gonna stone you, prepare yourselv, this is the some amazing stuff. I mean, gee, I really like it - i have sent Jordan a couple of emails trying to explain to her how in awe I am - I am not sure if I can succeed to communicate with her, I got some weird email in return from her 'robots' hmmmm. ... so anyway check out the links and the site work and leeme know what you think.

Oh, what else, I got my tracks from Strangelove - fresh from the Strange Night - they sound damn good, you know, I am pretty good, not like a GOD OF SINGING or a GUITAR GOD or anything but, heck, I am good you know really pretty good I think I am anyhow, aren't I??

And anyhow Adam Probert and Strangelove Recording capture THE BEST FREAKING ACOUSTIC GUITAR SOUNDS IN CLEVELAND OR MAYBE ANYWHERE ELSE EVER IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE period. .. hurry and go see him and record yourselve AND DON'T WAIT ANY LONGER!!! GO NOW whataaya waiting for there, cmon, git on wit it -


So, we (Adam and I) have already scheduled, tentatilvey of course - STRANGE NIGHT II - yup, what's that? You want to know that exact date? No, you cannot know it yet - soon though. It's all in the works, and your gonna love it. Strangely of course.

I gotaa go pee, so, later.

Here we are post Christmas and Pre-New Year and everything is pretty mellow, which is certainly one of the ways "I like it" (just generally speaking) and I am still not sure what to do for the Big New Year Event, I have a few options to consider, not the least of which is go home and hide, heh, what you think I am kidding? I have an outstanding traffic ticket for the heights, so I should pay that this week before I even think about going up to the GROG SHOP for the big new years bash featuring "Moon the Giant", and "The Matt Gerovac Implosion" and "XELA" as well as "Hip Hop with Poetic Republic"- sounds like a "really big shooow" to me but I am not even sure I will be going out that night.

THE TINY LISTING OF OPEN MIC EVENTS:

There are a few new OPEN MIC NIGHTS around town, the most recent event I have heard about is Open Mic at Capsule Bar 13376 Madison Ave. in Lakewood 216-CAPSULE hosted by "The Kid with the Long Hair" and he can be reached at starvationarmyzine@yahoo.com

Xela is currently hosting these Open Mics:

Sun. 8PM Cafe Europa rt. 84 & rt. 91 in Willoughby 440-943-8914

Mon. 10PM The B-Side Lounge Coventryyard Cle. Hts. 216-932-1966

Tues. 8PM Phoenix Coffee Detroit Ave. Lakewood Ohio 216-226-4401

Jim Snively continues the highly successfull and well-attended Monday Night Open Mic at McNamara's Bar just around the corner from Don's Lighthouse where the Shoreway runs into Lakewood - if you need specific information about this event, feel free to contact Jim at his number 216-409-1011 he answers his phone and he is a super pleasant fellow to speak with

And, well, thats about that - if you have an open mic event let me know about it I will ad it to my tiny listings here.

I haven't written in my blog for, like, weeks - I have been busy and this has just been low on my priority list. Anyhow, lemme get right into a few things:

WEB DESIGN:
I have been playing around with the image maps functions in Adobe Image Ready and have begun to create a series of exciting new image navigation maps for my site here - of course my use of the word 'exciting' is relative - and in the process I have discovered a few minor discrepancies between the way IE handles image maps and rollovers and the way that Netscape handles maps - gee, I might as well get this off my chest right away: When you mouseover my fancy new buttons in IE you get the rollover effect, and the link - however, when you mouseover my fancy buttons with Netscape, you only get the rollover image UNTIL you hit the actual dimensions of the IMAGE MAP and then you get - the original image. Blah!!! I cannot figure this one out, so what I have done is to create little tiny map hotspots within the middle of the image so that you get the rollover effect in both browsers. The limitation is obvious, is it not? You have to mouseover the tiny image map to get the link to the target page, otherwise, you get no link at all. But if I make the map as big as the button image, then you get no rollover AT ALL when browsing the page with Netscape. Well, we all have to compromise don't we, I have done so JUST to accomodate any Netscape users.

CD LISTENING:
I have a whole bunch of new CD's to listen to - Justin Markert recently sent me one, so did Chris Viola, I have listened only to a little of both of those 'demo' CD's. Chris Nekvinda had a FABULOUS CD release party at UCA early this month and since then I have been listening to his CD "Picture Show" and just yesterday while listening to the track "Lost in America" (or maybe it's "3000 miles" ) I got all misty. I have Tim Fry's new CD - very nice sounding, open, mellow and peaceful solo acoustic tunes with interesting and introspective lyrical poetry - these recordings capture a focused studio performance on Tim's part, recorded mostly at Strangelove and mastered by Charlie Mosbrook. Good job Tim!!! I have been listening to "Mirandas Moon" - the first CD, with the cut "Saturn Five" - and I have been diggin it waaay more since giving it some time in the CD player. All the tracks from that CD are super well done and the music is really unique and interesting and fun too. I have a copy of Jake Harper's demo CD and I need to spin that one up a few more times before I can get a feel for it - it sounds good at first listen, but I usually need several listens before I can fully tune my ears into a new voice. And lets see, I have XelaKooshtick - and these cuts are so big sounding and warm and alive! I just am totally into the sound of those tracks, they were recorded in front of a live audience at a soundstage somewhere in the TRI-C campus, and Xela man plays some great songs (I just groove out totally to LALALAND) with Nick Gaudette's accompany on double bass, if you have not heard this CD yet, get it very soon, I think it's his best recorded work to date, however, I am a huge fan of the XelaMonster and I have all his full-length CD's sometimes I get to accompany him myself on acoustic bass and I listen to the CD's frequently so don't hold me to my word if I all a sudden decide that I like one of the other CD's better again. I must not forget to mention that I have Mike Allan's illicit demo CD (Thanks Roger!) and I have been listening to that allot as well - although, recently, Mike has recorded new vocal tracks to those cuts and has been working with the music and the vocals during trips to Detroit, so I cant wait to hear the final versions! The Stoigatronic one laid down some delicate, tender and generally sweeeeet asssss solo acoustic versions of a few of those tracks during the Strange Night event this past SAT - heheh!!

STRANGE NIGHT:
Ok, enough about what I have been listening too - and back to what is happeneing! The Strange Night at UCA with 'Mobile Love' (Mobile Strange Love Recording) went of without a single hitch - it was smooth, flawless, perfect in every way. All the artists showed up, every one played really, really well - probably better then they would under 'ordinary circumstances'. It was an OUTSTANDING event and one worth repeating which is exactly what we are going to do. Look for another Strange Night sometime in FEB 2005 - thanks to everyone who made this night so special, y'all know who you are: Terry, Miriam, Tim, Jim, Mo, Brittany, Mike, Chris, Veronica

CROP CIRCLES:
I have been kind of a little bit obsessed with the crop circle formation phenomenon just recently and the nav map idea that graces the home page is made from a legitimate crop circle photo here are the details about that particular picture:
==========================
Location (nearest town or landmark): Noyan, Quebec
Date First Reported or Discovered: August 24, 2004
Crop: cattle corn (9-10 feet tall)
Shape: circle
Size: 27 metres (89 feet) diameter
On-site investigation: CCCRN Quebec (Denyse Aita), BLT Research Team (Nancy Talbott)
Found August 24 by farmer. Later reported September 11 in Le Canada Francais newspaper. Offset centre. Plants flattened radially outward from centre to outside edge, never seen before in a corn formation. Cavities / splits in some stalk nodes. Additional photos and diagrams coming soon.

-----------
Here are the actual picture credits for the photo I used to construct the image map: Aerial view - October 15.© Denyse Aita, CCCRN Quebec
===============
Ah, I feel so much better publishing the picture credit.
Here is a blurb about CCCRN:

(visit the site for a whole bunch of really neato pictures taken of and around legitimate crop circle formations)

===============
"The Canadian Crop Circle Research Network (CCCRN) was started in 1995 (initially as Circles Phenomenon Research Canada, an affiliate of Circles Phenomenon Research International in the USA, before the later closure of the CPRI offices, and then refounded in 2001 as CCCRN), as an effort to investigate and document the crop circle phenomenon in Canada. Up to that point, there was no organized means of doing this, other than a handful of very few independent researchers. As the phenomenon was now being reported virtually across the whole country (since 1990), although concentrated in the prairies, it became clear that a more organized approach was necessary, including having field researchers spread out geographically to cover as many reports as possible, as quickly as possible. The situation was different than in England, the long-standing centre of activity, where by far most formations are found within an eighty kilometre (fifty mile) or so radius of the Stonehenge / Avebury region. In Canada however, and in the United States, they have been found literally from one side of the continent to the other, although again, most have been in the prairie provinces. Thus, CCCRN was born."
=========

So, there you go.

And here is a link to another really interesting site devoted to crop circle formations and the investigation of them. Go eahead, click on over there, I would not steer you wrong.

=======

I gotta go pee. See you later.

All right - Lets get this party started!

Audra Kubat has updated her website - she is in Brooklyn NYC, she has an apartment, she found a job, AND she has finished her new album with Times Beach Records! Whew, that girl can move through the world like a warm spoon through butter - here is a link to a recent interview with Audra, check it out - there is a cool picture of her as well.

UCA recently hosted and evening of acoustic pop rock with Bay Village teenage pop diva Kate Voegele and I don't remember seeing you there - and I have to ask myself - why the hell weren't all of you at the cafe for that night? It was a great show! She brought young guitar slinger Sam Getz and Will Voegele (her dad) to play alongside her and between them they made truly fantastic music (the three of them together and Kate solo) there is no longer any doubt in my mind that Kate is capable of getting to the top of the 'business model'. Ok, juicy gossip: Kate is working with Marshall Altman (yup that A&R guy from Columbia Records) - and I understand that Kate has procurred the services of both an Entertainment Lawyer and a Manager - she ain't foolin' around here - she has recently re-recorded several of the already-hot-sounding songs from "The Other Side" EP (which was recorded in Lakewood ohio) with Marshall out in some fancy schmancy Hollywood studio - whew! I would loooove to hear those new cuts! I bet they sparkle like diamonds! Will explained briefly that after Altman heard songs from "The Other Side" EP he picked a couple to re-record with an 'edgier' groove in order to shop them to the major lables. Kates fabulous acoustic performances indicate to me that she has developed (in only a short period of time) a healthy and mature 'working musicians' respect for acoustic instumentation and an already excellent grasp of what it takes to work within an acoustic performance setting, I guess it's up to the Mighty Music Industry Machine to lift Kate's warmly glowing gift up up and away into the pop-culture ubersphere where it can be heard and seen by all - that is after all what they do best. Until Kate has 'flown the coop' so to speak I hope we get to hear more than a few more of those parred-down style performances with Sam and Will - the next show here in town is at Hard Rock, Kate is the local Pantene Pro Teen voice finalist: Kate Voegele Fri, Nov 19 7:00-9:00PM Pantene Pro Voice & YM Magazine Listening Party Hard Rock Cafe CLEVELAND OH

Solo performance newcomer Miriam Mendelson will play songs and recite poetry for a couple of hours over at the Eye Candy Gallery in Tremont for the 2nd Friday Art Walk November 12- she has been coming out to the Open Mic events at UCA religiously for a couple of months now, singing her heart out at every chance, and had asked me for the opportunity to stretch out a little bit more into an evening of music and poetry that she could 'call her own' and so be it! The Eye Candy is the place to be to begin or end the Tremont Art Walk and that's where you will find artist and gallery operators Rita and Bob Telaak. The fabulous hand fabricated Art Jewelry pieces that Rita creates are not to be missed, you will probably decide that you cannot live a single day longer without one or more of her pieces adorning your body and life!

Adam Zadok is finally coming into town this month from Buffalo NY for a night of acoustic musical revelry at UCA on Saturday November 13 - and I am looking forward to hearing him play live after speaking with him on the phone, and hearing his CD. Check the entire November UCA Music Calendar for all of the music scheduled this month.


December will be a light music calendar with our last live music night of the year at UCA being Dec. 18th - a "Strange Night at the U.C. Arabica" with live recording sponsored by Strangelove Recording and a lineup of musical acts featuring --- well, we are going to have a bunch of acts, I am not ready to publish any potential lineup yet because its still only November. I am personally going to want to try to fit as many acts into the one night of recording as will be humanly possible - think of all those clowns coming out of a tiny car at the circus - just like that - but I don't know that Adam feels exactly the same way about things so - well - I dunno - at 2 to 3 songs per act I think its going to be crazy night anyway we work it. Just plan on being there even if you are not 'on the bill' because we are going to have fun - so there. If you are interested in recording that night, lemme know, and soon.



Anyhow, I hope that these blog entries are interesting to a few readers, if you have anything to say to me just drop a line to my email address music@steve2.net

Audra K. updated her website recently - it's really nice to read a few words from her, she writes that she is in Brooklyn NY and has an apartment! Sweeeet! She explains she is looking for work, and will be playing guitar and singing in The Big City for about the next six months or so. She also writes that her new album is completed - Audra is such a hot singer/songwriter talent and I like her so much ... I can't wait to hear the new songs!!


Laura Webster at U.C. Arabica this weekend - if you get the chance to stop by on Sat. night please do, Laura has a really pretty voice and she is a graceful talent - check out her website for pictures and more biographical information.


Kate Voegele at U.C. Arabica Sat. Oct. 30th for an acoustic show and she will bring with her a couple of other musicians for this show - Will Voegele and perhaps an electric guitarist. I am excited about this show and a little nervous because I want Kate to have a good crowd to play to and latley the neighborhood (Barking Spider and Arabica) have been a little bit slow at night - at least on the nights I have been over there. So, if you read this and you can make it out please come to hear Kate, she is a really bright young songwriting talent and her voice is ... there is so much already written about her songwriting and her voice - just google her name and see what you find. I have been digging the K.V. EP "The Other Side" - check out her site, it was recently re-designed and it looks really good!!


Kate Morrissey called me recently to setup a show at U.C.A. for Friday Jan. 28th - gee, thats Next Year!! She has a show at the Barking Spider that weekend so I really won't have any excuse not to make one of the nights - Kate has played the U.C.A. a couple of times and I have not yet managed to get to the shop for one of her shows - uhm, I have listened to the samples of the music on her site, and I have also noted with much appreciation that she has a really nice phone voice.




Kristine Jackson has tentativly agreed to play a solo acoustic show at U.C.A November 11 - Kristine is a fabulous young blues singer and she is also a working horn player - she was a member of the local group "Blues On Purpose" and she has played horn with many blues greats including Cleveland's own Robert Lockwood - she has lots of top-notch real-world experience as a horn player and now she is fronting her own act as a singer, I have her demo, I listen to it frequently - it's really good!



OK, well this is just a preview of what's coming up - I need to work on getting the whole November calendar up. In November U.C.A. will host shows with Chelsea and Allen, "Flip Side" (with Beth Hyland), Ryan Anderson, and Ben Jacobs as well as Adam Zadok and Xela and John Toula. The calendar is coming .....

I have been on hiatus from work (took some badly needed vacation time) and have been listening to some music and I have some news items to share with you:

OPEN MIC:
Open Mic at the Arabica University Circle has been going really well this past few weeks and I want to thank all those who come to play and hang out: Matt Rayl, Terry Writz, Dan Rose, David Mansfield, Dan and Ben, and Dan and Lee and finally Dan and George. A special thank you to Jim Snively for not only making his own Open Mic very special but for making the effort to come out and make other events happen. And thanks to Ben Jacobs for bringing in his original songs and his friends. Thank you to Miriam for putting up with all the ‘cavernous’ sound issues - please keep coming to Open Mic, OK? Thanks Angelisa for coming out to play last week even though it was late I enjoyed listening to you and I hope to see you again.

AUDRA KUBAT:
You may or may not know that I am a HUGE Audra Kubat fan and that she is moving to NYC, I am going to miss seeing her here in Cleveland once in a while. I went to her biter sweet going away party this past weekend in Detroit and I got to say I felt only a little out of place not knowing anyone there (other than Audra) – I was the only out-of-state fan to be invited to the party. But everyone was friendly and nice, the crowd was composed of totally eclectic hipsters of all ages and the music, of course, was really fantastic. I noticed Audra was a little bit nervous – maybe because her parents were in the audience? I met Audra’s brother Chris, but I neglected to make a pointed effort to introduce myself to her parents. I got a really cool poster and I met a nice girl there by the name of Gwen Joy and I hope maybe she might read this and if she does, well I gave her my web site address, maybe she will contact me, but probably not. Anyhow, Audra is wrapping up her second full length CD release with Times Beach and she told me it would be done very soon – probably done by now. How exciting! I cannot wait to hear it!

SPECIAL EVENT:
I have an associate in Lakewood who owns and operates a really nice full-service recording studio – perhaps you are familiar with Strangelove Recording? Adam Probert is the engineer and the owner operator of Strangelove and he has done tons of work with bands around town, releasing several compilations CD’s along the way. Adam is interested in finding and recording acoustic talent and is looking for ways to promote his studio. So, after batting a couple of ideas around, we have decided to coordinate a live recording event at the U.C. Arabica and we have even decided a date: Saturday December 18 2004. For this date Strangelove and U.C. Arabica will co-host an evening of music at the café with anywhere from 5 to 8 acoustic acts (to be decided upon in the very near future). Each act will have about twenty minutes to play a TFA (Totally Freaking Acoustic) set. Each act will be recorded, free of charge and professionally, with a mobile 16-track studio setup. Please stay tuned for more details as to which acts will be included in this very special event.

WHAT I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO:
Here are a few things I have been listening to:

NEIL JACOBS: Neil is a local resident guitar player of astounding talent – I heard him for the first time at the Lakewood Arts Festival this past summer and I won a CD and only recently started listening to it. It is full of the most amazing acoustic twelve string guitar playing I have ever heard. According to the bio, Neil has traveled the world playing the guitar and the music on this CD ‘World Blue’ is nothing short of simple brilliance.

JOHN MONTGOMERY: Just got this CD in a press kit from John and – wow! John has a really gorgeous voice talent and his writing is superb – maybe when he comes out here he will make a stop at the U.C. Arabica.

MIRANDA’S MOON: These guys are friends of mine and I just got a copy of the most recent complete ‘demo’ CD and it is a rock and roll boner for sure! The guitar sounds are alternately clear and springy (in that glass tube way, you know) then growling, lush and punchy crunchy with plenty of edge. The drums are sounding great, even from my little speakers, the cymbals get plenty of mix and the snare and bass drums are both really well represented. The bass guitar sounds are clear and tight punchy, course my home speakers are just itty bitsy things so I don’t get all that fat low end but overall this is a really great sounding mix. Finally, the raspy and keening whining vocals are delivered right into the center of everything just as pretty as a picture. These songs are all very different from one another and this is not your typical homogenous sounding rock music, it’s sort of equal parts bashing garage and melancholy geek rock and it takes a few listens to get below the surface of MIRANDA’S MOON. My only complaint is that the lyrics are not printed on the CD insert.

KATE VOEGELE: Kate’s CD ‘The Other Side’ has top notch production values applied to it – it just a huge sounding CD with crystal clear sparkling warm acoustic guitars and dirty clean Fender sounding electric guitars. There are sweeping keyboard sounds, accordions, organs and assorted ‘orchestrations’ – no effort was sparred in putting this work together, it’s a jewel with Kate’s sinuous voice glowing at its center. I can’t really say much more that hasn’t probably already been said, Kate has had this ‘demo’ CD heard by some of the music industries top producers and I guess she is well on her way to making a full length CD sometime in the very near future. I imagine she will sign some kind of lucrative record deal before she is twenty years of age.

BASICALLY BLUE/ACOUSTICALLY BLUE: I really dig Kristine Jackson’s voice and on this demo CD she sounds dusky, honeyed, serious, sweet and sexy and green enough to sound ‘cute’ in the way one might apply the word to a playful and purring young kitten. The full band cuts are clean and groovy funky with sweet orchestration and really nice big brassy horn parts and some horn solos (Kristine is also a trumpet player). I also like the relaxed sounding acoustic tracks on this CD and hope Zack and Kristine will be able to play the U.C. Arabica some night.


I am so certain there were some other things on my mind, but now I dunno what they might have been.
Until later, have a nice … whatever it is you have.

Hey y'all - Chris Nekvinda and Veronica Darby are coming out to Tremont Art Walk this Friday (tommorrow) - they will jam a T.F.A. set at the good Eye Candy Gallery on Professor Ave. - its gonna be a good time, Eye Candy always has a good night during art walk with lots of foot traffic and bottles of wine and finger foods - I have heard that Will Cheshier might stop by (I have heard that Will's sister owns the gallery next door to Eye Candy) and we will hope to see more than a few friends of Nekvinda and Darby come round. Oh, dig this - Bill Morrissey is in town tonight, if you aren't going to the Beachland to hear the mellow acoustic sounds of Bill's music than you might enjoy a nice MP3 ("If you dont want me") from his site off of the album 'Songs of Mississippi John hurt'. Here is a cool link to an online archive (www.archive.org) of live recorded shows - I pulled in an entire show (350MB worth) of 'lost in america' live at Grog shop and it sounds great!! I also got a few other goodies, its worth checking it out.

Hey y'all, I don't have allot of time for this bloggin' thing tonight - but I think I have to post some really cool links - here is something about Elliott Smith and a new recording that is being released by ANTI records of material he was just completing before his death in 2003 and there are a couple of really nice MP3 songs to go with the brief news - wow, I hope these links stay up for awhile the songs are so nice and just pure Elliott loveliness. The actual text of the article/blurb is under the album picture under the heading 'RELATED NEWS'. Looks like the release date is slated for later this month..

My singer songwriter friend Michael Allen (who has been the bass player for local rock act Jericho Turnpike) has most recently been writing, recording, and playing (solo) a whole bunch of shiny new songs. Funny, but it seems that we had been seeing and hearing each other around the town at various open mic events for months before we finally got around to talking to one another for any length of time about who we were, what we were doing, and who our common friends might be, it's such a small world sometimes! So, anyway, after hearing Michael play and sing on many occasions (and at the Barking Spider very recently) I invited him to play a Friday night solo set at the U.C. Arabica and this past weekend and he had a cozy and intimate audience that included his lovely young baby daughter Eva and her mom (Michael’s wife) Jennifer and also a few of their close friends - including Rodger Mendez and his wife, Beth. It was a good solid solo show, a real nice bare-bones reading of Michael’s new tunes - and afterwards Michael and I had a chance to talk a little bit about the 'demo' tunes he has been working on up in Detroit at Rust Belt Studios - and I admitted to him that I had an illegitimate copy (how appropriate!) of some of those tunes and that I have been listening to the mixes quite a bit recently, and the current opinion on my part is (drum roll please) that the mixes really rock! Mike has said that most of the vocal tracks are not 'final' in that they exist more in capacity as 'scratch tracks' however steve2 has noted with much stereo-turned-way-up-loud-during-morning-shower glee that the majority of the mixes sound really huge and totally professional just the way they are (scratch track vocals or not) so good in fact that they can be cranked WAY up LOUD because the guitars growl, sing, and twang just shimmeringly and the bass guitar sounds are sweeeeet and tiiiight and the drums are sounding, like, huge and perfect – sounds like with only a little more work on the voice parts Mike and Rust Belt will have put together a real nice slamming piece of rock and roll Detroit style by way of Cleveland!! Is that cool or what??

PS: You have no idea how badly I want to post a nice single MP3 from the oh-so ‘illegitimate copy’ of the tunes I have on hand – it takes allot of self control not to do so – and every day I listen to the mix I feel that self control slipping away… Agh! I cannot promise that I won’t DO IT!

Open Mic Shenanigans!!

Thanks to all recent participants in the U.C. Arabica Open Mic Night - lately its been a really happening event with anywhere from 8-11 performers contributing songs and stories. Last week Todd Wieder played a few poignant original songs on his beautiful Larrive - wow, it was a real shiny guitar and it sounded fantastic, made my Larrive look like it has been around the block a few too many times! Todd had until recently been playing with 'Lost in America' and he tells me that the group has disbanded. I look forward to hearing Todd again real soon. Jim Snively also dropped in and illuminated the room with his gracious voice, playing three of his original tunes - always good to hear you Jim keep up the good work out at McNamara's! Ben Jacobs played several high-energy original songs and he brought along a nice cozy crowd of Case Western listeners with him - great to have had your company Ben, hope to see you again!! Miriam Mendelson also stopped by and played a few songs, as always it's a delight to have Miriam's company on Wednesday night. Thanks to all the other participants - Josh, Matt, Dan and a few others who I may have only met once or twice - please keep coming out and bring your friends!

Have you recently hit my home page? Or do you just click directly over to this weblog from parts uknown - the reason I ask is, well, I make effort to change the content of my home page frequently, every week at least. And thanks to my regular visitors, when I type steve2 into GOOGLE I get my own site (my home page no less) as the number one return result!! Doesn't that call for some kind of a celebration? I will drink in honor of your increased visits! And I did do some drinking this past weekend, ended up drinkening big Pabst cans at the Grog Shop last weekend for John Petkovic and COBRA VERDE - I only heard the last few songs but they rocked! There was a fellow there making a live recording onto a mini-disk and I have his contact information and I hope to hear some of the recording. The 'headliner' was this band called NEBULA and they site Mudhoney as one of their influences. Granted, they were velvet heavy, and the guitar sounded really great, but as a band not exciting enough to remind me - much - of Mudhoney. Of course lyrically I had NO IDEA what was going on - I had to wear earplugs for most of the evening, and that does NOT mean I am getting old, it means it was REALLY FUCKING LOUD in there! I once was at a show and saw earplugs sticking out of the head of the cutie pie lead singer of VELOCITY GIRL. I wonder if any other well known 'rock stars' wear em on stage. Whatever, I figure I need my hearing and I don't care to abuse the priviledge. More later -

Last nights Open Mic was terrific! I brought my own P.A. setup for a change of pace (the big Peavey speaker is a drag to move around but its the killa') and yes indeed it tunes up real nice into the room and sounds just way better then the lil' house amp could ever hope to. Many thanks to all participants: Beth Hyland, Mark Ronan and Bob Gibbons turned in a kind of a mini-song-circle style performance as "Flip Side" each taking turns at the mic singing and backing each other up with Martin guitars and really pleasant folk style harmonies - very nice! Chris Nekvinda and Veronica Darby came by and Chris played a few songs (with his shoes off heheh - now thats totally freaking acoustic of Chris ain't it) later heading of to the spider to help Will Cheshier out - it was really good to see and hear Chris and Will and Veronica! Congratulations to Will C. on what by this time must be the brand new babies!! Twins no less, wow, the party is just getting started over at the Cheshier's place!! Samantha (Guitar and Voice) rocked out on several numbers with Bill (Piano and Sax) , Terry Writz sang a few of his quirky and jazzy sounding original 'folk' songs, Jim Snivley treated the room to his mellow voice and original songsmithing (and then he went over to the Barking Spider and probably stayed up way past his 'bedtime' - Jim, your kind of a party animal), Miriam sang a few songs and also recited a poem (I liked the Eliza Gilky song, dunno the name of it though) Alex Brandy chipped in with a closing song, and acted inauspiciously as the un-official 'amp turn off' dude.

Unfortunately, Adam Zadok of Buffalo New York has had to cancel his performance appearance at U.C. Arabica this Friday. Ditto that for guitarist Moises, who has had to cancel his appearance this week as well. Both of these artist will be re-scheduled for future dates.

Yo! You might appreciate a little poetry and also some insight into my personal history. I am giving you just a little here and only a little, this poem is a cool lil' ART-tifact from my past, it was written by my one-time wife Michelle T. (now my lovely ex-wife) and as one of several "Poetry on the Buses" winners it hung inside Seattle buses for a long while, riding around the city being read and re-read by I am sure hundreds of people:



"You take on the shape of the things you swallow. Be careful of people who are kites, who make you rise so sweet, tangle you in trees & wires: the same shocks that give you ecstacy can steal your life. Swallow horses if you feel strong enough to gallop for miles across landscapes,tossing your mane in the sun. What I am saying is: you are what you eat. Eat oceans. Eat the moon with your eyes, the wind with your skin. Do not eat too much. Do not be so full you cannot swim the rivers or wake when it is time. Better yet, take the world into you in smallest bites, only what you need. Leave the rest. You take on the shape of the things you swallow. Swallow rainbows. They suit you. Swallow love."

I met Michelle in front of a 'Kinkos' copy shop way back in the summer of 1997 in Seattle WA on University Way. How time flies.

THE MIGHTY TASTY SONGSMITHS OF CLEVELAND! The Song Circle on the Local Stage at the Taste of Cleveland this past weekend was well worth the modest admission price of the entire event (I got in for 5 bucks with a coupon - a lady next to me bought tickets from some dude for four bucks and so gave me her coupons). Jim Miller was fresh off the road from a tour and he was singing big songs in a true and mighty voice - he also added some tasty licks here and there to others songs. This was the first time I had heard Jim play and I was suitably impressed! This songwriter circle was orchestrated by none other than Cleveland's own Annie DeChant as an extension of the Winchester rounds she has been putting together out in Lakewood (at the Winchester on Madison of course) and if you have not heard Annie recently please remind yourself what a powerfully engaging talent she is by coming out to hear her play - she shines her songs like diamonds and delivers them with a fierce conviction and I like her style more and more each time I hear and see her play and sing! For her performance last Sunday she was waering her cowgirl hat and some rose colored sunglasses and she had her accomplices singing harmony and playing guitar with her, wow, she is really real!! And speaking of talent, this was the first time I heard young Kate Voegel sing live - previous to this past weekend I had only heard her 'demo' recordings on Broadjam - and does she ever sing sweetly, with a beautiful enchanting and quavering lilt to her voice! She is playing Farm Aid this year in Seattle with the likes of Willie Nelson and Neil Young - heh, can you say wowy zowy?? I don't really know who to compare Kate's singing and or writing style with to give you an idea of who she 'sounds like', my advice to all you live music lovin' Clevelanders is listen to Kate's music, get her CD, and go to her shows when she is in town. Oh, wait, what's that you say you have no K.V. CD and its cold and raining and you are NOT going out NO WAY to ANYTHING you are staying right there in front of your warmly glowing PC?? Ok, no problem I have done all the work for you - here are some DIRECT LINKS to some 'demo' K.V. tunes hosted at Broadjam.com - just kick back and turn em' up loud now, ok?? Kate Voegele - "Footprints" Kate Voegele - "Wedding Song" Kate Voegele - "Facing Up" Kate Voegele - "Good Old Self" Kate Voegele - "Where The Sidewalk Cracks" OPEN MIC WEDNESDAY AT ARABICA U.C. Last nights Open Mic at U.C. Arabica was good but attendance by artists was light compared to last week. It's only the attendance of musicians, singers, poets, and writers that make the Open Mic night happen. I just want to thank a few Open Mic participants (if your name is not in here then you should come by on Wednesday night) : Alex Brandy Allan Madej Audra Kubat Brent Kirby Brian Catherine Clyatt Chelsea Ryan Chris, Liz, and Stella Danny McNamara Dick GERMAINE SCUDIERE Jeff Jeff Lakatos Jim Snively Laura Webster Mark and Jack Mark Ruppe Mike Allen Naomi Peter Smakula Ryan Anderson Viola Xela Special thanks to Miriam for playing this week and last week, and the weeks before that - I look forward to hearing her sing and always grateful to have her talent and company on Wednesday nights - hope to keep seeing and hearing Miriam! Special thank you to Chelsea R. and Allan M. for playing at many of the Wednesday Open Mic events, and other Open Mic events around town - they are two really talented artists/players/singers and nice company as well!! Come and see them at the UC Arabica when they perform!!

So, you might know from previous "PS" entries (I usually have a PS entry of some kind on my home page) that I have had this very interesting audio interview with Audra Kubat stored on my PC hard drive for a few weeks now, and I am in need of a secretarial service of some kind, because I want to have it transcribed 'professionally' - the last interview I transcribed took a long time. Until I get the interview transcribed (assuming I ever do get it done) I have extracted a couple of really pretty songs from the bulk of the interview: "Rainbows and Butterflies" and "Lost to You" were both recorded mono at my apartment in Lakewood during Audra's September visit, she explained "Rainbows and Butterflies" as one of the first songs she wrote and "Lost to You" as one of her most recent - heh, pretty juicy interview material, dontcha think?? I don't know if Kubat has much recorded 'bootleg' material out there, well, if she does then here is something new to add to her bootleg history!!! (PPS: Sept. 14th I have pulled the link to these two MP3 files for now, both files have a very obnoxious overdriven spot in them and I don't want to blow out anyones headphones - I might try to 'doctor' the waves up a bit and re-post them later. Sorry!)

My dear hotsy totsy friend Michelle has been doing a whole lot of really interesting artwork recently and I just wanted to share a cool picture of one of her most recent pieces because it is sweeet:
I have no idea what she calls this piece, but I just think its super duper delux and fine.

Thanks again to Alan Semerdjian and his piano playing associate Matt Iselin from the Big Apple for bringing really great music into the cafe last week - hope to see and hear you guys sometime in the not-too-distant-future! Allan's music page is packed with great tunes - take a lil' side trip over there for some MP3 listening.

The September Music Calendar is posted up for the Arabica U Circle - click the little blue link from the home page of Steve2.Net for the advanced scoop (at the time I wrote this the schedule wasn't even up at the cafe yet)

Mirandas Moon guitar player Ryan Smith is having his birthday party September 10th at the Peabodies Downunder - or maybe the Pirates Cove - one of those rooms (I think he told me they were playing in the big room) and it ought to be a pretty good party with those guys, check the web page out if you want to hear some tunes.

Kate Morrissey is visiting the Arabica U Circle on Saturday September 11 and will play an evening of piano and voice music - I have not heard Kate 'live' yet have only had the pleasure of speaking with her on the phone (she has a pretty sweet 'phone voice' as well) and hearing the clips of music that she has posted to her website - she has a lovely, rich and fine voice talent that is immediately accessible and appreciable so c'mon out yer hive and listen to an artist who does not get into Cleveland very often (even if she only lives in PA).

Jim Snively continues his Monday Night Open Mic series at McNamara's (on the Near West Side - the address is in this blog here somewhere) and from what I understand it continues to go strong with lots of talent turning out to make the jam up every Monday - so if your looking to play get there early. Jim has started another Open Mic recently this one at Dempsies in Tremont (W14th & Starkweather) on Saturday night. I have not been getting out to as many Open Mic nights this month as I have been busy with my home life, the Arabica, and my work schedule. If you really want to party an Open Mic night with me, the one and only Steve2.Net, then you pretty much got to come out to my mic on Wednesday.

Songsmith Jim Snively Thursday September 9 at Arabica U Circle
Jim will coax sweet woodsy acoustic guitar tones from his 60’s Martin guitar while singing original songs with a mellow edged voice that will appeal to a wide audience of listeners.

More later....gotta get out of here (my workplace -whew its been a looong week).

What a great weekend of music and beer drinking! Some of my favorite things!! Lemme tell you a little bit about it:

My friend Audra Kubat came down from Detroit on Friday and we met at the Eye Candy Gallery for the Tremont Art Walk and - wow - she was dressed so elegantly in a beautiful long black gown and high-heels - she had her hair hangin' long and pretty it was soo nice to see her! By the time I arrived Audra was already playing a low-key set of pure TFA (Totally Freakin' Acoustic) tunes and it was the sweeeeetness!

Lots of art patrons came and went through the gallery during the evening, and I think that Bob and Rita sold a few pieces (in between plastic cups full of red wine) and everything went really well and Bob and Rita both seem to like having a guitar player singer in the shop - as it should be! This is only the second time (that I know of) they have had a guitar player, and it seems to work really well in the Gallery as a TFA set - however, I have thought that it might be really sweet to do one Art Walk where we setup a PA outside of the gallery and, you know, 'crank it up a bit'.

Inside the gallery it's a small space and the art patrons are SO important to the overall ambiance - the patrons and the visual art are the focus so the TFA thing works real well and serves the purpose. I am pretty sure that we will get another TFA artist in there for the next Art Walk - and I think it would be so appropriate to have the king of TFA himself (Chris Nekvinda) do the honors! We will see about that - I am currently in negotiations with Chris to get him into the Arabica for a set and, you know, its very difficult because Chris is such a busy guy.

After the Art Walk cooled down we drove West to the domesticated wilds of Lakewood - where we simply crashed out at my place - at least for a few hours anyhow! We were both up at the crack of dawn (4AM for me) listening to music, drinking beer, smoking and chatting and by 7 we were getting lit up and ready for a trip to the beer store for IPA and American Spirits!

Later in the afternoon (we were properly lit up by that time) we went to the Phoenix Cafe where we had coffee and Audra played a few tunes - she sounded really sublime with her rock and roll poet core folk girl gears all smoothly oiled and meshing with her SMOKINGLY georgous voice - whoo! You have just GOT to see and hear this woman play! And if you have heard her play then you know what I mean.

Later that evening at the good ole' Arabica University Circle Audra gave a more concentrated and purely powerfull performance displaying the full range of her vocal talent singing songs (in her beautifully honey thick voice) from all three of her releases and a few new songs that she hasn't even recorded yet. It was great, there were only a few folks there but among them I was thrilled to see Mike and Amanda - its always super nice to see them!

Thanks also to Mike Allen for playing and singing three of his own original songs - Catch Mike Allen at the Barking Spider on the FULL MOON the 30th of this month for about an hour long set from 8-9:30PM

SONGWRITER AUDRA KUBAT SAT. AUG. 14 ARABICA UNIVERSITY CIRCLE

Singer songwriter Audra Kubat has come into Cleveland Town for a couple of gigs one tonight at Eye Candy Gallery in Tremont for the Art Walk and again tommorrow night at the Arabica from 9-11PM - if you have not heard her play guitar and sing then you better get to one of these shows - Audra is busy busy and does not get into town frequently. On her web site www.audrakubat.com she has a blog where she leaves thoughts and facts concerning her music and her travel, looks like Audra will be starting her third recording project with Times Beach Records come the Fall and then away she goes! So, come on out and give a listen to this rare bird while you can!!

Music at Arabica University Circle:
 
I suppose its not news by this time that I have become the entertainment coordinator for the Arabica U thanks Brandon and Mark for giving me the gig - I like the job! I have posted blurbs and pictures of some of the acts that are lined up to play this month and next, you can check it out by going to the Arabica Entertainment Schedule Page.  

Don't miss Alan Semerdjian Thursday August 19th he is an English teacher, poet, visual artist and a singer songwriter guitar player of particular noteworthiness from the Big Apple. Alan writes dense lyrical poetry and enfolds the stories into engaging soundscapes of post industrial acoustic emocore - I have been listening to his CD "Hero City" and its really really good stuff for the heart and ears!

On the Full Moon this month (July 31st) the Arabica Mansion hosts Tanya Elise Kos for "Full Moon Folk Fever" (dontcha just love the sound of that)  Tanya is a fabulous singer songwriter with a vocal delivery that is at once powerfull and potent yet mellow smooth like good wine - please don't miss this night!

Xela says he is coming back to town next month on the 13th of August - it will be great to hear some of his stories, he has been gone now for at least a month...I just heard that Phill Cameron is going out there to Cali to hang out with Xela for a couple few weeks before they come back here to Cle town. Sounds like fun guys!! Whish I could go along!

Jim Snively is back from 2 splended weeks of vacation (riverside camping I think I heard) to assume his duties as host to the McNamara's Monday Night Open Mic

I have heard through the 'grape vine' that Mike Allen (who once regularly attended Open Mic nights around town) has signed a deal with Times Beach Records and Rust Belt Studios - yeah, that's producer Al Sutton's place up in Detroit MI. Mike and I have a couple of common friends and I have heard some of his 'demo recordings' (he has been up and down between CLE and Detroit a bunch over the past few months cooking up demo recordings at Rust Belt)  - he has some really good songs and if the truth is that he has finally inked a recording deal it wouldn't surprise me at all. I heard Mike perform a couple of songs recently at the Barking Spider and he told me that he has recently had a baby with his wife - so congratulations Mike on the new baby, er babies?? Micheal Allen will be bringing his songs and voice talent to The Arabica Coffee Mansion with a solo acoustic show on September 24th

Here is the August 2004 schedule for the Arabica:

ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC EVERY WEDNESDAY FROM 9PM TO 11:30PM
WITH HOST STEVEN WILSON (AKA: STEVE2)
 
THURSDAY AUG 5   “FOUR SHILLINGS SHORT “ (DUO)
CELTIC AND AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC
 
FRIDAY AUG 6  “CORY RYAN” (SOLO ACT)
SINGER SONGWRITER FROM NASHVILLE TEXAS
 
SAT.  AUG 7  “BROTHER HASHIM” (SOLO PERFORMANCE)
TRADITIONAL MBIRA MUSIC 
 
THURSDAY AUG 12  “MOSES” (SOLO ACT)
BOSSA NOVA ACOUSTIC GUITAR

FRIDAY AUG 13  “GERMAINE SCUDIERE” (SOLO ACT)
PIANO PLAYER - VOCAL PERFORMER

THURSDAY AUG 19  “ALLAN SEMERDJIAN” (DUO PIANO AND GUITAR)
POET-CORE FOLK SINGER FROM NYC 

FRIDAY AUG 20  “JAMES PEQUIGNOT TRIO” (TRIO)
CLEVELAND SINGER SONGWRITER

SAT. AUG 21  “JOHN TOULA” (SOLO ACT)
JAZZ GUITAR MUSIC

TUESDAY AUG 24  “KRIS KOCH” (DJ)
WORLD MUSIC DJ

THURSDAY AUG 26  “ALAN MADEJ AND CHELSEA RYAN”
ORIGINAL SINGER SONGWRITERS - GUITAR AND PIANO

FRIDAY AUG 27  “RYANN ANDERSON” (SOLO GUITAR)
INSTRUMENTAL GUITAR MUSIC

SAT. AUG 28  “BRENT KIRBY” (SOLO)
ORIGINAL AMERICANA AND ROOTS ROCK
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Sum Sum Summertime is almost here!

The first 'official' day of Summer is Monday the 21st of June (that's next week - next Monday to be exact) which means LONG HOT DAYS - think you can handle it? Well, it's tough if you are in an office all day long working on a computer. Here is some really cool SUNRISE and MOONRISE data from a reliable source:

U.S. Naval Observatory
Astronomical Applications Department


Sun and Moon Data for One Day
The following information is provided for Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (longitude W81.7, latitude N41.5):

Tuesday
15 June 2004 Eastern Daylight Time

SUN
Begin civil twilight 5:18 a.m.
Sunrise 5:52 a.m.
Sun transit 1:27 p.m.
Sunset 9:02 p.m.
End civil twilight 9:36 p.m.

MOON
Moonset 6:23 p.m. on preceding day
Moonrise 4:11 a.m.
Moon transit 11:43 a.m.
Moonset 7:26 p.m.
Moonrise 4:42 a.m. on following day


Phase of the Moon on 15 June: waning crescent with 4% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated.

New Moon on 17 June 2004 at 4:27 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

And what does all this mean?

ITS TIME TO GET THE HELL OUTA TOWN AND GO CAMPING!!

Open Mic Underground Cleveland!

Jim Snively continues to run a 'hopping' (pun intended) Open Mic at McNamaras, I shot a few pics. last time I was out there and here they are:

Here is Jim while doing his thing:


Here is one of Joe and a few Hopping Beers:


Here is a pic of Neal Woolbright (with a nice blue sky behind him) taken out at the Enclave gig a couple weekends ago:


============= other news item ===============

Tim Fry will join me at the Enclave Friday 25th of June!

We expect really nice weather and an even nicer crowd - I am excited about this gig with Tim, we haven't had a chance to really sit down and JAM together at the Enclave since last, uhm, I dunno its been awhile (several months) since we played together out there - it's going to be real jammy, so you better git in there on the 25th!!

The Enclave!
Wow, Sat. night at the Enclave last weekend was sooo much fun! Not that we didn't have fun at our last show out there (thanks to Alex Brandy and Tim Fry for making that gig work) it's just that we didn't have much audience - not this time! There were plenty of folks out and about on the main drag, lots or Harley bikes and riders comming and going, lots of pedestrian traffic and plenty of that traffic came into shoppe to chill out with the bean squeezins and the music. Thankfully, Neal Woolbright was able to join me for the entire evening and his talent and skill were and are soooo appreciated! It would not have been half the fun without Neal, he brought several mouth harps, his guitar, his ass kickin' blues riff and his powerful voice - turns out that Neal can play a skillful bass guitar as well! What a guy! So, we had a great evening and we made a few bucks, with Sarah the barrista kicking in many of those beautiful bucks herself - for that ample contribution we are most thankfull!! Looking forward to playing out there again soon, however, I don't think Neal will be able to make this next gig - Neal is a busy guy with a family and an energetic lifestyle and he is currently pulling together a full blown blues band and they will be busy with rehearsel in preperation for hitting the circuit. Thanks so very much Neal for making the Enclave gig such a satisfying jam session - and thanks as well to Alex Brandy and Mark Ruppe for stopping by to make jammy contributions :)

Xela Luv Mutha
As you may or may not know, Cleveland is losing the Xela man for the majority of the dog days of summer 2004 - the luvmutha is bound for the West Coast (armed with a tiny lil' black guitar that could fit into a knapsack - its neato) where he will be playing several 'full band' shows with Corbie and Superdute in LA - yeah, the Xela man is flying his band out to LA for gigs in July on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 16th and then he is off into the wild blue yonder for the Great American Singer Songwriter Experience!! Catch Xela, SuperDute, and Corbie up in the Heights at the Grog Shop this sat. May 29th at MIDNIGHT!!

Wednesday at Arabica Universtiry Circle
The open mic at Arabica U continues to be a satisfying jam event and with attendance varying from OK to really good we usually get an unexpected suprise or two - last night we had a whole bike riding club come in for refreshments, must of been at least 15 of em', and they all ordered drinks and food and sat outside for about an hour before riding off into the sunset. We also had some filmakers from BLUE VINYL TOXIC COMEDY PICTURES shooting about an hour of digital video for a documentary on global warming, that was fun, they were interesting types and the web site is not only informative but the design is really top notch, I hope they can use some of the stuff they shot. We didn't have any early jammers, save for Ryann Anderson and I love the way Ryann plays the guitar, he always gets a sweeeet tone goin' on :) Later in the evening Tony and Bill stopped in and they brought bass, sax, and keys with them - we had a real laid back late night bluesy jazzy jammy session - with Mark Ruppe sitting in as well. Thank for comming by last night, you guys really made it happen!

Steve2 and Friends at the Enclave SAT May 22nd

Sat. May 22nd - the same weekend as the Hessler Street Fair - I seem to remember asking Phill Evetz to play an opening set, and he agreed to do so, however I have not heard from him nor have I seen him around ... well, if you read this, Phill, can you give me a call? I am gonna ask a couple other folks about comming out to play, try to get some JAM ACTION lined up, nowhadaimeanvern? And so here we go into another weekend... later!

Hessler Street Fair cometh soon MAY 22 and MAY 23 with all the Musical Sweetness and BeerDrinkIness you can possibly imagine!!

Matt Gerovac sent me the MAY schedule for his band and duo, so I am posting it here -

Also: Ryann Anderson will be at university Arabica on MAY 22nd
Matt G. the following Sunday at Barking Spider (that's MAY 23RD)

----------------------------------------------------
MATT GEROVAC IMPLOSION AND DUO SCHEDULE FOR MAY 2004
----------------------------------------------------
Fri., May 14, 9 p.m. - THE ROBIN HOOD INN
504 E. Main St. in Kent.
I'll be joined by hand drummer Phil Torres - we're
doing an acoustic set openning for COURAGEOUS MINORITY
and XELA!

Sat., May 15 9 p.m. - THE LIME SPIDER
207 S. Main St. in Akron
We'll be sharing the stage with BURNING RIVER BAND!
The LIME SPIDER is a great venue - great art on the
walls and some funny B Movies on the tube.

Thurs., May 20, 9 p.m. - GROG SHOP
2785 Euclid Hts. Blvd. - Cleveland Hts.
The duo opens for Melissa Ferrick!

Sun., May 23, 3 p.m. - BARKING SPIDER TAVERN
11310 Juniper Rd. in University Circle
Come for the HESSLER STREET FAIR - www.hessler.org
STAY for the IMPLOSION! ! !
It's FREEEEEEE!

Another great weekend of beer drinkening and guitar playerning!

This was a particularly notable weekend of both - I had the supreme pleasure of joining Bobby, Julie and Hazel Brightenstien and a bunch of their really groovy friends (and their children) for a super-duper outdoor back yard patio jam party on Saturday, it was soooooo fun! We had a modest crowd of party goers all of whom were people I knew, most of em' Phoenix goers, movers and or shakers. And the beer was fabulous, some kind of Hopus Maximus I think - really yummy and dark and, uhm, hoppy. And, there was a rope swing to which the kids just loved, I liked it too it was fun to swing out over the sidewalk and the fire-hydrant! Wheee! Second only to the beer and the fine company, we had a really great set of jams with Brett 'Cleveland Slim' Beutera and Adam Hoopengardner and the rest of the Burning River Blues Band. Yep, good company, good beer and kickin' jams what more can I guy possibly ask for on a Sat. night? I leave that question un-answered at this time however ask me later about my Sunday afternoon, which I spent drinking beer and cleaning up the back yard - mothers day indeed, heh.

Arabica and the Barking Spider

Had a really great open mic night last Wednesday, brought most of my toys: mixing board, snare drum, and bass guitar just in case there was to be any 'wild' jamming - so far the jamming hasn't been real crazy, but I never know what might happen so I try to be prepared.

Began setting things up when a really pretty young lady (who had been lounging around when I got there) approached to ask about getting signed up to play. I said hi and pointed out the sign up sheet and she introduced herself as Audra Kubat, in from Detroit to play at the Barking Spider and wanting to share a few songs at 9 before going over there. I played an early solo set for about 45 minutes while the room was really nice and quiet - only a few patrons, I just turned the PA waaaay down and crooned into that nice evening light, it was sweet, real sweet.

By the time Audra returned, several folks had dropped in, some who intended to play music including Jim Snively and another fellow by the name of Jimmy Logston. It was a really nice evening, Audra and Jimmy Logston both turned in great sets, Jim Snively sang really nice and mellow. After the Open Mic Jim Snively and I went to the Barking Spider to catch Audra's set - she is fantastic, I plan on catching her next show when she comes back to Cleveland - her next show is at the Mattress Factory in PA - from the website information, the place looks like its a really cool modern artsy type museum artist commune, hmmm, any possibility there is another Mattress Factory in Pitsburgh?

On a different note, my friend Liz Laguardia has been showing up at a few open mic nights here and there to read poetry and she has recently recorded a few poems, off-the-cuff, at my home studio. I plan on posting at least one of them to the site maybe after we have added some improvised guitar parts or some percussion - until then, here is one of her drawings from Arabica Open Mic a couple weeks ago:

New Exclusive Content Features!!

Interviews:

Hey, I know that some of my precious few visitors jump to this page from at least a few other pages that link directly to my blog, but remember -- there is other content within my spiffy site that you don't get here in the blog!! And in fact, I have only recently put the finishing touches on a couple of interview pieces, one piece from a couple of years ago put together from interviews with Scott Krauss and Diane Duncan of the 'Home & Garden' project and the other piece a very recent interview with the Cleveland King of Open Mic Xela!!

Home & Garden
Some of you, or many of you, might recognize the name Scott Krauss as long-time Pere Ubu drummer - yeah, THAT drummer -the drummer that played on the seminal 1978 recordings of 'The Modern Dance'. You may not hear too much from or about 'Home & Garden' but Scott and his associates are still hard at work on various projects and they have recorded works within the past couple of years that most of you have probably not heard.....so, included with the interview material is a single, precious, and complete MP3 song featuring talented performers who have worked with Diane and Scott in the studio to create some serious art!! So, gear up your ears with some phones, stream out the MP3 while you read through the interview and you will be blown away by what you hear because this is some amazing recorded music from a bunch of uber (no pun intended) talented artists making fantastic sounds - and featuring the unparalleled, raw, rare and wickedly naked voice talent of Diane Duncan - you can't get this exclusive content anywhere else except here at steve2.net!

Xela
The Open Mic contingency knows who Xela is - and so should YOU!! The one and only Luv Mutha, the current King of Cleveland Open Mic, the creator of mega dynamic works of art both visual and auditory, yes, Xela is the singularly original and notably unique Cleveland art force hard at work everyday makin' music and art that transcend ordinary reality and bend both time and space! During our interview Xela tells us a little bit about his family life, expresses lucid opinions regarding the use of natural resources and electricity, and he waxes poetic over music and the state of the ego on earth!! Read it up while you listen to the single jamming MP3 file 'Telle Cranial Creatures' !! Only right here at steve2.net!!!!

Grab the headphones and check out the brand new INTERVIEW ARCHIVE!!!

And to all those folks who come out to my Wednesday Night Open Mic at University Circle: BIG LOVE AND KEEP IT COMMING PLEASE!!!

Westlake's My Generation is closing it's doors!

I spoke with my friend Scott Krauss today - he has been the manager of My Generation in Westlake for a couple years after working for a very long time at Record Revolution up in Coventry - and he tells me that they are closing the doors and going out of business as of April 25th! I guess the CD resale business isn't what it used to be and is surely suffering the effects of the downturn in the general economy - or maybe its piracy and CD burning - anyones guess as to what the 'real' problem is, I always thought My Generation had a decent corner on the market out there in Westlake with literally tonnes of used CD's to browse through. My condolences to those hipsters who have been scratching out a living working out there, I guess you will all be moving onto the next gig. And what the heck happens to all that inventory??

Well, it's my guess that there are some pretty hot deals out there right now on DVD's, new and used CD's all that good stuff has got to be marked down as low as they can get it in an effort to get it out the door, probably worth a trip out there to or give em a call to see if they have what you are looking for:

My Generation
25947 Detroit Rd
Westlake, OH 44145-2426
(440) 871-5586

Open Mic Monday at McNamara's

By all appearances Jim Snively has - in a only a short period of time (about a month) - managed to create a respectable buzz around McNamara's Open Mic Monday Night - no small feat in this Northeast rust belt town full of hardened unemployed steel workers, hard weather, and harder nosed rock and rollers. And although McNamara's does host weekend live music, it's the Monday Night Open Mic event that pulls in the artistic bleeding-edge of plank spankers, finger pickers, singer songwriters, and poets from around the Cleveland metropolitan area that otherwise might never come out to the place - and these scensters are not your generic light weight Pepsi sipping peeps either, they constitute the caliber of clientele that bar owners love to see packin' a place: Guitar crazy beer lovin' singer songwriter types who like nothing more than to get together, talk shop, swap chops, and occasionally dance on the bar. If last nights attendance (a veritable who's who of Open Mic performers with Ryan Anderson, Kevin McCarthy, Tim Keo, Brad Kinney and John Bella to name a few ) is any indication of what's to come, then the continued success of this event is practically guaranteed.

Thank you and congratulations to both Jim and the bar owner (a local firefighter) on the effort required to put together a successful and happening Open Mic event!

Let's Keep up the good work!!


XELA to begin hosting Wilbert's Downtown Wednesday Night Open Mic

With Kevin McCarthy's imminent relocation to Sunny California (who can blame him - enough already of the harsh CLE winter salt), the reins to the Wilbert's Wednesday Night Open Mic at 812 Huron Rd E Cleveland, OH 44115-1123 (216) 902-4663 have been passed to the king of Open Mic night, Alex Alverez (aka: Xela)! As you probably already know, Alverez is well equipped to take this Wednesday night gig and turn it into a Jam Session Supreme-O to rival any in town - yeah, the lovely LuvMutha is getting plenty of practice at this kind of open mic revelry hosting no less than five nights a week of Open Mike Mayhem (see his website link for the complete schedule) at various locations around town.

Whew, Xela gonna be breaking out a big sweet sweat with all that singin' and sawin' goin' on!! I can already hear the crystal clear sounds of bronze acoustic strings snappin' and crackin' through that enormous PA !

Sunday Night in North Olmstead

Had a lil' Sunday Night get together with some friends last night, my first time out to visit Kris, Liz and baby Stella in North Olmstead. What a neat place Kris and Liz have, it's right there on a river with a bunch of trees and the view is really natural from the kitchen with the river and the trees and all. Kris made chilli and steak and we all ate some good food, drank some thick beer, and then setup for some jamming.

And jam we did (if only for a short while) with Kris playing drums, Tim Fry played his electric guit fiddle through a real vintage English made Marshall (a really tiny vintage Marshall - really cute with the smallest Celestian speaker I think I have ever seen - but it sounds real cool) Matt Gerovac played acoustic guitar and did some singing, I played the bass and it all felt good considering we hadn't played together under these circumstances before - we hit a couple of real good grooves - makes me wonder what we could do if we (brace yourself - here comes the dreaded word) practiced. Kris had company to entertain (Adam and Sarah, Miles and Evelynn from - uhm, somewhere West of Vermillion) and there were wee children on the scene (which is always cool because the young moms are so very nice and the kids Stella, Miles and Evelyn were sooooooo cute) so we didn't play for more than an hour nonetheless this little jam made me think that we might be doing this more frequently (not as practice per se but more for fun, dontcha know). And when the nice weather sets in Kris has a fire pit in the back yard out by the river - yeah!!

On a side note, I just got an email from Charlie Mosbrook this morning and he asked to have a link to his site added to my growing list - so, there it is over there on the right side of the page, although the links list is sorted alphabetically by the link and not the name. Looks like Charlie has a few gigs up on his schedule so I am gonna get out to one of em' in the near future. Stay in touch Charlie, good to hear from you!!

Arabica U Circle

Wednesday night was only the second or third (fourth?) time I have had the pleasure of playing and singing into this room - there is something really special about this room, it has a really big heart, and it is filled with a most interesting mix of people. In addition to it's most beautiful heart, this room has the peculiar effect of making me want to hit the road as a full time singer songwriter. This room makes me feel like I am going somewhere or that I have gone somewhere or that I must go somewhere - far away from my mostly milquetoast existence. If I could play rooms like this one every day (and I only suppose I could), I would do so. The question is: When do I start?

Last night the piano room was 'hoppin' - lot's of people comming and going - from in the piano room I can't even really see what is going on in the other rooms (or upstairs), can only hear the general hubbub all around. It seems to me that the first floor is the place to see and be seen, and of course that's where the live music happens, so those patrons who are sitting at those tables are a part of what is going on musically - they are musical participants or accomplices, you know what I mean? On this night, one of the large tables in the piano room hosted two consecutive parties of 6 (or more), the first party being a family of Korean folks, and when they cleared out, a group of distinguished 'over 50 types' sat down - they were just in time to hear Jim Snively play a set of his original tunes. I thought this to be entirely appropriate given that Jim is into his 50's as well!! Jim sounded really good, he mostly does, however consistently humble he is about his performance technique!

To summarize: I love this room! It is smoke free, geographically significant, and I feel rejuvenated when playing to a crowd there - it has a powerful magic to it when it is buzzing full of folks and I am hoping that the Wednesday Night Open Mic will once again become a powerful, popular, and entertaining event.

See you out there next Wednesday then, OK???

(I will have some copies of my demo CD with me)

Jim Snivley continues to host Monday Night Open Mic at McNamara's Pub!

With a mellow voice, a room-filling confidence and a friendly ease of manner Jim Snivley arrives armed with a stack of original songs and an unbeatable acoustic guitar tone. He is one of my favorite open mic performers and a fine singer songwriter who has made a consistent effort to show up for many of the local Open Mic events and its always good to see him. Jim has for the past few weeks been hosting this Open Mic and it's great to hear that he is going to continue to do so.

Come on out to McNamara's Pub at W87 & Lake Rd. just south of Don's Lighthouse Restaurant on Monday Night's from 7:30p/10:30 - grab a nice cold tap beer and listen to a varity of Open Mic performance from poetry to singer songwriters and beyond!!!

Sign up starts at 7:00pm


Steven Wilson (AKA: The Infamous Steve2) begins hosting the fabulous Wednesday Night Open Mic at the sprawling Arabica 'Coffee Mansion' University Circle!


It's true! Steve2 is assuming hosting honors at the 'Big Coffee Mansion', and am I excited?? Oh yeah!! It seems to me that only a couple of years ago this was a really happening night at The Mansion with singers and songwriters turning up in droves to fill the nightly roster. Recently this Open Mic event seems to have lost some of its vigor and is suffering an inconsistent turn out - I was there last Wednesday at about 10:45PM and played for an hour to only a few patrons and there were no singers or guitar players in the crowd other than host Branden. I had already heard that Branden was very busy with school work (working on some masters degree) and was filling the host duties on a 'temporary' basis (since Dusty Reins moved on) knowing this I mentioned to him that I was very interested in assuming the host duties. Branden sat kindly to listen to a few songs, gave me the un-official approval, and agreed to pass the batton. Wheee! He passed the idea along to Mark and the rest is history in the making!!! I hope to see Jim Snively, Unsub, Tim Fry, Josh Koppen, Brian, Tim Keo and many others in the near future - and with the summer heating up this ought to turn into a real happening once again!! Whooopeee!

Here is a BW art photo of the infamous Stella (My 1940's Chicago made guitar) - heh - I have played this guitar in the train station in Chicago - it has a VERY cool sounding sound - check it out on the mP3 pages by streaming "Snuggly Places" to some really BIG speakers - oh, and turn up the bass knob some.

My friend Ryan Smith (see link off to the right there...) is posting some really great stuff to his weblog, I have been checking it almost daily to see the witty running commentary, click the links, and view the pictures.

Went last Thursday to Arabica Westside (Rocky River) for the Coffee and Comfort Series to hear some music, and I had hoped to see a good sized crowd. What I found instead was only a handful of listeners sipping drinks and kicking back in the comfy couches and chairs. I bought a mug full of tea and read the Scene mag. and when Patty came in I tried to ask her about resurrecting the Wednesday Open Mic night - Patty indicated disinterest or at least she wasn't willing to discuss it with me in any detail saying only that she was 'working on some ideas' with Jim. However, I couldn't help notice that she WAS willing to spend several ten's of minutes chatting with Mr. Joe Rohan, one of the regular Thursday Night performers.

This night Joe was not performing and had instead come to hear his friend Annie Boxell, singer songwriter and piano player - she was in from 'out of town' (I think she said Charleston SC) - maybe that had something to do with the micro sized crowd.

After a night like that one I have to ask myself why the new owners of Rocky River Arabica continue to pay for top-tier talent when the crowds don't seem to be turning out in great enough numbers to support them - Annie Boxell was a perfect example of an up and comming 'out of towner' with a great voice who looked and sounded terrific but who obviously has little or no following in CLE. Maybe the new owners need bigger ads in The Scene or the Free Times?? Course, big ads cost big bucks - or maybe the owners ought to reconsider both the direction of the music program and the size of the budget - unless of course they plan on putting themselves out of business by hemorrhaging money into an upstart music schedule that appears to be producing little crowd response.

A smaller budget could be put to greater effect by bringing in more talent from the next tier down in the talent pyramid (so to speak), there are just so many talented amateur or semi professional local artists who want and need a greater degree of exposure, and many of them willing to work for less than half what a Joe Rohan or an Annie DeChant want for an evening of entertainment. In fact, the Open Mic concept is one inexpensive method to consistently and inexpensively draw attention to the fact that the cafe HAS regular music at all! I seem to remember seeing locals Tim Fry, Unsub, Xela, Mary Clare and Jim Snively at the open mic night and where are those cats now?

At this time, it does not seem that the Rocky River Arabica has developed a suitable reputation as a music venue. Paying for top tier talent to play there once a week is not going to build that reputation any faster than playing host to a variety of less expensive local musical acts.

C'mon' Jim and Patty get it together already - how many more money-losing Big-Top Thursday nights do you two need to schedule before you get with the program!!

Bring back the mid week Open Mic night and start booking some amateur and semi-professional local talent into the cafe for Saturday nights!!

New MP3 files posted to steve2.net!

I have finally broken down and paid for a FULL YEAR of web hosting - sixty bucks - no more banner ads, sigh. What a flippin RELIEF to be out from under the brick like banner ads at the top of every page, whew. I posted a PAYPAL DONATION button on the site allowing any who care to donate a buck or two to the Steve2 Recording and Hosting/Promotion Fund - heh, pretty clever huh? Yeah I thought so to.

You will now find that the site is looking pretty sharp and that there are BRAND NEW FRESH MP3 files up there to listen too - yup, and if you are making a movie, maybe you can toss me a soundtrack bone?? Hmmmm? I am itchin' to get into some soundtrack recording so if you like the two songs and you are MAKING A MOVIE then drop me line wontcha'??

Cleveland Music Festival

Looks like these guys (whoever 'these guys' are) now have a new web presence - hmmmm, the email newsletter sign up feature is broken, it looks like they are trying to program the feature in PERL - whatever, its broken - and I wonder how long it will take them to get it working.

The site has lots of great information about the fest. and of course theband registration information.

Hope we see Xela and Matt Gerovac Implosion, Brent Kirby, and Infinite Number of Sounds all getting good prime playing times and spots.

Oh, and how about those Vanity Crash guys, don't they have a record deal yet?? Gee, they are practically ooozing rock and roll glory from just about every angle and pore, whats the frickin' hold up??

The Return of the Evil Martian Bunny Ears!

A few days ago I found myself surfing and blogging about the Opportunity Rover and the Martian Bunny Ears photos, and I posted a few links to photos and articles that I thought were funny - and just the other day I found an official' version of the story posted to the JPL website regarding the mysterious "Bunny Ears". This is a nice article, very analytic and official - basically, the antidote to all the foolish nonsense that was posted when the ears were discovered in the panoramic photos.

I had gotten caught up in the bunny ears hype - Martian Bunny Ear Fever - and linked up a couple of cute websites that were riffing on the Ears, but missed posting this link to Martian Crabs Dot Com which is site design and concept completely devoted to the Martian bunny ears - sweet.

At this point I think I have pretty much worn this whole concept out, however I am writing a song called Evil Bunny Fuzz

Course, none of this has ANYTHING to do with open mic, but I was at PHO Open Mic last night - it was great - they have a house PA now!!

More later...

The Open Mic scene down at the old Mudhouse on Madison in Lakewood has really picked up just recently, no surprise, Spring is on the way and the birds and bees will all be buzzing, the folk singers will all be, well, humming strumming and folksinging about the town - I have attended a couple consecutive Friday nights and have found that the whole scene has re-invented itself - in a good way - you might remember that things had gotten a little crazy/cozy over there at one time - depending on what night you were there. All that has changed, the bartender Joe regularly wears a tie, its all very high-fahlutin - nah, just pulling yer leg (Joe really does wear ties though).

What I have seen is a parade of talented hosts (so far no hostess) for the Friday night show: Have heard/seen Tim Fry, Darren Branch and Kevin McCarthy host the Friday Night Open mic. In addition to those guys, have seen and heard from the usual stalwartly individuals (including myself and Josh): Jim Snively, Terry Writz, a couple of other guys - a guy named Brian playing/strumming really confident guitar and singing Americana style folksy cow-polksy originals in a most refreshing and assuredly room-filling tone - recently had the pleasure of the company of one Tim Keo who plays a really tuneful Martin acoustic bass AND a little squeeze box accordion, super cool sounds from the Squeeze box hope to hear Tim play again real soon - heard a handful of poet's (most of whom I find don't have a very exciting delivery or stage presence - but there have been a couple of exceptions although none yet have come anywhere close to reaching the heights of bombastic delivery of one of Bearcats kids - I can't remember his name, Julia's brother, whatever his name is).

Anyhow, Jim Snivley is also running an Open Mic now - I don't have the flyer handy, oops - will get that information up here as soon as possible.

Perspective:

OK, today one of my fellow co-workers (Mr. Glenn) tells me he watched the Mel G. movie (The Passion) over last weekend and that its entirely accurate and true to the actual story - so, now I am just going to have to put the effort into reading the new testament in order to get some additional historical perspective. I still feel like the sheer gory detail was a little too much, at least it was for me, but I am kinda wimpy in that regard. If the Mel movie is portraying the event the way it was supposed to have really happened, well it was cruel and awful and bloody.

On an entirely different topic, however relative to perspective in general - the crater at Meridiani Planum that the rover Opportunity is exploring is only about 65 feet in diameter (20 meters or so) and the rim of the crater, where all the interesting rocks are, is supposed to be about 10 meters (32 feet) from the rover - and I thought it was allot bigger - heh - well, it looks bigger in the pictures ive seen so far.

I have found this discussion thread regarding the search for water and and somewhere in there another thread with a reference to evil bunny fuzz on mars, very strange.

Here is a link to an official JPL/NASA panoramic shot of the inside of the crater with the evil bunny fuzz in the lower right corner of the shot.

Here is the link to the very funny evil mars bunny story that was written up in the NY Times - my kiddo keeps two bunnies as pets so this is especially funny to me.

Heh - just found a couple of blogs linked to this one, but I am leaving work and dont have the time to add the links right now - check back later! Oh, and ouch, watch out for that Mel Gibson Passion of the Christ movie - oooh, its a painfull one to watch, long on style and detail (lots of gory detail - too much for me) and yet short on innovative story telling, why not just read 'The Last Temptation of Christ' or my co-worker Glenn suggests simply reading the New Testament - my suggestion is, if you dont read the book 'The Last Temptation of Christ' then at least rent the movie with William Defoe and Harvey Keitel - or how about just renting Ben Hur or or something along those lines.

I sure have not written much over the past few weeks, and during that time there have been at least a couple of significantly notable musical happenings, the most recent of which was the Planned Parenthood Benefit at the Grog shop last Sat. Night - wow, it was a really great show and it was my pleasure to have opened the night up with a solo set of material culled from my none-to-organized stack of lyrics and music. The show featured Andrew Rothman playing a solo set and then the remainder of the evening was devoted to bands: And all of the bands kicked some serious ass!!! The PA at the Grog is just so big, drums and bass sound as good as you could possibly imagine through all those huge speakers and it takes me a few days to get that infectious huge sound out of my heart and mind. And of course the guitars sound so sweet with all that clarity - in short, all of the bands just sounded real tight and great, here is the basic run-down:

The Brazen Rogues
These three dudes were playing balls out punk rock - and they kept asking how they sounded, which I found totally ironic considering we had a 'really real' sound engineer (Case Western graduate with a Sound Engineering degree - heh) mixing the board - and of course the sound was CD quality - at least from the audience perspective it was, not to loud not to soft - I have no idea how it sounded on stage. Anyhow, yeah, the sound was PERFECT and that's probably what was throwing the dudes off, maybe they aren't used to sounding so well mixed! They had a really rockin' drummer who kept hitting FANTASTIC roles - and the bass player was working hard even though he had a broken finger and leg, no doubt about it these guys were hard (two of the dudes are firefighters - go figure)! And they rocked up some hard jammin' tunes!

Word of Mouth
I can't remember if these guys played second or third - whatever, they had a woman bass player and a dude drummer and, whew, they hit HARD and ACCURATE together - digging a groove tight and deep, the sound was so huge the rumble from the bass was pitch perfect - I could go on and on, what I am saying is ... is ... gosh, the SOUND was just so great that I think the bands were really rolling hot it certainly wasn't the crowd size, because there just wasn't much of a crowd and they were mellow too. These guys had a couple of guitar players one guy played lead and the other was playing the rhythm guitar parts mostly - and then another dude was singing, he was a sparky singer guy and entertaining to watch. It was the first time I had heard this band and mostly I was listened to drums and bass that's just the mood I was into and this band had a both a creative drummer and a driving bass player and they were just hittin' the sweet G spot with the groove nuff said?

Brent Kirby and Band
Brent's band packs a most focused and wicked punch - I have said it and I have heard others say it (maybe no one has said it like this - but here goes): Brent's band is tighter than a virgins pussy! Yeah!! I said it!! They have twin huge bright thick slabs of bitchin' rock guitar sounds, snake-charmer lead breaks, a FABULOUS drummer and a KICKING bass player - again I just cant say enough about the sound of the HUGE bass and drums on this night what a TREAT to hear such great rhythm from all these bands - - and finally the songs stand up well under scrutiny, and this I know because I have heard Brent play them solo and he is a charming troubadour capable of delivering songs tunefully into the ears of those listening as if he were releasing brightly colored baby birds into a room - a complete formula that brings musical joy to these listening ears!


XELA with Corby and Will
Oh my gawd where do I start - Hey!! How about the FUCKIN HUGE DRUMS AND BITCHING BASS GUITAR SOUNDS AND WORK! Yeah fuckin YEAH!! Of course, what were YOU thinking about there for a second or two!!!! Oh, allow me to elaborate: Yeah, Corby is a FUCKING GOD of bass playing - he can play ANYTHING that has thick strings on it - He plays CELLO, he READS MUSIC - he plays with FINESSE he plays with POWER he has all sorts of beautiful TONES at his nimble fingertips - he can probably play ANYTHING!!!! You might say he is the schiznit (you might say that or you might say something else - it all boils down to bad ass). And naturally Mr. Corby plays with a drummer who can hit as accurately and elegantly as he needs to in order to not only convey the song but send it soaring like a rocket! Can you tell how much I like these guys? Then there is Xela - he was singing some Police songs - he sang 'Roxanne' and he had his throat making full throttle all the way to toneville!!!! When Xela wants to really peg a voice part and lyric, he just nails it, its amazing what the guy can do with his voice!!

The Matt Gerovac Implosion
Wow, I have NEVER heard these guys sound SO GOOOOOD!! But, right out of the gates here before I write ANYTHING ELSE I am gonna go WAY OUT ON A LIMB and suggest that these guys need ---- a horn player! Yup, don't you think they would really round themselves out with a nice tenor sax player person? Anyhow, Phill and Amp (drums and bass) sounded like they were really enjoying themselves up on the stage playing with power, accuracy and a relaxed stage presence that I had not had the pleasure of witnessing before this night. When I have heard them play at the Southside they sounded a bit too relaxed, like four guys sitting around on a couch watching a ball game - but this night they really dug into a phat and tight groove, Amp Phill and Banner got into and under the songs as if they together formed a magic carpet - they played together in a way that made them sound like they had been playing together for years!! And this red carpet of rhythm structure allowed Matt G. to tune up and turn up and into a serious guitar tone and a series of sweet ass rhythm guitar parts that could be heard clearly over the Georges rhythm sounds from Mr. Banner, Phil, and Amp - in fact, The Implosion was the only single guitar band that played that evening and its was a nice change from the two guitar sound. Matt's singing was powerful and soulful and could be heard very clearly in the mix. Matt Banner turned up the keys work and played some parts that really sparkled through the mix - overall this group has allot of potential and I think that they have a shot at some really good gigs IF they can get the kind of industry connections that they need to succeed.

More later, I gotta get out of my work place now and on into what remains of the day!!!