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!!!