MATT GEROVAC - BRENT KIRBY

Hi everyone -

I have made some pretty significant changes to my website home page just recently, I think this version of my page is prolly as 'long' and content rich as I can make it without it being too busy - well, some of yous readers might think it's too busy, ok, I admit, it IS to busy it's JAM PACKED my whole site is lopsided with my home page so rich and thick with significant content. Heh.

OPEN MIC EVENTS AND A NEW MP3 SINGLE ON MY HOME PAGE:
I have posted a long list of significant Open Mic scenes around Cleveland AND I have posted a single MP3: A very mellow 'full band' version of The Burnside Blues that was recorded at Strangelove Recording with Sam Phillips and Tony Koussa Jr. - please oh PLEASE listen to the song.


Ok, enough about my home page, here are some new local music news items for consideration:

Matt Gerovac has kinda been elusive for, like, months now but he is coming out for a show - solo I think - at the house of blues - here are the details he has sent me:

• MATT GEROVAC at the HOUSE OF BLUES on Sat., May 21st at 8p.m. opening for - Paul Fayrewether. For tickets you can go to www.ticketmaster.com or www.hob.com. www.mattgerovac.com (Pssssst: I can't find a site for Paul Fayrewether)

Also, there is a double CD release party - a big un - for Brent Kirby at the HIFI club coming up Thursday May 5th:

You are cordially invited to be an exclusive guest of Brent Kirby and The Flashing 12's 'The Mean Days' CD Release PartyMay 5th, 2005 8:30pmThe Hi Fi Club$5 21 and over $8 under 2111729 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, OH (216) 433-4444 www.hificlub.infoWith Special Guests G.S. Harper The Company Line Jason Jay Guggy Tim Longfellow The Special Appearances by The Jody Grind Kim Kennedy Joey D from Liquid Brent Kirby and The Flashing 12's will perform at 930pm

Anyhow, I hope everything is going well for YOU and YOURS - I am still struggling to make sense of the things that I am trying to make sense of - planning for some time away from CLE this summer - so stay in touch, OK??

BY!

Audra K. - Arabica - Open Mic - Bloging - Email

Hi All Y'all!

Who is out there:
Uhm, actually, I have very little idea who "All Y'all" might even be .. I get so little 'real' email anymore, I get a HUGE pile of bullshit SPAM like every single day and it sucks. I so rarely get an email from someone who has looked at my site and has something to say about it or otherwise just found it usefull, shanggers, maybe it's just not as usefull as I would like it to be!! If you are a reader of my site, please drop me an email line or two just to let me know that you are 'out there'.

Audra Kubat:
For the first time in a very long time I have had a few minutes on the phone with Ms. Kubat and found out that she has just recently released her brand new album!!! If you surf on over to timesbeachrecords.com you will find a tiny picture and a couple of sample mp3 files - I have only just downloaded them and will listen to them later on this evening.

Blogging:
I have only begun to write in my blog again just recently - I was way out of the habit for a long time. And then I rigged up that bit of javascript to show the headlines on my homw page and I think that has helped me to motivate - however, still a huge problem with the script in that the Netscape browser will not show display the headlines and I seriously am completely baffeled as to why this little bit of script won't display the headlines in the netscape browser, if you think you can help please send me a line.

Open Mic and the Arabica Empire:
Ok, for what seems like awhile now I have been meaning to offer a round up of the open mic events in and around town, and even though it might be impossible to get a complete list I have what I think is a pretty good and useful list - there are some new ones coming online at all of these Arabica Cafe's around town:

ARABICA BEDFORD 720 BROADWAY 440-439-0555
Thursday Night Open Mic 7PM with host Dave Terry

ARABICA CLEVELAND 818 E. 185TH STREET 216-486-7777
Saturday Open Mic 8PM no host specified

ARABICA CLEVELAND HTS. 2209 LEE ROAD 216-321-0761
Tuesday Open Mic 8PM with host Charlie Mosbrook back at the helm of things - a particularly notable open mic event with Charlie Mosbrook one of the elder statesmen of open mic and a fine
singer songwriter

ARABICA BROADVIEW 7462 BROADVIEW ROAD 216-520-4437
Thursday Night Open Mic at (no specific time was listed) with host Alan Studt

ARABICA RICHFIELD 4174 WHEATLEY ROAD RICHFIELD 330-659-2030
Thursday Open Mic at 7PM no host specified

ARABICA SHEFFIELD VILLAGE 5322 ABBE ROAD LORAIN 440-934-0900
These guys just ran an ad in one of the local music rags indicating that they were looking for music

ARABICA PARMA HEIGHTS 6285 PEARL ROAD 440-886-6648
These guys just ran an ad in one of the local music rags indicating that they were looking for music

And that about does it for the Arabica cafe's there are probably a few more but these are the ones that I see advertised.

At any rate, I need to get going here tonight - again, please email me with any questions about the music scene at the University Circle Arabica - and dont forget we have Ms. Racheal Sage coming to the cafe for a couple of sets this wednesday April 27 - this is a free show - all ages - smoking and non - non-alchoholic - free wireless internet

gOODbye forNOW!!!

UCA in MAY 2005 : Open Mic Nights : Guitars

There was a good crowd of guys (and one woman singer songwriter, Chelsea Ryan) for the last Open Mike at UCA - thanks all of you for coming out - thanks Dave for blowing that cross harp with me, that made my night, I hope we can do that again soon!

I want to alert all of you to a new Wednesday night happening at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Lyndhurst on - heh, I don't want the whole UCA open mic crowd dodging over there at once, but you all know that we only do open mic twice a month so there are two other nights - anyhow, they have beer and sports TV heh, whatever, it's shapping up to be a decent event, nice PA, MC is Robin Stone, signup between 7 and 8 for a spot to play - and AND - they give away prizes!! Yup, it's a sponsored event, Guitar Center and Budwieser ganging up on the whole thing. Go on up there, BUT WHATEVER YOU DO DONT GO ON WED. 27TH BECAUSE RACHEAL SAGE IS COMING TO UCA!! All of you should come out to this show.

ON THE EAST SIDE Monday nights belong to XELA and the open jam night at the B-Side lounge below the grog shop - heh, you know where that is, dontcha? Anyhow, they have (litteraly) PILES of AMPS and they have drums and mics and everything - just bring an instrument wit you.

ON THE WEST SIDE Monday night jam session and open mic belongs to JIM SNIVELY hosting open mike night at McNamaras 8611 Lake Ave. Cleveland Ohio 44102 216-939-9346

ON THE WEST SIDE on Tuesday night we are back with the Phoenix open mic in Lakewood Ohio on Detroit - a younger crowd, lots of street side action and tea sippin.

I am hammering out the music calendar for MAY and it will be posted soon - briefly we got Zach, Xela, Kate Morrisey, Randy Martin, Brent Kirby (welcome back dude), John Toula and Justin Markert (who BETTER make his gig this time - heh) and we are doing the strangenight again: Adam Probert comes to the cafe and records for two and a half hours. Musicians dont pay anything up front, but if you want your tracks, you gotta go to strangelove recording and sit with Adam for a few minutes while he chats up the studio - generally, tracks recorded at the strangenight can be had on CD for about ten to fifteen bucks for the musicians. Last time we made a CD from the whole night. It was allot of work.

Bela Dubby Cafe in Lakewood has beer and art!!

First, about my auto updating blog headlines issues (like you care anyhow):

April 8 2005 6:19 PM: Ok, in my attempts to create web site perfection I decided I just HAD to try to get my blog headlines from my blog onto my home page, and it (the project) kind of worked, and so far it also kind of doesn’t work. I mean the obsession can’t be a healthy thing, so I had to let it ride. Here’s how it stands: This feature currently works well enough within Internet Explorer. The blog headlines won't print within the Netscape Browser...I am working on figuring out why. I have always found the Netscape Browser to be picky and I am getting this HUGE ridiculous error in Dream weaver that is supposed to be a problem with my style sheet - I can’t find the problem. What - the - fuck - EVER... it's working well enough. I really had to struggle with this feature - seems like the javascript objXML is able to parse the Atom Feed just fine, as long as the index is on my site not the Atom site - I think it's a username password problem, however, this does not look good for trying to pull in other peoples headlines - like r3tr0 - I was hoping to parse HIS blog headlines as well, but R3Tr0 posts his blog to the blogspot, which means the Atom feed is hosted on the Atom site. Whew! So, for the time being, it’s working as well as I can make it work with the current set of technologies. I might change my blog to work differently, but the whole point was to be ale to pull in news feeds from other blogs – anyhow, if ANY of YOU PEOPLE have ANY IDEAS at all then contact me.

BELA DUBBY Art Gallery and Beer Cafe in LAKEWOOD at 13321 MADISON 216-221-4479
I found a really neato local café this past Saturday, one I had been looking for and looking for and could not find – it’s in Lakewood on Madison at 13321 Madison Ave. and the place is called Bela Dubby and the owner woman is a sweetheart – and HUGE BONUS they have a BEER LICENSE and they have an American IPA ON TAP – yeah! Thos of you who know me well enough to know that I like IPA better than any other beer should know that I am rejoicing. They have a huge pretty storefront as well, funny that it’s seems to be so easy to miss. I mean, where have this place like BEEN anyhow?? I suppose it’s been right there. Anyhow, free wireless internet, great coffee, nice space, good beer, art on the walls, it’s lookin’ good for these transplanted New Yorkers and we should al be so happy to have an alternbative to the old Jitters place – which, by the way, seems to have closed down for no good reason and with NO indications of when of if they are coming back again but personally although I really liked the place I could not STAND the indoor smoking and I hope that ALL OF THAT is going away once and for all in Lakewood call me a prude or whatever I don’t care.

Here for your convenience are the official (Jill wrote these down for me) is the Bela Dubby hours for Summertime:

Sun & Mon: Closed

Tue through Thurs. - 8am to 8pm

Fridays - 8am to 12am

Sat. - 10am to 12am

Open Mic Nights in Lakewood and Coventry

Open Mic Nights in Lakewood and Coventry

The self proclaimed 'Kid with the long hair' reminded me this past Tuesday that the Capsule Bar in Lakewood at 13376 Madison Ave. continues to host a Monday Night Open Mic ... from 8PM until 2AM - to be somewhat more specific Jeremy is the kid with the long hair, he works with Food Not Bombs and he is the host of the Monday Night show at Capsule. I have not had the pleasure of attending this event just yet, but since I have now been 'officially reminded' I will try to stop in there. Jeremy can be reached at starvationarmyzine@yahoo.com

Jim Snively continues to host 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

Here are a few other choice Open Mic events to consider:

Mon. 10PM The B-Side Lounge - with host XELA
Coventryyard Cle. Hts. 216-932-1966
(This one is not in Lakewood but its a good night in Coventry)

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

I have it from the horses mouth that Mr. Xela is prolly skoochin' out-of-town for some travels in June and so will be using some guest host's for his various events.

Hey, all of you readers must have by this time seen the January music calendar for the UCA but if you have actually been INTO the café anytime recently then you have only seen part of the calendar on the wall, you know the big ones that Mark keeps on the walls – it’ missing an important date FRIDAY JAN. 21 JUSTIN MARKERT is an indie pop singer songwriter acoustic guitar slinger guy who has most recently been traveling in Europe, he was in Spain, England, and Amsterdam. Justin, as you might recall, owned and operated his own coffee shop for awhile there, the Cellar Door, they had a healthy little music scene cooking at the coffee shop from what I understood (I never actually made it out there) however Justin has since moved on to bigger and better things. C’mon out and hear this young guy - he is worth the visit!

I had to miss Matt’s solo show at UCA last Sat. – how was it? Did any of you readers hear Matt do his solo acoustic thing? Matt G. has an awful lot of talent and it’s possible we are all going to be hearing him play out allot more in the near future – and, conveniently enough I just got his band schedule in my email box, the email explains that Matt’s band is going to play a few shows with bass player Corby Hien – interesting (Corby is pretty much a MONSTER bass player) - here is the near future schedule:

MATT GEROVAC IMPLOSION
TOUR DATES:

Fri., Jan. 21, 9 p.m. - SHADOW LOUNGE - 5972 Baum
Blvd. - Pittsburgh, PA

Sat., Jan. 22, 10 p.m. - BROWN HOTEL - 6 Water St,
Indiana,PA

Thurs., Jan. 27, 9 p.m. - MANHATTAN'S - 1516 Adams St.
- Toledo, OH

Fri., Jan. 28, 10 p.m. - VILLAGE IDIOT - 309 Conants
St. - Maumee, OH

Sat., Jan. 29, 9 p.m.- KALAMAZOO BREWING CO. -
355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., Kalamazoo, MI

Sat., Feb. 5, 10 p.m. - SOUTHSIDE - 2207 W. 11th St. -
Cleveland, OH

OH MAN!!!! I met John Hill recently at the Lakewood Library, you know, he is the Cleveland’s high end electric guitar and bass entrepreneur fellow – anyhow, he is such a really low-key fellow and he is bringing a bunch of guitars to the Agora TONIGHT for the filming of a pilot series called “Axe to Grind” – gosh, this sounds way to sweet - they got all the local hot axe slingers players tonight:

The Billy Morris Band
Swim
The Armstrong Bearcat Band
Beau Coup
SNC
The Bad Boys of Blues
AND
Special Surprise Guest: MICHAEL STANLEY!

All these hot shots will play Hill Guitars tonight! Whoooooo sweeeeeeetneeeessss!!!


You can even enter to win a Hill Custom Guitar! And a portion of the proceeds will benefit breast cancer research – wow, I wish I could go I feel so – lame.

Uhm, hmmm - Jordan Stone answered my email, HE answered my email - the lady featured in some of his site design is his wife! So, someone is the godess. Coolness that he answered me. What else, oh yeah - I have heard Kaki King, she honed her acoustic guitar style on the subway platforms in NYC - check her site out - she is at HOB this Thusrday and tickets are "ONLY" almost 30 bucks - ouch. Geesh though, what some girls can do to a dang acoustic guitar, it's almost unbelievable.

Audra Kubat updated her webblog - she is in NYC busting her ass - nice to see something from her, I have been wondering. I cannot wait to hear her new album!! Well, I suppose I will have to wait. She is at The LIving Room end of this month.

The Musicians Friend is now duping CD's for a couple cents over a buck a piece on 50 or more and they have this cool web interface that allows you to design the CD face right online. The printing is thermal, good quality on a silver CD. Coolness.

And, hey, I finally have my own copy of the recent Cats On Holiday CD recorded 98 percent live downtown at Wilberts - I will be listening to it ASAP.

I watched some of Storefront Hitchcock last night, Robyn Hitchcok live in a storefront downtown NYC. Cool.

Well, I am at work i better actually do some work.

G'bye.

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.