Thursday, February 7, 2013

Screech. Dharma Fools, New England, and Writing Update

The first Dresden Dolls album is coursing through my brain at a non-syncopated gait this morning.  I have again crawled from the wreckage of last night, and I'll probably end up working backwards on this missive to the universe.

I have caught my first cold in like three or four years.  Being vegetarian does that...since going meatless back in 2001, really, I've rarely been sick.  It's not a bad one, either; no real symptoms, but that it goes straight for the throat.  Doesn't hurt, but it feels like I fronted a Screamo band.

That's the least of my worries.  Well, good things to start with:  the Dharma Fools returned to the stage last night for the first time in over a year.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thedharmafools?profile_view_source=header_icon_nav

Our new page is there, recent video and some old tracks.  Got a nice "love it" from a musician named Tim Caudill last night...thanks, Tim!

Yeah, last night...slightly new lineup.  Those who know of the history of The Band Formerly Known As Ahltyrra know that the Dharma Fools were to be a side project, and they became the project.

From the original lineup is myself, Dan Shearer and Merryiad.  Jim Hooker has joined us on harp, vocals and djembe; the former he mostly does and Jim brought us a wonderful djembe player named Mari up to Harrisburg for the event.

A fixture in Harrisburg's music scene is the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, or HMAC.  Wednesday night's Open Mic Night, hosted by Mike Banks.  He opened up with more of his blazing acoustic guitar pyro action, and an amazing voice that can do Leon Redbone stuff, and then with a more conventional, but exceptional voice.  Great guy, and we appreciate his support.

Well, wouldn't you know?  We had to follow his blazing set!  But we've done it before.  The set list:

Black Ambition (one of mine, an Ahltyrra standby and opener)
Keep on Truckin' (the product of Dan's grooving bass line, Jim's harp and words I quickly brought together)...smoked for not playing it ever.
Dead Flowers (yeah, we had to)

Got an awesome hand, thank you all for doing that!  Some old friends and fans turned up, and a couple of my radio friends turned up as well.  Wonderful time...we still got it.

Dunno what's next, but we'll keep at it.  Hopefully I'll have some new rehearsal or live tracks up on the ReverbNation site.

Good work last night by a lot of artists...Piano & Cocktail Murders (I think that's the right name), Cameron Malloy, Yellow Day, and Octavia all did great...the latter is a blues lady, find her music!!!

Doing some TV work this week for WITF...nice to get a chance to do some behind the scenes work, and I'm not averse to much of anything right about now.

NEXT...Radio-Airwaves is back on the air!

http://radio-airwaves.co.uk/index.html

I return to the air tonight at 11 pm Eastern time, as DJ Riff.  Got a bunch of new tracks to thrown down for you...some odd, some obscure, and some local stuff.

I was in New England last week.  Business and pleasure it all turned out to be.  Spent a few days in Maine with family, which was fun.  Also zoomed up the Midcoast to see my former boss and owner of a couple of interesting little stations.  

Turned out I had a job interview with a start-up AM.  Radio 9 WCME, on 900 AM in Brunswick has been an odd little station with a long past.  The new owner is a radio pro who has been making things happen on his own pace, and I had a nice chat.  Not much there right now, but worth staying in touch with the gentleman.

Also saw my old XM Radio friend Joe in Portland, and ran into another of his regular buddies, a good time.  Very good indeed.

Boston for two days...saw my old friend TJ Welch from Saint Joe's days.  The one year he was there shaped my musical vision in a big way.  He was the host of "Sonic Lobotomy," a punk show that for that one year defined a lot of things for me.

He introduced me to Dead Kennedys.  TJ's band The Welch Boys will support DK's in Cambridge, MA and in NYC and Washington this month.  Great to see him again, and I sold him a Telecaster. 

A wonderful time, I must say.  Spent a couple days at my friend Riz's house, and then it was back down here for the action.

Okay...writing time.

I have not written or edited much lately.  But I'm coming up with ideas again. Right now, I have to get "Parasite Girls" re-read as a book and ready for the self-publishing steps.  

My agent, Jeanie Loiacono has left Sullivan-Maxx and is forging ahead on her own.  LLA will be out of Irving, TX and I will likely re-up with her.  Jeanie has been kicking open doors and I feel she can help with the Sweet Dreams Series and get this into the hands it must go to.

It is that big to me, that some kind of help is required.  The SDS is the best thing I've ever written; it must get out there.

Now...not to diminish "Parasite Girls."  It's a good story, and I hope it will be received well.  Better to fail by trying than to not, eh?

My friend Nick Bento once said, "Even if it flops, at least you did it."  Something like that, and he's right.  Gotta go there.

Now...two new ideas have been slowly cooking in my head, and they have to stay there because they are not ready to come out of the oven yet.  I have to edit SDS-4, and do rewrites, because that's not what it should be.

"Time the Healer" needs a go-over...so much to do.

But I'd not have it another way; it's good like this.  Stuff ahead of me gives me incentive.

Okay, off to the mad world I've created for myself.  Peace, out.

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