Johnny E

Crawd, stage and skyline

Pictures from saturday's concert... It was sunny 80 degree day in Seattle. Estimates were that we had about 1000 people attended the event over the course of the day. Whne the headliner performed (The Degenrate Art Ensemble) I'd say there was between 200-300. I hope all my Orga board firends can come out to next months show, pictures below. Stewart Demster's Sunship Paintings by Cait Willis

Figeater is starting!!!! Go to Cal Anderson Park NOW!

Either I'm getting too old to understand...or this sentence makes no sense whatsoever. Of course it could be a combination thereof... Too bad=unfortunately, Johnny cakes= term of endearment for John (maybe a Sopranos reference), I got it=Chewy bought the Tapscott, and got it good=bought it with zeel, u no have now=CD belongs to chewy instead of john - who would have gone right out and snatched the CD up asap if chewy had told me where it was (Johnny=big Tapscott fan), u no have=chewy rubbing it in. Simple really. Most chewy posts are far more confusing than this.

Don't get it. BTW, what record store has this?

Good riddance. The ownership of the Sonics had the city pay for a remodel of (what is now known as) Key Arena about 10 years ago. They gutted the old arena and intentionaly made the new playing surface slightly smaller than what would accomadate a NHL hockey rink. In this way they made sure that no NHL competition entered the market. Now, because the remodel ain't good enough for them they are gonna move. Fuck them! Because of them, now Seattle will never have a hockey team (I was a big Flyers fan growing up in Philly). They can take their ball and go home (Oklahoma City apparently) as far as I'm concerned. Good bye. Don't let Mt. Rainier hit you on the ass on your way out.

Below is a short write up on Beth Fleenor - one of the the four organizers of Sounds Outside (along with John Seman, Bill Monto and myself). She is also a dear friend and incredible musician. Young woman with a bass clarinet: Sounds Outside impresario/musician Beth Fleenor.

FIRST SHOW THIS SATURDAY!!! All the little details are drivin' us crazy! But damn this is going to be a great concert series.

Oh damn, I guess I better pack up my shit and go home then. Maybe if I think hard enough I can come up with the first word on something else.

Thanks Peter! btw, that email I listed is not me. That's John Seman - also a Monktail member and leader. If you'd like to deal with me, just send me a PM and I'll send you my personal email address. Thanks, -john

I am on the leadership team that put this series together. If you are able, please attend. If you or your business would like to sponsor this event, please send an email to john@monktail.com. thanks ya'll, it's gonna be fun! -john

Sounds Outside Concert series 2007 The Monktail Creative Music Concern, Earshot Jazz and the City of Seattle are inviting you to be a part of the 2007 Sounds Outside Concert Series. Sounds Outside is a celebration of adventurous music and community that features local and national musical talent at Cal Anderson Park. Our performers include Wayne Horvitz, Skerik, the Degenerate Art Ensemble and Reptet as well as many others. The series is scheduled over three Saturdays this summer -- June 2nd, July 14th and August 4th from 2–8pm. The 2007 Sounds Outside Concert Series is building on last year’s success. Last year Monktail partnered solely with the City of Seattle for this Series. The result was more than 800 people attended the Sounds Outside inaugural Concert. Our 2007 goal is to put the pieces in place to build a mainstay summer concert series on Capitol Hill. we hope ya'll can make it! Visit the Sounds Outside web site for more info.

I had the same felling. Telling the daughter of the head of a family you'd like to (ostensibly) cum in her mouth is pretty fucking bad. People have ended up dead for much less. Honestly, I thought Tony used retraint in only curbing the muthafucker.

Up until recently he made some of the best sounding recordings in the history of recorded music.... Too bad he's a violent nut case.

Yeah well, everybody knows it already, but you can't start to fully understand how sleazy this business is until you start dealing with some of these vile blood sucking scum known as club owners. Not all are like that, but a good majority have little to no regard for the musicians. Most refuse to use contracts and most ditch you the moment something (in their minds) better comes along. I'm certain that if we had gotten that write-up we could have played the entire night, had a better crowd and made a lot more money. But the owner made the decision that a rockabilly band would bring in more people than a jazz band. Hence, we got screwed. But I think that show may have been one of the more entertaining shows we played on our tour from a viewers stand point. It's all good. The tour did well finacially so all's well. And that pizza was so yummy!

Well folks, let me back up a second and let ya’ll know how cool my friend Bill is. When our high profile, high paying gig in Spokane got canceled due to the Lilac Parade (the concert venue’s right on the parade route and the booking person forgot that their club closes the day of the parade) I contacted Bill to see if he knew of a place we could play in Spokane. We had a show already scheduled the next day in Sandpoint, ID about an hour away so we really wanted to score a gig in Spokane for that Saturday night. He gave me contacts which led to the gig, put the band up at his place for the night…ALL SIX OF US, and made us his homemade pizza for dinner (which was soooo tasty I couldn’t believe it – gourmet style!). His daughter is the most adorable little 6 year old you could ever meet…a musician in the making, she played duets on violin with our bassist Ben and on accordion with our sax player Izaak (on melodica) and she gave me really helpful tips on how to keep a hula-hoop going. I’ve never been able to figure those things out. Special thanks to Bill’s wife Karyn who I’m sure knew little about us before our arrival in Spokane. She was so welcoming and supportive - shared tales of their time in the Santa Cruz Mountains and hipped us to some Spokane history and current politics. Their house is beautiful and Bill’s record collection is quite impressive. Thanks for everything Bill and family. Now the show itself has a back story... here goes: I booked the gig at a place called The Spread. I clearly stated that we would only have a local opener if they were willing to except a 70/30 split of the door. If not, we’d do the whole night. This was clearly understood. Our publicist sent out all the press releases, press kits and posters a couple weeks before the show. A reporter from the Spokane daily newspapers entertainment section contacted us asking for a high resolution photo and bio. So I was under the impression that we were getting a write up. Well, I get an email and voicemail from the club owner 4 days before we’re gonna be hitting the road. Not only have they added two rockabilly/alt country bands to the bill and it was now going to be a three-way split for the door money, but apparently the name of the club is now The Zombie Room. I was livid. I told the guy that this was totally unprofessional and that we were very angry. I told him that I had to check in with the rest of the band to see if we still wanted to do the show, but we might not. After consulting with my band mates, we decided to go ahead with the show. We knew that the club would not tell people we weren’t coming and our ‘no-show’ would reflect negatively on us, not them. I called them back, said we’d do it, as long as we headlined. They said fine. Well we get settled in at Bill’s place and I go and pick up the paper and wouldn’t you know it, the Rockabilly band has a big write up and we got jack shit. The local paper must have gotten word from the club and from the bands press folks that they were going to be there and they assumed that we were no longer playing. These guys are not very well known and it was their fist appearance in Spokane as well. So, of course the club is filled with folks with greazed back hair, wearing all black and swiggin’ the Jack Daniels waiting for some rackabilly. That band is now saying they want to headline because they got the big write-up in the paper. We’re thinking, “how else are these people gonna fuck us?” So we decided to go into our wardrobe and pull out our secret weapon…“The Pinks”. Occasionally when the time is right we all wear pink, with pink cowboy hats and crazy ties. This seemed like the perfect gig for it. We put together the most fire breathing set we could muster, complete with giant walls of free improvisation and absurd theatrics. The sound guy mic’d us up like a rock band. It was LOUD. The horn players were running through the club honking like an angry heard of shaven yaks. A lot of the men in black went fleeing the club to smoke cigarettes on the curb out front until we finished. Izaak did a Jimi Hendrix on his already badly beaten tambourine. Half way through our set the sound guy is saying “One more song!!!” We were like, “Fuck ya’ll, we got this gig high-jacked from us, we’re gonna play our full set – NO EXCEPTIONS! It was an angry set. The sound guy didn’t know how to handle us. We tore the roof off the sucker and showed them fools that a “jazz” band can kick some serious ass. I felt kinda bad for the band that followed though. They simply could muster that kind of intensity (and absurdity). Now you have to understand, we were coming off a series of concert hall performances, college and high school jazz band workshops and the like. We were kinda getting used to being treated with a semblance of respect. We hit this gig and it was just horrid. We made $67 as a band on a Saturday night in Spokane. For a little perspective, we made $300 the next night, a Sunday in Sandpoint (population 6,000). The show itself I’m sure was incredibly entertaining to watch, but the way it all went down just left a bad taste in our mouths. Hopefully we can reschedule the original gig we had booked for the concert hall and come through Spokane again soon. And again, thanks to Bill and his beautiful family for opening their home to us and being such big fans. Oh, and thanks for that Tchicai CD – smokin’! -john

My take on this was Tony's luck returned with the death of Christopher, at least in his mind. He expected to lose, but just kept winning, and then it dawned on him that "He's dead. " The curse is lifted, and lifted by Tony being the murderous, cold-hearted bastard he truly is. He gets it. Be true to thyself, or, look out for yourself, fuck everybody else. I think Tony might just whack everybody, Phil and AJ included. I think the Salon writer was half asleep. You're absolutely correct that Tony falling on the floor laughing was in celebration, as if the curse was lifted and luck was again on his side. And in the end he is raising his arms in triumph looking at the sunrise and saying "I did it!!!" Yeah, that Salon writer has his head up his ass.

I would think he would have had too.

Is it just me, or does Beefheart circa 'Trout Mask' sound like Ornette Coleman's Body Meta only with a brilliantly demented Howlin' Wolf screaching on top of it all? CB Trout Mask: 70' OC Body Meta: 75' Hmmmm

Ashtray Heart (SNL) Electricity

The guy who wrote this (Alex Gelfand) is also the same critic who chose Reptet's "Do This!" top jazz record of the 2006 in Jazziz magazine.

Anyone who thinks that McGuire, Sosa and Bonds (and others putting up crazy power numbers) sudden shattering of HR records that stood for 50 odd years has nothing to do with the fact that they miraculously gained 30 pounds of pure muscle is kidding themselves. Lots of players have fast bats, but you don't see 5' 10" 180 pound shortstops with fast bats hitting 40, 50 HR's a year. You need strength AS WELL as bat speed. Bonds always had one of the fastest bats in the game. But it wasn’t until his mid-thirties and his steroid use that he started hitting 60 and 70 a year. I have nothing against the guy personally. I actually used to admire him in many ways. But I for one hope he does not break the record. That’s all the game needs is another asterisks next to one its most important records.

My predictions before the searies ends: Christopher gets wacked by Phil. Tony is either wacked ~or~ figures out a way to fake his own death and escapes the wiseguy life. Bobby become head of the family.

Reptet opened for Rempis at The Hungry Brain when we were in Chicago last fall. HUGE sounds, creative, original and a nice guy as well. Anyone who hasn't heard or seen him should go.