boom boom blap

MY BLOG IS MOVIN' MOVIN' ON UP

2011-03-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

now my be-log be-longs to http://www.ericslick.com

come there, be square, look at photos from my weird life

love,

eric

govnuh island/birthday/random moth

2010-08-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

it's not the same place you remember

2010-08-22T08:04:00.001-07:00

more photos #3

2010-08-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

more photos #2

2010-08-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

sometimes you just gotta add photos.

2010-08-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

painting the backdrop

2010-04-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

massive photo blog #4, we're all caught up

2010-04-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

massive photo blog #3

2010-04-18T21:43:00.001-07:00

massive photo blog #2

2010-04-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

massive photo blog #1

2010-04-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

dog blog #1: the first few dog days

2010-02-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

hello folks. i'm typing to you from the frozen tundra also known as buffalo.
we've hammered through 5 dr. dog sets so far, each one with it's own distinct personality.

revolution hall was my first "real" show, so it's kind of a blur. i remember feeling kind of sick because I inhaled a black-bean barley burger beforehand (alliteration alert). my pre-show coffee wasn't strong enough so I cautiously drank a red bull - my first in about a year or so. it was a good show, but my anxiety was somewhat overwhelming at times. it must've been the taurine shock.

burlington, vermont provided us with frigid air, the return of liggy, backstage catering (served by the lovely jasmine), and the inaugural growlers g-wash. i'll never forget this night! i've always wanted to play the higher ground ballroom. on my first tour with project/object, we played the smaller room the same night as the wildly popular disco biscuits. i never thought i'd play there, but i suppose dreams can become realities if you just speak them into existence.

ANYWAY. general consensus: great crowd + solid set = super-chouette.

lupo's heartbreak hotel has a massive stage. it's about as deep as it is wide. the ceiling is also way higher than you'd expect. you can experience vertigo by looking down from the 3rd floor dressing room! later we ate dinner at Fatty McGee's. fried veggie-mush burger with steak fries. excellent crowd. there were some technical difficulties here and there, but we made up for it with good old fashioned charisma.

syracuse was a rough one for me. i felt like tony danza from "angels in the outfield". my arms were not functioning properly. great crowd though. big thumbs up to strong hearts - the all-vegetarian cafe down the street from our fancy hotel.

OF NOTE: our merch master forrest introduced us to the veracruz breakfast burritos. half of us went vegetarian, the other half ate chorizo. a smelly day. let's just say that the air was awfully "thick" in the van. mexican food seems to be the theme of this tour. we have 500 taco bell dollars. unlimited crunchwrap supremes. enough said.

last night's show at the mohawk place was certainly a turning point for the band. the sweltering heat of the onstage lights helped propel the evening to punk rock heights. great hanging out with the fans afterwards, even though i soaked through my new shirt.

we're moving at a frenetic pace. off to pontiac, michigan.

dr. dog: beginning of the tour

2010-01-28T17:06:00.000-08:00

more later!

2010 is the year of the tiger

2009-12-29T11:46:00.000-08:00

well, this'll be the year that we won't forget
2009, ano domini
anything goes
be what you want to be
long as you know consequences are given for living

i feel like i'm going through another transitional phase. 2009 was an exhausting year, probably more so than 2008 (although technically i was in transit for many more days in aught-eight). the first half of 2009 is completely lost in my memory. the details are gone, which makes me sad because there were some excellent moments. it's not that i intentionally erased it, it's just gone.

a period of time that is floating in space somewhere.

the second half of my year was dominated by 4 months of worldwide touring, which led to a 3 week long sickness. in fact, i got so sick that i had to cancel a legendary northeastern run with project/object.

in those 3 weeks, i had some personal breakthroughs. i've been working on music everyday, completing songs that were once considered worthless. it's therapeutic. i have a lot to look forward to in 2010. two new projects have been absorbing most of my free time: paper cat and lithuania. paper cat is an instrumental post-rock group with julie slick and robbie mangano (papercat.bandcamp.com). lithuania is my avant-pop song project with dominic angelella. i'm also excited for some of my solo compositions that have been blossoming out of the dust - especially because a piano is being delivered to my house this week. i didn't purchase it. it's an upright baldwin that belongs to my roommate tony. i can finally practice the "mikrokosmos" on something besides a MIDI keyboard. 2010 is going to be great, i can smell it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: if you can, please help andre cholmondeley's partner cheri jiosne. some of you may know andre from project/object, or his tech work with adrian belew and al dimeola. he is one of my best friends.

cheri is also an incredible human being - intelligent, humorous, gifted with an unparalleled warmth. she is currently fighting breast cancer. as you may know, the united states healthcare system is in complete shambles right now. cheri's medical bills are ghastly, and she needs all the help she can get.

you can donate thru paypal.com and make payments to projectobject (at) earthlink.net
You can send a check or money order written to CHERYL JIOSNE to:

Cheri Jiosne Cancer Fund
PO BOX 16672
Asheville NC
28801

that's all for now. i'll post some pictures from this year in a few hours. i love you!

grand canyon

2009-10-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

inspiration

2009-10-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

data is not knowledge

2009-10-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

no rest for the weary.

let's rewind back to june. i was complaining that i didn't have enough work, and now i can't stop working. i've essentially been on tour since july, with very few breaks in between. i guess we're all hypocrites, right?

i don't have much to talk about at the moment. we go through phases, don't we? we constantly absorb all kinds of data, which then gets transferred into information, and then that becomes knowledge. if you're lucky, it turns into wisdom. i had a fascinating conversation about this with juilliard composition professor philip lasser. he believes that the iphone, or the internet in general, has ruined that critical process. the terrifying ubiquitousness of a website like wikipedia allows us to import all kinds of data into our digitally wired brains, and most of time it slips into some synaptic cleft without advancing to the "information" stage. as an ambassador of the A.D.D. generation, i agree with this sentiment in some ways. when i want to "learn" about something, i type the search words into google. i peruse the first 3 websites, and then i feel sort of satisfied. the problem is that i can't back it up with any empirical wisdom - it just gets lost in the constant influx of data. my memory is intrinsically selective, and although i'd love to retain information about the minutiae of russian futurism or even the different genera of tree finches, i simply can't do it.

hmmph. unless i read a book on the subject. that's where the argument takes an interesting turn. is it the medium or how we digest it? perhaps other people take away true knowledge from wikipedia summaries, but i find myself getting distracted too easily. i aimlessly click on links within links. for example, i may start with a search on the personal life of james joyce and end up guffawing at the synopsis of pee-wee herman's troubled career!

this is why i've been leaning more towards books this year. they stick to the ribs. here's last month's reading list for all you nerds out there:

magritte by bernard noel
the way of liberation by alan watts
straight man by richard russo

right now i'm reading 20th century harmony by vincent persichetti. oh boy!

and here's my list of listening:

tyondai braxton - central market
bela bartok - string quartet no. 4 in c major
micachu and the shapes - jewellery
skeletons - money
kurt weisman - spiritual sci-fi

that's all for now. if anything crazy happens on this tour, i'll write about it.

zappanale = utopia

2009-09-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

a painful 10AM wake-up.

much like the "red alert" signal on a punctured submarine, my iPhone alarm is loud enough to wake up the entire crew of the U-96 (even after its demise). i wipe the crust from my unabrow and head to the lobby. grab a cup of strong coffee from my cafe dance partner. she seems wistful, but i'm sure doing the robot will get her out of it.

10 of us scurry into an 8 passenger van. one of us has not showered for days, which makes the drive comparable to being put into a 4 hour headlock by a homeless prizefighter. no worries though, we're on the way to one of my favorite places in the whole world. a quaint village called bad doberan. it's 15 kilometers west of rostock, and it's the home of zappanale, a week long festival dedicated to the genius of frank zappa: composer, filmmaker, guitarist, politician, iconoclast.

i wish i could describe the festival in full detail, but it's difficult for me. it's as close as i've come to some form of heaven. an endless supply of vegan food, a bizarre collection of avant-garde LP's. loud dissonance and difficult rhythms. art. weird girls. hangmatten. clean air. a lifetime of memories.

this year marked my 5th visit to the mecca of zappa. it gets better every year. there were two stages this time around! i still say it's the most organized festival in the world. you can quote me on that. i rubbed elbows with some of the all time greats, such as david aellen (of gong fame) and kawabata makoto (of the mind-melting acid mothers temple). eating a continental breakfast with roy estrada was hilarious. i will never forget it!

i also became best friends with the fine people of discorporate records. discorporate is one of the leading avant-garde labels in europe. coincidentally, they signed my close friends capillary action, a group led by oberlin grad jon pfeffer. jon and i played in a band together when we were 10 years old. it was called...well, the name was crude, perhaps even downright offensive. nevermind.

zappanale ended with a smashing late night performance on the second stage. johannes (drummer of schnaak and co-founder of discorporate) led the most inspired zappa/doors tribute group i've ever seen. their regular set closed with a rowdy cover of "L.A. Woman". for the encore, they played "girls just wanna have fun" - in the nude.

and that concludes my recap of the project/object european tour.

ich bin ein berliner (part two)

2009-08-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

i shared a room with robbie and svalgard.

we collectively drank a pitcher of potent german beer during our "phuk et meal". careening down die fabrik hallways at 3AM, we were shouting, obnoxious amerikaners. when ike came into our room to use robbie's laptop, he barfed out the definitive phrase of the eerie hostel experience: "zo, gentleman. we are killing ze girl tonight?". laughter ensues, a loud knock on the wall. angry neighbors! sleep.

early rise. die fabrik cafe is right next door and we all agree on it for our frühstück (breakfast, for my american readers). a huge plate of dunkelbrot and käse. the danceable morning music ranged from the bangles to madonna to weirdo kraut jams. i coaxed the very german baristas into doing the robot with me. also, robbie and I put our iphones next to each other to simultaneously film wide screen freakouts of eric svalgard's face. one day we'll project it on a giant screen, i'm sure.

went to the schallplatten shop across the street. picked up records by gyorgy ligeti and gil evans. i delved into the obscure bin and found a german mad magazine LP, which brought back memories of my alfred e. neuman obsession. goodbye, 40 euros.
after the seratonin release of record shopping I walked around the corner, only to find remnants of the berlin wall!

a moving experience. i was only 2 years old when the wall was destroyed, too young to realize the significance of the event. the residual effects of its destruction are obvious. walls of the once pale industrial buildings are now splattered with paint and large line drawings. this kind of freedom is infectious, and evidently it's still new to the people that live here. 20 years is not a long time, not long enough to undo the kind of oppression they endured for more than a quarter century.

strolled back to die fabrik and hung out until it was time to set up our gear at the dot club. thanks again to the fabulous merlin ettore of trap. not only did he blow my mind, but he also lent me his drumset!

great 3 hour show that night. the crowd seemed to enjoy it. the evening's most entertaining moment: a group of young floozies came in during one of our more cerebral jams. can you imagine a group of paris hilton type socialities attempting to do their ancient ritual slut dances to an odd-time keyboard solo? a hilarious sight for any musician. the legendary joe jackson was in attendance as well. i bit my tongue when i shook his hand, because i almost started singing "is she really going out with him?".

afterwards i met my new best friend flora. we discussed the state of american pop culture. it's a shame, i feel like i have to defend myself sometimes, you know, because i'm an official ambassador. our long discussion about bret michael's "rock of love" brought us to the the crux of the matter. mainstream television is devolving at a rapid rate. you have to furrow your brow when an educational network like national geographic is now all reality programming. maybe I should blow up my TV. why do i even pay a comcast bill? oh right. thank god for adult swim. let's all push the envelope together.

ich bin ein berliner (part one)

2009-08-18T05:39:00.000-07:00

our next sequence went like this:
bilbao to madrid, madrid to berlin.

the latter flight was delayed due to technical issues (the plane sounded like a loud dentist drill). we waited 45 minutes and then we scrambled onto a shuttle bus. the driver seemed to be lost, because he gave us a head-spinning tour of the airport and all of its underground tunnels and pathways. fascinating, but not my idea of a good time during a day of dehydrating travel. speaking of dehydration, i'm a bit pissed at iberia airlines. where do they get off charging their customers for things like water and snacks? even southwest airlines - which is practically a chaotic free-for-all - has free drinks and snacks onboard. the going rate for an unappetizing cheese sandwich on an iberia flug is a bank-breaking €7.50, or $10.50 in hard earned american doll hairs! oh well, i'll stop complaining. i was in europe after all.

robbie and i were silly on the trip to berlin. in a deliriant frenzy, i managed to create a realistic cat out of a barf bag. robbie added accoutrements and filagree to this paper cat, and suddenly we were convinced that it was real. we made it nuzzle and purr while confused spaniards looked on and shuddered at our childish behavior. we even made a music video of the paper cat. the guy next to me remained stoic and straight-faced during our shoot, which makes it that much funnier.

here's a picture of the fantastic paper cat after we touched down in berlin.

iberia also lost our luggage when we did the shuttle bus switchover. this meant no clothes or toiletries for most of the group (except for me, thanks cheri). we filled out a bunch of papers, met our fabulous show promoters. i was losing patience though, and at this point, i was starving. so, we cabbed it to a thai restaurant which totally summed up our day with it's name. ladies and gentleman, phuket:

for our "phuk et meal", we were joined by none other than the great bob rutman. rutman was a huge part of the downtown nyc avant-garde scene in the 1970's. he was respected by stockhausen and cage, and he collaborated with robert wilson (of philip glass fame) and the recently deceased merce cunningham.

here's a video of his meeting with john cage:

but wait, it gets better! our sleeping quarters for the evening was "die fabrik", a beautiful punk rock hotel in the hip area of kreuzberg. from what i've read, it's a converted factory building from the early 1900's. i loved it immediately...except when we got there they only had 3 rooms for 7 people. ugh. fich mich!

roll over, eindhoven/la-re-do, a deer, a female deer

2009-08-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

the joy of being alone.

sometimes i undervalue the perks of having time to think, time to breathe. according to CNN, most americans have replaced "free time" with "weisure", or rather "work + leisure". a portmanteau word. another abbreviation for our fast paced lives. perhaps it is more fitting to create a blend from this simple equation: work + leisure = seizure, or as i'd like to call it, weizure. i recently purchased an iphone - the shining beacon, the sexy face of weizure. it's an overwhelming device, and when i'm in my multi-tasking/rapid text message/websurfing/twitter mode, i can feel my tongue rolling back into my esophagus.

work and leisure should be separate entities, you know, like church and state (here's looking at you, bush administration). my at&t contract is less than 90 days old, so when i went to buy an international plan for my european tour, i was denied. i knew what this meant - in order to communicate with my bandmates, i'd have to remember their hotel room numbers and whereabouts. no phone calls, no text messages. this also meant that i'd have no access to a 3G network. no social networking, tweets, friend requests, or anything of the like.

and suddenly, less anxiety. more fresh air. time to breathe!

which brings me to my last two touring locations: eindhoven, nl and laredo, spain.

holy shit. maybe last year i was jaded or ignorant, because i don't remember this kind of beauty. on sunday we played to a packed house in eindhoven at one of my favorite clubs, effenaar. effenaar has the BEST backstage food. a delightful vegan buffet comprised of a salad bar, curried vegetables, and cayenne eggplant. oh yes, i could live here.

the sidewalks have separate bike lanes with traffic lights, so i'd be less prone to a serious bike accident like this one:

i could also live in spain. goddamn. here's the view from my room:

it took us a full day of travel to get to laredo. our connecting flight in madrid had technical issues so we had to take a shuttle bus to another plane. naturally we didn't get to eat very much, so when we arrived in laredo, robbie and i went searching for a restaurant (at 11PM). after getting totally lost, we found a group of 3 restaurants: telepizza, the texas embassy, and dablos. which one sounds the most appetizing? i knew you were going to say telepizza. however, we used our collective brainpower and ultimately decided on dablos, and it was one of the best meals i've had in a long time.

also, they had duff beer in stock!

the next morning svalgard, robbie, and i went to the beach. swimming in clear ocean water. this is the life.

last night we performed at an indoor soccer arena with filthy habits ensemble and the grand kazoo. a complete evening of zappa music. such great people.

and now, on to berlin. you better "take my breath away", berlin! (get it? like the band berlin? from top gun?)

czech please/prague rock

2009-08-08T01:40:00.001-07:00

i'm writing from the park hotel in prague, czech republic. it's located right off the dukelskych hrdinu - a gritty street with pawn shops and xxx stores that leads to the town square via the palackeho most bridge. the bridge overlooks the shimmering vltava river, which houses two floating restaurants, a disco, and an old island that looks like alcatraz. the walk to the town square is much more glamorous, because on the way back it kind of looks like pittsburgh. here's a picture courtesy of cz wikipedia:

i flew over here on lufthansa with project object keyboardist/viking eric svalgard. a painless flight, except for the occasional outbursts a few rows behind us. on the seatback telescreen i endured the 2009 film "i love you, man", a pointless but entertaining study on Broism and it's effects on engagement plans.

on the way to prague we had a 4 hour (!) layover in frankfurt. during this waiting period, i played many games in my head such as "european or american?", a terrible exercise in poor judgement. i try to figure out if the passengers are european or american based on the amount of hair dye they use. am i going to hell yet?

in this process of amusing myself, i was interrupted by a young female airport employee. she decided that i was the perfect candidate for the "frankfurt airport questionnaire". my face must have shown great signs of apathy, because she began to pummel me with some hilarious questions. i provided arbitary answers, which she captured on a portable touchscreen computer.

our exchange went like this:

"excuse me sir, but do you have some time to answer some questions concerning frankfurt airport?"
"sure."
"okay, um, what do you think about the cleanliness of frankfurt airport, rate 1 to 6...1 being the best."
"1 is the best?"
"yes sir."
"uh, okay, 1."
"and would you recommend frankfurt airport, rate 1 to 6?"
"i'm going to give it a 2."
"are you traveling for business or pleasure?"
"business."
"and are you from frankfurt?"
"no. i'm american."
"where are you located?"
"philadelphia."
"and how would compare frankfurt to other airports, rate 1 to 6?"
"i'm going to say a 1."
"how old are you?"
"i'm 22 years old."
"would you say that frankfurt airport is clean, rate 1 to 6?"
"that's a 1."
"how about the lighting, rate 1 to 6?"
"ehh, i'm going to say 2."
"i see."
silence. then she speaks.
"well, sir. we appreciate that you've chosen lufthansa. have a nice day!"

too much fun. the perfect soul draining medication for the following flight to prague.
now i'm sitting in my hotel room, waiting for the 1PM soundcheck. how strange. our show is early tonight. the lucerna bar turns into an 80's disco after we finish playing. i will be filming my attempts at dancing with sleazy czech beauties. i'll probably fall asleep though.

empty and marvelous

2009-07-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

this past week was a trip.
wilmington, hoboken, peekskill, and on to philadelphia.
here are some pictures that will say more than any of my ramblings:

stillness is the move

2009-06-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

a couple of things have derailed me from properly updating this blog that i cherish so dearly.

in april, i decided to move out of my old place. i couldn't handle the extreme pressure of feeling like there was no forward motion in my life. as of april '09, i had only amassed a measly 20 gigs. not that i should've had the audacity to compare 2009 to 2008, but imagine the shock: in 2008 we played at least 150 shows, opened up for primus in quebec city, and performed to 150,000 people in russia. that kind of year is almost impossible to replicate.

i felt that i had worked very hard to "make it" in the music business (whatever that means), and i found myself desperately calling musicians and songwriters for opportunities to play shows.

no such luck.

i thought, "well, this is it. 2009 is going to be a weak year for you. go get a real job and fix up your tumultuous relationship with your girlfriend."

at this low point in mid-april, i remembered that i did have a couple of potential shows lined up in may. i contacted those musicians and reassured them that i was ready, willing, and able to do some fun, albeit non-paying gigs. we did a show called shredfest V at the rotunda in may, and my life turned around a bit.

i was spiritually uplifted. and then i understood why i play music in the first place. i had gotten myself into a depression over what? having no constant income? no exposure? none of that matters.

sure enough, the second i had started to question my despicable ego-driven behavior, i get e-mails from project/object and adrian belew: "make sure you clear your schedule, we have a bunch of tour dates coming up." and isn't that how it always goes? we let go, we stop grasping for our desires. that's when they arrive like clockwork.

of course, two weeks later my girlfriend breaks up with me. inevitable and easy, and yet the knife still hurts like a bitch even when it's dull. i will say that i am happy now. well, except when those crippling pains come at 3 am, as i come to the sad realization that i've been spooning with my pillow for hours.

i have a new place, new friends, and i've been writing and painting. i have no reason to complain.

anyway, because non-sequitur is my middle name, here is an excellent youtube:

schlemeel, schlemazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated

2009-04-17T18:16:00.001-07:00

i haven't been this happy in a while. last night we performed to an almost sold out crowd in st. louis. we also started the set with "a" and "b" from "e" (sounds confusing, but it's not!). the power trio has been recharged, much like a rayovac battery.

to counteract my hopeless yearning for knowledge and culture, i've watched a movie and started reading in the past two days. right now i'm reading "darkness at noon" by koestler. something about communism fascinates me, not because i'm interested in becoming a comrade...i just like reading about big ideas that result in big failure. perhaps it makes me feel a bit better about my own failures, which seem irrelevant in comparison.

i watched "stranger than paradise" by jim jarmusch. i like independent films from the 80's and 90's. they're all printed on film. real film is just better. it's forgiving and honest. sort of like the difference between reel to reel and pro tools. they're both magical, but a bad tape edit has so much charm to it.

anyway, we're driving to milwaukee right now. cue "laverne and shirley" theme.

have i mentioned i like music?

2009-04-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

april has been a very active month.

two weekends ago i managed to catch some great concerts. the first was dan deacon + ensemble. i didn't think i'd be able to get in - it was sold out. i waited in line for a good 3 hours, and for the most part it was worth it. dan deacon continues to utilize a vocal processor, a dr. sample, and a bevy of guitar pedals...but he has expanded his one man show with a 15 piece ensemble (with two drummers and xylophonist!). this means that the typical ear shattering DD show has increased by a solid 15 decibels. still, an entertaining show. if anything, it was further proof that my generation is truly influenced by the minimalism of the 60's and 70's. there were times when i felt like i was at a rave curated by philip glass.

the next night i played with dragonzord in west philly, and then dragonzord's bassist andy black (he was also my equipment handler) had to play a show at the north star with his balls-to-the-wall metal group action park.

a tight, excellent band.

it was quite the scene. they were opening up for dirty diamond, the vulgar neil diamond tribute project! after action park played, a bus of middle-aged swingers got dropped off at the venue for reasons i could never explain or comprehend. we got out of there as soon as humanly possible.

we decided to drive around west philly for a bit to grab some drinks, and we stumbled upon what looked like "animal house". sure enough, it was the pi lam fraternity. they were having a BBQ/rock festival that was headlined by the dead milkmen and make a rising. we missed the milkmen, but make a rising was stellar. they've been one of my favorite bands since high school. they premiered an entire set of new material that was complex, raw, and beautiful. well done boys.

after that, i spent the entire week preparing for the drummers quartet show that i've been organizing along with pavel fajt (dunaj), mike pride (dynamite club, mdc), and jim meneses (chris cutler collaborator and prog-punk enthusiast). i can't believe it, but we somehow pulled it off. i'll post some clips of it when i get the footage and audio.

i feel boring though. i need to read a book or watch a movie. too much music makes you a robot. then again, too much anything does that. diversity is key.

right now i'm driving to the southgate house with adrian belew and julie. we're about to premiere the first 20 minutes of "e". wish me luck!

come to my show this saturday!!

2009-04-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

metamorphosis

2009-04-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

has anyone read "thus spoke zarathustra" by nietzsche?

in the beginning of the book, zarathustra bloviates that he must come down from his mountain in the forest - where he had been living a solitary life for ten years - to unleash his overflowing wisdom upon the local populace. he arrives at the downtown area and a small crowd is being entertained by a ropewalker. zarathustra decides to interrupt the entertainer and speak to the spectators. when he sputters off his mammoth concepts to them, they are bewildered. he decides to leave, feeling empty and depressed.

sometimes i feel that way when i teach drum lessons! hah, did i just take all the piss out of nietzsche?

don't get me wrong, i love to teach. it's just a job that requires patience. it also requires intense organization. it's hard to get a student to find point A, and it's even harder to have them make the connection to point B. this brain addled generation seems to have difficulty making logical connections between two points.

of course, i have trouble with it too. but i'd like to think that i'm curious.

i'd like to think that the modern teenager would be immensely curious and thirsty for knowledge, considering that the internet is an infinite sort-of free library. however, in my experiences, they just aren't. they are generally concerned with social networking - and that is about it.
yeah. i am a hypocrite. i use all the networking tools.
i've contemplated facebook suicide many times, but it's just too easy to promote my rock shows on there.
oh well. hopefully it'll end soon.
wait, i do like twitter. it's a nice way of networking without wasting your life. unless you do it obsessively, of course.
let's end this post on a positive note.
here's a list of "things i know right now":

i love art
i love my dog
i love my friends
i love my family

oh, and i'm also an endorser of ludwig drums now. i couldn't be happier about that!

coffee and vitamin e

2009-02-15T20:00:00.001-08:00

right now, i'm typing to you from the "robert fripp suite" of adrian belew's basement. it's our temporary housing. we've been here all week making a brand new record.

our working schedule gave us only 5 days to complete 50 minutes of demanding instrumental music, and yet it didn't phase us one bit. i haven't felt this stress-free in quite some time...perhaps it's because our diet has consisted of mexican food and julie's gourmet cooking. for our final day of recording, julie made a show-stopping indian meal. let's just say the "fripp suite" has now been poisioned by some brown malodorous gases. gross.

for inspiration i've been listening to:

stravinsky's "rite of spring"
pierre schaeffer
henry cow's "unrest"
konono no.1
nat baldwin's "mvp"
alice coltrane
frank zappa's "lumpy money"

i've also been reading voraciously:

william kotzwinkle's "the fan man"
chuck klosterman's "downtown owl" (i keep getting negative responses about this from my friends, but i liked it for it's lonely charm anyway)
and right now i am in the middle of stephen hawking's "brief history of time". i've always found modern science to be fascinating, but high school was never stimulating enough to make me think about it (at least when i wasn't in school).
call me a nerd, but i'm having fun reading about quantum mechanics!

i will leave you with my favorite internet video of 2009 thus far:

2008 in review, 2009 predictions

2009-01-08T07:27:00.000-08:00

i've been thinking about this for the past few weeks. in 2008, i was in transit during every month.

let's look:
january - u.s. tour with delicious
february/march - u.s. tour with adrian belew
april - u.s. tour with delicious
may/beginning of june - u.s. tour with adrian belew
middle of june - u.s. tour with delicious
july - canada/u.s. tour with adrian belew
august/september - russian tour with adrian belew
october/november - european tour with adrian belew
november - u.s. tour with project/object
december - australian tour with adrian belew

wow. no wonder i couldn't write any music.

speaking of which, 2009 has already started off as a productive year for me. i've been studying the elusive craft of composition in west philadelphia with a marvelous teacher named dr. benjamin boyle. he's the youngest person to ever graduate with a Ph.D in comp from the university of pennsylvania. go to his website and check out his "chamber music" and "art songs" - simply beautiful. with dr. boyle's help i am certain that i will be able to complete compositions with structure and intent.

i've also been attending bikram yoga classes twice a week. i wouldn't be able to focus on studying if it weren't for the power of this meditative yoga.

i also work for WDCDradio, an eBay record store. please peruse the selection and buy some records!

by the way, i have a brand new macbook pro thanks to my family. i can edit film, which means i'll be uploading all of my tour videos from 2008.

in the meantime, check out this wonderful video of the dude flying from the big lebowski:

tie me kangaroo down, sport

2008-12-11T19:02:00.000-08:00

i wonder if writing a blog entry is conducive to completing a composition. it takes a lot of coffee to get myself motivated to do anything, and it's a shame i have such a hard time doing what i want to do, which is compose music.

at the beginning of 2008 i promised myself that i would complete 50 minutes of music this year.

i fell short. by a lot. it's sad and ironic. i eat, sleep, and bleed music. so why don't i have the proper discipline to organize my ideas logically? the relentless touring could be an excuse, but look at frank zappa. he could write a satisfying and compelling piece for orchestra in his sleep.

the real reason is that i have the attention span of a small puppy. i've been told that it's a dopamine deficiency. one thing that helps is practicing an intense kind of yoga called bikram. when i can find the time to do it, my focus is sharp and my stress disappears. if i could begin every day with that kind of disciplinary activity, then i could probably use more of my brain.

the brain is my favorite muscle. if i could flex it more, i would. on this current tour (australia) i've been having roughly two drinks a night. not good for my brain - but good for sleep. when i am home, i will be a good boy again. i don't like drinking. it makes me ugly and stupid.

so who can help me complete 50 minutes of music by the end of 2008? can anyone crack the proverbial whip and snap me out of my fear and laziness? or is it up to my own freewill? will i stop asking myself questions? will eric begin speaking in the third person?

beauty knows no pangs

2008-10-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

traveling in europe is such a privilege.
right now, i am sitting in a mercedes sprinter van and marveling at the mountainous countryside. the snowcapped peaks stab and jut through the clouds. forget about the autumnal massachusetts foliage - these towering trees are burnt to perfection.
the places we've visited in the past week (switzerland, spain, italy) provide the eyes with drastically different kinds of beauty.

in lugano, the 45 degree angle of the rolling hills turned all of us into r. crumb characters (even if you kept your posture proper) and walking became a chore. however, the payoff was big. the hill not only led you into the bustling town square, but if you walked a bit further you could witness a freshwater lake replete with ducks, swans, schooners - all with the backdrop of the alps.

san sebastian, spain. a place with a sort of old world natural beauty that truly grabs and consumes you, in the sunshine or darkness. the evening: we roamed around the narrow, pungent streets with jack and coke rumbling in our bellies. the daytime: a beach with the purest, grainiest sand my feet have ever walked on. muy bueno.

barcelona, spain. didn't get to see too much of it. we were only there for one day. probably the best show of the tour so far. more importantly, best singing audience of my entire career with mr. belew. it was the first time the audience sang in key when the "complicated" part came in on "three of a perfect pair".

milan. can i skip milan? we weren't really in milan at all. our hotel was in some city i can't remember the name of. we did laundry on our first day there and i made an ass of myself by doing "italian social experiments". these "social experiments" involved taking my shirt off and dancing around a laundromat while an old woman stared in horror. at least julie thought it was funny.
of course, on the day of the show my left hand crapped out during soundcheck. up until that point, i really didn't drink enough water. dehydration leads to muscle and ligament weakness. very dangerous for someone who needs to move their limbs in rapid succession. of course, we had two shows in one night at the prestigious blue note jazz club. first show was okay, second show was fantastic.
when we weren't playing or doing laundry, i spent most of my time in the hotel room reading hans richter's book on the history of dadaism. i also wrote 4 bars of music while experiencing the bizarre drunken focus of drinking 3 glasses of red wine with 2 shots of espresso. i call it the tuscan speedball.

anyway, can anyone recommend free video editing software for mac os x?!

hungary pangs and watching the debates

2008-10-18T01:15:00.000-07:00

the fall european tour has commenced.

our travels began a few days ago in budapest, hungary. the flight itinerary was not any more complicated than usual - nashville to detroit, detroit to schiphol, schiphol to budapest. a thin man greeted us with a huge smile that revealed the most interesting set of teeth i've seen in quite some time. andras halmos, the trusty tour guide. i later found out he was an accomplished drummer who has worked with john zorn and many others. he was instrumental in bringing us there, a process that took an entire year.

after sleeping off a little bit of jet lag, we spent the evening wining, dining, laughing, stumbling, and drinking apricot polinkas that evaporated upon contact with the tongue.

the majority of the next day was spent rehearsing and getting ready for our show at the trafo club. after waiting around for hours, we played. blistering energy. nervous excitement. a positive experience. the obligatory post show autograph session. julie decided to use her permanent marker as a tattoo needle. our arms were covered with ink by the end of the night.

we got a few drinks and i tried to sleep, but the final debates came on BBC World. i had missed most of the previous debates. my knowledge of obama's policies was non-existent until this particular event. perhaps it was so moving because i felt as if he was using the camera as a vessel to talk to us. calming and reassuring, like a real president.

mccain was as hostile and agitated as ever and it was painful to hear his small business healthcare plans. idealistic and downright regressive. can you imagine trying to sleep after that?

on our final day in the marvelous city, andras graciously took us over the blue danube via the freedom bridge, which leads to buda (the western part). i had no idea that budapest was divided into two parts (buda and pest). then again, i'm glad i know that hungary is a country (i.e. this awful video)

an observation: the foundation of european culture must be art. the architecture and city design is aesthetically pleasing. streets and buildings intertwine to create a heavy cobblestone labyrinth. underground tunnels take the place of ordinary sidewalks and in the subterranean world avant-garde violinists violently screech for forints. it's culture shock but i'll take the jolt, because i've never been so dissatisfied with the american mainstream until this moment.

do i associate myself with the european way of life? not always, but i know that the U.S.A. would benefit greatly from their philosophies.

hopefully i can post some videos from our stay...
but for now, off to lugano, switzerland.

hunger pangs or kenny bloggins

2008-10-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

before i begin, i just want to say something:

the band magma is amazing.

the past few days of my life have been spent in mount juliet, tennessee at the fabulous chateau belew. we've been working arduously on new material for a piece of music entitled "e". i can't really divulge any information about track titles or anything else, but i can say that it ranks with the best of adrian's material.
you're going to ask anyway:

what is e?

a complex post post-modern symphony. working on it involves a lot of patience and attention, especially when learning the sinewy transitions and breakneck dynamic shifts. a true challenge for an untamed musician such as myself. when writing my parts i try to adapt the steve gadd philosophy of "being behind every note". in other words, this is a serious composition - think about the sum of the parts instead of just thinking about your own.

when we aren't burning our brains on "e", we're shoveling our faces with mexican food at cinco de mayo or getting toasted at j. alexander's. of course, julie always provides excellent lunches, and yesterday was no exception. we filled our gullets with a warm roasted vegetable salad, which was topped off with a side of homemade pita chips and hummus. scrumptious.

i better get back to work though. adrian's music isn't getting any easier by the minute.

Table of Contents, No Appendix: The Long-Awaited Conclusion

2008-05-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

I never finished my appendix story, so I'll sum it up for you in a few paragraphs.

I ran into the emergency room of Albany Medical clutching my stomach. Dave was parking the car while I was trying to figure out how the group of doctors chatting behind the plexiglas were going to assist me. They buzzed me in, and eventually I was in a stiff bed with all kinds of wonderful needles and tubes running through me. Katy and Sarah visited, while Dave watched over me and assured me that I'd get home to Philadelphia the next day. I was administered a healthy dose of morphine, so I couldn't really tell you in detail what happened after that. Apparently, I was sassy with my male doctor. I was later told that when he was checking for my heartbeat I muttered, "My heart beats only for you."

From what I can (barely) remember, I had an MRI and some other tests. When the results were analyzed, they told me that I had a slightly swollen appendix. They said that this was normal, and that I probably just had a bad case of gas. I was told to wait until the following day to go to the hospital in Philadelphia for further examination and evaluation. I ended up getting discharged at 5AM, and Dave drove me all the way home.

The next day my mom came with me to the ER at Jefferson Hospital, just in case some sort of major surgery was in store. I naively expected to get an immediate response on my condition, because I thought a swollen appendix was commonplace and easy to diagnose and treat.

Well, we waited around for 6 or 7 hours. Various doctors came and pressed on different areas of my abdomen, and I winced accordingly. Ultimately they decided that it would be best to remove my appendix, so they did.

I only stayed there for 1 day, which was tolerable. However, the recovery period was a serious annoyance, considering that you can't feel the sensation of urinating for a good 3 days. Getting out of bed and walking was also unbelievably painful. It took about 2 and a half weeks for things to feel normal.

So what did I learn from this whole experience? I'm not so sure. I do know that the appendix doesn't really have a purpose, although there's speculation that it may prevent dysentery.

Go figure.

Table of Contents, No Appendix: Part Four

2008-01-28T16:52:00.000-08:00

The Port Authority Bus Terminal, take one-thousand.

A 4PM arrival time, enough time to eat before hustling my way over to the Bowery Ballroom to see the Dirty Projectors.
I took the advice of a Rock School employee and ate at Piece of Chicken. Shocking? The vegetarian boy dining at such a place? It's okay, I just had split pea soup and a bowl of rice. Not only that, but my meal was only two dollars. After devouring it, I asked 4 different people how to get to the Bowery. It was simple as usual. I still give credit to the Manhattan Transit Authority. It's impossible to get lost, unless you're really not paying attention.

The Projectors put on a great show, and I enjoyed the opener Julianna Barwick. It was impressive to see what one person could do with a sampler and one microphone. I still can't get into White Williams, but perhaps it's because I can't hear the originality. It just sounds like a poorly executed Joy Division. Much respect to Sidetrack, who completely caught everyone off guard.
My sleeping arrangements this evening were provided by the amazing Robbie "Seahag" Mangano. The Mangano Estate is located in Brooklyn. Thanks to Robbie and Laura.

In the morning, I worked on updating eBay Record Inventory for about 2 hours. I went back into Midtown and hung out at the music school some more. Talking to the students is fascinating. Those NYC kids are hilarious, and brutally honest.
Dave Dreiwitz called me from Union Square. I was going to sleep at his place in Fort Lee, NJ, but first we were going to go to the annual Relix Christmas Party.

I was a drunken mess for this one, ladies and gentleman. I was taking cell phone pictures left and right.
Here's a secret picture I took of Danny Tamborelli (y'know, Pete and Pete?):

And here's a picture with me and the up and coming film director Bernardo Loyola:

Thanks to the lovely Monica Hampton for that one!

I was a little hungover the next morning. Oh well. We began the epic journey to Burlington, Vermont at noon. Crescent Moon was doing two shows with the Mathematicians (of Glens Falls, NY). Our first show was at Nectar's - one of my all time favorite venues. I have a sacred kinship with Nectar's. I played one of my all time best shows there, on January 13, 2007. It was one of those special Project/Object gigs. Before the show, we practiced "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" at half speed. We were also goofing on "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon for the entirety of that tour and we whupped it out spontaneously for that gig.

Anyway, the Nectar's Crescent Moon/Mathematicians show was great. Mike Gordon of Phish was there, and he gave a nice and succinct greeting.

I woke up the next morning at the world famous Windjammer Hotel and as I was eating an unbuttered and untoasted English Muffin, Slick Rick walked into the breakfast area. Yes, at 10AM, even with the eye patch. He played at Higher Ground while we were playing, and he was staying at our hotel. I was slackjawed. I wanted to say something to him, so bad the urge was almost uncontrollable, but I maintained my composure. You see, people have been calling me Slick Rick for as long as I can remember. A photo of the two of us would've aligned the planets and world peace would've been inevitable.

Sadly, no photo was taken. Maybe we will meet again, in an alternate universe.

After our hotel breakfast, Dave took me to an icy river. He informed me that because the fish couldn't breed upstream during this time of year, they had to invent a fish elevator and deliver the fish by the truckload. He told me he used to go to this spot before gigs to relax. Here's a picture:

We left for Albany, NY sometime in the afternoon and showed up at Red Square two hours before we were supposed to be there. We decided to sit in the car for awhile and listen to an insane Elvin Jones record. We ate at some weird sports bar, and by the time we got back to the club we were able to load in. The opening band was Sugarproof and Mathematicians were going on after us.

Katy and her best friend Sarah showed up, so we chatted for some time. I felt bad, I kept interrupting. I was running around like a maniac. Sooner or later, Crescent Moon came on and we played a good gig...but my stomach was feeling strange. I shrugged it off.

I helped pack up the gear. Much thanks to the drummer of Sugarproof for letting me bash on the nice drumset! I stood in the crowd and watched the Mathematicians, but I couldn't ignore the terrible pain in my right side. I couldn't move. This was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. I went into the bathroom and I looked in the mirror. My stomach was bloated and pulsating. After an hour of trying to decide whether it was a kidney stone or gastritis, Dave rushed me to the ER.

Table of Contents, No Appendix: Part Three

2008-01-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

I slept for quite some time after I arrived at the Budget Inn. I woke up in the late morning. The aforementioned yellow-brown room was only more haunting in the daylight, and I had to convince myself regularly that I wasn't caught in some bizarre 70's sitcom like "Maude". Of course, all of this didn't matter in the end. I was just happy to have some time with my girlfriend. She's wonderful.
We decided that our original European breakfast concept of jam and bagels wasn't good, due to the absurdly chewy nature of the bagels. A second trip to the Price Chopper was needed.

We drove into the bustling little town, which begs the question: What is there to do in Saratoga Springs, NY? Not too much, but that doesn't take away from it's charm. It reminded me of what Philadelphia felt like when I was a kid, or perhaps what Vermont is like now. The mom and pop stores stand tall with history and integrity, so much so that the shiny fast food chains get tucked away in between used bookstores and clothing shops. It was cold there, but not cold enough to feel discomfort. It was that perfect brisk cold that added to the starkness of a place mainly known for it's horse racing and Don McLean.

At the Price Chopper I brainstormed on the breakfast/snack dilemma with Katy and we came to the agreement of purchasing hard sourdough rolls and fresh mozzarella cheese. It was far more European than the jam idea anyway. We were hungry, and we rushed back to the Budget Inn for our feast.

Our neighbors were loud and feuding. My inner Jeffrey Beaumont loves this. I mean, it's not voyeurism or "schadenfreude", but I suppose witnessing chaos in public is exciting - it's a deviation from the norm. On my first date with Katy we saw a crack bust go down near Union Square, and maybe things like that just give you a healthy (or is it unhealthy?) jolt of reality.

We relaxed inside for the majority of the afternoon, with the winds occasionally blowing the door open. To not do much of anything for a day was calming. We all need an empty day sometimes. In the nighttime we got Chinese food and went on another promenade of the main streets. We became sleepy and went to bed watching two horrifying episodes of "Intervention".
I was becoming so queasy that I had to dig my head into the pillow. We didn't have the television on all day, and I remembered why I dislike it so much.

It was an early night, so that called for an early rise. We finished as much of the leftover breakfast as we could, and we left all of our remnants in the refrigerator. We checked out of the hotel. Funny side note: I forgot to mention that the proprietor was convinced that I was foreign. I have a slight lisp and a nasal voice, so I really don't know where she came up with that. If I ever stay there again, I'm going to put on a full made-up accent.

Katy informed me that there was a diner attached to the bus station. I'm happy to take up any diner offer, anywhere in the world. I love diners because they resolve group indecision. Rarely do you find something you don't want to eat at a diner, unless you or your friends are vegan. The food was exceptional, and Katy offered to pay for my meal. How nice!

We left and waited in the parking lot. My bus was going to New York City because I was about to go on a mini-tour with Crescent Moon. About ten minutes before my bus was supposed to leave, I walked up to the stop and a friendly older woman approached us.

"You guys know that the Saratoga Springs bus station has been moved, right?"

"Uhhhhhhhh, no?"

Luckily my bus required a stop at the Albany Greyhound Station so we got on the road and floored it. We made it, and while we were waiting in the terminal I wrote an idiotic song about Schenectady, NY. I got in line and gave my goodbyes to Katy. It was a lonely ride to the city, but I had a lot to look forward to. It was going to be a busy week.

Table of Contents, No Appendix: Part Two

2008-01-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

I had a lot of time to kill at South Station.

My lesson was cancelled and I was depressed. It was snowing outside and I began the slow thawing process. South Station's Greyhound section leaves a lot to be desired. There's an imitation Dunkin' Donuts, an imitation Quiznos, and a newsstand/convenience store that has about 3 feet of walking space. I laughed to myself about the tight squeeze and a nice young man overheard my chuckling and said, "Yep, that's capitalism for you."
I bought one of those PowerBar Harvest Energy Bars that taste like cardboard with dark chocolate chips and a Vitamin Water for the road.

I was preparing to go to Albany, NY. My girlfriend Katy lives there and I figured I'd swing by after the Boston trip and hang out there for 2 days. I hopped on the bus and the driver looked a lot like David Sitek from TV On The Radio. A true doppelganger. I wanted to bug him, but being a Greyhound bus driver is probably a terrible job and I didn't want to start his trip with a potentially awkward conversation.
This was easily the darkest bus ride I've ever been on in my life. I thought the 2005 Memorial Day trip to Levon Helm's house in Woodstock, NY was the darkest, but this one takes the cake. I've never seen a sky so black and purple. Then there was unsettling silence on the bus, the snow turning into sleet, the 10 minute McDonald's pit stop when everyone on the bus seemed to leave except for me - it was too creepy.

I think I got to Albany at 1 AM. Katy and Koren were there and they prepared a "Welcome to Upstate New York" paper plane for me. We drove around in the snow/sleet for about 2 hours and we dropped off Koren at her house. We went to the Price Chopper at 3:30 AM and purchased coffee, strawberry jam, and wheat bagels for the room. There were plows circling the parking lot but they weren't getting rid of any snow. I think they were just joyriding.
I needed a place to stay so I got a last minute room at the Budget Inn (also known as the Post Road Lodge) of Malta, NY. I can guarantee that out of all the hotels I've ever been to, this one is the most memorable. The lodge consists of about 6 hotel rooms, all side by side. We pulled up at around 4AM and there were a gaggle of geese honking outside of one of the rooms. I prayed it wasn't our room, and luckily it wasn't. Still, it looked like the goose mafia was ready to make a hit on whoever was sleeping in Room Number 1. The hotel lobby looks like Agent Dale Cooper's office from Twin Peaks. I had a pleasant exchange with the proprietor of the Budget Inn and I got the room key (yes, a key, not one of those wonky key cards).

I opened the door and laughed once again. Our room had not been changed since 1978. Above the bed was a poor painting of what looked like a frowning European Ambassador. We had a complete kitchen with no utensils or plates, a refrigerator, and a functioning old school timer microwave. The heavy winds from the outside kept blowing our door open, regardless of whether or not the door was locked. Our room was yellow and brown colored, and that's how I will remember it.

Table of Contents, No Appendix: Part One

2007-12-18T15:10:00.000-08:00

It's obvious that I haven't blogged since post-Thanksgiving. All 3 of my readers, raise your hands and start asking the questions.

Where have I been, you ask? Well, let me tell you!

In my previous entry I was talking about the birthday boy and my hungry aching brain. I suppose my journey begins on December 1st. I taught lessons all day at the Wilmington School of Rock and probably made some kids unhappy. I've been doing this thing where I just throw on the metronome if the kid hasn't practiced. My time playing isn't even spectacular yet, so I figure I'll get my students to have good time when they're my age. The day flew by because I was basically en route to New York City to see Ween. I decided to get them Christmas presents so I went to Book Haven and picked out a fairly unique selection. I got a book on Frank Lloyd Wright for Claude, a book called Jazz Matters for Dave, a book on Jazz Piano for Glenn, and a book on The Aesthetics of Rock for Mickey. I got Aaron a book too, but he left before I could give it to him.
There was an after party at the lovely Monica Hampton's apartment and I attempted to make people laugh by posing as the current Vice Magazine cover boy. I don't have the before and after pictures from the party, but I rolled up my sleeves to look like this:

Our hair similarities are uncanny, non?

I spent the majority of the party hanging out with the Seahag (Sound of Urchin, Project/Object). He has an obsession with a face I make sometimes when I play drums. He calls it the "nerd face". I make sure to do the "nerd face" as much as possible in his presence.
After the party I went back to midtown and slept on the couch of a sort-of-famous music school. You may have heard of it.
It was convenient, it's only a few blocks from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. I needed to hop on a 12:00 bus to Boston because I was going to have a lesson with my teacher Kenwood Dennard (Sting, Jaco Pastorious, everybody in the world, etc.) the next day at 6:00 PM. I got to Boston at around 4:20 in the afternoon and I began walk from South Station to the Berklee complex. My luck has been wonderful lately, and it started snowing as soon as I left the station.
I should've estimated the time to walk there more approximately. I walk way too fast, and I ended up there an hour early. I decided to explore Boston and I walked several blocks south to the cheapest pizza place I could find. I had two slices of vegetarian pizza that were so ungodly that I considered eating meat again, albeit only for two seconds. Not only that, but my heinous meal was grease-laden and filling, providing me with an uneasy stomach right before an intense lesson. I walked back to Berklee and I was still too early. I started calling Kenwood on his cell phone so he could let me into the building.

No answer.

I figured he must've been deep into a hyper-complex drumbeat with one of his more accomplished students. But the fact is, my ears were just about ready to snap right off from the sub-zero temperature. I called again.

No answer.

I was starting to get suspicious but I continued to give him the benefit of the doubt. I then called a whole bunch of random people from my phonebook. I had to fend off the bitter cold that immersed my entire body by sober dialing and pretending like I had no nerve endings.

The cold wasn't funny anymore and luckily an older guitar student graciously let me into the building. I called Kenwood one last time and I finally got an answer. It turns out he was hanging at the Pastorious estate in Florida celebrating the life of Jaco. He forgot to call. It's okay, I still love him. We can't remember everything, and this kind of stuff happens.

I will share my favorite line from the call:

"Wait, don't you come all the way from Philadelphia?"

"Yeah."

"That's incredible. I'm giving you a free lesson."

And then I started walking back to South Station, to catch my 8:30 bus to upstate New York.

Happy Birthday Dad/Brain Hunger

2007-11-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

Today is my dad's birthday. All I really need to say is that my dad rules, but I'll elaborate. Not only does he do everything for us (driving, cooking, etc.), but he is also the reason I play music. I am forever in his debt just for that.

Thanks Dad, Happy Birthday.

I decided to make two cards today, one for him and one for my mom's un-birthday. I'm sure that she will post pictures in her blog, but basically I just drew Neil Gaiman. This is all I've learned after 20 years of knowing my mother - you just have to draw Neil Gaiman. Or make a song about him for Christmas.

I'm still continuing with this 8AM on the dot wake-up call. It backfired on me the first day, but I'm starting to get used to it. I spent most of the morning traveling to the Sound of Market to pick up some gifts of the aural persuasion. Sound of Market is one of the last good record stores in Philadelphia, besides AKA Music. As long as those two places don't go out of business, I'll be a happy man. My duct-tape wallet will continue to be unhappy though.

I'll finish this post with a rant of sorts.
On the way home I was ruminating on the future of musical composition. This topic seems to preoccupy my walks into town, regardless of whether or not I am actually listening to music. Perhaps I'm not worried about the future of composition as much as I'm worried about our voices and our instruments becoming obsolete. As for the musician playing the instrument, the muscles can only develop so much for the purpose of excessive speed and accuracy.

Quite useful, but mostly unnecessary.

Our musical vocabulary is vast but more limited than the vocabulary we use on a daily basis. For example, we have twenty six letters, but we only have twelve tones. Of course, there are many rhythms that have been untouched. But what is the purpose of creating the most unimaginable and complex rhythm? Having a definitive and clear musical statement is of utmost importance, and I'm not sure that complexity is the key to clarity.
This leads me to the big mystery. I'm trying to figure out what the next evolutionary step is, but it always begs the question: What hasn't been done yet? The only way to know is by absorbing as much music as possible. I was able to satiate my starving brain with that conclusion when suddenly...

I thought about all of the articles which discuss the "best new music of (insert year here)".

The "best new music" seems to mend many adventurous, sometimes absurd, and previously unwanted musical ideas (read: the acknowledgement of free jazz in popular music). The once outlandish ideas are then regurgitated into a pop song format, which in turn makes it accessible to a wide commercial audience. There are interesting results, but how is the art progressing? Especially when we are using the same elements that have been available for hundreds of years? Some say we are at the end of the creative rope. I say we search for a reasonable compromise!
Calling myself a postmodernist is a cop out, so I'll just have to keep thinking about it until I'm satisfied. That'll happen. Hah!
I should get some sleep, and then wake up at 8AM. Maybe my thoughts will be clear when I'm not thinking about how delicious the birthday pound cake was.

Sincerely,
Eric Slick

The Boring and Somewhat Productive Monday

2007-11-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

I suppose it's time to turn this into a real functioning blog now, instead of just a Project/Object tour diary.

Let's talk about today.

Last night I decided that I want to start waking up at 8:00 every day no matter what. I feel like there's never enough time to do the things I truly want to do in the 24 hours I am allotted. My brain moves very quickly in the morning, so reading is a good match for that. When it's the afternoon my brain starts to slow down and I want to do is practice my drum technique. But I also need to work towards the inevitable, which is acquiring my driver's license. I have never been able to the gather the motivation to even look inside the Driver's Manual. I just know that once I get a car, I'm going to be paranoid about killing squirrels. Now is the time to do it though. It's necessary to continue my dream as a working musician.
I'm going to get my physical soon. That shall put the figurative wheels in motion! Pun intended.

I didn't ignore the cell phone alarm and I woke up at 8:00 today expecting to help sell records on eBay. However, I am rather naive so this never happened. It got moved to tomorrow afternoon instead.

Instead, I spent the morning reading "Point Counterpoint" by Aldous Huxley. I remember when I bought that book. It was almost exactly a year ago, December 3, 2006. I was on a weekend tour with Chris Harford and the Band of Changes. We were about play a show at a small bar in Washington, DC called Iota. Scott Metzger and I decided it would be a good idea if we went to the local shopping center. It reminded me a lot of the big shopping complex in West Palm Beach, Florida. It seemed like the entire neighborhood was built around it, a hypnotizing Mecca for wannabe hipster suburban teenagers and the retired golfing type. You know, the two age demographics with the least amount of gross income (groan with me everyone).

The centerpiece of the complex was a gigantic Barnes and Noble. I have no problem with a giant bookstore, even if it is a national chain. At the time, I was inspired by a book that Chris lent me called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It was a self-help book without all of the bullshit, and it's the reason I started practicing and reading again. At the time I was being overzealous, and I wanted to purchase the most challenging book I could get my crooked fingers on. So I got "Point Counterpoint". I have 32 pages left, but the vocabulary is so outrageously difficult that I have to go to dictionary.com every 5 minutes. It's no wonder that I'm still reading it to this very day.

This story then presents a series of fun but stressful flashbacks.

(cue the Debussy whole tone arpeggio)
That weekend we also played the North Star Bar in Philadelphia and the Recher Theater in Towson, MD, opening up for the Benevento/Russo Duo. I get nervous before every show, but I was feeling particularly bad before that one. We got through the show and it was good. Afterwards it was a laid back affair. Joe Russo (the fabulous drummer) and I had our first unofficial dance competition, which led to furious finger snapping and leg shaking. If I remember correctly, it got really heated and passionate during Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know?".

I still torture Joe about having a real dance off. We were supposed to have one at the Bonnaroo Centeroo Fountain, but my 3 show a day schedule forced me to be relegated to the Ice Cream Man truck backstage. He is an incredible drummer, but little know he is an even better dancer. I may have to pull a Tonya Harding on him.
(cue Wayne and Garth going "Doodledeedoo")

After reading this morning, I spent some time heating up ratatouille and brown rice. I then practiced on and off for a couple hours. My hands hate me right now. I'll stop typing.

Sincerely,
Eric Slick

We Interrupt this Blog for a Special Announcement

2007-11-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that's about right.

Day Four: Asbury Park, NJ

2007-11-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

If I remember correctly, we didn't get to the hotel until shockingly late. It was freezing outside. Did Christmas come early this year or what? We arrived to the hotel at 5AM. This happens sometimes with us. The sun was rises as we go to bed. I sometimes think we are a nocturnal ensemble, but then again, New York shows are overwhelming.

(cue Debussy whole tone chord arpeggio for dream sequence)
I have fond memories of this particular Motel 6. It was the very first place I stayed with Project/Object. Just being in the laundry room brought back a warm sensation. Back then I still barely knew my band mates and I was green to say the least. My only previous touring was with the Paul Green School of Rock Music. Back then I was surrounded by parents and peers who would take care of me. That first tour with P/O was so different. I had no idea how to handle myself. I remember following Svalgard everywhere he went. I was a nervous kid with a family and a girlfriend at home. I also had no idea how to eat. After the shows I would foolishly get decade old snacks from the vending machine - most of the time it was stale Pop Tarts. Seahag and Dave would haze me from time to time too. I always went to bed so early (which isn't much different than now). One time they came in my room and lifted up my mattress and started humping me vigorously. Ah, the good old days.
(dream sequence end, cue image of modern day East Brunswick Motel 6)

I slept for most of the day. It was okay, because East Brunswick and Asbury Park are not far from each other. Our show that evening was originally supposed to be at the Stone Pony, but it was moved to the luxurious Asbury Lanes Bowling Alley/the World's Most Amazing and Bizarre Rock Music Venue. That afternoon we found ourselves buying extra gear at the local Sam Ash Music. I definitely buy way too many musical things. My way of rationalizing it is by saying, "If it's educational, it's worth purchasing." Musical instruments are educational, right? Right?!
We left for Asbury Park at around 4PM and somehow got lost along the way. We still made it to the venue on time! How has this been happening? We've been blessed. Ralph of Music Club Studios was there to do our sound for us. I love Ralph. He's got a good taste in music and he recorded the show I did with Bob Musso. He's also possibly going to record Crescent Moon in the future. I hope that comes through. There was a lot of free time to kill before the show, so I just practiced a whole bunch behind the stage. My dad drove all the way from Philadelphia to be there. It was great to see him. Guess what? The Downtown Music Gallery/Lunar Bear Ensemble crew showed up too. Great to see John Lunar Richey and Bob Musso in the crowd.
The show that night was calm but still hilarious. The drum duet in "Don't You Ever Wash that Thing?" got even more outrageous. I can't remember what stupid motifs we did. It probably was the Folgers Coffee Song again. After the show we went to Wawa at 4:30AM and got vegetarian hoagies. I forgot to mention - this particular Motel 6 has wireless internet that is $3 for 24 hours. Motel 6 is finally catching on to the internet obsessed market. Good job.

Day Three: New York, NY

2007-10-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

The show in Troy ended at a good time and we continued our upgrade from Motel 6 to Super 8. At least I'm pretty sure we stayed at a Super 8. There was wireless internet! I definitely had a good 7 hours of sleep. Troy and New York City are not too far from each other, so the ride was going to be short. There was a coffee warehouse blocks from our hotel so we were able to get some decent brew. This is unusual for us, because most of the time we get the Sunoco Hazelnut Delight or whatever gas station coffee is readily available. Starbucks is a treat, but I have to add at least 3 packets of Sugar in the Raw - it's too bitter for me sometimes. Starbucks is an international phenomenon. Wouldn't you expect it to taste like chocolate chip cookies or something?
Well, it doesn't.
It was a fairly pleasant ride to New York City until we hit the treacherous 4:30 PM rush hour traffic. Still, I've been through worse. We still managed to make it to the club early. Last time we played here, it was a club called Coda. I believe they went out of business, so we ended up playing at the revamped Lion's Den. I haven't played there since July 9, 2005, where I did my first real gig with Andre, Dave, and Jordan Shapiro (a.k.a Project/Object Lite). We were Chris Opperman's backing band. By the way, if you don't know who Chris is, check out his MySpace. He's a brilliant composer who works with Mike Keneally and Steve Vai. I hope to play with him again someday.
So we were sitting outside the club, and Svalgard left and then came back with a loaf of bread and a container of fresh mozzarella. We must've looked like a bunch of homeless freaks sitting outside of this club, hoarding bread and cheese like animals. Quite a sight for ongoing spectators, I'm sure. The enthusiastic sound guy arrived and we set up, but we weren't allowed to soundcheck until at least 7:30 because of the offices next door. Maybe I'm an idiot, but why would an office open next door to a loud rock venue? The logistics on that one are just a tad skewed.
After we were done setting up, Svalgard told me that his daughter Madi Diaz was playing a couple blocks away at the Living Room. Laura (our merch girl), Svalgard, and I took a cab and got there at 7 on the dot. I walked up to the door and saw a bouncer. I then realized that this was a 21+ venue, and there was no way in hell I was getting in. We begged the bouncer for a good 5 minutes until Madi came out and saved the day. It was a bit embarrassing though. I can't wait until I'm 21 and I can go see shows without any hassle. Madi's set was great and performed quite professionally. I was particularly fond of her bass player. He had that Motown/Rick Danko bass feel, playing a little bit behind the beat.
We had to leave her show and lucky for us, there was a cab about to leave a block away from the venue. We hopped in and made back to the Lion's Den just in time for soundcheck. It sounded amazing in there, so it didn't take too long to get my mix figured out. Right after we were done, drummer Jerry Cucurullo showed up. His band was the opening act. Jerry is Warren Cucurullo's brother, and Warren was in a couple of bands, y'know such as: Duran Duran, Missing Persons, Frank Zappa. He also has uh, an interesting online presence, where he um, has videos on his website. Basically, you have to be over 18 to view portions of his site. Anyway, Jerry is a total sweetheart and a great drummer. He recently won one of those Guitar Center Drum Off competitions. He beat out all the young whippersnappers and Vinnie Colaiuta clones. After his band wrapped up, we went on a did a very good first set. As usual, I made a bunch of clams, but it was all in good spirit. The second set was just as good in spirit, with less clams. After we finished doing our double percussion solo in "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing", Ed Palermo walked onstage to sit in for our encore. What a surprise! We ripped into "Peaches En Regalia", and it was probably the best version we've ever played. The post-show was relaxing and Laura gave me a new Project/Object tour shirt and then Dave LaRue-ified it for me by cutting off the sleeves. After loading out we had Mamoun's Falafel at 2AM. Mamoun's Falafel is just amazing. People travel long distances to have it. It's only $2 for a gigantic sandwich. After the joy of the devouring it, we took the late night drive to the infamous East Brunswick Motel 6 - the first hotel I stayed at with Project/Object.

Day Two: Troy, NY

2007-10-18T23:14:00.001-07:00

Is it a huge problem that I'm listening to Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape" as I'm writing this? Absolutely. I'm about to listen to Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians" instead, which is probably the complete antithesis of "Sweet Escape".
In my previous post, I just started to talk about the genius of Josh Oxford. I will elaborate in a bit. But first, here's another "It's such a small world"-ism: Josh played drums in Jordan Del Rosario's first band, and Jordan Del Rosario happens to be in a band called Cheers Elephant, which features Matt Rothstein on bass, who happens be my sister's boyfriend. Isn't that just crazy?
Anyway, Josh is from Ithaca, NY. There has to be something in the water up there. Not only is he a consummate drummer/percussoid/marimbaman, but he also plays piano like McCoy Tyner or something. His solos are breathtaking, melodically and rhythmically radical. It's like he's stuttering out sentences on that marimba, and he's one of the few musicians I've heard that knows how to put a period on the end of those sentences. He even has perfect pitch and he can improvise singing in twelve-tone! In fact, I can guarantee that Frank would have hired him.
The drive to Troy was another cold and lonely one, but we arrived early. We managed to get a great 2 hour practice in before the show. We run through "The Dog Breath Variations" about 5 or 6 times and it starts to sound great. I relaxed for a couple minutes after practice and decided it was time for dinner. I remembered that there was a place about 4 doors down. It's called Jose Malone's, which I am pretty sure is the world's only Mexican-Irish fusion restaurant. Can you even imagine that combination? Potato Burritos? I ordered a Salad Tostada and a Vegetarian Chili for after the show.
When I headed back to the venue I suddenly had a flashback to the last time we played there in January. There were a group of hecklers on the top left balcony who gave me the finger the whole time and would shout such absurdities as "Rye Fuckin' Bread!" and (this is a personal favorite) "Your smiles are superficial!"
As soon as this thought entered my brain, I looked up to the balcony and there they were! The good news about these guys is that the heckling comes from their serious love of our group, but it's still awfully confusing while playing a show. This time around they made tie-dye shirts with featured a detailed caricature of Frank wearing silly glasses. They were so adamant about us wearing these shirts on stage that one of the hecklers somehow made it past security and laid the shirts on the couch backstage.
We get onstage around 9:30 or so maybe, and play a pretty slamming first set. Practice makes perfect! I look towards stage left and I see a guy in the audience with a shirt that looks like a digital VU meter (if you aren't a nerd, look it up). In fact, I notice that his shirt is a real live VU meter with LED lights and it's monitoring the decibel level of our particular rock concert! Apparently he purchased it from a website called softhut.com. I just had to take a picture with him during the set break. I walked up to him and said, "You have no idea how much we love that shirt." He was a nice guy, and we took a picture of me looking baffled while pointing at the futuristic wonder shirt.
We did another slamming set and called it a night. During our breakdown someone had the idea to put Michael Jackson's "Number Ones" on the sound system. I did my best Thriller bridge section dance. If you dont know the moves from the video it's "clap, jiggle horizontally, shoulder shake, clap, zombie hands". The fans were wonderful and generous as usual. One girl randomly ran up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Boy, I love Troy.

Day One: Hartford, CT

2007-10-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

As I said in the last entry, we left Wilmington at around 11AM - kind of a late start. Certainly it was a bizarre weather day. During our rehearsals we had an unexpected October heat wave which made for some uncomfortable extended odd-time signature playing. On the day of our departure it was suddenly rainy and 20 degrees colder. Even after all this touring I've done, I'm completely unprepared and I didn't bring any warm clothing. I've opted to borrow Svalgard's BB King's Blues Club hoodie which is three sizes too big (I like my clothes teeny and toasty). It makes me look like a festival attending wookie, or the unabomber. I am also refusing to shave, because everybody knows that this month is Octobeard. We got to the Webster an hour and half late, which called for a super speedy set-up and soundcheck. There were 3 opening bands that night, one of which was - this is their real name, I kid you not - Dude, Fuckin' Yeah. It truly is a small world, because a member of Dude, Fuckin' Yeah attended our Adrian Belew Trio show in Piermont, New York. He complemented us after the show, and proceeded to leave in a limousine. This baffled my sister and I, and at the time we secretly believed that the band name Dude, Fuckin' Yeah was a cover up. I assumed that he may have been a member of a much bigger band, perhaps a backup keyboardist for the Beyonce group or a percussionist for the Allman Brothers Band. But no, he really does play in a rockin' teenage combo known as (say it with me) Dude, Fuckin' Yeah.
After our quick soundcheck, we had a nice family dinner. It was only 6:30 and we weren't going on until 10:00. We collectively practiced until around 9:00, and then I received a phone call from my uncle. He was downstairs in the venue lobby with his friend. Coincidentally, the last time I saw my Uncle Dave was at BB King's Blues Club! We had a nice chat and he gave me two CD's for the road. Thanks Uncle Dave!
We went on at 10:15 or so and did a solid two-hour single set. I thought it was a good first show. A couple bum notes and missed drum fills here and there, but good overall. I didn't talk about this in my last entry, because I wanted to save a special space for him, but we have a percussionist for the bulk of this tour. His name is Joshua Oxford. He is brilliant. I'll talk more about him over the next couple of entries.

We Begin the Beguine

2007-10-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

The First Days of Touring

October 7-10: Intense Practicing

We started the Project/Object experience with a rigorous rehearsal schedule. I have to admit that I haven't touched this material in awhile. I've had a busy summer of touring with Adrian and had to focus most of my energy on that. In between all of the touring with Adrian, I played gigs with Mike Keneally, Crescent Moon, Sounds of Greg D, and Bob Musso. There were lots of songs to be learned for all of those and unfortunately Zappa had to be put on the back-burner. Revisiting this music after several months of not hearing it makes you realize how highly constructed it is. Each song - no matter how simple it may be within the context of Zappa's work -is still packed with information and idiosyncrasies. It's much like Mike Keneally's music. Bassist extraordinaire Doug Lunn once told me, "It really is impossible to play this stuff without rehearsal." Funny that he said that, considering we had absolutely no rehearsal for our early summer Keneally gig together at the School of Rock Festival.
On October 6th I was picked up in Philadelphia by Eric Svalgard, Project/Object's keyboard player. We decided that we'd rehearse in Wilmington, Delaware at the Grand Opera House. It was an easy meeting point for everyone in the group and Svalgard recently hired me to teach there on Saturdays. In the morning I taught three kids and I spent the afternoon shedding songs that I've never played before. On this tour we added "Let's Move to Cleveland", "TInseltown Rebellion", "Who Needs the Peace Corps", "How Could I Be Such A Fool?", "Ain't Got No Heart", "I'm Not Satisfied", "Hot Plate Heaven at the Green Hotel", and several other impossible nuggets. I've recently discovered an incredible piece of software called "Transcribe!" that allows me to play mp3's at half speed without changing the pitch or quality of the file. Not only that, but I can also EQ the song and remove bass lines, flute parts, or I can even put it in "Karaoke" mode and it can remove most of the vocals. Technology bugs me a whole bunch (I still opt for using a CD player and when I can I listen to vinyl) but this is truly something worth having as musician.
Andre Cholmondeley (our fearless leader) arrived in the late afternoon from his new home in Asheville, NC and from 6:00 until 10:00 we ran through songs such as "T'Mershi Duween" about ten times. Naturally, I was unpacked and unprepared so I took the R2 train from Marcus Hook to Philadelphia at midnight and slept for about 7 hours. I woke up around 8:30 on Sunday and started packing and practicing simultaneously. Svalgard picked me up In Philadelphia again and we got to Wilmington at noon. Our bassist Dave Johnsen arrived from Brooklyn and we practiced all day. This cycle continued for the next two days with alternating dinners at weird places. The first night we had authentic Mexican food which led to the return of the infamous "Mudbutt" joke. I can't really explain what "Mudbutt" is, because it is a sacred touring artifact of ours, but it never fails to make us laugh.
With persistence it makes our keyboard player very angry, but that's part of the fun.
The legendary Napoleon Murphy Brock arrived late on Monday night after 11 hours of traveling. The man has easily replaced James Brown as "the hardest working man in show business". Our group practice for the day was complete at around 9 so Napoleon went straight to the hotel. I continued practicing at Svalgard's house until midnight. In the middle of my practice I read online somewhere that said "Eric Slick isn't a tight drummer." This is essentially true, so I made the "post-practice practicing" a new ritual.
We rehearsed all day Tuesday with Napoleon. He sounded incredible. Any problems we had during rehearsal were given the magic Napoleon touch. The rehearsal was over at midnight, and at this point I was exhausted so I just went to sleep. At 11AM we began the journey to Hartford, CT to our first show at the Webster Theatre.

Thoughts for Sale

2007-10-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

Now that I've had enough coffee for the morning, I'll begin my first post at this shiny new web address.
Let me re-introduce myself. My name is Eric Slick and I live in Philadelphia. I have been a musician since I was two years old and I currently tour with King Crimson’s Adrian Belew, Frank Zappa tribute Project/Object, and Crescent Moon. In the past I’ve performed with Carlos Alomar, John Wetton, Mike Keneally, Gene and Dean Ween, Jon Anderson, Eddie Vedder, Ann Wilson, Ike Willis, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Umphrey’s McGee, Denny Walley, The Paul Green School of Rock Music, Eugene Chadbourne, Bob Musso, Elliott Levin, and the list continues to grow. I am an active improviser in the Black Lodge Ensemble. I have my own radio show on WRSR devoted to my love of musique concrete, classical, jazz, and other strange music entitled “Modern Works”. I consider myself to be an extremely lucky twenty year old.
This website is going to be the official home of my tour diaries, memoirs, and other useless debris (also known as my thoughts).
But for now, I must practice. I begin a US tour in less than a week with Project/Object featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock. I will be documenting that entire tour so stay tuned!

Sincerely,
Eric