DEATH LETTERS.

when you are young, you bask in the joke of promise... and when you grow up, you revel in the reality of tragedy.  and when neither of those things are funny anymore you slide down the slope to the middle.  There are beautiful things everywhere but they all seem to happen outside of a real grounded orbit. but in holding your breath for beauty, you end up just as dead. may the road rise to meet you wherever you are walking it Mr. Kail.

TAKE AIM... AND TAKE THEM DOWN...

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT...

                         have you ever asked yourself... "why are sleighbells still making records"... i have... many, many times.  last night i flipped through the tv and there was an episode of "no reservations" set in austin during sxsw and there they were... hanging out with anthony bourdain... and i know why they were there... because some production assistant told some other production assistant that they were "cool".  the reason i listen to mostly music that came out 25 years ago or longer is that the test of time has proven all the "lets do lunch/im going to get back at the jocks who beat me up by being the hippest hipster of them all" folks wrong... call me jaded... call me bitter about my own expirience in the L A scene or the world wide music scene as a whole... but you cannot call me wrong about the guy with a "sleighbells"  album on right now... and that is that he/she will not remember them or how cool they were when they were 34... they will remember how much of a waste of time it was following every one hit wonder around like a dog for a decade or longer... im gonna listen to the rolling stones now... and not the early shit... im gonna listen to exile on main street... because... its not cool... because its not featured in the sxsw episode of "no reservations"... because i am not still fighting the fight i lost to the "cool" guy in highschool... because... i dont hate them... i hate YOU!

:)

THE SONG THAT KILLED THE 50'S...

lately i have had a lot of clear headed time to think about things... and one thing that keeps passing through my mind is the fact that the song "its all right ma I'm only bleeding" may be the absolute dividing line between what was and what is as far as songwriting is concerned... there are many Dylan songs that i and every musician have probably dismantled thought wise into infinity but of them all this is the first song of his where he removed the veil and went for absolute truth... i mean when i hear songs that came before it and songs that came after... i see a visible chasm between them and it...i guess i could waste your time and line by line go through this and point out how different the delivery is compared to every song written by everyone before it is... but i think i will just quote myself and say... "its not veiled at all... its a venomous dagger to the heart of liars"...

friends, i need your assistance...

as most of you know i am working on a new record... well... i have been working on it for about a year... anyways... i need your help figuring out a title... so for those of you who have heard the tunes i have been working on... and if you havent just ask and i will send you them... please help me figure out what to call this mother...

LATE NIGHT MUSINGS ON WHAT WAS...

Looking back on my time i spent in L A with my brothers and friends... its hard not to view it with rose colored glasses... but on nights like this i find myself wondering what could have been... if maybe we would have handled things a little differently... i like most twenty-somethings that move to L A to "make it" in the music industry... the first taste of modest success makes you actually feel like you could really do it... its all there ... you know?... its so close that you can almost taste playing shows to 100000 people... even just the feeling of having someone come up to you after you have played and tell you that you touched them in a way that you may have been touched by a hero of yours in the past... those are days that i never appreciated at the time... but now i would give almost anything to play with those guys again... to get it really going on stage... to feel that strange levitation that happens when it is really clicking...in hindsight there were a lot of dark times as well... passing out mid song on stage... vomit and all the glorious rock and roll cliches that i entered into with almost no grasp of the consequences that would follow from taking the trip on that road...but i hope this isn't the end of that story... but for a moment... i felt what it truly was that makes people do this... chase the stupid childhood dreams... to sit and watch for that last gleaming second of the lit fuse on a stick of dynamite before it goes off in your face and sends you and your wishes into the stratosphere in one glorious explosion.

WITHOUT FURTHER AD... WELL ANYWAYS... LADIES AND GENTLEMEN... THE DIGS.

I am a bit of a tangent whore...so it should come as no surprise to those of you that know me... that just days after i posted a blog entry about silver phile... i am posting one about the brother band to them... the digs... i met Patrick from the digs a few weeks prior to the gig i played with silver phile... if i remember correctly (which i probably don't) it was at some other bands show at spaceland or somewhere like that... we had a lovely talk over some drinks and other things about how we were both mutual fans of each others bands... and about a week later we were playing our first gig together at mr. t's bowl... we (rocking horse people) played like shit that night from what i remember... but the digs fucking blew me away... for those of you that haven't seen them play Patrick and Norman Woods guitar weaving is amazing, kind of in the vein of the Byrd's meets Brian Jones and Keith Richards style circa 1966... i think that he got about two words out and ran back and cranked is one knob amp up just ripped into it so recklessly that i thought the fucking stage would collapse... i mean that in the best possible way... anyhoo... Patrick sings a majority of the songs but Norman sang one which i don't know the title of but i remember it had the vibe of "them changes" by the band of Gypsies era Hendrix stuff with buddy miles and billy cox... to sum up a show by them... think of sweethearts of the rodeo meets cant explain... seriously the most fun that can be had sitting watching another band blow your band apart right the fuck in front of you... if you are in L A and see a gig coming up with these fellas playing... go check them out and buy them a drink on me... send me the bill...  here is a link to some of their tunes... may the road rise folks!

http://www.myspace.com/thedigsband

TREY ANISTACIO MUST DIE... I MAY HAVE SPELLED THAT WRONG.

A guy that i work with plays too much of the band phish... well any phish is too much... but i think if we all band together... we can bring this asshole down... that is all... oh... and i think we all need to listen to more isley brothers...