Me and bunch of my friends went to Verona’s Hometown Days Saturday night to watch Super Tuesday. More than anything, we were just hanging out drinking beer. I had never been to Hometown Days, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Aside from the beer tent, there was a lot to do for all ages.

Super Tuesday started at 8:30. They’re a solid cover band, nothing special as far as musicianship is concerned, but entertaining all the same. I noticed they kind of draw a non-diverse crowd of heavy beer-drinkers, which is good for a community like Verona. It reminded of a crowd you’d see at a “new country” concert…..very white, and slightly redneck. They took one break, which is when the fireworks took place. Right before the finale, there was an explosion of sorts with a huge plume of fire shooting into the air. It may have been done on purpose, but it looked like something went wrong. Soon after, an ambulance was leaving the area, but they might have just been around for the fireworks.

One of the things that I noticed in the beer tent area, was there weren’t any security guards. The place was absolutely packed, yet there was nobody there to keep the crowd in line. The later the night got, the more drunk the crowd became, and the rowdier they got. There was a huge line of porta-potties, probably 30 of them, and drunks were trying to run across the top of them. I saw one guy fall of the back, which was quite a long drop, especially for some drunk with minimal lighting. The other thing I noticed was there were empty plastic pitchers everywhere, I’d say hundreds of them. Some jackass was going around smashing them. He was encouraging others to join in on the fun, saying how fun it was to smash one with his foot.

Either way, it was fun night. Next year: how about something other than cover bands?

20 Reasons Taken is playing Summerfest on July 8th at 6:30 on the Zippo Stage. This is the first time I’ve played at Summerfest, so I’m pretty excited. I believe there’s free admission that day from 12-4, but don’t quote me on that. I’m also thinking I’m going to stick around and see INXS at 10pm.

I started a new job this week. So far, everything is going great. Everyone is very friendly, which is something I haven’t been used too. My last job, my boss was a complete asshole from day one, and it just got worse from there. The owners, Susan and Jonathan Lipp, were both very nice to me, and I felt bad leaving in just under a year, but I just couldn’t work for that jackass anymore. Plus, I had to punch a clock, wear a badge, couldn’t eat at my desk, and didn’t have much for vacation days. I have none of that crap, and they started me off with 3 weeks vacation. It’s no surprise morale is much higher at my new job.

On a side note, I did enjoy what I did at my last job so I’ve decided to start my own pro media e-commerce website. I’ve worked at a pro audio retail store for over 4 years, 1 year at Full Compass, I’m a programmer and a musician, so it just makes sense. I must warn you, the site is up, but it’s really nothing more than a landing page with some industry links. I’m currently working on a logo, testing shopping cart software, and talking to distributors. I’m hoping to launch it either later this Summer or sometime in Fall.

eLabs has been working on this truck for months now, and I have to say, it’s pretty impressive. Top-notch recording equipment, including a SSL mixing console, which I believe was previously owned by Peter Gabriel. How cool is that?

http://mixonline.com/news/headline/ssl-aws900plus-elabsremote-051107/

http://www.elabsmm.com/

I’d like to thank all of the people that came out on a Monday night to support 20 Reasons Taken. It was like 8:30-9:00pm and nobody was in the bar, and then around 9:00 people started piling in. We had a great time playing. We’re working on a lot of shows this Summer, including Summerfest, so stay tuned!

I’ve been bashing SWR a lot lately, but believe me, that is about to come to an end. I just bought a Ampeg SVT-VR and a 610HLF bass cabinet. I plan on replacing the grill on the 610 to match the VR head. I CAN’T WAIT! Instead of a Goliath 410 on top of a Big Ben 118, I’ll be pushing one 610 cabinet. I plan on holding on to the SWR rig for a while, so I suppose I could use the Big Ben along with the 610 if I had a big show….but we’ll see.

This link has two Nickelback songs playing simultaneously, only to prove their music is about as original as a lump of shit.

Is it me, or does the singer look like the president from “The Hickhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”? The difference is the singer is a tool, and the actor plays a tool. No offense to the actor.

It’s a sad, sad day in “Drive-By Trucker” land. Jason Isbell has left the band. I always thought the trio of Jason, Cooley, and Paterson was just too good to be true. If any of them were going to leave, I always thought it would be Jason. Cooley and Patterson have been playing together for too long to leave the band. On a positive note, Jason gives me another great artist that I look forward to listening too. Hey Jason, need a bassplayer?

In 11 days, we finished up all of the drums, bass, guitars, and the vocals. We still have some backup vocals to finish up and maybe a few other things, but more or less, we have the bulk of the recording done. We’re mixing as we go, but we really officially start the mixdown until everything is done being recorded. It’s a bit crazy how fast we got this all recorded, but we really weren’t in any hurry, it just kind of happened that way. Plus, we wanted a very raw live feel to the album, so we didn’t want to mess around making it glossy. We’re going to take a week off and listen to what we got, and then go from there. Either way, we’re still on schedule to have this out before Summer, or early Summer.

Watch video! 

The band I’m playing with, 20 Reasons Taken, has been in the studio since Thursday. Late last night we finished the last of 10 drum tracks, so we’re way ahead of schedule. I’m going into the studio this afternoon to lay down my bass tracks, which I’m guessing shouldn’t take too long, except we may have to clean up some drum tracks along the way. Not that we’re trying to rush the process, but it looks like we could have all of the recording done in about 2-3 weeks. We’ll probably need another month for mixdown, so we’re hoping to release this late April or early May. Of course, nothing ever goes as planned in the studio, so we’ll have to wait and see.