Thursday July 5, 2012
Dear Department of Revenue,
On 06/27/2012, I recieved a notice that I owed $21 on my taxes due to an underpayment because of an error I made in filing. I am not sure I filed it wrong as you say, but I will believe it and accept paying $21. That is not my complaint.
My complaint is why I need to pay a penalty and interest on the late fee. I called this morning and was told that [fee] was because I did not pay by the due date of April 17. However, it does not seem fair that I should pay a late fee on money that I did not know I owed. This was the first notice I received.
I am paying the full amount due of $22.56, but am requesting a refund of $1.56, which I believe was unfairly charged.
I was told to submit this letter with my payment.
Thank you,
taxpayer yoshida
Also, I never received a reply to the letter I submitted with my taxes and original payment back in February. Could I please have a response sent with my refund?
Monday, July 9, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
r.i.p ~ 2012
fred milano (72, jan 1) doo wop singer with dion & the belmonts; lung cancer
larry reinhardt (63, january 2)
rhino played guitar with dickey betts & berry oakley in the mid 60s. when they joined the allman brothers, rhino joined iron butterfly. after that short lived group broke up, rhino started captain beyond (right), whose first two albums are among the most legendary early 70s shredding prog rock albums.
bob weston (64, january 3)
weston added his own bit of drama to the endlessly fascinating fleetwood mac story. he took over on guitar after the unceremonius departure of danny kirwan in 1971. a year and a half later, an affair with mick fleetwood’s wife came to light and he was fired immediately, cancelling the 1972 tour. he only played on two not very critically acclaimed fleetwood mac albums, but there is no doubt it was his slide guitar that made those albums worth hearing. post-fleetwood mac, weston sat in for many others including murray head and sandy denny. he went on to record some rare solo albums which featured cameos from past mac members danny kirwan and even mick fleetwood. (picture above, fleetwood mac 1973: weston on the right, bob welch on left.)
frederica alexandrina sagor maas (111, january 5) screenwriter of the plastic age
don carter (85, january 5) bowler; first athlete to sign $1 million endorsement
tom ardolino (56, january 6) NRBQ drummer
dave alexander (73, january 8) blues pianist; suicide
ruth fernandez (92, january 9) “soul of peurto rican song”
a true rabble rouser, ruth pushed gender barriers as the first female singer in a peurto rican orchestra as well as pushing racial barriers when not granted front door admittance to her own concerts. she signed a columbia records contract at age 14 and then became the first person to perform popular music at the metropolitan opera house in nyc. she also served as a puerto rican senator from 1972-1980, the first singer to hold political office.
robbie france (52, january 14) drummer for ufo, diamond head, skunk anansie
the senator (january 15) cypress tree; world’s fifth odest known tree; fire
jimmy castor (71, january 16) “the everything man”
singer, songwriter known as “the everything man” for playing all types of music from doo wop to funk to latin soul and every instrument from sax to bongos. castor grew up in spanish harlem as close friends of frankie lyman. he had a comparable voice to lyman such that he often filled in with the teenagers when lyman couln’t make gigs. his band the castor bunch went on to record some of the greatest early 70s soul with classics like “troglodyte: cave man” and “bertha butt boogie.” hip hop and dance musicians have sampled liberally from these works over the years, like kanye west, ice cube, and mos def. the movie flashdance featured his most notorious song “it’s only just begun.”
johnny otis (90, january 17) “the godfather of rhythm and blues”
bandleader, producer, radio dj, sogwriter, organic grocery store owner. born greek, he changed his name tootis to identify as black. “the music isn’t just the notes, it’s the culture.” his mustache and soul patch was emulated by zappa into an iconic style. wrote “willie and the hand jive” (which eric clapton famously covered) and gave etta james her break into the music industry when he produced “roll with me henry” in 1956.
etta james (73, january 20)
jerry wexler called etta “the greatest of all modern blues singers.” she had 30+ r&b hits early in her career, but only received mainstream attention later. she led a soap opera life with drug addiction, bad relationships and legal problems. beyonce played etta in the movie “cadillac records” and then etta made a highly publicised rant after beyonce sang “at last” at president obama’s innaguarion in 2008. etta james is in the blues hall of fame and the rock and roll hall of fame. hospitalized with mrsa in 2010 and then diagnosed with alzheimers and leukemia. released her newest album “the dreamer” in early 2011.
john levy (99, january 20) jazz bassist
joe paterno (88, january 22) head coach of penn state nittany lions
shem macauley “slacker” (january 23) british electronic music producer
stig vig (63, january 23) singer for swedish post punk/reggae band dag vag
mark reale (56, january 25) guitarist/singer/songwriter for metal band riot
dick kniss (74, january 25) bass player for john denver
kandi barbour (56, january 26) “actress”
goody petronelli (88, january 28) trainer & manager of marvelous marvin hagler
kell osbourne (72, january 29) singer for the cavaliers & the primes (pre temptations)
leslie carter (25, january 31) singer, sister of nick & aaron carter; drug overdose
mike kelley (57, january 31) early guitarist of destroy all monsters, artist; suicide
king stitt (71, january 31) jamaican toaster; aka “the ugly one”
don cornilius (75, february 1) founder, producer, host of soul train; suicide
angelo dundee (90, february 1) trainer for mohammed ali & sugar ray leonard
charlie spoonhour (72, february 1) former st. louis bilikens basketball coach
david peaston (56, february 1) st. louis r&b singer
jeff fraza (34, february 4) boxer; hit by train
whitney houston (48, february 11) r&b singer; really famous, what do i need to say?
tonmi lillman (38, february 14) drummer for sinergy, to/die/for, ajattara & lordi
dory previn (86, february 14) singer-songwriter; poet
dory was married to andre previn, with whom she co-wrote many songs for motion pictures. her lyrics were sung by just about every famed singer of the 50s and 60s, most famously perhaps being dionne warwick singing “valley of the dolls”. andre’s affair with mia farrow led dory to madness and some time in mental institutions. she emerged a folk singer of the 70s with somewhat autobiographical songs such as “beware young girls”. she wrote many songs about emotionally frail characters, but her most significant accomplishment may have been the song “a stone for bessie smith” written about the premature death of janis joplin. dory wrote two autobiographies, “bogtrotter” and “midnight baby”
russell arms (92, february 13) vocalist on your hit parade
enrique sierra (54, february 17) guitarist for spanish band radio futura
michael davis (68, february 17) bass player mc5, destroy all monsters; liver failure
played bass for mc5 (1964-1972) on all three of their albums. after they disbanded, davis started destroy all monsters with his friend ron asheton. for that band, davis wrote punk classics “meet the creeper” “fast city” “rocking the cradle” “nobody knows”… studied art at university of oregon & portland community college after his music career. davis joined reformed versions of mc5 over the years.
christopher reimer (26, february 21) guitarist for calgary art rock band women
red holloway (84, february 25) jazz & blues tenor sax for sonny rollins, sonny stitt, etta james, roosevelt sykes…
louisiana red (79, february 25) blues singer & gutarist; “sweet blood call”
trayvon martin (17, feb 26) shooting victim
davy jones (66, february 29) singer monkees, partridge family
ronnie montrose (64, march 3) guitarist for 70s rock band montrose; suicide
bugs henderson (68, march 8) dallas blues guitarist
michael hossack (65, march 12) doobie brothers drummer
gary cornell (34, march 18) australian singer for pyramid of coyote
larry stevenson (81, march 25) inventor of kicktail skateboards & makaha skateboards
earl scruggs (88, march 28) bluegrass banjo legend
the three-finger picking style is commonly referred to as “scruggs style.” scruggs
got his entry into the bluegrass world from the father of the genre, bill monroe, joining the bluegrass boys in 1945. starting in 1948, scruggs and another blue grass boy, lester flatt, formed the foggy mountain boys, which lasted for over 20 years. one of their most well known compositions became the theme song to the beverly hillbillies in 1962. the duo also appeared in occassional episodes. they also won a 1969 grammy for the classic “foggy mountain breakdown.” flatt and scruggs were allowed entry into the elusive grand ole opry in 1955 and inducted into the country music hall of fame in 1985. the film “banjoman” was filmed during a 1973 tribute concert, featuring doc watson, joan baez, ramblin’ jack elliot and others, and became the definitive earl scruggs documentary. The album “earl scruggs and friends” won a 2002 grammy award and the next year he was given his own syndicated tv program as well as a star on the hollywod walk of fame. in 2008, his career was capped off with a grammy lifetime acheivement award. earl scruggs will likely be the most significant loss to the music world in 2012. (picutre abouve is scruggs with doc watson in 2007)
zoran romic (47, march 31) australian guitarist for chocolate starfish
barney mckenna (83, april 5) banjo legend; last surviving member of original dubliners
thomas kinkade (54, april 6) painter
mike wallace (93, april 7) news anchor 20/20
cynthia dall (41, april 5) photographer; singer, guitarist of smog & as a solo act
cynthia dall may be one of the more unknown musicians to pass away this year, but fans of the 90s indie band smog can never forget her. she was dating bill callahan during the era of “wild love,” “burning kingdom” and “doctor came at dawn” and was featured on each of those albums. she also started a solo career around the same time, releasing a self-titled/untitled (more like completely unmarked) debut for domino records in 1996 and another album “sound restores young men” for drag city in 2002.
jim niven (april 9) australian pianist for captain matchbox whoopee band & the sports
rich teeter (61, april 10) drummer
played on the dictators albums "bloodbrothers" & "manifest destiny". video of teeter in action 1977: http://themusicsover.com/2012/04/10/ritchie-teeter/
dick clark (82, april 18) america’s oldest teenager
being the host of american bandstand for 30 years beginning in 1957 made clark synonymous with the beginnings of the explosion of commercial rock & roll. the show was particularly notable for integrating black & white performers. he also went on to host the game show “pyramid” & “dick clark’s rockin new years eve” to celebrate the ball dropping in manhattan every year.
levon helm (71, april 19) vocalist, drummer for the band
influenced to be a musician after seeing bill monroe in concert at the age of six, levo grew up in the south in the formative years of rock & roll. he was also influenced by early performances of elvis, bo diddley & ronnie hawkins. he later moved to canada with hawkins & recruited the members that would eventually make-up the band. the band went on to work extensively with bob dylan throughout the 70s. after “the last waltz” album & highly acclaimed martin scorsese documentary, the band called it quits for the next 20 years. levon went on to a solo career starting with paul kennerly’s concept album “the legend of jesse james” in which helm played the role of jesse alongside johnny cash, charlie daniel & emmylou harris. that same year, he also played loretta lynn’s father in the movie “coal miner’s daughter”. later in the 80s, he toured with the ringo starr all-stars & then sang on roger waters epic “the wall – live in berlin” backing up sinead o’connor (along with rick danko) on “mother.” levon lived on a ranch in woodstock, where he hosted “midnight rambles” featuring pretty much any musician you can name. it was thanks to these jams & the relentless support from the music community that helped pay for helm’s treatment to survive cancer in the 90s. the midnight rambles very nearly had it’s own reality in the late 00s. “dirt farmer”, helms first solo album in 25 years won a 2007 grammy & he went on to win two ore grammys. one for “electric dirt” (2009) & then another earlier this year for “ramble at the ryman” (2011). he was inducted with the band into the rock & roll hall of fame in 1994. the elton john song “levon” is named after helm. how much more important could one hope to be in the music world than levon helm?
joe muranyi (84, april 20) dixieland clarinetist for village stompers, louis armstrong…
bert weedon (91, april 20) british guitarist
weedon created “play in a day” music books & wrote the song “guitar boogie shuffle.” through his teaching methods, he became an important influence to every british guitarist of 50s, 60s & 70s.
ikuzone (46, april 21) bass player of dragon ash
greg ham (58, april 19) australian saxophonist, pianist; men at work
billy bryans (64, april 23) drummer for the parachute club
tommy marth (33, april 23) saxophonist on the killers albums "sam’s club" & "day and age."
chris etheridge (65, april 24) bassist; international sunshine band & flying burrito bros.
country-rock bass player started out with the international sunshine band & went on to play with the flying burrito brothers (right) as well as gram parsons solo work. etheridge did the bass & piano work on the classic “gilded palace of sin” and co-wrote “hot burrito #1 & #2”. he was also a session & touring musician with emmylou harris, ry cooder, linda ronstadt, willie nelson, the byrds, jackson browne & many others.
jim mccrary (72, april 29) photographer; shot album covers for flying burito bros, carpenters, cat stevens, carole king, joe cocker & lee michaels
kenny roberts (84, april 29) the yodeling cowboy; the down homers (feat bill haley)
thomas borge (80, april 30) last surviving founding member of the sandanistas
charles pitts (65, may 1) funk guitarist; isaac hayes, wilson pickett, isley brothers
junior seau (43, may 2) 12 time pro bowl linebacker; san diego chargers
lloyd brevett (80, may 3) bass player; the skatellites
adam yauch “mca” (47, may 4) mc/bassist/film director; beastie boys
mca formed the beastie boys with kate s (later of luscious jackson) & mike d as a hardcore punk band when he was a teenager. by the mid-80s, they were the hiphop band as the world now knows them. they went on to sell innumerable records, with a string of classics “licensed to ill” “paul’s boutique” “check your head” “ill communication” “in sound from way out” & “hello nasty”. their most recent effort from 2011 “hot sauce committee part 2” which also featured santigold was not appreciated by kid yoshida nearly enough. nonetheless, for all their efforts, the b boys were inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame in april of this year. ten years ago, mca started his own production studio & film distribution company. from that, he produced the bad brains comeback album “build a nation” & distributed the film “wendy & lucy”. even though the b boys were a cohesive collective, mca still lent a heavy above the board presnce & some of the great rhymes. it’s hard to image the b boys continuing without mca. he died way too young after dealing with salivary & lymph node cancer for the past three years. here's a video for pass the mic.
michael burks (54, may 6) blues/soul guitarist; “i smell smoke”
everett lilly (87, may 8) american bluegrass mandolin
expanded bluegrass music in the east & northeast & internationally with his brother bea (d. 2005) beginning in 1938. everett played with earl scruggs & lester flatt in the 50s & with the mountaineers did a highly successful tour of japan in 1970s. “true facts in a country song” documentary released on their career in 1979.
vidal sassoon (82, may 9) hair dressing revolutionaire; leukemia
celso chavez (44, may 9) guitarist; founding member of possum dixon
donald dunn (70, may 13) blues bassist for booker t & the mg’s
belita woods (63, may 14) singer for 70s r&b band brainstorm
doug dillard (75, may 16) banjo, singer; the dillards (aka the darlings on andy griffith)
chuck brown (75, may 16) go go guitarist, singer; “bustin loose”
donna summer (63, may 17) disco singer
prominent singer that many referred to as the queen of disco. she won a total of 5 grammys and also had 4 singles hit #1 on the r&b charts in a 13 month period. perhaps the best story about her was told on npr about her poor childhood in the church choir people were so enamored by her that they would give her money and tell her to pay them back when she became famous. she has a song “highway runner” in the timeless classic film “fast times at ridgemont high.” she passed away from lung cancer which was allegedly due to inhalation of toxic chemicals from the 911 disaster.
carrie smith (87, may 20) blues & jazz singer
steve hurdle (41, may 20) guitarist for the gorgots
robin gibb (62, may 20) singer; bee gees
janet carroll (71, may 23) singer, actress “risky business”
hal jackson (96, may 23) first afircan american sports announcer
doc watson (89, may 29) blind bluegrass guitarist
blinded by an eye infection in infancy, he devoted himself to bluegrass & gospel sounds made from a $10 sears & roebock guitar thanks to wages earned from chopping down chestnut trees. moved on to a les paul by the age of 30 & mastered flat picking styles as well some speed tactics that every rock n’ roller has pick up from. following his buddy, earl scruggs, who passed away two months prior, doc had a similar trophy case with 7 grammys, plus a lifetime grammy award & a presidential medal of the arts. here is an excerpt of the earl scruggs story filmed in the 60s with doc watson & his son merle at a very young age.
pete cosey (68, may 30) blues & jazz guitarist; rotary connection, etta james, muddy waters, howlin’ wolf, miles davis, herbie hancock
jack twyman (78, may 30)
orlando woolridge (52, may 31)
leroy ellis (72, june 2)
three notable basketball players passed away on successive days. twyman played for the cincinnati royals in 1959-60 when he became the first player (along with wilt chamberlain the same season) to average over 30 ppg in a season. in 11 seasons, he made the all-star team six times. he was inducted into the hall of fame in 1983. his number 27 is retired by the sacramento kings.
woolridge helped usher in the age of slam dunks with some all-time highlight reels. drafted sixth
overall by the chicago bulls in 1981, he starred for five seasons. when michael jordan came along, woolridge fell on some hard times (on & off the court), until being picked up by the lakers in 1988. he fluttered around the nba a few more years & ended up in europe before going on to coaching. he has one son playing for the tennessee volunteers & another who will play his first season with the wazzu cougars this year.
ellis won the haggerty award in 1962, given to the best division-I player out of nyc. he was then drafted eight overall by the lakers, going on to play 14 years in the association, including a bizzarre 3-year run. he played on the innagural trailblazers season 1970-71, then on the lakers championship team of 1971-72 that won a record 69 games (including a 33 game win streak), then on the 76ers 1972-73 team that lost a record 73 games (of 82). he lived in portland for the duration of his basketball career & died in scappoose.
faruq z. bey (70, june 1) saxophonist of griot galaxy
richard dawson (79, june 2) actor
known for his roles in hogan’s heroes & the iconic host of family feud for ten years, where he kissed many a ladies, richard dawson ended up being married to one of those contestants for the last 31 years of his life. his most notable movie role was in the movie running man,
in which he played the demented host of some sort of gladiator game. arnold schwarzenegger uttered the famous line “i’ll be back” to dawson’s character. maybe the coolest thing that no one knows about dawson though, was that he was somewhat of a singer as well. in the summer of love he dabbled in psychdelia, cutting a 45 “his children’s parade / apples & oranges” on the obscure carnation label.
bobby durango (june 3) singer for rock city angels
herb reed (83, june 4) singer; last surviving member of the platters
ray bradbury (91, june 5) science fiction writer
kid from waukegan, illinois, descended from mary bradbury (hung at salem 1692), which makes him related also to henry david throeau & bradbury robinson. ray grew up in the great depression with a big family, then moved to l.a. & started writing at age 11. he wrote everyday & read poetry everyday for over 75 years straight. never got a driver’s license, lived at home until 27 & married for 56 years to the only woman he ever dated. wrote farenheit 451 & the martian chronociles. had many adventures in television including jane wyman’s fireside theatre, star tonight & alfred hitchcock. he’s got every award imaginable from the presidential medal of the arts to an asteroid named after him. here is the last piece published by bradbury in the new yorker less than a week before his death.
cotton owens (88, june 6) nascar hall of famer
bob welch (65, june 7) guitarist; fleetwood mac, paris
welch was born into a musical family with his father being a movie producer for paramount in 1950s. welch became a member of important 60s interracial groups the seven souls & head west. welch was most notorious for being the bridge that kept fleetwood mac afloat during 71-74 in the post peter green-era & the pre-nicks/buckingham-era. he never got his just due, though he was an instrumental player on seminal albums future games (writing the title track), bare trees (writing “ghost” & “sentimental lady”), penguin & mystery to me (writing “hypnotized”).
but during very strange times for fleetwood mac embroiled in a bizarre legal battle for their own name & welch’s marriage failing, he decided to leave the band after the 74 release heroes are hard to find. this opened the door for buckingham & nicks to join the band that would become 70s legends, but weston never being a member of the 60s blues era or the late 70s supergroup caused him to be left off the rosters inducted into the rock n’ roll hall of fame in 1988. part of this seemed to stem from a lawsuit he had filed against fleetwood mac for royalties, but welch said it best, “it was a transition. but it was an important period in the history of the band. mick fleetwood dedicated a whole chapter of his biography to my era of the band and credited me with 'saving fleetwood mac.' now they want to write me out of the history of the group. it hurts…mick and i co-managed the group for years. i'm the one who brought the band to los angeles from england, which put them in the position of hooking up with lindsey and stevie. i saw the band through a whole period where they barely survived, literally.” after forming a trio called paris in the mid-70s, welch had two very successful solo albums in the late 70s & then kind of drifted into obscurity & became a heroin addict. he recovered, did some session work & lived quietly in nashville, making an experimental jazz record in 1999. on june 7, after an unsuccessful back surgery, welch committed suicide, stating that he didn’t want his wife to have to take care of an invalid. one of welch’s bandmates in fleetwood mac, guitarist bob weston passed away earlier this year. (same picture as above, welch on left, weston on right, mick at bottom center, john & christine on top.)
li’l phat (19, june 7) hip hop artist; shooting in atlanta
chuck share (85, june 7)
taken with the first pick in the first nba draft in 1950 by the boston celtics, share played for three teams that would relocate in future years (fort wayne pistons, milwaukee/st.louis hawks, and minneapolis lakers). he won an nba title with the st. louis hawks in 1958.
stay high 149 (61, june 11) graffiti artist
henry hill (69, june 12) mobster
hill’s life story was documented in the book wiseguy & then made into the scorsese movie goodfellas.
rodney king (47, june 17) lapd beating victim
in 1991, rodney king was beaten by seven l.a. policemen & it was caught on video by a bystander. four officers went on trial, but were acquitted. this further exacerbated racial tension & the feelings of inequality in l.a. & sparked the infamous 1992 l.a. race riots.
king was never really a model citizen & the original reason for his being pulled over in the first place (he was trying to outrun cops because he knew a drunk driving charge would violate his parole for a previous felony conviction) & his bizzarre behavior after being pulled over caused officers to think king was under the influence of pcp. however, the pre-beating events are based on police & witness report, the video starts with the beating in which cops called him that infamous n-word while hitting him more than 50 times. king claimed to have suffered a fractured skull & permanent brain damage. officers at the hospital later bragged about the number of times they had hit king. as the l.a. mayor and the president of the united states expressed confusion of the jury verdict downplaying
the use of excessive force, violence in l.a. swarmed out of control with 56 people ending up killed, thousands more injured & over a billion dollars in damaged property before the national guard was finally called to end the violence. rodney king gave a televised “can’t we all just get along speech” & became a figurehead for the new era of social injustice. two of the officers were later found guilty in a federal trial & rodney king won a civil suit for $3.8 million. king was involved in several other drunk driving cases over the next 10 years & then in a bizarre shooting while he rode away from people who were trying to steal his bicycle. he eventually cleaned up & appeared on season 2 of celebrity rehab with dr. drew. & also won a celebrity boxing match against a former pennsylvania cop. king’s problems appeared to be in the past & he was engaged to marry a woman who had been a jury member during 1992 civil suit,
who found him drowned in his swimming pool. rodney king may not have been a model citizen, but then again who really is? i always wonder how many people have never driven under the influence? not eveyone that has done has been caught. how many people have never had any bigotted feelings? people like rodney king beg us to ask these questions of ourselves. his sad life story makes the world a better place.
brian hibbard (65, june 18) welsh singer for the flying pickets
gerry bron (79, june 19) music manager & record label owner
bron was responsible for bringing up uriah heep in the late 60s. he ran bronze records, also releasing motorhead's records "overkill," "ace of spades," "bomber" & "iron fist." bron worked with artists such as marianne faithfull & gene pitney as well. i paid tribute to him in part when i played uriah heep “demon’s & wizards” on the 40th anniversary of its release back in may. and will do the same later when i play “the magician’s birthday.”
gad beck (88, june 24) gay, jewish holocaust survivor. in 2000, he was in the documentary paragraph 175 & published his autobiography "an underground life."
nora ephron (71, june 26)
with both her parents & all three of her husbands being writers, it probably was expected ephron would do something like become a romcom legend writing/ directing films like “when harry met sally,” “sleepless in seattle,” “you’ve got mail,” and “julie & julia.” also helping her natural writing ability was that she lived a dramatic life. she had been the whistleblower of the whistleblower, by trying to expose the identity of the informant of watergate scandal (mark felt). she was for a few years married to carl bernstein, the washington post reporter who teamed with bob woodward to report on watergate. her marriage to bernstein ended when he had an affair with baronness margaret jay. a loose version of that story can be found in ephron’s film “heartburn” starring jack nicholson & meryl streep. nora spent the last 25 years married to nicholas pileggi, who’s career has been mainly devoted to writing screenplays for gangster stories. he’s done a lot of high end ones, notably “goodfellas” the subject of which (henry hill) passed away earlier this month. with the films ephron has been a part of, it is likely assumed she has a few academy awards. she has none, though her trophy case has many accolades.
doris singleton (92, june 26) actress “i love lucy” “twilight zone” “my three sons”
don grady (68, june 27) actor “my three sons”
larry reinhardt (63, january 2)
bob weston (64, january 3)
frederica alexandrina sagor maas (111, january 5) screenwriter of the plastic age
don carter (85, january 5) bowler; first athlete to sign $1 million endorsement
tom ardolino (56, january 6) NRBQ drummer
dave alexander (73, january 8) blues pianist; suicide
ruth fernandez (92, january 9) “soul of peurto rican song”
robbie france (52, january 14) drummer for ufo, diamond head, skunk anansie
the senator (january 15) cypress tree; world’s fifth odest known tree; fire
jimmy castor (71, january 16) “the everything man”
johnny otis (90, january 17) “the godfather of rhythm and blues”
etta james (73, january 20)
john levy (99, january 20) jazz bassist
joe paterno (88, january 22) head coach of penn state nittany lions
shem macauley “slacker” (january 23) british electronic music producer
stig vig (63, january 23) singer for swedish post punk/reggae band dag vag
mark reale (56, january 25) guitarist/singer/songwriter for metal band riot
dick kniss (74, january 25) bass player for john denver
kandi barbour (56, january 26) “actress”
goody petronelli (88, january 28) trainer & manager of marvelous marvin hagler
kell osbourne (72, january 29) singer for the cavaliers & the primes (pre temptations)
leslie carter (25, january 31) singer, sister of nick & aaron carter; drug overdose
mike kelley (57, january 31) early guitarist of destroy all monsters, artist; suicide
king stitt (71, january 31) jamaican toaster; aka “the ugly one”
don cornilius (75, february 1) founder, producer, host of soul train; suicide
angelo dundee (90, february 1) trainer for mohammed ali & sugar ray leonard
charlie spoonhour (72, february 1) former st. louis bilikens basketball coach
david peaston (56, february 1) st. louis r&b singer
jeff fraza (34, february 4) boxer; hit by train
whitney houston (48, february 11) r&b singer; really famous, what do i need to say?
tonmi lillman (38, february 14) drummer for sinergy, to/die/for, ajattara & lordi
dory previn (86, february 14) singer-songwriter; poet
dory was married to andre previn, with whom she co-wrote many songs for motion pictures. her lyrics were sung by just about every famed singer of the 50s and 60s, most famously perhaps being dionne warwick singing “valley of the dolls”. andre’s affair with mia farrow led dory to madness and some time in mental institutions. she emerged a folk singer of the 70s with somewhat autobiographical songs such as “beware young girls”. she wrote many songs about emotionally frail characters, but her most significant accomplishment may have been the song “a stone for bessie smith” written about the premature death of janis joplin. dory wrote two autobiographies, “bogtrotter” and “midnight baby”
russell arms (92, february 13) vocalist on your hit parade
enrique sierra (54, february 17) guitarist for spanish band radio futura
michael davis (68, february 17) bass player mc5, destroy all monsters; liver failure
christopher reimer (26, february 21) guitarist for calgary art rock band women
red holloway (84, february 25) jazz & blues tenor sax for sonny rollins, sonny stitt, etta james, roosevelt sykes…
trayvon martin (17, feb 26) shooting victim
davy jones (66, february 29) singer monkees, partridge family
ronnie montrose (64, march 3) guitarist for 70s rock band montrose; suicide
bugs henderson (68, march 8) dallas blues guitarist
michael hossack (65, march 12) doobie brothers drummer
gary cornell (34, march 18) australian singer for pyramid of coyote
larry stevenson (81, march 25) inventor of kicktail skateboards & makaha skateboards
earl scruggs (88, march 28) bluegrass banjo legend
zoran romic (47, march 31) australian guitarist for chocolate starfish
thomas kinkade (54, april 6) painter
mike wallace (93, april 7) news anchor 20/20
cynthia dall (41, april 5) photographer; singer, guitarist of smog & as a solo act
cynthia dall may be one of the more unknown musicians to pass away this year, but fans of the 90s indie band smog can never forget her. she was dating bill callahan during the era of “wild love,” “burning kingdom” and “doctor came at dawn” and was featured on each of those albums. she also started a solo career around the same time, releasing a self-titled/untitled (more like completely unmarked) debut for domino records in 1996 and another album “sound restores young men” for drag city in 2002.
jim niven (april 9) australian pianist for captain matchbox whoopee band & the sports
rich teeter (61, april 10) drummer
played on the dictators albums "bloodbrothers" & "manifest destiny". video of teeter in action 1977: http://themusicsover.com/2012/04/10/ritchie-teeter/
dick clark (82, april 18) america’s oldest teenager
levon helm (71, april 19) vocalist, drummer for the band
joe muranyi (84, april 20) dixieland clarinetist for village stompers, louis armstrong…
bert weedon (91, april 20) british guitarist
weedon created “play in a day” music books & wrote the song “guitar boogie shuffle.” through his teaching methods, he became an important influence to every british guitarist of 50s, 60s & 70s.
ikuzone (46, april 21) bass player of dragon ash
greg ham (58, april 19) australian saxophonist, pianist; men at work
billy bryans (64, april 23) drummer for the parachute club
tommy marth (33, april 23) saxophonist on the killers albums "sam’s club" & "day and age."
chris etheridge (65, april 24) bassist; international sunshine band & flying burrito bros.
jim mccrary (72, april 29) photographer; shot album covers for flying burito bros, carpenters, cat stevens, carole king, joe cocker & lee michaels
kenny roberts (84, april 29) the yodeling cowboy; the down homers (feat bill haley)
thomas borge (80, april 30) last surviving founding member of the sandanistas
charles pitts (65, may 1) funk guitarist; isaac hayes, wilson pickett, isley brothers
junior seau (43, may 2) 12 time pro bowl linebacker; san diego chargers
lloyd brevett (80, may 3) bass player; the skatellites
adam yauch “mca” (47, may 4) mc/bassist/film director; beastie boys
"if you can feel what i'm feeling then it's a musical masterpiece, if you can hear what i'm dealing with then that's cool at least. what's running through my mind comes through in my walk, true feelings are shown from the way that i talk."
michael burks (54, may 6) blues/soul guitarist; “i smell smoke”
everett lilly (87, may 8) american bluegrass mandolin
expanded bluegrass music in the east & northeast & internationally with his brother bea (d. 2005) beginning in 1938. everett played with earl scruggs & lester flatt in the 50s & with the mountaineers did a highly successful tour of japan in 1970s. “true facts in a country song” documentary released on their career in 1979.
vidal sassoon (82, may 9) hair dressing revolutionaire; leukemia
celso chavez (44, may 9) guitarist; founding member of possum dixon
donald dunn (70, may 13) blues bassist for booker t & the mg’s
belita woods (63, may 14) singer for 70s r&b band brainstorm
doug dillard (75, may 16) banjo, singer; the dillards (aka the darlings on andy griffith)
chuck brown (75, may 16) go go guitarist, singer; “bustin loose”
donna summer (63, may 17) disco singer
carrie smith (87, may 20) blues & jazz singer
steve hurdle (41, may 20) guitarist for the gorgots
robin gibb (62, may 20) singer; bee gees
janet carroll (71, may 23) singer, actress “risky business”
hal jackson (96, may 23) first afircan american sports announcer
doc watson (89, may 29) blind bluegrass guitarist
pete cosey (68, may 30) blues & jazz guitarist; rotary connection, etta james, muddy waters, howlin’ wolf, miles davis, herbie hancock
jack twyman (78, may 30)
orlando woolridge (52, may 31)
leroy ellis (72, june 2)
woolridge helped usher in the age of slam dunks with some all-time highlight reels. drafted sixth
ellis won the haggerty award in 1962, given to the best division-I player out of nyc. he was then drafted eight overall by the lakers, going on to play 14 years in the association, including a bizzarre 3-year run. he played on the innagural trailblazers season 1970-71, then on the lakers championship team of 1971-72 that won a record 69 games (including a 33 game win streak), then on the 76ers 1972-73 team that lost a record 73 games (of 82). he lived in portland for the duration of his basketball career & died in scappoose.
faruq z. bey (70, june 1) saxophonist of griot galaxy
richard dawson (79, june 2) actor
known for his roles in hogan’s heroes & the iconic host of family feud for ten years, where he kissed many a ladies, richard dawson ended up being married to one of those contestants for the last 31 years of his life. his most notable movie role was in the movie running man,
bobby durango (june 3) singer for rock city angels
herb reed (83, june 4) singer; last surviving member of the platters
ray bradbury (91, june 5) science fiction writer
kid from waukegan, illinois, descended from mary bradbury (hung at salem 1692), which makes him related also to henry david throeau & bradbury robinson. ray grew up in the great depression with a big family, then moved to l.a. & started writing at age 11. he wrote everyday & read poetry everyday for over 75 years straight. never got a driver’s license, lived at home until 27 & married for 56 years to the only woman he ever dated. wrote farenheit 451 & the martian chronociles. had many adventures in television including jane wyman’s fireside theatre, star tonight & alfred hitchcock. he’s got every award imaginable from the presidential medal of the arts to an asteroid named after him. here is the last piece published by bradbury in the new yorker less than a week before his death.
cotton owens (88, june 6) nascar hall of famer
bob welch (65, june 7) guitarist; fleetwood mac, paris
welch was born into a musical family with his father being a movie producer for paramount in 1950s. welch became a member of important 60s interracial groups the seven souls & head west. welch was most notorious for being the bridge that kept fleetwood mac afloat during 71-74 in the post peter green-era & the pre-nicks/buckingham-era. he never got his just due, though he was an instrumental player on seminal albums future games (writing the title track), bare trees (writing “ghost” & “sentimental lady”), penguin & mystery to me (writing “hypnotized”).
li’l phat (19, june 7) hip hop artist; shooting in atlanta
chuck share (85, june 7)
taken with the first pick in the first nba draft in 1950 by the boston celtics, share played for three teams that would relocate in future years (fort wayne pistons, milwaukee/st.louis hawks, and minneapolis lakers). he won an nba title with the st. louis hawks in 1958.
stay high 149 (61, june 11) graffiti artist
henry hill (69, june 12) mobster
hill’s life story was documented in the book wiseguy & then made into the scorsese movie goodfellas.
rodney king (47, june 17) lapd beating victim
in 1991, rodney king was beaten by seven l.a. policemen & it was caught on video by a bystander. four officers went on trial, but were acquitted. this further exacerbated racial tension & the feelings of inequality in l.a. & sparked the infamous 1992 l.a. race riots.
brian hibbard (65, june 18) welsh singer for the flying pickets
gerry bron (79, june 19) music manager & record label owner
bron was responsible for bringing up uriah heep in the late 60s. he ran bronze records, also releasing motorhead's records "overkill," "ace of spades," "bomber" & "iron fist." bron worked with artists such as marianne faithfull & gene pitney as well. i paid tribute to him in part when i played uriah heep “demon’s & wizards” on the 40th anniversary of its release back in may. and will do the same later when i play “the magician’s birthday.”
gad beck (88, june 24) gay, jewish holocaust survivor. in 2000, he was in the documentary paragraph 175 & published his autobiography "an underground life."
nora ephron (71, june 26)
with both her parents & all three of her husbands being writers, it probably was expected ephron would do something like become a romcom legend writing/ directing films like “when harry met sally,” “sleepless in seattle,” “you’ve got mail,” and “julie & julia.” also helping her natural writing ability was that she lived a dramatic life. she had been the whistleblower of the whistleblower, by trying to expose the identity of the informant of watergate scandal (mark felt). she was for a few years married to carl bernstein, the washington post reporter who teamed with bob woodward to report on watergate. her marriage to bernstein ended when he had an affair with baronness margaret jay. a loose version of that story can be found in ephron’s film “heartburn” starring jack nicholson & meryl streep. nora spent the last 25 years married to nicholas pileggi, who’s career has been mainly devoted to writing screenplays for gangster stories. he’s done a lot of high end ones, notably “goodfellas” the subject of which (henry hill) passed away earlier this month. with the films ephron has been a part of, it is likely assumed she has a few academy awards. she has none, though her trophy case has many accolades.
doris singleton (92, june 26) actress “i love lucy” “twilight zone” “my three sons”
don grady (68, june 27) actor “my three sons”
Thursday, June 28, 2012
june rabble rouser of the month! vote please.
vote please! june rabble rouser nominees. to read more, some links to the stories are included.
ann colagiovanni (shaker heights, oh) – 97 year old high school graduate...
ann dropped out of high school in the early 30s to go to work in her family’s store. well, here it is, 78 years later, and she finally is getting that high school diploma from shaker heights high. haven’t found any stories that say what classes she had to finish, but hopefully a.p. life experience got her the rest of the credits she needed. the more amazing part of the story is that her grandson was also graduating shaker high with the class of 2012. ann only had daughters, so this means, on the average, she and her daughter gave birth at 39 years of age if her grandson is either 18 or 19. I guess it’s possible that he too went back to pick up at age 60 his own high school diploma.
cbs news story
sue warren (elyria, oh) – breaks into houses, cleans, leaves bill...
a woman with obsessive cleaning disorder breaks into houses, cleans them and leaves a bill with her name and address. sounds dumb, but if it gets you jobs i guess go for it. she tells police she does this all the time, but a recent case in which she washed the dishes, took out the trash and vaccummed before leaving a bill for $75 landed her in jail on a burglary charge. the price seems a bit steep to me. i don’t think i’d pay more than $10-$15. but if she can get people to pay without sending them to collections, then it seems like getting a free cleaning coupon with the option to continue. if that’s all it really is, i say she should be able to keep going. i wonder what this will do for her cleaning business?
cbs news story
tyler sullivan (minnesota) – presidential pardon for skipping school...
on june 1, president spoke in minnesota. the 11 year old tyler sullivan skips school to go see him speak. so, he gets up to shake hands with obama and then milks prez for a note to be excused from mr. ackerman’s class? actually it seems like obama offered to write the excuse. besides, that seems like an excessive move. the kid went to the speech with his dad. last time i checked a parent was enough to get an excuse.
people magazine story
larry sapienza (warren twp, new jersey) – fired library director re-hired...
this dude was the victim of typical office crap. as the circulation director, you’d think he’d know how to deal with his employees & volunteers. his boss gave him orders on how to change the volunteer schedules. he didn’t agree with the decision, but did as he was told. then he got fired for not following library policy. after a couple months of confusion, he had a hearing on wheter to re-instate him. since his ex-boss (who also got axed) doesn’t talk & prolly denied what she said, he was lucky enough to have a co-worker that overheard the directive & stood up for him. when the hearing was over, sapienza’s great quote, “does this mean i have my job back?” naturally, listening to that hearing proceding, that was my thought exactly. i guess since the entire episode was clouded in rediculous politics, it only made sense to re-instate him with a bunch of legal-ese hogwash that not even the guy reading the verdict could understand. but thankfully, sapienza did get his job back & a couple months off work.
echoes-sentinel article
a victory at change.org!
email, comment, facebook, twitter, whatever it takes to vote!
thank you!!
ann colagiovanni (shaker heights, oh) – 97 year old high school graduate...
cbs news story
sue warren (elyria, oh) – breaks into houses, cleans, leaves bill...
cbs news story
tyler sullivan (minnesota) – presidential pardon for skipping school...
people magazine story
larry sapienza (warren twp, new jersey) – fired library director re-hired...
echoes-sentinel article
a victory at change.org!
email, comment, facebook, twitter, whatever it takes to vote!
thank you!!
Friday, June 22, 2012
rodney king: rabble rouser hall of fame
rodney king was not an exemplary citizen, but he was a rabble rouser. he became a figurehead for a movement. he didn’t find trouble as much as trouble found him. yeah, he was found several times driving drunk & once even charged for a hit & run on his wife. but he also got a severe beatdown by seven l.a. cops, of which two ended up with short prison sentences only after a white suburban jury had found them not guilty. king later got shot when someone tried to bike-jack him. there were some sweet ironies, such as when he won a celebrity boxing match against a former cop & that he was engaged the last two years to a woman who had been a juror on his civil trial agasint the l.a.p.d. but, for the most part, king’s life could not have been an envious one to live.
what really makes rodney king a great rabble rouser was that he helps us see inside ourselves. how many people can truly say they have never driven under the influence? just because you may not have been caught doing something wrong, doesn’t afford you the right to judge someone who has. and how many people can say they have never thought ill of someone because that person was different from them? it happens all the time, everyday in every town. king famously begged the question “can’t we all just get along?” but 20 years later, trayvon martin still isn’t allowed to live as a black man.
it takes a rabble rouser to stir up politcal tsunamis. pundits won’t allow president obama to market hoodies because it was supposedly capitalizing on the tragedy of trayvon martin (nevermind that obama sold hoodies in 08 as well & every race of people wear them). it scares me to think what would happen if obama were to even mention rodney king’s name.
whether it is rodney king, abner louima, amadou diallo, sean bell, or the countless other victims of police brutality, they allow us to examine our own fears & what society should or shouldn’t think unacceptable. drunk driving may be a bad thing, but it’s not nearly as bad as a police officer ramming a plunger up someone’s anus. yes, that really happened. so, don’t cast stones. don’t hate. make yourself a better person.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
may rabble rouser of the month nominees
may 2012 rabble rouser of the month nominees
benjamin lerman coady (west hartford, connecticut) ~ 13 year old spots mistake in MET exhibit
so, there! thousands of people didn’t notice a mistake in the map of the byzantine empire, but this kid did. so, next time your kid thinks he knows more than you do, give the sucka a chance! chances are, he might be right!
natalia juarez (guadalajara, jalisco, mexico) ~ topless pose in campaign photo
you know how many people are outraged & offended by this little stunt? you know how much i care about what people wanna think? they’re jealous she’s gonna win & frankly it’s a good ploy to bring some cheer to a country that has has been wracked with official corruption & the most obscene drug violence over the past few decades. go natalia!
matt zekan (newport, oregon) ~ poster boy for free speech
so when this dude’s dad was gonna be sacked by lincoln county, he went on the offensive & plastered them with posters of protest. then county officials started issuing tresspassing orders & other such fines for receiving too many complaints. um, ok. they are public offices, that should be enough to give him the right to picket if he wanted to. county officials think it was harrassment on his part. he probably thinks it’s harrassment on their part. sue the pants off of them, oscar!
sharon jones (bebee, arkansas) ~ lottery winner?
so a woman in arkansas throws away a ticket that she thought was not a winner. another woman picks it out of the trash, collects $1 million. that’s the way it is supposed to work right? wrong. not so cut & dry. at first a judge ordered the woman who bought the ticket was entitled to the money. now it’s getting a new trial. the part that makes this most shocking is that the store is trying to sue sharon jones for taking the ticket out of the trash! shut up! what’s thrown away is fair game. they just want a piece of the pie. sharon jones may not be a rabble rouser, per say, but some greedy people in arkansas sure are making her deserve this month’s award.
benjamin lerman coady (west hartford, connecticut) ~ 13 year old spots mistake in MET exhibit
natalia juarez (guadalajara, jalisco, mexico) ~ topless pose in campaign photo
matt zekan (newport, oregon) ~ poster boy for free speech
sharon jones (bebee, arkansas) ~ lottery winner?
Thursday, April 26, 2012
april rabble rouser of the month nominees!
three nominees for the april rabble rouser of the month. three more tough choices.
let me know by email, comment who you think the rabble rouser of the month should be!
juan ramon munguia and enrique trevino rivera (san luis potosi, mexico)
mexican motorcyclists given terrorism charges for loud exhaust juan ramon munguia and enrique trevino rivera sent a crowd celebrating holy week into a frenzy when their exhaust pipes backfired and the noise was confused for gunshots. then, apparently, the motorcyclists kept revving their engines causing a stampede. some people were trampled, although no injuries reported. the two claim they had just gotten off work and always rev their engines at the same spot at that time. nonetheless, terrorism charges have been filed and the pair are facing a 20 year prison sentence. overreactions anyone? let’s just suppose these guys intended to cause a panic. there is still a distinct difference between being a public nuissance and being a terrorist. revving a motorcycle engine often does create a loud noise, but motorcycles are hardly body bombs. more questions came up about why the vendors were in the street without proper permits in the first place, creating the counter argument that had the people not been in the street in the first place, they wouldn’t have been spooked. in any case, people need to just chill out and laugh it off when something funny happens, not panic at the first sign of discomfort. ok, give the guys a $1000 fine. that seems appropriate. but they are anything but terrorists. and what would a prison sentence be worth? probably more harm than good.
salecia johnson (midgeville, georgia)
six year old taken out of school in handcuffs for throwing a tantrum
what really needs to be said more than just the caption? a six-year-old girl throws a tantrum. big f***ing deal! that’s what little kids do. preschool or kindegarten teachers are paid to be able to deal with that. i could be wrong, but i am pretty sure that babysitting is not in a policeman's job description. certainly, taking a six-year-old to jail is redicuolous. i would question whether a six-year-old should go to jail even if they were an accomplice in a robbery, much less for simply crying about the fact that their teacher or principal sucks. now, salecia johnson is kicked out of school until fall. seriously? maybe she was being difficult, but i would bet her teachers are more difficult to put up with. someone needs to grow up here, and it is not the girl. to salecia, i say, throw more tantrums! maybe then you can mimic the behavior of your school officials.
john brennan (portland, oregon)
portland man strips at airport
so this guy gets fed up with the tsa security measures and decides enough is enough. the security person wipes him down with the bomb detecting cloth and tells john he tested positive for explosives. of course, john knows he doesn’t have explosives but he is tired of going through this kind of thing on a weekly basis and decides to just prove to everyone that he doesn’t have any bombs. he strips down to nothing, not even socks, and stands there for a few minutes until he gets draped with a blanket and escorted away. but not before someone takes a video of the incident and let it go viral. the worst part of the story is that this guy is going to face some fines for interfering with airport procedures, as if this really does anything to slow things down. if this guy deserves to be fined, then what about tsa? oh yeah, they're the ones handing out the fines. they slow things down more than anyone. yeah, maybe they have made things safer, but mostly they have made things a hassle. kid yoshida really wishes more people would stand up for themselves such as john brennan did at portland airport.
juan ramon munguia and enrique trevino rivera (san luis potosi, mexico)
mexican motorcyclists given terrorism charges for loud exhaust juan ramon munguia and enrique trevino rivera sent a crowd celebrating holy week into a frenzy when their exhaust pipes backfired and the noise was confused for gunshots. then, apparently, the motorcyclists kept revving their engines causing a stampede. some people were trampled, although no injuries reported. the two claim they had just gotten off work and always rev their engines at the same spot at that time. nonetheless, terrorism charges have been filed and the pair are facing a 20 year prison sentence. overreactions anyone? let’s just suppose these guys intended to cause a panic. there is still a distinct difference between being a public nuissance and being a terrorist. revving a motorcycle engine often does create a loud noise, but motorcycles are hardly body bombs. more questions came up about why the vendors were in the street without proper permits in the first place, creating the counter argument that had the people not been in the street in the first place, they wouldn’t have been spooked. in any case, people need to just chill out and laugh it off when something funny happens, not panic at the first sign of discomfort. ok, give the guys a $1000 fine. that seems appropriate. but they are anything but terrorists. and what would a prison sentence be worth? probably more harm than good.
salecia johnson (midgeville, georgia)
six year old taken out of school in handcuffs for throwing a tantrum
what really needs to be said more than just the caption? a six-year-old girl throws a tantrum. big f***ing deal! that’s what little kids do. preschool or kindegarten teachers are paid to be able to deal with that. i could be wrong, but i am pretty sure that babysitting is not in a policeman's job description. certainly, taking a six-year-old to jail is redicuolous. i would question whether a six-year-old should go to jail even if they were an accomplice in a robbery, much less for simply crying about the fact that their teacher or principal sucks. now, salecia johnson is kicked out of school until fall. seriously? maybe she was being difficult, but i would bet her teachers are more difficult to put up with. someone needs to grow up here, and it is not the girl. to salecia, i say, throw more tantrums! maybe then you can mimic the behavior of your school officials.
john brennan (portland, oregon)
portland man strips at airport
so this guy gets fed up with the tsa security measures and decides enough is enough. the security person wipes him down with the bomb detecting cloth and tells john he tested positive for explosives. of course, john knows he doesn’t have explosives but he is tired of going through this kind of thing on a weekly basis and decides to just prove to everyone that he doesn’t have any bombs. he strips down to nothing, not even socks, and stands there for a few minutes until he gets draped with a blanket and escorted away. but not before someone takes a video of the incident and let it go viral. the worst part of the story is that this guy is going to face some fines for interfering with airport procedures, as if this really does anything to slow things down. if this guy deserves to be fined, then what about tsa? oh yeah, they're the ones handing out the fines. they slow things down more than anyone. yeah, maybe they have made things safer, but mostly they have made things a hassle. kid yoshida really wishes more people would stand up for themselves such as john brennan did at portland airport.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
treefort music fest 2012!
treefort 2012
this blog has been a couple weeks coming, but there was a lot to sift through!
myself and a few other djs at keol promoted to death the festival known as treefort and, for all the hype, treefort did not disappoint. treefort was a multivenue music festival that brought more than 130 live music acts during four days in late march into the treasure valley captial city of boise, idaho. such an event was uncharted territory for this part of the world. the northwest, as far as the media, and even the rock and roll biz, is largely concerned, mostly only traverses between portland, seattle and vancouver. beyond the cascade mountains, though eastern oregon, eastern washington, idaho, montana are still the homes of nomadic, homesteaders with no cultural life to speak of … or so you may have thought. that perception gets a jolt of culture and such backwoods stereotypes will undoubtedly change with more events like treefort. every participant seemed to be giving thanks to eric gilbert and the good people in finn riggins, and so must i. finn riggins has shown the love for la grande time and time again and were gracious enough to allow keol and la grande life a good view of the procedings. finn riggins has been one of the biggest ambassabors of the boise music scene. over the past five years, they have worked endlessly to make boise a consistent presence on the on the national radar and treefort 2012 was the epic culmination of months and months of grueling work to organize a sxsw type event for the northwest. since sxsw is such a huge deal, too huge actually, thousands of bands are out on early spring tours, so it seemed only logical to capitalize on the timing and get some of those touring bands and a variety of local acts together into idaho’s intimate capital city!
most significantly, treefort was held as a benefit fund raiser for radio boise
89.9 fm, a radio station launched last year as a community free form station. i am guessing they collected quite a few coins because treefort turned out bigger than probably even the city of boise could’ve expected. huge, chart topping bands like built to spill, of montreal and blitzen trapper played treefort, but also so did lots of dirty rock and rollers that i played on the rabble rouser show for weeks leading up to treefort. myself, dj yeti, dj cez-fire and dj clue picked about ten acts each that we would try to track down and interview for keol. from the best times of a four day frenzy, i have compiled this blog/podcast to memorialize the great weekend that was. with thanks to eric, lisa, and cameron for all their hard work in promoting the idaho music industry, it was really a magical experience.
to hear excerpts of my shows containing the interiews, click here.
to hear my rabble rouser hour podcast for the month april dedicated to treefort, click here.
day one (thurs, march 22)
all along, day one looked the most promising and it turned out to be as hoped for. what i didn’t adequately plan for was all the hustling that day would involve. finn riggins started out the festivities by playing live at the neurolux at 6:00 pm. the first keol car pool arrived at our “campsite” near eagle around 4:00pm. by campsite, i mean ultra modern apartment whose tennant, a woman unknown to me named megan, left it free and fully stocked for five of us to use all weekend. thanks to dj yeti for somehow securing that hook-up. yeti drove cez-fire, phil and myself. dj panda had a late final on thursday and she and dj clue met us later that evening.
after checking in at treefort and a short orientation of our surroundings, it was on! the other guys headed straight for the neurolux. the finn riggins show had already started and was quite crowded with a line into the alley, so i did the unthinkable – skipped it and headed for pengilly’s where aaron mark brown was set to perform at 7pm. the venues of treefort encompassed a 12 block by 3 block area in downtown from the freeway entrance to the basque district. pengilly’s was at the far end in the basque district. the red room was on the oppoiste end of main street near the freeway entrance. two of the first day acts i wanted to see and had arranged interviews with played at pengilly’s (a late substitute for a closer venue, the boquet, which is now closed), two others were at the red room and linen bldg. so a few hurried twelve block walks happened in the space of three hours…
aaron mark brown (pengilly’s, 7pm)
walking so much is no big deal for me. i do it everyday, but i just don’t do it so hastily trying to track people down and catch the next act in less than 20 minutes… aaron mark brown helped start the event on a calm note. he’s based out of nampa, a town i have been to many times, where my buddy paul resides and, as it turns out, knows aaron. that makes sense when examining the quaint small town vibe of downtown nampa – never mind that it is surprisingly the second biggest city in idaho. aaron gave a great set of show tune-esque numbers as his cd release party for “realities of grandeur.” aaron was an entertainer, playing barrelhouse type piano and a bit of a brass section on about half the numbers, and rocking out guitar for other singer songwriter type numbers. i could not immediately nail down an interview. with both my frantic pace on the first day, and desire to not to rush performers as they exited the stage, i was more interested in giving musicians time to unwind, load out, grab a beer and that kind of thing. so i trekked all the way back down to the linen bldg to see every bit i could of one of my most favorite bands at the festival – buffalo death beam.
buffalo death beam (linen bldg, 8pm thurs)
regular listeners of the rabble rouser show should be very familiar with buffalo death beam. and while the name sounds uh, deathly, the music is quite the opposite of what you would expect for most of my show, but no doubt i have seen this band three times since september and they have been slightly better each time. they played at juniper jam in enterprise in september, great pacific in pendleton in december and now treefort. and, front man, curt krause, who also has a solo project known as edmund wayne, played in la grande this past february along with correspondence school. after so many encounters, i was glad to finally catch up to them after their performance and chat with them for about 15 minutes. the interview is slightly muddled because holiday friends were playing downstairs, but nonetheless a good talk on the pullman area. here is a video i took of them playing “staff of the shepard” is on youtube.
old death whisper (pengilly’s saloon, 11pm)
after the linen bldg, i trekked back to pengilly’s to see old death whisper. i had never seen them, but was excited enough to not mind missing sallie ford & the sound outside. their singer “rico” called me to set up an interview, which took a bit of finagling to get us both on the same end of main street. once we did hook up, i hung out with rico and chewy primarily, while the other band members stopped and chatted during load in for the show. a good bunch of guys and one of the funniest interviews one is likely to come by. odw did not disappoint on stage either. check em out. and their *new* cd!
dinosaur feathers (11pm) & mr. gnome (midnight) at the red room
during another hike back down to the linen bldg, i couldn’t decide if i wanted to try to squeeze in to catch the end of sallie ford or save some front spots for mr. gnome. the sight of so many people hawking around the linen bldg, kept me walking, right in the back door of the red room to see the end of dinosaur feathers.
they’re a fun party pop synth meets punk band from brooklyn. they stayed around late and had some vinyl for sale, which i purchased, whilst also purchasing most of mr. gnome’s vinyl, until i ran out of money. still need the second album on vinyl…
that makes me wanna go off on a tangent for a minute. this is what i got to say about getting into concerts for free. most club owners feel they must charge admission because otherwise people don’t show up. if there is no charge, it gives the feeling of no value, so people aren’t interested. maybe subliminally, but kid yoshida doesn’t think from a business mindset. i go to free shows because i don’t like crowded shows. from my perspective, it seems stupid to charge admission to a bar that sells drinks. when i don’t pay a cover, i don’t feel ripped off and i buy rounds for all my friends and the bands and spend tons of money. that’s opposite most, but that’s kid yoshida logic. so, since we got free passes and press access, saving me $100 or more, i spent about that much in the red room that night alone. not to mention all the stuff i would go on to buy the next three days. that also reminds me that when tiffany (of buffalo death beam) saw me in the linen bldg she said “nice shirt.” i said, “thanks, you sold it to me.” i wore my buffalo death beam shirt the first two days, until panda made me take it off. but because i protested so much, she said i could wear it again on the fourth day. which i did. hell, back when i bought that shirt in pendleton in early december, i wore it every day until after new year. i love that shirt, mostly because i paid $15 for it. i paid $15 for it because a) it’s a starving artist band and b) they only charged $5 for the cd. in most cases though, i wouldn’t buy a t-shirt. certainly wouldn’t buy one from an arena rock band, or say of montreal. with any other business, i wouldn’t purchase t-shirts because that is effectively paying to advertise for someone else. doesn’t make kid yoshida sense. seriously, do you buy a $15 t-shirt from a band you see for free, or a $40 t-shirt from a band you see for $??? and never even get to talk to? shouldn’t be a trick question. with good people like those at treefort that give so much just because it feels good, i am all about giving back. i spent money and worked hard, but i got lots of value for it. that is all for the tangent. thanks for listening.
saw mr. gnome from up front of a packed house, saved room for panda and the others and even my old friend valerie squeezed in. good friends, good times! after mr. gnome played a show that lived up to my ridiculous amount of hype and then some…i interviewed sam, and then since ryan from dinosaur feathers was still hanging out, i got to interview him too! two for the price of one! came hoping for four interviews on the first day, and got four! one that i didn’t expect and didn’t get one that i expected, but i lined up with aaron mark brown for a later date, which would turn out to be on our way home as a stop in nampa…
day two, friday, march 23
this is where things become cloudy and mashed together. but oh what a time it was.
made it back into the city around 6:00. i didn’t see k. flay on the main stage, which i later seemed to regret as the buzz was that she was a white girl that could rap for realz. instead i fluttered about the linen bldg watching some of sister crayon, but actually spending more time outside in the ale fort. i ended up drinking several beers that day, though overall, i am not sure i ended up getting my money’s worth, but it went to a good cause to keep boise’s brewerys in the spotlight. the deal was $25 for a cup that was good inside the tent for the three remaining days. i certainly spent more inside the respective venues on different kegs of the same beers! such as, at the crux, where panda and i strolled next.
deaf kid (8pm) & tim blood & the gut panthers (9pm) at the crux
sons of guns (10pm) at the red room
the spyrals (11pm) & yeah great fine (midnight) at the crux
we planned to see cat massacre and get an interview, but they were a late scratch and their guitarist dominic munoz’s other bad deaf kid played instead. they weren’t the tightest band in the treefort lineup, but still kept the crowd revved up. had the motors not already been warm by the time tim blood & the gutpanthers rolled on, the crowd would have have been blown right past. well, that happened anyway, but at least we had a chance to revel in the fun of it all for a minute. a short set later, i was interviewing tim blood on the sidewalk outside.
in about ten minutes, he had given more than enough stories to ensure a landslide victory in the rabble rouser of the month voting the next weekend.
the beauty of day two was that the red room was now only half as far of a walk from the crux as it had been from pengilly’s. and back to the epicenter of the excitement we went for sons of guns. there aren’t enough times in one life to see sons of guns. even though we can see them in la grande a couple times a year, there was still no reason to try cramming into the neurolux to see blitzen trapper, who was playing at the same time. sons of guns made a good many fans that night in the red room,
which was just as much of a sweat box as the neurolux must have been. at one point, i stepped out to meet yeti and cez fire, and as i ran back down the alley to the club, someone working on a back dock asked, “is it really that urgent?” “of course, they only got two more songs!” valerie was out again and seemed to love sons of guns just as much as mr. gnome the night before, which says everything in something smaller than a nutshell. the generous boys left two cd’s for her, after we departed back to the crux to see the spyrals. valerie and i had another beer that i surely didn’t need. for sure, i was plenty drunk and have to rely on the treefort schedule and a mp3 recorder as my memories. it is always a shame to see great bands like the spyrals and barely remember much of it. we later saw most of yeah great fine. but in the middle of it, cez-fire and i met some people in a sports bar down the street, coming back for the last couple of songs. some random dude in the street talking to me (this happens everytime i go to boise) then hears ygf launch into the fugazi cover for their final song, and the two of us went running into the crux and managed to be in the first couple of rows. what a weird experience, but then i ended up interviewing the band afterward with all of their original members there and everything. it was quite a reunion. we stayed out another several hours to see pictureplane and etc. because dj yeti had gone home early, we took a taxi back, which cost about $30. not bad, but it was a bit of a miracle we even knew how to direct the driver to the house really. and then phil stole the driver’s cigarettes. the next morning, i felt like i had just fallen asleep when it was time to get up and get back at it.
day three, saturday, march 24
tartufi (3pm), snake rattle rattle snake (4pm), built to spill (8:30pm) on the main stage
and and and (11pm) at the red room
despite the long night out, saturday turned out probably the best day overall. most relaxing for sure. tartufi played early on the main stage, tons of people and an awesome pic of the crowd was posted by eric gilbert.
tried to interview tartufi, but the noise from snake rattle rattle snake drowned most of it out. the good news is that they will stop in la grande on the way to ranch fest on memorial day weekend for a better interview at KEOL! the awesome thing is that snake rattle rattle snake was also stellar.
nice to see these bands from afar places like sf and denver. (actually, that’s relateively close considering a couple bands came from other countries). panda and cez-fire were trying to work out an interview with hillfolk noir, although some various complications in that dj yeti, who had set it up, was back home with serious sickness. it was a futile event, although i heard they had a chance to go to hillfolk noir’s house to do the interview while they changed diapers or something. don’t know how true that scenario was, but i would’ve jumped on that in a heartbeat. panda did eventually track down their drummer jared the next day,
but for the moment, i rescued panda from getting feisty with cez-fire about not having much fun and we disappeared with paul, lindsey, kids and dog to a nice park out of the treefort radiated zone for a couple hours. back at the epi-center, we found snake rattle rattle snake in the linen bldg press room and did a nice interview. even though brainstorm was playing downstairs, we still managed to be heard and some nice little words of advice from them regarding how the scene you create and are a part of is as great as anything anywhere else.
we all disappeared to watch built to spill. panda, phil and i meandered over to the stage, listening from down the street. ordered a joke of a taco that was expensive and took about ten minutes to make. then we moseyed around to the stage and just chilled. that was such a relaxing point and made built to spill sound right at home. about that time i was hit with a bout of dizziness, i guess it could be called, which lasted about until we left to go home. that was my first chance to see built to spill and i am generally a bit leery to see older established bands because they often lose the fire. built to spill, however, really had it that night. it was a cool, breezy, spring night to see the legends from boise jam it out.
the place was packed and hopping. a perfect event really, they ripped it up for a good 45 minutes and then came back for a few encore numbers that kind of fizzled overall. the night pretty much fizzled after that. i bought some stuff from tartufi and snake rattle rattle snake booths and went back to the red room. i watched and and and
while panda, clue and phil and others camped by the entrance. and and and has a new release out for the new era. copies sold only on vinyl and digital download, no cd neccesary. despite that i would have preferred to stay at the red room and watch teens, we headed back to the linen building to wait in line to see araabmuzik, a dj from rhode island. missing a band to wait in line for another an hour later…yeah treefort really got hotter as the weekend wore on. it turned from casual la grande style to pushing through crowds portland style. and for it all, araabmuzik was not that fun. too much of a ecstasy-rave type thing. in fact, the boise djs big ups, who preceded, were considerably more entertaining. so after a few numbers we were back to bed and a nice long sleep ensued.
day four, sunday, march 25
run on sentence (7pm) at the crux; of montreal (8:15) at the main stage
blasted canyons (11pm) at the linen bldg
the next morning, panda and i went to ross, bought some shoes.
we kinda needed them, but really we just need to live near a store like ross. how the hell are we ever supposed to buy anything we need in places like la grande and pendleton? pay out the kazoo, or use online shipping type things? no thanks. go to boise!
the day was a slow moving one. the nice person, megan, who let us use her apartment had been to stay with her boyfriend for the weekend. part of our duty in staying there was that we went to his place out in the nampa country side to have beer and grilled food. so, kind of the way it worked was that we had a free place to stay in exchange for going to have their food and beer. somehow it didn’t add up, but who would turn that down? i had left a bottle of wine that i bought at the boise co-op a few days before, so i feel closer to even on the karma scale. we also watched the kansas jayhawks move into the final four with a win over northa carolina, whilst conducting our remote feed station check in from our nice countryside party spot.
yeah, we missed some concerts, and while it maybe would have been nice to see wild ones or art fad, i was pretty concerted out. even a band that i had really loved watching a few months before, run on sentence,
seemed to have a different feel amidst the huge and somewhat tiring spectacle. during run on sentence set, i called matt from blasted canyons to arrange and interview. he asked me to come over and, cutting out all the weirdness that went with it, dj yeti and i were at their hotel room half an hour later. what a great band, but not even close to the commercial nature or even niceities of most other bands. they said how they felt and didn’t hold back. it was, in short, a really unique and awesome experience and quite a great interview came from it. certainly the longest interview I aired. we didn’t have much going on until their set at 11:00, so we walked in to watch some of of montreal, a band which matt said “destroyed music.” and as i had felt prior to built to spill, a bit apprehensive walking in to see such an established act with so many people enamoured by it. it’s not my usual type of concert. to be fair, of montreal wasn’t awful, certainly the stage show was worth watching, but after about 20 minutes i had seen more than enough. and panda had no issues with leaving early, saying, “the singer looks just like the singer from a.f.i.” i would say most of us were fine with the more unique, less advertised acts. and that certainly was blasted canyons. the last band i saw of the festival was worth watching no matter
how tired we were by the end of he fourth day. one of the best bands all the way around. having met thm before hand helped. the dynamics of the personailty differences, the changing off of instruments every song, the no frills, sheer force of the straight in your face, but not overly aggressive was exactly the kind of band i always crave. melodic and pushy, these guys knew how to rock and had a good time without being goofy about it.
starting with aaron mark brown/buffalo death beam and ending blasted canyons, finally getting to see old death whiper, mr. gnome, tim blood & the gutpanthers, tartufi, seeing our local celebs sons of guns well received in another state, as well as being introduced to a host of other fun music, treefort had everything anyone could want in a festival (except reasonable tacos). not too big, but still pretty big. everything perfectly executed.
after two songs from the back of the stage of the brett netson band, i was whisked away by the team ready to end the trip. the beauty was that the trip ended where it started. we stopped in nampa on the way and I finally got that interview with aaron
mark brown while eating lunch with him and my buddy paul. visited aaron’s wife’s ceramic craft store, puffy mondaes, and then embarked on a long trip home. the trip getting home always seems longer, especially when going to work that night. you never really want times like that to end. i could have fun like that all day everyday. but the brighter side there is that spring has only sprung and there will surely be more good times like that to go around for the next few months… may day is now only a week and a half or so away. so let’s not dispair. just take the good times when they come and look back at all the pictures, videos, interviews and other cool mementos we got to take away.
rock and roll. long live it.
treefort 2012. thanks for reading. peace out.
this blog has been a couple weeks coming, but there was a lot to sift through!
myself and a few other djs at keol promoted to death the festival known as treefort and, for all the hype, treefort did not disappoint. treefort was a multivenue music festival that brought more than 130 live music acts during four days in late march into the treasure valley captial city of boise, idaho. such an event was uncharted territory for this part of the world. the northwest, as far as the media, and even the rock and roll biz, is largely concerned, mostly only traverses between portland, seattle and vancouver. beyond the cascade mountains, though eastern oregon, eastern washington, idaho, montana are still the homes of nomadic, homesteaders with no cultural life to speak of … or so you may have thought. that perception gets a jolt of culture and such backwoods stereotypes will undoubtedly change with more events like treefort. every participant seemed to be giving thanks to eric gilbert and the good people in finn riggins, and so must i. finn riggins has shown the love for la grande time and time again and were gracious enough to allow keol and la grande life a good view of the procedings. finn riggins has been one of the biggest ambassabors of the boise music scene. over the past five years, they have worked endlessly to make boise a consistent presence on the on the national radar and treefort 2012 was the epic culmination of months and months of grueling work to organize a sxsw type event for the northwest. since sxsw is such a huge deal, too huge actually, thousands of bands are out on early spring tours, so it seemed only logical to capitalize on the timing and get some of those touring bands and a variety of local acts together into idaho’s intimate capital city!
most significantly, treefort was held as a benefit fund raiser for radio boise
89.9 fm, a radio station launched last year as a community free form station. i am guessing they collected quite a few coins because treefort turned out bigger than probably even the city of boise could’ve expected. huge, chart topping bands like built to spill, of montreal and blitzen trapper played treefort, but also so did lots of dirty rock and rollers that i played on the rabble rouser show for weeks leading up to treefort. myself, dj yeti, dj cez-fire and dj clue picked about ten acts each that we would try to track down and interview for keol. from the best times of a four day frenzy, i have compiled this blog/podcast to memorialize the great weekend that was. with thanks to eric, lisa, and cameron for all their hard work in promoting the idaho music industry, it was really a magical experience. to hear excerpts of my shows containing the interiews, click here.
to hear my rabble rouser hour podcast for the month april dedicated to treefort, click here.
day one (thurs, march 22)
all along, day one looked the most promising and it turned out to be as hoped for. what i didn’t adequately plan for was all the hustling that day would involve. finn riggins started out the festivities by playing live at the neurolux at 6:00 pm. the first keol car pool arrived at our “campsite” near eagle around 4:00pm. by campsite, i mean ultra modern apartment whose tennant, a woman unknown to me named megan, left it free and fully stocked for five of us to use all weekend. thanks to dj yeti for somehow securing that hook-up. yeti drove cez-fire, phil and myself. dj panda had a late final on thursday and she and dj clue met us later that evening.
after checking in at treefort and a short orientation of our surroundings, it was on! the other guys headed straight for the neurolux. the finn riggins show had already started and was quite crowded with a line into the alley, so i did the unthinkable – skipped it and headed for pengilly’s where aaron mark brown was set to perform at 7pm. the venues of treefort encompassed a 12 block by 3 block area in downtown from the freeway entrance to the basque district. pengilly’s was at the far end in the basque district. the red room was on the oppoiste end of main street near the freeway entrance. two of the first day acts i wanted to see and had arranged interviews with played at pengilly’s (a late substitute for a closer venue, the boquet, which is now closed), two others were at the red room and linen bldg. so a few hurried twelve block walks happened in the space of three hours…
aaron mark brown (pengilly’s, 7pm)
walking so much is no big deal for me. i do it everyday, but i just don’t do it so hastily trying to track people down and catch the next act in less than 20 minutes… aaron mark brown helped start the event on a calm note. he’s based out of nampa, a town i have been to many times, where my buddy paul resides and, as it turns out, knows aaron. that makes sense when examining the quaint small town vibe of downtown nampa – never mind that it is surprisingly the second biggest city in idaho. aaron gave a great set of show tune-esque numbers as his cd release party for “realities of grandeur.” aaron was an entertainer, playing barrelhouse type piano and a bit of a brass section on about half the numbers, and rocking out guitar for other singer songwriter type numbers. i could not immediately nail down an interview. with both my frantic pace on the first day, and desire to not to rush performers as they exited the stage, i was more interested in giving musicians time to unwind, load out, grab a beer and that kind of thing. so i trekked all the way back down to the linen bldg to see every bit i could of one of my most favorite bands at the festival – buffalo death beam.
buffalo death beam (linen bldg, 8pm thurs)
regular listeners of the rabble rouser show should be very familiar with buffalo death beam. and while the name sounds uh, deathly, the music is quite the opposite of what you would expect for most of my show, but no doubt i have seen this band three times since september and they have been slightly better each time. they played at juniper jam in enterprise in september, great pacific in pendleton in december and now treefort. and, front man, curt krause, who also has a solo project known as edmund wayne, played in la grande this past february along with correspondence school. after so many encounters, i was glad to finally catch up to them after their performance and chat with them for about 15 minutes. the interview is slightly muddled because holiday friends were playing downstairs, but nonetheless a good talk on the pullman area. here is a video i took of them playing “staff of the shepard” is on youtube.
old death whisper (pengilly’s saloon, 11pm)
after the linen bldg, i trekked back to pengilly’s to see old death whisper. i had never seen them, but was excited enough to not mind missing sallie ford & the sound outside. their singer “rico” called me to set up an interview, which took a bit of finagling to get us both on the same end of main street. once we did hook up, i hung out with rico and chewy primarily, while the other band members stopped and chatted during load in for the show. a good bunch of guys and one of the funniest interviews one is likely to come by. odw did not disappoint on stage either. check em out. and their *new* cd!
dinosaur feathers (11pm) & mr. gnome (midnight) at the red room
during another hike back down to the linen bldg, i couldn’t decide if i wanted to try to squeeze in to catch the end of sallie ford or save some front spots for mr. gnome. the sight of so many people hawking around the linen bldg, kept me walking, right in the back door of the red room to see the end of dinosaur feathers.
they’re a fun party pop synth meets punk band from brooklyn. they stayed around late and had some vinyl for sale, which i purchased, whilst also purchasing most of mr. gnome’s vinyl, until i ran out of money. still need the second album on vinyl…
that makes me wanna go off on a tangent for a minute. this is what i got to say about getting into concerts for free. most club owners feel they must charge admission because otherwise people don’t show up. if there is no charge, it gives the feeling of no value, so people aren’t interested. maybe subliminally, but kid yoshida doesn’t think from a business mindset. i go to free shows because i don’t like crowded shows. from my perspective, it seems stupid to charge admission to a bar that sells drinks. when i don’t pay a cover, i don’t feel ripped off and i buy rounds for all my friends and the bands and spend tons of money. that’s opposite most, but that’s kid yoshida logic. so, since we got free passes and press access, saving me $100 or more, i spent about that much in the red room that night alone. not to mention all the stuff i would go on to buy the next three days. that also reminds me that when tiffany (of buffalo death beam) saw me in the linen bldg she said “nice shirt.” i said, “thanks, you sold it to me.” i wore my buffalo death beam shirt the first two days, until panda made me take it off. but because i protested so much, she said i could wear it again on the fourth day. which i did. hell, back when i bought that shirt in pendleton in early december, i wore it every day until after new year. i love that shirt, mostly because i paid $15 for it. i paid $15 for it because a) it’s a starving artist band and b) they only charged $5 for the cd. in most cases though, i wouldn’t buy a t-shirt. certainly wouldn’t buy one from an arena rock band, or say of montreal. with any other business, i wouldn’t purchase t-shirts because that is effectively paying to advertise for someone else. doesn’t make kid yoshida sense. seriously, do you buy a $15 t-shirt from a band you see for free, or a $40 t-shirt from a band you see for $??? and never even get to talk to? shouldn’t be a trick question. with good people like those at treefort that give so much just because it feels good, i am all about giving back. i spent money and worked hard, but i got lots of value for it. that is all for the tangent. thanks for listening.
saw mr. gnome from up front of a packed house, saved room for panda and the others and even my old friend valerie squeezed in. good friends, good times! after mr. gnome played a show that lived up to my ridiculous amount of hype and then some…i interviewed sam, and then since ryan from dinosaur feathers was still hanging out, i got to interview him too! two for the price of one! came hoping for four interviews on the first day, and got four! one that i didn’t expect and didn’t get one that i expected, but i lined up with aaron mark brown for a later date, which would turn out to be on our way home as a stop in nampa…
day two, friday, march 23
this is where things become cloudy and mashed together. but oh what a time it was.
made it back into the city around 6:00. i didn’t see k. flay on the main stage, which i later seemed to regret as the buzz was that she was a white girl that could rap for realz. instead i fluttered about the linen bldg watching some of sister crayon, but actually spending more time outside in the ale fort. i ended up drinking several beers that day, though overall, i am not sure i ended up getting my money’s worth, but it went to a good cause to keep boise’s brewerys in the spotlight. the deal was $25 for a cup that was good inside the tent for the three remaining days. i certainly spent more inside the respective venues on different kegs of the same beers! such as, at the crux, where panda and i strolled next.
deaf kid (8pm) & tim blood & the gut panthers (9pm) at the crux
sons of guns (10pm) at the red room
the spyrals (11pm) & yeah great fine (midnight) at the crux
we planned to see cat massacre and get an interview, but they were a late scratch and their guitarist dominic munoz’s other bad deaf kid played instead. they weren’t the tightest band in the treefort lineup, but still kept the crowd revved up. had the motors not already been warm by the time tim blood & the gutpanthers rolled on, the crowd would have have been blown right past. well, that happened anyway, but at least we had a chance to revel in the fun of it all for a minute. a short set later, i was interviewing tim blood on the sidewalk outside.
in about ten minutes, he had given more than enough stories to ensure a landslide victory in the rabble rouser of the month voting the next weekend.
the beauty of day two was that the red room was now only half as far of a walk from the crux as it had been from pengilly’s. and back to the epicenter of the excitement we went for sons of guns. there aren’t enough times in one life to see sons of guns. even though we can see them in la grande a couple times a year, there was still no reason to try cramming into the neurolux to see blitzen trapper, who was playing at the same time. sons of guns made a good many fans that night in the red room,
which was just as much of a sweat box as the neurolux must have been. at one point, i stepped out to meet yeti and cez fire, and as i ran back down the alley to the club, someone working on a back dock asked, “is it really that urgent?” “of course, they only got two more songs!” valerie was out again and seemed to love sons of guns just as much as mr. gnome the night before, which says everything in something smaller than a nutshell. the generous boys left two cd’s for her, after we departed back to the crux to see the spyrals. valerie and i had another beer that i surely didn’t need. for sure, i was plenty drunk and have to rely on the treefort schedule and a mp3 recorder as my memories. it is always a shame to see great bands like the spyrals and barely remember much of it. we later saw most of yeah great fine. but in the middle of it, cez-fire and i met some people in a sports bar down the street, coming back for the last couple of songs. some random dude in the street talking to me (this happens everytime i go to boise) then hears ygf launch into the fugazi cover for their final song, and the two of us went running into the crux and managed to be in the first couple of rows. what a weird experience, but then i ended up interviewing the band afterward with all of their original members there and everything. it was quite a reunion. we stayed out another several hours to see pictureplane and etc. because dj yeti had gone home early, we took a taxi back, which cost about $30. not bad, but it was a bit of a miracle we even knew how to direct the driver to the house really. and then phil stole the driver’s cigarettes. the next morning, i felt like i had just fallen asleep when it was time to get up and get back at it.
day three, saturday, march 24
tartufi (3pm), snake rattle rattle snake (4pm), built to spill (8:30pm) on the main stage
and and and (11pm) at the red room
despite the long night out, saturday turned out probably the best day overall. most relaxing for sure. tartufi played early on the main stage, tons of people and an awesome pic of the crowd was posted by eric gilbert.
tried to interview tartufi, but the noise from snake rattle rattle snake drowned most of it out. the good news is that they will stop in la grande on the way to ranch fest on memorial day weekend for a better interview at KEOL! the awesome thing is that snake rattle rattle snake was also stellar.
nice to see these bands from afar places like sf and denver. (actually, that’s relateively close considering a couple bands came from other countries). panda and cez-fire were trying to work out an interview with hillfolk noir, although some various complications in that dj yeti, who had set it up, was back home with serious sickness. it was a futile event, although i heard they had a chance to go to hillfolk noir’s house to do the interview while they changed diapers or something. don’t know how true that scenario was, but i would’ve jumped on that in a heartbeat. panda did eventually track down their drummer jared the next day,
but for the moment, i rescued panda from getting feisty with cez-fire about not having much fun and we disappeared with paul, lindsey, kids and dog to a nice park out of the treefort radiated zone for a couple hours. back at the epi-center, we found snake rattle rattle snake in the linen bldg press room and did a nice interview. even though brainstorm was playing downstairs, we still managed to be heard and some nice little words of advice from them regarding how the scene you create and are a part of is as great as anything anywhere else.
we all disappeared to watch built to spill. panda, phil and i meandered over to the stage, listening from down the street. ordered a joke of a taco that was expensive and took about ten minutes to make. then we moseyed around to the stage and just chilled. that was such a relaxing point and made built to spill sound right at home. about that time i was hit with a bout of dizziness, i guess it could be called, which lasted about until we left to go home. that was my first chance to see built to spill and i am generally a bit leery to see older established bands because they often lose the fire. built to spill, however, really had it that night. it was a cool, breezy, spring night to see the legends from boise jam it out.
the place was packed and hopping. a perfect event really, they ripped it up for a good 45 minutes and then came back for a few encore numbers that kind of fizzled overall. the night pretty much fizzled after that. i bought some stuff from tartufi and snake rattle rattle snake booths and went back to the red room. i watched and and and
while panda, clue and phil and others camped by the entrance. and and and has a new release out for the new era. copies sold only on vinyl and digital download, no cd neccesary. despite that i would have preferred to stay at the red room and watch teens, we headed back to the linen building to wait in line to see araabmuzik, a dj from rhode island. missing a band to wait in line for another an hour later…yeah treefort really got hotter as the weekend wore on. it turned from casual la grande style to pushing through crowds portland style. and for it all, araabmuzik was not that fun. too much of a ecstasy-rave type thing. in fact, the boise djs big ups, who preceded, were considerably more entertaining. so after a few numbers we were back to bed and a nice long sleep ensued.
day four, sunday, march 25
run on sentence (7pm) at the crux; of montreal (8:15) at the main stage
blasted canyons (11pm) at the linen bldg
the next morning, panda and i went to ross, bought some shoes.
we kinda needed them, but really we just need to live near a store like ross. how the hell are we ever supposed to buy anything we need in places like la grande and pendleton? pay out the kazoo, or use online shipping type things? no thanks. go to boise!
the day was a slow moving one. the nice person, megan, who let us use her apartment had been to stay with her boyfriend for the weekend. part of our duty in staying there was that we went to his place out in the nampa country side to have beer and grilled food. so, kind of the way it worked was that we had a free place to stay in exchange for going to have their food and beer. somehow it didn’t add up, but who would turn that down? i had left a bottle of wine that i bought at the boise co-op a few days before, so i feel closer to even on the karma scale. we also watched the kansas jayhawks move into the final four with a win over northa carolina, whilst conducting our remote feed station check in from our nice countryside party spot.
yeah, we missed some concerts, and while it maybe would have been nice to see wild ones or art fad, i was pretty concerted out. even a band that i had really loved watching a few months before, run on sentence,
seemed to have a different feel amidst the huge and somewhat tiring spectacle. during run on sentence set, i called matt from blasted canyons to arrange and interview. he asked me to come over and, cutting out all the weirdness that went with it, dj yeti and i were at their hotel room half an hour later. what a great band, but not even close to the commercial nature or even niceities of most other bands. they said how they felt and didn’t hold back. it was, in short, a really unique and awesome experience and quite a great interview came from it. certainly the longest interview I aired. we didn’t have much going on until their set at 11:00, so we walked in to watch some of of montreal, a band which matt said “destroyed music.” and as i had felt prior to built to spill, a bit apprehensive walking in to see such an established act with so many people enamoured by it. it’s not my usual type of concert. to be fair, of montreal wasn’t awful, certainly the stage show was worth watching, but after about 20 minutes i had seen more than enough. and panda had no issues with leaving early, saying, “the singer looks just like the singer from a.f.i.” i would say most of us were fine with the more unique, less advertised acts. and that certainly was blasted canyons. the last band i saw of the festival was worth watching no matter
how tired we were by the end of he fourth day. one of the best bands all the way around. having met thm before hand helped. the dynamics of the personailty differences, the changing off of instruments every song, the no frills, sheer force of the straight in your face, but not overly aggressive was exactly the kind of band i always crave. melodic and pushy, these guys knew how to rock and had a good time without being goofy about it.
starting with aaron mark brown/buffalo death beam and ending blasted canyons, finally getting to see old death whiper, mr. gnome, tim blood & the gutpanthers, tartufi, seeing our local celebs sons of guns well received in another state, as well as being introduced to a host of other fun music, treefort had everything anyone could want in a festival (except reasonable tacos). not too big, but still pretty big. everything perfectly executed.
after two songs from the back of the stage of the brett netson band, i was whisked away by the team ready to end the trip. the beauty was that the trip ended where it started. we stopped in nampa on the way and I finally got that interview with aaron
mark brown while eating lunch with him and my buddy paul. visited aaron’s wife’s ceramic craft store, puffy mondaes, and then embarked on a long trip home. the trip getting home always seems longer, especially when going to work that night. you never really want times like that to end. i could have fun like that all day everyday. but the brighter side there is that spring has only sprung and there will surely be more good times like that to go around for the next few months… may day is now only a week and a half or so away. so let’s not dispair. just take the good times when they come and look back at all the pictures, videos, interviews and other cool mementos we got to take away.
rock and roll. long live it.
treefort 2012. thanks for reading. peace out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)