Earlier this week sat down at the kitchen table and noticed a single banana with a phone number written on it in Sharpie.

I'll get to the banana in a minute, cause whoops life got away from me yet again.

The Ocean of Stars set last Thursday was fucking AWESOME! Yeah it was loose but the fact that it happened and with the individuals involved, just wow. And so good to finally be doing SOMETHING with that music. Still need to call Adrian, Heather and JRAB to thank them again for taking the time to do that. Got lots of really really good feedback. Have yet to watch the video or listen to the recording from my 8 track. Real curious to see how it sounds.

Photos courtesy of Kristy Duff Wallace







Photos by Yours Truly

Looking For Bucho (Deanna and Jason from Velvet Brick)



Adrian and the Sickness



Adrian Conner rocks out Kristin Crowfire (Sabbath Crow)





Ironclad canceled that night, official statement was a last minute family obligation. Didn't put a damper on a great night of music tho. Was also great to see so many people I haven't seen in a long time.

Had a rare weekend off. Spent Friday night basically doing fuck all. Saturday night went out with some friends. Saw a not so good band at Dirty Dog. Walking down Red River found out Melvins were at Emo's. Shit. I need to do better recon for weekends off, tired of missing shit. And wish me and aforementioned friends had gone to that show instead. Would like that half-hour back from watching that other band. Still a fun night tho.

Sunday evening had an impromptu gathering/bbq for Mike's birthday. Small gathering of friends and family (my friends ARE family). Good times and great food. I'm a damn good bbq cook for not really knowing what the hell I'm doing other than keep the grill going and try not to burn shit. Good times with good people.

Here's where the banana comes in: so the banana has taken on a life of its own in the last week, that mystery phone number akin to the number sequence from 'Lost'. Long story short, the number was originally written on a paper plate who knows how long ago. Mike and Marcus (our houseguests from the band Mastery) had to use the plate but didn't want to discard the number, so they wrote it on something that wouldn't be absentmindedly thrown away. So they wrote it on a banana. Crazy fucking Canadians, heh.

Now the phone number has been popping up on weirder and weirder random objects around the house. We even sent a pic of the banana to the phone number it belongs to but no response. We don't know who it is. So anyway, at the BBQ Deanna's friend Erin comes outside with a tampon wrapper, hands it to Deanna and laughs "Look what I found!!!" A lady friend of mine wrote the number on one of D's aforementioned lady accessories and meant it for her, not knowing how long it would take to surface. But with perfect comedic timing it was found in a matter of days and in front of a bunch of people who would fully appreciate the humor in it. And it was most appreciated!

Good times with my weird friends, heh!

ETB last night at Friends was pretty good. Still tinkering with the Fulltone Bass Drive I recently bought. Not 100% liking it over the Big Muff clone I built but has some handy features. Still trying to dial it in. Thought about returning it and cloning it, but with both my guitar and bass wah-wah pedals acting up figure you can never have too many fully-functional pedals. Also last night Eric was filling me in on the new publicist he will be working with. Sounds like it could be huge for us. Awesome.

Tomorrow morning ETB on KLBJ morning show, bout 8:30am!!!

Just got in from sit-down jam with Heather Webb for the Ocean of Stars set, but will get to that in a minute.

Began my evening last night squeezing a sliver of aluminum from my palm shortly before the ETB set at Friends last night. My pedalboard's aluminum trim is pretty banged up from 5+ years of hard use. Picked up the lid and OW. Quickly realized whatever poked me was still in my hand, and we were on in five minutes. Managed to squeezed it out manually as Tessmer was fishing me out a pair of needle nose pliers. Very good show last night, great crowd and we felt tight as hell. Mondays like that are always awesome.

The weekend of ETB CD release shows in Houston and Corpus was great. Was already feeling burned out and used up Wednesday morning as I headed down a few days early for my mom's retirement party. Got to see a lot of close and extended family whom I haven't seen in awhile due to either time constraints or geography.

Felt better for the drive Friday to meet up with ETB in Humble (NE of Houston). Weird little town in the middle of nowhere and pines. Rock, Wine and Blues was a great venue. Good sized venue, nice system, good stage, friendly staff. Had a really good crowd and a really great show. Def the best show I believe I've ever had in Houston. Lots of nice people and hungry fans, lots of shots as well, heh! Mariah the Merch Girl Extraordinaire sold $600 in shwag. Holy shit! Very profitable weekend so far! Stayed with friends as rest of band went to provided hotel rooms.

Saturday in Corpus was also pretty good. Dr. Rockit's downtown, believe I saw a band there recently. Small little stage, had to rearrange some drum mics so they wouldn't be knocked over. Had family there for the first set, which makes me a little shy for some reason, heh. Had fun tho. While Tessmer was doing his crowd walk this weird drunk/meth'ed out older lady sauntered up to him and rocked out like any other drunk fan. But then she put her arms around him and grabbed him from behind. Tried not to laugh my ass off when Tessmer freaked out and threw his arms up and shuffled away like a chimp trying to avoid a net. I joined him at the bar for a drink (mid song still) when guess who comes up? Tessmer made himself scarce, leaving her with me. Dick, heh! As I made a quick exit she grabbed my ass. Would have been funny if it had not been so sad. She was soon escorted out of the bar. Heard she peed herself as well, but that has not been substantiated.

That was the first set. Onstage about to start the second set Tessmer downed a shot of Crown, then got a weird look on his face and shuffled over to me: "Dude, I am shitfaced!" Nice! Other than forgetting the occasional lyric you wouldn't have heard it in his playing. But load out was great, with Tessmer jokingly lobbing insults in all directions. Believe he told me he hated my face, among other things. Rare to see him that shit hammered, but at least he's a funny drunk. After load out I went home while he rode the 60's Schwinn bike he got at a roadside flea market downtown until 5am, Mariah in tow to keep him from falling over. Good times.

Sunday was slated for double duty for me: ETB doing an early set at Antone's for the Austin Blues Society, then a Sahm Cover Sahm set with Shandon at Saxon Pub later that evening. So that meant waking up early (got home at 3:30am) and hauling ass back to Austin ASAP to be at Antone's by 4pm. This was gonna be close, and three separate vehicles to make it that much more logistically tricky. So an hour from Austin with an hour to get there Tessmer finally hears from Richard (taking separate vehicle): "Just woke up. I am sorry".

On the plus side I was able to take my time getting home and settled in taking a quick nap before heading to Saxon. But on the negative side canceling an important show like that an hour before set time and the fans that paid $15 to see just US and then not seeing us, not so much. But it's all good and won't be happening again.

ANYWAY

The jam with Heather went great, showed her everything she needed to know before full band rehearsal in 3 hours... She filmed some of it so she could review the tape and get the part. I joked "Is this going to make it into a video blog?!?" heh. Adrian and the Sickness have been doing a series of Video Blogs that are great. Would post links if had time.

Had to scramble to find a room last minute, St Elmo Music Lab booked solid. Shit. Asked JRAB about using RAZR13's room, but would take him a few hours to know if was available. Texted Deanna about Velvet Brick's room, but not surprisingly they were practicing tonight instead of usual Wednesday. Shit. Could reserve room at Oltorf Music Lab but would still owe if I backed out last minute. But the RAZR13 room came through, which will also save me some money on it. (Would have been about $50 to rent an hourly, but RAZR's room is half that as a bro deal. Thanks, Big Mike).