Back By the Bay

Six days after pulling out of Brooklyn we're back in Berkeley. Day two on the road I decided to challenge myself to drive the entire length of I-80 though Ramona was more than happy to spend some hours behind the wheel. 2,901 miles later we made a victory lap around the Bay: through Berkeley and Oakland, down to Palo Alto to see some friends, up to San Francisco for dinner with my grandma then on to San Anselmo for a barbecue.

The show at Matchless on June 12 was the best way I've ever left town. The Elephant Army played a hell of a set to open the night then Philipp, Elijah, Bill, Drew and I closed it out with a cover of Woody Guthrie/Jeff Tweedy's California Stars off the Mermaid Avenue record. Drew and I sang it as a duet, he was on keys, Bill on mandolin and, of course, Philipp on drums with Elijah on bass. The recording is linked below.

It was an emotional night, but instead of feeling like the end of an era I had the strong feeling that it was a new beginning. I'll be back in New York at least a few times a year and now my friends back there have a reason to come out to the west coast.

First thing I did when we crossed the state line near Truckee, CA was text Drew that I was resting my weary bones underneath California Stars that night.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO OUR VERSION OF CALIFORNIA STARS

digging back

We spent the day outside on Greenpoint Avenue in the ninety five degree humidity with a few friends helping us sell our stuff. Inside boxes have piled above our heads and the shower has no hot water. I'd be all right if I chose to take a cold shower and could control how cold it got, but the water was the kind of cold that burns the back of your head and makes you breathe in sobs.

Tonight I'm listening back over recordings I've made in the last five years since moving out to New York. I wrote the instrumental posted here two years ago when I was living in Tivoli with my friends Michael, Melissa and Giovanni on Route 9G. One night I wasn't sleeping so I loaded Garageband and let her rip. I named the song daddad oped because the guitar was tuned to d-a-d-d-a-d, an open d tuning.

It's not a sound I've messed with too much. I was listening to a lot of Bad Religion and Rage at the time and Michael had played in a bunch of rock bands. I played daddad oped on my Larrivee acoustic guitar so as not to wake up Giovanni, though the sound I heard in the headphones as I played was the distorted metal sound you hear in the recording.

LISTEN TO DADDAD OPED

catch you soon, dog

Ramona and I are gearing up to drive across the country in a week and a half. Reality's beginning to set in as more and more boxes pile up in the apartment and we slowly say goodbye to friends we won't see between now and June 15. Leaving is one of the hardest things we've ever done, though we'll be back about a half a dozen times a year. Picking up and putting distance between ourselves and a life we've grown to love is just as hard this time around as it was when we left the Bay five years ago.

On Thursday, June 12 we're throwing a party called Catch You Soon, Dog at Matchless in Brooklyn. It was at Matchless a year ago where I played my first Brooklyn show with Elijah (on drums) and Yair (on bass). Two Matchless shows to bookend this year in Brooklyn. This time around Philipp Gutbrod will be on the drums, Elijah on bass, Bill Bell on keys and mandolin, and Daniel Bieber sitting in on cello.

The Elephant Army is joining me on the bill on Thursday, a great band whose members I have featured a time or two before on this blog. Drew Nix sings, writes and plays acoustic guitar; Elijah Tucker plays mandolin and drums and writes; and Olentangy John normally plays banjo and writes songs but he won't be there for the Matchless show. Mark Wixom will be on the upright bass.

We played a gig all together this past Monday at Rockwood Music Hall to warm up for the show next week. Our sets were at 11 and midnight so we felt free to let loose and try some new ideas. For Drew and Elijah letting loose meant shots of whiskey and renaming the band Cannibal Apocalypse for one night only.

As a preview of our show at Matchless, below are two recordings from our Rockwood show. The first track is one of my new songs, for new we'll call it "Too Long to Remember." Elijah's on drums, Bill's at the piano and Yair's playing cello. Roberto Fuentes is playing the quatro, a Venezuelan instrument that's easy to confuse with a ukulele. I met Roberto up in Tivoli a few years back when he was acting in a film I was helping some friends produce. He's a phenomenal voice teacher and collaborator with a life that brought him stardom in Venezuela and a contagiously whimsical passion for performing.

The second track is Drew, Elijah, Mark and Bill (Cannibal Apocolypse) rocking Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right Mama," better known as Elvis' first hit single. At first it looked like Elijah was going to play the mandolin, but with some convincing from his bandmates on stage and Yair in the audience he grabbed his sticks and jumped behind the drums.

You can also check out a short clip of our performance of New Paltz Waltz, shot by my old friend, Rebecca Letz, on her cell phone.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO MY NEW SONG, TOO LONG TO REMEMBER

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO CANNIBAL APOCOLYPSE ROCKING ARTHUR CRUDUP'S CLASSIC