Something new, as of
2 Nov 2009
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Gigs at
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4 Sept 2009: Jim & Warren shakin' it up -- down by the San Clemente pier. video clip: Jim & Warren bash through Wilco's 'Side with the Seeds' at the Mission Viejo Borders, 16 Aug 2008. Borders cafe 'residencies' Our Borders dates are now wired into the following monthly pattern:
After much head-scratching, I reverted to the Forest & PCH intersection, and commandeered a section of concrete bench directly facing the ice cream shop. There's a big trash receptacle at left that sets it back slightly from the intense foot-traffic. Tentative solo Loop Station efforts proceeded unchallenged, so when Jim arrived we stood there, and launched in, at which time I turned up some, and then a fair bit... Miraculously, we remained unmolested -- except at some point the quiet music from inside the ice cream shop got a lot louder -- as if to say "Thank you so much for your music, and here's some of ours for you!" Little do they know, it's actually quite annoying... which might be the point, I suppose, except that their music is often (always?) very loud in the evenings. 
First shakedown of my new Roland Mobile Cube, which is quite a nice little rig, and which looks more like a boombox than a guitar amp (one of the reasons for selecting it), and which even has a separate mic channel... it wasn't obvious how to get it to sound Right this afternoon, though. It seemed to need some encouragement from my overdrive pedal, though part of the reason for buying it was to have a more pristine clean sound than the Pignose could ever serve up...[?] The acoustics at this spot are also very different than in our little alcove across the street.So where to play next time..?! I guess we just don't know. There's always The Alley up by Bouchard's Pharmacy, though it's generally well occupied, and we'd probably be displacing Richard, at least... and it seems too far away from The Center of the Action. There's also the other alley right off PCH, where we used to play... probably worth a shot again. Lots of people do stream by there, and there may be no one to complain, but we did get shut down there by the boys in blue, two years ago, for the same reason... There are two other factors that makes the above moot, as we learned from the Aussie-born police officer who dropped by to let us know that 1. Someone had called in a complaint about us. 2. A city ordinance prohibits the playing of amplified music on the streets -- not loud music, amplified music. He readily agreed that my guitar needs amplification to be audible, and seemed willing to consider that my guitar wasn't necessarily loud, while insisting that it was nonetheless amplified, and noting that best practices require equal enforcement of the law. I took his parting admonition to be constructive, especially considering that the gallery was due to close in a few minutes: "So, figure it out." So... we played on, first with the Pignose off, then on quietly, and then at normal volume. We saw our patrolman three more times as he made his nearby rounds, but he paid no further attention to us. Nonetheless, were we to set up in the same spot again, it seems inevitable that another call would be placed, and a peace officer would be dispatched. At some point, they might just run us out of town on the proverbial rail, or even arrange for to us spend the night in the slammer. Haven't done that in awhile... I also did a little opening show with the Loop Station... just playing along to the E B A B A progression I'd put down on Wednesday. There are any number of ways to play along with that, and a combination of 6ths and 5ths seems especially evocative. It got the attention of a couple of the locals, including mad melodicist Keisha, who pronounced it "hypnotic". It was hard to stop, but eventually I was just hearing too much repetition. 'Cerulean Blue' turns out to be another especially good candidate for looping, and I'm just scratching the well-known surface, obviously... Another visitor: a 40-ish woman pulled in by something that Jim was singing... ('Comes A Time', perhaps?). "You have a beautiful voice!" she exclaimed, to an abashed Jim. She pleaded for some CSN or Fleetwood Mac, but we served up 'Into the Mystic' instead, which she (and George R.) seemed to appreciate very much. She then told a wild story of how airplay was purchased for Guns 'n Roses' first hit 'Sweet Child of Mine' (instead of for a great song from her husband's band). She took our card, so I'm pretty sure that she's going to Put Us On The Map. 
As Jim pointed out, this was our first gig with a PA, (and our first Borders gig) in three months. In other words, we've been playing the Laguna Beats sidewalk gigs almost exclusively. So... it's very good to have a PA... as it sure helps with the singing... I'm essentially inaudible without one, and Jim finds it all-but essential on certain songs, notably 'Space Oddity' and 'Perfect Day'. Still, certain restrictions may apply, and we found ourselves sharing my AKG C-1000 condenser mic, which seems like a big step up from the typical dynamic mic to me, especially for my just-barely-there voice.Special guest: the unsurpassably good-natured Ms. Sarah Rohrer, who shot pics and video. We managed to recover (more or less) several songs that have eluded our attention lately ('Cruel to Be Kind', Side with the Seeds', 'Mary', 'Gently Weeps', and even the all-but lost 'Waiting In Line'...) ...and I think we managed pretty good takes on a few, including 'Let It Be', 'No Matter What', and 'Into the Mystic'. A highlight for me: a relatively tight reading of 'Space Oddity', with especially strong vocals from Jim. I dropped in early, thinking it might be righteous to run through a few tunes solo on tinwhistle before launching into the J&W program. It was a bit more challenging than I'd hoped to actually play the tunes correctly... the likes of 'Banish Misfortune' (asking for trouble), 'Blue Skies' (got it down). 'Red Red Robin', 'Greensleeves', 'The Wm. Tell Overture' (frightening), and a couple of other Irish tunes... but at least I don't have any special mechanical difficulty -- as I did before having my finger partly straightened-out. But then the gallery gal-manager appeared, clomping down the little stairwell to announce that the gallery had expanded on the 2nd floor, and that sound was really "echoing" in the rooms, and "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to relocate." This seemed like an all-but tragic development to me, coming on the heels of a similar suggestion at North Lake, of all venues. Perhaps because she seemed almost reluctant to completely ruin our career, I suggested, "Perhaps it would help if we made a point of not playing this particular instrument...!", thinking how silly that must sound, considering that one of our other instruments is an amplified electric guitar.... as she once pointed out to me... Against all odds, she replied, "Well... maybe that would do the trick...". Very shortly Jim appeared, and before long we were making a considerable racket, surely beyond any reasonable art gallery standards, and yet, she did not re-appear. Perhaps she could be my new girlfriend. ...and let's hope she never reads this. There certainly were fewer people pounding the pavements, despite how warm it was (I could not stand to keep my shoes on), which must have everything to with the cessation of both the Festival of Art / Pageant of the Masters and the Sawdust Festival (which spun off from the former in 1963 or so) -- which coincided with Labor Day Wknd. Richard MadLeod stopped to say hello, on his way to set up somewhere. I thought I might seek him out later, but didn't... A little family trouped by soon afterward, with musical instrument cases strapped to their backs... Now song: 'The Weight' - with us singing alternating verses -- inspired by the very good performance of this song by The Edge, Jack White, and Jimmy Page at the end of the movie 'It Might Get Loud' (it did). This song also reminds me of the Imaginary Sidewalk Band, which failed to launch a decade ago. It was to have been Keith, Dave and Jon Perry, and myself. ISB is just my pet name for this doomed project. Most memorably for me, Jim launched into a compelling riff from out of nowhere, which kicked off one of our best-ever jams, this time full of wonderfully off-kilter intervals and quirky rhythms... running on for 10 minutes, probably. When we finally wrapped it, we suddenly heard else was going on -- a chimey bluegrass tune from the musical family that was now comfortably set up on the corner, with an open mandolin case collecting money as if by some kind of magical theft. We'd been playing for more than two hours, so we closed out with 'Space Oddity', which seemed even more unreal than usual against the backdrop of 'Old Joe Clark' rolling out of the (loud) banjo. I felt like we were really putting the song over, though, and it reminds me of how much I love playing this song (and how hard it is to remember its not-exactly-simple chord progression). And then I sat down near -- but not quite right next to -- the family bluegrass band, and essentially had a little workshop in playing tinwhistle in the key of A major, not something I'm otherwise inclined to do. It was quite disorienting at first, but I just kept after it (quietly, so that the band didn't need to make a place for it), and I could feel the patterns starting to get 'printed', which is, in part, a series of images of what the notes 'look like' on the whistle... along with their numerical values, and what critical intervals 'look like'. Anyhow, it was a breakthrough, though I'd have to spend a lot more time there to really feel at ease in this key. Playing whistle is about as different from playing guitar as can be, which must be part of why I'm so attracted to it. More! 
We were allied, at least in spirit, with the health care rally in the adjacent park, which maa actually attended, while we blasted off a few songs, mostly big ones like 'Side With the Seeds', 'No Matter What', and 'Gently Weeps'... though we kicked it off with Jim's lovely composition 'Summer of Love'.Special factors: a troupe of nubile dancing girls, seemingly unaware of their bikinis' valiant but futile efforts to contain their generous tops and bottoms... and the roaring Metrolink and Amtrak trains, just 100' behind us... and the legendary Doc Fret, who rocks out on the nearby pier with electric gtr, loop station, Fender Amp Can, and another portable amp (when he's not busy applying his very own 'Fret-a-Cure' procedure to someone's needy guitar). Disconcerting fact: even thought we didn't start up till nearly 7pm, it just didn't seem right that the air was so warm -- especially for being a stone's throw from the Pacific Ocean. Surprise guest: George Reasons, looking somewhat cleaned up, but waxing as incoherently as ever... which includes, I'm afraid, his oft-repeated announcement to passers-by: "He's the best guitarist in Laguna!" It did give me an odd taste of the danger -- that I've so far only heard about -- of starting to 'actually believe one's own hype'. I have to admit that seeing George enjoy my playing (and he can be very demonstrative) did make me feel motvated to actually become as good as he thinks I am (at least when he's drunk). George also thoughtfully reached over and turned up both the gain and the level on my OD-808 stompbox, and jacked the volume on the Pignose, so much that I couldn't back off the volume pedal enough to compensate... No sign of our friend Richard MacLeod this time, but a large girl was singing hugely across the street, to some kind of backing tracks. Later she was joined by a kid drummer -- with a small but fairly loud kit -- and a kid on an acoustic guitar (and painted-on-tight kid-sisters-pants) -- much to the dismay of the dark-haired Fingerhut Gallery gal -- whose doors face directly toward them (next to the ice cream shop. By the time we got a closer look, the large gal was gone and the guys were banging out some homemade hiphop-tinged songs. They were still at it (not busted) an hour later, even though we hear tell of a new Aussie cop on the beat, who is friendly, but not sympathetic to loud music on the street (or maybe just to amplified guitars?)... We realized that we could arrive early and play out in the plaza between Broadway and Sycamore -- which must have been part of 2nd St. at some time in the past. We set up a little ways past the Gypsy Den's fenced-in 'patio', on that same side. We had a lot of fun and managed to get a few people so pause for awhile. A young hispanic fellow named Chris strolled up with his acoustic Takamine gtr, and attempted to play along. He was way out of tune, but was being very discrete, so I tuned his guitar up to Jim's, and encouraged him to play along. I noticed that on 'Hey Jude', at least, he was strumming the chords confidently. He busted into the Doors' 'Roadhouse Blues' at one point, and we made him teach us the signature lick, to which he graciously complied. At some point Jim suggested 'Heart Full of Soul', which seemed out of reach, but it's so much fun to play, and there seemed to be nothing to lose. Thanks to some additional attention to the sig-riff lately, I was able to play it much better than usual, and the vocal even sounded pretty good... owing at least in part to my experimental swapping-in of my AKG C-1000 small-diaphragm condenser mic. Its greater sensitivity (compared to Jim's dynamic mics) seems to allow me to step back a bit from the mic, thus getting much less of the 'proximity effect' woofy bass that makes my vocals for 'Was Not There' and 'Miss Misery' so... miserable. 
We also had a pretty strong run-through of 'Teacher' right afterward, and a little later, a personal best-ever effort with 'Four Seasons' ("...our only Vivaldi song"). Somewhere along the line, a sharp-looking young woman clapped enthusiastically for one of those song, and then for most every song, which triggered the homework girls to start doing so too, not to mention a few other people. It changed the game... making it seem suddenly a lot more worth playing. It was hard to stop, but we did, after a modestly rousing reading of 'Hey Jude'. As we were packing up, the young woman responsible for our happy ending walked up to us, with her boyfriend. I could then see that she was quite a bit younger (22?) than I'd guessed. She thanked us for playing and said it sounded wonderful, or something like that. Whatever it was, we're going to try to believe it.New song, recently, brought in by Jim: M. Ward's 'One Hundred Million Years'. After we finished a run-through of 'Into the Mystic' (which I think must be one of our best-sounding songs), we were commissioned by a 30-something guy to play a song for him and his girlfriend ("she's really special"), as soon as he re-appeared with her. When he finally did, they graciously endured most of 'Perfect Day', before we busted out the selected 'Hey Jude' and reprised 'Into the Mystic' for them. Our tips hit a record-breaking $30, thanks to a $10 bill, surely from the above-mentioned love-struck guy. 
Very soon after this remarkable outburst, a 40-ish fellow approached stage right, smiled, and said, "You guys are doing a great job." That was helpful. Grown men that we are, we carried on. Yesterday, I called the MV store and spoke to the Sales Mgr, to see about the status of our 'residencies' program, which turns out to be, after all, fiction. The Bob did not bother to communicate this new schedule to the store, apparently, and probably not to any of the other stores either, before he quit altogether. The Sales Mgr. decreed that we would no longer have a regular 4th Saturday gig at the MV store, but he did allow that we could continue to show up every 2nd Saturday -- so J&W and K&W will now share that one 'residency'. Keith would rather play at the Spectrum Ctr. Food Court anyway, at least now that it's warming up, and is lighter longer... I can't resist either. Being Wednesday evening, it was nowhere near as crowded as on a wknd night, when it's thronged with 20-somethings almost as thick as 6th St. in Austin during SXSW (but minus the rock n' roll chaos). So it was just right for us... people strolling by, and occasionally pausing to take in a song or two. Jim arrived first and he set up facing away from the adjacent long pool, perhaps in part because the array of fountains within it were blasting forth (making it very hard to converse)... and also probably because there's a good sized open area beyond the other side of the stage. Even though we managed to get the fountain turned way down later, and there are tables arrayed alongside the pool, I think Jim picked the right orientation, as it allowed people to get close, if they were so inclined, as a few proved to be.... 
...like the slender and lovely long-haired mom who turned that space into a world-class dance floor, for her and her toddler, as we bashed our way through 'Heart Full of Soul', hanging on for dear life... If there are sights more appealing than this, I still can not guess what they are. Please let me know what we can do to make this happen more often, or all the time...!There was one other candidate for Best Thing That Happened, however. A 30-something mom and dad, with their four-yr old (?) daughter camped out on the concrete floor for our very very good (for us) rendition of 'Into The Mystic'. Afterward her dad came up to the stage and told us that when he asked his little girl if she liked the song, she said, "It's sliding into my heart!" We're going to take that as a good thing... a very good thing... Shall we do it again? Perhaps, though it's a stretch for Jim to go this late on a week night. Hoped-for special guest Kyle Kaiser was not able to get away from his studio construction project for producer Jack Joseph Puig. Jim even brought along his Burns Steer and a tiny amp... maybe he'll join us this summer. One other good thing: no money disappeared from the tip jar.
Good news: Jim brought in another great song: Van Morrison's 'Into the Mystic'. Blawg of previous gigs: as far back as Aug 2004 
Gig pics:
Costa Mesa, 23 Feb 07
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RSM, 20 Aug 2005
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La Habra, 7 Nov 2004
OurSpace is YourSpace... Be our friend on MySpace |
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A few LO-Medium-FI recordings... mostly live at Borders...
Not that old......
Jim & Warren's pretty good live cover of The Jayhhawks' Angelyne, 4 Aug 06.
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Free song one
:: Jim & Warren's medium-fi recording of the late Buffalo Springfield classic I Am a Child :: WA: lead vocal, acoustic guitar, tambourine. :: Jim: harmony vocal, acoustic guitar, harmonica. Recorded at JR's Flippen Way studio/den, 31 May 2004. WA's transcription of this song. |
Free song two
New! :: Jim & Warren's medium-fi recording of Rhett Miller's There is a World Inside the World :: Jim: lead vocal, acoustic guitar. :: WA: electric blue guitar, harmony vocal, harmonica. Recorded under a lucky star at the South Coast Plaza Borders cafe, Costa Mesa, CA, 3 Mar 2006. |
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Free song three
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of Nick Lowe's classic (What's so Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding :: Jim: 1st vocal, acoustical guitar. :: WA: 2nd vocal, electrical guitar, harmonica. Recorded dead or alive at the La Habra Borders Cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
Free song four
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of (Buddy and) Julie Miller's lovely Holding Up the Sky :: Jim: lead vocal, acoustical guitar. :: WA: harmony vocal, Ibanez AFS-75 electrical guitar, harmonica. Recorded on the spot at the La Habra Borders Cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
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Free song five
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of the Jim's poststructural space age instrumental Orbit :: Jim: rhythm guitar (Gibson Songwriter). :: WA: melody guitar (Ibanez AFS-75). Recorded while pretending to be a jam band at the La Habra Borders Cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
Free song six
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of Jim's blues-fringed and well-rusticated instrumental Gone :: Jim: rhythm guitar (Gibson Songwriter). :: WA: melody (slide) guitar. Recorded under duress at the La Habra Borders Cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
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Free song seven
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of the Jayhawks' Angelyne :: Jim: lead vocal, acoustical guitar. :: WA: harmony vocal, electrical guitar. Recorded anxiously at the La Habra Borders Cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
Free song eight
:: Jim & Warren's lo-fi live recording of Lou Reed's scary Perfect Day :: Jim: lead vocal, acoustical guitar. :: WA: harmony vocal, electrical guitar. :: Cathy: additional vocals ("...do do do..."). Recorded deleriously at the La Habra Borders Cafe, 6 Nov 2004. |
A few mildly scandalous J&W Set Lists...
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