WRONG! Rub Wrongways Takes Over Belchertown Saturday. Music and Games Explained.

This Saturday, February 27th, The Rub Wrongways Caravan of Stars is taking over the Black Moon in Belchertown, MA.  They've given us the run of the place.  Possibly their greatest mistake.

We've got five brief sets by five musical acts planned.  School for the Dead, The Fawns, Sitting Next To Brian, Paper Piano (Jason Bourgeois Band), and Matt Silberstein.

We'll plaster the cozy corner stage with instruments and we'll share pieces and members and collaborate and try to bring some nice friendly warm music into the cold February night.

We've got some other stuff planned, too!  Between sets will be playing WRONG!, our personalized version of the ever popular Bingo!.  I've created custom cards and will bring markers for you.  We'll give out prizes to the people who get WRONG! first.  Will it be you?

I'm also planning on creating a custom Mad-Lib for the evening.  So make sure to pack your adjectives, verbs, nouns, plural nouns, adverbs, and exclamations, zoinks.

We'll have the room to ourselves, folks, so come on out and spend the evening with us and let's see if we can turn the dreary February night in to a splendid and friendly memory.

Saturday, February 27, 2010 - Show starts at 9:00.

The Black Moon

37 State st.(rt.202) Belchrtown, MA 01007

(above Dunkin D. next to Checkers)

http://www.myspace.com/blackmoonjazz

The Invisible Cities "Bulldozer" Video

Our good friends, our west coast sister band, The Invisible Cities, have made a wonderful animated video for their song "Bulldozer".  When I was a teenager I used to make animated films like these with my friends.  Ours were never as good as this one, of course.  We were working with an 8mm movie film camera.  It needed so much light that our clay-guys would start to melt.  I'm still trying to locate those old movies.

The Invisible Cities video is really clean and colorful and I can't even imagine the amount of work and thought that went into it.  The backgrounds and foregrounds seem to be cut from colored paper.  My favorite parts are the quick dance-off and the wavy pool.

The song Bulldozer is an unreleased Cities song.  This is the first Ive heard it. I dig it.

The video was directed by Melissa Hung, and is part of the DIY Music Video contest put on by Locus Arts and the Center for Asian American Media. The video with the most views gets into the SF International Asian American Film Festival, so please watch it lots and tell your friends!  Here's a quick link: http://bit.ly/bXPwGE

Budding poet

As I recall, it was at age eight that I began penning my own songs for the first time, usually Beatles-y knock-offs. Now my daughter Hannah, who seems to take after her father in quite a few ways, has really gotten into writing. She keeps a journal, writes stories, songs and poems, etc. On the ride to the bus stop this morning, she said, Hey, Dad, wanna hear a new poem I wrote while I was brushing my teeth?" "Of course!" "Never smile at a crocodile/ For when he opens his jaws, he WILL be vile!"

Weekend Re-Cap (The Caravan Hits the Road Again)

On Friday night, The Rub Wrongways Caravan headed through the winding February roads to Shelburne Falls, MA. The journey was spooky and creepy as we roller-coastered through the undulating farmlands and scraggly ice streams of the Berkshire foot hills. We passed run-down barns, busted-up ancient stone structures, and rusted-out abandoned gas pumps. At one point we came across a hidden compound with large fences and a big sign that said something like, "If you weren't invited, don't even stop." We're not sure exactly what it said because it was too scary to slowdown and read it. Then, we came upon the bridge. It was an old wooden planked structure that spanned fifty feet above a cold rapid-filled river. The shores were pointy stone walls. We stopped at the foot of the bridge which was only one lane wide. Turning back was out of the question. We held our breath and gunned it across the rickety creaking structure.

The Caravan survived. We wound around the hills some more and eventually found a back way into the sleepy little Shelburne Falls.

We were to be opening the night at a movie theater that night. The streets were windy and dark and deserted and once we loaded all our gear into Pothole Pictures, we discovered that there was a double booking problem and we lowered our heads and returned into the street.

Every canceled gig has a silver lining, though, and the stars, undaunted skipped down the street and had a lovely dinner at a below-ground-level eatery.

On Saturday night, The Rub Wrongways Caravan glided up Route 91 to Turner's Falls to play its first ever gig at Rojo's. When we arrived it was night time and there was a kitty on the roof meowing up a storm. Was this an omen? A good sign? Yes it was.

Inside we took over the performance space and squoze in all the contents of the Caravan Trailers. The lights were dimmed and we took the stage just after Jen Holmes who was playing her first ever gig.

(Photo by Debbie Way)
We streamed quickly through a thirteen song set, switching instruments as we went. Occasionally, one or two of us would wonder out into the room to play from there. It was casual and relaxed and we're excited to return.

Now, we're gearing up for the huge Rub Wrongways Night at the Black Moon in Belchertown, MA this Saturday. We'll have five sets from five bands and we'll also be running Wrongways Bingo and Mad-Libs as the night progresses. Yes, there will be prizes. Of course, there will be prizes, the Caravan is taking over the place. You should totally come, dude. It's gonna be righteous.

Promo video

Here's a promo video the wife made for our upcoming show(s) at my school:

V-66, O Positive, and Me

A couple of days ago, I wrote about my experience seeing the band Yes on Monday.  I hadn't seen then in twenty five years.  They were my first big rock concert.  Last night, I had a similar experience.  Last night, I saw O Positive play.  I hadn't seen them in about twenty four years.  They were my first small rock concert.

I grew up in Andover, MA.  While I was attending Andover Public High School, I had a number of friends who attended Phillips Academy in Andover.  Phillips is a swanky private school.  I would often go up there and visit my friends and enjoy the lush greens and ancient brick buildings.  It felt like a college campus.  A nice college campus.

That's where I saw O Positive play.  We knew it was strange at the time that this Boston band was playing in the gymnasium at a private high school in Andover but we all went.  By all, I mean, all of my big circle of friends attended this concert.  It was the first time I had seen a band in a small intimate setting.  I'd only seen giant classic rock bands in stadiums where there are lights and fog and you are sitting about a mile and a half away from the stage.

I don't remember too much about that O Positive show.  I remember running around in circles, because as I said, it was in a gymnasium, and I also remember sitting on the floor in a dark corner and watching the band through the silhouettes of dancing high-schoolers.  I remember they played "the cigarette song" which has a different name that I can't remember and I can't find in thirty seconds on the internet and therefore I will never find.  I also remember that they played "Twist and Shout" which even at the time, and even though I had never been to a rock show, I thought was an unusual  overplayed song for them to do.

Last night, School for the Dead had a strange, strange gig.  We drove to Boston and played one song, to a not-quite-there-yet crowd at House of Blues.  See, there was a V-66 reunion show last night.  V-66 was a non-cable music video channel on the east coast of Massachusetts that aired in the mid 1980's.  I wrote a song called V-66, about that station, in the mid 1990's.  I was contacted by two gentlemen who are making a documentary about that station in the late 2000's.  They had found out about my song online and had come to one of our shows in NYC.  They were interested in talking to me about that station.  Then a few months ago we were asked to play V-66 at this gig that happened last night.  We were to open the show with our V-66 "theme song" and then a series of bands who had videos on that station were to play half hour sets.  One of those bands was O Positive.

The House of Blues is a really beautiful venue.  It's large and airy. The sound and lights were excellent. The staff was professional.  The audience that came out to the show was obviously very excited in their nostalgia for V-66 and the music from the eighties.  I saw a few people who were in eighties looking outfits.  With some of them it was unclear whether or not they had ever changed out of those outfits.  With others, it was obvious that they came dressed in the spirit of the night.  Boston always feel a bit eighties to me anyway.

Due to various unavoidable band member issues, School for the Dead ended up being comprised of Brian and I with Scott Hall on keyboard and Jose Ayerve on bass.  Both of those guest artists did a perfect job playing our song.  Three cheers for Scott and Jose.

Back to O Positive.  They still got it, man.  They played their hits and they played them well, and it was obvious that they are a true band.  I was reminded how much I used to love their records (or the cassette copies that I had of them) and it makes me want to seek them out again.  Some of the other acts, not so great.  But the O pretty much put everyone in their place.

I was sitting on a black wooden box on the edge of the crowded floor in front of the stage when they played.  I was tired from standing all night and, from where I sat, I could just see the band's faces in the lights through the earnestly happy audience.  It was dark in the corner of the room and I sat and watched the band through the silhouettes of the dancing people, just like I did twenty four years ago at that Phillips Academy gymnasium. 

If you took those two moments of my life and placed each one on the end of a towel, then you wrung out all the twenty four years in between, and folded the towel so that those two moments were on top of each other, I bet I'd easily recognize myself.  O positive hasn't change that much over the years, and I guess I haven't either.  Or at least last night, I felt pretty much like the same me that I used to be.

School for the Wait. What?

Due to all kinds of nutty unavoidable reasons, Max, Ken, and Tony are unable to play the one-song show tonight in Boston.  In a mad scramble we have enlisted our two friends Scott Hall (keyboard) and Jose Ayerve (bass).  We've never all played the song together.  Jose is coming down from Maine and Scott is coming from Central Massachusetts.  We'll meet up on the stage and we'll just see what happens.  Both of them are excellent and hard-working musicians so I have complete faith in their playing.  I'm not worried.  I'm more curious as to how it'll all come together.

We're playing at the V-66 Reunion show at the House of Blues in Boston.  We are doing one song only, School for the Dead's "V-66".  But hey, look who else is on this bill!

Time and Some Words About the Band Yes

On Monday night I went to see the band Yes.  Sort of.

It had been twenty five years since I first saw this band.  In fact, the Yes show at The Worcester Centrum for the 90125 tour was my first rock concert ever.  I was already a big fan at that time and I can remember pretty clearly a few distinct details of that show.  I remember the crazy vertiginous feeling of first walking out into the balcony of that stadium, the vast hugeness of the place and the throngs of fans around me.  It was disorienting because up until that point I had pretty much thought that Yes belonged to me and my brothers and my friends.

I can still see the crazy roundish stage and the smoke rising all around it.  I can hear the open giant sound of the murmurs and noises all around before the show.  Their opening act on that night was two Warner Brothers cartoons projected on a giant screen that was lowered from the ceiling.  I remember hearing a thousand people say "gull-a-bull" along with Bugs in the bullfighter episode.

I remember seeing lead singer Jon Anderson accidentally fall into a gaping hole in the stage.  The lights flashed and in that instant I saw his body plummet out of site.  The band vamped for ten minutes or so until he returned.

I remember Chris Squire's lowest bass note in The Fish shaking my seat and settling in my chest.

I remember the entire round light-rack above the stage slowly lowering down over the band at the end of Starship Troopers.

That's pretty good recall for something that happened so long ago.  Obviously, it had an impact on me.

I was a huge fan of that band for many years. I still am, though, I pull out their albums less than I used to.  But once in a while I will play one and I'll sing along with every note, every guitar lick, every weird part.  I'm quite aware of the pomposity of this band.  I'm not oblivious to their goofy new age mystical leanings.  I like it.  I like drum solos.  I like crazy out-there jams.  Or at least I like them when these guys do them.  They'd be a guilty pleasure if I in anyway felt guilty about it.

So, on Monday I went to see them with Lesa and Ken.  They were playing in the theater right in my little town.  It's a fifteen minute walk from my house.  I can actually see the place from where I am sitting right now typing this.  The Calvin Theater is no Worcester Centrum.  It seats around 800 I think.  If that's the case, then on Monday it seated 800 of the biggest Yes fans you've ever seen.

After ever single song there was a standing ovation (slightly less so after Owner of a Lonely Heart their one number post 1980).  The crowd seemed thrilled to have these idols in such a small local place.

I'm still not quite sure how I felt about the show.  I'm having a hard time being unbiased.  See, these guys are kind of like old friends to me.  I was rooting for them.  I wanted them to be awesome.

The band was a slightly strange line-up.  Yes has changed their line-up often over their forty year career.  This one featured three old timers: Steve Howe (guitar), Chris Squire (bass), and Aln White (drums), and two new-timers Oliver Wakemen (Yes keyboardist Chris Wakeman's son on keyboards), and Benoit David (on vocals).  The strangest factor was Benoit David singing in place of longtime Yes singer Jon Anderson.  David had been the lead singer of a Yes tribute band and he was adopted by the band when Anderson's throat started giving him trouble.

Chris Squire seemed to take charge of the show.  If there was a leader, he was it.  But I felt like Steve Howe was the one who still had it together musically the most.  Squire was great but Steve was still stunning with his crazy guitar playing.  I felt bad for Alan White when he had a few sketchy moments on the drums.  All of the songs were slower than they used to be, but the guys just seemed to be having so much fun playing, that I felt like I sort of became part of the band.  I was pulling for them from my seat.  "Come on, Alan, you can do it!"

We are in a strange age with all these aging rockstars.  The Who just played at the Super Bowl the night before this Yes concert.  I enjoyed the Who set, but I'm not convinced that the original members actually had much to do with what I heard. 

And that was the thing with the Yes show.  They didn't play everything as perfectly, or as fast as they used to, but it was them doing it.  If you are gonna keep your career going at that age, I feel like it's only worth-while if you are actually sharing where you're at with the audience.  These guys weren't props in front of a younger band with backing tracks like the Who seemed to be.  These guys were just themselves doing the best that they could to, as Steve Howe said, spread the word on the local level.

And let me tell you, these guys, not playing as amazingly as they used to, still out-played anyone I can think of.  I am glad I went to the show.  I enjoyed it for its great music, its nostalgia, its room full of music lovers, and even its slight sadness.

Here are the boys now:

Here they are in 1968:

WBCN and V66

WBCN.com's Boston Emissions did a show last night in celebration of Thursday's V-66 Reunion show.  As you know, School for the Dead, is appearing at this show to play our song "V-66".  You can listen to the radio show here: Boston Emissions.  Below is a snippet from the page with the play-list included.

boston emissions
2/7/10
guest: woody giesmann of the del fuegos / V66 tribute

ode to V66
face to face - 10, 9, 8
o positive - with you
the fools - world dance party
extreme - mutha (don’t wanna go to school today)
til tuesday - voices carry
ball and pivot - down
the del fuegos - don’t run wild
the del fuegos - I still want you
the del fuegos - coupe de ville
the stompers - never tell an angel
the atlantics - lonely hearts
the neighborhoods - prettiest girl
rods and cones - mistake
treat her right - i think she likes me
the dogmatics - sister serena
…
conservative man - the heist
sidewalk driver - jenny don’t really like the boys
rob potylo - a line of traffic

on the V66 reunion show on Thurs, Feb 11 at House of Blues and upcoming documentary - http://lifeonthev.com

thank you basic cable, rabbit ears, formative years, local hits, lost legends, beer commercials, bridges and basements, reunions, right turns, rockdocs, lost socks, and you for listening.

some of you said tonight’s show was like listening to the old WBCN days, to that I say thank you. I promise to carry on in the same spirit.

Hope you can make it to the concert. 

Doors open at 7pm, tickets are only $20 and it's an18-plus event on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at The House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne Street, Boston, MA .

Tickets are on sale now through Live Nation right here.

Multiple choice

The other day, our family had dinner at Friendly’s restaurant in Ware. They handed us crayons and paper placemats for the kids that had drawings that could be colored as well as a few puzzles to work on. One of the puzzles read, “Which one of these things does not fit?” or something to that effect. There were four pictures: an igloo, a snowman, a man wearing a swimsuit with goggles and holding a beach ball and then a man wearing a snowsuit with a scarf, boots and skis. Towards the bottom of the placemat in small, upside-down letters, you could find the answer to the puzzle, which was that the man in the swimsuit did not fit, ostensibly because the other three pictures were all associated with snow/ice/winter. My daughter Hannah, before reading the answer provided, looked at it and said, “This is easy, Dad- it’s the igloo that doesn’t fit because it’s the only picture that isn’t in the shape of a man.

Super Hero Video - School for the Dead

Here it is, folks. The brand new video from School for the Dead!



Download the song now: iTunes or Amazon
Or find the full CD here.

How best to spend $5.94 today

How best to spend $5.94 today? One idea might be going to iTunes and downloading The Wrong Tree EP! Karma will reward you with a winning scratch ticket later. Even more awesome would be to leave a review. Then it will rain cupcakes, causing you to lose cell coverage in the middle of a very boring and unwelcome phone conversation.

Henning says: This is album is well worth it, folks.  To make things easier, here's a link right to the iTunes page: The Wrong Tree iTunes

Also, if you'd like to read about or get yourself a physical copy of the CD you can do so right here: The Wrong Tree CD

In The Meantime, Hello.

I thought that the Great Mix CD Mix-Up was a huge success.  There were nice performances by Jason Bourgeois, Joshua Crane, Nuclear Waste Management Club, and The Fawns.  The audience was a good size and friendly.  People stood up front and listened and danced.  The CDs came in in droves and people did a great job making very ornate and well though out mixes.  We in the Fawns debuted a new song and we debuted a new version of Robyn Hitchcock's "Another Bubble".  Jangly.

At the end of the night a few people complained to me that although they brought in a number of mixes, there were none left for them.  I guess not everyone heard me when I said to take only as many as you brought.  I guess some people got a little excited.  Sorry about that, to those of you who lost out.  Next year, we'll have to be more explicit.

The show went well as a birthday celebration for Lesa, too.  Everyone sang and really, where does a musician want to be on her birthday?  Playing with her band.  That's where.

So that was January.  The first month of the year is already gone.  February is short and gray and cold but we've got a few events to shed a little light into your month.  Look here for more details soon on shows this month in Shelburne Falls, Turners Falls, and The Black Moon in Belchertown (this one's a full Rub Wrongways evening, in which we will try to put together a fun eventful night for you.  We'll bring in some non-wrongways artists, and we'll develop some games etc.  Mark the date: February 27!)

In the meantime, hello.

School for the Dead and V66

Next Thursday, February 11th, School for the Dead is playing a crazy one-song set at this huge V66 Reunion Concert in Boston. V66 was an independent music video station on the east coast of Massachusetts in the 80's.

You may be aware that we happen to have a song called V66. We'll be playing that song somewhere during the night between all these great reuniting bands that used to grace the TV screen in my basement.

Press Release:

"Legendary Boston Music TV Channel V66 To Hold Reunion Concert at The House of Blues on Thursday, February 11, 2010. 7PM. ALL AGES!

Boston, MA, December 17, 2009--Boston, 1985: a new television station is discovered by the cable-deprived citizens of southern New England as they channel-surf the higher ranges of local UHF. Passing through Channel 66 they suddenly find one of their favorite music videos, hosted by a VJ they’ve never seen before. They do a double take: “Isn’t MTV only on cable?”. As they sit back and watch the action unfold, the answer is revealed. It’s not MTV: it’s V66.

While on the air for only 18 months, V66 made an undeniable impact on the Boston rock scene. This was cooler than MTV. It introduced a potential 2 million viewers to local bands in a way no local magazine or radio station ever could. V66 shaped and defined an era of Boston rock.

25 years later, Cruising In The Van Productions is wrapping production on the documentary “Life on the V: The Story of V66”. In celebration of the film and the 25th anniversary of V66, Cruising In The Van is proud to announce: The V66 Reunion Concert.

Taking place at Boston's House of Blues, the anniversary show features live performances from Rods & Cones, The Fools, Animotion, O Positive, Lizzie Borden & The Axes, Woody Geissmann of The Del Fuegos, Digney Fingus and Big City Rockers featuring Fred Pineau & Tom Hauk performing the music of The Atlantics. In addition to live performers, which are a who's who of V66 era Boston Rock, special guests include Ernie Boch Jr., School For The Dead, and many former V66 VJ's including John Garabedian, David O’Leary, Bill Stephens, Tank and many more."

Doors open at 7pm, tickets are only $20 and it's an18-plus event on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at The House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne Street, Boston, MA .

Tickets are on sale now through Live Nation right here.

Try it out

This website pairs a random Nietzsche quote with a cartoon from The Family Circus comic strip. Hilarity ensues.

Try here.

Grammys 2010

I'm trying to remember why I enjoy awards shows so much on TV.  I think it might be tied somehow to childhood memories.  Perhaps we were allowed to stay up a little later than usual so we could see the Oscars.  I'm not sure, but that might explain the strange comfort that I feel with those events.  There has to be some explanation, because they certainly aren't that enjoyable on their own merits.  Well, let me take that back.  I still think that The Oscars and the MTV Movie Awards are really good TV. 

Last night it was the Grammys.  This event is notoriously depressing and last night didn't disappoint.  Still, it's fun to complain about things and make fun of people on the screen.

I'm sorry to see that the current trend of over-singing is still going strong.  There were a lot of head shaking moments and "what the?!?" was heard more than once in our living room.  Almost all the performances suffered form the same quest to outdo that destroys so many movies these days.  Each performer was like an action adventure character, surviving bigger and more deadly stunts than the one before.  But in a world where form is valued over substance you eventually have to reach a tipping point where the substance is just squeezed out entirely.

I've never been a Dave Matthews fan.  I respect him alright but I don't enjoy his particular style of music in general.  Last night, his act was one of the highlights simply because there were actual people playing actual instruments and actually singing.  It felt honest to me, certainly compared to all the other sparkling showgirls and boys.  (This isn't only because our friend Mollie was part of the Matthew Band choir at the show).  So when the Dave Matthews set is the highlight, certainly there's a problem.

But, you know.  This is nothing new.  I've been disturbed by the Grammys for years now.  I watch with the secure knowledge that I don't expect to be particularly moved by it.  Its a guilty pleasure for sure.

The most telling moment of the whole event though was when Taylor Swift, in her acceptance speech, said, "I'd like to thank my record label for letting me write all the songs on my album."

That's a mind twister of a sentence isn't it?