music just performed | music in preparation | music while typing | music while living | echo beach activity | yahoo radio station | music on tv |
5/5/03
The Oakland Day of Percussion of two days ago, which was co-produced by many people working with me, was a gratifying success. Musically, these things stick with me most strongly.
5/15/03
Last night we began rehearsing the sets for our gigs at Borders Books five weeks from now. The tune list as currently built is:
5/10/03
We have gigs coming up. I want to play new music. In addition to my drum pad and marimba practice "in the woodshed" I'm starting to work up patterns on the Yamaha QY20 sequencer. I'll also be sharing some of these patterns with John our guitarist in Echo Beach, for his composing process.
5/6/03
Working from the book Master Technique Builders for Vibraphone and Marimba edited by Anthony J. Cirone, published by Warner Bros., containing practice methods by such players as Keiko Abe, Bob Becker, William Moersch, Dave Samuels, and more. A hugely useful book to me.
5/1/03
This week, my focus has been preparing to present other people's music this coming Saturday at The Oakland Day of Percussion. It should be an exciting day for many people including me.
5/22/03
The Chabot Panhandlers - THREE on CD. PUT IT ON and TURN IT UP!! Steel drum music at its best with great songs, arrangements, musicianship and production. This ia a Bay Area group from nearby Hayward, oftentimes performing in the area. Former Echo Beach member Linda MacVey is one of the Double Tenor Pan players in the band.
5/1/03
Blue Man Group - AUDIO CD. Better living through percussion on PVC tubes. Their show in Vegas totally rocks.
5/28/03
Everything But The Girl - like the deserts miss the rain on CD. As always, great arrangements, production, singing of great material, IMO.
5/27/03
Anton Fig and Guests - Figments on CD. Worth hearing every day. Echoes of every decade of rock, creatively made into a modern mix.
Sleater-Kinney - Live in Vancouver on CD. Somewhat smoother than a studio S-K album, oddly enough. Nothing good lost in the journey to the stage. They rock hard and well.
5/26/03
Love - Forever Changes on CD. Also, Love Revisited, Side One on vinyl. Warmup to hear these songs performed this coming weekend at The Fillmore by Arthur Lee and strings and horns. Will other members of any version of Love be on stage? Mystery to be resolved Saturday. Many people consider this one of the greatest (mostly overlooked) albums of the '60s. I agree.
Rush with Aimee Mann - "Time Stand Still" on vinyl.
5/20/03
Aimee Mann - Lost in Space on CD. First listen more to follow. I liked the texture of the album, want to listen in the future closely to the lyrics. She co-wrote one of my favorite songs, "The Other End of the Telescope", with Elvis Costello.
Various Artists - Stay Awake (Disney movie songs reinterpreted) on CD. Yma Sumac sings "I Wonder" followed by Aaron Neville singing "Mickey Mouse March"; NRBQ performs "Whistle While You Work". You could get a whiplash. But wait there's more. Music to remake your childhood by.
5/9/03
Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstacy on vinyl Sides One and Two
5/5/03
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the music I first listened to in the summer of '73, with Family's Fearless album on vinyl, which is two sides of (in Bob Seger's words) "heavy music". Heavy in the sense of heavily communicative, dynamic in mood, engaging in execution. Roger Chapman, lead singer, has versatile pipes that take you from the alley to the church. John Wetton (later of King Crimson and Asia) has bass chops, vocal chops and songwriting skill that took Family to a new level (arguably in a more commercial direction, too). Charlie Whitney's guitar work is orchestral in scope here. Not to mention Poli Palmer on vibes and keyboards, Rob Townsend on drumset. This album means so much to me that when I replaced it in my record collection I got two copies. [Speaking of Bob Seger and Roger Chapman, Roger sings uncredited background vocals on Thin Lizzy's studio version (on the album Fighting) of Seger's "Rosalie".]
Another record I started paying attention to circa '73 is The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver's Dream Kid, Side One on vinyl. The songwriting on here is so good I'm going to appropriate some of the arrangement ideas for some of my own compositions coming up. Their only U.S. hit was in '73, "I Don't Wanna Love You But You Got Me Anyway". At least it was at hit in L.A. The Sutherlands also wrote "Sailing" which was a hit for Rod Stewart a couple of years later. As for the members of Quiver -- Bassist Bruce Thomas joined The Attractions with Elvis Costello. Drummer Willie Wilson, guitarist Tim Renwick, and keyboardist Peter Woods appeared on stage with Pink Floyd as the "alter ego" band in the original "The Wall" tour. Willie Wilson has also played with David Gilmour and I believe that Peter Woods records instrumental albums up to this day. Another favorite SB&Q album is Beat of The Street. Great Beatles/Everlys style pop.
5/22/03
We are very glad to welcome Justin Hellman (bass) and Brian Andres (drumset) to the band. Their auditions this past week showed us that they will help us move in new and exciting directions for the band and especially for our audiences. And Mark Stephenson is taking the drum chair as an alternate for Brian. Great! additions all to our band!
5/15/03
We are auditioning bass players and drummers.
Rob and I are ready to revive The Tijuana Brass tune "Guacamole" and the Baja Marimba Band tune "Brasilia" which were staples of the band in the mid-'90s.
5/1/03
Within the next couple of days I'll post audition notices on craigslist seeking a bass player and new drumset player for the band. The time is right to add a bass player once again. The last period that the band included a bassist was 1993, when Walter Wilson held the spot. Meantime I've played bass marimba and John's played bass lines on guitar. We're looking for a new drummer as Steve Pompeo moves on (with all our very best wishes) after nine years behind the kit for us.
Click here to listen if you wish. Aerosmith to Metheny to 10cc to Zappa and many stops between
5/10/03
Drumline's extra features and the film itself are rewarding -- to see and hear the great bands performing in the film, to enjoy the performances of Nick Cannon and Orlando Jones (absolutely credible and compelling in their characters I think). It's time to send the DVD back to Netflix but I'm seriously considering purchasing it. It's on sale for $19.99 or something close at Tower. The first big drumming feature in the movie is at :45 minutes. As good as the drumming is through the movie, even better I think is one drum battle that's included in the "Deleted Scenes" section of the DVD. Two very hip cadences played by the competing bands with hip choreography to match.
5/1/03
Drumline has just come out on DVD. I started watching the Director's Commentary version yesterday. What a well-made film! As enjoyable as this special version is, I'm looking forward to watching the film with regular soundtrack, so I can crank up the volume on the drumming!
Return to the Echo Beach Band website .. right this way .. echobeachband.com.