Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Hot damn, karaoke jam! This past Monday was, quite possibly, the highlight of my entire musical career! Super Karaoke Fun Time Band was asked to play WFMU DJ Tom Sharpling's birthday party. His wife, and also FMU DJ, Terre, booked us about a month ago. I knew this would be something, but none of us were prepared for just how amazing the evening would be.
In addition to being an FMU DJ, Tommy is also the story editor on the Monk TV series. He's also one of the funniest guys I know. And as such, he has lotsa pals in high places. The fun started over a week ago, when I got an email from Officer Tom, a NJ police officer, who asked if we would be able to work up Body Count's Cop Killer for him to sing at the pardookie. Always respectful of law enforcement officers, we gladly obliged. He actually came to a rehearsal, sos we could do it up right. Unfortunately, the rehearsal was a good 8 days before the event and the tune had begun to seep out of our collective minds by the time the party rolled around. However, we're professionals and we made it work. Very nice!
So we opened the show with our version of MC5's Kick Out the Jams, as we often do. Then, first singer up was Ira from Yo La Tengo who did Tom Petty's American Girl. Really kicked things off right! We ended up playing 2 1/2 hours. Everybody was in a karaoke state of mind. Georgia from Yo La did a truly beautiful version of Stop Your Sobbing. Andy Breckman, Monk creator, as well as original cast SNL writer and original David Letterman writer, (among other things) did Day Tripper. The lovely and talented Laura Cantrell did a rousing version of Slack Motherfucker. Horatio Sanz from SNL did a killer Running With the Devil and led the all star finale of Highway To Hell. I'm sure there are other talented folk we jammed with and I'm discovering their resumes every day.
But the highlight of the night had to be the birthday boy himself who did the Ziggy Stardust/Suffragette combo and Wings' Jet.
Woof! Still recovering from the evening! We blew the roof off the sucker! Quite a treat on any number of levels! I hadn't been on the Maxwell's stage since the early 90's. Who sez you can't go home again?
And a parking spot was waiting right in front of my apartment when I arrived home at 2 AM! Truly, the rawk gods were smiling on me.
I am Otis Ball. This is Project SMonkey. SMonkey ho!
In addition to being an FMU DJ, Tommy is also the story editor on the Monk TV series. He's also one of the funniest guys I know. And as such, he has lotsa pals in high places. The fun started over a week ago, when I got an email from Officer Tom, a NJ police officer, who asked if we would be able to work up Body Count's Cop Killer for him to sing at the pardookie. Always respectful of law enforcement officers, we gladly obliged. He actually came to a rehearsal, sos we could do it up right. Unfortunately, the rehearsal was a good 8 days before the event and the tune had begun to seep out of our collective minds by the time the party rolled around. However, we're professionals and we made it work. Very nice!
So we opened the show with our version of MC5's Kick Out the Jams, as we often do. Then, first singer up was Ira from Yo La Tengo who did Tom Petty's American Girl. Really kicked things off right! We ended up playing 2 1/2 hours. Everybody was in a karaoke state of mind. Georgia from Yo La did a truly beautiful version of Stop Your Sobbing. Andy Breckman, Monk creator, as well as original cast SNL writer and original David Letterman writer, (among other things) did Day Tripper. The lovely and talented Laura Cantrell did a rousing version of Slack Motherfucker. Horatio Sanz from SNL did a killer Running With the Devil and led the all star finale of Highway To Hell. I'm sure there are other talented folk we jammed with and I'm discovering their resumes every day.
But the highlight of the night had to be the birthday boy himself who did the Ziggy Stardust/Suffragette combo and Wings' Jet.
Woof! Still recovering from the evening! We blew the roof off the sucker! Quite a treat on any number of levels! I hadn't been on the Maxwell's stage since the early 90's. Who sez you can't go home again?
And a parking spot was waiting right in front of my apartment when I arrived home at 2 AM! Truly, the rawk gods were smiling on me.
I am Otis Ball. This is Project SMonkey. SMonkey ho!
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Well, it's been quite the week! Wednesday we played our weekly show in Hobroken and it was a cave! Weather was decent, I did my promotion, the club did theirs, but we did, quite possibly, our worst attendance to date there. The owner and I decided it was best to end our relationship at his club. Dunno why, but we just couldn't draw at that place. If I had to guess, it would be the current state of Hobroken, which is a blog for someone else to write. That's not why I'm here.
So, we're out our residency, but we're also saved a weekly headache, so it evens out. Waddoo we care? We got a radio show to do! Woooo!
And that's where the fun really starts. We pulled into FMU an hour before our set and were up and running about 15 minutes later. UNFORTUNATELY, the engineer got stuck in Valentine's Day traffic and showed up about 6:15. With no time to prep what was to be an historic broadcast. As you would imagine, setting up for a phone in karaoke show leaves plenty of opportunities for glitches. He had the band miked quickly, but then spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get the phone line in the band monitors, on the radio with the band and back out the phone so the singers could hear us and sing along. It was about 7:30 when we did our first song and that was with me singing to buy them some time. We had about 25 minutes left in the show to get 8 more songs in. UNFORTUNATELY, we lost our first caller to dinner reservations. Michael was a trooper and hung on the phone for 10 or 15 minutes while the engineer ran crazy line checks trying to get everything up. Eventually, he had to split for Valentine's Day dinner. He wanted to sing Blondie's Dreaming to his wife, as it was her favorite song. So I now have Michael's denied evening on my shoulders. I hope dinner went better than the hors dourves.
Next up was a friend who is a classically trained opera singer. UNFORTUNATELY, she was to be the guinea pig. The band was coming through overloaded through her phone and she couldn't make heads nor tails of where we were in the song. Which no doubt made her very nervous. Made me a wreck! But she was a trooper and hung in there.
A song or two in, a few knob twiddles later and we finally had things pretty much in sync. And the DJ of the next shift was kind enough to float us some spill over time. We crashed through the rest of the songs and finished about 15 minutes after the hour. My fave was Bex doing Madonna. You can listen to the show at WFMU. Hit the archives for Feb 14. And our fake manager, Stronger Than Dirt Pete Moss, had a particularly stunning moment. Listen for it. We start playing about 90 minutes into the show.
Tomorrow night is the big private party. Look for me later in the week with stories from that one.
So, we're out our residency, but we're also saved a weekly headache, so it evens out. Waddoo we care? We got a radio show to do! Woooo!
And that's where the fun really starts. We pulled into FMU an hour before our set and were up and running about 15 minutes later. UNFORTUNATELY, the engineer got stuck in Valentine's Day traffic and showed up about 6:15. With no time to prep what was to be an historic broadcast. As you would imagine, setting up for a phone in karaoke show leaves plenty of opportunities for glitches. He had the band miked quickly, but then spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get the phone line in the band monitors, on the radio with the band and back out the phone so the singers could hear us and sing along. It was about 7:30 when we did our first song and that was with me singing to buy them some time. We had about 25 minutes left in the show to get 8 more songs in. UNFORTUNATELY, we lost our first caller to dinner reservations. Michael was a trooper and hung on the phone for 10 or 15 minutes while the engineer ran crazy line checks trying to get everything up. Eventually, he had to split for Valentine's Day dinner. He wanted to sing Blondie's Dreaming to his wife, as it was her favorite song. So I now have Michael's denied evening on my shoulders. I hope dinner went better than the hors dourves.
Next up was a friend who is a classically trained opera singer. UNFORTUNATELY, she was to be the guinea pig. The band was coming through overloaded through her phone and she couldn't make heads nor tails of where we were in the song. Which no doubt made her very nervous. Made me a wreck! But she was a trooper and hung in there.
A song or two in, a few knob twiddles later and we finally had things pretty much in sync. And the DJ of the next shift was kind enough to float us some spill over time. We crashed through the rest of the songs and finished about 15 minutes after the hour. My fave was Bex doing Madonna. You can listen to the show at WFMU. Hit the archives for Feb 14. And our fake manager, Stronger Than Dirt Pete Moss, had a particularly stunning moment. Listen for it. We start playing about 90 minutes into the show.
Tomorrow night is the big private party. Look for me later in the week with stories from that one.
Well, it's been quite the week! Wednesday we played our weekly show in Hobroken and it was a cave! Weather was decent, I did my promotion, the club did theirs, but we did, quite possibly, our worst attendance to date there. The owner and I decided it was best to end our relationship at his club. Dunno why, but we just couldn't draw at that place. If I had to guess, it would be the current state of Hobroken, which is a blog for someone else to write. That's not why I'm here.
So, we're out our residency, but we're also saved a weekly headache, so it evens out. Waddoo we care? We got a radio show to do! Woooo!
And that's where the fun really starts. We pulled into FMU an hour before our set and were up and running about 15 minutes later. UNFORTUNATELY, the engineer got stuck in Valentine's Day traffic and showed up about 6:15. With no time to prep what was to be an historic broadcast. As you would imagine, setting up for a phone in karaoke show leaves plenty of opportunities for glitches. He had the band miked quickly, but then spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get the phone line in the band monitors, on the radio with the band and back out the phone so the singers could hear us and sing along. It was about 7:30 when we did our first song and that was with me singing to buy them some time. We had about 25 minutes left in the show to get 8 more songs in. UNFORTUNATELY, we lost our first caller to dinner reservations. Michael was a trooper and hung on the phone for 10 or 15 minutes while the engineer ran crazy line checks trying to get everything up. Eventually, he had to split for Valentine's Day dinner. He wanted to sing Blondie's Dreaming to his wife, as it was her favorite song. So I now have Michael's denied evening on my shoulders. I hope dinner went better than the hors dourves.
Next up was a friend who is a classically trained opera singer. UNFORTUNATELY, she was to be the guinea pig. The band was coming through overloaded through her phone and she couldn't make heads nor tails of where we were in the song. Which no doubt made her very nervous. Made me a wreck! But she was a trooper and hung in there.
A song or two in, a few knob twiddles later and we finally had things pretty much in sync. And the DJ of the next shift was kind enough to float us some spill over time. We crashed through the rest of the songs and finished about 15 minutes after the hour. My fave was Bex doing Madonna. You can listen to the show at
WFMU
Tomorrow night is the big private party. Look for me later in the week with stories from that one.
So, we're out our residency, but we're also saved a weekly headache, so it evens out. Waddoo we care? We got a radio show to do! Woooo!
And that's where the fun really starts. We pulled into FMU an hour before our set and were up and running about 15 minutes later. UNFORTUNATELY, the engineer got stuck in Valentine's Day traffic and showed up about 6:15. With no time to prep what was to be an historic broadcast. As you would imagine, setting up for a phone in karaoke show leaves plenty of opportunities for glitches. He had the band miked quickly, but then spent about an hour trying to figure out how to get the phone line in the band monitors, on the radio with the band and back out the phone so the singers could hear us and sing along. It was about 7:30 when we did our first song and that was with me singing to buy them some time. We had about 25 minutes left in the show to get 8 more songs in. UNFORTUNATELY, we lost our first caller to dinner reservations. Michael was a trooper and hung on the phone for 10 or 15 minutes while the engineer ran crazy line checks trying to get everything up. Eventually, he had to split for Valentine's Day dinner. He wanted to sing Blondie's Dreaming to his wife, as it was her favorite song. So I now have Michael's denied evening on my shoulders. I hope dinner went better than the hors dourves.
Next up was a friend who is a classically trained opera singer. UNFORTUNATELY, she was to be the guinea pig. The band was coming through overloaded through her phone and she couldn't make heads nor tails of where we were in the song. Which no doubt made her very nervous. Made me a wreck! But she was a trooper and hung in there.
A song or two in, a few knob twiddles later and we finally had things pretty much in sync. And the DJ of the next shift was kind enough to float us some spill over time. We crashed through the rest of the songs and finished about 15 minutes after the hour. My fave was Bex doing Madonna. You can listen to the show at
WFMU
Tomorrow night is the big private party. Look for me later in the week with stories from that one.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Man, talk about rockin' a hard place! Band politics is giving me angina! We're behind on pay at our weekly gig, which bugs me, but to a much lesser degree than the band. Our crowds have been respectable for such a young band, but hardly overwhelming. Having said that, I really appreciate the residency. Nuthin's gonna make us better than playing weekly shows, pay notwithstanding. It's not like the pay is all that much to begin with. I'd rather be playing a gig for free than rehearsing for free. At least at this point in our career. No one's talking about quitting the band, which is a relief, but our residency may be in jeopardy.
On the plus side, we have two big gigs comig up in the next week. This Saturday we're doing our Valentine's Day karaoke show on WFMU. Hit the link for more info. Still a few slots left, if you wanna surprise your baby with a Valentine's Day melody of love. You can listen on your computer live or hit the archives to listen at your leisure. And on Monday, we're playing a private party that promises to be our most exciting gig to date. More on that show after the fact. Should be some spectacular mp3s on the way. Sign up for the Otis Ball MP3 Club by sending an email to otisball@aol.com. You won't regret it.
Tomorrow night is our last regular Wednesday for a couple weeks. Or more. No telling. Kevin, our drummer, is taking his vacation and heading down South to Memphis and other points of rock and roll interest. I envy him that. Taint been down to Memphis in far too long and I miss it. One of my favorite places in the world, even after the disgusting renovations of the last decade or two. If you find yourself in Memphis, feel free to email me for points of interest.
derf Awright. Clearly the interesting stories are in the immediate future, not tonight. Check back after the weekend.
On the plus side, we have two big gigs comig up in the next week. This Saturday we're doing our Valentine's Day karaoke show on WFMU. Hit the link for more info. Still a few slots left, if you wanna surprise your baby with a Valentine's Day melody of love. You can listen on your computer live or hit the archives to listen at your leisure. And on Monday, we're playing a private party that promises to be our most exciting gig to date. More on that show after the fact. Should be some spectacular mp3s on the way. Sign up for the Otis Ball MP3 Club by sending an email to otisball@aol.com. You won't regret it.
Tomorrow night is our last regular Wednesday for a couple weeks. Or more. No telling. Kevin, our drummer, is taking his vacation and heading down South to Memphis and other points of rock and roll interest. I envy him that. Taint been down to Memphis in far too long and I miss it. One of my favorite places in the world, even after the disgusting renovations of the last decade or two. If you find yourself in Memphis, feel free to email me for points of interest.
derf Awright. Clearly the interesting stories are in the immediate future, not tonight. Check back after the weekend.
