We miss You!

Give a brutha a gig, jeez! As someone who lives for music and playing live, our lack of shows lately has been downright depressing. There has a been a SOME filling of that void by working on our (UNBELEEEEVABLE!) new record a few hours twice a week, but there’s nothing like getting out there with the peeps, ya know? I miss my friends and fans (usually one in the same) and catching up on what else is going on in the world. The Christmas show was off the chain great. We had a ton of folks up in there and it was a blast actin’ the fool with’m. Sometimes I don’t get to see the guys in the band for weeks at a time, and I LOVE those guys. They make me laugh…a LOT! Maybe new and great venues will open their doors to us this year, I keep my fingers crossed. Back to the record, as much as I love many if not all of the moments on our last few records, this one is a giant leap forward. Tentatively titled “More Smooth Jazz and Sweet Sweet Jams”, I promise that this is the record I’ve always tried to make. This is the one you put the top down to, turn up and go! There’s usually one of these songs rolling around in my head 24/7 nowadays. I wake up at 4am to go piss and there’s a rocker up in there keeping me up ‘till 5:30 or 6. It’s pretty damn maddening actually, but it’s also VERY exciting. This is a solid batch of jams from outta the gate. The Rockpile/Ramones feel of “Too Much Information” is gonna make your leg immediately start stomping uncontrollably. There’s a BUNCH of Big Rock numbers too. My favorite right now is “Time for You To Go”. We had (prolly one of the only non-OAKTeam performers) Rod Abernethy come over yesterday and play some EVIL voodoo harmonica on that.
Time for you to go, wherever you go I don’t care, Time for you to go-woa, anywhere but up in here!
“This record feels a lot different” says everyone that hears it. I personally think it’s more “mature”, if I could discredit my credo of “growing up is giving up” so. There’s not a silly song so far. We DID cut “Take a Leak and Go” but there’s a pretty good chance that it will accidentally on purpose be forgotten, we’ll see. Maybe the reason the record sounds so different is that about half of it was written on that beautiful ukulele that my friend Victor Rocha sent to me last Fall. I’m finding chords on that thing that I didn’t know existed. You’ll hear the “Soul” pop outta those songs. “Gambled and Lost” is a good example. It could easily fit on a Keef Richards solo record, but it would be a waste. It’s really too good for that. That’s another one that I can’t get outta my head. “(While I was) Hittin’ it” will be the most talked about I’m sure though. It’s absolutely beautiful with the lyrics from my tongue shoved firmly in cheek.
Something seemed different, while I was hittin’ it, who were thinking of when we were making love?…
There’s also a cool-ass, almost reggae tune called “He’s Your Girlfriend” that will definitely put some asses on the dancefloor. Not to be a shitass about it but they are all getting me really excited about 2010. Now if we could just get some gigs so we could get out there and play’m! Jack, Greg and I will have a little fun tonight at The Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill doing a Haiti relief show with old Fabulous Knobs bandmate, Debra Demilo. The Bipolar Bears (I stole the name from Nathan) will go on about 11pm. Come on down and rock and help feed some folks that really need it right now! The OAKTeam’s next chance to rock will be at Sadlack’s next Friday and at a benefit at The Berkeley next Sunday. Please come to those too. We miss you!