the acffh morST cyber-blog is here now.

morst's PITOWN 2008 (pt 5)
Saturday evening, Sept 13, 2008:

Gonna let the music and photos speak for themselves on this one. . . Suffice to say "ya had to be there," but I'll do what I can to convey the event with my little electronical relics. Most of the pictures are clickable links to my Pitown photo album if you want to see more.

Outdoor Stage 7:00 - 7:40 Citay
16 bit audio: http://www.archive.org/details/Citay2008-09-13.matrix
24-bit audio: http://www.archive.org/details/Citay2008-09-13.matrix-flac24


01. intro
02. First Fantasy
03. Nice Cuffs
04. Eye On The Dollar
05. banter - instrumentation switch
06. (?? I dunno- assistance appreciated for this title)
07. banter - nine more minutes
08. Little Kingdom

From pitown 08

Indoor Stage 7:40 - 8:10 Kenny Margolis Band
24-bit audio (bit torrent on dimeadozen.org) : http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=215040
16-bit audio (bit torrent): http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=519747



Setlist:
01. Smithfield Blues
02. Where's My Money?
03. I'm Thinkin' 'bout You
04. If The Phone Don't Ring (Baby It's Me)
05. It's A Cryin' Shame
06. Jolie Fi
07. Rosalie
08. Goin' Up The Country




Lineup:
Kenny Margolis: Vocals, Accordion
Johnny Hickman: Guitar, vocals
Sal Maida: Bass, vocals
Frank Funaro: Drums, vocals

con-si-glie-re (kawn-see-lye-re)
-noun, plural -ri (ree)
-a member of a criminal organization or syndicate who serves as an adviser to the leader.


Outdoor Stage 8:10 - 9:00 Brant Bjork and the Bros
audio (bit torrent): http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=520869



01. intro
02. Lazy Bones (aborted)
03. banter - continuous bass problems
04. Lazy Bones - Automatic Fantastic
05. Turn Yourself On
06. '73
07. Low Desert Punk
08. Too Many Chiefs and Not Enough Indians
09. Freaks Of Nature *
10. Dr. Special

* Special Guest vocalist: Sean Wheeler on Freaks Of Nature



Indoor Stage 9:00 - 9:30 Jonathan Segel
audio: http://www.archive.org/details/jsegel2008-09-13.flac16



01. Video (soundcheck)
02. Angels
03. Mirror Colored Thing
04. Can't Help It
05. Greedy
06. merch banter
07. Gravity - Little Blue Fish - Gravity
08. Scars

Jonathan Segel - Guitar, Vocal
Victor Krummenacher - Bass, Vocal
John Hanes - Drums
Alison Faith Levy - Keyboard, Tambourine, Vocal




Outdoor Stage 9:30 - 11:00 Cracker
audio: http://www.archive.org/details/Cracker2008-09-13.flac16



Disc 1 (44:53.63)
01. The Riverside
02. Teen Angst
03. 100 Flower Power Maximum
04. One Fine Day ->
05. Gimme One More Chance
06. The Man In Me (Bob Dylan)
07. Waiting For You Girl
08. This Is Cracker Soul
09. Mr. Wrong
10. Lonesome Johnny Blues


Disc 2 (49:30.74)
11. Low
12. Brides Of Neptune
13. Loser (Hunter/Garcia)
14. I Need Better Friends (The Ballad Of Chas M.)
15. Eurotrash Girl
16. Seven Days
17. encore break
18. Another Song About The Rain
19. aftershow crowd - music over PA
20. recordist's signout

From pitown 08

Indoor Stage 11:30 - 12:30 McCabe and Mrs. Miller
(Victor K. + Alison F.L.)
audio: http://www.archive.org/details/McCabeAndMrsMiller2008-09-13.flac16



Disc 1 (44:55.70)
01. intro
02. Union City Blues
03. Farewell Adios And Goodbye
04. banter - Come Back Home To Me intro
05. Come Back Home To Me
06. I Remember California
07. banter - time to get a little naughty
08. Playground In Your Heart
09. banter - the thanks portion
10. Forgiveness
11. banter - he very rarely has a point
12. Red Wine & Chocolate
13. banter - you can't quite tell what it is
14. Some Like You
15. Time For Leaving
16. Magic Fingers



Disc 2 (52:09.08)
17. banter - would Johnny Hickman wear this shirt?
18. The Cock Crows At Sunrise
19. The Southern Heights
20. banter - some fine bass players
21. Bittersweet
22. banter - a normal family in St Louis
23. My Baby's Brown Hair
24. encore break - ya gotta work for it if you want it!
25. banter - a bottle of whiskey and I wore black
26. I'll Meet You In Paradise
27. encore break 2
28. banter - I don't lighten up
29. Not Coming Back
30. outtro - lord knows what the fuck's a-gonna happen
31. after show music on PA
32. recordist's signout




Personnel:
Jonathan Segel - Violin, Mandolin, Vocal
Victor Krummenacher - Guitar, Vocal
John Hanes - Drums
Alison Faith Levy - Keyboard, Melodica, Tambourine, Vocal
Paul Olguin - Bass

and featuring on disc 2:
Greg Lisher - Guitar
Kenny Margolis - Accordian

From pitown 08

Labels: California, Cracker, Crampout, Pappy and Harriet's, Pioneertown

morst's PITOWN 2008 (pt 1)

Wednesday, Sept 10, 2008: Off to California for what has become my favorite annual ritual - The Cracker & Camper Van Beethoven campout in Pioneertown! Flew from Madison into Anaheim and was picked up at John Wayne field by Bethdalena, who took me over to Newport Beach, to the home of "The Host" - which would be Glenn. His beach house had been a bit of a raging bash as the site of my 2007 arrival, but when I rolled in for the 2008 fest, it was quite calm, as the early arrivals had already taken off for the desert. Guess we can fast forward over the rest of Wednesday, as it was very relaxing and I didn't take any photos once I arrived in California.

Labels: California, Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker, Crampout, Newport Beach, Pioneertown

CVB's San Francisco Super Silver!



25 years ago, some guys in California started a band. Now they have celebrated 25 years by playing a gig at the world-famous Fillmore in San Francisco. Camper Van Beethoven has long been a favorite of mine, and I don't expect that to change soon. As good as they are, they don't seem to draw gigantic crowds, so they can still play cool venues which are designed for music, rather than having to book enormo-domes in every town. They booked a short tour for about a week's worth of gigs in various parts of California, culminating in a 25th anniversary show at the world famous Fillmore. Opening the show was The Cat Heads, who had played shows with CVB back in 1986, and who had not really played out since. Cat Heads drummer Melanie Clarin designed a poster for the show, as did CVB multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Segel. Michael Wertz did the lettering on Jon's design.





Crawdaddy article with a nice David Lowery interview, and featuring a photo by yours truly!




Live at the Fillmore on Archive.org
Setlist:
Mad Russian intro, Pictures Of Matchstick Men, Tania, Eye Of Fatima, Cowboys From Hollywood, Shut Us Down, R 'n' R Uzbekistan, The History Of Utah, Sad Lover's Waltz, Ambiguity Song, Mao Reminisces About His Days In Southern China, banter - a kiss and a hit, Militia Song, The Day Lassie Went To The Moon, Club Med Sucks, banter, All Her Favorite Fruit, She Divines Water, Waka, Axe Murderer Song, Good Guys And Bad Guys, Skinhead Stomp, White Riot, (I Was So) Wasted, Tina, Take The Skinheads Bowling, banter - popular songs and eyebrows, New Roman Times, One Of These Days, Turquoise Jewelry, Seven Languages, The Humid Press Of Days, I'm Not Like Everybody Else, (We're A) Bad Trip, Interstellar Overdrive, encore break, encore intro cake announcement and band intro, Lottery, The Poppies Of Balmorhea, Where The Hell Is Bill?, encore break, encore 2 intro banter, Devil Song, L'Aguardiente, recordist signout



After the Catheads opening set, Vladimir "Mad Russian" Noskov came out and enthused the crowd to make sure to register to vote, and not to go get shitfaced on Monday, November 3rd, then introduced CVB. Camper played a no-nonsense set of music, interspersed with some great stage banter. Musical rarities included Cowboys From Hollywood, (We're A) Bad Trip, New Roman Times, The Humid Press Of Days, The Poppies Of Balmorhea, Where The Hell Is Bill, Devil Song, I'm Not Like Everybody Else, and The Axe Murderer Song.

---

Sunday Sunday Sunday!!!



My friend Glenn took that picture of me on the Sunday in San Fran. When we got back to the hotel room after brunch I told him I was NOT going to spend the afternoon in the hotel room, and so we decided to walk up to the Haight and poke around at a great record store called Amoeba. We had several hours before it was time to activate dinner plans and he had his laptop in the room, so I google-mapped the route to the record store (last week I noticed that google now has WALKING directions and timings added to their map!) and I checked the time and we took off. I figured if it took less than about 75 minutes to walk to where we were going that we would have time to hang out and walk back, but if it took longer we might need to cab back. We wound up having plenty of time, and in fact, while walking back, TOTALLY RANDOMLY ran into one of the friends we were going to meet up with for the show that night outside a coffee shop! I heard "Tom!. . . TOM! . . . TAAAHM!!!!" and turned to look but we had already rounded the corner and nobody was waving their arms. . a moment later I heard "HEY MORST!" and of course I whirled around like "WHAT??" cause that's pretty specific! My buddy Vladimir was waving us down. He was there waiting for a friend he had met the night before, and saw us walk across the street right in front of the shop where he was sitting! "I can't believe I ran into you here!" he said. . . I replied "well, it's a small town!" somewhat jokingly. About two minutes later when his friend who lived right nearby showed up, he exclaimed to her "look who I just ran into!!?" and she just said "Well, it's a small town!" HAHAHA! The trip was full of great little coincidences like that, but that was the funniest!

Then, Sunday night at Bottom of The Hill was the "after party party"- Jon and Victor's solo bands played, and played quite well. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a digital audio recording worth? How about a video?!?!


Victor Krummenacher Band live at Bottom Of The Hill




Jonathan Segel Band live at Bottom of The Hill

Labels: archive.org, Bottom Of The Hill, California, Camper Van Beethoven, David Lowery, Fillmore, Frank Funaro, Greg Lisher, Jonathan Segel, Mad Russian, San Francisco, Victor Krummenacher

morst's PITOWN 2007 (pt 3)

Friday, Sept 7, 2007: After getting things going on Thursday, Friday morning and early afternoon was time to relax. We sat around at the Pitown Motel, perfecting our porch-sitting techniques. We amused ourselves by catching up with friends old and new, enjoying food and drink, and doing a little listening to the recordings from the night before.
Friday was the debut of the Crampout sticker, based on a painting by Steve© Dwyer, and modified somewhat by me with some photoshop help from Steve©. A last-minute effort, we only had time to print up about 40 of them, but the image here is the same as the one we used to print them, so feel free to make your own.
At one point in the afternoon, I wandered over to Pappy and Harriet's to see if I could figure out when the CVB soundcheck
would be taking place, and set up my recording gear for the outdoors stage. I set up next to the soundboard area, just behind the board, in a space which I felt would be out of the way of most of the concert crowd. Like the previous year, the outdoor grill has a large woodpile of mesquite logs, and I set up my gear in a little nook protected on one side by the woodpile, and on the other side by the shed which served as the soundboard area in 2006. This year, the sound console was set up further forward, under a tarp-type shelter.

As the crew set up the PA system, and the Campers began to set up their stage gear, I snapped a photo or two since it seemed so strange to see the place empty. The CVB soundcheck took place some time later, and like the previous year, there were only a few people in the stage area listening. I took the opportunity to begin recording, and get the levels set on my DAT machine. Nice to be able to tape the check, since I'd rather not have wildly fluctuating levels on the recordings of the musicians who came to play for us. Camper's soundcheck included some funny banter,CVB's check included Jonathan vocalizing his tribute to the Integratron, Casey asking for Greg "Gerg" Lisher to give him a test signal for his vocal channel ("GERG ANGRY," requested Casey), Frankie singing Frankie - "Summer Wind", Frank then requesting to hear the prepared intro to Processional then launching into it, David working through a guitar part of Cracker's Sidi Ifni, and One Of These Days.
Casey then asked if they wanted to do anything else, and Jonathan said "Casey, all we know how to do is play songs!" So they played She Divines Water, and satisfied, called it a wrap so they could let Casey and the crew get ready for the other bands who were playing first.

The sun high in the sky, I took the opportunity to go back to the motel to relax. Not a very long walk, the bar and motel are less than 100 yards apart!

The evening's outdoor entertainment was kicked off by Dusty Rhodes and the River Band

Their set consisted of Street Fighter, Ghost Trails, Leaving Tennessee, Dear Honey, Oh Icicle, The Weight (The Band), Minor Swing (Django Reinhardt), Goodnight Moonshine and The Ballad Of Graff.


Meanwhile, the stage indoors had Tim Easton getting things started, since Sean Kennedy was not able to arrive for his scheduled set. Kennedy did show up the following day, and started things off on the indoor stage on Saturday, but I should try not to get ahead of myself.



The Dusty Rhodes outdoor set was followed by Magnolia Electric Company. Jason Molina from MECo was kind enough to loan David Lowery a guitar and amp when CVB's gear got ripped off in 2004 in Montreal. I am sure the bands have a good relationship, but it was mighty cool of CVB and Cracker to invite MECo to the 2007 Crampout.




I took a few photos of each band I saw at the Crampout, but normally don't like to use a flash, since it is artificially bright, and destroys the stage lighting just long enough for the exposure. Dring the MECo set, there were a group of Crumbs taking flash photos of each other, which I was calling a "Flash Fight." Here are the culprits, I'm sure when you look through their photos of the weekend, there will be a profusion of flash shots of camera-wielding Crumbs.






Anyhow, the Magnolia's set was approximately as follows: Talk To Me Devil, Again, Memphis Moon, Bowery, Montgomery Bound, Hammer Down, Lonesome Valley, What Comes After The Blues, Astrabel, Shiloh, Hard To Love A Man, and finally, Here Comes The Night.

(January 2009 addendum - The MECo electric set is now on archive.org in flac format, and on PRY.com as MP3's)

Stay tuned for more from Pioneertown, the next installment will feature Camper Van Beethoven's Friday night set, and there's lots more after that, too!

Labels: California, Camper Van Beethoven, Dusty Rhodes And The River Band, Jason Molina, Magnolia Electric Co., Pappy and Harriet's, Pioneertown