Month: January 2014

Named after the above taunt hurled at us by a disgruntled Dutch audience member, our alter ego Sleeping Pill debuted on this date 22 years ago, on a bill with Mofungo and Chain Gang at CBGB.  Our set debuted the as-yet untitled new songs “Sudden Organ” and “Double Dare,” the latter eventually ending up as the B-side of “Big Day Coming.”  In other news of the day, a pair of guest drummers gave Georgia a breather on January 31:  John Convertino played “Little Black Egg” (sung by Georgia and Joey Burns) in St. Louis last year, and Todd Barry handled “Jeepster” during 2007’s Super Bowl week in Miami with his customary aplomb.

 

Let’s be honest: Florida can be problematic.  But as we recollect two different visits to the Sunshine State on January 30, never is heard the oftmentioned discouraging word.   1996: James and I enter through the crowd, playing marching band tom-toms, at the Covered Dish in Gainesville.  I believe this is our final appearance in what had been our favorite city to play in Florida, and not only because it was the home of Mama Lo’s.  2007: We find an Ace Tone organ and somehow manage to get Sam Rivers to open for us at the Social in Orlando, all on the same day.

Roughly due south of Florida, Emi and Marian write from Argentina. Due to its length, I’ve posted  their story, in both prose (Marianela) and poetry (Emilio), as links, but these self-described “improvised English” writers made our day.

 

On January 29, 1999 we performed at Tramps in NYC.  Other Dimensions in Music opened, we premiered “Our Way to Fall” during our set, and oh yes, a nekkid Phil Morrison sang “Ramblin’ Rose” during the encore.  A great night, and one I’d be happy to detail were I not in a hurry to get to the email we received from Greg of Washington D.C.:

So this may be a little heavy but I have two linked YLT moments: Jan. 29, 2005 and Dec. 9, 2012.

 
Here goes–on Jan. 29, 2005 I was in the middle of a tour in Iraq (I was an Air Force officer).  I was working in the U.S. Embassy in the Green Zone when we were hit by a rocket attack and we lost some friends.  The next day, I directed all the people who worked for me to follow my lead and come up with their 100-things-to-do-before-you-die list.  We all promised each other to spend the rest of our lives fulfilling the list.  Well, on my list was seeing a Hanukkah show at Maxwell’s.  For the next few years I was always overseas over those dates and could never make it back to the U.S. for a show–“This ain’t no Mudd Club or CBGB, I  ain’t got time for that now.”
 
Finally in 2012 I was in the U.S. and able to get tickets to the second night, which turned out to be the Fred Armisen/Sun Ra night, on Dec. 9.  The Arkestra was great, you guys kicked ass, and Maxwell’s was a gem!  What a loss.  Now that Maxwell’s has closed, I would have been devastated had I not pulled off that 2012 show.  Next month I’ll be ticking another one off the list–Easter Island!
 
There you have it.

 

Twenty years ago today (I guess technically tomorrow because the show started after midnight), we appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, performing “From a Motel 6” while Georgia and Emily Hubley’s animated film The Tower screened behind us.  I looked high and low for an image of the show without success, so instead here’s a photo of Gregory Harrison, that episode’s lead guest (who said something tasteless during the taping that didn’t make it to air).

 

James recalls January 27, 2000: Our old rehearsal space in Jersey City, NJ was on the 3rd floor of a disintegrating, city block-sized warehouse, just off Washington Avenue. The building can be seen briefly in “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.” Unlike that movie, the place sucked. But this was a day when it didn’t matter. Sue Garner, Peter Walsh, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, and the late Roy Campbell, Jr. braved the icy fire escape stairs, the terrifying freight elevator, and the never-to-be-mentioned-again bathroom to come and record the “Now 2000″/ “Excalibur 2001″ 2×7” EP with us.

We’ve had some memorable shows on January 26.  Rick Brown sang “Neutron Bomb” with us when Inconvenient Music opened up in Birmingham AL in 2007.  Both John Cameron Mitchell  (“Holly Holy“) and Daniel Johnston (“Speeding Motorcycle” and “The One After 909“) sat in with us at Sundance in 2005.  But my sentimental, if that’s the right word (it isn’t), favorite is Denison University in Granville OH in 1991.  We were in our Fakebook guise–Kevin Salem on lead guitar and Wilbo Wright on upright bass–and booked to play a free show in  some common room.  My notes tell me that support was provided by “2 guys with acoustic guitars singing classic rock” and my memory tells me that they killed.  We . . . did not.  Boredom was audible, but as show business professionals we were undeterred, and played a 15-song set.  An encore seemed utterly superfluous,  but a couple of friends from Columbus disagreed and demanded their 45-minute drive‘s worth.  This created a conundrum until we determined it would take us about five minutes to strike our equipment and set back up in our dressing room, so that’s what we did.  We invited anyone from the audience who wanted to join us to do so, and a couple of people stuck their heads in, but no one stayed.  We played another six songs and everyone was happy.  Almost everyone: The promoter called our agent the next day to complain and threatened to stop payment on our check.  He didn’t.