knuckleheadnyc

Warning-Gearhead post (new pickups)

2011-06-19T11:07:00.004-04:00

Norio at his shop w my Les Paul.

I got my '06 Chambered R-8 Les Paul back from Norio Imai this friday. He had done a setup on the guitar and also installed a set of Peter Florence's Voodoo '59 pickups. I've been lusting after a set of these pickups for years but haven't had the right humbucker guitar to put them in. I had Norio use the Burstbucker covers 'cause they are already pretty worn in looking. I also had Norio turn the magnet on the neck pickup 180 degrees so I could do the "Peter Green Thing".

Peter Green wiki

IMHO Best test of any gear is to play it on a gig. last night I played at the Lakeside with Spanking Charlene. They are a great band that I produce and I play with them from time to time as the 2nd guitar player. It was a great test of the new pickups/wiring setup.
Both I and the other guitar player Mo Goldner were playing through the Lakeside's house Pro Jr's. Always a good match for the room.

The out of phase middle position worked much better than I thought it would. I set up the amp to have a good rock rhythm sound in the middle position then I would go to the bridge or neck for a louder part. I used the Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive for solos both in the mid position out of phase setting and for the full single pickup humbucker sound.

The mid position thing was really great. Plenty of beef and much more bite than I can usually get out of that position. I've got to play a gig as the only guitar player to really get the full picture but my initial feeling is that the PG Mod is pretty incredible. It put a lot of Telecaster like 'fight' back in the guitar. Its defeatable on the fly too. If you just turn down either one of the pickups a little the phase trick no longer applies.
Pretty exciting.

Gringoman

2011-03-22T17:16:00.004-04:00

A while back I was asked to contribute some music for a film set in New York City. Of course there was no dough so I waited until the studio was set up for tracking during one of my producing clients sessions and came in there early with my engineer Timbo to give it a go Gringoman style.

Gringoman would be my don't want to ask any friends to play for free do it myself one man band thing.

Amps were miked up. Drums were set up and miked so I grabbed a guitar and looked into the drawer of pedals for some things I didn't usually use. I quickly plugged in a couple of boxes then went to a couple amps and told Timbo to "hit record". I tapped the guitar, picked the guitar, scraped the guitar and banged the guitar while turning knobs on the boxes and kicking pedals in and out for a while then I let the noise die. Timbo hit stop then I went over to the drums.
"Ok, hit record again".

I know a couple of beats from playing to records when it was my parents turn to let my high school band practice at our house so I listened to the squall and played along till it seemed to be time to stop. At that point with a half an hour till the band I was producing was supposed to show for their session Timbo clicked over to mix and we put it all down. Great. Done. Put this stuff away before the band gets here.

A few days later after watching some of Lucas Brunelle's crazy bicycling footage I decided to name the 'tune' after NY City's premier Alleycat race Monstertrack. Of course the 'tune' didn't make it to the film but I'm very happy to present it to you now. "Monstertrack Suite"

Eric Ambel
3.22.11

"Monstertrack Suite" is the first Eric Ambel recording to be released on Kasey Anderson's Red River Records

Gig For Chip 12-12-10 Lakeside 7pm

2010-12-06T17:53:00.005-05:00

If you can't attend and would like to send a little something for Chip you can go to this site (corrected)
and click the 'donate' link.

A year at Gordy's Pier

2010-10-04T21:47:00.003-04:00

I'm full of cliches.
One of which is "I've been everywhere twice".

Semi-true. The rock and roll has taken me all over the globe. Lucky for me
the second time I got a better look at things. The other half of my personally
generated cliche is "...but Lake Geneva is the only place I've ever missed."

More specifically Fontana, Wisconsin on the west end of Geneva Lake. I could go
on and on about Lake Geneva, Fontana, Chucks (the benchmark of Wisconsin taverns)
but that would detract from just looking at the lake.

You can read the history of Gordy's on their site.
Gordy the man was responsible for the little marina that blossomed and also a bar named Chucks a few doors down.

A little over a year ago one of my lake buddies David McPherson let me know that Gordy's had a 24 Hour Webcam
up in the office pointed at the lake. It became an instant personal favorite. I could see the lake. I could see what kind of
weather they were having. I could occasionally even see somebody I knew.

I'd check it all the time, especially in the morning. I'd check it before I called my Dad.
Some people thought it was nuts for me to keep an eye on the webcam.
But a lot of people liked to follow along to the posts at Facebook.

Well, I found a link that anybody (you don't have to be signed up to Facebook) can use to see one whole year of pics grabbed from
Gordy's Webcam. Open the link then to go from picture to picture just click on the
picture itself. A lot happens in a year at the lake.

Link to a year of pics from Gordy's Webcam

My Father's Obituary w info

2010-09-10T21:36:00.006-04:00

My father Melton Sterling Ambel died at his home in Fontana, Wisconsin this Wednesday Sept 8, 2010 at 6:15pm.

Melton S. Ambel, 82, of Naples, FL and formerly of Batavia, IL, died in his summer home in Fontana, WI on September 8, 2010 after a long, courageous battle with cancer. Melt was born in Aurora, IL to Melton and Augusta Ambel. As a child, he enjoyed playing the saxophone in the East Aurora High School band. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served in the Korean War. Melt founded Chapple West, Inc. , a pre-engineered building franchise which he owned for over 40 years. He had many hobbies and interests including love of art and music, sailing, skiing and golf. A stroke of luck seemed to follow him (two “holes-in-one”), but Melt worked hard at everything he did; including all the great friendships that he made over the years. He attended the Vanderbilt Presbyterian Church in Naples, FL and was a member of both Pelican Marsh and Big Foot Country Clubs.

Melt was preceded in death by his parents and two sisters, Eileen Hilderbrand and Anita Fitzgerald. He is survived by his caring wife of 54 years, Carylsue (Covert) Ambel, son Eric (Mary Lee) Ambel, daughter Sarah (Brad) Hecht, grand-daughter Emily Freiny and step-grandchildren Taylor and Mallory Hecht, god- daughter Sarah Kinnally Hunt, nephews Rick, Tom, David Fitzgerald, Mike and Tim Hilderbrand and niece Susie Hilderbrand. Family and friends can rest assured that Melt will be waiting for them in Heaven with a glass of red wine and cigar in hand.

Visitation will be held at Toynton Funeral Home, 328 Kenosha St., Walworth, WI on September 15, 2010 from 4:00-8:00 P.M. Memorial service will be held at Fontana Community Church, 275 Kinzie Ave., Fontana, WI on September 16th at 11:00 A.M. In lieu of flowers and because of Melt’s love for children and Lake Geneva, a memorial fund has been established at Holiday Home Camp for economically disadvantaged/at-risk-youth (P.O. Box 10, Williams Bay, WI 53191).

Obit by Sarah Hecht, Photo by Eric Ambel

The Studio: Springfield, MO recording home of Lou Whitney

2010-06-02T09:37:00.011-04:00

The STUDIO
328 South Avenue
Springfield, MO 65806
417.862.0600
Lou Whitney: Producer, Enginner, Owner
WHITNEYLOU@aol.com

The Studio is located in the thriving downtown of Springfield, MO within walking distance from many restaurants, coffee shops and bars. The Studio features a very accurate control room and a spacious live room with 14' ceilings, one ISO booth and a comfortable lounge. The Studio is also tied into the Outland Bar for live recording.

Selected Clients include: Wilco, Bottle Rockets, Robbie Fulks, Blue Mountain, Exene Cervenka, Dexter Romwebber, Jonathan Richman, The Del-Lords, Eric Ambel, Joe Flood, Jono Manson, Domino Kings, Hadacol, Mary McBride, Syd Straw, Morrells, Skeletons, Redd Volkaert, Brian Capps, the Cowslingers, the Cropdusters, Bel-Airs, Big Smith

Recording Gear

Soundcraft TS 24 Recording Console
40 input 24 bus

KEF-103.2 Monitors (2 pair)
SLS-S8R Monitors with Ribbon Tweeters

Otari MTR 90 2" analog w 24 and 16 track heads
Studer A 80 1/2 analog
Studer B 67 1/4" analog
Mackie 24 bit 96k Hard Disc Recorder
Digidesign Pro Tools HD coming soon

Amek 9098 Mic Pre/EQ/Comp
Audio+design Compex Pre/EQ/Compressor
Audio+design Scamp S31 Compressor (6)
Audio+design Scamp SQ4 Parametric EQ (4)
Audio+design Scamp S30 Expander/Gate (2)
Audio+design Scamp S02 Pre-amp (2)
Audio+design Scamp S25 De-esser
BAE-API 312 Card Mic Pre (2)
Broadhurst Gardens/Decca dual Mic Pre
dbx 160 comp
dbx 163 comp (2)
dbx 166A comp
Demeter VTCL-2 stereo tube comp
Telefunken V627/2 Mic Pre
TL Audio Dual Valve EQ
TL Audio Dual Valve Pre-Amp/Compressor
TL Audio 5012 Dual Valve Compressor
Urie 1176 LN Compressor (4)
Urie LA-4 Opto Compressor (4)
Universal Audio 175 (Bill Putnam Tube Compressor)
Valley People Dyna-mite comp/gate (2)
WHR Studio 4 RE-312 API card Mic Pre (2)

Eventide Harmonizer
Eventide H3000
Lexicon pcm 41 (2)
Lexicon pcm 60
Lexicon 244 XL

AKG
414 (2)
451 (2)

Crown
PZM (2)

Electro Voice
RE-20 (2)

Neumann
U-47 FET (2)
U-87 (4)
KM-86 (2)

Sennheiser
421 (8)

Shure
SM 81 (2)
KSM 32 (2)
SM 58 (10)
SM 57 (5)

Ampeg
SVT
8 x 10" cabinet
B-3
B-15 Portaflex (2)
V4B

Fender
Deluxe Reverb '72
Vibrolux Reverb '65

Hammond C-3
Leslie 145
Kimball 6'7" Grand Piano
Wurlitzer B-200
RMI Electra Piano
Fender Rhodes

Studio Drum kit with many snare drums and cymbals
Ace Session Musicians Available

Lunch Encounter Bounce

2010-04-03T13:15:00.004-04:00

the Lunch Encounter blog
written by famous food stylist Lisa Cherasky bounced
a few of my food pics from the Del-Lords
tour of Spain earlier this year. Lunch Encounter is focused on the Sandwich.

Hope over there and check it out.

Alex

2010-03-18T11:53:00.004-04:00

I like to stop by the Lakeside on my bike late in the afternoon. More often than not I find our Soundguy Alex
Feldesman there opening up and getting things in order for the looming happy hours. My partner the Hound
has staffed the place with great people for the last 15 years and most of 'em have pretty great taste in music.
Alex is no exception. All the staff iPod's are packed with cool stuff. Alex's rig usually has a particular slant.
He likes a lot of Richard Thompson, The Small Faces, a lot of outakes and live stuff. That one live Byrd's record
that rocks so much harder than it supposed to in particular always fakes me out.
So I usually sit there and find out which bands I booked actually brought some folks to the gig, which ones ran
some people out. That kind of stuff. Invariably I end up asking about some song or other. "Who's that"?

After all this time I suppose that I should know but usually the answer to my question was "Chilton".
Just when you think you know about Alex Chilton is when you'll find out that you just don't know about
Alex Chilton. The range of his music was pretty darn wide and his musicianship was wild also.

One time I saw him do a solo acoustic show at CBGB's. His guitar strap broke. He would accept no help. He didn't take
the other performer's guitar (Dexter Romwebber) the way his fellow Memphian Elvis Presley had taken Scotty Moore's guitar
at the '68 Comeback Special. Nope, Alex Chilton finished the set standing on one leg like the Karate Kid with his
guitar on his knee. It was great.

But back to the Lakeside and Alex the Soundguy's Happy Hour iPod. Here's a song that I heard on one of those "who the hell" occasions that turned out to be the Alex Chilton.
As we lament Alex Chilton's all too early death I hope you'll enjoy this crazy romp through a very unexpected tune from our youth.

Sugar Sugar

Spain....yes

2010-02-24T14:46:00.006-05:00

After 20 years the Del-Lords got back together, recorded a few new songs palyed a couple tune up gigs. We are heading for Spain today to play the rock and roll. Check out some new music and the dates.

Photo by Robert Spencer

Indeed!

2010-02-21T21:42:00.002-05:00

Congrats to Bode Miller!
Gold in the Super Combined.

My Very First Blog

2010-02-13T22:18:00.004-05:00

My very first blog was 4 years ago wishing
Bode Miller the best of luck.

4 years later I hope he can keep the skiis on the snow
long enough to bring home some bling.... this time

This guy can wail the Superbowl halftime in heels in the rain.

2010-02-08T14:52:00.003-05:00

Superbowl XLI Half-Time Show Starring Pr
Uploaded by Molsonxxx2. - Explore more music videos.

In Feb of '07 I was in Spain on tour with the Yayhoos. The Bears were up against the Colts for the title. The game was
not on the tv system in our hotel in Madrid. Dan Baird and I found an English Pub that was gonna carry the game. We got there and
it was packed to the gills. There were a couple huge obvious American ex pro football players (championship rings and all) at the door. We got right behind them as the the bouncer escorted them to the back room of the joint. Lots of really loud Americans in there (it's a football game so that's fine). Bears didn't do so well but man o man when Prince came out he kicked it hard with his small band. Most of 'em since then have been playing to some kind of pre-recorded track. This clip contains some of the wildest guitar playing I've ever heard on live TV and a Great Marching Band.

Only good can come of this....

2010-02-01T18:21:00.002-05:00

Vibrolux Reverb
RCA 74b "Velocity Junior"

what good can come of this?

2010-01-20T01:22:00.004-05:00

Some of my best friends use this thing but I'll tell you
no good can come of it. What use is a device that can
only turn you down? Really, what is the point?

Here it is.... The "Roots Rock Suck Knob"

Unless you are a Steel Player Playing Steel
this thing has no business in your rig.

Most Enjoyed of '09

2009-12-31T11:39:00.004-05:00

Here's the 8 records that I enjoyed the most in 2009

1. Marshall Crenshaw: Jaggedland- Really great to hear Marshall playing with a great band again. Rhythm section of Jim Keltner and Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg really sets Marshall up to shine.

2. Cheap Trick: The Latest- Really shouldn't humanly be able to rock like this but WTF. There is no music business anymore. Cheap Trick doesn't need them. They do whatever they want on their own label and I like it.

3 & 4. Bob Dylan: Together Through Life & Christmas in the Heart- On "Together" Bob quotes the blues and gives them full credit. Then he comes out with "Christmas" which I just discovered last week to be a kick and a half. Bob, I'm for ya.

5. Bottle Rockets: Lean Forward- Yeah, I produced it. I was super excited to get to work with the band again and after all the work I appreciate the guys, really enjoy the music and I am thankful for the "Kid Next Door" everywhere.

6. Dave Rawlings Machine: A Friend of a Friend- Color me a fan

7. Jim Duffy: Mood Lit- Look this one up. It's instrumental piano music with Dennis Diken on drums and it has a sound that hearkens back to when the future was something.

8. Ian Hunter: Man Overboard- Back to the word "enjoy". This is a truly enjoyable record. I think it is a great summer record. I particularly enjoyed the post rain shower outdoor gig in Battery Park City this summer too.

Damn----Terry Anderson & The Oakteam's "National Champions" is a blast too. Dave Bartholomew gets the "wildest" award.

***** One rant point about a trend I found to be less than engaging this year. A concert is a concert. A recital is a recital. I'm cool with somebody else covering a whole album in sequence at a gig, like for instance the Mike Hunt Band doing "Get Your Ya Ya's Out" but even if you are great and have made great albums I don't want to go to a sports arena and here you slog your way through a note for note version of your own album. Yeah, that's right. I caught you yawning during your own song! :)

Happy-Merry-ho, ho ho

2009-12-22T10:38:00.005-05:00

Merry Christmas friends.

If you go to the new Del-Lords website you can grab a free download of a cool
Del-Lords Christmas song we recorded in 1983 with Andy Shernoff producing.

About to load up the Suburban and head to the Fox River Valley. Food pics to follow.

Cheers,
E/Roscoe

In the shameless self promotion column...

2009-12-16T09:50:00.003-05:00

New websites.....
http://ericambel.com/

www.yayhoos.com

www.cowboytechnical.com

and.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................The Del-Lords got one too including Scott "Top Ten" Kempner's blog. www.del-lords.com

check 'em out.

Thanksgiving: through the eyes of the plate

2009-11-30T21:42:00.007-05:00

I enjoyed Thanksgiving. I think it is one of our best American holidays (if you leave out
the questionable land deal for Manhattan way back when). Here's a travelog of my
weekend with the lovely wife down to Arkansas and back with an eye on the plate.

Obscene tubular food at Laguardia that I did not eat.

Fantastic tubular food at O'Hare Field that we did eat. The older bartender/waiter guy instructed us to "put a finger on top of the pickle to hold the thing together" or else he couldn't be responsible for what happened.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving. There was discussion the night before about turkey cooking methods. ML's sister Kathy had recently purchased a "Roaster". We looked up cooking tips for the Roaster and it didn't look like a very good gadget. Different cooking temps, wildly different cooking times. Warnings about loosing heat when opening the Roaster and so on. I lobbied for the Roasting Bag. I have cooked turkeys with several different methods including deep frying and the cheese cloth aided basting method but the roasting bag wins for me every time. After reading Roaster horror stories aloud from my iPhone it was decided that the Roasting bag would be employed. It really is a fantastic gadget. You'll find it in the spice section.

Here's the bird after it came out of the bag. I tented the bird w tin foil for 30 minutes before carving.

Another great thing about the roasting bag besides the self basting is the ease of which the gravy fixins can
be accessed. Snip the bag and there you go. Ready for gravy.

ML's Mom making the gravy.

A portion of carved bird.

the spread which included inside stuffing, outside stuffing, sweet potatoes, squash, gravy, cranberries, mashed potatoes and...

Deviled eggs on this fantastic Deviled Eggs Presentation Plate.

Here's my plate sans already eaten Deviled Eggs. (I'm way out of control with the Deviled Eggs. I believe it has been detailed before someplace)

I'm including this desert pic (with some seasonal Beaujolais Nouveau in the background) . The desert was good but it was not the focus.

I had decided with that first hot dog at ORD that all bets were off diet-wise so along with more College Football than I've ever watched before in one long weekend came more homestyle cookin. On Friday we went to a restaurant called Debra's Good Eats. My party mostly opted for breakfast fare but I went with the Chicken Fried Steak throwing out the must be a Yankee "not from around here" caveat by requesting the gravy on the side.

I did however go with green beans and mashed potatoes.

Saturday had the most College football games of all and we had a dinner before watching the local finale of Arkansas VS LSU.
ML's mom made her Meatloaf. She likes to do it the way she likes to do it so that means 2 smaller loaves of meat as opposed to a larger one. I believe my friend Chip Robinson would refer to these as "twins".

The aforementioned twins.

Earlier Saturday we had snuck out for a little BBQ. There is quite a bit of good BBQ in Hot Springs. Stubby's is probably #1 in town. McClard's is former Hot Springs resident and 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton's favorite but I really love Roland's BBQ. Roland's used to be in a little shack next to a "Tin Cup" style driving range out on highway 7 just before Hot Springs Village. I went there one afternoon years ago to kill some time and hit through a bucket of balls. Ended up trading some guitar tips for golf tips with the Pro and enjoying some of Roland's great BBQ. Roland's whole family was there on Saturday afternoon when we stopped by. I think they were all heading back to Texas after Thanksgiving. This is one of those points where I was going 'wow' too much to get a good pic but here's my chopped pork sandwich.

The highlight of the College Football action Saturday night was the Hogs. The Arkansas Razorbacks played the nationally rated LSU Tigers. It was a great game, went into overtime but even though Arkansas native Ryan Mallet looked pretty calm at the end kicker Alex Tejada missed that last boot and LSU won the game.

Sunday had us headed back to NYC. After the fabulous hot dog on the way out we were fixated on getting another one on our way back through ORD. We were in a different terminal (TERNIMAL B to Andy York) and there really was no hot dog to be found. There was a Vienna Beef cart but the poor woman was totally overwhelmed so after walking the length of the United Concourse we ended up at an Italian joint for this fine sandwich with grape juice.

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving.

Yeah, Another Gear Post in the small but mighty column

2009-11-19T14:06:00.007-05:00

I while back I ordered a custom finger joined 12" combo cabinet for the Fender Pro Jr (detailed earlier here) that I've been
steadfastly dumping money into while I wait for the new super grab and go Doctor Z amps to come out.

A few months before that Chip Robinson (check new website) helped me out by installing an upgraded Mercury Magnetics output transformer. The amp got bigger, had more air on it for sure.

The original Fender transformer is there on the table to the left. Bigger=Better in Transformers

In my quest for a bigger, louder yet lighter rig for local gigs I ordered a "Blues Jr cabinet cut for a Pro Jr" that Mather Cabs in Nashville offers as a standard item. I was able to order it in a custom color (bad ass baby blue of course) that they didn't even list on their site for the nice standard price of $288 including shipping.

Mather said it would be "about 4 weeks" for the cabinet to be delivered. Sure enough. The cabinet showed up 4 weeks later. Beautiful covering. Super lightweight. I started putting it together and noticed a couple screw holes for the chassis didn't line up and their was a gap in between the control panel and the cabinet that I could see through.

I wrote to Mather and Peter Mather wrote me right back to aplogize for the mistake had been made with the cabinet. "Could I used that one while he got me another one?"

Always surprising to run into real customer service these days In a word, Wow.

I used the cab. It sounded great. Put a super lightweight Eminence Tonkerlite with the NEO Magnet in there and the thing was off to the races.

I got the perfect replacement cabinet today. Put it together and it looks and sounds great.
Thanks for your help Chip and thanks to Peter Mather and Meg at New Sensor also.

here's some pics

and of course you have to have the Studio Slips cover for the grab and go.

ah, the after facts....
Original Pro Jr w 10" Speaker-26 lbs
Suped Up Baby Blue Pro Jr w Mercury Transformer, 12" Tonkerlite and Mather Cab-22 lbs

Smokin'? actually Burnin'!

2009-11-15T20:20:00.004-05:00

I can't compete with the fabulous youtube clips in Saturday's Hound Blog on the return of James Williamson to Iggy
and The Stooges but....

Check out Johnny Winter!!

The Yankees: Thanks to Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna

2009-11-07T09:50:00.003-05:00

Late in the summer of 1980 I was playing guitar in this band with this girl and her manager suggested that it would be a smart move for us all to move to New York so we did.

The first week we were here we played a gig at the Ritz (now known by it's original name Webster Hall) that was filmed for the movie "Urgh-A Music War"). That was quite an event but another event from the end of that summer stuck with me in a bigger way.

When I first got to NYC Joan Jett's manager Kenny Laguna was quick to ask me about my team. "Who's your favorite baseball team?". I had to admit that my punk rock circumstances had taken me away from the act of enjoying baseball but as a kid in Batavia, IL I had followed the Cubs. Wrigley Field was the first place I ever saw a Major League game on great afternoon field trip with a bunch of kids on a yellow school bus. Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and the great broadcaster Jack Brickhouse kept me dialed into the Cubs. I followed the Cubs coverage in the Chicago Tribune, saved the Trib that celebrated Erinie's 500th home run, but when my folks gave up the Trib in favor of the more local Aurora Beacon News whose sports coverage consisted of less than exciting AP wire crap I drifted away from baseball.

So when I told Kenny Laguna that I used to follow the Cubs he replied "You are in New York now. There art 2 teams and you have to decide." Kenny quickly took us all to 2 games. Out to Shea to see the Mets and then to the Bronx to see the Yankees. The decision wasn't really that hard for me.
I felt it was better to move to the American League so I wouldn't end up rooting against the Cubs. Also, in the trips to the 2 NY Stadiums I found everything about the Yankees to be rather stunning. The team, the history, the uniforms and the food at Yankee Stadium were really amazing. I'll always remember going to the bathroom at Shea and teetering on the heels of my cowboy boots through the standing, uh, water. That and the Navy Blue pinstripes. Joan, of course, stuck with her beloved Baltimore Orioles.
And that was always good for continuing banter between Joan and Kenny (which I'm sure continues to this day)

So seeing the Yanks play in the Bronx with Reggie and all sealed the deal. Followed the team on broadcast TV. The Scooter & Bill White years being some of the most entertaining.

The end of this summer of my cycling buddies hooked my lovely wife and I up with some tickets to see the Yanks at their new stadium which really brought me back. We had a fantastic time up there
and it drew me into the post season.

iPhone Pano pic i took at the new Yankee Stadium

I had heard a lot about the new stadium, some good some bad, but I thought it was a fantastic place. The Yankees beat Toronto and I came home with 40 bucks more than I thought I would so it
didn't seem as crazy expensive as it had been described.

Fast forward to the Series. Watched every minute of every game. Was on the road with another band of Yankee fans last weekend and watched last thursday's game in the bar we were playing in DC. We had to go on during the 6th inning but I had downloaded MLB.com's "At Bat Lite" iPhone application which I fired up and set to 15 second refresh on top of my amp. It was exciting to keep track of the game from that angle too. I saw them "win" on my phone. 2 days later we were driving back from Knoxville, TN and listened to the whole game on Sirius Satellite Radio. We'd done that before on the Steve Earle tour due to a hiccup in the TV setup on the tour bus. Still exciting as hell.

The Yanks won their 27th Title. Everybody knows that. The Phillies played a great series.
It was all great baseball.

Yesterday as I was doing some errands on my Cannondale Track bike, not so affectionately named "The Murderburger", I realized I had some free time so I snuck downtown to the vicinity of the Yankees Parade.

"Murderburger"

I really couldn't get too close but it was a blast just being in a huge, positive crowd.

When I was riding back to the East Village on "Murderburger" I remembered going to my first Yankee
game and wanted to thank Kenny Laguna and Joan Jett for taking me there.

Eric Ambel
11-7-2009

Click the link

2009-10-28T17:17:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8CtWUY7nvg

Sure, go ahead and ride it.

2009-10-11T10:39:00.006-04:00

Earlier this week my friends at Sid's Bikes in NYC snuck me into the industry only Interbike East Outdoor Demo
in Providence, RI. I got to ride a whole bunch of really fantastic 2010 model bikes around Roger Williams Park.
I snapped an iPhone pic of each bike that I rode.

The road loop was around 2 miles in a park and it had some hills, couple tight corners and one rough patch of road.
Great place to compare bikes. They had a Mountain Bike loop and Cyclocross loop also. Cyclocross race was held yesterday on that loop.

Moots RSL Titanium

Rocky Mountain Solo Team

BMC Pro Machine SLC01

Cannondale Six 105 bike

Cannondale Super Six Dura-Ace

Felt F-1

Rocky Mountain's new Buroughs unicrown track/fixed gear fork

Ridley carbon Cyclocross bike

Chris King's Handmade Steel road bike

Felt Z-2 with the new D2 Dura-Ace electronic shifting

Close up on the D2 Electronics

Fuji's '10 Team bike

All the vendors and mechanics were very cool. I brought my own pedals and knowing your seat height was handy for super quick setup.

The Moots was fantastic. It was my first time using SRAM which took all of 5 seconds to get completely used to.
It was probably a mistake to ride the Moots first cause it was incredible but there was nobody at their booth
and the bike beckoned.

DA D-2 electric was nuts. It just shifts immediately. Since it is almost a direct linkage to the derailleur I can't imagine it
going out of adjustment. You can hear the front derailleur mechanisim. The back just moves with the lightest tap.

I'd have to say the Cannondale Six was the nicest 105 level bike (Shimano's mid/low road component group) I've ever been on.

The Felts were mighty good too. F1 is their race bike. The Z2 has more of an 'all day' position but it still had plenty of pop.

The King bike was a blast to ride. It had the steel feel but it was not noodle-ey at all. It was a cool combo of the steel frame with modern stuff like threadless and outboard bearings. Also had 28's on it.

The BMC I rode was not the lightest bike but once you were on it the weight didn't seem to matter at all. It tracked really well.

I rode the Fuji to check out the seatmast thing. Seatmast has its problems. 1 is the difficulty in shipping the bike and the other
is selling it after you have cut the post. But the feel of a seatmast bike is completely different right away. It is definately a more
direct connection to the bike. Traditional clamp/seatpost setup has a lot of the engineering in making the clamp area
strong enough to work with the seatpost. Seatmast can be designed almost solely to work with the ride of the bike.
I didn't get any pics but BMC has a new concept that uses a quill like setup on the bottom of their new seatpost.
The lock is near the saddle and it is just one click turn to lock the post. The seatube has no clamp at all.

I'd never been on a Cyclocross bike before. Cyclocross is a wild thing. Read the Cyclocross Wiki. They had a great course set up for a race that was held there on Saturday.
The 'cross thing was ridiculously fun. Had a smile nailed across my face the whole time. I thought somebodys parents were gonna yell "Hey you god damn kids get offa my lawn"
I can see how a lot of people do Cyclocross single speed. A lot of short blasts of energy. Really cool.

I didn't ride a single mountain bike 'cause I don't want to like Mountain Biking and end up having to buy 3 more bikes.

Now I gotta get my head back into recording and ride up to the Javitz Center to the 2010 AES Show The Auto Show of Pro Recording.

I found myself...

2009-10-07T10:55:00.005-04:00

...in this movie trailer.

Over on Fixed Gear NYC there was on of those LA vs NY things going on. Somebody mentioned
the Ramones as the greatest New York band ever and that made me think about hanging out and being an extra on the Rock & Roll High School
movie shoot which was filmed in LA. I clicked on this youtube trailer and well, you know.

Hint-crowd/aviator glasses

A few things for friday

2009-10-02T08:44:00.004-04:00

Mix Magazine has a rep as the big, glossy corporate recording mag with content ruled by advertisers but you know, some times a rep just doesn't connect with the facts. Sure, Mix can be just those things but every issue contains at least one fantastic bit and Mix has put them all together in a book called Classic Tracks. The monthly Classic Tracks column dedicates itself to a song and the folks who produced it in very interesting detail. Some amazing stuff in there. The book is for your coffee table. You get get all the columns right here at the Mix Classic Tracks page.

Also of note: the Greg Trooper record that I recorded with Tim Hatfield at the now departed Coyote Studios in 1995 has been released and you can get it from Greg's website and also from iTunes. I've been trying to help get this record finished and out for a long time. Greg had brought some great songs and a great band. Tim and I mixed it this summer at the new studio. Check it out. Greg Trooper: The Williamsburg Affair

Dennis Bean-Larson is the guy who runs the Fixed Gear Gallery website. There's fixed gear bike porn on there every day. Over 10,000 reader submitted bikes so far. Dennis also goes to Interbike which is the annual autoshow of bikes in that heathen hell hole of Las Vegas. Dennis

provides fantastic photo coverage for all of us so we can stay home. Check out his '09 Interbike coverage here.

Esquired 2

2009-09-27T12:09:00.006-04:00

I while back I wrote about converting one of my handmade Fretshop Phil Telecasters to a single pickup Esquire style
guitar here in a post titled Esquired.
I did get the guitar done and it looked cool as hell. Sounded pretty damn good too.

I was really excited about the custom Callaham control plate with no switch. Bottle Rockets main man Brian Henneman, who had just gotten his long lost Esquire back, reminded me that I might
be missing one of the coolest Esquire settings. Not the muffly, bassy filter thing but the "Tone Control Bypassed" setting.

It didn't take me long to wrap myself around his way of thinking. I took the guitar up to former Sodowsky ace Norio Imai to
have him instal a pull pot on the tone control. Knob up...... Tone in

Knob down.....straight to the volume

At the recent Yayhoos gigs Dan Baird beta tested the guitar which also received a Norio setup which made it feel happy like it had been to the chiropractor. As you can see from the show of teeth below Dan liked it.

Thanks to everybody who singed up as 'followers' here on Blogger/Knucklehead.
Having a little difficulty with the widget blocking the right side of the photos so I bailed
on the 'follower' widget. You can still click 'follow' up at the top.

Have a good Sunday whether you are watching Sports or not!

iPhone Yankee Stadium Pano pic I took.

Thanks to Yayhoos fans, Bloodshot, Robbie Fulks, Bottle Rockets and more

2009-09-16T09:07:00.005-04:00

Took me a while to recover from the short Yayhoos weekend over Sept 5-6.
Our gig at the Mercury and the Bloodshot one in Philly required a crazy amount
of pre planning but ended up going exceptionally smooth.

Thanks so much to the folks that came out to the shows. Really impressive
collection of Yayhoo minded Yayhoo fans at the Mercury on a holiday weekend
late at night. Very impressive. We gave 'em the personality show including
a couple songs we bailed on. To explain the no encore thing... I'm the youngest
Yayhoo and we were all just plain finished, not mad:)

On Sunday the 6th we went down to Philly for the Bloodshot party/mini fest and Google
Maps sent us through Staten Island so Dan could see the Sopranos Bridge. We got to
Philly about an hour early.

We had fun watching the bands. Terry saved the ass of the Deadstring Brothers who's drummer
had quit the day before. We had a great time watching the Bottle Rockets kick it out on their new songs
(read a UK interview with Brian Here)
and then we got to do "50 Minutes".
I'll tell you what, the Yayhoos can do "50 Minutes"
On the way down I told the guys that I had drafted the Robbie Fulks to join us for our last song "Signed, Sealed,
Delivered" dedicated to you know who. Robbie was great. He had the happy feat and it was
a blast to let him "drive the car" for a tune.

If any of you bootleg types find a recording of us w Robbie let me know. I'd love to have a copy

You know I like to see some band play Brown Sugar

2009-09-10T09:20:00.000-04:00

Yayhoos gigs...Chip's record & a food shot

2009-08-30T13:20:00.006-04:00

Hey Friends,

the Yayhoos are coming out of our dormant state next weekend for a couple gigs.
One in NYC at the Mercury Lounge Sept 5 at 11pm and another at the big the next day Sept 6th Bloodshot
Records Blowout in Philly at World Cafe Live with the Bottle Rockets, Ha Ha Tonka, Robbie Fulks,
Waco Brothers and more.

I've written a few times here about playing and recording with Chip Robinson. Most of the recording
for his new record "Mylow" was done right here in the living room studio "Lily's Terrace" over coffee and sandwiches. The record
was mixed at the Cowboy Technical by Tim Hatfield and myself. Chip
has signed a deal with Kasey Anderson's label Red River Records.
Chip has a few special advance copies available if you act quickly. I'm excited about people getting to hear Chip's first solo record.
Kasey is going to put it out on vinyl also.

The other day I was out on the bike and stopped at Neighburrito for some lunch and veered away from my usual
pork jag discovering this thing called the Steak Fajiat-rito.
It was good. And that is all I have to say about that.

How I got produced by Jim Dickinson and other ramblings

2009-08-18T16:43:00.007-04:00

In 1990 I was summoned to Memphis, Tennessee to play on Mojo Nixon's first solo record to be titled "Otis". Mojo and his manager Bullethead told me about the record. Mojo had put together his dream band of roots rock guys. John Doe on bass, The late great Country Dick Montana on drums, Bill Davis and myself on guitars. The record would be done at a studio that used to belong to Chips Moman that had been built in a big old purple old firehouse just off of Beale Street downtown.

This was all pretty darned exciting. I knew John Doe from my pre Joan Jett & the Blackhearts Hollywood days and the Del-Lords had done a bunch of shows with Country Dick's Beat Farmers. I'd also seen Dash Rip Rock but hadn't really met Bill Davis. I had been producing some bands in NYC and I was really excited about playing guitar on this record for Mojo. I got a call asking about gear for the sessions. I told 'em I'd bring a Les Paul and my Parsons-White equipped Telecaster. They asked me about amps and I said that if we had a '62 Bassman, a '65 Deluxe Reverb and a 50 Plexi Marshall we should have the basic food groups of the rock and roll amplification very well covered.

The first time I ever saw Mojo he was the guy in the local band when the Del Lords played in San Diego. We had a little tv in our van and we had convinced ourselves the Miami Vice was a fantastic thing. I got out of the van a little into the show and walked into the club to see a possesed rock and roll madman holding court frenetically on stage in a full bunny suit. That was in '84.

Back to the Mojo record. They explained I'd be flown to Memphis and met at the airport. I'd have my own room and I'd be making more money than I'd ever made playing guitar in my life. That and the record would be produced by The Jim Dickinson.

Back then it took a little more work to be a rock and roll fan than it does at this point with 'teh internets' and all, but I was pretty acquainted with a fair amount of the Dickinson cannon (and I mean Cannon) of work but I got filled in on the fine points by my upstairs buddy "The Hound" who was a rock writin', record colectin' DJ. (you can read an amazing piece on Mr. Jim Dickenson written by the hound here). I got the music and the history down and some Dickinson likes and dislikes too and prepared to go to Memphis.

I got there and went straight to the studio. The rest of the band had already been there for a day and had cut a song already. Dickinson told me to have a seat in the control room with him and the engineer Bob "Cruiser" Krusen. I had a guitar in there and started to take some notes on the songs then I got the drift from Dickinson that that wouldn't be needed. I heard that Jim liked to smoke a little weed so before I flew down there I had sourced out 2 bags of the 2 best varieties that I could find in New York City. Jim and the engineer had been nursing a joint so when that one was done I offered to roll one of mine. Turns out my 2 new best friends were the only other guys on the session that liked that stuff so things were pretty comfortable in the control room. I could see that they had the band going pretty good so I continued listening from my position on the couch..... for days. I mean days.

I watched Dickinson (lot of people called Jim "Dickinson" it wasn't a sports thing, it was a name) work the band. He had a blackboard out there in the studio and they'd work up the arrangement of the songs with the map on the big blackboard. They'd keep the first track that didn't have any huge fuck ups and maybe do one more. We'd stop and have a break, stories would be told (relevant ones weather you knew it at the time or not) then it was back to work. I'd heard stuff about Dickinson's producing usually including his one Shakespearian "Freakout" but there was no freakout on this one.

I sure as hell got to hear some good rants and raves in the control room. One in particular was his rant on "Co-Production". Jim was going off about what fucking egotistical insult and waste of time it was for an artist to "Co-Produce" their own record. He said it was never a good idea and that whenever anybody asked he just told 'em "Your name goes on the front, My name goes on the back"

A couple years later I was at my parents house in Illinois visiting for Christmas talking to Nils Lofgren on the phone about producing his next record that would become "Crooked Line" when he asked me what I though about co-producing. I remembered Dickinson's rant and calmly said "Look Nils, you are gonna write the songs, sing them and play lead guitar. I'm gonna help you make a great record. Your name goes on the front and mine goes on the back". I sorta held my breath until I heard "Ok" come from the other end of the phone.

Ok, so I've been in Memphis for days making the most money ever, sitting in the control room smoking pot and watching this amazing guy make this record come together.

And on the seventh day........ there was a gig. A gig at the Omni New Daisy just a couple blocks away. Jim had me go into the studio with the band and rehearse. In addition to the rest of the guys I was on guitar and Jim was playing keys. We went over and did the soundcheck. Jim and I were on the same side of the stage. A couple hours later we did the gig. It was a blast. Memphis was always good for Mojo and this night was really good.

After the gig Dickinson gave everybody the next 2 days off but told me to be at the studio the day after next. I got there and
we ran through all the songs. All the songs that I'd been listening to all the week before from the control room. At the gig playing next to me Jim recognized that I'd heard what everybody else was doing and had pretty much naturally come up with my own part that fit in with what everybody had done.

There was some whacky stuff. At one point they were talking about the harmonies for this song "Big Foot Trucks". Mojo was there and said "Roscoe can sing the high stuff". I went in there and sang my idea which was pretty darn high and I saw Dickinson's face light up. He hit the talkback button and his cracking laugh kept him from speaking for a minute then he was like "That is fucking Great! I haven't heard anything like that since Danny & The Juniors! Can you double it?"

At one point he asked me to do a Hendrix-like fill in the middle of Don Henley Must Die and I really couldn't get it. Just couldn't get it. I'm just not a Hendrix guy. A little later Jim introduced me to his boy Luther who came down to do the Hendrix part. He played it cool. It came out cool.

The day after my overdubs I went back to the couch as some other overdubs were going down. The day after that Dickinson came to the studio with a couple little Supro amps and told us we were gonna be "Blues" today. He showed up with the tiny amps and we were "Blues". After that I was done with all of my stuff but I was invited to stay till the tracking was done, hanging out, making the most dough ever so far for me.

It was a great couple weeks. When I got back to NYC I knew I had been "Produced by Jim Dickinson".
Jim Dickinson got the best out of me.

I kept in touch with Jim Dickinson. Never had the opportunity to work on another record with him but after the Hound and I had opened our bar the Lakeside Lounge in the East Village he called to tell me that his kids had a band and if it was cool he'd like to have them come to NYC to play. He wanted them to play at my place. They had a band called the North Mississippi All Stars. They played at the Lakeside as a duo that first time. Their bass player Chris Chew couldn't make it up to NY. It was a fantastic gig with a great crowd. Cody and Luther played great together then and that was in '96.

Few years later when Jim was putting out his first solo record in a long time he called to see if he could come up and play a gig at the Lakeside with my band as his. That was ridiculously fun. Keith Christopher, Steve Holly and I backed Jim who was playing Wurlitzer and some guitar. I'd heard him refer to both tuning and rehearsal as "Decadent European Concepts" before. We did rehearse the night before but I don't think we played any songs that we played the next night at the gig which turned out to be Jim Dickinson's NYC debut. It was mostly some musical messing around and some stories.

Jim told great stories. After he had been invited to come and play on the Bob Dylan's "Time Out of Mind" he had a few good ones. That record was the first time Bob Dylan had gone back to working with Daniel Lanios after Oh Mercy which was recorded 8 years earlier. Legend has it Bob had gotten into a few rubs with Daniel when the Producer asked him to 'redo' things. Jim and Bob were the same age but had never really met. They'd been on different long, musical roads for years but they had never met and for some reason Bob picked Jim to be part of this particular record. Anyway, they get down to Criteria in Miami with this big band. 2 drummers, 2 bass players, guitar players, keys including Jim. Everybody is getting ready to get it going.

So a Daniel Lanios, the Producer, comes over to Bob to say hello and starts talking to Bob, the artist, about the "plan" for the album. When Daniel stops talking Bob says simply, "You'll have to talk to my friend Jim"

I sure am thankful I got "Produced" by Jim Dickinson.
My heart goes out to his boys Cody and Luther and his lovely wife Mary Lindsay.
Jim Dickinson RIP

The Les Paul

2009-08-13T14:45:00.006-04:00

Well today we all found out that at age 94 Les Paul had died. The Les Paul, The guy. I like to put a "The" at the front of stuff for extra respect from time to time so when I say today "The Les Paul" I'm not talking about that fine '54 historic gold top reissue over there. You know where to go to get all the official info so I wont repeat most of it. Les Paul gets credited for the first electric solidbody guitar. That one is a bit hard to prove. Other guys, Paul Bigsby for one, were doing it at around the same time. Les Paul did bring a presence to the Electric Guitar that hadn't really been there before. The Les Paul model guitar built by Gibson was probably the first signature model guitar. It's still around with rich guys who don't play 'em enough paying over $250,000 for ones in great shape from the 50's. I always wonder why they are in such great shape? Maybe 'cause that particular one wasn't so hot?

Anyway, to The Les Paul. A pal of mine who has also left the building named Rick Rosen interviewed Les Paul around 10 years ago for Stereophile Magazine. I couldn't find it on the internets but it was a fun read. Mostly about Les's home playback equipment including his favorite top loader cassette clock radio. At the end of the long audiogeek centric interview Rick thanks Les for his time and asks one more question.

Les, if you had one tip for guitar players out there what would it be?
"Don't keep your guitar in the case"
Why's that?
"You can't play the guitar in the case"

A few years back I went to a recording conference down in Tucson that was associated with Tape Op Magazine. One of the guys, Mark Rubel, had recently interviewed Les Paul at his home. During the largest panel of the conference full of recording geeks both young and not so young Mark called Les at home and put him on speakerphone and we all sang happy birthday to Les Paul on his 90th Birthday. Everybody sang.

Now this is the guy who after a near fatal car accident in 1948 was being told by doctors that after they reset his broken arm he'd never be able to bend his right elbow again. Les Paul told them to set his arm at a 40 degree angle so he could keep playing the guitar.

I never got to see The Les Paul play but a friend of mine did go and get The Les Paul to sign a pickguard for me one time. I just had an Andy Rooney moment while I was looking for the pickgaurd. I know it's here somewhere. I did find a couple other things I had been looking for while I was looking so thanks again Les Paul.

Les Paul was a dreamer and a tinkerer for sure. He kept messing with the guitar and other electronics. He dreamt about recording himself then being able to record himself again. A practice now referred to as overdubbing. Les did invent the first multitrack recording machine that most assuredly changed the lives of all those geeks that were at the Tape Op Convention with me in Tucson and music as we all know it today. A big part of that machine was the dream.
Like the song he recorded with his wife Mary Ford in their garage "How High The Moon". The moon was just a dream then.
The song is a still a dream now.

Hard to imagine music like that without a dream.
RIP to The Les Paul.

Bottle Rockets -Aug 11 Lean Forward

2009-08-11T08:25:00.005-04:00

I'm pretty damned excited that today is August 11 and that marks the release of the new
Bottle Rockets record "Lean Forward". The Bottle Rockets are one of the best Band's I've
ever had the pleasure of working with as a producer. I've done 3 LP's and an EP with them over the
years. (Lean Forward makes it 4)
First was Brooklyn Side, recorded at the fondly remembered Coyote Studios on N 6th
Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Coyote is gone now due to the former meat market street turning
into a different type of Meat Market resulting in many bars and an American Apparel store.

Next was 24 Hours A Day which we tracked at the 'Coug's guitar player Mike Wanchic's joint in Bloomington,
Indiana. We all got our own rooms at the Motel 6 and we were greeted every morning by a young
girl who wanted badly to leave Bloomington for more hipster digs like NYC who we affectionately
refered to as "Eyebrows". We did some overdubs in NYC and mixed with the fabulously English Mr
Richard "Dick" Dodd in the Berry Hill section of Nashville.

We had some leftover tracks from 24 Hours A Day that became known, oddly enough, as "Leftovers"
Then we went to Lou's The Studio in Springfield, MO to record "Brand New Year" in 1999.

It had been quite a while since we worked together but we had always stayed in touch. I was
never as excited as I was the morning I opened up my e-mail to find that the Bottle Rockets
wanted to make a record with me again.

The record we made with Tim Hatfield engineering last summer at the old Cowboy Technical Services
basement location on Hope Street in Williamsburg is released today on Bloodshot Records.
You can get it through iTunes or from the Band's Webstore or Bloodshot's Webstore or your local record shop.
The record is available on CD and Limited Edition Vinyl.

I hope you'll dig it as much as I do.

E/Roscoe

under the hood of the fun machine

2009-08-07T21:09:00.001-04:00

Still serving up the entertainment. Built in 1957.

How 'bout some Detroit Music from the Raider's TV Show

2009-07-30T18:52:00.002-04:00

With both Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay doing the MC duties

I was trying to find a video with the Bob Seeger playing a Telecaster through a Leslie Cabinet
but found this clip from "Where the Action Is"

As the racers head in to Paris

2009-07-26T09:51:00.004-04:00

I've had a great time watching this year's Tour de France.
Congrats to Contador on his victory (today's stage is mostly ceremonial)
Congrats to Lance for making the podium after 4 years off.
Thanks go out to Lance also for bringing so many fans to the race and
for all the money he's raised for his Foundation for Cancer Survivors.

Fun to watch the race in real time on TV in the morning with all the other race
fans following on the internet. And it has been a blast to present the 5pm
Race Replay for the bike pals at the Lakeside Lounge.

It was fun to watch Contador fly and to watch Lance use his head to
stay in the race but my favorite image from this tour has to be this
shot of the exhausted Russian racer Serguei Ivanov just after he had scored the first big stage win
of his entire career battling his way up the mountain on Stage 14.

TdF isn't the only thing going on in July/New Studio-New Website

2009-07-21T21:08:00.005-04:00

The Tour de France isn't the only thing going on in July but it has been a good
one and it is getting better. Today's stage in the Alps was pretty darn exciting.
Watched this morning live then watched the daily 5pm Race Replay again at the Lakeside
with 40 cycling fans who all got a kick out of watching Lance (yeah, we can
refer to him with one name) play 'team player' helping race leader/teamate
Alberto Contador.

Lance leads Astana teammate and current TdF leader Contador through an Alpine snow tunnel at over 55 mph

Also this month I've been working on a new website for the new location of Cowboy Technical Services.
Check it out. I used iWeb and tried to keep it clean so you could read it on your phone if that happens
to be how you roll. We have a CTS Recording Blog on that site too. I've just started it but I'm gonna sorta rate
the our new favorite lunch spots.

a rave and a rant

2009-07-12T13:53:00.002-04:00

First the rave....

Here's the Rotella (Prosciutto di Parma rolls with Arugula, Roasted Pepper, & Smoked Mozzarella) appetizer from Posto on 18th and 2nd.

It was fantastic. That is a pesto sauce these tasty little sushilike rolls are perched upon. I'm looking forward
to doing my own knockoff version of this one at home. I think the key will be building the roll then leaving it
in the fridge for a while as I sharpen my knife to be able to cut through it without smashing it.

Now the rant...

And this is not directed at Posto but rather at too many other restaurants in the East Village and NYC in general.
If you don't have a dance floor then turn the fucking music down! And while you are at it gimme some light so
I can read your menu.

Rant over:)

Busier than a cranberry merchant

2009-07-05T12:28:00.002-04:00

"Busier than a cranberry merchant" is an expression my Grandmother used to use. It always baffled
my sister and I. Far as I can tell cranberries don't have a due date on 'em?

Anyway, been very busy at the new Cowboy Technical Services with a lot of mixing. We finished mixing Ted Morris's debut record from Stockholm and headed over to the historic Pencil Factory Building in Greenpoint to master the stuff with Paul Gold at Salt Mastering.

After we got Ted's master all tweaked out we did the final sequencing on the upcoming New Heathens record titled "Hello Disaster" then as we were quite hungry from all this tweaking we headed back to Williamsburg for dinner.

It has been raining every few hours here for the last 7 weeks but riding in the pouring rain is no problem
when you have Peter Lugers as your destination

The Rocky Track locked up out front of Lugers.

Paul, Tim Hatfield and I proceeded with the Lugers experience.
Rolls with Luger sauce

followed by the Lugers version of a salad

I'd never had the Lugers bacon before. I think it may have been oven cooked. Fantastic.

Steak for 3
I didn't get a picture of the Lugers hash browns because knives and forks were flying at that point

And some streudel

I've said it before but Lugers aging process of their Porterhouse really brings out the difference in taste between the rib and tenderloin sides of the steak.

Back to more mixing this week with a great band from Cleveland called Robbing Mary and a fun gig with Chip Robinson and the Roscoe Trio the other night at the Lakeside.

Busier than a cranberry merchant.

Last Weekend

2009-06-21T12:53:00.004-04:00

Last weekend I went out for a little head clearing ride around the East Village on my Vivalo. Heading uptown
along Avenue B I figured I'd go past my street and keep going for a while longer when WHAM something hit
me in the right side of my head just below my helmet. I steadied myself on the bike and raised my hand
to my ear to see that there was no bleeding. I didn't hear anything strange so I turned around to go back
to the corner of B and 8th to see what was there. I figured maybe some kids where throwing rocks or apples
or maybe a golf ball (that's what it felt like). I got there and saw the guy getting in his cab and nothing going
on down 8th Street. I'm sure I had a huge questionmark above my head/helmet at this point when a couple that
I could only describe as "Times Readers" came into the crosswalk and declared "You hit the bird" while pointing
to a little wren that was there on the pavement. I, a "Times Reader" also mind you, replied "the bird hit me"!

I was ok. My ear was ringing a little but that isn't new. There was nothing on me except the graphic of a couple
upside down Columbus Tubing birds on my Trackstar t-shirt.

I then realized that I had to take a picture of the departed bird who, as one of my friends told me later, was untethered by
the rules of one way traffic in the city. I think the bird was either in high pursuit of another bird or trying to beat it into
Tompkins Square Park to make some kind of afternoon bird hoedown. So I took a pic of the little thing to share
on the internet 'cause that is what we do nowadays.

WTF?

Bird on B

Vivalo

Hard to Explain

2009-05-02T10:56:00.002-04:00

It is hard to explain just how much fun I had last weekend in Raleigh with the Yayhoos
at Joey's house party and the anniversary gig at Slims. Terry did a good job explaining.

Thanks to Spanking Charlene, The New Heathens, Joey, Chip Robinson, Van Alston and the dancing girls led heroically by Florence Dore.

felt like I needed some...

2009-04-20T21:07:00.003-04:00

...inspirational music

The Yayhoos will be playing this Sat in Raleigh, NC at Slims Downtown

Esquired

2009-03-01T10:56:00.003-05:00

Ok,
a gear post.........

We recently moved the recording studio. I had to put a lot of stuff in storage and also brought some stuff home. My black
Todd Hanson Tele, built by Phil Maneri at 5th Ave Fretshop in Columbus, OH ended up under the bed for a while.

While cruising the Dr Z Amp Forum I read some talk about Esquires. The Esquire was the first Fender guitar and it had one pickup (as opposed to the 2 pickup Telecaster). Now this topic got me thinking about the drastic difference in output between the 1 pickup Les Paul Junior and the 2 pickup Les Paul Special.

Those 2 guitars are virtually identical in construction except for the electronics. The Special is a great guitar but anybody who ever heard the Great Fatsby Leslie West play Mississippi Queen knows the Junior is a fire breathing horse on its hind legs by comparison. So, Since I have 4 other Telecasters I decided to mess with the black one.

I read up on Esquire wiring options which had a bunch of muffling capacitors wired into the switch that would eventually become the pickup selector then I rode over to Rick Kelly's Carmine Street Guitar Shop to check with Rick on which way to go with the switch before I got out the soldering iron an all. Rick builds some Esquire type guitars out of 150 year old pine that came out of some film directors Bowery Loft. Anyway, Rick told me to bail on the switch entirely. "Check mine out. I don't use the switch at all." This made sense to me and turned out it was about 10 times easier wiringwise. Really only one wire to move.

I rode home and opened up the black tele. Removed the neck pickup and moved the one white wire and boom I had a very loud straight to the amp Esquire thing going on.

This made sense but anybody who's seen an Esquire knows it isn't all about the sound. If you are gonna be honest it is also about the clean aesthetic of having just one pickup. Now since I had bypassed the switch I wanted to take that clean thing to another level too. I'd seen a couple guitars that my friend Creston had made that had custom plates on them. Creston sent me to Callaham, the awesome parts maker who fabricates a lot of the hardware that we use in the Stonetree Guitars. Bill Callaham sent me a custom made plate with no switch holes in less than a week with a set of his bridge saddles and an Esquire pickguard.

So here it is, the 1 pickup, no switch Fender Style Fire Breathing Horse.

Esquired

Advise for the Steel Player

2009-02-07T18:00:00.003-05:00

I always liked Buck Owens & His Buckeroos. One of my musical heros Lou Whitney used to tell me
a lot of stories about wild Buckeroos gigs that he went to in Arizona back in the '60's. Beehive hairdo havin' women swarming
the stage and all. Lou called it "Combo Country". The small self contained band as opposed to the lush Nashville productions of the time. Great stuff all of it.

One time I was down at Lou's recording studio in Springfield, MO to produce a record for artist Jono Manson and we were talking about putting pedal steel on one of the tunes.
Lou mentioned that original Buckaroos steel player Tom Brumley was living nearby and playing shows at his family's theater in Branson. Holy moly. Lets get Tom Brumley!

Lou got a hold of Tom and a few days later Tom shows up at the studio in a sharp little Mercedes with his pedal steel and a new reissue Fender Bassman that had been customized for him by the Fender folks with a JBL K-130 15" speaker ("the only speaker for pedal steel" said Tom).

Tom got set up and before we played him the song I went out there to talk to him about what we were looking for on the song.
I was kind of nervous about it and I think Tom could tell. I told him I really needed to let him know the direction for this part.
I hoped that it wouldn't offend him but I told him that I was just going to go ahead and tell him the same thing that I told
any guy who was gonna play pedal steel on a track that I was producing. Tom is giving me the "Ok, kid" look.
I'm still nervous about it and Tom prods me "Ok what do you need"?
And I'm still beating around the bush "Its just what I have to tell all the pedal steel players......"

Tom is still waiting...

"Well, I always tell 'em to play it like Tom Brumley"

Well Tom did a great job for us on Jono Manson's song "No Strings" from the record Little Big Man that features Will Rigby on drums.
Tom also told us some good Buckaroos tales about his first gig with them in Arizona where he flew down
to meet Buck who told him he "had a steel for him". Turns out it was in pieces in a box and Tom had to build it before the gig.

One of the best stories he told was about being in the studio with the Buckaroos. Usually Buck and his super guitar playing partner Don Rich would have the songs worked out and show them to the band in the studio. They'd usually cut a coupld songs at a session. This is at Capitol Records in Hollywood. On one day they had 2 down and had a little time left for one more. Buck and Don showed this song to the band then with only enough time left on the session for one take Buck leans over and tells Tom "play something you can get right the first time"

And that song became another of Buck's hits "Together Again" with a first take track from everyone including Tom's solo.

Tom played in Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band and Dwight Yokam and Pete Anderson had him play steel on most of Dwight's heavily Buck influenced stuff. A couple years later I brought Tom into the studio to play on the Backsliders "Southern Lines" record. I didn't have the 15" JBL with me and I heard about it from Tom. Went home and got one that we keep in the studio now. So steel players, play it like Tom Brumley!

Tom Brumley RIP

Glen

2009-01-24T21:31:00.002-05:00

Stumbled across this one from the great Glen Campell with the Stone Temple Pilots.
If you read my old blog on my website you know I got to meet Glen one time
as he attended a Steve Earle/Jackson Browne gig in AZ.
Best to you Sir.

couple laughs

2009-01-18T11:13:00.003-05:00

Moving the Studio has been insane. Tons of expensive,
heavy delicate stuff to move with care or else pay the crazy price to get it all fixed. At one point when 5 of us
were trying to jockey around the console I blurted that it only took 3 of us last time we moved it to which
Timbo replied
"yeah, well, we are 8 years older now"!

So in the middle of this crazy move (lots of stuff out of the basement and into storage, other stuff into the new studio
that looks at the Williamsburg Bridge) I accepted a gig at the Rodeo Bar playing guitar with Mike Ferrio's band Tandy.
I love playing with Tandy. I like to listen to Mike play and try to fit in with the story. The stories are good. The music can
be tricky. Mike plays with a bunch of different people. At one point bassist Skip Ward explained the Tandy music
to me over some Rodeo Bar quesadilla's. "He does one thing 3 times then does another thing". This helped me greatly
as far as decoding Tandy songs goes.

Now the Rodeo Bar. The Rodeo Bar can be fun but first you have to get in there which means you have walk the happy hour douchebag gauntlet. The Rodeo Bar Happy Hour Crowd is very rough. They are young people with jobs that must have
great pressure 'cause they need to drink a lot after work and talk real loud before they go home. They speak english
but they don't understand phrases like "excuse me" or "pardon me". They look at me with my guitar, pedalboard
and amp and go "Look, he's got a guitar" but they wont move. Sorta like they are shocked to see a greenskeeper in the
clubhouse at night.

I never go to a NYC gig with more than I can carry in one trip. This means that after I make it through the bar and then through the rest of the happy hour Cowboy Theme Park I can set my stuff on what used to be the stage at the Rodeo Bar.
Stressed by the failing of communication (pardon me etc) I usually sit down and commence to overeating peanuts.

The Rodeo Bar is one of the only 2 set gigs that I do. I've never played there with my own band but I've played guitar there with a bunch of other bands. It usually gets pretty fun by the 2nd set.
So last week when I was there with Tandy they cleared all these tables up front and a bunch of guys in real cowboy hats came in. I'm talkin real XXXX Beaver hats. Resistol, Stetson. No wire in the brim cheap ass Cowboy Theme Park type hats but real headgear. These guys were polite. One of 'em tossed a hundred dollar bill on the stage and asked if we could do "Copperhead Road". Now I've played Copperhead Road probably 200 times with the songwriter Steve Earle in his band all over the globe but at that moment I just had to laugh thinking of my own often repeated phrase "I couldn't play that song if 15 World Champion Bull Riders came in and threw a hundred bucks at me". Why? Cause I wanted to hear Steve play the intro on that mandolin of his I suppose? Made me laugh.

Any damn way, while having a good time on the gig I started to hear something rather interesting coming out of my trusty Fender Pro Jr amp.
After a while I realized that while playing Tandy songs for the World Championship Bull Riders I had blown my Eminence Patriot "Rajun Cajun" speaker. It was sounding pretty cool though. The guys remarked it sounded like Bo Diddley. I was wishing my friend the Hound was at the gig. He might have actually liked this tone.
I laughed again.

Williamsburg Meat Counter Panoshot

2009-01-15T11:15:00.003-05:00

Between all the work on the setting up the new studio I've been having fun with this iPhone app called Pano. Took
a walk the other day after a fancy lunch near our new spot in Williamsburg and got this shot
of the counter at Marlow & Daughters

after 8 years in the basement

2009-01-08T09:34:00.002-05:00

After 8 years in the basement Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig is on the move.

We are in the middle of moving from our subterranean location to a lofty place nearby in Williamsburg. Details to come after our backs loose some of the ache.
Thanks to all of our fabulous Clients past, present and future.

Every day for over 40 years

2008-12-31T15:01:00.003-05:00

my mom's cousin Mark Covert has run at least 1 mile.
Every single day. Cheers to Mark.

Here's a video his friends made.

And here's a piece ABC World News ran on Mark's Streak

Holiday Food Post

2008-12-29T10:18:00.002-05:00

In pics.

Champaign Ham from Lobels goes in.

Table preparations by the Lovely Wife.

Champaign Glazed Ham comes out!

Ham Carving

Christmas Table

Christmas Plate...clockwise from Ham, Roberto's Cole Slaw, ML's Squash Timbales and Diana's Artichoke dish.

and the Texas Italian Cake.

Thanks to Roberto, Brooke, Diana, Lyn and Mary Lee.

Happy Merry you Know

2008-12-24T20:28:00.003-05:00

Hey there.

Merry Christmas is what we said in Batavia, IL.

do yourself a favor and go to Hound Christmas Blog Part 1 and Hound Christmas Part 2 to grab a bounty full of amazing rock and roll
Christmas goodies.

Back and Forth

2008-12-17T14:04:00.002-05:00

Couple quick trips. Couple weeks ago I went to visit my folks in Naples, FL.
Went for a nice lunch by the Gulf at the Turtle Club.

That pink drink was my mom's Turtletini.

Came back and went to Scott Hull's newly acquired Masterdisk to work with Dave McNair on mastering the Bottle Rockets upcoming release.

Dave McNair, longtime Bottle Rockets fan gets a crack at the new Bloodshot record to be released late spring '09.

Then later that week I was back at JFK to fly over to Hannover, Germany for the Blue Rose Records Christmas Party Presented by Head Honcho Edgar at the Blues Garage with a bunch of cool musicians and bands from all over including Todd Thibaud, Chris Cacavas, Julian Dawson and the Band of Heathens. On friday night Edgar took a bunch of us out to eat and my lust for pig flesh was satiated.

The next day was time for the big gig. In addition to my food snapshot artist duties I played the whole set with the Bottle Rockets. Seemed to be a lot of Neil going on at the party. Bottle Rockets were no exception.

Lots of things happened including the fact that this vendor who was intrigued by my Wisconsin pronunciation of Bratwurst sold over 800 tubualar swine treats that night.

That doesn't count the ones he was giving away at the end.

Post gig snack w Hefeweizen

Straight back to NYC the next day after 3 in flight Batman movies on the merciful this time Air France.

Lily tried to help ML with the Christmas decorations.

Germany has the beer and the meat but 9th Street has the coffee.

Holiday Macchiato

thanks

2008-12-01T22:49:00.002-05:00

Scene from great Thanksgiving Dinner uptown.....

Wicked Pig

2008-11-07T19:38:00.002-05:00

Ok,
since the Presidential Election I have gone wildly off my diet. Wildly.
It happens then you get back on....eventually but not today.
A couple weeks back I saw a pork sandwich mentioned on the Lunch
Encounter blog. Turns out the spot was real close to my East Village location.
I dig the Pig. I wanted some but the sandwich was off my diet and every time
I rolled by the tiny joint it was slammed packed out to the sidewalk.

Today I took a ride by there on the Rocky Mountain Track Bike at the perfect between meals time of 1:45 and took a look.

Porchetta is all about the Sandwich

made from this tasty roast which has a fabulous taste that involves some fresh Fennel pollen.

I will get back on my diet....
.......eventually.

(I will have to finish off that ice cream I bought last night first)

Thanks and Congrats

2008-11-05T19:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was mighty exciting. I'm mostly at a loss for words but I do feel good and I feel goodness around me.
Last night Mary Lee and I watched the Election Returns for as long as we could before heading over to the
Lakeside to catch George Gilmore and his band while the info
came in on the TV.

I'm proud of how Barack Obama ran his campaign. I have high hopes for what he'd like to help us do. My fingers
remain crossed for him and our country.

More than that I'm really proud of the Young People for getting involved in this election and getting out there and voting.
The Young People have never voted like this before. They/You really brought this one home
in a very real way. Color me impressed, moved and thankful.

Halloween

2008-11-02T20:23:00.003-05:00

I'm not too hot on Halloween.
Never had a lot of luck with it.
My punk rock band back in Wyoming The Dirty Dogs used to throw some rather amazing parties but that was more Alex Ocheltree, lead singer guy's doing than mine. (little more Dirty Dogs Dirt)

This year I was to meet ML at my recording studio partner Tim Hatfield's mother in law's apartment for some fantastic food while overlooking the Halloween Parade below on 6th Avenue.

I left the East Village early but not early enough. I couldn't get across 6th Avenue. I tried 9th Street, then tried 11th, then walked back to 5th Ave to try 14th street where the cops told me I couldn't go. Couldn't get in the subway either. They told me to go to 16th Street "the end of the parade" .... Kramer Please!! no way was that the end of the parade. I finally had to give up, make the call, send a text and head back to the East Village after being 30 inpenatrable yards from the party.

While walking away from the throngs of people, seeing the city open up since 2 million of them were behind me on 6th Ave I started thinking about one of Eric Asimov's recommendations that I'd never been able to try Una Pizza Naplitana. When I got there I found the place empty and I was tired, hungry and thirsty. I had a Pizza Margherita and a glass of what the owner called "Pizza Wine". I can't get all foodie about it because I was tired, hungry and thirsty but I really enjoyed my meal there and it hit the spot for me on another level too 'cause it was not cheap at all and after attempting to be a part of things on Halloween I really deserved something not cheap.
I took a pic with my iPhone. I'm new to the iPhone but I am liking it a lot.
I'm going to put Halloween into my iCal to remind myself that Halloween is really not my thing.

chicken....

2008-10-28T20:42:00.003-04:00

Chicken breast cooked on grill pan on mixed greens with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and homemade vinagrette.

Last weekend UpState

2008-10-22T15:45:00.002-04:00

Last weekend i took the band (for this weekend Kenny Soule and Rod Hohl) up to Andes, NY for
a gig at the Andes Hotel. We had a good time
there basking in the relaxation of no cell phone service whatsoever. I played with the Disciples of
Agriculture and TANDY and I was lucky
enough to have Rich from Fourteen Feet loan
me his fabulous Dr Z MAZ 18 Jr 2 x 10"
combo amp to play with all the bands. On Friday afternoon I put together a new pedalboard based around
the Pedaltrain Jr. I love my little home made Don & Dewey Model but it was gettin' pretty ragged.

Here's a look at my Pedaltrain Jr. Version

from R to L top row first.....Peterson Strobo-Stomp true bypass strobe tuner, Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay This delay simply sounds fantastic and is handmade by tone fanatics in Finland, The Aramat Tubular Tremolo was built by a lovely guy named Keith how recently lost his battle with brain cancer. It is a terrific sounding trem, the Danelectro Black Licorice is a whacky, crazy fuzz that goes an octave down,
the Frantone Brooklyn Overdrive has been one of my favorites for a long time. can't beat it with a class A amp , I recently got this Option 5 Destonation Rotation Single that does a really convincing Leslie rotating speaker sound complete with adjustable ramp up/down speed controls and the Fulltone Choral/Flange gives me a stereo out option and a luxurious wiggle. So good they are not making it anymore of course.

I tried to take my time and do a good job on the instal.
Here's a look at the bottom with the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power rig in there.

So on the way back we were on Rt 28 someplace and we stopped at a sort of country store/gas station. We ordered a bunch of food and I got the Chili. The guy said "Sit down, I'll bring it to you"
A few minutes later he showed up with this basket which looked pretty festive for a gas station. Had to check out the new
iPhone camera for its first food pic.

some more stuff-Politics, Keith & Ronnie

2008-10-08T22:50:00.004-04:00

Here is some Important BREAKING POLITICAL NEWS!!!

Here is Keith Christopher's Myspace

And here is a picture of Ronnie Wood's 20 year old girlfriend who has Ronnie demandin more money and has the rest of the Faces "worried about his focus" on their Possible Reunion Tour.

Political Hate-stream.....anydamnway

2008-10-08T09:58:00.002-04:00

The Political Hate-stream is wearing me down. I think it is wearing all of us down. So in the decidedly
off topic column.........

TV coverage of this years Beijing Olympics pretty much sucked if you wanted to see anything except
volleyball or gymnastics. But one morning I was lucky enough to have NBC's Today Show on while
going through my coffee routine and I saw a short segment with US Olympic
Track Cyclist Michael Blatchford taking Today
Show Host Matt Lauer out for some laps on the Laoshan Velodrome. Lauer handled himself really well
on the bike and asked some really good questions. I've never been able to find the video on Youtube
but here's a pic.

Blatchford giving Lauer a few pointers on riding the boards.

Whole lotta Rock @ Suma

2008-10-04T10:35:00.007-04:00

So on another of my outta town producing trips I ended up in a little town east of Cleveland last weekend called Painesville, Ohio.
I was there to record the tracks for my friend Bobby's band the Jack Fords.
I had looked all over the net for a studio that could do live tracks on a 5 pc band w keys. I'd found a few places through some recommendations but the guys in the band steered me to Suma Recording. I'd link to their site but they don't have one. When I looked into the history of the place I had a feeling it would be good.

Half a mile off the road sits this big old house...

In that house is most of the gear and the history from the Cleveland Recording Co. where Ken Hamann and his crew recorded great albums by Grand Funk, The James Gang, Wild Cherry, Pere Ubu and the Outsiders. As far as I could tell the only thing newer than 1980 was the coffee, some magazines and their Pro Tools Rig.

Paul Hamann, his dad and his brother built the console from scratch in 1972 for the old Cleveland Recording. It may be the first example ever of a console with dynamics (Limiter/gates) on each input channel. Transformers in and out. Pretty fantastic.

I had a great time working with the band. The room at Suma really sounded terrific. I was able to have everybody and their amps out in the room (except for Brent The Singer and the bass amp) I was able to balance the volume of the guitar amps with the fabulous Dr Z Airbrake attenuator designed by the late great Ken Fischer of Trainwreck. (roscoe kicks himself for not getting a trainwreck when the Hound offered to introduce him years ago...) The room was some sort of "great room" for some Cleveland fat cat's summer house that was built out of 160 year old barn wood. It sounded great.

Band worked real hard on the tracks. As I talked with Paul I found that a bunch of people I knew had been there recently including the Black Keys and Don Dixon producing Chris Allen with my good buddy Will Rigby playing drums.
Paul wanted me to say hello to Tony Maimone which I did while driving back to NYC in my GMC Suburban (full of gear and a bike sucking down petrol to beat the band) with the masters to 12 rocking tunes on my portable hard drive (to be mixed soon at Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig in Brooklyn.

.....Little more Ohio....
You know I love the Dr Z Amps which are built nearby in Maple Heights. Bobby had a great rig with the Dr Z Route 66 and the Z-Best cabinet.

You can't see it in that pic but Bobby also has a great tele that was made for him by ace tele fanatic Phil Maneri at 5th Ave Fretshop in Columbus, OH.

Thanks to all for a crazy good weekend.

************oh I forgot.
check out this 16 track machine.

The Hound Blog

2008-09-19T08:04:00.002-04:00

The Hound has started blogging and he is blogging forth
with fervor and gusto. If you ever clicked on a link in my blog
then make sure to click on The Hound Blog
and bookmark it too while you are at it!

Ike & the Hound.

Also visit The Hound.Net for full archives of the Hound Show from WFMU!

Back from Stumptown

2008-09-15T20:44:00.002-04:00

Had a great time last week in Portland, OR.
I was there at Jackpot! producing a new record for Kasey Anderson.

While I was there we tracked 10 songs in between meals with Jordan Richter engineering the sessions.

.

Portland is a pretty fabulous place. As readers know I have been pretty much everywhere at least twice but I have to say that Portland stands alone as probably the best cycling city in America. The city has gone to great lengths to help cyclists but the
cyclists have risen to the challenge in Portland. My buddy Dan Gonzales loaned me his Eddy Merckx track bike to ride while I was in town. In a whole week I didn't see a single cyclist blow a red light or go the wrong way against traffic. That is how the cycling ideal works. They have a great online Bicycle Trip Planner that helps you find the safe bike routes around town. Really fantastic.

Not only is Portland the home of one of my all time favorite rock and roll bands of all time

but Portland is also home to Stumptown Roasters. Stumptown is great stuff.

nice "crema"

Andy York reminded me....

2008-08-30T23:00:00.003-04:00

Andy York reminded me that in 1980 when I was on tour in Europe and the UK with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
I had only 3 records with me that I listened to over and over. Actually they weren't records. They were cassettes of records.
They were....

Emotional Rescue by the Rolling Stones

A Tribute to Jack Johnson by Miles Davis

and

L A Woman by the Doors

I like how the Bob Dylan holds his guitar

2008-08-23T15:31:00.000-04:00

whole band is pretty damn good.

July-August 08

2008-08-16T21:10:00.003-04:00

After finishing up Chip Robinson's record at the Studio the Bottle Rockets showed up to make their new record for Bloodshot Records

Some of the favorite records that I've made as a Producer have been with the Bottle Rockets. Tim Hatfield and I have had our hands full enabling the Bottle Rockets in their pursuit of the rock and roll.

After a couple weeks with the Bottle Rockets Mary Lee and I went to Fontana, Wisconsin for my Dad's 80'th Birthday Party. We had a great time with all the cousins and honorary cousin Sarah Kinally.

My mom had a great spread for all that included some fine beef tenderloin.

I love going up to the Lake. I've left a bike stashed there for the last couple years so I could take advantage of the fantastic rolling blacktop farm roads in the country side surrounding Lake Geneva. I usually text my old buddy David McPherson and meet up with him and his fast riding brother in law Greg for a nice ride or two on the weekend. Greg's brother came with us on an 'out and back' to Darien, WI

These roads are a lot different than the ones I ride each day to the studio and back in NYC.

On the way back from Wisconsin Mary Lee and I had our patience for this world and flying tested at Ohare Field in Chicago, IL.
When our plane to LGA in NYC finally took off it was 30 hours from the time we had arrived in Ohare. For those keeping tabs Airport Waiting is now $10 per hour for 2.

Got back to NYC and Timbo and I threw ourselves into mixing the Bottle Rockets record. We are very S T O K E D about the record. It seems to be done. I'm eager to try one of these 'day offs' that folks get from time to time.

Ok. that is the latest "I have been slacking on the blog" blog.

Aloha,
E/Roscoe

PS....
And yes, this blog was posted on the day of ascension.
Our beloved Elvis left the building 31 years ago today.
Cheers to the King

Kinda like the blues you get after you finish a good book....

2008-07-27T15:25:00.003-04:00

For 21 days in July I get to wake up and watch the Tour de France on TV. In the States the Tour is broadcast on a bizarre network called VS
that shows Bull Riding, Cage Fighting, Extreme Bass Casting and oddly enough the Tour de France.

This years tour was full of controversy before it even started when the best team in Cycling (Astana) was kicked out for past offenses that had nothing to do with the current team or coaches. The Tour changed the scoring system getting rid of the
time bonuses awarded to Stage winners. France made banned substances actually illegal so during the tour 3 riders were actually arrested on the spot and led off by the Gendarmes. The grey areas of abuse seem to be on their way out.

Anyway. I enjoy the tour. I enjoy watching as much as I can at home in the morning and then trying not to look at any internet coverage in the day so I can watch the finish later over at the Lakeside Lounge with a lot of the NYC Cycling pals.

Congratulations to Carlos Sastre of Spain who rides for Team CSC on his victory.

I missed a few stages at the Lakeside 'cause I've been real busy down at the Studio with the Bottle Rockets

I can surely beat the post Tour blues down at the Studio.

Harlem Crit

2008-07-25T09:02:00.004-04:00

I've been to almost all the bike shops in NYC but somehow I missed the Harlem Bike Doctor!

From this years Harlem Skyscraper Criterium Race June 15.

The Killer Redeemed

2008-07-15T08:40:00.005-04:00

I love every single thing about this clip that the Dan Baird sent me the other day. Everything from the song, the fantastic singing, the haircuts, Jerry Lee playing Kenny Lovelace's guitar (with the 1971 regulation coiled chord). Everything about it is a straight ticket winner. Please take the time to click play and enjoy it for yourself.

Jerry Lee Lewis and the Rust College Quartet.

Every once in a while

2008-07-11T08:35:00.005-04:00

You hear a song and it just sounds amazing.
This one isn't that complicated or grand but
it has got to be one of the most beautiful
Rolling Stones songs. (from the record "Flowers")

I've been working with Chip Robinson on his first solo record and every once in a while we play at the Lakeside Lounge. We'll be there on Sunday night. Hope to see you.

Some light reading on the Anniv of our Nation's Birth

2008-07-04T14:19:00.002-04:00

by Seymour Hersh

..............CLICK HERE

July

2008-07-01T09:34:00.005-04:00

Hello July,

Just back from the last great weekend of June up in Au Sable Forks, NY. I've written about our semi-annual gig up there before.
We play a little bar gig up there at a place called 20 Main. It is always a great time. We stayed at the lovely Sugar Mountain Cabin in Jay NY. Woke up to the sounds
of the Western Fork of the AuSable River.

Chip brought the Sumatra with him from Oslo Coffee

Weather was good on friday and I got a ride into AuSable and back on the Rocky Mountain Track bike. As I was heading into town I remembered it was mostly downhill and that our hosts Dave and Jean live "on the mountain" which always makes for a fun
return trip.

On Saturday we played Jeanfest which was a really great party even though it rained pretty good. I stood on the stage for a while to make sure their was no leaks in the tent before We grabbed our electric gear and proceeded to pound out some rock and roll in the woods.

Ridiculous

2008-06-11T09:05:00.003-04:00

I had a ridiculous good time at the sold out Mercury Lounge show with the Bottle Rockets and the Apple Bros. this weekend. It was a real show with 3 bands that 'fit' together, shared equipment and had a generally great time. Really looking forward
to having the Bottle Rockets in my Studio next month.

It was also a ridiculous good time to have Chip Robinson playing with the Trio again.

I recently got a totally ridiculous super modern high tech BMC Track Machine that I built up with the parts from my Bianchi Pista Concept. It is as ridiculously fast as I am ridiculously slow.
Here's a pic of it set up in 'track mode'

Right now I have it set up in 'ironic coffee bike mode' with some riser bars and mismatched tires.

I'm looking forward to having a ridiculous good time working with Mark McKay this weekend.

Ridiculous good times to all.

E/Roscoe

crap

2008-05-22T10:08:00.001-04:00

American Airlines to charge for first checked bag

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 22, 2008
Filed at 6:59 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Never mind the free lunch. Almost nothing is complimentary on airlines anymore, not even what many passengers consider a simple necessity: a single checked bag.

Under a plan announced Wednesday by American Airlines, passengers already forced to pay extra for amenities like earphones, meals and even snacks will have to pay $15 to check a basic piece of baggage.

Some other carriers are already charging for extra legroom in exit rows. What's next?

''Pay toilets in the coach cabin maybe,'' joked longtime airline consultant Mike Boyd.

These guys liked it.

2008-05-05T17:39:00.003-04:00

Bottle Rockets gig on Saturday night was a blast. I'm in St. Louis to
work with the band on the songs that we are gonna record at Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig late this July. The band invited me to sit in with them at their first of 15 Fifteenth Anniversary gigs. Here's a couple short reviews. One from the River Front Times Blog that refers to my custom Stonetree Roscoe Deluxe as a "guitar the size of Michigan" and the
Saint Louis Today guy liked the show also. Place was sold out and rockin'. Thank you for the hospitality.

Bottle Rockets turn 15

2008-05-01T09:23:00.002-04:00

Hey,
The Bottle Rockets, one of my all time favorite bands that I ever got to Produce (Brooklyn Side, 24 Hours A Day, Leftovers, Brand New Year) are celebrating their 15th Anniversary as a band. Esteemed Rock Crit Roy Kasten asks them 15 questions for the River Front TImes on the eve of their 15th Anniversary gig in St. Louis (that I'm heading to this weekend)

My Favorite

2008-04-21T08:15:00.002-04:00

webcam

Gordy's Lakefront Marine

Bob's radio show, the Yayhoos, Ace Records UK

2008-04-17T09:16:00.003-04:00

Hey Friends,

remember when were all excited about the Bob Dylan playing Yayhoos "Bottle and a Bible" from our debut "Fear Not The Obvious" on his Radio Theme Time show?

Well, the folks at Ace records who have put out many great reissues and compilation records including on of my personal favorites Rockin' with Ricky have put out a cd that collects tunes that the Bob has played on a cd titled Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan

The L.A. Times was talkin' about it. Us Yayhoos are excited to be one of the 3 songs on the 2 cd set from the current decade.

while working at the studio this weekend..

2008-04-07T09:23:00.002-04:00

I was working in the Studio this weekend finishing up
mixes for the new record by Fourteen Feet when I had a
gear epiphany.

A while back Timbo had picked up this old
"trumpet mic" from a guy who was selling some music stands.

I saw the mic in a box by our microphone shelf and put it up to sing some harmony. The minute I sang into the thing I remembered a story Jim Dickinson told me about a lifelong journey of exploration that brought him to the perfect microphone for his voice.

May have to write some songs just so I can use this thing again!

RCA 77dx Vintage Ribbon Microphone

Chip & Roscoe go to Texas

2008-03-27T09:44:00.003-04:00

So, 36 hours after battling my way back from Germany with Air France (one finger salute to you lovely folks) I'm sitting on a plane at Newark Airport with Chip Robinson and what felt like most of hipsters usually found on Bedford Avenue. I know when you are young you want to look old but the furry face beard thing really doesn't look so good when you are wearing your sisters jeans.

Chip and I were headed to the South By Southwest Music Convention. We've both been to the thing several times over the years. I'd been there with the Del-Lords and the Yayhoos and as a Producer and sometimes just as a jam hog eating BBQ and Mexican food and crashing gigs. We didn't get 'accepted' to the official conference but the thing has blown so far out of what it originally was that you don't need to be part of the official thing anymore. The offline parties can be a whole lot of fun. The business of rock is less fun.

First stop on Wed morning was Maria's Taco Express for some Tacos Al Pastor

Had to fuel up for our one and only obligation of the week. We were headed to Mother Egans for the "Guitartown Party" dedicated to our late friend, bandmate and compadre Drew Glackin.
Chip got up there and played one pretty song then we climbed up there with Skillet and Jesse from
Patty Hurst Shifter and rocked a handful more in a loud way.

It was a fantastic party. I got there to find no guitar amps in the backline but saw a lot of friends including Cary Hudson from one of the best bands I've ever worked with Blue Mountain and Jon Dee Graham who loaned Chip and I a couple really great amps. 5 wild, loose, loud songs later after blasting away and showing off for some friends I felt much better. Wow. Now what?

*****Convention tip 1. Water every 3rd drink
*****Convention tip 2. When faced with tons of people trying to get into resteraunts in Austin at the same time go to the most expensive one you can find. It's Austin, it's still cheap as hell. "Right this way Mr. Ambel">

Ok, now I'm done with the convention. Through the great website Fixed Gear Gallery I've got bike pals scattered all over the globe. One of my Austin pals works at Jack & Adams and she hooked me up with their 'shop bike' which was a Giant ONCE Team frame converted to a brakeless fixed gear. Little small for me but I had brought my pedals and helmet and we adjusted just fine. Austin is kind of a funny bike town. They talk the talk but boy oh boy as far as walking the walk you sure don't want to be on one of the main drags like Lamar or Congress heading out of town. I grabbed a bike map and found myself winding through hipster South Austin neighborhoods that now have a lot of big Dwell Magazine houses next to simple 1 story Ranch houses from the 50's and 60's. Have to admit to liking the Dwell stuff though.

On Saturday afternoon while riding around on the bike I hit a few parties. Saw the The Silos at the Bloodshot Records party then headed back to Maria's for the Alejandro Escovedo party. Chip and I saw some great music that afternoon including The Tallboys from Lexington, KY, old friend Tim Easton and a girl I had recorded with named Rose

that is Chip, Lil' Deb (who I swiped many of these photos from thanks) and Rose

Lots of great music culminated with a performance from Alejandro and his full band. I'd been there pretty much all afternoon except for a quick ride downtown on the bike to see Austin's Deadringers at Threadgills. I didn't get to say hello to Alejandro. He had his hands full taking care of everybody. The band played a fantastic set. We were all talking about Al and just after I described him as "Inclusive" I thought I actually heard him call my name from the stage? "Yeah, you. Eric Ambel come on up here"

Al gave me his guitar and after some quick introductions and being directed to 'go ahead and play' we launched into the Rolling Stones "Beast of Burden". Man that was some unexpected fun. I thanked Al and told him it felt like my birthday. He said "It is your birthday Eric"

Thanks much Al.

I was supposed to have a meeting with the folks at Rupert Neve Designs but there was a scheduling snafu and since all the flights were booked up by the furry faced youngsters from Bedford Avenue in their sisters jeans I had to just cool my heels in Austin at my friend Jeff Osborne's house in South Austin.
More BBQ was consumed and eventually Chip and I got on another plane and headed back to NYC.

Good times were had. Thanks again to all the Austin pals for the fun and the hospitality.

NYC doesn't...

2008-03-20T09:18:00.002-04:00

NYC doesn't really have to trumpet its greatness. When you get home you know you are in a very cool place.

Very glad to be back from the The Brandos Eurotour which was sorta daunting yet enjoyable for me. Daunting because
it was a very different musical experience for me. In my close to 30 years of playing professionally I've never been in the position of strictly filling in for another guitarist for a 2 hr show. The Brandos have very good, tough songs and needed
their parts replicated as close as possible for the tour. I did my best to do that and sing the high harmony parts too.

The Brandos have been doing the Euro thing for a while and they had the best van tour food coordination that I've ever
seen. We ate 3 hours before stage time every gig day. This is a huge thing. It is really hard to rock on a full stomach. It
is also really, really hard to convince Europeans that you don't want to have a long leisurely dinner before you have to jump
around and scream bloody murder. By nature Europeans want you to have a lovely dinner.

This is a dish from one of a bunch of great German meals

Those 2 large round things are kanödels. A kanödel is sort of related to gnocci. Potato pastalike. The meat cluster was a wrap of a lot of thin strips of beef. Sort of like beef bacon. Fantastic.

The Brandos also have great fans and a great crew helping them with their shows. Thanks to all for a great month.

koblenz

2008-02-28T05:28:00.002-05:00

ok, I'm sitting outside this sorta resort-ish place in Koblenz.
The Hotel Lady said we "MUST" get out of our rooms. She's got all these
posters of bands that stayed at this little wine country hotel. I think
she must have had a run in with a musician many many years ago.
Could't sit in the lobby either 'cause she "MUST" clean.

They have a siesta type thing here too. Sorta of a mid day work slowdown.

I woke from a dream about a big juicy burger. I'm ready for stateside...or at least a town?

Getting Better

2008-02-23T10:00:00.003-05:00

Over here in Europe on tour w The Brandos.
Phil Cimino has been keeping us cracked up
to an almost isometric degree. The tunes are a blast. I'm getting better at putting my contacts in.
My right wrist is feeling pretty strong. Got my left fingers slammed in a door today. Looked worse than it
actually was:) Getting Better.....

Not so good at dealing w all the cigarettes in Holland though. Makes the singing pretty tough.. Old Country indeed!

Germany...The Brandos....I'm nuts!

2008-02-11T19:00:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends,

I've just about got all my stuff packed up. I'm heading to Frankfurt tonight to do a tour
with The Brandos in Germany.

Check out that link. The Brandos are a fiery bunch. I got my buddy Phil Cimino on the gig playing drums and we'll
also be seeing Grant Austin who worked with me at Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig when Timbo was down in Australia.

So I'm headed for Germany for a month and what do I do to get ready?
Throw some Bratwurst on the stove of course...... NUTS I tell you!

Well, if Rupert Says so.......

2008-02-08T09:25:00.000-05:00

The new 5088 Rupert Neve Designs console (phone pic from the AES show)

Vintage Neve 1067 modules at Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig

Band House Gigs Clip/Nils/Tommy Keene

2008-02-04T09:34:00.000-05:00

Back in 2004 I participated in a very cool show that was held on "Nils Lofgren Day".
The show was put on by the guys at Band House Gigs
You can get the DVD of the whole show from the Band House Guys. Here's a clip of me playing
"A Child Could Tell" from the Nils Lofgren CD "Crooked Line" that I produced.
That is Tommy Keene kicking the lead guitar.

she said...

2008-01-20T21:19:00.000-05:00

"you sure you wanna ride that thing today"?

My good buddy Drew Glackin

2008-01-06T20:50:00.000-05:00

My buddy Drew Glackin died on Saturday afternoon. He was just 44 years old. I was lucky to know him,
to have him play in my band, play with him with other bands, have his big smiling face pop up almost anyplace around the globe from the Lakeside Lounge to some small town
bar in Southern Germany. I just drove to the DC area and back over the last 24 hours to play a gig myself. Fielding calls about Drew from friends spread far and wide.

The whole time I kept looking at the empty passenger seat in the Suburban. Drew always rode shotgun in my truck.

This all happened so fast. When I told my buddy the Hound about Drew his reaction was
"shit, that's awful, he's one of the few people I like"

Everybody liked Drew. How could you not. He could play a song he never heard and he left his amp at the Rodeo Bar so you wouldn't have drag yours in past all drunk yuppie happy hour crowd when you played there. You gotta love Drew.

There are so many great Drew stories. I don't know where to start so I'm gonna pass the ball to my good friend Van Alston who wrote this up Friday Night.

Drew

I had not seen Drew for four years when I walked into the Lakeside Lounge one Monday
night late last year. My wife, Christy, had run the NYC marathon on Sunday and had
rested up all day long in anticipation of seeing Chip Robinson play on Monday night.
Right when we walked into the Lakeside Drew hollered out a big hello to Christy, which I
heard as I was ducking into the bathroom. He had only met her once, when Tandy was
crashing at my house on one of their tours. Christy had no idea who he was. Nor did I, when I walked out of the bathroom.

I recognized the bald head, then the voice. Hugs all around. Christy was
still at a bit of a loss, as Drew had probably lost forty pounds since the first and only time she had
met him. I must say that he didn't look well. We moved to a table and I flat out asked
him if he was okay. He told me that a year or so ago that he had spent eight hours on
the operating table and that the doctors told him they were surprised that he had lived.
He laughed and joked about it. I made quite a few jokes at his expense. He topped
every one of them with a self-deprecating joke of his own.

Chip and Drew played an awesome set. The four of us got shit-faced drunk afterwards.
I brought out a picture of our kid and showed it to Drew sometime during the night. He
asked a million questions about Alejandro: Did he like music? Did he have a guitar? We
drank shots, beers, played the juke and then everyone went outside for a smoke.

He looked at Christy when we went outside and said "you might not remember me, but I
still have this" and pulled out the key to our house that he had carried around for over
ten years. I had given Drew the key years ago so that whatever band he might be
touring with would always have a place to crash in North Carolina. After a few more
drinks, everyone drifted off.

A week later Drew was playing with dos Chicas at Slim's in Raleigh. Christy and I went
to the show and Drew came up to us a few minutes before the set and handed me a lap
steel guitar. "I doubt if Alejandro has one of these," he said. We had some drinks after
the show and that was the last time I saw him.

They are going to pull the plug on him tomorrow and, while it sucks, I am okay
with that. Mourn for him, but only for a while. Drew had a wicked sense of humor, a sense of
humor with a dark streak a mile wide, and I will be doing my best to try and find
something cruel to say about his demise in order to keep from crying about losing such
a great friend. I recommend anyone that knew him to try and do the same.

Happy/Merry!

2007-12-26T11:08:00.000-05:00

By Request,
back to a few food pics

the "Le Toure" cheese was the fave

Champaign Glazed Ham from Lobels

Aunt Joan sent us a fancy electric knife a while back

Morning after:)

Christmas tune blog bump

2007-12-21T22:28:00.000-05:00

In case you needed some rock and roll to get in the spirit here's
a version of that classic Little Drummer Boy that I recorded when I first got to New York City with the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts in 1980.

NYC is a great place for Christmas.

Merry Christmas to everybody!

this one sure sounds good to me

2007-12-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

been a while

2007-11-10T19:51:00.000-05:00

yeah, well,
it has been a while. I've been sorta 'laid up'. I got 'doored' by the passenger of a car service (nicer than
a cab, cheaper than a limo) car over a month ago. I ended up going down on my right wrist hard enough
to fracture my scaphoid bone. Fancy doctor ended up putting a fancy pin in my wrist. That hurt like hell
after the nerve block wore off.

It has been 6 weeks of no bike for me so far which has been at least a little of a drag. After the first 2 weeks
with the cast on I started to regain use of my right hand. I've been working on a record with my good friend
(good enough to come and pick me up from the hospital kind of good friend) Chip Robinson here at my
home recording set up. Chip and I have been getting together for fancy coffee and recording. We may have
started out making some sketches but they are turning into paintings.

Chip enjoys some french press brewed Cenaproc coffee from Bolivia while recording at Lily's Terrace.

Thanks to Chip for getting me home from the hospital and thanks to everybody for all the get well notes.

Pics from Cowboy Technical Services

2007-10-01T22:54:00.000-04:00

Just finished working with the Travelling Band last week and took some pics at the Studio after we cleaned up...and a couple from the sessions too

Our Neotek Elan console

Producer's Corner

Timbo w the Travelling Band behind him

Steve and Chris during the campfire segment

Mugger struggles w the heavy strings

gear porn-Compressors, Mic Pre-Amps & EQ's

More stuff with Lights

Cowboy Tech at Myspace

Simon

2007-09-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

Simon Chardiet is a fantastic guitar player
I mentioned Simon a couple posts ago 'cause he and his band played at my birthday party at
the Lakeside in August.

I was lucky enough to get to take Simon into the studio years back to produce a couple of his recordsBug Bite Daddy & Look At Me I'm Cool both on Upstart/Rounder.

Simon is a monster guitar player who can make sidewalk cracking shifts in sound and style
with just his hands and his head.

Years ago in an attempt to convince my parents that I actually knew
how to play the guitar I got Simon to teach me to play a couple jazz standards.

Simon still teaches
guitar and commutes to his lessons on a Chicago Era Schwinn Madison Track Bike.

Well, Gibson Guitars put a story up about Simon on their website.
I urge you to check it out and go to Simons site too and grab
a couple cd's.

The Travelling Band

2007-09-16T20:39:00.000-04:00

These guys from Manchester have come back to Cowboy Technical Services Recording Rig in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to finish the record they started here last Sept.

They have already had a great time and lost a passport and the weekend isn't even over yet!

The Travelling Band is gonna play next Saturday at the Lakeside Lounge
at 7pm

You can check out some of the stuff we recorded here----Travelling Band
They are mighty good.

Rock Star Grilling

2007-09-02T11:51:00.000-04:00

Ian Hunter with the latest Weber Grill in CT. Fabulous

and back to the bike already!

2007-08-23T21:34:00.000-04:00

Ok,
all this birthday stuff had me skippin' over this years 3rd annual International Fixed Gear Symposium put on by the Fixed Gear Wizzard himself and his friends and family up in Traverse City, Michigan August 8-11. The event was the best one yet with an added day and a lot of added action including a hill climb competition, semi closed course sprints race and bike polo along with a bunch of rides, bike building contest, alleycat, trackstand competition, skids contest and a Fixed Gear Century (100 mile ride) that went through 4,200 vertical feet. Fantastic time with old friends and new.

Trevor took this photo of 9 of the 10 to do the Century. Trevor isn't in the pic cause we were out in the sticks with no photo help in sight.

Fixed Gear Gallery

A Day Later

2007-08-21T11:05:00.000-04:00

here is a picture of the Lovely cake that my Lovely Wife got at the Lovely Black Hound Bakeryfor the Lovely Party at the Lovely Lakeside Lounge attended by Lovely Friends with the Lovely Simon and his band playing. Thanks to everybody for such a Lovely time.
E/Roscoe

catch up (not Katsup) blog

2007-08-19T07:10:00.000-04:00

Some pics from my Dad's birthday party up in Fontana, WI Aug 5

Grill w brats and a few hot dogs

Mary Lee and Sarah on the lake

Excellent sweet corn...and everything else

Dad's self designed birthday cake:)

Walworth Corn and Brat

2007-08-08T06:49:00.000-04:00

Aug 4th found me at my folks house in Fontana, WI for my dads Birthday Weekend. While riding to Sharon in the morning w David we rode by the town square in Walworth where they were getting ready for the big corn and brat fest.

Early morning corn

Here's a kid with one of the 2 corn roasters

The kids pull the husk band and remove the silk befor putting the husk back and putting them in the rarck.

We got there just as rain started pounding down

The corn all gets dunked in a coffee can full of butter!

the Bratwurst were pretty good too!

Even with all the drama

2007-08-02T08:15:00.000-04:00

I miss the Tour de France as soon as its over. As soon as it is almost over. Miss getting up early to watch what I can in the AM. Miss catching the rest when I get home on the rebroadcast. Miss popping over to the Lakeside to watch a stage or two. Miss not reading the Paul Sherwood Stage Reports. The scandals make us forget the great racing and the wild crashes. Looks like the Tour has been handed over to the youth. Lets see what they can do.

Happy Birthday to Wheels, Mojo Nixon and my Dad!