Oso Closo

Played a cool old KC club called Davey’s Uptown on Friday. The staff was one of the best around, and Lucinda Williams’ signature was proudly etched onto a poster behind the bar. Slammin.

Oso played a lot of new songs at Davey’s. Here’s one called “Pop Song.” Enjoy.

2 Comments » Posted by estus / Uncategorized

No show Thursday. Instead we went to Lawrence, Kan. and stared at show posters for the dozens of awesome concerts coming through there this fall. Lawrence is easily among the best college music scenes in the country. We canvassed downtown Lawrence for most of the afternoon. Among the highlights:

-Sherry the Hippie: Sherry owns a shop called Beyond The Door on Massachusetts Street. She hugs everyone who enters. Quite possibly the happiest person I’ve ever met. McQueen bought some exceptionally hip and cheap clothes from Sherry, and although I didn’t buy anything, Sherry gave me six of her business cards “just in case they come get me, you can remember me.” The biz card reads: “beyond the door – just an old hippie store!” and “sherry – i own the place!” and “open 7 days a week (unless I’m closed).” One of a kind. Go see Sherry for a hug and cool old hippie stuff if you’re in Lawrence. Here’s a picture of Sherry and Jacobi:

-The Love Garden: Not the most typical name for a record store if taken at face value, but it makes total sense once you climb the stairs to this heavenly second-story shop. There are so many records, CDs, box sets, 7-inches, posters, stickers and cats (yes, cats) up there that the floor is literally caving in. Adrian and I had been to this place before, and we agreed that it was therapeutic to spend some time in one of the last remaining record stores in the country. Call us old-fashioned, but it’s much more gratifying to be surrounded by tens of thousands of records in a store than to browse through tens of thousands of records on a computer screen. You can read about the death of the record store and the rise of digital sales all you want, but it doesn’t convey cool independent record stores were was once a staple of every college town is now considered a relic. Comforting to see The Love Garden is still alive and kicking. Here’s a picture of a cat and Lindsey browsing:

-Music stores: Probably went in a half dozen music stores in downtown Lawrence. No shortage of instruments in that town. Jacobi was like a kid on a playground. He’s searching for crash cymbals to make some kind of Frankenstein high hat. Here’s a picture of him dominating some cymbals:

-The Sandbar: Stopped in this delightful dive bar for a very happy happy hour. It’s a few doors down from The Bottleneck and it totally owns. We listened to Otis Redding and other stellar soul music over a few drinks. The place has an ocean theme, complete with a salt water fish tank with some freaky exotic fish. They had a drink called the Shark Attack that supposedly tastes like a Firebomb popsicle. This excited Adrian and we promised to try it next time we’re in town. Andy ordered a water and the bartender decorated it with a beaded necklace, curly straw and funky glasses for effect. We took a picture of Andy wearing the glasses but don’t have a cord to get it off the camera. Once we find one, we’ll post it and you’ll laugh.

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No? Good, because they’re gone. Given away last night to a bucktoothed boy in Manhattan named Bubba. No joke - more on that later.

Adrian is the de facto front seat passenger in the Oso van. That means he’s the de facto van DJ, which is why I loaded my old iPod up with music I thought Adrian would enjoy before we left. 

As expected, he wasted no time diving into the gargantuan Ben Folds catalog. This is one of many music obsessions the bearded man and I share. We agreed in the van yesterday that Ben Folds FIve’s cover of “She Don’t Use Jelly” by The Flaming Lips is, as Adrian put it, “clearly one of the best covers of all time - totally.” 

And speaking of covers – it was decided last night that Oso Closo will cover one band and one band only for the rest of its career. That band is The Raisins, as in The California Raisins - the greatest dried fruit band of the 20th century. Last night’s cover of The California Raisins classic soul tune “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” led not just one but TWO Manhattanites to rise from their bar stools for some slow soul dancing. Just one example of how the power of The Raisins is clearly undeniable - totally.

The Raisins idea came during a brainstorming session about which Christmas songs Oso is going to play at its Fourth Annual Oso Closo Christmas Show on Dec. 6 at Hailey’s in Denton - clear your calendar now. Despite the rest of the band’s objections, Lindsey continually insisted that “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” be played. Andy suggested that if it was to be played, The California Raisins version of the song should be the only option. Raisins Law was formed within seconds (disclaimer: This is no way means “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” will or will not be played at the Fourth Annual Oso Closo Christmas Show - the sure-to-be-mind-blowing gig on Dec. 6 at Hailey’s in Denton that you just cleared your calendar for). 

Like I said in the previous post, wacky things always happen in Manhattan, Kan. Yesterday the wackiness started the minute I walked into the venue. “Sad But True” by Metallica was blaring through the PA at 110db. Every person in the bar was wearing a crusty Kill ‘Em All or Ride The Lightning era Metallica shirt. Most were yelling the words to “Sad But True” at the top of their lungs, splashing beer out of their plastic pitchers while pumping their fists in the air, pitchers in hand. One guy grabbed me by the shoulders, looked me straight in the eye and sputtered: “Metal up your ass!” This is something I never thought would happen at an Oso Closo show. I find the the club owner and she tells me the rock station in town is doing a Metallica ticket giveaway until 9 p.m., and that it may be best to wait until that’s done before loading in the band’s gear. She gestures to the crowd when telling me this and I get her drift. We go to the hotel. I learned later from a shockingly lucid drunk man at the bar that “some bucktoothed dude named Bubba” won the Metallica tickets when he took his shirt off and revealed a Metallica tattoo that covered his entire back. I’m not sure this is true. It may be funnier if this guy made it up, so I’m going with that explanation.

Today the plan is to hang out in Lawrence, Kan. We have funny pictures we’ll try to post soon.

1 Comment » Posted by estus / Uncategorized

We’re leaving in about two hours for Manhattan, Kan. - land of the purple people. Been a while since I spent a few weeks on the road with a band. Have to admit, I’m way more excited than I should be, considering I’m not even in Oso Closo and my next three weeks will consist of a lot of driving and a lot of begging for money from club owners (who are the greatest and most under-appreciated people on earth, by the way - wink, wink, nudge, nudge, pay me, pay me). But really, all the payment I need is listening to Oso Closo every night. Jealous? Good.

So Manhattan has been a crazy place for me in the past. Things that come to mind when thinking of Manhattan: Hospital, jail, falling, broken rib, Van Halen’s “Panama,” painkillers, bail, blood, pizza, cowboys, rum, strange houses at the top of the hill and German shepherds. Here’s hoping that if any of these pop up tonight, it’s for the best. Let’s go north. 

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so we’re back from our amazing five shows with the rocket summer, phantom planet, the secret handshake, and the morning light. all of whom are awesome guys and were a blast to play with. it was particularly therapeutic for me to get to spend time with my old friends from TRS. we laughed. we cried. we played some shows. let me give you the rundown of the shows.

houston, house of blues:

fantastic show. first night out with everyone and we were part of the family immediately.  rocket summer killed. i haven’t seen them play since they released the latest record “do you feel” they were great then and they have now done seven tours on that record. you can imagine how tight and fluid the whole show was. i’m blown away by bryce’s continual energy. he keeps the whole show “up” the whole time. inspiring

san antonio, scout bar:

again a serious night of music. the coolest part about this one was the ridiculously good sound at scout bar. onstage, and especially in the house. it puts venues like house of blues to shame in my opinion. not bad for a nu metal venue that is a little hard to locate.

austin, emo’s:

well its no small matter for me to get to play at emo’s. we never have…i never have in any band. though i have always loved that place.  emo’s is a half indoor half outdoor club. and when we got there it was raining. i slipped inside the club and landed hard. and as a result may have seriously injured myself. but other than that the night was magical.  it was a great time, and i happened to be in the company of one of my favorite people in the universe. no…favorite

norman, OU campus:

this one was crazy. the original plan was to have all five bands play inside the union and apparently last time around it was amazing. however this time they had to change it last minute to be outside near the dorms. this created time issues and phantom planet and morning light decided not to play, to make things go smoother. this left us as first of three on the show, rather than first of five. which is much better by the way. so we played a longer set than usual and for a whole lot of people. we had a great show and a blast on the OU campus.

dallas, house of blues:

hard to explain how rad this was. there were sooooo many people there. it was totally nuts. last night. we had our best show of the trip and every band totally killed. i had such a good time,  hung out with everybody from that tour one last night. had some drinks and were merry. it was great

thanks to everyone who saw us and dug it. or at least listened. we love you guys and hope you’ll keep up with us.

love

a

2 Comments » Posted by adrian / Uncategorized

hello everyone. i am sooo so sorry about the lenth between posts. i have only in this moment found myself so without a thing to do that i’ve broken down and am blogging. i’ll tell you though, i used to love the blogging. i think the blogging and i could have what we used to have. its just that whenever i call the blog its busy and when the blog calls, i’m not really in the mood. its like the fire is gone. but i’ll tell you, we’re making some plans to spice up our relationship. i’m gonna start posting pictures and videos of us on the road like almost everyday. and when something funny happens i’ll just start shouting “blog that dude” to whoever said something funny. most likely jacobi. he’s pretty much cracking me up at all times now. seriously funny guy. in a totally unique way. he may have missed his calling as a stand up comedian. or maybe he’s just using oso to try and get to the top so he can spring it on the world. he may have picked sort of a slow way to get up there but i’m glad either way.

so what is goin on with the band?

well we just hit monroe, louisiana on friday and little rock, arkansas on saturday. both great shows. i had a good time in little rock. although i’m definitely not accustomed to bars being open so late and certainly not the awesome ‘people watching’ that i didn’t know i was in for. after we played at a huge mexican restaurant/venue, (which by the way had great queso, but commited the ultimate fajita sin, which of course is to not provide shredded cheese or more than 3 tortillas. and charged extra for rice and beans without really making it clear… so annoying) we found out that there was a club next door that apparently had amazing burgers and was open till 5am. so of course i went over there. stupid. not only did i not get a burger (which in conjunction with this next stupid move was really a bad mistake) i also drank huge pbr’s until about quarter to five. hilarity ensued. anyway. it was early in the travels. prettys sure my feet are under me and i can maybe not experience the sort of morning that i had today hopefully ever again…but what are the odds.

anyway. we’re at home for the rest of the week before the real trip starts. during which we will finally be playing some shows with my great friends bryce, seth, tommy, and matt of the rocket summer. all of whom are my boys from back in the day. we’ll also be heading up to chicago and back. with a nice little stay up there. i’m super stoked. i have a few friends in chi town and there are some good shows happening. three of which are oso shows. and also it’ll be halloween. so theres some spice to the trip. should be great. too bad the cubs had to choke last night. we could have been in chicago for world series fever! but oh well.

so check it out. my ridiculously cool manager john estus (who is dashing and handsome by the way) just sent me some plans and info about what we’re going to try and achieve over the next six months. in terms of touring. and even more exiting, making another record! i can’t wait. i know we have a lot to do and basically an impossible amount of money to raise, but its so exciting. making a record is the ultimate for me. the endless hours of work. and all of the hilarious crap that ends up happening and little inside jokes. basically you get some of your closest friends. get inside a room and lose your mind for awhile. when you get done you’re totally different. you’ve gone through a whole slew of different points of view. you’re idealistic. then you’re realistic. then you dont care and need sleep. then you’re idealistic again and you have to go back and redo all the stuff you did when you were realistic. and then you get to listen to it like a gozillion times and it doesn’t get old. man i love recording. and this time its gonna be sweet. i’ll let you know more about what we’re planning when things start to align. which i’m sure they will. glory to God. but until then just remember that your rich friends need to hear about oso closo. sigh, and your poor friends too. and your mom.

love you guys. thanks so much for checking things out. and i’ll be posting updates from the rocket summer/phantom planet shows at the beginning of next week!

love,

adrian

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This Monday night, Sept. 22, Oso is playing a free original music concert to celebrate the new version of the band’s album Rest and the live DVD packaged with it. It’s at the fabulous Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas, where Oso Closo is doing The Who’s Tommy most every night this month.

The FREE SHOW starts at 8 p.m. and the band is playing a special set in the theater. It’s not often rock bands get to play in theaters designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, so needless to say, this is a once-in-a-lifetime show you absolutely can’t miss. It’s Monday. It’s an early show. It’s FREE - as in zero money. No excuses!

The new Rest will be for sale Monday night. It’s been remixed and sounds ten times better than it did before. It’s essentially a new record. As a bonus, the new Rest comes packaged with a DVD of the original Rest release show at Hailey’s. The band also has a ton of new T-shirts for sale that are pure hotness.

And lastly, the theater brought in state of art sound and lights for the Tommy shows, and the band gets to push them to the max at the original Oso show. For that reason, a film crew is being brought in to document the whole thing for a future DVD. That means the band needs a packed, rowdy house. Bring your friends and enemies!

–

OSO CLOSO
Rest re-release and DVD release party
Sept. 22, 2008 - 8 p.m.
FREE ALL AGES SHOW!
Kalita Humphreys Theater
3939 Turtle Creek Blvd
Dallas, TX

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so if you’ve come to see tommy then you already know, but if you haven’t let me tell you about what i think is arguably the best reason to see it…

the first day we rehearsed we worked on the finale of the show. this was the first time any of us got to hear the guy playing tommy.  we’d heard he was good. that he had a lot of soul…talk about the hugest understatement of the century. here’s the deal. his name is cedric neal.  and he’s an absolute genius. his control and power are so rare and so completely vital to the whole production. but its not really about technique and volume for me as much as his ideas. he has no rules and seemingly no boundaries in terms of what he’s capable of singing. save one. that it all sounds amazing and appropriate.  while im standing on stage thinking about the melody and how to establish it and still improvise but not make things too unclear and blah blah blah, cedric is taking every melody and dancing it right out of its pants and then making sweet love to it right in front of your eyes. honestly i feel like i learn something new about singing every single night. come see the show. see it for yourself.

2 Comments » Posted by adrian / Uncategorized

The none-too-easy-to-please Dallas media are ranting and raving about ‘Tommy.’ Here are a couple reviews:

Dallas Observer
Dallas Morning News
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

1 Comment » Posted by estus / Uncategorized

so we opened last night. it was fantastic. the show is so good. i love it. i botched a verse of a tune in the end but other than that i think the whole thing went off without a hitch. not to mention the absolutely ridiculous hang that took place after the show. those theater kids sure know how to party. anyway no more rehearsals before shows or anything. we’re in the run. i’m really happy this has happened. i don’t really know what else to say. its a blast and i’m really blown away by how cool everybody in the production is. they’re all definitely going to be good friends for years to come. sorry i haven’t posted anything lately. i’ve been busy as hell. but i’m good now. quiet days and over the top rocking nights for the rest of the month. what a life i’m living right now. i am blessed.

4 Comments » Posted by adrian / Uncategorized

thats it.

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two blogs in one night? why not. our call isn’t until 2 tomorrow. 

so this year i have been really into the Olympics. i always have been in previous years, but for whatever reason i am drawn in for beijing. i like the pomp, dramatic music, and the hilarious bob costas. i also have a quasi crush on alicia sacramone. i watch the rebroadcast from 1-4 am. i just finished watching the men’s 200 meter race. the big story was this jamaican usain bolt (that would be like if chris’ last name was Shreddington) setting a new world record. on a side note, cool runnings is my favorite movie. it’s about these jamaican runners who don’t make it to the olympics for running because they all tripped each other in the finals. but then john candy comes along and persuades them to go to the winter olympics as a bobsled team. i know i know, who ever thought of a bobsled team from jamaica? that’s why this movie is so funny. i highly recommend it. 

anyway, aside from usain bolt, the bigger story to me, one of heartbreak, was the disqualification of two runners, walter spearmon (usa) and churandy martina of the netherlands. these two guys finished with times that awarded them the silver and bronze but were later disqualified because their foot touched the inside lane line, “leaving their lane.” so, these guys technically won the race, but were thrown out because of some trivial rule. so you see these two celebrating after the race with their flags around their heads in classic olympic style. i can’t even imagine the feeling. and then someone with a clipboard and headset comes up to spearmon and tells him he’s been dq’d. churandy was dq’d hours later after the tape was reviewed. americans shawn crawford and walter dix were bumped up into silver and bronze, respectively. but what are these guys to think? dix said “well, i still lost..”

my god, am i glad to be in an activity without scores, winners, losers, and disqualifications. i played baseball for several years and was pretty good for a while, but then quit when i realized that i wasn’t that great after all. i needed to be involved with something where i could express myself and be unique. how can you work your entire life to perfect what you love to do and advance yourself to your maximum potential only to see that some dude from another country can do it better than you? or to be disqualified from a race you ran really well because of a goofy rule. now, i realize that the optimum athlete’s mentality should be that of personal best mattering over final rule, winning or losing. but even if you can get your mind into that positive space, there is still a loser at the end of the day, and that probably just sucks, no matter what. 

the crazy thing is that some musicians actually have the mindset of a sports competitor. guys who value chops over tasteful expression, “i can play this many notes in three seconds” vs. musical use of space, and thinking that winning a guitar center drum-off means anything, these concepts are just so ridiculous and immature to me. these guys might be better suited as athletes. “but hey ryan, what about the grammys? those are like the musical olympics, right?” yeah…not so much. winning a grammy just means you’ve sold a whole bunch of records. now, granted, obviously good music usually sells lots of records, but if you’ve ever watched the grammys, you know that it’s not really about good music. it’s mostly about image, money, sex, financial success, etc. 

in conclusion, i’d rather not have to wait until every four years to validate my success and prove my talent to the world. i feel like a gold medalist every night i play with my band. holy crap, that was extremely cheesy. but, you know what? sometimes the conclusions of great blogs are like the conclusions of classic and hilarious movies, a little bit cheesy, but the rich content of the whole overcomes the cliche and predictable ending. man, cool runnings is just the BEST. definitely rent it if you haven’t already seen it.

from ryan

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so whenever we record our next album, the plan is to do it at this sweet beach house my parents own in long beach, indiana. this is special to me because ive spent summers there since before i can remember. taking a couple week band vacation/recording project trip would be relaxing and and beneficial to the music. i feel the group could make the most badass record if we had a totally relaxing, focused, shut-out-the-world and make some music recording vacation. the idea is to bring out our friend jason cupp, who remixed our first record, from california and setup a home recording studio with rented gear. the parents are totally on board which makes it even cooler. i hope this happens sooner than later.

tommy is a  rockin. i need to learn not to get excited and play so darn fast. the choreography of joel ferrell is to this production as chocolate is to peanut butter - totally awesome and it you don’t like it, you are insane. 

from ryan

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new ray lamontagne song up on his myspace. his new record is coming out soon. he’s doing his first american tour, maybe ever. i’m not sure. coming to dallas. sold out. and i’ll be on tour. its hard for me to express the weight of not going to this concert. when i was in high school i got in line for weezer tickets on the pinkerton tour. i got there early, got in line, and waited. i was the guy who got told ” sorry we just sold out.” the first guy in the line to get denied. i thought my world was crumbling to peices.  looking back at that experience is bittersweet. pinkerton was not only the latest great work from weezer at the time, but proved to be the finest of the work that they have done. i missed the peak. which in some ways is depressing but i’d really like to think that being in on the ground floor is even more satisfying. now, naturally i’m not in on the ground floor of ray lamontagne’s career. he’s gained all kinds of critical acclaim worldwide. but what he hasn’t really even come close to doing, is the very thing that he is destined to do. which of course, is to become one of the most legendary songwriters of all time. perhaps in sort of a leonard cohen kind of way. but definitely in the “recognized as the genius that he is after his death” sort of way. his relatively young but immensely powerful body of work is already poised to be the death of me. check him out if you haven’t yet. he will drive you to a new level of gutwrenching melancholy. but i mean that in a really good way.

now on a lighter note. we did the designer run through tonight. it was a lot of fun. definitely some wrong notes on the piano happening but all is well. i’m having a blast with this. its so much fun. everyone is fantastic. and i’m fully in brainstorm mode with regard to the oso musical. oh yes, it will be. and it will be ridiculous. so massive that no man can comprehend. i don’t even know where to start. you know i’m gonna have to deliver if i’m talking it up this early. so just keep your eyes out over the next several years. this is the new big project. i’ll keep you posted.

love,

adrian

1 Comment » Posted by adrian / Uncategorized

So I just heard that we might be playing some shows with this band from Nashville called Parachute Musical. They are a totally awesome band that would be fitting with us musically on a bill. After some webbing I deducted these freakish similarities to Oso:

1. A similar piano/pop sound with good hooks and vocals.

2. They have a driving piano song in 6 in which the first words describe not having any new ideas. We have one of those too.

3. There’s videos of them conducting strings and horns in the studio for their latest recording. That’s like, what we plan to do for the next one. And what Chris did for the first record.

4. The drummer’s name is Ben Jacoby. My name is Ryan Jacobi.

5. Some people think our girl face logo is a bit creepy. Maybe, but something that is also creepy is a sad teddy bear with a bullet hole through it.

6. Exceptional good looks.

Looking forward to meeting and playing with these guys

1 Comment » Posted by jacobi / Uncategorized

so we’ve been busy bees the last couple of weeks. sorry for the long wait on new posts. we’re seriously really tired all the time. we’re also getting all of the final stuff done for the remix/remaster/repress cd dvd combo. so thats a bunch of stuff as well.

so we’re a little more than two thirds of the way through the show in terms of learnin tunes and staging them and cool stuff like that. its pretty much the most badass thing of all time. everybody involved is ridiculously good at doing what they do and we’re having a lot of fun and making friends with lots of really amazing people. here are some photo’s i’ll definitely post more soon. but here’s a little taste of the goods…

the amazing chris flynn doing rad new art for our record.

the kalita humphreys stage. without set. its pretty sweet.

mcqueen, lindsey, and andy staging for some tune.

mcqueen on top of the pinball machine. jealous.

the lovely emily habeck chillin with some osos

the amazing betsy wolfe reading a magazine about how to cope with being a super famous person.

the one and only gregory lush. possibly pissed. don’t think so though.

oh yeah and andy got a new tattoo yesterday.

love,

adrian

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1 Comment » Posted by estus / Uncategorized

wrote this yesterday forgot to post it. so now i’m posting it after. even though it was about today as though it were the future. its like 1984…now.

so we’re starting rehearsals for Tommy tomorrow. i’m pretty stoked. i’ve never done this before. i was a band kid in high school so i didn’t sing in any musicals or anything. and i wasn’t enough of a dedicated band student to ever get asked to play in any pit orchestras. it was always a small ensemble made up of the kids with the brownest noses. never really was one of those. but i was such a huge musical theater fan though. this is one of those little factoids about me that my friends are always saying caught them off guard when they found out. i think, to be perfectly honest it was mostly brought on by this outrageous attraction to girls on stage that i had. particularly the stars of the show. especially if it was a musical. something about a leading lady singing and dancing pretty much kills. anywho the song we do called “promenade” or “the country song” as its known to the vast majority of people, is all about guys and dolls, one of my absolute favorite musicals. when i was in high school i saw that at school and the girl who played adelaide was the answer to all questions about beauty to me. i had it really bad. i was also a very silly person at that age. but during that whole spell i was very expressive with regard to my leading lady friend. i wrote notes and called them letters. and i wrote the country song. and then we started playing it because we’d been playing all of our songs for a good long while and i wasn’t having any luck writing so i busted out that super old song kind of as a last resort. its ended up being a really fun part of the show these days. which i’m glad about. but i still feel a little silly singing the words now. oh well. but let me just use this as a little segue` to something about the band that matters. the record is Re-coming out you know. its cool. its got a live dvd with it. you buy it and you get the cd and the dvd. its of the cd release show. so its got really great live versions of a few songs that aren’t on the record. and a couple of them, like the country song for instance will probably never make it on to a studio record ever. so i’m stoked that they are on there. hopefully you’ll like it. i think its good. anyway. i’m seriously up way too late right now. we have to start in…not long. so i’ll see you guys soon. i’m gonna post about some exciting new tour dates for post tommy stuff sometime soon. keep an eye out.

now that its today. it was a lot different than i thought. i’ll let you know when im not falling asleep sitting up.

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We in Oso Closo have been playing some of the songs in our setlist for a few years now. We keep the songs exciting by frequently changing little details, whether planned out in a rehearsal or in the spur of the moment live. Sometimes a mistake can lead to something golden. Something that I have started doing in the drum department on a few of the songs has been leaving a little rest of space before a really big section of a tune. This creates a moment of beautiful calm before the storm which is usually the McQueen. I feel that a pause can sometimes be even more affective than the most tasteful drum fill. It gives a little breath, maybe with some tension too, during a transition to a next section. It works at all dynamic levels too. Off the top of my head, I have been doing this during Andy’s solo on Phonetalker and right before Chris’ solos on Poetic and the Ruiner. The result is usually triumphant. Here is a sweet analogy I thought up in the van this past weekend:

Imagine you’re at a basketball game. There’s commotion everywhere. Vendors yelling, fans cheering, annoucements blaring, referee whistles, squeaky gym shoes on the court, loud shot clock horns… But when a big star goes up for an awesome slam dunk a good distance from the hoop, the whole place just stops. The player, Michael Jordan, hangs in midair. It seems like an eternity. Everyone in the stadium holds their breath and ceases cheering. A million flashes ignite the silence. It’s like a dream. And then he slam jams the ball and the chaos resumes, amplified greatly. That’s kinda how I feel about these little drum silences. I am Michael Jordan. Watch me dunk my drum jams into your sweet little ear hole.

Here are some insightful quotes from some guys that know what they’re doing:

“Music is the silence between the notes.” - Claude Debussy

“Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right.” - Igor Stravinsky

People can get caught up with chops and spectacular displays of technique, especially on an instrument like the drums where you don’t have to breathe. There’s this crowd of drum clinic-going, Modern Drummer magazine discipled, gear headed, I can play a million notes in three seconds while juggling people that I just want no association with. I want my playing to look and sound organic and natural, serving the music. I strive to play simply and supportively. If a song is fast and 16th note based, sure I’ll play a quick fill that might be considered “cool” if it is appropriate within the music. Thank you, Ed Soph. Man, this sounds like a rant for another post…

Anyway, come hear us live, the silence will rock you more than you think.

from Ryan

No Comments » Posted by jacobi / Uncategorized

there is just something about louisiana that does something to me. maybe its the humidity. maybe its the amazing food. maybe its the incredibly relaxed system of laws. history, culture, music…crawfish.  could be anything. but its safe to say i love louisiana. particularly a little town you may have heard of called new orleans.

first time i went there i was in a band called my spacecoaster. we had a show in lafayette but we decided to drive to new orleans and eat because we’d never been there. we pulled into town, parked and walked to a restaurant. we quickly realized that the restaurant was far to nice for a bunch of scraggly lookin rockers so we walked back to the van, only to find it occupied by a homeless man. desperately trying to figure out how to get the many musical instruments to a nearby hiding place, most likely a box or pile of vomit somewhere. so the point is that for a long time i wasn’t fond of the city. but in all reality i just parked on the wrong corner.

later i went down again with my good friends snarky puppy and met up with a great friend of mine named casey who was living there helping rebuild after katrina. this was a much different experience.  as soon as i arrived casey and i got started on changing my mind about Nola. we drove straight out to all the carnage, picked up some beers and i started figuring out why this place is so great. we went to the airport. still totally shut down and very much off limits to the public, but with some creative curb hopping and off roading techniques we made it over to the infamous levee. we walked out on it about 200 feet and sat down with our feet hanging off and casey told me that it was the best spot to fish in the entire world. we spent the day in the 9th ward driving around looking at houses that had been demolished by the storm and thousands of FEMA trailers. we stopped at a little building that you have to duck down to walk inside, and ordered a few pounds of crawfish and ate them on the curb outside. daytime new orleans is fantastic. but it is fully eclipsed by nighttime new orleans.  around ten oclock we went out to magazine street to meet up with casey’s many new local friends. all bartenders and waitresses on the same strip. we hit what seemed like every place with a menu and a bar. i’ve probably never been so indulgent in my life. i could barely walk. whiskey going to my head and food piling up in my stomach. at some point i looked at my phone to check the time and realized that it was 4 in the morning. i asked casey if we should get going and he said that right now is when all his friends are finally getting off work and can hang out. i clarified that we were talking about the droves of bartenders that we had just spent hours hanging out with, and he clarified that at this point in the night we would leave magazine and go to the frenchman and keep workin. i told him no dice. and we headed home. but not before he showed me one last place. brothers. brothers doesn’t make any sense. you walk up, you’re at a gas station. there are bullet holes in the gas pumps. seriously. when you go in there are about 20 people all piled around one girl who is serving fried chicken and fried fish. as gross as this looks and sounds, its late. i’m pretty much wasted and need something to try and fight the ridiculous hangover i will undoubtedly have the following day. what i taste is quite possibly the greatest chicken that the world has ever known. there isn’t any way to try and describe it in text form. doing this chicken justice is laughable. ha. so anyway we go home sleep it off and have a really great day scrapping metal and running around like a couple of kids. thats a whole ‘nother blog though. i loved it. i love new orleans. i love brothers.

but i just realized that i was supposed to be blogging about the weekend. during which we played three shows. here’s the rundown.

tulsa: exit 6c. sweet little club. great owners. and some of my family came out to see the show. it was awesome.

new orleans: we didn’t have a show booked for the night. and i got an email from our good friend jenn gates. a sweet girl that i mcqueen and i know from several snarky puppy trips. she said “hey man i’m havin a party, saw you don’t have a show. come down.” so basically doing that would be really irresponsibe, financially, as well as in terms of the potential for liver spots someday. but i couldn’t resist. so we had to go. we drove 11 hours from tulsa to new orleans. showed up. figured out a PA and played until the cops shut us down. it was a total blast and i’m so glad we did it. thanks again jenn. you’re the best

monroe: … monroe louisiana is a very interesting town. we played at the blue monkey with our good friends the feds. they destroy. i slept on a couch in a strange house that smelled a lot like crap. and this cat kept climing up to cuddle with my feet, but i’m allergic to cats so i kept trying to get it off the couch without touching it. so eventually i just grabbed a little towel and popped the cat with it locker room style, and it moved. but kept trying to come back. so i would just hold up the towel and it knew what was up. so i thought i’d won. but when i woke up i was staring face to face with a big cat turd. i did not win.

anyhoo. i’m sure there’s some footage from at least the monroe show that will be put up by the mighty estus himself at some point but i thought i’d let you know how things are goin. we’re having a blast. thanks everybody whos coming out to these shows.

No Comments » Posted by adrian / Uncategorized

Our new friends at Dallas Theater Center sent out this press release last week, so we wanted to share it with you. This is going to be awesome!

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Dallas Theater Center Artistic Director announces featured band for his Dallas directorial debut

DALLAS – July 14, 2008 – Dallas Theater Center Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty announced today that his DTC directorial debut, The Who’s Tommy, will feature local band Oso Closo. The five-member rock band, based in Denton, will appear in the legendary rock opera alongside actors who are still being cast in Dallas and New York.

“Oso Closo is one of my favorite local bands,” Moriarty said. “The moment I first heard their album, Rest, I was struck by their unique sound, inspired musicianship and fresh personality. Seeing them perform live confirmed for me that they will bring a bold musical style and dynamic personality to DTC’s production of Tommy, which will feature Oso Closo at the center of the production, singing, playing and interacting with the actors who will play the characters in the rock opera.”

The quintet’s eclectic style of blending genres like rock, pop, bluegrass, jazz and even mariachi with energetic strings and operatic inflections is a testament to the five members’ music education. Adrian Hulet (lead vocals, pianist), Ryan Jacobi (percussion), Chris McQueen (guitar, vocals), Lindsey Miller (guitar) and Andy Rogers (bass, vocals) have degrees from or ties to the renowned jazz program at the University of North Texas.

“We feel honored and overwhelmed to be a part of a piece of work as legendary as Tommy, particularly alongside an organization as accomplished as Dallas Theater Center,” Hulet said. “We’re shooting to remain true to the original, but with an especially unique interpretive approach.”

Oso Closo’s debut album, Rest, received rave reviews when it was locally released in 2007. A professionally remixed special edition of Rest featuring a live DVD will be released in conjunction with the run of The Who’s Tommy at DTC.

“They’re going to blow the roof off the building and bring a real rock sound and energy to the production,” Moriarty said. “For the first time in 50 years, the Kalita Humphreys Theater is going to truly rock.”

Before taking the stage in DTC’s season opener Sept. 2, Oso Closo’s summer tour includes Lola’s in Fort Worth July 11, The Deli in Norman, Okla. July 12, Exit 6C in Tulsa July 17, Hailey’s in Denton July 25, Flamingo Cantina in Austin July 31, Warehouse Live in Houston Aug. 1, and House of Blues with Fair to Midland in Dallas Aug. 2.

The Who’s Tommy will launch DTC’s 50th anniversary season and signal its commitment to producing a wide variety of musical theater pieces in singular productions, and its belief in collaborating with a wide range of local artists. 

“As a new member of the community, I’m deeply impressed by the vibrancy and talent of the local arts scene,” Moriarty said. “From rock bands in clubs to the diverse theater companies and the many outstanding cultural organizations throughout the city, Dallas is teaming with artistic life. As we look ahead to our move to the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts one year from now, we’re already preparing to engage a wide variety of talented artists from Dallas and across the nation to create bold, exciting work here in Dallas for our community.”
All performances of The Who’s Tommy will be held at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, located at 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd. at Blackburn St. where it runs Aug. 27-Sept. 21. Preview performances are Aug. 27-Sept. 1. Opening night is Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Performance times are Tuesday through Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.; and select Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m. Single ticket prices range from $16 to $60 and are available by calling the box office at 214.522.8499 or by visiting www.dallastheatercenter.org.

ABOUT DALLAS THEATER CENTER

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, DTC produces new, contemporary and classic plays and musicals to an audience of more than 90,000 patrons annually. DTC’s Mainstage season is presented at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, one of only three existing theaters designed and built by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In 2009, DTC will move into and become one of the resident companies of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, a multi-form space conceptualized by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas.

The mission of DTC is to engage, entertain and inspire our diverse community by creating experiences that stimulate new ways of thinking and living. DTC is committed to consistently producing plays, educational programs and other initiatives that are of the highest quality and reach the broadest possible constituency.

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We’re really pumped about this, please come check it out, Aug 27 - Sep 28.

3 Comments » Posted by mcqueen / News and Updates

she lives next door to me. she’s pretty old. but she’s also old school. she doesn’t use air conditioning if she doesn’t have to. she just opens the front and back doors, and lets the air flow through all day. cool right? tough old lady. doesnt need any of your new fangled air cooling whatsits. anyway so the other day i’m on the porch and this dude comes out from between the houses. scares the crap out of me. he’s got on some tiny jean shorts of the cutoff variety, a jersey type of shirt. in terms of whether or not he was dressed, i’d say he was getting by on a technicality. also a bandana tied around his head. not in the biker way but in the daniel son way. so he walks up and introduces himself. i’m going to leave names out for now but we can just call him gus. cause thats a funny name. so gus is asking me about what i do and telling me that he’s old friends with this old lady next door. lets call her beulla. cause thats even funnier.  ok so he’s old friends with her. they’ve known eachother for a long time blah blah blah, here’s where it gets interesting. Gus starts asking me a lot of questions about what we’ve got in the house.  he’s gathered that we are musicians but is curious to see if we have some sort of recording setup or anything like that. so i’m starting to get the vibe that gus is casing our house. which makes me very uncomfortable. so i start making weird faces at him, in an effort to let him know its time to either get to the point or go away. he briefly apologizes for asking so many questions without making his intentions known. he goes on to explain that Beulla has been seeing strange things in and around our house lately and he was here to inquire about them.  here’s what she sees:

every night around “dusky dark” someone walks out of the house (this is my house mind you) and goes to the shed in the back yard. at this point there is some loud clicking noise that results in the emergence of a person who is dressed in a full set of armor.  shortly after this the armored man is joined by others and they all have what seems to be “a meeting at the trees” for some sort of  “oxygen cleansing ceremony” also it should be noted that there is definitely one of us that is “the preacher” and she’s not sure but it seems like we’re in some sort of cult. unless of course there is some strange explanation of these actions that she is not picking up on.

well darlin. i’ve often wondered if losing your mind is degenerative  or all at once. i wonder if this lady knew she was going crazy and it frustrated her or if she just woke up one day and started seeing armored men and stuff. i hope it was the latter. all of the seniors i know are losing control of their bodies. can’t pick up things they used to. hard to move around. i can see frustration in their eyes. sometimes its just downright fear. fear of dying, maybe fear of being a vegetable. in any case its not something i ever want to have to go through, and i know i will. ugh.

anyway that got dark.

so i tell the guy that the lady is obviously crazy. and sure enough. he doesn’t believe me. he says he does. but i’m pretty sure he’s not convinced that we’re not drinking our own pee and worshiping magnolias and oaks.  not sure. but its all good either way. gus and beulla seem very tolert

2 Comments » Posted by adrian / Uncategorized

So it’s 1:28 am and I just returned from a Night Speed mission with my two younger brothers. We made the middle-of-the-night run to our favorite 24 hour doughnut shop - Spunky Dunkers Doughnuts. Yep, that’s really what it’s called. Go nuts people. En route we listened to the King of the Roots albums (in my opinion), Game Theory. I decided I think the next Oso record should have some orchestral crash cymbal moments. Looking forward to getting back to Denton and Osoing this weekend. Cheers.

RJ

No Comments » Posted by jacobi / Uncategorized

Yes, it is in fact my first blog on the Oso site, and what better way for me to begin  than by telling readers about the third greatest day in my life; the first greatest day being the Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Walking Into Clarksdale tour in 1998, the second being the Robert Plant Mighty Rearranger Tour in 2004 and the third being the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Raising Sand Tour, which just passed through DFW this past Monday.  Both Plant and Led Zeppelin have been my musical alpha and omega leading back to my days as a wide-eyed thirteen year old obsessively watching the Whole Lotta’ Love bit in “The Song Remains the Same”.  I’m now pushing twenty-five, and very little has changed.

I have to admit that this Robert Plant experience has been quite different from the past two.  The music he and Krauss performed is much more subdued than the Zeppelin catalog that most listeners are familiar with and I, therefore, do not feel that he unleashed in quite the same way that he stereotypically does.  I don’t necessarily mean this in a critical way. When Jimmy Page has done so much to beat the Zeppelin horse to  death i.e. two reunions with Plant, the Puff Daddy Kashmir remake, and the Black Crowes tour, I find it admirable that Plant  perseveres to separate himself from the Zeppelin legacy.  

While I could turn this particular blog into a concert review, I’d rather take this opportunity to enlighten readers on one of the many facets of my complex and bizarre personality.  It’s not possible for me to have a casual interest in anything.  All my interests are in actuality obsessions.  Led Zeppelin is perhaps the most long running of these dating back to my early teens.  Since the band is no longer together I can now only obsess over the one member who is still active touring and recording.    Rumors are flying that this may soon change.  With any luck the Zeppelin ship may be taking off again this spring.  

As these blogs continue I may feel more inclined to disclose my other life interests.  I fear, however, that readers may find me so strange that I’ll lose my only chance of ever landing a boyfriend or husband and will be earmarked as some type of “cat lady”, which I guess is cool.  I like cats. 

3 Comments » Posted by lindsey / Uncategorized