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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