Stockton quiet fun

In Stockton we payed the quietest show of our lives. No joke- I was very impressed by Ryan’s ability to keep it down.
We played at a restaurant in Stockton called Greek Brothers- a nice place with beautiful views of the rivers. The crowd was solid but the playing was seriously so quiet that I had to whisper to Hooch on stage, in case the audience could hear what I was saying to him. It was very strange playing our funky, raucus, and dancable music in such a fashion, but it was also fun. I could hear our singing and harmonies so well!

We sound good. We’ve been practicing in the van every single day, a program called “Singing Success” by a guy named Brett Manning. He’s a funny dude and some of the exercises sound funny to an outside ear, but man do they really help. I get more and more confident every time I do them. I understand my voice a lot better, and I’m excited to keep growing.

The staff at Greek Brothers was exceptionally nice and appreciative of the music. I think they’re the ones who bought the most merch, and were generally really friendly. We got to hang out with some other patrons at the end of the night who were generous in buying us whiskey and eager to talk music, so all in all it was a fun night.

Voodoo Video!

The Voodoo Music Experience was incredible. Please enjoy these videos!
We’ll be back soon with a recap of the weekend.

Achachay! – Tour Song – Voodoo Experience 2011 from Voodoo Experience on Vimeo.

Achachay! – Let Go – Voodoo Experience 2011 from Voodoo Experience on Vimeo.

San Francisco embraces the traveler w/ Strictly Hardly Bluegrass

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
San Francisco always welcomes us with open arms and crazy fun free activities features thousands of people. Last tour we got to the Bay Area just in time for Bay to Breakers (see Hooch’s blog post); this time we got there just in time for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. This is a MASSIVE (ie 600,000 people), three day long music festival held in Golden Gate Park. The best part – its FREE! It’s like Austin City Limits but four times as many hippies (remember, its free), spread out over a much larger park.

Occupy Wallstreet
Liza and I got there pretty late Sunday afternoon but still got to catch some classic acts like the Dark Star Orchestra, Gomez, and Emmy Lou Harris (she’s closed the festival every year since it began 11 years ago). I also saw my first “Occupy Wallstreet” sign there. Not knowing anything about the movement yet (this was a few weeks ago after all) I thought it pretty ironic- The festival is free because its funded by a guy who made a ton of money investing in stocks. Actually, I had a great conversation about the whole thing with a buddy of mine from SF. I’ll include some of that email exchange HERE, for those of you interested in my thoughts about the whole thing.

We had a free day in the area, which gave us a lot of time to relax at Ryan’s long time family friends’ the Burger’s (who have now hosted us three times, always very welcoming!) and catch up with friends from the usual: Rice, Ghana, high school, Austin, etc.

The SHOW
Our show at Kimo’s was cool for the following reasons:

• Great surprises of people who came to see us (thank you Facebook for connecting us all)
• Delicious Indian food before hand. My buddy Chek ate lamb brain. I tasted it. Very strong flavor.
• The Official Story was funky, talented, and super fun to dance to!
• Void 808 Band- cool guys whom we played with again the next night in Sacramento
• We freakin’ rocked

That about covers it. We’ll strive to play Strictly Hardly … next year? Either way I’m sure San Fran won’t disappoint as even if there aren’t absurdly fun large and free events to attend, there will be awesome people to hang out with.

Los Angeles / Tarzana

When i think about our time in Los Angeles a few Wednesdays ago I think mostly of the great people we spent time with.

• Our gracious host James Leffler was hilarious as usual (check these vids for examples of his humor)
•  Ben Carson threw a pre-party and is now the only person to make it to all of our LA appearances.
• Surprise Rice friends I did not realize live in the area including Lila and Will
• I saw Marty who I studied in Ghana with for the first time in a couple of years
• Joe – one of our Ashland buddies we met through Karrgo Bossa Jova -was an absolute hoot to hang out with. We had some lively and engaging discussions about the purpose and character of higher education, with many references to Harry Potter. Nothing more can be said that is fit for print.

We played an awesome show, as usual. Los Angeles really reminds me that when it comes to my life, it often comes down to this: I love people. I used to hate the city because of the traffic, the pollution, and the superficiality. But the fact that there are so many people I love there – cousins with babies in the belly, old camp friends, comedian advisors – I can’t help but enjoy myself.

The intensity of travel and the nonstop social interaction of our tours challenges the psyche. Yet, I get so much energy from the good people surrounding us, that even a week of sleeping on the floor can’t suppress my almost constant giddiness. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to stay connected to these people distributed across the world.

Morro Bay, poo in a bucket

We awoke at 630 am Friday morning to drive a ridiculous 12 hours to Otter Rock club in Morro Bay California. We arrive to a beautiful bar on a beach harbor, play a fun long show to a decent crowd of entirely foreigners, and pop on over to SLO for the night.  The show is brilliant; its a great crowd and atmosphere for our almost a capella song (ryan’s now on djembe). We also sell some Keep Austin Funky shirts to some friendly Arizonans.

Anyway, there are two stories even more worth telling here. The first is about a sweet jacket. The second is about shitting in a bucket.

(1) Flagstaff and the jacket… Ryan already mentioned the jacket but let me elaborate. There is a group of four people hanging out, waiting for us to play. One guy says he doesn’t want to stick around because he’s really cold. I’m heading to the van to warm up vocally anyway, so I grab him my one and only jacket. It’s a stylish, tight green affair from H&M that I got on the last tour. He wears it, they stay and have a really good time. Good enough that he gets drunk enough to walk off with my jacket!

A little cold, and a little bummed. We head home to Dan’s. Dan is about the most generous guy you’ll ever meet. He loves to make people feel good. He’s in the process of getting rid of as much of his stuff as possible to go traveling in a month. As soon as he hears about my plight, his face lights up. “I’ve got the coolest jacket you can have. It’s going to look perfect.” He goes to the closet and pulls out a freakin’ sweet crazy tan cow hide and sheep fur masterpiece. I don it; it fits. “Thanks Dan!” I throw a leathery wooly hug around the man, and have hardly been able to take off the jacket since.

(2) SLO and the poo bucket… Our couchsurfing hosts in San Luis Obispo (SLO) are a bunch of badass dudes. They were totally welcoming, and down to host us after our Morro Bay show even though we’d be getting in late and never met them before. We had a sweet jam with them in the morning (made hooch and I want to buy a banjo), and in general they made us feel like home. More mentions will be made of them as we stayed with them another night. The important part here is that we walk into the bathroom and there’s a red Home Depot funnel labeled “Pee here,” going through a hole in the floor, and there’s a bucket – just a bucket -  with a toilet seat that says, “Composting Toilet. Poop here, cover with sawdust. No pee! Save 1.6 gallons.” Yeah, that was the deal. They poop in a bucket.

I have read about this before, but I had never had the pleasure of getting to participate. It really does save a lot of water, and investments into sanitation equipment and sewer systems (if you properly compost it. Here’s the wikipedia article about it). I’m not ready to jump on the bandwagon, but I’m glad that people are experimenting with more environmental ways of disposing of waste. It wasn’t too bad to use, and it seems to be going okay for these guys (For the record – they’re very normal people. They study mechanical and civil engineering).

Just some savory tidbits from life on the road.

Getting started in Norman

Later that night, they fixed the sign

Exactly one week ago we played in Norman Oklahoma, home of OU.

Hooch went to school here for a while, back when he thought he wanted to be a weatherman (yeah, Anchorman is one of his favorite movies) so it was cool to see the town and hear his stories. I even found a healthy, locavore place with Free Range turkey to get some grub (somewhat rare in OK).

Our show was sparsely attended. This wasn’t unexpected, since it was our first time playing there. Luckily we impressed the bookers, staff, and everyone in the bar so we’ll be coming back. We still filled up a page of emails on our signup sheet, and sold some CDs. I consider that a big success. The bar wants to set us up with a big name local so we can start building a bigger following. This is great! It’s how we start, every single time.

Since everyone was really supportive, digging every song, and we played for a couple of hours, we got a chance to test some new stuff out. We played one song that is sort of afro-beat influenced, and everyone gave us very positive reviews.  We’ll definitely be playing it again.

Another big positive was that we got to spend some time with Autumn and her family. They’ve been huge fans since Hooch joined the band, and are always very welcoming to us on the road. They make us feel so at home that I don’t even mind raiding the fridge for leftovers.  Here’s a pic of the kids – Rayann, Gunner, and Barak. We always love spending time with them .

All in all, a solid night with a big foot in the door to a new market. Great stuff.

Hooch promotes via text message before the show

Tilapia at IHOP?!?

Enid is where Hooch grew up. Fugly’s is one of his best friend’s brother’s bars – so when he heard we didn’t have Saturday booked he offered us the night. Even with only one day’s worth of time to promote, we got a decent crowd digging our grooves. We tried out some experimental new songs. They were received well. We also really enjoyed the high quality PA. It was possibly too loud because the room is a brick and tin box, but man the vocals sounded awesome.

Tilapia at iHOP?

For months, I’ve been saying I’d get the tilapia at either iHop or Denny’s. Everyone looks at me like I’m crazy. They assume I’ll have gastrointestinal issues for days. But it actually looks good to me, and its probably the healthiest thing on the menu. I like to eat healthily, finding protein on the road can be difficult since I only consume free range meat, and if I extend that to cage free eggs there’s almost nothing I will put in my belly at those all hours diners. Friday night, I finally ordered it!

The waitress gave me a horrified look. I immediately doubted my choice. “What – is it bad?” I asked. “I don’t know, no one’s ever ordered that before” she responded. The rest of the guys laugh maniacally. I mention something about fish and the waitress responds, “Tilapia – that’s a fish?”
OK i think, she really just doesn’t know what she’s talking about. My resolve is bolstered, and I stand by my decision.

Turns out, the Tilapia at iHop is good. I recommend it to anyone. Not only is it tasty, but it’s been over 48 hours and I’ve had completely normal bowel movements.

Enid, which is “DINE” backwards, I’ll always remember my for my first fishy late night diner experience.

Kind strangers in Durango

This post has been a long time coming… my apologies. Been busy playing all around Texas, composing new music, booking more tours, and recovering.

This was our second time playing The Summit, and they treat us well. This time was less violent (last time a guy punched someone out for saying he didn’t like the music…) but just as dance-y. We got invited to another after party, which was full fledged; DJ, sound system, honey whiskey, and another sunrise. Hooch wasn’t feeling it so he passed out in the car while Ryan and I socialized.

One of the coolest little things about Durango was this:

Ryan and I went to a Chinese food place to get some din-din. He asked these people at a table near us, “Excuse me, what’s that dish?” They responded, “We have no idea, its not what we ordered. Would you like it?” After some more pleasantries, they gifted us the dish. Then they proceeded to load us up with their rice, and the leftovers they weren’t eating. They were a local couple and some of the most generous and friendly people. They got excited about us playing, and even came to the show and stayed for the whole first set! They like Eric Clapton so we made sure to dedicate our “I Shot the Sherif” Cover to them (although technically I prefer and tend towards the original Bob Marley style). Really cool people. I think they ended up buying up a bunch of our merch too.

All in all, Durango was a good time. Missed Jack and Kat and the two-story bikes, but they weren’t around and staying in town made a lot of sense. Our new couchsurfing host Sunny was friendly as they come. She made the best veggie burrito I’ve ever had in my life. We’re planning on coming back on our next run our West, and I’m excited to get Sunny out on some rock climbing routes.

All in all our show in Durango was  a lot of fun.

Oh yeah, another interesting thing: There was a crazy bike race going on the weekend we were there called the Iron Horse Classic where cyclists race the train from Durango to Silverton. It’s some impressive distance like 40 miles and covers two mountain passes and thousands of feet of elevation, so its a big deal. The town overflowed with cycling enthusiasts, making it fun to bike on my little fold-up.

Achachay! will one day play a show like this in Durango.

leapin’ at the frog and peach

monday we played in san luis obispo (forgive the failure of the shift key on this computer, there will be no capitals) at a place call the frog and peach. san luis obispo (heretofore known as slo) is a college town – cal poly –  and a perfect crowd for our style of music, so we were excited to get our foot in the door, impress some people, and get a better night for the next time we are in town. we did just that.  we had a lot of fun even with a small crowd, and we’ll definitely be back in late september – playing a weekend or possibly frog and peach’s 1 dollar pint night on tuesdays.

after the first set we took a break and most of the crowd left. i suppose college kids do have to study sometime… thats good i want the world full of educated interesting people. we like that kind of crowd. anyway we started the second set and quickly played “sad sad city” by ghostland observatory. a couple guys that are show promoters heard the sweet phase shifted notes from down the block and were instantly drawn to our show like starving men to a free buffet. they stayed and danced for the entire rest of the night, even running out into the street and convincing people to come and see a song.

comically, every fifteen minutes or a so a huge group of 20 people would come in for some girl’s (always a girl, i dont know why) 21st birthday, take a shot, and leave. we would pick a good danc-y tune and get them to groove for a song or two, but they had their list of bars to take the lady on her first legal day, so they went off on their journey. it kinda felt like we were back at the dizzy rooster, thirsty nickel or chuggin monkey in austin. fun times.

another good aspect of slo is that we got to be the first time couchsurfers for our buddy nelson111 (pretend those 1s are exclamation points). he is a great guy and a great host. in his initial message he said something really funny about us being the first at his house. it was something along these lines, ‘my roommates are all cool with it, except one who is worried that you’ll be really messy, but even if you are i dont mind.’ needless to say we were immaculate. nelson came to dinner with us and then stayed up a bit to chill after the show, so we got a chance to know each other a little better. couchsurfing is so wonderful. it always makes me happy about the state of the world we live in. i dont think something like it could have existed that long ago, because people just didnt have as much trust for strangers, or openness about their lives. even now most people think that the idea of couchsurfing is crazy, and they cant believe that it works, that there arent more horror stories. there is an evolution of culture over the course of history, and this couchsurfing is one positive manifestation of a more inclusive, egalitarian sense of self and other. pretty sweet.

Silliness in Flagstaff

The Flagstaff Brewery has two stages – one indoor and one outdoor. Yet for some reason they wanted us to play in this small corner: (pic on twitter, i’ll link to it eventually. just imagine a very small space).

Right next to the bathroom.

I couldn’t stop laughing. Their reasoning made sense – the indoor stage is too far away and no one would watch us, and the staff wasn’t prepared for an outdoor show. But still, that corner is small. Last time we played a killer outdoor set where people heard the music walking by and came in to jam.

We rocked a great set anyway.

The guys that run the place are really nice, and the beer is great. Another funny thing is that last time they accidentally paid us with a counterfeit $20 bill. Ryan was pissed, because they refused to reimburse us with real money. He wrote a pretty negative review on indieonthemove, a booking site we use. Fortunately, this has been a bee in their bonnet, so this time they gave us an extra $20 to make it right! Praise the power of the internet. And props to them to rectifying the situation.

Another really great thing about Flagstaff is Dan, our couchsurfing host. We stayed with him last time, and had a great time jamming afterwards. He plays some mad harmonica so we got him on stage and jammed out for a while on “Fever.” It was a great time. He’s an amazing host and really takes care of his guests. Even though we only get to spend a small amount of time with him whenever we’re there, we’re kindred spirits and I know we’ll be hanging again in the future. If you get a chance, check out his musical project “2 BUKU”

All in all Flagstaff was a good time. We plan on coming back.