No man is a Couch entire of itself

No man is a Couch entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the fabric, a part of the sofa;
if a cushion be thrown to the curb, The Couch
is the less, And therefore never send to know for whom
the door bell tolls; it tolls for thee. -John Doe
Last week by a fortunate mishap of fate I found myself at the most wonderful Music Festival I’ve ever attended. Couch by Couchwest.  Where the beer is cheaper and the only hipster is you. I don’t remember how I got there or if I’ve even left.
I soon came to realize that I wasn’t the only like minded Couch Spud ensconced in Slack-assery, there were other Couchalotist’s out in the twitterverse. A whole community of Couchster’s pondering the depths of their shag carpets and the wonders of the multitude of dust balls, snack crumbs and cat and dog hairs that share the vastness of this comfy rectangle we call Mother Couch.

 

Shenanigans as best as I can recall them:

March 13- CXCW 2011 SAMPLER: THE ONLY HIPSTER IS YOU

Couch by Couch West 2011. Music for all of you lazy bastards who are not at SXSW. Let’s face it: sitting on your couch, watching TV, and drinking, is a lot more fun than bad tacos, pretentious hippies, and port-o-shitters.

March 13- Austin Lucas, playing Go West on the couch in Indianapolis, Indiana.

March 14- Cadillac Sky of Nashville, Tennessee, perform “Bathsheeba” for Big Ugly Yellow Couch.

March 14- DJ Invisiboy from Portland, Oregon, doing his music thing in the living room.

March 15- Aaron of The Foreclosed rocks CXCW

March 15- Blue Moonshine from Roanoke, Virginia, recorded “Your Love Is On My Mind”

March 15- Video inspired Couch By Couch West.

March 15- The Imperial Rooster from Espanola, New Meixco, recorded several CXCW live sessions

March 15- 10 BEERS AND 10 SONGS THAT GO WITH THEM

March 15- Devon Stuart of The Takers and Michael Claytor on the NineBullets

March 15- Jessica Lea Mayfield performing on a sweet couch like your grandmama had

March 15- Larry Hooper of Granbury, Texas, premieres a song that he just wrote!

March 15- Chris Porter from Birmingham, Alabama’s, Back Row Baptists performs an unreleased track with assistant Rufus.

March 15- An unreleased song from Tennessee’s Allen Thompson called “First Apology.”

March 15- Conrad Plymouth of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, covers Heidi Spencer’s “Texas In A Drawer”

March 15- The Dead Volts from San Luis Obispo, California, with a version of their song “Late Again”

March 16- Bob from Bob on Blonde in Orlando, Florida sent in this exclusive from his iPhone! Here’s “Fairweather Friends.”

March 16- Kyle Kersten of Travel By Sea (based out of Socal) in his debut couch session preforming “Glimpse of Day”.

March 16- Kyle’s bandmate in Denver, Colorado, Brian Kraft from Travel By Sea preforms “Eastern Angel” just for us.

March 16- O Mello Cello Tree (finally some women!) from Greenville, SC performing “Reasons Why” in his kitchen.

March 16- Andy Berkhout from St. Louis, Missouri, performing a brand new song “Chicago On Sunday Morning” exclusively for CxCW

March 16- Gregor in New Orleans doing a cover of Ryan Adam’s “Memphis” for his CXCW session.

March 16- The Imperial Rooster who are performing exclusively on the CXCW sidestage known as Porch by Porch West.

March 16- Cover of Neil Young’s Ohio from Josie Little in Kentucky

March 16- Mark Folkrod of Ghosts of Guadalupe representing San Luis Obispo, CA with the song “Gettin’ Near Dawn”.

March 16- A CXCW exclusive contest from Steve Gilbert of Bristol, Virginia.

March 16- Kyle of Travel by Sea.  The song is Whiskeytown’s “Houses on the Hill.”

March 17- Phil Norman of Blue Moonshine live from his couch in Roanoke, VA with his song Red Nightgown.
March 17- Here’s DJ Invisiboy doing some live mashups

March 17- Steve Gilbert CXCW exclusive live from his couch in Bristol, VA with the song Virginia, Let’s Dance.

March 17- Marissa Nadler from Massachusetts with “Your Heart Is A Twisted Vine”.

March 17- Bryan and Matt, play “Souths Favourite Uncle” for Couch By Couch West!

March 17- Here’s Forrest Muelrath of Brooklyn, NY singing his song St. Francis Was A Hobo from a couch in a dark room for #CXCW

March 17- The Gum Creek Killers from Birmingham, Alabama, took some time out of their busy SxSW schedule not only to film the song “The Shot”

March 17- Hallelujah The Hills are releasing a 7” of two brand new songs next weekend with Parts & Labor in Boston, MA.

March 17- Here’s Josie Little and rvlockard of Kentucky with another artly shot #CXCW exclusive song called Lover’s Spit

March 17- Doc Dailey from Muscle Shoals, Alabama performing German Train.

March 17- Junior hHgh groovers Northbrook Garage in the studio recording their debut single.

March 17- Lady Lazarus performs “Nazarite Oath” in New Orleans

.March 17- Billy & The Fingers session for you.  Lead singer Neil Martin performs The Popular Mechanics from the comfort of his sofa bed.

March 17- Alexander Hudjohn of Portland, Oregon (with the adorable hound) plays “Churches of Wilmington”

March 17- Swearing At Motorists took a break from recording to have a cup of tea, and play this song for Couch By Couch West…

March 17- Adam Remnant from Southeast Engine from Athens, Ohio - they’re on Misra Records

March 17- Daniel Knox of Chicago, Illinois, tickles the keys AND plays kazoo with “You Win Some, You Tie Some”

March 17- Jeff Zentner of Nashville with “Your Siren Song.”

March 17- Marissa Nadler.  This is “All Love Must Die” recorded exclusively for CxCW.

March 18- Here’s The Imperial Rooster for their 3rd “porch by porchwest” session live from Espanola, NM

March 18- Pete Stein plays “New Mexico” from a couch in Boulder, CO.

March 18- Dressing The Debutantes out of Boston, MA recorded “Mean and Lonely Sea” at practice last night.

March 18- Shane Sweeney of Two Cow Garage gives us a rare solo performance from Austin with “Legion”.

March 18- The Ridges from Athens, Ohio recorded this stripped down couch version of their song “Not a Ghost” from our forthcoming self-titled release out this spring.

March 18- Larry Hooper from Granbury, Texas, covers the Todd Snider song,  ”Play a Train Song.”

March 18- Lee Bains III (formerly of Dexateens fame) & the Glory Fires play “Bomb In Gilead” just for us in their buddy Tim’s shed studio.

March 18- Micah Schnabel performing Ex’s & O’s from Austin, Tx. Micah is also in the Ohio rock band Two Cow Garage.

March 18- Jacques Labouchere Live from Sweden

March 18- Branden & Sam of Ghost Shirt (Columbus, OH) play “Meds”.

March 18- Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling performing “It’s Your Funeral.” performing at Armoire by Armoire West

March 18- Glenn di Benedetto of the Boston-area band Parlour Bells performs “Pet Names” in an elevator.

March 18- Scott from the band Bro. Stephen performing “Shepherd’s Cane.”

March 18- Michael J. Epstein of Boston takes the Chowdah stage (aka BedByBedWest) for his performance of “Holy Ghost.”

March 19- Tim Lee 3 live from their patio in Knoxville, TN with The Bridge.

March 19- Matt Woods CXCW session of his song called “Dueces” live from his couch in Knoxville, TN.

March 19- South Carolina’s Slow Runner

March 19- Sarah giving us an Over The Rhine cover at her CXCW showcase for us live from her couch in Chicago, Illinois.

March 19- Expendable Friend posts a video from her couch in Cambridge, England.

March 19- Adam Ritchie of The Lights Out enjoys a little tubxtoilet in our first bathroom performance. The Lights out are from Boston, MA.

March 19- John Phelan of Portland, Oregon’s Truckstop Darlin performing his song Same Old Story live from his couch, exclusively for CXCW.

March 19- “Bad Moon Rising” SUPERMOON tribute from the also venerable Phil Norman of Blue Moonshine live from the kitchen stage of CXCW Roanoke.

March 19- My first #cxcw Booking Jay Thomas from the band BlueJay from Tallahassee, Florida, with his original “Lucy” blending into Radiohead’s “Everything in It’s Right Place.”

March 19- The Done Deals and we must say this is the best festival we’ve ever played. We took a break from our couch party here in Paris, TX to record “Surrender” a song from our album to be released soon.

March 19- Branden & Sam from Ghost Shirt are back with “Southern Girl” off Daniel, soon to be released on vinyl!

March 19- Seth Gray performing his song Midnight live from his couch in San Antonio, TX for CXCW.

March 20- BJ Barham from American Aquarium, a rocking band out of Raleigh, North Carolina, sat down with the fine folks over at captainsdead.com for a CXCW (Couch By Couch West) Session at this year’s SXSW Music Conference.

March 20- DC Wilson of the 9 Volts from Cape Canaveral, FL, put together this video of “Saluda” with backups by daughter Lilah.

March 20- Brand new song from Sommerville, Massachusetts, artist Ryan Lee Crosby. This video for “Run Away From Me” was recorded in Ryan’s home studio.

March 20- Boy Without God at the futon stage in Queens, New York, doing the Fleetwood Mac song “Over and Over.”

March 20- Ryan and Matt from Atlanta’s Oryx & Crake perform a stripped-down version of “The Road” at The Mink in Houston, TX for Couch By Couch West 2011.

March 20- The CXCW earworm Theme song was probably sung at home simultaneously by all attendees. written and recorded by the venerable @wellversedmom Rebecca Black’s Friday cover

March 20- Rosas of Southend-on-Sea, England, would like to make their contribution to Couch by Couch West: a free EP of material embodying the anti-SXSW vibe of CXCW.

March 20- Here’s one more video from Columbus, Ohio’s, Sam & Branden of Ghost Shirt - “#23”

March 20- Boy Without God perform “Of Cowboys & Other Beautiful Men” from the Futon Stage in Queens, NY.

March 20- My second #cxcw booking the very talented Jeanette Beirne. She just wrote the song today! It’s called “Get Over Yourself.”  She’s from West Chester, PA, in the Philadelphia area.

March 20- Eddie L, who dedicates this song to Larry Fulford the drummer on the couch This is a song called “Dead End Town”

It feels like I missed some, but for the whole “Kit and Kaboodle” head on over to Couch by Couchwest and view the pictures, read the comments and general slackargathy and participate.

The Best little show in Texas SXSW 2011

No I am not going, but these are the bands I would love to see……in no particular order.

Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears is a blues band influenced by Howlin' Wolf and James Brown. It was formed in Austin, Texas in 2007. In March 2009, Esquire listed Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears as one of the "Ten Bands Set to Break Out at 2009's SXSW Festival.

Jukebox the Ghost is a Washington, D.C.-born, Philadelphia-based three-piece rock band. The band consists of Ben Thornewill (vocals & piano), Tommy Siegel (vocals & guitar) and Jesse Kristin (drums). Since 2006, Jukebox the Ghost has toured extensively.

Cheap Girls a rock band from Lansing, Michigan. .. started around early 2007. Adam Aymor.. Guitar ....Ben Graham.. Drums ....Ian Graham.. Bass, Vocals

T Bird and the Breaks are one of those gangs of people who could have easily banded together to steal hubcaps or hustle you out of your last dollar in a game of street craps. Lucky for all involved, they chose to make music. The core of this band of musical miscreants consists of Tim Crane on vocals and piano and an unstoppable rhythm section consisting of longtime partner in crime Sammy Patlove on drums and Cody Furr on bass. Johnny œToo Bad Allison and Sasha Ortiz, on guitar and vocals, add the icing on the red velvet cake.

Le Butcherettes is a Mexican garage tapatio punk band formed in 2007 in Guadalajara by Teri Gender Bender.

 Neon Trees are a combination of slick pop hooks and sturdy organic rock, both melodic and hard-hitting, their anthems of adolescent angst, longing, love lost and found, delivered with the kind of heart-on-the-sleeve passion that only comes from hard work and commitment.Tyler Glenn: lead vocals/keyboards Chris Allen: guitars Branden Campbell: bass Elaine Bradley: drums/vocals.

Dawes members Taylor Goldsmith, Griffin Goldsmith, Tay Strathairn, Wylie Gelber are a Cali Americana Soul Band.

Wolf & Cub is: Joel Byrne – Guitars/Vocals Wade Keighran – Bass Marvin Hammond – Drums/Percussion/Keys Joel Carey – Drums

Eli "Paperboy" Reed (born Eli Husock) is an American singer. After graduating from Brookline High School in 2001 he went on to release two independently-released albums, namely Sings Walkin' & Talkin' & Other Smash Hits! and Roll With You. Come & Get It is Reed's third album and his major-label debut.

Tapes ‘n Tapes is a rock band from Minneapolis, MN, made up of Josh Grier on guitar and lead vocals, Matt Kretzmann on keys and horns, Erik Appelwick on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Jeremy Hanson on percussion

Royal Bangs are an indie rock group from Knoxville, Tennessee. The band is composed of drummer Chris Rusk, singer and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Schaefer, and guitarist Sam Stratton

The Raveonettes are a Danish indie rock^[2] duo, consisting of Sune Rose Wagner (born 1973, Sønderborg, Denmark) on guitar, instruments, and vocals, and Sharin Foo (born 12 December 1979, Copenhagen^[3]) on bass, guitar and vocals. Their music is characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers^[4] coupled with hard-edged electric guitar overlaid with liberal doses of noise

 

Steve Adamyk Band, who, after a string of beloved singles, are celebrating the release of their self-titled debut full-length.Ottawa is thriving in the indie garage rock/punk/power pop scene.
Ottawa’s The Steve Adamyk Band is no exception.

 

White Wires is another Ottawa garage/Punk/surf band

They were Collaborators…

In 1968 the album, Super Session was released with Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield, and Stephen Stills.If you’ve never heard this album, well you should. This gave rise to the term Supergroup, a rock music group that was comprised of members who were already famous from individual success or with other groups. Some other examples are Cream, Blind Faith, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; 1970s groups Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Humble Pie, Cactus, Toto and Bad Company.
There are two albums in my collection that while they may be considered supergroups I think they fall into the category "They were Collaborators."

Willie and the Poor Boys

With Mick Jagger and Keith Richards bickering back and forth in the press during the mid-'80s (leading many to assume that the Stones were kaput), bassist Bill Wyman decided to fill up his newly acquired spare time by forming an all-star band, Willie and the Poor Boys. The group's roots lay in the series of high-profile 1983 ARMS Concerts (which raised money for multiple sclerosis research), which led to several of the tour's participants taking it a step further and laying down some tracks in the studio. Included in this stellar lineup were Wyman's Stones mates Ron Wood and Charlie Watts, as well as Jimmy Page, Mel Collins, Andy Fairweather Low, Kenny Jones, and Ringo Starr, among others, while Wyman also served as the album's producer. The resulting 1985 self-titled album was a pleasant enough set of 12 rock & roll/R&B standards. ~ Greg Prato, Rovi

The Traveling Wilburys

Reversing the usual process by which groups break up and give way to solo careers, the Traveling Wilburys are a group made up of solo stars. The group was organized by former Beatle George Harrison, former Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison, thus representing three generations of rock stars. In 1988, the five (who had known each other for years) came together to record a Harrison B-side single and ended up writing and recording an album on which they shared lead vocals. It turned out to be a way to transcend the high expectations made of any of them as individuals, and a delighted public sent the album to number three, with two singles, "Handle With Care" and "End of the Line" hitting the charts. Unfortunately, Orbison died of a heart attack only a few weeks after the album's release.
Two years later, the remaining quartet released a second album, inexplicably titled Vol. 3. Although it didn't match the success of the first Wilburys album, it was another million-selling hit. Throughout the '90s, there were rumors of another Traveling Wilburys record in the works, but no new albums from the group surfaced. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/traveling-wilburys#ixzz1FXqdfAId

Part romantic, part beatnik, part general pain in the ass

"I make a point of staying right at the edge of poverty. I don't have a pair of pants without a hole in them, and the only pair of boots I have are on my feet. I don't mess around with unnecessary stuff, so I don't need much money. I believe it's meant to be that way. There's a 'struggle' you have to go through, and if you make a lot of money it doesn't make the 'struggle' go away. It just makes it more complicated. If you keep poor, the struggle is simple. " -Von Dutch

Kenneth Howard a.k.a Von Dutch was born on September 7, 1929 in Compton, California. ^[1] Von Dutch is best known as the father of the modern pinstriping. Von Dutch was one of the original guys that were experimenting with pinstriping, he was also the first to develop a distinctive style.

According to Von Dutch, he started drawing flying eyeballs at the age of 18.^[3] His sister Virginia Howard Reyes were there the first time he drew it, and can confirm that Von Dutch drew it in 1948.^[2] According to Von Dutch's sister Virginia Howard Reyes, Ed Roth created another version of the "Flying Eyeball" before Dean Jeffries.

For several years Dutch painted and pinstriped nothing but motorcycles, moving from shop to shop, saturating each area. By the mid-fifties he had done thousands of bikes, but very few cars. Striping cars started as a joke when he was working at Al Titus' motorcycle shop in Linwood, California. The whole car striping idea started to 'snowball' and he was there. More...

A young Kenny Howard (Von Dutch) perfecting his pinstriping craft at Bud Ekins' shop, 1965.

Worth watching....An Interview With Von Dutch

Sometime in the 1980′s Von Dutch attended the Lead East Nationals and the organizer of the show, Terry Cook, was lucky enough to put an interview with him down on tape. 

For more info see: 

Kustomrama  

KENNY HOWARD | THE MASTER PAINTER & STRIPER ALSO KNOWN AS VON DUTCH

The Life and Times of Von Dutch By Bob Burns

We'll do it LIVE!

A follow up in my quest for new music experiences and to broaden my musical tastes. These are two Radio Stations I have found that have great Live Sessions and a large archived library of previous sessions. One on the east coast in Philly the other on the west coast in Seattle. 


In Philly, Radio 104.5  host's local bands as well as select national acts to play LIVE in the XFINITY Performance Theater.  Some of my favorite Archived Sessions include: Cage The Elephant, Philly locals Circa Survive, Terrible Things, Punk rock royalty, Social Distortion, Local Natives and many more.





Seattle's KEXP 90.3 a tiny 10-watt station back in 1972, KEXP has grown over the years into an innovative, influential cultural force in the Seattle community and beyond, offers a large archived library of live session's. Here I found some favorites: The Black Angels, Arcade Fire, Beach House, Band of Horses, Old 97's, Revolver, Best Coast and many more.


So get your eyeballs and earholes on over and and indulge in the sights and sounds.

In Search of Indie

In my quest for new music experiences to broaden my musical tastes, there are a few web sites that I repeatedly return to. My top pick which I visit everyday is Daytrotter. They have a new downloadable session everyday and it is a great way to start the day. My favorite finds at daytotter so far are April Smith and the Big Picture Show, Catfish Haven, 22-20's, J.Roddy Walston and the Business, Dawes, Backyard Tire Fire and to many more to mention. Also Bands I knew and liked already doing some raw sessions. The Black Angels, Cage the Elephant, Circa Survive, Death Cab for Cutie, Local Natives, and Social Distortion. Any hoo to get a sampling check out Best of Daytrotter 2010, and Readers Choice 2010 Once you start trotting you'll never surf again.



About Daytrotter: 

Daytrotter -- One band a day, every day, 28 Daytrotter Session songs each week.

As Bands are they’re traveling through America’s heartland – take two hours out of their travels between shows to stop in for a Daytrotter Session at The Horseshack in downtown Rock Island, Ill. The name of the city is not ironic. They use borrowed instruments, play with their touring mates, utilize an often unkempt toilet, eat some food and then cram back into their vans for the last half of the drive. What they leave behind is a pile of ashes, sometimes a forgotten stocking hat and four absolutely collectible songs that often impart on whomever listens to them the true intensity that these musicians put into their art, sometimes with more clarity than they do when they have months to tinker with overdubs and experiments. These songs are them as they are on that particular day, on that particular tour – dirty and alive. We want you to make this your new home as it is ours. We promise that you will love it here.

The Horseshack, Rock Island, Illinois. 
Daytrotter Sessions are engineered by Mike Gentry, Patrick Stolley, Brad Kopplin, Brett Allen or Nick Krill.

The Daytrotter recordings are made with minimal mic’ing, through discrete preamps and with some limiting to the mixing console, where they are printed to 1/4” analog tape running at 15 inches per second (usually BASF 468). The analog master is later transferred to a computer and converted to MP3.

There is no set formula or pattern to the recordings, no specific mic setup, etc. They are all live, no overdubs, straight to tape. What you hear is what happened in the room that day.