"...this wheel's on fire, rollin' down the road, best notify my next of kin, this wheel shall explode..."

The wheel of life spins crazily around in Varanasi. It is hot in Varanasi ~ 38/39 degrees ~ and the city is punctuated by tranquility and bedlam. I am staying at Asi Ghat, at the southern end of the stretch of ghats that hug the Ganges...hear Tulsi Ghat (recently highlighted in an episode of "The Amazing Race"). It is a short walk to the burning ghats where 100-150 bodies are cremated each day in a timeless ritual. The bodies are wrapped, the waters of the sacred Ganges are sprinkled on the body, the priest performs a series of rituals and then flame from the temple is used to ignite the fire which will burn for 2-3 hours before the remains are finally released into the Ganges. Not all bodies are cremated, however, as we witnessed a wrapped body being towed into the middle of the river by a boat and then released into the flowing waters. This is all performed in a practical, matter-of-fact manner ~ no weepin' and wailin' at the burning ghats ~ amidst the hubub of boatmen selling a trip on the river, kids playing cricket on the ghats, people and pilgrims bathing in the Ganges, laundry being washed and dried at the river's edge and all of this amidst the blaze of colour and the heat of the day. The alleyways leading off the ghats are narrow and filled with shops of all kinds ~ Varanasi is reknowned as a silk production centre and the Muslims are particularly active in this business. The alleyways stretch this way and that for several kilometers and are especially confined around the area of the Golden Temple where there is a heavy security presence ~ communal violence flares up from time to time so there is a heavy military detail with lots of guns about! Sanitation continues to be a problem in the old city...open sewers and the stench of piss walls and latrines is overwhelming from time to time. But Varanasi continues to be a compelling and, at times, a surprisingly peaceful place. Maybe it is the spiritualism that is evident in day-to-day life, maybe it is the magic of the Ganges. There is great good to be had here...delicious apple pie a la mode at Pizza Vaatika, a vegetarian buffet at the Hotel Ganges View (slightly interrupted one evening by a sudden and freak wind/sand storm). But mostly one just walks back and forth along the ghats...watching the puja festivals at the main ghat in the evening, watching the bedlam settle into tranquility in the evening, taking a moment to smoke a bedie overlooking the Ganges. And then it is on to Delhi...a wild 16km trip by tuk tuk through the chaos of Varanasi streets to the train station at Mugalshari...and a 2AC overnight train to Delhi...2AC (an air conditioned "compartment" shared by four people, two upper births, two lower births...sheets, pillow and blanket are provided and there are curtains which one pulls to close off the "compartment from the aisle). This if the fourth overnight train trip...happy journey! And the wheels of the train go round and round...

what a night!

Saturday night...January 30th,  our CD release show for Stereo Bang Bang. What a night. It was  a dream EQ'd in 16 channel stereo.
But I want to tell you about the day first.

2PM.
It felt a bit like the morning before a wedding. We rolled into the hall for the scheduled "load-in" at 2pm. Everything seems pretty low key, the guys were relaxed and feeling pretty good, and every once in a while you could see that glance on Mike or Wayne's or Andrew's face, the one that saw  the evening ahead,  anticipated, rehearsed, and rolled over each chord, lyric, beat again and again.
Man there is a crap load of little stuff to get done before a concert! The CEO in Rob was rising to the surface just below the skin, his organisational skills, acquired in a former life, were being called up to get the wheels rolling. The rest of us do our share of the schlepping but then skip out for coffee. Being well intentioned, we busy ourselves paving the road to hell as we let Rob enlist various people to get various things done by various times.
3PM.
We are done most of the schlepping that we can do, the green room is occupied by really cool people talking in really hip ways, ways that remind me that I have never been nor will ever be as cool as them, (sigh) but I am too old to really give a rat's ass at this point. We share the room with them and they work till four while we try to hang out and look halfways productive. Everyone is doing their own thing now just killing time and staying calm.
Is it really only 3:47? Five hours to go...
4PM
 Bernie, head of the whole shebang gives us the go-ahead to start sound check. Simon, our  fantastic sound guy, starts to work his magic. Sara's band goes first, Sarah starts her first song and everything stops moving. Its as though any sound right now would be an affront to the soul, she sang like she was just freed. Man this is going to be good.
5PM
Some of the volunteer flight attendants arrive. They are decked out in highly complementary fashion for flight attendants, I am obviously flying the wrong airlines. They are so bright and quick, they are a welcome diversion as we wait...
6PM
Its starting to get close, there's a lot more chatter and buzz in the hallways, people milling around, old friends of Rob and Big Mike show up. I am meeting a lot of new people, Meagan, our head flight attendant, Joanne Roberts from CBC Vancouver, our first officer. Joanne will be introducing both bands in full air force flight uniform,  (yes there is something hot about a woman in a uniform.)We chatted them up. We were their  tackle dummies for line rehearsals, really anything to make the time go faster... really its only 6:14PM?
7PM The house manager is in place, some of the early birds are starting to mill outside. Doors open at 7:30.
We head to the craft table to stuff our faces with tabouli and chicken. Careful not to overeat, boys, we will be singing shortly. ( is this like swimming, never eat 30 minutes before going on stage?) We can hear people starting to roll in to the theatre at 7:30 ish. Butterflies for dessert anyone?
8:10PM
Curtain goes up, Joanne intorduces Sara Merrieros trio. Sara blows away the audience with an eclectic program of fado, jazz, blues and a little country. The audience loves her. She sells out all of her CDs at the break.
9:15PM
Go time. We take the stage and I can hear my heart beat in my ears. The applause is enthusaistic and generous. This audience wants to have fun! Time to give them something to clap about.
The songs flow easily, the crowd is warm, they are enjoying themselves. Time for me to join them, settle down, settle in, let the groove of the music cut its way through the air and spill out over the stage edge. Sometimes I find myself getting lost in it all, it seems unreal...watch the pace boys, keep it on the rails.
Before I know it, we are on the last song. That was it? Holy crap that went by quickly. We wanted it to slow down,  we had this thing going with the audience and we didn't even get their number...ok take a bow and get off. Well, ok one or two more, thank god you asked, we worked on the encore songs quite a bit, hoping you would.
OK, we are done, and the night is over. What a joy, relief, panic, killer good time. Every one was so awesome who helped. It was like throwing a really great house party and all your friends showed up to pitch in.
So a big thanks again to them...

CFUV 101.9FM, Monday Magazine, The Spiral Cafe, Westshore Hearing Solutions, The Victoria Cool Aid Society, the ticket outlets:
Ditch Records, Lyle's Place, Performance Bicycles.  Special Thanks to:
Megan Branson
Jo-Ann Roberts - Host of CBC Radio's All Points West in Victoria
Spencer Rieu
Wendy Wall, COC Publicist

And our ground crew including Sue and Arielle Regimbal, Ursula, Julia and Wayne's friend, Margaret,... Alice Hawes, Faro and Armand for the Green Room, Devour and Patisserie Danielle for Green Room food...and to each and every person who came out to see us. You are why we do this. Thank you.

Ok, it's now official... STEREO BANG BANG CAN BE PURCHASED AT CDBABY.COM, DITCH RECORDS @ 635 JOHNSON STREET AND LYLE'S PLACE AT 770 YATES STREET IN VICTORIA, BC.

(end of commercial, back to the regular programming of your life.)

five more sleeps...

Had a great practice with the guys tonight. All the technical grinding is pretty much done, now its all about unleashing the hounds. The Saturday night CD release concert is on everybody's mind, we will have a lot of friends and fans; everyone of the guys wants to make sure we give them everything they want and more.We plan to leave it all on the stage, wrung dry and go home completely spent. The songs jumped out of our guitars tonight, there were great moments, just electric, still a few things here and there to fix but that's minor.
Our band is like distressed furniture, our imperfections are just part of who we are, part of our definition. As we lit into the first song tonight, it was clear we had made the jump to hyperdrive, into the stop thinking and start feeling, let'er rip, over the boards, drop the gloves, spill your guts time.

The concert has a few tricks of its own up its proverbial sleeve, its going to be, shall we say...interactive. Leave your inhibitions with the babysitter.

Doing lots of promo work this week as well. Catch our interview on Chek TV Island 30 on Friday January 22, 2010. www.chtv.com/ch/cheknews/features/Island%2030/index.html. Its 4 minutes 30 seconds form the end of the cast. Today Mike Raymer and Rob Egan were on with Joanne Roberts on CBC radio. Tomorrow we are taping an interview with A Channel at the spiral at 11:45 am. Wednesday Is the videotaping and interview at Shaw Cable. Saturday we will be featured on CBC`s North By Northwest Radio show. Hopefully all this promo work will bring a few more  to the gig on Saturday.

Am I excited,  a little nervous, you bet. Five more sleeps...

Where can I buy tickets???

Where can I buy tickets to the Children of Celebrities CD Release Concert at Alix Goolden Hall on January 30?????

1. Ditch Records at 635 Johnson ~ this is a great little record and CD store, lots of great music...go in and check it out!

2. Lyle's Place at 770 Yates ~ right next to the Odeon, a Victoria institution!

3. The Spiral Cafe at 418 Craigflower Road ~ a good cup of coffee and a great spot to hang out!

4. Performance Bicycles at 3949D, Quadra Street ~ need a bike to get to the gig?

5. Westshore Hearing Solutions at #143 @ Westshore Shopping Centre - need ear plugs?

6. From any of the Children or from Sara Marreiros.

Children of Celebrities "Stereo Bang Bang" CD release concert

with special guests, The Sara Marreiros Trio

Saturday, January 30 at the Alix Goolden Hall

907 Pandora Avenue

Doors 7:30pm / Show 8pm

Tickets: $20 (includes a copy of the new CD)

To benefit the Victoria Cool-Aid Society, please bring a pair of socks to donate to the Sock Box!

Advance tickets available at: Lyle's Place, Ditch Records and The Spiral Cafe

Call (250) 386-5004 or (250) 388-3132 for more information

Sponsored by Monday Magazine, CFUV 101.9fm and Westshore Hearing Solutions, The Spiral Cafe

www.childrenofcelebrities.com ~ check out the COC website!

www.sonicbids.com/childrenofcelebrities ~ sample some of the new tunes

'Tis the season

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I wish you a happy one. For those of you who celebrate other faiths' rituals, I wish you a happy one. For those of you who celebrate life, I wish you a happy one.

Its a small world, lets share.

Peace

Stereo Bang Bang...In Production

Duly noted that on the 25th of November 2009, Stereo Bang Bang is officially in production. Today the final approval was given to the artwork - following two minor corrections to the design - and the Master Disk is in the hands of DMA in Vancouver. It's all over now but the cryin'...delivery of the Cds is scheduled for the week of December 14. It has been a long and winding road...and, on the good news front, the Sara Merreiros Trio will be our special guests at our Cd Release Concert on Saturday, January 30 at Alix Goolden Hall in Victoria. We are so pleased that Sara can join us...along with her guitar player, Too Tall Ken Hall and Dan Weisenberger on mandolin. And the band played on...

Woodshedding

Gettin' our groove on...Andrew has come up with a couple of great melodious new tunes. One of them Mike Reg has developed a lyrical approach to - tentatively titled "Suicide Wings" - and it is sounding great. The other one is also a terrific groove and we are playing with some lyrics that Rob wrote for a song titled "Mi Casa es su Casa" to massage the lyric and cadence to align with Andrew's musical vision...it is all in motion, works in progress...the woodshedding. We have this little woodshed in Reg's basement studio where songs and musical ideas are introduced and tested, where the tires are kicked, where the need for practise is identified, where improvements to technique are supported and encouraged...it is a pretty cool woodshed. The digital artwork files for Stereo Bang Bang are coming from DMA later today; we will proof, approve and then DMA will provide a hard copy for proofing by our mad design genius, Andrew, before going to print. We are expecting the Master Disk from Spencer imminently and, following a listening preview, it will go to DMA for pressing. And our merch order is well in hand with Brian McShane at Polar Promotions in Yellowknife - T-shirts and hats with the new Children of Celebrities logo, courtesy of our mad design genius. And if y'all want to check out something really cool...www.sonicbids.com/childrenofcelebrities ...is definitely worth a looksee!

Getting our groove on

Last practise we sat around and tried a few new musical ideas that Andrew had been working on. There's something about listening to a fragment, a lick, a riff, over and over at first, then jumping on. It reminds me of the merri-go-round at the park when I was a kid. Jumping on a moving merri-go-round was enormous fun if you could time it right so you didn't eat merri-go-round for snack time.
When its a good groove, there's something that draws you in. You realise your feet don't really belong to you because they are taken over by the beat. Your head nods, you chair dance while your brain races through your closet of musical ideas looking for something cool to wear.
Then there's the other guys to consider, what they bring, where they  take the melody. You try at least not to clash, but mostly you want to impress; its a lot of give and take until finally we are all hip to the same groove.
Once we have it, we have it, and we all think its cool. For a brief moment, we indulge ourselves and stare in the mirror at our faded 15 year old rock star wannabes and dream.
I mean really, how much can a band jet cost, anyway?

Coming home...

So, its been just under a week that I have been back from Asia, and my body still hasn't picked up the clue. My body clock is coming around but I am somewhere over the Aleutian islands now. I expect my body will arrive later this week, with all its requisite baggage I am sure. In the meantime, I am finding new ways to entertain myself while the rest of the world sleeps.
For example, I now know three different words for spider in Japanese. I can whistle the theme from Hawaii Five -Oh while juggling lemons and I have found you can buy used tires for ridiculously low prices on the net, if only you are willing to pay about a half million dollars for shipping. Insomnia is not my friend.
So what about actually practising bass? Seems like a good idea, but not really. If you find yourself wandering around in a stupor, its usually a bad time for things like operating heavy equipment and practising bass. And the neighbours get a little cranky at 3AM as well.
So I will continue to wait for the rest of me to show up, I am looking forward to being reunited with my old friend Sleep.
Don't wait up.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part - Stereo Bang Bang

And so we wait...Spencer had cut three versions of the Master disk. Each disk has a slightly difference bass mix. The disks are on there way to us and we will have to listen to each one and choose the mix we prefer...we want the full, rich sound of the band and the live-from-the-floor feel but we want the bass, the bottom end to fill it out to our liking. Hopefully, this will do it...the artwork files are with DMA and the proof should be couriered back for Andrew's sign off in the day ahead. If all goes well, we'll have the artwork proofed and on to the printer and the disk in the queue for pressing by the end of the coming week. In the meantime, the Children have returned to the woodshed, to get back to some playing, some practising and working up some new song ideas...

home again...

After a quick sojourn to Seoul, South Korea, I am back in Canada, back in Victoria and back, tonight at chez Mike, picking up the bass after 17 days away. Its weird, yesterday I was in Seoul, today I am getting behind the band. I am glad to be back, it was good to connect with the guys at practise. It seems a bit odd that the world has shrunk so much that I can be half way around the globe in a day, Yesterday was sheer adventure, tonight it was the familiar that was exciting, I really dig this band.

This is the end...my only friend, the end - Stereo Bang Bang

Reg, Andrew and Mike hit the studio again last night. We got the master disk on Friday and the collective ear heard a few minor things to tweak...so last night was the final tweaking session. This really is the end...Stereo Bang Bang is a wrap. This final, final mix goes back to Spencer today and we're movin' on...the finishing steps require a combination of patience to counter the urge to keep on, keep on...there does come a point where exhaustion, frustration and other priorities set in and you have to call it. It is not that difficult to see how thousands and thousands of dollars get spent in a recording studio...

5 nights in bangkok and the world's your oyster...

Its 40 degrees, sunny, steamy, and the street markets are filled with flower and fruit offerings for the buddhas, fruits and veg that look like food from another planet, tuk, tuk drivers that will take you for a ride both literally and figuratively, and people so friendly its a shame I can't talk to them in their own tongue. I am a giant here, its easy to spot me as I tower above the locals so I will never be lost for long.
The sights here range from the sacred to the profane, from the glory of the palace of the King to the Pat Pong market, Bangkok has it all. I  can't write much more today as I am jammed in a small internet cafe with mosquitoes buzzing me like kamakaze bombers so  I will write more when I return in a couple of days.
What a trip. Its a really big world...
looking forward to seeing the guys again...

The Short Strokes - Stereo Bang Bang

Last night Andrew was slaving over the details, details of the Cd design...it is painstaking work for a graphics designer. They inhabit a reality of their own, their own concepts, their own language...but it looks like he's done! The final track listing has been added and a few other tweaks here and corrections there...the artwork files will be sent to DMA today and they will begin the setup for printing. Spencer is still working on the Master disk in Vancouver...we should have it in the next 2-3 days. The COCs are playing tonight at a favourite local haunt ~ The Spiral Cafe ~ we are filling in for a performer who had to cancel at the last minute. Mike Reg will play bass in Kevin's absence while Kevin "This One's for the Buick" Paetz continues his southeast Asian journey in Bangkok! All the guys in the band are really excited about receiving their presents from Kevin when he arrives home in a few days!!! Anyway, after dealing with the mix down, the graphics design, the admin and paperwork associated with the final stage of the recording...it will be good to hang out tonight and get back to playing and performing some songs. We're down to the short strokes...on the Cd.

Hanoi farewell

All things must pass. As we near the end of our visit to Vietnam these are some of the things I will miss...excersizing with thousands of Hanoians each sunrise at Huan Kiem Lake, custard apples, a knobby pale green apple that tastes like vanilla custard, the tart taste of warm passion fruit, the early morning  public service announcements of the 'party' that blare through the streets, the music of the dan bao, singing harmony in vietnamese in the karaoke bar, the villagers who, despite often desperate conditions,  laugh and smile broadly given the flimsiest provocation, the little kids practising their english with us, air filled with incense, burning temple money, motorcycle traffic that rivals the tour de france, cafe sau da, a deep, rich coffee sweetened with condensed milk best enjoyed at the 'secret' cafe, hanoi taxi drivers who have proved the expanding theory of the universe as each cab ride to the same destination becomes longer and consequently more expensive, the scent of flowers in the air in the evening, the joyous chaos of the farmers market, chillis so hot they make you rethink the value of tastebuds, the eeriness of the unlit streets late at night, the eel and fish mongers at sunrise, baguette sellers offering bread as light and warm as your first kiss, the old ladies haunched on the sidewalk tending to their cooking pots, (its amazing how cheaply you can get pig intestines here) the sound of the paddle piercing the south China Sea as we kayaked at dusk, and the people, mostly the people, like Diep and Hai and Hien and Mr T and so many others who, simply by their warmth and manner, give you a reason to find your way back.
Vietnam, she is beautiful, frustrating, unexpected, intense, she can stir your heart and kick you in the head, often at the same time. She can be demanding, she is sweet, and she is changing fast.
I hope we will still recognise each other when I come back.

Country and Eastern

TWANG

The rains didn't come

Just this blistering sun

Paddy fields are dry

You can hear the farmer cry

Is there any pain worse

Is it the Gods bringin' a curse

I'm staring at hollow eyes

I'm starin' at simple lives

The earth sweats from the heat

There ain't much to eat

Each day ticks like a clock

Each step heavy like a rock

"we have both kinds of music... country and western"

That's the famous line from the Blues Brothers movie when the boys pull up to the roadhouse and steal a gig. As we are travelling through the countryside in Vietnam, I started to think about the difference between city life and countrylife and began to wonder,

is there country and eastern music?

Apparently there is. But from what I can make out of the language, no dogs die, no train whistles blow in a lonely night, the wife doesn't leave you  and you aren't broke. You are likely to find that your fishing net breaks, the water buffalo gets sick, the rice crop has a drought and you have lost your inner harmony.
Go figure...

Heading out to the countryside today. If I come across a roadside karaoke bar I will stop in and have a tea for the boys...

Final Mix Down ~ Stereo Bang Bang

And so it goes...the final mix down of Stereo Bang Bang is underway. Long hours in the studio, attention to detail. Spencer arrived from Vancouver on Friday the process began ~ listening carefully to each track, segment by segment...adjusting the levels, addressing the placement of the vocals in the mix, treating the "sound" to get it where we want it, bouncing the completed mix to Wave files...then more mixing, EQ to come. Lots of fixes made - those annoying pops and hisses edited out of the mix - with the benefit of a fresh ear on the tracks. Mike added his train whistle to "Let the Train Blow the Whistle" and Reg is finishing up his fiddle solo on "It's A Beautiful Thing"...and so it goes...today is another day of listening, adjusting, listening, fixing, listening...

Raymer and Egan and the South China Sea

Just got back from two days of sailing on a Vietnamese Junk through Ha Long Bay in the South China Sea. Couldn't help but think of the two other guys in the band,  Raymer and  Egan, who have also been here and have seen what I am seeing. Its hard to put into words really, sitting in a Kayak in Ha Long bay paddling among the limestone formations as a giant orange ball descends through the haze to bring on a twilight that calms and stirs the heart simultaneously.
At the time, Mike and Rob were younger men, impetuous surely, full of crap probably, and I bet hardly a nerve was ever frayed. Its a little different for me. While I am seeing this world through rose coloured  bifocals, its clear to me that I am older now, I am stranger in a strange land, and at times it makes me feel  fragile.
We passed an accident on the way back from Ha Long Bay. A motorcyclist was killed in what looked like either a head on or a T-bone accident. Passing motorists slowed to drop money by the body, a sign of  sympathy and solidarity with the family, perhaps. The whole village seemed to wear the same shocked face. They lined the side of the road while police tried to keep traffic moving and sort out what happened. Reality check. This is why I am here. Life fleets.
I am going to the temple early tomorrow morning to burn some incense for him and his family. And to be grateful for the fact that my heart can still break for someone I don't know.

the Hanoi jam sessions

As I walked along Hang Gai street weaving in and around t-shirt hawkers, fruit sellers, guys hanging out in front of their stores having tea,  trying to avoid getting hit by traffic I came across a music store. I think the owner's name is Hom, but I was too embarassed to ask him to pronounce it again. Neither of us spoke very much of the other's language. After enough awkward pronunciation and a mime act that would have gotten me thrown out of any self respecting busking festival, I made him understand I wanted to jam. He has everything in this shop, if it has a string on it, he's got it : exotic traditional instruments, drums, bells, shakers, bamboo flutes, instruments that I had no idea how to sound.
I asked him to play the dan bao, a single stringed instrument that, when skilfully played, can carry a melody as gracefully as the Vietnamese market women carry their yokes packed with fruit. The sound of one lonely string seemed to block out the din from the street; it was a heavy, almost sad sound, but sweet and graceful as well. I picked up a terrible guitar, completely off tune and tried to find some way to accompany him fearing I would miss the moment. A few chords later, we actually had cobbled together a melody, a phrase, incomplete, but satisfying nonetheless. I knew momentarily where he was going and he was gracious enough to take me along for the ride. We stared at each other as the last notes rang. He gave me a little nod, which I returned, respectfully.
Cool, I thought...
He gave me a case to go with the dan bao, and  a book to explain how to play it. Now all I have to do is learn Vietnamese...