Back In Action

"your blog is a sham of a mockery of a travesty of a sham." -myspace comment from Frannie

I guess she's right, I haven't posted anything on here for a while. I've spent most of my absence recording / preparing the "Here's The Whirlwind" EP, which is the offical debut of Mick Bassett and The Marthas. I played bass on the recordings and they sound lovely. Hooray.

I'm taking most of February off of work to officially record my debut EP. I think Erik Roosen will be helping me record it. A certain incredible drummer may also be joining the effort. It should be very interesting, much more rock and roll than anything I've done in a very long time.

Tomorrow I'll play my first solo show since July. It'll be a set of songs written for piano that I've been working on. The show's at Jacoby's in Detroit. It should be a blast.

Exactly a week after I'll be playing the aforementioned "EP" music with Erik Roosen and Jeremy Smith. This show is also at Jacoby's. Coincidentally, Erik and I will also be headlining the show as Marthas with our fearless leader Mick Bassett. What a funfest THAT will be.

I'm going to start posting setlists on here as well as recording updates.

Here's a brief preview of some of the piano songs I'll be playing tomorrow -----

Righty Tighty - a bouncy song about my favorite kind of people in the whole wide universe. This is not only the first time I've used the word "plaque" in a song, but also the first song with the word "whatcha" since Cool Cat.

Tess (We'll Get There) - a reworked version of "We'll Get There", it now has lyrics. Not one of my happier songs.

Sixth Floor Secret - a pretty tune with quips like "boundless spectacles" and "sauntering lunacy"

Limerence (Bad News) - this song's about too many things to discuss without getting a headache. Nancy likes it.

The Backwards Ballad of Benjamin Burns - this song actually should be a piano duet but I'm not sure if Erik's coming to the show. If he does I probably won't let him onstage. We had a very awkward telephone conversation today involving sleep, cell phones, and medication. I'm not sure how long it will take us to recover.

We'll see if any other songs show up. That's all you get for now.

Hope this update compensates for the dry spell. Sorry Frannie.

-J