Trick or Treat
Friday, October 31, 2008

Again from my old band The Goods. Thanks to YouTube now some of everybody's worst fashion faux paus are preserved for posterity. What the hell was I thinking? Head-to-toe leopardprint? This is what can happen to a 23-year-old mountain kid let loose on New York City whilst coming out of a tragic glam rock phase. And it wasn't even Halloween...

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Oops, Sorry About That
Thursday, October 30, 2008

Due to my profession, I ain't sayin' who I'm voting for (like those of you who know me have any doubt), but this video from my friend Anne Scatto really cracked me up.

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Domenick + Agatha
Sunday, October 26, 2008

Congratulations to Domenick Tiziano and his bride Agatha.

Their wedding yesterday was beautiful, the priest was funny and the food at the reception was awesome. Father Joe, the priest, spoke of how although marriage is a gift from god one day each of them would "wake up in the morning, look over at the person lying next to you in bed and say, 'What was I thinking? Was I drunk? Am I hungover? Did somebody slip me a mickey?'" I didn't know priests could say that, in church no less.

Somehow I doubt Domenick will be asking that anytime soon.
Kiss, kiss.
Let him eat cake
Butch, as always, was on his best behavior.
Magic Butch
Band & Bride

Yikes, now I'M the only one in the band whose never been married! I remember the good ol' days, when all the Heathens were unwed. Sigh.

In advance of the wedding, we all took Domenick out. When was the last time you saw THIS motley crew of characters together?


Because it was Domenick's bachelor party, we took him out and bought him a hookah. Har-har.


After the wedding we stopped by Banjo Jim's to wish a happy birthday to one of our favorite people in the world, Banjo Lisa.
A rare turn at the microphone for Banjo Lisa!

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Wapiti Waters & Fish Porn
Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Jack

Made some excellent new friends on the 'net. Merle and Jack are flyfishing guides for their company Wapati Waters on the beautiful Bitterroot River in Montana. I found their blog by Googling "Bitteroot River," which is one of three "A River Runs Through Its;" "it" being my hometown of Missoula.

Funny I ended up meeting these guys online because we know some of the same people and Jack is a banjo player who has performed with Pinegrass, a longrunning band that tears it up in downtown Missoula every week. Better late than never, I say.

Speaking as a someone who does most of his fishing vicariously, what I love about Jack & Merle's blog is it doesn't skimp on the fish porn. Now wait a minute, before you rock and rollers go off thinking that "fish porn" is a Led Zeppelin reference, that AIN'T what I mean. Fish porn is pictures of trout so big and so beautiful that anglers can't help but say things like, "Oooh look at that baby," "But it's just HUGE," and "Wow, the things I would do to THAT!"

FISH PORN! The biggest Westslope Cutthroat I ever caught, Rattlesnake Creek, Missoula, MT, August '08

Anyway, Jack & Merle and me are doing the blog trade thing. They wrote about me, so I'm happy to write about them. Any of you out west, drop 'em a line. I'll be looking at your fish porn online.

MORE FISH PORN!!! The biggest Yellowstone Cutthroat (and maybe the biggest trout) I ever caught. Slough Creek, Yellowstone Park, Aug. '08

By the way, I know a lot of you are asking why all the FISH? What about the MUSIC!? Here's the deal, it's damn hard WORK getting a record made. It can be so frustrating, makes a man think about fish! Domenick gets married this Saturday, so we're out 'til he's back from his honeymooon. In the meantime, I'm working doubletime to make some bucks, which is what we're really gonna' need (excellent time to be doing that, I might add). So stay tuned out there in Heathenland. Hope to serve you up ROCK 'N' ROLL that makes you say, "Wow, the things I would do to THAT!" just as soon as we can.

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Fishing With Capt. Derr
Friday, October 17, 2008

Big thanks to my friend Andrew Derr for taking me fishing off Montauk yesterday. Andrew's a boat captain and fishing guide and man, he knows where the fish are. I'd never been salt water flyfishing before and Andrew hooked me up with about a half-dozen striped bass and bluefish. Because Andrew started off the day by reeling in a false albacore tuna we completed the "Montauk Grand Slam:" three fish species, one afternoon.

Capt. Andrew Derr & tuna
With a nice striped bass
Bluefish

Thanks Andrew, you rock.

He literally rocks. Check out this new YouTube clip of the band Andrew and I played in, The Goods.

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It's AAAALIVE! Bwah-hah-hah!
Thursday, October 9, 2008

Oh my little car, without which there would be no New Heathens. Oft I have told the story of how in 2004 a semi truck on the New Jersey Turnpike buggered my little two-door, 1999 Chevy Cavalier rendering its trunk inoperable. I took the insurance payout and financed the first New Heathens record. However my poor, wrinkled, little car would forever more be known as..."The Raisin."

Car ownership in New York flat out sucks. The Raisin's been busted into four times, smashed into countless other times and racked up thousands and thousands of dollars in parking tickets.

And then an MTA bus smashed into my drivers side door, making it stuck shut.

In addition to forcing me to crawl in and out through the passenger side, the wrinkled trunk and awkward door basically turned my car into a big, flashing, neon sign that said, "Attention Police: Pull Me Over!"

When I was ticketed last week in Morristown, NJ for "driving an unsafe vehicle," I knew something had to be done.

Drastic measures had to be taken.

I brought The Raisin to this guy...

Miracle worker/mad scientist Matt Popola

Matt is the main monkeywrencher at Paddy's Auto Body in Newark, NJ. He is THE best mechanic in the New York Metro Area (he plays the New Heathens in his garage and once gave me a discount in exchange for a burned copy of a Bottle Rockets CD).

But could he resurrect The Raisin?


Matt called his henchmen at a junkyard, where the mutilated bodies of automobiles are laid down to an unpeaceful rest, where they are scavenged by the automotive Igors of the world.

First, Matt stitched on a working door...


NEW door

THEN he put on a trunk.


Old trunk...

NEW trunk

Then a turn of a key and, oh my god! It was...egad...

The FRANKENRAISIN!!!

"You fixed The Raisin!" I exclaimed.

"The Raisin?" Matt said. "It looks more like fruit salad now."

What's even more heinous? I took the raisin straight to the Department of Motor Vehicles. It PASSED their inspection! Ha! Now it's licensed to be on the road, maybe right next to YOUR car.

But it's not like your car at all.

There is no other car on earth quite like...The Frankenraisin.

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Not Much Sympathy for Wall Street
Tuesday, October 7, 2008

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Alex Battles, superstar
Friday, October 3, 2008

I'm so proud that this dude is my friend.

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