Category Blog/Tour Diary

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Corn Mo's Boring Life

We had Mr. Brownstone practice on Saturday.  Those songs are awesome to sing.  I gotta learn the words.

I had three nosebleeds on Saturday.  One of them occurred when we were playing “You Could Be Mine”.   I was reminded today of the nosebleed while looking over my notes as there were specks of dried blood all over the page.  That day, I kept going because a) we were renting a rehearsal space and b) it just seemed so badass to sing and bleed.

I remember giving an “It’s alright” look to “Izzy’s” concerned look.  It was especially awesome on the bridge.  Oh, these words tasted like blood:

“While you’re breakin’ down my back
and I been rackin’ out my brain
It don’t matter how we make it
cause it always ends the same
you can push it for more mileage but your flaps are wearin thin
i cou...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Corn Mo's Boring Life

My friends, Will and Emily, were in town.  We met at the Met and looked at art.  I should go there more often than I do now.  When I moved to NY, I told myself I should go to the Natural History Museum every Saturday.  I haven’t been in 2 years.  

  The Forest in Winter at Sunset, 1845–67
Pierre-Étienne-Théodore Rousseau (French, 1812–1867)

I also told myself to go see more theater and I haven’t.  My friend, Nick, came to town and got me a free ticket to see Doubt.  The theater is nice and you can drink beer at your seat which is a plus.  John Patrick Shanley wrote a really good play.  He also wrote Joe Versus the Volcano, a fine film that lovingly shows off Long Island City and Abe Vigoda.

warm hearted, who farted?

Back to Saturday, I tried to take Will and Em and Jasper and Josh and Una...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Corn Mo's Boring Life

I saw Willie Nelson last night.  He’s so good.  He played "Angel Flying too Close to the Ground."  What a beautiful song.

I sat in with Brave Combo the night before.  They’re one of the best bands ever.  Influenced John and John, me, and are one of Denton’s Finest.  So, is this guy.

The Golden Warrior

Call this number!  510.351.7654!

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Old Shows, Shows

Thursday, November 3
San Francisco   
w/ They Might Be Giants!
Bimbo’s 365 Club
1025 Columbus Avenue (at Chestnut Street)

Friday, November 11 8 pm
Los Angeles
Hotel Cafe
1623 1/2 N. Cahuenga Blvd
$5

Wednesday, November 16 7:30 pm
NYC
Satalla
37 W 26TH St. b/n Broadway and 6th
Performing a song with Brave Combo

Saturday, November 19 7:30 pm
NYC
Corn Mo and Magic Brian
Parkside Lounge
317 Houston at Attorney
w/ special guests,
Byron and Todd Deatherage
$5
I’m going to do new stuff. If it sucks then you’re out $5.

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Common Rotation UK Tour '05

Jory and I went down to the West End to look for a piano rental.  I found a fellow with a guitar at an internet shop and asked him and he pointed me to Denmark St.  What a time we had looking for that mysterious street.  What a quest! Everyone who gave us directions must have had their mental maps on a gyroscope. 

L = directions, I = communication, i = map made of marbles

And one lady wouldn’t respond when I asked her.  And I mean she wouldn’t acknowledge me.  Perhaps, I had ended my sentence in a preposition and she wouldn’t answer until the sentence was ended properly.  Or its the other thing.

We finally found Denmark St. and no one rents pianos on that strip of music stores.  But I did take  someone’s advice and found a place.

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Corn Mo's Boring Life

I don’t usually write what I’m listening to because most of my friends think I have a terrible taste in music and don’t want to know.  But today I got to listen to a couple of cool cds.  A friend of mine that I met at a TMBG show gave me a cd he had just finished.  It’s handmade, including the packaging.  And it’s really good.  Hopefully, he’ll have a myspace site up to share some of them.  His name is Jimmy Dority.  He’s really good.

And then my roommate let me borrow "The Best of Free Design".  They do a cover of "You Are My Sunshine", one of the best songs ever written.  I got a little teary. 

the free design

Well, there’s that.  And then, I finally found Andrew Schroeder songs.  He was the french horn player in the Polyphonic Spree...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Common Rotation UK Tour '05

I’m getting ready to get on the plane.  My car-service driver got lost on the way to the airport.  She was real nice though and I left early enough for no worries.  No harm, no foul. 

I got the new Wired.  My trips coincide with new issues.  I also borrowed my friend’s Fortean Times magazine.  It has map of cool places to visit.  I should have plenty of time to see some of these places.

I got a text from Jory last night.  He kissed Erin Gray at the Sci Fi convention where Common Rotation was playing.  She’s still hot.  I just watched Six Pack again this week.  She makes it with the great Kenny Rogers.  His soundtrack contribution, Love Will Turn You Around, is one of my favorite songs.

I look forward to drinking with my buddies and having good times this week.

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Common Rotation UK Tour '05

Dammit!  I got a memory stick and dv tapes for my camera and didn’t pack the second half of the power cord.  Damn my eyes!

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Common Rotation UK Tour '05

I rented a piano for the show last night.  I got a good deal on it and the chaps who hired it out were really nice.  I had a hard time finding the place and everyone I asked in the neighborhood had no idea what street I was looking for.  I found a bus map and made my way to garage that rented instruments.  I got a nice Lose Weight Exerciseed key piano.  It was much heavier than the one I have and I was in a hurry to get to the show so the fellows called me a car service.  When you call a car service, make sure you ask how much ahead of time and that is what they did. 

The car was a brand new Mercedes and I was quoted £10. 

"This is the most expensive neighborhood in London believe it or not," the renter in Hampstead told me...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Miscellaneous Shows

Good times were had in Boston. I got a ride with Alan Astor, who was playing the show, also. He rented a sweet ride that also fit a Boston band going back from a NY show, called Big Digits. He reminds me of Tom Jones. He’s got the magic as they say. He looks like one of the guys from Megaforce, the movie starring Barry Bostwick, made during the post-apocalyptic movie boom that followed the cape tails of Mad Max. His set was him and his Ipod. He has a band that plays his NY shows. Real good.
John Manson set up the show. Guys like him are pieces of gold. Vic Thrill is like that, too. They will set up shows and take care of bands and make sure everything’s cool and go out of their way to help you out. The bill was John’s band, Young Sexy Assassins, Heloise, Alan Astor, and me.
I...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Miscellaneous Shows

I bought a soft case for my piano on Saturday so that I wouldn’t have to carry my big, hard case on the train. I hate going into music stores and magic stores. I always feel like an idiot. I should leave magic stores alone, anyway. I’ve got enough crap I can try to master without buying the latest bank breaker.
Speaking of magic, I had time after getting my case to get a beer with Magic Brian and Riley. Magic’s been gone all summer street performing in Europe so it was good seeing him again. I like the smell of beer. I guess that makes me a dork but I already told you I do magic tricks.
On Sunday I played at Purchase College. I took the Metro train to White Plains and then waited for the #12 bus...

Posted in Ben Folds Tour '05, Blog/Tour Diary

I had a blast in AC. Ben’s been hanging with his family so me and Jared and Lindsey went to the Steel Pier and got hooked up on free rides. The guys that run that place are real nice.
We rode go-karts and I kicked ass until this young guy grabbed his chest inside his car. He looked about 12. I think he was okay but it was a real scare. I felt bad for his dad. I can’t imagine how bad it sucks to see your kid hurt like that.
Then, me and Jared rode the Rocket. That ride’s bad ass. It shoots you 200 feet in the air and its hard to process your bearings, so its a true thrill ride and not a “nod” to thrill rides.
We went to get dinner at the ac bar and grill where lobster is cheap and the beer is delicious. I got a bloody mary there once and they put Old Bay seasoning in it...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Corn Mo's Boring Life

My friend Jen is about to be deported. If she does, my friend and former roommate, Dave, will have to leave the country, also, because she is his wife, his friend for life. In the meantime, Jen can’t visit her relatives because then she’ll never be able to come back to the states.
Jen and Dave are filmmakers. You can click on the Bigfoot link to the right to see Dave’s work.
You can click on this site to get more info: www.pleasehelpjen.com
I don’t know the complete history of the legislation involved but I think that back in ’96, a Texas congressman introduced a bill that would allow deportation above a judge’s ruling.
These are good folks doing some cool things and I don’t want them to leave.

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, TMBG Tour '05

I met The Dude. The dude that Jeff Bridges plays in the Big Lebowski. The real dude. He’s a good fellow. He displayed his stage banter with the mayor of Louisville, Jerry Abramson, as the dude would do. Put a politician next to The Dude and you’re getting your money’s worth ($20, unless you’re a child, and then you get in free to a rated R show and I said poo poo words during my set). The key to the city will go a long way. Believe you me. And the Dude got it. A key to the city of Louisville.
I have a key to the City of Denton. Well, its not a real key. When you try to open the city with it, mistakes fall out like an overstuffed closet full of ping-pong balls with “bad choice” written on each. Somewhere, there’s a room with a bunch of bad balls . Ha Ha. Balls.
It was hot...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, Corn Mo's Boring Life

I went to visit my girlfriend in Atlantic City the other day. She does the motorcycle/trapeze act at the Steel Pier. Here’s the part about my awesome bus ride.
Getting there:
I take the Academy bus from Port Authority. It’s $29 round trip but depending on what casino you get dropped at, you get at least $17 back. (Get dropped off at the Tropicana or Showboat. You get cash and not a gamble card , with all your info given away.) I gambled $5 on video poker. I won 3.50 and then lost it all. That’s the way it goes. I don’t have gamble magic. Tim Delaughter does. He wins all the time. But, I’m cool losing a five.
Anyway, my bus stops at the Cheesequake rest area for a second pickup. There’s not enough room for everyone...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, TMBG Tour '05

The coolest thing about driving into Detroit wasn’t the burning Ford Explorer across from The Majestic. It was the air conditioner in my dressing room that served as an oasis to the extreme heat that the Majesticians love at their venue. It was really hot. So hot you could fry an egg mid-air due to the constant rising of heat which could also give a good jolt to a Frontier jet, the one that rivaled hydralic cars so well that they turned around and went back to the airport. (“We don’t know why we just have to go back.” Later, found it was a maintenance problem. Hi Ho.) Magically, the heat didn’t deplete the energy of the audience. They had a good time. And I didn’t need to take off my wonderful sparklejacket, Sparklecoats.
Thank goodness the venue didn’t read my rider...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, TMBG Tour '05

I got 2 nosebleeds today. The first one just started flowing and wouldn’t stop. Nosebleeds are beautiful nuisances. Just like my friend’s pomeranian who pisses in my hallway every time she brings him over. Then, I got one in the shower. Blood going all over the tub floor. I felt like Carrie. Except no one was around to laugh at me.
Everyone supposedly gets nosebleeds when they come to Boulder.
The show was very intimate. Some guy offered me some shoes. My shoes are getting worn. I may take him up on his shoes. I bet Boulderians are apprehensive about buying white shoes because everyone would have obvious blood on their shoes as opposed to the silent blood shoes of a brown-shoed diabetic. My uncle has awesome diabetic shoes. Clowns in Ringling get fitted for their clown shoes...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, TMBG Tour '05

The Music Mill is part of a shopping strip off 82nd St in Indianapolis. Its very nice to be able to go to Barnes and Noble to kill time and best of all I went to Office Max to get some cd’s to burn for I ran out of my other ones. I began my factory work at the bar of the extremely clean venue. Goodness is that place clean.
It’s so new that the ghosts are confused. “Hey where do I go? Where was the Burger Chef I was eating at before I said, “I don’t feel good.”
One of the bouncers was telling me about some fights he had to break up at a show there recently.
“Who is this band playing?”
“They Might Be Giants.”
“Rough crowd?”
“You’ll be throwing out at least 50 hooligans that love to fight when ‘Dr. Worm’ starts playing?”
“Moshing too?”
“Yeah, they go shithouse violent when Robot Parade s...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, TMBG Tour '05

Last night was awesome. It was the best Giants show I’d ever seen. I’m no TDK (dude with over 101 shows and counting) but I’ve seen a lot of Giants shows and this one was magic.
I had a good time playing. A real good time. My old roommate, Matt, helped me out with my merch table. I did a cd with him called MC Duncan’s Dog and Pony Show. He’s a good songwriter. It was good hanging out with him and his dad. His dad use to be a band director in town. He’s got some good stories about the inner workings of St. Louis. Good folks!
Again, the Giants put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen them do. Holy wow was it good. And I met some cool people and some nice people and some pretty people and I left feeling on top of the world.
And Hocus Pocus rocked again!
I can’t remember this on...

Posted in Blog/Tour Diary, TMBG Tour '05

I’m getting ready for my tour. I’m stressing a bit. I’ve never taken a piano on the plane before. I know they’re gonna overcharge me for bringing it. But that’s the way it goes. I added a few dollars to fly Jet Blue straight on. I don’t want to chance losing anything due to changing planes. And I’ve had good luck with Jet Blue so far. There’s some airlines I avoid. Truly avoid.
Northwest is good at being mean. I mean really good at it. So good I would say they are masters at being mean. And the lady who called me to apologize about the ordeal was mean, too. Kudos!
Air Tran was good at being mean to cover up their mistake and then being nice to keep their mistake covered up.
Continental is good at copying the customer service of the post office.
One time I was flying with Conti...