YPSILANTI > LANSING > GRAND RAPIDS > MT PLEASANT > GRAND RAPIDS

Friends, Drunken Barn Dance returns to Michigan this weekend with a slew of shows, NYC friends (the New Benjamin Britton), record store day (2 shows) and a birthday or two.  And Fred Thomas on drums!

4/20 - Woodruff's - Ypsilanti, MI w/ the New Benjamin Britton, Lucky Shoreline, The Boys Themselves - 9pm
4/21 - RECORD STORE DAY - Flat Black & Circular - Lansing - 1:30 pm
4/21 - RECORD STORE DAY - Vertigo Records - Grand Rapids w/ City Center - 6pm
4/21 - Rubble's Bar - Mt Pleasant w/ the New Benjamin Britton, Ugly Broads - 9pm
4/22 - Pyramid Scheme - Grand Rapids w/ the New Benjamin Britton, Tokyo Morose, Lucky Shoreline - 8pm

DBD's slow build...No Love

Looking for the Slow Build is a great data visualization app that let's you analyze the decibel level of any song.  I checked several DBD tunes and it appears that No Love has the best Slow Build.

Honey High High Honey

I've been thinking about sisters.  Born together in heavy times.  Weaving gold into shadows.  Forging forward to honey highs.  Trading saviors for stagehands.  Freedom sleeps with a hazy smile.  Fear's a spice in your cabinet.  Love's a riptide.  Jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, bed-hopping, live starry-eyed.  Coal-walking, own your own time.  Take twelve hours for a four hour ride.




Our jam, Honey High, came out last week on ITAV records.  Check it out and the awesome songs by Flatfoot and Sleepy Timmy and Aly Rose that share the 3 song digital EP.  


On release, Ryan was convinced that Honey High sounded familiar and upon researching found this quote with respect to Neil Young's seminal On the Beach:


"Throughout the recording of the album, Young and his fellow musicians consumed a homemade concoction dubbed "Honey Slides", a goop of sauteed marijuana and honey that "felt like heroin". This may account for the mellow mood of the album, particularly the second half of the LP."


No connection.  Really.

setlist drop

Remembering is not often a strength of this unit.  But we do try to note our setlists.  Especially when we're playing a crop of new songs.  I'm missing a number of shows from the summer, but here are some...

April 15, 2011

Plachta Auditorium

Mt. Pleasant, MI

the guest list

we swimmers

the last desperate stand of the last fair man

asshole brother

low, probably

no love

ain't no weather fouler

a winter's tale

promises end

evelyn wears a tiara

April 16, 2011

Mexicains Sans Frontieres

Grand Rapids, MI

the last desperate stand of the last fair man

a winter's tale

we swimmers

kaizen (mi)

low, probably

patience is a weapon*

asshole brother

no love

new untitled jam #1*

promises end

*debut

April 17, 2011

Woodruff's

Ypsilanti, MI

fairly sure there were some songs played...

August 5, 2011

Michigan Roots Festival

Ypsilanti, MI

the last desperate stand of the last fair man

ain't no weather fouler

leaving las vegas, reno, laughlin...

evelyn wears a tiara

we swimmers

no love

the guest list (large party)*

the train, the cross

a winter's tale

zombie girlfriend

*debut

August 7, 2011

Woodruff's

Ypsilanti, MI

low, probably

kaizen (mi)

time spent underground

new untitled jam #1

a failing glow

the guest list (large party)

promises end

patience is a weapon

zombie girlfriend

August 13, 2011 (scott solo)

Sidewalk Cafe

New York, NY

promises end

a winter's tale

guilt part 2*

ain't no weather fouler

the blues run the game@

we swimmers

the guest list (large party)

the train the cross

a failing glow

*debut

@jackson c. clark song

Drunken Baseball Dance, Just a Little Thought

As baseball's gearing up for the sweet run to the playoffs, I couldn't be more excited as the Detroit Tigers just put down rival Cleveland three games in a row to secure their best lead over the division all season. Justin Verlander tows the slab tonight for the Tigers. He's looking for his 19th win of the season and I'm in Stevens Point, WI surrounded by Brewers fans. That's fine. I can get behind a ball team that celebrates the craft of beer making, but I'm secretly conflicted considering DBD bassist, Jim Roll, is a Cubs man and I don't know if my flimsy, week-long support of one of the Cubs' NL rivals might tarnish the Jimmer's appreciation of our numerous baseball talks. Sorry Jim. You and I both know that this year isn't one the Cubs will remember.

So, I'm sitting here at Gruu's on Main in the aforementioned Stevens Point, left to my devices, which, as you can see, contain one (1) pint of Point Special, one (1) Raymond Chandler novel, one (1) laptop, and fifteen (15) cigarettes.



None of these things are helpful in trying to quit smoking. Except, maybe, the laptop ("lung cancer" image searches...yikes).

I was leaving the Tokyo Steakhouse from a lovely lunch and when I turned on my car, Del Shannon's brilliant "Runaway" was on the radio and I could think of only two things:

1. "Runaway" was recorded in Ann Arbor, MI
2. Watching Justin Verlander's pitching today must be the baseball equivalent to what it was like to hear the synth solo of "Runaway" in 1961



Am I right? 1961! Synthesizers! That vocal! (To get his vocal that high, they slowed down the tape a little, so upon playback it sounded slightly sped up, just like JV's fastballs. I wonder if Verlander actually slows down the opposing batters' minds to make his fastball look faster. I guess, in a sense, that's exactly what he's doing when he hurls a 74 MPH changeup, but I digress.) But seriously, that synth part is like the slider Verlander throws that, after three years of tossing, he still denies is a slider.

And since I'm going down this route, perhaps Brandon Inge's theme is "The Cat Came Back," Magglio Ordoñez's theme is "The Old Man's Back Again," and the Chicago Cubs' theme is... well, let's have Harry Belefonte and Odetta perform it for you:



Sorry Jimmer.

seasons in the sun

we're apparently not very talkative until the fourth beer and the third month of summer.

after a little adventuring, a couple of injuries, some chemistry jokes, moments of great joy, and some of great sadness, we've planned a burst of kinetic energy.  

in April the band recorded a record's worth of songs.  this weekend i'll add some vocals and track a couple more.  

we're also playing two sure-fire-hit shows.  we're gonna travel 'round like a pack of dogs.  let us pull your sled.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5TH 

RIVERSIDE PARK

MICHIGAN ROOTS JAMBOREE

SET TIME 5:50

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7TH

WOODRUFF's

w/ HEALTH & BEAUTY

(FROM) THE SKY

8PM

f-f-f-foolin'

setlist

friday, april 1

the delancey

happy hour of death

the train, the cross

fireworks

a failing glow (the hardest truth)

ain't no weather fouler

oil tower forest (measure me!)

seagulls (no fantasies, fading bones)

promises end

zombie girlfriend*

guilt

*debut

songs to learn and sing

So the April 1st show has adopted a theme.  Happy Hour is a strange beast. Sometimes blissfully pitch perfect, but often an ordeal.  Or a case of straight up bait and switch ("only at the bar" where there are 1.5 seats - WTF).  It can be kill or be killed at Happy Hour.  The Happy Hour of Death.  

I have never played a Happy Hour show.  The risk is a sparse collection of disinterested business folk overly concerned with impressing their colleagues or getting some action.   On the other hand, we could have a room full of joyous drink-before-dark vibes and a universal understanding that the heart-rending murder jams in the DBD catalog pair with a martini as well as whiskey...

Which shall it be...

FRIDAY APRIL 1

THE DELANCEY

7PM SHARP

spring ahead

April Shows:

FRIDAY, APRIL 1 - NEW YORK, NY
the Delancey @ 7pm (Scott Solo) - Happy Hour Set

FRIDAY, APRIL 15 - MT PLEASANT, MI

Plachta Auditorium on UCM Campus @ 9pm w/ Breathe Owl Breathe, Nathan K

SATURDAY, APRIL 16 - GRAND RAPIDS, MI

Mexicains sans Frontieres @ 9pm w/ The Boys Themselves and Nathan K

SUNDAY, APRIL 17 - YPSILANTI, MI

Woodruff's @ TBD w/ White Pines, The Boys Themselves

Midwest May shows are in the works as well.  

upscale tiki

This cold snap simply busted me.  So tonight I found solace at the Hurricane Club, a new-ish upscale tiki bar.  Nice room, diverse drink menu. Great bartenders.  Solid in vibe all around.  First drink was top notch.  Rum, pineapple and curry.  Hell yes.  The next two solid, but not as good.  And I feel surprisingly lucid after 3 drinks in glasses with faces.  This wouldn't happen at Painkiller.  

Anyone seen this before?  The health department came into the restaurant, so the bar removed all coconuts, fruit, fresh juice, and basically anything else that makes a bar interesting.  Or tiki.  Go ahead and order a vodka tonic, sir, the cool shit is clamped down for now.

The bartenders were suitably apologetic and comp'd us and everyone around at least one round.  And I am sure there is some risk reward analysis that makes this the right move.  Because sometimes regulators do suck.  Like when you're freezing and need a rum punch...

mittenfest V (alternatively, for four days i've been drinkin)

we love our ann arbor / ypsi / detroit music family.  its awesomeness has been established again and again, the most recent 15,000 bits of evidence being the dollars raised by Mittenfest, local musicians, fans, and businesses for the Ann Arbor chapter of the 826 Foundation.  

this happened:

drunken barn dance played last.  it was nuts.  i lost my unpracticed voice hours prior to our set.  i meant to protect it, but instead stood too close to the bar or the stage for too long.  we debuted two new songs, one of which i've played solo a couple of times (failing glow) and the other the band conceived in a manner of minutes based on skeletal  ideas (kaizen (MI)).  here's the formula for kaizen (MI): drinks + lots of words + energy = new dbd song.  pretty elementary.  i don't think we're giving up the store by putting that on paper...

we also yanked the wurlie onto stage for the first dbd piano sounds ever.  after seeing the world from stages far and near, we figured the wurlie, bum leg and all, deserved some mittenfest...

here are some videos (thanks to jeremy peters). and thank you for singing along because i think i was singing from my colon by this point...

a winter's tale

we swimmers

here's the DBD setlist:

a failing glow (the hardest truth)*

kaizen (MI)#

the last desperate stand of the last fair man

we swimmers

no love

asshole brother

a winter's tale
ain't no weather fouler

promises end

the real tina turner

evelyn wears a tiara

leaving las vegas, reno, laughlin

*full band debut

#debut

our dear friends, thank you for such revelry and dedication to each other...

much love

dbd

Mittenfest damage

Unfortunately, I don't believe we have any photos of Carol's glorious crash into my guitar amps, but Ryan displays the evidence...

unscathed

Victory!  No mishaps of the personal, vehicular, or gear variety.  Just good times with good bands and unbelievable support from our dear friends.  When every night is grand, and feels better than the night before, things are hum-hum-humming.  As a consequence, this post may appear overly enthusiastic, but some times there are highs...

Our friends make amazing music.  Chris Bathgate's set Thursday was among my favorite of the year.  Matt Jones is playing new jams that will kill you harder than the deadly old jams.  Sublunar Minds debuted the streamlined 4-piece line-up with supreme effect.  Small Houses hushed the room in two whispered notes.  The Chimneys absolutely floored me Saturday.  As the Voice of Harold would say, "a must."

New friends Magic Bullets are all dreamy energy and punch, and great folks to boot, despite being devoted SF Giants fans (clutch win, dudes).  Christine Hoberg, Christoper Paul Sterling, and Cheyenne Marie Mize are all so lovely and communicative we're lost in their amber.  How to remain depressive, drunken, outsiders in the face of such welcome company?

Here are the setlists.  Hope we mixed it up enough for those who came night after night.  

TUESDAY - EAST VILLAGE RADIO

a winter's tale

WEDNESDAY - BRUAR FALLS

evelyn wears a tiara

we swimmers

ain't no weather fouler

no love

a winter's tale

leaving las vegas, reno, laughlin...

the train, the cross

the last desperate stand of the last fair man

THURSDAY - SIDEWALK CAFE

fireworks (never tell)

you left the wrong girl

no love

promises end

asshole brother

low

the train the cross

the real tina turner

SATURDAY - SURREAL ESTATE

seagulls (no fantasies) (fading bones)

low

the hardest truth (the failing glow of a gas lamp)

time spent underground

international small arms traffic blues

you left the wrong girl

promises end

guilt

CMJams

We're in NYC this week friends. We're going to see if we can end the broken gear/van/psyche streak. Three chances to visit:

WED 10/20 - QUITE SCIENTIFIC / MON AMIE SHOWCASE
@ BRUAR FALLS w/ Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr, Magic Bullets, Comanche, Chris Bathgate
DBD @ 9

THUR 10/21 - MICHIGAN MOVED TO NYC
@ Sidewalk Cafe w/ Sublunar Minds, Matt Jones, Chris Bathgate
DBD @ 10

SAT 10/23 - QUITE UNOFFICIAL CMJ FINALE
@ Surreal Estate w/ Cheyenne Marie Mize, Christopher Paul Sterling, Chimneys, Christine Hoeberg
DBD @ 9:30

The streak began at CMJ last year - our first NYC show - when Greg's guitar broke, then my guitar broke, then the van broke outside of Punjabi. We still managed to play a song...

Pave Them

Remember when Pavement released Brighten the Corners and they wrote the name so it looked like "Pave them"?  That was clever.  I had originally written an overlong piece about my enduring love for Pavement and the millions of associations it triggers.  Suffice it to say that Pavement is special.  Few other bands can waltz up and down their catalog and keep my ear.

It also probably goes without saying that the so-called slacker mentality is of great import to dbd.  You can only give a fuck about so many things.

I bought tickets for the September 21st show in Central Park over a year before the event, which handily beats my now second-place fanboy purchase - Van Halen at the Los Angeles Forum as a pre-teen.  That was a mere six months.

Anyway, I ditched my friends, inched to about 10th row and sheepishly took a couple of videos - Stereo and Grounded.  If you've read the reports, I concur.  The boys never sounded better...

Can DBD Satiate the Springsteen-starved?

Last weekend I found myself in Lake City, a tiny town in the northern half of Michigan's lower peninsula, for an annual music festival called Harvest Gathering. I was playing as a hired gun for Drunken Barn Dance labelmate Chris Bathgate, and I also was able to turn the tables on DBD bassist Jim Roll by muscling my way into his set and securing my fate as the shittiest bassist of the weekend. As is the case with these festivals, much booze was consumed and booze, as we all know, is a consistent foreshadow of many situations: headaches, vomit, staggering, regret, increased volume of situationally "brilliant" conversation, etc. When hanging out with Matt Jones, which I do regularly both as a friend and as the guitarist in his band, there is always another inevitable side-effect of hitting the bottle: Matt's insatiable desire to rock Springsteen. Matt, our friend Lizzie, and I were sitting in the parking area next to my car when the need for the Boss hit Matt with fervor. We didn't have any Springsteen with us, so we kicked on the car radio and sat in the parking lot while Matt dialed information to get the phone number of the first radio station we landed on.

The DJ, Mike, answered and Matt put him on speaker phone. This is my best recollection of the situation:

Matt Jones: HEY! We want to hear some Bruce!
DJ Mike: Springsteen?
MJ: YEAH!
DJM: Well, this is kind of an underground show, we don't have any Springsteen.
MJ: Well, can you at least sing some to me?
DJM: What?
MJ: Sing me some Bruce!…over the phone
DJM [spoken]: …um, it's a death trap. It's a suicide rap…
MJ: Sweet, man. Good job.
DJM: So, do you have any other requests?
MJ: Do you have any Camper Van Beethoven?
DJM: Yeah, I think so…
MJ: Send it out to Matt, Greg and Lizzie!

Matt, Lizzie, and I sat next to the car in the parking lot listening to the station for a few minutes when DJ Mike came on the air and announced, "This one goes out to Matt, Greg and Lizzie. I'm sorry I couldn't find your request, so this one will have to do…"

Wanna guess what DJ Mike played? If you guessed Drunken Barn Dance, you're right. We called the station back immediately to inform DJ Mike that he had just dedicated "Leaving Las Vegas, Reno, Laughlin..." to one of the guitarists on the song.

before the damn done burst

... from the grey buried release hometown jam.

leaving las vegas, reno, laughlin...

no love

island fever

There's no elegant way to describe it.  This summer was fucking hot and stupid humid. Brutal heat and air-water that frequently collapsed us onto the nearest stool straining for the nearest beverage.  

The only real cure we found: Tiki.  That's right, Tiki.  Laugh now.  But when it's tropical hell, live tropical well.

My goal this summer was to hit every tiki bar in the five boroughs.  No chance in retrospect, but I hit a bunch.  Sarah sent me this list of NYC tiki past, present, and future.  Best intentions laid a plan for a communal tiki hunt, but like many things, I ended up going it alone.

Otto's Shrunken Head is grim in all the right ways.  From the music to the sticky tables to the inky skin, Ottos has become a staple.  Fair warning, the drinks taste more like fuel than fruit.  And may glow.

The Zombie Hut is completely solid.  Cheap tasty drinks of the frozen and rocks variety and no one messed with me despite crashing a packed private party and occupying pole bar position.  

The Distinguished Wakamba Cocktail Lounge is, in Middlekauf parlance, the Most Disrespectful Wakamba Bullshit.  Don't go.  Not tiki.

The crown jewel of this lot is Painkiller, which owns the inspired slogan: "Manhattan is the greatest island on earth."  This place rules with deadly handcrafted cocktails, including Zombies authentic to the original 1930s Don Beach version.  I witnessed them take down some extremely experienced pals.

And according to my five seconds of blurry research, more tikis are coming.

The Hurricane Club opens this month and Lani Kai opens in October.  Next DBD tour is towns with tikis only.

Although not a true tiki, the nautical Rusty Knot serves an outstanding Dark & Stormy, and in a touristy tiki mug.  

After painstaking research, DBD officially endorses the Zombie @ Painkiller with the Ultimate Peter Tosh Experience ("give me back me zebra!").

And so we retire the summer of rum punch...

Cheers.

stage right

photo by Jeremy Peters

Greg: "Anyone want to dictate stories of last night to put on the blog?"
Ryan: "I need a day or two to recover."

The Grey Buried CD release was epic. It was so epic that we need to invent a new word, because "epic" is now worn out. Take a look at joyful Ryan:



Also, there's this:


And this:


As well as this:


There is more to come, I'm sure.

Grey Buried is now on iTunes. We will be in your face again soon.

(Thanks to Kelly Bennett and Chuck Sipperley for documenting.)