It was the summer of 1989 in New Orleans. I was 17 years old and on the roam with no direction. I knew I wanted to play music but I didn’t know how to go about it. I’d left behind a pretty good punk rock band in Las Cruces, NM, who’d just recorded a cassette tape of 5 or 6 original songs. I was struggling to reconcile my rootsier musical vision with the joy of bashing out loud music with my buddies. I enjoyed my place in the punk band but I never felt like it was really me. Continue reading “New Orleans in 89”
Drifting
In the fall of 2012 I took a twelve day trip to NYC, barely beating Hurricane Sandy by switching flights and getting out a day early. A wild late night cab ride from Brooklyn took me to Newark to catch a super early flight while the city prepared itself for disaster. I’d gone to NYC to play a bunch of very low key funky solo gigs and try to connect with some people I’d crossed paths with. Austin is a great town but undoubtedly it will put you in a box. This place has it’s A-teams and first stringers and those much deserved and highly talented people collect all of the spoils while a whole lot of deserved and highly talented people toil in obscurity. Continue reading “Drifting”
20th Century Boy vs. the Technological Future
In the movie Mi Vida Loca when Giggles gets out of prison the other homegirls are stunned and a bit disappointed to see her reformed and focused on wanting to start a new life. When she tells them computers are the way of the future, Mousie scoffs at the notion. “Computers….sheesh….” I was born in 1971 falling in a gap between people mature enough to see the value and those young enough to feel the influence of computer technology. In my border town high school we spent one period one day in the computer lab just trying to type an essay and save it to some kind of exotic floppy disc. Continue reading “20th Century Boy vs. the Technological Future”