boog is a myth.

[boogisamyth-blog]

I'd bought a carton of Seneca unfiltereds on my way to Jamestown, NY, only to bum one of my last smokes to a guy outside Art Bar Riverwest in Milwaukee.  I was sitting on the curb before my set.  About an hour later the guy came out the door and said, 'Thanks, man, you made me six bucks.'  Quick way to make some cash, bumming smokes and selling mixed packs.

After my set, I was out of smokes, and asked somebody outside for one.  He told me that I had to do a trick to earn it.  Fair enough.  I ducked down under the doorway light and tucked my tongue over top of my soft palette.  Been a nervous tic for years.  He gave me two and offered me a place to crash.  We and some girls we'd met at the show hung out and drank late into the night.  I woke up—head spinning—to 'Hey boog, you want some coffee?'

'Yeh.'

'Mexican coffee?'

'Oh yeh.'

The room stopped spinning after that first sip.

[boogisamyth-blog]

Freedom/Chains

Poets who studied and composed in the library of Alexandria, unlike the poets and dramatists of Archaic and Classical Greece, were not creating pieces for public performance or religious festivals; they were writing poetry, and they knew that they were writing poetry. This allowed them to explore new forms, meters, styles, and words. But it also confined them to the simple idea that they were writing a poem. Pandora's box. There are times when I'm writing a song that I pause for a moment and think: I am writing a song. It's equal parts performance and self-awareness. It's freedom; it's chains.

[boogisamyth-blog]

West Philadelphia show this Sunday.

[boogisamyth-blog]

For The Haters In The Back

I remember playing an open mic at Burlap and Bean in Newtown Square featuring David Janes, some time in 2008.  My first show at Steel City Coffeehouse was an opening spot for David, with Three Legged Fox in the middle.  David and I caught up, and then he took the stage.  There were a couple one-liners he threw out to the crowd during his banter, one of which was: 'This one's for the haters in the back.'  

Recently, That Music Magazine gave a brief and undesirable review of my last performance at Ortlieb's:

'We gave the third act of the triple bill, Boog, a few songs with which to impress us. Thick, heavy vocals that occasionally turned into screams and a heavily played guitar did not keep us listening. It is possible to scream on pitch- it’s part of inceptional rock. Hell, even the Beatles did it on “Dizzy Miss Lizzie.” Boog wasn’t quite able to pull it off, and we left during the fourth song.'

Maybe in another eight years, I'll be able to pull it off.

[boogisamyth-blog]

If you're going to support a cause, don't support a lost one.

[boogisamyth-blog]

Tour, September 2012.  Thursday night show at the VFW in Missoula, MT.  The room is empty above, but a good fifty folks filled the floor by show time.  The bartender's name was Odessa, and she'd lived in spots all over the country, just moving on when it felt like time.  

It was such a strange thrill to play those hard, loud songs to somebody inches from the microphone.  One of best shows I played in 2012 and also one of the best to watch after my set.  Bird's Mile Home, hometown boys, put on a killer punk set and were nice enough to set up Al Scorch and me with a place to stay for the night.  Al is the best banjo player I've ever seen.  His arrangements and lyrics are brilliant, to boot.  BMH and Al set off the next morning—Al with honeycombs in his van and a fixed flat—for some west coast dates, while I headed to Yakima for a record store show.  

I got done at Off The Record just after the sun went down.  Hell, I thought, it's only two hours to Seattle.  The guys were playing a punk bar called The Kraken.  I gunned it to make the show and walked through the door as Al was tuning up.  'boog!' he bellowed and pointed a finger at me.  Another excellent show.  Ended up staying with a member of Smokejumper who's opened for MxPx, Lagwagon, and any decent punk band to roll into the Emerald City.  We watched Bob Mould on Letterman and listened to his newest album start to finish.

[boogisamyth-blog]

You're Asking Me?

Last spring I opened a show for R. Ring—Mike Montgomery and Kelley Deal—in Philadelphia.  After soundcheck, I paced and smoked cigarettes until my friends arrived.  Kelley and Mike got there a little late.  My friend and I were blown away by their soundcheck; for two people, they were putting out a wall of sound.  We struck up a conversation with them afterward.  At one point Kelley said that everyone in The Breeders had been talking about getting back together for a tour and an album, and then asked us if we thought that that was a good idea.  You're asking me?

[boogisamyth-blog]

Learning To Dub

It's naive to believe that a song I've played live many times but never recorded over the course of its three-year existence must be captured as if it was just written.  I can't help but think of Bruce Springsteen—with his large notebooks full of one-line hooks and endlessly reworked titles.  Elvis Costello has rearranged songs, integrated lyrics into multiple songs—over a lengthy span of years.  Bob Dylan, too.  'Cannibalizing' is what they call it.  The original dub pioneers also come to mind.  The innovative Jamaican DJs added so much of their own style to popular R&B and Reggae records in the sixties, and on.  Toasting over records—even using stock epithets—no different than the methodology of an Ancient Greek rhapsodos.  Cannibalism by design.  Brilliant.

[boogisamyth-blog]

Free (& Up)

[boogisamyth-blog]

This weekend I was at the Audubon Alehouse celebrating my friend's thirtieth birthday.  A coworker brought out his castmates from Pennhurst Asylum as well.  I reconnected with three people from three different social circles who all now work at Pennhurst together.  

Toshi does incredible work with makeup; we met when I was seventeen, playing house shows in West Chester and in-store shows at Furnace Boy Records in Kennett Square.

[boogisamyth-blog]

Tour, August, 2012.  Ottawa Tavern, gem of Toledo.  In the company of Jeremy Quentin of Small Houses and Matthew Bean and Paige Califano of The Dwells.  Jeremy and I ate at a run down little diner at four in the morning, after the show.  Adam from the tavern called it Greasy Joe's.  We picked the most unappetizing menu items.  He got the fish sandwich, I got three chili dogs.

[boogisamyth-blog]

Strike I

Going on strike by selling out; selling out, in order to go on strike.

[boogisamyth-blog]

Recording Once Upon A Wintertime

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Sellout.