Andre R, Arcola, & echoes in MN

We three played Kate’s house on Saturday night, making music, looking at her fine artwork and Jon’s photos, and collecting cash for a Mexican man’s hernia operation.

I kicked off with an hour-plus set of Ventura material, “I Don’t Even Know How Right This Sounds,” Cory’s “Where Did I Go Wrong?,” Derek’s “Race Car Driver,” “Hey Ya” (at Jon’s request) – and BIG UPS to the “Unwritten” CHOIR!!!111 It was a super good time and reinforced my faith in the new s&*#, which stood in pretty stark contrast to what I would have played one year ago (last time I was in Wayzata). In the last 12 months I’ve grown much more melodic, and play almost everything in a sort of quick folk-strum rhythmic pattern versus a more rock style (like on the nickel and Be A Ska Rat EPs).

Arcola (Jon + Jon – www.myspace.com/thearcola ) are a local acoustic/cello duo. They opened with two original tunes, which were my favorites of their set (write more songs Jon P!). Songs by Feeder, Bright Eyes (“Landlocked Blues”), and the Pixies followed. Arcola is very far ahead of my learning curve when I was just leaving high school…

I can’t say enough here about Andre Rodriguez; look him up ( http://www.isound.com/contact/andre_rodriguez/ ). He usually performs jazzy piano-rock-pop with his band, but came over for a short solo set that I dug entirely. The songs are a great mix of exciting harmonic development and hooky vocals + lyrics. We chatted for awhile about different possibilities for music together, and while we of course haven’t done anything concrete I hope this isn’t the last you’ll here about Andre.

I’m visiting Uncle Charlie for a couple days before heading back to KC; he’s up in arms about the NSA’s domestic spying, net neutrality, Ohio 2004, and murdering cowboys (that’s cowboys who kill, not Charlie killing cowboys). So there’s lots of potential for the new Sally Ride we’re doing together. see you -h