Michael Clarke & the Alley Walkers
December 18th @ the Chaos Cafe in Portland
www.myspace.com/mpc3

Jack Wilson & the Wife Stealers
December 20th @ the Tractor Tavern in Seattle
www.myspace.com/jackwilsonmusic

The Robin Moxey Blues Band
w/ special guests: the Bendickson Brothers
December 26th @ Wilde Rover, Kirkland WA
www.wilderover.com

Howlin’ Lane & the Angels of Sin
December 31st @ the Star Bar in Anacortes
New Year’s Eve Party!!!
www.myspace.com/howlinlanefernando

The Robin Moxey Blues Band
w/ special guests: the Bendickson Brothers
January 2nd @ The Highway 99 Blues Club
www.highway99blues.com

Here’s the recap…

A decent portion of the last several months was dedicated to the destruction and subsequent reconstruction of our detached garage. The old one was in sad, sad shape to be sure and with some help from our new neighbor/contractor a brand spanking new 400 sq ft garage now resides atop the forgotten remains of its predecessor. OK, so saying “with some help” is pretty much an exaggeration because Bobby did all the work and I just managed to somehow put together the cash to pay for it all. 

Here we are on the far side of summer, which seemed to rush by in a flurry of gigs and family gatherings. The family and I did manage to take 1 trip back to the ol’ homestead in MT but for the most part I was busy gigging or trying to do something constructive around the house. July and August were super busy months for U277, but things are settling down to a more manageable pace these days. One or two gigs a month is plenty for me (as opposed to, say, five). We’re starting to work on some more tunes and have the goal of performing the entire Joshua Tree album well in sight.

And speaking of gigs, we’re playing this weekend both Friday and Saturday night.  Gig details are on our website (www.U277.com).  If you’re not otherwise engaged, we’d love to see you there!

See you round the campfire.

-A

Mobile blogging… what’ll they think of next?

I don’t mean top-heavy in an audio sense, but more in a gear sense. I don’t really want to lug along our Mackie 24 channel board with on-board effects just to plug in my MacBook and one mic. However, my little Behringer studio mixer doesn’t have the EQ capability I’m looking for either. My newest find is the Behringer FBQ1502 Ultragraph Dual 15-Band Equalizer.

$80, dual 15 band EQ in 1 rack space with a sub out. Now if I could just get some active PA speakers I could leave the amps at home too. That’s the way I roll.

However….

There’s the small matter of the *ahem* garage (I mean, rickety shack at the end of our driveway that purports to be a garage while looking as though it may collapse at any second). The roof is moss-encrusted, the truss supports are, well, missing, and the front door is pretty much rotting from the ground up. It is, to say the least, in need of some MAJOR attention. The good news is that our new neighbor, who just happens to be a contractor, is in the midst of his own remodeling project and has offered to help rebuild ours as part of the process. We’ll pay him of course, and no doubt the renovation of our eye-sore of a backyard blemish will only help to improve value of his place too.

The question now is, what to build? He and I chatted a bit this morning and are coming to the conclusion that it would probably be easier and more efficient to actually just level the existing structure and start over. This of course means I have to know what I want before we start. Part of me just wants to go for full-on, no apologies studio / rehearsal space (parking be damned, that’s what the driveway is for) but I’m also aware of the need for practicality. Storage is probably a good idea, as is some type of work area. And, heaven forbid I have to start thinking about it already, but we may need to in fact SELL the place one of these days and a bona-fide 2 car garage is gonna serve us a lot better than middle-aged musician’s weekend warrior music studio.

So, what do you think? If you were rebuilding a detached 2 car garage from the ground up, what would YOU do with it?

• April 4th & 5th - Robin Moxey Band @ The Halftime Saloon, Gig Harbor 
• April 12th - Robin Moxey Band @ The Barn
• April 18th - U277 @ Station 56, Tacoma
• April 26th - The Bendickson Brothers @ Wedding gig, San Francisco
• April 30th - Robin Moxey Band @ Highway 99 Blues Club, Seattle (not technically a weekend, but still worth mentioning)

I’m particularly looking forward to the wedding in CA.  Weddings are always fun and it’s a great excuse to get the family band back together and jam.  We get to pay a bunch of fun tunes and everybody has a blast.  Sarah and Joel will be coming along too, so it’ll be a mini family reunion. Anyway, if I don’t get around to posting for another couple months, at least this time I’ll have an excuse right!

What’s even greater is that we all get a chance to work with her. Check out her space, listen to her tunes, and then make plans to come see us perform together in Missoula on February 22nd.

2/1 *Solo @ the Green Frog Acoustic Tavern in Bellingham, WA. 9:30pm.

2/2 *Solo @ the Northern Pacific Coffee Co. in Tacoma, WA. 8pm.

2/5 *Solo @ the Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater in Seattle, WA 10pm.

2/6 Drumming for Jack Wilson @ the Tractor Tavern. 9pm.

2/8 Drumming for Kristin Connell @ Uptown Glassworks in Renton. 6pm.

2/9-2/10 Drumming for Howlin’ Lane and the Angels of Sin @ the Longhorn Saloon in Edison, WA. 9pm & 5:30pm, respectively.

2/13 Drumming for Jack Wilson @ the Comet Tavern in Seattle, WA. 8pm.

2/14 Drumming for Kristin Connell @ the Musiquarium Lounge (at the Triple Door). Seattle, WA. 5:30pm.

2/15 Drumming for U277 @ Station 56 in Tacoma, WA. 9pm.

2/16 Drumming for Phil O’Sullivan @ Mississippi Studios in Portland, OR. 7pm.

2/17 Drumming for Howlin’ Lane and the Angels of Sin @ the Longhorn Saloon in Edison, WA. 5:30pm.

2/22 *With Nashville artist, Megan Conner @ the Elks Club in Missoula, MT. 8:30.

(*asterisk indicates shows in which I’ll be playing and singing my own original tunes)

important links:

Phil O’Sullivan

Howlin’ Lane Fernando

Jack Wilson

Kristin Connell

Robin Moxey

U277

Megan Conner

And, of course, Happy New Year to you all.

Love,

Sean