Alas

We have been late in announcing Jody McCormick's departure from PLUMP. Jody has some opportunities that he would like to pursue working with drum and bugle cores. (He was in drum and bugle core for several years in and after high school and those times were very special for him, and as such he would like to try to do that as much as he can). In addition, Jody has been based in Austin for the last 9-10 months, which has made it extremely tough for us all to get together outside of gigs. We are going to miss Jody and miss playing with him and hanging out. Plus, his van is awesome. We had some great and fun and extremely weird times.

That being said, I am sure there will be some shows down the line where we get together with Jody. We love him, and he is a great person and an even better singer

Yaga's in Galveston on FRI JULY 30

As far as I can remember, PLUMP has only played in Galveston one time previous to tonight, and that was about 5-6 years ago at a place called Whiskey Blues, which may or may not still be there. I had a bunch of friends come down, and those guys ended up getting real drunk and staying in a hotel and then naging out by the beach and pool all the next day. (PLUMP drove back to Houston the night of the show and slept in our own beds). I believe there were 8 people that stayed, and a few of them ended up getting stranded and in a sunburned state on the island and had to hitch hike back. The details are hazy, but if I probably would not have picked them up if I had been driving along. But, that is a different story. Anyway, we were back in Galveston again, this time at Yaga's which is a cool place with the band inside and lots of outside hang out areas.

Galveston is about 50 miles south of Houston. Easy to get to for PLUMP. As I am sure you readers have noticed from prior posts, the band is a little Buc-cee's crazy. Apparently, Al found an "app" on his i-phone which shows us the proximity and location of every buc-cees. As such, it was with lots of happiness and glee in the car that Al reported that a Buc-cees was located just off I-45 , about 30 miles outside of Houston around League City. We hit the exit, and turned right as the exit stated. No Buc-cee's! We drove and drove and drove (not that far, but at least 2 miles), but nary did a Buc-cee's cross our path. You have never seen such woe as what had just befallen upon us. Little Jason Jackson was inconsolable. Somehow, we found the strength to drive the final 20 miles into Galveston.

We played with our pals in Strawberry Jam. We were opening for them, and they were on Night 1 of a two night stand. They had some pals from College Station in as well. They also brought a jug of a drink called "summertime" which they let me take some pulls from. Some sort of gin-based drink that was mighty tasty.

Good crowd was there, but we were the opening band, and so people were mostly outside while we played. Such is often the case when you finish playing before midnight and people aren't liquoured up yet. We played real well though, and hopefully we will be back in Galveston much sooner than the last time. I seem to remember Oso Nova going over real good. Also, "When I Pain my Masterpiece" did seem to get some people up and dancing. Good song.

We hung out for about an hour of Strawberry Jam's set, and then we took off. We made the drive back, and once again we had to go sans-Buc-cee's. Alas.

July 24 at Liberty Station

Well, tonight was a nifty gig. Charles Bishop, who is a long-time fan of PLUMP, local-Houston talent booker, music scene promoter, and all-around nice guy, has opened up a bar here on Washington Street in Houston called Liberty Station. He gave us a call to see if we would be one of the bands in his grand opening celebration. We were pleased to have been asked. Liberty Station is a bar that has a huge big open area out front. The bar really has the feel of a neighborhood block party, which I really liked. They were having a corn-hole tournament, and they had two different taco trucks. Very nice.

Liberty Station had one of those temporary outdoor stages and PAset-ups you can rent aka for festivals and the like, and we played for about 45 minutes out on that sucker. Other bands included Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans, Sideshow Tramps, and this ska band from La Porte that was really good and really tight. There was a really good crowd out there, and most of them had never seen PLUMP before. It is always good to get some nice drunken "shout-outs" and we definitely did so that night. Earache My Eye seemed to really get the audience going. Another good thing is that Charles had seen fit to have a keg of Lone Star reserved for all the bands. That is like music to our ears. We hung out for quite a bit sipping on the keg, enjoying the bands and the crowd, and overall having a really nice time.