Plump Voyage

So Long

2011-10-22T05:29:00.001-07:00

After 10 years, thousands and thousands of miles, hundreds and hundreds of shows, the good times of PLUMP are coming to an end. We want to say thank you very much for everyone who has seen us, spoken kind words to us, cheered us on, etc. We really do appreciate it and there are lots of great memories.

In particular, we would like to thank the following: Last Concert Cafe in Houston, Rola and Revolution in Bryan, Dan Electros and Bob in Houston, Mark Shannon and Bungalow Studios, Sandy Weinmann and KPFT, Zapatos Cantina, Dave and Luna Cafe and wonderful staff in Lake Charles, Gary Hartman and Tapir Productions, Vibe Committee, Drop Trio and Ian Varley, the Free Radicals, Wes and Peach Truck Republic from Fort Worth, BAGG and Congratulations from Denton, Wishfoundnation in College Station, Funkotron from San Marcos, Lonne Martinec, Ashes of Babylon in Lake Charles/Austin, Spank in San Marcos, jambase.com, breakfastontour.com, chron.com, Del Feo in San Antonio, the Triplecrown in San Marcos, Linda Leseman, the Rhythm Room in Houston, Strawberry Jam in College Station, Clay Brasher for poster art, the Vortex in Beaumont, John Fulbright in Beaumont, St. Jubilee, Sterrett Street Studios, Sugar Free All-Stars from Norman, Francisco Studios, Andrew Rice, Toast Williams, David Flores, Jody McCormick, James Yarbrough, Klusoz and Texas Cafe in Lubbock, Omar Afra and Free Press Houston, Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans, SummerFest and Westheimer Block Parties, HPMA's (though we could never win one of those suckers), the LCC Watermelon Festival, Mrs. Matranga (Josh's mom) for several absolutely delicious meals, Jaybo O'Donague, Bryan and Sara Williams, our trailer, two ford explorers (one green and one blue) and one very nice van, our PA, James and a wonderful website design at http://www.plumpsounds.com/, Relix magazine, Jabarvy from Austin, Rockin' Robin in Houston, Winston Rice for major help in resolving the totaled van issue after the elk incident, Charles Bishop, Dr. John, the Rebirth Brass Band, Jason Price and Warehouse Live, Buccee's, Rudy's BBQ in College Station, the Petro Station in Beaumont, the gas station in Navasota with some of the worst coffee anywhere, Josie's Tacos in Lubbock, Biba's One's a Meal, Guadalupana, Tepatitlan 2000, 11th Street Cafe, Dickey's overalls, the los el diablos con hell del fuego, Lone Star Beer, the concept of the tallboy, Anytown USA, Horsehead Theatre Company, the Brewery Tap, the hot dog stand outside the Brewery Tap during Faultlines, anyone who let us sleep on their floor or puke in their toilet, and most of all to our family and friends who provided us support over the years.

PLUMP
Al, Josh, Jason, and Doug

Nominate PLUMP for the 2011 Houston Press Music Awards

2011-10-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

Well, the 2011 Houston Press Music Award nomination process has come. Please see the below link:

http://polls.houstonpress.com/polls/hou/musicawards2011/

We encourage you to nominate anyone, but we would remiss if we didn't implore/encourage you to vote for PLUMP in the following categories:

BEST FUNK/R&B/SOUL - PLUMP
BEST GUITARIST - AL BEAR (PLUMP)
BEST BASS PLAYER - JOSH MATRANGA (PLUMP)
BEST MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUMENTALIST - JASON JACKSON (PLUMP)
BEST DRUMMER - DOUG PAYNE (PLUMP)
BEST MALE VOCALIST - JASON JACKSON/DOUGPAYNE (PLUMP)
BEST ROCK - PLUMP

SAT SEP 24 2011 at ZAPATOS

2011-10-01T06:17:00.001-07:00

Frankly, a lot has happened since our last show. Al got married and had a kid. Doug (me) got married. Josh had shoulder surgery. Jason Jackson did not appear to have any life-affecting events (that I know of - but you never know with that guy). Due to the life-affecting events referred to above, PLUMP decided that it would probably be a good idea to take a few months off. Because of Josh's shoulder surgery (and the fact that he was physically unable to hold a bass), we didn't even get together to practice for a few months, which has never really happened before. Finally, in August I think, we got back together to start practicing again. It was funny - we felt like we were playing in a PLUMP cover band. We knew the songs, but they weren't quite up to their original snuff. Fortunately, the PLUMP cover band era lasted only a week or two, as we did indeed come back into our own. We enjoyed getting to know the songs again. And we were very excited about our first show in 5 months.

Unfortunately, (and fortunately) I found out I was being sent to London for work for the two weeks immediately preceding the show. I returned from London on Friday September 23. I don't know about other bands, but PLUMP practices a lot (we need it). So, we were kind of bummed that we weren't going to get to practice for the two weeks immediately prior to the show - especially since it was our first show back and we wanted to rock in the old epic fashion. So, we decided to practice prior to leaving for College Station. We all met at my house at 4 pm, loaded up, drove to the practice room, and started playing. I had even taken the time to make a set list, so we could run specifically through the songs we planned to play this evening. As always, we spent a little bit too much time practicing, and it was about 6:30 pm before we started moving out to hit the road. At this point, there was one goal in sight - Rudy's BBQ in College Station. We love it, we had been thinking about it for weeks, and we were literally starving.

PLUMP always tries to incorporate within the time required to get our act together to leave to include a buffer what what we like to call "Al forgot something". Bless his heart, there is a lot going on in Al's head, and because of this, sometimes (often times) he forgets something and needs to go home to get it. Al got to the practice room without his leslie cabinet pedal, and he needed to go get it if we were gonna use the leslie. We wanted the leslie. Luckily, his house is not necessarily out of the way if one were to travel from our practice studio to College Station, so we drove to Al's house, looked admiringly at his new puppy, waited for him to get the pedal, Al got back in the car, and we drove off. We got about a 1/4 mile down the road, and Al remembered he needed the cable to connect the ipad to the PA (so we can play music through the PA between bands during the show). So, we drove back to Al's house, looked at Al's puppy again, Al got the cable, and we headed out.

Frankly, we were all nervous, because time was getting short before the time we needed to be at Zapatos, and we really wanted to eat at Rudy's. Luckily, my car was full of gas, so we didn't need to stop for gas or anything. We drove as quick as we could to College Station.

It is important to note here that there was a very big and important college football game being played on this day. Texas A&M has climbed out of mediocrity and are ranked (today) #8 in the country. Texas A&M played Oklahoma State University (who is ranked #7). I don't usually root for the A&M Aggies unless PLUMP happens to be playing in College Station on game day. If PLUMP is playing on game day, then I want them to win--so that hordes of people will be out in the evening feeling good - flush from a day of victory and plenty of drink. Alas, on the drive we learned that A&M lost 30-29. The game ended about 7 pm. We arrived at Rudy's at 8:35 pm, which is pushing the envelope fully and completely if we wish to eat and get to Zapatos in enough time to set up.

We are starving. Rudy's doesn't look too crowded, but we pull up in our normal parking place - directly behind an empty bus. The bus is empty, and all of the buses passengers are standing in line for BBQ. The line goes all the way to the door - it look like an hour before we would get our food. Oh Depression. Oh Despair. Oh heartbreak. We were inconsolable. I don't know how we summoned the strength to get back in the car to drive to Zapatos. We noticed that every eatery was chock full of patrons. All 80,000 people from the game had distributed to every restaurant in College Station.

We got to Zapatos, unloaded all our equipment, and got set-up. Zapatos is not a restaurant, but they do serve a huge pile of nachos served on what appears to be a garbage can lid. Jason set about trying to order us some nachos, and came back with the report that the kitchen ran out of nachos 15 minutes previous. Thankfully, a nearby Freebirds was open, Jason and I walked over, purchased burritos for the band, and we were in a survivable shape.

Even though A&M had lost, there were a ton of people out and about, and people seemed to be in remarkably good spirits. Zapatos was packed to the gills. We had the band Footpie (from Houston) with us, and they played well.

Before the show, I had to take a piss - really badly. I went back to the restrooms at Zapatos, and there was a line of about 3 people for the men's room - and no people at all for the women's room. Some dude goes in the men's room. After a while, the next person in line said - "this guy is taking way to long, so I am going into the ladies". The guy in the ladies' room finished before the guy in the men's room, as did the person in line right in front of me. So, after that guy got out of the ladies room, I hit the ladies room as well. (God only kows what that chap was doing in the men's room for so long - I imagine it was one of two things.) While relieving myself, a girl tried to open the door (thank god it was locked) and then announces "Is someone in there?" I chose not to respnd, instead occupied myself with finishing up a lovely piss, and rushed out without looking back - though I did manage to hear some guy says "That girl had a beard!"

We had a raucous set. Actually,for the first couple songs, we didn't get much crowd response (people seemed more intent on talking amongst themselves). Then we started playing "Edge off the Edge" - this starting getting people moving and watching intently. Then our friend James from the band Strawberry Jam and a bunch of his friends came in, and they were really into it, which inspired the crowd to get really into it - and Edge off the Edge is a long and completely rocking song - so the tide turned clearly in our favor, and I would say for the next 1.5 hours the large crowd was in the palm of our hands. We totally rocked. This was our first show probably in about 5 months, and sure we made a couple mistakes, but we totally had it on this night.

After the show, it took us a while to pack up the PA (we were out of practice), so we started the drive back to Houston at about 3:45 am. We were tired - I was driving and was jet-lagged from flying back from London the previous day. Then, we had a Eureka moment. We hooked up the iphone to the speakers, accessed youtube, and listened to Will Ferrell outtakes from "East Bound and Down" and "Anchorman". This was genius, as the time flew and we were laughing the whole way home. I thoroughly recommend this course of action as the best tool to keep yourself awake while driving in the dark in the wee wee wee hours of the morning!

"I can feel it in my PLUMS!! My PLUMS!!"

FRI APR 8 at Last Concert Cafe

2011-09-10T05:55:00.001-07:00

Tonight, we had the good fortune of getting to open for Papa Grows Funk. I have known about these guys for about 10 years - as they are an incredibly funky band from New Orleans, featuring John Gros on organ (who has probably played with everybody over the years) and June Yamagishi on guitar. I believe this was their first time to come to the Cafe, though I could be wrong. When I had seen that PGF was coming to town, I immediately contacted Gary Hartman and asked if we could open, and was quite pleased when he agreed.

Really nice crowd at the Cafe tonight--way more people than I figured came to see PGF (and us)A lot of friends came out, which is always pleasant to the eye.

We arrived at the Cafe at about 7 pm--and I believe Josh and I got there about 5 minutes after the sound man had quit. So, we arrived amidst some confusion as to trying to find a new sound man, or to rely on the "apprentice" guy, who had helped set-up the PA, but who had very little actual soundman experience. The problem was - this was quite a robust PA, with all kinds of bells and whistles. Plus, PGF has a big organ with a spinning leslie speaker, not to mention that they have 6 guys, which means PGF was a relatively difficult band to mix sound for anyway. The verdict was that the apprentice would mix the sound.

The other slight bit of uncomfortableness was that because PGF's front man plays the organ, and because the organ was very very heavy and planted on the middle of the stage, and because PGF, understandably, was not comfortable having a band of slack-jawed yokels (PLUMP) use their equipment and/or drumset, PLUMP was relegated to fitting ourselves and our equipment on about 1/3 of the real estate of the stage (on the left side). So, we were kind of smushed together. And we had an apprentice soundman. BUT, we rocked. Our philosophy is, we are gonna just wail, and "damn the torpedoes" regarding any problems we might have with the PA. PLUMP won this round. The apprentice did a marvelous job (I guess) because we sounded good to ourselves, and the crowd loved us. We played a really good 50 minute set, playing all of our new songs.

After we were done, it literally took PGF almost an hour to get started because they were having PA monitor issues. Heck, we probably had the same issues, but we either did not notice them or didn't let it bother us. The crowd didn't seem to understand the hold-up, because apparently the sound was real good when we played - so that made us feel good.

Finally PGF got going, and they quickly proved that they are all bad asses. Excellent organ solos, excellent guitar solos, excellent sax solos. Those guys are a New Orleans institution - and they showed it. The crowd was really dancing. And Papa John Gros is just the nicest dude in the world. He came and talked to us prior to the show, and just seemed like the coolest cat. Good weather, good music, and good food. Sound problems notwithstanding, tonight was awesome.

April 1 at Zapatos

2011-08-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

PLUMP loves playing over at Zapatos in College Station. I would say that the place is always pretty darn crowded. After around 12:30 am, people start getting quite inebriated. There is something about being at Zapatos and being drunk and watching PLUMP play some funky music that makes certain Aggies feel like they need to stand on the stage. I have some theories regarding this phenomenon, but we (the scientific community) may never truly discover the answer explaining why.

Is it a situation where the music is so funky that the rhythm really gets these people and they need to stand on the stage? (perhaps this is the true message of the Gloria Estafan song, and she also had trouble with people on stage) Maybe it's because some people get so drunk that they don't realize what they are doing? Perchance because the stage at Zapatos is elevated by only 4 inches above the ground. Perhaps some people like to be seen standing on the stage where the action is. There's a chance someone has a dire need to see what its like to be 4 inches taller than everyone, and said desire simply will not be quenched unless this can be accomplished while the band is playing. Whatever the reason, this happens all the time at Zapatos. Much much much more often than at any other venue at which PLUMP has ever played. PLUMP has gone so far as to employ a regular strategy of building a wall of our amp cases and monitors and carrying cases around the front of the stage in order to deter people from joining us on stage mid-riff. The wall has worked in the past. However, tonight some crafty (and drunk) show-goer employed devious strategem to penetrate our elaborate bulwarks and was able to gain access to the stage. Said inebriate focused his attention on poor Josh, as he proceeded to stand directly in front of Josh, directly behind Josh, and even trying to high-five Josh--all while Josh is trying to play a song.

Believe it or not, drunk people getting on stage while we are playing kind of freaks us out. For one--we are very much occupied trying to play somewhat difficult music. Number two--very drunk people have a tendency to be incapable of "reason", and there is always a very good chance that they can be aggresive. So, we try to immediately gesture and ask/yell at people to get off the stage (this is mid-song mind you) so they we can play music in a somewhat less nervous state. I am happy to report that Josh's fan left the stage, and to our relief did not return. But, we all had to remark--classic Zapatos.

Tonight we debuted a song we recently recorded called the Brain. The Brain has a slow/funky groove, and the song has a tendency to alternate between 4/4 and 5/4 time. The song also has a jam I really love. Anyway, I would place this song as ranking "more complex than most" on a scales of difficultness of PLUMP songs and remembering all the parts - and as such playing a song the first time makes it even tougher. We rocked the Brain. This is definitely my favorite PLUMP song right now, so I was really pleased woth said performance, and pleased with the fact that the audience really dug it.

In addition to being the city with the highest proportion of audience members that simply must at all costs climb onto the stage, College Station also appears to be the city with the highest proportion of police cars out and about after 3:00 am. I swear, if you have ever beento NYC and have seen that 40% of the cars on the city streets are taxis, and then you apply that same percentage to College Station police cars that was was warranted for NYC taxis, then you will have an idea of what we see and navigate through every time we leave College Station. Truly amazing. We made it to Navasota (20 miles outside of College Station) and I purchased a cup of the worst coffee in the world, and then I made Jason Jackson drive so I could truly enjoy said terrible coffee.

March 26 2011 at LUNA in LAKE CHARLES

2011-07-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

We have headed east in I-10 many, many, many times for gigs. PLUMP always likes playing over at LUNA in Lake Charles, and in some ways even the drive out that way is soothing - if for no other reason than its familiarity. Every time we are driving through Beaumont, I always make a comment about the Babe Didrikson Zaharias museum. If I remember my sports history correctly (I could take a minute to look her up on wikipedia right now, but I won't), Babe Didrickson Zaharias (BDZ)was the best female athlete for the first half of the 20th century. I think she dominated the pentathalon or decathalon, or whatever that multi-event "thon" that has become an afterthought in this day and age, but in the decades past was the definer of "best athlete in the world". (OK, I just went to wikipedia, and I am happy to report that I was pretty much on point regarding my BDZ fact knowledge. BDZ was a champion in track and field, golf, basketball and was an expert diver and bowler. BDZ also claimed to have won first prize in a Texas State Fair for sewing - not a joke. The site also says she was quite proficient at pocket billiars - but not a champion.) But I digress. The reason I bring up the BDZ museum in Beaumont is that the museum looks like it is about the same size as my living room. The museum is circular, and from the highway looks like about 25 feet in diameter. If the BDZ museum holds one of BDZ's prized javelins, my guess is that the javelin barely fits. PLUMP has never stopped at the BDZ museum on the way to Lake Charles because (a) the museum is probably closed by early evening on Friday/Saturday nights; and (b) we don't have time. Although, I really think (b) is not a valid excuse, because by the size of the building we could probably see the whole BDZ museum inside of 10 minutes. (If curious, go check out BDZ's wikipedia page, as I am pleased to report that a picture of said museum is on the page!!!)

I have written about about LUNA and the staff and food and beer many times. LUNA always seems to improve on their venue everytime we come to Lake Charles. This streak continues, as they informed me that Dave (owner of LUNA) recently purchased the music venue across the street, so in the near future the bands will play over there. We have played said venue (for the life of me I can't remember the name) a couple times - an inside venue - and with Dave and staff running it I am sure the venue will be AWESOME. Hopefully they will still provide us with a cooler of Miller High Life.

Tonight, we decided to play "Ping Key" for the first time. Whenever PLUMP debuts a song, we are always quite excited and a little bit nervous. It doesn't matter if we have played a song 100 times in the practice room (by ourselves) and know the song forwards and backwards, because as soon as we play a song in front of people for the first time, there is a pretty good chance one or more of us will second guess ourselves and hit a wrong note, or play a wrong part, and/or sing the wrong words. I would guess for most bands, as soon as you bring 1 new person into a room, a song becomes much more difficult. So, we feel more conscious about the song because the song is new. Also, as with most of songs, we are curious to see if the audience likes said song as much as we do. Audiences will exhibit signs of enjoyment by dancing, nodding their head or tapping feet in time with music, clapping and screaming when the song is over, and shaking their fist in pleasure. On the other hand, an audience may voice indifference or displeasure at a song by leaving, making zero noise/not clapping when the song is over, or shaking their fist in anger. Ping Key is a funky number, with some cool parts and an interesting guitar solo. I am proud to report that PLUMP played the songs with no major issues, and we got some cheering after the song, which made us feel real nice (and also was quite a relief).

Another roadside attraction on I-10 between Lake Charles and Houston that is difficult to not comment on while PLUMP is in the car is the Longhorn Saloon. The Longhorn Saloon is the kind of establishment that could only truly exist on the Louisiana side of the Texas-Louisiana border. The beauty of the Longhorn Saloon is its ability to function as a truck stop/diner/casino/hotel/country dancing honkytonk venue. PLUMP has passes by Longhorn Saloon to and from Lake Charles everytime we visit Lake Charles. We have only patronized the place once, which was about 2 years ago when Jody was in the band. Longhorn Saloon is only about 30 miles from Lake Charles, so it is not your typical bathroom/coffee place for PLUMP (our traditional on-the-way-back from Lake Charles is the Iron Skillet truck stop in Beaumont). Our foray into the Longhorn Saloon was due to a simple twist of fate: a 2:30 am traffic accident a few miles ahead on I-10 had caused gridlock on the freeway, and as luck would have it, we were stopped right at the turnoff for the Longhorn Saloon. PLUMP headed inside, and scurried around the maze that is the truckstop/diner/casino/hotel/country dancing honkytonk. Eventually, we settled in the sleepy diner that was at that point occupied by PLUMP and what looked like a motorcycle gang. Everyone was friendly. The LHS had some sort of breakfast special as I remember, so we all got eggs, breakfast-meat, biscuits or pancakes, etc. Then, Jason walks up, holding 1/2 of "The Bomb" (which is a large, microwaveable beef burrito), after presumably having eaten the other half. He sits down, sees the breakfast special, orders, and then proceeds to eat the other half of The Bomb. Next, two buses pull into the truckstop. Said buses seemed to have been full of a bunch of ne'er-do-wells. The bus people looked exactly like Cleetus the Slack-Jawed Yokel from the Simpsons, half of whom were hanging out of the windows of the bus smoking and laughing and french-kissing ladies and doing who knows what, and the other half of whom were streaming into the diner and gazing around like the diner was the zoo (maybe it was). The diner became extremely entertaining. I wish I could say that a fight broke out between the Cleetuses and the biker gang, but everyone was cordial. The cordiality was probably due to the food coma to which everyone was forced to submit. The breakfast special was humongous and nasty - one of those situations where you know the food is terrible, yet there is no way to prevent yourself from eating as much as you possibly can. Jason, after having eaten the burrito, ate all of his breakfast, and probably the rest of mine. At this point it was about 4 am, and we were all extremely full, sick to our stomachs, exhausted, dirty, ashamed, and entirely depressed because we still had to drive two hours back to Houston. At least the traffic jam was gone. I remember Jody (who is the best late night driver I have ever seen) stating that he had to sleep it off, so we all took a nap for about an hour in the Longhorn Saloon parking lot before heading back on the freeway. I was burping up nasty breakfast most of the next day. Damn you, Longhorn Saloon.

SAT MAR 5 2011 at Zapatos

2011-07-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

My house is the launching pad for all PLUMP road shows. The trailer is parked in my garage, and my Explorer is the only PLUMP vehicle that can both carry 4 people and some of our more fragile equipment and pull the trailer that over the years has accumulated a couple thousand pounds pa, amps, drums, et al. Actually leaving for a gig is much easier now than is was about a year and a half ago. When Jody was in the band, PLUMP travelled in style in his van to all the gigs. The van was AWESOME, and Jody was a great driver, so the road trips were killer. BUT, his van was quite tall and would not fit in my garage. The inability of the van to be garage-friendly had a negative affect on how we hooked up the trailer (i.e. we could not just back the van right to where the trailer was resting in the garage, easily place the trailer hook-up on the van's "ball", and go on our merry way). Instead, we were forced to employ a strategy in which the van was backed up to about 2 feet outside the garage, after which 3-4 of us had to drag this trailer (that was full of gear) about 5 feet to meet the parked van. We also had to lift up to fit the trailer on the "ball" as the "ball" rested kind of high on the van. The dragging of the trailer was dreaded by all, and I think its a miracle that no one permanently injured/disfigured their back from participation in this process. The hook-up of the trailer now is much easier, as my Explorer fits in the garage (like a glove), so the trailer is now attached in the safe confines of the the car-hole. So, now instead of dragging the trailer, we can spend our time before leaving for a gig standing around in the kitchen, shooting the shit, until every one has arrived.

The next step in the effort to leave my house is the shuffling of the cars, as there is nowhere to park on the street at my house. I have to drive my car and trailer out of garage/driveway, then one lucky person parks in the garage, and two people park in the driveway. Due to cigerette smoking, getting stuff out of cars, loosing keys/wallet, looking for keys wallet, locking keys in the car, staring off into space, or other similar time wasting activities, this stage of the PLUMP launch can last anywhere from 3 to 25 minutes. Luckily, no keys were lost today, so we got out of my neighborhood within a reasonable amount of time.

We have played at Zapatos many many times. If you have ever been to Northgate in College Station (where Zapatos is located) you will know that it can be quite difficult to park in the area. It is particularly difficult to park if your vehicle is connected to a trailer, making your overall vehicle parking effort a little more than twice as long as normal. Typically, the final 3 minutes of our journey to Zapatos is spent vocally musing and hoping and praying that the miniscule curb side parking right out front of Zapatos will not be completely filled, and that there will be room for both the Explorer and the trailer. This luxury happens 1 in 20 times at Zapatos. Luckily, on this night, the rock-n-roll gods smiled on us, and there was enough room for us to park right out front of Zapatos (Which is key because by being out front, our load-in walk is about 25 feet. Otherwise, the load-in walk can be 150-200 feet which totally sucks given all the terribly heavy equipment we have). Unfortunately, the rock-n-roll gods did not smile on my ability to park both the car and trailer in perfect parallel to the street. I inched forward and back a good 15 times, but each time, the trailer was extending at an angle into the street. Luckily there is a solution to this predicament: (1) unload all of your gear out of the trailer and takesaid gear into the venue for set-up; (2) find another 3-4 guys - in our case The Hooch, who were opening for us; (3) lift up the now reasonably light trailer (which can be lifted by 7-8 people) and move the trailer, while still connected to Explorer, sideways a few feet so that said trailer is now perfectly parallel to the street. Mission accomplished.

The Hooch is what I would call a pop/jam type band from San Antonio. They appear to either be in college or are just out of college, and are some very nice guys, and have a good sound. The Hooch were on the bill at our fabled gig at the Reggae Festival in San Antonio at the Reggae Bar in which the festival got cancelled due to too much noise right before PLUMP was going to play (see October 2010 blog entries). Tonight in College Station, The Hooch had a bunch of friends from the College Station area come out for the gig, and they sounded great. They have some nice "in-between-song" banter, kind of resembling a Vegas club act, which I found entertaining based on both the humor and based on the colorful blazers two of the guys were wearing. AND, their drummer even let me play on his drumkit, which saved me the time of setting up, and eventually taking down, my own personal kit. I always appreciate it when drummers can share kits, and frankly I enjoy trying out someone else's kit for a few hours. And, as nice as some drummer's kits have been over the years, I always end up prefering mine (which is a good thing, I think). PLUMP was fortunate enough to have a great crowd that was up and dancing the entire show. People were up and dancing from song number 1, which is always very good for us. The shot bar and the regular bar and the outside area were all really crowded. "Gimme Some More" and "the Trifecta" seemed to get the audience particularly riled up. AND, it was cool but comfortable outside, which is extremely important for an outdoor show in March in South Texas. This show was a keeper.

PLUMP in the recording studio Part VI

2011-07-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

This is Part VI of PLUMP in the studio. For Parts I-V, please scroll down below.

As stated earlier, Jason and I are quite new to extensive lead vocals singing. Jason is a really good singer, and is much much better than I am at hitting specific notes in harmonies and such. We had some fun the first night in the studio--we had been sampling the lone stars and ended up staying later than Al and Josh as Jason sang the vocal tracks on "Loose Tight". We were really having a good time with it, but by gawd, the next day we could hear the drunkenness in his voice, and he re-recorded some of them. For the chorus of Loose/Tight, we each sang multiple tracks, all tracks with deep vocals, and the resulting chorus, to me, resembles a chorus sung by a posse of tough guys -due to the low notes we were hitting and the scratchiness we were getting from our throats. At first, I thought it might sound too tough, but after listening to the song many times I must admit that I have really warmed up to it--the chorus sounds really good.

Another fun song for the vocals was definitely "The Sixer". For this song, Jason, Al, and myself trade off singing, almost "row, row, row your boat" style where one of us sings the same line as the singer immediately before, but where the line is sung before the earlier person is finished. The three of us are each singing a different note, so it sounds pretty darn cool. The song is in 3/4 time and the verses have a way of spinning around, so I swear the chorus of the song could possibly make the listener dizzy. Since the song features a sub-theme of drinking lone star beer, we thought it appropriate to start the song with the sound of popping the top off a lone star tall-boy. I quickly volunteered to perform the "cracking open" a can of lone star in the vocal booth--and I wasn't even nervous. The resulting recording--glorious.

While in the studio, we also took the time to record some of the covers we like to perform. I don't think we will overdub anything on them, as we basically gave these songs the treatment of "live in the studio". I sang while drumming, and I tell you, Mark did a great job of setting up the microphones, as there is little bleed from the drum tracks into the vocal track and vice versa. The covers we recorded were: Uncle Remus (Frank Zappa), When I Paint My Masterpiece (Bob Dylan), Gimme Some More (The JB's), Memphis Soul Stew (King Curtis), and Corrina (Taj Mahal). I truly doubt we will ever release these songs, but the recording will both be nice for us be able to listen to for us and will serve as a living document that we were actually capable of learning these songs. We spent probably about 1 hour recording these, near the end of our second 12 hour day in the studio. Once we were done recording these tunes, I was completely wore out.

Prior to heading to the studio on Sunday, Al, Josh, and I frequented one of our favorite taquerias in Houston (Guadalupana - on Dunleavy). The tacos are small, but delicious, and they have some of the best cinnamon coffee I have ever had. Some bands will postulate that if you are hanging out all day for two straight days in the studio, then perhaps you might want to find different schoolyard chums with whom to eat your breakfast. Not us. Some of other favorite pre-studio or pre-Sunday practice breakfast places in Houston include 11th Street Cafe, One's a Meal, Tepatitlan 2000, Cafe Bieniet.

So at the end of the weekend, we had recorded 12 songs, one 12 minute jam, and 5 covers. We had recorded the vocals for at least half the songs. We still had not recorded the majority of the guitar solos and saxophone solos, and any extra tracks we might like to put on. What we like to do is take a couple weeks to give all of the songs a good listen, and then we go back and add tracks, change tracks, delete stuff, etc. After a couple weeks listen, we will definitely have a better idea of what we like, and definitely the sounds we want to change.

PLUMP in recording studio Part V

2011-07-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

This is Part V of PLUMP in the recording studio. For Parts I-IV, please scroll down below.

Another thing I love about the studio is how great the music sounds when we listen back to it (while we are actually in the studio in the engineer's room). What I mean is, all studios in general, and the Bungalow in particular for the purposes of this journal, have a BAD ASS stereo system. I don't know anything at all really about stereos, so I really have absolutely know basis of knowledge to tell you exactly why this is or specifically which components make up this badd ass stereo, BUT please know that every studio I have been in has an awesome stereo system in the room with the engineer. In the Bungalow, the engineer's room is maybe 15 feet by 15 feet, and there are several very nice speakers pointed right at the couch that is directly behind the engineer's chair. So, the best place to listen to the playback of the music is either the engineer's chair or the couch. My experience is predominately on the couch. Mark will crank it up, and I tell you, the music has nowhere to hide. The other cool thing about listening to your music on playback is that you can look at the computer monitor and "see" the music. While a song is playing, the monitor shows every track was utilized for the particular recording, and thus the monitor shows the sound wave for each sound that was recorded for that track to make up the song. After a while, you get used to what different beats look like. When Al is strumming real fast, the sound waves look like someone colored in heavily on the screen with a magic marker. As such, we spend a lot of time in the engineer room Mark listening to the music and watching the screen and hemming and hawing and dancing and pointing at the computer monitor.

One aspect of these recording sessions that is different is that Jason Jackson and myself are performing all of the vocals. Neither of us is a complete stranger to vocals in the studio, as we have both sung back-up vocals, and I sang the lead vocals on two of the songs on the "I Like the Idea of Chance". However, this time around, one of us singing the lead on every single song. Not sure about Jason, but I wasn't nervous about singing in the studio. I definitely consider myself a drummer more than considering myself a singer, and as such I think this mindset simply prevents me from placing undue pressure on myself as a singer. However, what I didn't consider was how quickly my voice and throat got tired from working on vocals. Because I was singing constantly in studio as opposed to having time between songs, jams during song, trading off with Jason where I don't sing on songs, etc., my voice got hoarse more quickly than I thought. Also, I am here to tell you that studio vocals have nowhere to hide--we can't bury studio vocals in the mix like we could (if we cared to) during a live show. The extremely high quality microphones utilized by Mark in the Bungalow capture EVERYTHNG, so a singer REALLY gets to know exactly what he/she sounds like, and any mixed note or squeek or breathing too loud can be heard during the play-back.

Another reason vocals in the studio is slightly different is that I am not playing the drums while singing, which is how I have to do it during the shows. Singing in the studio is my only experience singing in which I am fully concentrating on the vocals. It does make it easier to sing, and since I am concentrating on vocals, my mind is freer to experiment and try new ideas on the fly. Mark has these really cool microphones that he uses for vocals. There is a huge disc-like "spit-guard", which is a kind of very thin, black, nylon mesh, about the same circumference as my face, that blocks any spittle from hitting the very expensive microphones. In my mind I always envision myself really singing into the spit-guard, as opposed to actually singing into the microphone. Mark also advised me to actually sing with the headphones positioned so that one earphone was on one ear, and one ear was without headphone--just like you see on TV and in the movies. This allows this singer to hear what he/she is singing better than if the headphones are covering both ears--and it works. Because I felt like every songer I had ever seen on TV and in the movies, and because singing in the studio immediately provides the singer with humongous visions of grandeur, power, superiority, and a sense of the inevitability of ultimate world domination, I started making outrageous demands on Al and Josh--including that they bring me green tea every 15 minutes.

Actually, I find it quite hard to sing well in the studio without a lone star either in my hand or placed within 5 feet of the microphone.

PLUMP in the studio Part IV

2011-07-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is Part IV in the Plump in the Studio installment. For Parts I-III, please scroll down below.

Now that I have described the songs we were set to record, I can get finally get to the part where we actually walk into the studio.

We went into the recording studio on Saturday February 26, 2011, around 10 am. When I say the recording studio, I mean the Bungalow Recording Studio, located at 1441 N. Durham, in the Heights, in Houston. The proprietor and engineer of the Bungalow is, of course, Mr. Mark Shannon, Esquire. Years ago, he bought a house and turned the house into a recording studio. It appears the house used to have 2-3 bedrooms. These "bedrooms" are now comprised of an office, a room for the guitarists and bass players to put their amps (during the recording process), and the room with the giant mixing board, actual recording devices, amps, compressors, speakers, computer screens, chords, etc. etc. etc. (I actually don't know much about this stuff, but I do know there is a lot of it in the Bungalow.) What used to be the garage is now the big room where the band actually plays. There is a big glass so we can see into the engineer's room, and so that Mark can also see us. Of course, the house still has a kitchen. Mark isjust about the nicest guy in the world, with a great attitude and sunny disposition. He always has summer sausages and cheese and crackers and tons of coffee for us in the kitchen. We, in turn, keep his refrigerator stocked with Lone Star tall boys. PLUMP recorded the "Voyage" album and the "I Like the Idea of Chance" album in the Bungalow with Mark, and we were very excited about being in there again. I think the fact that we are recording in a house makes the sessions always feel very relaxed. I always really love being in there, and we have a "more than excellent" rapport with Mark, which makes the whole process easy and lots and lots of fun.

So, we arrived and loaded in. When you go to record, you actually don't really start recording for a couple hours. First, we have to bring in all of our equipment. Next, we have to set up all of the instruments. After the set up, Mark sets up all of the microphones (I think the drums probably had about 10-11 tracks) for the drums, the guitar and bass, saxophone, and different vocals. The set-up for us is that Josh, Al, and I are all in the big room with my drumset and the guitar and bass. The bass amp and guitar amp are in either one of the other rooms, or (for this weekend) in the kitchen. Jason sits in the engineering room with Mark and plays in there. Obviously, we all have headphones so we can hear what everyone is playing and so that (when we are not playing) we can hear what Jason and Mark are saying in the engineer room. Next is the soundcheck to get all the levels right and to make sure we have all the guitar effects sounding good and to make sure there is no extraneous "buzz" coming out of the amps. (No kidding, a couple years ago it took us 2 hours to get rid of a buzz in Al's amp). After all of this, we are finally ready to play.

PLUMP typically starts by playing a jam. On this particular Saturday, we did this really really cool jam we made up on the spot. It is about 12 minutes long, and it has all kinds of neat changes. There are a couple spots where we may have kind of messed up or something, but I really hope we figure out a way to include parts of this on the new album. We did the same thing on the "Chance" album, represented by the first track (I like the idea of chance) and a later track (still liking chance). Next, what we did was play each song three times. We took some breaks and stuff, because this amounts to basically playing about 36 songs, and this process took us probably about 5-6 hours. Because, what we would do is play the songs, then go listen to them, and then play them again, etc. I remember particularly enjoying playing "Gonzo Says" three or maybe four times, and I was really enjoying each and every time we were playing the tune. What is cool for me when in the studio is because we have headphones--the sound is very clear and pure. I can always hear what everyone else is doing better than I can when we are practicing or playing gigs. As such, the songs always take on a slightly different life, and they are really fun to play. This alleviates the stress and bit while we are recording, because at the same time, we know that the end result of this recording is going to be around forever, so there is a bit of pressure to not mess up and to really sound the best we possibly can.

Stay tuned for Part V.

PLUMP in the recording studio Part III

2011-07-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

This is Part III of PLUMP in the studio. For Parts I and II, please scroll below. For the uninitiated, I have been attempting to chronicle the history of the PLUMP songs being recorded, in order of the writing of said songs.

8. The Guzzler - This song was written in the Fall of 2009. We jam a lot in practice (especially at the beginning of practice), and whenever we hear something that sounds like it could be a good part of a song, we record it (often as a message on Al's iphone). Back in 2009, we had the luxury of having Jody in the group, who was all too happy to bring his computer, to record the new stuff we were playing, and to sing (of course), so we were able to put The Guzzler together quickly. Also, as it happened in the fall of 2009, we had a "hot" period when so much of what we were jamming was "song worthy". We were in the "zone", I guess. Regardless, we put together the parts to the Guzzler quickly, with 3 funky riffs topped off with a rocker at the end with a lovely Al Bear guitar solo. Jody came up with the "tip the bottle up and guzzle it down" line right off the bat, so the song has always been called "The Guzzler". Jody and I worked together for the lyrics, which combined a tequila drinking chorus with a verse containing the ubiquitous "saturday night stew". This became a heavy rotation song immediately, with Jody singing the lead vocals. After Jody left the group, "The Guzzler" was actually the first song we played at our first show sans Jody (which was an outdoor grand opening for "The Liberty Bar" in Houston, which was in and of itself a right smart party), sung by yours truly, with some back-up vocals by Little Jason Jackson. The song continues to be in heavy rotation. I changed the lyrics for a few of the lines, as some of the words didn't have the same feel with me singing it as the words had sounded with Jody, so the lyrics needed a slight "freshening up".

9. Loose/Tight - This song was also written in Fall of 2009. In fact, we came up with Loose/Tight at the same time that we were writing "The Guzzler". Loose/Tight refers to the two main riffs we came up with for the song. The opening riff (I call it the verse) has a loose, floaty riff, with a lot of the melody coming from Josh's bass, and Al playing a really cool, ethereal guitar part over the top (i.e. the Loose). The "Tight" is the chorus riff, where it always feels to me like we come together in a nice way. The ending to the song was a lot of fun to put together--a kind of really syncopated heavy/funk riff. We all do the "fills" together--I really do love the ending to "Loose/Tight". As I recall, Jody wrote pretty much all the lyrics to this song, and said lyrics have a kind of "zen" feel to them. Loose/Tight was the last song we wrote with Jody. Right after we wrote a batch of 4 songs with Jody (the batch consisting of Superfan, Reggae #2, The Guzzler, and Loose/Tight), Jody moved to Austin. (This would have been around November 2009.) He stayed in the band and played in all the shows through about June 2010, but he probably made it to only 2-3 practices after November 2009. Now, Jason Jackson is the primary singer on "Loose/Tight", and I provide some back-up vocals on the chorus. The song remains in heavy rotation at PLUMP shows.

10. Edge off the Edge - This song was written in and around April 2010. We had just spent pretty much all of February and March 2010 rehearsing and subsequently performing in the Horsehead Theatre production of the play "Faultines"--which ran for 10 performances over 3 weeks in March 2010. (A lengthy description of PLUMP's experiences with the play and the good people at Horsehead can be found, if you are interested, by scrolling down to the Feb/March 2010 entries of this blog). We had come up with some music for the score for this play, and we decided it might be fun to adapt this to a new PLUMP song. So we did. I always find the song to be quite toe-tapper. "Edge off the Edge" is the longest song we were setting out to record - I think it typically runs about 8 minutes when we play it. We have a nice jam at the end where we add a beat to the riff sometimes, changing the riff time from "8" to "9". The lyrics are inspired by the Horsehead guys and by the characters in the play "Faultlines". The song is titled "Edge off the Edge" because that was a line one of the characters (Joe) spoke that always stuck with us. We never got around to playing this one "live" with Jody. Jason and I trade off on the vocals for this song, which is a lot of fun. I would say this song has been in pretty much heavy rotation since summer/fall of 2010.

11. Ping Key - This song was written in October/November 2010. Definitely a funky rocker type of number. We employed the classic strategem of speeding up a riff to reach and achieve "nirvana" - if "nirvana" equals a strange and quirky section of a song that features a blistering guitar solo. At the beginning of the song, we provide a nice "tip of the hat" to bands like the Meters who loved to employ an idea wherein you repeat a riff multiple times, and each time everybody cuts out except for one instrument - and that instrument gets a 3-4 beat solo. Lovely. The lyrics are predominately about a hangover, with the chorus containing repetitive lyrics while and the music and vocals gradually speed up and speed up (in order to reach and achieve the "nirvana" referred to above). Ping Key is sung by yours truly, and as of the time of recording, PLUMP had not yet played this song in front of a "live audience".

12. The Brain - This song was written in November/December 2010. Really funky and classic Josh Matranga basslines inhabit "The Brain". There are two riffs that start the song that we all came up with together. Then, Al had an idea where we play this cool riff in the time signature of "5" all together, then I would continue to play in "5" with Jason, while Josh and Al switch to playing a pattern in the time signature of "4". We come back together after a set period of time--Josh and Al play their riff 5 times (with 4 beats per measure), Jason and I play our respective parts 4 times (with 5 beats per measure), and then we all come back together naturally after "20" beats. At least that's the way I describe it. We follow that up with a really cool jam in "5" - with all of us playing together in "5". My opinion on any band's opinion on their own songs is that the band's favorite song to play is their newest song. This typically holds true for PLUMP (and it almost always holds true for me). That being said, I think "The Brain" is extra special. I really like it not only because the song is our "newest" song, but also because the music is really unique. Before we wrote the lyrics, Josh suggested we call the song "The Brain". This was because "Ping Key" sounds like "Pinky", and apparently there was a show called "Pinky and the Brain". Sound logic to say the least. Lyric writing is always easier when a subject matter is already provided. Somehow, I got to thinking about "phrenology" and got the idea to write about different aspects of the skull shape and the resulting personality traits that occur--at least, the resulting personailty traits as prescribed by the leading phrenologists of the 1800's. So, I read up a bit on phrenology, and then "showed-off" my new-found skull knowledge, in song form. Huzzah. As of the recording date, "The Brain" had yet to see the light of day at a show.

Well, this history of the PLUMP songs being recorded took a bit longer than I thought. Next up, some entries about actually being in the studio (it's about time).

PLUMP in the recording studio Part II

2011-06-26T14:44:00.001-07:00

This is a continuation of PLUMP in the studio. For the uninitiated, I have been in the process of providing a chronological history of all the songs we are recording. For the first four songs, as part of Part I, please scroll down below.

5. Alright - This song was written in the summer of 2008. Alright was representative of a conscious effort on our part of write an upbeat, funky number. We put together a couple of groove heavy parts. Next, Al came up with a written out section where he does certain riffs on the guitar which is doubled with Jason's sax, which sounds really cool. It seemed like when we were writing this song that we kept on adding part after part after part - it never seemed to stop and each part was funkier and funkier. Until the last part which is kind of a hybrid funk/metal type of thing that we love. For the lyrics, we had the idea of writing a song about the mythical funk master superstar of the 1970's who in the current day has resorted to playing smooth jazz. This song clearly takes these people to task, with a heavy metal chant at the end. This song also represents the start of a practice of having multiple vocal parts for multiple singers, and the trading off of lines by different singers. Alright is really the first time we started doing it, and now PLUMP has multiple singers in pretty much every song we write. Alright has not yet been played since Jody left the band. Previous to this, the song was in primary rotation. Now, Jason is the primary singer (while I have always sung the second vocal parts), and once he gets nice a comfortable with it, I am sure it will be back in primary rotation.

6. Superfan - This song was written in the fall of 2009. Superfan was written at basically the same time as Reggae #2, and was really the first song we wrote with Jody in the band. The genesis for the music for this song springs from a particular show we were playing in College Station, in which the crowd was huge and loving everything, and Jody implored us to play a reggae riff to which he could sing some free-form fun timelyrics. The crowd wanted to dance to some reggae, Jody read the crowd, so that's what we gave them. Our next practice, we tried to remember what we did, and instead came up with about 3-4 reggae riffs. One of them became Superfan. We mixed some reggae with a middle eastern sounding part and an afro-beat part, and presto: a song. The lyrics spawned from a particular show we played at Last Concert Cafe. We were playing with a band from Denton called Fatty Lumpkin, and I was standing out by the gate as we were setting up the equipment and I was talking to one of the Lumpkinites. All of a sudden, this van comes to a screeching halt. The driver starts yelling and motioning wildly at what appears to be someone in the crowd. Then, after a minute, it becomes clear that he was yelling at us. Neither the Lumpkin nor I had any idea who this guy was or what we had possibly done to provoke this yelling. I don't even remember what he was saying - he was extremely unclear. 10 minutes later, this guy is in the patio area of Last Concert yelling at us, saying we didn't do what he told them, and that he was a marine, and that he got shot in Iraq, and that he is perfectly happy fighting us, and that he is pure muscle. He also quickly reminded us again that he had been shot (in Iraq). That part was no baloney--I saw the bullet holes. The guy kind of maniacally wavered between being a nice guy and harassing, insulting, and threatening us. Then he tried to sell us drugs. Next, he showed us pictures on his phone of himself in Iraq in camouflage, pictures of an M-16 machine gun, some pictures of him holding an M-16 machine gun, and some pictures of him shooting said M-16 machine gun. After picture time, he reminded us that he was perfectly willing to fight us. Jody said he was watching him real close the whole time, and was holding a real heavy microphone stand, so that in case the guy attacked, Jody could hit him. Eventually, the guy somewhat settled down, but it was a strange evening. So strange, we were inspired to write a song about him. Hence - The Superfan. I remember Jody and myself and Josh writing lyrics (and laughing) in the practice room for this one. Note: I will never know for sure whether he liked PLUMP's music. Now that I think about it, I think he requested us to play some AC/DC during our set. That could be either a good sign or a bad sign--as far as his true fandom is concerned. We play Superfan at I would say half the shows. Jody used to sing it, and now Jason sings it.

7. Reggae #2 - As stated above, we wrote this song at the same time as we wrote Superfan (i.e. Fall of 2009). The song was aptly titled Reggae #2 because it was the second of the reggae songs we were actively working on. The song is a bit more straightforward than Superfan, with less complex transitions and such, so this one we learned relatively quickly and started playing live almost immediately. There is a nice jam section where we change the tempo a bit that I like very much. Jody pretty much wrote all the lyrics for this one, and said lyrics really follow the laid back reggae party vibe. The music on Reggae #2 very closely resembles the original jam we played in College Station where we made up some reggae on the spot (see Superfan description). Jody used to sing this one (with some second and back-up vocal parts sung by yours truly), and now little Jason Jackson sings it.

FEB 26 in Recording Studio (Part I)

2011-06-19T14:50:00.001-07:00

PLUMP has been plotting and scheming to get back into the recording studio for some time. We typically wait until we have about 10-12 good original songs, and then we look to go in and record. The time period between June 2010 to the present represented months of change for the band because we had Jody as the primary singer, and then he left the group, and as a result PLUMP decided to go with Doug (myself) and Jason as the singers (as opposed to bringing in someone new), and as such we had to re-learn the songs we had with Jason and myself singing them. Also, at the same time, we were writing some new songs. AND, at the same time, we are playing gigs every weekend. That's a lot of work. BUT, we did it.

As of the end of 2010, we had a batch of 12 songs we were looking to record. We took January and February 2011 as time to really work on those songs so that the songs would sound as good as can be.

A listing/history of the dirty dozen can be seen below (I have tried to document these songs in the chronological order in which PLUMP wrote them):

1. Sauce - This song was written in 2007 not long after we finished recording "I Like the Idea of Chance" - (this song is old enough that James was still in the band when we wrote it). I want to say we used "Sauce" as the opener at our cd release party (at Dan Electros in Houston) for "...Chance". The inspiration for the lyrics for "Sauce" was the show when we were the opening band for Dr. John at the Warehouse Live (in Houston), when we strategically positioned ourselves for an unavoidable 30 second audience with the good doctor, which proved to be a sublime 30 seconds indeed. The music in Sauce was attributed to several different jams PLUMP would play together in practice. In particular, I remember the opening section to "Sauce" was based on a riff/pattern that Josh and I would play all the time when getting warmed up at the beginning of practice. "Sauce"was played regularly for a year or two, then less regularly when Jody was in the band, and has subsequently not been played live since Jody left PLUMP in July 2010.

2. Gonzo Says - This song was also written in 2007-2008 while James was in the group. The music within the verse and chorus were based on PLUMP jams--at least the first part. Then we would work together to come up with additional sections that work with the firstpart. The "jam" sections of the song with the guitar and saxophone solos were sections we came up with together, with Al coming up with the ideas and rationale for subtle riffery in within the solo areas. The lyrics for "Gonzo Says" are based on the love of another good doctor (that is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson). But, as background--PLUMP has a whiteboard in the practice room on which we list all of our songs, chord structure and changes for songs we are working on, and other markings representing random musings and mindless blather. We are also known to "graph" songs - by which we will graph volume/feel/etc. (The graphing process may sound kind of dorky, but the process is actually kind of helpful for us, and also serves of a never-ending source of amusement, laugheter, choking, gagging, and crying.) Al had graphed what we were looking to do in the jam for Gonzo Says, and I swear the graph looked like the face/nose of "Gonzo the Muppet". So, Gonzo was identified as inspirado, but Dr.Gonzo was utilized as content of the song as opposed to Muppet Gonzo. Like "Sauce", "Gonzo Says"was played regularly for a year or so, less regularly with Jody in the group, and has not been played live since around July 2010.

3. Violent Pussy (Funk of Heaven) - This song was written in 2008. VP(FOH) is primarily the brainchild of little Jason Jackson, the subject matter of which is near and dear to him. I remember in 2008 we were driving out to an early evening show in the Woodlands area at Townhall (which is a huge privately owned property with a little lake and cabana area - the owner lets people have shows on the lake and its really cool) and while in the car Jason is singing us this song he wrote a couple hours earlier. All the lyrics and back-ground vocal parts were all there. Almost all the music was all there. The only thing the band added to the song is the jam part where Al does his guitar solo. VP(FOH) is probably one of the shortest in duration songs in our catalog, and it was probably the quickest song for us to write, learn, and deliver live. Due to the somewhat explicit lyrics of VP(FOH), we are capable of playing a "Rated G" version of this song titled (Violent Kitty) when we play afternoon/early evening shows for which the audience potentially includes more pre-adolescent individuals (i.e. kids). Violent Kitty is no less amusing, and I daresay PLUMP has as much fun playing VK(FOH).

4. The Sixer - The music for this song was written in its entirety in early 2008. PLUMP didn't get around to start playing this one live until 2010, due to a variety of factors, which definitely allows me to present The Sixer with the award for "Longest Duration Between Writing the Music and Actually Playing the Song Live in Front of a Real Audience"! The Sixer is a kind of mesh between two ideas. Al had come up with a couple parts written in 3/4 time, with the concept that the chords would move slightly different than the time signature,but would come together again after a certain number of times. It sounded really cool, and also kind of "heavy" and "dark" - really "heavy" and "dark" from my perspective. At the same time, Jason had come up with this crazy blues that has really crazy timing, starts, pauses, etc. So we took some time to learn this crazy blues thing. At some point we decided to put Jason's and Al's collective riffs together--in song form. Next, we spent a long time coming up with how we would do the transitions to fit everything together, which took a long time. Unfortunately, "The Sixer" was on the backburner for a couple years due to the transitions of the band, and also due to the lack of direction on how to put lyrics to the song because it was heavy and complicated. At the time, I remember Jody and I were of a mindset that we should let the song stay instrumental (without vocals), but Al kept insisting we put vocals to The Sixer. The song always sounded like circles and cycles to me (really here I am talking about the part of the song Al came up with), so I tried to make the lyrics sound like circles or to be connected, especially in one particular section where the last word of a line become the first word of the next line. Josh had the idea of repeating some of the lyrics 3 times to go with the 3/4 time, which also lends itself to "circles" and "connectedness". Finally, having a song celebrating the 16 ounce perfection of a Lone Star beer was a subject matter the entire band could really sink its collective teeth into. The lightness of the lyrics really provides a nice juxtaposition to the heaviness of the song. Jason, Al, and myself all sing on The Sixer. The song went from one where I wondered if we would actually play it live much to a song that is one of my favorite songs to play in a show.

This is actually taking a lot longer than I originally thought, so I am going to split up this pre-studio/studio entries into a couple sections. Please stay tuned for (Part II).

FRI FEB 18 at Revolution

2011-06-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly enough, the weather was warm enough for PLUMP to play outside over at Revolution in Bryan/College Station, TX. This was an unexpected, yet welcome, scenario - given that a mere two weeks before the southeast Texas region was covered in a deep freeze. Such are the delights of Texas weather. I had selected a special cd for the band to listen on to during the drive to College Station. The cd was "Histoire de Melody Nelson" by Serge Gainsbourg. Many of you may be very familiar with this wonderful cd. BUT, as some of you may not be quite so familiar, I will take a moment to provide background and color. Serge Gainsbourg was a kind of French Frank Sinatra; he was a superstar, and by the early 40's was starting to become a famous actor/singer/womanizer/drunk. This cd is a duet with Jane Birkin, who at the time was a teenage English model (who incidently spoke very little French). The cd is basically Serge doing spoken word talking about sex, love, and having sex with ladies; basically spoken word sex and moaning between Serge and young Jane. Now, I am not the type of person who gets all excited and obsessed by spoken word French sex talk on cd. Rest assured, my cd collection is not filled with this type of music. However, in the case of "Histoire de Melody Nelson" the spoken word is "spoken" over some bad ass led zeppelin/mahavishnu orchestra type music. A couple of the songs are just completely awesome. Jean-Luc Ponty plays the violin over it, which really and truly gives it that mahavishnu orchestra feel. The band (PLUMP) loved the music, and by loved I mean at least they tolerated it. I believe Al bought the itunes version of the album while we were listening during the the drive to Bryan/College Station, which should at least tell you something. (Incidently, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin apparently turned their spoken word sex-play into the real word sex-play, as they had a child together: Charlotte Gainsbourg. Charlotte, as many of you I am sure know, is an actress/singer. Two movies in particular I both remember her from and recommend are the Bob Dylan-based movie "I'm Note There" and Lars von Trier's "Anti-Christ". )

We finally made it to Bryan, TX. San Marcos' favorite son's Kabomba was opening for us over at Revolution. This was actually the band's first show with us with the moniker "Kabomba", as previous to this show (and to us) they were known as Helix. Apparently, somewhere out there in the wild blue yonder is another band named Helix, and this other Helix felt it had more of a claim to the name "Helix" than San Marcos "Helix" had to the name "Helix". Thus, San Marcos Helix felt it was more prudent to be "Kabomba". I think that we can all agree that the change from "Helix" to "Kabomba" was the clearest and most logical choice. Well played lads.

When we named the band "PLUMP", we looked around to see if there was another band with the same name. There was "Plump DJ's", but no PLUMP. A couple years ago, we noticed a band from San Diego named "Plump", but we didn't take any action - plus I don't think they played too much. We did once get a "hate" letter from one of their "fans" stating that we were "stealing San Diego PLUMP's vibe and good works by calling ourselves Plump" (His exact words). He's right--we noticed that there was a band thousands of miles away called PLUMP that played 2-3 times a year, and we collectively saw a golden opportunity to steal their vibes and good works) for our own PROFIT. Well played us!!! Just kidding. This San Diego superfan implored us to "be cool". What a maroon! I kindly invited him to "go fuck himself". (Actually, I didn't respond at all. I only typed the "go fuck himself" invitation above because it made me laugh, and hopefully it made you chuckle!!)

The show at Revolution never really got cold at all (thank God). PLUMP (Houston-PLUMP) played a nice tight set. We started with a little bit of the old "Ear Ache My Eye", with that patented heavy metal riffery that rocked Bryan, TX to it very core!!! The, we funked out the join. I think we had the crowd dancing the whole night. Ahh Revolution--thank you!

Please note: If PLUMP were ever forced by some other party to change the name of the band, we have a quick and easy fix all prepared, filed away, and notarized. The plan is really quite simple (and obvious)-- we would just add a "p" to the end of the word "plump", with the realized effect being "PLUMPP".

Why "PLUMPP" you might ask? Duh--the extra "p" is symbolizes the band's collective love of PALEONTOLOGY!!! Did you know that the diplotocus was the largest dinosaur of all time?

FRI FEB 4 in Houston

2011-06-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

We were all excited for our first show of 2011, which was to be held at Last Concert Cafe in Houston, TX. We were going to be playing with our friends in Strawberry Jam. PLUMP was also quite pleased to be playing early (i.e. playing at 10 pm) in experiment and response to our Houston friends and fans who like to see us start prior to midnight when we play in Houston.
Of course, then mother nature took over.

I have lived here in Houston for about 12 years, and I can count on 3 fingers the number of times that it has snowed or sleeted in an ice storm-like fashion. (in a random sidenote/digression, if you have never seen Ang Lee's movie, "The Ice Storm" you should really really really check it out. Now that is a great movie. And, it really does feature an ice storm. You should also know that I pressed "pause", just prior to sitting down in front of the computer, on another of Ang Lee's many movies, "Lust, Caution", which half-way through has proved excellent--so I was dying to make some sort of Ang Lee-based reference. Mission accomplished.) As any resident of the greater Houston area will tell you, one of those 3 times happened on the evening of Thursday February 3, which flowed over to the Friday of February 4. The roads were deemed "not recommended" for travel. Josh was required to drive to work, and said drive took him 3 hours, and then of course hardly any of his co-workers had made the similar periolous journey, and he soon left to take a similarly long drive back to his house. 80% of Houston (including everyone else in the band) did not go into work, and stayed home--off the roads relative in safety. I had called the LCC to verify their thoughts for postponing of the evening's entertainment. They were hoping to be open and were also hoping that the roads would be improved by evening (though the temperatures were still in the upper 20's.) PLUMP was really thinking this would be a good evening to postpone. LCC is known as an outdoor venue, so any people showing up would be accurately labeled as EXTREMELY HARDCORE. Also, we would be required to pull a trailer on iced roads in order to transport equipment, PA, etc. Also, any load-in and load-out would require about an hour/hour and a half outside in sub-arctic temperatures. That's cold, man. (OK, I will grant that upper 20's is hardly sub-arctic, but please know the "upper 20's" is extremely cold for anyone who lives full-time in southern Texas). So, we called Strawberry Jam at 1 pm and reported that we were out for the evening. Strawberry Jam, bless them, were still (as of 1 pm) willing to drive from College Station/Austin, with a trailer to pull their PA, across ice-strewn highways and roads, to play the gig. So, we said, "Good luck and be safe." We told the Cafe that we were out, but that SJ was still thinking of coming. We hated cancelling the gig, but it was just dangerous enough to make us not want to risk it. We were actually jonesing to play, as we hadn't had a gig in about 2 months--which for PLUMP is about 1.7 light years. Al literally had the shakes.

I contacted Strawberry Jam the next day to see how it went, and they told me they aborted trying to come to Houston just a little bit into their journey. I think that was the right move.

Dec 3 at Last Concert Cafe

2011-05-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

Friday night at Last Concert Cafe had been a bit of mis-communication on the part of the good people at Last Concert Cafe. When we (PLUMP) booked the gig, the booking guy (for whom we will now call by the alias of "Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat" for the purposes of this story) said, "By the way, there is a private party happening at the Cafe on Friday night. They will be outside from 7ish to about 10. " I then replied, "How about we load-in** at 10 pm?" Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat says, "That sounds great".

**"Load-in" is a term that we in the entertainment industry use to convey the time in which the band will show up and load/carry all musical instruments/amps/pa/etc. from the band's motor vehicle(s) to the stage area of the venue.

So, as planned, we show up at 10 pm. The guy taking the door (let's call him Karl Mecklenberg) is already outside with the cash register and table set up from which he will be collecting money from people at the door.

Karl Mecklenberg says, "What has been taking so long? Where have you been?".

There are people in the venue saying, " What has been taking so long? Where have you been?"

I say, "We agreed with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat that we would show up at 10 pm because of the private party that was going on earlier this evening."

Karl Mecklenberg says, " The private party is tomorrow night".

I said, "Well, we can only go by what Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat tells us".

And Karl Mecklenberg says, "Well, Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat got it wrong tonight".

In the course of our setting up, some people that had shown up early to see PLUMP got frustrated and left. For that we are sorry. But please know that we did not show up late on purpose.

Now, Last Concert Cafe had a big white tent (roughly 20 feet x 40 feet) set up in the outdoor patio area. This tent had a "parkay" floor underneath. The tent and "parkay" floor were presumably set up for the private party that we now know will be held tomorrow. The tent/flooring situation was interesting--I had never seen this before at the Cafe. Indeed, it looked like a mighty fine dance floor.

As this gig was taking place in the jolly month of December, presumably a number of people had attended some sort of Christmas party prior to coming to Last Concert Cafe to watch PLUMP. There was one girl in particular (who is very close to the band) who did indeed attend a Christmas party before arriving at the Cafe. We will call this girl, "Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor" for the purposes of this story. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was shit-faced. Very, very, very, very drunk. As we were finishing setting up, she was cajoling and taunting us to start. And start we did. She danced to the music as hard as she could. She demanded that we play the song "Violent Pussy". We did. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor danced as long as she could. I think she lasted about 5 songs. Maybe six. The best part was during song #4 (Via Satellite) when Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was speed walking in circles on the parkay floor under the tent, arm-in-arm with another girl very close to the band (we will call her Barbarella). Barbarella and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor were going round and round shrieking, laughing, and having a good time. The next song, or at the very least the next time I looked up, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (SCJSDOC--I really must abbreviate from now on--the entire nickname is simply taking too darn long to type) was still walking around in circles on the parkay floor under the tent with Barbarella, but clearly SCJSDOC was leaning very heavily on Barbarella. Barbarella was supporting most of SCJSDOC. It looked to me like those instances when someone has OD'd, and a friend is frantically walking the ODer around and around the living room, trying to keep said person from passing out before the ambulance arrives. SCJSDOC and Barbarella were kind of staggering around. Still in circles. It was awesome. I guess it really could have been some sort of advanced syncronized dance, but I really don't think that was the case. SCJSDOC was losing steam as the song went on. Their circles were smaller and smaller, and their rate was slower and slower. The next song (song #6 for those keeping score), SCJSDOC was sitting in a chair, passed out, her head leaning on Barbarella. SCJSDOC clearly does not have much stamina in the drinking heavily and dancing in circles department.

We laughed and laughed. Later. And also at that very moment.

Revolution on November 19

2011-05-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Either we couldn't find anyone to play with us at Revolution, or we chose to play this show alone. Regardless, PLUMP was the only band on the bill on this night. It being the weekend before Thanksgiving, it was definitely cold in Bryan/College Station. As such, we elected to play inside. Revolution has a really cool, small, inside area. The stage is extremely small, so when we need to play inside, we have to use a scaled down version of our PA, Josh only uses one of his two bass cabinets, and I don't use the floor tom drum on my drumset. Only by doing this can the 4 of us and all of our equipment be on the stage together.

I think the sound is always good inside of Revolution. It always feels good playing in there, and maybe because the 4 of us are playing so close together, it really makes it sound good and unique. Also, there is the potential of being about 2 feet from someone in the crowd, because there are some seats that are that close to where we put the drumset on the stage when we play inside. (When inside at Revolution, if you are facing the stage, I put the drumset on the left side of the stage, and I set it up in profile so that I am directly facing the other guys. The ride cymbal is on the edge of the stage very close to the crowd. The bass cabinet is about 1 inch from my crash cymbal--which is on the left side of my drumset. Then, Josh, Jason, and Al are basically standing in a row--as close as their instruments will allow.) Of course, on this night, I don't think there was anyone that close to the stage. For the majority of the show, we only had about 15-20 people in there. We probably did not do enough to promote the show for one thing. For another thing, the cold weather probably kept people away, as Revolution is known more as an outside bar, so people are probably not as apt to go hang out at Revolution if they know they may well have to stand outside in the cold if they want to check out the band because they think that is where the music will be--even though it is clear through the history of the venue that bands can and do play inside. So, small. BUT, there were 6 or 7 very nice chaps who were clearly there to watch is that enjoyed and were very much into each song. Which was very nice of them. When we took a break, they asked me where were all the people? I said, "Dunno--probably the cold". Still, the songs sounded good. It was probably a bit loud in there, but what can you do. I am glad those guys were so into the show. I would have been somewhat depressing if those guys weren't at the show. Playing music for just a couple people isn't the worst thing in the world (hey--at least we are playing some music), but when you expect to have a bigger crowd at the show, it can be tough to not go through the motions.

Friday November 12

2011-05-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

If you are a band from Houston (or if you are a band based outside of Houston for that matter) the Continental Club is a really good place to play. For some reason or other, over the storied and hallowed history of PLUMP, we had never played there. Until tonight. Continental Club is modeled, named after, and is loosely affiliated with the Continental Club located in Austin. They have some guy that serves great BBQ, they have cheap lone star for the bands, they have a very nice backyard patio, and they are the crown jewel of the development of mid-town Houston. They also have a strange and interesting man that apparently helps direct people (and bands) where to park. This dude wearing full camo kindly directed me to free parking. He then proceeded to regal me for 5 to 10 minutes about this major cold front thunderstorm that would be sweeping into the area in the next few hours. I am not much of a weather watcher, nor do I typically heed the ramblings of loopy individuals wearing camo who are obsessing about major storms moving in, and in this situation I was not only not prepared to heed but in fact I did not heed his warnings. BUT, I will now say that I owe this this guy an apology as he would later prove to 100% correct. His ability to listen to a weather scanner that reported an incoming thunderstorm and then accurately relate the report's contents to all pedestrians and bar patrons was uncanny.

In the one instance of my being able to get a word in edgewise with the friendly but slightly strange attendant, I inquired about the seemingly 25 year old RV with the door open that was in the parking lot. The attendant told me it belonged to one of the owners. Though I don't personally own an RV, I am definitely a fan, and was notably impressed with this RV. I wanted to run over and check out the inside, but I was too scared and shy.

PLUMP was playing with Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans, who are a great band, and another ska band from the area who for the life of me I can't remember the name of but who were pretty darn good. PLUMP played first. The crowd was smaller than we typically like to play for, which is our fault as much as anybody. But we played a nice short set. All the PLUMP girlfriend's were in attendance, which is always nice. One friend of said girlfriend asked me why I played on a pink drumset. I responded that the drumset was in fact blond maple wood color. She told me that in the lights it looked pink. I tried to take a look at what she was talking about from her angle, and I decided that maybe she should consider putting on some camo and helping the guy outside with the parking.

The nice thing about playing first in a 3-band show in Houston at a bar with a nice outside patio and all the PLUMP girlfriends in attendance is that we have a right smart little after show get together in the back with lone star beers and cigerette smoking a-plenty. Very enjoyable. Until all of a sudden it started getting very cold and raining, and we had to leave. Well played camouflage parking guy, well played.

October 30 at Zapatos

2011-05-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

So, we were scheduled for a nice Halloween show over at Zapatos. As you may or may not have read in an earlier post, when PLUMP plays in Bryan/College Station, we are fond of stopping at one particular Love's on HWY 290 where they have a big convenience store and an attached Arby's. Sometimes the guys eat the Arby's. Sometimes we wait and get BBQ at Rudy's in College Station - but we pretty much always stop at the Love's. For a year or two, we always admired the imitation Nascar jackets for sale at the Love's. These are semi-warm jackets that feature the team jacket for a couple specific Nascar drivers, and are covered with all of the sponsors for that driver. They have about 7-8 different jackets to pick from. Jason Jackson actually bought one once, and we have always been extremely envious of him and his Nascar style and all, so Nascar jackets are really always playing in the back of our collective minds. So, as were were driving to the Love's we were thinking that it is Halloween, and we have never really done costumes, but we do like Nascar jackets, and by chance were would be heading to a convenience store that has a couple real beauties of Nascar jackets, so wouldn't it be fun to go a little "high on the hog" and use some band money to buy 4 Nascar jackets.

So we did.

It was glorious.

One of the best ideas we ever had.

I got a "Jimmy Johnson" jacket which was mostly black and gray and whose primary sponsors appear to be Lowe's and Kobalt Tools. Someone got a "Mountain Dew", some one a "Tony the Tiger", and Al got a "Go Big Daddy" jacket. Since we bought 4, I was able to "talk them down" (and by "them" I mean the good people that serve as Management at the Love's on Highway 290) to giving us a $10 discount on each jacket. In addition to having excellent taste in Nascar jackets, I also have the gift of gab in buttering up the lassies working the register at convenience stores into giving the band healthy discounts on merchandise, clothing apparel, and such and such.

We were so proud of our jackets.

Though, later, Al had a bit of "buyer's remorse" since he found out the "Go Big Daddy" jacket is based on the jacket for one of the female Nascar drivers. Not that Al doesn't think she is an excellent driver, as I (and Al) am sure she is, but the "toughness" factor was gone baby gone.

Anyway, we arrived at Zapatos, and we were flashing "our colors". We were definitely the envy of any and all who looked upon our person(s). The gods of music were with us that evening, my friends. Never has Al's fingers moved so quickly across the fretboard. Never has Josh thumped the strings as thumpy as he did. Never have I been able to harness the wings of the unicorn in my drumming. Jason Jackson actually sucked, but we other 3 were flying on the wings of eagles, so no one noticed Jason Jackson's severe and constant limitations. The jackets, friends, the jackets.

Drving home was easy.

FRI OCT 15 at Reggae Bar in San Antonio

2011-01-17T12:56:00.000-08:00

So Friday October 15 we were back over at the Reggae Bar in San Antonio. This is a hole-in-the-wall bar specializing in reggae music in San Antonio--it's a pretty cool place on a big property. Our friend Andrew (in Del Feo--nice guys from San Antonio) had originally put together the show as a PLUMP/Del Feo co-bill. We had booked the show sometime back in August. In mid-September, the venue decided to put on the 2010 San Antonio Reggae Festival on the property on this weekend. (note--one month a very short window for putting on any event viewed as a "festival".) The venue/organizers said we could still play the show (as an after-party for the reggae festival). We figured this could only help attentance at the show, we like festivals, we like after-parties, we like being the after-party--so it seemed like a great idea for us. The festival was supposed to be for Thursday Oct 14 thru Saturday October 16.

As per usual, we got out of Houston later than we would have liked, and after a nice 3 hour drive we pulled into San Antonio a little before 10 pm. We show up over at the Reggae Bar--As I said before, this was a big property--and see a band (the Hooch from San Antonio--also very nice guys) playing on an outdoor stage that has been placed on the back 3 acres of the property. There were approximately 7-8 vendors, and probably about 75-100 people checking out the show. We were told that the idea was that the Hooch was the last band on the outdoor stage, and that we would play where the bands at Reggae Bar normally play--which is the outdoor patio of the bar. So we get out our PA and equipment, and set up the PA so that Del Feo can play their set. Decent crowd, people were still coming, we were ready to play (and rock).

As a sidenote, Josh needed some cigarretes, so I volunteered to run him over to the closest convenience store. Reggae Bar isn't in exactly the best part of San Antonio. We took a right out of the parking lot, and drove about a mile to the closest gas station ( a Concoco). I pulled into the parking lot. We see bars on all the windows and doors, we see the guy working the register staring at us (in an unfriendly fashion), and we see a dude and a lady out front, just hanging out. I am 98.5% sure she was a working girl, and that he was her "daddy". Fortunately, I never really stopped the car, as we were able to survey make an appraisal of the situation within 10 seconds upon turning into the convenience store parking lot and driving around the pumps. I said, "Josh, I don't feel comfortable with you buying cigerettes at this Conoco." He agreed. Then we laughed. Then we drove about a quarter-mile farther down the road to a Chevron station, which fortunately lacked bars on the doors and windows, glaring attendents, and working girls and "daddys". So Josh was able to purchase his cigerettes, and we made our way back to the Reggae Bar.

We had a bit of an issue getting enough power to run the PA from the venue's electricity system, but we were finally able to get it under control. Every time we tried to go in the front door of the venue, we got semi-harrassed by the doorman, who was trying to charge us $20. We would tell him we were in one of the bands, but he would just stare at us for about 1 minute, make us call somebody in PLUMP already in the venue or to call somebody in Del Feo to vouch for us. This happened several times--apparently the door man was not very good with faces. Then, we were informed that the cops had shown up the night before and had given the bar manager a ticket for noise violations. Reggae Bar apparently had gotten a "festival" permit, but had not done what was necessary to ensure that they would not make neighbors angry for having loud music from 2 pm to 2 am from Thursday to Saturday. We noticed that there were about 4 cops just hanging out front. Occasionally the cops walked through the crowd at the show. We finally got Del Feo going, and after about 2 songs, the cops came and talked to Al and told them to take the sound down a lot lower. We got Del Feo out of the PA, and asked them to play as low as possible. Del Feo continued playing. One of the cops walking through stopped to talk with Jason and myself for a bit. He was a real nice guy. He said the organizers hadn't done appropriate action to make sure they wouldn't get harrassed by neighbors, and that the cops would be there all night. He confided in us that he loved heavy metal music, that he loved loud music, and that he was sorry to have give out tickets for noise ordinances because "He knows how it is."

After one more song (at about 11:15 pm), the door man with the bad memory came out into the crowd. He makes a big announcement to turn the music off. He says the music is too loud, that he already got a ticket (in the amount of $500) the previous night for the music being too loud, and that he sure as hell didn't want another one. So the show was over. PLUMP didn't even get to play--which really kind of sucks after driving for 3 hours and setting up the PA. There was a really nice crowd, and some people had come there to see us specifically, so we felt bad because some of these people paid $20 (as part of the admission to the "Festival") to see us, and they definitely did not get their money back from the venue. Andrew and the Del Feo guys were real nice and gave us a little gas money for our foundtrip from Houston to San Antonio. They apologized for the evening--even though this was clearly not Del Feo's fault. They also told us that they were not even really sure who the "manager" was, as he was not a regular emplopyee of Reggae Bar. So, we headed back to Houston after the playing the gig in which we didn't even play. I doubt that Day 3 of the 2010 San Antonio Reggae Festival was even allowed to take place--but I can't be sure. One bright spot is that we did get to patronize the Buc-cees on I-10 at about 2 am. Delicious kolaches, and a very very nice bathroom.

A couple weeks later I received a phone call from a number I did not recognize (though I did recognize the San Antonio area code). It was from the owner of the Reggae Bar--who apparently was not at the 2010 San Antonio Reggae Festival on Plump's fateful night. He kept asking about where was his "qoun". He asked me this same question several times, and I told him I was not even sure what the hell he meant by "quon". Eventually, it became clear that the owner was saying "coin", and by saying "where is my coin" he meant that he wanted to know where the door money was from the 2010 San Antonio Reggae Festival. Apparently, confusion had run rampant as to who had the money (or "coin" if you will) and the owner thought that I might know where it was. I assured him that not only did I not know where it was, but that I surely would not in a million years have been able to wrest any of that money away from the door manager who had severe facial recognition issues. I wished him luck in finding his "coin". I don't like his chances.

The "Case of the Missing Reggae Coin" may well be a case for Encyclopedia Brown, whose exploits I enjoyed remember reading when I was a child--I am relatively sure Encyclopedia Brown was able to locate pilfered "coin" during some of his high profile cases. This has Bugs Meaney's fingerprints all over it. (note: Bugs Meaney was a thick-headed 14 year old small-time thug who also happened to be Encyclopedia Brown's foil--his Professor Moriarity, if you will.)

LUNA in Lake Charles on October 9

2011-01-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

We headed back out to Luna in Lake Charles. Always a pleasure out there. We used to have a tradition of listening to a King Crimson cd on the way to a show if we were travelling on I-10 East. I decided to bring back the tradition, and we listened to "In the Court of King Crimson" on the way to the show. Not sure how familiar you all are with King Crimson, but they play "prog" (i.e. progressive) rock, and have some complex songs. My experience/opinion regarding a King Crimson cd is that the first song is absolutely bad ass, really loud and rocking, and then the rest of the songs on the album are kind of quiet and not nearly as good as the first song. However, each time you listen to the cd in its entirety, the other "non-first" songs, get slightly better with each successive play. We (Plump) always talk about this and laugh and laugh (because we are idiots). When you are travelling and you do the same route again and again, you will sometimes have the same conversations each time. (And it's funner and funnier than it sounds).

Enough of this.

Back to October 9. So, there was actually a very decent crowd there to watch us play our first set. Then they were mostly gone by the end of the show. Many of those people were inside watching a duo of kids singing duo acoustic songs--some joey songs in the vein of Tenacious D, and some in the vein of Red Hot Chili Pepper songs. Dad gum it. The crowd had been the duo and their friends. Aha.

It is always nice at Luna. Gig (soundman) always treats us right. We had plenty of Miller High Life.

We started to drive back and soon found ourselves at the "Skillet" truck stop (this is a Petrol truckstop) in Beaumont at 2 am. As Josh, Jason, and myself were leaving, we were approached, directly outside the Skillet, by a gentleman of 25 who was carrying a glass of courvoisier. He informed us that he was from the "hood". But that he was also really from "Florida". He told us stories about how he loved "eating pussy" and "fuckin" and that he liked to do this type of thing over and over and over again. The guy was enjoyable but he was very big and very drunk and sometimes a bit of a "close talker", so the 3 of us were all of a mind not to anger him. He told us how he wasn't afraid of "getting hit in the face" or "getting his ass kicked", and told us a very specific story about one particular time when he was at a party in the "hood" where he didn't know anyone. It seems that someone at the party (not a "friend") approached our narrator and talked "smack" directly to his face. Then the fellow (not the narrator) punched the narrator in the face 4-5 times. The narrarator told us (with no small amount of pride) about how he may have gone down, but he did not go out. Apparently, he can take plenty of punches. He did manage to get out of the party and to safety after being punched 4-5 times. We were all impressed. Then, the narrator went back to talking about how he loved "eating pussy" and "fucking" and that he liked to do this type of thing over and over again. This one-sided conversation had been going on for about 10 minutes. I don't remember him sipping from his glass of courvoisier, but he might have. Then, two women could be seen entering the truck stop. True to his narration, this guy stopped in mid-sentence, and was giving them the "big eye". He offered them a greeting, but the women didn't respond. He started following them in. We took this as a cue to go back to the car. He saw us leaving and said, "Come-on, you guys got to come help me out with these two". We politely declined and headed back to Houston. Sadly, I doubt we will ever see that guy again. I hope he got those two.

"Wedding Show" at Revolution in Bryan on Oct 2

2010-11-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

About 10 months ago we were asked by Bryan and Lindsey (long-time fans from Bryan/College Station) to play the evening of their wedding. In March 2010 they asked us if we had October 2 open. We typically don't book more than about 3 months in advance, so in perusing the calendar it was safe to say that we were free, and that Bryan and Lindsey had, in fact, "lucked-out". So this was PLUMP's first wedding reception--although to be fair, we weren't technically the "wedding reception band". Bryan/Lindsey had a wedding reception dinner outside on the patio at Revolution in Bryan, and we were the band at Revolution for the evening, and the show was open to the general public as well as for the wedding party.

About a month before the wedding, Bryan sent us an email with a song called "Corrina, Corrina" by Taj Mahal. Bryan said that he and Lindsey were both big-time Taj Mahal fans, and they were hoping that we could learn the song for the wedding, as they would use this as their wedding dance song. So one evening in practice, we utilized the technology at hand. We downloaded the song and played it on repeat so we could learn the music. At the same time, I got on-line and accessed the lyrics and wrote them down. Then, we played along with the song about 5-6 times. "Corrina, Corrina" is a BAD ASS song that none of us had ever heard before Bryan sent us the email link, It is basically a blues song, without a whole bunch of changes, so the guts of the music was learnable within about 20 minutes. The more you listen to the song, it definitely has some subtleties you notice and want to master. Great song.

So, we show up at Revolution on October 2 at around 9:30 pm, which is a little later than we wanted or would have liked, especially since the wedding party was probably wondering if we were going to actually show up (we got held up, again, eating the delicious BBQ at Rudy's). But, we made it, and it was good to see everybody. We got set-up. Bryan said it was actually a surprise for Lindsey for us to play the song, and that they had recently seen a Taj Mahal show in which "Corrina, Corrina" had been the encore, so the stage was set. Bryan asked us to play the song about 6 songs into our first set.

Six songs in, and it was time for us to play "Corrina, Corrina". I (Doug) sing "Corrina, Corrina". Right before I counted it off, I realized I couldn't remember the first words of the song. Disaster. I sat there for about 15 seconds furiously trying to remember. The other guys are going, "What the fuck, Doug". I asked Al--do you know the first line. He didn't know. Then he said, "I think it has something about a bird". Thank god--the first line is "Got a bird". Dodged that bullet.

This was out first time for PLUMP to play this song live, and we had probably only practiced the song 9-10 times. To say this version was sloppy, and that lyrics were mis-sung, would be an understatement. I also totally sang a falsetto part wrong. But, it still sounded good, as people liked it. So we decided to go "Whiskey River" by Willie Nelson, and we played that song two more times during the rest of the two set show--much to the delight (and chagrin) of the audience (this was due mostly because Lindsey said we could play that song as many times as we wanted, as far as she was concerned. As she was the gushingbride, we had to comply). I daresay that the song improved with each playing. The last time we played it, a drunken Jason Jackson demanded that the newlyweds dance on the stage. Not sure if they wanted to be on stage, but dad-gummit they got up there.

One of the out-of-town relatives was thrilled when we played "Uncle Remus" by Frank Zappa in the first set, so we started the second set with "Willie the Pimp" (also by Zappa), and he loved us for it. It was a good crowd, and people were up dancing the whole time, so what will forever be known as "The Wedding Show" was a lot of fun. AND, we have a new song for our rotation.

PLUMP at ZAPATOS on SEP 24

2010-11-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

Back at Zapatos--we had the guys from Helix in San Marcos playing with us. Al had some stuff he had to do in Houston that required him to drive up alone and late, so Josh, Jason, and I were doing the driving and set-up of the PA. The set-up of the PA was going to prove tricky, in that Al is our primary sound person. Luckily, the guys in Helix got there before we did, and so were ready to help us load-in. Also, Josh did a hell of a job getting the PA and speakers and monitors going (which is not an easy task given our set-up) and we got Helix sound-checked and going for their set.

Helix brought out some friends and such from both San Marcos and some friends from College Station, so they definitely had the crowd up and going early. Al literally showed up during Helix's final note, which allowed us to breathe a sigh of relief, because 2 hours of bass-sax-drums might have been interesting for a short bit, but it would have gotten very old very fast.

There was a good crowd at Zapatos, and everybody seemed to be up and dancing. One of the more interesting parts of the evening happened when some dude got tackled by the police in the crowd, got hand-cuffed, and then dragged out of the venue. It happened in the middle of a rocking jam--so I really almost missed it. Apparently the cops had seen this dude doing something he ought not to have done out in some parking lot, and the dude had run into Zapatos, and the police had faithfully chased him in there. And by gawd, what do you know but they (the cops) managed to catch up with him (the dude). The dude went down like a ton of bricks. Only at a PLUMP show.

We got some nice congrats afterwards, and then we headed back to Houston. There is a particular gas station about 20 miles outside of College Station in Navasota that we like to stop at at 3 am on the way back. They have a lady there that is making tacos (fresh) at 3 am. That's crazy. I actually don't eat the tacos anymore because they are of varying quality, and when I do happen to eat them the tacos (regardless of quality) put me in an immediate food coma. This time, 3 of us went in, as Josh was passed out leaning forward in the seat belt. He missed nothing, as the coffee at this place is always extremely bad.

Triplecrown in San Marcos on Sep 10

2010-11-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

Heading back to the Triplecorwn in San Marcos. As per usual, we were a little delayed getting out of town, got gas (Shell) and food (Jack in the Box), and made it to San Marcos with about 45 miutes to spare. This was our first time playing with the chaps in Helix, which is a band that hails from San Marcos. Big band and a bunch of nice guys.

We get drink tickets in San Marcos--which I happen to like. Each of us gets 3-4 of them. I enjoyed chatting with several San Marcos-ites before the show, which is always a pleasure. I can't remember too much specific from the show--other than that The Sixer sounded pretty good. Wait, I do remember we totally had a brain-dead moment on Reggae #2, in which we all in a way messed things up. We were at a point where half of us are doing one thing, and half us are doing another, and half of us are making a transition to a part that others don't, etc. This is partly due to the fact that Jason is singing this one now (as opposed to Jody who is no longer in the group), and this was either the first or 2nd time we did this song with Jason singing. BUT, we recovered mid-song--which is an important thing to be able to do. And the recovery was such that we had a bunch of people cheer for us after the song (which is way better than silence--especially after you have kind of messed up on a song). Other than that, it sounded good.

We hung around through Helix, which has a kind of oom pah, jam bandish feel, which is cool. We headed back for the long-drive. I drove through the small towns to get us back to I-10, and then Jason drove on I-10 back to home. We have a new mascot--the Buc-cee doll that hangs from the rear-view mirror. It is a constant reminder of all that is good and true in the world. I had too kolaches and then took a nap.

PLUMP in Nacogdoches on August 14

2010-10-25T15:24:00.001-07:00

So we headed out to East Texas to play in Nacgodoches. Its about 3 hours or so from Houston. Our buddy Jaybo had asked us to come and play a private party out there for a member of his family, which was at a bar called Bullfrog's. Nice people, who seemed to like us, and we had a good time at the gig, and got free beer and food etc. We had people help us load in and load out and do sound on our PA, which we GREATLY appreciated. Very very nice. The party was for the 40th birthday for a guy who had played in a reggae band in Nacogdoches back in the early and mid 1990's, and a couple of the guys were there and wanted to play, so we played some reggae with them for a couple songs, to the delight of the family.

After the gig, we stayed out at a farmhouse with Jaybo and a couple of his friends. It was a good 30-40 minute drive to the farmhouse, which at 2 am is a VERY long drive. But they did have a big pot of beans on the cooker, and some beers, and it was way out in the middle of nowhere so all the stars were out, which was all very nice.

One by one, we passed out. I fell asleep on a reclining chair, which was quite comfortable, and really fortuitous for me, as you will soon quickly learn. I believe Josh also passed out on a chair. Bully for him. Jason, who will stay up later than anyone (drinking brown liquors) when we have to crash at someone's house found a bed. This proved to be a rolling of the dice where he came up lucky.

Al fell asleep on a bed. After falling asleep, he heard a sound that sounded a lot like the sound of someone peeing. Even more accurately, the sound was sounding in such a fashion that it sounded like the pee was hitting a mattress, and not the water in a toilet bowl. Al thought to himself, "I think someone is peeing on the mattress". This hypothesis was soon proved correct, as the "pee" changed its destination from the "mattress" to "Al's legs". One of the other dudes in the house (not Jaybo) was peeing in his sleep. On Al's bed. Al's response was the same response that any of you would respond with if confronted with a sleeping person peeing on both your (a) bed AND (b) leg. That is to yell "HEY HEY HEY". The man did not awaken. His sleep was deep.

Al chose to move his sleeping location the "wet" bed to the couch. Luckily for Al, he was not pee'd on again that night, but he did hear several more bathroom breaks by said individual--all aimed onto the bed. We left early the next day. And placed a properly placed phone call to Jaybo explaining that he will definitely want to check for a wet bed (and we also assured him the we were not to blame).

We also laughed all the way back to Houston.

SAT AUG 7 at SUGARCANE for HPMA

2010-10-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

Today we played over at Sugarcane for the Houston Press Music Awards showcase. For the uninitiated, every year the Houston Press (weekly alternative newspaper for Houston) has has a process were first in the spring people can nominate their favorite local bands, local songs, singers, musicians, etc. etc. They have a series of categories, and the top 5 nomination vote getters are "up" for a respective award. There is a month where the greater Houston populace can vote on his/her favorite band, etc., all culminating in the Houston Press Music Awards showcase--wherein 60 of the nominated bands play at about 10 music venues (and also represents the last day of voting). 5 days later, the winners are announce. This year, PLUMP was up for Best Funk/R&B and also Jason Jackson was nominated for Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist.

In past years, the showcase was held in the late afternoon early evening in downtown Houston, where all the venues were in walking distance. This year, the showcase was held on Washington Avenue--which over the last year has become the extremely popular strip of bars and lounges (nonebut 1-2 are music venues). The showcase was from 1-6 pm and we played at 3 pm. Not all of the venues were walking distance (basically two clusters of 5 bars that wereabout 1.5 miles apart. Though shuttle service was available) Plus, August Houston temperatures in the hottest part of the day madethe walk ridiculous. I thought logistically that it wasn't as good as holding the festival downtown--but some people in the "know" said it was WAY cheaper for the Houston Press to hold this showcase outside of downtown.

All that being said, this is a great service that the Houston Press does, in that they have a fest that celebrates Houston local music--for which there are a lot of good bands--of tons of different genres and they mix them together. Plus, the showcases are generally well attended by the locals. It rained like hell when we showed up, but it didn't last long.

We played about 40 minutes. The venue Sugarcane was pretty cool--in that it has organic liquor. Not a music venue. The sound was extremely loud in there, and for us on stage the sound was WAY worse than it was for the audience. It was hard for us to hear anything. We played Buddy Boo, Via Satellite, Pain My Masterpiece (which sounded really good). We had a very very nice crowd in there. The following day, we were mentioned in about 3 articles in the on-line version of the Houston Press--so once again it went very well.

We didn't win. We never do. Such is life.

PLUMP at LCC on FRI AUG 6

2010-10-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

One week later, we are back at Last Concert Cafe--this one is our show. It's August. Very hot. Very Very Very hot. Humid. During the load in of our gear and PA, I am soaking wet. Such is life.

This gig we are playing with Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans. Ryan and a couple of the other guys were former members of Los Skarnales. They play singer-songerwriter type reggae ska. Cool guys and good band. We had some PA troubles during their set, as the power blew out for about 3-4 minutes. This was very stressful for Al (as he works the sound when we run the PA for a show), but was actually pretty cool because the band kept playing--(and by band I mean the acoustic guitar and drums). They kept it going the entire time, and it really sounded neat--especially when all the eletric instruments came back on board.

We always get half-price on food and free shiner at the LCC. The band typically gets some sort of burger--the tostada burger is delicious--consisting of your normal burger plus refried beans, pico de gallo, and guacamole. The fries are the crinkle fries--I love them. Plus, their salsa is extremely fresh. Great dinner--and you have to be real careful if you are playing a show, because it is easy to overindulge on the food.

The show was good. We had a very nice crowd of people out there, and definitely had some dancers. Really a typical PLUMP show at Last Concert. I think I was almost dehydrated--between the humidity and sweating and shiner consumption. This was one of those shows where you get finished and want to cry because you are going to have to spend the next hour rolling chords and taking stuff down and carrying extremely heavy equipment to the trailer. At least the drive home isn't greater than 2 hours. But, we got it done.

Watermelon Fest at LCC on SAT JULY 31

2010-10-07T17:36:00.001-07:00

The Watermelon Festival is always a really good time. This is one the big fundraisers for KPFT 90.1, and Last Concert Cafe is always pretty darn crowded for it. They have music from about 3 pm to 2 am. We played at 8pm. They typically have 45 minute sets for the bands, with about 10-15 changeover, the bands share a lot of the equipment (drumset) etc.

They had a different PA company--and it was the same guy that did the sound the week before over at Liberty Station. Anyway, they were remarkably on time. Usually, you play a festival type setting at a bar, and they are at least 30-45 minutes behind schedule. In this case, right on schedule.

I think this was either our 8th or 9th consecutive year playing the Festival, and it is always a treat. Pat and Sandy (KPFT DJ's) introduced us--we have played on Sandy's show on KPFT many many times. We played really well--did Via Satellite, Trifecta, and a clean version of Violent Pussy (Funk of Heaven)--the "PG version" is called Violent Kitty. And is really just about as fun to sing. This particular festival was cool because the band after us was late. Sandy came out and said "How about an encore". And the crowd cheered. We played Gimme Some More. Then Sandy came out and said. "How about an encore" and the crowd cheered. And we played Standing on the Verge of Getting it On." I didn't see the band, and was getting us ready to play another, but then Sandy said--"How about giving it up for PLUMP"--sans the encore request--and I saw the next band getting their stuff together. It was a rocking set, and we got lots of compliments. I was soaking wet--it looked like I had just jumped in the lake.

We hung around for a bit and drank some beers and watched some bands. Very nice evening.

Alas

2010-08-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Vote for PLUMP for Houston Press Music Awards

2010-07-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

PLUMP has been nominated for a couple Houston press Music Awards:

Best Funk/Soul/R&B
Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist -- Jason Jackson

The link below contains the ballot. If you would vote (and convince 400-500 of your closest and dearest friends to vote as well), we sure would appreciate it. Please vote by August 7!!!

Thanks

http://polls.houstonpress.com/polls/hou/mas2010/

Friday July 9 at Luna

2010-07-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

We made the drive back over to Luna in Lake Charles. Surprisingly enough, there was no rain on the road to Louisiana, which was nice. Lately, Luna has changed its format to having music from 9 pm to midnight. That actually is a pretty good arrangement for us, as we typically drive back after the gig, so leaving at 12:45 am- 1 am is a much easier driveback than if we leave at around 3 am. Gig (soundman) does us right with the sound, and we usually get a bunch of miller high life's--which is awesome. The new set times does lend us a weird set-up. It is kind of like two different show. The dinner show and the later show. The first set (9 pm to 10:30 pm) was played mostly for the the late dinner people sitting at tables. Some people got up and danced, then they left (and I think they came back). This is an early time for a band to play, as a lot of people don't show up at bars until 10:30 or 11 pm. So, by the time the first set was over, a lot of the crowd was gone. Then we took a break. When we started up again for the second set at about 10:50 pm, there was a new crowd out there, and we played for them. Very nice.

The first set was mostly old songs, which was good to break out again. Underwatertown got a whole bunch of people up, and sounded real good. Varmint Poontang was another one that really rocked.

Second set was more of the newer stuff. Also good set. On the whole, we played pretty well, and had a good time. Not too hot. Some guy gave us $40 for one cd, which was awful nice of him. Then we packed up and drove back to Houston. We have been enjoying listening to this old mixed cd of Elton John on the drives back. In particular, we love the song "Take Me to the Pilot". I highly recommend that you go listen to it.

Last Concert Cafe on FRI JUNE 25

2010-06-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

It rained everyday the 3 days prior to Friday. Then it rained for a couple hours on Friday. Luckily, all the rain was hours before the show was to start at Last Concert Cafe (outside venue). The skies were relatively lear. But it was hot, man. Really really really hot.

We had our buddies in Ashes of Babylon with us. We got the PA set up, and the lights out there looked really good. Ashes of Babylon brought out a lot of people, and it seemed like we brought out the people as well. Good attendance. Ashes of Babylon rocked the house and played an encore. We got up there and tore it up. Lots of hoola hoopers. Lights attached to ropes. Etc. Etc. Cool cool vibe, as always. I think we were starting to get wore out by our 4th song. It was so hot on the stage. I probably lost about 5 pounds in that 2 hours. I was totally exhausted once we were done, and the thought of having to take down the PA and load it all in the trailer made me want to cry. That is the dirty underbelly of rock-n-roll.

Lots of fun at the show,though. We played Gonzo Says, which we had not done in a long time, and it sounded really good. Very enjoyable.

It was good to see some folks we typically see at Luna in Lake Charles make it to Hosuton for this show--they were there to see their buddies in Ashes of Babylon, but maybe we were the icing on the cake.

PLUMP nominated for 2 Houston Press Music Awards

2010-06-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

The Houston Press has just announced the 2010 Houston Press Music Awards nominees:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/?page=2

PLUMP has been nominated for Best Funk/Soul/R&B!! In addition, Jason Jackson has been nominated for Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist!!

Voting commences on July 15.

Please plan on voting for PLUMP at the Houston Press website: www.houstonpress.com

PLUMP at SUMMERFEST in HOU on SUN JUNE 6

2010-06-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

So we were invited to play at Houston’s Summerfest in Eleanor Tinsley Park. This was a very exciting event for PLUMP. Omar of Free Press Houston and Westheimer Block Party fame (along with Pegstar) were putting on this festival, which was in its second year. Two day festival, and we were playing on the second day. MMW was on the bill (first day), Flaming Lips were on the bill (2nd day), Slim Thug and Bun B (2nd day), a number of national indie rock and metal acts and DJ’s I had never heard of, and a bunch of local Houston bands across all genres.

The best thing that the organizers did was have such a number and wide variety of local acts. From death metal to punk to pop to us (whatever we are), the Houston bands were definitely celebrated and people checked out the local music to be sure.

The local and smaller national acts were allotted 25 minute sets, and we had to use the amps and drums provided by the stage. The equipment sharing I definitely understand and agree with. The logistic of all these bands and then moving amps on and off the stage would have been ridiculous. The set length is not really desirable (especially for us as 25 minutes is barely a warm-up) but understandable based on the number of bands the festival was putting on. Frankly, if the set times were longer, there would have been less bands, and we may well have not made the cut.

We actually practiced our set during the 3 practices prior to the show. Typically, we write a set list on a cocktail napkin about 40 minutes before we hit the stage for a show, but for a big time show/festival, it is nice to be prepared—especially with a 25 minute time limit. We agreed on a list of 6 possible songs, and then whittled this list down to 4 songs: Loose/Tight, The Guzzler, Reggae #2, and Buddy Boo. We even created segues into each song so we wouldn’t waste time in between songs and could maximize our 25 minutes. The first time we timed the set, it was 24 minutes. Perfecto. We went through it 2-3 more times, and it was always around 24 minutes. We can’t ask for much better than that. AND, we don’t have any 1 minute songs.

Sadly, none of us went to the festival on Saturday. On Sunday Josh, Jody, and I took Jody’s van into the Fest about 12:30 pm. The PLUMP set was scheduled for 2:35 pm on the KTRU stage. (Al and Jason, who also play in the Free Radicals, were playing at 11:00 am on the Main Stage, and per the instructions to the bands, we had to check in at our stage 1.5 hours prior to performance. As such, they were at the festival at 9:30 am). We felt high and mighty because we had a “band” parking pass, so we got to go to the road closure, show our pass to the cops, and then drive through to a parking spot close to the gate. AWESOME. We felt like big shots. We strolled on in to the festival. There were 4 stages open to the public: the Main Stage—which was down in the valley in Eleanor Tinsley Park; the Dos Equis stage—also in the “valley” about half the size of the main stage, the KTRU stage—up on the road and about 1/8 the size of the main stage; and the 29.95 stage, which was the mirror image of the KTRU stage. We checked in at the KTRU stage, and then started walking around. It was hot. I had a couple beers. Saw Grandfather Child (local Houston band on the Main Stage at about 1:30 pm), and thought they were very very very good. Heard a couple other bands, walked around, and such.

They were running a bit late on the KTRU stage, so we ended up starting our show after 3 pm. One thing I noticed (about all the stages), as soon as a band was done, then the audience would leave the front of the stage. Then, as soon as the next band started to play, the crowd would magically appear. This phenomenon was definitely true for PLUMP. We had a nice set. Good crowd. The stage had a couple power supply problems. Al had a bit of trouble with power for a second or two at various parts of the set. But that type of thing is to be expected at a Festival. It was very very very very hot. I sweat quite bit—luckily they had water bottles for us. After our set, we announced we were giving away 25 cd’s for those who would sign our email list. We gave 25 away.

About30 minutes after our set, a heavy downpour came on. Josh had left and Al was hanging with friends and Jason had gone to get beer. Jody and I were under the umbrella for a sno-cone vendor. They were very nice people. We met this girl who is in on the Austin scene and is informally helping bands with booking and such. Maybe she will help us get a better foothold in Austin. Who knows.

We caught the set of our buddies in Ashes of Babylon—very funky reggae and they had the crowd moving and shaking at the 29.95 stage. We will be playing with them at Last Concert cafe in Houston on June 25th--so don't miss it! Jason re-appeared with beers he had purchased at the store and smuggled in. Delicious. Soaking wet. I left the fest around 6 pm with the intent of catching a quick nap, but sadly, I didn’’t make it back to see the Flaming Lips. I feel like a loser.

Friday May 28 at Mango's

2010-06-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

This was the second consecutive gig in which the journey to the gig was best by rain--more like a driving storm. Luckily, the distance from my house to Mango's, in the Montrose area of Houston is only 4 or 5 miles, as opposed to about 150 miles. I was hanging out in my driveway drinking beers with friends before leaving for the gig, and suddenly it started to rain heavily. But the sun was still out. Pretty neat vista, to tell you the truth. I was so hypnotized by this wonder of nature that I was quickly convinced, by my brain waves, that it was a quick passing rain, and I should wait it out. Twenty minutes later is was raining even harder, and my party dashed to the car 5 feet away, got soaked, and started driving. Luckily, by the time I got to Mango's (where the rest of the band was waiting) the rain had pretty much stopped, so we didn't have to load in in the rain.

This was our first ever gig at Mango's in Houston, TX. The venue is located right next door to Avant Garden, previously known as the mauseleum, and another name that I can't seem to remember. The venue is part of Omar Afra (publisher of the Free Press Houston and festival putter--oner of such events as Houston's Summerfest and numerous Westheimer Block Parties) vast holdings. Cool venue. Very nice guy.

This was a gig we had originally hoped to play with just Ryan Scroggins and the Trenchtown Texans, a really great band from Hosuton that is on the roots-reggae type of tip. That had since been expanded to 5 bands. We were slatted, the other 3 from out of town. By day of show, we were slated to play from 9 to 9:45 pm, which was earlier and shorter than we are accustomed. Typically, when a band is relegated to the 9 pm slot, you pretty much figure you are playing for the bartenders and whichever band members from other bands are at the venue. Luckily, we had some people come out early and the other bands did as well. For 9 pm, there was definitely a mighty nice crowd. We played a 45 minute set, and according to Jody we played the first couple songs (Via Satellite and Alright) way too fast. Such is life. Still sounded good, and we played for some people who had never seen us before, and we played quite well (and apparently at lightning speed).

PLUMP On-Line Interview

2010-06-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

To promote Summerfest, the good people at www.prettyriot.com were conducting short 5 question interviews with a number of the bands playing at the Festival. Check out the link above to see the PLUMP interview.

And by all means, come check out PLUMP this Sunday June 6 at Summerfest. We will be on the KTRU stage at 2:35 pm. Other bands on the bill for the weekend fest (June 5-June 6 at Eleanor Tinsley Park near downtown Houston, TX) include the Flaming Lips, MMW, and a slew of other national and Houston-based bands.

May 14 at Luna in Lake Charles

2010-06-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Again, the story of the day seems to be PLUMP was running a bit late on a Friday night. In our defense, there was this huge rainstorm that blew in around 6:20 pm into Houston. Jody could barely see while he was driving. We stopped for gas at the station by my house, and the power was out. About 10 miles outside of Houston, we saw a car that was on it's side. It had apparently skidded into that fashion about 30 seconds before we came upon it, because we could see about 4 cars had stopped and about 5 people were running to the car to give the passengers a hand. Luckily, we got through the storm, and it did not rain in Lake Charles during our show.

We pulled in and were very pleased to enjoy the case of Miller High Life tallboys that are usually awaiting our arrival at Luna. Lovely. We played an hour and a hald set that was pretty darn good. Nothing truly notable, other than we are real excited about playing the new songs, which is pretty much the case every show. Right now I think the band favorites are Guzzle it Down, Loose/Tight, Reggae #2, and the Sixer.

We hit the thunderstorm again about 20 miles outside of Lake Charles. We had to stop for a bit because it was raining so hard. Apparently, this was one of the tougher drives for Iron Man Jody, who is usually indimitable at the wheel during the late night drives back. Even he was having it tough.

San Marcos on FRI APR 23

2010-05-22T14:08:00.001-07:00

So we headed back up to San Marcos to play over at the Triplecrown. Really cool bar. We played with our pals in Funkotron, who bring out the peeps in that town.San Marcos is about 2.5 hours away from Houston. Due to work related constraints, we typically can't get out of Houston until 6:45ish on Friday nights, so we are always on the cusp of being very late. As such, we had to forego stopping at Buc-cee's on the way there--to the noted displeasure of almost all parties in the car.

Triplecrown has a number of cool facets--we can pull right up to the back door and load-in, which happens to open right into the stage area. From trailer to stage is about 30 feet. Not too shabby. The venue also has the ring on a string game in the back, in which a hook is attached to a wall, and string is hanging from the ceiling, and you stand 15 feet from the hook and try to make it work. First straught on, then maybe on 2-3 passes. Always a fun game and good way to pass an hour or too.

The only thing PLUMP hasn't been able to get straight is the stage volume and proper band alignment. It seems like on or more of us always has trouble hearing the others. This time Al couldn't hear me (Doug), which made it a tougher show. One of these days we will get it figured out. This show marked the debut of Josh using 2 Mesa amps. Be prepared to have your lower regions vibrate in the wake of his bass assault.

The show was pretty good. As per usual, the Sixer has been the funnest song (for me) and has been getting a good response. Funktoron rocked. We made it to Buc-cees. I had one sausage/jelpeno/cheese kolache and one cherry kolache. Buc-cees at 3 am. Can't beat it.

Friday April 9 at Revolution in Bryan

2010-05-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

The weather was extremely cooperative on this night. Very nice evening to play music outside at Revolution. We have been playing here for years and years it seems. Revolution is a place where it is nice to play inside if the weather is poor (because the roo is really really small, so if you play inside it is usually off the hook full of people) and very nice outside. April is good for outdoor playing because it is not really really hot. We made the drive very easy.

Delfeo was playing with us again, and they did a good job and worked the phones to get out the people, and apparently had their choice of 3-4 different 3 am afterparties for after the gig. Very nice.We played some songs and got some people up and dancing. Someone requested the Sixer, which is our newest song. They requested the crazy lone star beer drinking song. Perfect. I think that one came off really well. We played Earache my eye- chance- Buddy Boo, which is always a favorite. The earache my eye typically makes people laugh. and cry. and then laugh again.

The hour and a half drive back wasn't too bad. We neglected to stop for coffee at our normal place. We were cranking the soundtrack to Jesus Christ Superstar, and just forgot to stop.

Saturday April 3 at Reggae Bar in San Antonio

2010-05-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

The night before Easter we headed back over to San Antonio to play at the Reggae Bar. We had played there one time before, and as with before we were playing with Delfeo, which is a group of really nice guys that play improvisational jam music. The Reggae Bar is a total hole-in-the-wall, but a really cool place. Weather permitting, they have music out back on the patio. Very nice.

We had a small but overly enthusiastic crowd, which is always very nice. The whole crowd was screaming after every song. There was one chap there that was absolutely and totally shit faced. He was border-line out of control trying to get on the stage and screaming in our faces. To his credit, he had seemingly polished off a bottle of whiskey--solo. But, he was becoming increasingly bothersome to the band, and to me. One time he was poking Al in the chest while he was doing a solo. Finally, during one of our last songs, he was about 2 inches from Al, simulating masterbation and swinging his bottle over Al's effects box. The guy looked just a little too out of control for me. I stopped mid-song and yelled at him to back the fuck up. I think Jody thought the crowd would turn on us, but they turned on the guy, and eventually he calmed down and shut up. We had never really stopped in a song to yell at someone in the crowd, so I guess there is always a first time. Then we played a couple songs and were done. I was kind of fired up with adrenaline after the scene, but that poor chap was carried out semi-conscious about 10 minutes later.

The guys in Delfeo have a sweet pad in what is seemingly the outskirts of San Antonio. We crashed there for a few hours, watched as Jason drank a bunch of very cheap scotch, and then headed back to Houston early Sunday morning. Jason looked worse for wear. We did take the tie to stop at the Buc-cee's on I-10. Ah, Buc-cees. We love you.

3-26-2010 at Last Concert Cafe

2010-05-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

It's always good to have a spring/summer show at Last Concert Cafe. This one was a bit more stressful/required a bit more logistics planning because we were in the midst of performing in the Faultlines production. This gig involved the following:

-Doug bring's trailer to the Brewery Tap (bar where the play is performed): 6 pm
-Trailer is switched from Doug's car to Jody's van: 6:05 pm
-Plump plays opening set before the play: 7-8 pm
-Jody takes the trailer to Last Concert cafe (thankfully only 1 mile away): 8 pm
-Jody starts setting up PA-PLUMP performs with the play: 8-9:30 pm
-PLUMP loads up monitors from the play: 9:35 pm
-Doug shuttles monitors over to Last Concert Cafe after the play: 9:40 pm
-PLUMP sets up rest of PA: 9:45-10:15 pm
-Ashes of Babylon plays: 10:20 - 11:40 pm
-PLUMP plays: 12:00 am to 2 am
Busy night

Ashes of Bablyon brought out some people in Houston, and I think it was their first time playing in town. Those guys are really good and are some cool cats indeed. We like playing with them. We had a lot of the Horsehead crowd in the house, and we partied down. Good night all the way around.

Fault Lines Journal Part VII

2010-05-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

For Parts I-VI, please scroll to entries below

The last weekend of the Fault Lines production was March 25-27, 2010. At this point, the actors and band were like a well-oiled machine. We still had some sound and mic problems here and there, but overall we felt we could do no wrong.

At the Friday night show, there was a lady in attendance who loved the band. Just loved us. After every song she was screaming and yelling above everyone else, and she was cajoling the crowd to yell louder, etc. We loved her. This lady was also drunk. Very drunk. In hindsight, I am quite surprised she made it through the band performance and play without passing out. I know she didn’t pass out because she was laughing and commenting during the play roughly every 45-50 seconds. Literally. She loved that play more than anyone has ever loved a play in the history of time. She liked making comments, and laughing, and making comments while laughing. She even pulled off the laughing comment. I called it a “laughment”. One of her best comments, which really sticks out in my mind, was the following:

Joe – I am going to advise her parents to file a civil suit against you.

Loud Lady – “Good luck with that!” (at full volume)

She got a laugh from me.

They weren’t all happy days that weekend. The hot dog cart got busted by the po-po. Damnation. They didn’t have a street vendor permit (and something tells me they didn’t regularly change out their grease). We were waiting and waiting and waiting for the cart on the last night (Saturday), but the cart never came. According to Horsehead, the cart people never planned on obtaining a street vendor permit, and that the cart people were effectively “rolling the dice” every night. For 7 magic nights, they kept the dream alive. Apparently, on Friday March 26th, they ‘crapped out”. We mourned the lack of bacon-wrapped hot dogs on the last Saturday night.

After the Friday night show, PLUMP had seen fit to book themselves at Last Concert Café. It was a nice night to hang outside. Lots of Horsehead people in the house, and we got to play a hell of a lot louder than we had been in the bar. We rocked.

The final show was uneventful. It was sold out, which was nice, and everyone dug the play and the band. Good way to end the run. Cast party was at my house. My lady had some sort of huge bottle of Sweet Tea Vodka that she had been looking forward to all day, and I managed to break that bottle in the first 5 minutes of the party. Lots of people at the house, many of whom I had never seen before. Somebody brought over some “snake venom sake” from somewhere in the Orient. I tried it. Not impressed. Such is life. There was Caballo beer (in honor of Horsehead). OK, but it was no Lone Star, which is what I stuck with. It was a right nice party.

All in all, PLUMP was unanimous in thinking it was a very positive experience being part of the play. We got on with Horsehead Theatre Company real well, and I hope we get asked to do music in future shows. Thanks for reading.

2010 Houston Press Music Award Nominations

2010-05-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

Spring is here in Houston, which can only mean that the time has come for the 2010 Houston Press Music Award process. Now is the time to submit the nominations for the Music Awards. Please got the following link and vote:

http://polls.houstonpress.com/polls/hou/musicawards2010/

This is the nomination process, and come July the Houston Press will announce the nominees, and this process will culminate in the Houston Press Music Awards showcase.

We heartily recommend that you vote for PLUMP for the following categories:

Best Rock: PLUMP
Best Funk/R&B: PLUMP
Best World Music: PLUMP
Best Guitarist: AL BEAR (PLUMP)
Best Bassist: JOSH MATRANGA (PLUMP)
Best Vocalist: JODY MCCORMICK (PLUMP)
Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist: JASON JACKSON (PLUMP)
Best Drummer: DOUG PAYNE (PLUMP)

Thanks a lot.

FAULT LINES JOURNAL PART VI

2010-04-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

For journal entries I-V, please see belowSo, by the second weekend of the performances, we were all (actors, crew, band) seasoned veterans of the show. I think everybody felt really confindent and were willing and able to take chances.

As I have stated in previous posts, there were 7-10 Brewery Tap regulars who were there for every rehearsal held at the Brewery Tap and every performance. So they saw PLUMP play every night. By the second weekend, each of these regulars had come up to us individually stating how much they liked the band, and ho they particulatly loved it when we played the Cheech and Chong song "Earache my Eye" (as heard on the soundtrack to the classic movie "Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke"). Each one of these regulars loved it when we played this particular song. The patrons loved us. By the 3rd weekend, we were on "hug" greeting status with this regulars rather than a "handshake" greeting status. Hilarious.

The good people of "Horsehead" had arranged for different types of food for the patrons of the play. There was complimentary popcorn and pretzels in baskets throughout the bar (of which PLUMP always got a couple special baskets.) AND, they had arranged for a family who operated a food cart be stationed outside the bar which sold hot dogs, nachos, chips, etc. It bears noting that these may well have been the best hot dogs in the world. Seriously. The hotdogs were wrapped in strips of bacon. Seriously. They were garnished with jalepenos, relish, onions, tomatoes, mustard, etc. Al ate 1-2 every night. I miss the hotdogs, and especially the bacon. The food cart people loved us. Number one because we ate hot dogs every night. Nuber two because they loved the band. The food cart owner said we sat back and grinned during the pre-play PLUMP set every night. But his love of the band didn't carry over to giving us free hotdogs. Luckily, they were only $2 bucks a piece.

During the performances, PLUMP tried it's hand at drinking all manner of beverages. Provided by the bar or not provided by the bar. Even though we were in a bar and had access to the draft beers there, Jason Jackson saw fit to bring lone star tallboys just about every night. A couple of evenings, he brought a bottle of tequila that was passed around the band stage, in the dark, as they play was going on. We grew adept at having conversations using sign language or mouthing words as the play went on. And we grew adept at drinking tallboys and tequila as the play went on. I hope the audience wasn't watching us.

Stay tunes for Part VII

FAULT LINES JOURNAL PART V

2010-04-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

For Fault Lines Journal Parts I-IV, please see the respective blog posting

Opening night for the play "Faultlines" was Thursday March 11. After all the preparation and the fixing of the electricity and sound, I think everyone was pretty confident. The opening night was full of close friends of the cast and crew. It was not sold out, but it was a full house. The capacity for the play was, I think, 90 people. Comfortably, I think there were about 50 good seats, but we would cram in as many as possible up to 90 people.

It was amazing during the rehearsals, and as it proved out during the 10 performances, how the actors would subtly make little changes and variances--very similar to how we would do it for jams. The first night the actors were really live and excited. AND, the audience loved it. They laughed at almost every imaginable part. Very cool. The Ceremony music came off very well. The lights and sound were very good was eerie and loud and freaky--which is what they wanted. I thought PLUMP sounded mighty fine. We had assigned a number to each of the different parts of our underscore music, and we would look at eachother and nod and such to make sure we knew exactly what part we would be playing. I was in charge of watching the script, and cueing the band as to when we would come in and go out. It was slightly different every time, just based on where the actors were in a line compared to where we were in a groove. I caught the audiences head moving to the music a number of times, so I knew it was sounding pretty good. We had champagne after the first night, and every one was really happy--I think the opening night performance was one of the best nights of the run.

Friday night (Mar 12) the crowd was a little smaller than the Thursday night. They enjoyed the show, but they definitely did not laugh quite as much. Over the course of the run, PLUMP would have a quite a variance in the crowd response during the PLUMP part of the show, which was basically an hour of music before the play. Some nights the crowd really liked it. This particular Friday night, the crowd was a bit older, and I think we were too loud for what they would typically want to hear. I think many in the crowd wanted us to shut up. I think this partly because one particular gentleman stuck his fingers in his ears for the majority of his time in the bar prior to the beginning of the play.

On the first Friday night, near the beginning of the play, the actors ended up skipping about a page and a half of dialogue. There was even about 15 seconds on stage in which both actors were really struggling with what line to say. There dialogue descended to:

Jim--"You are crazy"
Bill--"No you are crazy"
Jim-- "No, you are crazy"

over and over again until one of the actors could remember a line that would get them on track. I could tell that the actors were really struggling, but the audience did not notice. It was actually kind of neat, for me, because I understood what was going on, and what they were frantically trying to do. Also, the whole time the actors were struggling with the lines, I was scanning the script because I needed to know when they would find a line to pop back in, so that if we had a music cue nearby that we would get back in. When the character Jim finally got a line that got them back on the script, luckily it was a line I knew, because it was about 10 seconds before we were supposed to go on. The band music got in correctly, thank God. Other than that, the show was perfectly fine.

Saturday night (Mar 13) was good. We had some sound problems during the PLUMP pre-show show, as the vocals were not going through the PA mains--the vocals were only going through the monitors. I am sure there was a big hole in the music from the perspective of the crowd.

We did a show on Monday May 15 as a "industry night", as all the people who work in theatre typically have Monday nights off, so we did a show so a lot of these people could check out the play. The audience, though smaller, loved it. This was definitely another of the best nights. I think because it was all friends and theatre people, the actors were more relaxed. It is a funny play, and if the crowd got to laughing early, the actors always responded with a really inventive performance.

We were all exhausted after spending the last 8 days together. We were in the Brewery Tap from 6 until about midnight from Monday thru Saturday, then Sunday off, but then again on Monday. We had Tuesday and Wednesday off, and the next show was Thursday night. But between doing the play and also working out day jobs, we were all really really really really tired.

Stay tuned for the Journal Part 6...

FAULT LINES JOURNAL PART IV

2010-04-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

For more Parts I-III, please read prior postings.

OK, so the venue that was chosen to host the play was the Brewery Tap, which is a bar in the northern part of downtown Houston. I had seen the Brewery Tap many many times, but had never been, and honestly I thought it was closed. (Sorry Brewery Tap!!) Super cool bar. Wood paneling. Soccer banners and scarfs on the wall. Good jukebox. 10 or so regulars who were there every day (I mean every day). Not super large. There were two slightly raised areas in the bar--one of which served as a natural stage for the play and one of which served as a natural stage for the band. The venue is kind L shaped, in that from certain sight lines in the bar you couldn't see the band, etc. The Brewery Tap had live music very semi-regularly, but was not really a good sounding room at all, acoustically.

The Horsehead people set up the lights and sound all day Sunday March 7. March 8 was the first full technical and dress rehearsal at the venue. Technical/Dress rehearsals were to be held over the next 3 days (March 8-10). During these 3 days, we encountered just about every technical problem you can imagine. There was a $10,000 or so lighting rig, and a bunch of sound. The power supply at the Brewery Tap was shaky at best. One of the breakers blew one night. One night during the rehearsals we could only have sound and no lights because the venue's power could not handle it. The breaker box at the Brewery Tap was in a state of disrepair. Horsehead had to pony up some dollars to get an electrician in to make a short-term fix just so the show would go on. This was Wednesday, the day before the show. I know they were extremely nervous.

Sound. I don't think we ever mastered the sound (even during the 3 weeks of performances). This was not the fault of the sound people. It just was what it was. Mic's would go out. Amps would go out. Speakers would go out. It was crazy, and definitely a very stressful 3 days of dress rehearsal. To add to this problem were the regulars. Part of the deal with the play was that when the show started, the regulars would get in for free every day. They were there every single day. During the rehearsals, they would have conversations at full volume, in that they were drowning out the actors. And, they didn't really care for the Ceremony Music, which was very in your face and loud and screeching at times. They had to listento us play this 4-5 times a night, which I am sure got old. But they came every day. You have to respect it.To combat the the loudness of the potential talking, the actors began using tiny mics hidden on their person and ear monitors. The mic's were first introduced into the production on Tuesday March 9. The mics did help with the overall actor volume, but the mics would pick up weird feedback and sounds at inopportune times, and overall were extremely difficult to monitor and handle. Jaz (Horsehead Sound) did a great job of keeping the sound problems related to the mic's to a minimum. Another strategy we devised to combat the regulars voice volume was to come up with a little speech (which I was to say every night before the show) that would ask out of respect for the actors and the audience to keep conversations to a minimum. This seemed to help keep the regulars a bit more muted.

The one part of the show I was most nervous about was the lighting for the ceremony. Jeremy the lighting designer was designing a light show that would be programmed to match the music with the Ceremony (overture) theme. The Overture was about 5 or 6 minutes long, had multiple tempo changes, etc. I was nervous that we would be able to consistently match it. Or that he would not be able to "punch in" on cues at certain times, which would allow him to manually make changes with us, so that we would not get out of sync. To make it a bit more stressful, by Tuesday (2 days before the performance) we had not even seen how the lights would work, nor had we rehearsed it. Luckily, Jeremy the sound guy was a fucking pro, and the first time we rehearsed it, it matched up really nicely. It looked really good. I was glad that I did not have epilipsy, as it might well have caused me to go into a seizure. But it was awesome.

The actors were amazing through all this. They were always able to concentrate and act through all the electricity, sound, loud regulars, anxiety etc. Luckily, we had a really good rehearsal on the last rehearsal night (Wednesday), and I think we all felt like we were ready to have a great run of shows. Stay tuned for Part V....

FAULT LINES JOURNAL PART III

2010-04-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

To read Journal Parts I or II, please scroll down

The actors in the play were really beyond good. My buddy Drake played Bill, and he was literally on the stage the whole play. Rick played Jim. These two guys really go pretty much the whole spectrum from smiling laughing kidding around sitcom-like banter to screaming and yelling and hatred--just short of physical violence, but not quite. They both went all out. Phillip played Joe, who is kind of the dick but also the conscience of the play. It really is THE part, and Phillip was fucking awesome. Ivy played Bill's wife. She has the smallest part and doesn't get to have quite the range the other characters had, but she was still damn good.

It was so neat to see the play over and over again in the practice and then in the actual performance to see how things changed and what was good and what sucked. We had to watch the real close for our cues as to when to go in or out. It was kind of tough, because we would be playing along to a given beat, and the actors cadence and pauses were always different because they are not talking, necessarily, in time to the music. So, in the case where we would come out in the same spot according to the dialogue, it could definitely be a different spot in a riff we were playing or a beat I was playing. It was cool, but a challenge.

PLUMP basically took a break from PLUMP practicing in order to do play practicing. We practiced with the play about 4 or 5 times during the two weeks immediately prior to the last week before the show. Horsehead had arranged to practice at a big room at Univ of Houston campus in their theatre department (1-2 of the Horsehead people work there; Anthony is the technical director there). So that was pretty cool.

We played a show on Feb 27 in Lake Charles and on Mar 5 in College Station in the midst of all this practice. That then gets us to Monday March 8, which was the first first dress rehearsal prior to the opening show on Thursday March 11. To be continued....

FAULT LINES JOURNAL PART II

2010-04-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

(Please see Part I for the first portion of the journal, if interested).In my opinion, one of the neatest aspects of participating in the production of the play was entering the "theatre world". Its neat seeing how actors rehearse and how the production people work and to see how the everything progresses to the actual performance with an audience. PLUMP had never really had to meet a deadline before, but here there was definitely a lot of work to get to the actual show.

We went to all aspects of the actor rehearsals--really to get a sense of how the underscore music should be. We went to the first read-through, with the actors, of Fault Lines. I came out of that super impressed by how good the actors already were even at this stage (granted, all of the actors are pros). We also went to one of the first rehearsals after all the scenes had been blocked (all stage movements by the actors had been determined--at least at a first draft level). We took beer. It was nice. The actors laugh a lot when they drop lines, etc. It was extremely laid back. I was especially impressed at how well the actors could concentrate on their scene--because there were always other conversations going on, because the director and production people had no problems having conversations while the rehearsal was going on. After every practice, the production staff would send out an email to the total production company, saying how it went, what props were needed, and other logistical stuff. It was very organized.

For the music, we decided to come up with a theme for each of the main characters, and for the play to have a theme. Characters Bill, Jim, and Joe each had a theme music associated with him, that was played multiple times. (Actually Bill was supposed to have theme a and theme b--wherein theme b was supposed to be a variation on "a", but sadder. The end results was a music not much like "a"). We wanted to serve the play, but to also have PLUMP-like music, where possible. We actually made one theme "Bill's Theme" pretty much like one section of a song we have called "Oso Nova". One theme was very funky--kind of in a "Shaft"-like way. The Joe theme and Fault Lines theme were closely related--mostly because Joe's dialogue often served as the theme of the play. These two themes, and the "b" theme referred to above which we called "Sadder", were very moody, kind of dark. One reviewer said PLUMP played moody music during the theme, and I think they were often referring to this. We also had some bell toll type stuff with bass and mallets on symbol. Al and Jason really had a big chance to play some cool crazy stuff through out. I felt Josh played the melody on the bass most of the time. And I played along with Josh on drums. Very cool. We had read through the script with the director, and marked the spots where we though we should come in and out. This evolved over the course of the rehearsals. Our spots coming in and out sounded really cool, and really served the drama going on the stage. Sound, or lack thereof, can really provice focus during a performance. Tune in for more.....

Fault Lines Journal (Mid February)

2010-03-31T16:09:00.000-07:00

The beginning

We were very excited to be asked by Horsehead Theatre Company to work with them on the play "Fault Lines". "hat had happened was" was that one of my neighbors (who is often found amongst a group of people standing and sitting in front of my house drinking beer) is the cousin of the wife of this dude named Drake. Drake began drinking beer in front of my house on occasion and came to see PLUMP several times, and I guess liked what he heard. It also happens that Drake is a damn fine actor, is a member of the theatre company, and played "Bill" in this here play.

Anyhoo, when they started doing prep work for the play, they decided they wanted some sort of live band for the play. As such, due to our connection with Drake, they approached us about possibly doing the music. Which was very nice. Especially since we had limited experience doing this type of thing. Although Al and Jason might have, now that I think of it. But so what. SO, all they had to go on was what Drake had heard. So then Drake asked for a "meeting" and so we had a "meeting" with Drake and the Director of the play (another dude named Kevin) in which they came to our practice studio and discussed the particulars of the play, what they wanted from us, etc. And they brought a bunch of Lone Star beer (and I immediately knew that they were our kind of people). (Of course, Drake already knew of our speciial affinity for Lone Star.) So, back to what they wanted of us-- which happened to be an "overture" (if you will) which they call "Ceremony" that had to be raucous and raw and loud and building up and up (and lasting 5-10 minutes). And then they wanted us to provide the underscore for the play. Which meant playing quietly underneath the play action. We thought this was a capital idea. They thought this was a capital idea. Etc. Still, the director hadn't really heard us.

So, our first assignment (two weeks away) was to come up with the Ceremony part. After some starts and stops and misunderstandings and Doug even yelling at Jason (for god know's what), we had something that we wanted to show them. We wanted to give it to them a bit early so if they hated it, we would still have time. Luckily, they really liked what we had done, and even said make the beginning part much more long and early Pink Floyd-like, which we liked. Kevin told me, "I didn't know if you guys were any good or anything. I asked Drake before we went in there--what if we hate it, What do we do, and what do we tell them? " Luckily, they really dug it, and we shook hands and laughed and ran around in circles. Good, great, wonderful. And we were on to the underscore. To be continued....

Luna on FEB 27

2010-03-15T06:01:00.000-07:00

Made the haul into Lake Charles a couple weeks back. LUNA was the place. For those that have never been to LUNA, they have very very very good food, and they always give us sandwiches or burgers and a case of miller high life or miller light. I love it!!

Everybody at LUNA is always really good to us. We had a pretty decent crowd on FEB 27. We played an early set, and part of the reason for the crowd was that the show had been double-booked, and some DJ's from Oakland were in town to do a DJ set, that also included some live instruments. It looked and sounded pretty cool.

Good crowd, and we had them up dancing.We always stop in Beaumont on the way back after the show at the PETRO. If you have driven 1-10 east to Louisiana you have driven past it. If you ever go in, tell them PLUMP sent you. Jody gets the spirit award for even drving on back to Austin after dropping us off.

PLUMP to perform the play "FAULT LINES" in Houston

2010-02-21T11:03:00.001-08:00

PLUMP is extremely proud and excited to announce that we will be writing music for the score for the play "FAULT LINES" and will play live at each performance of the play. We are friends with the Horsehead Theatre Company (www.horseheadtheatre.org) and have been asked to participate. Its going to be really cool.

PLUMP will probably play a 30-45 minute set before the play, and then will play the underscore during the play action."Fault Lines" is a play written in 2008 by Stephen Berber. The play takes place in a bar, so Horsehead Theatre Company has seen fit to rent out The Brewery Tap (717 Franklin in downtown Houston, TX).

The play will run for the following 10 nights:THU MAR 11, FRI MAR 12, SAT MAR 13, MON MAR 15, THU MAR 18, FRI MAR 19, SAT MAR 20, THU MAR 25, FRI MAR 26, SAT MAR 27

Advance tickets can be purchased via the horsehead theatre website (www.horseheadtheatre.org) I believe tickets are $15 in advance, and $20 at the door. I saw their production of RED LIGHT WINTER last fall, and it was AWESOME. I think this will be a very cool experience for both the audience and especially for the band!

San Marcos on Feb 19

2010-02-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

I think it is roughly 180 miles between San Marcos and Houston, but it really seems longer than that. I think because the last 25 miles between Luling and San Marcos are on HWY 183 and 80, which take you through a bunch of small towns where the spped limit is 35 MPH.

We always like playing at Triplecrown. The light show is nice. I got to play on Spank's drumset, which makes things easier. SPANK is definitely one of our favorite bands, and they are extremely nice guys to boot. We played about an hour set. We hadn't played "Underwatertown"--on of our slower songs--in a while, so we busted it out and it sounded good. However, right before we counted it off, someone in the audience yelled "Play something funky". Underwater town, while interesting, is not the funkiest of numbers. Such is Life. "The Sixer" sounded good--second time played, and it sounded much tighter than 2 weeks ago in Bryan/College Station.

SPANK rocked.

We amused ourselves playing the ring on a thread attached to the ceiling and trying to latch on to hook 10 feet away on the wall game. Great game. Jody and Josh got pretty good. There is one guy there that is clearly a master of the ring and hook game. We could all learn a lot from him.

PLUMP to perform in the play "FAULT LINES" in Houston, TX

2010-02-11T19:03:00.000-08:00

PLUMP is extremely proud and excited to announce that we will be writing music for the score for the play "FAULT LINES" and will play live at each performance of the play. We are friends with the Horsehead Theatre Company (www.horseheadtheatre.org) and have been asked to participate. Its going to be really cool. PLUMP will probably play a 30-45 minute set before the play, and then will play the underscore during the play action.

"Fault Lines" is a play written in 2008 by Stephen Berber. The play takes place in a bar, so Horsehead Theatre Company has seen fit to rent out The Brewery Tap (717 Franklin in downtown Houston, TX).

The play will run for the following 10 nights:THU MAR 11, FRI MAR 12, SAT MAR 13, MON MAR 15, THU MAR 18, FRI MAR 19, SAT MAR 20, THU MAR 25, FRI MAR 26, SAT MAR 27

Advance tickets can be purchased via the horsehead theatre website (www.horseheadtheatre.org) I believe tickets are $15 in advance, and $20 at the door. I saw their production of RED LIGHT WINTER last fall, and it was AWESOME. I think this will be a very cool experience for both the audience and especially for the band!

Revolution Is Nice

2010-02-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

We played a barn-burner of a set over at Revolution on Friday night. We did a double-bill with Strawberry Jam, and they did a heck of a job of getting the people out. Its always nice when people are all standing right in front of the stage waiting for us to start. It was a little too cold for outside, so we packed it into the bar area for the evening. We are continuing to enjoy playing the new songs--"The Sixer" was played for the first time ever. We have literally had this song on the back burner for about a year and a half, and this is the first time the song reared its head. I think we did pretty well on it (it's a complex song). We are pumped that the other new songs like "Loose/Tight" and "Guzzle it Down" are being extremely well received--they are funky little numbers. Strawberry Jam had a good show as well--and I really enjoyed hearing them play "Frankenstein" and "Benny and the Jets". At the end of the night, just as the bouncers were screaming for everyone to get the hell out of the bar, the power went out. At first, I thought it was a ploy by the bar to get people the hell out of there (Note to bar owners--this appeared to work, as people cleared out pretty quickly). Alas, my hopes and dreams were shattered as the power was completely knocked-out throughout the neighborhood.

For anyone who has never played in a band, what you all really need to know about taking down the PA and rolling up countless extension cords and microphone cords, and moving increasingly heavy speakers, amplifiers, monitors, etc. etc. is that it is really really really hard to do all of that at 2:30 am in complete darkness. That is, in fact, the dirty underbelly of rock and roll.

Last Saturday (Jan 30) in Lake Charles

2010-02-04T18:11:00.000-08:00

Man, Ashes of Babylon has a lot of fans in Lake Charles. We have been wanting to play a show with those guys, and they did not disappoint. Really cool guys. Big band. They will be coming to play with us in Houston in March.

Anyway, we have been excited about playing some of our new tunes. We hadn't played a show in just over a month, which is a long time for us, so we had a ball getting back in the swing of things. We have new songs with such glamourous titles as Loose/Tight, Guzzle it Down, and the Sixer. I am sensing a theme.

setlist included: Via Satellite, Bertha, Turnaround, Loose/Tight, Superfan, Alright, Reggae#2, Buddy Boo, and Guzzle it Down

Westheimer Block Party!!!!

2009-11-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

PLUMP is very happy to be included (again) in the Westheimer Block Party this weekend. This is a must attend event for the Houston Music Scene. 250 bands. We will be at the Main Stage in the Number's Parking lot (located on Westheimer near Taft). PLUMP's set is at 3:20 pm to 3:50 pm. 30 minutes of high-octane PLUMP. People get ready.

Heading to Fort Worth

2009-11-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

PLUMP's first ever show in Fort Worth is quickly approaching. We are pumped to play at Fred's. We are going to funk out the joint!!!

New article review for last Lake Charles show!!

2009-11-02T12:32:00.001-08:00

Hey

Check out the review that was written for our last show at Luna in Lake Charles!!

Very nice

http://maroonweekly.com/ArticleDetail.aspx?Id=1548

Yet another Houston Press notice

2009-07-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

As a result of our performance at the Houston Press Music Awards Showcase, the Houston Press had some kind words for PLUMP. Check out the article at the link below, and please note the picture of Josh, Jody, and Doug.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2009/07/hpma_aftermath_glenna_bell_bee.php

Houston Press Blurb

2009-07-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Check out this link to see the blurn written about PLUMP in anticipation of the 2009 Houston Press Music Awards:

http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-07-23/music/52-pick-up/5

PLUMP on JULY 25 and 26

2009-07-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend, PLUMP has the fortune of playing at 2 festivals:

We will be playing at the Watermelon Festival at Last Concert Cafe on SAT JUL 25 in HOUSTON, TX. PLUMP is scheduled to play around 8 PM. Other bands include: The Hightailers, Pot Roast, Opie Hendrix, Live Oak Decline, etc. etc. Gonna be a great show!!
PLUMP will also be playing the Houston Press Music Awards showcase on SUN JUL 26. PLUMP will be playing at the Red Cat Jazz Cafe at 9 PM on Sunday night. Wrist bands for the entire festival, which starts at 4 pm and includes 10 music venues and 50 bands, can be purchased through the Houston Press, or at any of the participating music venues. (See www.houstonpress.com for more details!!).

And if you haven't already, please vote for PLUMP for the Houston Press Music Awards:

Jason Jackson - Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist
Doug Payne - Best Drummer

Vote for Jason and Doug for the HPMA's!!!!

2009-07-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

The Houston Press Music Awards on-line voting tool is up. Please proceed to the website below immediately, and at the the very least register the following votes:

Jason Jackson - Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist
Doug Payne -- Best Drummer

http://www.houstonpress.com/microsites/mas2009

Voting extends through July 26, so please vote now!!!

PLUMP has been invited to play at the Houston Press Music Awards Showcase. PLUMP will be playing Sunday July 26th at 9 pm at Red Cat Jazz Club in downtown Houston. This is part of a festival with 10 venues, 50 bands, for 10 bucks. Great deal!!!

Jason Jackson and Doug Payne nominated for Houston Press Music Awards

2009-06-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

The Houston Press will be announcing on July 2, 2009 the nominees for the 2009 Houston Press Music Awards. After all of your nice and careful voting in the nominations, we have been informed that Jason Jackson has been nominated as "Best Miscellaneous Instrumentalist" and Doug Payne has been nominated for "Best Drummer". Thanks a lot for making the nominations possible!!!

The voting for the finalists will occur from July 2 through July 26, culminating at PLUMP's performance at the Houston Press Music Awards showcase on Sunday July 26 in downtown Houston. As soon as we have more details on the link to vote (beginning on July 2) and the location and time of the PLUMP show, we will definitely let you know. Thanks!!

NOMINATE PLUMP for HOUSTON PRESS MUSIC AWARDS

2009-05-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello Hello

Spring is here, which brings with it the nomination process for the hallowed Houston Press Music Awards. Please go to the link below and NOMINATE PLUMP!!! Online voting lasts until 9 am on Monday May 18th. Please vote soon!!!

We recommend the following votes:

http://polls.houstonpress.com/polls/hou/musicawards09/

BEST R&B/FUNK/SOUL - PLUMP
BEST ROCK - PLUMP
BEST ALBUM - I LIKE THE IDEA OF CHANCE
BEST GUITAR - AL BEAR
BEST BASS - JOSH MATRANGA
BEST SINGER - JODY MCCORMICK
BEST MISC INSTRUMENTALIST - JASON JACKSON
BEST DRUMMER - DOUG PAYNE

You can also vote in hardcopy form via the Houston Press weekly newspaper.

Thanks

PLUMP

GET READY FOR LATE SPRING/EARLY SUMMER

2009-04-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

PLUMP is ready to funk out the early summer at our regular stomping grounds. Here is what we have going in the near future:

MAY 8 - REVOLUTION, BRYAN/COLLEGE STATION, TX
MAY 15 - LUCKY LOUNGE, AUSTIN, TX
MAY 16 - LUNA, LAKE CHARLES, LA
JUNE 5 - LAST CONCERT CAFE, HOUSTON, TX
JUNE 12 - REBAR, SAN ANTONIO, TX
JUNE 20 - RUTA MAYA, AUSTIN, TX

BOOK IT!!!!!!!!

FEB FRI the 13th (ATTACK OF JASON)

2009-01-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

PLUMP will be playing a special gig at LAST CONCERT CAFE on FRIDAY the 13th (of February). We are billing it as the ATTACK OF JASON (considering that our sax player is

JASON JACKSON
THE JAZZ ANGLO SAXON
WHO IS OFTEN FEATURED IN A THEATRE NEAR YOU
AND WHO'S DECAPITATED ENEMIES ARE NOT A FEW

who in a strange twist of fate was cruelly murdered by some mean camp kids in an ancient campsite that years and years and years and years ago was located on what is now the Last Concert Cafe property. People always say that this rumor is total horseshit, (and they may be right) (in fact I also believe that rumor to be total and complete horseshit), but the fact is, after an evening of terrorizing local gadflys and drunks, Jason enjoys resting on his laurels by playing the saxophone (sans hockey mask of course) (although maybe this time he will in fact have a hockey mask).

So, please, come out and enjoy the show. We will have our buddies GROOVE MOVEMENT from SAN ANTONIO on the bill, so it should really be a cool show!!

PLUMP
FRI the 13th (FEBRUARY)
LAST CONCERT CAFE
1403 NANCE ST
HOUSTON, TX
WITH GROOVE MOVEMENT

Recent Quotes on our ability to FUNK YOU UP

2008-12-29T07:32:00.000-08:00

We had a really nice time at the Antacid Test on SAT DEC 22 at DAN ELECTROS in Houston. Our performance inspired some critical and thought-provoking words (some indeed might think them of the professorial variety) which we would like to share. I think we can all agree that these are two of the sharpest minds in the local Houston music community, and we welcome any and all to jump on our bandwagon.

"the hot searing vocals of Jody when added to the kick butt tones of PLUMP, made
the spicy chilli from the amazing Frito pies served at the soiree appear mild in comparison".

- Melinda "One of the door-Dohns" Iley-Dohn- KPFT Local Station Board Member, Volunteer and occasaional telephone jockey for fund

AND

"Adding Jody's vocals into the PLUMP mix made a great band even better than ever."

- Guy Schwartz, Texas Music News, Houston Music Icon

That is all

PLUMP at DAN ELECTROS on SAT DEC 20 for the ANTACID TEST

2008-12-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

PLUMP will be playing at the ANTACID TEST (which is a Jerry Christmas Benefit for 90.1 KPFT) at DAN ELECTROS in Houston, TX this SATURDAY DECEMBER 20. It ought to be a really really good show, as there are a bunch of bands. It is always a good cause, and we love helping out our buddy Sandy. PLUMP is set to play from 10:55 pm to 11:40 pm, so plan accordingly.We are psyched to play, so please come check it out!!

Here is the schedule and times for the bands:
Space Patrol 5:00 - 5:30>
JU JU EYEBALL 5:40 - 6:15>
David Fahl & Folk 6:30 - 7:00>
Third Ear 7:15 - 8:00>
Gary Sapone 8:15 -? 8:45>
Little Brother Project 9:00 - 9:45>
Guy Schwartz and the New Jack Hippies 10:00 - 10:40>
Plump 10:55 - 11:40>
Hightailers 11:55 - 12:55>
Psychodillos 1:10? - 2:00

PLUMPSAT DEC 20
ANTACID TEST
DAN ELECTROS
1031 E.24th St
HOUSTON, TX

PLUMP SHOW DEC 6 at Last Concert Cafe

2008-12-02T06:02:00.000-08:00

We are really getting geared up for a show at Last Concert Cafe in Houston on SAT DEC 6. This will be our first full show with Jody, and we are so excited because the practices have been really great and weare sounding really cool. To honor the occasion, we have CONGRATULATIONS from Denton, TX coming to play with us, and these guys are an extremely awesome band that is very funky. So, you really must come check it out. Cool!!

PLUMP with CONGRATULATIONS
SAT DEC 6
LAST CONCERT CAFE
1403 NANCE ST
HOUSTON, TX
10 PM

PLUMP WELCOMES NEW SINGER: JODY McCORMICK

2008-10-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

We in PLUMP are very pleased to announce that we are ready to welcome JODY McCORMICK as our new singer. You may or may not recognize Jody as a stalwart of the Houston music scene, having played in many groups including Jackie Paper, Good Train Sessions/Felix Madison, Deebo's Chicken Coop, etc. Anyway, we had definitely targeted Jody at the beginning of our search for a new singer, and we were really pleased that he was interested in playing a bit with us, and after several jam sessions I must say that we are all really really excited about the prospects for PLUMP. Jody brings some really soulful, funky singing to the table, and we are hoping to eventually incorporate some rhythm guitar, keyboard, percussion, and trumpet to the arsenal. This is gonna be a really great deal.

We have been working with Jody learning the tunes, and we are targeting the DECEMBER 6 show at LAST CONCERT CAFE as Jody's debut show with PLUMP. We are really looking forward to it.

PLUMP to open for DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND

2008-10-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

We are extremely excited to announce that we are opening for the DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND on SAT NOVEMBER 8 at the WAREHOUSE LIVE in Houston, TX. This is an awesome show for us, as the DIRTY DOZEN are definitely legends in New Orleans and around the world. This is gonna be bad ass. The Dirty Dozen is touring with the LEE BOYS, and PLUMP will open the show. Doors at 8 pm. PLUMP starts at 8:30. Be there!!!!!!

PLUMP
OPENINGS for DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND
SAT NOV 8
8 PM
WAREHOUSE LIVE
813 ST EMANUEL STREET
HOUSTON, TX

Back in Denton at the Boiler Room this Saturday (Sep 13)

2008-09-08T17:53:00.001-07:00

PLUMP makes its triumphant return to Denton, TX this SATURDAY (SEP 13) as we will be playing at the Boiler Room (101 W. Hickory). We are very excited. Our good pal Gaah(n) and his band SOL KITCHEN will be playing first, and then PLUMP will come on after. Expect a Gaah(n) sit in on keyboard for a song or two. Can you say "Uncle Remus"? We knew you could.

James Yarbrough has left the group

2008-09-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

James has decided to leave the group. We wish him the best.

PLUMP is in the process of auditioning for a new singer. In the interim, Doug and Jason are providing the vocals. This was the case for the shows at Dan Electros and Zapatos on August 29-30, and based on the crowd response we are definitely ROCKING!!!

FRI AUG 29 and SAT AUG 30 with CONGRATULATIONS

2008-08-21T18:32:00.000-07:00

We are looking for a very nice kick off to the Labor Day weekend. FRI AUG 29 will have PLUMP once again at DAN ELECTROS (1031 E. 24th St) in HOUSTON, TX. We have our friends CONGRATULATIONS from Denton, TX who are awesome and also SUPER PANCHO COMBO who we played with a few months back and had a real good time. So this will be a show of epic proportions that should not be missed!!

As a matter of fact, we like playing with CONGRATULATIONS so much we saw fit to make a little weekend out of it. As such, we will be playing the following SAT AUG 30 at ZAPATOS in College Station, which ought to be quite a nice dealio. So people get ready!!

Thanks for voting

2008-08-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Houston Press Music Awards have come and gone. We were nominated again for Best Funk, and from our private unofficial polling and tendencies to cross-examine (for hours and hours) people leaving the voting box, we think we received more votes than ever.

However, we lost, once again, to the Fondue Monks.

Alas.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

PLUMP on FRI AUG 8 with Metal Bands Galore

2008-08-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

PLUMP will be playing our first show ever in Pearland, TX at the Drink Station this FRIDAY AUGUST 8. This should be an early, all ages show, so tell everyone you know in Pearland to come check it out. All indications are that it will be several heavy metal bands and PLUMP, so it should definitely be a fun night all the way around.8 PM!!!

The Drink Station
8209 West BroadwayPearland, TX
www. myspace. com/thedrinkstation

PLUMP NOMINATED FOR 2008 HOUSTON PRESS MUSIC AWARD!! PLEASE VOTE IMMEDIATELY!!

2008-07-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

PLUMP is very pleased to announced that we have been nominated (again!!) for a 2008 Houston Press Music Award in the category of BEST R&B/FUNK. We would appreciate your vote. IMMEDIATELY. The voting ends on JULY 27. Please follow the following link and vote:

http://houstonpress.com/polls/musicawards08/

As always, please vote early and often. Ballots of the hardcopy variety are located inside the new issues of the Houston Press locatede virtually throughout Houston, TX

AL BEAR is Licensed to Wed

2008-06-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Well

I think it is fitting to announce that PLUMP's resident guitar wizard Al Bear will be getting married this weekend to JJ (Jana Jones that is). If/when you see Al (or JJ), by all means give them some sort of congratulations. As such, PLUMP will not be playing shows the next few weekends to give them time for the wedding and then the honeymoon. However, Al assures me that after that he will be ready to rock you like a hurricane more than ever before.

PLUMP returns to the Austin area!!!!

2008-06-16T18:49:00.001-07:00

We are excited to be back in Austin (technically Lakeway) playing at Nat's Pub on FRI JUN 20. We are excited to be playing with our pals in JABARVY, which we hope will be the second of many shows with those guys.

NEW WEBSITE

2008-06-16T18:46:00.001-07:00

If you are reading this, then you must surely realize that PLUMP has finally updated our website. Why did it take us this long? Because we are slow-pokes of the upteenth order. But, finally it is here, and we promise to update the site much more often with tidbits and the comings and goings of PLUMP. Please check it out, and note that we are not 100% complete in putting our personal bios on the site, but know that they will be posted very soon.

Thanks!!

PLUMP

PLUMP to open for Dr. John

2007-01-29T08:03:00.000-08:00

PLUMP is very excited to announce that we have been asked to open for Dr. John on Sunday February 18 at the Warehouse Live in Houston, Tx. We are all huge fans of Dr. John, and in the past we have covered Everybody Wanna Get Rich (Right Away) off the Desitively Bonnaroo album, so it would be an understatement to say that we are creaming in our jeans. Consider yourself invited.

PLUMP at Dan Electros in Houston on January 26

2007-01-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

PLUMP is very pleased to announce that at least for the foreseeable future in 2007 we will be playing the last Friday of every month at Dan Electros, in the Heights in Houston, Tx (1031 E.24th Street). As everyone in Houston knows, Dan Electros is a super cool spot, and we are pumped to be doing this. The first in the series will be Friday January 26, and we will have the bluegrass stylings of Medicine Show opening for us--this should be a great show, so be sure to come check it out.

Cool Beans

PLUMP in Houston Press Awards

2006-07-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

First of all

It appears we have been nominated for a Houston Press Music Award in the category of Best Funk. Thanks to any and all of you for voting during the nomination process. I just checked out the houston press website at www.houstonpress.com, and there is no on-line voting form as yet, but as soon as there is, I will be sure to let you know. There are also paper ballots in the paper version of the Houston Press, so please feel encourgae to vote early and often.

Also, we are playing Saturday July 14th at Last Concert Cafe in Houston, TX (1403 Nance) with our pals in Vibe Committee. VC plays first, and PLUMP follows. We are ready to ROCK.

Also upcoming:
JULY 29, Last Concert Cafe, Watermelon Festival (time and other bands TBD)
JULY 30, Houston Press Awards Showcase--TBD

Cool Beans

Doug

And then there were 5

2006-02-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

Allright, so the show at Revolution last Friday was BAD ASS. Thanks so much for the awesome crowd, and to Rola and Revolution and to Wish Foundnation for having us on the show. Lots of fun. This was the first show with James on the vocals, and to be perfectly honest he wasn't officially in the band, but now he is officially in the band, so now PLUMP is now 5-strong.

So the NEW Plump is as follows:
Al Bear--guitar
Doug Payne--drums
Jason Jackson--sax
Josh Matrenga--bass
James Yarborough--vocals

Nice

PLUMP on Feb 3 and Feb 4

2006-01-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Salutations,

Just wanted to say hey. We have been practicing furiously with our new bass player Josh, and we are extremely pleased with the results. As such, we thought we might take the opportunity to play a couple shows. SO, we will be playing our first show in the Woodlands ever and also revisiting one of our favorite places--The Vortex in Beaumont. Both of these shows will have us opening for our pals in the Peach Truck Republic, so please show up early.

SO
FRI FEB 3 (with Peach Truck), 19th Hole, 202 Sawdust Road, Woodlands, Tx
SAT FEB 4 (with Peach truck) The Vortex, 2530 North 11th Street, Beaumont, Tx

If anyone lives in the Woodlands or Beaumont and would be interested in passing out some handbills this weekend to promote the show, please send me an email, and I will send you some flyers. In exchange, I will issue you a hearty handshake (and a spot on the guest list).

Upcoming:
Feb 17, Revolution, Bryan, Tx
Mar 4, Last Concert Cafe, Houston, Tx
also in the works: Austin, Denton, and Lubbock in March/April

Cool Beans

New Bass Player and New Gigs

2005-10-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Salutations

It's been way too long since I posted on this sucker, so I guess it's high time I said something.

After trying out a good number of people, we have asked a friend of the band to join PLUMP on the bass guitar. We are very pleased that Josh Matranga has agreed to come and play with us. Josh also plays in Vibe Committee, based out of Houston. We have played some shows with these guys in the past, and they are a very good band and all around nice people, and we are glad that they are sharing Josh with us. PLUMP is now getting things together and practicing regularly, which is good, and we are getting ready to get out and play some shows.

Ah, some shows. Our pals in Peach Truck Republic from up in Fort Worth have invited us to play some shows with them in November. We will be playing at two of our very favorite haunts--Revolution in Bryan on Friday November 18 and Last Concert Cafe in Houston on Saturday November 19. We will be opening both of these shows--so please show up early. More info on these shows are forthcoming. Look for an extended itinerary of shows to begin in January and February. We are excited!!

Cool Beans

Doug

Last Saturday

2005-08-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well, we had a rocking show over at the Last Concert Cafe for the Watermelon Festival. That was probably one of the best crowds I have seen out there, and it was lots of fun. We invited Josh from the Houston-based band Vibe Committee to play some bass with us for the show, and he totally rocked. It was good to see all kinds of old friends and stuff. I can't believe it had been two months since we had played a show.

Here is the setlist

SAT JUL 30, Last Concert Cafe, Watermelon Festival, Houston, TX
Turnaround
Freedom Jazz Dance
Dub>Heights
Memphis Soul Stew
Electric Netwerk Machine of Rage
Buddy Boo

We are still in the process of inviting bass players and singers to come audition. However, we have taled with our good pals in the Peach truck Republic, and it looks like we will play a show with them in Denton in October and in Houston in November. So we have that going for us--which is nice.

PLUMP at Last Concert Cafe on July 20

2005-07-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hey,
How's it going? PLUMP will be playing at Last Concert Cafe on Saturday July 30 at the wonderful WATERMELON FESTIVAL. As always, this will be a great evening. Some of our good friends will also be playing, including Drop Trio, The Hightailers, Blendt, Sean Reefer and the Resin Valley Boys, and many others. So, come for the watermelon, and stay for the music. PLUMP plays from 10:30-11:30 pm.

And as an update, we are in the process of trying out bass players, keyboard players, and vocalists. We hope to finalize this process by mid-August, start practicing like mad, and gettig back on the train in the fall. People Get Ready.

Cool Beans

Couple thoughts on Andrew

2005-06-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Just wanted to chime in with a couple thoughts on Andrew. It hasbeen a real pleasure for myself and for Al and Jason to get to playmusic and hang out with Andrew over the last 3 and a half years. Thefirst time I met Andrew, he brought his bass over to my house to have a jam session with Al and myself in my living room. I had a copyof "Cabbage Alley" by The Meters on my table, and he said, "Man, Cabbage Alley is an awesome album." I had the feeling then that Iwould be friends with Andrew for a long time, and I was right.

When you ride in a car with 4 guys for about 60,000 miles, you really getto know those people. Andrew, Al, Jason, and myself pretty much haveour own lexicon and crazy jokes that most people find incoherent, childlike, and dumb, but that we find absolutely hysterical. The 4 us have had as much fun hanging out getting to the gigs as we have had playing them. I am going to miss getting to watch Andrew get excited as he buys 5 doughnuts at some truck stop at 3 in the morning. I am also going to miss laughing at Andrew as he groans in pain and disbelief shortly after making the mistake (again and again)of eating 5 doughnuts in 3 minutes. Andrew is a great vocalist and a great bass player, and it has been my pleasure to anchor down the rhythm section with him. The 4 of us have all grown as musicians/performers and people over the years, and it has been great to be apart of it and watch it all happen. We feel sad and will miss getting to hang out with Andrew as much as we do now. However, he is clearly excited about being a full-time dad, and that is a noble venture, so we totally understand and are happy for Andrew. So, cheers to Andrew, thanks for the good times, and good luck. PLUMP is inviting everyone to come watch Andrew play with PLUMP onelast time. The show will be at the Jellyphish Lounge in Houston, TX on FRI JUN 3, and will surely be a foot-stomping affair of epicproportions, so come out early and prepare for us to funk your faceoff.

PLUMP is in the process of trying out a couple new players. We hope to be at full speed and up and running playing everywhere we can in a few short months. We are excited about the propect of adding some new dynamics to the band, and we will definitely be ready to rock!!!!!!!!

Thanks

Doug

Message from Andrew

2005-05-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends, I have played bass and sang with Plump since November of 2001. Since then, we've played so many great shows and had a real good time making music that we like. It has been fantastic to see that you like it too. I can't describe what a cool feeling that is. In any event, I have decided to leave the band. I have just been awarded custody of my two year-old son and all my time is needed on that front. There are no hard feelings within the band whatsoever. We all understand each other very well. Doug, Al, and Jason will seek and hopefully find some folks to fill my shoes, (in their own voice of course.) I realize that Plump can never be the same without me, but who knows, maybe they'll be even better. One thing's for sure, I'm still going to attend the shows when I can and cheer them on. I love those guys like my brothers and I wish them the best. I love all of you who have come out to Plump shows the last few years. You've made me feel so good. I appreciate that. I want to thank you all for sticking with Plump. Please continue to choose Plump for your Texas source of FUNKIN' JAMS. Vote for Plump at www.houstonpress.com and check out Plump's website at www.plumpsounds.com. Once again thank you. If any of you have any questions or comments to give to me please e-mail me (Andrew) at plumpfunk@hotmail.com. PEACE and BLESSINGS.

Help Nominate PLUMP for Houston Press Music Awards

2005-04-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hello,

We would like to inform everyone that the Houston Press Music Awards have begun the process of accepting nominations. Please help PLUMP and nominate us for the Houston Press Awards. The link is below, and feel free to nominate us for the following awards--

Best Funk/R&B Band--PLUMP
Best Rock Band--PLUMP
Best Vocalist--Andrew Rice (PLUMP)
Best Guitar--Al Bear (PLUMP)
Best Bass--Andrew Rice (PLUMP)
Best Horn--Jason Jackson (PLUMP)
Best Drums--Doug Payne (PLUMP)

Cool. Please vote and Please forward this on to everyone you know. We would love to be nominated for the Houston Press Music Awards. Thanks!!

http://www.houstonpress.com/hpma/2005/2005hpma

Last week

2005-04-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well,

Our last couple of gigs have been of the private-party variety, and let me tell you, those are some good times. Why, just last Thursday we found ourselves at the St. Arnold's Brewery for a party celebrating the 2nd annivesary of our friends' Carla and Matt's wedding reception. So we played a nice show for everyone and had a real fine time. Jason and I tried to drink our weight in St Arnold's beer, and we failed--but not miserably. I highly recommend the Elissa IPA made by St. Arnolds. I love it. Outside of that, we are taking it a bit easy this month.

Hopefully, you have noticed that we put some gigs on the calendar. We are stoked to be playing some cool gigs with some good friends over the next little while. Tea Leaf Green will be here in Houston to play a show with us next week, which should be loads of fun. I am gearing up for the bands in route or leaving jazz fest. You can bet I will be seeing the Black Crowes, Derek Trucks Band, and MMW--that's for damn sure.

Anyway, we are on the schedule for Texas A&M, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and hopefully Denton and Lubbock in the coming months. People get ready.

Shows this weekend

2005-03-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

Hello People
Man, we had a big show last weekend at Last Concert. Too bad LARRY couldn't make it down--last minute cancellation. However, we thank everyone who came out, and it was definitely a fun to play for some new faces and some old faces.

We are pumped to be playing a couple cool shows this weekend. We are always pleased to swing over to Beaumont and hang at the Vortex (on 11th Steet) for the evening. We will be there on this FRI MAR 18. Show will start around 9:30 pm, and it is all PLUMP all night. I hope they have a couple 12-packs of Pabst on ice by the time I get there.

SAT MAR 19 we will be playing a private party in Denton, TX. I don't know if I am at liberty to disclose the location, but if you live in Denton hopefully you are in the know. All indications point to PLUMP playing late into the night/morning. Should be lots of fun. We have taken the time to learn a couple extra funk tunes, so the party should be shakin' all night long.

PLUMP in Twin Cities

2005-03-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

Hey,
We had a fine time hanging out in the Twin Cities of Bryan/College Station last weekend. A fine time indeed. We played the Pavilion stage at the Northgate Festival. Our pals Gnappy were there as well. Those guys are so cool and so damn bad ass. We enjoyed it. Jason was not able to make the trip down, but our pal Marcos sat in on sax all weekend. In our opinion, Jason and Marcos are the two best young sax players in Houston. We had them both onstage together when we played mid-set during the Dark Star Orchestra show, and we hope to have them both with us for as many show as possible in the future. Friday, we were back at Revolution, and we had a good old time playing for ya over there as well. Good times.

This Friday, we are very very pleased to be playing a show with our friends LARRY over at Last Concert Cafe in Houston, TX. This will be a must see show. We demand that everyone attends. PLUMP will play first at 10 pm sharp, and LARRY will play right after. Cool Beans.

Beaumont-get ready to watch PLUMP at the Vortex on Mar 18. And for those of you in Denton, PLUMP will be playing a private party on Saturday MAR 19 in the greater-Denton area. Are you in the know?? I hope so.

Last Thursday

2005-02-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a fun time last Thursday at the Rhythm Room opening for Perpetual Groove. Nice Thursday crowd. The P Groove guys for Georgia seemed affable fellows--I particularly enjoyed chatting with their keyboard player for a bit. They take the award away from Brothers Past as far as the band that has most equipment on the stage for a show. Damn. I enjoyed their Peter Gabrial cover for sure.

We debuted a new song on Thursday night. Which is kind of an old song. Weird. We have (had) a song that was a funky number called Harry Carry which we used to play with regularity. Then we got tired of it and stopped playing it. About 4 months ago, we decided to revitalize it. Al came up with two new parts (beginning and end) and we saved the middle part of the old version. We still called it Harry Carry. We played it a few times live--and got a nice response every time--and we even recorded it last December. But, over the holidays, we decided we didn't like the one hold over from the old Harry Carry. So, we came up with a new part. So its a whole new song. NOW, its called Sweet Air. It is still funky. We were a bit nervous, but we pulled it off last Thursday. We also definitely played the best version of another new song we have called "Ride this Hurricane" that we had ever played live before. Cool. Here is the setlist.

THU, FEB 17, Rhythm Room, Houston, Tx, (Opening for Perpetual Groove)
Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Turnaround, Sweet Air*, Sweet Leaf, Situation Room, Memphis Soul Stew, Everybody Wanna Get Rich (Right Away), Ride this Hurricane

Hey now, we are heading back to Louisiana this weekend. This will be our first time in Lafayette, LA, as we are playing at The Keg on Thursday, Feb 24. If you know anyone in Lafayette, please tell them to come check us out!!! We are also playing in Lake Charles at Breezy's opening up for our pals in Thinking Plyers. Show starts early--9 pm--so come check out PLUMP early.

Also, we have two shows in the Bryan/College Station area over March 3 and 4. We are playing the NORTHGATE FESTIVAL on THU MAR 3. We are at the Pavilion behind the Chicken. We start at 9 pm, and we play right after our pals in GNAPPY. Cool.

Then, on Fri Mar 4 we are at Revolution in Bryan, where we are gonna throw down some serious jams. Hey, if there is anyone in Bryan/College Station who would like to help us get the word out about the shows and pass out handbills, we will make it worth your while (wink wink). Please send me an email at dougpayne74@yahoo.com if interested in helping flyer for these shows. Excellent.

Studio time

2005-02-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

Hey hey,

We had a real good time in the studio this past weekend. What we did was to continue working on the recording we began in December. We spent all day Friday and Saturday holed-up at the Bungalow with our pal and engineering-extraordinaire Mark Shannon, and we are getting very excited about the results. Right now, we have 7 songs that are ready to be mixed. We anticipate going back to the studio in June to record hopefully at least 4 more songs for what will become ther next PLUMP album. We are getting excited, because this recording sounds really good so far.

FYI, we are playing at the Rhythm Room in Houston, TX this Thursday night. Perpetual Groove from Georgia is a-coming to town, and we are going to open for those guys. They have been getting all kinds of good press, so we are looking forward to meeting and hagning out with them. PLUMP plays at 9:30 pm, and the RR is at 1815 Washington.

Next week, we will be at:

THE KEG, Lafayette, LA, THU 2-24, 10 pm
BREEZY's, Lake Charles, LA, SAT 2-26, 9 pm (opening for Thinking Plyers)

All right

2005-02-07T07:36:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey,

Sorry for the lack of posts on here. But, don't take the lack of posts for lacks of shows. We played some wing-dingers. The weekend before last we had a nice little Louisiana-East Texas run of shows. We played a show at Twiropa in NOLA with our new friends called Gravy. They were extremely nice guys and did a very nice version of "Ophelia" by the Band. The Twiropa room was definitely a cool room to play in. Next, we headed to Beaumont and the Vortex. Everybody there treats us right, and it was good to see our pal John Fulbright, and Dave and Shaggy at the Vortex were their normal cool selves. Nice. Next, Revolution on Saturday night. Man, it was cold, but it was fun. Thanks to Jim Owsley Jazz Quartet for playing with us, and thanks to everybody that came out and danced and stuff. You all were great.

Wednesday Feb 2, we played during set break of the Dark Star Orchestra show at the Meridian. Man, we had a ton of people up and dancing and that was a real cool show. It was real cool when the "Jerry" of DSO was admiring Al's set up. He was even kind enough to buy a cd. That's the Jerry I know and love. Fri the 4th we were back at Brian Oneill's. We were enjoying ourselves until the venue got nervous about stage volume and were afraid the cops were gonna give them a ticket and made us shut down. Heck, we were playing real quiet anyway. So, it goes.

This weekend PLUMP goes back to the playground that is The Bungalow Studio. Mostly just to hang out with our pal Mark Shannon, but also to record a bit. Here comes fun.

PLUMP does have the following shows for Feb:

THU FEB 17, Rhythm Room, Houston, Tx--opening for Perpetual Groove
THU FEB 24, The Keg, Lafayette, LA
SAT, FEB 26, Breezy's, Lake Charles, LA--opening for Thinking Plyers

Cool Beans

Last weekend in Denton and Lubbock

2005-01-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

Damn, that was a bad ass weekend. First thing we did was pull into Denton on THU night. This was our first headlining Denton show, and we were pumped. We had Sunday Drive (Grady from BAGG has another band) and they rocked, and they even played a sweet version of "The Weight" for little old me. Then we had this band called Sublemon on the bill, which is a Sublime cover band. They played their Sublime goodness, and it was halfway through their set when we realized that Texas Jive was PACKED. We were excited. We hopped up there and knew that we had to rock from the get-go. We started off with a little Buddy Boo and then played What's the Buzz. This whipped the crowd into a frenzy and they stayed that way the whole show. Man, the corwd was awesome. Denton is AWESOME. Much love and thanks to our pals in BAGG. Grady, Ben, and Gaah(n) were at the show and it was damn good to see them. They have helped us out in Denton so much its not even funny. After the show, we cruised over to Grady and Jessie's house to hang out. First, I have to digress. Grady and Jessie have been kind enough to let PLUMP sleep on the floor of their house every time we come to Denton. They have now moved into a new house about 3 times the size of the old one. I was running windsprints in their living room. It was awesome. Unfortunately, there was some sort of incident in which the cats broke out of the house while they were at Texas Jive. I hope they found them all. Regardless, we made sure to have a late-night viewing of "Harold and Kumar got to White castle".

All right, next day we drive up to Lubbock. Nice drive. We hook up with our pals Mike madden and Adam. Over to Texas Cafe. Ate some good bbq. One Big Groove played a nice opening set. Then--man. What a crowd. I think we had about 260 people. Our biggest Lubbock show of all time. The dance floor ROCKED!!! Man, good times. Although I rubbed a hell of a lot of skin off my thumb. I required a band-aid and plenty of them. Saturday at Texas Cafe was bad ass too. Lubbock--YOU ARE AWESOME. THANKS SO MUCH.

We definitely took the time in Lubbock to eat a Big Mama at Josie's. We also went to Ralph's Records in Lubbock. Andrew bought a Fugazi album, Al bought an acoustic Slip album, and Jason bought the Flying Luttenbackers, the Acoustic Singers of Zambia, and Tibetan Tantric Chants. The drive back from Lubbock was long, and we had a nice flirtation with death. Let's just say, PLUMP looked death straight in the monacle and then said "NEIN". Anyhoo, I will post the setlists tomorrow.

Get ready New Orleans (THU at Twiropa), Beaumont (FRI at Vortex), and Bryan/College Station (SAT at Revolution). We are coming your way this weekend.

Cool Beans