Since I’m posting live band pics, here are a few of Issues, the cover band I play with most weekends, back at the American Royal in October.

My former neighbor Steve Newell, of Express Photo in Brookside, was hired by the KC Star to take photos around the American Royal. He recognized me playing at one of the private parties and asked permission to come in and shoot the band. The security guards gave him only five minutes in the tent and stipulated that no one could appear in any pics except the band. He only shot five or six frames and these were the best three, though the rejects were nothing to sneeze at either—he seems to be a master at picking the exact moment to snap. I think they’re very good, and was knocked out by his collection of band photos (both live and studio) at his shop in Brookside. Plus he’s a very nice guy. If you are looking for an event photographer, Steve is certainly worth checking out.

Personnel in the shots are: Cliff Eveland, guitar; Ray Medellin, vocals; Richard Streeter, bass and vocals; Jack Stanley, guitar. Ray’s wife, Brenda Medellin, is playing tambourine in one shot, and I’m playing drums, of course. Our guitar player that night was actually Scotty Yates—Cliff was doing sound and happened to be sitting in when the photographer came around.

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I caught Patrice Pike and her band in a show at Davey’s Uptown the other night. I wasn’t familiar with her or the Rock Star: Supernova TV show where she was a contestant, but a friend of a friend said this should be a good show and tickets were only $10, so I decided to go.

It was a really tight, slick, professional act. Instead of an opening act, the band members accumulated on stage, doing their own material. As Patrice Pike explained, the individual band members are all well known as artists in their own regard around Austin, and she was happy to give them a chance to showcase themselves, besides the fact she was thrilled they had agreed to tour with her. I do think they tried too hard not to upstage her in their choice of material. The songs they played before Patrice Pike joined them were so sleepy that I was just about ready to write the band off then and there.

There was no denying what great players they all were, though, especially when the main part of the show started. Patrice Pike is an accomplished songwriter and singer, and more to the point, the woman has star power. When she is on stage, you can’t take your eyes off her, even with as massively talented a band as this one. The material covered everything from rock anthems to funk jams, with impeccable arrangements and inspired playing. I do think her songs tend to be a little too complicated to be huge hits, and the show dragged on a little too long (though that may have been at the request of the venue, trying to sell liquor as long as possible).

I bought the Unraveling CD, but I’ve only had time to listen to it once so far. I thought the songs were good, but overall it was pretty flat compared to the live act—possibly a hurried production to capitalize on Patrice Pike’s name recognition while she still has that advantage. Nothing wrong with that; in fact, I get the feeling that this tour is part of a pitch to get a major label deal for Patrice Pike. She’s ready. If you get a chance to check out her show, I highly recommend it.

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This is one of the coolest things I have seen in many a moon. Unfortunately, Flash 9 on my MacBook starts complaining after I stay on the page more than 15 minutes or so. Via D'Monkey.

Finally, I found an email in my Junk folder from Christian Debt Removers. This gives me a mental image whose hilarity I can’t even describe—something like very serious guys in hazmat suits with Caterpillar earth movers or something. Oh well, at least I entertain myself.

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A few political links:

A Veterans’ Day Message to Karl Rove: Take Your Terror Scares and Shove Them Up Your Ass! Do we dare hope the era of constant fear-mongering is over?

And, while I really do hope the Democrats act in a spirit of bipartisanship, it really does seem way past Time For A Big Ol’ Cup of ‘Shut The F*** Up.’

I’m glad to find I’m not the only one whose first reaction to Bush’s speech over the weekend was, “What, we’re supposed to be proud the administration didn’t use the war as an excuse to interrupt the democratic process?”

For that matter, I’ve always found it amazing how much the Iraqi elections have been trumpeted as some sort of triumph of democracy. Basically, everyone trotted out and voted for their own ethnic group (yay for us!)—in the case of the Shia, they were basically told by their leading cleric that they were going to hell if they didn’t vote. This is not an election as we in the West understand it, and it is not all that surprising that the Iraqi government is not functioning in a particularly democratic way. But we’ll leave that discussion for another time.

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Lots of random links to catch up on today.

Microsoft’s attempt at an iPod-killer, called Zune, is to be released tomorrow. Nearly all the reviews I’ve read are negative. Forbes.com’s Digital Download blog says flatly, “Zune stinks.” C|Net compares the unit to “someone showing up to a punk rock concert in a tweed coat.” Only PC Magazine gushes “All I can say is ‘Wow.’”—a response so different from everybody else you have to wonder if advertiser dollars are a factor.

Most reviewers seem to find the unit clunky, the purchasing system confusing and borderline deceptive, and the implementation of wireless song-sharing mostly worthless (you can share the song only three times and only for three days). The cornerstone of Microsoft’s plan seems to be that they are working closely with the major labels, unlike the uneasy arms-length approach of Apple. Given that the biggest complaints I have heard about iPod involve the concessions Apple made to the music manufacturers, and the current low state of the majors, this doesn’t bode particularly well for Zune.

The C|Net article features extensive quotes from the Zune team, telling how they tried to “think like a band,” with phrases like “think creatively and in terms of how to improve music for a listener.” In my experience, bands are a lot more likely to think like “Do we get free beers in this place?” and “Think I can make it with that waittress?” Phrases like the former seem likely to produce this kind of music, but what do I know?

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Just in time for the election, a collection of links which have been collecting dust on my hard drive….

Bill Maher video: New Rule: America must stop bragging it’s the greatest country on the earth and start acting like it. “I know this is uncomfortable for the faith-over-facts crowd, but the greatness of a country can, to a large degree, be measured.”

A conservative blogger wakes up and turns against his compatriots:

…it really sucks looking around at the wreckage that is my party and realizing that the only decent thing to do is to pull the plug on them (or help). I am not really having any fun attacking my old friends- but I don’t know how else to respond when people call decent men like Jim Webb a pervert for no other reason than to win an election. I don’t know how to deal with people who think savaging a man with Parkinson’s for electoral gain is appropriate election-year discourse. I don’t know how to react to people who think that calling anyone who disagrees with them on Iraq a “terrorist-enabler” than to swing back. I don’t know how to react to people who think that media reports of party hacks in the administration overruling scientists on issues like global warming, endangered species, intelligent design, prescription drugs, etc., are signs of… liberal media bias.

I laughed so hard I thought I was going to be sick: Cry, The Beloved Stupid Country. As the Paul Schaeffer character in This Is Spinal Tap said, “Timing, timing, I got no timing.”

Whether you agree with these articles or not, be sure and do one thing for me: on Tuesday, get out and vote.

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