Very sad to hear about Mr & Mrs Random's cat. My condolences go out to the Random family.

The trip down to Takilma for the Ovulators/Yeltsin/Metal Detector show was fun but exhausting. The Takilma Community Center was a very cool building with a nice wood dance floor + a great stage set-up and a nearly-adequate PA system. You definitely got the feeling that it was a rural hippy counter-culture alternative school scene - I think someone said the building functioned also as a kindergarden/primary school during the week. Ironic that the beer garden was set up in the kids library section.
Cosmo and I played a short Metal Detector set to open the show - we did a couple of Sabbath and Ramones songs + one of our own. Cos kicked it on Jivan's set and sounded very solid.
The Ov's had people dancing from the get-go. People were showing up in droves - mostly the local p*t grower contingent, to be sure, but also regular jock-kids and a lone rural punk rocker who was stoked on some bands from big-city Eugene coming down to play in the boondocks. Tina's song about the drag bar was the highlight of the night for me - one of those magical moments in a set where everything comes into focus + the arrangement had some quiter moments that really allowed the vocals to shine. Jivan's playing was very complimentary to the Ov's style and sounded great.
Yeltsin were a total hit last night, partly since Takilma is Jake's old stomping ground. Holy shit! There had to be around 200 people there over the course of the night and the all dug the segmented genius pop/rock of Yeltsin - well, when they weren't outside smoking the devil's own reefer they were, anyway.
After the show, the jams started. I stayed in for a few random tunes and Cosmo played as well, but by 1 am ...we were fucking tired. Since there were still a ton of people cavorting inside the community center, we high-tailed it to Cave Junction and Tina simultaneously got us a room AND got the Ovulator's a gig at the Junction Inn lounge...??? At 2 in the morning ??? We laughed on that one and then snored hard....
Now, back home, feeling crusty just like last sunday. Coffee, anyone?

Regarding Cosmo's original B-day:

Man, I laugh everytime I see pictures from the day Cos was born - I was 22 at the time, wearing a Jesus Lizard t-shirt and I looked SCARED AS HELL. Spirit looked pretty damn scared, too. I can recall watching "EEK the cat" on tv that morning - I wish that cartoon was still running. I don't think Spirit would appreciate a play-by-play description of the whole event, but at least I'll say this: I think she just about broke my fingers as she squeezed my hand during labor...crrrrruuuunnnnchh!!! Cos popped out at about 6 pm, all squirmy, slimy and cry-ey. 8 lbs 10oz of pure meconium-spewing, pee-squirting fun. He peed all over me in the hospital the first time I tried to change his diaper. I have no doubt that kids are put on this earth by the powers that be in order to humble us and remind us as parent/humans that we have absolutely no control over anything; the best we can do is wipe off the piss and continue to survive.
Now, my kid is slamming out beats (well, has been for 8 years) and knows more music theory than I do. How time flies...
Tomorrow, we're going down to the Ovulators/Yeltsin sleepover in Takilma, right over the hill from where I grew up. Cos and me may get to play a few tunes to open the show. Contact the Ov's for directions and come down!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!


A killer day, to be sure. It started at the Tiny Tavern last night (read about that part here.) I woke up with a nice headache and felt very spaced out for most of the morning.
Cosmo and I kicked it over at Tina's and all ended up partaking in the food preparation and creation. Cos and I also wandered over to Michael and Leah's giant party for awhile before dinner and saw some of the regulars- Howard, Scottk, Pedro, Ruthie, Michael & Leah + others. We ate some turkey-flavored donuts from the deep-fryer----uber good.
Then, back to Tina's for major grazing and stomach -filling uuuuuggggghhhh ... yum . Cosmo played a killer snare roll in the backyard to compliment 11-year-old Osana's fire-twirling act - only in Eugene, folks, will parents let their kids practice fire-twirling. Damn! The kid was good, too.
Tomorrow is Cosmo's 11th b-day. I guess I should be feeling old now,
but instead, I feel like more of a kid. Rock and Rollllllllll!!!

Another dark, quiet and miserable-looking day outside. No matter how much sleep one gets, it's never enough when the weather is like this.

VAGIANT UK are going to attempt to crash the Dirty Little Pedro / YELTSIN show down at the Tiny Tavern tonight. Come down to what promises to be the only show in town tonight and celebrate the pre-holiday in style with all those people that only seem to be in town once a year - well, namely Pedro.

of interest: NYC blog.

Rad! It's raining like crazy in Eugene today. I love it when it gets like this. Makes me want to stay indoors and drink coffee.

Dan Jones' latest tour adventures include a run in with a troupe of LATEX-CLAD, S&M SANTAS and SPANDEX EASTER BUNNIES(!!) in Oakland. Sounds like he is having some hedonistic fun. Go Dan!

A nearly wasted Sunday. After lounging around, watching DVD re-runs of The Young Ones, I tried to bust ass and clean the house; no can do. Cos is back at his mom's and I'm 3 beers toward being somewaht happier on this slow-motion Sunday night.

I've added a few more blog links to my un-organized blog roster - Mark Brown is some kinda L.A. insider who seems to provide tech assistance to the stars as well as post pics of them; plus, he seems to have an occasional taste for low life rock and roll like the rest of us. Beck is some famous singer who seems write in his online journal from time to time.

Hoo boy. Time for another tall one and a little Killdozer to put me in that "Back-to-work" mood.

Scottk chastised me for deleting my wicked Desert Sons rant from 4 weeks ago - look, dude, I took it down because I couldn't back up my critique with facts, since much of it was hearsay anyway and that was a looong time ago. My panties were just in a bunch that night and I needed to vent. BUT, I promise, no more blog-editing. I'll stick to my guns and leave all cranky spiels un-deleted, hence-forth.

Tina and I went out to the amazing and wonderful Billy Barnett's 50th birthday bash out at the Gung-Ho studio residence tonight. I ate chicken, further distancing myself from the strictly-vegetarian lifestyle that I've been living since I was 18. It was very fleshy, yet tasty too. Many fine friends were in full effect - Raenie & Patrick, Scott & Annabelle, Steve P, Chantel, Tyrone, Anna, Eric Sprado etc... It was cool to see all the pictures of Billy as a young man with all the various bands he's been in. A hero to most; I feel lucky to call him my friend.
Poked around Gung Ho with Tina - she had never been & needed to see the hallowed halls where good tunes come to life.
Afterward, zipped Tina home so she could prepare for her show tonight with the Ov's at Luckey's; now, I'm hanging with the terror kids, Cos and Isaiah, playing video games and wondering where all my beer went...

Quick blog: I heard back from the Desert Fathers regarding my rant about them at the beginning of this month...suprisingly, singer/guitarist Acqua didn't want to rip me a new asshole; instead, he wanted MORE punishment (or at least he wanted to read the meanest parts of my deleted rant.) Sorry, Acqua-dude - maybe someone else can recall the specifics of my evil spewage, but my mind is like a sieve. ALTHOUGH, it would be fun to have a cross-continental band war - are you big-haired, east coast foo-foo boys up for it? Grrrrrrrr...

Blog getting out of hand...eating my brain....must take break...back someday soon.

I've finally put all of the chapters from Garden Weasel Diaries into the right order. I still intend to write an epilogue to the early 90's Humboldt punk scene and a "where are they now?" chapter sometime in the near future. Otherwise....PROJECT COMPLETE!! and I'm glad.

Check out MiniKiss !

(ScottK, this one's for you!)

Fun/exhausting Monday night out. First, went to Paradiso to go catch friends Brian and Jennifer, doing their acoustic thing. Lots of familiar faces from my last job were in attendence - Spodens, Livelies, Zooks, Swansons + a few others. Mostly Spodens, though. Brian and Jennifer strummed and sang and harmonized sweetly.

Later, the free show at John Hank's ended up going pretty well. Nero were too jam-rock for me, but they were very considerate about not playing too late. Heavenly Oceans whupped the donkey's ass with only a six-stringer and a drum kit. We went on third and kept our set down to about 8 songs, considering it was already close to midnite. Billy started his birthday around our second song - happy birthday, Billy - and it was good.
Bourbon Renewal were total troopers for going on as late as they did. They looked damn tired but still played a kickin' set of trad blues. Very punk rock.
Now, saying that I'm burnt is an understatement. No more late night Monday gigs for me for awhile.

WORD UP!!

Hey, Eugene Folks -

Please come down to the free show at John Henry's 77 w Broadway on Monday, November 17th at 9pm

The bands are gonna be: Heavenly Oceans/Nero/Ed Cole + College Girls of Tora Bora/Bourbon Renewal

Lately, I've been receiving some flack for being weak at promotion; help me prove these assumptions false by COMING DOWN TO THIS SHORT NOTICE SHOW AND HAVE YOUR ASS ROCKED OFF FOR FREE!!

Mention my blog and I'll buy you a PBR (limited to the first five requests, got it? I'm not made of money!)

***!!!ALL POINTS BULLETIN!!!****

You've got to check this out!!

Apparently, it's a new kids TV show made with major musical contributions by folks like IAN MACKAYE, BOB MOULD, BRENDAN CANTY, VIC CHESTNUT AND KATHY (bikini kill) WILCOX!!!

I wish I were a kid again.

'twas very amusing that Tina came over for dinner (actually, she made us dinner - thanks very much) and Cosmo created a website for her in , like, 15 minutes. Check it out!

Glad to see Kelani is online now.

Drove up to Portland with Tina last night to catch Robyn Hitchcock at the Aladdin as well as Firewater across town at Lola's Room.
Arriving at the Aladdin, we ran into Toby and Derek. They had saved some seats for us close to the front, which was cool. The theatre itself was shabby but nice, with old seats that were too small and uncomfortable, even for a mid-sized bloke like me.
Scott McCaughy stumbled onstage looking disheveled and disorganized. He confessed right away that he was absolutely unprepared for his set - this struck me as somewhat insulting, considering any time you have a good opening slot for a $20 show, you should F#&CKING PREPARE your set list in advance, out of respect for the audience.
McCaughy's set was okay, mainly consisting of lack-luster songs about drinking + no less than two Wilco songs and a Replacements song. He had a quiet drummer and bassist join him mid-set and finally, Robyn himself came out and played harmonica on a couple of tunes. I will say that McCaughy was inspiring in the sense of, "I could do that..." End grade: C+

When Robyn came out a few minutes later, it was amazing just to note his presence and command of the audience, Granted, Robyn has a large cult following that will always hang on his every word, but he is amazingly clever at delivering stage banter. He could literally just stand there and talk for an hour and not even play a song and still have the audience enthralled.
I'm not the best at keeping track of set lists at shows - I generally like to enjoy a show as in-the-moment as possible - but he started off with "I'm only you" and finished with "Queen of eyes", with McCaughy and boys backing him up. In between, he touched on all eras of his catalog- "Kingdom of love", "Glass hotel", "Uncorrected personality traits", "Balloon man", "Sleeping with your devil mask", "1974", "Speed of things", "Don't remember Guilford", "Queen Elvis" + several others. Very inspirational. Damn! I wish I was half as clever as he is.

From there, it was off across town to get a bite to eat at the McMenamins underneath the Crystal Ballroom. I had fish and chips for the second time in the past 14 years (perhaps bison will be next! screw my vegetarian ways - I'm over it) It was great hanging with Toby and D.Tro and Tina.

When we went upstairs to the Firewater show, the door guy said that the box office was closed...at 11 pm? Derek and Toby already had paid and went upstairs. Momentarily, the nice doorman let us in for free. Thanks, doorman!

We arrive upstairs only moments before Firewater make their entrance, parade-style, with the horns in the front, Todd A in the middle, banging a tamborine, and the other members following with accordian and percussion. A very effective entrance, it feels like we're in a decadent circus of drunks and our ringleader has just entered.
Aside from some feedback at the beginning, the sound is really good (although too loud for this small room) and people are packed around the stage and dancing and covorting like a bunch of modern-day Gomorrah-ites. The band is right-on, despite the appearance of being twisted drunk; Todd A on bass & singing + guitar, accordian/keys, drums and a remarkably good duo of horns - the trombone player is out-of-sight good (and also about 4'11", adding to the "carnival of the strange" feeling of the show)
I really can't recall too many of the songs from their set, but I do note the classics - "Bourbon and Division", "Man with the blurry face", "Drunken Jew" - are somewhat re-worked, and the arrangements are very effective. I love hearing bands re-arrange their works from time to time, and Firewater do this very well.
Near the end, one of the burlesque dancers from the Seattle troupe Gun Street Girls comes up and does an extremely sexy dance/tease thing that is very titillating without showing any skin at all. Decadent!
After talking some with my PDX friend Casey, Tina and split back to Eugene and snoooozzzzzzzzeeedd zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Garden Weasel Diaries is now called "Garden Weasel Diaries" I think I am writing a book and don't know it yet.

I thoroughly enjoyed going up to KWVA to help Mr Random mix Better Angels during their on-air performance - although "Mix" is kind of an over-statement, since all I did was aim 2 microphones and try to elevate Diane's vocals. Nonetheless, hearing the former Oswald 5-0 singer's voice and songs was inspiring and gave me a renewed faith in being able to write and perform fresh-sounding punk rock after the age of 30.

Latest Garden Weasel post details how to stay drunk while living in poverty + some growing pains in the early 90's Humboldt punk scene.

Went to the amazing Wetlands with Tina last night. We ended up seeing several friends there - Zookie, Brian & Jennifer, Mark & Richard. M + R I almost never see out on the town and we had a great time catching up on recent events and gabbing it up. Sheesh, though - 1:30 is too late to be staying out on a Monday night.

Latest Garden Weasel post features Punk rock in a seafood restaraunt, ala' Hedwig, so grab yer fish and chips and have a read.

Here's a link to a blog that features some photos and text from the ATP festival that I couldn't afford to make it to over the weekend. It looks like it would have been fun; then again, I hate festivals because they are exhausting and you have to wait in line for everything.

Fight! Fight! Fight! on the Garden Weasel site!

I'm posting this Sunday night so I'm not tempted to waste time at work blogging tomorrow.
My weekend ran like this: I watched a couple of horror movies with Cosmo - "the Ring "(very scary) and "Pet Cemetary" (extremely cheesy). Also saw the much-reccomended Led Zepplin dvd (I generally am weary of Zep, but...it was AWESOME, dude!)

Mr Random's been busy with his blarg updates. Way to go! I like it when my favorite blargers update often. Myself...I'm starting to worry that I need to get more of a life. (aside from being a non-married, rock-and-roll dad with a job, three bands, a dog, cat and a bleog)
I can't wait to go see Robyn Hitchcock and Firewater in Portland this week. I know you'll all be there, but please don't talk to me about my blehg- it's getting to be a shameful thing.

New Garden Weasel post. This one details the summer of 1991 and all it's ups, downs and some killer show reviews of Nirvana, Jesus Lizard and the Replacements. A must read!

Hey everybody-

Went to go hear Chuck Palahniuk speak last night at WOW hall + there was the later show featuring Mood Area 52, the Desert Fathers (or Dessert Feathers?) and YELTSIN.

I don't know why I thought it wouldn't be completely packed down at WOW hall for a free speaking engagement by a famous author. There were people packed all the way to the entrance of the hall when I showed up at 7:15. I couldn't hear a thing, so I headed downstairs to the bar to have a beer and listen throught the system down there. I chatted with Mike Roderick and Barb and then Chuck was doing his intro, so we all listened in.
After a short intro spiel about his recent TV appearance on Conan O'Brien, he read his short story, "Guts".

I will say this: I had heard the warnings about how this show should not be attended if you are at all squeamish. Having read Palahniuk's books, I thought, "pshaw - I can handle it. No problem." I am not a squeamish person.

I squeamed.

"Guts" turned out to be three masturbation stories gone terribly wrong. That's really all I can say. If you like squirming, you should read the short story. I think hearing it once was good enough for me.

Later, I came back with Tina and Betheny and Randy for the music part of the program. Chuck was still there signing books while Mood Area 52 were playing. He seemed like a nice guy, but I had no inclination to get in line to talk to him.

The Desert Fathers were a loud trio from NYC who sounded like a cross between the Melvins, early Soundgarden and Sonic Youth. Unfortunately, they had a really shitty attitude about playing in a near-empty hall and made the situation worse by insulting Eugene, insulting Chuck Palahniuk, and basically acting like TOTAL F#@KING PRIMADONNAS! Their music might have even sounded good under different circumstances, but they flat-out alienated everyone there. I just laughed. HEY DESERT FATHERS SINGER: (insert really mean, expletive-laden sentence slamming Desert Fathers here)

Yeltsin came on after that and somehow, the hall suddenly had 50 people in it. They played a great set to friends and others and Jake pulled out some amazing hammer-on action that sounded great. Jivan verbally jabbed the Dessert Feathers the whole time, but they were outside, talking on their cell phones by now, so they missed a potentially fun/antagonistic situation.

If you haven't already been there, Ed Cole Rocks is my ongoing chronicle of my old band, Garden Weasel. in my most recent installment, you can read about the most amazing chicken coop/practice pad that I think ever existed.

Alright.

I mentioned in my last post that November the third is my personal day of the dead. Here's the lowdown:

My dad, Edward H Cole, was quite a dude. Born on May 15th, 1903 in Telluride, Colorado, his life reads like a Steinbeck novel. His father was the son of an Irish immigrant from Texas. His mother - all I know of her was that her name was Neva (like my sister) and that her family was originally from Wales.
His pop was a railroad foreman in Colorado, and for the first several years of my dad's life, they lived in a converted boxcar near the worksite where my grandfather headed up a multi-racial crew of black, Hispanic and Chinese railway workers. (I've heard stories that he had the respect of his entire crew, despite the immense amount of tensions between the railroad and the dis-enfranchised workers, but that's a whole different story.)
Among the historical events that my dad lived through: 1) The first man-powered flight at Kittyhawk; 2) World War I; 3) The Great Depression 4) World War II (he fought in France and was dissapointed when his superiors found out he was a mechanic - they took him off of the front lines and had him working on tanks and trucks all day.); 5) the advent of radio, movies, television and the computer.... I could go on. He played violin in pub bands during the depression, was a comic strip artist for several local daily papers, wrote poetry and drank copious amounts of Old Crow whiskey.
He married my mom in 1959; he was 35 years her senior.(It might sound like cradle robbing, but I know for a fact that my mom relentlessly pursued him...love works in mysterious ways) I was born August 2nd, 1970 , the last of five kids from that marriage. We lived in Ramona, California until 1975, when we moved to Smith River in Northern California. My dad's Liver was failing due to all the Old Crow.
November 3d, 1975, Edward H Cole died in Crescent City, California at Seaside hospital.

Hence, this will always be my personal Day of the Dead.

HAPPY DAY OF THE DEAD...although I usually celebrate it on November 3d. I'll explain in a future post.
This year, Halloween...was just too frantic. I swear, I must be getting old. I did the job thing for 1/2 a day, dropped Cosmo at a friend's house, got my costume together, played the Metal Detector gig down at 5th St (thanks, Autumn), which was, as usual, a good way to let mah kid get his drum ya-yas out and also a good time for various friends and relatives to check out our little "family band"... also a hell of a lot of work, although it might not seem like it.
From there, I drop Cos once again at a different friend's while I go down for Vagiant UK soundcheck...it goes well. After various other drop-off, pick-up activit, I'm tired and spaced out and onstage with an 18th century powdered-wig fancy-boy prancing around in front of me + 'Garth' from Wayne's World and a space-age cowboy/gigilo flanking me...oh yeah; I did my best to dress up as Dave Vanian from the Damned-it came out pretty well, but I felt as dead as I looked. NONETHELESS, I think the giant vagina band went over as well as could be expected and I had fun trying to make the bass do what I wanted it to do. It was way fun to be using Dan Shmid's Ampeg SVT - what a monster-truck of an amp!! I don't think I've ever played through a decent bass amp until last night.
Set over. Phew. Very tired. Now, I'm just hangin' with Cos, watching the Daddies. They put on a decent show to a less-than-packed house, Still, a lot of people are there-I guess several hundred. Steve seems a bit more low-key than usual - perhaps from having to sing with two bands in one night? I will say this: Just seeing the colorful cast of characters that is the Daddies, I'm reminded why they are so popular in the first place. Their set list was better than the one they've been doing for the last 2 or so years - many songs from the first three albums that I haven't heard live in a long time + several swing tunes that I suppose they feel obligated to play. I still wish they would play "Kids on the Street", "Millionaire" or "Skyline Drive" I'll keep waiting.
Okay, that was my Halloween. As I post this, I realize that I've been spending way too much time on the computer lately. I'm gonna take a break from this for a few days and just be human again (as opposed to cyborg).
Later

P.S. - Pleeze politely ignore my shitty grammar/spelling - I lack the motivation to go back and edit today.