Recovering from Success War

The weekend was good. The debut show for the Pinkies went well - people seemed to like our song...ba da-da-da-da and it came off well overall. Jivan kicked ass as our debut drummer-he really nailed the changes and his groove set well with our songs. John's bassing totally supported and snaked nicely through the tunage. Fun was had. Andrew Poisoner is now a one-man band, which seems appropriately crazy enough. Stomping on a kick drum and playing guitar, he mixed some Slow Poisoners songs and a few songs who's origin I did not know. I admit, it was kind of hazy for me, looking back...But I do know that the Ovulators played a great-sounding set. Their new drummer is really solid and plays good fills.

Mr Random raves about above band and also links to the Register Guard article that mentions both of our blogs and quotes mine. Very funny! You never know who's reading your blurg and then all of a sudden it feels very public and exposed. But hey, that's what the internet is for, right ? The quick, almost viral, spread of information. I wish I had one of them site-tracker number thingies - I bet there was probably a slight surge in my readership since Friday - so, for that, thanks RG article-writer.

Now, back to my blurry Sunday - father's day also, how quaint. I received a nice gift from Cosmo and Tina of a pair of black, low-top Converse all-stars. I am totally stoked and grateful. Worked for 6 hours at the salsa slave-ship factory, enduring only fifteen lashes since I was working on a holiday dedicated to procreating males - like me! Now, just awake after late-afternoon coffee + just saw Tina off on her way to Portland for an Ov's gig. Life is just one knotted, sewn-together string of events. Next knot...

I'm getting used to adulthood. For several years now, there's been a slow trickle of friends from high school emailing me or otherwise contacting and making their presence known. I don't know how many years I spent trying very hard NOT to think about high school at all - probably 10 or so, until I decided to become too self absorbed with my own problems to notice that I was thinking quite often of the derelicts that I used to hang with.

Case in point, my buddy Ashcraft was an often homeless musician chum of mine. Kept running away from different foster homes in the town we lived in. Also was a pretty damn good guitarist and bassist - showed me how to play Stairway to Heaven + the Rush song "Limelight" when we were 15 or so. Later, we play Kiss and Judas Priest covers in an un-named band that I always called the Dogs but I think it may have been called Generation Landslide. We practiced regularly on Saturdays at 1 for the better part of 1985/86. Never had a singer though, and none of us could cut the vocal duties with our crappy puberty voices. Also in the band was guitarist L. Wallbanger and a kid drummer who - I kid you not- was a dead-ringer for the actor who played Spinal Tap's manager in the first Spinal Tap movie. (Everytime I see that movie I get the chills...) A formative time, to be sure. Guess you had to be there - probably were. I also guess that the point I was getting at is that I talked to Ashcraft on the phone after a 17-year hiatus in our friendship. You know what? People don't change. Still the same funny, cynical dude I remember from the 80's, only now programming the world for destruction by working at some multi-death corporate job in some secret state. Sounds like he's doing good, staying off the sauce and the eye-injected lsd but now addicted to the internet - you tell me which is worse.
Yawn... okay, off to my happy job - wheeeeeeeeee!!

Back in the saddle again. Very cool to get an email from high school friend Danny Harrison - I should be used to old aquaintances popping their digi-heads back into my life by now, but every time someone does, I'm totally stoked to make another connection with my past life in Crescent City. I could really give a shit about ever going to a High School reunion in a town that never seemed to care for me, but I'd go to a picnic at needle beach with any of these old chums that I used to churn with - Justin D, Matt A, Matt B, Danny H, Loren W, and any others from the old horde. Those were the days.

In other, more current news - White Hot Odyssey had a pretty good show at McDonald Theatre a few nights ago, opening for the venerable Hell's Belles. Fuckin' packed, nearly, and a lot of underage kids. I almost felt guilty, belting out the back-up vocals to "Sex With The Devil" but then again kids are pretty used to lurid concepts these days. Also played a spontaneous show with Dan Jones at Sam Bond's the other Wednesday. It felt good to get out in the music world after months of not having any gigs. Which brings me to my next point...

The Pinkies first show is at Sam Bond's Garage on June 17th, with the Ovulators and Andrew Poisoner. The Pinkies are: Ed Cole, John Laney and Jivan Valpey. The Pinkies are looking for a more-permanent drummer. The Pinkies sound like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mixed with AAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! and also a little bit like the Ramones and Lou Reed. Come check us out!

No other new-news for this grown-up kid. Oh Yeah, Sleeve left a cool bootleg Bowie dvd at our house of him live on tv 1973 with the classic Spiders-from Mars band - fucking excellent!! Mick Ronson is one of my all-time favorite guitarists. I wish I could share it with all of you.

Til wee meet again,

Eed

I've been having fun reading this blog by my friend Michael - Crescent City Sucks. I grew up in Crescent City and remember it sucking very hard when I was in High School. I wanted to be anywhere but there - total deadsville, very little culture or music, but still a quaint little seaside town with a giant penitentiary.

Ah, yes, growing up in sucksville made me the man I am today.

Sheesh! I've been working too much. I'm ready for a vacation. 6 days a week at the salsa slave factory and 1 night a week at the guitar lesson place. I don't mind being busy, but I want to be LAZY! Right now! Ain't gonna happen.

White Hot Odyssey resuming practice this week. Hopefully we'll have a few local gigs by early summer. Pinkies are looming. Watch out for the Pinkies!

ed

Hey People! It's Sunday, my sole day off this week, and I am very glad about it. Must maximize time and blog quickly. Improper grammer to follow: Worked a lot at the salsa slave plant this week. Happy to be earning $$$ but Christ, there has to be a better way than being soaking wet and covered with salty salsa all day. No band practices lately - W.H.O. seem to be stalled and need a collective shot-in-the-arm to get revved up and rolling again (Brolling?As in Criten's?) Pinkies will play tonight, sans drummer; must work harder at making music happen...kinda slacked off there and look what happens whole scene shot to hell. You're welcome for the break, but here I come right back at ya! Coffee's been pretty good over all lately. Cosmo turning into teenager before my eyes, currently on a mall excursion with same-age friends. Glad my kid is happy been rocking at baseball too - very proud. Tina has been working tons too - nice to be pulling out of the debt ridden slow lane and into the passing lane of life. Been having fun with that girl also. Sounds like the Ov's will have their pick of some excellent new potential drummers that they've been auditioning. Fun news. Watch out for Pinkies! We're going to slay this towen with one finger ag ag ag!!

over & out

Ed

Blog blog blog. I've slipped a bit in my interest in being online - nothing dramatic; just enjoying real life instead of virtuality. Lots of stuff going on, though. Tonight, Chanteuse are recording a Led Zepplin tune in the living room with the Cole mobil set-up - a couple of mics and an Adat. Sounding very ethereal and tripped-out. May add jaw harp later.

Had the pleasure this weekend of hanging out with my oldest brother, Darrow Hamilton Cole. We drove down to Gasquet, California, taking down a truckload of mom's stuff. Mom is moving back into the house that we were often growing up in during the 70's and 80's. Darrow is a real intellectual, so we had many a rousing conversation on the way down and back, loading stoves and refridgeerators and tons of other crap. I took a few pictures on my ancient Argus C-3 camera - would post if I had them scanned. Sorry, gotta wait for now.

I've been liking taking a break from gigging with any and all of my bands, but I'm slowly feeling readier to climb back up onstage sometime in the near future. Perhaps soon...very soon.

til then,

Toodles


Ed

Greetings, people!

I haven't been online much lately, due to actually having a real life to focus on. Here's the Ed Cole low-down for April 3, 2005:


I've been writing and completing a nice new batch of tunes for my as-yet-still-imaginary new band. Kinda in the upbeat/poppy/pervy/lovesong/the-world's-coming-to-an-end/Ramones/Dickies/drum-machine & guitar territory at the present. It's nice to actually be finishing some tunes after having had a creative sabbatical of sorts while sorting out selling my house and some other things.

Cosmo had his first Babe Ruth baseball game yesterday. He plays on the Pleasant Hill Billies. Ha ha at least those folks out in the sticks have a sense of humor. A fine game, they won over Springfield and play Shelbyville next week.
Last Night was also Ovulators and Velvet Trap at Sam's Place, the newest lesbian bar in Eugene. The show had the chaotic feel of a venue putting on a show for the first time - confusion about guest lists, late, late, LATE start times, bad PA system, lack of organization. Still, a pretty fun scene with many friends and regulars in attendence. I had a great time talking to my friend Sebastiane, whom I hadn't seen for some time. Her wife, Ana played drums in VElvet Trap, who kicked ass with their 4 song set. Maybe they'd consent to letting me record them? Dunno, but way hard rockin' in the L7/Bikinikill/7 year Bitch style; very raw yet tight and pummeling bass lines with throaty vocals. Good shit, maynard.
Ov's had a good set; they dressed as boys and played as 'The Ejaculators' for April Fools day. Again, loud, soothing and good.
Friday night at the Daddies/Yeltsin show, Cos and I wandered in for a bit of sound and people-meeting. HE mainly hung out with his friend, Josie. I met habitual Daddies fan Beth-from-Wisconsin, who I knew from exchanges of email regarding White Hot Odyssey and Daddies factoids. Much nicer to meet folks in person than via computer screen. Beth, thanks for the Killdozer video - nice to have a record of one of my favorite bands at an 80's bar show. Funny how things haven't changed much for bands playing in bars since then.
For anyone who doesn't know, Tina and I are engaged and gonna marry the hell out of each other in about 14 months, so stay tuned for events as they unfold!

Must go rock now.

Van and Ed 

Hey!

Thanks, Ken, for posting some keen pictures online of the night of January 7th, 2005, all taken at Luckey's. Such memories...


Existance is pretty much hand-to-mouth, day-to-day, second-by-second. I feel the impending doom of death everywhere I look and am thus motivated to stay positive and have some fun. I've been liking teaching at the Lessons Factory more than I thought I would; so far, I like all my students and I'm having a lot of fun trying to stay up on furthering my musical knowledge and abilities. Phew! It's tough staying ahead of 11-year-olds who know more Ozzy licks than you do - I feel more and more like a crusty old man with a stiff brain that does not want to learn any new tricks. But, I am trying.


I can't wait to hear the tunes that the Ov's did at Dogwood studio this week. It sounds to me like they worked very hard, had fun and were pretty satisfied with the basic tracks they had laid down. I love hearing new recordings done at studios that I haven't been to yet. I'm sure it will rock me hard. And all others that hear it as well.

Okay, time for more coffee. Check back soon,


Eds

Hey! It's Friday, and I'm ready to continue existing. And that's final!

Work was very intense this week at the Salsa Slave Ship factory. A human that I did not like very much was fired, which made everyone I work with slightly more happy. Of course, the other result is that we all have to stay a lot longer at work and work harder. I suppose it's a trade off, but I'd rather work longer hours around nicer people rather than shorter hours around spiteful control freaks. 'nuff said...

Be sure to check out my friend Toby Van Fleet's travel blog about her travels in and around Bangkok, Thailand.

Excited about making a cup of coffee.

I scored some cool records at the annual Eugene record convention. Let's see what I got...

Ace Frehley's solo Kiss album/Jimi HEndrix "Smash Hits"/999's singles collection/Warren Zevon "Excitable Boy" / Ozzy Osbourne "Bark at the Moon"/ Dokken "Under Lock and Key"/Charles Mingus "Candid" (a weird album that is part lecture)/Cocteau Twins "Treasure"/The Swan's "Burning World"/ and Led Zepplin "Song remains the same" soundtrack. Phew! I think I'm going more 70's rock in my old age Very fun to check out the various record collector geeks - there were some waxy sights to be seen on that day.

Okay, coffee time

Dream this morning

We're in the woods - it looks like either Garberville or Willits, CA. There are lots of parked cars and trucks - did we just watch fireworks? Many people from my family walk through at different points in the dream - my brother Monty and also Cosmo, Tina, others. Now we're in a school in nearby futuristic/nihilistic Eureka, CA. It's got a beautiful layout - strange passages lead to nicely carpet-covered auditoriums and sublime little stairways and nooks. It seems like we should be getting ready to leave, but for some reason I'm still wandering. I start seeing other familiar faces in the school - the crazy dancing man with the gray beard who digs through the recycling all over town - is he still alive? Others also.

end of dream

Hey, Humanoids - it's been some time since I've transmitted from this site. My old webpage may be ressurrected soon, but for now, I'm back in classic Atari 2600 mode. Forward...to death!!!

I'm afraid all my recent posts at edcolerocks.com have been swallowed up and dumped down the digital sewer - alas, I don't think I wrote anything of importance last year anyway - it's too constricting to write as one's self all the time. I only pray that the people who care can find me in my new state.

Today was interesting in that someone who had been annoying the hell out of me at work was fired, which was of no small relief to everyone who works at the salsa-slave factory. I have another job interview tomorrow, but it's purely exploratory.

AS for any futuregigs with any conceivable musical acts - I have none. I feel like the tortoise, crawling into a friendly cave and dissappearing for a long spell, to emerge with some new sheet music in hand some other day.

Toodles for now,

PSYCHE! Okay, today I'm back at this blog since my website/blog/email is down for the time being. Today, I woke up earlier than I wanted to (4am), served my time in the workforce, slept and then went for an astrology reading with my neighborhood psychic/tarot person. It turns out I'm Leo sun (duh) with moon in Leo and SCORPIO RISING ??? What the heck? I always thought I was untouched by the scorpion's sting; not the case. "Here I am - Rock me like a hurricayane!!"

TONIGHT, I will see you all down at the Lovemakers/Ovulators show down at John Henry's.

Right now, I have a craving for fish and chips, so I'll see you at Neuman's house of fins.

Ciao!

So, now that most folks think I have a new blog, I have the good fortune of being able to write my more atrocious thoughts here and not have as many of my friends commenting back to me about it.

Today, I barely left the house, except to go to Kinko's to make some CD covers and then to House of Records and Museum of Unfine art to drop off some completed CD's for $$$$. I like the idea of being able to actually sell home made CDs vs selling blood for that much-needed, post-holiday, "I broke as a dirty rat" cash. Oh, and I left the house for coffee. But that was it; really.

I spoke with a buddy from high school last night for the first time in 11 years. Matt Bier and I were part of the same dysfunctional peer group for most of high school - dubbed the "Jun Hoard" by some wise-ass or another. Actually, I wasn't quite D & D enough to be considered a part of the Hoard, but they were my closest buddies anyway. Matt, myself, Shannon "Slug" Sapp, Matt Ashcraft, Wayne "Moose", Clay Pierce, Jimmy D. Chastain, Danny _____, the brothers Tuan Do and My Do and, our indisputable ringleader, Justin DePew. This was the kind of group where blood was often drawn, any and all drugs and/or alcohol consumed ('cept for me - the token straight edge kid), windows broken, deadly dares of suicidal proportions were embarked upon. We're talking the Stand By Me movie populated by a bunch of masturbating, self-immolating, self-loathing losers who used each other as punching bags and were in turn spit upon by the jocks and elite kids at our high school. Scarred for life. That's what the Jun Hoard did to me. I still haven't recovered.
Anyway, it was great to talk to Matt and get the lowdown on where these guys are at now. Turns out pretty much everyone is alive, at least (actually, I'm not sure about Moose - forgot to ask). Matt was one of t6he good guys; not only a good and honorable friend, but funny as hell in a deadpan, Monty Python kind-of way. An extra-hard worker, he finished out of high school a year early and enlisted in the Army on his 18th birthday and also married his girlfriend at the time , Nancy, and had a daughter by the time he was 19. I visited him in Kansas once.
Up until this week, I hadn't heard from him since he'd gone to Iraq for the first gulf war. I'd known he had also gone to Kosovo in the mid 90's. I'm glad he didn't get his ass blown off.
Someday, I'll write about the time we drove to Arcata with Justin to go see the Meat Puppets and Justin got lost and wasted and we somehow picked him up on the highway 30 miles north of where we had last seen him...Aw, shit; that's a WHOLE different story.

END TRANS bzzzzzxt

Wellll... I don't know if I can lose this blog just yet. As inefficient as it seems to have two blogs, I just feel a bit more at ease on this one - it's not so connected to my "Product" self, so I can just write and not really care as much whether or not it's in the "context" of "Ed Cole".

I actually got word that Justin DePew, one of my best friends in high school, read the menacing Halloween story in which I cast him as an evil, evil mean person... eep! I always forget about people finding this blog via searching their names. HEY, SORRY JUSTIN - you were a great friend and a total inspiration in your rebelliousness. And only slightly evil. Also one of the smartest people I ever met, so there. Boo-ya.

Check back from time to time as I'll keep posting here, albeit a bit randomly.

Have a peaceful season

ALRIGHT, PEOPLE!!!!

edcolerocks.com is up and running! I have a new blog over there and will eventually get rid of ol' edhead101.blogspot.com . My life has been hectic lately - I really need to get back to work, but I'm having too much fun geeking out on my site.
The rest of the radio show was fun yesterday...Tony Figoli emailed me & said that KRVM was playing one of my cuts, also...major stokage!! Good promo never hurts. I hope to see EVERYBODY at some of the shows I have coming up ...

PS my girlfriend ROCKS! I love three course breakfasts!

YEEEEEAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!

I'm blogging from KWVA right now...up here with Dana from Yeltsin and Kelani from the Ovulators, plugging our John Henry's show on 12/20 (and also goofing off on KWVA's Mac...) Very fun and goofy to be here...more later...

Awwwright!!

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 12/17/03, I'm playing a little acoustic-y songwriter thing at Cafe Paradiso with Dan Jones and John Shipe. It should be fun, so please come on down and lose your frown and smother those holiday blues with a triple-shot mocha and a glass of beer or something like that. It's cheap, too!! $2!! You can't beat that for wednesday night entertainment PLUS the prospect of socializing with other Eugene denizens. We'd really enjoy your company, so come down. 8pm. See you then!

Man, the Carnival of Chaos at the Indigo District was...chaos! I was all set to do sound and dropped some extra mics and gear down there earlier in the evening. It looked like things were set, PA-wise , so I went back home to resume clearing stuff out of my garage etc... When I returned, there were no less than four different people trying to plug things into the PA board; cables were hap-hazardly running in every direction; power strip was plugged into power strip was plugged into power strip...for an anal retentive guy like me, it looked like an electrical nightmare! Of course, the PA speakers didn't have proper cables and I ended up doing some surgery on some speaker wire with a borrowed knife to get the damn system fired up. After some re-routing of EVERYTHING, we were set.
DJ Margarine (I can't believe it's not butter!) aka Shawn DiFiore and I were set up in close proximity and it was very fun to be working next to one of my favorite dj's of all time. We joked and adjusted sounds and levels all night long while the Carnival acts came and went. Dancers, shadow puppetry, electronic beat-box/goth-dance music all came and went. Static Chromatic was a noisy, beat-driven group that featured Dj Lucious on beats/guitar/bass, Melissa from High on Peeps vocalizing and reknowned hair-stylist David Wilson on keys/effects/finger-twirling/glitter. Noisy, noisy, NOISY!!! and charming, too.
My favorite act of the night was the group Dum Dum, which features the songs of Scott _____ from the Necro Sluts. Dum Dum was a very 80's sounding goth/metal/slow-Misfits/Christian Death styled group that sounded great - very heavy and sludgey in a good way. Scott is a bonafide screamer, but also can tone it down and sing with an interesting wispy/raspy voice. The music seemed to have a natural consonance to it with long, building songs and flowing dynamics. Bravo! One of the only groups in town to really catch my ear recently. I highly reccomend them.
At the end of the night, I was too sober (as per usual) and gave Tina a ride home in her mom's Jag (nice car!) and then walked back to retrieve my van.

uuuuuuhhhhhhhh...now it's Monday again. Time to recover.

LATE BREAKING NEWS

It's been raining like crazy the past 24 hours or so in Eugene and MY GARAGE STUDIO HAS FLOODED!! Luckily, since most of my gear was in my van after my show last night, the damage was minimal. My yard done flooded and rose up over the level of my garage foundation...man, there has to be 3 inches of water in there! All my recording stuff was up high enough to avoid moisture, so I moved all the cords off the floor, brought the drums in the house and unplugged anything remotely electrical. All the carpets are soaked, but that's okay - I've been gearing up for a major renovation in there anyway. Cosmo and I were laughing at the absurdity of it all as we moved stuff inside.
I called Billy Barnett up at Gung Ho! studio to see if his place had flooded also - it has a history of doing so in the past - but I wasn't able to get through to him on the phone. That would be a drag! I like the rain, but...
See you tonight at the Indigo District - I'll be the one wearing galooshes.