Weekend Activities

A couple fun activities from this last weekend:

There was a car show in what is basically our backyard.  The Koch's car show returned to the Acton KOA for its third year and there were quite a few gems on display.  I admit I am not a "car guy", I could not tell you the names of these glamorous vehicles or the the technical details of their makeup, but they are certainly fun to look at nonetheless.  There were old classics, muscle cars, hot rods, souped up strange looking automobiles, and a few crazy looking motorcycles.  The show was augmented with venders selling car related wares, a food truck, and live rockabilly music apropos of the atmosphere.  Here are a few examples:

'55 or '56 Chevy I think

This past weekend we also went on a spectacular adventure in Pasadena's Eaton Canyon.  Aside from the glorious natural beauty that the rolling hills provide filled with winding trails, lush plant life, and rocky streams at the bottom of the valleys, there are also some water falls providing pools which are opportune for jumping into from high vantage points.  So that is exactly what we did.

After we hiked down about two miles into the canyon we reached the popular cliff jumping spot at Hermit Falls.  There were three different jumping points of various heights: the shortest jump was about fifteen feet, the second about twenty-five, and the highest was roughly forty in my estimation though I really do not know the exact heights.  Anywho, we proceeded to jump into the cool water to our hearts delight.  The highest jump was quite intimidating and took some pondering before we had the guts to finally do it.  It was a rush to say the least.

Tacos & Burgers in LA

Tacos and burgers.  Who doesn't love them?  Even vegetarians and vegans have their own versions of the aforementioned staples of American cuisine.  Sure tacos are technically Mexican but find me an American citizen that does not eat tacos and I will give you a million bucks.

This last weekend I had the pleasure of enjoying some of the best L.A. has to offer in this particular arena of culinary delights.  I'll start with the legendary Tito's Tacos. At this point the best taco I have had yet was from a tiny place near San Diego which I forget the name of.  I guess the closer to the source, meaning Mexico, the better the taco.  The tacos at Tito's certainly rivaled the previously mentioned taco.  It was simple, pure, and authentic.  Just a fried tortilla, special recipe beef, lettuce, and cheese.  And the truth is in my opinion, the tortilla is what sells this taco and makes it spectacular.  The shell contains the perfect combination of crispy and fried chewy goodness.  I was not able to get a close examination of the cooking and prep process as I could not see through the army of assembly line workers from my outdoor vantage point.  But whatever they do is just magic.  The tortilla encompasses the meat, lettuce, and cheese in a perfectly contoured pocket of crunchy bliss.  Tito's is located in Santa Monica and has been serving up legendary Mexican cuisine since 1959.  This place is a must visit for anyone looking for L.A.'s greatest tacos.

For the burger entry I will impart my recent experience with Astroburger.  Now, to begin with, the search for the perfect burger is an endless endeavor which will ultimately never reveal an ultimate winner.  Sure, I have been to In-N-Out burger, been to Tommy's, had Umami, The Counter, Five Guys, The Habit, and I could never turn down a good old Wendy's burger.  Father's Office I have yet to experience as well as Hawkins House of Burgers which I saw featured on one of those food shows.  But Astroburger deserves a spot in the competition.

I went to an excellent show at Amplyfi on Saturday night, saw a good friend play with thatwasthen followed by the delightful surprise of Frankie Marathon.  It was right next door to Astroburger so I couldn't turn down the chance to sample another offering of L.A.'s in the burger department.  I must admit I was not let down. As with Tito's, Astroburger provided a simple delight.  It was standard charbroiled, juicy, burger.  It happened to be just what I wanted, no frills or extra bs, just a quality burger that is great purely because it was cooked well.  If you find yourself near the Paramount lot on Melrose, do yourself a favor and try this place out.

Also, do not miss our special show tomorrow at House of Blues on Sunset in the Parish room.  We will be playing a rare trio set to showcase some new material. 

Ty

Album of The Month: John Scofield - "Uberjam Deux"

For those of you not familiar with the brilliant music of John Scofield, he is a premier, modern jazz guitar player.  Mr. Scofield is truly a unique voice and has played with the greatest musicians of modern times including Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius, and Pat Metheny.  In recent years he has branched out stylistically to suit his fancy including the R&B grooves of Ray Charles' music, tender ballads, small-combo horn arrangements, and collaborating with the swampy jazz-funk trio Medeski, Martin, & Wood.  Among these efforts is another group he has cut a few records with that is inevitably grouped in with the "jam-band" scene; those being 2002's Uberjam and 2003's Up All Night.  Scofield continues in this vain with the long awaited sequel: Uberjam Deux.

The stellar musicians that comprise the band on this record include rhythm guitarist Avi Bortnick, bass player Andy Hess, drummers Adam Deitch and Louis Cato splitting duties, and the ever reliable John Medeski playing keyboards on select cuts.  Bortnick delivers his impeccable consistency as a rhythm player along with immersive knowledge of samples and synths, providing a wonderfully complimentary voice to Scofield's astronomical probings.  Hess holds it down with his tasteful low end that gives new meaning to the concept of smooth.  Deitch lends his typical hip-hop meets jazz style that sounds like an alien landed in New Orleans.  Cato gets a chance to showcase his driving groove coupled with elegant dynamics.  And Medeski's undeniable touch rounds out the sound of this record with an excitable quirkiness that only he can conjure.

On top of all this Scofield navigates the waters of fusion from the bouncy swagger of tunes like "Boogie Stupid", reggae inspired grooves in "Dub Dub", the sexy and aptly titled "Al Green Song", and electro-inspired tranc-y burners like "Torero".  It seems as though no note is off limits for the veteran guitar player and he continues on his inspirational trek through the annals of music with this recent effort.

If you enjoy some good 'ole stinky funk, irresistable grooves that are equally mellow and danceable, and truly sterling musicianship, then I urge you to have a listen to this record.

Uberjam Deux iTunes
Uberjam Deux Amazon
Uberjam Deux Spotify

Happy listening,

Ty

Movie of The Month - This Is The End

Wow this movie was great.  It delivered in a big way and in fact exceeded my expectations.  And they were high (no pun intended, but sort of, I mean who doesn't like a good pun?). 

Anywho, if you are a fan of Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg written hilarity, dark humor, cameos, or apocalyptic films in general, I can guarantee this movie will satisfy.  It is vulgar, gratuitous, deprecating, and all around hysterical.  The fact that the main ensemble play caricatures of the real actors themselves is tickling enough, but they nail their publicly perceived idiosyncratic personalities perfectly.  James Franco kills, Seth Rogen is excellent, Jonah Hill provides appropriate pretension, Jay Baruchel is great, Craig Robinson is hilarious as always, and Danny McBride is truly exceptional.  And though certainly the male-driven bromantic comedy must certainly burn out at some point, this particular film puts a pretty tasty twist on said genre.

If you have not seen this flick yet, please do asap.  It is a great theater viewing experience filled with action, severely ridiculous and quotable dialogue, copious drug use, and a large number of wonderfully placed amusing cameos.  In short, this movie kicks ass and I would gladly see it again many times in the theater.

Ty

Album of The Month: Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork

 
I have been waiting for this one for some time.  Rarely do I get overly excited for an album release, I was for this one.  And boy did Josh Homme and company deliver.  As expected.

So.  Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork.  It has been just over six years since QOTSA's previous 2007 release, Era Vulgaris.  Thus, ...Like Clockwork can justifiably be filed under the category of long-awaited.  In the fore-mentioned QOTSA-less time period leader Josh Homme was certainly not sitting on his ass counting his royalty checks, no he was busy with other projects such as Eagles of Death Metal and the Grammy-award winning Them Crooked Vultures with Led Zeppelin bass-man John Paul Jones and Foo Fighters leadman Dave Grohl on drums.  And Dave Grohl has been a "pseudo-behind-the-curtains-member" of QOTSA for quite some time having recorded on several of their past records including this current featured release.

I'll start by tagging a few keywords that I believe represent well the flavor of this record: dark, sexy, raunchy, grimy, and funky.  Good lord the funky on this record is truly revelatory.  There are even some sensitive moments which generally are quite rare to find on a Queens album.  All these attributes are wrapped up in the usual QOTSA poise and composure.  The textures and timbres found on this record are simply out of this world; par for the course for these fellas.  

The concise ten-track album runs the gamut of styles all under the umbrella of modern rock.  From the mid-tempo swinging grooves of "Keep Your Eyes Peeled" to the tender remorse of "The Vampyre of Time and Memory".  The alluring middle-eastern-tinged "I Sat By The Ocean" to the tribal stomping of "My God Is The Sun".  And the bawdy foor-on-the-floor "If I Had A Tail" to balls out, flailing rock in sections of "I Appear Missing".  All this is inevitably infused with signature rhythmic displacements and hilariously audacious lyrical declarations such as, "I blow my load over the status quo, hear we go..."

So thank you Queens of The Stone Age for satiating my need for some good 'ole gritty rock & roll stimulation.

Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork on iTunes
Queens of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork on Spotify

Also, you can witness the power of QOTSA live in this video of their recent show at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater in its entirety:


Happy listening all,

Ty

TYENCE! - Brewing Beer Pt. 2, The Long Awaited Sequel

Okay.

Remember that post I did about the beer brewing last January?

Well, as it last stood, my brother bottled the beer and informed me that the resulting beverage was... weird.

Ultimately, I left it at that and basically moved on.  I chalked it up to a valiant effort and assumed the beer would be aborted.  Not so.  I came back to Cleveland to find excessive amounts of the hearty brew available for consumption.  Nice.

One may be inclined to conclude that since so much of this brew has remained months after being bottled is a sign that it is slightly undesirable.  I would not go so far as to say this, but I enjoy a nice thick, hefty beer like a porter, which this particular brew is.

So, first I will briefly delve into zymology, the science of fermentation.  The essential process of fermentation is converting sugar to acids, gases, or alcohol using yeast or bacteria.  It is "a form of anaerobic digestion that generates adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by the process of substrate-level phosphorylation."  Sure.  The following equation sums it all up:

Whatever that means.

Humans have apparently been employing the process of fermentation for producing food and beverages since the Neolithic (around 10,200 BC through 4,500/2,000 BC).  Though the first person to connect yeast with the process of fermentation was Frenchman Louis Pasteur in 1857.  He originally defined fermentation as "respiration without air".  So you could say fermentation has been around the block and then some.

And we humans have advanced the fermentation process to yield such tasty beverages as the English porter.  The recipe we used was called Mama's Porter.  But unless you are a master brewer then every brew is going to be inconsistent and unique.  Thus, we shall dub our porter with a new name.  We have yet to officially put the stamp on this one and any suggestions are welcome.  I will have more on porter and the naming of our beer in the next episode.

Til next time,

Ty

Getting Punked at The Ice House, New Star Trek Movie, Signing to Red River Records/Sony Red, and I'M AN UNCLE!!!!

So.

As you may know, we at 28 North are quite fond of live stand up comedy.  This past Sunday we made our first visit to The Ice House in Pasadena to see Marc Maron, a current favorite.  You may know Maron from his new show on IFC and his wildly popular podcast WTF with Marc Maron.  Both of these are quality programs and I encourage you all to check them out if you haven't.

Anyway, first off Maron was great.  He seemed uninhibited right off the bat; ready to rant, vent, converse, connect in strange, abrasive ways that only stand up comedy can allow.  Unfortunately, Mike, Mark, and myself bore the blunt end of the stand up comedy flailing stick.  That is correct, we were ultimately heckled by Maron.  Now, it lasted probably a mere thirty seconds, which is a tiny fraction of the substantial hour and a half set he did, and it wasn't so bad.  But nonetheless, Maron briefly shat on our dream of being in a band by turning it into a joke and essentially served us one of our most feared scenarios: getting made fun of by a man with a microphone in front of a crowd.  And it certainly could not have been karma coming back to bite us in the ass, we have been regular supporters of stand up for years and never have we heckled a comedian.  I guess the risk of potential, brief humiliation is one which must be accepted when entering the realm of stand up comedy...


We still love you Maron

Also, we saw the new Star Trek.  It was pretty decent.  I enjoyed it as a non-Trekkie and I am sure I missed countless references and allusions to previous Star Trek films and all that, but regardless this is a fun movie for anybody, Trekkie or non.

Aaaaaaaaaannnnd....

I'M AN UNCLE!!  That is right folks, I would like to extend a very special CONGRATULATIONS to my amazing sister Claire Bond and her fiancee Chris Massero for bringing two beautiful babies into this world last Monday night.  Welcome Hadley and Logan!!!!  I'm so proud and delighted for you all!!!!!




Oh yah...

We also signed to RED RIVER RECORDS/SONY RED/BOB FRANK ENTERTAINMENT!!!!!  YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

We are beyond excited for this new chapter.  HUGE thanks to our incredible manager Jerry Heller for putting in the hard work to land this deal for us.  Also, big thanks to producer Gavin MacKillop for putting in countless hours to perfect the record which has helped us earn this deal.  And of course we must thank our wonderful families who have been so patient and tolerant of our dream and sacrificed along with us to get to this level.  But most importantly we want to thank the fans who have come to shows, bought records, and supported us in any way.  Without you guys, we do not exist.  So a MASSIVE heart felt THANKS to every 28 North fan out there!!!

Now the true work starts and the payoff shall commence!!

Until next time,

Ty