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Jam – 2010-03-04 – Carroll’s

05 Mar 2010 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Al D, Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott

We had to switch the jam late in the weekly cycle from a Wednesday to a Thursday due to someone’s scheduling conflict. Unfortunately for Alan W., he wasn’t able to juggle his schedule to make the jam but Alan the Cameraman was so we had him playing guitar this week.

Scott was back from his Further shows at Radio City as well as his Who tribute a Carnegie Hall. This lead us to jamming with a Who Baba O’Reilly MP3 that Kevin had and an eventual playing of the song without the background tracking sounds. I have to say it sounded pretty freaky and cool.

As far as guests, we had the ubiquitous Scott Bayer on bongos sporting an Underdog shirt. Additional, we had Al D’s Bayside buddy, Steve, who also showed up to the jam. Like most Baysiders, Steve plays a little guitar and Al had Steve don his guitar halfway through the night as we played a Smokestack Lightning. Let’s not forget Ken Levine, which I did until I remembered we played a Terrapin and he requested it.

On the way out of the jam, there were 6 of us to jam into the elevator so Al D and Steve stayed behind. I was commenting how good it was to be on the first elevator down which brought me bad karma. When we reached the ground floor Scott and Rich got out but Kevin lagged and before we knew it the door closed on us and we were heading right back up to the sixth floor where we saw Al and Steve who looked at us in bewilderment.

We go a couple of Core-4 songs in before Al D entered, Stop That Train, Russian Lullaby, and then we headed into the freaky Dead with an Alabama Getaway. We were had no urgency to play long and hard, that’s what she said, so we probably short-changed the jam a bit, but got a nice compliment of songs in. We started a little late and ended a little early, that’s what she said, but ended with some strength. I don’t know what I’m saying anymore.

It’s good that Rich got a new Mac after his last one left him in the learch, so we can get the songs that we played because remembering becomes harder and harder as time goes on. Deadstein’s soon to celebrate its 20th anniversary in October. We have to be sure to get Bill there, if no one else. We played a Terrapin, China, Rider, Grass Onion (Yoko Ono version) and a whole lot more.

Better late than never, on March 14 Rich uploaded the MP3s from this jam in the middle of the night. I think it was in the never-never land of time that comes during the turning the clocks ahead associated with daylight’s savings time. You think he was passing Obamacare instead of just posting a few MP3 files of Deadstein. In anycase, thanks for doing it and enjoy.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-04-10/

Look forward to next week when we expect be things from everyone!

Jam – 2010-02-04 – Carroll’s

05 Feb 2010 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Al D, Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott, Wikler

Thursday night at Carroll’s and we had to start at 9:00 because Carroll’s was booked with several acts that were filling the studio with lots of people. When we got there we faced a bunch of dressed up Fiddler on the Roof / Charles Dickens / Amish child actors who all seemed overly happy. If you ask me, I think they were Scientologists. In any case, they had enough pull to bump Deadstein to a 9:00 start. At the beginning of the night Scott was wondering if that meant we could play till 1:00 am. I’m sure we could have played till 1:00 if we wanted, but come 11:30, Scott was dead on his feet, all sorts of puns intended.

Hey, if Scott was dead on his feet at 11:30, I was Dead on my feet at 9:00, battling a cold that was just past its peak. January was a rough month for me. At least my foot felt good. Yeah, I came in with a bad cold, kept to myself all night, trying not to contaminate others, and the entire evening was foggier than usual. Usually it is foggy the day after, but I was in a fog during the whole night. Focusing and reading the book was nearly impossible and my brain was all over the place leading my fingers down paths with no escape. It was tough to play but I was trying to take it in stride, not letting it bother me too much and in the end I had a good time. Singing on the other hand was tough. The dry air mixed with the fluid in my lungs lead to many a choking moment. My sides are hurting this morning from so much hacking.

Al D. joined us as our guest for the night but he had to scoot out by 11:00 or so to catch a serious 11:30 massage; the tough life of Al D. Good to see him. The other Alan, Al W., was sporting his Strat, wammy and all. Rich was totally decked out for the night sporting an upright piano, instead of the traditional grand, and he also got a Korg B3 simulating keyboard, with drawbars and all. It was a nice soothing sound through the night. Scott had the nice maroon kit on the maroon Oriental rug and Kevin is still wearing ear plugs and a beard but the facial asymmetry is virtually gone.

For all the sounds we had going in the room, it seemed that we were all open to letting it happen without overpowering it and we had a surprisingly good mix throughout the night. I was able to hear both keys and the vocals out of the monitor to my left and sonically I was pretty comfortable throughout the night, considering my physical condition.

We meandered into a Dancing in the Streets as our first song and Scott sang us through the whole thing. It was a nice way to get our feet wet and warmed up. Somewhere in the middle we pulled out the If I Had the World to Give sheet that I updated earlier. It was an OK first effort at that write-up from a song structure perspective. I was fairly happy with it. Unfortunately, the spaghetti in my head at the time was a tremendous hindrance on my ability to lead us through it precisely. Nevertheless, I’m happy with what happened. Forever Young was the knockout blow at 11:40 that made the Scarlet that closed the night a song that was also dead on its feet, pun fully intended.

If you want to hear what we played, it’s available at the following:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-04-10/

Looking forward to some clear crisp night to close out the winter.

Jam – 2009-12-23 – Carroll’s

24 Dec 2009 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Al D, Bayside Mitch, Bayside Russ, Carroll's, Coffee, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Wikler

It was one of the biggest nights of Deadstein ever. We had lots of everything. To start with Scott was on vacation in Hawaii so that enticed us haul Coffee-Boy’s ass in and sit him down on a drum throne. On his coattails came the contingent of other Baysiders including Mitch who was slinging his new Epiphone 335 (”Dot”) as well as his new Canon 5D DSLR, both being quite impressive. If he only purchased the Gibson 335 and a shitty camera in 10 years his guitar would be worth what his new camera is worth instead of vice-versa. In any case, a guitar can’t record memories and won’t make Mitch money the way a camera can.

To continues, we had Bayside Al on guitar and Bayside Russell on the other drumset. Finally, Alan Wikler was able to make it in time from his Florida trip and also made the jam. This left us with a whole bunch of bunches including 2 Alans, 4 guitarists, 2 drummers, 2 DSLR cameras and a whole bunch of sound. The wall of sound wasn’t enough to describe the music. We should have called it the “Room of Sound.” Ironic, as Coffee pointed out, was the fact that in this whole big room of musicians there wasn’t a sip of alcohol anywhere to be found. That was until Adam showed up who was accompanied by a slim silver flask of high quality Scotch.

Sensing the density of the aura before me, and the pre-song sounds in the room sounding like a 100-piece orchestra warming and tuning up I decided to call for the Dark Star opener which got us sounding and jamming for a while until I wrestled down the mess and brought it into a Feel Like a Stranger. The whole trip was a long one and definitely set us on the path that was our jam for the evening.

Our only guests for the night were Bayside acquaintance, Adam who was using this opportunity to have some fun away from his family. Pretty cool how Adam has seen us at a Short Hills gig since he is friends with those guys and in addition, he is also friends with John and Mitchell Spitz. It’s a small freaky world. He really seemed to have a good time relaxing in the Deadstein spirit of Hanukkahs past. In addition, their friend Jason with long, curly, brown locks was also there.

I can’t say there was a first set, vs. a second set, all I know is that the nigh ended about 30 minutes early as Coffee didn’t seem to have enough caffeine in his midst to keep the mother rolling and he was driving Rich home, not have Scott for a ride, the jam ended at 11:30, but with all the talk and post-mortem, we weren’t out any earlier and we could have gotten in a few more songs.

I also had some new equipment which was a Boss OD-20 distortion box which I enjoyed throughout the night, enabling myself to cut through the morass. I also had new strings on my Strat which also helped my tone. I liked it for the most part as I teamed up the new OD-20 with my pedal board including a compressor, chorus and Alan’s MXR envelope filter which I used and liked. I used it for the Stranger, Ramble on Rose and Catfish John. I then quieted down the masses with a less intensive Friend of the Devil which had a plethora of leads associated with it. Other items of note include mixing up the selection a bit with a surprise Walking Blues which was pretty good. We also had, in no particular order an Althea, Ramble on Rose, All Along the Watch Tower, China/Rider, Tore Up, Lovelight, Brokedown Palace and we closed with a Music Never Stopped that was initiated by Coffee Boy. It must be some of those Scottisms rubbing off on him.

To listen to the music go to the following link or click on the songs below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/12-23-09/

T’was a big night before Christmas and at the Deadstein jam, everything was smoking, except for a ham. Let’s try to get one more jam in for 2009 and start 2010 with a bang.

Jam – 2009-10-28 – Carroll’s

29 Oct 2009 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Al D, Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott

Nice to be in a picture for once, not!

It was Wednesday night and the first day of the 2009 World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies facing the Yankees. The Empire State Building was dressed in Blue and White . Who won? Who Cares? Let’s just say that I was happy I was at Deadstein. Actually the Yankees got blown and shut out. The starting lineup for Deadstein called for Trister to play lead guitar. A last minute cancellation resulted in a call to Al D, fresh off a photo shoot in Hawaii. Always fun to play with Al D and it is nice to catch him while he is not traveling ’round the world.

Al didn’t show for a few songs so we did start with some Core-4 Deadstein. We opened with the Harder they Come and for the first few songs I felt pretty uncomfortable on the guitar, not feeling it at all. It wasn’t until the Dear Prudence that I actually had a little sense of liking my guitar playing. I did like the sound and tempo of the Althea. The Prudence was the last song we played as Core-4 until Al D. walked in. Speaking of walking in, we had no guests for the night with the exception of the freaky Scott Bayer, who came late, banged a bongo or two and was on his way.

With Al D we in the studio pulled off some good three-somes including the Truckin’ -> Other One -> She Belongs to Me. This was a fun and substantial jam. Later on, we also did a Here Comes Sunshine –> China Rider, but I recall the Rider not being good at all. During the first part of the night Scott called for a song from the Garcia Sauders series and I picked the One Kind Favor which was referred to as a Deadstein first, but I don’t think it was. Nevertheless, I’m sure we haven’t played it in 15 years at least if we have played it and after we found it groove it was pretty good. Something to do again.

We did the Let It Bleed again and this was our best effort on that song. I liked our Gomorrah also, it was sweet. Al called for the Black Throated Wind and we obliged him on that one. It was worth it also well played. He also called for the Alabama Getaway which I ended up singing, I don’t think I have ever sung that song, and that one was fun. I remember it really tiring out my left wrist to play. It was an effort, good or bad. The night ended with a Sailor, no Saint as this week was impacted by a cognitive disorder for the second week in a row. I fear our next jam. My cognitive disorder is due. Maybe not. I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there. Speaking of which, I was able to relax during the jam knowing I would have the next day off and I was going to go paddling in the Passaic River. It was a beautiful day so check out the blog posting.

The thought for the night was inspired by a piss at the end of the evening:

You walk into a bathroom with 3 urinals in it. Two have piss in them and one doesn’t. Which toilet do you use? The 2 with piss in them are obviously disgusting and the one without the piss in it has had the toilet plunger recently used, so I don’t want to touch that thing. I decided to piss in the clean one and I didn’t flush. Problem resolved.

So if you want to see what we played and even give it a listen, check out the links below:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/10-28-09/

Jam – 2009-09-10 – Carroll’s

11 Sep 2009 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Al D, Bayside Mitch, Carroll's, Jam, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott

Thursday night at Carroll’s and we were playing with the Bayside Boys, Mitchell and Alan who were sharing guitar responsibilities with me. Mitch had his newly acquired Gibson SG and Al was playing is semi-hollowbody Fern. I had my Strat, Kev had his Modulus, Scott had his drums and Rich had is Yamaha piano amplified with the non-PZM mic situated where we could close the piano lid on it. This not only made the piano sound better, but it also enabled use to keep our prized processions from sliding off the piano. Let us not forget Scott Bayer who was banging his bongos with gusto for a few songs. Where those things came from I don’t know. Scott wasn’t the only guest as we had Rob and Miriam who also stayed and partied and danced to our music. Miriam slipped me a Slim Jim since she was under the impression that I liked those things. Thanks Scott but I’ll leave it up to Rob to slip miriam the Slim Jims, Thank you very much. I’m just glad I took it out of my pocket before I went to bed last night or else I would have awoken to my dogs chewing a hole in my pocket trying to get to that Slim Jim.

Rich had a video shoot and was late by only a song. He missed the purposely easy to play first song, which I sang, but that was it. he was there for everything else. Kev, who is usually late on Thursday nights , made it there in virtually record time and beat me to the jam. We were in Studio #2 of Carroll’s following on the heals of Marshall Crenshaw who was rehearing in Studio #2 earlier in the day. While I have heard of Marshall, I have no idea who he is.

We used the iPhone quite a bit to select random songs for use to play, but I often selected the “goesinta” to following. This lead to a combo of I Know You Rider –> Hey Pocky Way and Crazy Fingers into Masterpiece. Most of those transitions were good and lead to some good playing. We had a pretty cool space jam in the Hey Pocky Way. The iPhone pushed us into a complete performed That’s It for the Other One Suite which was a nice surprise by the end of it. We ended the night with a Wake Up Little Suzie which we also did pretty well, getting through that songs in its entirety for what I recall to be the first time in decades. The iPhone told us to end the night at 11:53 with a closing Bertha, but that was rejected and ended with the good feelings the Suzie provided us. Other songs we rejected were I Wash My Hands and Oakie From Muskogie but listening to them in the PA system when the iPhone selects them was a nice feeling. Other gems were West LA Fadeaway, Looks Like Rain and few 1-4-5 songs like Johnny B. Goode and Promised Land. The rest of the setlist will arrive when Rich posts the MP3s. Until then, I await our next get together is currently tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday.

To hear the songs listen to the MP3s below:

01 Johnny B Goode.mp3

02 Crazy Fingers.mp3

03 Masterpiece.mp3

04 Friend Of The Devil.mp3

05 Jam To Pockey Way.mp3

06 Jet To The Promised Land.mp3

07 I Know You Rider.mp3

08 That’s It For The Other One.mp3

09 Looks Like Rain.mp3

10 West LA Fadeaway.mp3

11 Al De Song.mp3

12 Monkey & The Engineer.mp3

13 Deal.mp3

14 Wake Up Little Suzy.mp3

Jam – 2009-06-08 – Carroll’s

10 Jun 2009 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: Al D, Carroll's, Jason, Kevin, Larry, Rich, Scott

Playing Monday night and without Kevin on bass presented Deadstein with a new challenge in sustainability. The buzz-word of the day. Al D. proved to be out little blue pill bringing his nice sounding Fender bass to the jam to fill in for Kevin. Al is quite the relaxed musician because he just and jam with and go with the flow. He may not know how to play a song but he knows how to play a song. When we got to Carroll’s we surprised them because they didn’t have us in the book. They had to scramble to get us set up but they did so with a smile and grace. Actually we found out the David Byrne was rehearsing at Carroll’s earlier this week in preparation for his concert he was playing this night in Brooklyn. They told us he rides to the rehearsals on his bicycles. Pretty cool.

I enjoyed the Al D. bass thing. Wes tuck with lots of Garband and Al does play more like John Kahn than he does Phil so being the only guitarist meant the Garband trick was the thing to do. Most of it was good, but the music was at a much more accessible range than is typically so it was fun to play in the added space.

Scott was playing the tiny jazz drum-set that was left there by Ron Carter and with the help of an espresso with 5 extra shots, Scott was able to play through the entire night with out really tiring. Drumming was good. Rich used the non-PZM microphone to amplify the piano and it sounded nice again, witht he lower volume, we were able to turn down the gain on the mic and the whole room sounded more natural due to it.

We new Al had to leave at 10:00pm so we were going to be bassless for the last two hours. Not a good prospect, but Deadstein still moves on. As 10:00 approached, Al had 1 or two more songs in him. Somehow we hood-winked him into playing 6 or 7 more songs, so we really go the most out of Al as we cold. He probably left at around 10:45 and we really appreciate his effort.

Jason was to play lead for us but wasn’t scheduled to show up until about 10:00 himself. As Al left well after 10:30 Jason was still a no show. No big deal. After Al left, we hung for a few minutes and then we manned our instruments. We played a few songs, mostly Beatle songs, not done to well, but we were making music and that is what it is all about. As we a just going through some motions to complete a jam, to make sure we got the most out of our expensive evening, at about 11:40 Jason comes walking into the room. He had candy and apologies in his hand but no guitar. We were wrapping up anyway. We hung for a little bit and then I gave him my guitar to play and then he Rich and Scott spaced for 15 minutes or so.