Tom and I went up to San Francisco Thursday morning to play on the Pretty Good Not Much show on Pirate Cat Radio. Pirate radio’s a little more… relaxed than public radio. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.
Here’s an audio clip from the show: Tin Cat on Pirate Cat Radio (15MB MP3). It was fun but weird trying to figure out how to do our songs without Dave. Tom took one of his guitar solos, but what I really missed was that one more harmony vocal. Well, next time. Songs in this clip: Helium, Black Jack Davey, and Over Ilsa. We also discuss the Federal Folk Song Certification Program, and how to tune street traffic.
We’re playing tomorrow, Thursday, October 1, on Pirate Cat Radio, 87.9 FM in San Francisco. Actually I’m not sure if all of us will be there, but at least Tom, probably me, and maybe Dave. Anyway, it’s at 11:00 AM, and it sounds like if you’re in the neighborhood you can drop by the cafe and see us in person. I don’t endorse the maple bacon latte.
Then on Friday, we’re at the Red Vic Sessions at 1665 Haight St. $2 gets you in to see something like half a dozen bands and singer-songwriters. We’re on first, at 7:30 PM.
So, this is cool: DJ Lottie of Breakthru Radio put together a 90-minute program of music from San Jose! And hey, we’re in it! Along with a lot of other good stuff. I’m already a fan of The Mumlers and Corpus Callosum - and of course I’m a member of DeatHat - but I’d never heard the Mumlers-esque Plantain, or the quiet keyboard pop of Lady Lazarus, or the spaced-out songs of Doctor Nurse.
It’s been almost a year since we stopped at a rest area off I-5, unloaded bags and boxes from the truck, and, after peanut butter and jelly, assembled the first copies of our CD, “The Long Way”. We formed an assembly line, sort of, only we kept changing places. Tom stuck the labels I’d printed on the discs he’d burned, until we figured out I was better at it; I showed Dave how to pop the trays out of the jewel cases we bought at Circuit City, then Tom showed us both how the pros do it; we all folded the tray inserts and put them in the cases and put the cases back together and put the discs in the trays and stacked them in a pile. I think we made maybe a dozen.
That night we sold the first copy, to an enthusiastically drunk young lady who, like everyone else in Ashland, had missed our entire set. We were packing up when everyone the bartenders had texted suddenly showed up, so we unpacked and played a Jackson 5 song and whatever else we could think of until we’d all had enough. After we were done, they played our CD on the stereo. I couldn’t make out exactly what our first customer squealed about it - but I could tell she liked it. Read More »
Micah Bariteau, aka groovepainter, often seen sketching musicians at concerts and open mikes, has a show of his art up at Mission City Coffee this month. Here’s a piece he did of us at Red Rock Coffee a couple months back. Click the image for a larger version. I like the way he draws over metallic swirls of paint - it’s a cool textural approach. Read More »
I can’t believe we haven’t posted about this! Left Coast Live is next week!
What it is, is a five-day celebration of live music in downtown San Jose. There’ll be discussion panels, a movie about the music industry, and concerts from Monday to Thursday (all free); and on Friday, a super-intense music festival from 5 PM until 2 in the morning. Read More »
I just added a page of live videos to the site. It’s got some of the best stuff people have shot of us, at open mikes and at shows. We’re always looking for new footage, so if you’re thinking about bringing your video camera to an upcoming show, um, please do!
My personal favorite is “She Stole My Bike”, from the special “closed mike” where we celebrated ten years of Steve Cavin’s open mike at Red Rock Coffee. I like where Tom starts singing about sea cucumbers and I just look confused. Slim Critchlow shot that one, but coincidentally Steve shot “The Lion” upstairs at our last show there.
Did I mention we’re playing at Red Rock again this Saturday? Because we totally are.
They’re called Bviolin and the January Avalanche, they’re on tour from San Diego, and they describe their sound as “Persian Jazz Groove Gypsy Dance Folk Fusion”. That’s a lot of stuff in one band! Kind of like us.
Should be a great show. Come join us! It’s at Red Rock Coffee at 8:00, Saturday, March 28. Oh, and if you don’t see us there… it’s because we’re upstairs! Climb the stairs!
Probably my favorite thing about Friday’s show at Caffe Trieste was meeting Zamilla. (I hope I’m spelling her name right.) Zamilla is a little girl who saw our poster last week and quite reasonably wanted to know, “What’s a Tin Cat?” Friday afternoon, sightseeing with her parents in San Francisco, she insisted, “We have to go back to San Jose and see Tin Cat!”
So she was at the show that night, and she found out what a Tin Cat is, and we’re pretty sure she liked us, and she had our picture taken with us. It was flattering!
I didn’t see it myself, but I heard that Zamilla put some money in the tip jar, and when she got back to where her parents were sitting, she said “I put my lucky penny in, too!” Most of the money from the tip jar goes into the bank so we can pay to get more CDs made (and t-shirts, and flyers, and the list goes on). But a lucky penny, you don’t just put that in a bank somewhere. The lucky penny is staying in my mandolin case. For luck. Thanks, Zamilla!