Troika fest this weekend...

This Friday at Duke Coffee Shop- We'll go on around 12. Neill will be mixing live video projections during our set. Details on the Troika blog here




The full lineup for this show-

12:00 Birds of Avalon
11:00 I Was Totally Destroying It
10:15 The Pneurotics
9:30 The Ringing Cedars

Full Troika schedule here




More about Neill and Juxtapongo

Chicago, Bottom Lounge

Despite having been there at least 10 or 15 times, Chicago is still a mystery to me. I can't ever figure out where anything is, or how different parts of the city fit together. This was our first show at Bottom Lounge, a large concrete room in a seemingly bombed out area, but for all I know it might have been right next to the hippest/ swankiest district in all the land. I never even saw the front door. We stayed with our friend Doug McCombs who plays bass in Tortoise. I've been listening to their new record, Beacons of Ancestorship, quite a bit the past week. It's spectacular. Doug also gave us a copy of his recent album with David Daniel, Sycamore. Sprawling, richly textured ambiance that hovers like a thunderhead- great driving music.

Madison - Real Jaguar's B-Day Bash!

Oh man, Madison. Well this was a good one. We started out meeting up with our buddy and local Madison gadabout, Gabe. Gabe is a DJ (real jaguar) for the local college station and knows more about music than most. He also lives in a fantastic place with three porches and a rooftop patio which overlooks the downtown area. What up, playa? The show was at a place which escapes me right now but it had a killer downstairs greenroom and the bartenders were super friendly. The great bands we played with this night were Trin Tran (my favorite, personally), Spires that in the Sunset Rise and Peaking Lights. Also did I mention yet that there was a magician performing in between sets. Why can't every show be like this? At one point the magician, James Grainger (who also made the pizza we ate for dinner!...not magically he actually works at a pizza joint. Fuck that would be cool though.) made a dollar bill, Craig's dollar to be exact, appear inside of a lemon that he cut open. He ripped of a quarter of it, ate it with his teeth, then somehow made that shit end up inside a lemon!!! Got that? No? Ask Craig to demonstrate when you see him because it was some otherworldly shit.

Back to Gabe...he also (in addition to the pizza) went and got us some killer pre-show thai food and keep us libated All. Night. Long. All night! It was his birthday party too btw. At his house was an after- party and it got ugly. Hot tubs, boobies, driving a Mazerati 90mph the wrong way down a one way street...you don't want to know (nod to Fat Bobby).

Mnpls

We've been doing shows at 7th Street Entry for a couple years now and it's always a good time. Tonight we played with a reformed Beatifics and the legendary Grant Hart, formerly of Husker Du. Grant was celebrating the release of his new CD, Hot Wax, and did a mostly solo set of songs from his long solo career and some old Du stuff as well. Grant is a gifted performer and songwriter and it was a joy to watch his set. It was strange seeing him do songs like "Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill" after having seen Bob Mould do them with No Age at ATP a few months earlier. Both performers were amazing in their own right but there was of course a sharp contrast in the surroundings we saw the two of them in. Between our set and Grant's this friend of his set up a "light sculpture". This consisted of several light bulbs affixed to a bicycle wheel which she sprayed with a super soaker until they burst. It was surreal. Rock shows need more stuff like this. Still I think my favorite moment of the night was when a journalist was bothering Grant about a guest list spot and Grant hummed a full beer bottle at him. He missed, on purpose (i think) and it exploded against the dressing room wall. Excitement!

Des Moines, Iowa

Well, then there was Des Moines. Slipknot is from Des Moines. Nuff said? Ahhh, I won't lie to you people, there weren't a lot of folks in attendance at this one here. In fact there were exactly four. However, those four people did come specifically to see and hear us so that was somewhat comforting. In spite of the numbers (i think everyone was at the high on fire, mastodan, deathklok shredfest across town. i know I would have been.) we put our best psychedelic foot forward and ate a bunch of mushrooms. Nah, not really but we did decide to improvise a space jam here and there. And I think we can all pat ourselves on the back and say jorb well done.

The other cool thing about this show is that we played with a good band. The were called Church of the Snake. Worth looking into.

De Kalb IL

Our first time in De Kalb. We played Otto's club, a nice sized venue with good sound in this old timey saloon type place- looks as though it had once been some sort of theatre. The opening band was a free jazz improv group that set up stations around the club with instruments so the audience could participate in the jam. For some reason i spent most of their set in the basement playing megatouch, 11 ball to be exact. I'm addicted, have been for years. There's something about being repeatedly forced to add to 11 that appeals to me.

The middle act was a New Orleans sort of thing, scratchy vocals, waltz tempos and a small horn section. I think they even covered a Squirrel Nut Zippers song They were really good. Unfortunately, the two bands we played with were called The Information Delivery Service and the Great Influence Machine and I have no earthly idea which was which.

One additional note- some girls from a local "hoop troop" came to this show and hula hooped throughout our set. It was slightly distracting but I do kind of wish it would happen every night. Maybe we could take them on tour with us sometime. Girls?

Sincinnati

I've been slacking big time here so lemme sum up real quick. Played at a very cool bar called Northside Cafe. Great bartender. Our good friend Brian from the recently resurrected garage punk torch bearers the Long Gones was our hospitable host. We stayed at his crib. CK got chili from Skyline which was reaaaaally fucking good. Also ate at the Blue Jay diner. Also really good.