Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Hey Rock stands tall and the Legion of flying monkeys Horn Orchestra is on deck

Last weeks SR Supper Show was a dandy for sure, I'd give the Gold Medal to Simian Special who put on one king hell drumming clinic, not that his rhythm partners Vic and Smash were eating parsnips behind the barn if you know what i mean... what the hell does that mean?
Perhaps we all should have formed a band years ago when there was still some time on the clock... none the less i didn't know what i needed to know back then, but that's always the case.

One of the things i do know is to beware of the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra.. it is a CULT headed by an insane maniac that seems to be picking up steam like a snowball going down the south side of a mountain on a hot sunny day in March. I was thinking of coming to the show with something that could make a really bizarre noise and then leap up on stage and do it in the middle of their set... which of course is what they would want, like a fly in the spider web you become one in the belly of the arachnoid.

So tomorrow we have the legion of flying monkeys horn orchestra at the Super Robertson Supper Show.



photo by Peter Lolley

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Hey Rock... the legend is strong

Last week at the super Robertson Supper Show we had a doors cover band named "Soul Kitchen"and Super Robertson. They hit the song Peace Frog, which is what i was hoping for and a version of "love me two times" which got me thinking of rhythm ideas with respect to songwriting. There were 2 levels of keyboards with a thin board holding up a massive box of some sort of sound equipment. It was good times for sure. On the SR side, he played a few new numbers and was heckled by an old high school nemesis named Ed Henley... i guess in the grand scheme of things it was SR who was in fact the nemesis as he was reminded about the time he set of firecrackers in Ed's back pocket during a scavenger hunt. i wonder how many people are arrested and or killed at these scavenger hunts... like there is always a stop sign on the list and its worth a lot of points. That could be a real safety issue for any of you worry wart pencil neck's out there in blogland. the whole episode had some of the regular folks wondering how many people from SR's past are out there carrying scars from incessant SR harassment.

Speaking of Nemesis and people to harass, this week at the SR Supper Show we have the Hey Rock, or Ross Vegas aloha sucker show. Last night i get this bizarre email from this dude named "Tim" about some show at the railway.

What i know is that Hey Rock is playing the Super Robertson Supper Show on Wednesday June 17th.

Hey Rock... the legend:

Hey Rock blows into Vancouver and tries to hook up with the music scene. Little does he know that there is no music scene, but it doesn't stop him because he still has hope and a good hip. Hey Rock meets the members of the classic band ROADBED who go on to produce his band's first release. Done of a 4-track the group has a knack for sweet little pop tunes sung with great harmonies... The Roadbed crew dubbed them "Champ and the Harmony Brothers" and prepared for their debut release, but no can do, the band recoiled at the thought of not being taken VERY SERIOUSLY, so they changed their name to Rubicon (n. A limit that when passed or exceeded permits of no return and typically results in irrevocable commitment.)... OK Guy!

In some ways that's what a music scene will do to a band, make them worry about things that are not important. I don't think the Barenaked Ladies ever worried about being taken seriously, but I'm pretty sure all of us fools in scene sucking bands would do anything for success on the level that the Ladies achieved.

Rubicon released a solid sounding CD under the hands of JLS and rode the ROADBED tails for a few years, and then Hey Rock struck off on his own forming a band called Ross Vegas who released a CD titled "Flow". Hey Rock is one hell of a singer and he is moving back to the his home town of Rossland B.C.

I know I'll miss Hey Rock, but those days were done when we all made the fool decision to have kids... so it's really every man for himself, just like it always was and always will be, but when you are young you tend to believe in things that might make sense in a movie.

Have no fear... from what i understand the band Ross Vegas will carry on with a "new" Hey Rock at the helm as a matter of principle, and of course Hey Rock has been immortalized in a few Roadbed songs the most obvious being "Hey Rock took the bait", a song which i might mention has since been covered by another fantastic Vancouver band named Simian Special.

Fucking hell... it feels like i'm writing a damn biography of Hey Rock and i haven't even got to the part where Super Robertson and Shockk spent a few good years of their lives putting Hey Rock on Swirly alert. Of course a Swirly is where you shove a person's head into the toilet and give it a flush... which is actually what the song "Hey Rock took the bait" was all about. Everything back in those days was about luring Hey Rock close to a toilet so we could pounce on his ass and go for a quick swirly, and if he wasn't such a strong person we would have had him. One time his head was inches from that tiolet water and we were on his head like a raccoon on a hound but he found the strength to lurch back at the moment of truth.

If there was only one more time where Hey Rock could wander into a washroom whistling a little tune and thinking about something else... then we could ambush his ass and dunk him for the swirly he deserves... hey wait a minute he will be at the Railway Club tomorrow... Hmmmm.

I miss those days.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

June is bike month don't you know.

Last weeks supper show was phenomenal... Jesse Matheson lit a batch of firecrackers and threw them down Cameron Dilworth's pants while a crack band of experts played "white Rabbit". Apparently it was a prepared gag as Cameron has a nickel plated groin guard pre cooled in liquid nitrogen. Unfortunately the fire trucks were called and pandemonium arose on Dunsmuir street, where veteran journalist Carl Fatman was stunned repeatedly with a Gripstone 4000 TM stun gun. Then Matheson set the bar doing 5 handstand push-ups as a challenge to any other lowly supper show hosts.

Tomorrow night we have the Music of The Doors.

Keeping to the spirit of Bike month there was good representation from the cyclist contingent as i counted 45 bike helmets in the joint.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

If i had an iphone i could do this from the beach... technically anyway

God damn the weeks just fly by and the Supper Show continues to gain momentum. Oddly enough a few people came to the supper show and ordered the DeRailer... the burger we went on about last week... or i guess the week before... if i were a businessman i would see an opportunity... I don;t have time for opportunity... now what kind of a fool jackass would spout that kind of nonsense.

My good buddy Shawn Killaly the drummer is leaving to go live in Toronto... which will work out well when i play "Not my Dog" on July 28 and "Tranzac" on August 4th as part of the 21TR Tuesday night Toronto tour... but the Supper show has lost a most excellent drummer and person.

Last week Smash , Simian Special, Shawn and S Robertson put on a pretty fair supper show clinic. It was fun and good and as i am currently going over the video footage i can declare it a success.

For the month of June we have:

June 3- Cameron dillworth and Jesse Matheson
June 10- the music of "the Doors"
June17- the Hey Rock "so long sucker" goodbye party
June 24- The Legion of flying Monkies Horn Orchestra

Super Robertson who may make an appearance from time to time will focus on completing the new album in June.