August 25th re-cap

Another great turn out for the SRSS on this night, and it was my Australian friends Khristian Mizzi,  Frank Pearce and Jess Moussi representing Khristian Mizzi & the Sirens who played the lions share of the evening.  We had another late start due to a delinquent JLS and there was a festival (international pop overthrow) after the show so we were a bit cramped, but it didn't stop the good times.  I ran through a few tunes and then had my buddy Simian Special up for a tune we call "Bill Von Bacon Tell" about a guy who has left the city to pan for gold in Williams creek.  There was a gold rush there like a century ago, and you get the odd prospector who finds a good chunk of gold there from time to time.  I did some gold panning one time and the thing i took away from it was how cold your hands get trying to pan gold out of a glacial fed Canadian river.  Anyhoo the song is written in a way that parallels some fool trying to pan their music with some fool trying to strike it rich in the deserted mountains of the B.C interior. When we hit the words right i think it's great... even when we miss them Sim's vocals carry the load and the crowd is always happy.

Khristian, Frank and Jess then took the stage and played a great set and Pete pointed out that you could see the tendons firing in Khristian's fore-arm as he finger picked his guitar.  Ahh the power of the human body so dexterous when trained properly.

It was a great night and i stayed a while at the bar knowing full well that Fire-man, Sharon and Smokey were doing the swim and i had filled my commitment to  have members of the SRSS go swimming in the ocean for the July/August months.  When they go swimming in the ocean there is never any issues... they shut out paranoia and embrace the path of least resistance.  Sometimes you get a better story if you buy into paranoia and let it to power your stride against the current... i guess in a way,  they do that in life (meant as a compliment)... and so swimming in dogfish infested waters and challenging the human hypothermic response  is just casual recreation.

I guess it's Cam and Jesse tomorrow although i thought i saw in an email that Cam is in Europe.. time is the hunter.. i never get press releases from anybody... actually that's not true, Smash Supper Shows always come with a good press release... and a few emails to boot, and the LFM even makes it's own FB page and promotes heavily. That's one of the great things about being the SRSS kingpin... there are so many great people that come and add so many unique things to the show and they often come in waves and my job is to just find a spot for them to let their creations/concepts fly.

Be good, be fair, try hard, don't give up, and all that other crap... sorry i have nothing else.

August 18th re-cap

There was a full house for this weeks SRSS, a perfect evening on a number of levels.. but no Super Steve... aka the Pike. The Pike likes to lay low in the reeds and watch the action and the Pike can get a little flippy when he is coerced into Monkey Cult participation. As Captain Lou Albano's character Frankie the Fixer said in the movie wise guys "I'm a little too well known down there", one can almost see the gears turning in the pikes head... "even if I'm in the back that crafty cult leader will know I'm there and perhaps call me up to chant some repetitious quasi religious rantings... and I'll have to do it... say isn't there a Mariners game i need to see"

The Pike knows what time it is... all the others in the room had to chant, cheer and sing... because it is of course, an interactive orchestra. The sound man was late but when we got rolling it was sounding crisp and smart... do note that the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra was just described in words as "crisp"... no turning back now... could have used the word "Organic". i remember trying to describe Knockin' Dog as Organic sounding in like 1996... i was more shocked by shilling back then so it left a rather strong impression on me. The way i live now is more "it don't matter, nobody is listening anyway"... as a matter of fact the bio/ one sheet for the last 21 tandem Repeats release was generated by a mock online band bio generator

Perhaps we need a Super Roberson Supper Show Bio:

Since forming in the Railway Club of Vancouver, Super Robertson Supper Show climbed to the top of the the indie rock scene in 2004 with their debut album, Live @ the SRSS part one. The band's latest album, live at the SRSS part 47, fuses Earl Johnstonerbreaths unabashed hooks with shoe-gazing Brit-Pop to slap together some seriously inspired crowd pleasers. With standout tracks like "King Super Robertson," don't be surprised if you find Super Robertson Supper Show at the top of the indie rock charts and beyond.

Where the hell was I...

Hailing from the Daily Grind coffee house in Vancouver, The legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra rose to the top of the folk scene in 2008 with their debut album, Help Help. The band's latest album, Aliens, unites Fire-Man's insightful intonation with pastoral orchestral accompaniments to produce simply stunning music. With standout tracks like "the means of production garden tea Party theme song", the music of The legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra appeals to folk fans and non-folk fans alike.


and..

Hailing from the smokey bars outside of Vancouver, Super Steve found himself at the top of the the blues scene in 1975 with his debut album, what happened. The band's latest album, Super R is king, weaves Super Steve's gut-wrenching lyrics with roadhouse slide guitar to churn out their most sincere work to date. With standout tracks like "I love the Super Robertson Supper Show," already certified platinum in Europe, Super Steve can count on loads of future success.

There was also cake at the SRSS last week to celebrate the genesis of CT and JLS, but for most of us it was all about the cake. I got it from Fratelli Authentic Italian Baking and it was on sale because it was a day old, but as the old saying goes "a day old fratelli's cake still stomps the balls off the the rest". Maybe that's a new saying... perhaps i should trademark it and send it to "Cake people new York new York".

what is happening with this blog? Hot damn we are losing focus, and i still haven't got to the swim that i thought i wasn't going on because it was cold that day and we had cake and a party in the bar... but then as i was leaving some fool tried to call me a sissy so i had to redeem myself, but i had no bike so i had to resort to doing a cannonball off the dock by the Olympic village but the only problem was that the tide was down and i cut my leg on a rock and had trouble getting out of the water and then it occurred to me that i was in the ocean with a cut... not a big one, but blood was dripping from me and the dock was a long way up, and i was naked and some people came to hang out on the dock so i had to lay low in the water bleeding and then all hell broke loose... i think a fucking pike tried to bite me, which scared the shit out of the couple above me and caused a whole wave of confusion and sudden alarm down by "Canada's great sustainable community".

I read this book called Monster of God, and it was about alpha predators, and one of the things i took away is that those who live in sustainable communities (mud huts by the river) take the greatest hits when it comes to attacks from alpha predators... say crocodiles.  Well lets just say that our sustainable communities don't offer the same support to one of their citizens when they are attacked by a mud shark/ocean pike.  yea go ahead an laugh Did you know that? Yes, pike do go into the ocean - as long as it is brackish enough... believe me it was brackish.  rather than help they call the fucking police on me... but not even the real police... some useless security guard who doesn't even have a weapon to fire into the dark waters where i was pointing as the menace regathered for a second wave of attacks.



Tomorrow Khristian Mizzi  returns with his art bus festival tour that started here a few months ago... then they are going down to burning man... if you need a ride it might work.

These guys are king hell, from Australia came to Canada to check it out bought a short bus sold tickets to cover gas and insurance (rides across Canada) and toured the country playing music.  If you can't get behind that boo to you.





and as a final note we went late and were very slow getting our stuff off the stage... lets not get complacent team we need to be the gold standard... it is our destiny... lets play 7:30-8:30 keep it pro lean and mean.

August 11 re-cap

Hot damn it's late and my memory has been shafted by a hockey playoff victory and the requisite beers that followed.  Luckily i managed to tape the show and it was one King hell show if i don't say so myself... luckily in the way that i can post a video and the video can do the speaking, and i can go on about the lesson from the swim.



we hit the swim, a nice little group and there was a female presence which was most excellent because she did the right things like bringing hot tea and emergency blankets to lie on so we could sit and muse and around that time there were 2 fires on the beach and we were tempted to go join in... but we had tea and blankets and the woman logic reminded us that everything was good where we were. Right right... there was a lot less chance for regret if we stayed where we were... i was initially thinking in terms of personalities that i might not want to have to overcome should i impose myself on a party. Soon the cops came and shut down the fires and we watched from a nice safe distance very happy that we were not one of the people around the fire when the party was busted.

Next week or tomorrow for that matter we have "The legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra", and even better there will be Cake. A double birthday celebration for 2 unsung SRSS heroes... 1)JLS (soundman and multi-instrumentalist) and 2)CT (stalwart who minds children every wednesday night so that this can happen).

Swimming is always an option, and i have been reminded that perhaps if i tried to sell it more like a wonderful experience and less like a dangerous shark ridden hypothermia blast i might get more takers... sales was never my strong suit... I'm very proud of that.

get in touch with me if you think we need a limo to take us from the club to the water... could be a good option.

i have no idea what this blogasroo is about... it's choppey

So somebody made me a new poster for the Super Robertson Supper Show... guess who?  I'll give you a hint... he makes horns and plays in the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra.  That's right it's Fire-Man... I like it... not sure about the "blasphemies" concept as i see my self a more of a simple songwriter who's songs try to be about being a better person living in a better world, but as they say, nobody is listening anyway.

So i sent some posters to the printer and we will have those bad boys down to the club like tomorrow to join the collection of stellar Simian Special posters.

I remember when i use to spend a lot of my time "postering"... my efforts were legendary.. what a waste of fucking time... i have met people that saw my posters for years and never made it out to a show... this is back in the old days when i would cover Vancouver with 750 posters myself and all i got was a dental bill to fix some chipped teeth from biting tape.  In my head i saw it as a process to prepare for the show... practice is a better one.

Having posters in the club is a different animal all together... they are not getting rained on, nor is the person putting up the posters... they stay up because they are where they should be, which means printing in colour is worthwhile.  A poster can then be viewed and enjoyed by a patron who might need a moment to muse about it over some beers. 

Shit where was i... aren't i here to shit together a glowing review of last weeks show and then try to get all you chicken shit land lovers to come down to the show tomorrow for some early drinking and then a naked ocean swim out at 3rd beach  to cap off the evening and remind yourself that it is summer and you are alive.

I actually missed last weeks swim (due to a hockey game our team won 7-0), but Fire-Man and Sharon kept the summer tradition alive and had a lovely little swim that went without incident, so i am told. Of course i had to get the swim report... what kind of a jackass blogger would i be if i didn't get the swim report... if i am going to bark on about how important it is to go swimming naked in the cold dark ocean as a matter of some applied principle then i have to get the report.  that is one of the problems with those guys... they are natural night ocean swimmers, so there is no problem,  no fear...

So it was a Cam and Jesse supper show and Jesse's Mom was there and so was CC sit-down, and SRSS inspirational man award winner Dave Parchumchuck... actually there was a nice crowd and the boys were on that night... cam was singing exceptionally well was what i had written in my notes.  The boys invited Ogden Hammerstein up to play some music and added some gargle water harmonies to a supersimian song titled "bob style"... Odgen was kind enough to give the audience a choice of 3 songs and they went for that one, i believe because it was presented as a song about a guy who gets hammered in a bar and falls in love with a waitress and he strikes out goes home wakes up his wife club footing around the house and then goes tr try to write a novel...  yea we all been there they said.

Tomorrow we have Cognac Robertson and the blue shirt boys featuring JLS on guitar and Shawn Killaly on Drums... we may or may not have more.  I have a call and answer song to do so it would help if there were people there, but as i said earlier in an email... i couldn't draw a crowd if i was a fire hydrant in a city blaze.  i say that in jest for the record, don't want old Super Steve reading this tomorrow feeling sorry for old Robertson, cause Robertson is doing A OK... Robertson will do what he does and you can take it or leave it... it's not a bet, more like an offering... that said i predict an old school ball stomping at the SRSS tomorrow... come for the music supper and spirits and then do the swim... soon it will be November and we will be looking back to that night when we went swimming after the SRSS.

Swimming after the SRSS... could be a good song title... by the way we are going to do our version of "Double Rainbow" tomorrow and I'll be taping the bastard.

July 28 re-cap

It was time to get out the damn drum kit... no more of this acoustic night shit... not that there is anything wrong with acoustic nights, it's just that we haven't seen the drum kit in a while.

Super Robertson, Christoper Johnson and JLS the destroyer held down the fort as the trio for the night doing songs from the Robertson, Johnson and Fire-Man songbook and making up a few as they went... it was rough and edgy but remember that is what we were looking for... it was time to step outside the box and challenge ourselves, try to do something a little different.  hell even some people came down to see the show... Dan brought some people and they had supper... Brian brought Dan a few years ago and they come from time to time and it was Mule who brought Brian a few years before that... so it looks like we might have that thing happening:



cross pollinate that with this:




Did i mention we had "hand carved jazz horn" and story time... that's right Fire-Man was there honking "Myhorn" one of his original horns that he cut in half and folded to make transportation easier. I was going to do that play where CIBC totally fucks up on the RRSP payments and then continues to make the same mistakes over and over again completely un-aware of anything that happened before and each time calling me a different name but doing it in a manner that would suggest were were bosom buddies... But in a stunning turn of events i lost my fucking mind and tried to re-cap the shopping trip to Superstore with the kids, but for some reason witty words were eluding me on stage... and Fire-man is always good to honk on, which worked out well, at this time... later i got on to a thing about sharks, hopes dreams and wanting to be important, and after the show people wanted to talk sharks with me, so they were listening.  Then we did dish pig and JLS the destroyer really ripped it up on guitar... it was a good finish.

Then it was swim time... after some mild drinking of course... a few pitchers of beer and some shark antidotes make for very pleasant night time swimming if you like that kind of fear...  damn fireworks were blasting which worked out well because you can't see them from third beach which means nobody was there but Fire-man and I... the only problem was that Fire-Man was in the water first and then started ridiculing me about getting into the water... which made the water seem colder than it actually was... then he started blathering on about some "mammalian face response", and that i was meant to be in the water, which i suddenly had to disagree with... i have lungs and lack a dorsal fin or a blowhole (perhaps I'm leaving myself open for a zinger with that blowhole comment)... so the mammalian face response is that you put your face in the cold water and you body feels warmer than it actually is... probably induces some form of vascular dilation to conserve body heat... and then probably some neurotoxin to help with the "you are warm" lie.

Tomorrow we have Cameron Dilworth and Jesse Matheson... i may show as "Odgen Hammerstein" ... i guess we will see.