July 20 re-cap

I actually took a round of applause when i walked in to the club on this night as people were still buzzing from the SRSS 6 year anniversary show...  still yet to recover from the numerous failures i tend to see i was awkward as per usual.  Super Steve noted that i did make only one large error in not recognizing my wife (although she hates being called that)... let's call her CT.

On the clip I put up last week you will notice that there was an award for most scintillating woman in the audience... and it was actually a trophy award...  CT was nominated, but a woman who wasn't there won, and i somehow managed to keep one of my old trophies around the house for a while longer.  There was actually a fair amount of comedy involved in that gag...  there probably wasn't the proper set up like there might be if this was a popular show like say "the office" where character developement was taken care of.   The problem was that the show was running a little long so i tried to take a break and that turned into a sound set up clown show and about 20 minutes down time at the peak of the evening... next thing you know it was getting late and a lot of people were wanting to play music, others were tired and left,  so i never got back to the awards.  Am i still going on about this?  Fucking rights I am... it burns my ass that in our own barn, the stage we own... our fucking canvass, I let that happen.  Totally unacceptable.  It's like playing a game of hockey and playing 2 real good periods but then in the third you make an idiot play and cough the puck up in front of your net and it ends up in the mesh...  You are not sitting in the dressing room pumping your tires about how good you did in the first two periods.

No matter what you do i find it insufferable to not learn from your mistakes... and sometimes that means going over and over them locating every loose nut, refining the system, seeing where and why you failed.  You can also win and fail... you could cough up the puck and have your goalie bail you out but it is your responsibility to understand where you went wrong.

It's a weird gamut: art music and failure... pointing out failure is like shiting your pants in a packed stalled elevator... nobody wants any part of that and perhaps will violently resist it.  But it's not shit when you are a scientist.. asking the questions what when wrong? is how you solve the problem.  Art and music people sometimes don't see it that way... perhaps too much fragile ego and not enough working man toughness.  Thing about the Wright brothers... their first flying machines didn't fly but i bet you they didn't spent their evenings trying to blame the wind for their failure... they probably obsessed over their failure and then got it right... or wright for that matter.

Now that said numerous people told me of what a grand time they had and why they had such a grand time... i see there were numerous successes, real successes... people going home feeling alive and inspired.

Salvador Dali: 'A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.'

That is definitely good because the high praise came from those who were inspired.   Good times were had by many and i don't actually believe anybody had a bad time... i trust all those people who were busting my balls for not winning an award were speaking in jest.


But this was to be the July 20 re-cap.. it said so in the title...  OK Cam and Jesse kind of mailed it in and there was a table of people that were so loud and boisterous you could barely hear anything.  Some dinner guests glared over at the noisy table and i sat there wondering why i bother.  I should have just walked over and said "hey do you folks know there is plenty of seating in the back", but i didn't cause i didn't want to be a bother.  I just sat there pondering the total disrespect for people making music on a stage that is part of the culture we have in this town.   I have been on both sides of the quagmire  (the loud guy talking and the quiet guy trying to present a song) and it is equally depressing when i think about it.  But as Ruth Minnikin sings "you can't chose your audience"... and then i believe it goes something like you wouldn't want to if you could.  For me i have developed a few tricks over the years to engage a tough crowd.  Sometimes you play hockey against a team with better players, but if you team works together they can overcome.

And tomorrow we have the last 21 TANDEM REPEATS SRSS until September... come on down and pick up the latest CD and pay what you want for it.  Shawn Killaly on drums, Jason Jones on piano, Chirstopher Johnson on bass and guitar and Jan Toren on bass and vocals.

August SRSS listings:

August 3-  The Cam and Jesse Super Robertson Supper Show
 Cameron Dilworth and Jesse Matheson bring songs mixed with awkward dry wit for an intimate hour of acoustic entertainment.

August 10th-  A Spectre Is Haunting Europe, a prog deathrock band from Vancouver, Canada.
http://www.aspectreishauntingeurope.com/

Aug 17- Classical Revolution- Classical Revolution is a global phenomenon, revolutionizing the way live classical music is programmed and heard.

Aug 24th- King Dinosaur and the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra...  King Dinosaur doing Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, the Kinks and others followed by the Supreme Janitor leading an elderberry Horn Orchestra.

Aug 31- No show

SRSS 6 Year Anniversary Recap

The curtain draws on 6 years of the SRSS... people do look happy.

I hate putting on Shows... I really do.  I was ill with regret for 2 days after... people were like are you crazy! That was a great show everybody had a blast!

Some of the things in my loath list were... actually on revision i just deleted this part.. probably best.

From the song One Little Dream (21 Tandem Repeats):

"art is a line and it follows a spine and you know when you know when it works , regret is a step and you should not let all the things you did wrong get you down".

I think i need to remember those words.

Oddly enough i was over at the Dawson post Folk Festival party this weekend  hanging with some pretty sucussful music people, and of course being me i get into it and they all tell me i am crazy to worry about that... everything is always going wrong to your vision but if people had a good time then that's why they go out to be entertained... and then i got on the snare drum and played beats while Dan Bern and Sam Parton sang duets and they looked over and smiled and said "right on here we go".

I do need to give grand props to the band... Shawn Killaly on drums, Jason Jones on piano, Christopher Johnson on bass, Willingdon Black on guitar, and Sandra Bouza on vocals.  They improvised the show the whole way and were on the money the whole time...



So i think photos tell the story... thanks to Moustachman who won the gold for photography... wonder why?  The photo's are up and ready to go when i need them.  And to those dozen or so people who i asked to bring me a list of five people in the audience when i was up giving awards and you all failed... but worry not, in my mind i failed worse.

The Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra stomps down a solid set while the audience salivates over the awards... all hoping, praying that they might get a chance for glory.

A happy table of folks tries to make small talk to keep their minds off the riveting excitement of how the awards will go down.

Jesse Matheson and Cameron Dilworth come correct and serve up some excellent recognition plaques.

Wanky wins an award for best human.

Genny Trigo could have won any number of awards and best female vocal on a recording (One Little Dream, 21 Tandem Repeats 2011) was one of the first ones she picked up.

Should have won best dressed couple but the guy running the show is an aggressive hammerhead and he dropped the ball on many key points.

A round of high fives from the winners circle.

Cameron Dilworth takes home best male Vocal.

Well we were about to give out the happiest drummer award... so i believe Shawn Killaly was lobbying at the last minute.

The Johnny Wildkat "Multitask award"

Super Steve had a big night raking home a tonne of medal, while King Dinosaur remained shut-out until the wee hours

One of the great failures of the night was the fact that CT didn't get an award either... unbelievable, she baked the cake, made the awards and looks after the kids every night during the SRSS.  So if you feel cheated for not getting an award give your head a shake.

Multiple award winner Simon... don't know his last name.

Who has fun the the SRSS? Curtis and Pockets do!

Who is the seenster drinking PBR hanging with all the winners?

i believe she won "person who bought the biggest piece of shit automobile"

On July 20 2011 the SRSS will be done by Cam and Jesse who had this to say about the show:

I think our theme for this one will be the "Cure for the Summer Time Blues". Were going to be exploring ways to deal with this cloudy,rainy summer and the depression that it brings. Should be informative and educational. It will turn frowns upside-down.

Well well well, here we go again...

The Super Robertson Supper Show 6 year Anniversary Gala event.  Right now, above me, 2 beautiful women are working diligently on a massive cake that has a guitar and my head so far... apparently i just ate my nose.  For the record it was moist and delicious.  The awards are all hanging on the wall looking regal with their sharp red ribbon and glinting gold medallions. There are even trophies, the only thing left is who will take them home.

SRSS blog follower hawk eye- can anybody beat Super Steve?
Most stylish head-  Super R has short hair and huge sideburns... going to be tough for Casey.
Pro side burn award- seriously people
Agent of chaos- I wonder
Best hockey mind- Can Willingdon Black retain the title?
Best local release- Pineapple (pineapple) , One little dream (21 tandem Repeats), Insolents and Indolents (the Gentle Infidels), In (Land of Deborah).... among others
Delinquent award- Shockk's moment to shine... Chris Cruse or John Tweed or Winkler?
Lyric hawk award-  could be Jen Kopp,  could be Wayne or King Dinosaur
Satellite award- who lives far away but is in touch with the SRSS...Greg Pohl the reigning champion.
Best poem- so many to choose from, and some may still come
Stalwart award- meet Super Steve
Best keyboards- is an accordion a keyboard? Will Fire-Man steal this from Jason Jones.
Best spoken word or interpretive dance- Nathan Baker had a good one last week, but Pockets did do the meditation dance.
Best guitar player- acoustic or electric?
The "Pavel Bure" energy injection award - Jacey and the crew from  Bellerose Composite High School... or is it Sandra Bouza, or Chris Johnson or Tim Watson.
v5t award- so many candidates
Best stringed instrument player-  Chris Rzepa, Aaron McKinney, Johnson, Robertson, Dangworth
Best instrument builder- Fire-Man or Ed Bond
Mid week hammer time award- super R has earned that, but possibly Ed might be in the house
Avaunt guard award- LFM, BTD, This Thing
Top producer- Caleb Stull, Jesse Gander, Nick Tyz, Brodie Smith
Top female scientist- heavy competition on this one
Top journalist- can Mule Hughes keep the title... a little bird told me no...
Happy person award- see who's smiling
Best female vocal- another huge one... so many candidates...
Top dog mail person- I believe Rilcof won this last time..  which is insane... can't repeat.
Best blog- can the Super Robertson Supper Show blog win on home turf... will there be a riot if it doesn't.
Best Horn player- plenty on hand
Best sign language interpreter who is non licensed?

Other questions remain:
Can  Joe Rotundo trump any of the SRSS hosts and take home best regular night host of a Railway event? And who will win best bartender and what will the fallout of that decision be, and will some pseudo award need to be invented off the top of our fearless leaders head to soothe the soul of  the losers club.


Of course this is all just a cover to trick people to come to the CD release party for my latest record titled "One Little Dream".  I think it is really good, but  I have thought that before like a dozen times so what do i know.  The past couple of releases i hired a publicist but this time i wasn't pushy enough to get on the train... that and the fact that staying home to raise kids for 3 years can take a pretty good hit on your pocket book.  I'm not complaining, i have a good life with enjoyment coming from many different regions.  In fact i feel good about tomorrow night... in the past i would worry about how things will go but now all i see is a chance to play with some great people that i have had the good fortune to play with over the past number of years.  We even had a few rehearsals and sounded fine, and i remembered some things about myself... don't get trapped behind some ideal of how you think you want something to go.  Because it is a record release and a 6 year anniversary party i want it to go well, but what is it that we have been training for all these years?... working on the fly.  I have confidence that on the songs that have many chord changes i can put people on instruments that know the changes, and the rest we need to embrace the spirit of the path we have forged.

Lastly, for those who read this, and have been part of this whole experiment... Thanks!  There was a time i didn't know we would survive 3 months.  I remember going into the club with my Loyal Order of Water buffalo  hat on... because it was the only hat i had that had horns thinking i have to come out strong tonight or we are fucking dead.  I just have this vision of walking up the stairs terrified that i can't even play music for free and succeed.  Success is a matter of opinion, and i know that now, and in the end it's all just memories... I don't even play the song "I am a failure" anymore... why buy into the game you don't play.

Come on down to the Railway on July 13 2011, have cake, win awards, and see people playing music on their own terms... not a bad deal i say.

And download this you cheap bastards

http://itunes.apple.com/us​/album/one-little-dream/id​436188791

July 6 re-cap

Hey Rock came and Hey Rock played and Hey Rock had a grand old time.



And then the band got bigger changed places and banged out some tunes...



By the end of the night i was in an underground parking lot with Hey Rock trying to record a "heavy on the reverb" version of the song "disappear". Listening back on the recording i realize that perhaps the recording device was a little far away from the point of acoustic origin as the claps and reverb registered at the same level of dominance as the main punch of the song. Live and learn, recording is a fine art and it doesn't help much that the medium and the devices keep changing. I remember recording with the old tascam 4 track machine and you could just sit in the chair (drum stool) and read the meters and have a pretty good idea of what you are about to get. Now it's all fuckery, machine levels and machines built to cater to people who have no intention of ever creating (which is fine), but there is a difference.

i loved making tapes, which reminds me... i should digitalize "8 minute man", but in all seriousness why make more plastic? But then again does digital make more plastic... it actually might, it would make sense that something that appears on first sight to make less makes more... phones are pieces of shit that need to be replaced every half year and tapes were good for decades. If i make a tape now then it's Mule, Smash and Shockk are the only people listening to it, and that's not good for the brisk sales juggernaut of the Canada Lynx Records express.  Good to note CD's are plastic as well, because the facts are good things to remember.  Sometimes convenience get's in the way when it comes to feeling good about ourselves.

Anyhoo I have to prepare for the big SRSS 6 year anniversary show blog for tomorrow.

some might say negative

Create Blog, it's free... meaning it cost's nothing provided you have the infrastructure and stamina. Summer is fun... I like summer... And it will end when it's over. Sorry I just got back in from Quadra Island and Cumberland and such and then the car got unpacked and then i remembered about the SRSS... well it has been haunting me so i just chopped last weeks show up and it is going up on the Internet as we speak... except we are not really speaking. I am writing stuff and it shall be on the Internet until the apocalypse, which i imagine should happen rather shortly given the total insanity of the way we react, interact and check facts.  Anyhoo the point being is that a blog is not really a conversation... I guess it could be if it came down to comments, but comments on the internet often leave orbit.. which is perhaps what i have done here... which leads us to our next question.

The next question is "why start a blog with this horse shit"... like shouldn't i be "RA RA BANGING IT ON THE GOOD TIMES TRAIN".  I guess if i was really smart i would take a social media course... like that one a few years ago that said get on the myspace train... hell that's why we need a new course.

So last week we had our special guest This Thing:



A unique show for sure... there was spoken word with garbage can drum accompaniment, a Frank Zappa cover, backing tracks.  Good times for sure.

The 21 Tandem Repeats compliment had a good time as well with Tim Watson on drums, Sandra Bouza on vocals, Jason Jones on Piano and Christopher Johnson on bass... SR as SR of course.  Super Steve and King Dinosaur were in the house, there were push ups done by the youthful Jacey Gibb and an interprative dance done by a man named Nathan. Works for me.




Tomorrow or I guess today for that matter we have Hey Rock set make his return to the Super Robertson Supper Show after a long hiatus.

What do we know about Hey Rock?

Hey Rock had the distinct pleasure of living under Super Robertson years ago on the 900 block of west 15th avenue in Vancouver B.C.  Hey Rock will let your cat out and water your plants but he won't clean the litter box...  I understand... i never wanted a shit machine either, I just had the bad habit of getting together with crazy loon girlfriends who's spiritual side dictated they needed a cat and of course they would "always clean the litter box", except when they couldn't because of some other loon idea.

Hey Rock's first band was a king hell tight pop unit without a name... Naturally Shockk and I recorded their debut tape and dubbed them "Champ and the Harmony Brothers".  Now being blind like a mole Hey Rock didn't see the pure genius behind this bold Canada Lynx Records move, and he changed his name to "Tim" got all serious and they changed the band name to "Rubicon" and recorded some "more serious songs".  It was around that time Roadbed wrote the song "hey Rock took the bait like a hungry bass on a rainy spring morning" which was later shortened to "hey rock took the bait".  There is also an unreleased 4 track song called Hey Rock blew it about the time Hey Rock was in a bar with us when we were talking with some ladies and he tried to get all fancy with the lingo and weirded the women out.
Clearly, Hey Rock needed to be taught a lesson, so it became our life goal to give Hey Rock a "swirly".  That of course is head in a toilet and then a flush, given his hyper aversion to fecal matter it seemed appropriate.  The song "Hey Rock's Living room" is about the time i went over to swirly the man myself to just get it over with, but Hey ROCK WASN'T HOME so i ended up hanging with Hey Bill and Hey Greg the Vino Brothers who happened to live with Hey Rock at the time.
Later Shockk and I were waiting on his front porch to jump him for a swirly and we noticed that he put a bunch of clothes out for Big Brothers, so we took some of his shirts and then would wear them to "Rubicon" gigs and stand in the front row and let his brain digest that during the show.  I had a small novelty piggy bank toilet that had a great flush sound that i followed him around town for a few weeks eyeballing him with every flush.  And then on his birthday i gave him a pet of his own... a beautiful lobster named "pinchey", and i might add he seemed most ungrateful when Pinchey  got a hold of his torso... Mr. serious himself on the sofa leaping over the coffee table yelping like a hound.

Hey Rock went on to form the band Ross Vegas and now lives in the interior of B.C.  He is a good sport, a solid citizen, and pretty good on skates with a puck if you know what i mean, and he will be playing @ the SRSS on July 6 2011.

don't believe me we had an interpretive dance:

  SRSS anniversary show.  You will win a gold medal for being you. 7:30 pm -12-30 am on july 13 2011.