Again

Please check out: www.myspace.com/electricgrandmothersitcomcore  

For real blog entries!  Actual!

 

EG

Negelectireeno

A full explanation as to why I neglect this blog, et al, is on my MySpace page.  I've just had it with the time it takes to update this site in general.  I'm gonna work on getting a new site around the end of the year.  That's all!

Love,

EG

Hehe...

That's how I would describe last night, a success laced with a chuckle.  (To those who don't know what I'm referring to, I was added the day before yesterday to the Deadboy and The Elephantmen show last night at Little Brother's).

Deadboy et al. were extremely cool, and didn't seem to mind that I didn't really know who they were (I mistook "Deadboy" for a member of fellow locals Mors Ontologica...forgive me, I'd only seen Mors once before).  But I did know they were getting crazy radio play, and had just played both Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo.  So I knew with the crowd they were going to draw, I had my work cut out for me.

The placed was already pretty packed when I went on at 9, I was determined to win the crowd over, despite a problematic age gap, a college crowd that doesn't come to see locals, and the "where the fuck is who we came to see?" variable.  I felt like I really had 'em until about 1/2 or 2/3 of the way through, when a couple hecklers got impatient. 

I came with firepower though. This guy yelled for me to "Stop," to which I responded "You're just jealous because you didn't grow up watching the same shows I did," and I additionally accused him of being "14 years old."  Then later this guy felt compelled to yell "You suck," to which I responed "No dude, I rule!,"  which gained a supporting roar from much of the crowd in attendance.  Then I hit 'em with the considerably more lowbrow, "You wanna suck me," or something to that effect.

Naw, but it was cool, I think I performed well, I got a lot of good feedback from the crowd, Mors was awesome, Deadboy rocked out, it was a good time.  I held them with my wisdom for a considerably lengthy amount time, and I think I gained some new friends/fans.  Not as fanatical as the one who vandalized cars with my stickers after the Tarantula A.D. show, but good folks nevertheless. 

Love,

EG

Thank you x a million!
Thanks to everyone who woke up and came out early to see me at Comfest. I couldn't believe the attendance at 11:15 AM. You guys rock the party that rocks the party!!!

Love,
EG

Spank U
That's where my degree is from...yukyukyuk!

So thank you to all who came out for the grad party, a big thank you to Southeast Engine and Paper Airplane for kicking ass all over town.

Sorry if I seemed a bit..."agitated" during my set. Imagine if you will: Booking a date WAY in advance, planning and working your ass off with your wife on the presentation, having a decent group of new faces waiting to see you that night, only to discover that some crucial cords you need to perform have mysteriously vanished into thin air. THEN, having to speed home at 1 AM (while people are waiting and wondering what the fuck you're doing), to dig out cords left at your house by DJ Black Titz (thanks girl). Then upon returning 10 minutes later out of breath and upset, making the people wait even longer while trying to put on the goddamn toga you planned to wear, before the 5-minute "graduate intro" even starts.

I'm a professional, and I can usually fake it when I'm pissed off...but there comes a point when a line is crossed, and your A-game cannot be grasped no matter how hard you try. This was one of those nights. It was kinda sweet, you have to admit, when I bodyslammed the mic at the end of my set. That, and the toga looked awesome before I got tangled up in it.

BUT, all who stayed till what must have been sunrise seemed to enjoy it, so thank you very much. Next time, I promise not to have an aneurysm before going on. Thanks to Josef for helping us with decorations, thanks to Duff for presenting me with my "diploma," and thanks again to Southeast Engine, Paper Airplane, and everyone who came out.



Love,

EG

Animal House
Too many themes lately. Here comes another!

My gig on Saturday, June 10th at Andyman's with Paper Airplane and Southeast Engine will be a graduation party theme, as I am graduating from Ohio State University the following morning.

So make sure to come out and toga/beer pong/panty raid/senior prank with ol' EG, a man approximately six years too old to be an undergraduate!

COMFEST 2006
Saturday, July 24th, I'll be playing The Off Ramp Stage at 11:15 AM.

Check www.comfest.com very soon for full lineup.

Big-ups to Scotty Boombox and Brian Brown for their helpfulness in the process!

Pics from Carabar - 5/5
Are on my MySpace comments page at: www.myspace.com/electricgrandmothersitcomcore

It's just easier for now to post pics there, it's more user friendly.

EG

The LCD Projector is here!!!
Woot Woot!!! Just arrived in the mail. That baby cost some greenbacks, ya know?

So yeah, this will enable me to revive such lost hits as "I Just Visited" and "Tom's Girl," both of which I was never completely happy with as far as their slides go. (Though Mary Alice just ripped me for criticizing the "Tom's Girl" slides. I agree, they're good, just not that stimulating). The aforementioned live show band member is putting some shit together as we speak.

Please Marky Mark your calendars:

Friday, May 5th
Carabar

Electric Grandmother LCD Debut
w/
Mission Man
(another TBA)

PBR Grandma
Make sure to pick up a copy of the Alive this week. You know who's in the PBR ad, eh? Page 12.

LCD Projector Debut!
Friday - May 5th
@ Carabar

w/
Mission Man
(Another act TBA)

On Friday May 5th, Team EG is proud to present our brand new LCD projector at Carabar in Columbus. What does this mean for you the consumer? An infinite amount of digital display for your viewing enjoyment. There are no boundaries anymore, you'll think you've lost your marbles. But don't take my word for it, come on down to Carabar that night, and help us celebrate the fact that we don't have to pay for individual slides anymore.

Love,
EG

"Tour Votre Velo"
I did it, I sang "Ride Your Tricycle" in French. I think everyone was spellbound. I had a blast last night, despite the presence of black ice on the roads, which was responsible for the death of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. At least that's what their bus driver claimed. James Hetfield wouldn't hear of it though, he told VH1 he was going to "end that guy."

I think he let him live after all.

The 10-Year Anniversary of The Doldrums and Sitcom-Core
I meant to make a big deal about it when the date rolled around, but I ended up completely forgetting about it. This past March 9th was the 10-year anniversary of the first Doldrums recordings, the humble beginning of Sitcom-Core and a specific brand of low-fi chaos.

Me and my new-ish friend Mike Markowski had been hanging for about six months at the time. We were both the punkiest punks who ever punked, complete with liberty spikes and mohawk, respectively. Both of us fancied ourselves to be kind of semi-outsiders from the punk scene; we both readily admitted that we enjoyed other kinds of music, and we didn't subsribe to a lot of "scene rules." (Which made us MORE punk, if you ask me). Ow!

The day was March 9, 1996. I had been listening to a lot of Daniel Johnston records, and I had recently introduced him to Mike. Long story short, we decided on this day to create low-fi recordings like Daniel's in mildly the same vein. I had amassed a lot of poems I'd written during a rough patch, and I brought them over to his his house, where in approximately 6-8 hours we hashed out songs such as, "Scott Baio is My Hero," "Waffle in My Closet," "The Green Giant is in Rehab," as well as a couple Daniel Johnston covers that were at best insulting. The songs at this point weren't mostly "sitcom-related," if you will.

We called the tape I'm Bored, I'm Lazy, I Like The Doldrums. There were around 20+ tunes, along with sample interludes, most of them taken from Sonic Youth's The Year Punk Broke movie. (Don't ask me why). The tape made it's way to our friends in Solon and Aurora, to mostly positive and confused reaction.

Late Spring/Summer of '96, enter our good friend Gary Schad (a real indie-rocker, not the kind you see today). He and I began to do songs in the same vein, originally with the intention of creating a separate project. We had 2-3 sessions of recordings with hysterical laughter, and pounded out numerous quality tunes such as "Kimmy Gibler," "Bob Hope Sells Me Dope," and "Vinnie Delpino." We then decided that all these recordings should be a designed effort as The Doldrums, all three of us being members. Along with a recording session that Mike and Gary did together, along with an old solo effort of mine, I selected songs from each of the tapes, and compiled them to create The Doldrums opus, 1996's Ruined by the Camera. Strangely enough, the three of us were the band, yet we had never all recorded together at the time.

We were favorites among our friends (and most importantly ourselves), but never really more than that. We never did play a show, and really never thought too realistically about it. I was the one who took ourselves the most seriously as band, and looking back, probably too seriously. As we entered 1997, I deemed it necessary that we make a follow up to Ruined, which admittedly was disastrous. The entire recordings are a session Gary and I did, stuff I did myself, and songs lifted from the original I'm Bored session. The songs didn't have the same reckless joy that they did before, and it just wasn't that fun in the end. The basically marked the end of the group, though I continued to beat a dead horse in my mind.

I was island-bound in Summer '97, and Mike and Gary moved to Columbus. They subsequently started a group known as The Pinheads, and made some great drunk recordings, more hi-fi and guitar-based. Another member, Brandt Gebhardt, participated on multiple recording sessions. The Doldrums did reconvene for a couple ill-advised recording sessions on my trips back home in '98 and '99, which I take complete blame for instigating. There were some good songs created, but the spirit wasn't there. After my move back to the area in '01, The Doldrums got back together one last time, with Mike's 4-track, and made about 8 killer songs. I knew that was the end for certain, but it allowed me to put to rest a demon of sorts. I just wanted us to all have fun together recording for one last time, and we did. I had been already doing tapes as The Electric Grandmother, and I combined some songs I did with that session we did to make our last "album," if you will.

Here is the complete, and definitely out of print, Doldrums discography:

1996 – I'm Bored, I'm Lazy, and I Like The Doldrums (Me and Mike only)

1996 – Ruined by the Camera

1997- Government Music

1998 – The Return of Pete! EP (6-song hardcore punk session; I fought Mike on the title, but he insisted)

1999 – Chris Church: The Colossus

2001 – Marry Me (Doldrums/EG split)

I would love to at least get the songs digitally transferred, if for no other reason for preservation. The Pinheads made "albums" as well; I just don't have the energy to think of their names right now.

It wasn't always called "Sitcom-Core" until recently; I made that crap up about 4 years ago for The Electric Grandmother, and by God, it's stuck. It's now not just a musical sub-genre, but it's a philosophy…seriously, ask anyone. Though I've run with this thing personally, it probably would not have existed without Mike and Gary.

Sunrise, sunset…

I still have regular phone conversations with Mike about every 2-3 weeks. He's recently started a frightening horror-movie musical home project with our friend Darren Kaplan; but don't call it "Horror-Core." (That is a real sub-genre, by the way). I've hadn't had any communication with Gary for about 3? years, which my wife (only half) jokingly is glad for, because she claims that when he and I got together, we were the two most obnoxious people on Earth. That's kinda neat.

Even though I've had success as The Electric Grandmother (not to mention an Upchuck Berry pit stop), and I feel that my song writing has greatly improved since the Doldrums days, I still think the sessions for Ruined is some of the best stuff I've ever been a part of. No matter what I've done since that time, I've never laughed so hard while doing music than when I did then.

Here's to The Doldrums.

EG

Trying to touch the drummer from The Jets
When I was about, oh, let's say 7 years old (this would make it 1985), I went to my friend Gavin's house to discover they were playing basketball with the drummer from the 80's supergroup The Jets.

For those a bit too young, The Jets ruled the Universe. Actually, they are best know for doing Nancy Reagan-esque anti-drug commercials, and I'm pretty sure they did the song "Crush on You." It doesn't matter...

Anyway, I ran home to tell my older sister, who didn't care that much. So I immediately ran back to Gavin's house.

If you're wondering how the hell this was happening, I'll tell you. The Jets were in town (Cleveland), and trying to be scarce. They just happened to be staying next door to Gavin's, renting a vacant house in an average suburban neighborhood. The drummer happened to venture next door, introduced himself, and the rest is basketball.

The drummer was a big surf-tan dynamo, strutting around in all his glory. He seemed very friendly, answering everyone's questions as they played. Answering questions with such answers as, "Yeah, my hair is a little longer in videos," and what not. I remember I was trying to muster up the nerve to sing a few bars from, "Be Smart, Don't Start" (don't ask) to impress him, but I just couldn't do it.

The next best thing would be to try to touch him, so my plan was to "accidentally" brush my arm against his. I tried moving towards him in every which way. I never got close enough, physically or spiritually. I'm not sure what else happened that afternoon, but I remember being so star-struck, and I wanted to hold his essence so badly. Gavin ended up briefly playing semi-pro tennis.

This is when I almost touched the drummer from The Jets. It was a subject of an old song of mine.

EG

Secret MySpace Party
Been one year since I joined MySpace. Change the world, my friends.