Chris Raes Birthday show at the Social with Mumpsy, Look Mexico, The Shreds, Slaves, Architects of Fear, Yip Yip, 1991.
This show was Mumpys member Chris Rae's annual birthday show which entails Chris Rae organizing the whole show, getting drunk and then passing out on stage. This year would be no different. Haha. This year there would be clowns running around. There's nothing more scary than clowns on your birthday.

On arrival Slaves was already playing on the second stage, which is in the back room of The Social. These guys get better with each show. They are lucky to have one of the areas most exciting drummers in Vivek. Vivek tears through skins like beavers through wood. Back on the main stage was Titusville band Architects of Fear, who sported gawdy tuxedos and suits while playing autoharps and keytars. They were an odd bunch for sure. They venture into musical territory I am not an expert in - prog rock - yet they had a sense of pure giddiness to give it life. READ MORE HERE.

Well, I ended up not having a Christmas tree this year. I made this display instead, a mix of my Christmas ornaments and some other stuff sitting around. There's a couple of cylons running loose in there somewhere. Open the image in a new window to see it a little bigger.

Weak Ends in the Weird World of Uncle Lou's.

Two shows: Night of Pop 6 with Go Ghosts, Nervous Systems, Weak Ends and down the block with New Roman Times.
For the past couple of years Orlando musician, supporter, micro-label guy Sam Metro was put together several shows featuring the better true "indiepop" acts in Florida. If you haven't heard his Florida's About To Pop compilation you are missing out. Copies run scarce but it has a lot of essential pop bands from Florida (For Ex-Lovers Only, Hi I'm Anna, Saving Twilight, etc). This show he put together, called Night of Pop 6, featured two Gainesville and two Orlando bands that all played the Gainesville Pop Mayhem Festival this past summer.......... the New Roman Times were visiting from Austin, Texas. They moved from Orlando to Texas a while ago........ READ THE REVIEW, PHOTOS AND VIDEO.

Surfer Blood, Great Deceivers, An Introduction To Sunshine, Bananafish at Back Booth.
Day three (and fourth show I saw) of the weekend was a definite highlight with the return of Surfer Blood to Orlando. They've been all over internet blogs all the way up to Entertainment Weekly. The band has currently been at another tour this year, this one an insane 43 date tour from Florida to California and everywhere in between playing with Art Brut, Japandoids, Jay Reatard among others. They've also added a new band member- a percussionist/keyboardist. It works for them. I wasn't sure how it would change things but I think it adds a fresh dynamic. READ MORE HERE, PICTURES and THREE VIDEOS.

Vivian Girls at Lake Worth, Florida.
It was awesome news hearing Brooklyn band The Vivian Girls were finally going to make it to Florida. They weren't coming to Orlando so I had to choose between Tampa and Lake Worth. What sold the city was the opening bands. Since Pretty Please is a band I had been wanting to see really badly for the longest time it was an easy choice - even if Lake Worth is a three hour drive (as opposed to less than an hour to Tampa). In fact, I never even bothered to check who opened in Tampa. I was sold. SEE A TON OF PHOTOGRAPHS and THREE VIDEOS HERE.

Things I am working on for 2010: The Hot Six complete discography.
The Hot Six was a band I was in with John Duvoisin and Phil Longo from about 2001-2004. We only officially released a five song EP on Breaker Breaker Records but we recorded an unreleased thirteen song full length that was more representative of our raw live sound. This year I remixed and transferred a handful of 4-track demos and outtakes to my computer, some of which I didn't even remember recording. We've talked about this amongst ourselves for years but we hope to have some kind of release out in 2010 from this band I am totally proud of.

"Kiss Without The Makeup"
Probably our most popular song that we recorded for our first EP. The production for this scorcher is a bit super slick. The first ten seconds of this song are known to make babies come early.

"The Art Of A Miss"
Phil calls me "Lil Riffer" for writing this catchy and super smartassed tune for our full length recording. What? Me a smart ass? Whatev! Kristin and I started covering this song in Hot Hands so if you have seen us recently you'll recognize this song.

"Ex-Uncle Joe"
It's hard for me to pick my favorite Phil song. This one's in the running. This was one of our poppiest songs. This is the 4-track demo version.

There's a few more songs to listen to on The Hot Six myspace player.

Kristin's Tomato Soup Dress.
Here's a picture of the dress Kristin made for the Warhol-Manson party at Wills Pub last night. It started out as a shirt and a pair of "mom" pants she got at the thrift store. She cut, hacked and sew them together turning them into a dress. Then she handpainted the Campbells soup can label on. Her makeup is supposed to be similar to one of Andy's prints of Elizabeth Taylor.