Click
on the logos and find me around the internet:
July
21st, 2009
Here I am.
Back after…(in the words of Peter Griffin) “Holy
Crap!” – almost two months!
This is largely due in part to me being:

and taking too much after, my Buddy, Tobia.

Alright,
enough. Sometimes I like to make fun of myself, give myself
crap.
Where to start, where to start…
Friday,
July 31st, 2009 we’ll be at MNEMOSINE
in Soncino which is in the province of Cremona (see
the LIVE page for details).

This will be a cool gig because our great friend, Josh
Zighetti from the band Hungry
Heart, will be sitting in with us
to sing about 5 or so songs. We’ll have some new tunes
to do too. Sooooo, come on out and see us. Oh, and it’ll
be outside, which means…Tobia,
the world famous Rock’n’
Roll dog, might be making an appearance. For
those of you who missed us at the Venus Rock Festival, too
bad, because he was there for petting and giving licks to
all who asked.

>>>>>>>>Onward!
The 4th of July we were at the first
edition of the Venus Rock
Festival in Orio Litta.

And for
all of you who (even you Italians!) who looked at me like
it was on the other side of the world when I said the name
of the town, it was only about 40 minutes south of Milan,
or 10 or so minutes north of Piacenza -----
—not that far you big wussies!
Anyway, it was WAY COOL!
Big-ass stage like I like, lights up the ying-yang (in fact,
I think there was a yin/yang motif for one of the light scenes.)
like I like and a ferocious smoke machine like I don’t
like (can’t breathe and kills my voice, that’s
why).

BIG
STAGE -- Me
likey!
(soundcheck)
|

Let there
be LIGHT!
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|
Feeling
a little foggy. |
We played with a group
of cool guys from the area called
.Go to their MySpace page and check ‘em out.—they’re
really good at what they do.
Plus, we also got to know a couple of the very nice and very
cool guys, Max and Mattia, from The .
A big thanks to Max
who led the charge in the audience to hear ‘Bleed’
Last but not least, MANY
A BIG THANKS to the guys who were responsible for this 4-day
music festival:
Chris and Giancarlo Bozzoli from Cà di Frè and
Mario Percudani of Hungry Heart.
Chris
Bozzoli |
Giancarlo
Bozzoli |
Mario
Percudani |
Their idea for The Venus
Rock Festival was to do a different beer festival; a beer
festival without tribute and cover bands. Sure, other bands
like us played some covers, but only a few. The thrust behind
this festival was ORIGINAL/INDEPENDENT MUSIC!!!!
Mission accomplished thanks to these three. Thanks Chris,
Gianca’ and Mario!
Check out Cà di Frè
here: http://www.myspace.com/cadifre
Here's Mario's links:
http://www.myspace.com/mariopercudani
& http://www.myspace.com/hungryheartofficial.

On
June 6th, 2009 we were back at the fabulous
.
As usual, it was great time.
Look, I know, I go on about this place, the food and all,
but I only do this for places that I feel are deserving and/or
I really like. For example, we finished our soundcheck, cleaned
up and went in to find that Giancarlo made us an amazing
dinner that started with a pasta amatriciana that looked pretty
much like this --

We finished
that and then he came back with a tray that looked something
like this – but times at least 4!
The boys and I were in heaven...

For those
of you who love to eat pasta and grilled meats like those
in the picture, you can understand how hard it was for me
not to really indulge.
It downright SUCKED, and sucks in general. However, I sing
and feel like shit if I eat A LOT before a gig. So, this is
the reason I come back here and eat when I’m not playing.
Man, it’s just some damn good eating!
Then
we got down to playing, and that looked like this –
To close out this
post, we recently said good-bye to our keyboardist and friend,
Giuseppe ‘Pieppe’ Diana.

The
Cà di Frè gig was his last as he’s got
other endeavors that need his attention. Thanks and see you
‘round Pieppe!
Filling in, as usual, is our wacky, talented keyboard friend,
Larsen Premoli.
.
So, that's
it for now. I'll write you all soon, probably after the Mnemosine
gig. Well, definitely before another two months passes...I
hope.
Tiill next time,
BRAD
May
26th, 2009
Whew! The weather here in Milan the past week or so has been
damn---
 
Today
it was 88°F (31°C)! Not exactly what I expect in May.
Hopefully, it's not a sign of what the rest of the summer
is going to be like. Otherwise, I might start looking like
this.

If
you've seen the Live Page, you will have noticed that three
Saturdays ago the boys and I played down in Assago (a southwest
suburb of Milan). It was a damn cool gig--outside, a beautiful
night, a slight wind (sometimes a tad strong) nice, big stage
and we just ROCKED! What I conveniently left out was that
it was a mayoral politcal rally for PDL (Popolo della Libertà-a
very right wing political party, but stupid right wing). I'm
really not into politics (my politcal view is Politician =
Criminal), but I and anyone I know does not support this party.
They just suck; it's too long to go into here. I left that
fact out of the info for the date because we wanted you all
to come see us. Some of you did- Thanks!
Hey -- funny
story...well, sort of. I guess it's more of a 'you get what
you give' kind of story.
Again, as you can see on the Live Page, we split this gig
with two other acts. One was a comedian, a guy named, Bruce
Ketta (you know, like bruschetta.). Big, gregarious, nice,
funny guy.

The
other was a singer who took part in an American Idol/Big Brother
type show. The show is called Amici (absolute crap!) and the
girl...best not to mention names. Here's why. While we were
in the middle of our soundcheck, her 'manager,' unbeknownst
to me, was off on the side of the stage giving our keyboardist,
Larsen, shit because he felt we were taking too long to do
our soundcheck. He was pissed because he felt that his singer
wouldn't have time for her soundcheck. Ok, hold on a minute
here. This is understandable if she was backed up by a band
like mine, a 5-piece of 4 instruments and 5 voices to soundcheck,
but she wasn't. Her back up was a frickin' CD!!!! They're
called TV tracks. The word kind of explains it all. Ok, so
were talking about a soundcheck of, max, 15 minutes. But this
guy is the type who feels he's important and thinks everyone
else should know it too. So, Mr. Blow-Hard then went and camped
out next to the soundman, Gigi (a super cool, calm, kick-butt
soundman), and bitched to him. Gigi did a great a job of ignoring
him. Therefore, looking for some satisfaction, he turned and
faced us making gestures at Larsen, ranting and whining some
more. Unfortunately, I had my back turned and didn't see him
when he was doing this. Plus, we couldn't hear him. However,
just like English, you can decipher all the swear words when
someone is saying them to you. And that's just what Larsen
did. A heated discussion ensued, and we parted saying he was
an asshole and he said we sucked and they did their lilttle
bedroom stereo soundcheck. Whatever.
Showtime! We opened the
show/rally with lots of energy. I was a little extra amped
because lots of the people around us (organizers and such
) were all uptight, nervous and snippy. Plus, add in the little
bit of drama in paragraph above and I was slowly losing my
patience. Ahhhh!!!! Singing and running around a big stage
is always good medicine for me. Cool. Fun.
The girl singer was next up. She did one song. It was ok.
She has a nice voice; it's pretty much like all Italian female
voices that are poplular right now. So, nothing special or
really new. Then, as Larsen said to me later,-- KARMA
STRUCK!
About 15-30 seconds or so into her second tune her CD...skipped.
Not just a little,
but violently! She totally
lost her place and the CD was skipping so badly that they
had to turn it off. She apologized and exited the stage. There's
an Italian expression that works really well here, and it
was mentioned a lot--"Che figura di merda!" or "Wow,
what shit impression she made!?"
She came back about an hour later and did about six more songs
with the cd skipping here and there, but nothing like her
first set. She finished and got a nice round of applause,
but the damage was already done.
You
know I'm sure she's a nice person, although none of us spoke
to her. But that's because her manager was such an ass, no
one wanted to talk to him, her or anyone associated with them.
It was a good lesson in making sure you choose the right representation.
At least that's what I took away from it.
Gig---Saturday,
June 6th, 2009 @ Cà di Frè
Yup,
on Saturday, June 6th we'll back at one of our favorite places
to play, Cà di Frè. Just as it's written on
the logo, it's a great place out in the country. And as I
always babble on about, the food and hosts, Chris and GianCarlo,
are awesome! It's gonna be GREAT because it'll be outside,
it's gonna be a beautiful night with a slight breeze, lots
of cool people, again, fabulous food, ice cold beer, excellent
wine, us and YOU!
March,
22nd, 2009
So...I've
been taking quite a bit of crap (crap is actually being
nice) lately for not updating this web-site. C'mon! gimmie
a break, you guys. I've written it before and I'll write
it again--I'm NOT a computer person. The post from March
2nd is just being posted now because I finally
figured out that friggin' Firefox was screwing things up
for me. Things weren't working right in Dreamweaver and
my host showed that I had NO files in my
remote directory causing only a minor 10-15 minutes of panic.
Hey,
some people swear by Firefox, but I'm not sold. Using it's
been more of a pain in the ass for me than anything. It's
part of the reason the March 2nd post is making it online
with this post. Ok, feels like I'm whining again.

Moving
on, we played a place called FERMENTO
last Saturday, March 14th. It was soooo COOL to see so many
of you come hang with us, eat and drink lots and have a
rockin' good time. I mention the eats because I didn't realize
what a vast menu they had--pizza, steak, ribs, pasta...damn,
it's 1am and now I'm hungry. Arrrrrgggh. Anyway, here's
a little peek at what went on.


Okey-dokey, that's all from
Milan for now. Gotta hit the hay.
Tootles!
BRAD
March
2nd, 2009
Ok, so after
a long, unintended hiatus, I've decided to work on my own
shit for once instead of someone else's! Well...to a degree
what I just wrote is true. At the same time, those of you
who read this site know that, well...maybe it's sort of obvious,
I'm a little lazy.
No, not like Mr. FatCat
here, GOD NO! But I always find something else to do because
web design isn't something that trips my trigger. For me,
it's not that fun because it takes me A LONG time to do
and/or create what I want. Here's what usually happens.
Yeah, I gripe about
this often. Actually, I'll be honest--I bitch and moan about
this often. Maybe I'll stop when someone gets tired of my
whining and says, "Alright, you whiny pain in the ass!
I'll maintain and update your damn site, MySpace page, etc."
I promise you all that when I have some extra
dough, I'll hire someone who is not web-design averse, thinks
passing time playing with Dreamweaver and Flash is a hoot
and thinks that HTML is the best non-verbal form of communication.
Ok, end whining here.
Here's some non-whining news--WOO
HOO! A GIG!
Saturday, March 14th, 2009
the Boys and I will be at FERMENTO
Art &n Pub
Fermento is a micro-brewery and restaurant.
The Regina Nera dark lager above is theirs--good stuff!
This show will start a little earlier than usual, around
10pm. So,
come have dinner first and drink Regina Nera with us all
night. Reservations are probably a good idea. Here's all
the info:
via Camillo Ugoni, 18 - MILANO
Prenotazioni: Tel. 02/87380668
http://www.myspace.com/fermentomilano
http://www.fermentoaep.com/index.htm
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