The Revivalists
Date: Monday March 28, 2011Posted in: Uncategorized
Man these guys kick ass. I just got back from a weekend run with them selling their merch and drinking their beer and as I’ve said before, it doesn’t matter how many times I listen to their tracks or see their shows, they always manage to surprise and delight me. They’re so tight and their consistent ability to mend new songs together seamlessly often leaves me aghast. With the addition of Ed “‘Stainless’ Steel” Williams earlier last year I was weary of how their sound would be affected. A few shows were played and it all kind of sounded messy as the boys were all having to get used to using less space musically, but through the processes of recording, touring, and songwriting, they certainly have gotten it together and their dazzling unified sound never ceases to rouse an otherwise dormant room of people to their feet. Dave keeps writing songs and Dave’s songs keep being awesome. I’ve heard some of the stuff from the new album they’re currently recording and I can’t wait to be able to give them my money so I can own it. If you don’t know, then now you know.
Check their website and read their blog because Rob posts some seriously funny stuff weekly. www.therevivalists.com
– T.
TED
Date: Saturday March 19, 2011Posted in: Uncategorized
If you don’t know about this website, you should. www.ted.com
Foburg Tonight!
Date: Friday March 11, 2011Posted in: New Orleans show
Foburg Fest is here again and this year’s lineup does not disappoint. We’ll be rocking at The Blue Nile tonight with Flowtribe and Mississippi Rail Company. Check out the full 3-day schedule. See you on Frenchmen!
Mardi Gras
Date: Wednesday March 2, 2011Posted in: New Orleans
It’s the time when time doesn’t matter. You go to work in spurts, you sleep nap when you can, you eat what’s given to you, and you party through all of it. It has its own space time continuum. You start every day or night with a group of friends and by the time you end up where you sleep that night you’ll surely be with a totally different group of people. Krewe de Vieux and the following week and a half is a city-wide pre-game. You need to prepare yourself and rightfully so because nobody is ever really ready for this unique class of imminent chaos. You party the weekend of Krewe de Vieux (a sexually charged satire and the first parade of Mardi Gras) which is two weekends before Mardi Gras weekend. It’s sort of a kick start for the entire carnival. “Holy shit. It’s here. Already?” That’s all you’ll generally hear from anyone for the next week or so. Then the next Wednesday and Thursday come. By then you’re warmed up and you’ve had a few good practice runs. You’re ready for the big time. You hit some parades and do some good drinking and partying and what-have-you, and by Saturday you’re well into the game. Sunday rolls around (ROLLS around. GET IT!? I crack me up) and you’re trying to gain a sense of who you are and what you’re doing. Is it Sunday? Do I really have two more days of this? Will, no, CAN I make it? Do I have enough beer money? Who is this sleeping on my couch?
Now it’s Sunday night and you’re in the zone, baby! It becomes a free-for-all as everyone around you is trying to make sense of what’s happening whilst clinging to a fleeting sense of order and social decency. Well, maybe not the last one so much. By the night of Lundi Gras — that’s the Monday before Fat Tuesday, rookie — you are literally, and I mean literally, trying to figure out what your life is and means. You honestly are unaware of time and daily structure. Up is down. Night is day. Everything that was once bad is now good, and in more ways than one. Nothing really makes sense, but somehow that’s OK with you. It feels like a battlefield, a really really drunk battlefield. You’ve lost friends and acquired new ones and you’re lost among a panoply of beads, party favors, half-to-mostly-to-fully naked women, college kids and west-bankers adorned with green/purple/gold polos, and entire tourist families sidelined with the look on their faces that closely resembles a small herd of deer about to get hit by a Penske. Which, come to think of it, isn’t too far off from the truth.
………………………………………….. It’s here. Wow. Mardi Gras day. Show time. You can’t believe it. It’s the closest thing to your pre-pubescent memories of Christmas morning you will ever get. This is the culmination of the entire year’s past. It’s the equivalent to a massive exhale of all and any negative emotions you amassed since Ash Wednesday. You lose yourself, as Bodhi would say, and you find yourself. A day when you truly put all your cares on the backburner and just have a good time, god dammit! You can let go of everything. It’s impossible to trip on anything on this day, you have no worries. The best part you ask? Everyone feels the same way you do. A day when everyone can genuinely wish everyone else the very best. This is the way it should be! People roam the streets aimlessly, floating along with clouds, going wherever the wind may take them. Ghouls and goblins, sinners and saints, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters. We all become one on this day and nobody can ever take that away from us. There is no other natural feeling I’ve ever had that comes close to being so spiritually refreshing. Do you like having your faith restored in humanity? Do you enjoy feeling like life is worth living? Do you relish in the idea that some day you will die, but that day means nothing to you because you’re blessed to be alive at that moment? Fucking Mardi Gras.
Sex, music, drugs, liquor, parties, food, parades, tits and beads, family, friends, sex and drugs and music. Mardi Gras is somehow still greater than the sum of its parts. It’s most commonly referred to as a haze, but no matter the personal account it still seems to defy all description. People of all classes, races, creeds, and backgrounds come together to celebrate together. There is nothing that embodies the true spirit of this city more. The Real McCoy. Sorry for the double negative, but you can’t not savor it. Happiness is not in the past, it’s not in the future, it is right now, and on Mardi Gras day there is no escaping happiness. The Everlasting Now. It’s of its own ilk and it’s something that you just flat out need to experience for yourself. Last year’s Mardi Gras was adoringly referred to as Lombardi Gras (the single best day of my life), and on the day the Saints won (the second best day of my life), the centennial anniversary of Mark Twain’s death, I couldn’t help but be reminded of one of my favorite quotes of his. He said, “I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans.” It means something different to everyone, and we can try illustrate it as best we can, but for us all, it’s Mardi Gras.
Happy Mardi Gras, everyone. WHO DAT!?
Much Love,
- T.





