Home?!?!

We just got home from two weeks on the road with JJ Grey & Mofro, covering a nice chunk of the Midwest into Appalachia.  We’re now home for 6 whole weeks, the longest I’ve been home since early September.  Since Labor Day, we’ve played 55 shows in 4 countries and 21 states.

Five months ago, I had a full-time job at Playboy Magazine and a very pregnant sister-in-law.  Now I’ve got a song on WXRT and a nephew.  And this mustache.

Highlights of the “Want More” tour thus far…

Tour Life: MPLS

January 18, 2012 – Billy…

Yesterday we went to Rock Island, IL to record a Daytrotter session. If you are unfamiliar, Daytrotter is an old analog recording studio in near rural Illinois.

The Winter Tour Keeps Rolling

Watching JJ Grey spin tales while fronting some the tightest swamp funk since Fogerty usurped “Suzie Q” has been nothing short of a lesson in showmanship for us.  These guys know how to play and how to talk football like true masters of both arts.

It’s cold as hell in the Middle West. But we’re used to it.  Meeting new and old fans in Chicago and St. Louis certainly  has been a highlight of the week and a feverish packed crowd in Detroit made Motown feel like home. But there’s other big news afoot for JCBUS keeping our spirits high on the road.  So Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here’s a taste of the show, courtesy of KDHX:

We are back in …

We are back in the van barreling through Midwestern snowstorms listening to Station to Station on repeat. After two warm-up gigs in Indiana, we are off to our first tour as an opening act. Playing the Pageant in St. Louis tonight and The Vic back home in Chicago tomorrow, supporting JJ Grey and Mofro.

This is a big week for us. It feels like we’re moving down a well worn path at around 85 mph, give or take the attention of state troopers. Playing the Vic is major. We all have well-worn memories of the place: Sonic Youth, Henry Rollins, Paul Simon, The Cramps, Wilco, Gillian Welch, Son Volt, Feist, Dr. Dog, Grizzly Bear, and the fantastic Brew and View (Team America/South Park movie double-feature, anyone? [ed. n0te: FUCK YEAH!]). We’ll also get to share the airwaves with some of those musical heroes now that our friends at WXRT have added us to their regular rotation. Its a good way to start off the New Year. On the move and on the road.

Andy’s Best of 2011

All of this is just my opinion, I’m not speaking for the group in any way. Hell, I’ve probably forgotten enough of the stuff that I liked in January through May of this year that I’m not even accurately speaking for me. – Andy

our hero, backstage in Santiago de Compostela

So here are the best things I can remember from the last year:

Best JCBUS Headlining Show of 2011: Hell Dorado, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

It was my first time there, but the rest of the band had stopped by on the last tour of Spain. Hell Dorado is a cool room with a great mural.

now imagine this 10' high and 60' wide

After soundcheck, the owner took us all out for a kickass dinner. When we got back, the venue was packed with a crowd who was ready to dance, sing, and sweat. There’s video of our encore someplace. It was kind of ape-shit. At the merch table after the show, the autograph thing got pretty wild, too (in a PG way). Some girl asked us all to sign her shoes with sharpies. Then we boogied to the DJ with some local girls until the place closed. Bonus points to our road manager Danny for coming back and collecting Billy and me and taking us back to the hotel.

Tomorrow Is For Sleeping: Why Blues? Why Gospel? Why Now?

As the band’s reigning champion of record collecting, Billy has this to say on the subject…

This year was a fine year in music. I have an unhealthily interest in Tyler the Creator, Iceage, Odd Future (that’s not quite an endorsement, fuck holes!) and with less guilt, Tom Waits’ “Bad As Me”, M83‘s full length, Dum Dum Girls’ “Only in Dreams”, Washed Out, 6 songs off the latest Wilco, and two great one-man acts – Bill Callaghan’s latest might be my candidate for best lyrics (sorry OFWGKTA) And Austin singer-songwriter ((sounder))‘s EP all struck a chord.

Unfortunately, none of these records match the excitement that last year’s LCD Soundsystem “This Is Happening” or Kanye’s “Dark Twisted Beautiful Death Fantasy” sparked in me last year.  The closest candidates would be tUnE-yArDs’ latest, the seriously underrated Strokes summer album, SF’s Weekend, JCBUS van favorite JD McPherson‘s “Signs and Signifiers”, and this new Black Keys which I’m not sure what to do with other than like.  There’s also some nice easy listening like Feist, Florence & the Machine, and perhaps there’s been a Judy Collins reissue, if that’s your thing.

But the best records may have been from the crates for me. With money and uncertainty constantly at hand for the Western World, I have moved just left of the Soul crates this fall and found solace in the slim pickings of the blues and Gospel bins.

Want Mofro Tour 2012

We’ve been touring pretty steadily for the last 3 months, going north, south, east, west, and across the Atlantic.  We’ve played with some great bands along the way, but we’re usually closing the show and playing to our crowd. Now that the holidays are over, we’re ready to hit the road again, but this time we’ll be support to the great JJ Grey & Mofro, a Southern swamp-jam band that’s been hitting it hard for the last 10 years.  They’ve built up a pretty substantial grassroots fan base and they’re nice enough to take us out for a few weeks in January, to play in some bigger rooms and get in front of a new audience.

All shows with JJ Grey & Mofro and Daryl Hance except as noted.

Wed Jan 11 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop, w/ Green Room Rockers and the Vallures
Thu Jan 12 – Terre Haute, IN @ The Verve, w/ Green Room Rockers
Fri Jan 13 – St Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Sat Jan 14 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic
Sun Jan 15 – Ferndale, MI @ The Magic Bag
Wed Jan 18 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
Thu Jan 19 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
Fri Jan 20 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners
Sat Jan 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls

Day by Day: #afrobeattuesday

August 23, 2011

1. Geraldo Pino & the Heartbeats – Let Them Talk

I got turned on to this tune when I was playing with Mas Trueno, it became a live staple for them after I left the band. Everything I know about Geraldo, I learned from Funky 16 Corners.

The Cost of Mundane Magic

So all day I’m sitting in the back of the van, frowning out the window at the passing Midwest.  I knew I looked angry, ready to kill, in fact, but that’s how I get when I’m worried.  It’s almost like I get mad at life (and the eventual troubles that beset all lives) for encroaching on my existence…  So instead of looking overwrought and getting Pepto-face (named for the schlocky acting in antacid commercials from the seventies and eighties) I tend to look like I’m raring’ to chew on the universe’s ass for a minute before I move onto the main course.

Why was I worried?  At some point during the last leg of our tour (it was in Toronto, I think), I developed a little throat tickle that grew in to some overall scratchiness and difficulty swallowing.  We were about to get a couple of days off so I thought that I’d wait it out.  I was otherwise healthy, no cough or runny nose… I figured it was just a bit of vocal overexertion that would be fixed by a few days’ rest.

It wasn’t.

Day by Day: #JBwednesday

Back in August, when we actually had time to dick around on YouTube, before tour craziness started, I started posting videos revolving around a daily theme (like The Bomb Squad), and now we’ve got a little time to look back on some sweet jams – BT

August 24, 2011 – All JB, All the Time

1. Marva Whitney – What Do I Have To Do To Prove My Love To You

Marva Whitney is my favorite of the JB’s funky divas, her voice is so freaking raw.  Friends of mine used to cover this tune back in college, and the relentless propulsion of the bass line (played by Sweet Charles Sherrell) definitely inspired “Baaadnews”.