Play Late Joys Bingo at The Carousel

The Late Joys Newsletter Special Edition

Hi, everyone!

Quick reminders of the current slate of gigs in Austin.

Momo's in April
618 West 6th Street, Suite 200, 78701
Tuesdays in April, 5pm - 6:45pm
No Cover
18 and over (though we've noticed that kids are welcome, too)

We have two more gigs at Momo's. We love the staff and the sound. And the deck. If you're downtown for Tuesday happy hour, please drop by. The deck overlooks the neighborhood and the stage and fees great in the sun. So far Tuesdays have been sunny and just fine for sitting outside and sipping your favorite after-work beverage in the mild outdoors, while we rock it up inside.

Play Late Joys Bingo at the Carousel Lounge
1110 E. 52nd, 78752
Wednesday, April 22, 9pm
No Cover

Yes, it's another round of Late Joys bingo at The Carousel. The song randomizer will spill out the tunes as you play for Late Joys prizes and cut loose on the ballroom floor. Everyone's a winner!

Plus: Check out The Late Joys on this cool-n-moody new site!

Turn2live is a website where you can input your mood and the site will tell you what musical acts are performing to suit how you feel. "Mellow" or "Intense?" "Melancholy" or "Quirky?" There's music in Austin for you! The Late Joys are a dapper combination of "Energetic," "Sunny" and (our favorite) "Sensual." Me-ow!

What sort of music fits your mood? Find out now!

Rehearsal Blues Turn to Reds

The days I don't want to go to band practice are the days that my body hurts in places I didn't even know I had; when I didn't get even a hint of a good night's sleep (thanks, thrice-a-night meowing cat; thanks early morning boy space-invader); when the workday drags like some biblical figure carrying some hulking great piece of wood to his death site; when I have ideas for songs but don't get to do any prep on them; when I know I have to bring all that gear back to the music lab because I took it all home after the gig; when I read about some other band's tiny success and wonder "for us: when, when, when?"

Then, of course, those nights of rehearsing are the best. Invariably. A soul-reigniting kick-start from the music as played by guys who really enjoy making it all sound good. This is going to be one of those nights.

UPDATE: It's still "one of those days" as life and scheduling play their cruel tricks: Drummer Andy is stuck at work tonight. No matter, I still think it'll all sound/feel great, even if it's just me sitting on the back patio and warbling at the back yard.

The Late Joys grow peaches on the cherry tree

The Late Joys Newsletter

April 1, 2009

Hi, everyone!

I remember in some early grade school classroom learning the "April Fools Day" song. Something about gorillas in chicken coops and peaches growing on cherry trees. That sort of thing can really stick with a young mind. Uh...and an older one, apparently. Even if the fauna and fruit are phonies.

Don't let the date of this missive fool you, however: Everything below is absolutely TRUE!

The band's busier than ever this April: TRUE!

We've scored the Tuesday Happy Hour slot at Momo's, as well as the more traditional night-time gigs at The Parlor and The Carousel Lounge. Please come out and hear us!

We're cutting up that DVD from our EXSE acoustic show: TRUE!

Look for cuts from the live taping coming to an online destination near you soon.

We're on Twitter: TRUE.

But everyone is these days, from your kids to your Congressman, so I suppose this is not really news. On the other hand, you can follow most of us if tweeting is your thing! @robipolgar, @lopezepol, @andy_macleod. Shane is a self-proclaimed Luddite and will have nowt to do with tweeting. And that's the truth!

Peace,

The Late Joys

Andy, Patrick, Shane and Robi

Check out the sound and the truthiness of The Late Joys.

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UPCOMING GIGS

The Parlor, 100B East North Loop, 78752

Monday, April 6, 9pm

No Cover

All-Ages

Acoustic Trio (Patrick, Shane and Robi) perform for pizza & suds

Momo's 618 West 6th Street, Suite 200, 78701

Tuesdays in April, 5pm - 6:45pm

No Cover

18 and over

We're making Happy Hour happier every Tuesday in April

The Carousel Lounge, 1110 E. 52nd, 78752

Wednesday, April 22, 9pm

No Cover

Kick up your heels on the dance floor in front of the pink elephant

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More About Momo's

This is our first foray into the swank upstairs live music room and you can tell we're excited...we want to be sure to fill it with happy smiling, imbibing faces. Yours!

If you work in the downtown area, or if you know anyone who works downtown, please drop by/entice them to drop by for one of the upcoming happy hours. We'll be giving stuff away from the bucket-o-merch to lucky winners each week. Thanks!

Catch us for Happy Hours every Tuesday in April (4/7, 4/14, 4/21 and 4/28 if you're keeping score!). Fun starts at 5pm.

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The Late Joys

S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s

Moving some pots around on the back deck and came across this three-foot beauty. I don't know what it is about snakes, but I think they're beautiful, sleek, sexy, mysterious animals, though oddly approachable. I was born in the Year of the Snake according to the Chinese Zodiac, so that might explain my affiliation with our forked-tongued friend.

Michelle (my missus) said she was glad she wasn't the one who discovered the snake. Unlike me, she's none too fond of them, though she does think they're pretty. From a distance.

For you curious folks out there, Michelle informs me this is a Texas garter snake (if you know otherwise, please say), so it was pretty much full size. It hung around the back patio for a spell, then slithered off into the grass. The description M. read said the snake was domesticable. We could have added it to the cat menagerie we've got going. Except M. said she'd freak at the idea of having a snake for a pet. Just as well, as I think the thing should live outdoors and just visit from time to time.

Though I'll be a bit more mindful next time I'm moving plants around on the patio!

EXSE redux: TV is an agent of the devil and your guardian angel

We did EXSE in 2007 and it was fun, a bit chaotic and really odd to have a huge television monitor in eye-shot where we could see ourselves playing. Sadly, the final product didn't sound so hot. Too loud, no reverb on the vocals (so you could hear every off note, of which there were, sadly, lots!)...but fun, nonetheless.

As this year's EXSE approached, I tuned in to see some of the other bands and thought the sound was really muddy, "uh-oh, even the solo guitar player sounds loud..." I said of the guy with acoustic guitar and the tambourine stuck on his foot.

So with a little trepidation and much enthusiasm Patrick, Shane and I (Andy was sunning himself in Florida!) set up in the cavernous studio and ran through some material while the good people of channelAustin set up their cameras and led us through a sound check.

I have to say, as I listen to the rough draft of the DVD from the taping, things sound pretty good. Not perfect, but way better than I'd hoped. Michelle (my missus!) said that the sound was clear and clean, and it is! So thanks to Steve & company for what turned out to be a rather good little live session, forever captured on DVD.*

Patrick pointed out that he never looked at the monitor, for fear of screwing up. As for me, I looked at it once and almost went dry! But on another occasion I suddenly forgot where I was in a song, looked up at the monitor and saw my fingers on the fretboard and realized where I was supposed to go next, chord-wise. TV: agent of the devil and guardian angel.

Felt good, then, this taping. Shane said he felt really comfortable, I reckon so! Then off he rode into the West for a well-earned vacation. Patrick and I settled for the Green Muse, a Guinness and an unexpected jazz combo.

*Once we cut this puppy up into its individual numbers, we'll post the best and alert ya!

Diving in the deep end

It appears that to make this durned social medium truly social, I gotta tweet, facebook (is that a verb) and, most important, get blogging on a regular basis. Here I was all excited about those long-form entries, full of deep background, and I know I'll still post those, but now -- somewhere between twitter word counts and my wordy tomes, lies this blog.

So update it I shall. Regular-like. la!

I promised the guys at last night's rehearsal that I wouldn't include any "locker room" stuff -- some things are gonna have to stay in-house; but I'll do my best to crack open the door to what's going on with me and the band in ways that (I hope) are of some small interest.

Start with last night: Patrick and Shane and I did a couple of hours of rehearsing for tonight's EXSE gig (more on that soon!). My fingers ached -- the Gibson has "light" gauge strings, but sometimes I think it's like trying to push down razor wire. I have this image of martial arts men thrusting their hands into fire-hot coals to toughen up their mitts. I'm not saying I'm going to do that, but there it is...tempting me.

You Shoulda Been Here 10 Years Ago

Talkin' a bout with my generation

Let's assume, for the sake of this blog, that each generation takes about 20 years to turn over and be replaced by the next generation. And you know what they say about the "next generation," right? It'll be diametrically opposed to its immediate progenitor. If your authority-figure antecedents wore crew-cuts, teetotaled and swam laps at the YMCA pool, you let your hair down, smoked pot and slid in the mud at Woodstock. If your mom wanted you at the table by sundown for a dinner of meat and two-veg, you preferred the greasy burger, fries and shake at the local diner at two-o'clock in the morning. If your parents were Republicans, you were doomed to be a Democrat. Or perhaps it's the other way around. Come to think of it, it is. Well, you get the idea. It's generation gaps like this that lead to phrases like "You've never had it so good," "Eat your peas" and "Axis of Evil."

Now think about the half-generation that precedes you. Ten years isn't all that big a difference; we have much in common with the elders of our generation. But there's a sibling-rivalry in thinly veiled detente between us and those who have that decade's extra under their belts. And don't they let us know about it. Except that rather than push us around like our parents/betters they tend towards one-upmanship. (Because we're younger and fitter and can out-box them, that's why!)

To whit: In Boston I knew a gal -- a sweet, generous soul, usually, but 10 years my senior, so she took on the aspect of my better-heeled big sister on occasion. And on such occasions she liked to paint a picture of the town in its heyday, 10 years before I got there. Everything worth doing occurred during that inaccessible window of spent time, 10 years ago. Anything worthwhile anywhere seems to have happened that magical decade ago. I might point out contemporaneous experiences to match her vintage ones, but to no avail. Her trump card? The night The Jam -- unknown in the U.S. and doomed to stay that way -- played at some now-defunct club in Kenmore Square to a tiny house of aficionados. "You shoulda been here 10 years ago, when The Jam..." Sigh. True, I shoulda, but something kept me away...now what was it? Oh, yes: I was 13 and living in Scotland at the time.

The same thing happens here in laid-back Austin. Well, formerly laid-back Austin. Now it's more "easy-going," but not so laid-back as the city has grown into a, well, a city. If the trend continues we'll mature through the inevitable growth stages: "fun loving," "friendly," "hard working," "serious," "stressed out," "hardened," "bitter" and, ultimately, "dangerous." Sort of like Boston these days. Ha-ha! Take that! Yet I digress.

"You shoulda been here when the Armadillo World Headquarters was around," is the approximate equivalent to the now-defunct-club-in-Kenmore-Square jibe, and it galls just the same. Sure enough, the place shut down 10 years before I got to town. Anything that happened worth happening happened at that happening haunt. Huzzah! And I missed it. All of it. Ten years ago and to this damned day.

At least I was here long enough to see my fair share of gigs at Liberty Lunch. What? You've never heard of Liberty Lunch? You shoulda been here 10 years ago...

Photo by Steve Hopson