My pal Mike was listing out the members of The Beatles in a recent blog post, but he accidentally replaced George Harrison with George Hamilton.
The mental images are hilarious, and I’ve been giggling for about 20 minutes.
That is all. :-)
Category Archives: Jill’s Blather
Blather and ramblings from your favorite bee girl (or stegosaurus girl, or ladybug chick or spaceman…)
The artist at work…
I’m sure we can all agree that nothing says “sexy!” like a chick in rubber gloves.
It’s true– I really do make the band T-shirts in my garage. They even smell like my laundry detergent, because the paint adheres to the fabric mo’ bettah if they’re washed first. See? Quality control!
Our shirts are guaranteed to be 100% unique and pet-hair free. No animals were harmed during the T-shirt making process, and they were manufactured in a garage that does not process peanuts or soy. Safe for the whole family! We eliminate the middleman and pass the savings on to you! [Insert cliché of your choice here!]
The best news is that if your favorite size/design/color combination is sold out at the show, you can leave a note and cashola with Matt (he’s the hunky schwag handler) and I’ll custom make one for you and pop it in the mail pronto.
See you on the west coast!
–Jill
Band schwag
Other than our neat garage-made shirts, IJG has been relatively schwagless at shows. Sometimes folks don’t want to invest in the vestments as it were, so for this tour we’ll also have an assortment of IJG bumper stickers for sale.
You like those ovals with the three bold letters in ’em? Conveniently, our band name fits the three-letter acronym pattern quite nicely.
You like the traditional 3 x 10″ white bumper sticker (suitable for sticking on stop signs)? We’ll have those too, emblazoned with Phil “Sonny Rollins” Rodriguez’ pseudo-query: “What’s industrial jazz?”
One of these days I’ll be able to sell our schwag online, as soon as I am better able to make WordPress do my bidding. Until then, come to a show and visit Matt at our schwag table, or email me and we’ll tawk.
See you soon?
Jill-o
New Years Eve in Portland!
I’m sitting in hotel room in Austin Texas listening to the sleet bouncing off my window. Sleet! Actual ice pellets falling from the sky! (Sleet = Ice falling from the sky. Freezing rain = liquid falling from the sky but freezing on the cold surface on which it lands. Weathergirl Jill is here to serve.) This wouldn’t be strange at all if I were home in Philly, but it’s downright strange for Austin; it was balmy this morning. Odd weather in these parts.
To keep myself entertained, I’m nibbling on some single-origin chocolate from Trader Joe’s. I’m not terribly into chocolate (though I won’t turn it down, of course), but I was just kinda in the mood tonight. I should have been in bed an hour ago, but there are travel arrangements to be made.
Travel? Yes, travel! The Industrial Jazz Group is playing New Years Eve in Portland, at the very hip Mississippi Pizza Pub (more than just pizza; it’s a really neat venue), and I’m busy making travel arrangements for band members to get up there so we can rock out IJG-NYE style. There is a teeeeeeny part of me that is sad I won’t be enjoying my tradition of eating pudding in a bathtub as I am wont to do on most NYEs; but this seems like a worthy trade-off. Besides, since I think we’re playing from 6-8pm (don’t quote me on that), if someone wants to hold a house party, I know of a band.
Have room in your bathtub? I can bring the Snack Pack.
See you there.
Seattle and Eugene
I’m sitting in my Portland hotel room. Housekeeping is making their rounds and wondering why Matt and I have had the Do Not Disturb sign on our door for three days. It’s not why you think… it’s because we’ve been getting in so late every night (5:30am and 3:30am respectively) that sleeping through the towel changing ceremony seems wise. I’m not complaining; I’m a night-owl anyway, and this asleep-at-4am-awake-at-noon pattern suits me just fine.
Seattle
Tuesday night, Andrew and I crashed the WAA cocktail hour. I was in full stegosaurus regalia trying to drum up some audience members for our show that night at The Jewelbox, and also figured hobnobbing with some music promoters/booking agents couldn’t hurt either. We made some good connections, and I was very happy to tag along with Andrew to the event.
After some good Mexican food, We played at Seattle’s Jewelbox Theater on Tuesday night with Baby Gramps, with whom I am absolutely smitten. Holy crap, he is easily the coolest person I’ve met in the last 5 years, probably longer. If I lived in Seattle, I would love to be this guy’s pal, learning from him, and digging through his record collection. Holy cow– brilliant musician, wise (understatement of the year), and he exudes cool through every pore. He seemed to like us a bunch and gave us tons of people to contact (other bands, DJs, etc.), and we’re very grateful for that (second understatement of the year).
Anyway, it was a very small crowd, most likely due to everyone in Seattle being all Bumbershooted out, and also because the show was at 11:30 on a Tuesday night. No worries; the crowd we did have was very appreciative and fun. The soundguy even loved us and bought a shirt. (An aside: The new “Me + Your Mom” shirts seem to be getting a very good reaction.)
Eugene
We hit the road for Eugene around 6ish and got there by 8ish, got set up in record time, and had plenty of time for a slice or 7 of Cozmic Pizza and some beers (or some raisins and a ginger-lemonade if you’re me). The venue was really neat– it’s a very large venue with great tasty organic food, terrific beers, an attached coffee shop, bookstore and an internet cafe. Everything a college town needs, all under one roof! Plenty of room for jumping around, a nice sound system, and a stage big enough for our, um, bigness. We played really well, and I probably spent more time facing the back of the stage because the bones and trumpets were having such a good time– it was infectious! Have I mentioned lately how much I love this band?
Last night, Tany and Andrew debuted a hilarious new tune about John McCain called “Civility.” Sadly, this over-the-top satire upset [probably our only] two Republican fans, causing them to walk out after hearing it along with an F-bomb later in the set. I don’t like upsetting people, but at the same time, if the word “fuck” and a political joke gets you rattled in 2008, it might be time to lighten up a little.
Of course, this is easy for me to say. If folks were poking a salty stick at an issue I’m particularly sensitive to, I might be feeling differently.
Anyhoozle, it’s 2:30pm, and it’s time for a shower.
Tonight we play Olympia along with Baby Gramps again (wheee!) and we’re also joined by the fabulous Reptet.