If you live in Chicago, please come see my rock band– the Blissters– as we play Thursday night (Aug. 12) at the Abbey as part of an excellent evening of powerpop. I promise to play the drums like a zombie.
We go on at the very reasonable hour of 8:30pm, CST. Click here for more details.
Filed under Uncategorized
I feel conflicted about this, but my band, The Blissters, is participating in one of those band-contests where people go 
to a website and vote, and the bands with the most votes get to play a show at a good venue. (To vote for us, click here.)
This sort of thing is basically just free advertising for whoever organizes it. In this case, a beer company owned by Jimmy Buffett is running things.
Has any musician ever monetized the content of his lyrics into revenue-streams like Buffett has? Let’s do the list. He’s got:
Seriously, I can’t think of another A-List musician who franchises his work like this. It would be like if Sting launched a “King of Pain” menthol muscle-cream, or if Elton John licensed a “Crocodile Rock”-brand jungle safari tour.
Funny story about Buffett: One time I was chatting with a security guard at Deer Creek Ampitheater in Indianapolis, and I asked him: “Of all the acts that play here every year, which have the fans that give you the most trouble? Like, which fan base has the most drunk-and-disorderly arrests and fights, and so forth?”
I was expecting him to name some heavy-metal act, or maybe Phish or the Grateful Dead (for drug offenses). Instead, he instantly answered: “Jimmy Buffett. By a lot.”
And I was like: “Really? I picture Buffett’s fan-base as a bunch of 50+, white-collar workers who don’t party all that hard.”
The guard went on to explain that that was exactly the issue. The reason it’s so out of control at Buffett concerts, said the guard, is that they’re attended by 15,000 people who usually don’t party, but who are suddenly placed in an environment where every song is about drinking, and having 10 beers feels normal. (It’s amateur night, the guard was basically saying. These are people who can’t drink very much anymore, but nonetheless try to do exactly that. [Accordingly, I guess, they get hammered and start a bunch of fights.])
Filed under Uncategorized
My band The Blissters just finished our new video for “Is it Monday?” Here it is:
I think I make some pretty good faces in it, and my 20″ hi-hat looks cool.
Filed under Uncategorized
Thanks to everybody who came to the LaSalle Power Company in Chicago last Saturday to raise money for the Alliance for Lupus Research! I donated a copy of The Zen of Zombie to the silent auction, and my band The Blissters was the headlining act. We raised a ton of money, all of which went to the Alliance, and also met some really outstanding people.
Here are some photos of The Blissters from the event:
This machine kills Lupus.
Thanks again to everyone who came!
Filed under Uncategorized
Hey folks!
Me with the Blissters
Tomorrow (Friday) night, I’ll be playing the drums with my band The Blissters at the The Penny Road Pub in South Barrington, IL, just outside of Chicago. It should be a great time! I promise to play the drums like a zombie, and will be happy to sign any copies of The Zen of Zombie that folks want to bring!
We’re playing with two other bands: Straight Jack and Jaktripper. (Here, a lesser man would make puns about the word “Ja[c]k” in the names of the other bands. I resist.)
We go on around 9/9:30. Hope to see y’all there!
Filed under Uncategorized
This Friday, I’ll be playing a show with my band The Blissters at the BBC Upper Level in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We’re the opening act, and go on about 9:45 local time. I will be only too happy to sign any copies of The Zen of Zombie brought to the show!
For fun, here are even more pictures from our JBTV taping last week.
Filed under Uncategorized
Yesterday I joined my band The Blissters in downtown Chicago to tape an episode of JBTV, a music 
television show. They interviewed us for a good half-hour, and we performed six songs. People prompted me to talk about The Zen of Zombie a little bit, but mostly we just talked about playing music.
If you’re unfamiliar, JBTV is hosted by this guy named Jerry Bryant who’s a real character and has been putting on this music show for over 20 years. He’s had everyone from the Ramones to Green Day to Bjork to INXS on his program, as well as bands that aren’t so big yet (like us).
At one point, when the cameras were off, I asked Jerry: “So dude, of all the bands you’ve had on over the years, who was the hardest to work with? Who were real jerks?”
He was like: “Nobody has EVER been hard to work with. EVERYBODY I’ve ever had on the show has been totally awesome! …except for maybe Oasis.”
That made me laugh.
Anyhow, if you’re in Chicago, our episode of JBTV will air next week at these times:
Thursday November 20th at 8pm on Channel 25, Saturday November 22nd on Channel 34 at 11pm, Sunday November 23rd at Midnight on Channel 25, and Wednesday November 26th at 9pm on Channel 25. (All times CST.)
Filed under Uncategorized
Pictured: Blurry zombie drumming!
Hey zombie-friends! Tonight my band the Blissters will play a FREE show at Reggie’s Rock Club in the South Loop in Chicago, at the more-than-reasonable hour of 9:40pm. If you are in Chicagoland, please feel warmly invited to join us. It should be a great time.
At the show, I promise to play the drums like a zombie! Which is to say, “well.” (I feel like zombies always give 100% to everything they do, so I think about zombies to inspire myself before we play.)
I look forward to meeting any zombie-fans, and will be only too happy to sign any copies of The Zen of Zombie.
Also, the Blissters are celebrating getting 2 songs on the soundtrack of a major-studio teen sex comedy coming out in 2009. (I will blog more about this when it’s finalized, though contracts have been signed.) It’s not a 10-album deal with Capitol Records, but it’s a start… Please come celebrate with us!
Filed under Uncategorized
Pictured: Arnold Madlangbayan (right) and the author, circa. 2006
As I’ve noted before, not every post on this blog will be about zombies, and today I want to write a post to recognize my friend Arnold Madlangbayan, guitarist/singer/songwriter in my band the Blissters for doing his first feature print interview! It appeared yesterday in The Windy City Times, one of Chicago’s gay newspapers. (Chicago doesn’t just have a free ”alternative” newsweekly like most cities do; it also has two explicitly GLBT newsweeklies.) Anyhow, talking to reporters can be an intimidating process, but Arnold did a great job. He just jumped right in and totally was himself, which I think is the best approach to take! Click the link above to take a look.
Filed under Uncategorized
