Tony Levin - Part II

Yay - Eric uploaded the pics for me.


Eric and Tony Levin

Julie and Eric

Julie with pick in mouth

Louie and Tony Levin

Eric

CJ Tywoniak

Julie and Kenny Liu

Julie and Kenny

Max DiMezza and Louie Graff

Julie's boyfriend Matt and CJ

Last night with Tony Levin...

So last night my son Eric and a few other Rock School kids opened for former King Crimson/Yes bass player Tony Levin and the California Guitar Trio, featuring former King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto. And yes, I took a million digital pics but I have to wait for Eric to come home and upload them for me. (one of these days I'm going to learn how to do that myself...sigh...)

Anyway, this was pretty exciting because Eric basically put this show together while Paul was in Salt Lake City, Utah for the screening of Rock School at the Sundance Film Festival. And he was the only drummer on all five songs. The show also marked the return of retired rock school greats - my daughter Julie and boyfriend Matt on bass and my "adopted" son, Louie, on guitar. They were joined by other rock school legends Kenny Liu and CJ Tywoniak on guitars, and Max DiMezza and Mike Connor on bass.

The venue was completely sold out because the concert is part of a Prog Rock series being promoted on the east coast and from the minutes the kids opened with a cover of King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man, as is usual and customary with Rock School All-Star shows, the crowd went nuts. They were so awesome, clapping and whistling and of course, wearing the looks of utter disbelief I love so much. That's the great thing about being at shows away from the downtown Philadelphia venues the kids usually play -- I get to see the shock and awe (ha!) on the faces of people who can't believe what they are hearing from kids.

We had one weird moment after the show and we were all kinds of upset about it but Tony Levin keeps an on line journal so I was waiting to see if he wrote anything today before I reported what happened here. I'm glad I did and a cool head prevailed because as you'll read below, he had nothing but nice things to say.

What happened was this: The kids ended the show with King Crimson's Elephant Talk, which Tony Levin wrote. They do an awesome rendition of it...Louie rules in that song with CJ on guitar, Max DiMezza is just amazing on bass, and Eric brilliant on drums. Studying with Gary Chaffee and Rob Brosh at University of the Arts is giving his playing a whole new dimension. So after they finish the song, the set is finished and they walk off the stage. Tony Levin is leaning against the wall and what does he say to them?

"You guys played that too fast."

Louie said something to him, I'm pretty sure it was "Hey, I just found out I was in this show three days ago and had to re-learn the song"...I'm not sure exactly what he said but Louie also hasn't been in a show since the summer when he graduated Rock School.

Tony replied "Did you guys ever listen to the record?"

Yeah, Tony, like only a million times. They love your music.

So it was kind of a crushing remark but in retrospect, I think he was being the crusty teacher, the elder statesman rock and roller, wanting respect from the kiddies who just nailed some very difficult music. And besides, and of course this is only my opinion, but since when are you supposed to play a cover song note for note? Aren't you supposed to do your own interpretation? All I know is, both Eric and Louie were a bit shaken...but they won't be when they read Tony's blog entry. I guess I should only post the pertinent part, but it's kind of interesting so I'm posting the entire thing. Also, as a side note, drummer Pat Mastelotto couldn't have been cooler, letting Eric play his trillion dollar drum set and being really kind, supportive...and impressed.

Tony's Journal:
********************

Jan 29, Pennsylvania Turnpike

This tour, the California Guitar Trio plus Pat Mastelotto on drums and me on bass, has had three shows so far this week. I'm writing an update from my car (Eric, our tour merch person and general helper, is driving now - I see we've put over 900 miles on my car since we began.)

On our drive down to Anapolis for the first show, Eric told me of a funny coincidence: the last time he was there was way back in 1990, when he went there for a show of Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe - never imagining that sometime in the future he'd be driving back there with the bass player, and that we're even doing one of the same pieces, Heart of the Sunrise in the show.

I've got very few photos because the stage isn't well lit - so I'll stick to mostly a journal report of this tour, rather than adding separate pages of photos.
Things got off to a lively start when the band arrived in Anapolis from all over the place - we drove down from New York State, and the others flew in from various cities. But we soon found that the drums were delayed in shipment, and had not arrived. Made for an interesting first soundcheck - Pat spent the day on the phone, looking for a local drummer who could lend us his kit. And, we know from experience, it's a hard call to choose where to try for delivery on Pat's drums - some bands have spent whole tours with instruments following them around, never connecting up with the players!

We found drums, of course, and the show went fine. The following shows were the same situation - borrowing drums at each. Hopefully Pat's drums will arrive in Kingston in time for Saturday's show.

Second show was in Morgantown, West Virginia. Very nice small theater, and a fun show for us. There was a Spinal Tap moment, however. After the first five songs, Pat and I leave the stage and the trio does a few pieces on their own. There was no proper dressing room to disappear to, just a hallway parallel to the venue, with locked door to the outside. Pat went off somewhere and I sat making a phone call. It was a bit loud, so I removed the chair propping open the door into the venue. Sometime during that call, I came to realize that the door was self locking, and there was now no way out of the room. Knocking on the door did no good - couldn't be heard with the volume of the show. I thought ahead to the setlist - it was a group improv that they expected me to return for - would they come looking for me, or think it was my improvisation to not appear? I thought, ah, I'll just the venue on my cell phone, to tell them to come unlock my door -- but, embarassingly, I couldn't remember the name of the city we were playing in! (I told you this was a Spinal Tap moment.)

Obviously, I'm not doing this web update from that room, so I was indeed rescued (choosing the right quiet moment in the music to knock loudly on the door was the trick!)

Next show was at Coatsville, Pennsylvania, at a "School of Rock". We met some very nice and talented kids during the day, and spoke to them quite a bit. (Should I have instructed them to never get locked in a dressing room?) Amazingly, the opening act, comprised of some of the students, aged 16 to 18, played a King Crimson repertoire. Included 21st Century Schizoid Man and Elephant Talk! Wow.

Now we're heading for my home area, Kingston, NY, where we'll play at Keegan's Ales - a great local brewery I've played at before.
More reports soon.

Oh no! RIP Jim Capaldi...

FUCK! I just got the news that Jim Capaldi died. I am so depressed you have no idea. I saw him with Dave Mason in concert a few years ago and they were as awesome as ever. My love affair with Jim goes back many years, back to when he was a member of Traffic. Of course the pic I posted above is of a much younger Jim but this is one I adore.

He died today after a brief fight with stomach cancer, his publicist said.

The 60-year-old Capaldi, born in England of Italian immigrant parents, died in his sleep at the London Clinic in the early hours with his wife and family at his bedside.

Capaldi, whose driving rock rhythms and songwriting ability helped make groundbreaking band Traffic a household name in the 1960s and '70s with -- among others -- Steve Winwood and Dave Mason -- also had an illustrious solo career.

"Steve rang me when he heard this morning. He is very upset. They were very close and had plans to record and tour again. He was praying Jim would recover from his illness," Winwood's manager Mick Newton said.

Capaldi was inducted with Traffic last spring into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just five months before being diagnosed with terminal cancer. A reunion tour was in the works but was scotched last August due to Capaldi suffering what at the time was described only as a "severe gastric ulcer."

When Traffic finally broke up in 1974 after releasing 11 albums, Capaldi busied himself with solo projects. Traffic eventually reformed to tour in 1993-94, and Capaldi toured in 1998 with fellow band founder Mason.

Julie's annual birthday lunch at Le Bec Fin

So today is daughter Julie's annual birthday lunch at Le Bec Fin, Philadelphia's only five star French restaurant. We started this tradition seven years ago when she was twelve and even through it means re-mortgaging our house every year ha ha, it's not one the two of us are willing to break. For all you food freaks out there, here's their luncheon menu.

LES ENTRÉES
Mille-feuille de saumon fumé, courgettes roties en salad
Layered terrine of house smoked salmon served with roasted zucchini salad

Cassolette d’escargots aux noisettes en hommage a Monsieur Cleuvenot
Cassolette of Snails in a Champagne and Hazelnut Garlic Butter Sauce

Ravioli de homard, sauce ivoire
Lobster ravioli with mushroom, ivory sauce

Ceviche de coquille Saint-Jacques, huitres, composte d'aubergines, mouse de safran
Scallop ceviche, oysters, eggplant compote, saffron foam

Soupe du jour

Terrine de chevreuil et legumes vinaigres
Venison terrine with pickled vegetables


LES POISSONS
Galette de crabe aux haricots verts
Chef Perrier’s own crab cake, a “signature dish”

Filet de rascasse roti, compote de rhubarbe, feuilles de moutarde, sauce a la citronnelle et wasabi
Roasted filet of red snapper, rhubarb compote, mustard greens, lemongrass and wasabi sauce

Saumon rôti, fenouil et tomates cerise confits, puree de navets parfumee al a moutarde d'estragon, emulsion de romarin
Roasted salmon, fennel and cherry tomato confit, parsnip puree, tarragon-mustard, rosemary emulsion

Filet de loup grille, racine de lotus au vinaigre, fricassee de celeri et kholrabi, suace "Huitlacoche"
Grilled stripped bass, pickled lotus root, celriac and kholrabi fricassee, "Huitlacoche" sauce

Mahi-Mahi roti, purée de pommes douces, epinards nouveaux, jus de betterave parfume a la gousse de vanille et au vinaigre de Xeres
Roasted Mahi-Mahi, sweet potato puree, baby spinach, beet reduction perfumed with vanilla bean and sherry vinegar


LES VIANDES
Filet de boeuf poele, gratin de legumes oublies "pommes de terre, topinembours, celeris", sauce Bordelaise
Seared beef tenderloin, gratin of potato, sun choke and celeriac, Bordelaise sauce

Carre d'agneau roti avec sa pomponette farcie aux fruits secs et noix, jus d'agneau a la lavande
Rack of lamb, collard greens stuffed with dried fruits and nuts, lavender lamb jus

Duo de veau et de ris-de-veau, fricassee de marrons, puree de prunes, jus de veau epice
filet of veal and sweetbreads, chestnut fricasse, plum puree, spiced veal jus

Supreme de poulet roti, fricasse de choux au lard, salsifis et airelles auctes, jus de poulet parfume au vinaigre de framboise
Roasted chicken breast, napa cabbage fricassee with bacon, sauteed salsify and cranberry, raspberry vinegar emulsion

LES DESSERTS DU BEC-FIN
La charette de desserts
Our world renowned dessert cart

Stinkfest 2005

Here's a digital pic of the police dusting the office for the intruder who pooped at my desk:

Holy crap! (and I mean that literally)

So today I have jury duty. I'm terrified because while this has happened before and they've never picked me due to my clearly prejudicial views (i.e., working in a lawfirm for over two decades), I could still be sequestered in a murder trial (since I've never done any criminal work, only civil) and this just can't happen. It's my daughter's birthday and my son is opening for Tony Levin tomorrow night. So with my stupid luck...oh god...I don't even want to think about it. I just wish I could bring my laptop with me but they won't even let us bring cell phones.

But that's not all. Let me take you back to last night.

I was sitting at my computer, kicking back with a few drinks, talking writing with my best cyber pal as is our custom every Wednesday night. The telephone rings, and I don't even look at the caller I.D. because I'm so mellow and so into my conversation with my friend.

"Hello, Robin?"

"Yeah?"

"This is your boss."

Uh-oh. Immediate paranoia. I see by my AOL buddy list he's still in the office on line. What didn't I do? What did I forget? Am I fired? What?

"Hi, Craig. What's up?" (it came out as a squeak. Plus I was a little drunk and you know how it is when you know you're high and you try to act normal? Arghhh....)

"I know you have jury duty tomorrow and won't be in, but um, you'd better bring some cleaner with you on Friday."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, the police were just here. They've dusted your phone for fingerprints. Someone took a crap near your desk and then sat in your chair and started making telephone calls."

"What??? What the hell....what do you mean?" Okay, I started rambling because basically, when he told me the police dusted my phone for fingerprints, my brain immediately started blocking everything else out and in my inebriated state, wondered if I was in trouble for something horrific but of course sober today, like, what the fuck could that have been anyway.

"Well, I stayed late tonight to do some work, and I heard the front door to the office open. This guy comes in, he looks like a street person, and he starts going in all of the offices in the suite. I came out and asked him what he was doing here. He smelled absolutely horrible, but he had a box with him and he immediately started picking up papers and said he was maintenance. He then asked if he could come in my office."

"Oh my god, Craig. Were you scared to death?"

"Yeah, I was scared. But he didn't threaten me, he pretended to be doing work but I was watching him. But the smell got worse - I could smell shit."

"And then?"

"Then I look out of my office and I see he's sitting in your chair, making phone calls, rifling through things on your desk. I called the police and he ran out the door. I called downstairs to the lobby and had the doorman hold him. He told the doorman, 'You can't hold me, all I did was take a shit in the office' and he smelled so bad he twisted away and ran. Apparently he'd already stolen something else from other offices in the building, too - he had a laptop."

"Wait...he took a shit at my desk, no toilet paper, and sat in my chair?"

"Yep."

"And he used my phone?"

"Yep."

"Oh my god!"

"So when the police came, they dusted your whole area for prints. You're really going to want to bring in some Lysol or something Friday."

Err..Craig...you're really going to have to buy me a new chair, desk and phone, dude.

No, seriously, how can I sit there on Friday? Hopefully they will have the cleaning service in the building come up today -- I mean, really, how can an office full of people work with that stench -- and it'll all be gone when I come back. Which hopefully will be Friday and I won't be holed up with eleven other jurors in some heinous murder trial for two weeks.

But why my desk? Jesus Christ, there are ten other desks in that suite. Couldn't he have sat somewhere else? (kidding, kidding...this is really terrible and I shouldn't joke)

Or, um, couldn't our building have better security? (That is no joke -- this isn't the first break-in we've had)

Craig must have been so totally frightened there all alone at night with this character. Thank god he wasn't dangerous, just crazy. The intruder, I mean. Ha.

Oh well. In two hours I have to report for jury duty. To further help my chances of not getting selected, I'll be wearing my John Lennon Revolution t-shirt and ripped jeans.

I so, so, so do not want to do this, but under the circumstances, I'm kind of glad I don't have to be at the office first thing today. At least not before the cleaning people get there.

Anyway, I guess more news from Sundance and the music world later tonight.

Assuming I don't get sequestered.

Oh god.

Hahaha - I told you so...Dave Mustaine Part II

So here's Megadeath's Dave Mustaine's post in his forum about recording with my kids. Remember when he originally posted "don't be too critical, they're just kids"?

Hahahahaha - have a read as to what he says now. I told you so!

***************

Droogies!

Well, today was very interesting indeed. I was approached to sing over a cover version of "Peace Sells" for a movie/soundtrack. This version was done by young kids from the "Real" School of Rock, the story that Jack Black based his hilarious comedy film on.

Things got interesting when I got to the studio and Lance said that the producers never sent the drives with all of the tracks on it. Uh, whoops?!?

So, hours are grumbling by, and we finally get the track downloaded off of the internet, but naturally it is not in the correct format. Now, a great deal of time later we finally start working and things are clicking. I only had to make a slight adjustment to the arrangement, but excluding that, THESE KIDS WERE TERRIFIC!

Thank God for that, because from the moment I walked back into Phase Four, I absolutely hated it. It seems that the owner has built a patio over the parking lot, got a liqour license, and now runs a very public bar over what SHOULD be a very private studio.

I asked him (the owner) about having the place locked out (which means I am the only one there - that's how I like to work) because I heard a lot of people talking and he said, "I specifically said there was a bar now, and no one was to come down these steps, blah, blah, blah, biddy-boop a lop, an a jizz jazz a razz." I guess you can see I turned off my ears while he was playing hot shot telling me about his "bar" meanwhile a wanker bartender comes down the steps right after his sermon.

I had hoped to have time to go see Mike Learn, Mike Ferguson – the fabricator making the new drum rack (so we can get rid of the one Nick played), and get my ears lowered, but the day was completely shot. I did however see Ralph Patlan and we talked about a lot of cool stuff coming up. I wish you all could meet this dude; he is awesome!

Anyway, "Peace Sells" has now been officially sung by me with the "School of Rock" kids and will be hopefully in yer sweaty mitts sometime soon. If not for the awesome version that these kids did, then just for the fact that they are little guys playing Megadeth.

Thanks to my dear friend Bob Chipardi for the tremendous opportunity to get outside of the box and do something that I would not normally do. And thanks to the kids and the "School of Rock" for even thinking about me. I look forward to meeting you all personally soon!
************************

So that's the latest from Dave. Ha! And err...these aren't "little kids", the average age is 17, but okay, whatever. In other news, in case you've missed my other billboards posted all over the web, the soundtrack comes out April 12.

And Eric will be playing with the Rock School All-Stars down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on February 19 at the Broward Center. I don't think I can make it but if anyone reading this is in the area and wants to attend, drop me an email. There is also talk of an east coast tour the week before the All-Stars go to Germany August 4-7 which would be NYC, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., etc. and as soon as I get more news in that regard, trust me, I'll post it here.

Rock School at Sundance - Part II

(Daughter Julie on bass and CJ on guitar on stage in Germany at the finale of the movie)

Oh yeah! The great reviews from the Sundance Film Festival for Rock School keep rolling in. This one just posted today at "Ain't It Cool News"

Rock School (5 out of 5)

Wow. This is one hell of a documentary.

Anyone that has seen School of Rock, meet Paul Green – the real Jack Black. Paul is a teacher of 120 students; all kids under the age of 17 who want to learn how to play rock. Not some pansy 311, Sheryl Crow, shitty punk band music as they will all tell you – real rock and roll. They’ll start off learning some Black Sabbath, work up a bit to some more advanced Van Halen and AC/DC with some serious solos, and end playing some of the top of the line Frank Zappa where the best of the school hope to go on to Germany to play at a 5 day Zappa fest. You might not be a fan of some of the music, but I dare anyone to see these kids and tell me they aren’t impressed.

Paul and the kids are all a perfect choice for any documentary. Any parent that would want their kids to learn how to play the guitar or drums would likely never send their kids to Paul’s school – as he’s more of an in-your-face coach dropping the F bomb every other word and screaming his lungs out at any kid that argues with him. But he’s also hysterical. You question if he’s just putting on a show in front of the cameras or he’s always like this, but his comments and remarks fly out at a Robin Williams pace and you’ll simply be shocked by half of what he says. Even if he comes off as a complete asshole half the time, you can see that he is just a kid at heart and I found it very hard not to like him – even if I would never agree with half of his teaching methods.

Out of all the kids, the one that will likely stand out the most is CJ. This kid is destined for fame, fortune, and Playboy models – he is single handedly one of the best guitar players you could imagine seeing and he’s only around 12 years old. His fingers fly up and down the guitar and he could carry a 10 minute solo with every single member of an audience with their jaw on the floor. Simply amazing.

The documentary has an excellent structure as it shows us the starting point for some of these kids and the all-stars that head off to Germany. As a filmmaker, you couldn’t be luckier to see this story unfold in front of your camera as it would be such a remarkable story for Hollywood that they likely wouldn’t believe it. Sure, these are just kids playing rock and roll – but what we see look like little prodigies kicking their feet through the doors and sticking it to the man better than anyone could imagine. A number of kids grow up and want to become rock stars, but none of them would ever expect to be this good and be able to handle the caliber of music as the ones featured here.

Simply put, Rock School is the Super Size Me of this years Sundance. It’s a simple story told wonderfully and could not have been executed better.

Rock School at Sundance!

So since I know Rock School is currently being shown at the Sundance Film Festival, I've been trawling Google for articles. I found a good one which I've pasted below!

Oh, and by the way, the above is the official poster for the movie, and if you squint real hard, you can see my son, Eric, and I do believe daughter Julie is in there somewhere as well but this computer monitor sucks and I can't see it. Hahaha - of course that's both Julie and Eric to whom the reporter refers when he says "immensely talented kids"...as well as the other Rock School All-Stars of course.

And for the record, the Jack Black film totally ripped off Paul and his Rock School, but that'll all come out when the movie premiers in April. And guess what? There is going to be a big Philadelphia premier! I don't live in fantasy world after all!

ROCK SCHOOL
I see this has already been reported on, so I'll say that I agree with everything the reviewer, Castor, stated on this one. This is one of those wildly entertaining documentaries, easy to watch with plenty of laughs and engaging characters.
I?m sure the filmmakers wanted to name this School of Rock? (It IS about the Paul Green School of Rock, whose website is www.schoolofrock.com) but of course there was the Jack Black film that stole the title and even the concept. I got the impression during the Q&A that the filmmakers were more than a little annoyed about that, but I personally think it will only help the film since people are now acquainted with the idea of rock-n-roll instruction for kids; the marketing campaign will practically write itself.
One of the biggest challenges for the filmmakers was getting the rights to use the rock songs in the movie. As it turned out, Eddie Van Halen was a real jerk and wouldn't let them use a smokin riff that CJ (the prolific 12-year-old guitarist) performed while, at the other end of the spectrum, Black Sabbath was awesome and gave them free reign on their whole discography. In the end, song accessibility helped shaped the direction the movie took and, I think, made it a lot more interesting by not having the most obvious bands or songs highlighted (ie AC-DC, Aerosmith). I'd never heard a Frank Zappa song in my life, but the concert in Germany was a huge highlight of the film. These kids are immensely talented and it will be very interesting to see what happens to them after they get out into the real world.
There are plans to open more Rock Schools nationwide: right now there are a cluster of them in Pennsylvania/New Jersey, one in San Francisco, and a branch will be opening next month here in Salt Lake City, of all places!

Gustavo Schmidt

Wow. This guy is incredible. I stumbled upon him while reading a great lit 'zine, Failbetter, which is featuring his art in their current issue. Anyway, here's a link to more of his work:

Gustavo Schmidt