Monday, July 02, 2018

The week of July 2, 2018

Good morning and happy holiday week!   I opted to work, because my entire office decided otherwise.  So here I sit, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, blasting All Things Must Pass and getting caught up on stuff I put to the side while I worked on emergencies.  Life is good.

Actually, I'm lying.  While my life is good, it's absolutely horrifying for others in this country, i.e., immigrants, people with pre-existing medical conditions, AND POOR PEOPLE WHO ARE TOO STUPID TO KNOW IT YET AND HAVE HITCHED THEIR HOPES AND DREAMS TO AN IMBECILE.

Do people really believe a morbidly obese lunatic in a bad yellow wig is going to save them?



Okay, enough of that today.  Last week was so demoralizing...I need to be positive the week of July 2, 2018.

So here's something beyond positive - Natalie has a brand new video released this morning and Elton John played one of her new tunes on his radio show, so that's pretty damn cool.



Such spectacular things happening for my family right now...stay tuned.

Julie is hanging out in the U.S. until July 18 - she's in the studio finishing the new Echotest record (omg, wait until you guys hear it) and recording with her dad for a special campers-only release at Three of a Perfect Pair Camp the week of August 13.  It's so exciting to be around Julie while she works on both new records - I get to be privy to stuff like artwork, song selection and order, etc.

As we speak, Julie is headed to the studio to do the final mixing, but how lucky am I, I just saw on Instagram that before she left at 10:00 a.m., she made us spanakopita for dinner from scratch.   Here's the clip she posted:



Anyone who thinks being a vegetarian is boring needs to study my food pics :)    Follow me on Instagram at @robinslick.

In Eric news, he wrapped up the Dr. Dog tour though he's got a bunch of festivals to play between now and the end of October.  So he's going to be sitting in with Natalie on her tour this summer/fall, including the XPN Festival on July 28!  Here's Natalie's schedule for the rest of 2018...actually, this list is incomplete because it doesn't list the XPN Festival or some other dates in EU I saw on Natalie's website, but for whatever reason, her site is down right now as pertains to touring and I lifted this list from the general internet.  I'll come in and fix it when it's available - I have a feeling the tour portion of her site is down right now for that very reason...it's being updated.  But hey, in the meantime, Brooklyn, NY this Saturday night with Natalie and Eric looks pretty awesome, huh.

JUL7
Sat 7 PM2,122 guests
AUG10
Fri 8:30 PM182 guests
Charlottesville, VA
AUG11
Charlotte, NC
AUG12
Aug 12 - Aug 1347 guests
Charleston, SC
AUG17
Fri 8 PM CDT67 guests
University City, MO
AUG19
Sun 7 PM208 guests
Marietta, OH
SEP19
Wed 8 PM CDT237 guests
SEP21
Saint Paul, MN
SEP25
Tue 9 PM PDT52 guests
Vancouver, BC, Canada
SEP28
Fri 9 PM PDT82 guests
San Francisco, CA
OCT17
Wed 8 PM71 guests
West Asheville, West Asheville, NC
OCT19
Raleigh, NC
NOV3
Sat 7:30 PM UTC65 guests
Manchester, England, United Kingdom
NOV5
Mon 7:30 PM UTC17 guests
Bristol, England, United Kingdom
NOV6
Tue 7:30 PM UTC69 guests
Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
NOV8
Thu 7:30 PM UTC121 guests
London, England, United Kingdom
NOV11
Sun 8 PM UTC+01143 guests
Hotel Cecil
NOV13
Tue 8 PM UTC+0126 guests
Hamburg, Germany
NOV14
Wed 7 PM UTC+0166 guests
Berlin, Germany
NOV15
Thu 7:30 PM UTC+0133 guests
Munich, Germany
NOV16
Fri 9:30 PM UTC+0147 guests
Düdingen, Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland
NOV18
Sun 8 PM UTC+0155 guests
Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
NOV19
Mon 7:30 PM UTC+01137 guests
Brussels, Belgium
NOV20
Tue 7:30 PM UTC+01121 guests
Paris, Ile-de-France, France
NOV21
Wed 8 PM UTC+01263 guests
Utrecht, Netherlands
So there it is - the almost complete tour list :)   Looks like Natalie and Eric are going to have a brilliant time traveling and meeting fans all over the world!

What else...let's see.  Wednesday is July 4, also known to my neighbors as THE DAY OF DOOM.  Just kidding, but about one million people descend on my neighborhood that day to see the fireworks, and this year, Pit Bull is giving a free concert on the steps of the Art Museum, which is six blocks from my house so that is going to be particularly insane.  No, I'm not going, and no, I'm not moving the Lexus from its parking spot all day :)    But Julie, who is in town like I said, wants to go to the fireworks with her Daddy just like she did every year growing up, so those two are headed there Wednesday night.  As for me, just like I did every year when Julie and Eric were growing up, I will be home stuffing my face and comforting the dog, in this case Jake, who totally freaks out from the sound of fireworks.  It's like July 4 is most dogs' worst nightmare.

On the menu for July 4 at Casa Vegetarian slick will be baked beans, cole slaw,  corn bread, salad, etc.  Yeah, we eat all sides.  Got a problem with that?  Ha!  Not me.  Appetizers and desserts are my favorite part of the menu.

In other news, Julie leaves for Spain July 18 and will be back in Philadelphia on August 8.  August 13-17 is rock and roll camp in Woodstock, NY, and I think her plans are open-ended so far - she usually does a house show in Richmond, VA over Labor Day weekend so we're waiting to hear about that, but I do know if she does do the show, this time Gary will be accompanying her on guitar and vocals, performing material from their new record.  Whoa, it feels wonderful to say that!  So no one will be home for my birthday on August 17 but me, however, I already have my festivities planned.  I'm taking the day off from work and ordering all three meals from Uber Eats.  Hahahahahaha, I know how to live.  I'm thinking breakfast from Cafe y Chocolate, vegetable pad thai and spring rolls from Circles for lunch and Pizza Melanzana from Vetri for dinner.





Told you I know how to live!

Back to music...

Echotest's new record will be out this fall.  To say it's epic is putting it mildly.  It's more Pink Floyd than Pink Floyd.  Julie doesn't know it, but when she's not around, I listen to the download while I work on my secret new book(s).  :)  It's really deep, you get totally lost in it as you listen.

Ooh, as I type this post, this just in:


New music from Rayland Baxter.  Eric is on drums and Cage the Elephant's Nick Bockrath is on guitar.  Here's their last song, which I absolutely adore, called Casanova.


  I think I may have posted this before, along with the story, but in case I didn't, here it is again.  Gary and I were sitting around listening to the radio, and Casanova came on.  I said to Gary, "Who is this?  It's the second time I've heard it, and I really like it."  Gary didn't know, but he liked it, too.  Both of us thought, but didn't say out loud, that one of the reasons we liked it so much was because it had a Kinks vibe and a Ringo Starr drum vibe, reminding us of Eric.  So imagine our reaction when the DJ announced it was Rayland Baxter with Eric on the drums.  We were both, AW, I SHOULD HAVE SAID IT REMINDS ME OF ERIC, but trust me, I believe Gary thought that because I know I did, and we just didn't say it out loud.  Too cool that everytime we listen to WXPN these days, we hear someone from the family, whether it's Natalie, or Eric with Dr. Dog, Eric with Rayland Baxter, or, Eric with Deva Majal, which I am pretty sure I also posted but I'll post again because it's so freaking brilliant:


Yeah, I know, I say it all the time, but MUSIC IS EVERYTHING.

SO IS FOOD.

SO ARE ERIC, JULIE, NATALIE, GARY AND JAKE.

I guess 2018 is all about priorities, huh.  And taking care of ourselves and staying strong in the face of evil.

We can do this.

Onward and upward, people!

xo

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Dr. Dog, featuring Gary Slick and Natalie Prass

So here's a cute story.  When I got home from the Dr. Dog show on Saturday night,
 I uploaded the videos I had of Gary and Natalie joining Dr. Dog on stage for two songs.  
Because it was late and I was tired, I was having difficulty, and I simply uploaded them 
titled, "June 23, 2018."  I said to Gary, "Hey, it doesn't matter, these are my own
 private videos, we know where to find them."  But Gary was so cute, he was like a little
 kid.  "But if you don't put my name, how will other people find it?"  I tried not to
 smirk and didn't say what I was thinking ("What other people?"), took a deep breath,
and tried uploading them again so that this time, they could be properly labeled.  I 
saw that I did it correctly, so when it asked me to type in a label, I grinned and typed, 
"Heart it Races...Dr. Dog featuring Gary Slick."   I did the same thing with Natalie's 
video.  So imagine my shock and laughter when I saw the below article, a version 
of which also appears on WXPN's The Key https://t.co/RopyVVCYr7, which not 
only contains both videos I uploaded, but also helped the writer identify Gary 
and Natalie for the purpose of this article, and, take a look at the set list they
 published, too :)  So yeah, I got a big kick out of that.

Anyway, to say that Gary had a heart attack (of joy) when I showed this
 article to him is putting it mildly.  The WXPN version of this article contains 
all of the videos plus some bonus clips.  The version of Heart it Races that I
posted has the complete GARY!  GARY! GARY! chants by the crowd at the
 end, the other version they posted is a better quality video of Gary, taken from
 the front, but it leaves out the ending :(. r

PHOTOS: Dr. Dog with (Sandy) Alex G

 and Natalie Prass at Festival Pier in Philadelphia, 06/23/18


Decrease Font SizeIncrease Font SizeText SizePrint This Page 
Indie rockers Dr. Dog ended their Critical Equation Tour with a hometown show at the
Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia on Saturday, June 23. Fellow Philly
singer/songwriter (Sandy) Alex Gopened the concert presented by public radio station
 WXPN 88.5 FM.
Supporting the April 27 release of the same name, the show was a 22-song,
career-spanning set with special guests joining them onstage through the night,
 including Tom Kelly of Alex G’s band, Dr. Dog drummer Eric Slick’s
 father Gary Slick on acoustic guitar, and Virginia singer/songwriter Natalie Prass.
Highlights included set opener and quasi hit “Shadow People,”
 Architecture In Helsinki cover “Heart It Races,” “Coming Ou
t of the Darkness” sung by Prass, and a raucous and jammy “Heavy Light,”
 which closed the night that was later lit up by fireworks.
“Critical Equation” came out through We Buy Gold Records following a long break after
 touring in support of 2016’s “The Psychedelic Swamp” (born from a collaboration between
 guitarist/singer Scott McMicken and bassist/singer Toby Leaman that predates Dr. Dog)
 and the quiet release of “Abandoned Mansion” nine months later.
“We were all really satisfied to close 14 years of history by finally revisiting
 ‘The Psychedelic Swamp’ and giving it our full attention,” McMicken said in
press release, “but I think stepping out of our natural evolution definitely taxed
us. We decided we should put ‘Abandoned Mansion’ out and just go our separate
 ways for six or seven months.”
“We’d been touring and making records for our entire adult lives, and I think we just
 needed to take a step back,” Leaman added. “It was important for all of us to figure
out if we were actually doing what we wanted to be doing, or if we were just letting
 momentum carry us down this path we’d always been on.”
“I feel like I’m in a totally new band right now,” McMicken emphasized. “We had
to tear it apart in order to rebuild it.”
See NEPA Scene’s photos of Dr. Dog playing at The Fillmore in Philadelphia back in 2016 here.
Dr. Dog setlist, June 23, 2018, Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia:
Shadow People
Survive
Go Out Fighting
Lonesome
The Breeze
True Love (with Tom Kelly of (Sandy) Alex G
Heart Killer
Abandoned Mansion
Heart It Races (Architecture in Helsinki cover with Gary Slick)
Listening In
Buzzing in the Light
How Long Must I Wait?
These Days
Where’d All the Time Go?
Under the Wheels
That Old Black Hole
Army of Ancients
Jackie Wants a Black Eye
Encore:
Say Something
Coming Out of the Darkness (with Natalie Prass)
Nellie
Heavy Light

Monday, June 25, 2018

Music is Everything

Gary Slick trading licks with son, Eric Slick at the Dr. Dog show Saturday, June 23, 2018 at Festival Pier, Penns Landing, Philadelphia, PA

This was a pretty spectacular weekend for the Slick family music wise, but before I launch into that, speaking of music, if you haven't already seen James Corden's karaoke with Paul McCartney, stop what you are doing right now and watch.  You don't have to be a McCartney fan, this is one of the greatest things I have ever seen on television and had me smiling for hours.  Eric and Natalie came over yesterday for dinner and I pulled it up on the t.v.  They were astounded, Gary was astounded, and you know me, I sat there with tears in my eyes.  So without further ado, here is Sir Paul:


Okay, tell me that wasn't awesome. By the way, Paul's new song is epic.  Dude, he's 76 years old and still creating art and rocking.  But oh, for the first time he looks really old, and I felt tender toward him.  Though damn is he fit and slim - it's the vegetarian lifestyle, and I can attest to that firsthand!

Anyway, anything that takes me out of Trump world for a half an hour is pretty fine with me, too.

So going with that theme, Saturday night Gary and I, proudly displaying our VIP passes, stood on the side of the stage at the Dr. Dog concert.  Of course Ms. Natalie Prass (natalieprass.com) was sidestage with us and she graciously joined Dr. Dog for a tune.


But the high point for Gary was being called on stage to play acoustic guitar in "Heart it Races."  What's really amazing is the applause Gary got, but nothing prepared us for what happened when he finished playing...   


So how cool was that?

I know these aren't the best quality, but hey, what do you expect from side of the stage recording?

I just love my family so much.  Eric leapt from his drum kit and hugged Gary with such love after it was over...I really do have the best husband/kids in the entire world.

In other news, Julie is still in Nashville.  She flew down to Casa Belew last Tuesday for some rehearsals, recording, etc. and on Friday, the Adrian Belew Power Trio played Sweetwater's Gear Fest.  Adrian lost his voice and one of the campers filled in. I saw a clip and it was pretty damn good, but it's on Facebook so I can't really link it here.  Anyway, Julie will be home tomorrow night, and will be immediately launching into a secret recording project with....her dad!  It will only be made available to select fans the week of August 13 if you catch my drift.  This EP is going to kick serious butt, and if you are lucky enough to get a copy...well, you're pretty lucky.

There's some other crazy good stuff happening in the Slick family so stay tuned....

(I am in such a fantastic head from the weekend I'm trying to stay off social media today so I don't have to read about the Liar in Chief and his racist, idiot supporters)

Peace and love,
xo