Odds and Sods for Thursday, May 7, 2009

Well, life is never dull around here. There's all kinds of cool stuff going on.


Photo of the Adrian Belew Power Trio by Gary Slick, taken in Milwaukee, WI on 4/18/09

In case you haven't heard, in addition to his drumming duties with the Adrian Belew Power Trio, Project Object, and Crescent Moon, Eric Slick is now the new drummer for Oblivion Sun. He will be making his debut with the band on Saturday, June 20, 2009 at NEARfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, regarding Oblivion Sun, there's been some really wonderful comments about Eric on the Progressive Ears Forum Board under "...and the new drummer is..."

Here's something else so cool I can't take it. What member of King Crimson...and I'm not saying who it is or whether it's a current or former member...contacted Eric and now the two of them are going to record a CD of original music together at either the end of this year or beginning of next to have available ASAP in 2010? Nope, I'm not telling, you'll just have to wait. All I know is, when Eric told me about it and who it was, I was pretty damn stoked. To say this is going to be mind-blowing is putting it mildly. Crimson fans all over the world are going to rejoice! (Insert winking smiley face emoticon here) Oh, okay. I'm well aware that I'm such a groupie mom it's nauseating but since this is my blog, I can do what I want and again I will reiterate that I have been a music groupie since like, age 12. But trust me, I've got a real reason to be excited.

And speaking of real reasons to be excited! Next month marks the release of the first Adrian Belew Power Trio studio CD - the extraordinary "e". Just listening to the rough mix sends chills up my spine. How fucking lucky am I?

So at age 22 -- well, he's still 21 but his birthday is next Friday, May 15 -- and it's crazy how many drummers are born in May: Bill Bruford, John Bonham, Alex Van Halen, Gavin Harrison, Billy Cobham, Danny Carey, Phil Selway, Alan White, Butch Trucks -- Eric has the world's most amazing life.

And now for something completely different, here's a You Tube that just popped up - Eric doing a jazz/rap gig at World Cafe Life with Bodega on April 20, 2009...



By the way, that's Jay-Z's trombone player - Aaron Goode, who also plays for Jill Scott and John Legend.

Julie has some cool news, too. She is busy producing the new CD for Cheers Elephant; then she is going down to Nashville the week after next to Casa Belew to do a whole bunch of secret stuff involving computers and studio equipment and Proud papa Gary Slick is going with her for purposes of...sorry...lips sealed again. Gah! Don't you just hate that?

By the way, Cheers Elephant is playing a very special show tonight at Kung Fu Necktie and if you are in the Philadelphia area, I cannot recommend this gig enough. Cheers Elephant is by far the very best original band to come out of the former students/graduates of the School of Rock and I predict major success for them in the very, very near future. Well, not all the guys are from SOR - but bassist Matt Rothstein, Julie's significant other, was one of the original students and vocalist and lead guitarist Jordan del Rosario teaches at one of the branches.

Moving on...

Another thing I wanted to mention was the absolutely fabulous gifts we have been receiving from Adrian Belew Power Trio fans. I am pretty sure I've written here about this already, but as our Christmas gift, uber fan and friend Rena Fay, a/k/a Tickledrop, painstakingly recorded every single You Tube of Ade, Julie and Eric and presented each of us with a set of three DVDs, all beautifully packaged with photographs...we watch them non-stop and it's really cool to see the changes in the band since they first got together three years ago and up to the present. Yep, three years. This month is their anniversary. Can you believe it?

While on this most recent tour, they were given these handmade woodcuts by Phil Bates. Here. We took pictures. Are these incredible or what? Phil, I tried to find a website for you so I could link your work but I struck out. If you are reading this and email me, I'll gladly take care of that.





Then last week, a box arrived via special delivery from Bill Randolph, and when we opened it up, look what was inside! (And Bill - same deal. If you are reading this and want to send me a link, I will be more than happy to put it here)





I don't know if you can see what the label on the hot sauce bottle says, but it's hilarious. "Slick & Slick Hot Sauce -- It's Like Music In Your Mouth".

Love it.

Hey, my life isn't half bad, either. You know that cool little documentary I'm in -- erm, the one that has been winning awards all over the world? Exciting news coming on that front...I have heard from a pretty accurate source that there is, a, um, strong possibility you will all be able to see me in the comfort of your own homes. Robin Slick on plasma! Anyway, I didn't even know about this but when the movie was shown in Amsterdam, they did a really cool little film of the premier along with a trailer and yep, I'm in it alright...both at the beginning and toward the end and it's hilarious. I even have an IMDB listing here and here for both that and the other *cough* award winning short film (it's true) based on Daddy Left Me Alone with God. They have a big screen (well, kinda big) version up of that film right here but I digress -- here's the clip from Amsterdam:



Okay, I think that covers the news for today...I've got to end this post now. Places to go, people to see, blah blah blah...busy, busy, busy.

Later,
xo