Writing better songs for cover bands since 1992
The Continuing Adventures of The Schmoejoes
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Tales of Schmoe.
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Enough banter about radio and spammers, is this a band site or what? I've posted a video of our first show - a song called backagain. It's about 7 megs. There's more coming. They'll be going in the 'pics' section, which may or may not be renamed to 'pics & vids'.
We've also got some swell new tunes on the way, and you'll hear them soon.
The five people who visit this blog may have noticed that suddenly it's become a den of spam comments, with references to my need for all sorts of drugs, porn, stocks and anything that can be sold, bartered or stolen. I've spent the last week battling these automated bots, and for every comment I remove, two take its place.
I've done some research on the ol' intarweb, and people much smarter than me have had to shut comments down. I hate this; it doesn't feel like a blog if you can't comment. I'm continuing to check and see what's available, and what might work. Indeed, if some people out there didn't feel the need to be dicks for their own selfish gain, this wouldn't be an issue.
So if you'd like to comment on anything, just send me an email, or go to the Schmoejoes myspace page, where this blog's posts will be mirrored. I won't promise I'll post it here, but I'll probably riff on it at some point.
Oh, and if you're the guy who ran your automated crap-poster on here, please come to a show. I have a solid walnut guitar I'd like to introduce to your face.
Happy Halloween!
It's been a little traumatic and dramatic around here recently - the wife and I have been working a lot, The Schmoejoes have been on hiatus for a month, and my in-laws had to put one of their dogs to sleep.
It's fall here in Minnesota, and though it's currently nice out, the weather's been rainy and cold. This is my favorite time of year, and my least favorite. It's sort of a bittersweet time. Rush around like the squirrels, hiding their walnuts, trying to get everything ready for winter - and try and enjoy the few last days of sunshine and t-shirts.
I've been busy writing when I get chances, Jay is working for some AV guys up in the Cities, and Jim is staying busy with Oprah and Mr.Mommin' it. Our fine friend and photographer Vic just ran his first marathon, and finished. I might have a difficult time doing 26 miles in a car.
Mostly, I'm trying to keep a sense of perspective. It's easy to let the weather dictate how you deal with things, and I'm determined to keep things on track. For what?
I not quite sure, but as someone once said: "It's not the destination, it's rockin' out with Journey when you get there."
Or something.
Hi, Ranty McRant here with today's story.
Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays says: "For radio to propsper, we will have to do a lot things differently," he said during the Dickstein Shapiro Broadcast Financing 2006 session at the NAB Radio show. "We need to be taking content, repurposing it, and giving it to people in a format that they want. We have to be constantly evolving and changing what we're doing, and asking ourselves what changes can we continue to make to make radio viable."Mays says that radio must also further consolidate over the next ten years if its wants to stand toe-to-toe with other, more consolidated industries that are using their scale to gain stronger footholds.
So the destroyer of radio wants more? We've seen how CC has bought up once-local stations here in MN, and shuffled their formats like a Vegas card shark. Let's not even bring up how the FCC was caught destroying a report that showed that locally owned TV stations do more local news than network-owned or "non-locally owned" stations do - a story the consoldation-loving guys at the FCC didn't want to hear.
Consolidation has ruined radio and tv, sterilized playlists and schedules, driven people to satellite and P2P, not to mention closed and locked the door for independent music to be heard by anyone who doesn't actively search for it.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the broken broadcast industry is going to give people 'repurposed content'. Maybe I'll go write some 'content' right now. In hopes that they pick me.
Don't miss my favorite line from CC Mays, "We have two customer bases; our advertising customers and our listening customers."
Rich. Where's my receipt? I want to return this bland content.
Ah. The almighty mp3 will show them.
Paul Bigsby got his start as a talented motorcycle builder, and became one of the most important guitar builders, creating instruments that would later be copied piecemeal by other luthiers.
His first instrument, a triple neck steel guitar built in 1946 for legendary steel player Earl "Joaquin" Murphy has been found after almost 50 years!
It has been restored to original condition as played by Murphy, and is currently for sale.
Paul fastidiously made all of his guitars by hand, including casting his own aluminum hardware, and winding his own pickups. This instrument is important as it is a template for his next instrument, a solid spanish-style guitar made for Merle Travis, and a preview of what electric guitars would later become.
----
A recording of "Joaquin" Murphy playing 'Texas Playboy Rag' with Tex Avery is here. (From the CD 'Tex Williams - On The Air 1947-1949')
I know I can't stand playing anything other than my Bigsby-ized Silvertone 1446L :)
Paste this into google:
"band" last modified mp3 "index of" -html -htm -php -asp
Or click this
They aren't even ours!
w00t. Yeah, it doesn't match the rest of the site. Such is the price of progress.
Now I can blab on and on and on about whatever I like, and you will read it, enraptured by my genius. Awesomes.
Incidentally, you can now subscribe to theschmoejoes.com and get updates when I make them, rather than whenever you have an urge to see what the 'joes are up to. We are totally on this internets thing.
Ahh...The Old Town Summerfest has come and gone, and The Schmoejoes are relaxing.
Thanks to everyone who made it to our shows, the people at the Midtown Tavern, the great guys at the What's Up Lounge, and of course Jed Highum from Applauze, and Mike Gimmer of Showscape Promotions who did lots of behind-the-scenes stuff.
The Pledge Empire closed out the night at the What's Up; check them out when you get a chance. And if you missed The Oxbow Boys at the Wine Cafe, you should hit yourself with a shovel, because they're awesome, and you need hittin'.
For those of you who missed our radio interview by Jim "Gully" Gullickson on KSMU on Friday, I've posted it here. You can also find it in the audio section. Speaking of, there are new tunes up there too, recorded live at the Midtown Tavern a few months ago - including the ones from KMSU.
It sounds like we'll be playing some more shows in Mankato - I'll let you know when they fall into place.
Oh yeah, congrats to Vic for the fine photo of me published in the Old Town Summerfest program.
Proof that radio is going downhill - The Schmoejoes are going to be on it! Today @ 1:30 on KMSU - Mankato college radio.
We will talk about things, and I will most likely blab on about the Flaming Lips (who totally rocked at the State Fair last night) or our shows at Mankato's Old Town Summerfest tomorrow. You might even hear a Schmoejoes song.
89.7 FM (range about 70-100 miles from Mankato, I think)
or
for you nerds out there.
For those who want to see the 'joes live, we're kicking off the Old Town Summerfest @ the Midtown Tavern Stage @ 12:00 am (coffee may be served) and later at the What's Up Stage @ 10:00 pm (beer will be served). Whooo!
07-23-06
Ok, you Schmoejoes promised me video, you promised me rough mixes, you promised we'd be together forever...
So, I dropped the ball, and haven't put anything new up here for awhile. Sue me. I'm writing songs, and grilling out. It's summer here in Minnesota, and I have two months to enjoy it.
In other 'real' news, The Schmoejoes are playing August 26th at Mankato, MN's Old Town Summerfest. Two times. From what I've seen and heard of the other bands, we'll be the only pop band there. Sweet. Make sure you email the Summerfest guys, and let them know it's "The Schmoejoes", not 'schmojoes', 'shmoejoes', 'smorejoes', 'Joe Schmoe', 'hobojoes', 'blowjoes' (ha! I'll be hearing that one), or 'schmoe joes'. It's "The" capitalized, followed by a space, followed by "Schmoejoes", and looks like this when you're done.
The Schmoejoes
Big thanks to Mike Gimmer of Showscape Promotions, who's booked us for this show, and the last one, and several others. 'The last one'? July 14th at the Midtown Tavern. Yes, I didn't post it. No, you weren't out of bed yet. I'll be better, I prom... I'll be better about it.
So where are these rough mixes - what happened to recording? It's still happening, though at a glacial pace. I count all this time as preproduction (definition for moms: Preproduction - knowing your stuff, so when you record you're not wasting time, money, beer, and each other. Scratch beer, I meant celery sticks and water). So for all 5 of you clamoring for a release, you'll just have to wait.
Lastly, this blog thing on here bites. I made it, so I'm redoing it. If you realllllly need to read words of wisdom from me, check the MySpace blog. It's eaiser to read, post to, and navigate. That's saying something, as myspace is where design goes to die. I may just post shows here, and let you read my rantings elsewhere. Of course, if you worked for the NSA, you'd already know this.
Sweet new pics by Vic up on the pics page. Video will follow.
No show on the 12th, so you didn't miss anything. There'll be some soon - I'll be posting them here.
A surprise may be forthcoming, but it's too early to say as of yet. We're working on it.
The show was swell. Many photos were taken, video was shot, and snare heads were broken.
We passed out a pile of mini-buttons, which seemed to confuse and delight. T-shirts, CDs and embroidered Member's Only jackets are in the works.
More shows to come! Perhaps the 12th of November? I know nothing yet.
Thanks to the Gin Daddies for inviting us to play, and Mike Gimmer of Showscape Promotions for putting it all together.
Lastly, here's the flyer I promised previously.
Yeah. A little late.
03-14-05
Hi all - no, the Schmoejoes haven't fallen victim to Minnesota's winter, we're hard at work recording what may or may not be a record! Jay, Jim and I are in hiding until we have something to show for it.
For those of you who can't get enough of my posts, you may want to check the Joes out on MySpace.com. I've been known to blab on about things not Schmoejoes related there.
For those who have downloaded all the Schmoejoes mp3s, been to all of our shows, have the DVD (where'd you get that?!) and still want more, I'll be posting some rough mixes as we get them done. ooooh! The anticipation is killing you!
Happy New Year! I've been busy with work (gasp!) and such, so I haven't had time to do much band/web stuff.
We'll be doing a show on the 14th of January (8pm) at the Mid-Town Tavern in Mankato, MN. w00t. Bring a fiver (or more, I don't know what the cover is) and a liver (or more, I don't know what your tolerance for the drinky-drink is).
In other news, I have been hosting a nifty dashboard widget for OS X called PearLyrics. If you look around you can see that it was the victim of a takedown notice from Warner/Chappel for supposed copyright infringement.
The story is too long to go into here, but a trip to Google will provide the details. Here's a link to the file.. Feel free to use this to find any lyrics of The Schmoejoes. Wow. A non-infringing use. Go figure.
I'm changing up the 'News'. It's going to suck, then it's going to rock. Bear with me.
