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Tales of Schmoe, The Continuing Adventures of The Schmoejoes

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jon at theschmoejoes.com

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Past Posts:

Fri, 30 Mar 2007

The trouble in being heard

As you may have noticed, I've posted a quite a bit in the last few days - I'm trying to roll it into a habit. I've berated my old pal Patrick to do the same - especially now that he's pushing a record and playing out.

I'm of the opinion that I can't write a song every day, so I might as well write something, and that being a post on here. I've pointed out to Patrick that, "If there's not something new when people get to your site, they're going to forget you the next time they're 'out there' surfing."

I've had a few favorite sites go dead on me, after luring me in with interesting talk, cool links, funny prose and the like. I'd check them frequently at first, a couple times a day, stalking them for new stuff. After some time, a couple of weeks or so, I'd taper off - I'd actually be annoyed that they weren't 'giving me my fix'.

A couple sites would come back; I'd happily forgive and forget, some would stay dead. The dead ones I had to take off my list of RSS, which seemed so final. Throughout this, I was curious how anyone who cared enough to put something on the net, keep it updated, garner a following, etc. would just toss all the work they put into it one day, sans explanation.

Since this is a site about The Schmoejoes, I post things about us, about stuff we did, shows we've played, shows we're going to play, and an odd bit here and there. I'd guess this is rather different than a LiveJournal or the like - we have shows. Posting the shows the other day was about the most tedious thing I've done for some time.

I'm not just posting shows here, I'm posting them on our MySpace site, I'm posting them on Google Calendar, Redfizz.com, TCMusic.net too. They all have their own little 'way of doing things', which means reformatting everything at best, or using pull-down menus for every field at worst. It took me over an hour to get everything 'right'.

My wife informs me that it's my own damn fault - people can come here if they want to know when we play, screw all these other sites. I agree. Why should I have to jump through hoops to post shows, update info, and change things on 10 different sites? All the info is here. Why can't they come get it, say, through a special RSS feed, and repost it in whatever format they like? Warning: Geeks only past this point.

It's like this: The Schmoejoes are booked at the Smokey the Bear Festival. I fill in a web form hosted on my site, with venue, date, address, time, comments, other bands, etc. It gets posted to my site, and auto-pings MySpace, and all the other sites I'm signed up on. They grab it, add it to The Schmoejoes profile; they're up-to-date, I'm up-to-date, and rather than an hour and a half of posting, fixing, reformatting, logging in and all the rest - I'm writing/recording/practicing/having a beer.

Oh, I want this.

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Our Upcoming Shows: or, 'Why you've moved your wedding date.'

Aye - here's the rub:

The Schmoejoes will be opening our first show in the Twin Cities. As you know, it's required to come to our show by City of Minneapolis statute 137.23.48a. Really. Read the book.

$6 at the door. Get there early (9pm or so) to hear our solution to Global Warming, which is easily worth $3.75.

Thursday, June 14th- The Uptown Bar and Grill in Minneapolis, MN w/ Seymore Saves the World - Seymore kicks off their US tour to spread the word of their new record, and The Schmoejoes are there with oranges, so they don't get scurvy on the way! Free! Bring an orange, and it will still be free! So, like, don't bring an orange then.

Thursday, August 9th - Music and Movies in District del Sol - Parque Castillo in St. Paul, MN - Free! Run in the grass while The Schmoejoes alternatively caress, then assault your ears. Come for the music, stay for the movie! (As soon as I know the movie, you'll know the movie. :)

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The Schmoejoes at the Kato Ballroom 2: Back in the Habit

Yes, there was a second show - you thought I forgot? The third annual Dead of Winter Jam at the Kato Ballroom! The headliners had to cancel (This has happened three times in a row. Is there a Schmoejoes conspiracy?) We were number 2 in the lineup, and even enticed a few people to dance. I guess all that Al Green I'm listening to is having an effect, though we're working up to panties on the stage.

I talked to quite a few people that night, though yelling back and forth is not very conducive to conversation. Nick, if you're out there - thanks for the kind words. Nick was one of the two music fans I spoke with - the other was Mari, who'll be writing a fine article about The Schmoejoes for the next issue of Applauze. Mom's going to love it, unless Mari quotes me and my ample 'blue' vocabulary.

This marks the second show we've played at the Kato Ballroom, and once again I'm left with mixed feelings about the place. It's one of the coolest rooms I've ever been in, and when we're there, I can feel the great history of the place, and the great musicians that have been through there. You can see this in the fantastic photos Vic took of us in 2005 at the Kato Ballroom. Of course, Mike Gimmer's light show makes everyone look like rock stars. ;)

Unfortunately, it seems to get more weddings than groundbreaking music these days, and it's a shame. It's a great room, with a fantastic stage, and enough room to hold a thousand people - though the sound guy needs a light touch when there's less. (note to bands: keep your stage volume down - leave the Hi-Watt at home. You're playing in a giant echo chamber that will sound great when you don't overpower the room)

I could see the Kato Ballroom as the First Ave. of Mankato, with national acts and big thirsty crowds, with great new music in a venue that can hold lots of fans, and yet be fantastically intimate...but it's sitting there waiting.

Dream a little dream of me...

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St. Patrick's Day show

So here it's been a few weeks, and The Schmoejoes have played two shows; were you there?

Our first one was at the Inferno Tavern in Mankato, MN on the 17th - St. Patty's Day. The headliners had canceled again (the first time was at the same bar awhile ago), so The Schmoejoes were filling in with an extra set. I think cancel-band has finally broken up, so we won't have to do that again. ha!

Opening the night was Useful Jenkins, a local acoustic act. Kick Tin took the stage after that, and acoustically rocked some Bon Jovi and the Foo Fighters. All in all, pretty good.

The Schmoejoes' newest pals, Seymore Saves the World, set up, and kicked into some Ben Foldsy-type goodness. They absolutely kicked my ass. Go listen to them right now. Fantastic show. I'm looking forward to playing with them again...on June 14th at the fine Uptown Bar in Minneapolis! Nice!

The Schmoejoes closed the night, and just like St. Patrick, we drove the snakes from Ireland all over again. If by snakes, you mean customers. By the end of the evening, I had had three beers, and sweated them all over a paper towel I later sold on eBay. Merchandising...it's the key here, people! Lots of bar hopping went on that night, and I saw a ton of faces - some of them glistening with tears. Not sure if it was the beauty of the 'joes, or the realization that they lost their left shoe at some point.

Then somewhere in the darkness, the gambler, he broke even...

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I heart my guitars

Those of you who've seen The Schmoejoes know my '64 Silvertone 1446L is the coolest guitar ever made. Thanks to my talented luthier pal Bobby Nelson, I now have another, the '60 Silvertone 1427L! Here's a pic of the gals together. :) Beautiful.

The Silvertone 1446L (on the left) is a thinline hollow-body guitar, and one of the few that came stock with a Bigsby tremolo. One of the nifty things about this guitar are the angled pickup surrounds - these were unique to this model.

The Silvertone 1427 is a big jazz-box style guitar, reminiscent of the Gretsch guitars of the era. Unlike the 1446, it has no block supporting the plywood top - due to this, some of these guitars' tops have sunken somewhat over the years. There was another model identical to the 1427, the Espanada. The Espanada had an aluminum binding and a fancier tailpiece, which you can see here. You'll notice that in addition to the aluminum 'Espanada' on the headstock, there is another 'Espanada' badge on the upper bout. I don't believe 'Silvertone' or 'Harmony' appear anywhere on the guitar.

I bought my 1427 a few years ago, and due to the issues it had (coming up), it's spent most of the time hiding in its case.

Harmony made both these guitars for Sears, who used the Silvertone name for many of their instruments and amps. Commonly, they are referred to by their Harmony model numbers: H1446 & H64 respectively. Harmony didn't sell a black Harmony-branded version of the 1427 that I know of, however, I have seen a few examples of Harmony-branded 1446 guitars with twin cutaways.

To my knowledge, these two guitars were the only ones to come stock with actual Gibson pickups - mini-humbuckers in the 1446L, and P-13 single-coil pickups in the 1427L. The P-13s were predecessors to the P-90 single-coil pickup.

Unfortunately, my 1427 was suffering from microphonic pickups, which made it useless for plugging in. Bobby yanked the pickups, potted them (which is the process of dipping in wax to keep the wee little wires from moving around and resonating), and popped them back in.

'Wow', is all I can say! What a difference! I'm able to crank up the volume, and hear this thing sing. If you live around the Twin Cities/Southern Minnesota area, and have some guitar problems, get ahold of Bobby - he'll help you out, and your guitar.

If you're a fan of Silvertones, come see The Schmoejoes - I'll be playing them!

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The Snowjoes strike again!

The Dead of Winter Jam has been postponed until the 23rd of March, because of the snow crazy.

We're still on, as Jim decided to postpone his trip! Tickets are still being honored - details are at the DOWJ site.

We'll see you there...

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