DEVASTATED ABOUT GERARD SMITH.

April 20, 2011 5:25 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@beautypill

Beauty Pill

My love of TV On The Radio goes way back to right before Easter in 2004 when they were on the ‘Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes’ tour. I was lucky enough to be one of the 197 in attendance to see them perform at the Rocket Bar here in St. Louis.

I honestly did not know a lot about them going into the show but The Rocket’s strong track record of bringing in amazing bands was enough for me to give the show a shot. This was right at the time that the album was released and they were covered in SPIN or something similar right before the show happened, so all of a sudden there was this mad dash to go see them play. I used to get really annoyed with that but now that the internet is literally “breaking” bands every millisecond, I kind of miss the monthly dose of new music on the magazine stands at stores.

For anyone who had ever been to The Rocket Bar, it was an interesting place to see a show when completely packed. Gratefully I was perched up the steps by the sound guy, merely 10 feet from the stage. If you go to El Borracho, which now occupies the RB space, you could say that I was standing somewhere near the prize wheel, where they keep the chips and salsa.

Anyway, I distinctly remember that they were doing a line-check, which is essentially a poor indie-band’s version of a soundcheck, and Gerard was the last one to check his signal. Jerry Boschert was doing sound, and as he always did, he said through the talkback mic into the monitors, “Ok, I’m good if you are.” This was their cue to play and it was then that I realized that the groove Gerard had been playing for linecheck had not ever stopped. And within a few more bars through the riff, Jaleel was now joining him on the drums. And then David came in. And then Kyp. And finally Tunde. Jerry wasn’t even sure what to do with the lights.

My friends and I stood there, literally in awe as we watched this somewhat ragtag group of guys, improvise their way through an opening number, which included Tunde singing 4-part harmonies with himself via the slew of effects pedals at his feet. Being the audio geeks that we were [are], our necks were craned, trying to get a peek at what boxes on stage were making these sounds. We were certain that they were not playing to backing tracks. That was obvious as the music was too loose to be constrained like that. And even at one point through the song, Tunde gripped the giant wooden post at the front corner of the stage as if he needed it to hold him up because he was giving all of his energy to the song.

I would go as far to say that this was by far the most perfect way to ever start a show. There was no pretention. There was no banter. It was the smoothest transition into sonic mayhem I have ever experienced.

Throughout the set, our eyes remained glued to the five guys on stage. And we literally giggled and pointed as we watched David Sitek cue samples manually on the “wall” of samplers and drum machines that sat atop three keyboard stands covered in plywood against the back wall behind him.

Needless to say, my friends and I were witnessing something truly remarkable. This show was all that we could talk about for weeks afterwards, and our dedication to our new favorite band is evidenced by this photo taken a few days later at our intramural volleyball tournament. Eric had shown up to school the next day with his hair cut into a “mohawk” that mimicked the one Tunde was sporting on-stage. And yes, this was merely days before Easter, when he was to meet his girlfriend’s family for the first time. You can imagine how that went over!

In 2009 I had the good fortune to see TVOTR again in Oklahoma City. By this point, they had released 3 albums and 2 EPs and had officially become a band I’d be willing to drive 8+ hours to see.

The Diamond Ballroom was in some ways a less than ideal place to see a show. Maybe it was the isolated location and gigantic gravel parking lot. Maybe it was Oklahoma’s weird laws regarding alcohol. And maybe it was just that it wasn’t the Rocket Bar.

Either way, while 6 to 7 times larger in both size of the room and attendance than the first time I had seen them, this show was quite remarkable as well. Members switched instruments, Tunde careened across the stage like a caffeinated mad man, and a full horn section brought a new life to the early records’ brass samples. The baby band I had been blown away by five years earlier was all grown up. It was an amazing feeling to have seen that happen.

When the newest album, ‘Nine Types of Light’ was announced, I began furiously watching the internet in hopes of accompanying tour dates. And I think that I had told Tabitha at some point that if they were going to play any shows within a 1000-mile radius of St. Louis, that she should just pack her bags and await instruction because we were definitely going.

On February 24th, I received an email for their Fan Club about the upcoming tour pre-sale and within minutes I had a pair of tickets to both of their late April shows in Minneapolis. I even had to force myself to be reasonable and not get tickets to the Chicago show the day before as well.

But now today is what was supposed to be that show in Chicago and tomorrow and the day after were those in Minneapolis. My phone buzzed this morning with a calendar reminder that only read “Minneapolis”.

Since Wednesday’s announcement that Gerard had lost his battle to lung cancer, I have been sort of in a daze. Their music and my experiences with them have been such an important part of my life over the last 7 years and Gerard was a big part of that.

The following message was posted on TV On The Radio’s website Wednesday morning.

We are very sad to announce the death of our beloved friend and bandmate, Gerard Smith, following a courageous fight against lung cancer. Gerard passed away the morning of April 20th, 2011. We will miss him terribly.

The following shows will be cancelled:

April 20 St. Andrew Halls, Detroit MI
April 22 Metro, Chicago IL
April 23 First Ave, Minneapolis MN
April 24 First Ave, Minneapolis MN
April 26 Ogden, Denver CO
There will be more information as it becomes available.

We can’t thank you all enough for the love you show us. You can send messages to: sandwichpaw@gmail.com

In listening to the new album, which has been in my CD player constantly since the 13th, you can really hear Gerard’s contributions to the music and even more so in the the way that they had all become a family within the confines of being in a band. This is sonically evident.

‘Nine Types of Light’, in my opinion, is their most mature work to date and songs from it are quickly ranking high on my list of favorite TVOTR songs. “Second Song” actually has become my feel-good hit of 2011 and has been how I’ve started each day’s commute for the last 2 weeks.

I’m not sure what will happen with the band. Selfishly, I want them to continue to make great music. And obviously I want their appearance at LouFest this August to still happen as planned. But that said, David, Kyp, Tunde and Jaleel have just lost a brother, a friend, and a collaborator and I personally don’t know how I could go on after that.

My thoughts are with Gerard Smith, his family, friends and bandmates, and everyone who has ever been touched by the music that he has helped to create. Rest in peace. You will be missed.

Oh How He Will Be Missed: A Courageous Gerard Smith Has Been Returned To Cookie Mountain was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

Where possible, I like to poll restaurant owners for their favorite dishes on their menu. And while sometimes this can lead you down a path you wouldn’t otherwise take, my conversation with Adam led me to this rather splendid suggestion…

@michaeltomko for lunch, the ChoriHuevo Torta. House made chorizo, black bean, house pickled jalapeños, cheese, soft fried egg, toasted bun

January 22, 2011 1:05 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MilagroModMex

MilagroModernMexican

And I don’t care how clichéd I sound when I say “you had me at hello” to the thought of this monster sandwich. So, I made my way over to Webster Groves, saddled up to a table and ordered myself the Chori Huevo, complete with sweet potato fries and a jicama slaw.

Let me just say that everything about this torta was fantastic. The combination of black beans, house made chorizo and fried egg were enough to satisfy even the most discerning foodie but Milagro takes it a few steps further by adding pickled jalepeños and monterey jack cheese. The Chori Huevo has a slightly spicy yet rich taste that made it the perfect brunch-wich that I needed it to be.

I will definitely be back to Milagro for another torta and a whole host of other menu items also piqued my interest, including the chicken burrito! Next time that I order the Chori Huevo though, I’m going to request the addition of bacon. Why not? Hell, maybe there’s a #tomkospecial in my future at Milagro, too? A boy can dream.

P.S. One of the MOST impressive things about Milagro is the fact that the entire back-bar is stocked with tequila, and tequila only. That is a such a beautiful sight and I may find myself going back very soon for one of their signature tequila flights, in addition to the wonderful menu fare.

Torta, Torta, Torta: The Sandwich That Awoke A Sleeping Giant was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

Back in 2005, when I was living in New Orleans, I took a road trip with my boss, the venerable Andrew “Goat” Gilchrist, to New Jersey. Andrew had this habit of purchasing large pieces of equipment for his recording studio, House of 1000hz, on eBay while on European tours running sound for Maceo Parker. The only real problem with this habit was that he rarely looked at the location of the item before completing his purchase. In this case, he had won an auction for an Otari MTR-10 tape machine that was located in Roxbury, NJ. And it just so happened that my aunt and uncle lived not even a mile away from where the machine was located. So, the two of us rented a Ford Taurus and made the incredibly length trek from NOLA to NJ, with a stop in Charlotte in between.

The first major “hurdle” in our trip was our iPods not working with the Taurus’ stereo system.

And upon realizing that the iPods weren’t going to fly, we also realized that above 55MPH the seals of the car’s windshield would squeal the most horrible of squeals, which Andrew decided to fix a few hours in by duct-taping the entire outside edge of the windshield. This caused us to have to endure unbelievably bad Top 40 radio as we drove through the bayou. Luckily it all came off without an issue when we returned to NOLA! Phew!

One of the first rest stop experiences on the trip was when we stopped for gas and decided that a snack from Arby’s would be a good way to keep our spirits up. To our dismay, not all Arby’s carry potato cakes and we both ended up getting large curly fries. This is only really worth noting because Andrew made the horrible mistake of pouring Arby’s Sauce directly into his fry container to eat while driving and did not realize that the bottom had holes in it. I will spare him the embarrassment of posting the video of said mistake, but I figure the following picture will give you an idea of just how messy this would become.

The real inspiration for this story though was our bizarre experience as we went through Alabama. Just outside of Greenville, both of us had decided that no matter what was at the next exit, we were going to stop and get gas and lunch. And as promised, we pulled off at the next exit and began to fill up at one of those Subway gas stations that seem to be at EVERY exit in America. (Ed. Note: After years of touring I flat out refuse to ever eat at a Subway again. I can’t tell you how many $5 footlongs I’ve shared just to save money and the very smell of a Subway alone makes me want to defenestrate myself.)

On the other side of the highway, I happend to notice that the logo of the other gas station was a Turkey and there was a strange “family-style” restaurant located next to it with big white letters spelled out on their roof. We couldn’t exactly read what they said, but we knew that we had to uphold our commitment to eat here and this seemed way better than anything that Subway could offer us.

Lo and behold, this quaint little stop in Greenville, AL contained the marvelous gem that is Bates House of Turkey. A family owned establishment that had an entire menu made of turkey. Sandwiches, platters… I almost even want to say Turkey smoothies. It was the middle of one of the hottest summers on record and here we were eating a multi-course Thanksgiving dinner at a rest stop in Alabama. Absolutely priceless!

On our way back to NOLA, with the trusty MTR-10 stuffed into the back seat – I’m so glad Andrew agreed to measure the car before we left!! – we again found ourselves deciding to commit to eat whatever was at the next exit. As we rounded what felt like a 3+ mile slight right turn, we pulled off of the highway and just as the trees cleared, we found ourselves staring straight at Bates House of Turkey!

We both have talked about this a number of times since then and we have promised to each other that neither of us had either remembered the exit that Bates was at, nor had we actually known that it was even near to where we were.

This is a consistent theme for me in the time that I have spent road-tripping the country and I was remembering this story as I recently found myself passing the 198 foot cross that marks the intersection of highways 57 and 70 near Effingham, IL for what seems like the 200th time. The BP station / Quiznos at exit 160, just passed the cross, is one of those unconscious stops for me, among MANY others on I-70 from STL to DC.

The weird thing to me about this phenomenon though is that my bladder has somehow trained itself to know when the next “validated” stop is, or in some cases, the wheel of the car almost drifts in the direction of my favorite exits. This happens for me no matter if it is nighttime, daytime, sunny, raining, etc. and after 49,000 mile years like 2008, these little nuggets of comfort and normalcy are a part of the fuel that helps you to keep on keepin’ on.

I’ll leave you with another little nugget from my epic NOLA to NJ adventure. Mr. Andrew Gilchrist questioning the context of the lyrics to Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like A Bird”…

The Reflexive Property of Rest Stops: Unconsciously Navigating America’s Highways was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

But, I think I grew the most fond of her while reading an interview she did with Vogue Magazine back in 2007. It’s a rare thing in this day and age for a “famous person” to come across as both sane and accessible from the pages of a magazine and those qualities were definitely there as Jennifer spoke about her life. I most identified with her as she discussed getting carded at the door of the bar where the interview started.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” she says of getting stopped at the door. “It’s a real mixed bag: Some people have no idea who I am or what I do. You know, I can come in here and get carded. I ride the subways. It doesn’t always work out, but most of the time I don’t have any trouble.”

And then she iced the cake by describing how this incident relates to her general lifestyle.

“I can’t say it’s calculated,” she says. “It sort of is what it is. I live in Brooklyn; I have a pretty low-key lifestyle. Nothing too scandalous.” She flashes a dazzling smile and takes the tiniest sip of her drink. “No arrests. No sex tape. No drug habit.”

It is refreshing for a beautiful, talented actress to not be the constant target of controversy. And I think that it is quite sad that I’m surprised by that.

I don’t know that I will actually go out and see The Dilemma but I’m definitely hoping that Netflix Instant has The Rocketeer up for streaming.

I’m Not A Playa, I Just Crush A Lot: Jennifer Connelly was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

He then promptly took a nap.

Best Fwends OR It’s Cute When A Guy Really Loves His Cat, Right? was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

#1 – June 25th, 2010 – The Blind Eyes, Sleepy Kitty and The Livers at Off Broadway

Having been on sort of a post-band-breakup, show-going hiatus for 18 months or so, I decided to walk up to this show on a whim. And within the first few notes of The Blind Eyes’ set, I knew that I had made a good decision.

On the stage in front of me were three guys that I had known for some time who were literally putting on a pop music clinic for all in attendance. Maybe my time away from them had added a certain flair of newness to seeing them play but in all honesty I was literally floored by how effortlessly they rocked the place.

This set alone renewed my interest in going to shows again and even more so, made me feel an overwhelming sense of pride to say that I’m from St. Louis.

#2 – September 10th, 2010 – The Blind Eyes as Fleetwood Mac for An Under Cover Weekend

With their second stint on the bill for An Under Cover Weekend, The Blind Eyes took on the tall task of paying tribute to Fleetwood Mac. Inviting the rotating cast of Beth Bombara, Paige Brubeck, Cassie Morgan and Sunyatta Marshall to be Stevie Nicks was truly brilliant and to say that they succeeded in putting together one of the best sets of AUCW 2010, wouldn’t be doing them justice.

#3 – December 31st, 2010 – New Year’s Eve with The Blind Eyes and Kentucky Knife Fight at Off Broadway

“January”, a fitting number for The Blind Eyes to play on the eve of 1/1/11, was most definitely my favorite song from their set and this passage towards the end really stuck with me throughout the night.

…and maybe you will see that the ice is melting and maybe this year spring will come, in January…

Truer words have never been sung, especially considering that it was 65 degrees on New Year’s Eve, but even more so because for me at least the ice really WAS melting. For the first time in quite awhile I felt like there were a lot of great things on the horizon and I can definitely thank my friends The Blind Eyes for showing me that.

Matt, Seth, Kevin… I love you guys. Happy New Year!

P.S. Please give “January” a listen and then tell The Blind Eyes how much you love them for writing it.

Maybe This Year Spring Will Come, In January: A Love Letter To The Blind Eyes was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

Perhaps our frustrations with 2010 could be encapsulated in one of my favorite songs of the year…

…Or maybe our feelings on this last day of the year have something to do with the fact that 2011 signifies a giant leap out of purgatory’s door and a slow-motion look back on an incredibly hard year. We can at least embark on the adventure that this new year is sure to be, knowing that we have survived a lot of heavy stuff. And for that we can, and should, be proud of ourselves.

Anyway, let’s raise a glass, be thankful for those people who’ve been there for us through all of this, and toast the departure of that slimy little bastard, 2010. ¡Felíz año nuevo!

Fuck You 2010, Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

The technicolor rainbow of joy exemplified in that photo is exactly how it feels to wander through the wonders of this eccentrically engineered emporium. I dare you, the next time you feel the need to break whatever cycle is ailing you, to pay a visit to the City Museum a visit and not find yourself cured. The place literally does have magical powers. See below…

My Life As A 10-Story Slide: The City Museum, St. Louis, MO was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

I chose to catch a late showing of The Fighter at The Chase Park Plaza and being that I’ve had a mad crush on Ms. Amy Adams since her days of peddling handbags on The Office, this was a fantastic choice.

Aside from this being a great movie — Christian Bale was exceptional as a crack addict ex-boxer — Amy Adams was a total badass. And while I very much appreciated the gratuitous lingerie scenes, I most enjoyed watching her beat the living crap out of one of Mark Wahlberg’s sisters. Bam! I never would have guessed that this shopaholic would have that kind of a right jab.

Check out Amy’s recent appearance on Chelsea Lately below and catch a clip of her rocking fight scene towards the end of the interview!

I’m Not A Playa, I Just Crush A Lot: Amy Adams was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.

A few years ago, when I worked at Software Plus, we would often joke on our way out to lunch that we should go bowling during our midday break, especially considering there was a bowling alley directly across the street. Well, we finally did go bowling and let me tell you, it was like stumbling onto the fountain of youth. All of a sudden we had a place to take out our stress and aggression, and it was good exercise too. Going back to the office that first day, we were like machines. Our productivity in the 4 hours after lunch were probably the best of the entire week and it was then that we knew that bowling was going to be a big part of our lives going forward.

By the time we got things moving, we had nearly 44 people from the company playing and we divided ourselves into an 11 team league. The concessions lady at the bowling alley was so used to us coming in, that she’d let us order as a group as soon as we arrived and would bring our food out to us on a big cart. It was such a blessing too because we only had an hour to both bowl and eat, and we didn’t really want to give up any on either.

The SWP Lunchtime Bowling League lasted for the better part of a year and was truly the thing I looked most forward to at work. Ever since, I have longed for an opportunity to recreate what I had then, but something has always just not been right. There was a magic to that group of people and that time in our lives. But lets not ruin the memory by wishing for what was and instead lets focus on what could be.

Will bowling come back into my daytime life? I really don’t know, but I can definitely say that I’m willing to welcome it back with open arms, should it decide to return. I love you lunchtime bowling. I love you.

Turkeys, Hambones, Yahtzees, and Other Things That Do Not Belong In The Gutter was originally appeared on DoYouReallyWantToHurt.Me.