Can't forget WMEE

While in Fort Wayne we stopped by WMEE, a great HOT AC station. We were able to chat with Dave, the Music Director, who was generous enough with his time to listen to a live version of one of our tunes. Cool guy and nice people in general over there.

Thanks for having us! You rock.

Sweetwater, are you f-ing kidding me?!

Yesterday the band was in Fort Wayne, Indiana. A lovely place. We weren't expecting anything special there frankly. We were happy with just another midwestern town. But then, we showed up at Sweetwater Studios and Retail Store and they proceeded to blow our minds. Are you fucking kidding me? This is like the greatest place I've ever been. It's like Disney World for musicians. Thanks to our good friend Mike McVay, we were picked to be on WAJI 95.1's 2009 Compliation Album (Volume 5). Past artists on the compliation included Five for Fighting, Sara Bareilles (before shw was big), Josh Kelly, REO Speedwagon, Daughtry, the list goes on. And there are only 12 - 15 tracks on the thing! Pretty sweet. It'll be just big names and us... oh to be a big name.


But I digress. Not that being on the album won't be cool. The Sweetwater facilities were truly unbelieveable. The studios themseleves were beautiful and virtually perfectly designed. You don't find that many studios with so much natural light and sight lines to all the isolation booths. But that wasn't all. Sweetwater is also the 4th biggest music retailer in the United States, but with only one location. That's it. Fort Wayne. They do a lot of phone/internet business obviously. On the beautiful campus they have the following things:

Retail Store (like a better looking Guitar Cetner)
Three Recording Studios
Guitar Luthier (someone who fixes guitars)
Custom Guitar Shop
250 seat theatre (every single seat has it's own amplifier!)
Big outdoor ampatheater
Resteraunt (crazy cheap, like 3 bucks for a meal, and delicous!)
Free arcade and virtual sports
Racketball Court
Full HUGE warehouse pictured here:And many more crazy things. If you like music stuff, go to Fort Wayne and visit this place. Chet, thanks for being such a good host!

Also thank to Barb, the Program Director at WAJI, Fort Wayne, for inviting us at all! Awesome lady.

Impact Date and Pittsburgh

Great day today all in all.

Really great. Thanks to the fine folks at WLLY and WVLY (in Bakersfield, California and McAllen, Texas) our song just started getting some legit national radio airplay. Hells yeah. The band is sitting here in a hotel room in Pittsburgh (Crown Plaza, not impressed frankly. The heat is tempremental and difficult to operate.) celebrating our mini-victory.

Today we met with some great radio programmers at WZPT, WMZW and WKST. Sitting for an hour or so and talking with the radio program directors is truly eye opening. Their world is one usually shrowded in mystery and confusion. Unvieling the inner workings of radio is really fascinating for us as a band and a group of artists.


Alex at Clear Channel is a super cool dude. We are on the same page as this guy for sure.

Now we will go have dinner to commemorate our two adds. Hooray.

Later,

Josh

Pittsburgh Oscar Night

4:23 PM Eastern Standard Time

Ah, Pennsylvania. Its funny, we’ve driven in the Pocket Rocket through this state a few times now, and each time I find myself perpetually white-knuckled in my tattered captains chair, grabbing the arms for dear life with every gust of Pennsylvania death wind until we’ve reached the end of this state. This time, though, no such respite - we’re off to Pittsburgh and poor Danny is driving through the maddening bursts of air like a champ. But it is beautiful, despite the grip of the wind on the van and my will to live. Looking out the window at the mountains, the farms, the expanses of moor-like snow-dusted land stretching our before our eyes, you can practically see colonial, revolutionary America (Josh swore he saw cannons, likely abandoned by Washington himself, along the side of the road).


Wind grumbling aside, I am looking forward to Pittsburgh. I was here once in college with the Rip Chords, my all-girl a cappella group at the U of I, and of course my two strongest memories are:

#1: some ridiculous post-show party (if you’ve ever been in an a cappella group, then you know the kind of drunken, self-indulgent and sometimes hilarious performing, both formally and socially speaking, that occurs at such a festivity)

#2: food. Specifically a sandwich with coleslaw and French fries on it. I mentioned this sandwich to Chuck at WJYE in Buffalo (a once-resident of Pitt) and he promptly mentioned “Primantis,” where we will inevitably eat lunch tomorrow and for which I am already salivating thinking about.

We’ll be visiting three radio stations while here at the Crown Plaza, and we may be playing tomorrow night if we can swing it. As for tonight, the boys and I will be watching the Oscars. I can’t imagine a better group of people to watch this major cultural event with. I’ll be looking to Nate for his fashion expertise on tonight’s glam, Danny for the gossip and Josh for the post-speech analysis and commentary. My job tonight – pure journalism. I intend to report fully on the Empty Pockets’ Oscar Night – sure to be filled with as much star quality as we can muster. Did somebody say…. Muster???

Till tonight…

11:53 PM Eastern Standard Time

And now, with the Oscars having closed their annual curtain, hear what the Empty Pockets thought of the big night for film.

Let’s start with the Hugh Jackman intro.
-Kate Winselt, charmingly humble as she’s singled out twice
-Hugh’s head popping through the Benjamin Button heads looked exhausting and adorable
-Anne Hathaway, you kicked ass (“Oh, Nixon!”) and we noticed the costume change. Well done.
-The weird Reader dance had us in hysterics
Bottom Line: by the time the cardboard Oscars popped up, we were all in love with you, Hugh.

In general, the boys were unimpressed with the technical aspects of the production (*sigh* boys will be boys). They felt the curtain fiasco before the supporting actress segment was embarrassing and why couldn’t the Academy cut to a regular TV feed for the movie clips?

Though the evening was filled with moments of both bizarre confrontational frankness and intensely devotional prose given from previous oscar-winners to the nominees, here are some Empty Pockets insights on the production.

Goldie Hawn, it’s time to put the girls away. When asked what he thought of Sarah Jessica’s buoyant and salacious ta-tas in her dress, Danny replied that he was “for them.”
Ben Stiller’s Phoenix-clad roaming onstage was hilarious and while Phillip Seymour Hoffman's acting DOES make me question the truth and a myriad of other inspiring things, his hat makes me sad that he still feels the need to rob banks and be ugly while doing so. Chicago’s very own Michael Shannon, who I used to chat it up with while performing at his A Red Orchid Theatre, was introduced for his nomination by Christopher Walken (cool) and Danny was bummed to learn the Olsen twins were not accepting dear Heath’s oscar (not cool).

Empty Pockets’ favorite surprises:

#1: “thank you this, thank you that... domo arigato, mr. roboto,” guy

#2: classic ivory scarf guy with the magic coin who balanced the oscar on his chin and then made it bow to the audience

Overall winner: Slumdog. I feel the love on that project. Haven’t seen it yet, but definitely will soon.

Good night, Hugh. You were a pleasure to watch this evening. Dance, baby, dance.

-Erika

Brooklyn

Midnight set at Freddy's Backroom and Bar here in NYC last night. Freddy's is a cool dive bar in Brooklyn. It was very happenin' last night. So crowded in fact that the band and I were relegated to hang in the pocket rocket for a bit. Freddy's isn't exactly Carnegie Hall when it comes to acoustic quality but it was still worth playing the show. Tonight is a little bit up in the air so it seems. We're at Hank's Saloon but we exactly have an exact time that we're playing so...

Don't know.

Tomorrow morning we head off the Pittsburgh to meet with a few more radio stations before heading back to the midwest. For now, it's off to lunch and then maybe a movie.

Josh

Sportsman's and heading South

What a great night last night. Maybe it was because of the negative 5 degrees here up north (Buffalo is mere miles from Niagara Falls and the Canadian border) but the vibe was really chill at our show last new here in upstate New York. Dwayne, the owner of Sportsman's Tavern, treated us like family from the moment we walked in the door. Great guy. We will definitely be back to Buffalo to play Sportman's again. Nice sound system and a really appreciative audience. We played a long time for a concert show (almost three full sets) but the fine patrons of Sportsman's still wanted more. Not a big crowd in number by any means. We'll have to remedy that the next time around.

Now we head south to Brooklyn. We had a meeting canceled at WMJC in Long Island that was scheduled for today at noon. It's a blessing in disguise really because it meant we didn't have to wake up at 4am this morning. On the road again now. Have a nice day!

Josh

BuffalOhYeah

I love me some chicken wings. I really do. You can eat 'em with your hands. They're savory and spicy and fried in oil. They're a social food. Wings are meant to be enjoyed with a group. So when I found out the band was heading to Buffalo, New York, home of the original Buffalo Chicken Wing, I wept with joy. Sure we're only in town for about 30 hours and sure most of that time will be spent at a Holiday in on Deleware street but I'm still happy to be here.

Today we met with a fine man named Chuck, the program director and Buffalo/Niagara Fall's own WJYE. The good people at WJYE were kind enough to play our Christmas song (Baby It's Cold Outside/Baby Please Come Home) 30 or so times this past holiday season so we felt inclined to stop in and say thanks. They could not have been nicer or more genorous with their time. We played a few songs live in the conference and crowded in Chuck's office to talk shop.

Then we visited the original Anchor Bar on Main. Great place! The front of their menu is the actual original story of the very first Buffalo Chicken Wing in 1964 and they've been serving them ever since. They actually deliver wings over night to anywhere in the country which is something I will certainly take advantage of for a football game next season.

Tonight, we're live at the Sportsman's Tavern before we get a few winks and head to Long Island for a noon meeting tomorrow. That drive (7 - 8 hours) is gonna suck.

Keep it real peeps,

Josh

A Smooth Discovery

While traveling in the elevator at the hotel in Buffalo, NY, I finally came to terms with a deeper part of myself. I accepted my love of smooth elevator jazz.

It's awesome.

Casiopea, The Square, Megalith, George Benson, The Rippingtons; the list goes on and on. The grooves are usually solid, the musicianship a step above the rest, and the production is usually above average. I seem to be drawn to the rhythm section parts on the tunes (big surprise). The drums are almost always miced and tuned wonderfully and are usually played by some seriously solid studio cat. The drumming itself may not be technically difficult, but the groove is rock-solid and often slightly "busier" than a standard drum part. The bass lines are usually pretty funky and deep in the pocket, even though
"smooth jazz bass tone" is often a little too treble-y for me. Be that as it may, the rhythm section is tight, even though the melody lines can be contrived and the solo sections square in a melodic context.

The problem with the realization is based on the fact that I get... some flak... over my listening habits. They're perhaps... too eclectic for some.

I was down in the lobby, waiting for the elevator to go back up, jamming to the groovy tunes pumping out of the speaker, and a man came walking up, and stood by rather uncomfortably as I beat-boxed along with the awesome drums. I wasn't going to stop or anything, so imagine his relief when two elevators appeared. He made a bee-line for the one nearest him, pressed his floor, and discretely began pushing the "Close Door" button. So... apparently, not everyone loves smooth jazz.

Here's a shot of the elevators. The one on the left had the speakers turned on, while the one on the right did not. So the left elevator became the lift of choice. Obviously.

Enjoying the road,
-Nate on Bass

Cleveland to begin

The Holiday Inn Express in Cleveland is a strange place. It's nestled tightly in Cleveland's downtown area (right near a giant poster of Lebron James) and shares a lobby with a National City Bank. Weird. Fourteen foot ceilings and free breakfast. Not bad.

Today we had the pleasure of meeting with Dave Popovich and the good folks WQAL (Q104.1). This past Christmas the pockets and I performed on air at an event here in Cleveland for WDOK, WQAL's sister station so we had met Dave (the Program Director of both stations) briefly once before. Great meeting. Dave is an awesome dude with his finger on the pulse of the music industy.

Before we even had time to think about our days meetings we ended up in Buffalo, NY where I'm sitting now typing this very blog (yet another Holiday Inn, not express). Tomorrow it's another radio station meeting (WJYE this time around), a vist to Anchor bar the original home of the buffalo wing (hell yes) and a performance at Sportsman's Tavern. Then off to Long Island.

Peace out y'all,

Josh