Checking my amp during sound check @ DC9 on Monday night. I love my VOX but man, it’s a bitch to carry. Folks may be right that I should have rolled with the AC15, but I still prefer the bite on my AC30.  Played with the trio (Matt Golden (drums) and Sean McCauley (bass) for a plugged in set.   Amazingly enough, I had folks at the show who had seen my solo acoustic show at Hotel Cafe across the country in Los Angeles, just the week before.

In 2002, a rock band I sang & played rhythm guitar in, opened for Phantom Planet at Vanderbilt University’s Rites of Spring concert in Nashville.   At that time, the drummer for the band was Jason Schwartzman.   Schwartzman (the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola) was more famous than the band at that time, due to his starring performance in the epic Wes Anderson comedy Rushmore (1998).   I wasn’t really excited to see the band and it was more about having “the dude from Rushmore” play after us.   Of course, Phantom Planet ended up having a huge hit “California” which, of course, became the theme song for the O.C. – perhaps the worst television show, I will ever admit to frequently watching. 

I point all this out, because I am about to drive down to Laguna Beach to visit a friend, and this song already popped in my head, without even the slightest attempt to grab for it.   The song will just lay dormant for months, years maybe, and any slight mention of visiting Orange County evokes that damn chorus  . . .that really friggin catchy chorus.   Yes.   Interestingly (to me only perhaps) I read today that the song was HUGE in Europe, reaching #3 in both Austria & Italy, and a top 10 in the UK.

As my show in San Diego fell through, I have a day off tomorrow and was able to get a ticket to go watch Conan tomorrow.   Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the guest.  The musical guest is The Dropkick Murhpy’s.  My Boston accent will undoubtedly become much more prominent during this hour taping and for perhaps the remainder of the day and trip.   Similarly, anyone that cuts me off, or slows me down on the California highways following the show will also be referred to as either a i) Fahking Douche or ii) you motha fahking fuk-stick

Tickets for my show @ Hotel Cafe on Friday night (7 PM) can be purchased here in advance of the show.   Looking forward to it.

Tickets for my show next Friday night in Los Angeles @ Hotel Cafe are now available on-line.    You can go here @ http://www.hotelcafe.com/tickets/ and scroll down.   I’ll also have the new album A Brief Head Spin on vinyl for sale at the show.   Really looking forward to this show and seeing some old friends.

- tom

A Brief Head Spin is now available in Limited Edition 12″ Vinyl!! Included with the record is also the immediate digital download of the album in MP3 format as well as a download card included within the vinyl package. To purchase, please check out the store on the link above or visit http://tommcbride.bandcamp.com/

Returned to Mercury Lounge last night in Manhattan, nearly a year after my first performance there during CMJ last October, where I played a solo acoustic set. I’ve been playing more plugged in shows of late, and for last night’s show I played again with the Electric Power Trio which consists of Sean McCauley on bass & Matt Golden on drums, while I was playing my ES-335 most of the night.** This was our first show as a trio in NY and we were joined on the bill with fellow DC-ers, Olivia Mancini & the Mates. Olivia and I have played shows in the past, and I really enjoy playing bills with them as Olivia writes really catchy, concise songs and her & the Mates have awesome chemistry on stage. We are both back at it again on this Friday in DC, playing @ Black Cat. (Doors at 9 – tickets here http://www.blackcatdc.com/shows/olivia-mancini.html)

When I showed-up around 8 last night, Mercury was standing room only . .totally jam packed. The early (7 PM) show had a band headlining from Australia, fresh off a #2 record on iTunes Australia. They had a real excited audience and crowd and while I missed the performance, I heard they delivered a good show. I asked one of the guys the band name, and he told me “Boy & Bear”. So there you go, I thought. Another fucking animal name. I guess there are only so many words in the English language though. But this has also been talked about / discussed quite a bit, right? The amount of bands out there, getting press, that have animals in their name. “Bear” seems to really be up there though. Let me think. . . Grizzly Bear, Minus the Bear, Panda Bear, Bear Hands . . . .what else? ok, so maybe only 4. In that case, I can think of 4 “McBride’s” so my argument now sucks. Martina McBride, McBride & the Ride, jazz player Christian McBride, and as I have discovered some old Irish folky, country singer named “Tom McBride” who goes by “Big Tom McBride”. That guy has some nerve, no?. Anyway, band names are tough. The Onion a few years ago released a great news article that said “Only 7 band names remaining.”
That’s about right. Hence foreign names . . .like Bon Iver.

Speaking of Bon Iver. He played up here in Manhattan last night as well. When I played in Richmond that guy, (or what I mean is that band) was playing down the street from me the same night I played The Camel. So, I’m glad he had decided to model his tour stops after mine. I doubt he is going back to DC on Friday though. That wouldn’t make sense. Only an idiot would schedule a tour like that.

I jumped in a cab last night to head over to Merc with my guitar in hand. The cab driver was a bit ornery. I’m not sure what his deal was. He either didn’t like me, the idea of traveling, the idea of playing music, of the city he works in (NYC). . But this was our exchange, in brief:

Me: “Mercury Lounge please on 217 E Houston St”
Cab Driver: “You a musician?”
Me: “Yeah”
Cab Driver: “Are you from here?”
Me: “No”
Cab Driver: “Where are you from?”
Me: “I came up from Washington DC”
Cab Driver: “Why are you playing in New York?”
Me: “Umm, ahh, why wouldn’t I? I want to play in New York.”
Cab Driver: “You drove the 4 + hours or so to play this show”
Me: “Yeah, that’s about right. I’ve been going to play shows in a lot of cities”
Cab Driver: “Why don’t you just play in DC.”
Me: “Why don’t you just drive your cab on this one street”

silence.

+ I played one song on the acoustic last night. This was not planned, but I broke a string on the 4th song of the night (during Flying Pete). Good news, was that an old-bandmate from college and an excellent guitar player, Ed Cusati, was at the show and offered to re-string my guitar for me when I snapped the D string. As I did not travel with a back-up electric, it would have drastically changed the remaining set for the show, so Ed came up huge. After playing “Morning in Glen Burnie” on my acoustic, I was able to switch back to the Gibson for the remainder of the set.

On Wednesday, after waking up at a friends place in Athens, GA who was nice enough to put me up while I came through town, I had the pleasure of listening, for the first time, to the entire record ‘A Brief Head Spin’ on vinyl. It’s been a long journey making this record for sure (they all seem long don’t they?) but having the pleasure of hearing it on vinyl this morning was an incredible experience and quite rewarding. A lot of the texture, mood and style I was trying to incorporate on this album was a result of listening to a lot of classic vinyl records that I always loved as a kid, and had grown up listening to on tape or CD. In many ways, I had hoped the record would sound best on a record player, and after just listening to the first pass through the album, I do have to say it did not disappoint. While the “digital” worldwide release for the album is fast approaching on Tuesday, August 9th, the vinyl will be in hand just a few weeks later. I’ll have pre-order information for vinyl posted here in the next few days.
tom