best of '07

Albums of '07:
1. Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer?
2. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
3. The Rowboats, 4 Years...

Best Piece of New Pop Culture:
1. Flight of the Conchords
2. Children of Men

Book:
1. White Bicycles by Joe Boyd

Old Book:
1. Preston Falls by David Gates
(AWESOME!!!)

Happy Surprises:
1. Ray Davies, Working Man's Cafe
2. Robyn Hitchcock, Ole Tarantuala!
3. Mercury Rev, Leg My Ego

Songs of '07:
The Walkmen: Louisiana
Spoon: You Got Y'r Cherry Bomb
Yo La Tengo: Black Flowers
The Hong Kong: Tongue Tied
The Shins: Sleeping Lessons
Robyn Hitchcock: Ole Tarantula!
Elk City: Los Cruzados
The White Stripes: Icky Thump
Feist: 1 2 3 4
The Black Lips: Veni, Vidi, Vici

Finds of '07:
1. Milk 'n' Cookies, s/t
2. Comet Gain (thanks T.C.)
3. Sloan
4. Lou Reed, Coney Island Baby
5. The Shock of the New, Robert Hughs
6. Cheap Trick, In Color
7. Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood, Mahoney's Last Stand

Discoveries/Realizations:
1. Jose Feliciano was blind, not just cool (I never knew)

Songs New and Old (in demonstration format)

several songs from the book, some older most new. we've got a mini-tour in March and we're sifting through the wheat and chaff looking for little fresh notes. Voices in the Choir is my attempt to write a song for Fred Cole and Dead Moon, one of my favorite bands. Instead of Dead Moon it comes out sounding more like David Essex on a bad day. Alone But Never Lonely falls under the heading "Clem Songs with Loneliness in the Title." The Gold Band Curse: imagine you're in the greatest rock and roll band and then everything sours. Inevitable. Baby Oh Yeah is for fun-lovin' types who wanna have a cream ale by the hi-fi. Breakfast at Kingdom Come and Be Mine are untroubled older numbers from before King Vidor and before I learned the 4th rule of song writing. On The Balcony has kazoo and is my attempt to write a Nikki Sudden song.


Voices in the Choir





Alone But Never Lonely



The Gold Band Curse




Baby Oh Yeah




Breakfast at Kingdom Come



Be Mine


One the Balcony

Gram Parsons Tribute at Luna Lounge Last Night, 11/28/07

Last night and from here onward we'll always have a laugh about the blast at Luna Lounge when a dozen plus musical entertainment acts made sweet sweet rock and country type sounds.



King Vidor that night consisted of just me and my bass man Dana Monteith and old Vidor associate Aaron Carroll on drums... AND Ernie, a handsome young bearded fellow we grabbed as we hit the stage and who humored our reckless vibe with tasty Telecaster sweetness. Better than a whistle solo that's for damn sure. It was a riot backstage after midnight trying to grab a last-minute lead player. One nice young dude was accompanying us on his heavily autographed mandolin. We practiced all 3 of our tunes until we hit the key change in "Older Guys" and suddenly our new brother in arms was lost to us: You could see the whiskey bubbling up in his eye sockets as his brain tried to manage this slight adjustment. I guess we should have asked him sooner cause he practically fainted mid-verse. Then he woke up and excused himself ever so politely.



We walked in to Luna Lounge around 9:30 after feeding ourselves and warming up a bit at Aaron's rehearsal space. From arrival on it was blazed with kick ass and beautiful country rock.I'd like to mention herein and especially the talents of Fiona McBain of Ollabelle and her friends.

Also Eric Roscoe Ambel

and The Demolition String Band

These bands and the Chip Robinson/Backsliders supergroup with Keith and other heavy cats. The music was stunning, tight AND loose. That's the winning ticket right there.







We played "Older Guys" and "Sing Me Back Home" from the GP catalog and finished the show for everybody with our own "Broken Days." Thanks to everyone who came out from Brooklyn and Cherry Valley. Thanks to Shawn King for the pictures from the show and thanks to Jessica for Prosecco and Makers Mark.

thanks to Ted and Mark and Jaimie too for comin' out.

"Canoe" live at The Rose and Kettle

songs from Dirty Little Millionaire

recorded in the winter of '06 in the town of Cherry Valley, NY, Dirty Little Millionaire is the first record out of Clandestine Labs. auto-destruct is on the menu. King Vidor was born out of a series of bands named Wildlife, Coptic Zoo and Mark Twain, each formed by songwriter Clem Coleman. broke down and busted, the remnants of these projects gathered to make a record. a host of guests was brought in to embelish the songs, making Dirty Little Millionaire as much a product of the Village of Cherry Valley as the product of a quaint little "Rock and Roll Band."


broken days

goodbye tuesday

in the stalls

chinatown

meet me at the movies

o mama, i need love

no headphones

soon would be nice, but never'd be better

winter is old

driver take me home