Sunday, February 28, 2010

St Baldrick's

Patrick and I will be performing at 11AM tomorrow at Molloy College in Rockville Centre.

Yes, you read right that says 11AM. The event is called St Baldrick's day. In March of every year, right around St Patrick's day this organization gathers people who shave their heads and take donations to be sent to various organizations fighting children's cancer. This will be the second year in a row that we take part (last year, Ogy shaved his head for the event) and I'm very much looking forward to seeing everyone.

There is likely to be video from the event and if you guys want to swing by the St Baldrick's website and take a look around I heavily encourage you to do so.

Hope everyone is enjoying the hockey. See y'all at Arctica later.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

B

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Fuel, Drive, Inspiration, all that

The number of different people that tell me they hear music in their head, and are "inspired on a daily basis" and "can't wait to get to a studio where they can make something happen" is staggering. The amount of talent floating around creating different music of all different genres is overwhelming.

On Wednesday night before Patrick and I played at The National Underground, we were preceded by a seven piece (maybe more, I don't even know) acoustic ensemble featuring a saxophone, a 12 string guitar, everybody singing different harmonies, and a gentleman playing some brand of percussion or other. They were so tight, and clearly so dedicated, and so in it together.

Seeing bands, or groups of musicians/artists/whathaveyou that have such a passion for composition and performance make me smile. People who clearly have a great time performing together and creating something that wouldn't otherwise have existed inspire me and us in ways that I can barely describe.

The world is a growing community of musicians. Sweet. Let's all make sweet musical love. I'll bring the bubbly.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

B

Friday, February 26, 2010

What a day. . .

Sometimes people ask us questions at gigs like, "what do you guys do all day?"

What better a way to answer than Thursday 2/25, perhaps the busiest day we've had since The Turn has been together.

3PM - Rehearsal at 125 Rivington (@ Essex) on the Lower East Side. The same place we've been rehearsing every week (sometimes twice a week) for the last year. In fact, February marks the one year anniversary of Pat and I playing with Brian and Chris, so next time you see them wish them a happy anniversary. We played until roughly 5:30 at which point Pat and I went back to my car, grabbed our acoustic guitars and walked in the slush, sleet, rain and mushy garbage over to Whole Foods to grab a snack before our gig at The Red Lion. [As an aside, I recently discovered two brand new pairs of waterproof Timberland sneakers at my father's house. This would have been a great day to test them out, but I only thought of it after the first time I was ankle deep in New York City slush. Joke's on me, I suppose.]

We took a cab from Whole Foods, in which I sat in a puddle of whatever had been left from our previous occupant, leaving not only my socks but also the left ass cheek of my jeans soaking wet. Super comfortable. Rock and roll, the show must go on.

7PM - Gig at The Red Lion. The snow didn't keep 100% of people at home, and we had a great time. The crowd was equally as enthusiastic and it was totally awesome. The snow started to pick up as we were playing, and Ogy left at 8:30 to catch the train up to The Pig 'n' Whistle on 3rd Ave to set up for our next gig. Some Bud Light and a couple of shots of Jameson later, 9:30 hit, we played You Can't Make Me Let Go for a fresh batch of Australian crowd members (Aussie Aussie Aussie!) unplugged our guitars, shook some hands, got in a cab and took off for the third leg of our day tour.

9:55PM - The Pig 'n' Whistle on 3rd Ave. Our home away from home. Patrick and I walked in, put our jackets down, took out our guitars, plugged in and it was show time again. I looked over at him and mentioned that there was something strangely familiar about all this.

When all was said and done, it was a totally crazy day but truly the most fun we've had all year. Non-stop rock, twelve straight hours of guitar, a couple more beers and a lot of snow.

Anyone that was at MSG hanging with Mr Mayer, I hope you guys all had fun and I appreciate all of your text messages. We'll see you soon.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

Monday, February 22, 2010

Beige Dildo

Last night at O'Brien's in Times Square, we decided to take requests of another kind. Pat encouraged the crowd to shout out inanimate objects and told them we would make songs up, effectively free-styling except instead of rapping, it was a rock song.

We provided the open forum, I suppose you could predict what was coming. The first suggestion was for a song about a beige dildo. I told the gentleman I would prefer it was chartreuse, but all the same I'd be happy to sing him a song.

I asked his name and he told us it was Richard. Pat and I both chuckled and sang the song to him. I might reprise it for any of you that come out and request it, but it will have to be accompanied by a shot of Jameson.

Anyhow, details later unfolded that the young English lad who had made the request just turned 21 recently and was in New York visiting until this coming Tuesday. During our first break he came and shook our hands and told us we'd never believe his name.

"You told us already, it's Richard right?"
"Richard, indeed" he replied, "Richard Manlove. That is, Dick Man Love. McLovin ain't got shit on me."

You can't make this shit up.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Them Crooked Vultures

We're going to see Them Crooked Vultures on Monday night at Roseland Ballroom. We being me, Patrick McDermott, Jake Rake and Ogy. First of all, for those of you not familiar, Them Crooked Vultures are a rock band consisting of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Rockstar Extraordinaire) and John Paul Jones (aforementioned genius, of Led Zeppelin). I'm psyched. Beyond psyched actually, since I haven't been to a large scale production since we saw Kings of Leon in September.
  • The fact that John Paul Jones is 64 years old and couldn't get enough rock and roll is inspiring beyond my ability to verbalize.
  • These three guys in one band seems like it shouldn't be allowed. It's like being able to see the dealer's card in black jack before you bet. And wouldn't we all love that?
  • It seems likely that if this show is as impressive as I'm expecting it to be, I'll have to find a damn good reason why not to go see Muse at MSG in March since that stands to be comparably (though differently) awesome.
Just check this out, and you'll know what I'm saying.


B

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Why I Love.

My mother died 13 years ago today. Shortly thereafter I began playing the guitar. . . a lot. I love and miss my mother more than words could possibly convey and I won't even try. The fact is, all the guitar playing and singing I've done over the last thirteen years (and will continue to do for the rest of my life) make it much clearer than anything I could say myself. I miss her every day, and think about her every time I reach for a guitar and sit behind a microphone and look each and every one of you in the eyes. I'm filled with the love and inspiration that she provided me over the course of the 11 years she was in my life.

Every day since she died, I've been out in search of a way to feel better about the fact that she's gone. To be perfectly honest, it's pretty fucked. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it and pretend like it's a peachy situation. It's not. But it is what it is. This, for better or for worse, is the hand I was dealt. What makes me feel better is hanging with Patrick McDermott and every single one of you unbelievably amazing people that come to hang out while we play songs and rock the fucking shit out of it.

I couldn't think of a single other thing that I'd rather be doing with my life than making music, performing and hanging out with people we love that love us back. It's a blast every night, and as much as I miss my mom every second the fact that I've had such a unique opportunity to build a new family through music is gratifying in ways that I can barely understand on my own.

Since the minute I picked up a guitar for the first time I knew instinctively what to do with it. I never doubted it for one second, and all along I've had one of you there with me to remind and encourage me.

The number of people I would have to list to say thank you properly is overwhelming. What I want to say to all of you reading this, and each and every person I've ever met and spent time with is that I love you for giving me the opportunity to sing to you and continue to lead the only life I could possibly imagine leading. As enormous a void as you might think losing your mother would leave, I'm comforted and inspired on a daily basis by the fact that there are so many enthusiastic, energetic, loving people who believe in The Turn and what we're doing.

I miss my mother and I love her dearly. She was an amazing person and I'm so glad I got to know her for as long as I did.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world and you are all a reason for that. I wouldn't change anything about my life.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

Your friend and brother in arms,

Brian Ripps

Monday, February 1, 2010

Tonight's Lineup. . .

I definitely sang Toxic at Arctica tonight. And Forgot About Dre. Then I came home, drank some coffee and commenced my nightly YouTube surfing. It was a relatively slow night of video viewing because I was editing a bunch of our videos from the last couple of weeks which you can see here:
Cool and fairly random tonight. Dream sweet, or have a good morning.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies