Life as a musician?

Perhaps. However, it's been how I've been making ends meet for the last two months or so. I've slowly weened myself off of the dreaded (but necessary) service industry job, and, somewhat successfully transitioned into life as a "gigging" (my friend Heather likes to call it "giggling") musician. It's cool. It's endlessly interesting. It sucks. It can be the most thrilling thing in the world and as boring as sitting in a cube farm sipping Starbucks and doing unnatural things to paperclips. In the last two months, I've played in rock clubs sharing the stage with legendary figures in American rock music... and I've also played at restaurants, biker bars, patios, churches (the regular variety and start ups that meet inside and elementary school gymnasiums), yoga festivals in the mountains, a wedding at The Cordillera (of Kobe infamy), the finish line of a singles 5k, a place named "Thunder and Buttons" that was the meeting spot for a local swingers club, and a kitchen.

People would literally walk up in the middle of our set and open the fridge or look in the sink. Adam Stern caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

When left to my own devices as a "freelance" musician, it can feel like a constant hustle. Always networking and promoting, always saying yes -- to anything -- no matter how intimidating-awesome-awful-toxic-exotic. The feeling of succeeding at something that I've been working my ass off for years is incredible. But it can be a scary proposition (not knowing where the next gig will come from) for someone like me who enjoys keeping a house over my head, doing a little traveling, and being able to afford food when I'm hungry. However, it's quite an adventure, and I think that years down the line, I'll be happier sharing stories "from the road" with my pals than admiring my big house and nice cars, though, I'll take that too.

August 31, 2009

I've been exceptionally poor at updating this Blog. Therefore, I don't expect anybody to read it. When I logged in, I noticed my last post was May, 15, 2009. The last three-and-a-half months have moved at the pace of three-and-a-half days, and I've fit three-and-a-half years worth of life into that period of time. My half year journey has arrived at a temporary intermission. I am in Denver, in a new home, establishing a new life. 67% of my time is dedicated to playing music with The Adam Stern Trio, and my new group, The Chris Webb Band. I am freelancing quite a bit and continuing to take as many hikes and find as many great new places to eat as possible.

Since May 15th, I've produced another successful Radiohead tribute show (I've just received the DVD!), opened for guitar legends Jimmy Herring and Dickie Betts, wrote lyrics for a song(!!) and played around 80 gigs with numerous bands and musicians.

I will continue my travels in October, as I'll be heading to Peru in search of ceviche, Machu Picchu, and Birdmen:



I can feel the creative juices starting to fester again and I think it's getting close to time that I endeavor on another arduous project... I just don't quite know what it is yet.

Victor has suggested that I rate liquor stores in Denver and blog about it. Might be an interesting task.

You And Brew's Army!?

Happy Spring!

For the second year in a row, I've decided to attempt the impossible, putting together a band to cover Radiohead. Instead of focusing on one album (OK_COMPUTER) we've decided to go ahead and tackle songs from all of Radiohead's albums -- yes, even Kid A.

dun dun dunnnnh!!

Here's the twist. we (Trima, Foma, DJ Anemone, Jade Day, Jen Pumo) have decided that it's a good idea not to rehearse any of the music until the week before the show. Actually, that's a lie. You see, I am so enamored by the ridiculously talented musician friends that I have, I've decided to fly them into Denver from Austin, Austin, and Nashville to perform this impossible show with me... with one week of practice.

It's going to be incredible!

Most of this group collaborated last May 29th to recreate Radiohead's OK_COMPUTER to rave reviews from the local media. It was one of the proudest moments of my life, and I hated every minute of it. I thought so much of the experience that I've decided to do it again. I've tried to make it easier on myself by adding some astonishing musicians to the bill. Foma* is an up and coming Denver band that combines good looks and good looks to make catchy hooks -- and party time. Jade Day is a singer-songwriter and a freak of nature. He sounds like Jeff Buckley and Thom York's falsetto love child. This guy is amazing and I'm very happy to have him singing with Lanny Boyer and Trima this time around.

Here's the nitty gritty:

A ton of people receiving this email are out of state, I appreciate your support in telling anybody who you think might be interested in this show about the, er, show.

Here is a promotional video from last year's performance at The Oriental Theater

The show this year is on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at The Oriental Theater in Denver Colorado

We will be performing all of your favorite Radiohead songs, although we won't be doing Creep.

If this message has reached you in error.

--
Damon Scott
From The Drummers Chair
http://yodadrum.blogspot.com/
http://damonscottmusic.com/

You And Who's Army?

Hard at work on putting together the Radiohead show at The Oriental Theater at the end of the month. I'm hoping to have some time to provide a glimpse of the work that I am doing. Whatever goes on inside this brain of mine that leads me to want to do things like this, I'll never quite understand. However, if I write about it, perhaps it will make more sense. Or not. Anyhoo, here's a promo video that my friend Rhett did over the weekend.

Mastodon @ The Fox Theater, Boulder, CO

The genre of "Heavy Metal" music and it's exceedingly difficult to distinguish sub genres--

Avant-garde metal - Black metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Glam metal - Gothic metal - Groove metal - Power metal
Progressive metal - Speed metal - Stoner metal - Symphonic metal - Thrash metal - Viking metal Alternative metal - Christian metal - Crust punk - Drone metal - Folk metal - Funk metal - Grindcore - Grunge - Industrial metal - Metalcore - Neo-classical metal - Nu metal - Post-metal - Rap metal - Sludge metal

has always been somewhat humorous to me... "Viking Metal" are you kidding me? However, heavy metal is a legitimate style of music that is appreciated all over the world. It's thunderous power chords bleeding out of skyscraper-tall maaaashall stacks matched with super-human drumming prowess and lyrical content that effortlessly deals with delicate subjects such as devil worship, murder, blood, and riding your trusty steed to save a fair maiden from the sword wielding dragon.... uh, where was I... oh yeah--the music is loved by angst filled, pimply faced teens from Colorado to Croatia and everywhere in-between. Perfect example: Kansas.

Well, I kind of missed out on all that (too bad, right?) Though, I guess had a little metal in my soul, after all, here is the first band I ever saw live:

Until recently, Metallica's "Black Album" was the closest I came to listening to metal until the fateful day about 4 years ago when my good friend, Toxby (QDRO specialist and champion of metal) took me on the "metal ride" that changed my life. OK... well it didn't exactly change my life but it certainly changed the way I thought of the style of music.

As we were heading down c-470 to a nondescript bar in a nondescript area of suburban hell, aka, Highlands Ranch, Toxby blasted Mastodon's "Leviathan". HOLY SH*T! I heard 30 seconds of it and I was enthralled. I thought to myself, The drumming! the songs! no male falsetto vocals! even the artwork was cool! Who are these guys and where did they come from? Mastodon was my gateway drug into the realm of metal music...

...I got my fix last night at The Fox Theater in Boulder.

I was going to attempt to write a review of the show, but I just found this review in the Westword and I can't see a way that I can write it any better myself. However, I do have a funny story from backstage. Shoot me a comment/email if you want to hear about it.

For those of you who don't know Mr. Davis

He's my BFF and he has an awesome blog at http://deepjunk.blogspot.com/

There is a TON of content there and some incredible links to music. Like he said to me when I was bitching about how much information he has on the blog, "Yeah, well you'll love me when you're stuck in an airport!"

Back to a (somewhat) normal life

Top of Beaver Creek ski resort

Damn,

This blogging stuff can be a pain in the ass to keep up with but I am motivated to keep this going. Now that my travels are over (for the time being) I'm going to shift the content of the blog over to the music side of things, most likely interspersed with some beautiful nature pics of snowboarding and hiking in Colorado. After all, there's not much better than a beautiful summer day in the Colorado mountains, except perhaps a beautiful winter day!

"Asssspen: Where the beer flows like wine and the beautiful women flock instinctively like the salmon of Capistrano"

Victor and I made our way up to Beaver Creek ski resort last Monday for some awesome late season snowboarding. We were fortunate to have a "bluebird" day following a weekend of snowstorms that dumped close to 40" of snow. After a abnormally dry January, February, and early March in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, we got hammered with storm after storm in mid-to-late March, making for epic late season pow-pow, brah! Too bad the Texas gapers on spring break were crowding my corduroy and poaching my tree lines. (Tongue firmly implanted in cheek)

By the way, I have a run named after me at Beaver Creek. "Damon's Trees" are not for the faint of heart or those afraid of deep pow turns and tight tree lines. I'll provide you with a guided tour in exchange for some pulled pork and a tall P.B.R. at Moe's BBQ in Vail.

On the way back to Denver, Victor got a request from our mutual friend Tim Beichley to find a particular t-shirt. Tim, who is a Denver native but now lives in Anchorage, Alaska, had a faint memory of going to a liquor store in Beaver Creek and finding some pretty funny shirts that were cleverly named after the liquor store that contained them. "Beaverliquor" is every Texas fratboys dream t-shirt shop, combining the "coolness factor" of a t-shirt that came from a Colorado ski town and the bathroom humor that a sixth grader appreciates. Vic and I searched around Beaver Creek for the liquor store for 15 minutes or so until we called Tim to find us directions on the interweb. We found the shop, looked around for the t-shirt Tim wanted until I saw the huge sign hanging on the wall that said "find our shirts on line at www.beaverliquors.com" Sweet. Thanks, Tim.

Today, I am spending time working on the "business" end of the Radiohead tribute show that I am organizing for May 29th at The Oriental Theater. I hope to keep the blog updated to provide a glimpse as to the inner workings of putting together a show of this magnitude. I hope it will serve me well as a journal of sorts for posterity.

I'll be heading to The Fox Theater in Boulder tomorrow for a special engagement with MASTODON! They will be performing "Crack The Skye" in it's entirety. Maybe I'll try my hand at a review of the show. For those who don't know, now you do:

(Sorry about the lame intro in the beginning)