'Boy Next Door' is a bouncy little tune about a girl taking "Being Neighborly" to the next level. Who lives across the lawn from you?
This is very exciting. A while back, Kat of Death of the Author Brigade stepped in and did an unbelievable guest vocal on 'The Undead' by Don't Tell Betsy. Well, these two incestuous bands are back at it with a brand new song. On 'I'm in Love With the Boy Next Door', Kat is dazzling on lead vocals, while Carissa from Don't Tell Betsy chips in with some heavenly harmonies. Aaron (he does keys for both bands) rocks out on the keys, and Daniel (he has contributed to every recording produced in the last 35 years) pretty well does everything else. Special thanks to Ivan from Croatia too!
Kat, the hardest working woman in Showbiz! This is one of her finest vocals with the band.
Carissa has been with Don’t Tell Betsy for about six months. She obviously hasn’t notice how old the rest of us are yet. We keep distracting her with Jr. Mints.
Aaron started playing with Death of the Author Brigade at 14. Now he’s 17 and plays with both Author Brigade and Don’t Tell Betsy.
And Daniel just does all the rest.
Death of the Author Brigade songs can be purchased here!
And here is Don’t Tell Betsy’s latest video. Enjoy the spectacle.
Plus!!! Here is the seventh spectacular Don’t Tell Betsy promo for our upcoming video: Collect them!
Plus!! Don't Tell Betsy's brand new single, "The Way I Do". Give it a listen.
If you'd like to own this song, it be available below.
Well folks, Don’t Tell Betsy was back at Sanctuary Entertainment and we weren’t taking any prisoners. We are deep, deep, deep into the recording of two new songs. (She Already Knows and On My Mind) Thousands of man hours have been spent to ensure that you, the listening public, get the finest musical product modern technology and 73 dollars will buy. Now you are about to gaze upon the glory that is musical Rome.
Just before we start the recording session, Barry takes one last look at his bank account online to see if he really has to put up with these assholes for the next 4 hours.
While on a small break, Carissa is suddenly transported back to her nightly fantasies about the Tin Man’s hat funnel.
Kevin stands resplendent and calm. The wisdom of the Gods lay beneath his sublimely quaffed pate. There are no words to describe, nor song to adequately herald his ultimate supremeness.
Ellis waits for just the right moment, to jump up like an avenging angel and sucker-punch Barry in the back of the head.
Big D. tries to figure out how much the band would save on the session if he stole all the toilet paper from Barry’s studio bathroom.
“Where the fuck did they find a goat in Encino?”
Darrell suddenly realizes that the goat video wasn’t going to work and it was now eating Barry’s Pekinese.
This is the only way Carissa can record her vocals and keep members of the band from licking her.
“Hey Barry, I think your gold clock is busted, man?”
“For some reason, my boobs smell like Aspercreme.”
Darrell and Ellis wait for the perfect moment to tell Barry that they don’t have any money.
“Boy, if I were David Carradine, I could just chop his fucking head off with my hand and fill up this empty coke bottle with his spurting blood!”
Ellis dreams of a day when he’s so famous that he can always dress like Corporal Lebeau from Hogan’s Heroes.
The morning sun only rises so that it may catch a glimpse of his comely countenance. The moon and the mighty ocean work in tandem so that the tide may humbly lap at his blessed feet. Though empires may rise and fall and towering fortresses crumble to dust, the name of Kevin shall forever remain in the hearts of man.
Carissa after three drinks.
Carissa after three and a half drinks.
And here is Don’t Tell Betsy’s latest video. Enjoy the spectacle.
Plus!!! Here is the seventh spectacular Don’t Tell Betsy promo for our upcoming video: Collect them!
Plus!! Don't Tell Betsy's brand new single, "The Way I Do". Give it a listen.
If you'd like to own this song, it be available below.
This is a tribute to my mom, Vicki Kalkbrenner, and all her glorious, kooky, silly, & interesting 53 years on planet Earth. She was born on this day, January 7, in 1958 at around 5am at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. My grandmother, Virginia Orlando Breen, went in the night before to give birth to her first-born and only daughter. I hear it was cold on January 7, but when is it not cold in St. Louis, Missouri during Winter?! My grandma and grandpa proceeded to have 3 more children, all boys (Robert Jr, Steven, and Timothy), but Victoria remained the princess. My mom has had a a pretty full life, one filled with great joy, hardships, wonderful events, and true blessings. No one can ever say that she and my father ever had it easy, especially raising 2 bratty twins (I love you, Chris!), but the hardships they endured taught my brother and I life lessons that we shall never forget.
Disclaimer: Mom, there are not a lot of "Victoria" songs out there, but I think you can appreciate the ones I had Darrell dig up for you!
The first song is only fitting for my mother, the princess. It is "Victoria" by The Kinks, released in 1969 on the concept album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). It is, of course, about Queen Victoria. Ray Davies wrote the lyrics in satirical fashion about 19th century Britain. I think these particular lines apply to my mom, although she is obviously not a real queen: "From the rich to the poor, Victoria loved them all". So true about my mom! She actually once loved a cow named Lucky that was 3 times her size!
The next song I (or rather Darrell) found is one called "Victoria" (also known as "Victoria Lee"....crazy right?!) by the Old 97's released on the album Wreck Your Life on May 23, 1996. The line I particularly like, although all of them are great, is "Victoria, you dance so fast that no one else can see." My mom, though, puts on a show when she dances. Now I don't know how many of you have witnessed this, but I am guessing all of her friends and family have. It is a sight to behold! When she & my dad decide to dirty dance to "Mustang Sally", you better get your ass off the dance floor for there is no competing with their talent.
The last song that I have chosen to feature is a ridiculous one! "Victoria" by Lavvi Ebbel was released on the album Victoria in1982. Although a Belgium pop band, this song is mostly in English except for the occasion French words and phrases thrown in here and there. This song was apparently a huge hit. I wish I could say that there are lyrics here that I can somehow apply to my mother, but unfortunately I cannot. She's not rich or young (well, youth is in the eye of the beholder or the one who is turning older), she doesn't have a sports car (even though the Lincoln Town Car is a nice ride), she doesn't live in Paris (is Cedar Hill close?), and she doesn't really phone me (though she texts like a madman).
The bottom line is that I love my mother no matter what. I wouldn't have spent my Monday evening researching these songs to come up with stuff that I could apply to her. She is the reason I live, the reason I haven't been poor since I moved to Los Angeles 3+ years ago, and the reason that I become more ridiculous as I get older. I hate to say it, but you do kind of turn into your parents as you get older. Sure you do things differently than they did, but I find myself making up nonsense songs, talking gibberish to the dog, and dancing in the aisles of the grocery store. Thanks, Mom, for being you and Happy Birthday! I love you!
Here is the seventh spectacular Don’t Tell Betsy promo for our upcoming video: Collect them!
Plus!! Don't Tell Betsy's brand new single, "The Way I Do". Give it a listen.
And here is another multi-million dollar promo. True, most of the money was spent on alcohol, but we did spend it.
If you'd like to own this song, it be available below.
From time to time I'm going to do some guitar oriented posts about my favorite guitarists out there. There are a million to choose from so in no particular order I'm starting with Robben Ford.
Today's entry is about one of my favorite guitarists as I mentioned above, Robben Ford. I had the opportunity to attend his guitar workshop up in Ojai CA last fall and it was great.
Ojai, for you out-of-towners, is up the coast just north of Santa Barbara CA. Great little town just east of the coast, inland a bit. It's a very artsy community. Great place if just to visit for a day too.
But back to Robben. He talked and played for almost 5 hours and we had a lunch break in between with fellow workshop guitarists in the little town. I've seen him several times over the years, at small clubs in Hollywood and bigger places like House Of Blues. I started following him during his Tom Scott and the LA Express days, back around 1977 after hearing the Tom Scott album Tom Cat which came out in '74. Back when I was teaching guitar in the late 70's, one of the best things I ever did was go to Venture dept store, which was pre-Target, in Tinley Park, Il, where I lived, and they had a cut out bin of vinyl. Robben's solo album The Inside Story was in there for 50¢, and there were about a dozen of them. I bought 10 of them for $5 and kept two of them and handed out 8 of them to my guitar students and said, 'listen and learn'. Best $5 I ever spent on music. It's basically The Yellowjackets as his backup band.
Robben mostly stood up there with his old Telecaster and an old Fender amp and went over jazz changes, chord structures, playing the blues a whole different way. He handed out about 20 pages of stuff to us all on chords, triads, altered scales, a Larry Carlton progression, shuffle blues and major and minor progression. All in all, it was a very good learning day and stuff to keep me busy for quite some time. A lot of the stuff was things I had learned somewhat a long time ago out of Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar Book, of which Robben went over some, especially the jazz chords. He stressed chords, and how not a lot of people do rhythm or even know a lot of chords these days.
There was a question and answer time where we discussed the stuff he talked about. He talked a little about his history, working with such people as Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and Tom Scott and blues great Charlie Musslewhite, where he got his start playing the blues. He talked about guitars and amps and even other guitarists, and how some people get famous and make a ton of dough for doing very little, and he was referring to The Edge in this particular instance, because he played a bit of a U2 lick to emphasize his point. I'm sure like a lot of jazz and blues musicians who may not make it big on the international scale of things, monetarily speaking, they get a bit peeved at what is out there music wise on the radio compared to what they themselves play. But blues or jazz is a niche market so to speak, and although it's a more highly regarded form in Europe or Japan, it doesn't get the respect or cash flow that Top 40 or whatever Lady Gaga is doing now. But Robben isn't really that bitter. He makes a nice living I'm sure. Plays an awful lot and is well respected by a million guitar players and singers and other musicians. Robben is a very personable guy and there's lots to learn from him. I'm glad he does these things. I'm glad I went. I want to go again the next time he's around.
A few days later he was playing in Studio City down at the Baked Potato club on Cahuenga Blvd. so I went with a friend and it was a great show. He even remembered me from 5 days earlier! The Baked Potato is a really really really small joint but full of music history. All the local greats and studio musicians have played here at one time or another or still do. It's such a small place you're never any further than 10 or maybe 15 feet from the band, and for an electric blues band like Robben Ford's it can get quite loud, but still worth it.
So check out some Robben Ford -
Here he's talking about rhythm, jazz chords and blues from his workshop.
Very informative for you guitarists out there.
Here's a recent tune called Lateral Climb done with his trio. They sure
get a lot of sound out of a 3 piece blues band.
With Toss Panos on drums and Larry Carlton's son, Travis, on bass. Robben Ford - Toss Panos - Travis Carlton
Some early Robben playing with Tom Scott and the LA Express backing
Joni Mitchell in 1974 on Raised On Robbery. Great tune.
Robben and Larry Carlton doing one of Robben's signature tunes Talk To Your Daughter
When in town check out the Baked Potato - you'll be glad you did.
Here's a pic of yours truly and Robben from the workshop
If you would like to purchase some of Mr. Ford’s fine guitar playing, it can be purchased here:
Here is the third spectacular Don't Tell Betsy promo for our upcoming video: Collect them all!
And remember, nothing says Christmas more that buying Don't Tell Betsy's brand new single, "The Way I Do". Only give it to family members and those friends you cherish most…then give it to everyone else. (but don’t give it to them first!)
And here is another multi-million dollar promo. True, most of the money was spent on alcohol, but we did spend it.
If you'd like to own this song, it be available below.
