Well on Nov. 1st 2004 I found out that a beautiful new baby entered our family and her name was Merrick Elisibeth May Gacke.. So I didnt have much money so I decided to Write, record, and Mix a song for her on the day she was born... I did it in about 5 hours.. I played all the parts and sent it off to the little cutie... Now 4 years later the fam is meeting up in the Cities to celebrate but I cant go since I will be playing shows this weekend.. so I wanted to tell my lovely god daughter that I love her very much and wish her a wonderful B-day... I love ya Merrick
Well last night right when the phillies got 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th I said to ash.. somewhere in that stadiam there is a chubby 11, year old boy standing next to his dad getting pretty excited right now... I was refering to little chubby Patrick who was at the 1991 World Series and oh boy how great it is experiencing something like that with the guy who taught you everything you know about baseball.. Gotta Love the National Pastime.. Nice work Philies.. I did think it was a little crazy that the fans of the CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE were BOOING the commisiner of baseball before he handed the owner the world sereies trophey... oh next year twins!
So I told you it was coming, and last night I saw one of the best shows I have seen in Years.. jonathan richmond who some of you may know as the guy playing the guitar in the tree during the Movie Something about Mary.. he was faboulous.. He only played to about 40 people in the M-shop but it was just perfect.. He even made Ashley laugh so hard she started to cry... what a great night.. BUT there was no bass players in site.. well besides #6 on the all time list but he was in the crowd instead of on stage.. OK turn up that bass on those shitty computer speaks, to the LIST already...
10. John Deacon- John Deacon's bass lines for Queen are some of the most recognisable bass melodies ever.. Shit Under pressure and Another One Bights the Dust are classics.. Not only did he play em he wrote em.. and mind you his Hair is always up for argument you cant deny his brillentness.. here is Under Pressure live in Budapest.. so amazing one of the greatest songs ever!
9. Bruce Thomas- was apart of the Attractions who were Elvis Costello's marvoulous band.. I love the way he turns Elvis's pop songs into these groovy little dancy rockers.. he also looks mighty good in a suite. Here I dont want to go to Chelsea
8. John Stirrant- Now Wilco has had over 10 members but only 2 have been in this amazing band from the start, Jeff Tweedy and #8 John Stirrant.. John got a great sence of melodey on the bass, and plays but electric and upright on the albums.. He also played in Uncle Tupalo, and aparently once had a fling with one of Ashley's friends.. so thats cool I love his voice and his constant presence in the band... Here is some live SKY BLUE SKY
7. Chuck Riany- Chuck was a session bass player who played on albums by everyone from Dusty Springfield, to Janis Joplin, to Michael Jackson. My favorite tune he played on his WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Louis Armstrong.. but today I share a good groove he had going with PEG by STEELY DAN
6. Joe Terry- Now I have been blessed to have Joe around for so many years, I commend Joe for being a better guitar player than I, but still taking the bull by the horn and wanting to be the Bass Player for the PCC and he just ran with it.. My favorite thing he has ever done is on the instrumental begining to Magic Circle Symphony.. it's just wonderful.. Today I give you Joe and I being butt Buddies to the song MAKE LOVE A STAR by the PCC...
5. John Entwistle- Oh boy a guy whos nickname is THUNDER FINGERS and the OX just sounds like a bass player.. John was the thing that held the chaos of the WHO together like glue.. He is the man who made is cool to stand stoic while playing thar 4 stringed guitar. Today I give you what it sounds like to ISOLATE Johns bass on the song WONT GET FOOLED AGAIN.. prepare to have mind blown!
4. Donald "Duck" Dunn- Oh boy a guy with the nickname Donald Duck probably does not strike you as someone who would be a killer bass player.. but he is # 4 on the list for the grooves he got as the STAX Records resident bass god.. He also played live with Otis and BOOKER T and the Mg's.. And he makes a cameo in Blues Brothers how cool is that. check out GREEN ONIONS by Booker T. which also features the #1 guitarist Steve Cropper before he looked like Steven Segul..
3. James Jamerson- Now most of you wont know who the hell this is but he is the Bass player on more hits then the Beatles and Elvis combined thats right.. he was the bass mastermind of MOTOWN Records.. dropping groovy licks for everyone from the Supreams, to Marvin Gaye, to the Jackson Five but his most famous one was probably the intro to MY GIRL by the Temptations.. But today I give you my favorite the bass line and song by the Jackson 5 I want you back.. get up from your computer and dance Now!
2. Carole Kaye- Oh my god while reasearching Carole I relalized she plays not only bass guitar but regular electric on so so so many of my all time favorites.. Her bass playing make most Brian Wilson and Phil Spector songs jump out of the stereo and into your soul.. seriously check out her wikipiedia page and just look at those tunes she plays on... man She did the bass on fucky boots are made for walking its so good.. here is a great little doc
1. Paul McCartney- shit you knew it was coming.. more than any of those other slouches from the British Invasion this guy was a guitar player first and took that to his bass playing.. and man did he come up with some incredible shit... I think it speaks for itself here is one of my favorite bass breakdowns by paul two minutes into this White ALbum jem!
Ok now I can safely say I do not hate many people seriously I can hang with anyone but one person I can not stand is fucking TIM MCCARVER... the FOX baseball broadcaster.. the guy is a know it all who doesnt know shit! HE is the worst broadcaster ever and it makes me not want to watch baseball... I would rather listen to PHil Collins's intire discography then watch a whole world series baseball game with him broadcasting.. To put it lightly I flipped the FUcking WORLD series to PBS last night to watch AMERICAN PRESIDENT LBJ... Come on fox fire that fucking idiot! sorry this is a rage post but I seriously cant stand that guy...
BUT I GUESS Im not the ONLY CHECK THIS DUDE OUT....
Man whats a weekend without a show or a Vikings game to watch... I thought I would be totally bored but have no fear... This weekend ended up being quite busy..
I went with ash to her Budist class with Wangden and that was quite good, then on to Adong for some CURRY tofu soup and spring rolls which were devine..
Then headed home for I had to run sound at DG's Tap in ames.. it was a good experience other then the sound board being behind the band, and the STEEL DRUM player being a little to rock stary to be playing DG's Tap.. I was about ready to SPINAL TAP him!
ANyway.. its good to run sound 3 blocks from my house.. and I get half off beers when ever I go there now.. and they have more things on tap than any other bar in town so thats good!
Man whats up with the Rays, they are making the American league look terrible.. I didnt think the rays were all that great this year,, even though their record proves they were.. The Twins played them really well and I dont know I think Boston was worried about the Yanks and the Yanks were worried about Boston and they just didnt give the Rays and Respect.. and Im going out on a limb here but I think the Twins, Boston, the Yanks, California, or Chicago would have been matching up a little more stongly with the Philies right now.. Come on Rays your making me look bad! How can I say the NL is like the Minors if the AL dont win the series?
Yesterday ash and I watched another woody allen movie... This time we choose "SLEEPER" which was just hillarious.. A lot of it is ripped from Charlie Chaplina and Buster Keeton films.. but done so well and with WOODY great one liners.. it kills! I hope to watch it again before its due back at the Library.. here is the trailer check it out!
well its 4pm on a friday do you know where you buddy patrick is, well he's enjoying a long face amber ale from his local brewery.. He's also bored out of his gored.. We still havent heard about are Grant request and I just had a job interview yesterday that I should here about next week... I hate waiting.. that one reason.. Im glad we have Shawn (the PCC booking agent) my life has a lot less waiting in it.. I used to hate sending out booking emails and waiting for replys.. it kills me.. Now i thought most of my waiting days were over.. boy was i wrong.. thats seems like all I have been doing.. Not much inspiring going on right now.. we might hit up a Diabetic conference in Des mOines tommorow and it looks like Im running sound at DG's Tap in Ames.. which Im kinda stoked about, since its 3 blocks from my house! boo yeah! anyway.. Sorry for the boring post.. Stay tuned to for my 10 favorite Bass Players next week! here is somebody who will sadly not make the list even though she was the only bass player whose bare boob ever graced a patrick fleming t-shirt.. Gotta love those adore photos! anyway.. here is one of my favorite smashing pumpkins covers from the Aeroplane box set
Well guess who turns 25 this week.. my little Devin.. When I met dev he wieghed about 75 pounds, he had hair down to his shoulders and he listened to really great music.. Well I guess not much has changed? Joe T, and I met dev at an Essex Greeen, Alslers Set, Beachwood Sparks, and Masters of Hemisphere show... in Iowa City... It was love at first site on my end.. He had an Elf Power Shirt on and moments after finding out he was from Des Moines I asked him to be in my new band the Poison Control Center... This was like 9 years ago.. Now dev and I would see all those bands again from that night even playing with Essex a couple times and once almost dieing coming back from an Aislers Set show... Man I have so many great memories of Devin its hard to put it into one little blog so I will just say I hope he enjoys his HOT COCK and Tequilla, Ash and I got him... Happy B-day buddy! here is Devin at Ashleys B-day Party in June of 2006 playing Friends of Mine By the Zombies for us! ps who we also saw together!
Well its been fun being home for awhile and not being on tour.. But then Fishboy sends me a link of Us, with the Apples, fishboys, and the Big Fresh Rocking out to the Apples song RUBY in Dallas... Good old Chris Yetter's up there singing too.. the Apples probably hate me cause natually i invite everyone in the crowed up on stage as well... GOTTA LOVE DEVIN in those shades! check it out!
So crazy shit just happend... Today the E6 Holiday Suprise tour is in Chicago, and I wanted to go,, but just cant make it happen.. But I wanted to hook my buddies Chris Yetter and Nathan Cook up at the show.. so I call chris to give him nathans number and Chris is talking to me and looking for a pen and he asked BILL if he has a pen.. and Im like is that BILL DOSS and he like YEAH why dont you say hello, so Im like oh shit... So then Bill says, is this Poison Control Center Patrick and Im like Yeah.. and then I said it's been great watching your ripp through OTC songs on You Tube and He said well you got me back on the Train. (since we did one this summer with him) and I said well if thats the case I should have done that 5 years ago! he laughed and I said well keep having fun!... Then he gave me back to YETTER... Chris is so rad he has been at 6 of these E6 shows filming them... that lucky dog.. but he deserves it more than anyone! so to BIll, Chris, and Nathan I love you all and have fun in Chicago!
here is bill jumping around having a blast on this E6 tour!
Well last night ash and i went to see the new Oliver Stone flick about George W. Bush.. Now I love some of Stone's old films, like Born on the 4th of July, JFK, and Nixon were all really great but this film was just kinda long.. Maybe it was cause I had a No COFFEE today headacre... Anyway i did think the acting by Josh Brolin was great and also the gal would played Condaleeza Rice was pretty good.. but it's just kinda a weird movie.. My favorite line is when DICK CHENEY says to COLIN POWELL, "your just mad cause you could have been president, and colin says FUCK YOU, DICK" Colin seemed to be the only one in the Bush administration with a Heart! so that was nice to see.. Oh I glad I saw it.. but I dont think you ever need to see this one twice! here's the trailer
and now for one of my favorite videos.. man I miss being a pupetteer.. best job ever!
well this weekend was great.. the two PCC shows were really really fun.. we played great and everyone was having a good time playing I think.. so I was really happy about that... that vikings game was a stinker though come on 48-41 geez vikes.. thats the 3rd game this year they have lost by 1 score!
anyway the worst thing to happen this weekend was the death of an amazing soul singer.. DEE DEE WARWICK who is the sister of Dionne Warwick.. anyway.. DEE DEE was always my favorite... this is why...
ok so yesterday... you got to read 10-6 and they go as followed 10. billy corgan 9. Johnny Greenwood 8. David Gilmour 7. Devin Frank 6. George Harrison mind you there are so many great ones that could not make the list but here are my top 5!
now to the best of the best in my book
5. Robbie Robertson- Man he wasnt flashy on record but the guy could play.. must be pretty good if for Bob Dylans first electric world tour he asked you to be his guitar player.. and those recordings from that tour Robbie is hot, ripping though guitar lines like no other, but the stuff he did with the Band will never be outdone. Check out one of my all times favorites It makes no Difference from the Last Waltz
4. Jimi Hendrix- Now you are probably saying WHAT 4th, well I love jimi with all my heart and mind you he did more with his 3 Experience albums in 3 years then most people do in an entire lifetime but for some reason he dosnt hit my sole on every level.. but dont get me wrong he still hits it where it counts!.. I bet I stole more from his peformance at Monterey Then I have stole from any other guitar player, from moves to back rolls, he did it all.. ELECTRIC LADYLAND is his best album but for Ephraim I will give you a little BOLD AS LOVE FROM AXIS..
3. Brian May- Well no has quite the sound of the guitar that Brian May get, his work with QUEEN flashes on pop, classical, metal, rock, spacey, the guy could do it all, and he did it all.. his work with an acoustic guitar is far better, then Jimmy Page and his electric could top Page too, while Page was stuck in the Blues, Brian was creating a whole new guitar world!.. he was just effortless... here is one we all know..
2. Mick Ronson- Ok some of you might be like who the fuck is this I have never heard of him, well he wad David Bowie's partner in crime and lets just say his guitar lines make BOWIE seriously, this guy solos hit my heart and resenate, reverberate and chime for all excistance.. just amazing!.. He never over played on record, but in the live situation he got to bring it!
1. Steve Cropper- OH Yeah, if you know me you know I love mr. Cropper sweet guitar style of giving the song room to grow and playing lines around the other musicians or words, his best work is with Otis Redding who he also produced.. and Booker T. and the MG's so good! here is one of my faves! litsten to his little chimes so amazing...
hope you enjoyed my top 10 favorite guitar players ever!
Now during the birth of rock n roll, i would have to say the Piano ruled the school but you know elvis couldn't put a piano around his neck and shake now could he... Thats why the guitar has stood the test of time.. Today I give you my top ten favorite guitar players of all time!
10. Billy Corgan- Billy created some of the coolest guitar sounds ever in the mid to late 90's, evidence below... here is one of my favorite performances of "GEEK USA" from the Viaphoria video
9. Johnny Greenwood- Well I was going to put Neil Young here but Johnny did some of the craziest guitar things I have ever heard on the Bends and Ok Computer... But its just to bad radiohead couldnt make as many great albums/songs as neil did! oh well hard to complain about this... here is Just, off of the Bends!
8. David Gilmour- How do you replace one of the coolest sounding guitar gods of the psycadelic era in Syd Barret, well you get his guitar tech, to fill in his shoes.. it also helps any guitar player when the songs they are playing on are just killer, but here some Mother off of the Wall, always loved this guitar solo...
7. Devin Frank- now wait a minute you might say, Devin... what about Malkmus well my friends Devin can do or play anything he wants, I love his solo's which are always pretty much recorded off the cuff and I always write songs and just think OH devin can just throw a solo in there.. and he does in usually with a smile.. and 1 thing that hes got that malkmus would never do is a back roll and a behind the back guitar solo... here is one of his tunes ride the thunder
6. George Harrison- Da, some of the most recognisable guitar lines ever, and he made most Lennon, McCartney songs even better with his wonderful style.. here is one of my favorite solo tunes by him "WAH WAH' live at the Concert for Bangledash! so good! now clappton might take the solo and the wife, but george wrote it and kicked its ass!
Ok TUNE in tommorow for the top 5 ptf favorite guitar players!
well the VIKES pulled another one out yesterday and now stand in a 3 way tie for first place! heck yeah! I didnt get to watch the whole game though since I had to be at the Vaude and 2pm for BEN Kwellers sound check.. it was rad all the people traveling with him were super nice and the sound guy was great to work with and I got to see Ben and his band play great songs by neil young, the beatles, the beach boys, and bright eys! And some not so great ones by Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.. wish I would have brought my video camera!! oh well! Anyway it was a great night and Ben's new countryfied album thats coming out in Jan.. will be awesome after hearing the tunes! here is one favorite tunes by him.. he didnt play it but oh well!
Ben and his wifes baby were along for the trip and let just say I have never seen a 2 year old drum as good as this kid could he was banging away in sound check like no other...
I hopefully made another cool little dude happy, HAYDEN.. who is our friends Dan and Stevie's son who totally rules.. I grabbed him a set list from the stage while I started to pack stuff up.. hope he dig it!
So this week.. two of my newphews are in my two favorite photos of the week... first we have Mike, (ash's half brother's oldest son) who lives in Cincinatti and works at and Ice Cream Joint well he is serving ICE Cream to SARAH PALIN in this photo.. Mikes face represents the vice presidential face when asked with tough questions! seriously check this one out!
then we have my favorite little guy in the whole wide world.. COLE showing us, why it's not the best idea to chew sunflower seeds in the car when you are spent!
love these guys! Im off to watch a bit of the vikes and run sound for BEN KWELLER!
well I had a nice evening last night I ran sound for Casiotone for the painfully alone.. and sadly he was pretty alone actually not to many folks at the show.. oh well it was fun..
the night before.. was a show where some friends of mine played.. I met this gal Shelley Short on St. patrick day 2005 on my solo tour that year and I opened for her at a house show in Chicago.. it was fun little show.. and I thought she was a really great song writer so I was excited to see her play again, and she is on tour with her wonderful boyfriend Alexis Gideon who was blowing everyones mind at the bar with his fantastic display of visual art video and song.. They both ruled the school hard and then came to stay with ash and I, and wangdon the budist monk.. but ash was super busy and wangdon had to jet so I got to hang with them a little and showed them the greatness of honey on PIZZA.. I think they dug it.. anyway they are both on tour for a bit.. hitting Chicago tonight and going all the way to NYC and back to Portland so check them out if you get the chance... they are both rad!
Well what a great last 35 hours I have had! First I got to watch my Vikings pull one out in New Orleans.. funny story is ash and I went to watch the game at OLD CHICAGO and they gave out little pieces of Paper that said things Like if Gus Ferrof scores touch down you get Free Jello shot. Well we got one that said if NEW ORleans Special team scores a touch down you get free Pint of beer...
Well we left old chicago at Half time cause ash was't feeling so hot so I dropped her off at home and watched the rest of the game at OLD MAIN.. lets just say I had to text ashley and say we would have gotten two free pints cause the vikes gave up to run back special team touch downs.. OH well atleast they won!!!
Well yesterday I woke up at 4:30 am.. finished my woody allen book.. thanks to OLD CHICAGO.. (ashspray if you know what I mean).. then ran, showed, packed up the tape machine and headed 3 hours east to Davenport to mix Ryan Andersons album we recorded in my basement this summer.. It was great to work with Pat Stolley on this, our first collaberation since the wolves in the attic record and it was great.. we had a ton of fun mixing Ryan's record and love pats new set up in his basement.. it was great fun.. and he even took a picture of me at the board... anyway now the record just needs to be mastered and thats all she wrote.. could be the record of the year! well our buddist monk will be back tonight and i have to run sound for 2 shows.. back to reality... wish I could mix great records everyday!
well we hosted 7 different folks at the house this weekend, also ran a recording studio out of the basement.. much fun was had.. let me tell you.. first off Wangden, a Buddist Monk who will be staying with us, got here on Thursday, to hold a class in Iowa City on Saturday.., Ash franticly cleaned and our house looks immaculate.. but anyway.. Wangden was great, very nice and I enjoyed his sense of humor and Ashley is super excided about getting back involved in budist classes and stuff...
Next Much work was accomplished on the recording of Chistopher the Conquered new album.. Chris showed up with Hummus, chips, cliff bars, grain belt, shiltz, and Naked juice for the recording of his album.. so in other words all my favorite things in one place.. Chris's songs are amazing and have a wonderful Randy Newman meets Queen meets Granddady meets Brian Wilson vibe going... SO im really loving the project.. we got some really good sounds and Im stoked to continue working on it.. this will be the 3rd album I have got the chance to co-produce/engineer and Im really happy about that..
Im going to Mix Ryan Anderson record tommorow! Also we had the band ONE FOR THE TEAM crash at our house on Saturday.. I didnt get to hang with them much but they seemed in great spirits for being full time road hounds now! It was delightful to see them as well...
As you know the VIKES play monday night football tonight so Tommrow could be a rough day for me and Im kinda sick already and that wont help matters if they suck tonight.. Wish for the best
Now PEACE OUT ON THIS PRecious Moment from the band Fishboy!
well all hopes of a post season were dashed last night by the white sox.. it sucked so bad.. I got super mad at the bar on the final out I threw my hat.. and when I went back to the bar later with friends to continueing drowning my sorrows some guy was like "HEY its pissed off twins fan".. the only fun part of the night was when ash asked... "who is Al Tiebraker" I said I think that means AMERICAN LEAUGE TIE BRAKER... ha ha oh well.. great season twins.. atleast it saves my pops some money on post season tickets.. what a rough life I have.. what next! oh I also got a free shot.. ROOT BEER and Jager it was pretty good?
Well Well Well I need to let you all know that this is not a blog by Ashley Renee Tape Fleming but her loving hubby patrick.. so please no confusion, she keeps getting upset that people who read this think she's the one who can't spell!
