WIZARD BOOTS

This band of Booties are restless and continue on their summer rampage….even after drinking beers in the sun all day yesterday and an epic 2+ hours onstage last night.   A few bits of news….Boots ringleader, Christopher E. is interviewed by chief editor, Paul H. in the current issue of The Music & Band Ezine.  Here’s the link:

http://www.musicandband.com/

This weekend….Saturday July 17th to be exact….we make our second annual appearance in downtown PDX for the acoustic guerrilla uprising, Big Busk Festival.   Wizard Boots will be somewhere just off Pioneer Square sometime around 5 to 6pm followed by a second performance at the afterparty over in the St. Johns district.  More details to come before the weekend….here’s a link to the official site:

http://www.thebigbusk.info/

The following Thursday night…July 22nd…we play an early opening set downtown at the good old Ash Street Saloon with Hugs & Punches, The Taste and Echo Park CA’s Electric Children.  Godzilla’s autopsy has the details above.

And the summer of incredible coincidence continues…while sipping the above mentioned beer up on the balcony yesterday, our good friend Jeremy…formerly of The Kissy Face Lovers, now fronting his new blooze combo, The Downtown Tramps, happened to pass by and came on in to hang out at the casa for a bit.  Wizard Boots will be joining The Tramps and an excellent line up of other bands for a big ol’ happening at the world famous Kenton Club on Saturday August 14th.   This will be our opportunity to redeem ourselves from our extemely drunken show there last summer….although all who attended still say it was our best Portland show ever….so who knows?  More news, updates on the impending release of the long awaited “Ole’ Biscuit Barrel!” and other surprises on the way.  Stay tuned to this vibration….

Hey baby….it’s the fourth of July….or it was…anyway….The mixing of the new Wizard Boots album, “Ole’ Biscuit Barrel!” is complete…with rockets-a-blazin’ right outside the window even….so hold your refreshing beverages high and shout “OLE’!!!”….and then drink your refreshing beverages of course.

Say what you will….with the help of all my wonderful friends, I have made the album I set out to make.  “OLE’!!!”

This weekend we bring one of our rare epic-double length-Live at Pompei-Yes album cover-sets to The Twilight Cafe.   It’s at 1420 SE Powell just a block over from The Aladdin Theater.  Our good friend, Erik Anarchy is opening.  Be sure to wear your party pants.  Next weekend…Saturday the 17th to be exact….we make our second appearance at the Bigger Busk underground acoustic uprising.  It’ll be in the afternoon just off Pioneer Square downtown.  Details are still sketchy….more to come..here’s the official site:

http://thebigbusk.info/

Although the Portland weather continues to remain cool, our summer is just starting to heat up!  Many situations and opportunities on the Boots radar, so we’ll get down to it…. First of all, the pre-release party for “Ole’ Biscuit Barrel!” (pronounced O-LAY…btw) was a wonderful success.  The expanded five-piece version of the band threw down some pretty powerful noise and highly improper behaviour  for 2+ hours last Friday….thanks to all who were involved!  Guitar genius, Christopher “Deuteronomy” Jones even stuck around town for a couple of extra days and helped me out in the studio….as of today we’ve finished all the remaining guitar tracks for the new album and I’m determined to have ALL the recording finished by this weekend.  Won’t be long now….

AND….the summer of live love continues with a pair of shows this weekend.  This Saturday night we’ll be making our live debut in Vancouver WA….see poster above for the details.  Early show and all ages too.

On Sunday night, we’ll be opening the show at Someday Lounge in downtown Portland with Glass Elevator and Bryan Minus & The Disconnect.  Show info is on the poster below.   More Wizard business and other surprises on the way….stay tuned to this vibration.

Still a bit behind on recording the finishing touches….and WAY behind on the artwork, mixing,  mastering and actual manufacturing of the discs, but what the hell….we’ll be pretty goddamn close by 6/18, so we’ll go ahead and have a party anyway.   “Ole’ Biscuit Barrel!” will be ready when it’s ready….and it will be ready very soon….you just can’t rush things like this.   I’m down to the closing track, “The Citadel”, which started out as this weird daydream vision I put together a couple of years ago during those wacky Contra Costa County sessions….now it’s being meticulously pieced together and orchestrated into my own personal Dark Side Of The Pet Sounds….it’s a lot of work, takes a hell of lot of time/concentration and intense repeated listening, but I love the final results of things like this so much that it’s all worth it.  I will see this through…you can count on it.

The CD release extravaganza is on for Friday June 18th at The Knife Shop in lovely downtown springtime Portland.  Our very special guests are our good friends Empire Rocket Machine and the mighty Miracle Steed, coming through town all the way from Northwest Arkanasas on the west coast leg of their current tour.  And for this night and possibly this night only, the core trio (Christopher, Andi & Tony) will be joined by a pair of key former band members….Wizard Boots & The Horsehead Bookends‘ guitar genius, Christopher “Deuteronomy” Jones and enigmatic percussionist, D.  Don’t miss this very special five headed/ten armed monster version of Wizard Boots!  Other surprises (always surprises…) in store…..good times ahead.

Wizard Boots will be doing a thirty minute acoustic set opening for Trainwreck, featuring K.G. of Tenacious D this Wednesday!   Trainwreck’s official Portland concert is the previous Tuesday night, and the following morning (Wed. 5/26)  they will be playing a second show followed by a short Q & A session across the river on the WSU Vancouver campus, which is located at:

Vancouver, WA 98686

The event will be in the Firstenburg Student Commons and is sponsored by college station KOUG Radio….they’ll also be doing a live broadcast of the show.  Here’s a link to their site if you want to tune in:

http://www.kougradio.com/

Wizard Boots will be on at 11am and did I mention that this is a free show?  Yes, the WSUV show is absolutely FREE and open to the public, so if I can be awake and performing at this unholy hour of the day, then you can surely drag you asses out of bed too.  See you there!

Too many good opportunities to get out and play live keep coming up….definitely couldn’t turn this one down….supporting our good friend, one man speed metal wrecking ball, ERIK ANARCHY. The show is this Wednesday night at PLAN B on SE 8th down in lovely Southeast Portland ….Wizard Boots is on relatively early (which is a rarity for us….all of you adults with bedtimes can quit your bitching…) in the middle-ish slot or possible opening-ish slot of 4 or 5 bands, including Defeating The Purpose. Cover charge is only a paltry 3 bucks in these economically oppressive times….and it’s a 21+ age restriction….sorry kids.

The work continues on “Ole’ Biscuit Barrel!”…and it’s starting to look like we won’t have the finished CD ready for the June 18th release party, but who cares?  We’ll just go ahead and have a party anyway.  It WILL be finished very soon….just a bit of a challenge with my work schedule and ghosts in the wiring of this old house causing delays.  This is the second Wizard Boots record, but the first in which I’m not only writing and arranging everything….but also producing, recording and mixing everything by myself.  I’m not complaining and the band have been amazing all along the way (except for our lost member who obviously didn’t have the cajones to see it through…).  The rest of us WILL see it through and the new record along with many other surprises are just over the horizon.  Good times ahead it seems…

A last minute addition to the already staggering amount of work Wizard Boots is currently involved in….but why not?   We’re getting excited about the impending completion of  “Ole’ Biscuit Barrel!”…. the endless recording sessions and all night sonic exploratory excursions are wearing on the producer here just a bit…..we’re starting to see the end of the road for this record and it’s getting into the meeting of deadlines portion of the adventure, which lends itself to a certain feeling of  hysteria.   When an insane amount of work sqeezed into a tiny time frame is on the horizon, it might be time to say fuck it and get out into the city for some action.   So I didn’t have to think about this offer too long….why not get out and have some fun with the band along with whatever gang of unruly juveniles wants to get in on this.   The show is this Sunday night May 9th at The Ash Street Saloon in lovely downtown Portland….The New Janglies and Small Arms are playing with us….the show should get going around 9pm and the cover is only a paltry 5 bucks!   Come on down…we don’t bite…hard….it’s spring….let’s drink beer and have fun!

Yes….as you can see, Wizard Boots is a trio once again.  Sad to say that Gerald “Grand Funk Railroad” Lunn won’t be playing with the band any longer….but this band has a certain spirit attached to it…..we won’t be stopped and we will find the way forward.   A change in the personnel department is really an opportunity to take a second look at what we’re doing and where we want to go….an opportunity to bring in new vibrations which will allow us to produce sounds that we couldn’t before.  Until we finish the new record, we’re going to continue as a trio and then some surprise special guests will be joining us onstage for various summer shows.   And speaking of shows, our live debut in the state of Washington last Saturday night was one of those magical evenings that’s hard to even describe why it was so magical….I think we just enjoy going to places we’ve never been before and playing for lovely people who have never heard us before….the folks at The Birdhouse had a really beautiful scene going and threw one hell of a party…..thanks to our friend Cameron for the photos!

And speaking of the new record….that unruly monster, “Ole’ Biscuit Barrel!” is still on schedule….the official release party is Friday June 18th at The Knife Shop with some very special guests and other surprises to be announced.   The track list is finalized…

More on this impending Invisible Grizzly Agenda release as we get closer to June.  And finally a very quick word regarding the Wizard Boots email list:  If you’ve signed up in a drunk and disorderly fashion, as many fine folks at Wizard Boots shows are prone to do….we may not be able to decipher your inebriated hieroglyphics.  If you recall signing up and still haven’t received an email from us, then you probably fall into this category.  Just fire off a quick message with email list in the subject line and we’ll get you hooked up with a bunch of rare and unreleased mp3’s and other bits of niceness.   The official Wizard Boots email is still:  wizardboots@gmail.com

The Arkansas shows have been a fabulous success….everything I love about Fort Smith and playing music here….Thank you very much to Mike and his staff down at Heros, everyone who made it out and got loaded and crazy right along with us….and of course all the amazing local musicians who sat in with me over the weekend!  Friday night’s bombastic rawk show featured the guitar genius of Christopher Jones and some mighty drumming from good ol’ Nik Taylor.  Here’s the Friday night set list:

Saturday night featured the amazing Jim Dick from Friday’s openers, Jim Dick & The Pocket Aces on bass, backing vocals and gourd….we were also treated to an opening set from one of my very favorite Arkansas bands, the mighty Miracle Steed….they truly compel and I can’t stop listening to their anthology CD….thanks J.T.!!!  We all went back to Jim Dick’s place and sat in a circle passing the acoustic guitars around the room until the sun came up (JD’s cover of Bad Romance is killer…)….another unforgettable night.  Here’s Saturday’s setlist:

Today’s the last full day of enjoying Mom’s great home cooking, hanging with the family and then we’re going to head out and tear up the town one more time….I’m like a comet Fort Smith…you’ll probably only see me here once a year at the most, so you’d better love me before I am gone!  See you next year on tour and I’ll bring the band from Portland with me…..Thanks again to everyone for making this so special….I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Wizard Boots will be taking a short break from recording the new album with the band in Portland…..and what better way to re-energize yourself creatively, than to take a little trip down to the old country?  A proud prodigal son of Northwest Arkansas….Boots will be doing a pair of epic shows in Fort Smith this April.  And for the first time in years, guitar genius, Christopher Jones AND the lovely Miss Hillary will be back with Boots for both shows!  A former Sex Zombie AND a former Horsehead Bookend….damn…can’t beat that. Boots is planning to attempt to squeeze 40 to 50 songs from his hellish repertoire into the two performances….. More surprise guests to be announced ……opening bands for the shows are Jim Dick & The Pocket Aces on Friday and Vinz Clortho has cancelled for Saturday, but a replacement will be announced.  There is no cover charge!  Get ready to get ready….