What's A Joe Reno?

That's a picture that Joe Reno painted
(of me, tho at first I thought it was a landscape, perhaps a sunrise behind a purple mountain, or maybe a submarine, til I realized I was holding it the wrong way)
during a performance by Snoose Junction at Mr Spot's Chai House...

I saw one of his new ones the other day, a beautiful Mt Rainier with a pterodactyl

yup
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Snoose Log re 1-22-2007

On this night (with Beth and Julie behind the counter) the first set was thrown down by Paul Turner (drums), Donovan (bass), Gerry Amandez (kaos guitar), and Aaron Gates (sing, guitar), and it was rocknroll

Beezer subbed in for Gates on guitar at 8:50, followed eventually by me on bass and N8 Moore on the drums. A kid with a guitar turned up and jammed powerchords with Chris Hogan for a little while, then Donovan took one guitar and a man I don't know took the other. He was going to step down after a few jams but Turner came back to the kit (replacing Mike Faulhaber) and told New Guitar Guy to stay right where he was

Roslyn came back this week to play the mouthpiece and eventually the whole clarinet ("not slower," she advised us as we dropped the dynamic for her approach, "just quieter") in a multiphony of duckcalls and cellular melodies while Ian McKagan took the mic (he had it in him, and it got to get out) and shared it intermittently with Amy and Chavon and Kansas City Cunningham

Where was Foss during all this? He was in the shower... But the new expanded format (thanks to Superbarrista Beth) allows him to shower and sing on the same night, and he was in the house by 9 in his Guatemalan Coffee Pickers Hat and a bright yellow shirt that says 'Fuma' (ask the Mugicians where he got it)

Some drunk came in and we let him make an ass of himself on the mic for a while but then he broke a tap off a keg and wanted to play the bass. Beth gave him the Big Red Snow Boot and he took a hike with his girl who couldn't stop laughing at him... "This is our clubhouse," Foss told them, "you can't be breakin up the clubhouse!"

The night wound up with Gerry on bass, Thomas The Cat Nelson on guitar, Foss and Amy and Chavon singing and Mike Faulhaber on the drums

Gerry was cool enough to bring out an ADAT and and a mixing board and get some hopefully decent live sounds to 8-track digital. Some of us have been laying down the sounds in his home studio in the middle of the night (check out Magna Freak) but this should be the best sounding live tape we've got yet, in our natural habitat

Snoose Log 1-15-2007

Tonight began with a set from the Columbia City All-Stars, which is to say, John Beezer (guitar) brought in Steve Turnidge on the bass (amp supplied by Snoose Cadet Evan Strauss), Mike Faulhaber on the drums, Jason Dennie on keys and vox, and John Lee on keys... I came in halfway through their set, chill and late for a change, with no responsibilities or gear, and boogied down with Zack and Danny from Luxxe while the All-Stars rocked it out good-like

The first substitution of the evening came at 9:15pm (Beezer offered me the axe at 8:45 but I declined as I played ALL NIGHT last week and ALL WEEKEND this week)... with Snoose Cadet Evan Strauss subbing in for Mr Turnidge, resulting in a funkier groove but a remarkable restrained and deep one for Evan, who likes to play the Irrepressible Mad Bass Funk. The keys set up some ambient drones, and I wandered onto the guitar for a time as Foss stepped up to finally sing some things

Paul Turner came up and took Mike's place behind the drums for some scattered aggro-fusion (or something) and then I got on the bass with, um, N8 Moore on the guitar and lay down fractured post-everything grooves with Paul until newbie Roslyn came up with her clarinet... "My instrument is a lot quieter than yours," she pointed out, so we (now including Chris Hogan on guitar instead of N8 and Mr Donovan on the keys) settled into a slow, chill, simple rock&r&b groove for a loooongg time and this woman Amy2 came up and sang BEAUTIFULLY from a chair next to the keys for a while, what a lovely, sweet slow jam it was...

I tried to get Danny up to play at that time but she wouldn't... So eventually I turned it over to Eric, who I met at Danny and Zack's house one New Year's Eve. Little did I know that Danny and Zack had eaten the leftover New Year's Truffles of Spike earlier in the night and were pleasantly zonked. Eric lay down the mad bass funk with John Beezer and Vince Amandes (drums) and then I subbed in for Beezer for the SuperBarristas Funk Jam dedicated to Beth who is the Man even if she is a Woman (The Very Reverend Betty that is)... Foss told everyone to get up and dance but they wouldn't so Amy danced like a whirling dervish in the aisle for a while and then

to cap it all off, Danny came up with Zack and N8 (and Donovan on the keys!) for some space-groove ambient improv that ROCKED AND ROLLED and I DANCE AND DANCED and th-th-th-that's all, folks!

Evan, thanks for letting us keep your gear late! Roslyn and Eric and Amy2, thanks for being the new kids! See yas in the future,
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Snoose Is Up!

Tonight we are convening the Snoose Junction Greenwood Posse for another evening of crazed and unreasonable jams blasted into hifi digital immortality in the basement of a condemned house in (you guessed it) Greenwood, Seattle, WA, Earth

Personnel of course varies, but it's Gerry Amandez' house, for one thing, so he'll be there playing guitar and maybe some bass and running the studio. His brother Vince is a good bet for drums. Rey will likely be playing some bass. I'll play guitar. Foss will sing and I understand someone named Troy is going to be there as well

What tends to happen is, is that we lay down a lot of weird tracks in the middle of the night until everyone passes out and then Gerry mixes and edits it all down into something vaguely presentable and eventually it makes its way onto a CD and gets back to us. Last time it was John Beezer, Gerry, Vince, Patrick Lenon (drums - Glass Goblins & also Variety Pack), Foss and myself. We haven't heard that yet, but the tracks we have mixed include Gerry, Vince, Paul Turner, Foss, Rey, Donovan and myself

You can hear two tracks from that session at the Snoose Junction xxspace page: 'Magna Freak' and 'Live And Let Live'

Gerry sez these aren't finished mixes, and I believe him, but they're totally listenable and really spaced out... Ask Foss who plays what on which, he has it written down

Word from the Chai House is time to head for Greenwood. Snoose is up!

Snoose Log 1-08-2006

First Snoose of the year...

Starting lineup was Paul Turner (brought the drum kit with geegaws and whatnots and played the hell out of it) with Donovan on bass, Gerry Amandez on kaos guitar and 5-Track on guitar, eventually Aaron vocals and piano...

Then Foss on the sing, and then Vince Amandez on the drums, 5 on the bass, N8 on the drums, Chris Hogan on the guitar, and Sarah the Sometime Superbarrista's Sister (name? sorry I missed it!) on the post-Alice Coltrane piano stylings... And Rey on the kaos guitar, and then Donovan on it, too

Beezer sez:
" I decided I would only play if the quality dropped below the 95% level for more than 20 seconds. Y’all went and rendered me redundant ... but with a big grin on my face."

I think I played for almost 3 straight hours!
ptite...
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