I just finished reading the first installment of Quarantine Blues: Musicians Killing Time In Isolation penned by Jeremy Porter, so I thought I would share what I've been up to over the last few weeks.
2020 started off pretty good for me, my band Radio Tramps played a rocking New Years Eve gig and we had just finished filling in our gig schedule for the upcoming year. We stay pretty busy and get most of our bookings for the year in place pretty quick. So, we were feeling pretty good about that.
Besides playing in Radio Tramps, my other "job" is working at Lost Weekend Records. I use the term "job" loosely because I feel pretty lucky to be able to do two things I love for a living and neither of them actually feel like a job.
Just prior to the "stay at home" orders being put in place, Lost Weekend Records was kicking into high gear for several big events. The biggest of those events being the 11th Annual Record Store Day. I had been helping Lost Weekend Records store owner Kyle Siegrist shape the orders and get them turned in before the deadline, so we would have all the cool records our customers would be standing in line to snatch up on Record Store Day.
Another exciting aspect of this years Record Store Day was the release of two new 7" singles on the Lost Weekend Records label. One a split single with Kyle Siegrist and Myra Power covering the Times New Viking song, “Teenage Lust!” with Thee Thees on the flip with one of their originals, “Stick it!”. The other is a single from The Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine, an all-star band consisting of Matt Reber, Sam Brown, Colin Gawel and Andy Harrison covering two early Willie Phoenix songs, “Hey Little Girl “ and “Strike Up The Band.”
Things were busy but I like being busy.
Things went from being busy to slowing down really quick. The first impact I felt was the closing of bars and restaurants. I started losing gigs immediately. Next it was announced that Record Store Day was being rescheduled from April 18th to June 20th. Then eventually all "non-essential" businesses were ordered to close their doors, which included Lost Weekend Records.
So, this pretty much left me with a lot of free time on my hands.
It's been kind of tough adjusting to this temporary new normal but it's something that needs to be done, so we can all come out of it healthy and strong.
So, what have I been doing......
During the first week of isolation, Kyle Siegrist from Lost Weekend Records decided to move forward with one of the records that was originally slated for release on Record Store Day in April. The Kyle Siegrist and Myra Power “Teenage Lust!” 7" but it would be a limited run and re-titled "Quaran-Teenage Lust." Kyle asked his staff to design unique sleeves for this limited run and although I'm not part of the "art department" at Lost Weekend Records, I took a stab at designing a few sleeves for the project. This was a great way to occupy some of my time.
By the way, The Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine single is still coming, so stay tuned for details on that. Record Store Day has been moved to June 20th, so I believe that is the new target date for that single.
Some of the custom covers for the Lost Weekend Records release “Quaranteenage Lust”
Obviously being quarantined makes it hard to have band practice. So, I haven't seen my band mates in person for almost a month now. We've been staying in contact via social media outlets but we were getting really eager to play again. Luckily the drummer in my band is a tech whiz and he figured out a way for us to be able to "live" stream a song. So we did our first "Radio Tramps Live At Home!" stream and everyone really enjoyed it. So, look for more of those in the future. We can't wait to be out there playing gigs every weekend. Check out Radio Tramps on Facebook to view the stream.
Radio Tramps “Live At Home” Stream
Another cool thing that has happened during my time in lockdown is an archival CD release from a band I was in during the late 80's/early 90's. The band was ONEY and the new CD is titled "ONEY Legacy". The CD is a collection of material that we recorded during our original time together plus a couple bonus tracks we recorded when we reunited briefly in 2008. Demon Doll Records released the new CD and you can check it out here.
That is a bit of what I've been up to lately.
These are weird times we are living in but I think we will come out of it stronger. We will all eventually be out there doing all the things we love to do, it will just take a little more time.
The things I miss the most are seeing my friends, playing gigs with my band, hugging my loved ones and record shopping!
Can we talk about record shopping for a minute? Record collecting is a big passion of mine and I really miss hitting all my local record stores and digging through the bins. This has been one of the things I've missed most. For me record shopping is a way to relieve stress and it always makes my world feel better. I haven't been able to do much "in person" shopping these days but all my favorite stores are still doing their best to serve their customers and bring the music to the people.
Obviously I work at Lost Weekend Records and I encourage everyone to check out the stores Facebook page for information on how you can still support the store during these days of isolation. I also have many other friends that work at other record shops throughout the city and are finding creative ways to stay busy. So, I'd like to give a shout out to Brett and Amy at Spoonful Records, David Lewis at Elizabeth's Records and Greg at Used Kids Records. They are all doing great work during this time. Seek them out and support them any way you can. Small business owners make our city unique, give them some love.
I will leave you with this song from Fountains Of Wayne. It's their cover of The Kinks "Better Things." Sadly we lost Adam Schlesinger to Covid-19. Such a great talent gone too soon. His music has been on my turntable for days now. It's helping me through these troubled times.....
BONUS MATERIAL - One of the last concerts that i got to attend before everything started getting cancelled was KISS in Lexington, KY on February 13th. Seems kind of fitting that I would get to see one of my favorite bands before heading into isolation. Paul Stanley has been doing some at home videos and posting them every few days on his Facebook page. I’ve been enjoying these quite a bit…
Scott Carr is a guitarist who plays in the Columbus, OH bands Radio Tramps andReturning April. Scott is also an avid collector of vinyl records and works at Lost Weekend Records. So...if you are looking for Scott....you'll either find him in a dimly lit bar playing his guitar or in a record store digging for the holy grail.