I was so psyched to find this clip. It comes from the beginning of the documentary Before the Music Dies , a must see film for those interested in the future of music.

Nobody can dance like Billy.

I’ve always been a distant fan of the Portland band Richmond Fountaine..primarily because pedal steel virtuoso and all around nice guy Paul Brainard is part of the group. RF has recently released some tracks from their new CD called Thirteen Cities - which I’m quickly falling in love with. The group is touring Europe throughout May but will return to Portland’s Doug Fir Lounge on June 23rd for a hometown CD release show celebrating their new album . Click this link to see a video of their beautiful instrumental El Tiradito.

Brian eno is probably best known as a a musician and producer however he apparently has also had a long career as a visual artist. His latest series of compositions are collectively know as 77 Million Paintings. The examples on his web site are really cool. Kind of like a modern day version of those oil and food coloring projections that were so popular in the 60’s. A brief explanation from his site:

77 millionn paintings which uses the screen of your computer to create a constantly evolving painting. The painting is generated from hand-made slides that are randomly combined by the computer using specially developed software.

Normally I play the drums for Dirty Martini but on this particular “acoustic trio” night I was the emcee and camera man. The video is dark and pixelated but if you can look beyond that the performance is quite nice. The song is “Two Tons” which can be found on DM debut CD. Enjoy…

It appears there may be a diving catch to save Internet radio..and Oregon sentator Ron Wyden is leading the charge (yea Oregon!). Here is an article from www.cmj.com that sums up the progress:

Senators Propose New Bill To Save Net Radio
2007-05-11 12:38:56.020,
Story by: Rachael Darmanin
In the continuing saga that has become the rescue of Internet Radio from the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) July 15 planned royalty increase, two senators have proposed legislation further supporting April 23’s Internet Radio Equality Act. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) support the legislation and have added that there should be special royalty rules for non-commercial broadcasters like NPR and college radio.
“Our bill is about standing up for folks ranging from a small webcaster in a basement in Corvallis to an innovative startup in Beaverton to a new band trying to be heard in Portland to a huge music fan in Coos Bay,” Wyden said. “Keeping Internet radio alive is part of a broader issue that is important to me—keeping the e-commerce engine running by preventing discrimination against it.”

Wyden and Brownback also made a point to note that there should not be a $500 per channel minimum royalty fee set by the CRB, citing that Internet radio is not limited by the number of channels like traditional radio. The CRB’s new royalty fees, at least for now, will still become effective this July, but for more information on how you can get involved, check out www.savenetradio.org

Here’s some audience footage from last years performance with the Floydian Slips at the Cuthbert amphitheater in Eugene, Oregon. I’m the guy on the drums that’s masked by a well placed cymbal.

I’m very lucky to be in one of the coolest Pink Floyd cover bands ever. Over the years we’ve graduated from clubs to theaters to 2000 seat amphitheaters. We’ll be back at the Cuthbert on August 18th.

This may be some of the best reunion news I’ve heard so far this year: Spinal Tap will be performing at Al Gore’s 24 hour mega concert event Live Earth. The group will perform on July 7th at Wembley Stadium in London. Best of all the group has put together a new single for the event called “Warmer than Hell.” Rob Reiner, the dirtector of “This is Spinal Tap,” has created a 15 minute film about the making of the single - not sure when that will be released to the public.

The director said the new short film explains what the band has been doing with their lives lately:

Nigel has been raising miniature horses to race but can’t find jockeys small enough to ride them; David is now a hip-hop producer who also runs a colonic clinic; and Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet.

Classic.