Pablo Picasso once said “Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal.”
WELL FUCK PICASSO AND FUCK YOU TOO!!!
THIS IS THE REAL GOLDEN VOICE HOMELESS MAN!
ORIGINAL AND UNDISPUTED, COME GET SOME
- THE REAL GOLDEN VOICE HOMELESS MAN
The Jordan Years kick off 2011 at one of our favorite venues… darkroom!
FACT: Friday the 14th is actually the luckiest day of the year; come get lucky with The Jordan Years. Can’t wait to rock with long time favorites Diplomats of Solid Sound and LA Jesus!
Doors @ 9PM / FREE BEFORE 11PM / $8 AFTER / 21+
December 4th, 2010 is a day that just might go down in party history, I had the great pleasure of hosting the Brew-B-Q II: Electric Brewgaloo / Sagittarians Unite throwdown. The day was part BBQ and part birthday celebration for myself. First guests arrived at 1:30PM on 12/4/10, last guests left at 5:00AM on 12/5/10.
Here’s what went down. . .
LOWDIVE made three 5 gallon kegs of amazing beer including a Belgian Chocolate Coffee Stout, a Chocolate Vanilla Stout, and a Rye Pale Ale. STONE came through with a keg of their Arrogant Bastard Ale. Also RIGHT GIN were in the house with batches of delicious cocktails! Kegs were flowing from 1PM til about 8PM
Won & Tooch supplied the taco bar! From what I understand they grilled up over 30 pounds of beef and 20 pounds of chicken. All of the food was gone by 7PM. That’s a ton of food!
DJ Intel rocked the 1′s & 2′s for like 8 hours straight! The tunes were slamming too, anything from deep Meters to Air, great job holding it down! Intel seriously was working the decks from 2 til damn near 10PM.
Ramsey Judson played upright bass while rapping along to beats, if you haven’t seen Ramsey’s sticker around town you obviously aren’t paying attention. PARTY FOUL ALERT: I was paying too much attention playing host instead of watching the board and didn’t get the line from his beat so it sounds kind of weird. Here’s a tune he performed regardless. . .
Ramsey Judson by WestTownRecording
****** Around 9PM there was a natural reset in the party, those that came early left and a whole new batch came in. I took advantage of a 2 hour lull in drinking to catch up on water and coffee. The following takes place sometime between 11:00PM and 5:ooAM. I recorded everything, a ton more on the hard drive******
For my birthday I had to do it right, so I got the band back together. Literally 4 days prior to the party I reached out to a few musicians whom I have performed with in the past. To my surprise I was able to get Ava Fain (Family Lifted, East Village Project, Bumpus) on vocals, Afra Williams (East Village Project) on vocals, Sorin Brouwers (Family Lifted, PALA) on guitar, Roger Panella (Jordan Years, L’orchestre Super Vitesse) on guitar, Jeremy Cunningham on drums and of course myself on bass. We did a handful of Chaka Khan tunes and a Lynn Collins tune. There was no rehearsal for this band, in fact a few of the musicians had never met prior to this performance and I was easily into my tenth hour of partying. Here’s a sample. . .
Stop on By – WTR All Stars by WestTownRecording
You Got the Love – WTR All Stars by WestTownRecording
At the conclusion of our set, I received a very special treat by Ms Ava Fain singing me “Happy Birthday”!! Getting old has never felt sweeter. Happy Birthday – Ava Fain by WestTownRecording
The Congregation followed with their scorching blend of soul and R&B. They were just featured in Metromix today in fact and have a record release party this Saturday December 11th @ Reggies! I had the pleasure of recording the album Not for Sleeping which is being released, please join me for what will be an amazing show! Here are two of my favs from Saturday, check it out!
Been Down So Long – The Congregation by WestTownRecording
High Class MF – The Congregation by WestTownRecording
An hour or so after The Congregation set, Ms Gina Bloom performed the following birthday song for me. My heart is still a pitter patter. . .
Birthday Song – Gina Bloom by WestTownRecording
The night came to a close after the sensational performance by the hottest group to come out of WTR, Spanish Cafeteria! This band just showed up at the party around 3AM, apparently they are all related featuring Gina, Wes & Illy Cafeteria on vocals, Logan Cafeteria on drums, Chuck Cafeteria on keys, Roger Cafeteria on guitar and Mr Cafeteria on bass. . . Their rider only allowed me access to one track for the blog. Damn lawyers!
World Keeps Turning – Spanish Cafeteria by WestTownRecording
I am also proud to announce the first official “Last Guy Standing” award to Mr Logan Schutts for being, well you guessed it, the last guy standing at the party! I have found myself in his shoes many a time and feel it only appropriate to say, yeah this dude can hang. Check out Logan playing drums with afrobeat/funk band Crystal Gravy this Saturday December 11th @ Nicks in Wicker Park.
So there ya have it folks, what started at 1PM ended at 5AM. I spent all day Sunday cleaning between naps. As of Monday the place is pretty damn close to being back to business as usual.
As always if you haven’t “liked” West Town Recording already, you can do so here. . . Also add me as a friend, I’m far from shy. Please keep in mind that all of this happened at my slanty shanty in Chicago’s Humboldt Park, kind of crazy that I’m still throwing house parties 18 years later. . .
Much love, thanks for one hell of a party! I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by such talented people, don’t ever stop!
-Mr Andersen
It’s Christmas time and who better to say Merry Christmas than drummer/educator/entrepreneur MARTIN ATKINS! I had the great pleasure of having Martin through West Town Recording last Winter for a talk on his book TOUR:SMART to a studio jammed packed of musicians eagerly listening and laughing.
If you are in a band, want to be a band, know someone in a band or love misery in general you have to get a copy of his latest book Welcome to the Music Business…You’re Fucked!! Hell, he was so inspiring I built a 4 color screen printing press right after meeting him. I will be pestering him to come through again to talk on this book, mark my words.
Want to get me something cool for Xmas or birthday? This book and T Shirt would work!
-Mr Andersen
Super excited about The Congregation’s new EP “Not For Sleeping” to drop early December, here’s the first single “He’s Gone”. Full disclosure here, I recorded this EP and really like these guys so am biased, there ya have it. . .
Enjoy and be sure to check out the Not For Sleeping release party at Reggie’s December 11th, also on the bill Chicago’s own France Jean-Baptiste and Ohio’s Winslow.
What a night! I’m still getting great feedback about the party, can’t wait til next year! First person arrived at 9:09PM, last person left at 5:38AM not a bad run!
Below find Baby n Hide covering the Kanye West tune “Runaway“; The Sometimes Family performing their tune “It’s A Wonder We Don’t Die From Dancing” and The Drunken Years performing their song “The Winner”.
There are all sorts of pictures on facebook from the party, look me up and you can see more if you were there that night.
Also if you haven’t already, LIKE WTR on Facebook and sign up for the mailing list. Enjoy!
Baby and Hide cover the new Kanye West tune “Runaway”, totally hilarious cause I thought it was a Pavement tune as they were playing it, d’oh!
It’s a Wonder We Don’t Die From Dancing by WestTownRecording
The Sometimes Family hit it with their tune “It’s A Wonder We Don’t Die From Dancing”, I Love when Rebeca starts the call and response at the end of the tune, good shit.
The Winner by WestTownRecording
The Drunken Years performing their tune “The Winner”. The goal for the evening was to get drunk, I think we achieved said goal.
Thanks for another great Halloween Bash!
Yours truly,
Mr Andersen / The Ghost of Billy Mays
You read it right folks, I will be dusting off the suit, clearing the throat and rocking a mic at the Arts of Life Charitable Chili Cook-Off this coming Saturday November 6! Check out the list of sponsors including HALF ACRE BEER COMPANY, CHICAGOIST, WEST TOWN RECORDING, and BLACK DOG GELATO!!!
The Arts of Life, Inc. is committed to providing high quality, innovative services for developmentally disabled adults. The studio focuses on its artists’ needs and strives to exceed expectations. The Arts of Life will continue to be characterized by both dedication to its artists and excellence in the field of developmental disabilities.
Please join us! Facebook event link here!
Saturday November 6, 2010 5PM-8PM
The Arts of Life
2010 W. Carroll Ave
Chicago, IL
-Mr Andersen
Wes Restless was through West Town Recording last night getting the new Jordan Years record together. Here’s a vid on the new HD Flip Cam, ENJOY!
-Mr Andersen
Drummer/House DJ/Singer extraordinaire Ben Bitner stopped by the studio this evening to track vocals for a new release expected sometime before the end of the year.
I use to play with Ben way back in the day, 96 or so? Anyway it was great to catch up with him and see he is still doing his thing.
-Mr Andersen
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