COME PICK WITH US!

Join us this Sunday, November 22^nd, 12 – 4 pm for "Pickin in the Park", a traditional music gathering for Old-Time, Bluegrass , Irish, Cajun, and whatever …….  Bring your instruments and come out to the park for some good picking, good friends, good times and free food.  Burgers, hot dogs and soft drinks are provided but feel free to bring whatever you like.

The venue is Zilker Park at the "Polo Tables" Picnic site.  This event is sponsored by Austin Friends of Traditional Music, Fiddler's Green Music Shop and the Central Texas Bluegrass Association. 

hey guys,

Eric, who works up at flips told me that y'all came specifically to see us play tonight- i really appreciate that.

i think i met some of yer friends on the way to the show tonite,  i introduced myself by saying, " hey you punks, can't you buy a car?"  i'm not sure if y'all were part of the same crew but either way thanks for coming out,  y'all should tell me yer names next time.

Adam.

Just came home from the 4th Annual Austin Friends of Traditional Music {Fall} String Band Festival {aftm.us}, which was held at Camp Ben Mc Coullogh out in Driftwood.

as always, it was a beautiful festival and that's because the folks that put it on are such great folks. they are open and warm, talented them selves and deeply generous. the AFTM is a non-profit group that exists for the sole purpose of promoting Traditional Music in it's various forms- and in our case Traditional inspired Americaneer Music.

THE ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN ROTTEN APPLE GANG was honored to play at this festival friday night at nine pm to an {at first} slightly bewildered crowd, but none the less attentive and ultimately enthusiastic and open to the "way out" set we played for them.

these were some folks that knew they were coming to a string band festival that also features mexican music and cajun music as well as extremely talented old time players and top noch bluegrass pickers but i think they were a bit surprised by our mix of bluegrass, oldtime, klezmer and punk octane acoustic fury and our relaxed sense of humor and fun atmosphere we project on stage. i don't mean to sound smug or to brag, but i am clearly conscious of what we bring to a show-  oh yeah we are not shabby dressers either....

I here give the warmest of compliments though, to my BAND.

i had a stellar line up for this evening, i thank them so much for being part of my band, each one of them is so unique and talented and a general joy to be around. they all care foremost about putting out the best energy they can and making every show the best it can possibly be. so to Dru Pressman on upright bass and harmony vocals and fiddle jokes, Amanda Kitchens {in her command performance} on accordion, guitar and harmony vocals, Bluegrass Dave Wilmoth on mandolin and harmony vocals, Roy Coon on clarinet, harmony vocals, foot stompin' and sexy snake dancin' and Sick on fiddle, harmony vocals, banjo jokes and weeping; all of y'all have touched me so deeply {shut up Sick!} and have helped this band become the Formidable Monster it now is! thank all of you for joining me on stage, for all your hard work, encouragement and for sharing your gifts with me and everyone else. {i don't want to leave out our new guitarist, though he did not play this show with us for he has not been completely worked into the band but Jarrett Killen will soon be seen by all, as is already by me, a brilliant addition to The Gang.}

when i told my Brother the day before about this amazing lineup he impressed upon me the idea to record the show, and i couldn't believe i didn't think of it my self! "Capital Idea" i thought, so we had our friends Robert Steel { who recorded our soon to be released studio (living room) album} and Erroneous O'shaughnessy come out with their mobile field recording devices. Robert recorded through the sound board and Erroneous through the air, and after the blending of the two, we are going put out a wicked live album!

i also would like to thank my great friend Dylan M.Blackthorn for his invaluable service rendered without which i was loathe to do.

finally, to my friend Micheal Rubin of Sick's Pack and The Mc Mercy Family Band,
who had several great conversations with me over this weekend that were each enlightening and insightful and encouraging. you have helped me more than once by imparting to me some of your philosophy of performance and practice and have payed me some compliments that i honestly didn't know i had coming for you and for that i am Grateful.

and ultimately-finally, My Thanks to those who at this festival payed us your warm compliments and to those of you who regularly or irregularly support The Gang with your attendance and applause and compliments and encouragement. and thanks to You for reading this.

-and

Thanks to Brian Durkin of Flatcar Rattlers for givin' me a ride home from the festival!


sincerely,
Adam Kobetich

p.s.  and thanks to her for the sound her voice however faraway

i love Dallas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMGwa9Gyd68

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CegtGPQKxA4

BBD's Last Stand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y91mvvfaxjk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTHjImwz4xU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ_wIQTpUM4

O.k. y'all, we have a killer line up right now and one i'd like to
preserve. we are also currently under the gun because our guitarist
British Banjo Dan is going to have to go back to England in february.
his last night in town is february 8th, fancy that! that's also the
night we play the Hole in the Wall with our buddies, Wino Vino and
Below the Salt- BBD's going away party if you will.

seeing as
how we've got the perfect line up for this band right now and will we
be TEMPORARILY losing BBD for a space in the calendar, we are currently
recording a new cd. it will be our first official release! with guest
appearances from my brother Darrin who helped me form this band in the
first place, Sophia grey and her beautiful voice and of course our
amazing part-time permanent fiddler SICK!

some of these songs
are currently on our page but some are not necessarily the takes that
will be on the cd, for example, i am not releasing the version of Super
Happy Fun Dance with Sick on it before the cd comes out......

the working tittle of this cd is, Harmony and Chaos in Ye Ole Gorilla Manse.
the
concept behind this is to reflect the ideas that some of our songs
attempt to put across and to celebrate the fact that this crew sings some lovely harmony's
and plays some beautifully harmonious music together both in the
practical sense and in the spiritual sense.  most of the original
songs are suporting ideas of culture jamming and subversion of the
consumerist system that we have in country and world, which encourages
people to buy all kinds of stuff they don't really need and throw away
that stuff later to buy more stuff and/or to stuff themselves into some prescribed idea of social and physical normaility.

the Gorilla Manse is a
fictional place where radical ideas find a home, it is also a place
where i call home. we are recording this new cd in my living room,
therefor the harmony and chaos is emanating from, Ye Ole  Gorilla
Manse. In referring to chaos i  don't mean disorder, i mean the beautiful unpredictability that
happens when playing music, you can have such sweet happy accidents or
in Sick’s case, i think nothing is an accident but he surprises us
continually.

i don't know if this title is going to stick, i
don't know if i can convince the rest of the crew of it's validity, but
for now, that's where we're at.....

the music that inspired this
band, that is, traditional old time and Bluegrass, is just "do it your self for
the love of doing it" music. it's kinda funny that i see it in the same
light as subverting what i see as a broken system because i think alot
of people in the bluegrass world in particular are on a very
conservative slant and i suppose that's the basic perception of
bluegrassers in the general public if not something even less
flattering. however, i've met quite a few progressive minded
people in the field, go figure!  one thing we all definitely have in common is a love for
simplicity in life, and this music is a representation of that.  we
don't need amps, we don't need lights, we don't have effects on our
voices and instruments, the sound that we can produce with accoustic instruments is what you get... and it ROCKS! and in our case we are producing it in my living room with one
mic for the bass and one mic for the entire rest of the band, simple and direct.

it's funny how i am putting old time and bluegrass in
such close quarters here considering the  rift that you will find on
various blogs between the two, however that won't stop them all from
showing up at the Annual AFTM party last weekend. again, another
example of small groups of people co-operating and working together
because of a common goal or love- MUSIC, and simplicity.

thanks for reading.
Adam.