The Schmoejoes played Bunker's Music Bar & Grill on Saturday, April 7th, and it was about as surreal as it gets.

If you ask, I'll tell you that I lived in the Twin Cities for quite a few years, before I met my lovely wife, and moved to Waseca. Since I've been down here, I've gotten pretty lazy about making the hour and a half drive up to the Cities, even though I only have to turn right, then left, and left again (punctuated by lengthy straights). A side-effect of this laziness means I don't see my old pals nearly as much as I used to - once a day has turned into once a year.

Imagine seeing people you haven't run into for 10 years, all in one room - and then you get up on a stage and perform. Odd. It was kind of like a dream, where you see all these people from your past, but you don't have clothes on - or they all have fish heads, or something.

The show itself went pretty well - the sound was great, the beer was free and endless, and the audience was close, appreciative, and I got the distinct impression that they were actually there to see the bands!

I'm looking forward to seeing my old pals again, and meeting new ones when we play the Uptown, on the 14th of June. See you there!

April 3rd was the 3rd birthday of The Schmoejoes, and it passed with no party, presents, or birthday song. *sigh*

I admit, I didn't expect any.

It reminds me of a time long, long ago, when I was talking to a teenaged-girl about the band I was in then (which will remain unnamed ;). We spoke about the kind of music she liked, and I mentioned that she'd probably like my 'Unnamed Band'. She asked how long we had been together, and I proudly said, "5 years!", as that was rather unheard of - most Minneapolis bands had a life span of two years before breaking up. Lead singer sleeps with keyboardist's girl, and suddenly, Drama!

The teenaged-girl snorted derisively, and said, "Pfft. I only listen to new music."

I just stood there with my mouth open.

As you may have noticed, I've posted a quite a bit in the last few days - I'm trying to roll it into a habit. I've berated my old pal Patrick to do the same - especially now that he's pushing a record and playing out.

I'm of the opinion that I can't write a song every day, so I might as well write something, and that being a post on here. I've pointed out to Patrick that, "If there's not something new when people get to your site, they're going to forget you the next time they're 'out there' surfing."

I've had a few favorite sites go dead on me, after luring me in with interesting talk, cool links, funny prose and the like. I'd check them frequently at first, a couple times a day, stalking them for new stuff. After some time, a couple of weeks or so, I'd taper off - I'd actually be annoyed that they weren't 'giving me my fix'.

A couple sites would come back; I'd happily forgive and forget, some would stay dead. The dead ones I had to take off my list of RSS, which seemed so final. Throughout this, I was curious how anyone who cared enough to put something on the net, keep it updated, garner a following, etc. would just toss all the work they put into it one day, sans explanation.

Since this is a site about The Schmoejoes, I post things about us, about stuff we did, shows we've played, shows we're going to play, and an odd bit here and there. I'd guess this is rather different than a LiveJournal or the like - we have shows. Posting the shows the other day was about the most tedious thing I've done for some time.

I'm not just posting shows here, I'm posting them on our MySpace site, I'm posting them on Google Calendar, Redfizz.com, TCMusic.net too. They all have their own little 'way of doing things', which means reformatting everything at best, or using pull-down menus for every field at worst. It took me over an hour to get everything 'right'.

My wife informs me that it's my own damn fault - people can come here if they want to know when we play, screw all these other sites. I agree. Why should I have to jump through hoops to post shows, update info, and change things on 10 different sites? All the info is here. Why can't they come get it, say, through a special RSS feed, and repost it in whatever format they like? Warning: Geeks only past this point.

It's like this: The Schmoejoes are booked at the Smokey the Bear Festival. I fill in a web form hosted on my site, with venue, date, address, time, comments, other bands, etc. It gets posted to my site, and auto-pings MySpace, and all the other sites I'm signed up on. They grab it, add it to The Schmoejoes profile; they're up-to-date, I'm up-to-date, and rather than an hour and a half of posting, fixing, reformatting, logging in and all the rest - I'm writing/recording/practicing/having a beer.

Oh, I want this.

Aye - here's the rub:

Saturday, April 7th - The Schmoejoes @ Bunkers Music Bar & Grill in Minneapolis, MN w/ Morrisson & Alison Scott

The Schmoejoes will be opening our first show in the Twin Cities. As you know, it's required to come to our show by City of Minneapolis statute 137.23.48a. Really. Read the book.

$6 at the door. Get there early(9pm) to hear our solution to Global Warming, which is easily worth $3.75.

Friday, May 4th - The What's Up Lounge in Mankato, MN w/ KitCar and The Mood Swings 3 bucks; a bargain at twice the price, but a devilish deal at thrice.

Thursday, June 14th- The Uptown Bar and Grill in Minneapolis, MN w/ Seymore Saves the World - Seymore kicks off their US tour to spread the word of their new record, and The Schmoejoes are there with oranges, so they don't get scurvy on the way! Free! Bring an orange, and it will still be free! So, like, don't bring an orange then.

Thursday, August 9th - Music and Movie in District del Sol Park in St. Paul, MN - Free! Run in the grass while The Schmoejoes alternatively caress, then assault your ears. Come for the music, stay for the movie! (As soon as I know the movie, you'll know the movie. :)

Yes, there was a second show - you thought I forgot? The third annual Dead of Winter Jam at the Kato Ballroom! The headliners had to cancel (This has happened three times in a row. Is there a Schmoejoes conspiracy?) We were number 2 in the lineup, and even enticed a few people to dance. I guess all that Al Green I'm listening to is having an effect, though we're working up to panties on the stage.

I talked to quite a few people that night, though yelling back and forth is not very conducive to conversation. Nick, if you're out there - thanks for the kind words. Nick was one of the two music fans I spoke with - the other was Mari, who'll be writing a fine article about The Schmoejoes for the next issue of Applauze. Mom's going to love it, unless Mari quotes me and my ample 'blue' vocabulary.

This marks the second show we've played at the Kato Ballroom, and once again I'm left with mixed feelings about the place. It's one of the coolest rooms I've ever been in, and when we're there, I can feel the great history of the place, and the great musicians that have been through there. You can see this in the fantastic photos Vic took of us in 2005 at the Kato Ballroom. Of course, Mike Gimmer's light show makes everyone look like rock stars. ;)

Unfortunately, it seems to get more weddings than groundbreaking music these days, and it's a shame. It's a great room, with a fantastic stage, and enough room to hold a thousand people - though the sound guy needs a light touch when there's less. (note to bands: keep your stage volume down - leave the Hi-Watt at home. You're playing in a giant echo chamber that will sound great when you don't overpower the room)

I could see the Kato Ballroom as the First Ave. of Mankato, with national acts and big thirsty crowds, with great new music in a venue that can hold lots of fans, and yet be fantastically intimate...but it's sitting there waiting.

Dream a little dream of me...

So here it's been a few weeks, and The Schmoejoes have played two shows; were you there?

Our first one was at the Inferno Tavern in Mankato, MN on the 17th - St. Patty's Day. The headliners had canceled again (the first time was at the same bar awhile ago), so The Schmoejoes were filling in with an extra set. I think cancel-band has finally broken up, so we won't have to do that again. ha!

Opening the night was Useful Jenkins, a local acoustic act. Kick Tin took the stage after that, and acoustically rocked some Bon Jovi and the Foo Fighters. All in all, pretty good.

The Schmoejoes' newest pals, Seymore Saves the World, set up, and kicked into some Ben Foldsy-type goodness. They absolutely kicked my ass. Go listen to them right now. Fantastic show. I'm looking forward to playing with them again...on June 14th at the fine Uptown Bar in Minneapolis! Nice!

The Schmoejoes closed the night, and just like St. Patrick, we drove the snakes from Ireland all over again. If by snakes, you mean customers. By the end of the evening, I had had three beers, and sweated them all over a paper towel I later sold on eBay. Merchandising...it's the key here, people! Lots of bar hopping went on that night, and I saw a ton of faces - some of them glistening with tears. Not sure if it was the beauty of the 'joes, or the realization that they lost their left shoe at some point.

Then somewhere in the darkness, the gambler, he broke even...

Those of you who've seen The Schmoejoes know my '64 Silvertone 1446L is the coolest guitar ever made. Thanks to my talented luthier pal Bobby Nelson, I now have another, the '60 Silvertone 1427L! (You'll have to go here to see a pic of the gals together. :) Beautiful.

The Silvertone 1446L (on the left) is a thinline hollow-body guitar, and one of the few that came stock with a Bigsby tremolo. One of the nifty things about this guitar are the angled pickup surrounds - these were unique to this model.

The Silvertone 1427 is a big jazz-box style guitar, reminiscent of the Gretsch guitars of the era. Unlike the 1446, it has no block supporting the plywood top - due to this, some of these guitars' tops have sunken somewhat over the years. There was another model identical to the 1427, the Espanada. The Espanada had an aluminum binding and a fancier tailpiece, which you can see here. You'll notice that in addition to the aluminum 'Espanada' on the headstock, there is another 'Espanada' badge on the upper bout. I don't believe 'Silvertone' or 'Harmony' appear anywhere on the guitar.

I bought my 1427 a few years ago, and due to the issues it had (coming up), it's spent most of the time hiding in its case.

Harmony made both these guitars for Sears, who used the Silvertone name for many of their instruments and amps. Commonly, they are referred to by their Harmony model numbers: H1446 & H64 respectively. Harmony didn't sell a black Harmony-branded version of the 1427 that I know of, however, I have seen one example of a Harmony-branded 1446 with twin cutaways.

To my knowledge, these two guitars were the only ones to come stock with actual Gibson pickups - mini-humbuckers in the 1446L, and P-13 single-coils in the 1427L. The P-13s were predecessors to the P-90 single coil.

Unfortunately, my 1427 was suffering from microphonic pickups, which made it useless for plugging in. Bobby yanked the pickups, potted them (which is the process of dipping in wax to keep the wee little wires from moving around and resonating), and popped them back in.

'Wow', is all I can say! What a difference! I'm able to crank up the volume, and hear this thing sing. If you live around the Twin Cities/Southern Minnesota area, and have some guitar problems, get ahold of Bobby - he'll help you out, and your guitar.

If you're a fan of Silvertones, come see The Schmoejoes - I'll be playing them!

P.S.If you have any of these, or any other cool Harmony or Silvertone guitars, and are looking to sell them, let me know!

The Dead of Winter Jam has been postponed until the 23rd of March, because of the snow crazy.

We're still on, as Jim decided to postpone his trip! Tickets are still being honored - details are at the DOWJ site.

We'll see you there...

The Schmoejoes will be playing the Dead of Winter Jam 3 at the Kato Ballroom on March 2nd?

Featuring these bands:
New Primitives, Niterail, Ian Hilmer's Stagefright, 3 in a Tree, Tony Flynn Project, The Schmoejoes (That's right, I bolded us. This is our site, after all..) our Summerfest pals, The Pledge Empire, and Useful Jenkins playing between sets.

Come see why The Schmoejoes are Mankato's second favorite band! Tix are 12 bucks the day of the show, or 10 ahead of time. You can find out more at the offical DOWJ site.

[(For you theschmoejoes.com peoples) Plus, I've added a little Google Calendar dealy over to the left that will let you subscribe to our shows, and see whatever else we're up to. Sometimes the 'Powered by Google gets in the way of the last couple days, but it's pretty nifty nonetheless. Let me know what you think.]

Thanks to Mike Gimmer of Showscape Promotions, The Schmoejoes are also returning to the Inferno Tavern on March 17th. That's St. Patrick's Day, for all you non-drunkies out there. I'm hoping to get some indie-pop action from the cities to play with us, but I haven't heard yet. We'll also be playing with a band named Somber. They're from Iowa, and will be closing the night. Get'cher green on.

who made Saturday a damn fun show. Mike Gimmer of Showscape Promotions, for booking us, Kurt at the Inferno Tavern for having us, and Ian Hilmer for some fine pickin'. Unfortunately, Somber had to cancel, so the Schmoejoes were left to fill in...let the madness begin!

Most of all, thanks to everyone who came out to see us - faces old and new. I hope you enjoyed the crazy jams, two minute songs, and of course our charming personalities. We're looking forward to seeing more of you at our next show, so spread the word!