Monday, March 14, 2011

Ms. Rigot Truth. Eat it.

Finally here in Texas. Loving every Long Horn minute of it. It's like I'm Back In The Saddle Again. I love feeling a cowboy's spurs into my fuckin fat ass spurrin me on to buck harder. The live performance will definitely be a buck off the cow poke. Can't wait till you hear the songstresses beautiful vocals right at you like a picador into the back of my fuckin neck. 


Love you bitches,


The Mother Fuckin Puss

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Song List

We've been receiving comments online regarding songs that we should be playing. We are hearing all your feedback and practicing. It's all good so far. More to come....


albert

Friday, March 11, 2011

SXSW Officially Kicks Off!

Today, SXSW officially kicked off. The City is expecting more than 100,000 visitors for this next week's festival. The city is dressed up, the news is covering all angles, and the net is live with activities. The streets are being blocked off, and it's like Mardi Gras comes to Austin.


The weather is perfect. Eighty degrees in the afternoon, with cool evenings and mornings. Last night we had some down home BBQ at Ruby's. Some of the best BBQ I ever had. Loved that brisket.


We've been practicing during the day this whole week, and tonight we had our first night time practice and it was magical. It's all coming together. We are really excited to receive Rigot on Sunday. We've been speaking with him by phone and we are all looking forward to being together.


We will go to see The Hickoids on Saturday night. Hick punk. Should be cool.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

"Live Your Rock N Roll Dream" by Alex Durig

Announcement: The new reality game show was just won by Alex Durig. 1st Prize?
Alex you will be reunited with The Endtables for a 2 week rock n roll fantasy fulfilling all of your greatest rock n roll dreams. You will be spending 2 weeks living with your brother Albert at the residence of a professional drummer where you will each be given a Marshall amp and an Ampeg amp just like all your rock n roll heroes always played. You will have practice space given to you. You and your brother will start practicing week 1 and then we will fly in singer Steve Rigot for week 2 practices and performances. You will be practicing every day for a live gig at SXSW in Austin - the single biggest music festival for music industry execs in the world. There The Endtables will have a chance to perform all your original songs for the execs, agents, and managers that run the music industry, and you will have a chance to be picked up by one of them. Singer Steve Rigot, your brother, Albert, and you - The Endtables - live at SXSW. Have fun living your rock n roll dream.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Meet Ezra Reynolds

You gotta meet Ezra. He's the greatest. He came to us via contacts at Drag City Records and is himself a native of Austin, Texas, although he has spent many years living in Chicago as well as touring professionally.


Ezra was born in Austin, Texas in 1975 on Avenue H, with corn in the front yard and chickens in the back. How's that for authentic. :)


Ezra's first introduction to music was when he was 5 years old and got his first drum set, a Remo PTS kit. At ten, he began playing piano and let me tell you, he's a wonderful piano player. At 12 he began playing cello. At 17 this solid foundation in music took him to bass and guitar.


Ezra's first band was Breedlove, a 90's soul band from Austin. They played quite successfully and even were on the HORDE tour with Neil Young, Primus, and Ben Folds 5. But this was just the beginning. Next Ezra began playing with W.C. Clark, the Godfather of Austin soul and mentor to Stevie Ray Vaughn. Ezra toured the US with Clark playing piano and organ. And then the real rock started. At this same time, Ezra was beginning a new band called "The Free Range Bastards", a local jank rock band, meaning it sounded like a lock that doesn't quite work right and you have to mess with in order to get open. This is also the first band wherein Ezra moved from playing piano to playing bass guitar.


Ezra went on to play with "Tia Carrera", "Areola 51", "The Jazzus Lizard" (a jazz tribute ensemble to "The Jesus Lizard"), and "The Sweet Hustle" (Ezra's first rock gig as a drummer).


After several years living in Chicago, Ezra came to know Drag City Records well and became friends with many of their staff. It was through that connection that Ezra met "The Endtables".

First Day, First Play by albert durig

Hello to anyone that cares to read this...


It's been a wild year, a wild past couple of months, a wild last few weeks, and a wild past couple of days. So much travel thus far that I'm not sure what day it is, or time it is. But I finally do know where I am...Austin, Texas! Yeah Baby!


I arrived yesterday, and went to pick up Alex and then to our new drummer's house. His name is Ezra Reynolds and although he deserves a much greater intro than this, suffice it to say, he is all that. A great drummer, musician and most of all, great person.


As we arrived at Ezra's home, we entered his studio where we will be practicing for the first week prior to moving to a larger practice studio.  It was so great to see that place. Amps, guitars, drums, all set and ready to go. We have better equipment today, than we ever had back in the day. More on that in a moment. After so many miles on the road,  my first inclination was to check my bass. I wanted to see how she fared from her miles in the hull of a commercial airliner. I opened the case and was able to verify that my black Rickenbacker 4001 had survived the journey unscathed. I then went to Alex's guitar. Same thing. His red Gibson Les Paul was smiling back at us as we opened the case. And now that the cases were open, well we had to see how they sounded.


Alex is playing his Les Paul through a Marshall JCM 900 that is nothing short of balls to the wall. What a great sound. I'm playing my Rickenbacker through a 100 Watt Ampeg head with 8 ten inch speakers. This amp and cabinet is a monster and delivers bass to the balls for days. With the guitars open and the amps plugged in, we tested and adjusted for sound. Now that we had come this far, why not try a few songs out?


Ezra got behind his kit (more on that in my next entry) and we began playing. About an 1 hour or so later, we had gone over "Break The Bank", "White Glove Test", "Twelve" and "They're Guilty", worked up the nuances and breaks, and it was sounding better than ever. Heavy, hard hitting, wild, spastic, tight, bright, boiling bottom, driving drums, smacking snare, and Alex's signature rhythmic style playing with tons of shank-a-shank, that put shivers down my spine. At least I say that speaking for myself.


One proof point for me of the time it has been, the years that have passed, the fun this is and will be, and the heavy of the hard, is that I now have a huge bruise across the inside of my forearm from where my arm rests on the edge of my Rickenbacker while I play standing up. I'm not used to playing a Rick in that position and for long lengths of time. I can only hope that by the day of show, it's an even bigger, ready to break, bloody mess of a wound! :)


So our first day in Austin resulted in actually playing together which was unexpected. We will now continue with scheduled practices daily through the 18th. We all can't wait for our beloved Steve Rigot (a.k.a. Chili, Shirls, ...) to get here. It won't be full, complete or quite the same until she does. And in the meantime, we are hitting it hard so that when she arrives, the band is solid like Gibralter.


Cheers!