A Thousand Fragments

It's beginning to dawn on me what an absolute ninny I've been.

I have been so stressed over the past two weeks, and becoming overwhelmingly depressed as a result. And although stress in moderation could be considered normal under the circumstances -- with the house closing in temporary limbo, and all the new tacked-on closing costs, and the monthly mortgage that turned out to be a bit higher than either of us expected, in other words the usual one-imbroglio-after-another that every future homeowner goes through -- I appear to be letting the suspense and subsequent stress get to me a little. I'm typically quite a patient person, and remain fairly calm and controlled under pressure, so I'm not sure why I'm letting "the little things" bug me like I am. But for some reason today (perhaps after talking with my mother earlier) I've felt more relaxed, less depressed and wigged-out in general than I have since I... uh, I guess last remembered feeling this way. In fact I feel rather foolish for carrying on so for as long as I have, and I apologize (again, I know) for being a grump here for awhile. Once I'm able to step back a bit and put things into perspective I'm always able to remind myself that all things considered I really don't have a damn thing to be stressed out or depressed about, especially when I know so many other people who are suffering through far worse that what I'm dealing with right now. The phone will get fixed, Melissa. We will get the house, Melissa. We will move all these records and CDs and DVDs in a relatively organized manner -- and you know it's funny that I'm more worried about moving all the DVDs and crap more than I am the actual furniture. Heck, right now all the stacks of DVDs are being used as furniture!

So anyways allow me to get back into actual music information for a welcome change around here.

Apparently Cowboy Mouth is scheduled to perform on Ellen DeGeneres' morning show this Tuesday. Yeah, they appear to have a new album out, although I don't recall seeing it in my store.

Thing is, I only like Cowboy Mouth all right. They have some nice tunes and all, and I've seen them live once or twice. The really interesting thing here (okay interesting to me) is that the guys in Cowboy Mouth, a New Orleans-based band, are very good friends with Ellen's brother Vance. Vance toured with Cowboy Mouth back in 1998 (bottom photo shows Vance playing guitar onstage with CM when they were opening for The Barenaked Ladies that summer) and in the 80's he was in a band with several Cowboy Mouth members called The Backbeats:


I got this vinyl EP off Gemm.com although mine is autographed by all five band members (and I am very familiar with Vance's distinctive serial-killer scribble), and yeah, that's ol' Vanceypants there on the far left. Ivan Neville produced this record and it has this sort of very poppy slight rockabilly-80's-style flavor happenin' (I'd put up a file but yousendit is down at the moment). Also Steven Soderbergh directed their first video back around 1984 or 85 (pre-dating Sex, Lies & Videotape!), and I know a guy who went to college with Soderbergh's sound editor Larry Blake so I contacted Mr. Blake and we have several really nice discussions about some of the upcoming projects he and Steven were working on at the time, and he told me that he and Steven had just run across the old Backbeats video that he made just before I contacted him and there was discussions about me maybe getting a copy (old readers may remember all this from a few years back -- then again maybe not) but turns out it didn't happen after all. I think Soderbergh is toying with the possible idea of putting out a disk of early old film projects that might include that video so he probably doesn't want it floating around out there by the dubious likes o' me. Not that I'd bootleg or anything, and I was willing to sign anything they gave me at the time. Still, it was pretty cool talking to Larry Blake and everything. Very, very nice man, and it sounds like Soderbergh is as well.

Anyway, where was I getting with all this? Oh yes, Cowboy Mouth. And Vance.

Cowboy Mouth is hardly the caliber of A-list celebrity that Ellen usually has performing on her show. She is obviously throwing her weight around to get her brother's old pals some high-profile exposure, and that means I wonder if there will be an actual Vance sighting on the show that day. Maybe even sit in with the boys once more?

Okay I know, weak music entry for now. Give me time, homies. I've apparently gotten rusty at this.