shows
It’s hard to believe that this show was already a month ago!
It was alot of fun playing for the good people of Milwaukee at the UWM Zelazo Center and big thanks to WMSE for broadcasting the show live on the radio. More shows coming soon. (Finally getting a little busy in 2014!)
I was updating the Video of the Week page and Discography page recently and realized I had a pretty busy year. Lots of shows with MMTU, a few with Sulek and another great ILC show at COLDWAVES II this year. Also got to sit in with my pals Zach Steinback, Michael McDermott* and 1913 playing a little cajon and percussion. And I had five different projects release this year! It’s crazy how fast this year went by and I think I’m going to do a 12 Days of Christmas type review of my top 12 favorite shows of the year.
In the meantime, Let’s plug some product- they make great stocking stuffers!
Mike Mangione and The Union: Red-winged Blackbird Man (CD 2013)
ILC: Body Snatchers (CD 2013)
Rally and Sustain: The Cracknation Documentary (DVD, 2013)
Rally and Sustain: Cracklogues and Tour Logs (book, 2013)
Justin Heron: The Justin Heron EP (digital, 2013)
*maybe? haha
One of the best summer festivals in the whole world just happens to take place in Milwaukee, and we had the pleasure of playing it again recently on the newly named “Johnson Controls World Stage”. Also, sponsored by our pals at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, this stage is a blast to play. I used the provided backline kit (Thanks Cascio Interstate Music!) which was a tangerine sparkle DW Maple/Mahogany kit with 12/16/22 and a 5x 14 snare plus my usual set of Sabian cymbals.
We got a great review of the show that you can read here:
Mangione electrifies the World Stage
Over a year ago, I lost a great friend and musical brother, Jamie Duffy. We called him Kidd because he was the youngest but also he was the new guy to join up for our great Acumen adventures back in the 90s.
Losing Jamie was (and is) awful but it inadvertently gave birth to a reunion of musicians and celebration of his life in live, video and print formats. In September, we had our big COLDWAVES show and just last month, we wrapped up the DVD/book combo of Rally and Sustain which helps tell our story and also show mow much we still miss our Kidd.
We had a movie screening in Chicago and played a few tunes with friends both old and new and we’ll be rolling out another COLDWAVES show (aptly named COLDWAVES II) at the end of September. Music and stories are all we have and we’re going to make the most of it to keep him alive in our lives and our hearts.
Here’s some video from the music after the movie screening**:
Stone Farm
To learn more/ buy “Rally and Sustain”:
http://rallyandsustain.com/
**Incidentally, as with all Acumen/ILC shows, When drumming, I’m playing lefty on a righty kit. Some things will never change.
The gist of the show was to revisit an old show that we did where we turned off all the noise makers and just did the songs live with acoustic instruments. That incarnation was christened ‘BBQ Tragedy’ so this is technically a renunion show haha.
At the end of our touring cycle last year, we had the opportunity to visit Daytrotter and record a few tracks, including three from our upcoming cd “Red-Winged Blackbird Man”. The Daytrotter experience was amazing and it really felt like a milestone event for our band.
Please visit our little Daytrotter artist page and have a listen for yourself:
MMTU on Daytrotter
(Oh and for gear heads – I used a Taye 14×7 maple/walnut snare, the house kit which was a C&C Maple/Mahogany kit and some of main touring cymbal set up: 14″ HHX Groove hats, 18 AAX Ozone crash, 21″ Signature ride and 18″ HHX Stage Crash.)
I had the great pleasure recently of subbing for my friend Chris in the band Sulek. Sulek frontman Patrick Hoctor and I play together in MMTU and when Chris was unavailable he called me first. (I love those kinds of calls.)
The Details:
I only had a few weeks to get ready for the show
It was a 45 minute set (7-8 songs to learn)
It was basically a duo onstage (Patrick singing and playing guitar, Ruthie on vocals for a some songs)
It was at a venue at which I’ve never played
So, I listened to Sulek non-stop for 14 days, worked through the arrangements and really zeroed in a on a few things that I wasn’t comfortable playing at first. We had two rehearsals – Patrick and I had a 2 hour practice, and then we did a run through with Ruthie the day of the show for a little over an hour – and then boom we played the show.
Gear wise I kept it super simple since it was just two instruments on stage – kick, snare, floor tom and cymbals.
AND IT WAS A BLAST!
There is video of the show which I hope to post shortly but in the meantime, this pic will tell the story:
(ooh and Patrick loved the smoke machine! haha)
Breaks are nice, aren’t they?
We ended 2012 with some great shows, including a nice arctic adventure with our pals in Field Report up in dreamy Minnesota, we rode out (part of) the winter and now we’re headed to balmy Toronto for the Folk Alliance International conference/festival.
I’ll be packing lots of warm socks and long undies and getting ready for that trek to the Great White North. And, I’ll possibly be rolling out some new gear this year. Canada get’s to see it first but I promise that you’ll see it all over America as well if it works out the way I hope it will. (if not, I’m sure embarrassing Youtube videos will have to be destroyed haha)
So, here’s some upcoming dates with MMTU:
Feb 21 2013 Folk Alliance International – The Monarchs Pub Toronto, ON (Canada) 11:45PM
Feb 21 2013 Folk Alliance International – Access Films Showcase – Room #1059 Toronto, ON (Canada) 1:10AM (technically Feb 22)
Feb 21 2013 Folk Alliance International- Philadelphia Love Showcase – Room #1066 Toronto, ON (Canada) 1:30AM (technically Feb 22)
Feb 22 2013 Folk Alliance International- OFFICIAL SHOWCASE – Rossetti Room Toronto, ON (Canada) 8:15PM
Feb 22 2013 Folk Alliance International – LilFest Showcase – Room #1275 Toronto, ON (Canada) 1:45AM (technically Feb 23)
Feb 23 2013 Folk Alliance International- Arrival Records, Poltz & Pressman Presents – Room #1260 Toronto, ON (Canada) 11:00PM
Feb 23 2013 Folk Alliance International – Access Films Showcase – Room #1059 Toronto, ON (Canada) 1:10 AM (technically Feb 24)
Mar 1 2013 Fitzgeralds Berwyn, IL 8pm
Mar 8 2013 Café Paradiso Fairfield, IA 8pm
Mar 9 2013 CSPS Cedar Rapids, IA
Mar 28 2013 Nines at the River Club of Mequon Mequon, WI
Mar 29 2013 House Concert – email MangioneMusic@Gmail.com for details Madison, WI 8pm
Apr 6 2013 The Tonic Room Chicago, IL 8
Apr 11 2013 Canal Street Tavern Dayton, OH
Apr 12 2013 Velvet Lounge Washington DC
Apr 13 2013 The Thought Lot Shippensburg PA
Apr 14 2013 @ TBA New York City, NY
May 4 2013 Cup O Joy Green Bay, WI
May 10 2013 Trinity House Theatre Benefit Show Livonia, MI
ALSO!
I lent out my drums to my pal Patrick Hoctor, did a little engineering and also tracked some one handed kick drum for his new Sulek CD “Unbound At Last”.
Sulek is Patrick Hoctor, Ruthie Hoctor and Chris Winberg.
Check it out here: http://www.sulekmusic.com
AND!
After much tracking and re-tracking and mixing and more mixing the Justin Heron ep is done and out as well. I played drums on this and I think it sounds pretty good. Justin records and mixes it old school and it shows (in the best of ways.)
Check it out here:
The Justin Heron ep
OK 2013 – let’s get it on!
Hey everybody,
Tune into www.dittytv.com today at noon to watch Mike Mangione & The Union play songs from our upcoming release “Red-winged Blackbird Man”.
As a bonus, you’ll get to see and hear my sweet Taye StudioBirch kit with my brand new Taye 14×7 Maple/Walnut hybrid snare. The guys at Taye really hit it out of the park with this snare. It’s crisp and fat, deep but with a nice snap to it. It’s two snares in one!
Lots of shows coming up with both Mike Mangione and the Union and with Justin Heron from now until the end of the year.
Here’s a list of what’s happening starting this week.
2012 TOUR DATES
Oct 2 2012 NBC Milwaukee-The Morning Blend Milwaukee, WI 9:00AM
Oct 3 2012 WUWM @ Nite with Bruce Winter Milwaukee, WI 8:00PM
Oct 4 2012 WGN Radio with Brain Noonan Chicago, IL 9:00P
Oct 5 2012 Fitzgeralds Pub Berwyn, IL 8:00 PM
Oct 6 2012 Linnemans Riverwest Milwaukee, WI 9:00 PM
Oct 12 2012 St Norbert Fall Fest De pere, WI 6:00 PM
Oct 13 2012 FARM Folk Alliance Official Showcase Saint Louis, MO TBA PM
Oct 13 2012 FARM Folk Alliance Pump House Concerts Gorilla Showcase Saint Louis, MO 12AM
Oct 13 2012 FARM Folk Alliance QUENCH Showcase room 266 Saint Louis, MO 1:45am PM
Oct 25 2012 The Mill link to venue Iowa City, IA 9:00P
Oct 26 2012 The Aster Cafe Minneapolis, MN 9:00P
Oct 27 2012 Fill These Hearts- with Christopher West link to venue Minneapolis, MN 7:00P
Oct 28 2012 Beaners Coffeehouse Duluth, MN 7:00P
Oct 30 2012 The Frequency Madison, WI 8:00P
Nov 1 2012 Private Performance Harrisburg, PA N/A
Nov 3 2012 The Public House, Milwaukee, WI
Nov 9 2012 Sharon Lynn Wilson Center For The Arts Brookfield, WI 8:00P
Nov 10 2012 Cup O Joy link to venue Green Bay, WI 7:00P
Nov 14 2012 http://www.dittytv.com Livestream Watch us LIVE at 12pm CST Memphis, TN 12:00P CST
Nov 14 2012 The Fleming Center Nashville, TN 8:00P
Nov 15 2012 Uncle Slayton’s Louisville, KY 8:00P
Nov 16 2012 Molly Malones-3rd Floor Newport, KY 9:00P
Nov 17 2012 Fill These Hearts- With Chrsitopher West Sylvania, OH 7:00P
Nov 27 2012 IOTA Arlington,VA 8:00P
Nov 28 2012 Temple University- Newman Center Philadelphia, PA 8:00P
Nov 29 2012 The Living Room New York, NY 9:00P
Dec 1 2012 Trinity House Livonia, MI 8:00P
Dec 7 2012 The Aster Cafe Minneapolis, MN 9:00P
Dec 8 2012 Oak Center General Store Lake city, MN 8:00P
All Dates are MMTU except for Oct 6 (playing with both Mike and Justin that night) and Nov 3 (with Justin).
FUN!!!!!
After 7 shows in 7 days, and about 10 hours of wear split among a pair of B.O.D.s and 3 pairs of BopMaster sticks, what did I find?
Well, first off, I took 6 pairs of Bopmasters with me and I could have made it through the week with just one pair! I like to have a few pairs around the kit in case I drop a stick so that’s why I ended up cycling through 3 pairs but the other pairs never even came out of the sleeves. Now the Bopmasters are a little thinner than what I normally use (Bopmasters are .515 and I usually use more like a .555) and I do reverse one stick to use the butt end for my snare backbeats so I worked out these sticks on both ends and they held up great. So, in this case “Hit Harder. Lasts Longer.” isn’t just marketing, I’d say it’s true. In fact, I’m so impressed wiith the sticks that I’m going to keep using these sticks for my upcoming shows in August and see how long it takes before they chip, crack or break.
Regarding the B.O.D.s, I love the idea of combining mallets and rods and I was extremely pleased with the sound of both the rod side (fat and sharp, not thin like some other company’s rods) and the mallet side (great weight for tom and cymbal work and not too hard or too soft).
From a durability standpoint, I think I would have liked them to last a little longer. Maybe treat the dowels with the same finish as the sticks or add a reinforcing strip of the same rubber used on the grip side to the end of the rod side? I do think my next Silverfox rod experiment will be to try the Clawstix which is a wood/plastic hybrid.
Bottom line? I’m excited to try more sticks rods and brushes from SilverFox and I may have found myself a new stick company.
🙂
(Hey SilverFox, want to make me a batch of Clawstix with a mallet on the end? hehe)
LLRLRR 