Revive the thread - Name Dropping

mwingerski · Post by **mwingerski** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 11:55 am

i worked at a studio when Train was doing pre-production for their follow-up to Drops of Jupiter. I was sent out to starbucks to buy multiple soy latte's.

lyman · Post by **lyman** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:32 pm

mwingerski wrote:i worked at a studio when Train was doing pre-production for their follow-up to Drops of Jupiter. I was sent out to starbucks to buy multiple soy latte's.

i actually laughed out loud. fine work!

there are some terrible lyrics in that song.

alex matson · Post by **alex matson** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 2:33 pm

Before I was ever in a touring band, I worked in the video lab at a camera store. They had recently moved to a big building that they built, and upstairs was the radio station KBCO (this is in Boulder, CO). One day I was on the elevator and John Fogerty walked on. I made eye contact, and he smiled slightly, in a friendly way. I didn't want to start blabbing so I just gave him a nod. As we hit the third floor I helped him get his second guitar and a briefcase off.
Years later, I was in a band that was opening for Ziggy Marley at a university in Boston. I had just traded my B3 for a Yamaha CP80 piano, and it had been in the bay of the bus all the way from Boulder, so I arranged for a piano tuner from Berklee to come tune it. He took a long time, and I was still on stage when Ziggy, his sisters and band took the stage for soundcheck. I was embarrassed to be in their way, so I came up to Ziggy and apologized. He was super cool about it and said he loved those pianos.
A couple of years after that. The CP80 was such a beast that the crew begged me to leave it at home, so from then on I played a Kurz. We're opening for Bruce Hornsby in Portland, Maine. By a strange coincidence my sister and her husband, who lived in Phoenix, were in town. Their hotel was just a block away from the theater. They said they were looking in the paper for something to do that night and saw that we were playing, so I came down to the hotel. As we were leaving, the elevator stops and Bruce gets on. I'm a piano player, so obviously I'm thrilled and somewhat intimidated. I'm just about to speak when my brother in law says to him, not recognizing him, "Grab a rag!" (There was a hotel employee on the 'vater with us polishing the brass rails.) That doesn't help my nerves. I say, "Uh, hi. My band is actually opening for you for a few dates." He says, "You guys played with me at Mile High Stadium a few years ago." I wasn't in the band then so I just vaguely agreed.
That night, my Kurzweil developed a strange problem (turned out to be a bad pitch ribbon) that made it sound as if someone was moving the pitch wheel up and down randomly. I was doing a duet with the bass player, and we were playing to a packed house of some 6-800 people. Bruce was standing behind me with his arms across his chest checking out the band. I was supposed to be playing an acoustic piano part, but even after powering down and back up, the problem remained, leaving me with a D50, a VK7 organ or a Yamaha synthesizer to play. I chose the Yamaha with a horrible electric piano sound, and the bass player, who was trying to sing one of his songs, comes right over and says, "WHAT are you doing?" We both had in ear monitors and he couldn't hear what I was saying. I started holes in him and whispered through a frozen smile, "Just PLAY!" I was just dying up there. It was a complete fiasco. Fuck. Later in the week I got to know his band a little, particularly JT his keyboardist/piano tech. Really nice guy.
But I never spoke to Bruce again. I'm just a rock player, which I'm fine with, but in that situation I felt like a hack.
Oh yeah, the next day, just to redeem ourselves, we decided to play Neil young's "Cowgirl In the Sand." All of us but the singer/lead guitarist were on the same page about how long a rest there should be after the line "It's the woman in you that makes you want to play this game." We wanted to play the guitar line on the four. The singer kept insisting that there should be a big dramatic pause until the 2 of the next measure. We tried it both ways and decided on 4. You guessed it, when it came time to do it live, in front of several thousand people at Look Park near Northampton, Mass, the band played it on the four AND the one, and the guitarist waits until the two. Row Row, Row yer f#$%in boat. Great....what total pros we were.....
I also met Dean Ween by a breakfast buffet next to the pool at the Phoenix in San Fran. He said he just found out his wife had given birth to their first child. I didn't really know Ween much then (stupid of me), but our drummer Sam was a huge fan. He came out all sleepy and I said, "Sam, this is Dean Ween." He did the classic gape/stammer thing. It was great to see.

Rigsby · Post by **Rigsby** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 11:05 pm

I had lunch on a table next to the blond guy from Quo this week.

E-cue · Post by **E-cue** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 3:40 am

The 1st 'food run' I ever did, I did for Issac Hayes. He cuffed a $20 bill in my hand while music was being played at a teeth shattering levels and said "Get me some deodorant". "What kind?" I responded. "Dunndit mattah" he replied.

So there I am in a North Hollywood Ralph's shopping for deodorant asking myself "What would Shaft Get" (like a WWJD bracelet). . .

I look at the bottom of the shelf, and low and behold like the holy grail in the shadow of the valley of death- AQUA VELVA deodorant- ON SALE. No big deal, but I felt like Superman after he snatched that jerkass kid that was fucking around over the edge of Niagara Falls. [personally, I would have flown down, and laughed in his face on the way down]

I think about Aqua velva evertime I see and old episode of Southpark with Chef.

[oh yeah, I probably would have said something like "You never ever kiss a girl loser!", then after I got paralyzed, I'd probably start giving a shit about people with the same affliction and make it my life cause. I mean, Superman was cool when I was 3, but, I dunno, I think his deodorant was probably PH balanced for a woman]

I digress.

mikehattem · Post by **mikehattem** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:12 pm

effector wrote: a 'friend of a friend' (yeah right) claims to have made morrissey cry in a restaurant.

Can't ANYBODY make Morrissey cry??

mikehattem · Post by **mikehattem** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:16 pm

jayro_rockola wrote:Oh yeah,
And Yoko Ono gave me an egg salad sandwich.
Then she winked at me.

Did you tip her??

grilla · Post by **grilla** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:19 pm

My Mom used to date "Sledge Hammer" in college. She was also courted by Roger Ebert, but to no avail.

I interviewed 311 for my brother's 'zine when I was on acid in like '95, we smoked joints and I forget to record the interview, but I got some cool flix! I also interviewed Ween, but I think they were pretty wasted and they treated me like the 16 year old punk kid that I was. The show was cool though.

My old band opened up for Ozomatli and spent some time drinking and driving around St. Louis with them, making them listen to our latest recordings. They were pretty nice. We also opened up for the Ohio Players, Bahamadia, Kid Koala, and a bunch of others in a pretty decent run from '97 - '02.

More recently, I have recorded, edited, and/or produced tracks with Kool Keith, Shock G, Planet Asia, Roscoe, Kurupt, Rick James, Ike Turner, Snoop, and the 808 I own used to belong to Jason Lee (skater, actor). The beats he had in memory were pretty poor, and it sounds like he never really learned how to use it.

Also I used to buy pot from this actor but I won't say who. It was right after I moved to LA, and it was pretty surreal buying pot up in this nice house in the hills from someone I had seen on film and TV. I love LA.

I think that's it for now.

I sound like an asshole.

mwingerski · Post by **mwingerski** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 12:32 pm

At another studio I was hanging out at John Mayer told me about how he would stay up late at night in his underwear and lurk on the MTV real world message boards, posing as teenage girls. He had an elaborate set of rules and multiple identities that he would use to get people to talk about him and generate interest.
A few i remember were 1. type in all caps. 2. spell badly 3. use improper grammer.4. use lots of short hand l8r, 2nite, etc. 5. always ask questions like "who did that song___?" and let someone else answer rather than posting your own stuff.
i was rather awed by the audacity of his shameless self promotion. it appears to have worked better from him than the flyers i made for my band that had things about rubber chickens and plastic lobsters on them... at least if you use tickets and records sold as any guage of success. I'm not going to talk about the over compressed whispery crap that's come out on his records...

jamoo · Post by **jamoo** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:45 pm

crossed-paths with Santana's brother last week at the luthier.

(talk 'bout a potentially rough gig)

my guitar still isn't intonated.

for the guy who's mom partied with Bon Jovi, I'm sorry.

Monkeyfist · Post by **Monkeyfist** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:01 am

Worked at Tower Records in the U-Dist for a year from February 95'-March 96' and a lot of people came through their, by far my favorite was Money Mark (B-Boys keyboard player), he is one laid back cat and really easy to talk to. Also Chris Baloo came in there, and we almost pulled off a Wesley Willis in store play, but I guess he freaked out in the store room and broke an end cap apart so they had to cancel. "Rock over London Rock over Chicago, Pontiac we build excitement!"

Also had the guys from Goldfinger there, Chris Novaselik, Mark Summers (really cool guy), and every Seattlites favorite punk band from Bremerton MXPX.

Barry Jive · Post by **Barry Jive** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:36 pm

Monkeyfist wrote:Worked at Tower Records in the U-Dist for a year from February 95'-March 96' and a lot of people came through their, by far my favorite was Money Mark (B-Boys keyboard player), he is one laid back cat and really easy to talk to. Also Chris Baloo came in there, and we almost pulled off a Wesley Willis in store play, but I guess he freaked out in the store room and broke an end cap apart so they had to cancel. "Rock over London Rock over Chicago, Pontiac we build excitement!"

Also had the guys from Goldfinger there, Chris Novaselik, Mark Summers (really cool guy), and every Seattlites favorite punk band from Bremerton MXPX.

"I WHOOPED END CAP'S ASS"

What a crazy motherfucker. God bless him.

Eggmann · Post by **Eggmann** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:30 pm

It was 1967 and we were making the annual trip to drop me off at summer camp in Wisconsin. We pulled into the HoJo's rest stop on the PA turnpike. While we were at the gas pump a limo pulled up beside us. I remember the mirrored windows. It was quite the sight back then.
I went inside to take a leak. As I stood there at the urinal a troop of people came in laughing and having a good time. I put two and two together and figured they were the ones traveling in the limo. I asked who they were and one of them replied "Booker T & the MG's. I vaguely recognized the name.
We grabbed a bite to eat and as we were leaving i saw the limo was parked beside our car. My sister and I cupped our hands and tried to see through the mirrored glass. The window suddenly opened and the man that I talked to in the restroom handed me a 45. I said thank you, we got back into the car and drove off.
I still have the 45 and every time I hear one of their songs I think of our meeting and chuckle.

bickle · Post by **bickle** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:08 am

I sincerely wish I had met Wesley Willis. He died, right?

Working in a record store, I once met Prince Paul and the RZA. They were nice, but I think they thought I was just some white idiot. Which I was, and am.

I met Mike Watt on the tour for his first solo record, sitting in his van. He was kind of a jerk. Pat Smear wasn't, though, and he was shocked when I told him I was a huge Germs fan (he was pretty fresh off touring with Nirvana). He made me more starstruck than I've ever been, and happily signed my t-shirt "PAM". I have no idea.

I worked on a terrible indie film starring the kid actor who's most famous for saying "boys have a penis, girls have a vagina" in Kindergarten Cop.

And the last but best: My aunt's beetle was totaled by Lynyrd Skynyrd's limo - she said they were obviously super high.

Monkeyfist · Post by **Monkeyfist** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:37 pm

Barry Jive wrote:
Monkeyfist wrote:Worked at Tower Records in the U-Dist for a year from February 95'-March 96' and a lot of people came through their, by far my favorite was Money Mark (B-Boys keyboard player), he is one laid back cat and really easy to talk to. Also Chris Baloo came in there, and we almost pulled off a Wesley Willis in store play, but I guess he freaked out in the store room and broke an end cap apart so they had to cancel. "Rock over London Rock over Chicago, Pontiac we build excitement!"

Also had the guys from Goldfinger there, Chris Novaselik, Mark Summers (really cool guy), and every Seattlites favorite punk band from Bremerton MXPX.
"I WHOOPED END CAP'S ASS"

What a crazy motherfucker. God bless him.

There was also some sort of concern about him head butting people. But I didn't get the full story on that. I read though that was his way of saying hello. (What an awesome change out for the old handshake!)

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