Caffeinated Julie
Trying to be Functional in a Dysfunctional World
Caffeinated Julie

Battle Of the Bands HOB LA 2008

Well, we lost the Battle of the Bands. No big deal.  I mean we wrote the "original" song in 24 hours and we kept getting kicked out of our practice room casue it was the room that also got used for meals and Q & A sessions.  Not to mention we were on break a LOT!  WAY too much if you ask me!  Remember, last time I went to Spike's Rock and Roll Boot Camp!  What's a break?? LOL.

The House of Blues was packed with people, really!  Gene Simmons was there, Ron Jeremy was there, Corey Feldman was there.....

The thing that cracked me up was that Brian Wilson's bandmates were there.  They LOVED the Brian Wilson Stole My Sharpie song!  That was pretty cool!

So,  I got a TON of guys to sign my pants (picture will be forthcoming).  Now I am trying to hunt down a mannequin for them.

Pictures soon!

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/21/2008 9:54 PM | Add Comment

My Silver Sharpie

Part of Battle of the Bands is that your band has to write an original song. By day 2 we had nothing even started.  Happy Hour finally rolled around and there we were. Sitting at this tiny table in the lobby/bar (every recording studio has a bar) with no original song.  Somehow the subject of Brian Wilson stealing my Sharpie came up in conversation.  Then we realized that "Brian Wilson Stole My Sharpie" would be a great song title!  And it went on from there.  It turned out to be a basic blues thing like "Babysitter Blues" from the movie Adventures in Babysitting.  I'll have a copy of it soon, but the chorus is:

Brian Wilson stole my sharpie (Oooo Silver Sharpie)
Brian Wilson stole my sharpie (Oooo Silver Sharpie)
I conplained to David Fishoff
But he told me to go kiss off (I'll sell you a Sharpie)
                                             (I'll sell you a Sharpie)

You get the jist.  It was REALLY funny!  It was like "It's a Small World" the sound tech guys couldn't get it out of their heads.

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/20/2008 11:09 PM | Add Comment

Pet Sounds

When I was at camp this weekend I asked as many of these professional rockers that I could: 

"If you were stranded' on a desert Island and could only have 3 CDs what would they be? (and you can't make a custom one)"  MOST of them replyed:    


                                #1. <insert Beatles CD here, overwhelmingly Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper's or Revolver>

                                #2. ALWAYS  "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys

                                #3. This one was different every time.  It ranged from Jimi Hendrix, to Bob Dylan to Thelonious Monk.

 

I figured that I better check this album out.....so I looked it up  on wikipedia and THIS is what I found!!!!!                                           

 

<<<Although not a big seller for the band originally, Pet Sounds has been influential since the day it was released. Rapturously received in Britain, it was lauded in the music press and championed by many top pop stars. The Beatles, for example, have said that Pet Sounds was a major influence on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Paul McCartney has repeatedly named it as one of his favorite albums (with "God Only Knows" as his favorite song) — completing a circle begun by The Beatles' influence on Wilson. McCartney stated that:

“
It was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life ... I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album ... I love the orchestra, the arrangements ... it may be going overboard to say it's the classic of the century ... but to me, it certainly is a total, classic record that is unbeatable in many ways ... I've often played Pet Sounds and cried. I played it to John [Lennon] so much that it would be difficult for him to escape the influence ... it was the record of the time. The thing that really made me sit up and take notice was the bass lines ... and also, putting melodies in the bass line. That I think was probably the big influence that set me thinking when we recorded Pepper, it set me off on a period I had then for a couple of years of nearly always writing quite melodic bass lines. "God Only Knows" is a big favourite of mine ... very emotional, always a bit of a choker for me, that one. On "You Still Believe in Me", I love that melody - that kills me ... that's my favourite, I think ... it's so beautiful right at the end ... comes surging back in these multi-coloured harmonies ... sends shivers up my spine.[18] >>>>
 


I am going to buy this album TODAY....You guys know how I ALWAYS talk about McCartney's bass lines....THIS is the album that inspired Sgt Pepper's!!!???!!!  Who knew!
 

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/20/2008 4:57 PM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment

Brian Wilson and the Feral Katz

OH Yeah, the Feral Katz is the name of the band.  Mickey's idea!  He even showed up yesterday with "Feral Katz" T shirts that he had his buddy make on the fly so we could wear them for the big show on Monday night!! How cool is that?? 



So, on Day 2 we got a visit from the one and only Brain Wilson from the Beach Boys!!




WOW!  You know this guy is yet another living legend!!   We played Surfin' USA for him (badly), he smiled and clapped and said it was great.  He posed for some pictures, signed stuff and left......but not before stealing my silver sharpie!!!  So, Brian Wilson STOLE my Sharpie!!! Please rememer that, my dear readers, it will be important later. 

We got back to the books for a while and practiced our songs:  Gimme Some Lovin'....I'm Not Your Stepping Stone (how cool is THAT to play with a real live monkee!)  and a few others....Runaway.. and I can't remember what else at this point.  I only have a few minutes to write this as I have to catch my shuttle soon to get the the House of Blues for the Battle of the Bands!!!  YES, they brought the Battle back!!!  For a while they were doing this "everyone wins" T ball crap!!! 

Anyway, all the days are mashed into one at this point so i'm not really sure when this next thing happened, but I'll tell you about it anyway:

One of the councilors is David Ryan Harris from John Mayers band.  He went up and played some songs for us and one of them really touched me....deeply.  He told a story about how he had to quit drinking for about 3 years.  He had to take those 3 years to just do work on himself because of a number of issues.  Well he wrote a song about it...Boy could I relate to THAT!  Most of you all know I quit drinking for 6 years for the very same reason.  It was touching to hear someone put my feelings into such a wonderful song.....I can't remember what it is called right now casue my brain is pretty fried.  I will try and hunt him down later tonight.

Later on, Brian Wilson did a show for us.  Now remember that there was only MAYBE 75 people in the room.  He had a 6 or 7 piece band including Jeff Foskett from the Beach Boys.  ALL of them could sing and they just BLEW ME AWAY!!!  Grown men were weeping...You know to see the guy that actually WROTE all of that good time surfing music perform them (from the front row no less) was just indescribable!!!  I mean he was so reclusive he didn't leave his house or perform for decades and here I was sitting in front of him....and he's singing "In My Room"  and "Surfer Girl" etc...WOW!!!  I'm not going to get over that for a VERY long time!  I can't remember what the encores were except that "Fun,Fun,Fun" was last.  I waled out of there with my jaw litterally on the floor.  It was so obvious that later that night  Alan White (drummer for the band YES...AND he is the drummer that played on "Imagine" with John Lennon)  said something to me about it.

Then Nick Mason came by.  I need to write that later though cause I have to get ready to go!  I really have SO many stories, just no time to write right now!!!!

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/18/2008 6:10 PM | Add Comment

Delayed Entries

Sorry folks.  There is SO much to tell you about and it's always SO late, and I'm SO tired, that i can't even write right now.  I just couldn't drag myself out of the Beatles jam room tonight (and last night)......I promise I will update Monday at my 2 hour break!! 

Highlights:

We got treated to a 45 minute private Brian Wilson concert...OMG!!!!!  Details later....

I got to play Day Tripper with The legendary Nick Mason on drums...details later...

We wrote our original song and recorded it in one take ....today...details later...

Played drums with Cliff Williams from AC/DC today .  we did "shook me all night long"...We will play it with him live Monday night at the House Of Blues...

more later...with a few pictures...the jettlag is kicking my ass....gotta go to bed!

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/18/2008 4:07 AM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment

Band Camp Day 1

Turns out that I have 2 councilors this time.  Micky Dolenz and Elliott Easton from The Cars!  Now that I'm Band Camp Alumnae I know more of what to expect etc.  I didn't want to just have all these guys sign the program book thing that they give us.  I decided that was what the "gray" people do. I had a better idea.  I pulled out something from my past.....something from before I quit smoking and gained 8 lbs...something that I don't fit into now...something I used to wear to play out in the bars a few bands ago............my prized:


                                                          BLACK PLEATHER PANTS







                                                           WITH FLAMES GOING UP THE SIDES




I thought: wouldn't it be fabulous to have everyone sign these with a silver sharpie.  THEN I can frame them and put them up in my music room!  Cool!

So that is my mission this time.

Day 1 was a good time.  No special guests yet.  We just got to know our band mates and councilors and played a bunch of music.  Lucky for me, I have good musicians in my band. Fred the Hammond organ player that was in Spinal Cracker with me in London is in my band this time as well!!!  I'm actually going to write more about day one on Saturday.  I'm VERY tired and had to play catch up tonight to get this posted.  My computer crashed this morning and I spent all morning getting it back up and running!!  So, more later!  Tomorrow's special guests are Brian Wilson (the Beach Boys) and Nick Mason (Pink Floyd!)

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/16/2008 4:03 AM | Add Comment

US Airways sucks!!

I would be very happy if I never had to fly this airline again.  Getting here was a major ordeal!  First of all, you don't really deal with a human anymore when checking in.  Someone somewhere decided that it would be a great idea to put these computer "kiosks" in the airport so that they don't have to pay so many people.  Long story short the "kiosk" didn't work right.  Every time I put the bar code to my boarding pass under the scanner it said "there are no seats available".  How can there be no seats when I have my boarding pass????  No one would help me.  Apparently they were too busy helping everyone but ME!  Time passes.....15 minutes later.....an extremely rude woman (they were ALL rude BTW) tells me that I got bumped from my flight!!!!  Now I'm freaking out because I need to get to LA......Like NOW......

Rude Woman:  You are late so they bumped you off your flight

Me:  If you didn't leave me standing here for 15 minutes I wouldn't be late!  I need to get to LA, and you need to get a ticket.

She grudgingly taps away at her computer ...

Rude Woman (scowling):  Well, you have to go through La guardia

Me: I don't care WHERE I go through, I just need to get to LA.....TONIGHT

She prints out my ticket and checks my bag and my Bass.  We fly to LGA.

I was starving at this point and went to find some food that wasn't trans fat.  

Fast forward......I get on the plane to La guardia and realize that she put me in the most undesirable seat on the plane....Oh yeah, the middle seat in the last row.  You know, the one that doesn't go back!  PS there were more seats on the plane, she was just being a douche-bag! THEN I realize that this flight is going to Pittsburgh first THEN LA......sigh....So i moved my seat, the flight attendant starts yelling at me for moving.  I really could  care less at that point, I was just pissed beyond belief.  When we got to Pittsburgh I had to move back to the crappy seat because the flight was totally and completely booked.  It sucked!  To make matters worse, I was surrounded by small children/babies.  If I had a few billion dollars (not that dollars are worth anything in this day and age) I would start an adult only airline.  I would make a fortune!!!  The baby in the row in front of me basically SCREAMED THE WHOLE ENTIRE TIME!  To the point where people came out of nowhere and said to the parents "Um I have some Benedryl if you need it"

FINALLY got to LA late.  Total travel time was southing like 13 hours or something equally as obnoxious.  My luggage made it, but they broke my guitar case! 

When I arrived at the hotel Band Camp folks were all in the bar.   I went and said hello to David Fishoff (camp owner) and he hooked me up with a well deserved Bud Light.  I drank it and just went to my room and went to bed.......Finally!


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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/16/2008 3:36 AM | Add Comment

Welcome to Caffeinated Julie

              Coming Soon


                          Julie's NEW Adventure!

                  Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp in LA

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/11/2008 5:56 PM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment

Goin' Down To Liverpool

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Goin' Down To Liverpool

Goin’ Down to Liverpool

With Battle of the Bands behind us, we got up at the crack of dawn….again…to jump on the train to Liverpool. The birthplace of The Beatles and Rock and Roll!!!! It was about an hour and a half to two hour train ride from London. We were in first class. The train ride was pretty uneventful and I was SOOOOO tired. After all I had just survived Spike Edney’s Rock and Roll Boot Camp!
We got into Liverpool and went to some hotel that I can’t remember the name of to have lunch. This is NOT the hotel we would be staying at after the Cavern club (remember this point; it is important later in the story). After lunch we went out to get on the Magical Mystery Tour bus to take us on a tour of Liverpool. It’s a two hour tour (not to be confused with a THREE hour tour) to check out all of the important Beatle things around Liverpool. I decided that since the tour is a few hours, I should run and use the ladies room before we take off. Everyone wasn’t aboard yet, so I figured that I had time. I told people sitting near me “don’t let them leave without me, I’ll be quick”. I ran into the hotel that I can’t remember the name of and used the bathroom. I ran out and around the corner only to see the back of the Magical Mystery Tour bus as it was taking off without me!!! I RAN and I mean RAN after the bus in the middle of the road……EVERYTHING I had was on the bus…cell phones, cash, passport,laptop etc. Remember I also had no clue where we were staying that night. I just knew it was out of town somewhere!!! I can’t catch up to the bus!!! HOLY SHIT!!! NOW what do I do??? I don’t get rattled easily folks, but this did it…for more than a few minutes….After the SHEAR panic wore off
I went into the hotel that we had lunch at and here is the basic dialog:
****WARNING PROFANITY ALERT****
ME: Umm…My tour bus just left without me. I was wondering if you could give me the number of the tour company so they can call the driver and get him to come get me.
FRONT DESK GUY #1: Oh are you a guest at the hotel?
ME: No, we were just here for lunch.
FRONT DESK GUY #1: Oh, Well I can’t help you.
ME: No, really it’s the Magical Mystery Tour bus. There is only ONE. Can you PLEASE just get the number for me?

ME: You don’t understand…I’m here with the Rock and Roll Fantasy camp. I have NO CLUE where we are staying tonight and everything I have is on the bus!!! I don’t even have any cash!!!

FRONT DESK GUY #1: I don’t have a number for them. I don’t know what to tell you.
ME: Then why don’t you give me a PHONEBOOK and I’ll look up the number myself!

There was NO listing for Magical Mystery Tour. Obviously the actual tour company is under a different name….SHIT…why wouldn’t a hotel in LIVERPOOL ENGLAND know this??!!!
ME: You HAVE to know who the tour company is that runs it?
FRONT DESK GUY #1: Well, I don’t know what to tell you.
My blood pressure is rising so fast at this point that I hope I don’t stroke out. Jules DIES in Liverpool after being ditched by the tour company. I wonder if Paul McCartney would write a song about it.
Finally FRONT DESK GUY #2 comes over…
FRONT DESK GUY #2: Can I help you?
ME: YES!! I need to track down the Magical Mystery Tour bus!! They left without me, and I need them to come back and get me. I have no $, cell phone..etc etc etc….
FRONT DESK GUY #2: OK
He then tells Font Desk Guy #1 to help me get an outside line to call them.
ME: THANK YOU!
I get the people on the phone and tell them my ordeal.
THEY can’t help me either because they are just the reservations people.
ME: Can you PLEASE give me the main number then??
They give me the # and I call…
ME: HI…I have a predicament… ..
TOUR GUY: OK, I’ll call the driver hang on.
Time passes…


TOUR GUY: The bus is too far along on the tour to come and get you, so you need to have the front desk guy get you a cab and go to George Harrison’s house. The bus will meet you there.
ME: I have no cash on me.
TOUR GUY: The tour guide will pay your fare.
Whew! Success!
Front Desk Guy #1 grudgingly goes out with me to get me a cab…
FRONT DESK GUY #1: She needs to go to . She is NOT a guest at this hotel.
CABBIE: You’re going to have to do better than THAT mate, I have no idea where that is.
FRONT DESK GUY #1: It’s George Harrison’s house…The Tour company will pay you when you get there.
CABBIE: well I’m not taking her anywhere if she has no $! How am I supposed to get PAID. What if they don’t show up?

ME: LOOK…THIS is what is going to happen; YOU are going to drive me to George Harrison’s house..we will wait there for the fucking bus, keep the meter running and they will PAY YOU WHEN THEY GET THERE!! If they DON”T show up, YOU will take me on a tour of Liverpool and take me to ALL of the things that I am here to see. THEN you will take me to the Cavern Club, where I am playing tonight. And keep the meter running. When they show up there YOU WILL GET PAID!! It could be a VERY lucrative day for you so DRIVE!
CABBIE: I don’t know if we are going to the right place. You aren’t even a guest at the hotel…why were you even there?
ME: It’s not MY fault these fucking BONEHEADS left me here OK? I got in from London this AM…I have had NO SLEEP for DAYS because of Rock and Roll Fantasy camp yadda yadda yadda…ALL I want to do is hook up with the bus…and my belongings, see my Beatles stuff, play the fucking Cavern Club and go HOME!!!!
CABBIE: Well, what if yer mates aren’t there when we get there, what if they LEAVE because you aren’t there? How am I going to get PAID!
ME: THEY WON’T LEAVE!!! They will WAIT for me!!! This REALLY isn’t difficult!


We arrive at George’s house and the bus wasn’t there yet. The Cabbie starts freaking out..
CABBIE: This is where the coach sits on the tours. They must have left!
ME: They KNOW that I’m going to be here…They would have waited…they just haven’t made it here yet…CHILL OUT!
FINALLY…The Magical Mystery Tour bus comes round the corner.
ME: SEE…THERE they are…now let me get you paid!
The guide guy pays, I get back on the bus. Go off on a rant about the whole thing. People apologize for forgetting me….sigh..you know we were ALL zombies at this point I really can’t blame them….Luckily I only missed Penny Lane and the sign is gone now anyway. At the end of the tour, we went down Penny lane again, so I really ended up not missing anything.
Then they dropped us off at the Cavern Club….But THAT is another story….

Posted by Caffeinated Julie

 

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/10/2008 3:33 PM | Add Comment

The Battle Of The Bands (the whole story)

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Battle of the Bands (the whole story)

Battle of the Bands at Abbey Road

WOW!! What a trip THAT was! We were the 5th band to go up. Our singer, Jeff started to freak out a bit when it was getting close to our time. Spike calmed him down. Poor Jeff isn’t really a singer, he just sort of got shoved into it cause no one else was a singer. He had lost his voice the night before. I mean everyone was SO fried. Anyway, we hung out and watched our competition. Some of the bands played the T & A card, and got some cuties to go up on the stage and dance around. Like THAT’s not dirty pool .
So, finally it was our turn. We go up, complete with the guy with the little flashlight to light your way onto stage. His name was Tim and he is the tour manager for the Pretenders. I hope he tells Chrissie I said hi. One of the techs from John Henry Studios was there to plug in my bass (like I couldn’t do that myself) . Then he says: “your monitor isn’t on, but the one by the keyboard is. We’ll get yours on” . I said “OK”, Spike was running all over the place making sure everyones microphones worked, Ciara had to deal with her double pedal because the tech didn’t do it right.
Then it was showtime! Spike yells “ONE TWO THREE FOUR>” and the intro to Sgt. Peppers was great, but I couldn’t really hear my bass very well. It was LOUD in there. The room was very “live”. in other words not enough stuff to absorb the sound so it was bouncing all over the room. Sgt Peppers was great, Jeff was ROCKIN, Fred got the "Lick", life was good!!! So everything was cool…….until the Bass Player Curse happened… I had to sing backup harmony vocals, no problem, like I said before, all of the sudden I could sing and play bass at the same time. That has ALWAYS been a challenge for me. Personally, I think that it was the energy in Studio 2 that made it happen. It is really a sacred place. We get to “We’re Sgt Peppers Lonely yadda yadda yadda” where I have to sing and realize that I HAD NO MONITOR. They never turned it on, or it was fried…I have no idea! The keyboard (that no one was playing) monitor was working, but I couldn’t hear it. It was WAY too far away!! Then I got lost in the song cause I was thinking in my head “HOLY CRAP I CAN’T HEAR MYSELF”!!!! I chilled out and just waited til I could jump back in. Bill Wyman said that you don’t have to play every note. It’s OK…I took HIS advice at that moment. Thank’s Bill! The crowd was freakin’ out. Everyone was screaming and dancing and having a GREAT time!!! I was trying to stay calm and not obsess on the curse. Ciara was right on as always. It’s SO great to play with a kick ass drummer. She was even better than my drummer in Jeez Luweez that I always gush about. This chick is only like 24!! Everything in the studio was one take with her….Unreal! Dizzy Miss Lizzy went great! Justin (Jeff’s 14 year old son) did the Chuck Berry hop thing across the stage I Get By With A Little Help went fine. I just screamed out my vocals so maybe I could hear something. That song isn’t as complicated as Sgt Peppers so it was fine. Ciara did her drum solo which was fantastic . Cool Brittannia went great . We end “Cool Brittannia” with a BIG “E” chord and Spike yells “ ONE TWO THREE FOUR” and into the Sgt Pepper reprise we go. After we go and take our bow, and off the stage with us….and there was the damned press right in our faces before we were even off the stage…I was just yelling obscenities at this point because all I could focus on was the fact that I had no monitor and it messed me up!!! So I most likely got bleeped like Ozzy Osborne. I went to the cafeteria to chill out, people said we were great, I guess no one could hear my issues…the it occurred to me that I have had MUCH worse gigs with bands that I have played with for a year..cool..
There were 7 categories (because there were 7 bands and “everyone’s a winner”)
Best original song
Best Band Name….stuff like that
The BIG one was Best Over All Performance
I figured we blew it because of ME….They started announcing the bands and what they won, I was standing there with my drummer….then there were 2 left, what a surreal moment when we realized that Spinal Cracker won!!! It was pretty cool ! After hours and hours and hours of practice, latte lunches etc…we did it!!! We all got JBL Ipod docking stations for a prize!! How cool man…..I will have the DVD etc in a few months.
Before we left Abbey Road for the last time, I went back down to Studio 2 for one last time when it was quiet and serene. I looked around and just STILL couldn’t believe I was standing there…and recorded bad renditions of Beatles songs there!! I burned that wonderful sight into my brain so that when I have dementia, THAT will be the thing that I remember. Was this all a dream? No, it REALLY happened. It was time to split at that point, so I took one last deep breath in there, took one last look at the doors, and turned around and left. Did I mention that the doors to that studio are like vault doors? It’s like there is something SO special in there that it has to be sealed off and must be fiercely protected from the rest of the world! No one is able to defile this space!! Unbelievable!!
We drank some Moet at the hotel bar, I talked to Neil Murray for quite a long time. I kept monopolizing him. You can tell he is a deep thinker as I am, and a bass player to boot. There is a LOT to learn from people like that. I hope I didn’t annoy the crap out of him!!
Off to Liverpool in the Morning…..

Posted by Caffeinated Julie

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Posted by Caffeinated Julie at 2/10/2008 3:32 PM | Add Comment
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