Johnny Tightlips Receives Rave Review

We had band practice tonight for the first time in at least a month. (While I waited for Danny and Aaron to arrive, Curtis happily pounded away at the drums. He was very upset when the dudes showed up and I had to kick him out of the band. )

It felt good to pound through the setlist again. And we didn't sound quite as rusty as we'd expected. After we finished up, I asked Paige for some unbiased feedback.

"Paige, how did band practice sound tonight?"

She looked at me and then paused as she thought for a second, choosing her words carefully.

"Pretty cool."

Best. Compliment. Ever.

Daddy-Daughter Rock 'n Roll

Best. Musical. Experience. Ever.

To get a little natural reverb on the vocals, I moved my recording stuff into our bathroom for an afternoon. I'd been in there about two seconds before my curious little fans were knocking on the door to see what I was up to.

I could see that Paige was very concerned. She doesn't like things to be out of place and she's currently not a fan of microphones. She immediately said, "No, dad. That's very much too loud."

I explained that it would actually be really quiet, because we'd just hear the microphone through the headphones. Slowly, she eased back into the room and eventually she put on her pair of headphones. She watched as I started recording some vocals.

I could see in the mirror that she was starting to bop her head along to the beat. Next thing I knew, she was singing along (making up her own words and melody). When I played back the recording, I noticed a little angelic voice singing backup. I couldn't have been more pleased. I'll guess she'll be getting publishing rights now.

Johnny Tightlips @ 5 Monkeys - Sept. 5

I hate writing song lyrics. But once again, we have a show coming up and a bunch of songs with no words. Rather than mumble incoherently through them all, I frantically tried to come up with something tonight. Surprise, surprise, there was a bit of success. Come hear for yourself:

Johnny Tightlips
w/ Josh & the Dream Killer, Michael Gross & the Statuettes
5 Monkeys (21+)
Saturday, Sept. 5
9 p.m.
$5

Don't worry, they'll still be a few mumblers. We don't want to get away from our signature sound.

Progress Report

When I said that the new Johnny Tightlips album would be done any day now, I knew I was lying. But I have made some decent progress as of late. All of the drums tracks are recorded, save our lackluster cover of "Blitzkrieg Bop" and a few other covers, and the bass tracks are done as well. Guit and vocals are almost all-the-way done for one track (our newest song) and will hopefully be mixed (and posted!!!) shortly.

On a related note, I'm proud to report that I sold enough CDs on eBay to afford to buy a new version of (recording software) Cubase. This edition has pitch correction, which will allow me to, at worst fix my missed notes, and at best sound like T-Pain. Awesome.

What Does Recording an Album in the Basement Look Like?

The real question is "What does it sound like?" Well, you'll have to keep waiting for the answer to that question, but we did get the drums done for four new songs. That's a whole EP right there, my friend! Now we just need to do guitar, more guitar, bass, vocals, lots more vocals, and then mix the thing. Final product should be any day now.

Album of the Year

Never one to disappoint God, Danny and I will taking the day off tomorrow to track drums for a forthcoming Johnny Tightlips release. We're recording in my basement so the quality should be, you know, excellent. I have spent the last hour nailing LoveSac sleeping bags to the unfinished, concrete walls to get that sweet studio sound. I'm a regular Phil Spector (minus the girlfriend murdering).

Wish us luck.

What's My Motivation?

Haven't been blogging much lately. Haven't had much desire to, really. It hasn't been lack of things to write about, just a lack of motivation. Too much writing and thinking at work, I believe. Whatevs. Here's a few random things:

The Johnny Tightlips show at Burt's was really quite good. It'd been more than a year since our last show, but I'd actually rank near the top of our performances. A bunch of insurance friends came out and we debuted a new tune, "All I Wanna Do." Surprisingly, it was one of the best songs in the set. We've been reworking it for months and we finally found an arrangement we all liked a couple days before the show.

The show got me really jazzed about the band again. I am happy about our new material and I really want to get serious about finally getting everything recorded. (I had a revelation about it during Priesthood Session. Yes, that's what God talks to me about.) However, nothing has happened yet.

On another music note, I did record a new song at work the other day. It's not so much a song as a 12 second soundtrack for an 8-bit video game that we've been creating to promote dental insurance. You can hear the track in all it's dopeness here.

So I guess that's it for now. I need to stop blogging and start writing music.


This, in turn, got me excited about my next musical project--a more electronic outing called Mixtape Mixtape. I haven't quite gotten around to working on this yet, either. My procrastination is depressing.

The Family Home Evening After Party

If you missed last night's Johnny Tightlips show, this is pretty much how it looked and sounded.

Who do voodoo we do...

So we had our show with the Voodoo Glow Skulls and it went pretty good. When we arrived, I saw that VGS was already sitting on the couches in the back of the bar. I went over and introduced myself to Frank and thanked him for letting me do the interview. Thought it was a bit lame, I handed him a copy of the magazine and said, "In case you wanted to know what you said to me." I was happy to see that after I walked away he was reading the article and I saw it get passed around amongst the band.

My band played decent. It's amazing how many hundreds of times you can play a song great in your basement and screw it up the second you play in front of a live audience. But that's to be expected and not really that big of a deal. There were probably 40 people in the room while we played, most of whom were attentive. So we can't complain about that at all. The other local band, The Willkills was both really nice and quite cool. And the other touring group, Knockout, did the best cover of a Bad Religion song I've ever heard--a reggae-to-punk version of "Generator."

After 20 years, Voodoo Glow Skulls has still got it. The performance was just as intense as when I saw them nine years ago. When 6'2" 220 lbs. Frank came on stage wearing a Mexican wrestling mask and started shouting their first song, I knew they were going to bring it. And bring it they did. It got both brung and broughten. To the max.

Baille De Los Locos

In 1996, Ty and I chose to pass up an Attaboy Skip show to see the Voodoo Glow Skulls play at Bricks. We'd never heard VGS before, but the artwork on their album Firme was so awesome that we knew that we'd love them.

Goldfinger was the touring support, so it surprised us when VGS came on second. They played four songs, which took about 10 minutes and then walked off the stage. We vowed to never support them again. But the draw to Firme was just too strong. We bought a copy at Media Play and we've been fans ever since.

Since the inception of Johnny Tightlips, I think I have tried to get the band on as the opening act for Voodoo Glow Skulls at least five times. Each time the promoter strings us along and then doesn't tell us that we're not playing the show. This time it's finally going to happen (fingers crossed).

So in just a few days the band is going to have our biggest show to date. Not big in terms of number of people--I'm sure there will be very few people in the crowd when we start playing-- but big in that we're going to be on the same stage as one of my favorite bands.

I am completely nervous, and like every show, I'm totally wishing that we never would have sought it out. That anxiety will intensify until we go on stage. I'll be nervous while we play and then immediately after, I will be so excited/relieved that the only thing I'll be able to think about is playing another show.

---

For the past few months I've been writing album reviews for In Utah This Week. I figured it afforded me an opportunity that I never would have had otherwise. With being assigned, or even clearing it with my editor, I sent an email to VGS, requesting an interview for the magazine.

I was excited when I heard back from lead singer Frank Casillas. We set up a time and I gave him a call a few days later. I was nervous to talk to him--especially two minutes into the interview when my digital recorded started beeping because it was out of memory--but he was incredibly cool and very easy to talk to. At the show on Thursday I plan to meet him in person, which I'm really looking forward to.

Here's the interview:

Black Magic

Fifteen years of genre-bending have the Voodoo Glow Skulls radiating worldwide.

Mixing ska, metal and Latin, the genre-defying Voodoo Glow Skulls have sold more than 1 million records since their debut 15 years ago. With their seventh album, “California Street Music,” the band shows no signs of slowing down. In Utah This Week caught up with frontman Frank Casillas before the band headed out its current West Coast tour.

IN: Over your career, you’ve outlasted almost all of your peers. What’s been the key to the success and longevity of your band?
Frank Casillas: We decided a long time ago that we were going to be a punk rock band. There’s a lot of work ethic and DIY values that we started out with back in the day that got us where we’re at now. We’ve always tried to maintain that type of integrity.

There was a point in time where we were persuaded to have corporate and business management, but at the end of the day all they were doing was sucking money out of the band. We eliminated all of that from the business part of the band and took it upon ourselves to do everything on our own.

[Fortunately], we weren’t thrown through the system. That seems to be a common thing with commercial labels — they get a band sopping wet and they throw them against the wall to see if they’ll stick. Nine times out of 10 they don’t. That’s why you don’t hear about [a lot of bands] again after their debut. We’ve always been aware of that. We’ve always called our own shots and done what we thought was best. We’re still doing it. The phone’s still ringing and we’re still here.

IN: You took a longer time to put out “California Street Music” than usual. How do you think that affected the process and the final product?
FC: Throughout the years, we’ve been developing our own recording studio. We’ve done the last couple of records on our own. This time we just decided to wait until it felt right. Nobody was really saying ‘Man, you’ve got to put this record out right now.’ There were really no deadlines. We wanted to take our time with it.

We wanted to reinvent what we had done on the first couple of albums. We tried to re-create what the Voodoo Glow Skulls are known for — the manic sound. A mixture of punk, metal, ska and Latin, and little bit of hip-hop. We tried to re-create what we’re known for and come out with a young-sounding album again.

We didn’t really try to go for any goals or anything; we just put ourselves in the studio. It took us a couple of years because we were on tour while we were trying to write the album. A lot of it was writing songs, putting them on hold for a couple months, coming back and giving them another listen, reevaluating what we did a couple months before, and fixing it — basically just taking our time. We came out with a good record. It’s not the best we can do, by all means, but it was a good transition and probably what people were expecting from us at this time.

IN: If someone were checking out Voodoo Glow Skulls for the first time, what record would you recommend?
FC: The record that got us the most notoriety was “Firme.” That record catapulted the band to the next level. I think it’s the record a lot of people identify the band with. “Band Geek Mafia” is also a fan favorite. Those two are the ones that made the biggest impact on our fans.

IN: Voodoo Glow Skulls have played everywhere. Where are your best international fans?
FC: Mexico is always great for us. My parents are from Mexico and we’ve got family there. Plus we did the “Firme” record all in Spanish, which got us a lot of attention there. That’s where we have the most rabid fans, where fans really go nuts over the band.

On our last tour, we made it to some Eastern European countries [including Croatia and Slovenia] for the first time. The crowds were so happy just to have an American band in their presence. It could have been anybody probably [laughs], but for Voodoo Glow Skulls to go somewhere where many American bands never get to go ... it was a great feeling. It’s a sense of accomplishment when you can say, ‘Our music is the reason why we’re here. And our music got us here.’ There are a lot of places abroad where they take in the band, and where we’re well respected. Japan has some of the best audiences. The UK is also a great for this type of music.

We don’t break attendance records everywhere we go. We play small, comfortable clubs — places where fans can see the band and experience the band the way they want to. We do play big festivals as well. Every gig is different. For us, it’s great just to be able to maintain and do what we do — play small punk rock shows for the most part. And sometimes you’ll travel across the globe and play a small, 200- person venue. And some of those are the best shows.

JTL update

The band has basically been on hiatus all summer long. When Traci and I moved to Taylorsville, it kind of screwed up the practice schedule. The Murray house was central to the band as car-less Danny works down the street at the library and Aaron lived around the corner. Between all of the time spent moving and all of the usual summer stuff, we have only rehearsed sporadically and haven't played a show since June.

Things are finally starting to get back on track. This past week we put together the basis of a new song, the first new song in forever. I'm excited about the music, but it's still without lyrics. That means we now have three songs with no words. (We play them live, I just make up new lyrics each time.) It's a bit embarrassing that I write all day at work, but can't for the life of me write lyrics. Especially now that I'm neither teenage nor angsty.

The band recorded basically recorded all of the instrument tracks for our album at least a year ago. It's still sitting on my computer, needing mixing and some more vocals. How can I start on all of my other recording plans - my rap album, my techno career, my acoustic songs - until I get the Johnny Tightlips album done? I've been spending a lot of time planning drums with Paige. Maybe I can teach her how to use ProTools.

Johnny Acousticlips

The Johnny Tightlips debut CD, that I have been procrastinating about for the past year plus, is now on hold until I get enough of the new house unpacked that I can start recording again. In the meantime, Aaron and I recorded acoustic versions of a few of our songs. We sat in my concrete, unfinished - and thus acoustically outstanding, basement and recorded mic-less into an MP3 recorder. You can find "Airport Song" and "Heart on Fire" over at the JTL website.

Go Betty Go

I haven't had much time to blog lately, hence this incredibly backdated post. We played a show with touring girl punks GoBettyGo a few weeks ago. It was nice to play a show with some punk bands for a change and Solid Ground Cafe was nice as well.

The highlight of the evening was seeing how four girls from L.A. handle living in a van. The first thing I noticed was that hanging on the back door of their equipment trailer was a linen shoe rack. (Even girl punks need to have shoe choices on the road, apparently.) They were also traveling with two little dogs. Talk about cramped quarters. As far as I could tell, they were sleeping in the van each night and they said that they had been showering at the 24 Hour Fitness whenever they got a chance. You go, girls!

Though I don't love their style of music, they rocked pretty hard and put on a good show. The real props of the night go out to our bass player, Aaron, who despite becoming a father just six days earlier, still made it to the show.

Upcoming Johnny Tightlips Show

Now basing our gigs around the impending arrival of Aaron's unborn child, our next show will be April 26 at the Solid Ground Cafe in Sandy. We're playing with three very cool groups, including girl punks Go Betty Go from Side One Dummy Records.

Go Betty Go
Calm Before the Crash
Abby Normal
Johnny Tightlips

Johnny Tightlips vs. Slayer

Slayer won. The club owner in Ogden said that there probably would have been another 15-20 kids at our show, had Slayer not been playing that night at the Great Saltair. With those 15-20 kids, there would have been close to 25 paying kids in the crowd.

From the moment that we got to the club, I knew it was going to be a good night. We walked in the front door and the guy running the show said, “Can I help you?”

“Uh, yeah, we’re with Johnny Tightlips.”

Awkward silence.

“We’re playing tonight.”

“Oh, you are? Huh. Well, we’ll rearrange the lineup and fit you in.”

Rock and roll is not exactly organized or efficient.

Though the crowd was sparse, we had a pretty good night at our first showing in Weber County. (We’re basically almost an international supergroup now that we’ve played in Summit, Weber and Salt Lake counties. Watch out Dagget County, you’re next!) Not that we necessarily played well.

I continue to be amazed by stage fright in all of its many forms. Though I have mostly gotten over playing in front of a crowd, I am still deathly embarrassed by having to tune my guitar in front of people. I absolutely hate it. Anyway, what surprised me the other night was that even though we have played all of these songs hundreds of times, the second we get in front of people we start forgetting things.

If you have never performed music in front of an audience, you might think that the musician is thinking about the music while he is playing. Not me. The second we start playing, my mind is everywhere – thinking about the people I’m looking at, wondering if House is going to be able to solve his next medical mystery, thinking about how I shouldn't have eaten so many peanutes before the show, etc. And then, POW! I remember I’m playing a song, and frantically start trying to figure out if it’s time to switch to the chorus or back to the verse.

We were playing “Record Store” on Tuesday night, the first song we ever worked on as a band. I’ve been playing for close to five years now. But when Danny’s drum intro finished up, I looked at my hands and said to them, “I have no idea what you’re supposed to be doing right now.” No idea. I knew there was a lead guitar part, but heck if I knew what it was. I muddled my way through it, then I skipped a chorus and played a guitar solo, and when we got to the part where the guitar solo was really supposed to happen, I just played the same thing again.

So it wasn’t really our best technical performance, but I still felt like it was a good show. It seemed like the handful of kids that were there were into it, which made it easy for us to be into it. Oh, and we’re getting better at covering up our many mistakes.

I talked to the club owner after our set. He said that they draw their biggest crowds with 8 Mile-style rap battles. He said on some nights they are getting upwards of 400 kids out for those shows. Because of my addiction to The White Rapper Show on VH1, I have now made it my number one goal to get my skillz together and enter a rap battle in Ogden. To practice, I will spend now until then insulting every person I see…and your mom, too.