Quinn Fallon Makes His Best Record Yet, "Get a New Ghost" by Los Gravediggers - Colin G.

Quinn Fallon has been an integral part of the Columbus music scene for the better part of two decades, as both a club owner and songwriter. The latest release by his band Los Gravediggers, Get a New Ghost, is available this month and the CD release party is Friday October 10th at King 5. Doors at 8 p.m. and Erica Blinn opens the show at 9. Quinn was nice enough to answer a few of my questions while slinging drinks at his kick-ass bar Little Rock. 

 

Colin G. - You have made good records as a solo artist and as the leader of The X-Rated Cowboys and Los Gravediggers, but the early buzz is that this is your best release and after listening I agree with the hype. Do you feel this is your best work to date and if so, what makes this record different from your past releases? 

Best release?  Hopefully, but it's by far my favorite.  Everything that happened with the Cowboys was very organic and it was exciting to write in a couple of genres that were newer to me.  Then with the first Gravediggers record - which is basically a well-produced publishing demo - I really got to work on my pop smarts and, for the first time ever, was making conscious decisions to make the music as accessible as possible.  Then on this record I threw all that crap out the window.  I really just wrote what I had to write and I did not have to look very far for inspiration.  I don't feel feel like I wrote several of them, they almost occurred to me as opposed to working on them.

C.G. - Andy Harrison and Dan Baird seem to be your personal production team. How did that pairing come together and how do they compliment each other in the studio? 

I have been friends with Andy forever and it was Andy who brought in Dan to work on the second Cowboys' CD, Saddest Day.  I think I pretty much hated him and swore I would never work with him again.  A few months later I started to realize how much better I liked Saddest Day than the first record and steeled myself to work with him again on our third record.  That one was a cake-walk, everyone was done trying to mark their territory, I suppose.

I did not single them out in the credits, but Dan produced a batch by himself, Andy did a batch by himself and then they did five tunes together.  They have a great back & forth and a real easy way of working together, plus they are both killer guitar players.  They also make things pretty relaxed in the studio, which makes it easy to get the right vibe on some songs.  They are a great fit for my stuff.

C.G. - Boy, you have got some heavy hitters on project. Tell the folks about a couple of the players helping out and what it was like to watch them perform on your songs? 

We were very fortunate to have some great players sit in on some of the tunes.  Al Perkins played on a majority of the songs of Get a New Ghost and I believe it was the third time he has done a session for the Gravediggers.  Al played on records from Dylan, the Stones, the Flying Burrito Brothers - of which he was a member - and about 1,000 others, so it was a real honor.

He is an amazing musician and such a gent!  We always have to spend about five minutes yelling curse words and worse before he shows up to record.  He is a devout Christian and will walk out of a session if someone takes the Lord's name in vain. 

Dan brought in Brad Pemburton to play on five tracks.  He is a member of Ryan Adams' band - the Cardinals - and he also plays with Brendan Benson, as well as Bobby Keys. Really cool guy, super-chill and he beats the shit out of his drums!  Fearless.

I snagged the opening spot for Bobby Keys when he played at Woodland's in October, 2012 and got to hang out with him a couple minutes after the show.  I told him we had debuted a song that night that I had stolen from the title of his autobiography called "If Every Night Was a Saturday Night."  He seemed genuinely flattered and said he would be happy to play on it next time I was in Nashville, and much to my surprise he did.

Worth noting that Bobby's band had Brad on drums and Dan on lead vocal & guitar. Yup, they are awesome.

I am very lucky to play with the caliber of guys who are in the Gravediggers.  Matt Mees on drums, Mark Nye on bass, Jake Reis on guitar and occasionally Andy Harrison on guitar as well, but no one's schedule was lining up to cut the final batch of songs cut for the record and I couldn't picture Get a New Ghost without some of these songs on it.

C.G. - Speaking personally, I know you went through the some tough times before recording this album. Do you feel that had an influence on your writing? 

Everything that was happening in my life bled over into the record.  In the span of a short time, I lost my Mom, split with my wife and had to leave our house in Clintonville, all while running a brand-new business.  And this was all on the heels of having lost Andy Davis and my Dad in the two years before that.  Some of these songs I just reached up and snagged out of the ether, as opposed to sitting down and working on.

I coasted quite a while just focusing on the bar and this record, not really facing up to everything that had happened.  I always said the Fallon family motto is "Drink & Repress."

I tried to make sure none of the lyrics came across like journal entries, but yes, there is some really personal stuff on there.

C.G. - What three songs should people make sure to check out on your record? 

"Ain't Gonna Live Forever."  This is important to me as it's a bit of a rallying cry to not cave in no matter how appealing that would be.

"Yesterday's Girl."  This was in the maybe pile and I was nervous to show it to everyone.  It felt unfinished, it was just verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, chorus.  Ridiculous arrangement, but we recorded it just how I wrote it,  It's got this whole Petty vibe and it's really pissed off and fun to listen to, always my favorite combination.

"Wings Made of Whiskey."  No getting around this.  One of the songs of Ghost that directly addresses the end of my marriage.  I feel like I would not have been capable of writing those lyrics a few years back and I like how greasy the band feels.  Kinda reminds me of a Westerberg ballad.  Really pretty if you just want a casual listen, but pretty devastating if you wanna dig deeper.

 

Colin Gawel started Pencilstorm on a slow morning at Colin's Coffee. You can learn more about him and other Pencilstorm contributors by clicking here.

Watershed Opening For Cheap Trick! House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, S.C., Friday Oct. 3rd

Folks, it's been a long time coming, but the stars have finally aligned and Watershed will be reclaiming their rightful role as the ultimate opening act for Cheap Trick,  Friday October 3rd at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, SC. 

If you have a pulse or have read the best selling book Hitless Wonder, I don't have to tell you: Cheap Trick + Watershed + a great venue + the beach = miss this and you are a chump.

Click here for a link to tickets

Click here to read The Complete Cheap Trick Song Rankings which explains why Cheap Trick is America's greatest rock band and why Watershed opening makes the night extra special.           

OK, got your tickets? These two hotels are right by the HOB, on the beach and personally recommended.

Click here for Ocean Creek Resort. Rooms at $100, right on the beach. 

Click here for North Beach Plantation. Rooms around $110

There you go. 

Get busy living or get busy regretting 

See you there. - Colin G.

All I've Ever Wanted To Do by Ricki C.

All I’ve ever wanted to do – since I was 13 years old in 1965 – is to go see bands play.  (Before that, all I ever wanted to do was to be a soldier in World War II, but since I was 12 years old in 1964 and the war ended in 1945, that goal was largely out of my reach by that point.) 

The first time I ever saw a rock & roll band play live was when my sainted Italian mother – who, by the way, worked 35 years as a waitress and later a hostess at Scioto Country Club in Upper Arlington – called my older sister and had her bring me to the Club on a Saturday night because there was, in my mom’s words, “a rock combo playing.”  

Looking back I now realize that the band was probably a group of Upper Arlington High School kids, at least one of whom had a father who was a member at Scioto.  I wasn’t allowed in the main ballroom, of course, being just a child of The Help, but even watching from the door to the kitchen I was utterly mesmerized by these kids – probably only three or four years older than me – bashing out the rock & roll.  To borrow a phrase from my former employer, Hamell On Trial, my brain exploded at that searingly close proximity to rock & roll music.

That was the night I learned to love live rock & roll music.  (I also learned a lot about the distribution of wealth in the United Sates and the myth of the classless American society peeking out of that kitchen door, and having to duck back inside anytime a Scioto member or their kids happened to glance my way.)  For right then, though, all I knew was that those four boys – in their paisley shirts & striped pants – were conjuring up a truly mighty din.  Their teenage peers were dancing their little hearts out.  Their parents – and many other adults – were holding their hands over their ears.  Kick out the jams, indeed.  It quite literally took my breath away.

I’d watched The Beatles and The Dave Clark 5 and Gerry & the Pacemakers and The Animals and The Rolling Stones and all of the other British Invasion acts on television, on the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace (I don’t think Shindig and Hullabaloo had even debuted by that time), but I had never seen a live rock & roll band up close and personal, had never shared an enclosed space with that electrically-amplified, brain-numbingly loud noise, drive & excitement. 

I think I probably watched that band – who shall forever remain nameless to me – for at least 45 minutes, and I’m sure they played all cover tunes, but I don’t remember a single song except “Gloria,” which that Upper Arlington quartet NAILED but good.  I don’t know for sure if my lifelong love affair with that Van Morrison/Them tune began that night, but I do know that “G-L-O-R-I-A” is one of my five favorite songs of all time, and rock & roll’s most perfect, most primal rallying cry.  (Just ask Patti Smith or Willie Phoenix.)

After that night my dad – in his nighttime second-job position as ticket agent for Central Ticket Office – started getting me into national touring rock shows at Vet’s Memorial.  I also started taking the bus downtown every Saturday afternoon to see bands, first at Lazarus and later at Morehouse Fashion – the two big Columbus department stores – when they started booking local rock bands in their Junior Misses departments to bring in the teen girl shoppers for groovy fashions and – by extension – the teen boys who would follow those teen girls pretty much anywhere. 

I liked records and used all of my lunch & bus money (I’d hitchhike home from school, knowledge that would have killed my mother) and all of the money I earned working at the Dairy Queen across the street from our house on Sullivant Avenue to buy them, but really what I liked was watching bands play live.  At one point in my life – fairly early on – I concluded that ALL records should be recorded live, because if the bands couldn’t cut it to record live, they shouldn’t be making records.  In many ways, I stand by that notion to this day.  It certainly would have saved us from a fuckload of bad music – starting with The Beatles after “Revolver” and ending with Mumford & Sons.   

It has occurred to me recently that almost every single thing I’ve done in my entire life I did so that I could go see bands play.

I turned 62 years old on June 30th, and just started collecting Social Security, so this is not a particularly auspicious thing to realize; at least to most of respectable, workaday society.

I started playing in bands in high school so that it would be easier for me to go see bands play, including the ones I was in.  (I also did it to meet girls, but that's whole 'nother blog.)  I stayed in college long enough to stay out of the Vietnam War, but not long enough to graduate.  And then for twenty years I worked in warehouses, unloading trucks, so that I had enough money to go see bands play.

I couldn’t begin to go into all the bands I’ve seen in the past 49 years:  from Columbus bands The Dantes, The Fifth Order, The Grayps, The Godz, Black Leather Touch, The Shadowlords, Gunshy Ministers, Howlin’ Maggie, Mrs. Children, and probably dozens more.  I saw Watershed dozens of times BEFORE I worked for them and dozens after.  I saw Paul Revere & the Raiders, Bob Dylan's first electric tour with The Hawks, The Turtles, The Jimi Hendix Experience, The Doors, The Left Banke, Cream, Janis Joplin, and – most crucially, in 1969, the best live show I ever witnessed – The Who.  I saw everybody in the 1970’s, from bands I loved – The Kinks, Mott The Hoople, The New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, AC/DC, the Patti Smith Group and Aerosmith – to bands I hated and later learned to despise – Styx, Rush, Triumph – to bands I loved then and hate now – The Eagles.         

I saw The Stooges – the original band, with Ron Asheton on guitar – TWICE while I was still in high school.  I saw Brownsville Station – the pride of Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the immortal Cub Koda on lead guitar – a dozen times between 1969 and 1972 with my high school best friend & bandmate Dave Blackburn, the person who taught me more about music and rock & roll and life than anybody else on this planet, and to this day Brownsville remains one of the five best live bands I’ve seen in my entire rock & roll existence.  It was like seeing The Who every few weeks, like Pete & Keith and company were a local band.  I saw Mink DeVille, Nick Lowe & Rockpile, and Elvis Costello & the Attractions all in one night in Cincinnati one time.  I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band and Ian Hunter – both with Mott The Hoople and in his solo years – more times than any other national acts, and over a longer span of years: 1970 to 2013 for Ian, 1976 to this past April for Bruce.

I’ve had my head knocked sideways by the most unexpected bands in the weirdest places: by a band of teenagers called The First Ship that sounded like Fairport Convention backed by The Velvet Underground in a small town in Canada when I was on the road with Hamell On Trial; by 1970’s singer/songwriter Marshall Chapman, whose live performance at a beach-bar happy hour while I was on vacation around 1985 somewhere in South Carolina was so much better than her records that it made my heart hurt; by Pete & Maura Kennedy playing an in-store at the old Border’s Book Store at Kenny & Henderson at 11 am on a Sunday morning, with only three other people in attendance, one of whom turned out to be Dr. Mark Segal, who I didn't meet until years later when I started working at Ace In The Hole Music, where he was a regular customer and became my good friend.  

I saw the Jim Carroll Band, The Replacements, REM, The Del-Lords, Violent Femmes, Marshall Crenshaw and Prince – among many others – in the 1980’s.  I saw five of my favorite singer/songwriters – Richard Thompson, Dave Alvin, Steve Earle,  Lucinda Williams and Alejandro Escovedo – in the 1990’s.  I didn’t see my all-time rock & roll hero, Elliott Murphy, until 1992, but it was worth the wait.  Somewhere in all that I saw the three best live rock & roll bands that you never saw – Bronx’s The Dictators, Boston’s The Neighborhoods and Columbus’ Romantic Noise. 

At the dawn of the 21st century – owing to a small inheritance from my mom & dad – I was able to stop unloading trucks in warehouses and to start working in record stores and being a roadie for bands.  From 2000 to 2014 I’ve seen exactly three rock & roll bands I didn’t see in the 20th century who were truly epic – The Strokes, The White Stripes, and The Avett Brothers – but I’m still out there looking.

Because all I’ve ever wanted to do is to go see bands play. - Ricki C. / The last day of summer, 2014.

Insider's Guide to Independents' Day Festival

Full disclosure: I have been a huge fan of this festival since it started and was honored when The Lonely Bones were chosen to perform and was happy to oblige when Watershed was asked for their only Columbus appearance a couple years back. What makes it so special? Hell, I can't define that. You will know it when you see it, so please make plans to attend the weekend September 19-21.  Click here for full schedule.

 In the meantime, let's get the straight dope from the Indy Day braintrust.

1) Obviously, the big question would be after all the success Independents' Day enjoyed downtown, why the move to Franklinton?

Adam Brouillette, Independents' Day Board Chair + Independents' Day Co-Founder: We moved to Franklinton for greater opportunity. We had largely outgrown our downtown location and in a search for our new home, we found Franklinton well-suited to the ethos the festival tries to adhere to. The partner neighbors, the ample space, and the diminished logistical issues have been beneficial to the growth of the festival. Now, as the neighborhood grows, we can grow with it. 

Michael S. Brown, Independents' Day Board Member + Co-Founder: Gay Street has seen incredible growth over the past seven years and we love it, but we also saw that there is some very real creative energy building in Franklinton, and that makes for a very attractive canvas.  Standing down near 400 W. Rich just begs the question, what next?  We think that the more people see it filled with life and art, the more they will love it and find ways to integrate that creative energy into whatever it is they are doing. 

 

2) Were you involved with this festival from the start? How did it begin?

Erin Corrigan, Independents' Day Board Member: I was lucky enough to be involved more or less from the beginning. The first Independents' Day was put together in an extremely short time-frame, so there was some very direct outreach to determine who could do what and how fast. I was the service chair for Cap Square Rotary at the time, so I was able to commit the club to providing some volunteers, and then worked on coordinating the rest with help from CYP (Columbus Young Professionals), other groups, and friends. We started with a few dozen volunteers, and now we recruit more than 300!

***it's not too late to volunteer! free T-shirt and beer tokens! Click here to sign up!

Brown: The summer before the first Independents’s Day there was a great crew of creative people who kept intercepting at events and festivals, we all felt there was an energy that needed to be tapped and that wasn’t getting showcased enough at other fests.  We knew we could get beer and bands together, but we believed the creative community is a lot bigger than that, so we tried to build the festival around that ethos.  This was also a time when downtown was just starting to show signs of a come-back, Gay Street was an open canvas that we felt we could fill in with fun and music.  It worked and we not only enjoyed each year more than the last, we built a community of organizers and volunteers who may not have every really worked together if not for ID.

3) It seems that Independents' Day is always a cut above other festivals as for quality of live music, what is your secret?

James Allison, 2014 Music Chair: We have about 20 people involved on the music committee that cover a range of tastes, eras, scenes, and genres who get an equal say in what gets booked for the festival. I think the greatest strength of the music line up at Independents' Day is its diversity. On top of that, we also try and focus on unique and rare experiences. We always dream big at the start of the booking process with reunions, collaborations, etc. We'll never gawk at a suggestion and always explore the possibilities. I think everyone's usually surprised by how many of them actually work out.

4) If someone was planning to attend this year, give me a couple can't miss options food, music or otherwise?

Corrigan: In addition to all the usual festivities, there are some really amazing things we've never tried before, including:

• Pinata Thunderdome 

We've recruited local artists to craft special works of piñata art just for us.

• Shipping Container Park

We've challenged a group of vendors to turn shipping containers into retail stores, art galleries, food concepts and alternative spaces for the weekend.

• Battle of the Pig

At 5 p.m. on Saturday, two of the city's best-known chefs will battle it out, preparing a series of pork-centric dishes for our panel of judges, and only one will be named King of the Pig! 

• PBR Skate Ramp

Our friends at Pabst Blue Ribbon and Abnormal Allies will be building and skating a PBR themed skate ramp all day. Stop by to check out riders on half pipes and fun boxes doing wall rides, grinds, and flips.

• Mini Moss Terrariums

This free of charge feature will provide you with the sand, soil, stones, moss, bark & a tiny glass container you need to make your very own terrarium.

• Urban Mini-Golf 

Scenesters may remember the A-Holes (art holes) mini-golf from a few years ago... well, it's back! Each of the nine holes was designed by a local group of artists to create a one-of-a-kind mini-golf experience.

In addition, we'll have some 30-foot visual pieces that will really bring a new dimension to the festival.

And last but certainly not least, James' music picks: sets by J Rawls and his stream of proteges; Happy Chichester, who's taking a break from his string of solo sets to perform with a drummer; and The Floorwalkers with Jared Mahone. All three of those sets are going to feature unique collaborations with different artists that you probably won't see again, or at least for a long time.

An Open Letter to Bono - by Brian Phillips

Dear Bono,

I write this with love in my heart. This is not trolling, but constructive criticism. 

When I was 17 I heard "New Year's Day" on MTV and ran down to the only record store in my small Washington State town to buy the 45. I played it over and over. I bought "War" soon after. My sister gave me "October" for Christmas. I was hooked. "Boy" soon followed and I was caught up. Over and over... over and over. Those three records ushered me through that universal period when "boy meets man." 

By the time I got a chance to see your band, in the Tacoma Dome 1992, your show was an "outrageous" $28 (seems quaint now doesn't it?). It was a night I'll never forget. For us now-greying old farts U2 was our Led Zeppelin, our Who, our Beatles. I love all those bands, but  you need your own.... bands that come of age when you do. Many years before my first U2 show I saw "Red Rocks" on Canadian TV (an advantage to growing up 20 miles from the border) and I thought it was the most amazing, revolutionary thing I'd ever seen. In my world, far from New York, far from London, (hell, it took two and half hours to get to Seattle) there was nothing like U2 until there was U2. You opened my mind to The Clash, R.E.M.... I could go on as my record collection will attest. U2 were my gateway drug. 

Getting to my point then... I have a big problem with what U2 pulled off today. People don't see this thing as "free, but paid for," as you put it, but "FREE." You've devalued what some of us still value, but more importantly, you've devalued a lot of hard work put forth by others. Just today a lot of cool artists released albums.... Delta Spirit, Interpol, The Kooks, Death From Above 1979, Vance Joy, and Ryan Adams to name a few. Their records cost money to make as yours did. The difference, of course, is they have to take their records to a brutal marketplace and you don't. To cut to the quick, you're not competing.....you've taken the easy way out. 

Also, and more selfishly I'll admit, you've cut radio out entirely. I've been in the radio business for my entire adult life. You helped light that fire! Hell, for me this goes back to college radio. When The Joshua Tree came in the mail we were beyond excited. It was an event. It went right on the air. By the time Achtung Baby rolled around I was working in Seattle and "The Fly" went from the UPS guy right to air. Ah! Those were the days. Opening the box and banging that record right on the airwaves for the people to hear! 

I've got news for you, my radio station still lives by those values. CD1025 in Columbus, Ohio has been here 25 years... predating even this old warhorse. We would have made your record an event! Out of the..... email... and right on the air. Apple can't match that brother. No way. There's no soul there. Radio has soul. Anyone can turn on the radio. It's democracy!

This whole thing bums me out, Bono. I play your music on the radio all the time, and I've been talking about how you've been working with Dangermouse on a new album. It was supposed to be an event. Instead it's a phone. Granted, a cool phone that can churn out amazing HD footage of a U2 show.... from the front... where it costs way more than 28 bucks. 

Sincerely,

Brian Phillips,

Lifer

Here's a link that helps explain this:

http://pitchfork.com/news/53827-u2-release-new-album-songs-of-innocence-for-free-on-itunes/