Erica Blinn & the Handsome Machine by Ricki C.

Erica Blinn & the Handsome Machine will be headlining the Main Stage at the Columbus Arts Festival at 9 pm this Saturday night, June 7th, 2014, on the Downtown Riverfront.

 

First off, full disclosure: I have – on a very few occasions – worked as a roadie for Erica Blinn & the Handsome Machine, but I don’t want this piece taken as any kind of paid advertisement or boosterism.  I have no financial interest in the band, I get paid a few bucks to wrangle guitars & merch once in awhile, but that’s not enough to convince me to conceive the rave you’re gonna view here.

I have only ever worked for bands I’ve loved – Willie Phoenix, Hamell On Trial, Watershed, The League Bowlers, Colin Gawel & the Lonely Bones, The Whiles – because if you don’t love a band enough to watch them a hundred different nights in a hundred different dives, why bother?   

I'd watch a hundred nights of this band.  I’d watch Erica and the guys a hundred shows in a hundred nights:  I’d watch Erica belt out her incredibly well-written tunes like the bastard girl-child of Rod Stewart & Chrissie Hynde;  I’d watch her peel out her rhythm parts from a low-slung Fender Tele like a Harley winding out on a Midwest dirt-track;  I’d watch her wail harmonica solos like she was born on the South Side of Chicago rather than the West Side of Columbus;  I’d watch PJ Schreiner bash out drum-pounding fever/beats behind her while simultaneously pitching in note-perfect harmonies along with bass player Mark Nye;  I’d watch guitarist Greg Wise melting faces in the front row with incendiary riffs straight outta the Keith Richards/Fred “Sonic” Smith school of lead guitar, yet ultimately fresh, new, up-to-date and ROCKIN’.  (I’ve only seen relatively new second lead guitarist Will Newsome twice, and he’s SOLID, my rock & roll brothers & sisters, but you’re gonna have to wait until next time for superlatives on him from me.  I never rush my proselytizing.)

I first met Erica while I was working at Ace In The Hole Music when she was still a teenager.  Her father Jerry – a key player in 1970’s Columbus rockers Black Leather Touch – shopped at the store and once when he brought Erica in with him I mentioned to Jerry that I had reviewed Black Leather Touch in Focus, a local rock magazine of the time.  Erica got really hyped in that way only young teenagers can and said earnestly, “You don’t still have those articles by any chance, do you?  I try to collect everything I can find about my dad’s band.”  “You’re in luck, little lady,” I replied, “I am one of those egotistical motherfuckers who keeps EVERYTHING they’ve ever written.”  I xeroxed the articles and brought them to the store for her the next Saturday.  It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.       

Erica started performing at 14 years old and I watched her growing up in public over the next few years, throughout her scuffling days, playing with different bands in shifting line-ups, the songs always getting a little better, the stagecraft a little sharper with each incarnation.  And then in 2010 there were the exponential leaps forward: hooking up with Colin Gawel of Watershed for co-songwriting sessions; catching the ear of producer Mike Landolt of Curry House Records; and forging a relationship with the rock & roll pride of Raleigh, North Carolina – Terry Anderson & the Olympic Ass-Kickin’ Team – for live dates and recording.  The end result of those collaborations was Erica’s 2011 self-titled extended-play CD, six tracks of pure prime rockin’ perfection, led by “Choices” and Anderson’s classic “Weather Or Not.” 

And then came the formation of The Handsome Machine: with longtime partner PJ Schreiner anchoring the drum-throne, bassist & harmony vocalist Mark Nye came on board first, followed by genius buzzsaw lead guitarist Greg Wise.  The band – along with guest musicians Devon Allman, Aaron Lee Tasjan & Angela Perley, among others – recorded Erica’s new 12-track debut album “Lovers In The Dust” and hit the road to play any & every bar, dive & honky-tonk that would have them, all the while honing the blistering rock attack they lay claim to today.  Second lead guitarist Will Newsome was added to the band after the album was completed to fill in some of the approximately one thousand guitar tracks that producer Landolt layered into the album, laid down by guitarists as disparate as Andy Harrison, Dave Bartholomew, Wise and Allman.

Maybe more than merely the band, though, it’s the Erica Blinn-penned SONGS the Handsome Machine are gonna throw at you that are going to have you standing staring mesmerized at the stage.  “Whiskey Kisses” and “Sexy Mess” are going to ROCK you, “Let’s Give Love” and “Let Me Be Yours” are going to ROLL you, and if “One Of These Days” doesn’t break your heart on this upcoming  warm spring Saturday night I’m inclined to proffer the opinion that you don’t have a functioning cardiac unit.  And if the two minutes & twenty-seconds of “Home” isn’t the greatest individual rock song you’ve heard in the past five years, I’ll take back every word I've written in this blog.

I’d watch a hundred nights of this band.

I’m only asking you to watch one.  

 


Wal's Hiatus From Pencilstorm

I stopped by the coffee shop the other day and Colin asked me, "Why haven't you written anything for Pencilstorm lately?  Dude, Steve Perry sang on stage again. You gotta be dying to chime in about that."

Well, Colin's right.  There are a lot of things I want to write about these days: "Potential Journey Reunion" (bad idea), "Nigerian Kidnappings" (We can spend $500 mil looking for a Malaysian plane that fell in the ocean but we can spend any money to find 240 black girls?), "My Band Broke Up After 25 years" (got divorced to 3 guys in the process), and then there's the "My Favorite Albums" that has brewing in my mind (gonna annoy a bunch of people with that one).

But those blogs will probably never see the light of day because I'm on break from Pencilstorm right now. In fact, I shouldn't be even spending time on this blog.

See when I'm not writing for Pencilstorm, I'm working on my other passion: novel writing. I have a book already published and am currently finishing book two. And if you've ever recorded an album, rebuilt your bathroom, or even put together a model car, you know that the last mile is the most difficult.

So I'm taking May and June off to focus on getting my second book done. Let me put this in perspective - the typical Pencilstorm blog is 500 words (1500 if you're Ricki C). My novel is 80,000 words - that's a lot to manage. Right now I'm in the final editing stage (think of it like the final mix of your album). I'm also finishing the ever important book cover.  Imagine how difficult that is - just like designing your album cover, it's got to be right on. People do judge a book by it's cover.

So for now, I have to keep my musings to myself and finish this book.  In the meantime, check out my first book, Assignment 1989. It's a science fiction thriller.  Kind of like Tom Clancy meets Michael Crichton. I promise you there are no hairband references in it. Oh, wait a minute it takes place in 1989, yes there is a few mentions of Bon Jovi. But just a few.

Wal Ozello is the author of Assignment 1989: The Time Travel Wars . He's a resident of Upper Arlington, Ohio and a frequent customer at Colin's Coffee.

Learn more about Wal Ozello and other Pencilstorm contributors by clicking here

Colin Gawel and The Lonely Bones / The Randys Live @ Grandview Digfest Sat June 14th.

Colin Gawel and The Lonely Bones will be returning to the Grandview Digfest on Saturday June 14th. The event is sponsored by the Grandview Chamber of Commerce and will be held at the Grandview Yards. There are 23 different beers being served, including Bones bassist Dan Cochran's Four String Brew. The Bones will be hitting the stage at 6:00 for an hour-long set followed by one of our all-time favorite bands, The Randys. And admission is.......FREE! If you miss this, you are truly a jack-ass. See you June 14th at Digfest.

 

Click here for more details about the event.

Live from the CD102.5 Big Room, Colin Gawel with "Sad Drive" on April 10, 2010.

Official music video for Colin Gawel's "Superior". The single was released on the EP-CD "Superior" by Mike Landolt's Curry House Records label. More at www.colingawel.com. Video produced by Palestra Creative (www.palestracreative.com).

Ricki C.'s Rock & Roll Videos You Oughta See, part the third: The Neighborhoods / "Real Stories"

(Ricki C.'s Rock & Roll Videos You Oughta See will be a continuing feature in pencilstorm, at least until Ricki gets bored or the readership finds a way to make him stop.  Videos will be mainly little-seen or off-the-beaten-rock-&-roll-path.  

They're not exactly my answer/reply to Wal Ozello's Top Ten Rock Vocalists, but they all ARE rock & roll songs.  None of them are show tunes.    

Ricki will provide an intro to the videos of not-more-than-500 words, because we all know it’s impossible for Ricki to try to tell a simple story without going off into 10 different tangents and then forgetting altogether what he’s talking about.)

 

"Hey," you might be saying to yourself right now, "isn't the lead singer in today's video the guy I saw playing lead guitar last summer in the reconstituted Replacements?"  Yes, astute pencilstorm readers, today's video features David Minehan of Boston's late-70's to early 90's favorite sons - The Neighborhoods - appearing at The Channel Club in their rockin' heyday of 1982.  It's eminently possible I was in the audience at the show presented here.

From 1980 to 1984 I was working at Ross Laboratories, making a shitload of money, was newly divorced and occasionally flew to Boston on weekends just to see rock & roll bands.  (This was made possible by the existence of People's Express Airlines, a bargain-basement airline that was EXACTLY like a Greyhound Bus that flew. The round-trip fare to Boston ON THE WEEKEND was $76.  Admittedly it wasn’t exactly luxury travel, People's Express didn't even have chairs in their boarding area, you just had to sit on the floor or lean against the wall.  Even Greyhound has chairs in their terminals, though you might not necessarily want to actually SIT on them.  One Friday night, and I swear to God I am not joking or making this up, a gentleman of middle-eastern persuasion tried to bring a live chicken on the plane.  After much animated discussion - not very much of which was conducted in English - he was dissuaded.  He left the waiting area, went out to the parking garage for about two minutes, returned sans chicken and boarded the flight.  I have no idea what happened to that animal that evening and I don’t want to know.)

The Neighborhoods soldier on to this day in 2014, playing occasional shows around the Northeast, and remain a fearsome live unit.  In that circumstance, they share more than a little with their Columbus rock & roll brethren Watershed - a trio of rockers pounding out great rock & roll tunes to the faithful and winning new converts in their second century of playing the rock & roll.  

Reasons They Never Made It In America - I fully admit, here I'm mystified, I thought The Neighborhoods had it all.  They were just Kiss enough, but not TOO Kiss.  They played great, they looked great, Minehan wrote TREMENDOUS pop-punk songs and possessed every single rock-star trait except fame.  And, given that they were contemporaries of REM and The Replacements in the early 80's, I can't even say they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I'm frankly baffled how they weren't huge.  Were The Neighborhoods one of the five best live bands I ever saw?  Yes, they were, and I've seen a fuckload of bands in my 61 years on the planet.  

Optional Extra-Credit Additional Viewing - Enter "The Neighborhoods" plus "Arrogance" plus "1979" and "The Neighborhoods" plus "Cultured Pearls" plus "2008" on YouTube for a thirty-year span of quality rock & roll.   

 


Fantasy Baseball Update with Brian Phillips

Our editor sent me a Facebook message the other day with some fantasy baseball questions he was hoping I would answer. Ok, it was two weeks ago. Not much has changed in the interim except 67 more players have been severely injured. Elbows are exploding, hamstrings are shredding, discs are bulging. Hell, one player - Matt Cain - missed a start after trying to catch a knife he had dropped while making a sandwich. Cain makes several million dollars a year so it is charming that he's making his own sandwiches. This should end immediately. Not that it matters as Cain is now on the DL anyway (hamstring, not ham sandwich this time). I don't think it's a coincidence that most major league clubs are hovering one side or the other of .500. The DL is amplifying baseball's trend toward parity the past few seasons. As I write Oakland and Detroit hold the best records in baseball, and both clubs have stayed relatively healthy. 

Anyway I digress. Let's plow through em so I can get to another beer and the Mariners/Astros game at 10pm. (Oh yeah, I care.)

Q: How are your various fantasy teams doing?

A trap question, because if there's anything less interesting to everyone than your fantasy teams I have yet to find it. 

I'm in first in a league with our editor, 6th place in my long running keeper league (though I've been as high as third lately, it's pretty close), and 10th place in my 12-team no-trade league. I blame all of that on my pitching. Woeful. Homer Bailey needs to fall out of love with his shitty curve ball at some point. He'll be sitting on the bench for now. 

Q: What five players on your teams have been a pleasant surprise?

1. Nolan Arenado. I spent nine bucks at auction for the Rockies' third baseman. I liked his contact skills for such a young player and figured he'd play a ton owing to his nifty glove. After he reeled off a 28 game hitting streak with some pop here and there I've gotten way more than I thought. I think he'll be on my roster for a long time. Nice player.

2. Starlin Castro. I have the Cubs shortstop on two squads and have been very happy, especially with how late and cheap I obtained him. Sure he was crap last year, but always remember: Once a player displays skills he owns them. The kid needed to grow up a bit. The fact that he's put up solid numbers on a terrible Cubs team is all the more impressive. Pure profit so far.

3. Marlon Byrd. I know, I know. Hardly sexy. He had a nice year last year, but I was a skeptic. He was moving to a new club, he was a year older. That said he cost me almost nothing to keep, so I did. As I write he's around .300 with 6 bombs and 29 RBI. I run him out there every day without much thought and with all the injuries that's worth something.

4. Nelson Cruz. Like Byrd, Cruz is a former 'roid cheater. It's fantasy though and in this game I'm mercenary. He was a late pick and I was hoping maybe he'd give me some pop here and there. All he's done is put up a .282 14/41 slash line and he's a big reason why I'm sitting in first place. 

5. Scott Kazmir. I'll be honest, I was a bit baffled at the deal the always smart Oakland A's gave the resurrected Kazmir. Still, I threw down four bucks for him on a flier. Why? Always remember! The A's front office knows way more about pitching than you do. (See also Tampa Bay.) In 52 innings Kazmir has surrendered a scant 12 walks to go with a decent 43 strike outs. Guys aren't getting a ton of hits off him either. It's real and it's fantastic. 

Who have been your disappointments?

1. Homer Bailey. I know Bailey had a reputation for being a bit of a red ass, but with a great year in 2013 and a new contract I figured we were past all that. Boy, was I wrong. He's stunk up the joint. In the starts I've watched he's been throwing way too much breaking stuff and he's getting killed. 

2. Prince Fielder. I spent big bucks on Prince. He's never hurt and always puts up the numbers, until this year. At least we know why. Fielder will undergo season ending back surgery soon. 

3. Trevor Rosenthal. He was money in the closer role last year and I always assume the Cardinals know what they're doing. Sure he's logged 14 saves, but with an ERA pushing five he's on the verge of losing his gig. It's pretty simple, the kid isn't locating his fastball. He'd better get straight fast because ex-closer Jason Motte is back from Tommy John. 

Who should owners dump and have patience with?

Tough question. I've been doing this long enough to have grown a great deal of patience. I'll answer the question generally. You drafted guys for a reason. For example I don't own Carlos Santana, but if I did I would wait. This has happened before and he's too good a hitter to be this guy all season. Stick him on your bench and wait. That said Homer Bailey is on thin ice. 

Code Reds - Five Baseball Questions for Kevin J. Elliott and Ryan Haye

Johnny Cueto's stock has never been higher. Given his injury history would you consider trading him or any other Reds pitcher for an established bat to help this anemic offense? What position needs the upgrade most of all? Who would you target in a trade? 

Kevin - Never. Despite Cueto being injury prone, he actually appears to be getting stronger as the season progresses. What pitcher these days isn't injury prone? Just look at what we got with Ryan Madson. He never threw a pitch in a Reds uniform.  I don't even think Cueto's come close to reaching his peak as a pitcher. He's looking like Bob Gibson now on one of the league's best pitching staffs. We've got to keep our ace as I think we'll see multi seasons of his dominance down the road. 

Of course we need a bat. I'm the huge optimist in thinking that Votto and Bruce -- and perhaps Frazier -- will have above average seasons and Mez might hit 35 HRs, but certainly realize someone like Albert Pujols (yes, I said it, but we've become a home for former Cards) in this order would really shake things up. Or what about a young guy like the Rays' Will Myers?  I do think Skip Shumacker is a nice addition to the line-up, filling in where needed. Defensively we are golden -- so what do we need? Upgrades in the OF and a SS who could hit for average. 


Ryan - I have to agree with Kevin on this one. There is absolutely no scenario where trading Johnny Cueto is a good idea. He may be injury prone but he is also a known commodity and it’s just not worth getting rid of your ace for a “hot young prospect,” because “hot young prospects” never (statistically speaking)  pan out.  Cueto has turned into a real pitcher and with the adjustment to his windup - notice the decreased twist - and his decreased dependence on his fastball, I feel his injuries could be a thing of the past. Assuming he stays away from the buffet table. 

Thanks in part to Walt Jocketty’s off-season coma the Red’s are thin on the bench. Schumacker is nice but we have a very small sample size, Soto is lost, and nobody outside of Donegal, Ireland thinks Jack Hannahan is a viable backup to Frazier should he go down or when Hannahan returns from the DL. Sure, a bat is needed but with the injuries they’ve sustained this year I think it’s best to wait and see what happens when Bruce, and Votto get healthy. Hopefully, we get some hot bats and Mez can stay hot and healthy. 


2) Which contract you would most like to wave a magic wand and make disappear? Joey Votto 10 years/ $225 million/ expires 2023, Homer Bailey 6 years/ $105 million/ expires 2020, Brandon Phillips 6 years/ $72.5 million/ expires 2017/ Jay Bruce 6 years/ $51 million / expires 2017.

Kevin - Though I'm a homer for Homer, it's Homer. He's really grown in our organization but he'll never be more than a 3-4 guy in your rotation and always seems to be a risk on the mound -- I don't think two no-hitters should ever warrant that type of money. 

Ryan - This is obvious, it’s Homer (dammit Kevin, we agree again). He’s nice but his slow starts and his almost heroic ability to forget how to pitch one inning per game just doesn’t lend itself to the contract they gave him, especially when you’re a team that’s as deep as the Reds are on the mound. That being said, when he’s on he’s un-hittable. 


 3) Are you happy with the job Byran Price has done replacing Dusty Baker? What do you like and what has been disappointing? Are you surprised that the talk of moving Aroldis Chapman to the starting rotation completely disappeared this spring? Is this good or bad? 

Kevin - So far I'm on the fence with Price. I love his aggressiveness on the bases and his constant shifting of the line-up (though injuries have led to that). But I think his pitcher management has been atrocious. There is no reason guys like Ondrusek should be pitching in tight ballgames. As for Chap, when he's on there is no closer greater. I don't think that would ever translate well over 6-7 innings, though I'd love to one day see that proven wrong. 

Ryan - It kills me how much Price loves the bunt. I watched him use his last position player in a tied multi-inning marathon - his last position player! - only to send him to the plate to bunt. That is lunacy. Send a pitcher to the plate in that scenario, it’s not like your two best athletes left on the bench aren’t pitchers (Leake and Cingranni). Or DON’T BUNT. It has to be an organizational philosophy and Price is a company man. That being said, with what the Reds have had to face with injuries Price has done a fine job of managing the roster and the pitchers (mostly). Lastly, Ondrusek is the worst pitcher in the majors. I know it, and you know it.


4) Billy Hamilton is pretty damn exciting but can he become an everyday player? 

Kevin - With Choo gone, we have no choice. He should be playing his final year in AAA, but will have to buck-up and see what he can do in the big leagues. I've seen flashes that he can be a guy who gets on,   and when he gets on it's a thing to watch. But Marty was just discussing the legacy of Ricky Henderson the other night, who hit well and had an incredible OBP. Right now you just can't put Hamilton in any sort of sentence with Ricky Henderson. Fast? Yes. But boy, does he swing at some bad pitches. 

Ryan - He already is an everyday player and he seems to be getting better everyday. He’s young and he seems to be handling himself quite nicely thus far. Let’s just all calm down on the Ricky Henderson talk. Dude is a Hall of Famer and Hamilton is a kid. He’ll get there - which “there” may never be where Ricky got - but he’ll be a decent player as long as he stays healthy. 

5) The Reds are sitting at 20 -23 with one quarter of the MLB schedule complete, what is your best case win total and worst case at this point in the season. What scenerio leads to playoffs and what leads to disaster?

Kevin - Right now I think is rock bottom for this team. No Latos, no Votto, no Bruce - big holes.  If they could have scored an average of 3 runs a ballgame over that span, they'd be in first place. If the pitching holds up and we put a healthy team on the field, I don't see why we couldn't win 90 games. But, the Brewers and Cards look like superior teams, so things could get worse. 

Ryan - I’m fine with where the Reds are sitting right now. Like Kevin said they are hurt, not only hurt but they are missing three potential All-stars. They came out of one the most difficult April schedules essentially a .500 team, which considering the injuries is not too shabby. That being said, they need to be more consistent at the plate and they NEED their players to come off the DL ready to contribute. The margin of error is razor thin. I can’t see them north of the 90 win mark but that might be enough. I think the Brewers will come back to earth, the Cardinals -for perhaps the first time in years -have holes in their lineup and the Pirates just can’t seem to play consistent ball. It’s going to be a fun division to watch.

Ryan Haye and Kevin Elliott are both widely respected musicians and writers. More importantly, they know a shit ton about baseball and specifically, the Cincinnati Reds.