Welcome back - hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. Our afternoon house concert today will be gearing up in a few minutes. Here's all the last minute details:

Location: Space Place - 623 W. 12th Street, in the heights (map)
Cover: No cover charge! Donations will be accepted at the door for the bands.
Time: Psychodillos start around 3 or 3:30, and Drop Trio starts around 5; then there will be a jam with members of both bands around 6:30.
Lineup: Drop Trio will be having our friend Guy Schwartz as a guest bass player today.
Extras: This party is BYOB, BYOM, BYOC - no pets, no glass. Pool & hottub will be open; bring blank CDs for free copies of trade friendly band shows (I saw lots of Grateful Dead, some Bob Dylan, and a few others on today's list).

See you all over there! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:40 PM

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  Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving - you may not hear from us until Saturday, as we'll all be off with our families over the holiday. For those of you who will be hanging out in Houston looking for something to do, here are a couple recommendations:

Tonight (Wednesday): If you like poetry and spoken word, you should definitely check out the Mary Magdalene Poetry Duo at Helios. Angie G and Alicia are inspired poets and they weave an amazing tapestry of words in their live shows.

Thursday (Thanksgiving): Our friends the Free Radicals play at Super Happy Fun Land for a "Thanks For Nothing Vegan BBQ Cookout". Feel free to bring a Vegan Potluck Dish!

Also on Thursday, Rudyards will be having a free Thanksgiving Buffet.

Friday night: If you like theater, go see Ionesco's Rhinoceros at the Axiom theater. It's an absurdist play about a society where everyone starts turning into Rhinoceroses. (Rhinoceri?). Highly recommended by Mike Switzer from The Defenestration Unit.

If you're more in the mood for music on Friday, go to Cezanne to see Jose-Miguel Yamal, one of Houston's hottest jazz & latin pianists.

And of course, on Sunday afternoon come see Drop Trio performing for Texas House Concerts! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:26 PM

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  Last night we cut a couple tracks over at SugarHill as part of a top-secret project we're working on there. Not a new album yet, just something to tide us over. We had the privilege of having Robbie Parish tune up the drums for us (and he brough along a very special snare drum, too). Good session, felt really great. And John Griffen, another of our sometimes bass players, engineer the session and got a killer sound. Hope we survive the rest of the recording process!

Speaking of SugarHill, Drop Trio is now part of the SugarHill Tape Vault web site, a promotional web site for Sugarhill artists. Other friends of ours up there include Shannon Cutts and RowZero. Take a look! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 1:44 PM

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  Any tapers out there? Drop Trio has now been listed on the Bands That Allow Taping site. And one of our regular tapers has been in the process of upgrading his equipment - trying to decide between a Neuros and a Nomad Jukebox. Any recommendations? 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:50 PM

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  Thanks to everyone who came out to our shows this weekend - the Twelve Spot was great, Specs was great, Ovations was great. Great. We look forward to doing it all again. Thanks to Thomas Helton for sitting in with us on bass for 2 shows - you can expect to see him back in the future for sure. And big thanks to Ellipsis for having us at Ovations, and for putting on an awesome show. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:39 PM

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  Tonight! Ovations! 8:30 pm! With Ellipsis! And Thomas Helton! Ok! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:30 PM

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  We'll be at the 12 spot tonight, at 10pm. Come on down and see what the buzz is about downtown - things are really starting to liven up down there! The light rail is nearly operational, there are sidewalk cafes and all sorts of activity. We'll be going on around 10pm, and playing 2 long sets. See you there! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:16 AM

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  For those of you who have never heard Ellipsis before, take a listen to this track off their new album, "From The Inside Out":

Ellipsis - Creative Accounting (Requires RealPlayer)

Saturday's show is going to be awesome, don't miss it! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 1:48 PM

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  We're getting ready for our big show this coming Saturday night at Ovations with Ellipsis. For that show, we will have a special guest bass player, Thomas Helton. Thomas is one of Houston's top call upright players, and a good friend of ours. Strange and wonderful things are sure to occur on Saturday night. Ellipsis is also a big favorite of ours. If you see one Drop Trio show this month, this is the one! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 11:59 AM

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  Tonight we were rained out of a studio session at SugarHill. C'est la vie! Hope everybody is Houston is staying dry.

FYI - we just added a new show, this coming Friday morning - we'll be back at Spec's Liquor for a noon show in the 2nd weekend of grand reopening festivities. Come by at 11:45 and get some free lunch (BBQ)! 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 6:44 PM

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  Whew! It's 2:40 in the morning and we just got back to our pad after playing at the Mellow Mushroom tonight. Our day in Baton Rouge was interesting - after an hour following Mike's directions to a "really great cajun mexican" restaurant, we finally managed to get some cheese enchiladas. That fortified us for a trip to Bebop Music, the instrument store run by Chris DeJohn (the incredibly funky drummer for Righteous Buddha) and a CD store where we picked up a copy of Weather Report's greatest hits and jammed out to that in the car. Then we got back to the pad and watched the incredible animated movie Waking Life (soundtracked by Houston's own Glover Gill, by the way, who you can see play tango music on the piano every monday night at the Continental Club). Then we were off to MM to open for Buddha. Our show was fun, and we made a bunch of new friends. Even better was seeing Righteous Buddha play - those guys really tear it up. F'n Hinson.

After our set, a fellow came up to us and had a discussion with Nino about what a great bass player he was. He then proceeded to turn to Mike and ask "So do you guys have a bass player?" John Smart (the organ player in RB) responded: "Man, whatever he's got, I want some."
 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:54 AM

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  After a great show at the new Specs Liquor this morning, we hauled ourselves over to Baton Rouge for an appearance on KLSU. Afroman was a gracious host, and we had a cool interview. Then we hit Cafe Reggae for an intimate show for some of our Baton Rouge fans. Next we get to open for Righteous Buddha tomorrow night at the Mellow Mushroom, again here in Baton Rouge.  

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 3:12 AM

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  If you're looking for some great music this evening, our good friends Tru Sol will be playing at the Mercury Lounge (1008 Prairie St., downtown Houston) tonight. The Show starts at 9:30pm and it's free (which is rare for Mercury Lounge). Tru Sol, fronted by super singer Jerry Richard, is the hottest soul funk rock outfit in Houston, and the Mercury room is a great spot for dancing. So swing on down there. By the way, if you haven't been by lately, check out web site - Jerry recently recorded a killer duet with Miss Money called Sumtin' Sexy.

And don't forget that Drop will be at Spec's tomorrow morning at 10am ... 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:01 AM

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  Wallawalla has ranked highly on GarageBand.com, which means it'll be progressing to the next round in the competition. For those of you unfamiliar with GarageBand, it's a site (founded by Jerry Harrison from the Talking Heads) where artists can go review music by other artists, and in the process earn the ability to upload their own songs for review. All reviews are double blind, so it's a great way to get unbaised comments from people - people aren't shy about letting you know whether they like your music or not, and if not, why. That can be very helpful. We've gotten some good comments ("catchy tune", "awesome", "tight", etc.) and some, er, constructive criticism ("self-indulgent", "boring"). And of course, the perpetual suggestions ("would make a great TV theme", "needs a singer or a rapper"). Can't please all the people all the time. But it's encouraging when people really dig it. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 9:09 AM

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  New show added - Drop will be playing at the Grand-Reopening of the midtown SPEC's liquor store, this coming Friday, Nov 14th, from 10:00 am - 11:15 am. According to the flyer, it'll be quite the party, with samples, giveaways, and live music. The the best of my knowledge, this is the first Drop Trio lunchtime gig, as well as our first performance in a liquor store. Come on down for a little lunchtime libations, and see us off for our weekend tour of Baton Rouge. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 9:37 AM

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  Drop Trio shows are now being archived on the ETree live music internet archive - check it out. The live music archive aims to collect copies of live shows by "trade-friendly" bands (i.e. bands who allow non-commercial distribution of their live-shows) and archive them permanently in a downloadable format. Other bands on the list include:

DJ Logic
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
moe.
OM Trio
Raq
Robert Walter
Soulive
Stanton Moore
String Cheese Incident
Umphree's McGee

And the list is growing all the time. If you've got a high speed connection, check out some of the shows on offer there. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 9:42 AM

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  Another big thanks to the folks at Benton's, and to all our new Woodlands fans. Our first ever 2-night-stand was a big success.

As we were loading out, we were treated to some songs by the power duo of John Carney and Ramon Torres. If you get a chance to check these guys out, do it - they're great. (For that matter, Benton has a pretty good set of pipes himself.)

We'll be back soon, no doubt.  

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 5:36 PM

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  Last night at Benton's was a blast! Thanks for everybody who came out and checked it out, we had a packed house. Great food too! And the staff at Benton's were wonderful. Come on back there tonight for more of the same!

Important: tonight's set will be from 7-11pm, not 6-10pm. Turns out Woodlands people party harder than we expected. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:31 AM

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  Hey - tune in tonight at midnight to hear our good buddies Plump on the radio - they'll be on KPFT, 90.1, in Houston, but you can hear 'em anywhere in the world by listening online - go to www.kpftx.org. They're going to be on the Dead Air show. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 5:22 PM

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  Tonight is Twelve Spot night! Drop will be downtown playing at the best looking bar in Houston (218 Travis @ Congress). Come down for a martini or glass of wine, and enjoy the atmosphere.

Plus, tonight we've got a special treat for you - Al Bear from Plump will be sitting in on Guitar for a whole set! So all you Plump fans, bring it on out tonight to 12 spot to get your Al fix. 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 10:40 AM

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  I'm not one to spread rumors, but ... rumor has it that our friends Little Brother Project will be hitting Dean's again (for the first and only time in October / November) tonight at 10pm. Rumor also has it that our buddy Conrad will be joining them on keys. Rumor also has it that if you buy Marc a shot of Petron, he will play better. But don't tell him we told you so.

Seriously, if you're out tonight, check out Dean's Credit Clothing downtown and see what they've got cookin'. While you're there, swing around the corner to the Red Cat and see some hot Latin Jazz with our friend Adrian's group RitmoCHA.
 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 9:14 AM

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  Check out this week's Racket in the Houston Press - there's a tale of our friend Joey who got his stuff stolen from Francisco studios and then got it back through a combination of luck and expert detective skills. Moral of the story? Practice in your living rooms like we do!
 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 2:48 PM

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  Get ready, all you funk jazz fans in the Woodlands - Drop Trio will be coming in full force this Friday and Saturday night to Benton's Bistro. Benton's is a small New Orleans style bistro (serving excellent gumbo, etouffe, jambalaya, etc.). We're doing a two night stand, but it's a small house, so get there early if you want a seat.

Benton's has some information about our show up on their WoodlandsOnline site about us. (OK, so they called us Drop Tiro. We've been called worse!) 

¶ posted by Ian Varley at 9:55 AM

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