North Of Sunset West of Vine

Last night was the third and final performance of North of Sunset West of Vine, which is a musical theater performance written by the incredibly talented vocalist Raya Yarbrough and music directed by Bear McCreary.  I really had an amazing time working with the band, cast, and crew, plus it gave me a great reason to use my upright again!  It's been many years since I've been involved in a musical like this, I played in a lot of "pits" in college but not so many since then. 
I've been fortunate to work with Bear on several projects recently, including the Queen tribute we did in late 2011, and it's always such a pleasure both professionally and creatively.  Not only is he an amazing composer (there's a reason he's worked on so many HUGE shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead), but he also realizes the benefit of doing film/TV composing the old-school way, by actually writing parts for musicians rather than using sampled sounds and doing it all himself.  More often than not these days, the "bass" you're hearing on your favorite TV show is actually a sampled sound played by a keyboard or simply programmed into a computer, and the average listener can't tell the difference (a perfect example is the credits music for The Wire, which has an acoustic bass sample.)  Bear understands that while the sample-heavy approach might be economical and quick, nothing beats the sound of actual musicians playing their instruments, so he hires as much as a full orchestra on a regular basis.  It's looking like I'll be working with him a lot more starting soon, so boy am I glad he works the way he does!
In other news, my electronica alter ego Captain Apathy has released a new song, called "Billy Pilgrim."  You can hear it and download it for the price of "whatever you feel like" HERE

Gryphon Labs 10/13@ the Mint and Dethklok Tour!!!!!

A lot has happened since my last blog post, but the biggest news is that I'll be playing with cartoon death metal band Dethklok for the first 11 dates of their upcoming tour!
I've been a HUGE fan of the TV show Metalocalypse since it began, and Dethklok is the fictitious band that show is centered on. I've been friends with creator/guitarist/vocalist Brendon Small for a while (he was one of the guitar players for the Queen tribute I was a part of last year) and I'm still so impressed at how he took this bizarre idea for a cartoon about a metal band that's the world's seventh largest economy and turned it into an actual touring band with some of the best musicians on the planet providing the talent, namely virtuoso guitarist Mike Keneally, metal drummer legend Gene Hoglan, and bassist/all-around amazing person Bryan Beller. Well, Bryan has some conflicts with the upcoming tour due to his commitment to his incredible power trio The Aristocrats so I get the formidable job of filling his shoes until he joins the tour.
Bryan and I have been orbiting in the same music circles for years now, he's played with Dweezil, Steve Vai, and Mike Keneally as well, but what's interesting to me is how different our approaches can be to the same material. For example, on the Dethklok tunes Bryan employs a three-finger technique with his right hand that allows him to match the speed picking of the guitars (and the double-kick drum stuff), but I've never really used more than 2 fingers on my right hand. However, I use a pick and he doesn't usually, so I have to figure out which technique to use where, in addition to getting used to playing in CFBbEb tuning (rather than EADG). But if playing Zappa music for 6 years taught me anything it's that nothing is impossible, so I'm up for the challenge! My 11 dates with them will be in the Northeast from October 30th to November 11th, come check it out!

In the meantime, Gryphon Labs is playing The Mint on Saturday October 13th with our good friends Steel Toed Slippers and Year of the Dragon (featuring Dirty Walt from Fishbone). We'll be closing this night of amazing music, so we'll go on around 11, which is a perfect slot for your Saturday night!

Trading with Stanley Clarke...

Here's a video of our final mega-jam with Return to Forever on Stanley Clarke's iconic song "School Days." Even watching this now, I can't believe it happened. After a brief run-through during soundcheck, we just jumped right into this madness, and somehow I think it came out pretty good. Considering my heart was pounding through my chest when I had to solo after Stanley, I managed to play some stuff that I'm not completely embarrassed of, you can check that part out starting around 5:45.
What an incredible ending to an incredible tour, not only was it a dream come true to tour with RTF, I got to meet (and play for) a lot of my heroes who happened to be in the audience (Victor Wooten, Vernon Reid, and Chester Thompson just to name a few.) One of the best perks was that after Chick Corea had been sitting in with us on a regular basis I got to the point where I was actually comfortable playing with him, rather than just thinking "holy s#!t I'm playing with Chick Corea!"
Now that I'm back home I have a few awesome gigs coming up before ZPZ heads out to England for some shows. First, Gryphon Labs will be back at Molly Malone's on Friday Novemeber 4th. That's a Friday night, and we go on at 11 pm, so come get your weekend started with us!
Then, I'm really excited to be a part of The Show Must Go On, a Queen tribute with all proceeds going to AIDS Project LA. The band features Brendon Small (Dethklok), Mike Keneally, Bear McCreary (TV composer for Battlestar Galactica, Walking Dead), as well as Joe Travers and Rick Musallam from Gryphon Labs, and many others. This one-time-only show is Nov 9th at the Roxy, get your tickets now!