WebLog

CO&HG Goes to Galesburg – or – The Longest TwentyFour Hours

PART I

We were all super excited when Knox College in Galesburg, IL booked us to play their Lincoln Fest a couple of weeks ago. The gig almost sounded too good to be true — generous compensation, dinner, a double hotel room for each of us and a nice road trip. And it very nearly WAS too good to be true.

We packed all our gear and our bodies into Tom’s well-loved minivan, Seabiscuit, and began our trip at about 2:45pm. JUST as Friday rush hour was starting. Oh Good! Luckily we’d forecast heavy traffic and allowed ourselves enough time that it wouldn’t be a problem and we’d still get to Knox as scheduled. We were barely out of the city on I-290, when Tom noticed an unfamiliar, and ominous, illumination on the dashboard. It was the “Engine Overheating” light. Fantastic! We had no sooner left for a 3.5 hour drive and the van is overheating in bumper to bumper traffic.

We made it to a gas station, Tom got on the phone with his ex-mechanic Father In Law for guidance, and Mike had a list of nearby car rental places pulled up on his phone. It was a tough call: There was still a chance that with the proper fluids and ventilation Seabiscuit could make it through our trip, but there was also a good chance that she wouldn’t, or at least she’d overheat again and we’d lose more time — Time that we hadn’t counted on using for cooling the van or waiting for a tow truck.

TO BE CONTINUED….

PART II

We decided to rent a van. This was one of the few times when I’ve been convinced of the usefulness of the iPhone; Mike found an Enterprise with a van available just a few blocks away and navigated us to it. We were given the keys to a nice new Dodge Caravan, unloaded Seabiscuit, loaded the rental, and we were off again… Off into still-rush-hour traffic.

It was 4pm by now, we were supposed to be at Knox between 7 and 8. We had at least three hours to go and traffic was not in our favor, so we called our contact at Knox and they kindly pushed our set back to closer to 8:45, so we still had a chance to make it. We made only one hurried stop at a gas station in a tiny town off the highway, where our certain brand of lovingly graphic homo- and hetro-erotic humor thoroughly confused/appalled the Jr. High or High School-aged girls in line for the bathroom. We tend to forget that there are innocent bystanders around when we go out in public.

After all the craziness of Seabiscuit overheating, it was nice to sit back and enjoy the view of all the nothingness that Central Illinois has to offer from the captains chairs of a new and fully-functioning vehicle. That is, it was nice until we realized we were in Iowa. The Bermuda Triangle of I-80, I-88, and I-74 near the Illinois/Iowa border had claimed yet another vessel and its bewildered passengers. We realized the mistake with enough time to turn ourselves around and get back on track, but then we missed our exit AGAIN. Some advice to other bands who might have to make this same trip: Don’t decide to make your set list while navigating in this area. You’ll need all of your concentration and brain power to NOT GET LOST. By the time we got on the right highway, going the right direction, and in the right state, we were again cutting it really close on time. It looked like we’d be pulling up to the concert area and have to unload, set up, and play immediately. Not an ideal scenario, but at least we could still make the show.

TO BE CONTINUED…

PART III

We found the site of Lincoln Fest at Knox College without further incident and as soon as we got out of the van, students came to help us unload our gear and put it behind the stage. The show was already in full swing, but they had pushed our set back even farther to 9pm, so we had about a half hour before we had to set up or do anything besides hang out in the lounge area and graze on the buffet of hummus, veggies, apples, brie and Oreos.

The show was outside and rather colder and windier than we’d expected. Most of the audience was sitting on the ground and huddled in blankets, until after a couple of songs we pointed out that they’d be a lot warmer if they got up, came closer to the stage and danced. AND IT WORKED! Everyone wrapped their blankets around their shoulders and danced or just jumped up and down for the rest of our set. It was great! The compensation and accommodations Knox provided to us were all well and good, but there’s nothing like an enthusiastic crowd to make a white-knuckled four hour trip worth it.

The crowd wasn’t even deterred when the power kept going out during our set. At random intervals the lights and vocal mics would go out, but we kept on playing anyway and they’d eventually come back on. It added an air of excitement and unpredictability to our set, I think. Speaking of excitement and unpredictability, during this show we unveiled our new audience participation activity: The Shake Weight Race. Before playing Boston & Alone, we selected one member of the audience to come up on stage; if he could keep the Shake Weight going for the entirety of the song he would receive a free CD. The lucky participant danced and Shake Weighted (Shake Wought??) all over the stage successfully for the entire song and hence collected his prize and is now known to most of Knox College as being good at the Shake Weight. Aaahh, to be a Shake Weight Champion is both a blessing and a curse.

TO BE CONTINUED…

3.22.11

This is Amanda reporting from Chicago’s East Pilsen / North ChinaTown / South SouthLoop neighborhood where we’re on Day Two of recording with Sean O’Keefe. When I moved to Chicago ten years ago, Sean was already kind of a big deal – my old band wanted to record with him but couldn’t afford it, and/or he didn’t have time to work with us, so we booked a cheaper engineer at a studio that he owned and we’d all get giddy whenever Sean would come in to check up on stuff. Although, now that I think about it, Sean wasn’t too pleased with us because our trombone player had given our singer a haircut in the studio bathroom and didn’t do a thorough job of cleaning the hair out of the sink afterward. Hopefully he’s forgotten about that (shhh don’t remind him!). Now that Sean has a few gold records under his belt and we’re all a little older and wiser, this is even more exciting.

So far we’ve gotten through all the drum parts, shot a lot of video and silly photos, ate tacos, drank coffee, ate Thai food, and now Mike is getting ready to record bass. There’s not much for the sax player to do while the rest of the band is recording, so I’ve assigned myself a challenge; I’m going to try to make one short video for every day that we’re in the studio. I’m not sure that enough exciting stuff will happen to make very interesting videos every day (today has consisted mostly of napping and website updates) but, it can’t hurt to aim high. Right?

RIGHT??!!?!?!?

Good.

-a

1.02.11

It’s day 2 of the New Year and so far things are pretty super here in Cobalt Land. Tom’s interview on Q101 is airing tonight, we’re just days away from our headlining show at Metro with some great friends/bands lined up to share the bill. AND, after a ten year hiatus, I’m back into making stop motion movies. If you haven’t already, check out the Visuals section to see my return project. There’s still a lot I would do differently when shooting next time — this is very much a learn-as-you-go sort of process, but it’s definitely a step up from the mini VHS flip books I started out filming in my parents’ basement.

Jesse is hard at work mixing new tracks to be released soon. And you know what newly-released music means… More Videos!! Yes, I have a feeling 2011 is gonna be a good time.

11.07.10

Holy wow. The CRC Fest was awesome. I couldn’t make it out for the Friday night portion of the Fest at Elbo Room, but all night I kept hearing about how fun it was and how ‘rowdy’ it had gotten. Not sure exactly what everyone was talking about, but I assume it was the fun kind of rowdy because everyone who mentioned it got that far off look in their eye and the faint radiant glow of one who is reminiscing of a better time. Then they’d snap out of it, deflate a bit, and work even harder on draining the free keg of Old Style.

BUT, it was still a great night. During our set I felt like I was performing at a Laser Bowling event (remember those?? does that still happen??? what a great effort to give kids something fun to do to keep them out of trouble, except for the fact that to ACTUALLY enjoy laser bowling one needs must be high on marijuana cigarettes. or so i’m told) – black lights, smoke machine, light show, and the place was packed. For a smaller club, Elbo Room sure does know how to make Musicians feel like Rock Stars.

The legendary Keith “The Godfather” Fort joined us on lap steel for a few songs, Jeff Brown did a bit of accordion-ing, and assorted members of How Far to Austin stormed the stage to sing with us while we covered their song “Catalina.” AND this was all caught on tape. The Internet will prove how awesome this night was. All you doubters of the awesomeness of the night in question, hold your tongues and BEHOLD the awesome night of that which they call CRC Fest… once I’m done editing.

O and be on the lookout for Old Style Beer billboards and magazine ads featuring Tom and I posing with our beers which were generously provided by Old Style. That’s Right. OLD STYLE BEER, the Official Beer of Cobalt & the Hired Guns (ok may we have sponsorship now??). Well, probably not, but there were photographers from Old Style taking pictures of band members enjoying their beverages. And Tom and I DID work that camera, boy.

So, in conclusion, Last Night = Awesome.

Tonight = Why The Eff Did I Have To Go And Drink A Bunch Of Wine When We Got Back It’s 11 At Night And I Finally Feel Like I Don’t Have To Puke Anymore.

Drinking strategies are always 20/20 in hindsight.

-a

11.06.10

The Future

Lately, Cobalt has been talking a lot about Goals. Like, where will the band be album-wise/ scheduling-wise / money-wise a year from now. All very good questions to ask. My question is when do I get someone to do my hair and pick out my wardrobe for me so I don’t have to think (as little thought as i do put into it) about it anymore.

THAT would be nice.

-a

2.26.10

Working with Brian Humphrey

He keeps asking us to die. Really. He talked a lot about how we were gonna be “Doing a lot of dying this weekend”. It was intense, but it’s supposed to be an intense process when someone pushes you past your comfort zone. But that’s when you grow. It’s when you’re at your best and you do your best work.

He came in on Friday, arriving just as we were loading out for the Metro. A bit of background about Brian: We found him ’cause he helped produce a few tracks on State Radio’s first record Us Against the Crown. He did Camilo & Mr. Larkin- both amazing songs, and the production was really good. So Mike tracked him down and asked him to produce our first record, Jump the Fence.

He flew out in November of 2007 and we rehearsed all weeekend on 8 songs. I’m talking 12 and 14 hour days. It was long and strenuous. Then he came back in December for 11 days at CRC and we made the record together.

It’s been a while since we saw him- we worked with Jeff Piper on the double single- he was in the studio for Jump the Fence helping out, and we wanted to work with him more closely. He’s one hell of a guy as well. For this next, upcoming record we asked Brian to be involved again. He pushes us really hard.

So he came into town for the Metro show, said hey to Chad and then Saturday morning we got to work. If you know our songs, we’re working on Ghost of the Road, One Bedroom For Two, Like You Like Me Like Me (Myspace), Uptown, Wreckage and Lazarus.

He had us really focus on our parts. This meant re-writing a lot of the stuff we’ve been working on for the last few months. As a songwriter, and as someone who’s played guitar since he was about six, this is really hard for me. I kept hearing that the parts I wrote were stepping on the vocals or too busy. So there was a lot of simplifying that I had to do. And then also making my parts more complicated.

In ways, I was working too hard: I was trying to write a catchy guitar hook for every part of the song. That doesn’t need to happen. They’re good songs- but part of that is an ego thing: you want to show off how good you are, you want to play the stuff that people remember, and you kinda wanna show off. But when you do that, you screw up the whole dynamic of the song. And when I say YOU, I mean I, just to be clear.

So even when I’d written a good part Brian was often saying things like, “I like that, it’s good. I think you can do better. Let’s work with it.” And he was right. Nearly every time. I could do better, but I needed to be pushed outside of the comfortable little box I’d built for myself. It really shook my confidence as a songwriter and player though. Brian does it all out of love though, and you feel that while he’s pushing you. Still. I cried twice on Sunday. It was emotional and overwhelming. But I feel better about it now, and I feel like my parts are stronger.

He’s kind of like having a shrink for your art. And when you pour so much of your soul into your art, that can be hard when someone really challenges you.

It’s gonna be worth it, I almost can’t wait to show you what I mean. I’ll leave you with a picture of my weapon of choice.

-Tom

Introducing: YOU!

Hey out there in bloggity land! This is Jesse. Right now the band is having some down time in Durham, NC while we’re waiting to play a show with State Radio tonight.  It’s actually sunny here, which is wonderful, because it is a crappy dark snow mess in Chicago right now.  We now have this amazing new website (thanks Mattdotcom.com) and I have CONTROL over my own blog! CoBlog.

So I’m Jesse Alexander.  I use the pronouns ‘he’ ‘him’ and ‘his’. I’m a Sagittarius.  I play drums and sing and write songs for Cobalt & the Hired Guns.  I’ve been writing and playing music since I was 12, and started playing drums when I was 16.  My first band, spoont., was a power pop indie project in DC, and we fucking killed it for 3 years in the DC/MoCo high school touring circuit. In 2003 I went to Oberlin College in Ohio to study Biology and Comparative American Studies.  I also helped to run the Oberlin Bike Coop, and co-started ‘Women and Trans Night’ for women and trans and gender variant folks to come learn about bike mechanics. Among many other fun things, fall of my freshman year Tom, Matt, and Mike, and I formed Cobalt. There are some other less abbreviated versions of this story all over the internet…specifically in this awesome interview on Maybehip.com. Over the course of 4 years we played and wrote songs and toured the US twice (and got college credit for it) and eventually decided to all move to Chicago together to become a big kid band.  So in June of 2007 I moved to Uptown, started working at the Cycle Smithy, and got an Illinois drivers license.  After a bit, I got a ‘big guy’ job working as a Research Technician (III) in the Allergy/Immunology department at Rush University Med Center (RSLPMC for those who like acronyms). This was an awesome Molecular lab science experience for me, and also a great 18 mile round trip bike ride, but in July of 2009, taking vacation time to go on tour was not something I was able to do anymore.  Rush is generous with time off, but not 5.5 weeks in 2 months generous. Cobalt & the HGs booked a major US tour during July and August 09, and I left my job.

And thus it was major transition time.  A new phase of life.  No job to wake up for. No bike commute. No health insurance. Sleeping past 7am. Daytime band rehearsals.  Woah. I also started going by a new name, using male pronouns, and beginning my life as a male-identified person.  Sweet!

I think that pretty much brings me up to today, February 26, 2010.    This post has actually spanned two days, so now it’s the future of the first paragraph. Or something.  The point is we played another show with State Radio and Big D and the Kids Table last night, and it was a grand time.  Cat’s Cradle in Carborro, NC is a gem of a venue; all the staff are extremely friendly and welcoming, and it was a pleasure to play there.  I also really enjoy playing with bands for more than 1 night… I feel like it gives me an opportunity to actually get to know the folks we’re playing with.  We play a lot of shows with a lot of bands I’ve never heard or met before, and  sometimes show situations are stressful and people don’t want to hang out with people they haven’t met before, or whatever….there isn’t usually a lot of inter-band mingling.  Being on tour and hearing a band do their thing on stage in different cities and hanging out with them before and after the show is a cool dynamic.  It’s like having a little bit of history together.  It’s great to make friends, have beers, pack up and be able to say, “k, see you in Durham next week!”.  As we play more shows in Chicago with bands we know, I’m noticing this is happening more.   The Chicago Roots Collective is doing some cool things to try and build some community in the Chicago scene we’re a part of.  Nice dudes. I’m getting off topic.  I’ll come back to this another time.  Check out the CRC website. Good bands.

Moving on… I’ve compiled a lot of digital Cobalt documentation over 6 years.  Some of it will stay that way, as it should, but in the coming months I plan on providing you with lots of never-before-seen footage of the band. Featured content will include things like this awesome lunch I ordered while we were recording the Double Single at Chicago Recording Company, and this photo of Larry waiting for AAA to bring us a tank of gas after we ran out 3 miles after leaving a show in Indianapolis.

Good times.  I’m looking forward to being more present here in blog land, so stay tuned for the future. I’m on twitter and facebook and myspace all @ jesseleft.  So…holler at a boy. TTYL.

<3 Jesse

2.25.10

Cobalt Sold Out. The Metro. With State Radio

Wow.
They are so friendly.State Radio are just a killer bunch of guys.

I’m sorry- let me start at the beginning. Mike got in Wednesday. Seeing him back in town- it’s not just like him coming home; it’s like all of us getting home again. Brian Humphrey, our producer came in for the show on Friday- we found him ’cause he produced some of State Radio’s tracks in their first record. He’s an amzing guy, but I’ll write a separate post about this weekend and the 20 hours of rehearsals we had. Seriously.

Thursday we had practice with all 10 of us for the first time. Me, Matt, Jesse, Mike like usual- but we flipped Larry onto bass just for this show, and we had Jeff Brown holdin’ it down on accordion for us. But the horn section is where it’s really at. Amanda made it happen. She is so effing sweet. She got us Brian, our trumpet player, and Jeff V (little Jeff- he’s like 6’6″) on tenor sax. I helped get Matt Prest of Canasta in the room too. So we had a 4 piece horn section. I was living the dream. Brian plays in Doppler Shift and Jeff V. plays in Kemman. They all know it each other- it’s a very six degrees of Kevin Bacon Situation. We call them & the Hired Guns. So that makes us Cobalt & the Hired Guns & the Hired Guns. We’re finally living up to our name.

So. 10 people in a room. And it sounded pretty good. It was really cool having them come in and bring this new energy.
So Friday we loaded up early and showed up- it was kinda hectic. But Crystal greeted us again- she’s got pink hair. They helped us load in. It was cool- I remembered a few of them from last time- and some of them remembered me (or at least acted like they did). Cash is particularly friendly. But I think he and I bonded quickly, ’cause he’s the only other person I know (besides Mike) who plays through my amp.
Rachelle, the production manager informed us our set had been moved up 15 minutes and we would now be going on at 6:45 instead of 7. That was a bummer, but it was just one of those things that happened. The band was contracted…but they probably didn’t realize there was a hard stop at 10pm, and their sets were long. She’s business, but she’s good at it, and I respect that. Sometimes I have to be a stage manager too, It’s a tough gig. Our vip list was too long too- we got it all worked out though- had to buy a few extra tickets, but that’s what we do. It sucks though ’cause a bunch of the folks that were coming to review the show missed some of our set. I guess we’ll have to play more shows.

[ugh. i just deleted a bunch i'd written. sorry. here's a pic of us rocking out instead] ======>>
Big D and the Kids Table were really cool folks- they offered to share gear with us, which is very generous of them, and rarely done. There were a LOT of people backstage. I think Big D had 9 people, we had 10, State Radio is just a trio, but they’ve got a tour manager too. So I think it was about 25, all told.

and then the show:
Cobalt & the Hired Guns climbed the stairs, had the largest huddle ever and took the stage. First I should tell you, the show was all ages. So there were a bunch of teenages pressed across the front, but I saw some 9 year olds in the balcony. Yes, 9. I went up later and checked. Some cool little 9 year olds, I tell ya. They started screaming just as we walked out. I love playing all ages shows. The kids are just excited to BE there. To be part of what’s happening. Their energy and enthusiasm is contagious.
The band was really tight. As tight as we’ve ever been. We only had a half hour so we made that set as concentrated as we could. It’s like drinking the Hershey’s Syrup without the milk, or Cranberry Juice Cocktail Concentrate (yes, I’ve done both of those things, thank you for asking) without dilluting it with water. It was worth it. The set, for those of you that know our song titles went like this: Rome, Of Summer, You Left Your Sweater…, Lazarus, Myspace (Like You LIke me Like Me), Wreckage, Uptown. and out. about 28 minutes all told.

The horn section became the kazoo section on You Left Your Sweater… that was a special treat. Oh and Joe Shanahan was there! He’s owned and operated the Metro for 25 years. He’s a legend in the scene and a straight forward guy. He told me his friend’s 9 year old daughter said “Cobalt & the Hired Guns was her favorite band in the world”. I need to meet this 9 year old and buy her an Italian soda or something.

So I stayed sober this time. Good call on my part. Passing out in the Metro’s dressing room is something you can do once, but that’s enough. Plus, you know, little kids running around.

Jesse pulled off a pretty epic stage dive during State Radio’s set.

Here’s the link to that: http://bit.ly/aQVNLK

Good gracious those guys are so nice. They’re friendly and outgoing- Chad complimented all of us on our set and gave us a shoutout from the stage….And we’re playing with them again TONIGHT! Down here in North Carolina as I write this, getting ready for our show at Cat’s Cradle in Carboro. We visited WKNC yesterday and had an interview with Justin. We got pretty goofy. SO GET UP AND GO ONLINE AND GET YOUR TICKETS AND COME ROCK OUT WITH US! Let’s do this again!

There was also a pretty sweet after party that involved the following things: deep dish chicago pizza @ 3am, alcohol, friends who’d never been to the rehearsal space before, the forming of a street team, and my dad.

Oh also PS- a good friend of the band is on American Idol- Crystal Bowersox. She’s a sweetheart and one hell of a singer, so if it’s what you do, vote for her. Her originals are even better than the cover’s she’s doing, but she’ll do those again when she’s not on FOX or whatever. But vote for Crystal, she rules.

-Tom

12.14.09

Fearless Radio Interview with Ryan Manno

In the week leading up to our big show at the Metro with I Fight Dragons, the Cobalt & the HGs crew was VERY busy with various promotional gigs. The funniest one was probably our spot with Ryan Manno and Fearless Radio - playing some tunes and answering some questions. This one was just Jesse, Matt, and Larry.  Listen in to find out why:  Cobalt & the Hired Guns on Fearless Radio

-j