NEWSREEL VOL 9
July 3rd, 2022
The week before Smedley's Racket's first shows I decided to reward myself and go buy a guitar. I bought a real purdy Fender Squire "Jaguar" with all these knobs and switches that I thought would give me some amazing tone control. Instead, I took it home and HATED it! The tone was thin and twangy, I couldn't adjust the bridge how I needed and all those controls made it more confusing than anything else. Oh well... So, I took it back and swapped it for a Silvertone "1478" and I LOVED it!
In June we played our first two shows, one in Tukwila at Lucky Liquor and one in Lynnwood at the Vessel Taphouse. The first show we were so excited that the tempos went up--hahaha!--but we did pretty well and I used the new Silvertone, which worked like a charm. The phrases "learning experience" or "payin some dues" come to mind, though. The second show went pretty smoothly and I've posted some of it on MAXBRODYWORLD TV if you're so inclined. There are a few other new videos up too-- like TEST APES at String Summit 2017, a song from the BRODY-SPASM-TETE LP & more rehearsalcam vids! Anyway, while celebrating a bit after our set at the Vessel (with some tequila shots) I got a text from TAD asking if I would come down to his studio in the next couple of days to help a band he was recording. I also spoke with a couple of people interested in becoming our 4th member...but we shall see... So, the next morning, sporting a slight hangover, I recorded tenor sax tracks on 3 numbers for a band called "AR Band" down at Witch Ape Studio in south Seattle June 25th. Big thanks to both TAD and Peg, and to the AR Band for the opportunity to throw down in the studio (not to mention the cash and pizza!) It was definitely a fun afternoon & it sounds like I may perform with these guys at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard in September?! I reckon I will keep everyone posted on the status of all that. I'm so thrilled just to be able to do stuff at night again, no less get asked to do cool shit. Thats right, I can have a night life again!
THEN, Mark Hanna (our drummer) caught the dreaded 'RONA so we've had to cancel our 3rd of July show at a party near OSO, Wa. He's doing fine and oughta be back in action in a few more days, but it is what it is. Sorry, party-goers! Rest up, Hanna!
Meanwhile, my daughter Bella just got her first job at a pet store learning how to give doggie haircuts! Hows about that! Between her turning 18, graduating on the Dean's list for Academic Achievement and scoring this job, plus all the success I've have been having I must say GO BRODYs! DANG It feels so satisfying after so much crap.
And with that, I'd like to wish everyone a terrific July 4th weekend!
The week before Smedley's Racket's first shows I decided to reward myself and go buy a guitar. I bought a real purdy Fender Squire "Jaguar" with all these knobs and switches that I thought would give me some amazing tone control. Instead, I took it home and HATED it! The tone was thin and twangy, I couldn't adjust the bridge how I needed and all those controls made it more confusing than anything else. Oh well... So, I took it back and swapped it for a Silvertone "1478" and I LOVED it!
In June we played our first two shows, one in Tukwila at Lucky Liquor and one in Lynnwood at the Vessel Taphouse. The first show we were so excited that the tempos went up--hahaha!--but we did pretty well and I used the new Silvertone, which worked like a charm. The phrases "learning experience" or "payin some dues" come to mind, though. The second show went pretty smoothly and I've posted some of it on MAXBRODYWORLD TV if you're so inclined. There are a few other new videos up too-- like TEST APES at String Summit 2017, a song from the BRODY-SPASM-TETE LP & more rehearsalcam vids! Anyway, while celebrating a bit after our set at the Vessel (with some tequila shots) I got a text from TAD asking if I would come down to his studio in the next couple of days to help a band he was recording. I also spoke with a couple of people interested in becoming our 4th member...but we shall see... So, the next morning, sporting a slight hangover, I recorded tenor sax tracks on 3 numbers for a band called "AR Band" down at Witch Ape Studio in south Seattle June 25th. Big thanks to both TAD and Peg, and to the AR Band for the opportunity to throw down in the studio (not to mention the cash and pizza!) It was definitely a fun afternoon & it sounds like I may perform with these guys at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard in September?! I reckon I will keep everyone posted on the status of all that. I'm so thrilled just to be able to do stuff at night again, no less get asked to do cool shit. Thats right, I can have a night life again!
THEN, Mark Hanna (our drummer) caught the dreaded 'RONA so we've had to cancel our 3rd of July show at a party near OSO, Wa. He's doing fine and oughta be back in action in a few more days, but it is what it is. Sorry, party-goers! Rest up, Hanna!
Meanwhile, my daughter Bella just got her first job at a pet store learning how to give doggie haircuts! Hows about that! Between her turning 18, graduating on the Dean's list for Academic Achievement and scoring this job, plus all the success I've have been having I must say GO BRODYs! DANG It feels so satisfying after so much crap.
And with that, I'd like to wish everyone a terrific July 4th weekend!
MAY 16th, 2022
Since the divorce in 2009 and becoming a single parent I told myself that it was time to really hunker down and focus on raising a kid, at least until she graduates high school and turns 18. At that point I'll let myself start to have a social life and actually get involved in playing music live again or do stuff at night more than once every third blue moon. Well, that time is NOW and suffice it to say that I am super proud of Bella!! She's 18 and graduates in June and, well, she is a wonderful human being. Such an amazing feeling. I did a good! With that said, guess who's been doing a lil prep for their next phase?
I realize that I've been very lucky: Since getting signed to a label the first time (1984) I've been able to do just about everything that I've wanted to do music-wise at least to a small degree, if not shitloads! However, I've never been what I would call an actual bandleader. I've been the side-kick A LOT. I've been the featured soloist, the sitting-in-for, the new-guy, the member, the partner even, etc, but never the actual band LEADER. I've done a bunch of solo recordings where I got to make all the decisions but I've never had a bunch of OTHER humans playing MY SONGS in front of audiences. I understand now just how much more difficult of an endevor it is than joining a pre-existing band or helping a song writer bring THEIR stuff to life-- but the challange is making it all the more appealing. At age 53 its been a bucket list item I thought I just may not get to do.
After 2017 when Test Apes folded up shop, I've certainly been writing lots of songs with three-string "geetar jrs". 30 songs later it occurred to me that this might be my best chance for bandleaderdom (and this point its around 70 songs). 2 or 3 years ago I started trying to find my other humans. I had lots of great jams but it never quite clicked. About 9 months ago, though, I hit paydirt when an old drummer friend, Mark, heard one of my solo releases and reached out to "jam sometime and catch up". He invited a young buddy of his named Isaac, who plays guitar in a band called SKIZ DIZZARD but was willing to play bass for the jam. Well, Isaac was a great fit. We soon found that we have a good amount of crossover in our taste and enjoyed hanging out, so regular rehearsing began. Mark is in however he lives an hour or so north so its not been as easy for us all to get together.
What would it be like to see Max Brody's BAND play a show?? Well, first of all we would be called by a BAND NAME since I'm a person and not a group and this is a GROUP. Secondly, our brand of primitive-smart-wrapped-in-modern-stupid-with-a-pinch-of-what-the-fuck-southern-fried-short-attention-span-instrumental-space-music would be designed to make you feel something good in the face of so much of today's bad. Therefore 'SMEDLEY'S RACKET' (my all-purpose band moniker) will be mutating AGAIN; from first being a recording project with John Hawkins (CRUST, etc) and Jason Craig (PONG, etc, etc), to then being my live one-man-band-multimedia-idea-thing, to now being MY LIVE BAND (BIG SMILE and FIST PUMP!)
AND...drumroll, please... you may get a chance to see us in June! Yup, Shit is getting real. The idea of bringing this crazy joke to a stage is getting dangerously closer day by day. Isaac and I are ready to play shows even if it were just Bass and Guitar Jr, to be honest. That said we are putting in extra practices with Mark and hoping to squeeze in a lead guitarist--we shall see. Its a work in progress so as things firm up I will let everyone know.
The last time I played in public was in 2018!! That's crazy. I'm gonna fix that.
I'll capture what I can with the camera and share it to the MAXBRODYWORLD TV youtube channel. In the meantime a new Smedley's Racket playlist is now active, so now you can see a bit of rehearsals footage and help us put the word out that we exist. CLICK HERE to watch.
I hope you are hanging in there out there! Cheers, and thanks for checking in!
Since the divorce in 2009 and becoming a single parent I told myself that it was time to really hunker down and focus on raising a kid, at least until she graduates high school and turns 18. At that point I'll let myself start to have a social life and actually get involved in playing music live again or do stuff at night more than once every third blue moon. Well, that time is NOW and suffice it to say that I am super proud of Bella!! She's 18 and graduates in June and, well, she is a wonderful human being. Such an amazing feeling. I did a good! With that said, guess who's been doing a lil prep for their next phase?
I realize that I've been very lucky: Since getting signed to a label the first time (1984) I've been able to do just about everything that I've wanted to do music-wise at least to a small degree, if not shitloads! However, I've never been what I would call an actual bandleader. I've been the side-kick A LOT. I've been the featured soloist, the sitting-in-for, the new-guy, the member, the partner even, etc, but never the actual band LEADER. I've done a bunch of solo recordings where I got to make all the decisions but I've never had a bunch of OTHER humans playing MY SONGS in front of audiences. I understand now just how much more difficult of an endevor it is than joining a pre-existing band or helping a song writer bring THEIR stuff to life-- but the challange is making it all the more appealing. At age 53 its been a bucket list item I thought I just may not get to do.
After 2017 when Test Apes folded up shop, I've certainly been writing lots of songs with three-string "geetar jrs". 30 songs later it occurred to me that this might be my best chance for bandleaderdom (and this point its around 70 songs). 2 or 3 years ago I started trying to find my other humans. I had lots of great jams but it never quite clicked. About 9 months ago, though, I hit paydirt when an old drummer friend, Mark, heard one of my solo releases and reached out to "jam sometime and catch up". He invited a young buddy of his named Isaac, who plays guitar in a band called SKIZ DIZZARD but was willing to play bass for the jam. Well, Isaac was a great fit. We soon found that we have a good amount of crossover in our taste and enjoyed hanging out, so regular rehearsing began. Mark is in however he lives an hour or so north so its not been as easy for us all to get together.
What would it be like to see Max Brody's BAND play a show?? Well, first of all we would be called by a BAND NAME since I'm a person and not a group and this is a GROUP. Secondly, our brand of primitive-smart-wrapped-in-modern-stupid-with-a-pinch-of-what-the-fuck-southern-fried-short-attention-span-instrumental-space-music would be designed to make you feel something good in the face of so much of today's bad. Therefore 'SMEDLEY'S RACKET' (my all-purpose band moniker) will be mutating AGAIN; from first being a recording project with John Hawkins (CRUST, etc) and Jason Craig (PONG, etc, etc), to then being my live one-man-band-multimedia-idea-thing, to now being MY LIVE BAND (BIG SMILE and FIST PUMP!)
AND...drumroll, please... you may get a chance to see us in June! Yup, Shit is getting real. The idea of bringing this crazy joke to a stage is getting dangerously closer day by day. Isaac and I are ready to play shows even if it were just Bass and Guitar Jr, to be honest. That said we are putting in extra practices with Mark and hoping to squeeze in a lead guitarist--we shall see. Its a work in progress so as things firm up I will let everyone know.
The last time I played in public was in 2018!! That's crazy. I'm gonna fix that.
I'll capture what I can with the camera and share it to the MAXBRODYWORLD TV youtube channel. In the meantime a new Smedley's Racket playlist is now active, so now you can see a bit of rehearsals footage and help us put the word out that we exist. CLICK HERE to watch.
I hope you are hanging in there out there! Cheers, and thanks for checking in!
April 5th, 2022
Been saving up for a while and a couple weeks ago I finally got one of those cameras that shoots in all directions at once (Gopro Max). In order to start learning how to use it and its editing software I went to a nearby park and took some footage walking around which I then made into a little video for a song that I had just written. Everything just sort of fell together. I also happened to have a mostly finished TONES ON TAIL cover just sitting there...with April Fools Day right around the corner and all...yeah, seems like its time for a single & hopefully you will be seeing much more video content from me in the near future!!
maxbrodyworld.bandcamp.com/album/bradfordicus-b-w-burning-skies-single
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KiKshAGors&t=23s
Been saving up for a while and a couple weeks ago I finally got one of those cameras that shoots in all directions at once (Gopro Max). In order to start learning how to use it and its editing software I went to a nearby park and took some footage walking around which I then made into a little video for a song that I had just written. Everything just sort of fell together. I also happened to have a mostly finished TONES ON TAIL cover just sitting there...with April Fools Day right around the corner and all...yeah, seems like its time for a single & hopefully you will be seeing much more video content from me in the near future!!
maxbrodyworld.bandcamp.com/album/bradfordicus-b-w-burning-skies-single
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KiKshAGors&t=23s
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MARCH 4TH, 2022
Hey everybody! I hope you and your folks are all safe and sound. Last August I was contacted by someone who said a boxed set of Ministry albums was getting made from the years I was in the band. He asked if I would be willing to be interviewed for the liner notes. I accepted his questions on the condition that I would be sent 2 copies when it came out. I was travelling that week to see my family for the first time in forever due to the pandemic crap. When I was not able to get to the questions for 3 days I got an email asking "Might I be able to get your answers over the weekend, please'? I was a little surprized because I had been interviewed a few times but never had an interviewer ask me to please hurry it up! Who was this Malcolm, guy?? He got his answers the next day. |
I was told that the release date would be somewhere around December or January, then never heard from him again. In February I saw a post with a picture of the box set in the hands of a happy fan and I thought, hey! I want my copies! I wrote an email to the interviewer asking about it and got no response. After a couple more attempts I got bummed out.
I decided what the heck, why not try to contact the head of the record label Hugh Gilmour via its website, gripe about Malcolm and make a hail-mary attempt to get my 2 doggone copies. Imagine my shock when I found out that the reason Malcom wasn't responding to my emails was because he was dead. He died last October 29th.
Not only that, but it turns out that Malcolm Dome was no ordinary interviewer. He was a freeking legend!! Malcom Dome is credited with coining the term "thrash metal" for fuck sake. He started writing about rock and heavy metal in 1979 for magazines like Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Record Mirror, Metal Fury, Metal Forces, Prog, RAW Rock and Classic Rock. He co-founded the UK's first rock radio station TOTALROCK. There were tributes to him from a zillion musicians when he passed away and I'm so clueless. (face in palm) Hugh mentioned that I was one of his last or in all probability his very last interview--gasp! So, whoa... And I forgive you, Malcolm, lol. And holy shit, I'm a bit speechless. And, uh, sigh, yeah I got my 2 copies in the mail today.
Its called: MINISTY BAD BLOOD: THE MAYAN ALBUMS 2002-2005. There's no question that it was unintentional, but this box set kinda represents MY time with MINISTRY. And I really got quite a large amount of blathering into the booklet/liner notes. Its as close to a 'MINISTRY'S Max Brodified period' box set as there will EVER be, pffffftttt! Bwahahahaaaa! Only thing missing is the stuff from the movie AI, and maybe some concert footage from the tours between 1999-2003. nyah-nyah, pretty funny.
Thank you Hugh Gilmour and Matt Ingham over at HNE Recordings/Cherry Red Records, and VIVA Malcolm Dome! May he R.I.P.
If you'd like to read the interview click HERE. Better yet, go buy the box set while its still available! (click HERE)
Meanwhile, Ministry is back out on the road with Melvins and COC! (click HERE to see their itinerary). Good luck out there guys, way to keep going!
In other news, poop jokes aside, on 2-22-22 I dropped a short but sweet little EP called COSMO to my Bandcamp toilet, er, page--which you can check out by clicking HERE! It features cover art once again by the mighty P. EARWIG and a cover tune of the classic sci-fi movie THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL theme with vintage spook show samples courtesy of Something Weird Video. Thank you Lisa Petrucci, and thank YOU dear reader for checking in! More soon...
I decided what the heck, why not try to contact the head of the record label Hugh Gilmour via its website, gripe about Malcolm and make a hail-mary attempt to get my 2 doggone copies. Imagine my shock when I found out that the reason Malcom wasn't responding to my emails was because he was dead. He died last October 29th.
Not only that, but it turns out that Malcolm Dome was no ordinary interviewer. He was a freeking legend!! Malcom Dome is credited with coining the term "thrash metal" for fuck sake. He started writing about rock and heavy metal in 1979 for magazines like Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Record Mirror, Metal Fury, Metal Forces, Prog, RAW Rock and Classic Rock. He co-founded the UK's first rock radio station TOTALROCK. There were tributes to him from a zillion musicians when he passed away and I'm so clueless. (face in palm) Hugh mentioned that I was one of his last or in all probability his very last interview--gasp! So, whoa... And I forgive you, Malcolm, lol. And holy shit, I'm a bit speechless. And, uh, sigh, yeah I got my 2 copies in the mail today.
Its called: MINISTY BAD BLOOD: THE MAYAN ALBUMS 2002-2005. There's no question that it was unintentional, but this box set kinda represents MY time with MINISTRY. And I really got quite a large amount of blathering into the booklet/liner notes. Its as close to a 'MINISTRY'S Max Brodified period' box set as there will EVER be, pffffftttt! Bwahahahaaaa! Only thing missing is the stuff from the movie AI, and maybe some concert footage from the tours between 1999-2003. nyah-nyah, pretty funny.
Thank you Hugh Gilmour and Matt Ingham over at HNE Recordings/Cherry Red Records, and VIVA Malcolm Dome! May he R.I.P.
If you'd like to read the interview click HERE. Better yet, go buy the box set while its still available! (click HERE)
Meanwhile, Ministry is back out on the road with Melvins and COC! (click HERE to see their itinerary). Good luck out there guys, way to keep going!
In other news, poop jokes aside, on 2-22-22 I dropped a short but sweet little EP called COSMO to my Bandcamp toilet, er, page--which you can check out by clicking HERE! It features cover art once again by the mighty P. EARWIG and a cover tune of the classic sci-fi movie THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL theme with vintage spook show samples courtesy of Something Weird Video. Thank you Lisa Petrucci, and thank YOU dear reader for checking in! More soon...
