2003

12/28/2003 - Thanks to everyone that made it out to the State Theater on such short notice last night. The party was really fun, all the bands played great and I really dug the new setup at the State Theater with the bands playing on the floor in front of the stage!

12/26/2003 - Greetings all! I hope that everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends. Every year I feel so lucky to be able to spend time with such wonderful folks. Last night we headed out to see When Ducks Attack (Joe Prince's rocking new band), St. Felons and the Semis rock the New World Brewery, and judging by the pictures in my digital camera it appears that we had a great time. I wish I could remember. The entire Johnny Mac Band was in town and we had a good time catching up and drinking some beer while making world domination plans for 2004. I have a feeling 2004 is going to be a crazy year full of many, many changes for me, we'll have to see what happens. Hopefully I'm headed up to Atlanta soon to finish the songs that we've started last month (Allison, High School Drunk, Take it Off) and record a new version of No One Would Miss Us for some industry folks to consider. Should be a blast no matter what happens!

12/24/2003 - Happy holidays everyone! Check out the Discography page for a download of the latest Barely Pink Christmas tune called "I'm Feeling Christmas." It's a great tune and the boys gave me the honor of playing a little electric gee-tar on it as well. Brian wrote a great tune and Mark plays some dyn-o-mite baritone guitar on it too! Well I might be playing a little impromptu show at the State Theater on Saturday night, I'm not sure yet but I'll send out and little reminder if I do. Martin's other band, the rocking St. Felons is playing a show/party and well, I'll be there having fun anyway. They are also playing Friday night at the New World Brewery in Ybor with the Semis so try not to miss this show either! Last night was a blast, Trish and I went to the 6th Annual Crash Mitchell Christmas party at Skipper's Smokehouse. Natty's other band (everybody has other bands!) Ronnie Elliott and the Nationals performed and everyone had a great night! OK, well I'm off to a little holiday gathering the evening, Merry Christmas!

12/22/2003 - Well I just got the news that Sparky's Nightmare will not be opening for Blondie, but I do have good news, I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. In other news I put down some electric guitar on the new Barely Pink Christmas tune "Feeling Christmas." It should be out any day and available for download exclusively on their website along with some other great Christmas tunes to get you and that special someone in the Christmas spirit! It's a great tune so check their site, it should be up there any day now.

12/18/2003 - The In The Raw shows at the State Theater are so much fun it's infectious. They had a record crowd on hand for tonight's show featuring Will Quinlin, Martin and Natty (Sparky's Nightmare), Twitch, Crash Mitchell, Tony Dolan, Boney Fiend and others. What a great time. The new In the Raw CD - Season One made it's debut this evening too. 11 cuts of acoustic mayhem, monolog, silly stories and raw emotion. I've got a few available for sale if you trust the Postal Service service and me with you hard earned money. Send well concealed cash or a check made out for $12.50 to John McNicholas - PO Box 76022, St. Petersburg, FL. 33734 - Includes shipping and handling. I've only got a few so e-mail me before you order to make sure I still have some. See the Discography page for the track listing and all the details!

12/13/2003 - Last night was a good time, Martin's band St. Felons played the Emerald with the Heatseekers from Miami and a friend of Hunter's opened the show with a cool solo acoustic set. The place was packed and the guys from Better Than Ezra were there and one of them even bought one of the pieces of art hanging on the wall. Nice.

12/07/2003 - Dave's Bar and Grill is hilarious. Two words, "Tip Jar." Why didn't we think of this earlier? We banged through three joke-filled sets, watched people fall asleep, booty-dance, tip us repeatedly and even had a few guests join us on stage and in the audience to help us sing some songs. Good times, good times. I'll put up a photo album in the next few days from the show and from last Wednesday's In the Raw show. Check back soon!

12/05/2003 - I'm getting ready for the rock show at Dave's Bar and Grill tonight with Sparky's Nightmare, maybe I'll see a few of you fine folks out there as well. Last Wednesday's In the Raw show at the State Theater was an absolute blast! All the performers sounded great and there was such a positive in the air all night. Martin did a great job with the sound and Natty did an amazing job of getting all the performers together and kept the entire show running real smooth. Special thanks to Joran for introducing everyone and getting the series back on it's feet. Hopefully I'll have some photos posted on the website really soon,. I took a few shots myself, but they were really blurry and you can't really tell who everyone is! The next ITR show will be on December 17th, that night Joran will also be releasing a CD called the Best of In the Raw: The First Season. Included on the disc is a performance of Holly's Tooth from one of my shows.

11/26/2003 - The road trip was a blast. I headed out for Savannah on Saturday morning, after a brief detour to Downtown Disney to hit the Virgin Megastore (CDs for the trip!) and Jacksonville (some sightseeing). I rolled into Savannah at about 6:30 PM. The Sentient Bean is a cool little coffee shop a few blocks off of the downtown district across from a great park. I stumbled in, introduced myself to Jon and Melanie and got my stuff out of the car. Food was free for us so I got a big pressed Greek sandwich with humus which was delicious. James Salter rolled in, he had some friends in Savannah so we had a nice crowd on hand for the show. Flipping through the local entertainment paper called Connect Savannah, I noticed that they had chosen our gig as a "Connection Spotlight" for the night (See the Press page for the article), I got a nice write up and even a photo in the paper, very cool! James kicked things off with a great set of tunes, the room sounded great and we had the perfect mix going. After James played and friend of his from Savannah played a few tunes that sounded great too. Next I jumped up and ran through my hour set, about 15 tunes in all including a spontaneous instrumental. The room sounded really nice, it's a very easy stage to sing on.

After the gig we all piled into the car, headed back to James' friend Jennifer's house to unload and then head out to get some food. We ended up at a great little pizza spot called Vinnie Van Go Go's in the historic City Market district sitting out side and chatting. After a quick stroll down some steep stairs and over a cobblestone lot we checked out the rolling river and then headed back to the car. Next we ended up at a local VFW(?) bar a few blocks away. Last call came pretty quick and we headed back to Jennifer's to crash. I don't even remember falling asleep on the sofa I was so tired. Thanks for the sofa and blanket Jennifer!

I set the alarm for 8am, got up and James gave me some directions back to the Interstate. I was off to Atlanta to meet up with John Freiberger and Chris in Decatur. Chris and John had been tweaking the drum sounds so as soon as I rolled into town we started recording some drums for the new record. We ended up with drum tracks to Allison, Take it Off, and High School Drunk and they sound great. Before it got too late we threw down some scratch guitar parts and I sang over them one more time to get a nice vocal guide. Hopefully I'll have the tracks to take home and I can spin them for Martin and get some more input and even work on them back in St. Pete.

Monday morning was cold, rainy and very overcast. Turns out John headed back home early in the morning after crashing on the sofa in the studio pretty early. After a quick shower I headed out to Southern Living at its Finest (photo) to bring James some microphones for a project he is working on with Scotty Wilbanks and Russ Fowler. James showed me around the studio and introduced me to everyone, super nice folks and it seems like a great place to record. We all ran up to Fellini's for some pizza and talked about the possibility of me moving up to Atlanta and the music scene in general. After lunch we headed back to the studio, James pointed out the Outkast studio next door and gave me a quick tour of one of the other studios next door where he said Whitney Houston did her last record. That studio was like a mansion inside, very beautiful and luxurious. After hanging out for a little while I decided to check out some of the sights in Atlanta. I stopped by a few music stores, Little Five Points and a few other places before heading back to the house to do some more recording before playing at Eddie's Attic that night.

Open Mic night at Eddie's was a blast, I didn't win but Chris, Ali and I had a great time watching all the acts. I played High School Drunk and Take it Off. I think of all the acts that played, my favorite was a guy from St. Louis that plays in a band called the Accomplices, he had very laid back crazy style that reminded me of a mix between Tom Waits and Beck. It was really cool to hear all the different performers; we had a really fun night. After the show we sat up and chatted until James got home from the studio at about 2 or 3 am

The next morning I got up around 8am and packed up for the ride home, the weather had dropped into the high 20's this morning and my car was covered with ice. I rolled back into town at about 5pm after a fun and fast 4 days. I'm looking forward to the next trip! Thanks to James, Ali and Jen for letting me crash at your houses and eat your chips and humus!

11/20/2003 - I'm really looking forward do this next week, I've got two confirmed shows up in Georgia and on Sunday we are going to start working on the new record up in Atlanta. John is on his way up there already and I'll get there early Sunday morning after the show in Savannah at The Sentient Bean. I'll fill you in from the road when I get a chance to update the site.

11/17/2003 - Hello everyone, I had a great time this weekend playing up at Skipper's and with Sparky's Nightmare at Dave's Bar and Grill. Saturday afternoon at Skipper's Smokehouse the weather was beautiful, the sound system crisp and the people friendly. Thanks again to Gloria for having me out. Later that night I played with Sparky's Nightmare at Dave's and the house was packed. If was good to see so many friends out to see that bands. Sparky rocked through a couple of fun sets and then St. Felons got up and rocked into the wee hours of the night. Everyone had a great time, as always, at Dave's. This week I'm getting ready for my little road trip before Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to fill in a few more dates and play 4 or 5 shows total even if it means hitting some open mic places in Nashville or Chapel Hill. Well, I'm out, hope you and yours are doing well.

11/12/2003 - Two show coming up on Saturday this week and I'm looking forward to both of them. The first show will be a solo acoustic show at Skipper's Smokehouse that starts at 2PM. I'm not sure when I'm playing or what the cover charge will be but I'll be playing about 45 mins sometime between 2PM and 5pm. Later that night I'm heading over to Dave's Bar and Grill on the St. Pete side of Gandy Blvd. to rock the night away with Sparky's Nightmare. Closing the night at Dave's will be Martin's new rock band St. Felons so come out for the insanity that is Dave's.

11/08/2003 - Well a week has flown by pretty quick, not too much happening this week, I assembled a 7-song sampler for the guys of some new tunes for the next record and did a little writing. Hung out with Chris, Tina, Natty, Hugh and Carrie last night at the Emerald and had a good time checking out Shotgun Wedding, the crowd and the DJs (nice red running sweats with matching headbands!) that were spinning some great stuff between sets. Did they actually play and old B.A.D. cut? I think they may have! Anyway, I'm a little under the weather today so I'm going to do a little writing and maybe start working on an acoustic record that I hope to have for the December 3rd show at the State Theater. I'll probably include the live recordings from live-on-air WMNF performance a few months ago and perhaps a few other cuts just for fun.

11/01/2003 - Greetings all, hope that you had a fun Halloween! I spent the majority of my evening at the Brett Michaels concert at Jannus Landing in stunned amazement... Martin's rock band St. Felons landed the opening slot for the show so I went along to help them strike gear and tune guitars. They rocked and sounded really good. Not much planned for the weekend, hope to do some recording.

10/24/2003 - Thanks to everyone that made it out to the Sparky's Nightmare show last night at the USF Tavern. I was there rocking through my sore throat and flu... and I think it actually did me good to get out and get some fresh air. A fun times was had by all, Hunter rocked the drums to Straight to Hell, Rich rocked the bass on No One Would Miss Us and Dan Lajoy Rocked the guitar on The Hunter. We're a fun interactive band.

10/19/2003 - Check the Press page for a great review from the St. Pete Times! What a great weekend. Joran, Roger and everyone involved with SMA Conference did an amazing job of getting everything together and showcasing some of the finest talent this area has to offer. The band had a great show on Saturday Night at the State Theater and Sparky's Nightmare had a fun set at Stevie B's outdoor stage on Saturday afternoon. The panel discussion at the State were very informative and I even got pulled up to play with Will Quinlin on Saturday night for a quick tune. If only I could be part of something like that every weekend it would be a perfect world. I wish I could have run around and seen everyone this weekend, but there was so much going on! Some personal highlights for me this weekend were hanging out and talking with great friends, our set on Friday night, - thanks guys!, Joran's new band Auditorium's set on Friday night, Joe Doe's acoustic set, the A&R discussion with WEA rep Steve Robertson, and the local media panel, Zanesville, Crash Mitchell Quarter, Shotgun Wedding, Pagan Saints, Cuban Sandwich Crisis & Luscious P & the Burning Seeds Orchestra at the Globe, the Saturn 5... everyone was really good actually, I wish I could have seen... Anna O., Nessie, Big Kitty, Necrogazm and all the other bands at the Emerald on Friday night.

10/16/2003 - I'm excited about tomorrow in a big way! I have been looking forward to the SMA Music Conference since Joran first mentioned it and I think it's going to be a blast! A million bands, 4 venues. The first order of business is to inform you that we will be performing at Midnight, Friday Night at the State Theater. Chris is heading down from Atlanta for the show and Lance Rowland will be joining John Freiberger, Martin Rice and myself for the performance, so we'll be 5 strong, with three rock guitars. It's going to look like a cool vintage guitar store on stage , hahah.. Nice! The second order of business is to tell you to get there early and enjoy all the bands that the Conference has to offer. There really is pretty much something for everyone. If you get a chance, pick up the new issue of Weekly Planet, there is a nice story about the Conference and a big swanky picture of me as well. Click here for the online version article. Let's see what else is going o.. I have two new solo shows scheduled for the middle of November up in Georgia at The Sentient Bean and Eddie's Attic. Eddie's is one of the places that the Indigo Girls first got started and he's had a slew of talented folks in there from John Mayer, Ani Defranco, Junior Brown to Shawn Mullins and more. The Sentient Bean comes highly recommended by multitalented singer/songwriter extrodinare James Salter, who'll be joining me for both Georgia dates and perhaps a few other shows if we can get them booked! OK, enough rambling for this evening, I have press kits to make and strings to change!

10/13/2003 - Greetings all, just in from grabbing the new Focus magazine from Daddy Kool. Thanks to everyone that said all the nice things about us and the new CD. Check the Press page for the scoop. Really looking forward to the SMA Showcase show this weekend!

10/11/2003 - So what day is today anyway... I'm confused, I could swear that it was Thursday morning when my alarm went off at 6:30 am and I jumped out of bed. At first I was happy that it wasn't Thursday and then I was upset because the alarm interrupted this dream that I was having where I was interviewing Juliana Hatfield about her last album over the phone and I was walking on the beach, which was also a parking lot for a hospital and everyone was having a good time until the water had to go home when it got tired... that was the time that I decided to call Juliana and interview her. A few minutes into the conversation, after she had agreed to play on my next record, the alarm went off. Damn.

Well originally I was headed to Atlanta this weekend but it looks like I'll be working on some new tunes down here and heading up in two weeks. I worked on a new tune last night tentatively titled "We Should be Making Up, but Instead You're Making Out." I think the song is dreadful but with a title like that I'm strangely compelled to finish it and make it listen-able. I may just post an acoustic mp3 of it somewhere when I'm done and consider it done. Right now there is enough material kicking around for a full-length release, I just need to figure out if it's worth it to spend all that time recording 12 songs or if it's more practical to record the best 4 - 6 tunes and put out another EP.

Really looking forward to the SMA Showcase next weekend. I see that Joran has lowered the two and three-day ticket prices to $15/$25 for the event so hopefully that will drag a bunch of people out to see the multitude of great bands this area has. We are playing last at 12:45 PM the first night of the showcase so take a nap after work and head on out!

On another cool note, WMNF 88.5 had their fundraising drive last week for their new building fund and Flee was giving away a compilation CD that he put together that was comprised of local bands. One of my tracks made it onto the comp (thanks Flee!) and I'll post all the info as soon as I get a copy! OK, that's it for today, still feeling a bit like crap from the flu, but feeling better none the less.

10/08/2003 -God I hate the flu. Ugh.

10/05/2003 - My goodness Dave's Bar and Grill is always a trip, I never know where to begin. The Johnny Mac band opened the show. Joining me on bass tonight was Lance Rowland. Martin was playing with his new band Saint Felon at Club Venom and getting interviewed by Channel 10 for the Hell on Earth story. We had a loose and fun set with surprisingly little heckling. Next up Lance played a handful of acoustic tunes while we waited for Martin to show up from his other show. Sparky's Nightmare was up next and as usual all sorts of funny stuff happened... I can't even remember all the stuff, so I'll have to leave it up to your imagination.

10/02/2003 - OK kids, get this... I'm sure by now you've heard all about local band Hell on Earth and their controversial stage performance that will supposedly feature an assisted suicide on stage. Well, Gina Vivaneto at the St. Petersburg Times has written a poignant article about it in the paper that I encourage you all to read (Read it Here).

As a musician that pours his heart and soul into the Tampa Bay music scene, I applaud Gina for her well written insightful article and unique perspective that honestly didn't occur to me until everybody I know started asking me questions about the whole Hell on Earth spectacle. "It's at the State Theater right? Your band plays the State Theater right? Do you support this kind of activity? Why would you play a place that allows this kind of activity to occur?" Suddenly it's guilt by association. Now they are going to be filming the concert at a "secret location in St. Petersburg" and broadcasting it "live" over the web. Snore. If it's on the web, it must be true... right?

Wrong, I think the whole thing is a marginally-executed "fake stunt" for publicity that blew up on them. If Hell on Earth is smart, they will have already filmed the "show" a week ago, stick it on their website which will mysteriously "crash" so no one can watch it, claim victory, and then pack it in. I can't imagine anyone that would want to go see them live, or any club that would want to book them again.

Back when my old band performed regularly with Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids, they were experts at pushing buttons, getting reactions, and generally making people upset and uncomfortable. Where they drew the line, if that's possible to say, is that they never took for granted the dignity and individuality of the “person”. If anything they were proponents of individual expression and beliefs and as "bad" as people think Marilyn Manson is, I don't think he'd touch this pile with a 10-foot pole.

Let's not cheapen the music scene we have here in the St. Pete/Tampa area, it's a great one and the people that are involved in this scene are the finest people and best friends anyone could hope for. This will (quickly) pass.

Well Gina has been kind enough to pass my number and several other musicians' phone numbers on to WTSP Channel 10 who will be interviewing me tomorrow evening at Dave's Bar and Grill at about 9pm... hey it's right across the street from the station, how easy could I make this for them. So, come on out, bring you rainbow wig and John 3:16 sign and enjoy the chaos.

10/02/2003 - I cannot for the life of me believe it's October already. The air is starting to cool, the days are growing shorter and that can only mean one thing... it's time to play Dave's Bar and Grill this weekend! Yes, it's true, I'll be playing three sets this Saturday night, the first set will be by an abbreviated version of the John McNicholas Band featuring Lance Rowland on bass and as usual John Frieberger on drums. I'll probably play a few tunes by myself and then the guys will pile on-stage and off we'll go. The next two sets come courtesy of Sparky's Nightmare and if you've ever seen us at Dave's you'll know that we are completely in our element there. My god, it's a match made in heaven. haha... OK, I'm off to bed, perhaps I'll see some of you fine folks down at First Friday in St. Pete tomorrow night.

09/29/2003 - First off I'd like to thank everyone that made it out to Jimmy Mac's last night for the solo acoustic gig. I think a good time was had by all. All in all it was a strange little gig, they had Bob Anthony and I set up in this little banquet room set off to the side of the main dining area. The room was all glass with high ceilings so it was very lively. Natty joined me for Friday Morning, Half Awake and everyone seemed to chime in from time to time on Stereo In Japan, Holly's Tooth and some of the others. I played a new tune called Take it Off last night too. Well, I'm looking forward to doing something like that again really soon. Hope to see some of you out at the Dave's Bar and Grill show this weekend.

09/23/2003 - OK, so it's been a few days since I've thrown a journal entry up here. I've been busy! Well, OK for starters I've been doing some song writing, got a few new tunes kicking around that I hope to debut at the September 29th show at Jimmy Mac's in Tampa. Last Saturday night was the wedding of Jen and Joran from the Gita and Auditorium. It was an absolutely beautiful and festive affair, by far the craziest and most fun wedding I think I've ever been to. The ceremony was beautiful and the Saturn 5 kept the party hopping late into the evening. I had a GREAT time. Sunday was spent recovering and doing a bit more song writing and well that about catches everyone up to date. Hopefully this weekend I'm going to start to put some arrangements down for the next record, so that sounds keep me busy for a little while! On a sadder note, I received an e-mail from Scott Harrell notifying everyone that the Cocktail Honey's are calling it quits after one more show at the New World Brewery with When Ducks Attack and Fang Shooey on October 4th... now go see them live! OK, talk soon!

09/15/2003 - Last weekend was a blast, too much to tell... here's the highlights. We had great weather Friday night for the Skipper's Smokehouse show. I had a fun acoustic set as Jeff Wood kept calling out requests like Satellite and Stereo in Japan, sort of a stump the band but I pulled through! Sparky's Nightmare rocked and Mark Warren from Barely Pink joined us for the Johnny Cash (R.I.P.) tune Ring of Fire in remembrance of the man in black. Barely Pink rocked it as well and I even jumped up and sang Day Tripper while I faked my way through all the guitar parts. Lots of great friends came out... "Thanks for coming out!" Saturday night Sparky's Nightmare rocked the ACL Club at Ricky Wilcox's CD release party. Fun crowd, and all the bands had great tunes... even Rob Douglas who sang "Sparky's Nightmare, it's Sparky's Nightmare" as he was walking into the club. OK, that's it, there are some photos up from Friday night and hopefully I'll have some up for Saturday night soon! Time for Monday Night Football!

09/11/2003 - Hello all, I'm really looking forward to the shows this weekend. Friday night there is the solo show at Skipper's Smokehouse and then the set with Sparky's Nightmare. Then on Saturday night we are back in the 'Burg at the ACL club on 1st Ave N. Hope you can make it out. Also today I got a nice write-up from TAXI, I posted a few highlights on the Press page. See you soon.

09/05/2003 - Hey, hey, what's new everyone? I've been keeping pretty busy with work and writing some new tunes. We've had some great reviews lately from the press and special thanks to WMNF and 97x for playing the CD. You rock! Not much happening this weekend, we are resting up for next weekend's onslaught of shows and debauchery. So... with that said, I hope to see you next week at one of the shows, the Friday night at Skipper's should be especially fun. Nothing like performing outside in Florida in the summertime. Mosquitos, rain, sweltering heat, pick your favorite, slather on some lotion, and bring your umbrella! The Saturday night show at the ACL in St. Pete should be fun too, Ricky Wilcox is having a CD release party for his new band and I can't wait to hear it!

08/31/2003 - It is hard to describe in words how much fun the JEFWOODstock show was. Not only did Martin Rice put together a great show for a great cause but all the bands and people that turned out only served to show what a great musical community we really do have here in the Tampa Bay area. OK, so maybe it's the "old guard" as there were no Nu-Metal bands in the house, but this is a family, we've all grown up together, and I cannot think of a more appropriate group of musicians to get behind Jeff and give him a much-deserved helping hand. For those of you that didn't make it out, Jeff looked great and when he got behind the kit for a song during the Joe Popp's set I don't think there was a dry eye in the house, it was awesome. He played great.

08/24/2003 - What a long day yesterday was... Chris rolled into town late Friday night and Saturday morning we had rehearsal at a new studio called South Gate Rehearsal studios. The studio is across from Star Booty and Daddy Kool on Central Ave. The room sounded great and it was even air-conditioned! We ran through the set a few times and then learned three new tunes for the show. After practice I had to run a million errands before the show, including getting a new battery so I could actually get TO the show. We got down to the club a little early, hung some Christmas lights and got settled in. OK, so last night's CD Release show at the Emerald Bar was a blast! James Salter kicked off the evening with a great acoustic set, the Lance Rowland Project turned in a stellar performance as always and then we rocked our set, special thanks to Brian Merrill from Barely Pink and Scott Harrell from Cocktail Honeys for joining us for No One Would Miss Us. Next up the Cocktail Honeys proceeded to lay waste to the club with a great set, they even learned Bookstore and pulled Marcus and I up to sing it with them. Afterwards a few people came back to the house for a few brews and then evening wound down about 4am. Thanks to everyone that came out and had a great time, hopefully we'll be playing again real soon!

08/21/2003 - Well today is turning out to be a darn fine one despite the crummy weather outside. This morning Mark Hafen on WMNF gave the new record another spin on a great show called Drivin' in the Dark. If you haven't hear the show he plays a great mix a singer/songwriters, 80s new wave, and modern indie-rock! (Today's show featured Fountains of Wayne, Pete Yorn, Rufus Wainwright, Superchunk, Psychedelic Furs, the Smiths, Led Zeppelin and Guided by Voices)

Also in the newest edition of Tampa's Weekly Planet, Eric Snider has the following nice words to say about the new record in a preview that they ran for the CD release party: "We'll call it ultra-tuneful indie-rock with a nice power-pop element. Very professional, and thoroughly on par with far more successful acts." Thanks Eric! (full quote here)

Can't wait for the show on Saturday, I hope I see you soon, I hope I see you soon.

08/17/2003 - Greetings all, the show last night at the Green Room in Ybor was a blast! Despite the $10 parking and a dead battery, I really had a great time playing, all the bands sounded great! Jim Sauerman did a great job running sound for all the bands. Another big thank you to everyone that played with me last night, you guys rock. Did I mention that James Salter (legend/guitarist/owner of 10,000 Fireflies Studio) was the star of the show when he came up to join us on No One Would Miss Us, he's now an honorary member of the band, he got the most applause all night with his Les Paul riffs! It was great to see so many new faces out at the show last night and it was a good looking audience, give yourselves a big round of applause for being such a good looking audience. It was great to be able to talk to so many of you for the first time, I only wish I had more time to visit! It was also great to see Jon Harrison and Martin Conner from Welcome out at the show, I was going to bust into Big Ideas at one point but Rob the drummer was nowhere to be seen, drat! Hopefully I'll have some photos posted soon from the show, check back soon! OK, I'm out of here, it's almost noon and my first cup of coffee is waiting.

08/15/2003 - Happy Friday, thank goodness the weekend is here , I am ready to rock tomorrow night at the Green Room in Ybor City, it's directly behind the Green Iguana on 7th so you can't miss the place. I also picked up some band t-shirts today that we'll be selling at the show tomorrow night for $8 each, come on out and get one! Well, I'm out of here, I'm going to a party! Woo-hoo!

08/09/2003 - It is raining cats and dogs outside at the moment and I can't seem to pull myself out of the house to do much of anything. Hey, everyone needs a day off sometime right? Well it's a quiet weekend for me, nothing really planned, I'm just going to try and kick back and relax, maybe do a little writing. Yesterday I dropped off some artwork at Red Onions in Ybor City to get some t-shirts printed up for the upcoming shows, hopefully I'll have them back by the Green Room show on August 16th, if not, I'll defiantly have them by the CD Release show at the Emerald on the August 23rd. For those of you that are out-of-towners you can pre-order my new CD from the Store and I'll send it out to you on 8/23/03, I'll also include a free poster and sticker with every order while supplies last! Don't wait! What are you waiting for? Seriously, quit reading! Oh, I'm so disappointed in you... OK, I'm off, I got nothing to do and I'd better get started before there's no time to do nothing.

08/03/2003 - Happy August everyone! The official CD release party has been booked at the Emerald Bar on August 23rd, I can't wait! Joining me that night will be the Lance Rowland band and hopefully a few other acts that are sure to please. I'll post the details as the day get closer, so check back. I had a pretty laid back weekend, worked on recording some demos and with Chris' long-distance tech support I was able to finish a 6-song demo to give to the guys this week. OK, I'm beat, I'm off to bed. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

07/31/2003 - The week has absolutely flown by... I'm wrapping up some demos this evening and I can't believe it's 11PM already, I started about 9pm and boom, two hours have vanished. I did two demos for High school Drunk and Inside Out, they came out pretty cool. We are going to record these for the next CD that we are going to start working on the weekend of August 29th. Hopefully we are going to have our CD Release party for the new record, How to Be Alone on August 23rd at the Emerald in St. Pete, I should find out tomorrow, I'll keep you posted, I hope to have some cool special guests and, well, the Emerald is always fun. Sparky's Nightmare practice was great Tuesday night, we worked an two new tunes, one of Sam's and one of Martin's, both of them are excellent. Well I'm off to la la land. Tomorrow night is First Friday in downtown St. Pete, so maybe I'll see a few of you there.

07/27/2003 - Well it has been a crazy and hectic last few days! Thursday night I headed out to the Joe Popp show at the New World Brewery in Ybor. It was great to see Jeff Wood up and about and looking great after his surgery, it was also great to see the band rock through a great group of tunes from both of their CDs. Mark Prator handled the drum duties and he did a great job! Jeff was on-stage singing backup vocals all night and it really was a touching scene to see everyone up there having a blast. Friday I got up early and headed over to WMNF to perform live on the radio for their Live Music Showcase between 9 and 10 AM on Friday mornings. I played for an hour with a guy named Walter Smith who had a great blues voice and some really catchy tunes. I received a CD of the performance so I'm going to try and figure out some way to post some of it on the website for people to download. Later that night was the big The Rolling Stones Tribute show at the State Theater. Despite starting the first song in the wrong key (ugh) we had a great set and we really had a great time. Special thanks to Lance, Martin and John for playing with me again. All the bands sounded great and Flee and all the 'MNF folks were great to work with. Saturday was spent with good friends, celebrating Hugh's birthday on the beach, eating a damn fine steak with wonderful company, and watching the new Zeppelin DVD! Perfect.

07/23/2003 - First off, Happy birthday Hugh! We had a brief practice tonight for the Rolling Stones tribute Friday night at the State Theater and everything sounded really fun. It should be a loose and fun time. The JMc band starts at 9PM promptly so if you are coming, get there early. I'll be playing guitar again with Sparky's Nightmare at about 12:15 so it should be a great time. If you can, listen to WMNF 88.5 FM on Friday morning between 9AM and 10AM, I'll be performing live for about 10 minutes.

07/20/2003 - Well I had an absolute blast last night at the State Theater, all the bands were great, and everyone seemed to have a great time. I even got to sit in with Pagan Saints for a cool new tune of theirs! I think we had a pretty good set, it was great to have Chris down from Atlanta and with the addition of Lance Rowland on rhythm guitar we defiantly had a big, big sound coming off stage. Luscious introduced me and I seem to remember him calling me pretty... hummm. hahaha. We started off the set with a pair of tunes off of the second Lie disc, first up was a stripped down version of X-Girl Friend (an often misunderstood song about a girl that likes the X-Girl clothing line that Kim Gordon started in the early 90s as opposed to a mean song about an ex-girlfriend) and then a ferocious version of I Will Default. From there we dove into three new tunes, Stay, Fallout, Friday Morning, Half Awake from the upcoming solo CD. Next up were Feelin' It and No One Would Miss Us, off of the Great Mistake, we finished up with Alright which is also on the new CD. The set went by so fast I felt like I hardly had a second to catch my breath. After playing I ran into a good friend Jason whose pictures of myself and Jeff Wood grace the cover of the Great Mistake. He was down for his sister's wedding in Sarasota and he made the trek up to see us play, it was great to see him and to catch up. All in all it was a really good time, thanks again to everyone that made it out to the show. Check the Photos page for some pictures from the show.

07/18/2003 - Friday evening and I'm listening to the final (final, FINAL!) mastered version of my new record! I was supposed to have left the house already to go see Marcus and Ask Erin play at MacDinton's in Tampa but I cannot pull myself away from the stereo system. I've also come to the realization that my speakers are absolute crap... anyway... mastering engineer Alex Lowe from Southern Living at it's Finest in Atlanta really did a stellar job with the mastering and I couldn't be happier with how it sounds. Thanks again to Chris, Martin, John and everyone everywhere that let us record in their living room, garage, balcony & basement. The CD will hit the mail tomorrow sometime and after that it's about a 3-week wait before I get the CDs back for everyone to enjoy. I'm already counting the days. Well, I hope you are planning on coming out tomorrow to the big rock show at the State Theater to see us walk the tightrope that is this band live. Joining me on-stage tomorrow night will be Martin Rice (bass), Chris Skogen - all the way from Atlanta! (guitar/keys), John Frieberger (drums) and my great friend and songwriting buddy Lance Rowland (guitar). I am truly lucky to have them indulging me with my habitual songwriting obsession.

07/16/2003 - Just done with practice and I'm off to bed, rehearsal sounded great and I can't wait until Saturday night! Tomorrow night Sparky's Nightmare is rocking the Tavern at Bayboro on the USF St. Pete campus, come on out from 7 till 10 PM and bring the dogs and kids, it's outside and all ages.

07/11/2003 - Hey there, it's been a quiet week filled with lots of work and very little play. Nothing to report but a quiet weekend ahead and then a week with two wonderful shows at the Tavern at Bayboro on the USF St. Pete campus with Sparky's Nightmare and then at The State Theater with my band as apart of the SMA Summer Showcase. Fun, fun, fun! I'm out for a beer!

07/07/2003 - Greetings all, if you wouldn't mind helping me out I'd like to get some suggestions from you. I'm looking to play out of town, solo or with the band, once the CD comes out in about 3 weeks. Do you know a good spot to play in your town? Do you know the club owner? I'd love to hear some suggestions for South Florida, Tampa Bay, Orlando, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Atlanta and any other city that you may be from! Send an e-mail to nickmickolas@hotmail.com and let me know!

07/03/2003 - Good morning, errr... afternoon as the case may be. Last night's show at the Green Room was a fun time. We played about a 45 minute opening set and everyone said we sounded great, Jim did a great job with the sound. For some reason I felt a little self conscious on stage and it was about 200 degrees, I think we all lost about 50 pounds. I think the club is going to be pretty cool, there is a huge outside patio area, a nice inside bar area where Jim is going to build another stage and I think the area is dying for another venue to see some live music. Well I'm not going to ramble on about the show but I do want to thank everyone that played with me and invited us out to play, it was nice to get that show under our belts so we can be more prepared for the upcoming State Theater shows we have later in the month.

06/29/2003 - Sunday evening all alone... sort of a busy week this week was, the guys were over for a little while today to run through the songs that we will be playing on Wednesday for the grand opening of a new club in Ybor called the Green Room (map). We got together earlier in the week and ran through all the material including one of the Rolling Stones tunes that we are going to be performing for the WMNF Rolling Stones tribute on the 25th. OK, so hopefully I'm going to send the CD out this week, Chris is getting everything mastered in Atlanta and I'm hoping to get everything back by the show on the 19th although I'm not holding my breath, things always, always take longer than you think they will.

06/25/2003 - Hey, hey, hey... John was over tonight and we are working on arrangements for the next CD already, we are the hardest working band in show business. We've been asked to perform live on the radio by WMNF the morning of the Rolling Stones tribute, I can't wait, it should be an absolute blast!

06/23/2003 - The record is done. Yes! Just back from Atlanta early Monday morning, I spent the entire weekend up there with Chris and John drinking coffee, not sleeping, watching fireflies in the back yard, and working on the tunes. I got up there about lunchtime on Saturday; we grabbed some pizza at Fellini's off of the Freedom Parkway. Chris and I headed over to Midtown Music to check out their selection of vintage guitars and amps. I was digging the Victoria amps pretty hard although I never even plugged one in. I can't spend the money if I don't play one and I figured I'd better hang on to the cash at the moment. We headed over to James and Ally's house where we would be mixing the record. He lives in a very cute house in Decatur with a HUGE basement. The studio was very cool, it was loaded with tons of guitars and gear. We really appreciated all the hospitality they showed us all weekend, the coffee was strong and the sofa was comfortable! We mixed for about 6 hours and took a break a little before 10pm. We were hungry so we sat outside at this English pub/restaurant called the Angel in Decatur and had some beers and food. After dinner mixing continued into the wee hours of the morning, and after a few hours of sleep, we got up early Sunday and continued mixing for the rest of the day. On a sad note, about noon on Sunday James was told about the death of the gentleman that owns the studio where he works, our thoughts are with him and his family for their loss. Finally about 5pm John and I headed back to St. Pete as Chris was wrapping up the finishing touches on the last song. We are going to give it a few days to make sure that we are happy with all the mixes and then we are going to send everything out to be duplicated. Hopefully we'll have some CDs to sell by the time we play the show on the 19th at the State Theater. I absolutely love Atlanta, I can't wait to get back there soon, do some more recording and play some shows. I'll post a new mp3 or two of the songs sometime this week for everyone to get a sneak peek before the CD is released.

06/19/2003 - Well, first off, the White Stripes and Whirlwind Heat were great last night. The bands sounded great and I had a blast. Trish and I bumped into tons of people we knew and the White Stripes sure put on a hell of a show. Very enjoyable indeed. Tonight we had Johnny Mac Band practice at my house with Martin, John and Lance on second guitar. Things came together pretty quick, many tunes were learned, and relearned as the case may be, and the cops never showed up once. This weekend we are hoping to get the CD finished, yeah you heard me, finished. I sure hope so, I'm ready to put this thing out so people can enjoy it. Should be a fun crazy weekend I'll give everyone a full report when it's over.

06/18/2003 - Hello, hello, well I'm headed out to see the White Stripes tonight out at the Sun Dome at USF in Tampa, should be a great show, I only hope it stops raining before I get there. Looking forward to getting the record mixed this weekend and running through some new tunes with Chris and John and maybe even James in the basement of his house. . Also we are going to sneak in a practice sometime this week and start preparing for our new show on July 2nd. It's a new club in Ybor and Jim Sauerman (from the Stone Lounge Days) is either running it or doing sound there now. It's the grand opening night so come on out and support a new venue. Joining us that night will be Lance Rowland on 2nd guitar, filling in for Chris.

06/17/2003 - Hey everyone, he is some of the latest information from and e-mail Andrea Halpern sent out about Jeff Wood, just wanted to keep everyone informed. Please keep him in your thoughts and stop by to see him if you can, he's at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa by Raymond James Stadium.

"Here's the deal- The news of Jeff's tumor being benign was premature... the facts are the tumor initially appears to be benign, but because of the complex nature of the tumor, they sent it out to a pathology lab to get definites. The results are not back yet, but as soon as they are ...I'll forward e-mails out. Jeff doesn't mind people coming to see him, and knowing him, he loves the attention. Having his friends around are helping his spirits. He does have to have another surgery to get the rest of the tumor out (or most of it, anyway) sometime this week. The doctor has told him about the surgery, but Vicky isn't sure if Jeff really gets it that he has to do it again, so tread lightly on the subject if broached at all with him."

06/15/2003 - Greetings all, just a quick recap of the week... not to much has been going on all week. Chris was over yesterday and we put a few finishing touches on the record and I think we are all set to mix and master next week. I'm excited, I can't wait to hear how it all comes out. I made a CD of some new tunes for the guys to check out, hopefully we'll start recording them within the next handful of weeks. In the meantime we have two shows at the State Theater to practice for in July. I think we are going to try and get together this week and run through the basics without Chris and then jam with him when he's back in town on the weekends. OK, that's it for now, I'm gong to grab some coffee and go out looking for some cool old t-shirts. Apparently Jeff Wood is feeling better too, please keep him in your thoughts.

06/13/2003 - I just spoke with Martin and I just received the following e-mail from Joe Popp, please keep Jeff Wood in your thoughts, I'm sure he'll pull through this just fine. I'll keep everyone updated on the site the moment I hear anything.

Dear Friends,
Sorry for the Blanket e-mail but Jeff Wood, the drummer for my old band ("Joe Popp"), underwent brain surgery yesterday. He suffered a seizure caused from a brain tumor and is recovering now in St. Joseph's hospital in Tampa, Florida. Unfortunately I have no further information about his condition. My old friend Martin called me with the bad news this afternoon and will update me when he hears more on Woody. We were scheduled to do a benefit show for Jobsite theater on July 24th, which would have marked our first performanceas a band in over three years. Many of you know Jeff, and know he's as tough as Marine boot leather, so if anyone can pull out of this thing - he can. My only request is that you keep Jeff in your thoughts hope for his speedy recovery.

06/08/2003 - Greetings all from Sunday morning, half awake. It's the morning after the night before and I'm sill trying to coax some coffee from the coffee maker this morning. Yesterday was a blast all the way around, the only thing that could have been better was if the temperature was 20 degrees cooler. I swear I lost 20 pounds yesterday out in the hot sun. The first show at The Image Station was pretty nice, we played at about 1:30 PM on a portable stage in the parking lot of this new business. It's a nice spot, it's got a recording studio in the building and they make products for people that need promotional items and all items related to marketing their business including photo shoots and gift baskets! After we played it was so hot that I only caught a few tunes from Crizzy and the Punks before I headed home to change strings and get ready for the X show at Jannus Landing that night. The X show was a blast. Some of the folks in the band had been hanging out with X already at a private party that Star Booty was having for them down at their store. I got down there at about 5:30 PM and the stage was totally stripped and ready for us to set up and sound check. Soundcheck went quick and smooth so we retreated over to Mastry's Bar for a drink to relax before the show. Come showtime we hit the stage about 8:15 just as the sun was dipping below the buildings on the opposite end of the courtyard and played a fun, hi-energy set for everyone that came out early. Next up were the Fags and they rocked pretty hard, really enjoyed them. X took the stage next and put on a great show, they played tons of old tunes and sounded great, it was fun to see Billy Zoom with that shit-eating grin all night playing his sparkle Gretsch guitar. As the show ended we loaded everything out and then a group of us headed over to Mastry's again for drinks (Cokes for me!) and unwound. After a while some people were headed over to the "after-party" but I was headed home... so tired. I'll post some pictures really soon as soon as I can get a hold of them!

06/05/2003 - It's Thursday and the anticipation of the shows this Saturday is killing me. Saturday during the day Sparky's Nightmare is playing two rock shows for the people. The first show will be at The Image Station on Ulmerton Blvd. just off I-275 and 28th street for the "SUMMER BLAST 2003". We'll be playing with a ton of other bands so the entire show should be fun. We play first at 1pm so I hope the rain stays away long enough for everyone to have a good time. Later that night we'll be opening for X at Jannus Landing. This should be an amazing show and I can't wait to see X perform. Well, better run, hope to see everyone out this weekend sometime.

05/31/2003 - First off, the Beck concert in Orlando last night was off the hook! Seriously, it was awesome, I had never been to the Hard Rock Live before, it's a great place to see a show, and much like the House of Blues in Downtown Disney, every seat in the house is a good one. Trish and I totally missed the first opening band the Black Keys because by the time we parked five miles away and walked over to the venue it took us too long. Just as we got there Dashboard Confessional started playing. They had a few technical glitches but they sounded really good and Chris' voice was loud and strong. I know they have a new record out which is probably why I only knew a few of the tunes. After about a 45-minute break between bands the house lights went down and out came Beck with a small sampler that he was manipulating beats on, he was all smiles in his shiny black suit. After getting the beat set he grabbed his guitar and kicked into Loser as the rest of the band came out to join him by the time the song hit the chorus. He didn't have his standard backing band that you may have seen in videos and live before but this new band was tight and fun, Steve MacDonald from Redd Kross was on bass and he was doing a pretty good "Robot" all night while he played. Without doing the play by play, the show was a blast, I expected to hear an overwhelming amount of material from the new album, Sea Change, but he played a great mix of all his records. The crowd was going crazy the entire night. The first encore consisted entirely of songs from the new album which sounded amazing and the final encore was a scorching version of Devil's Haircut. Fun, fun, fun. Did I mention that he did Nelly's song Hot in Here? Hilarious. Here's the setlist from his site (setlist). After the show we headed over to an Irish Pub in Citywalk where we were repeatedly ID'd. How tall are you? Sign your name here? This isn't you! Good times, good times.

05/30/2003 - Greetings from Saturday morning, ER well, afternoon. The Sparky's Nightmare show last Thursday evening at the Tavern at Bayboro was really fun and funny. We picked on people, we drank beer and we made Joran from the Gita come play with us on stage. Good times, good times... Tonight I'm really looking forward to the Beck concert in Orlando at the Hard Rock Live. I've never seen Beck in concert and I've never been to the Hard Rock either. I'm also excited about seeing Steve MacDonald from Redd Kross playing bass with Beck this evening. I always been a Redd Kross fan so this should be kool. Opening up the show will be Dashboard Confessional and the Black Keys. I'll have a full report tomorrow.

05/27/2003 - Happy Tuesday, I hope that everyone had a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend. I had a great and exhausting weekend, I caught a few shows at the New World Brewery and I even managed to sneak in a Sparky's Nightmare practice. We've got a show this Thursday evening at the Tavern at Bayboro on the USF St. Petersburg Campus that should be really fun. OK, gotta run, I'm still working today!

05/23/2003 - Hey everyone, it's been all week since I've been able to collect my thoughts for the week. So what have I been up to all week? Monday night my friend Lance and I headed up to the House of Blues to see the Pete Yorn concert. I thought he was really good, the show started off a little slow but it picked up and all the tunes sounded great. He played all the songs that you'd expect him to play as well as mixing in I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend by the Ramones and a little of In-between Days by the Cure and even She Bangs the Drum by the Stone Roses. It was the first time I'd been to the HOB and it's a great place to see a show. I bumped into Marcus, Chris, Tina, Brett and Piper and a few other friends that made the trek up to see the show. I missed the first opening band, Year of the Rabbit, but everyone said they were really good. Grandaddy was the second band and they were really cool too, I've heard one of their new songs call Stand By on WMNF so I need to pick up the record when it comes out. Tuesday night I had Sparky's Nightmare practice, we worked on some new tunes and they sounds really good, a few more practices and they should be ready to go. Not much happening this Labor Day weekend so I'm going to try and see a few shows and work on some new songs. Have a fun and safe weekend!

05/18/2003 - As you may be able to tell, I have been messing with the site a little bit. As we get closer to having the album come out I'll probably completely redesign the site to reflect the look and the style of the album art. I've put up a new intro page and added a slew of new pictures from our photo session with Carrie and some fun and funky live shots from the Sparky's Nightmare show last Friday night. OK, so this week was full of fun stuff so let's recap. I started off the week still sick from the previous weekend. Man I hate getting sick. Tuesday night we had Sparky's Nightmare practice and my voice was slowly coming back although I didn't even try to push it at practice. We tried to get some vocals recorded on Wednesday night but there was no way I was well enough to sing so we took some pictures with Carrie, I think they came out great, it's amazing what you can do with a digital camera and absolutely no light in an alley way. Thursday night I headed over to Brian Merrill's to take some pictures for the upcoming Honeyrider album. I'm anxious to see how it all comes out. Friday night was a blast, a bunch of people that I work with in St. Louis were down for the weekend and nearly everyone made it out to the Sparky's Nightmare show at Mastry's Bar (pictures). Saturday, Chris and I headed into the shed to try and get vocals for the final tune, Alright finished up. Would I be able to sing? Yes! Woo-hoo, all the vocals are finished. Everything came out great and I even re-cut the guitar break that had been bugging me. Hopefully we'll go for a final mix on everything by next weekend and then master the songs up in Atlanta soon afterwards. Sunday I rested, ahhh... Tomorrow is the Pete Yorn concert in Orlando at the House of Blues so I'm pretty pumped about that. Lance Rowland and myself are headed up after work, should be a blast!

05/11/2003 - Well, I'm feeling better. I've got some recording and practice this week in preparation for the Sparky's Nightmare show on Friday night at Mastry's Bar. Hopefully we'll finish my record this week, only one more song to sing. this Friday night the 16th.

05/09/2003 - Greetings all, well the acoustic show that I was going to play tonight has been canceled because I am sick. I was hoping this flu would go away before tonight but it looks like it's here for the weekend. Dang. Still, that shouldn't stop you from heading down to New World for Barely Pink and Big Kitty. They rock, the beers are cold, and it should be a nice night for dancing under that stars at the New World. Have fun.

05/05/2003 - Well, well, well.. Quite the crazy weekend. I didn't play any shows but I did manage to firmly entrench myself in a few bars over the weekend. Must... get... sleep. Hopefully we are going to finish up my solo record record this week; I'll do vocals for the last remaining tune on Thursday. Wednesday we are going to get a practice in for the John McNicholas Band too, so exciting. Also, I spoke with Dan from Bay Sound who was recording all the In the Raw showcases that Joran from the Gita hosted at the State Theater and I'm hoping to be able to get a copy of a few acoustic tunes to tag on the end of the record, sort of like bonus tracks. Could be cool, I'll have to check out the performances and see how I sound. I remember the between banter was funny, but I can't remember how well I played ;-). Tomorrow night Sparky's Nightmare is headed back in the studio to finish up a few remaining parts and then it's straight to mixdown, it's taking us some time but it's really sounding great.

05/03/2003 - Just a quick note to say how amazing the Cramps were last night at the State Theater. My God they rocked!

04/30/2003 - Well, thanks to Maxim's Hometown Hottie Brenda from Tarpon Springs the song Sad Song by my old band Misfortune 500 has leaped to the top of the mp3 power pop charts. Ah, yes you can say you knew us when... I'm just in from recording at the shed with Chris, we got all the vocals to the song Stay finished which just leaves one more tune before we are finished with the recording. It sounds amazing, I can't wait for everyone to hear it. Looks like we have Honeyrider practice tomorrow night, the weekend should be a quiet affair, what is going on this weekend, anything?

04/25/2003 - Check out Maxim's Hometown Hottie Brenda from Tarpon Springs and vote for her and listen to one of my bands, Misfortune 500. She must have seen us play the Neptune Lounge one night. Hey Brenda, call/amyl me so I can send you a CD! Oh yeah, if you're not Brenda I still have some CDs for sale so go shopping, you can even pay with your credit card! OK, enough of that.. last night Chris, Martin, Marcus and I were hammering away in the studio. Martin laid down some great bass lines and Chris continued to work on my mixes and some mixes for Sparky's Nightmare's new record. Lot's of recording and practice on tap for this weekend so I'll keep you posted!

04/23/2003 - Just a quick update here as it's really late. Chris and I got some more tracking done on my new record as well as tweeking a mix on the upcoming Sparky's Nightmare record. Tomorrow we're tracking bass guitar with Martin for my record and then I'm going to try and get 8 hours of sleep. Yeah, right.

04/22/2003 - OK, where do I begin with the weekend? It started of with a bang at Scott and Shannon's housewarming party on Friday night. I had a great time I think, I can't remember.

Saturday I had a brief but fun acoustic show at Tycoon's opening up for Barely Pink, Adam Marsland and Four Star Riot. I took requests, I told jokes, I screwed up the arrangement to Friday Morning, Half Awake, and I had to leave by 9:30 pm to make it up to Dave's by 10 PM for the Sparky's Nightmare/Dank show.

What can you say about Dave's in a journal entry that will really do it justice... that place is just surreal. I'll just hit the highlights. The place was pretty crowded early. Our first set was a sleeper. The second set was much more fun, we threw the setlist away. A friend of Sam's was making out on the dance floor and grabbing lots of ass. This one lady hated Patsy Cline so bad that she left when we played I Fall to Pieces and came back in when it was over... so we played it again. Her boyfriend, who used to be in Savatage, thanked us. Travis and Marcus jumped up to play bass and guitar for an impromptu version of No One Would Miss Us, which I sang... next time I'm making Hugh let me play the drums like I use to do in Lie. I redeemed myself and played Friday Morning, Half Awake correctly. Um... next up, Dank seized the stage and rocked the club for... 20 mins. We were celebrating our new Dank CD Release "Dank vs. Miami". Many CDs were sold for 99 cents. Many pennies were left on table tops at the end of the night. We had a great time; I even ended up giving some locals a ride back to their apartments down the street. Damn the long wait for taxis in this town.

Easter Sunday was celebrated at the ACL club at their Rock and Roll Flea Market. There were two stages set up; one inside and one outside in the courtyard were there were also many merchants selling some pretty cool swag. Hugh and Natty had a table filled with Guitars, posters, hand painted boxes, and lamps. Joran and Tony and extended family from the Gita were there at the Southeast Music Alliance booth which was full of local CD and T-shirts. Manny brought CDs from Daddy Kool and numerous other people had old records, rock t-shirts, buttons and punk magazines. I got there early and caught all the bands. Arcade Inferno was just that, an Inferno. They played first inside the club and brought a loud spastic set to the crowd that were defiantly digging it. Next up outside were my favorites of the day, a bad called Shotgun Wedding. They are a three-piece band that play mellow-down country... sort of a mix of... well, just go check them out sometime. NutraJet played next inside the club, I only saw one song as I was setting up for the Sparky's Nightmare set outside, but it was tight and fast and full of attitude. The Sparky's set started off strong and then, for me, was a constant battle with the guitars. I basically worked on my gear for about 45 minutes while on stage. Broken strings, Strap buttons coming undone, changing strings... etc. Still we had a good show, the people were digging it and the jokes were flying. After us inside were the Semis. I was beat and they were loud so I only caught a few tunes, but they sounded great. Dank was up next outside and right before we started the set I bought one of Hugh's many pawnshop guitars that he had for sale and proceeded to rock the crap out of it on stage. It's the coolest $50 I've spent in a while. We had a fun set and we almost sold completely out of CDs by the end of the set. After Dank played, the Crippled Masters rocked the crowd inside. Nice, nice, nice. We all hung out for a while and talked and finally decided we were all starving. A group of us ended the night at Harvey's 4th Street Grill eating a wonderful meal. By then it was almost 10pm. What happened to the day, it went by so fast. Good times, good times.

04/18/2003 - I completely forgot to mention in yesterday's journal entry about all the recording I've been doing this week. We got the lead vocals for Friday Morning, Half Awake finished! Woo-hoo!

04/17/2003 - Well I'm looking forward to a fun filled weekend. I'm playing a solo acoustic set at 9pm on Saturday night at Tycoon's in St. Pete and then I'm running up to Gandy Blvd. to play with Sparky's Nightmare and Dank at Dave's. On Easter, Dank and Sparky are playing at the Rock-n-Roll Flea Market next to the ACL club. Also, the Dank CD will be available for sale starting this Saturday night. It's only .99 so bring a buck and you're in luck.

04/14/2003 - Greetings all, I'm just in from Dank's weekend trip down to Miami to do a little recording. The trip was, well... the first rule of Dank is we don't talk about Miami. Seriously though, it was a fun trip filled with recording, hanging at some clubs, riding around in limos and sleeping late. For further reference read Led Zeppelin's Hammer of the Gods. We recorded and mixed five songs at Soundmixers Recording Studio (map of the inside of the studio) with our new friend Damian Mazur at the helm and they sound great. Well, I'm out of here, there are some pictures of the weekend posted on the photos page.

04/10/2003 - I have done so much this week my brain hurts. We finished all the guitar tracks for my record and Martin tracked all the bass for Friday Morning, Half Awake. I think between Chris and I, we've kept Starbucks in business this week on Mochas alone. Tomorrow, us Dank boys are headed down to Miami to do some recording. We should be back on Sunday and I'll update the site on Monday with pictures and a journal entry. Should be quite the crazy weekend.

04/07/2003 - I think that guitars for my solo record are done. There may be just one more little part to record in Alright. On Saturday we got the guitars recorded for Stay and they sound great. The next thing to do is bass and vocals. Just a quick note today before I'm off to record. We're hoping to get all the guitars done today and maybe even start singing, who knows! Sunday was rehearsal with Honeyrider, Gary brought us all copies of the new Orange Sky Records Compilation: Carnivals, Cotton Candy and You It features the Honeyrider track Summer's Almost Gone. This upcoming weekend Dank will travel to sunny Miami to record some tracks for an upcoming release. It sounds like good fun and I can't wait. You can bet there will be a photo album up by this time next week. I'm out of here, time for breakfast.

04/05/2003 - Just a quick note today before I'm off to record. We're hoping to get all the guitars done today and maybe even start singing, who knows!

04/03/2003 - I could have swore that I added a journal entry on Monday but perhaps it it never made it out to the web. Last weekend was full of recording and practice. This week has been more of the same, last night Chris, Jon and I finished the guitar tracks on Fallout. That only leaves us one more track and then we sing and Martin will hammer out some bass. Then when it's all done it's off to be mastered and duplicated. Sounds so easy doesn't it. Well, truth be told, it has been incredibly easy this go around. Like the first Lie record, Molly, Mark + Madison , these sessions are flying by at a furious pace. Well one more day and then the weekend is here and that means more recording and more practice. Hopefully we'll finish the record next week. The release date for the reissue of the Honeyrider record All Systems Go! has been set. For those of you that want to get ready to order the CD here's the info from the onesheet: BAND: Honeyrider / TITLE: All Systems Go! / FORMAT: CD / CATALOG NUMBER: OS2211 / SHIP DATE: July 7, 2003. How exciting! As I've said before the Honeyrider reissue will feature five songs from our live show at Arlene Grocery in New York last December. Any good shows this weekend?

03/29/2003 - Happy Saturday, it has been a very long week for me but the weekend is here and there's lots on the agenda. I'm getting ready to start recording the guitars for my new record in a little while today. Hopefully Chris and I will get all the basics recorded and then start filling in the blanks so we can move on to vocals and bass in the upcoming week or so. I'm bringing my camera so I'm sure I'll have some pictures posted in the next few days. Gots me Honeyrider practice tomorrow afternoon and hopefully I'll be able to give everyone some more info on the release date of the new Honeyrider record and some info on some West-Coast shows to support the new release.

03/23/2003 - Thanks to everyone that made it out to Mastry's Bar for the Sparky's Nightmare show, it was a blast as you can see by the pictures posted on the Photos page! I think we all feel somehow violated by last night's show, but I think that maybe it's a good thing. I swear there was a full moon out last night as the crowd was going bananas all night. We played every song we knew and even a few we didn't. We learned a Lynard Skynard tune for the occasion, Simple Man, and the bar just exploded when we started playing it as well as Sweet Child of Mine. My new tune, Friday Morning, Half Awake seemed to go over just fine for the first time with Sparky. We even did No One Would Miss us and I gave my guitar to a guy in the audience who could play, by the end of the song he was playing Eruption on it, but hey, it did sound cool. Martin got help on Straight to Hell from a lovely lass from Atlanta that was giving him a body rub the whole time, did I mention body rubs, let's just say I got one too, check the pictures... and... well.. it goes downhill from there.. I've said to much. Work continues on my solo record, we recorded all the drums today over at Super B's studio. Jon did an amazing job rocking the kit and Chris did a great job getting it all captured on the computer. Thanks again to Brian for letting us use the pad and making coffee and thanks again to Chris and Jon for giving up their Sunday to help me record.

03/22/2003 - I'm getting ready to head out the door to Mastry's Bar for the Sparky's Nightmare show tonight. I had a great time hanging out at MacDinton's in Tampa last night watching Chris and Marcus playing with Ask Erin. Someone was even taking photos! <ClickHere!> Marcus even got me up on stage for a version of Don't Change by INXS. Good times, good times. Hope to see some of you all out tonight!

03/18/2003 - The days slip by so fast I swear that I'm sleeping through them. If it weren't for the vivid memories I'd swear the clock spins twice as fast during the week sometimes. Recording for my record did not happen last weekend, it's been rescheduled for this upcoming weekend, which is good, it gives me another week to flush out some ideas. This week has been pretty hectic so far, Honeyrider had rehearsal on Sunday and it's sounding great, I can't wait to play out locally. Also, Honeyrider is putting the finishing touches on some new artwork and remixing the live tracks from the Arlene Grocery show that we played back in December for the upcoming domestic release of Honeyrider's first full-length CD All Systems Go! This record originally came out in the UK on Damaged Goods Records in 1998. The reissue will be out on Orange Sky Records in the early Summer months. Hopefully we'll be playing some west-coast shows in support of the album's release in June or July. The CD will contain all but two of the original recordings plus five live tracks from the NY show. Sparky's Nightmare is rocking Mastry's Bar in St. Pete on Saturday, maybe I'll see some of you there. Did I mention that Dank will be recording in Miami soon? Damn I'm busy.

03/15/2003 - OK, so what the hell happened this week? Well I'll tell ya... not much outside of a fun Sparky's Nightmare practice on Thursday. We learned one of my new tunes, Friday Morning, Half Awake and I think Natty is going to let me sing it too. (I think she should sing it, but I says never argue with a pretty girl!) Tomorrow, recording continues on my CD, we are going to get the final drum tracks in the can and then start on the guitars. I don't want to spend too much time laboring over it, I just want to keep the spark that the songs have and have a good time with the recording. I think we might just try to finish 4 songs and put out an EP to get things rolling. It's a bit more affordable and it's less of a mess to get organized. Hopefully all the recording will be done in two weeks and mixing will take another few weeks before we can get it ready to ship off for duplication. The song list will be 1. Alright, 2. Stay, 3. Fallout, 4. Friday Morning, Half Awake. Oh, and their might be a bonus acoustic track or two on the CD from a live show if I can get a hold of some of the recordings.

03/09/2003 - Greetings all, last night's show at The Rare Olive was fun. Thanks to everyone that made it out. I played about a 45 minute set and then the Gita rocked the house for the rest of the evening. It was great to see the club so packed, it looks like it could be a pretty cool venue for original music if the club wants to go down that road. I've got Honeyrider practice in a little while and I've been working on the recordings for my record for a little while today already so I better make this brief.

03/08/2003 - A fun time was had last night out at Tycoon's watching Sam & Natty and the Smoking Jackets perform. Sam and Natty played a really pretty and fun acoustic set and then the Smoking Jackets jumped up and rocked out... until the toilets at the place backed up and they had to close until a plumber could arrive. Oh, well. Tycoon's is a cool room with lots of big comfy chairs and the skyline of Chicago painted on the wall behind the bands. There are a couple of pool tables and everyone that worked there was really nice. Next we headed over to the Emerald for their Free-Jazz/Acid-Jazz night. The place was so smoky and packed I thought I was back in LA on a hazy August night. Nobody was playing while we were there so we headed over to the State Theater to see the show... that had already ended and completely wrapped up by 12:30. I guess it was going to be an early evening. We hung out for a while and then eventually called it a night. I'm looking forward to the acoustic show tonight with the Gita at the Rare Olive. It's the first time I've played there and only the second time I've ever been to the place. I guess they are starting to have more "rock bands" and different styles of music. Typically I see Top-40, R&B and Soul groups in there. It's a really nice club and of course they have martinis! I start about 10 PM, so if you find yourself in Downtown St. Pete, swing on in.

03/06/2003 - Thursday evening is slipping by so fast I fear that I won't get everything ready for all the activity that happening this weekend. Chris was by last night and helped me put the remaining songs back together for the recording this weekend. I'm going to sit down tonight and see if I can get things on track and ready to go. Tomorrow night Sam and Natty from Sparky's Nightmare are playing acoustically at Tycoon's on Central Ave. in St. Pete, swing out if you can. Saturday night I'm at the Rare Olive just down the street, I'll be opening up for the Gita. Good times, good times.

03/04/2003 - Technically it's only Tuesday by a minute or two but I'm still up and working on the recording for Friday Morning, Half Awake. Chris was over and we worked out a few great arrangements for the tune. Jon's drum tracks sound fantastic and everything is going to just fall into place real fast, I can just tell. Tomorrow, or should I say later today is Sparky's practice and Wednesday Chris and I will be back at it in the studio again. Must sleep soon.

03/03/2003 - Yesterday was a loooooooooong day. Lots of recording for the solo record as well as doing some production work on the Honeyrider stuff. Tonight Chris and I are getting together and working on some arrangement for my tunes. Should be fun.

03/02/2003 - Happy Sunday morning, last night's show at Dave's was fun as always. Thanks to everyone from my work that made it out and a special thanks to them for surviving the especially ferocious Dank set at the end of the evening. Will they hold it against me on Monday morning? Let's hope not! Nobody took any pictures last night so there won't be any updates to the photo page, but seriously did you really want another scrapbook with more pictures from Dave's? I thought not! I'll try to take some in the studio today, how's that for a compromise? Yeah, it looks like I'll be in the studio for the remainder of this fine rainy Sunday. Enjoy a day off. I'll catch up with everyone during the week.

03/01/2003 - Work has kept me slammed all week so there hasn't been too much going on. I'm looking forward to the Sparky's Nightmare show at Dave's this evening and I'm hoping to get a little recording done on my record as well the some mixing on the Sparky's Nightmare and some recording on the Honeyrider record done too. Whew!

02/25/2003 - OK, it's 2am and I'm still at work as we wait for the phone to ring. So, I thought I'd fire of a quick entry. Honeyrider practice on Sunday went really well. We started to work on some new recordings and began learning two more of the old songs. Things are sounding really good and we hope to play a show in the not-to-distant future. We got the call, and like Doug, I'm outtttttttttttttta heeeeeeeeeeere!

02/23/2003 - Hey there! Last night's show at the Xchange was really fun. It was nice to see such an excellent turnout, it was the most people I've ever seen in that place. Everyone was really nice and the sound system in there sounded great. I opened up the show with a few acoustic tunes and then Chris, Jon and Martin joined me for the remainder of the set. A slight case of stage fright aside I think we did really well, considering we only had one practice. The grooves were tight and fun and everyone played great. We must do this again sometime. Next up after us was I Alive and then the Gita hit the sage about 12:30 with a fill-in drummer that sounded great. After a few tunes Billy from the Semis, and a few other people stumbled over to the ACL club to see a few tunes by Helium Bomb. They sounded really good and the ACL looks primed to start hosting live music again. I bumped into tons of people that I haven't seen in ages, including original Welcome drummer Frank Hood and of course all the Helium Bomb boys. All in all it was a fun night. Honeyrider is getting together later today to do a little recording and practice so I better go grab something to eat before I pass out.

02/22/2003 - Had the first and only practice last night with Chris, Martin and Jon for the show this evening at the Xchange. We learned 6 songs, some of which I'll be recording for the new record with their help. Everything sounded great and it was a ton of no-stress fun. Really looking forward to the show this evening. I'll probably start off with a handful of solo acoustic tunes and then bring the guys up to rock our six newly assimilated tunes. If you haven't been out to the Xchange you have to check this place out. It's a very nice upscale club and the sound system is top notch. Also performing tonight will be I Alive, which I am told feature members of the Chucky Luv Band and the Gita.

02/19/2003 - Greetings all, I have some good news. I have a show booked at - Xchange - in St. Petersburg this Saturday night. The good news is that it will be the first performance with some of the fine folks that are helping me put my record together. I couldn't be more excited. We'll squeeze in one practice on Saturday (I hope) and hit the stage running. We'll probably play an old favorite or two, a few new tunes and a couple of covers just for fun. The show starts about 10 PM and we are the first act. I'd like to thank Tony Dolan, Jared and the Gita for calling me and giving me the opportunity. Thanks guys.

02/18/2003 - Happy Tuesday. Got Sparky's Nightmare practice this evening and then hopefully on Thursday I'll be in the studio to begin work on a few tunes with Chris and Jon helping with some of the production. Should be a good time and I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully I can pull a bunch of friends in to help out with the recording!

02/16/2003 - Last night's show at Dave's was fun as always. We had three really good sets and I finally made it official... I am a hack blues player with two riffs in my bag of tricks. Still, we had fun and I especially appreciated all the guys from work that made it out for a little while. I posted some pictures from the show on the Photos page. Gots me Honeyrider practice in a little while today and that should be fun. Nothing special planned for the upcoming week, thank goodness.

02/15/2003 - Saturday morning, half awake... judging by the size of my headache I must have had a pretty good time last night. All the bands sounded really good. For the first time in a few months Honeyrider is getting together tomorrow afternoon to start working on new songs for the upcoming CD and brushing up on some old tunes we haven't played since our trip to New York. Well I have a busy day lined up so I better get outta heeeeere. Maybe I'll see some of you fine folks at Dave's tonight for the Sparky's Nightmare show. For those of you that don't make it out I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

02/14/2003 - Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovers out there. I'm taking my romantic self down to the Orpheum in Ybor tonight for what sounds like a fun show. Performing are the Cocktail Honeys, the Semis, The Beauvilles & Crippled Masters. Dress like Cupid and get in for free. I'll be paying obviously. Hopefully the air isin't still broken, at least it's not the middle of summertime. Woo-hoo. Looking forward to the Sparky's Nightmare show at Dave's tomorrow night. I might give one of the new guitars a test drive on stage.

02/12/2003 - Received a first mix of the new Sparky's Nightmare CD from Chris and it's really coming along great. We had practice last night in preparation for our show at Dave's on Saturday and everything sounded really great. Hope to see you all out at the show!

02/08/2003 - Just in from hanging with Chris while he's mixing the Sparky's Nightmare CD, he's doing a great job and I can't wait for everyone to hear the results of all his hard work and superlative ears. Also, while I was over at the shed with Chris we picked five of my tunes to start recording, I'll let you know when we get it all cranked up. Earlier in the day I stopped by a new guitar store in Tampa called Legends Music run by my old boss at Thoroughbred Music. It's on West Hillsborough, just east of the airport on the south side of the street in the same shopping plaza as a Sports Authority and AJ's Drum shop. He's got an amazing assortment of vintage and custom guitars. I can't wait to buy something.

02/07/2003 - The madness that is the buying of electric guitars by me must stop!! This week I received my first eBay guitar purchase in the mail. A 1995 silver-sparkle Ibanez Talman with a Bigsby tremolo. I know what you're saying "Ibanez!?!?!" Yeah, well this thing rocks! There I said it. Besides the Iceman this is the coolest thing they have made in ages, and of course, nobody bought one because they didn't have any points on them anywhere and it's hard to play metal or to shred with one. OK, I'm officially on a buying freeze. Hope to do some recording this weekend, I'll post something when I get something done!

02/01/2003 - I'm just in from the Orlando Guitar show and I made a purchase. I 1966 Fender Electric XII that has been stripped and lacquered a not-unattractive butterscotch color. I might just leave it as-is. The price was right and thankfully there was no song or dance involved. Looking forward to getting into the studio tomorrow! The Luna show last night at the Twilight was amazing, they were so good it was unreal. The played for about 90 minutes and they played every song that I wanted to hear and more. Awesome. The two opening acts, Tampa's own Beautiful Loser and New York's Calla were excellent as well.

01/27/2003 - Well I finally made a mix down of all the tunes that I recorded on Sunday and I'm listening to them now. 22 songs. Wow. I thought that I had about 12 ideas and suddenly I have twice that. Good times, good times. Hopefully I'll get some drums on tape for some of them this week!

01/25/2003 - Yeah, OK, it's about noon on Saturday and it's pretty chilly outside. Still, that hasn't stopped me from getting out and picking some grapefruit and squeezing some fresh juice and making some eggs for breakfast before I start recording today. It's so nice outside that I may just end up dragging a boombox outside and hitting record, but for now the slightly warmer house offers the cozy surroundings that I'm looking for. This week I hope to start some band recording of some new tunes and and a few oldies I've never recorded. Should be fun and I'll post song titles and info as things progress. As always if there are any old tunes you want me to record acoustically, I'm still doing that, so let me know! I'm very excited about the upcoming Luna show at the Twilight in Ybor next Friday night. I've seen them live a few times and they are absolutely wonderful. The first time I saw them was at Tampa's old Stone Lounge with Low and the second time was at the Rubb (now Twilight) with Tampa/New York transplants Pee Shy. That same night Aimee Mann is playing the Tampa Theater too, but I have to go with Luna.

01/23/2003 - Well it's about 11:30 and I'm just in from recording vocals for the new Sparky's Nightmare CD. Looks like we have only one more song to sing on and it will be time to mix the record. Chris is doing an awesome job on the production and I can't wait to hear how everything sounds when he's finished. OK, I'm off to bed!

01/20/2003 - Go Bucs! Woo-hoo! What a great weekend. Most of the Sparky's Nightmare crew watched the Rolling Stones concert live on HBO on Saturday night and the Bucs kicked some butt on Sunday. This week will have Sparky in the studio finishing up vocals and I'll be doing some recording of my own now that I finally have a dedicated monitor for my little studio setup at home. Should be a busy fun week. There are also a few open mics that I might crash this week too so I'll post it on the website if I know that I'm going.

01/16/2003 - Hey there! Just in from a fun jam session at Tony D's place, we stumbled through a few tunes, had some beers and a ton of laughs. Good times, good times... Martin brought his new groovy Danelectro bass amp and I thought it sounded really good. Good things do some in small packages. Note to self, start making red ass lamps.... you'll have to ask me about that if you see me. Also tonight Natty finished up her vocals on the upcoming Sparky's Nightmare record. Woo-hoo! As soon as the rest of us sing our backup vocals the record will be ready to mix!

01/15/2003 - Well last night Natty and I met with Chris at Secret Studios and recorded about half of the lead vocals for the new Sparky's Nightmare record. Natty really did a great job and we hope to finish up all of her vocals by the end of the week. Chris did a great job getting sounds and everything went really fast and efficient thanks to Natty's great vocals and Chris' skill on the desk. Besides recording this week it looks like I'm going to doing a little Jamming with Tony from the Gita on his recording project. Martin and I are going over there for beers some night soon. Should be fun. Hopefully I'll get some demo of some of my songs done this weekend and start the real recording process sometime next week. Should be fun and hopefully I can pull a bunch of friends in to help me record some of these songs.

01/10/2003 - What's happening everyone? Not much happening with me this week outside of Sparky's Nightmare practice last Tuesday. We ran through some old tunes to get them tight and then started working on some new songs that Sam and Martin have written. Everything is sounding great. Honeyrider has been getting accolades from around the globe lately, just check out the press! Brazil2000's top10 records of 2002! had this to say about Honeyrider: "American group of powerpop, one of the attractions of the International Pop Overthrow of 2002, in its third record.". Honeyrider at #5 is one slot higher than Pete Yorn! Wow. Also the University of Oregon's own 88.1 FM, KWVA has been playing both Honeyrider and St. Pete's own Barely Pink. Listen to them live on the web HERE!

Hopefully I am going to find some time this weekend to demo up a few of my new tunes, I have a ton of them that I need to nail down so I can start working on arrangements with a band. I've also been thinking about crashing some open mic shows somewhere in town but I have no idea where there are having them at the moment! Does anyone know? OK, well I hope that everyone has a great weekend. I'll catch up with everyone soon. If some of the demos come out good I'll post them on the site or my mp3.com page.

01/05/2003 - My goodness it's cold outside and I'm just in from hanging with the Honeyrider boys. Fun, fun, fun. Hope that everyone had a good weekend, I'm going to try kick back and enjoy the remainder of the weekend with a little football.

01/04/2003 - Greetings all from sunny, freezing, Florida. New Year's Eve was a blast, hanging out with friends, new and old. The night started off at Martin's house for a wonderful and cozy gathering, despite the torrential rain and thunder. Later, I ended up at Limey's moments before the ball dropped, grabbed a beer and rang in the new year while the Gita were rocking a tune and people we're making out in every direction! A little after midnight Brian from Barely Pink showed up, fresh from their 4 hour set at St. Pete's First Night celebration. We proceeded to to have a few beers and enjoy the hell out of ourselves for the rest of the evening. Honeyrider is getting together tomorrow to run through some new material and talk about our upcoming recording. Hopefully we can plan a local show or two before we get to engrossed in the new record.