...so please check it out. My new buddy from Chicago, Tony Kuzminski, SCREEN DOOR founder, fellow traveler and Federici fan. He was kind enough to post my thoughts on the passing of one of the finest musicians to ever ensconce himself behind an organ. And I am honored to be even a miniscule part of that unending chain.
And speaking of posts, please check out the equally engaging (and, sorry Tony, much better looking) blog WHAT'S WITH ALL THE FEATHER BOAS, by my good friend and still quite the knockout - above and below her neck - Siren Cristy.
By the way, I promise I will get around soon to actually posting parts of the new book from which this little blog derived its clever little name. And then the real fun will begin...
More to come,
Brian
Monday, April 21, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Get me a beer and get that man a bucket
TRACKING FOR THE NEW LISIK CD continued Jan. 13, when Craig and I descended upon the venerable Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, along with the ever able-bodied Clint Holley of Audio Spectrum Recording (and Hayshaker Jones - on the nights when he is wearing his good boots) behind the boards.
The session went quite well, although it's still kind of hard to tell much without bass and such. Plus my hands were frozen the whole time, which might have been because of the fact that the heat was turned off in the Beachland most of the session, but was probably because of the cold cans of PBR I was drinking the whole time. For the record (and for those stalwart show attendees who might actually recognize some of these titles) we did "Small Town Royal Family," "To California," "Change On Your Own," "A Mess," "Five Other Rooms," "Longest Day Of The Year," and "Yesterday Wasn't Real."
As a side note, while my performance was...oh, fair... Craig went for the jugular the whole time and this sucker is already rocking like hell! Due in large part, I'm sure, to the particularly inspiring atmosphere. About half way through the session we we're kindly asked to take a 1/2 hour beer break in the adjoining Beachland Tavern because someone was setting up a projector for some art show going on the following night. Being the polite young gentlemen we are -and after getting assurance from Clint that he wasn't going to charge us to watch him sit and drink - we agreed to do so. During said break, Craig and Clint talked about recording gear (best line - Craig: "Clint, you remind me of a guy I knew in LA who came from Mayfield - you ever heard of him?" Clint: "No, but there are a lot of people in Cleveland ....") and I talked about The Small Faces, The Faces, and how I really wish I could have been a member of either of The Faces.
Then, while we were recording "Change," the Beachland's lovably "grumpy handy man" (Clint's term, incidentally), stood next to me pointing a flashlight at the ceiling watching a leak (Us: "Are we in your way?" Him: "No, just watch where you put your stuff. God-d***ed roof is leaking here."). Later, a buddy of Craig's who books at the Beachland, plays in a band called the Hot Rails, and looks and sounds just like Eddie Money came by and began a stirring conversation about how much indie rock blows these days (Me: "I just hope there is a happy medium between not being stupid and 'lets get drunk and naked.'" Him: "Oh, there is nothing happy or medium about us - we went straight for 'let's get drunk and naked.'") and the greatest band/album names never made (The Happy Mediums; The Single Entendre; Steve McQueen Latifah, etc....I'm stealing them all for us).
Oh, and I (quite accidentally) got a great "girl's room reverb" guitar tone on "Small Town Royal Family." We had the amp run into the women's' pisser and for some reason the stalls really made it sound great on that one. And yeah, I peed in there too. Pretty cool.
In the end, I just wish Eddie Tomecko had been on hand with a video camera while I was standing bundled in a leather jacket playing even worse than usual with my frozen hands, Clint was standing in the most amazing pile of cords and wires you could ever imagine - wearing a trucker hat, Craig was sitting in the middle of the huge empty Beachland floor in one of his "Cypress Craig" get ups, and the handyman was looking at the ceiling leak.....as we tore into "A Mess." It would have made the greatest video ever. Well, next to the one from Wizzard that Craig showed me on Youtube later when we got back to Clint's studio to dump the tracks and get a big contact buzz from our engineer's unique vegetarian diet.
The session went quite well, although it's still kind of hard to tell much without bass and such. Plus my hands were frozen the whole time, which might have been because of the fact that the heat was turned off in the Beachland most of the session, but was probably because of the cold cans of PBR I was drinking the whole time. For the record (and for those stalwart show attendees who might actually recognize some of these titles) we did "Small Town Royal Family," "To California," "Change On Your Own," "A Mess," "Five Other Rooms," "Longest Day Of The Year," and "Yesterday Wasn't Real."
As a side note, while my performance was...oh, fair... Craig went for the jugular the whole time and this sucker is already rocking like hell! Due in large part, I'm sure, to the particularly inspiring atmosphere. About half way through the session we we're kindly asked to take a 1/2 hour beer break in the adjoining Beachland Tavern because someone was setting up a projector for some art show going on the following night. Being the polite young gentlemen we are -and after getting assurance from Clint that he wasn't going to charge us to watch him sit and drink - we agreed to do so. During said break, Craig and Clint talked about recording gear (best line - Craig: "Clint, you remind me of a guy I knew in LA who came from Mayfield - you ever heard of him?" Clint: "No, but there are a lot of people in Cleveland ....") and I talked about The Small Faces, The Faces, and how I really wish I could have been a member of either of The Faces.
Then, while we were recording "Change," the Beachland's lovably "grumpy handy man" (Clint's term, incidentally), stood next to me pointing a flashlight at the ceiling watching a leak (Us: "Are we in your way?" Him: "No, just watch where you put your stuff. God-d***ed roof is leaking here."). Later, a buddy of Craig's who books at the Beachland, plays in a band called the Hot Rails, and looks and sounds just like Eddie Money came by and began a stirring conversation about how much indie rock blows these days (Me: "I just hope there is a happy medium between not being stupid and 'lets get drunk and naked.'" Him: "Oh, there is nothing happy or medium about us - we went straight for 'let's get drunk and naked.'") and the greatest band/album names never made (The Happy Mediums; The Single Entendre; Steve McQueen Latifah, etc....I'm stealing them all for us).
Oh, and I (quite accidentally) got a great "girl's room reverb" guitar tone on "Small Town Royal Family." We had the amp run into the women's' pisser and for some reason the stalls really made it sound great on that one. And yeah, I peed in there too. Pretty cool.
In the end, I just wish Eddie Tomecko had been on hand with a video camera while I was standing bundled in a leather jacket playing even worse than usual with my frozen hands, Clint was standing in the most amazing pile of cords and wires you could ever imagine - wearing a trucker hat, Craig was sitting in the middle of the huge empty Beachland floor in one of his "Cypress Craig" get ups, and the handyman was looking at the ceiling leak.....as we tore into "A Mess." It would have made the greatest video ever. Well, next to the one from Wizzard that Craig showed me on Youtube later when we got back to Clint's studio to dump the tracks and get a big contact buzz from our engineer's unique vegetarian diet.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
It's like a trip to Cincinnati....
Brian Lisik (Akron, Ohio)
Pop/Rock
Pop/Rock
With a wonderful grasp of classic Pop/Rock, Ohio songwriter Brian Lisik makes music that is not "of" any specific era. With a tinge of twang, Lisik's songs ring with a melodic effortlessness that great songwriters like Paul Westerberg and Jeff Tweedy ooze on a regular basis. Happiness is Boring, co-produced by former GBV member Todd Tobias, came out last year; look for a DVD featuring footage from the tour behind that album in the near future.
Dig It: Paul Westerberg, Soul Asylum, Jesse Malin. (MB) - Cincinnati City Beat (9/26/07)
THE MIDPOINT MUSIC FESTIVAL IN CINCINNATI Sept. 28 was a real blast. After getting stuck in a traffic jam in Columbus for no apparent reason, and getting my unit stared at by some weird guy at a gas station bathroom with one toilet and a defective door (I think he was a Congressman, but I'm not sure..), we cruised into the Queen City to the sounds of The Small Faces First Step and Tommy Stinson's Village Gorilla Head as Craig finally woke up and uttered two of his only four comments on the trip: "Do you still have that magazine back there, Drez?" and "Jesus Christ Brian, stay in your lane!" (his other two comments were: "my tuner's not working" and "Gimme those keys, I'll load this shit up.."). The incredible Cincinnati Kathy came by - dressed to the nines I might add - and finally got to see the whole band, we met a really cool bunch of guys in a band from Chicago, I thought the Dirty Royals kicked English ass, and we're so sorry that we couldn't make it to Katie and Hilary's after party. Maybe next time. We're really sorry that we also missed meeting up with the Jack Fords for Skyline Chili 'cause we all got scared looking for the place amongst all the very nice, historic, boarded up dry cleaners, cash advance joints, and Chinese restaurants between 7th Avenue and Liberty (I know Brent, we're all puss-aes!!!). As Drez so poetically put it, "I'm not saying anything, but there are a lot of El Dorados down here" - which ranked as the second-best quote of the trip next to Steve's "I only ever owned one Beach Boys record, Endless Summer. Side one only lasts 10 minutes; I somehow expected it to be longer..." Thanks very much to Peter Kulik for his wonderful stage managering at Buddakhan and C.A. McConnell from Cincinnati City Beat for taking my CD at Kaldi's, where some guy named Levi was playing with even cooler hair than me.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Play a song
"You say you got a revolutionary song in your head
Don't worry yourself son, all the revolutionaries are dead"
- Play A Song For Mother c. 2005 B. Lisik (from the CD Happiness Is Boring - Cherokee Queen Records)
For the record. And for Ex Post Facto's lawyers. I can't believe it...Pennsylvania again. This, after the whole Giants of Science thing. Or who knows, maybe they are big fans. Will the real Brian Lisik please stand up?...
Don't worry yourself son, all the revolutionaries are dead"
- Play A Song For Mother c. 2005 B. Lisik (from the CD Happiness Is Boring - Cherokee Queen Records)
For the record. And for Ex Post Facto's lawyers. I can't believe it...Pennsylvania again. This, after the whole Giants of Science thing. Or who knows, maybe they are big fans. Will the real Brian Lisik please stand up?...
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Look Ma, I'm blogging!...
Okay, so here's the deal. I have no idea where this blog is starting, where it will end, what it's going to be about (exactly), how I'm going to get anybody to read it (which, considering the subject matter that some of the posts could explore, might ultimately be a good thing), or why I'm even doing this.
But I do know that I am very anal retentive when it comes to grammar and spell checking, so English teachers the world over should love me right off the bat.
For those not familiar with me - I'm very famous. I grew up (relatively speaking) and still live in and around Akron, Ohio - which I love so very much that I try and leave as much as humanly possible. I write highly personal diary-type emails to friends (and some folks who don't even know me) to purge myself of my inner demons, (I use a lot of parentheses), I play in a band that gets played a lot on local radio, I have a Website, and my hair is really cool and Rod-Stewart-ish looking. So basically, I'm every white kid on MTV after 1 a.m....I think. Is there still such a thing as MTV?
Only thing is, I'm in my 30s with two kids of my own who think I'm either really cool or should make a trip forthwith to the local Salvation Army and unload the old leather jacket, Hot Topic skinny pants and Chuck Taylors - cause even though I lost 20 pounds on tour the last six months, I'm still dad and those Cheap Hotel Pants (as Mr. Waress called them...you know, "no ballroom") are just embarassing....embaraassing...embare...I don't know how to spell that, so screw it.
By the way, you'll soon meet Mr. Waress, along with a host of other very interesting and bizarre characters (to me anyway) including the guys in the band - Steve Overend Outs, Drez, and Craig; a bunch of really cool people in other bands like Brent Scurvy and the mighty Bobby (after too much Skyline Chili) Fartina; Clock Eyes; The Carolina Tit Pimp; Elvis's-Drummers-Great-Nephew; Anus Young; Kris Jackofferson; Van Boreison; Ric Ocasuck; Rod Stupid and Ronnie Lame; and many many more. So hope you stick around. It's the inside joke with no punch line babies, so just hang on and enjoy it - as a girl I once knew used to say. Not really, I just made that up.
Right now though, I have to run - I'm moderating a political debate between four local school board candidates on a cable TV show. See, I told you non-believing sons-of-bitches that I was famous!
Cheers,
Lisik
P.S. BTW (see, cool Internet speak already..) I did ask people their opinions of whether or not I should do this blog. Asked them in my equally really cool band newsletter called Excess Baggage. More on that later too, promise. Anyway, a whole bunch of people (like, three I think) wrote right back, "yes, yes, do a blog!" So if this all ends up sucking real bad, or simply sucking the life out of me, I'll give you all their emails so you can yell at them. In the meantime, I just hope reading this helps keep all you kids off the street....and me to...'cause my wife hates that shit.
But I do know that I am very anal retentive when it comes to grammar and spell checking, so English teachers the world over should love me right off the bat.
For those not familiar with me - I'm very famous. I grew up (relatively speaking) and still live in and around Akron, Ohio - which I love so very much that I try and leave as much as humanly possible. I write highly personal diary-type emails to friends (and some folks who don't even know me) to purge myself of my inner demons, (I use a lot of parentheses), I play in a band that gets played a lot on local radio, I have a Website, and my hair is really cool and Rod-Stewart-ish looking. So basically, I'm every white kid on MTV after 1 a.m....I think. Is there still such a thing as MTV?
Only thing is, I'm in my 30s with two kids of my own who think I'm either really cool or should make a trip forthwith to the local Salvation Army and unload the old leather jacket, Hot Topic skinny pants and Chuck Taylors - cause even though I lost 20 pounds on tour the last six months, I'm still dad and those Cheap Hotel Pants (as Mr. Waress called them...you know, "no ballroom") are just embarassing....embaraassing...embare...I don't know how to spell that, so screw it.
By the way, you'll soon meet Mr. Waress, along with a host of other very interesting and bizarre characters (to me anyway) including the guys in the band - Steve Overend Outs, Drez, and Craig; a bunch of really cool people in other bands like Brent Scurvy and the mighty Bobby (after too much Skyline Chili) Fartina; Clock Eyes; The Carolina Tit Pimp; Elvis's-Drummers-Great-Nephew; Anus Young; Kris Jackofferson; Van Boreison; Ric Ocasuck; Rod Stupid and Ronnie Lame; and many many more. So hope you stick around. It's the inside joke with no punch line babies, so just hang on and enjoy it - as a girl I once knew used to say. Not really, I just made that up.
Right now though, I have to run - I'm moderating a political debate between four local school board candidates on a cable TV show. See, I told you non-believing sons-of-bitches that I was famous!
Cheers,
Lisik
P.S. BTW (see, cool Internet speak already..) I did ask people their opinions of whether or not I should do this blog. Asked them in my equally really cool band newsletter called Excess Baggage. More on that later too, promise. Anyway, a whole bunch of people (like, three I think) wrote right back, "yes, yes, do a blog!" So if this all ends up sucking real bad, or simply sucking the life out of me, I'll give you all their emails so you can yell at them. In the meantime, I just hope reading this helps keep all you kids off the street....and me to...'cause my wife hates that shit.
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