Things I Learned On My Summer Vacation

I recently spent a couple of weeks cruising around the good old US of A. I didn't want to bore you or myself with a full recap, but here a few morsels of observation from my travels, for what it's worth.

Las Vegas is a silly, silly place. No matter how many times you've seen it on TV, in films, on the internet, the reality is they've got a ruddy great pyramid shining a light into space so bright you can see it 40 miles away.

In Minneapolis I went to see Banner Pilot at the legendary Triple Rock Social Club. The first of 4 bands came on at 9:30; Minneapolis rockers do it late!

Wisconsin's billboards are divided evenly between pro-life sentiment and cheese curds.

In Chicago I checked into an unplanned bed and breakfast and my host recognised the tour my Primus t-shirt was from. Then I ate 3 different types of ribs. That's the kind of town Chicago is.

Toledo is a bit of a ghost town, with much of the industry gone; a "mini-Detroit" as my host put it. However its Old West End has some super-friendly locals and bars serving, and in some cases brewing, great beer.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland will easily entertain you for 4 hours.

In Buffalo there is a very distinct racial segregation, weird and sad to see in this day and age. I had good times at a free show at the harbour though, where music and booze united everyone. I've not been to Baltimore but Buffalo felt like The Wire.

I saw Foxy Shazam playing a small show in Asbury Park, New Jersey. If you get chance to see them, do it: you will thank me. Unfortunately Asbury Park itself was less Boss and more Jersey Shore; by which I mean a sub-par British seaside town full of idiots.

In New York I went to Williamsburg Music Hall in Brooklyn to see the great things being done at Willie Mae Rock Camp, teaching girls to rock. Then I hung out in Manhattan, where a passing Deadhead clocked my Zappa t-shirt and gig wristband and became convinced I was a member of Roger Waters' band (in town for his 'The Wall' shows).

Los Angeles is a huge, sprawling metropolis, comprised almost entirely of motorways, which themselves are comprised entirely of traffic jams.

A final thought: living in England I have heard countless people criticise American beer. I am here to confirm that those people are ignorant and wrong - and have probably never ventured further than a Bud Light; the equivalent of judging the UK on Carling or Australia on Fosters. In almost 3 weeks I had plenty of beers and never a bad one. There's a great microbrewery scene going down in the US right now.

A post about some gigs that happened recently

On July 1st we played a gig in New Cross, South London courtesy of Chamber Club. Due to some technical hitches it was something of a shambles, but a lot of fun and we were probably just more punk than usual.

On July 8th I saw banjo hero, and comedy legend Steve Martin, playing with bluegrass band the Steep Canyon Rangers. They were phenomenal and if you get chance I recommend you get down: great tunes, great musicians, great sound, hilarious banter.

If I were to list my top bands of all time the top 3 would probably be Queen, Guns N Roses, and Primus. Freddie's sadly long gone, Axl and Slash have yet to reconcile their differences, and Primus haven't played in the UK for 14 years. Until this month. My associates and I rocked up to Brixton Academy like giddy schoolgirls and had an awesome 2 hours. Highlights for me included Tommy The Cat, Over The Electric Grapevine, and Is It Luck?

About 6 or 7 years ago I saw one of the greatest gigs I've ever seen: They Might Be Giants at Manchester Academy (and was especially pleased to play on the same stage myself a little while later playing guitar with Swound!, supporting The Crimea). So when I heard they were playing just down the road from me in Camden I jumped at the chance to see them again, and was not disappointed. As my companion said in delight halfway through the show "this band has charisma!". Some of my highlights were Alphabet of Nations, Birdhouse In Your Soul (is there really anything more joyous than a room full of people united by a blue canary in the outlet by their light switches?) and, after spending the whole gig saying "I hope they do Fingertips", out it came for an awesome finale. MystEEEEEEEEErious whisper!

Finally Great Men rounded it off with a show at the legendary Dublin Castle in Camden. I recommend the Deuchars (trivia: a million years ago I was barman at a pub called the White Hart in Quorn; Deuchars was one of our best beers). By the way is everyone else digging R-Man's rock stance as much as I am?

Chocolate Trousers

We started writing a new song last week. It's so massive it may not fit in conventional venues. The good news is that U2 can retire now.

Then this weekend was jam-packed full of awesome. We cruised down on Friday night to check out Ulterior's single launch at Electrowerkz in Islington. There was lots of leather, beer and a hilariously decrepit pool table (true to form, R-man hustled and I was terrible).

After another satisfying fry-up at Delichio's, R-Man headed off for the train with Benn's Brother while H-Town and I went to check out the Zappa happenings (or Zappanings, if you won't) at the Roundhouse. Although we didn't actually have tickets for any of the events, it was awesome just hanging out in the venue - non-stop Frank on the speakers, blown-up album covers everywhere, and some fun interactive stuff to do. Here's me with one of my favourites (the Läther album would have been rock's first quadruple album if the record company had had the udders to release it back in the 70s).

Then we caught Stewart Lee doing some new material for his next TV show. If you know Stewart Lee then you know I can't do justice to repeating any lines here. If you don't know him then you should check him out, an accomplished technical comedian - rivalling classic Harry Hill but with anger instead of silliness.

What's next for Great Men? Other than writing this new material, getting the album mixed and maybe sneaking out a cheeky live EP, we're off for a pint. See you at the Crown in 15.

PS - I apologise to all the regular readers who were looking forward to another photo of us eating in a London cafe.

PPS - Regan shared his Snickers with me in the car but I dropped a bit and it melted on my trousers.

PPPS - That wasn't a euphemism.

The Lords of Rocktober: The Two Rockers

After getting up to play Parking Meter Chess with the brave soldiers of the Camden Traffic Warden Militia, R-Man and my good friend Steve popped off to Delichio's (my current favourite cafe in That London) to collect some bacon sandwiches whilst I holed up in The Fabulous H-Town's kitchen with my headphones on, overhauling the beats from the night before and adding Spectators to the repertoire.

We then piled into the car and got stuck into the central London traffic jam that stood between us and the Shazam Live Lounge. Steve livened up the journey by dropping the [largely fictional] bombshell that I was a massive Whoopi Goldberg fan, then commando rolling out of the car door clutching his compass, muttering something about "running errands for the Lockpicker", never to be seen again. Speaking of Whoopi, if we were to have a "Great Women" t-shirt, who would replace Springsteen and Stallone on the artwork?

Arriving at Shazam an hour and a half late, the Live Lounge was ready for our session and we laid down Lady Cakes, Messerschmitt and Spectators At An Execution in quick succession, the latter two making their Great Men recording debuts. The sound on playback was immense, so get ready for the final mix! Thanks so much to Hazel and Dan at Shazam for making it happen, running a slick operation, and forgiving our tardiness. Check out their Youtube page for ours and all their other sessions as they are edited.

Having had an awesome time recording our session, we followed it up in the sort of rock and roll fashion that only Great Men can: we went to the Science Museum! Regan got giddy over steam engines whilst I put my hands inside some astronaut's gloves. Spaceships and machines on display for free: you really can't complain.

After a quarter roast chicken and chips in a Hammersmith cafe, and a pint in The Hop Poles (getting homesick for Beeston and its fine pubs) with my rock brethren Robin and Edd, we put A.R.E. Weapons on the stereo and headed north for Nottingham...

Cooking with Great Men : Risotto Pizza

As regular readers will know, Great Men have a close relationship with Ulterior, particularly brothers Benn and Paul. While Benn is busy working on our album down in That London, Benn's Brother is part of the Beeston Strike Team - we're kind of like the Algonquin Round Table. One of our staples is the Awesome Night, which generally involves awesome food, awesome beers, awesome company, awesome music and awesome videos.

For some time now, Benn's Brother has been threatening to combine some of his favourite foods: pizza and risotto. This week, I challenged him to make it happen at an Awesome Night.

Ingredients

2 onions

3 cloves of garlic

1 chilli

3 sprigs of rosemary

2 handfuls of arborio rice

1 generous glug of white wine

Olive oil

1 litre of vegetable stock

2 deep pan margherita pizzas

Parmesan

Rocket

Salt

Black pepper

Van Halen - Van Halen

Frank Zappa - Zappa in New York

A young Tom Hanks

Beers

At this point you're probably thinking "Are these the most rock and roll guys, like, ever?".

Method

1. Put Van Halen on the stereo.
2. Chop your onion, garlic, chilli and rosemary up and get it sweating in the olive oil in a frying pan.
3. Get the pizzas cooking in the oven.
4. Add salt, pepper and rice to the pan.
5. Once the rice is starting to go translucent at the edges, add a generous glug of wine.
6. By now Van Halen has probably finished, so put on Zappa in New York. Pay particular attention to The Black Page drum solo.
7. Once the wine is being taken in by the rice, start adding the stock. Continue to add the stock gradually as it is absorbed.
8. When the pizzas are a couple of minutes away from completion, take them out and depress the cheese covered centre by about a centimetre, leaving the deep pan ridge around the outside. This is what we call Gastronomic Architecture.
9. When the stock is all absorbed and your risotto is nice and gloopy, ladel it gratuitously into the pizza reservoir you've created.
10. Grate a generous layer of parmesan on top and season with black pepper.
11. Return to the oven until the parmesan is crisped.
12. Plate it up and put a good handful of rocket on top of each.
13. Serve with a can of beer and a DVD of Joe Versus The Volcano.

Warning: This may kill you.

If you try out our Awesome Recipe, please let us know how you got on. Have you got any other cool ideas for recipes? Variations on a theme include Risotto Calzone and Jambalaya Pizza.

Heifer cow is better than none

Business first: this Thursday, May 20th, Great Men are making our second appearance in Nottingham this year, headlining at the Golden Fleece with another duo called The Cupid Stunt, organised by the wonderful Will of I'm Not From London. You should totally come down for the following 3 reasons:

1) Music
2) Beer
3) It's free, and that includes as many high fives as you can eat

GUITAR GIMP PARAGRAPH 1: Although having previously suggested I might play my Black Lodge Telecaster on Thursday, I busted out my red Les Paul at practice and enjoyed it a lot, so who knows what could happen? And who cares? If you care, please write me a letter, or "electronic-mail" as the kidz say these days.

Yesterday I watched football on the television. Mr Kim made me do it, he promised beer and a dog. He wasn't lying. I'd still rather watch the Marx brothers, which I duly did. I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

GUITAR GIMP PARAGRAPH 2: I took receipt of 2 guitars from eBay this week. One is shrouded in security as R-Man and I turn it into the "Great Men Bennecaster" for Mental Benn. The other is a white Les Paul with black binding and I'll share it with y'all as soon as I've cleaned it up and put in some new chrome pickups.

R-Man is in Paris at the moment so in lieu of rock and roll I occupied myself in the only way I know how: driving to Manchester and back. I was kept company by the following albums all of which I recommend:

Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers
Slint - Spiderland
XTC - Drums and Wires
Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

Oh by the way if you like films and/or Brian Blessed (you've got 2 eyes and a soul haven't you?) then you should have a look at the award winning short Mr Bojagi, written by an old friend of mine. Here it is!

We're Great Men and we think like this

One of the few drawbacks of being in an instrumental band is that we can't expose you, our adoring public, to the many things we have to say - not just about ourselves, but about philosophy, science, current events, film and which is the best pub to go to in Beeston on any particular evening.

Hence welcome to our new blog, which hopefully will be a forum for us to engage with you on the hot topics as well as updating you on the continuing adventures of Great Men.

If you've stumbled across this blog and don't know us, we're a 2-man band from Nottingham, and we sound like this.

Don't be a stranger!