The Wirechoir Guitars Sing Again

I've mentioned before the guitar ensemble Wirechoir, fronted by Terry Carter. Got a chance this weekend to catch them again, this time not in a boomy church, but in a fine performance space in San Pedro. Alvas Showroom is attached to a music/ballet store. The showroom is a former ballet studio (and still hosts ballet performances). Lots of care went into the acoustics and sound reinforcement for this facility, so Wirechoir sounded great!

This concert featured long time LA guitarist Ron Escheté joining the ensemble. And, special for me, Willis Clow performed as part of Wirechoir during the second set.


I can't begin to describe how tight and full this group sounded. A very exciting performance, all the participants are very good, very professional on their instruments. I was especially impressed by their version of "I Surrender", which came across sounding like a Les Paul arrangement, with the five guitars simulating Les Paul's famous multitracking. Click the link to hear an MP3 of the performance (Willis takes the first solo).

Wirechoir is headed to the studio to record a formal CD (and DVD). I'll post more when the recording is available.

High Quality Pot

Well, certainly, Good Grass...

Got an email from Harold Carr early Sunday morning about a gig that afternoon at Gracies... I thought at first it was jazz, since the gig was with Mark Cheney on drums and Greg Floor. But which Greg Floor? And since Harold swings both ways, so to speak, (he had a long time bass slot with the Cowdaddies), I had to think twice, particularly when I saw Mark Anger on the bill. So, some kinda folky, bluegrass stuff with a little Grateful Dead thrown in? Yep...


These guys have this fun music thing going, lots of familiar material... all the usual Sabre Club suspects will concur. Now we just have to get everyone down there next Sunday (2-5 pm) and hope things continue on a regular basis. Get your asses in gear... Good food, good drink, dubious service... you can't have it all... but mostly, fun music. Good Grass...

The Way Governments Work

Saw this movie on a more obscure sat/cable movie channel last night. The title rang a bell, I'd read something about the movie a year or so ago, so I gave it a watch. Hilarious! Double, tripled up with laughter. And scared a bit... while this movie is a satire about government agencies and how they work, I'm afraid there's much truth revealed in this movie.

Essentially we have a Brit govt. agency, very disfunctional, connecting with a US govt. agency, equally disfunctional. The result? War on some other nation (Iraq). All the power plays, networking, leaking, politic speak one can imagine, and all leading the participants straight to hell.

Powerful acting performances, particularly Peter Capaldi, as an abusive Secretary of some Brit agency, haranging his underlings on a constant basis. And James Gandolfini as the US General doing essentially the same thing.

Mostly this movie has constant verbal tirades, all of which make Vince Vaughn in Dilemma seem like a timid whimp... (although I loved Vince's "monologs" in that movie). In the Loop also easily surpasses the movie record for the utterances of the word "fuck". Easily...

Anyway, if it comes up on any of your movie channels, check it out... or find it on NetFlix. Well worth it. I'm sure this is exactly how we got into the invasion of Iraq.

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"What Happens When Liberals Get Guns?"