Trey - Getting it together?

Check it - Trey Anastasio sounds like he's getting his shit together after being arrested with a grip of pharmecuticals and heroin on his person. ooops. I would beat my way into a Phish show at Red Rocks with a tire iron if I had to at this point. Dudes bring the *ROCK*!

NPR this morning, and more MOTORHEAD!

Anyone else listen to NPR this morning and get more confused, rather than more informed? Seriously - I think it was intern day or something. Half the stories made no sense, and the other were about "dire" issues, like the rise in the rates of "Shingles" amongst older Americans. Brutal.

But back to the ROCK! Check this out:

You want to know how hard these guys rock? Just check out Lemmy's teeth - yeah, the ones that ARE MISSING! This guy is the real deal. I mean he is downright UGLY. That's some real ROCK for you. If these guys aren't the inspiration for Spinal Tap, I don't know who is.

But what about this centuary? Who's carrying the ROCK flame today? Hmmmm - well, the younger guys of Wolfmother aren't bad, but if you see them play, you'll note the kid has all his pearly whites perfectly in place. Dude had braces as a kid. Now there is nothing wrong with a fine set of chops, but I refer you back to the footage above. Motorhead had FOUL TEETH, and this contributed to their hard edge. Look at Zeppelin back in the day. With the exception of the footage from the concert at Royal Albert Hall where Jimmy Page is wearing a fancy CARDIGAN SWEATER that his mom gave him, (c'mon - you're a rocker - no cardigans on stage pal), they tended to look the part of modern (well, low-tech 70's anyway) Saxson warriors. This is a plus when you're singing 'songs of the ancient times' and such - lends some credibility. The sweater aside, the version of Dazed and Confused at the link above pretty much *owns* as far as ROCKIN' goes. (side note - I think in the interviews that are included with the live concert footage Page says that his Mother found out that Led Zeppelin was set to play the Royal Albert Hall, so she went out and got a nice sweater for him to wear so he would look nice on stage. I don't think she had ever heard one of his albums previous to this).

But check it - you want Metal made in 2008? you want METAL? Check out "The Sword"! (the s-Word?) With songs like "How heavy this Axe", and "Iron Swan", these dudes know how to ROCK! In fact, they rock so hard, they are supporting Metallica on the upcomming summer tour. How sweet is that? Man - Metallica kind of took a shit in my opinion about 10 years ago, but then they were kings when I was in High School. What's cool/weird is that I still see kids rocking the same Metallica T-Shirts that dude's like Joe Bryseth were rocking back in '89-'90. One upshot to the shameless never-ending marketing scheme is that the band is re-releasing its older material on vinyl. This is the stuff that was still mastered in Analog on big-assed AMPEX equipment and reels of tape. At the time, the albums probably released on both vinyl (limited quantaties) and cassette, or maybe just cassette. I only am in the mood for Metal infrequently these days, but you better belive I'll be grabbing the remastered "Master of Puppetts" when it comes out next month here. That album HOWLS, and I bet the vinyl pressing will bring out some of the thunder!

The SCORPS, Errr, I mean MOTORHEAD!

Bear with me here - I have some ground to cover. Ok - it started with this picture taken at an outdoor "consession" stand in Bejing... Note the Scorpion kabobs. Mmm - yummy.

So I decided to check out what my favorite Scorpions, namely THE SCORPS, were up to. In checking out the "history" section of their website, I ran across this picture of the Deutsche HEAVY ROCKERS from a tour they did in Japan, 1974. I figure the look they were after was a Rokcin' German interpretation of cutting edge hard-rock fashion, AND the Beatles Abby Road cover art - Like old meets new or something. Or maybe just, "Vie are zo cool, ve rock ze platform schue in Japan, Mensch!"

In looking at this craziness, I realized that I had NOT actually been wondering about the Scorps, but rather about the band Motorhead, and their ferocious guitar whiz from the album "Orgasmatron", Wurzel (pretend there is an umlaut over the U). So I jumped over to the history section of their page.

I quote the following from the site,

"1982: The guys begin the year by recording Iron Fist , which they produce themselves. The record sells well and they return to their natural habitat - the road. There is trouble in paradise, however, and Fast Eddie leaves the band during their second U.S. tour, not long after Lemmy records the Tammy Wynette song, "Stand By Your Man" with Wendy 0. Williams. To replace him, Motorhead enlists Brian "Robbo" Robertson from Thin Lizzy. They conquer Japan and re-conquer Europe.

Serious ROCK going on there. The rest of the page reads the same. I was *pumped* after getting through the sordid tales. This picture was the only drawback.

All I have to say is that his hair is either suffering a serious case of 80s-itius (do I wanna be a hard rocker, or do I wanna be in Van halen?), or cut back on the blow, dude.

Which brings me to the 'Surprise happy Ending'. I googled "Wurzel" to try and find a picture of the fool, and the following clip from YouTube came up of the band, "The Wurzel's", which was previously (and thankfully) unknown to me. They describe themselves as a "British Scrumpy and Western band". This is a genre of music that I hope died in its infancy. I warn you, the following footage is both vulgar AND disturbing. Not only for the confusing mix of Brit and American accents, but for the Lego-land setting of this obviously demented knock-off of the oft quoted, but deeply maligned German "Rock-programme", Hit Parade! That, and the song completely blows. Seriously, I showed that to Lance and the dude took a staggering swing at me. I think he'd been boozin' on the mickey's wide-mouths for a while though.

Update, 2:58pm: After dealing with my car loan company, I was in the mood a bit of the old ultra-violence.

Springtime in the Rockies, pt. 2.

The follwoing photo's are in reverse order from last weekend to today. Here I am last Saturday setting posts for the fence around the freshly tilled garden.

Here's the garden getting some sunshine.

Me & Biss checking out his sweet new raft trailer. It's the back end of an old International Harvester - a classic. You'll note the extra styley ballcaps as well. Is that CAMMO?!

Friday Night (5/23)- It had Snowed all day.

Friends Dan & Lindy rockin' it with Erica last evening before dinner. Dan is playing a Tesla song with vengence on the classical guitar.

Saturday morning!! Aye!~ it's spring, right?


...And we were waiting to plant until after LAST FROST!!!!

Weekend Expedition to Chaco Canyon

The creek near the house has been running all spring as the snow melts. By fall, it slows to a trickle.

We decided to head south to Chaco Canyon to visit the ancient Puebloan Ruins that are there. Also, we needed to get out camping as prep for some summer trips we have planned. We brought the bikes along to get us out of the car to better experience the environment of the canyon. Here's an action shot of Erica tearing up the pavement.



We camped on site at the park service campground. It's first come, first serve, and we were both impressed with the number of other campers. I would say that two thirds of the sites were full. Good to see so many people taking an interest in this remote but AMAZING cultural site. The canyon is SILENT, both day and night. You can speak in a normal voice, and be heard across to the other side. Any louder noises resonate and echo across the valley floor, adding to the mystique of Chaco.


It was warm during the day, but the canyon sits in the high desert of Northwestern New Mexico at close to 6000ft above sea level, and it got down into the 30's after the sun set. I had to warm the vino by the fire to bring out the full luster of the fine vint. (Trader Joe's house brand zin... look for it in Wine Spectator next month ;-). Isn't this a great shot of us by the fire?


We took a guided tour of Pueblo Bonito to get a few more details on the site. It was an hour well spent. I wish we had done it last time we were there in 2001. The park service has done a nice job of balancing access to the site with preservation efforts. As far as national parks go, this one is fantastic, and not done "Disney World" style, like some of them are.









Checking out some petroglyphs

Looking Southwest out of the canyon.

Pueblo Bonito from the rim of the canyon.

El Gato Y Lance.

Check it - Found this shot of my good buddy "El Gato" from a couple of summers ago. I showed this to Lance and he was like, "Dude, nice frickin' chops dude!".

Shocking Proof! BIGFOOT IS REAL

See this clip. Amazing!

Tennis, El Gato style.

Check out Sampras and Macenroe warming up on a private grass court in Boulder. Note the matching Addidas sandals, and "Energy Drinks". The wood raquet I am holding is truly a weapon to be feared.





See this fierce action shot of Mr. Aggasis having just been BURNANATED by the awesome power of the wood raquet. HA HA HAHA!







Here's the Sunday afternoon lesiure club. (missing family de Tree)

Springtime in the Rockies.

Check it out!!! THE SNOW IS GONE!

Compare the photo to the right to the one here.

(Cilck on any of these to see a larger version).





Time to get out in the garage and get it cleaned up. What have we here?! Look a the Husquavarna in all its MAJESTY!






Here is a true treasure I found up in Alaska. BEHOLD, THE GOLDEN CARIBOU!! You may note its fine velveteen texture and nobel portrayal of the mystical "King of the Caribou".






Check out the gnarly plates from the AK that are prominantly displayed on the wall near the golden caribou. This is another kickasss feature of the garage.






On Sunday, we broke out the canoe for a quick trip over to the resevior. Looks pretty fine up on the Jeep, doesn't it?








Here's Erica out on the lake. The wind kicked up some, and the water is low, so it was more murky than usual. Pleanty of snow up on the hills just above us.






Yours truly, rockin' it.

Trog Dor!, pt. deux

After hearing Uncle Schmilty go on-and-on about this damn dragon, I decided to see just how big the Trog Dor thing was, so I turned to the handy-dandy Internet for some answers. Turns out - it's cult (see below).

Remember those fires last year in So. Cal? Guess we now know how they started.





The Bush Administrations new plan to qwell the insurgency in Iraq.







And this guy, who just went to damn far. That said, this van is a shoe-in for Uncle Schmilty's seal of approval.

No love for the Tull.

A little known fact is that this blog, while also jiving with the sweet location of my house, is named after a lesser known Jethro Tull album. I know, I know... Tull is mostly played now-a-days by dudes like Lance while they are out smoking low grade weed and working on the never ending El camino restoration project in the garage. But click on the picture to the right and check out the groovy cover art. It is hard to make out, so you'll just have to stop by and check out the album.

Here's a video of the title track being performed live by the Tull at Golders Green Hippodrome 2-7-1977 .

Having seen that, you likely have no more questions about calling this blog "Songs from the Wood". It obviously rocks (I believe Lance's exact words were, "Dude - the Tull friggin' ROCKS dude!"). Which brings me the point of this post. Check out the add below that I clipped from the Denver Westword over the weekend. Aside from being stoked to have tickets for the Yonder/ Keller show on the 2nd (and stealth tickets to the Keller show the night before at the Fox!!!!) I noticed a sad thing. You will note the area I cicrled in red. IS THAT ALL THE LOVE THAT THE TULL GETS IN COLORADO?!?! Seriously - do they really want only 10 people there?