Yup! I finally got my "Buck Owens and the Buckaroos Live at Carnegie Hall - 1966" CD: It's so incredible - time flew by as I was listening to it. It's funny and musically ripping, and the sound quality is great. There's one part where they do impressions of other country singers like Tex Ritter, Ernest Tubb, and Johnny Cash, and they also do a cover of "Twist and Shout" with beatle wigs on! Plus a bunch of "blurbs," medlys of Buck's hits. What a show! Also, my beautiful wonderful wife Molli gave me the new Teenage Fanclub import CD last night as a late b-day present. I haven't heard it yet but I'm very exited to. Thanks Molli!!!! Plus I got tickets to see Neil Young and Crazy Fucking Horse at the Palladium tomorrow night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by Greg 10:03 AM
Monday, February 26, 2001
What a music weekend! Had practice Sat. and Sun. Also on Saturday I got a couple discs: a Blasters album recorded before the first one on Slash, live in a garage, totally amazing. Some mistakes keeping it real and great energy. Dave Alvin is such a tasty guitarist. (and i guess he just won a grammy! And I thought grammys were total bs! Shows me!) I also got a Woody Guthrie CD which I'm really enjoying, and I got the Elvis "Aloha from Hawaii" DVD with re-mastered audio. Sounds incredible, what a band! Last night I was Napstering some Minutemen stuff. I haven't listened to them in awhile and it was somewhat of a revelation. They completely ruled. That was when punk just meant being totally individualistic and doing what you wanted, what you were inspired to do. (see the quote on the pic) d boon was really an incredible guitarist. I downloaded this one live deal that was 5 songs in about 4.5 minutes, all completely realized. There's a lot to be learned from those guys. I also got some live Husker Du, particularly a version of "She's a woman (and now he is a man)" which is so powerful and huge, you can't believe it's just three guys.
posted by Greg 10:51 AM
Friday, February 23, 2001
I spent all day in the studio working up these demos of two new songs from the Gregory Vaine Band with Todd on drumz. They came out pretty fun: Back to Shore.mp3 - 1.4mb True Believer - 2.7mb Todd Rocks!!!! More on The Gregory Vaine Band soon! Here's a picture of our visit to the Getty:
Did a lot of recording on Friday, demos of newish stuff. Like this one of Black, Blue, and Red. Plus i recorded some drum tracks with todd, which went well.
Also, Victor Spoils added some new paintings to the Gregory John McIlvaine Museum:
Molli and I went out to a great Valentines dinner last night at La Poubelle. A very romantic setting and the food was great. And the wine was fantastic. Plus we saw mini-me there! Actually, just the actor that plays mini-me. It's funny cause Molli got me the Austin Powers Spy who Shagged Me DVD for my b-day, so we just watched it. He was very good in it. And last night he looked like a player!
Oh yeah, I listened to Deep Purple's "Machine Head" on the way back from Oakland on sunday. What a bitchin album. Blackmore rules!
posted by Greg 10:36 AM
Monday, February 12, 2001
Want to read something funny? Here's an email sent to me by Ann, who I don't know.
Hey Greg,
I'm sure you're an awesome artist and all and I wish you the best of luck, but you can't compare yourself to Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol was the best artist ever to exist and no one can compare to him. Who cares if you both really loved candy? I love candy too but I don't compare myself to people I can never be. Sorry if I sound mean cause I know I do but Andy is my idol and he inspired me to start painting in the first place so hopefully you can understand where I'm coming from. Anyway good luck with your art and I look forward to seeing your art in a museum one day!
Peace, love, and Warhol wigs, Ann
I think she was refering to this page, but it's not linked from my page anymore so I don't know how she got it.
Where in the art manual does it say you can tell other artists what they can and can't do?
What a great birthday weekend. Thanks to everyone that came out to help me spend it. I'm officially 32 now.
Thursday night we went to some great German food at The Red Lion Tavern in Silverlake. I had some great schnitzel and good beer. It was great to see Dave and Tracy, John and Kelli, Ken and Kim, Neal and Jackie, Todd and Tilka, JoeZ, Amy and Paul. Then back to our house for deliscious cupcakes and some music making with the likes of SteveC, DanK, CaseyS, Christia, KenL, 3/4 of Champion, Justin and Shannon.... In case you're wondering, I got some cool presents, including a great Elvis calendar, Johnny Cash's American III disc (which we listened to on our trip - read on), a Carole King songbook, the "O, Brother..." soundtrack, and the singing sensation "Travis Trout:" Casey made me a really coold BeeGee's comp disc which is very StRaNgE! and JeffW made me a cool rare Pooh Sticks tape.
On Friday night we drove up to see Buck Owens at the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield.
He was awesome. He's definately getting a little old there, but still a master showman. He played my dedication request, "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass?" It's a quick waltz which managed to clear the dance floor, except for us of course! And we drank lots of Voluptuous Blonde Ale - Extremely Large $5.75 beers before we stumbled next door to our room at the Best Western.
On Saturday we drove up to Oakland to Beth and Dean's house for a big Hootennanny. It was a lot of fun. I got to check out Dean's very cool guitars and hear some sneak preview recordings of The Beth Champion Band and Fajimoto. Ryan and Jon were there and it's always like getting together with family when they're around. And Dean and Beth were incredibly good hosts!
The hoot was big and there was a lot of good music. Beth is an awesome singer who we'll all be hearing more of, and the chance to see her in such a homey setting was great. Also Marwan is excellent, and so many others who were there that night. Don St. Frances even led a rousing rendition of GnR's "Patience" that won't soon be forgotten. Plus Jenean showed up and played, and Mark J was there, JenA, SaraS, DanH... And of course BrendanM who blew everyone away with his spot on version of Riders on the Storm on the Wurlitzer electric piano.
On Sunday we had an electric jam where I got to witness the BCB and play various original and cover songs in a rocking manner. What a sweet setup they have up there!
We drove back to Culver City and tried to get in to see our favorite country band, Red Meat at the Cinema Bar, but it was tooo crowded, where we couldn't even get in the door. We bought a couple of their great new CD's and split.
All in All it was a great long weekend. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. Pictures Soon!
posted by Greg 9:21 AM
Wednesday, February 07, 2001
Hey. I got this scary as hell Story about publishers trying to charge libraries for loaning out books or something dumb off of Slashdot. Where does the greed stop?
posted by Greg 10:07 AM
Monday, February 05, 2001
Whew what a weekend. Our good friend Kristan was in town. We went to the wonderful Pho O.K. for dinner friday night, then to the Getty Center on Saturday.
The Getty is such a great hideaway. And some good art. It's worth it to go check out Ensor's "Christ Entering Brussels, 1889" every six months or so. Such an amazing painting. And Munch's "Starry Night" is quite excellent. Also this crazy Van Gogh character.
Kristan bought me a postcard for this awesome drawing of the "Age of Gold" by Jacopo Zucci:
It's really almost a perfect work of art; great composition, great light, and a fascinating vision. The whole idea of the age of gold, is still with us. Like people who always think that things were better in the old days.
Then Sunday after work and practice I went to Aaron and Ian's Boys Nite Out performance at Highways in Santa Monica. It was totally awesome, they're both very talented great performers. I also ran into Alex Donis, an artist I went to Otis with back in the 90's:
I look forward to keeping in touch with him and following his art type stuff.
And that pretty much brings us up to date!
posted by Greg 9:20 AM
Friday, February 02, 2001
We went to the Hard Rock cafe last night to see Psoma. Here's proof:
They were really great as usual. They get better and better each time.
posted by Greg 9:09 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2001
Hello Everybody! This is my first entry into my weblog. I'm going to post all kinds of stuff here, about what I'm doing, what my friends are doing, and fun things I find on the web. Basic weblog type stuff. I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Or the logwagon I should say! With lot's of links like to Ken's Page, which is my blog inspiration.
Yup! I finally got my "
I haven't heard it yet but I'm very exited to. Thanks Molli!!!!
Some mistakes keeping it real and great energy. 
Sounds incredible, what a band!
added some 
Molli and I went out to a great Valentines dinner last night at La Poubelle. A very romantic setting and the food was great. And the wine was fantastic. Plus we saw 
