1995, April - Greetings from Brooklyn!

April, 1995
Greetings from Brooklyn!

My friend's short film, "Dead Man's Jack" was selected for the Sundance Film Festival, so before this last leg of the American tour, I had the opportunity to go to Park City, Utah with them and check it out. The festival was started by Robert Redford and has become the big showcase for independent film. The premieres were all exciting, and I got to check out some cool films before their commercial release. We also ate a lot of meals standing up in crowded rooms. Documentaries about underground cartoonist Robert Crumb and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson were highlights. I also saw the premiere of a film that was recently released called "Funny Bones," with supporting actor Jerry Lewis in attendance. The film is not nearly as obvious as it's title and I'd give it two thumbs up.

It's been a very busy spring and summer on the road for TMBG. Many hours spent at the wheel of the black sedan looking out for cop cars with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion tape spinning around. Hope you had a chance to see the current incarnation of TMBG. As the tour went on things got pretty loose on stage, and everybody started throwing a few extra notes into the mix.

We had a great bunch of opening acts over the course of the two months in the US. Chris Stamey, The Dambuilders from Boston, Soul Coughing, Eugene Chadbourne and a new band from New York called Ivy were all good people to hang out with. We got to play "Spy" with all of Soul Coughing along with Tony and Brian on Soul Coughing's last night of touring with us. With two drummers and two bass players the song was taken to new heights of mania. Speaking of bass players, we also met Danny Bonaduce in Chicago during our stand at the Coronet Theater in Evanston. Although he will always be Danny Partridge to me, he seemed well suited for his new career as a chain-smoking broadcaster.

My apologies for canceling the show to our audience in Athens, Georgia. A bout with the flu finally knocked me out. It was frustrating canceling a sold-out show. We hope to be back to make it up to you as soon as possible.