Ardent Riffs and Dingly Solos: A Photo Essay

So, I'm currently in the control room at Ardent Audio watching as Bert and Gary lay down the bass and guitar for Daytripper. When this is done, we get to eat some delicious greasy spoon diner food and spend the rest of the afternoon adding all sorts of fun bells and whistles. Literal bells and whistles.

Nick manning the mixer
Pacifico bottle resized to show magnitude of disaster

Immediately prior to recording this Gary was in the studio talking to Nick, our sound engineer. Gary wanted to know if the main recording studio command console/mixer was the single most expensive piece of equipment in the room. This question is made more poignant by the fact that Gary spilled a beer on it yesterday which brought on about a half hour of frantic, heart-pounding cleaning, button wiping, and function testing. Luckily, we've avoided any major debacles today and have been quite productive.

Bert manning the bass
I swear, I have an identical picture of Bert from when we recorded at Pike

Gary in his room
The lighting is, by Gary's terms, 'sexytime' lighting

James manning his chair
James slept for 12 hours and yet, was still sleepy the whole day

Recording at Ardent Audio Productions

So, we're nearing the end of Free Rob G , but we're going out with a bang. No, not a show, but an album, tentatively titled American Bubble. We've recorded drum tracks and plan on recording guitar and bass (and probably some other fun stuff like keyboard and percussion) next weekend. We've been recording at Ardent Audio Productions in Torrance with Nick Zagorin as our engineer.

Then, I get to go up to Seattle in July and record vocals for a week with Daunish at his studio. Then Will Nelson is gonna come and help with some production and harmonies.

We all have a lot of ideas, so plan on hearing some of our tracks as you've never heard them before.

Oh, and Gary's excited too... about... something... couldn't quite make it out.
drspliffer: super sokted about recorind next weekend

Grant & Green Show and Pirate Cat Radio

So, we'll be kicking off our Northern California tour a small acoustic set and interview on Pirate Cat Radio (89.7 FM) at about 5 PM on March 22.

Then we'll be heading over to the Grant & Green, where we'll be playing from 11 pm until they kick us out, so be prepared to hear a bunch of covers in addition to your old favorites and some new songs we've been working on. Tell your friends, because this is going to be a wild party. Expect Bert to spill gin and tonics and beer all over himself and his amp, Gary to probably fall off the stage at some point in the night and James to be barely visible on Grant & Green's tiny stage.
The show is free, the drinks are cheap, and the music is rocking.

March 22 - 11 PM
Grant & Green Pub
1371 Grant Ave. (@ Green)
San Francisco, CA 94133

Come, drink, be merry, and rock!

NorCal Tour and Promised Brewco Songs

So, it seems like it's been a long time since you've heard from us, but I promise we've been busy working hard on worthwhile pursuits, like getting Obama the nomination, applying to law school, and starting our side project Dücks With Güns (on Rock Band).

However, you'll be happy to hear that we will be playing some shows again soon. We're in the midst of booking an end of March Northern California tour so all of you northerners that have been missing us for the last 2 years get an opportunity to see us again. We will be playing in San Francisco, Chico, Sacramento, Vacaville, and perhaps Tahoe so be sure to come out and represent your city. So, keep the weekends of March 21-23 and March 28-30 open!

Also, as promised we do have some recordings of our last show (Nov.10th at Brewco). You can listen to them on our media page or right here.

Dirty Daniel (f. Chalice Serrano)



Seventy Seven (f. Chalice Serrano)

Nov. 10th Brewco Show

So, we played a show at Westwood Brewing Company on the 10th and I think the hangovers of both band and audience testify to the fun that we had. We also got a good recording of both audio and video (thanks to the people below), so be looking for that media whenever Yaniv and Patrick get it to us (July 2018). Since there are a bunch of people that helped make this show happen, I'm going to take a cue from the Internet and put it in a list format, since apparently that is how humans process information now.

The Top 9 People(s) That We Want To Thank

1. Chalice Serrano for having a really good voice, putting on a hell of a show, being a lot of fun, and learning so quickly to make fun of everyone in Free Rob G
2. The Brothers Landau for playing an awesome set (as usual), for mocking the "Hey There Delilah" song (even though some members of Free Rob G might not agree with me), showing us that this IS how you do it, for being a band that our guitarist's girlfriend actually likes
3. Patrick for recording us, putting up with constant demands from each of us to turn our channels up, not complaining that I roofied every beer I bought for you, taking my request to play porn on your computer seriously, and being there the whole 10 damn hours of it
4. Yaniv and Edaan and other Israelis whose names I don't recall for videotaping us, making sure to linger the cameras in the crotchal region, and getting us an edit as quickly as possible (July 2018)... here is Yaniv's response "Omer Dagan was shooting with the other cam. The other Israelis were just there in case of an Arab attack. Edaan was checking for beards at the front, Ziv was making innapropriate comments at women, and Gal was simply there to account for the Israeli quota of curly hairs, body odor, and gold jewelry. Between the four of us I'm pretty sure we had the Holy Land represented to a tee. Thanks for the gratitude. Hopefully we won't have to bomb your country."
5. Kristina Bigdeli for taking still photographs (which you can see here), providing scintillating conversation, and showing up earlier than everyone
6. Rachel Fore making me have a show when she was in town (see what I did there?) and being born in November and again for when she chanted "Free Rob G" at the UCLA Battle of the Bands a long time ago
7. Tamber for coming to the show, having a birthday in November, not hitting anyone, and especially for not calling me white
   
8. Everyone that showed up randomly at the show, especially the large group of Asians that came up the back stairs looking befuddled and then ended up staying and having a good time (well, it looked like they did anyway)
   
9. Anyone that walked to the show, drove 400 miles to get to the show and were forced to sit at Brewco all day while we set up, those who didn't hook up with the girl that they wanted to at the show, and those of you that spent all Sunday nursing a hangover

It was a hell of a lot of fun to play for you and we hope you enjoyed it.

For those of you that didn't make it here's some more of what you missed:

We're Going To Be a Band That Plays Shows Again Soon!

Arbi: hey z
Z: Hey Arbi.
Arbi: how come i dont get free rob g spam anymore
Z: Because we've been on hiatus.
Z: Because stupid James likes Obama.
Z: And stupid me had to go to stupid Sacramento.
Z: And stupid Gary and Bert are just.... um, Jews.
Arbi: o
Arbi: bummer
Z: Indeed.
Z: But we will be starting up again soon.
Z: We had our first practice in a long ass time last Sunday.
Z: And I think Gary has booked us at this place in the valley and is going to book a Brewco show.
Z: So, if you're in town you should come and get belligerently drunk.
Arbi: nice
Arbi: i feel pretty confident about my ability to do that
Z: I believe in you.

I feel fully confident that this man will do us proud.

Soooooo, we are going to start playing shows again soon, so be prepared.

DO Stop

Maybe it took a couple of things of wine to realize this, but Don't Stop is a pretty emo song and pretty terrible therapeutic advice. So, kids and friends, DO stop looking back until you can't recognize the details of your past. Then you'll be looking at everything through the soft lens of selective memory and will remember everything as fuzzy and happy.

Holden Caulfield thought about it way too early.

Don't be like Holden Caulfield.

" About all I know is, I sorta miss everybody I told about. Even Stradlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
-The Catcher in the Rye