Primitive UFO's

I've been here in Portland, Oregon helping take care of my father: he had two major strokes last year, and he had a BKA (Below Knee Amputation) this past spring.
My brother moved in up here in August, with a one year commitment to be my dad's caretaker. It has not been a picnic for him. But my brother, Tim, gets a few days off while I take over.

DAVY JONES LOCKER COMBO played at Sam Bond's Garage December 7th with REAL GONE TRIO and THE GOOGINS.
It was a trio of trios.  We played first, by my request.  The Googins played second, they are a punk band from around Eugene area, and they have a good sound in general, but I'm going to talk some smack right now.  They're kind of right wing turds.  There!  I said it.
The Real Gone Trio are ace fellas all the way round.  their music was great, and Manny is a fan one the Locker Combo, and asked us to play at this show, which turned out very fun.  We didn't get paid that great, but we had a lot of stiff competition in a small town for a Friday night, including 2 Krampus celebrations in 2 separate locations.

(DJLC A SBG 12/7/18)

THE SLACKERS Tuesday 12/11/18 at Old Nick's Pub (Eugene, OR)

This was a great show put on by Teren Baker (Pirate Radio / Pint Pot) and he deserves a lot of credit. Teren and Jameson sold tickets through the bar where they work, the Pint Pot, and they sold tickets online. The crowd reached near capacity. Pirate Radio opened, next was Rum Rebellion (Portland, OR) then the Slackers from New York City.
Ian Lawless was the DJ, and I took over from him for a bit before and after, playing reggae, rocksteady, soul and punk.
Vic Ruggiero signed Jenn's keyboard.  








On wednesday night, I got to see RED FANG (Portland, OR) at Hi Fi Music Hall

My next show is with the Indiscretions december 28th at Luckey's to benefit END THE BACKLOG.




I'm running down to California tomorrow for a a few days to do an XMAS celebration with my other families.

The TUMBLR debacle unfolds today, it doesn't really affect my blog, as I've never really posted anything NSFW.

its absolutely pissing down with rain, as it has for at least the past 2 weeks . We've had a few brief breaks for 'partial sunshine', but otherwise brutal winds, torrential rains, flooding and the overall general mayhem that accompanies these storm systems that pile up on each other...
Of course, I'm out there driving in it. I've been "full-time" at Oregon Taxi since February of 2015, where my 'meat and potatoes' is the ride source account: mostly driving older folks to medical appointments. The owner of the cab I'm driving has been really great to me, and offered plenty of 'overtime' in the form of extra hours in the taxi, beyond what I'm paying on the lease. The trick is that I get complacent about the early morning hours, I'm able to come in later than I 'need to', and run the cab later, with the potential to make more. The hitch is that there is no guarantee of actually making more, and I find that the early morning clinic runs are about the only consistent hours with heavy activity. So if I sleep in till 7 am, I'm (potentially) missing out on some of these high dollar runs to the outskirts of civilization around here. There is not any guarantee, however, that if I DO get in bright and early, I will make money, the distribution of work is so random and haphazard. The cab company has figured out my old tricks and implemented a more randomized distribution of these better paying runs. So there is no merit award based on performance, and being better or more patient in the job only pays off in the health and wellness category, based on lower stress level for the driver (me). So I have this nagging feeling that I'm a slacker, and that even one small traffic collision could wreak havoc.
yet I persist.
music-wise I'm keeping busy with four projects:
The Soothesayers
Davy Jones' Locker Combo
Pirate Radio
La Petit Mort
with my calendar of events at: www.fredxmertz.com
my daughter and I are flying down to L.A. to see my mom and step dad, but I don't have plans for actual Christmas Day, and I had actually hoped to be in the cab (it might be snowing that day) but I think the regular Friday guy is keeping his day shift...
meanwhile, its just me and my animals around here.
Soothesayers played at Naughty Dottie's Dirty Flirty Thirty party Saturday.
I took Tim Kinney up to Portland Sunday to see X and Mike Watt, but haven't been out since then.
I'm not currently dating anyone, but I'm available! I discontinued my OKCupid, because it was OKStupid. The only ladies I took an interest in were people I've already known, and I feel like a creepy stalker with the 'wink and kink' interface of reading internet profiles and looking at candid photos.
Hope this finds you all well, and I wish you a Happy and Festive Solstice celebration, whatever that may mean to you!

and TOMORROW:
Wed 23
First Annual Krampus Holiday Special!!!
The Googins (Local punk Eugene)
Lucika (Metal)
The Soothesayers (Eugene Female fronted Garage Punk)
Astern (Metal)
Come celebrate The Holidays at Old nicks
First Annual Krampus Holiday Special!!!

Naughty or Nice show up and rock out to this awesome Lineup :
You never know you might get a visit from Father Christmas, but knowing you.... Krampus might be waiting on the shadows......... Gruss von Krampus! $3
9:00 | $3-5 sliding scale

DOA SHOW UPDATE

so, there was an unusual bit of drama on my part, that somehow I'd missed getting off work that night in time for the show, so I thought I wouldn't get off work til 10:30 pm, and usually thats not such a big deal, but it did turn out to be a huge deal for this one night. How so? well the inimitable Bruce hartnell of the Detonators has tendonitis, he's an older guy these days, so The Detonators, who were not originally on the bill, were set to play second, after the Soothesayers, for only 20 minutes. Bruce had also arranged to supply the backline (amplifiers) and had spent a small fortune recently upgrading/maintaining his gear. So the soothesayers could not go on 2nd... then their drummer , Sean Shock had a hissy fit about playing after the soothesayers anyway... then the whole show would have to be pushed back one hour, and the headliners DOA would have to shorten their set.
my band hated me, drama drama drama. why did I fuck up? I thought I had arranged to get the night off by working a partial shift, but somehow I didn't remember.
I told everyone to chill, something would work out. Tim arranged for his instrumental surf band THE MISSING LINKS to play the early set, and it was looking like the Soothesayers would not get play at all.
well, that was the situation on Friday as I went into work, cursing the day of my birth and thinking I'd fucked up royally. I had fucked up royally.
then at 6:30 pm, the nocturnal shift lead called in, he had just woken up, sick as a dog, if he couldn't work, maybe I could pull a double shift, get off at 3 am , and then leave early the next shift, have plenty of time for making it to the show. Supervisor on call said, call up relief staff, see if they can work. well, I didn't have to call at all really, but I offered that I would work. I called anyway, and it worked out for me, no one else was available.
so it worked out. then the Detonators had to cancel, Sean Shock sick puking, can't stand up. Bruce didn't bring the backline, I had to use Joey Shithead's amp head and a speaker from Dave of MDC. Soothesayers fairly tore the roof off of Luckey's and the place reached capacity three times during the evening. My friend Megan from work brought her usually upright Common-law Husband, he actually had a good time.
during our cover of Homicide by 999, Bruce picked me up and tried to put me on his shoulders during the guitar solo. he wound up dropping me on my head. no worry, I was feeling no pain. MDC rocked, DOA put on an amazing show. I slept at the drummer's house from 5 am til 7, then crawled home in the blinding sunlight. cheers.

9th annual whiteaker block party

Locker Combo at 2 pm, Soothesayers at 8 pm. Other favorites will be Missing Links, Pirate Radio and Wetsock.

You may also find Ricky Bidness playing steel guitar with Dwight Dickinson at the Lazarus Pit.

hired.


fuck no i dont have a pinterest

( ABSOLUTE OBSOLETE )

( nuke mutey steroid bee hyperbole FRIDAY EDITION )

went to VLV with Nux and Candy. Stayed at the Rio. Saw Reverend horton Heat, Slim Jim Phantom (stray cats), Dick Dale, Little Richard, The Rockats, and lots of other great rockabilly groups. Drank a fair amount of Sailor Jerry rum and single malt scotch. Saw a great burlesque show at The Orleans.

Davy jones' Locker Combo is kind of back, since I left Double Deuce. DJLC plays at Wandering Goat coffeehouse 4/26 with Hohumdrum. Its free, and it will be the newest lineup, no upright bass this time, it'll be Mr. Jonny Birchwood on bass, Charlie Hustle on drums, possible Justin Brandmeyer on percussion, myself on vocals guitar and harmonica, and I'm hoping we'll be joined by a sax player??!

Soothesayers have a gig 4/24 at The Tiny Tavern. The touring act features an ex-member of The Breeders.
The Soothesayers also have a gig 4/27 at Black Forest with Black Delany.

cheers!

Getting back into kickboxing regimen , not doing much music lately- the Davey Jones Locker Combo's drummer appears to be burning out, I have a hard time reaching him by phone lately, and then he cancels practices. we are supposed to do a show Sunday night at the old Shoji's on Willamette. If we play it will be at about 11 ....

there were a couple shows I wanted to go to last night, but after two giant beers and tons of cheese and salami, I wound up snoozing on the couch as Santina watched an awful animated movie called 'FLY ME TO THE MOON' about some house flys that ride in the apollo moon lander... yeah.

I ordered a mic pre-amp that I've needed forever... should be churning out some sweet demos soon



then without further ado (Can't believe I haven't posted this here already...) DJLC, Dracula's Daughter!

Chicken cutlets with sundried tomato sauce, farfalle pasta and ciabatta with olive oil and anchovies.

yeah, there's not real veggies on the menu tonight.

liquid gratification: NINKASI Total Domination IPA

Happy 2007: the year of DOING STUFF, not GETTING STUFF. and it will be topped off with Xmas 07, the BUY NOTHING XMAS!

(Nuxie gasps in horror!)

the 07 Tournament of Roses Parade was STORMED by troopers of all nations, as the grand marshall was George Lucas.





http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonniegrrl/



Mertz might be playing tin whistle, banjo, and harmonica in a pirate music group here in Eugene. The unfortunate name of the group has nothing whatever to do with pirates , tho... 'AUDIO ACOUSTICA'. I will be doing a CD of the 'Puddletown Pattys' but there will be some lineup changes.

I turn 37 on 1/9/07. the Tom Waits tribute show is at Sam Bond's on 1/13/07 & I'm hoping to get 'Audio Acoustica' to do a number or 2. HAPPY BASTARDS are playing Friday 1/5/07 @ Le Sous Sol and 1/7/07 at Tiny Tavern.

I plan on paying much closer attention to MERTX Jr's academic life, due to his poor grades at 1st term. His advisor has not repllied to either of the 2 emails I've sent, but I've had some contact with the Vice Principal and a Counselor - we've got a meeting set for Friday and my son will be tested for A.D.D. on thursday...

hope everyone had great holidays, much love and respect,

XOX

MERTZ