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.

Friday

I ran out of gas on my motorcycle.

Banner's mom came to the house to stay for the weekend.

I took waffles to the dog park at Amazon Park, walked laps with chatting with JT, and told him of all the shenanigans happening near me, Satya had quite a train wreck on Tuesday, the gossip factor of which demands that I tell the story to someone who is at least marginally removed. So that conversation lasted 5 laps of the park.

Later Went to BlairAlley barcade and caught up with Scot and Russell. Went to hang with them at Scot's place, where I used to live! Its now called the cathouse, because of reasons. We stopped at Old Nick's, then went to Black Forest for Dwight Dickinson show. Scot and I are sometimes members of Dwight's band, but he performed as a trio with Eddie Cancer on bass, and a new drummer named Dan ( who drives a sweet VW vanagon westfalia. ) I ran over to WOW Hall, as I had won tickets to Led Zepagain, cover band, and watched that for a while and had a beer in their lounge downstairs. Then I returned to Black Forest, had some pickle chips, then drove Scot and Russell to 80's night, just as it was ending. I was accosted by a longtime Soothesayers fan, Vanya. I was limited in what I could say about the Old Nick's Kerfuckle, didn't want to say that I think Tim is fucking up, and going after Emily, Vanya is a sweet kid, and he told me about all of his first edition vinyl of MC5, Stooges, Rocket from the Tombs, Johnny Thunders, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

Saturday
Slept.
Dog Park.
Yard Work, minimal eating, I had a microwaved Angus Burger patty with black rice, with horse radish, sriracha and some dried cherries for a desert.
I went to 'The Space' to play music with my Soothesayers people, Samantha and Jimmy. Jen and Chris joined us there with some 2 towns cider and tons of fresh raspberries and strawberries.

Sunday
Slept.
Stopped in at Pint Pot, and had their new smoked pork chop, with a thimble of Aardbeg 10 year scotch and a pint of guinness on nitro.
put the motorbike battery on the trickle charger.

Monday
Got my bike out for a ride! its a '92 nighthawk 750, probably needs a good going-through before I take it up to Portland or the coast... but I had fun today, and it ran great.


Troy (Anti-Troy) and Ben ((Black Forest cook!)

had a crap day with the taxi cabbing, but I managed to bill over $300 of RideSource rides from only 2 (short) days last week, after returning from my California trip.

Pirate Radio has a show Sunday, ... I think its for Emily's Birthday, we were going to rehearse at Roadrunner Studios, and I still owe them $100 balance for expensive recording with Davy Jonesers back in August. I wasn't really happy with the recording, nor with the method they used, which assures that they take a long-ass time, and charge by the hour, and get high with my bandmates. but still $100 is $100, and I agreed to pay it, I'm just not in a big hurry to pay it. But Pirate Radio booked rehearsal time there, and Tony used that as a bargain chip to force me to pay up, which is actually fine, I just won't record there again, but the Pirate Radio guys got pissed that Tony was using this as a way to exact payment. So, I said we can just practice at my place, which is great for me, as its free! I will still pay Tony, don't worry.
He charges WAY too much for rehearsal time as well.
but if anything, this has inspired me to get some music happening within the actual confines of Mertz Manor. bring it on.

I managed to get up to Portland to spend some time with both my kids on Sunday, and that was totally awesome. Santina and I went to the Portland Aquarium, then had Sushi with James.

http://www.fredxmertz.com

Old Nick's has been open since the big D.R.I. show on April 9th.  My bandmate, Tim; my ex-neighbor, Emily; and Jevon were the original partners.  Since that time, another close friend of mine has jumped in as the fourth partner.
But I don't get out of the house much on weeknights, as I'm full-time Daddy 5 nights per week.

I have played a number of shows at Old Nick's already: I'm losing count by this time...  The Soothesayers played with D.O.A., as you may have seen in previous posts.  Davy Jones' Locker Combo has played there a couple of times, twice in one weekend.  I've played banjo there with Le Petit Morte and Brain-Ake & The Family Mullet.

I've completed the sale/buyout of M's ownership of Mertz Manor, and should be able to get started on fixing/upgrading, etc pretty soon.

After the Pierced Arrows show Saturday, me and the kids will go down to SF to attend cousin E's wedding.  I'll get back Tuesday night, and work thru the rest of the week.  I've been putting in 13 and 14 hour days, driving for Oregon Taxi. but I haven't been getting shifts at Sheltercare.

DJLC will be recording with Sean Shanahan on June 12th.