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December 19th, 2005 Home for the Holidays. That's how it felt to me to play The FlipSide in Clayton last Saturday, December 17th, 2005. There were lots of reasons. I felt like we played really well for having been away from bar gigs for seven months. I felt like we'd come back and wiped away the spooky vibe with which we last left the FlipSide parking lot that fateful night back in May. We saw a lot of familiar faces and met a lot of new friends, too. Everyone seemed to dig on what we did and many congratulated us on the evolution of our music. And performing with dB again was at once fresh and exciting and comfortable. It was everything I'd hoped for and even more. I like to pay close attention to the audience while we play. I sometimes seem a little dour because I'm watching you watch us. The FlipSide folks dug on all the stuff I expected they'd dig on and even on most of the stuff I was unsure they'd like. When we come back in February we'll raise the tempo a bit and see if we can't get everybody dancing. We all want to thank Cliff and Jodi for having us back and for inviting us back again so soon. Thanks to Rich and Richard for feeding us and to Amanda for beering us all night. Thanks to Barry, Joe, Matt, Michelle and all the Clayton Marbleheads who came out to the show. Thanks to Dwight, Theresa, Marie, Stephanie and Richard, Mary, Lara and all our new friends for checking us out. We look forward to playing for you again. -SkiDecember 12th, 2005 So, by popular demand of our many readers named Stephanie, here are the lyrics... WAITING IN BABYLON PILGRIMS IN THIS UNHOLY LAND
AWAITING HIS CALL HOME AGAIN
NOW'S THE TIME TO MAKE YOUR STAND
FOR SOON YOU'LL SEE THE PROMISED LAND SO RISE UP CHILDREN OF ZION
WAITING IN BABYLON
PRAY FOR STRENGTH TO CARRY ON
LIVING IN BABYLON
ONE DARK NIGHT BEFORE THE DAWN
WAITING IN BABYLON
MORNING GLORY TRAIN SOON COME
LEAVING OUT OF BABYLON CHOSEN PEOPLE IN BONDAGE STILL
DYING HERE AGAINST YOUR WILL
WAIT LIKE LAMBS BEFORE THE KILL
NOW IT WON'T BE LONG UNTIL WE RISE UP CHILDREN OF ZION
WAITING IN BABYLON
PRAY FOR STRENGTH TO CARRY ON
LIVING IN BABYLON
ONE DARK NIGHT BEFORE THE DAWN
WAITING IN BABYLON
MORNING GLORY TRAIN SOON COME
LEAVING OUT OF BABYLON RISE UP OUT OF SLAVERY
CALL UPON YOUR BRAVERY
RELEASE YOURSELVES FROM MISERY
ONLY YOU CAN SET YOU FREE NOW RISE UP CHILDREN OF ZION
WAITING IN BABYLON
PRAY FOR STRENGTH TO CARRY ON
LIVING IN BABYLON
ONE DARK NIGHT BEFORE THE DAWN
WAITING IN BABYLON
MORNING GLORY TRAIN SOON COME
LEAVING OUT OF BABYLON We hope you dig. -Ski
December 8th, 2005 Introspection? I just had an interesting phone conversation. I was talking with a lady from Unity Church in Chapel Hill. She had called inquiring about booking the band. She had experienced our show at Unity Church in Raleigh back in April. She was particularly taken with Mike's performance. What's not to be taken with? Mike's a very dynamic guy and we had quite the wild ride while he was in the band. When I mentioned Mike was no longer in the band, this very gracious lady told me she believes in abundance and asked further about booking Blue Marble Beat. She asked how we sounded with our new singer compared to when Mike was in the band. I rattled off several technical specs that are different. I mentioned that we did a bit more instrumental music and had shifted to a sound that included more jazz, pop and trance influences, more dub and less roots reggae. I just didn't get it. This lady very patiently asked about our message. Did we still have a spiritual aspect to our music? I answered that, yes, we do still have a spiritual aspect to our music, but that it was slightly different, due to a different lineup of writers and performers, than when she last caught our show. And I kept thinking about that conversation. I considered it whilst I scrubbed my bathroom floor. That's a great opportunity for some deep thinking, scrubbing the bathroom floor. I realized that we have changed more deeply than I had recognized. Many BMB lyrics were overtly political in nature and of a fairly narrow point of view. I think we still espouse our message from the same general direction, but I think we might be a bit more subtle with that message now. We still point out injustice. We still question authority. We still thankfully accept Grace. We just don't wield our music like a club anymore. I think dB sings about carrots as often as he sings about sticks. I feel like dB's lyrics in Love Today and my own words to Waiting In Babylon exemplify this change, and hopefully, require a bit of thought and reflection from the listener if not immediate and precipitous action. I hope we're in the world but not of it, if you know what I mean. I hope we can still appeal to a very broad audience. Perhaps we can strive to be prophets more than proselytes. -Ski
November 23rd, 2005 It's the day before Thanksgiving and I'm just sitting back and contemplating the things for which I'm thankful. How 'bout you? This has been an eventful year. The band was going faster and harder than I was really ready for it to go and then we broke for a hiatus. I'm thankful for that respite. During that break my son was born. I'm thankful he joined my family. Indeed, I'm thankful for all of my family. I'm thankful for all the new friends we made while we were "touring" earlier this year and I'm thankful that things have begun to ramp back up for us. I'm particularly looking forward to playing at The FlipSide on December 17th. Playing there will be a benchmark for me as the band returns to what I'd call a state of normality. I've missed the folks at The FlipSide. I've missed the folks at Sears Landing and at Sushi Blues, too. It seems like those places were the ones we played the most often and, as a result, those places felt like home to me. I'm thankful that dB joined the band and I'm thankful that I'm still playing with Theo and Bodhi. I'm really digging on the evolution of Blue Marble Beat. Each time I listen to the tracks we're recording for our debut CD I get chills. I'm thankful for all of you who have asked us for a CD for more than a year now and I'm looking forward to thanking you in person as I hand you the disc you've awaited so patiently. I'm thankful for all of you who've been reading this blog and who've been urging us on to greater things. Thank you! -Ski
November 17th, 2005 Ugh. I'm only human. And this web site isn't. I just discovered that the Marblehead signup form was malfunctioning. I fixed it. If you've tried to become a Marblehead in the last couple months and received no confirmation, please try again. -Ski
November 5th, 2005 Finally. We're making a record. We've got the gear. We've got the material. We've got the musicians. We've selected a mix of original and cover songs to record and we've begun the recording process. That Blue Marble Beat CD that I've been cajoling you to await patiently for more than a year is really beginning to happen. We've begun production on nine songs. Might end up with more or we may have fewer actually on the disc, but we've at least a core of music we dig. We decided to go the overdub route. Seems the most likely to provide us with alternate takes and the ability to digitally cut and splice easily. Might also allow us to provide instrumental versions as well as instances of those same songs with vocal performances. I'd forgotten how much I like producing. I had convinced myself that all I was gonna do in BMB was be the bass player. We had this discussion about five or six months ago, though, so I'm not gonna go there again. Just know I'm happy to be in back of the boards again, even if they are all virtual now. As the record develops, I'll tell you more about it right here. -Ski
October 25th, 2005 Y does not equal mx plus b. Just when I'd become reasonably comfortable with thinking of my life in linear fashion, I begin to see it curving back upon itself. Maybe I need to think in three dimensions instead of two and consider life like rolling along a road that winds up a mountain to the peak. Any successive concentric turn might easily touch on the turn below and beside. I'm really happy that dB's joined the band. This guy's a killer musician and a good friend. Huh? Oh, yeah. You mightn't've heard. derek Brinson has joined Blue Marble Beat on vocals and guitar. dB's played with us before, back in the mist-shrouded days of D34, and has more recently been making quite the local buzz with the-nerve. It's really sort of a strange tale. Bodhi, Theo and I have been very happy with the continually evolving sound of the band, but we've been wary that our audience may shrink as we become more introspective and less genre specific. A big part of that wariness grew from our trio being sans vox. Most people key in on the words to a song and how a singer sings them before they dig on the more esoteric bits. We've been embracing our own esoterica of late. So we began to invite singers, especially singers who play guitar, to our rehearsals to see if any chemistry might happen. We were really choosey in whom we'd invite, too, seeking musicians who could grasp the varied influences we share and help to knit them into a seamless garment. Are you keeping count of the metaphors? Anyway, I'd been mentally listing all the people I know whom I thought might fit the bill and each time I kept overlooking dB because of his involvement with the-nerve. As the-nerve had been recently in a personnel transition like BMB was, it eventually hit me that the timing might be right to invite dB to jam and sniff the space for any whiffs of ozone that might indicate a reaction. Our use of sequencers is a page taken right out of the-nerve's old playbook, circa 2000. dB's not only not afraid of incorporating technology into a show, he seeks to do so. 'Ooray gear! dB's a student of popular music and a multi-instrumentalist. He's also a top-notch songwriter and singer. So when we asked him to join the band it was like we'd finally recognized the blatantly obvious. Now we'll work on recognizing the merely obvious. Of course, I'll let you know once we've mastered it. -Ski
October 9th, 2005 We've got some new music posted on the listen page. Finally. I'm really happy about this. It's been strange to have a Web site for the band and to have no music on it for five months. But that's ancient history, now. Check out the tunes and let us know what you think. -Ski
September 30th, 2005 We're one big step closer to some recorded tunes. I have succumbed to my latent GAS. That's Gear Acquisition Syndrome for you who are either unaffected (uninfected?) or still coming to terms with the malady. I bought a portable digital multitrack recorder that mates to my computer. Thankfully, it's got knobs and buttons instead of a bunch of scrollable menues, so my learning curve ought to be shorter than otherwise. I feel comfortable blaming Bodhi for this. That guy goes through more gear than our friend Michael Conn. Scary thing is Michael Conn owns a musical equipment store. Of course, they both end up with some really cool stuff that way. I think the ideal we'll need to focus on now is to keep BMB from becoming a slave to the machine as our sound becomes more modern, more 21st century. Kind of us owning and operating the gear, rather than the gear owning and operating us. I'd hate things to progress to the point where we set up and press the start button and all three of us go sit at the bar. It's sort of a mindset to achieve, I think. It's a challenge to creatively work within the constraints set by the technology, instead of being constrained by the technology. We'll see. And hear. Here's to coming out of remission. -Ski
September 26th, 2005 Attention, attention. That's what it takes. And lemme tell ya, it takes a lot of attention. Good bands have this ability to communicate on stage with just a bit of eye contact. But what if not all the musicians in the band have eyes? It's tough to glance at its pedal and get a synth to recognize it's time to go to the next part of the song. Real tough. So you saw me jumping all around at the Carrboro Music Festival yesterday. Jumping, dancing, stumbling. We had a great time and our audience seemed to really be into our music. That really helps as we're still getting the hang of being loose on the arrangements and tight on the sequences. You know what else? The music has taken on a bit of trance and some more dub sounds. It's naturally heading in those directions. We're not trying to push it there, it just is what it is. I'd say it's an organic thing, but it's more an electronic/synthetic meets organic thing. "Resistance is futile."I'm digging on it. We saw several Marbleheads in the audience yesterday. All our families were there. That was really nice as they'd not heard BMB v2.0 yet. Donald, Jill, Bran, Miner and some other Marbleheads joined our newest friends in the audience and, as always, it was great to see them. The highlight of our performance for me was Donald's lightbulb moment eight measures into "Wrapped Around Your Finger." It's that kind of audience reaction that fuels my passion for performing. We try to strike a balance between cool original tunes and songs that are familiar to the people in the crowd. Of course, we're going to present those cover tunes in our own unique way. You can count on that. Right before we went on stage one of our new friends asked me to describe our sound. I sort of mumbled it was a mix of dub-style reggae, first wave ska, jazz, pop and some electronic stuff. She asked, "some of that chronic stuff?" and I elocuted a bit better, "some electronic stuff." I guess the description was intriguing enough, because she stayed for the show. I apologise that I didn't ask her name, so I can't thank her personally for getting her groove on with us. I can, however, thank Nick for running our sound and thank Gerry and Janet and Jackie and Sean for all their hard work putting on the CMF and for having Blue Marble Beat perform. We had a blast. Some of that chronic stuff. The CMF is the area's best music party. This year my whole family attended with me. We started out eating lunch at Weaver St. Market and caught shows by Bill & Libby Hicks and a bit of Brown Mountain Lights. I enjoyed two-stepping with my daughter's feet firmly planted on my own. We headed uptown to the commons and enjoyed performances by Rhythmicity, Milagro Saints and Tim Smith's band before BMB went on. What a great time. -Ski
September 18th, 2005 Aaaahhhhhhhh. After four months' hiatus, we've finally gotten back on stage! Got our rocks off, you could say. Bodhi and Theo have been picking up gigs with some other bands here and there, but I've sat totally on the bench. I might be able to work a couple more metaphors half way into this paragraph if I try. Or maybe not. We happened into a block party tonight, er, last night. Saturday night. And I think we proved the concept we've been assuming the last few lunar cycles regarding our use of loops and sequences and the pedal synth. The folks on Sunrise Avenue really dug our show and we want to thank Gretchen, Jill, David, Jen and Ron and all the people who invited us to play their party, thank them for their warm hospitality. They fed us and beered us and danced to our music. And to those who asked, I promise we're gonna have a CD soon. Really. I mean it this time. Hmmm. I meant it last time, too, but this time I'm personally going to work much harder to make it happen. Tonight felt really good to me. A lot of what we did was improvisation. I think we've gotten really good at that. Some of our more adventurous tunes were ones we've been working on orchestrating for some time and I think they were equally well done. They seemed equally well received. I was suprised how some of the songs morphed toward trance and house music. It was great to see Marbleheads Jessica and Victor at the show. Thanks, also, to the guys in Saunter for warming up the audience. You guys rocked. -Ski
September 14th, 2005 Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends on the NC coast today as Hurricane Ophelia blasts Wilmington, Surf City and Emerald Isle. We hope you all stay safe and we hope to see you again soon! "Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind." This storm is most unkind. Be safe, y'all! -Ski
September 11th, 2005 Can you believe it? I've got the jitters. Yeah, I know that there are several decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing. It's been four months sincs BMB was on a stage performing. In another two weeks we'll be back in front of an audience. It feels like a first date. I'm all at once nervous about my performance, but I can't wait till I pick her up. You know? Flop sweat and premature ejaculation at the same time. Just a few words about current events. Not ones related to the band. A catastrophic hurricane hit an American city whose name is synonymous with music and today is the fourth anniversary of a most heinous and cowardly attack on our country. I've been tempted to opine, politically, on these pages but I'm not going to do that. If you want a sermon, go to church. If you want a pep rally, go to high school. If you wanna catch up with the band, read on. -Ski
August 12th, 2005 We've booked our first show as a trio! And it'll be in front of one of the biggest and most accomodating audiences we could want, at this year's Carrboro Music Festival. I can't wait! Not setting foot on a stage for these past couple months has been difficult for me. And I'd been feeling really down about the shows page of this web site showing nothing but cancelled gigs. But now I have Carrboro to look forward to. I love that festival! Music all day on a beautiful autumn Sunday. The bars and friendly people. The music, everywhere, all over town. I get to check out new bands I wouldn't likely hear otherwise and I get to reacquaint myself with bands my friends play in, whose paths I haven't crossed for a while. I can't wait! -Ski
August 9th, 2005 Sublety. Technology. Art. Some might argue that those three ideas are mutually exclusive. I'm beginning to find they're not only not exclusive, but are completely intertwined. Symbiotic, even. Last Sunday evening Theo and I spent some time setting up sample patches on his Roland trigger pad and rehearsing our ensemble performance with those samples. I was playing bass guitar and pedal synth. Theo was playing drums and triggering samples and loops. I've been writing piano phrases to sample, loop and trigger. Their primary function is to keep the skank on the upbeats while I add some tonal color to the bass and piano lines with the pedal synth. We recorded our session and I was suprised at how well we sounded. Or, rather, I was suprised how quickly I forgot that there were only two of us making all that music. Theo was pretty exuberant about it. I had to chuckle when I reviewed the playback because we have so quickly realised our goal of effectively integrating the technology into the music, our art. And it wasn't a hit you over the head kind of thing. It was subtle. I played some excerpts for a couple close friends of the band and noted their reactions. One was initially shocked that there were only two humans involved in making that music and that it was recorded "live." Another said it was amazing how each successive effort of ours is so much better than the last. I'm really excited about this music and I can't wait to be able to share some examples with all of you! -Ski
July 11th, 2005 I usually consider myself a sharp dude. I'm doing neither neurosurgery, nor nuclear physics, but my head hurts from all this thinking. It's a part of busting out of that rut, I guess. I'm so used to just playing the bass. I'm so used to Mike telling me what key the tune's in and then just hammering out a bass line in back of his guitar and vocals. Well, that's not how I do things anymore. I'm still playing the bass lines, but now they're coming first in the process. Then I write the chord patterns and the keyboard parts. Then I choose the instruments to play those parts. It's a little easier on cover songs. I know how the original artists wrote and performed those tunes, so I've a road map for the parts I play and the parts Theo triggers. Of course, you know me well enough by now to know that I use maps as general directions, only, and I'm as likely to arrive at my destination via the scenic route as the direct one. I'm now seeing a lot more of the local geography, to extend the metaphor. I'm also paying a lot more attention to my speed. Call it cruise control, maybe. One of the more attractive aspects, at least in my opinion, of a Blue Marble Beat show was that we never played a song the same way twice. The tunes were always at the mercy of our collective mood, audience response, caffeine or alcohol intake or even the local weather. Well, that's not how we do things anymore. Performing with triggered loops and samples requires that we at least play each song with a consistent tempo, gig to gig. Arrangements are still pretty open, but adrenaline isn't to be our timekeeper anymore. This is really a challenge, to write so much of the rhythm section, to write it well and to perform it well, to drive the bus instead of riding near the back. But I dig a challenge. And so far, I'm digging the way we're meeting that challenge. I think you will, too. I can't wait to let you hear some of the new music! -Ski
June 22nd, 2005 I'm really digging on my new pedal synth. Using both my hands and both my feet to play music is my new deal. I feel like I'm taking my first steps into a bigger world, literally. My biggest fear is falling down while I'm playing. Looks like I may have to pay more attention to how much beer I drink at BMB shows. I'm certainly going to be a more active player than I have been. Look at that fool up there dancing. He's not dancing. He's falling! -Ski
May 30th, 2005 Wow. The notes of comiseration and support have been flooding in. Thanks, everyone, for your words of encouragement. We'll keep you posted on the progress we make as a three-piece. Blue Marble Beat won't be gone for long. And we'll be back stronger than ever. This hiatus has already proved beneficial for me. I've been forced to take a close look at some of the material I've been playing for several months from a wider songwriter's perspective, instead of from the more narrow point of view of the bass player. I'm looking at harmonies, specifically how I can enhance things with the pedal synth. All those music theory classes I took are coming back to me. Composite chords rule, if anyone asks you. Trust me. Back several years ago when I began playing reggae music, I joined together with seven other musicians to form a band. You know two of them. I had been in a three-piece rock band just prior to that, so I had to change the way I played the bass. I had to change it radically. Moving from rock to reggae, you've got to make the rests as important as the notes you play. The space is a significant part of the groove. Counterpoint, polyrhythm and polyphony are the formula. A reggae band can play with their amps turned up as loud as a rock band and still have people on the dancefloor, instead of jammed against the bar at the back of the room. It's all in how you deliver the notes you don't play as well as how you present the notes you do play. Okay, it's 2:26 am. I'm gonna hit the sack. -Ski
May 19th, 2005 Jeremy and Mike have left the band and I wish them well. Theo, Bodhi and I have decided to move ahead with Blue Marble Beat. We won't be a reggae band anymore. We'll be more than a reggae band. We've all got a love for a wider range of music and certainly we've spent years playing as wide a range as we love, so it makes sense to expand our repertoire and become less bound by the constraints of any single genre. We'll still play reggae. But we'll also add some jazz, some pop, some ska, funk, techno, dub and trance to the mix. I'd been in a rut recently and didn't even recognize it till last Sunday afternoon. I haven't written much for the last year-and-some-change, except for some basslines. No lyrics, no melodies and few progressions that would eventually become songs. I've gotten pretty proficient at improvisation, but I think it's time my pendulum swings back a bit towards my former self-image of songwriter. Collaboration, as always, is key. All three of us have become sharper improvisors. We've begun to spend resources on incorporating some modern technology into our shows with the samples and loops. Now it's time for us to learn to use the technology as instruments instead of as effects. I'm going to get a pedal synth and I'm totally jazzed about that. I've not been a gearhead for a lot of years. In fact, I've spent the last five circuits around the sun trying to reduce, to minimalize what I play and what I carry to a gig. I think I've been successful. My basslines seem pretty tasty to me and not particularly notey. Quality over quantity. Esse quam videri. Just like back last September, here's where I'll tell you all about it. Stay tuned. -Ski
May 15th, 2005 It's almost enough to make me superstitious. Blue Marble Beat's last show on Friday May 13th was at The FlipSide, 105 S. Lombard St. in Clayton, and it really was our last show. At least for a while. There's never a good way to talk about stuff like this. Invariably you've got to be so vague and mysterious that it's difficult to really say what you want to say. Musicians are people and we f*ck up as often as those in any other line of work. Maybe more often or at least more spectacularly. Maybe it just seems that way because we tend to do it in very public places and with lots of amplification. It's like Travolta tells Hackman in Get Shorty, it's tough to tell someone you f*cked up without sounding stupid. "Internal and external pressures on the band compounded by the confluence of several recent events have caused us to take an immediate and indefinite hiatus." How's that for vague and mysterious? And stupid.
- External pressures Day jobs - old ones, new ones, bad ones and worse ones. Family responsibilities - chronic illnesses, new young'ns on the way, changing roles, role reversals. Politics, economics, not the price of tea in China, but the price of gasoline in Raleigh.
- Internal pressures Who's in charge here? When's rehearsal? How's the record coming? Who's loading gear? Why aren't things happening fast enough? Why are things happening so f*cking fast? What about my song? Sorry, I've a schedule conflict.
- Confluence of recent events short fuses, bad communication, ignorance.
May 6th, 2005 Ugh. I hate cancelling shows. I've seen every guy in the band perform when he should've been at home in bed and under a doctor's care because the show must go on. I concede, however grudgingly, that weather's a factor when you've an outdoor show planned. Horizontal rain, wind gusts in the 40's and high temps in the 50's - you'd think it was March, not May. I was looking forward to another trip to Sears Landing. It's always a party there. Do you think if I call the Wilmington or Jacksonville area meterologists and ask for a warm and sunny afternoon for Sunday May 22nd that they'll oblige? -Ski
May 2nd, 2005 It occurs to me on reviewing these notes about our shows that I've slid into a nasty and boring habit of dropping as many names as I can and adding that we "had a great time" at the end of the list. Sometimes I add it at the beginning of the list. These little missives began in a much more literary tone than I've used recently to recite The Litany of the Marbleheads. Who'd want to read this stuff? I'll try and make this blog a bit more interesting from here on. I promise. Let me begin by saying that the band's very grateful that everywhere we go, we see familiar faces. That really means a lot to us. We know that you have a lot of choices to make in how you spend your ever-scarcer time and money that you budget for entertainment. We're thrilled that you choose to spend it on and with Blue Marble Beat. You folks who come out to our shows from High Point to the beach and everywhere in between are the reason we do this music thing. Being on stage is a fantastic high that defies comparison to any drug I've tried. When you return the energy we send your way by dancing in front of the stage or bobbing your head to the beat in the back of the room, you make the miles we drive and the day job hassles and the physical drudgery of schlepping gear worth the work. You might've noticed that a Blue Marble Beat show doesn't include a lot of long breaks for the band. So we don't get the opportunity to meet as many of you as we'd like. Don't be shy. Come up to any of us in the band during those breaks and introduce yourself. We likely recognize you already. If not, we will recognize you the next time we see you. We typically bring a clipboard with a page or two on which you can give us your name and email address so we can tell you about upcoming Blue Marble Beat events. If you're not on that list, sign up the next time you catch our show. We dig your feedback. So next time you see us, say "hi," introduce yourself and sign up as an official Marblehead if you haven't already. We're up there for you and we're glad you're out there for us! A special note: The several Marbleheads who've driven to the beach from Raleigh for a show (or two or three), or those who've come the opposite direction, have really given us a rush. Thank you. Your loyalty really means a lot. -Ski
May 1st, 2005 You've really got to dig it when a whole town gets together to throw a party. That's what Carrboro, NC did today. They call it Carrboro Day and they invited Blue Marble Beat to play a set. The town commons were the center of the action with lots of family-oriented fun. I dug the music the most. This event was broadcast live on 103.5 FM WCOM in Carrboro. I got to hear The Stand-bys and Jesse Janes before my friends Miner Gleason and Jeff Hart played in Brown Mountain Lights. I also got to hear a bit of John Howie's solo acoustic set after ours. We played four songs in our half hour on stage. We skewed the groove towards the rootsier and first wave stuff, rather than toting and employing the loops and efx for the dub stuff. There was dancing. It was very good. Carrboro is a town that knows how to party. Thanks to Tom Arnel and Catherine DeVine for managing today's musical melee. Thanks to the guys with Shankle Sound for their technical services. Thanks to Marbleheads Karen, Kathryn, Jill, Alexandra, Rhianna, Mira, Miner, Da Range and Marcie for coming to the show. And thanks to all the folks in Carrboro who dug our groove this afternoon. -Ski
April 30th, 2005 It's 1:42am and I just got home from Sushi Blues, 301 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh. The crowd was a bit thinner tonight than usual, but Brooke and Julie took really good care of us. We got to party with Shawn, Ty and his lovely companion, Fred, Wynette, Maria and Debbie, Trotdaddy, Cowboy Dave and Vickie. Thanks to Quy and all the Sushi Blues staff for having us back so often. Thanks to Karen and her crew for the sake! Gotta get some rest. -Ski
April 25th, 2005 Last Friday night we played The Emerald Club at 8102 Emerald Dr., Emerald Isle, NC. Mike, Pat and Matt took real good care of us like they always do and we were very happy to be back. We had a great show, too. We've written a lot of new material since our last Emerald Club gig and we played almost all of it on Friday evening. Ben, vacationing from DC, said he really liked our original tunes better than the covers. Thanks, Ben! Between marriage proposals (congrats to Dustin and Shelly!) and the on-site work by the local constabulary it was an interesting and eventful evening. But it's always a trip, and a trip worth taking, to party with the EI Marblehead contingent that includes Mitch, Eric, Tim, Michele and Morgan. A big thanks to Vivi and Trotdaddy for driving down to the beach from Raleigh just to catch our show! We hope to be back at The Emerald Club really soon. -Ski
April 17th, 2005 The beer is always cold at Sears Landing Grill & Boat Docks, 806 Roland Ave., Surf City, NC. My beer stayed cold last night. So did my fingers! We opened the Sears Landing outdoor concert season at last night's show. The place was packed! As Theo and I ate dinner, we watched more and more people come into Sears Landing. So many times, as the hostess approached, the people would point at the Blue Marble Beat poster on the door and then point outside towards the bar. Then the hostess would lead them out there. The number of times this happened was stunning and extremely gratifying. And given the weather, we were so happy that so many of the people who came stayed so long to enjoy the music. Thanks to you all for making us feel so welcome in Surf City! We saw a lot of old friends that we haven't seen in a few months. Chip, Paxton, Danielle and Alesha took really good care of us. Thanks to Hap and Suzanne for booking us and for putting us up at Chez Alexander. Thanks to our Surf City Marbleheads - Donna, Jan, Jamie, Gary, Chip and Sally, Sarah, Lynn, Danielle and Andrea - for partying with us. Thanks to EG and Brandi for driving all the way from Raleigh to catch the show! Thanks to Jessica and Mira for accompanying their boys this weekend. We'll be back for a warm Sunday afternoon show in a few weeks. We can't wait. -Ski
April 16th, 2005 Have you rendered unto Caesar that which is Caesar's? We made the best of a trying taxday last night with an all out party at Sushi Blues, 301 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh. We had both of the best kinds of shows last night. Part of the show was an intimate private gig with close friends and friends who got closer and part of it was wall-to-wall-S-R-O packed. As always, the Sushi Blues staff was awesome to us. Thanks to Quy, Andy and all the rest of you guys and gals for taking really good care of the band. Thanks to Marbleheads Mira, Trotdaddy, Cowboy Dave, Vickie, Vivi, Elizabeth, Dan, Michelle, Lee, Jesse, Caroline, Amir, Elizabeth and David for partying with us. Meet us back at Sushi Blues in a couple of weeks! See you at Sears Landing tonight? -Ski
April 14th, 2005 Last night's show at High Point University rocked! Blue Marble Beat played the Slane Music Series concert in the Indigo Club on campus. We got to party mid-week with Stephen, Jesse, Sarah, Toby, Jessica, Nick, Lauren, Erin, Lienne, Michelle and Sarah, our High Point Marbleheads. Thanks so much for hanging out with us! Thanks also to Roger and Keeron and the sound crew for helping us load in and out and otherwise taking good care of us. Thanks to Kenny for booking the gig. Hey, Kenny, I remember the Day Room Monitors! -Ski
April 10th, 2005 We played Ruckus Pizza and Bar at 2233 Avent Ferry Rd. in Raleigh, NC last night for the first time. Playing a new place is always exciting and our show was a lot of fun. Thanks to Ryan, Jeremy and Dallas for their warm hospitality and cold beer. And their extremely cool compliments! Thanks to Marbleheads Susan, Fred, Vivi, Mira, Chris, John, Matt, Brian and Bill for partying with us and thanks to all the Ruckus regulars. We had a great time! -Ski
April 3rd, 2005 There should be more dancing in church and last night there was a lot! We played the First Saturday Concert Series at Unity Church of the Triangle at 524 E. Whitaker Mill Rd., Raleigh, NC and we were unprepared for the amount of fun we had. Not that we weren't expecting to have fun, just that we didn't expect our best show in months! The whole audience was interacting and responsive - singing, shouting, dancing, clapping to the riddims - and just giving back as much as the band could give. I think we recruited a lot of new Marbleheads. Thanks to Alvis, Jessica and all the Unity folks for having us perform! Thanks to Tom for recording the show and thanks to all the people who came out to party with us like Mona, Da Range, Marcie, Wynette and the other Marbleheads in attendance. We had a great time! -Ski
April 2nd, 2005 Last night BMB played at Sushi Blues, 301 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh. We had a fine time partying with Marbleheads Paulette, Da Range, Marcie, Cowboy Dave, Justin, Cody, Alan and Kathy, Vivi, Wynette, Cheryl, Stephen, Mira, Jeremy's dad and all the rest. Thanks to Quy, Andy and all the fine staff at Sushi Blues for their wonderful hospitality. Another gig, tonight! -Ski
March 20th, 2005 Another lazy and warm Sunday afternoon has me in a Caribbean mood. Of course last night's island party at The Emerald Club, 8102 Emerald Dr. in Emerald Isle, NC didn't exactly dampen my mood. Mike and Pat treat us so well that there's no place else in Emerald Isle that you'll see or hear us. Jeremy was sick, so he missed a really great show. We all hope you're feeling better soon, J! It was great to see our regular Dread, er, Marbleheads at the show. Thanks for the kudos. We're pretty proud of the evolution we've undergone since last summer. Thanks, also, to all our new friends like Kimberly and Amanda for hanging out with us last night. We'll be back to perform for you again in a few weeks! -Ski
March 13th, 2005 Man, I'm beat but diggin' on life. Last night's show at The FlipSide, 105 S. Lombard St. in Clayton, was the blast we all expected it would be. I got to sleep in till noon today and the nice warm spring day has me of the mind to drop into a hammock with a rum drink and a cigar. The new FlipSide chef, Mark, is the total cuisine guru. We got there in time to scarf down some portions prior to loading in and it was totally irie, mon. Mark made a Jamaican jerk for dinner with rice and peas and yams - easily the finest Jamaican food I've had since Uncle Frenchy left town. We saw a lot of our Clayton Marblehead contingent at last night's show and it's always great to hang out with Cliff, Jodi and Phil. Our good friend Paul Bomar and his new band, The 3tet, opened the show for us. Man, I could sit there and dig on their sound all night. They're an instrumental jazz trio. Electric guitar, standup bass and drums. Thanks to the folks at The FlipSide, on both sides of the bar, Paul, Guy and Jeff for their opening set, Wynette for working the door for us, Mark for a fine dinner, the guys from The Josh Pepper Project and Mighty Lester for hanging at the show, Trottdaddy, Fred, Paulette and all the Marbleheads who came out to shows two nights in a row. -Ski
March 12th, 2005 Just a quick note to thank all the folks who made our show last night at Sushi Blues, 301 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh, so cool. Thanks to Quy, Andy and the rest of the awesome staff at Sushi Blues for the wonderful hospitality and thanks to all the many Marbleheads in attendance like Michelle and dB (dB got up on stage with us for a rousing medley of Dread34 and Elvis Costello classics), Kelly and John and their friends, Cowboy Dave and his Cowgirl Vickie, Vivi, Fred, David, Da Range, Trottdaddy, Paulette, Justin, Charlette, Mike, Kelly, Dana, Holly, Mira, Jesse M. and all the rest. Gotta go get ready for tonight's show at The FlipSide. -Ski
March 6th, 2005 So Friday night, March 4th, was our first return engagement at Sushi Blues, 301 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh, and it was a load of fun. We wrote a song called Surf Report during soundcheck and the audience dug on it so much we played it again in our second set. We dig the audience at Sushi Blues because they don't treat the band like the wallpaper. The crowd gets into the music. Thanks to Quy and the Sushi Blues staff for their hospitality. Thanks to the Marbleheads who came out, including Cowboy Dave and the Misuss, Cody, Kelly, Marjan and Cameron, Jessica, Kurt and Elizabeth, Wynette, Jeff, Jill, Theo and all the rest. We'll see you again, real soon. -Ski
February 23rd, 2005 We've booked five more shows at Sushi Blues! They like us. We couldn't've done it without you... all of you! Thanks! -Ski February 19th, 2005 Have you ever seen those old pictures from the Guinness Book of World Records where the record-setters have packed like thirty people into a Volkswagen Beatle (uh, I mean Beetle) or twelve equally non-claustrophobic folks into a phone booth? Fast forward thirty or forty years to Sushi Blues Cafe, 301 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh, NC and you can get a pretty good mental image of where we were last night. There's nothing like having lots of close friends close. Man, the place was packed. This was the first time we've played in Glenwood South as Blue Marble Beat. Two words: Party Central. I scanned the crowd at one point and noticed the ratio of females to males in the bar was almost ten to one. No kidding. Were I a single guy looking to get my groove on, I'd be at Sushi Blues. We debuted three new songs, all original Blue Marble Beat compositions, including an instrumental dub-style tune and a song that Jeremy sings. Our show is now right at half-and-half originals and covers and we're really happy that you've enjoyed our songs as much as the songs we play by other artists. We had a great time at Sushi Blues and it was mostly because of all the Marbleheads who joined us. I know I'm gonna leave out someone, and I apologize for that, but I really wanna thank Michaela, Marjan, Kelly, Vivi, Jessica, Shari, Cheryl, Linsay, Nicole, Jozelyn, Wynette, Adam, Michelle, Derek from the-nerve, Dave, the Whole Foods crew and all the rest of the folks who came out to see Blue Marble Beat last night. Thanks also to Quy and the Sushi Blues staff for their hospitality. We'll be back in a couple weeks! -Ski
January 16th, 2005 Last night BMB played The FlipSide, at 105 S. Lombard St. in Clayton and I gotta say once again how much we dig the place. The FlipSide's got it all - a great staff, a great room and a great bunch of regular patrons who really love to dance. We were totally on last night. It was Jeremy's first gig with us and the sounds he added to our performance raised us all to a whole new level. We debuted three new original songs last night, too, all to wonderful audience response. I just so dig playing The FlipSide. The room was packed and I recognized better than half the faces I saw from the stage. Thanks to Marbleheads in attendance Paul, Barry, David and Cecilia, Michelle and Cheryl, Jessica, Wynette, the guys from the Nathan Davis band, Kelly Jo and all the rest. Thanks also to Cliff, Jodi, and Phil for making The FlipSide the awesome place it is. -Ski
January 1st, 2005 Yeah. The party last night. Uh, well, regardless of what the police and newspaper reports say we weren't there. Nobody saw it happen and you can't prove a thing. Thanks to our hosts, who wish to remain anonymous. Happy new year, everybody! Anyone seen my shoes? -Ski