I know...it's been too long since I posted in this blog. But I finally have some band photos to share.


left to right: Jason Tillis (vocals/guitars), Red (keyboards/vocals), Jimbo (bass/vocals), Eric Wheeler (drums)


left to right: Jason Tillis, Jimbo, Red


Eric Wheeler


One more of yours truly...

So, I guess you want to know what's happening in the warped world of The Mad Laugh. Well, let's see...the 10 cases of Boulevard Wheat beer that the band was given by the sponsors of last month's Hooters show are long gone. Red has dyed his hair jet black and threatens to change his beard color from red to blue. Don't know what's got into that boy...by the way, you should have been there at the Hi-Lo last Saturday (10-9) to see his Sid Vicious impersonation. It was quite impressive, and Red would surely be proud if he could only remember it...

The Mad Laugh wishes to thank Mike Watt for filling in immediately after Baldi's departure.
As for Baldi himself, he is still very much involved with the Mad Laugh's music, as an engineer, a producer and sound man.
Bands you need to check out so you can say you knew them before they went national: The Fellowship Students. Ghosts of Monkshood. Little League Hero. Twenty Minutes to Vegas. Basement Dynasty. Ambassador Bill. I could name a few more, but the point I'm making is that the Oklahoma music scene, whether anyone else knows it or not, is a hotbed of musical creativity. We hope that we can hold our own in the pantheon of Oklahoma bands with big plans.
Okay...in other news...Eric Wheeler took Jimbo to dinner this afternoon and tried to make him eat fish oil sauce. Jimbo refused when he learned what it was, as Jimbo never eats seafood of any sort (and rarely tolerates the asian cuisine that Eric is so fond of). It is, however, interesting to note that Jimbo actually claimed he liked the stuff before he knew what it was.
The band is currently working on at least five new songs, which will hopefully be ready to play onstage soon. The next show we're playing is on Oct 28th at LiT in Bricktown. Last time the band played there it was a truly incredible evening of rockin', and this time promises to be even more festive, as several will no doubt be celebrating the upcoming Halloween observance.
Other shows in November and December have been confirmed but I don't have the dates with me right now and I don't want to screw up and post a wrong one.

Last night's show at the Hi-Lo was fun, but for various reasons it will probably not be remembered as one of our better performances. It would not be proper for me to go into the reasons this was so, but suffice to say that we are undaunted and are looking forward to the next gig, which will be on the 28th at LiT in Bricktown.
I have to say, though, that the Hi-Lo was packed, and the atmosphere was just right for rockin'. This was the first time I'd ever been inside the Hi-Lo, though I have been appraised of it's status as "the place to be" by several within our circle of friends and acquaintances. Indeed, there was a good crowd there...if you aren't claustrophobic you ought to drop by sometime...who knows, maybe there will even be another Mad Laugh/Fellowship Students double bill again someday soon.
And speaking of the Fellowship Students...this was the second time I've seen them perform live, and I just have to say that the Oklahoma Gazette made the right decision in naming them the "best new band in OKC". They were tight as clockwork, their songs were great and they had enough stage presence and charisma to power two or three projects on the side, if they wanted...
Their original material is awesome enough, but they surprised me last night with a note-perfect version of the Queen/David Bowie chestnut "Under Pressure" that was simply amazing. They have each and every nuance of that song down and the climactic end section had the entire audience singing along with fists raised in the air.
I cannot stress how impressed I am with these guys. They have everything it takes to make it big on their own terms, and I hope they are eventually recognized by the national music media as a potential "next big thing". That they are, in my humble yet trustworthy opinion.

I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind this morning. Maybe this will seem strange to you, but I believe I have had spiritual experiences in the past after reading certain books (The Brothers Karamazov was one, and Max Lucado's He Chose The Nails, for instance). I have also had these experiences after certain movies (The Truman Show is one example).
I had a similar "spiritual experience" after watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was like an epiphany...a revelation...new understanding dawned on me, and I was overcome with joy.
So I guess that's a reccomendation.

Hark, listen to the raucous sounds of the after-party just picking up a head of steam downstairs. I'm too tired and too old to be even remotely interested in the goings-on down there. I'm content to write about the shows.
The first was at Hooters, and the opening band had to cancel (a drummer's injured hand) so we were required to begin earlier than we thought we'd have to. As a result, I broke the speed laws consistently on the trip. I made it to OKC just in time.
We had a great first set, with good crowd reaction, took a break, then delivered a great second set, all the while looking forward to playing many of the songs at VZDs later tonight.
VZDs is legendary as one of Oklahoma's best places for local music and regional acts. I've only played there once before, in 1993, but the situation with the band I was playing with at the time turned out so dismal that I'd just as soon forget everything I ever did with them. So I had been looking forward to this show with great expectations ever since I found out we were going to play there.
And I don't mean to brag, but we were loose in the way it's good to be loose and tight in the way it's good to be tight. The Hooters gig had been a warm-up for the big show of the evening. We were in the pocket from start to finish.
The sound man said he thought I was a perfect addition to the band, that my contribution to the overall look and sound placed us, as he put it, "in the velvet pocket"...whatever that means. I think he was saying that the band sounded like it had a chance to really go places. One of the Fellowship Students guitarists, Matt Brown was there, and he gave his seal of approval to the new incarnation of the Mad Laugh.
I was hoping to get some photographs to post here, but I simply cannot get my piece of crap digital camera to work when I need it to. So maybe I'll get some shots on regular film and have my brother scan them for me. I could do that at next Saturday night's double bill with the Fellowship Students at the Hi-Lo. Probably be a few weeks till you'll see 'em. They'll be worth the wait, I think.
Honestly, this band has the most potential of probably any band I've ever been in (maybe a couple of exceptions). I'm too old to hook up with another band if anything happens to this one. This will be the last band I will ever play in, so I'm going to try to give 200% and have as much fun with it as I can.
The last month rehearsing and playing a few live shows with these guys has been one of the most richly rewarding musical experiences I have ever been lucky enough to have come my way. And the culmination of this great month with the band was tonight's shows.
The clock hands are creeping up just back of 4:00 AM and the after-party continues to rage on downstairs. I am not looking forward to sleeping on the under-sized couch. But that's where I'll wind up...I'm much too worn out to make the trip back home tonight, and a few hours sleep will find me better prepared for the sojourn on the morrow.
This place is called the Listening Room, so I guess I oughta tell you what I've been listening to lately (besides the loud proclamation of "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY" by a newcomer to the after-party)...On the way home from work. scooting down Route 66 at high speed, I played TOOL's Lateralus. I hadn't heard it in a long time, and it sounded fresh. Then I listened to a CD I have with Sugar's Copper Blue and Beaster burned onto it together. I had it in random mode, hoping it would select "Judas Cradle", but it never did. That's really all I've listened to today, other than a CD I have of Mad Laugh's demos that I'm studying, and a few tracks from a friends copy of the Baptist Generals new CD that Rojo played for me in the van on the way to the shows.
The ebb and flow of the rackety after-party will likely stretch into the morning hours and end after sunrise. That's how these things generally operate. They never get too wild. But they get very, very loud, and there's always one or two really obnoxious types that like to start trouble.
The wildest party I ever went to came to a climax when a couple were discovered in the act of coitus in the back of my friend's van. Very unattractive, very overweight girl laying like so much dead-weight underneath her very unattractive, under-bathed partner, whose sexual technique is best described as a cross between a jackhammer and a macaque monkey. When it was all over he discovered that the condom he was using had broken and he began cursing. At that same event I remember vividly watching a grown man chase a horse through the pasture, hollering about the illicit things he was going to do when he caught it (I have no idea how serious he was about it...).