Fri. June 3rd
The
Hideaway
Akron, OH
Wed. May 25th
Quaker
Steak & Lube
6081 Dressler Rd. NW
N. Canton, OH 44720
330-433-9464
www.quakersteakandlube.com
/Canton_OH
Fri.. April 15th
Cliffside Key Club
2118 South Main Street
Akron, OH 44301-2864
(330) 724-9770
www.cliffsidekeyclub.com
Sat. April 9th
Chuck's
Steak House
456 E. South Street
Akron, OH 44306
(330) 384-8850
December 23
Hook Line & Drinkers
Coventry, OH
flypaper
December 18
The Tap
House
Akron, OH
flypaper
December 17
Nathan's
Patio
Canton, OH
flypaper
October 16
Hook Line & Drinkers
Coventry, OH
flypaper
October 15
Hook Line & Drinkers
Akron, OH
flypaper
September 25
Sunset
Patio
Akron, OH
EyeConspire
September
Cliffside Key Club
Akron, OH
flypaper
August
The Tap
House
Akron, OH
flypaper
August
The Tap
House
Akron, OH
EyeConspire
August
Quaker
Steak & Lube
Mentor, OH
flypaper
August
Iron
Saddle Rock Club
Akron, OH
EyeConspire
July
Nathan's
Patio
Canton, OH
flypaper
July
Cliffside Key Club
Akron, OH
flypaper
July
Sadie
Rene's
Canton, OH
flypaper
June
Nathan's
Patio
Canton, OH
flypaper
June
Quaker
Steak & Lube
Canton, OH
flypaper
June
Crocker Park Mall
Westlake, OH
EyeConspire
May 28
Hook Line & Drinkers
Coventry, OH
flypaper
April 10
Cliffside Key Club
Akron, OH
flypaper
February 20
Cliffside Key Club
Akron, OH
flypaper
December 27
Sadie Rene's
North Canton, OH
EyeConspire
December 26
The Tap House
Akron, OH
flypaper
After a few
sound check issues, a good time was had by
all. A lot of folks showed up who hadn't
seen us in a while and asked about next
year's shows. Lot's of heads bobbing to the
music. The bar staff expressed enthusiasm at
the end of the night, one of them describing
our 'people' as 'normal humans.'
December 12
Cliffside Key Club
Akron, OH
flypaper
Excellent
sound from Bob.
Beer bottles were rattling off of tables.
A vcr rattled off of the wall and was left
hanging over a wall mounted tv.
Bob says he once literally brought the ceiling
down.
Clint gave me a CD of his country band Texas
Toast. Good playing.
Sun. November 29
6:00
South
Arlington
United Methodist Church
Kindred Spirit
Playing bass for the Christmas show.
Plenty of snacks afterward. Methodists :-)
Sat. November 28
The Iron Saddle
EyeConspire
Thanks to everyone for all the
encouragement. It's great when people you
know genuinely appreciate something you've
created that's new and different. We'll be
back.
Thanksgiving Eve Party! Wed. November 25
Main Street Saloon
Akron
singing again
with
the green machine that will not die!
flypaper
at it again:) Dave Mays' son wasn't able
to do this year's reunion. Anthony
Agelopolous joined us instead as the new
'the guitar player from flypaper.' Bob from
Gatusso's music did great with sound &
light. The top hat and cane for 'Ladies and
Gentlemen' was fun. Lot's of kudos. Decent
crowd, but not like last year. All
word of mouth. Junkman and RadioStar started
the night out.
October 10
Phantasy Theater
Lakewood, OH
EyeConspire
We were aware of some departures from the
script. Too often I could 'care less.' I
felt good, so I expressed my playing well
and sang with sincere and free creative
nuance. The sound system is excellent and
the sound guy knows his craft. The artists
presented well. Dorian worked very hard to
create a successful event.
October 14
Heron Springs Club House
Stow
with
James Hackett
If you have not listened to the music posted
at this link, do not claim to have an
interest in original music, good
songwriting, or acoustic guitar tunes.
the return of
flypaper
:) Thanksgiving should be a blast once
again. Dave Mays II won't be able to make
it. Anthony Agelopolous will be with us
instead. We have a good sound guy lined up.
This will rock.
2008 Notes:
The EyeConspire albums are in!
At last. The soul searching, lyrical
exploration, crumpling up of trashed ideas,
rehearsing and tracking around making a
living, and general hard work have
culminated in a Compact Disc with a UPC code
on it. Our collective existence is
validated by participation in the world of
commerce.
Music is about shared experiences,
introspection, expression of attitudes
and ideas, more than something that captures
it like a painting, much less a box of
cereal. Still, how can you deny the
feeling of popping in one of your favorite
CDs and turning it up to eleven.
We're handling the commercialization of our
souls via Rustbelt Media, LLC
The CD is available on line at the Rustbelt
website: (click
here)
Thanksgiving was a mixed bag of highs and
lows.
It was great to enjoy the visiting with
family and close friends, and the delicious
food. It was a relief to send the
mastered EyeConspire album and print
packaging to get duplicated and packaged.
This year thanksgiving included a
bittersweet big warm hug from lots of old
friends and acquaintances.
Bittersweet, because it came hand in hand
with the loss of a friend. My friend and old
band mate was battling cancer, and wasn't
really telling anyone about it. Too 'busy'
to deal with friends, until we realized what
was happening.
A lot of people came to the benefit show we
did on Thanksgiving eve. Many I haven't seen
in some time. Dave's oldest son played his
guitar parts, and stepped up to the task. I
enjoyed the rehearsals as much as the show
itself. It really felt weird the night of
the show to play a gig under the
circumstances, but by the time we were going
on stage I was cool, and revved up.
Folks had a great time, and 'little'
Dave and the guys want to play more.
I changed the
flypaper
web site to feature some of my favorite pics
of Dave playing. In one sense of reality he
will be missed. In another, he is with us,
and with reflection and meditation we can
learn from the totality of our shared
experience.
I decided to visit a church for the first
time this year.
I was fixing this guy's ceiling and learned
while talking with him a bit that he's a
pastor. A few weeks later I visited
Bridging The Gap
Ministries
in Cuyahoga Falls, and enjoyed the informal
and welcoming atmosphere.
I felt motivated to suggest, and volunteer
to bring a P.A. for, a Saturday night jam
session. I took my bass and played and
sang whatever came to mind. Of course
I was focused on my faith, so the words
reflected that. It was a really cool
experience.
Folks were suggesting lyrical ideas and I'd
run with them. At one point we
translated a psalm into regular 2008
American language.
It was worth repeating the event, and we've
basically decided to do this every Saturday
for at least a while. Everyone's
welcome to come hang out, bring a guitar,
drums, voice.
It's been said 'writing songs is easy,
but writing good songs is very difficult.'
For the past three years I've been
collaborating on an album with guitarist Joe
Leonti and drummer Dorian Dimitrov.
We have some new sounds for you to enjoy
from the album 'Never Fade,' at (our
new MySpace page)
and (the
EyeConspire web site).
It isn't mastered yet, but if you don't like
it, there must be something wrong with you.
I haven't done any live 'shows' since early
2006, and I have done very little traveling.
I'm playing bass and singing!
Without a whole lot of bass background, I've
felt it important to take my time and live
with the instrument - to be a real bassist,
so you can enjoy listenable low end - that's
right, I said low end - music.
I started out with a used 5 string Yamaha
from Musician's bargain basement with a
direct box into the rehearsal PA set up.
I paid more attention, listening to cuts of
the same wide variety of music through 'new
ears'- maybe most notably, James Brown,
Funkadelic, Jeff Berlin, John Paul Jones,
Roger Waters. Everywhere I went where
there was music I started tuning into the
bass.
In time I felt justified in getting a
pre-amp that models different bass sounds,
but once I really turned to on an SVT
Classic and 8x10 set up, and mic'd it
through a Neve console, the Line 6 amp
modeler was jokingly called "a very
expensive tuner." It's great for
trying out sounds, and direct digital
recording, but nothing seems to beat the old
tube technology for those classic vibrant
sound qualities. Tubes may be outdated
in tv's and other electronics, but when it
comes to sound, tubes win in my book.
For pre-production, I've assembled a nice
set up centered around an easily portable
audio/digital interface.
Among other things, it's great for recording
drums without having to move anything from
the drummer's rehearsal spot.
Mixing and re-mixing is a blast. I've
figured out a few things, and come up with
some good sounds.
Often I'll record vocal tracks I'm pretty
happy with, but when I listen back
another day I'll see where they could be
better.
I'm definitely more critical of my singing
and playing than I am of anyone else's. So
these tools come in handy for putting tunes
together just right.
We recorded
and are editing the album at Closer Look in
Cleveland.
Part of the
ridiculously long time on this is that we go
there every couple of weeks on average. So
far we're getting awesome results.
If you've read this far I have to insist
that you buy a CD.
You can
probably appreciate what's gone into it,
and, yes, enjoy listening to it.
What's more, I
refuse to live on a diet of oatmeal and
cheap merlot. It all adds up.
Don't think your contribution won't make a
difference. How often do we ask
anything of you?
I can still
say the past several years have been good
all in all. This is mostly due to my
decisions, but also a handful of really good
people. They pretty much know who they are.
A couple dozen
have established a plaque in my personal
hall of fame of cool people by handling
things in a positive and respectable way.
They may or may not know who they are.
There are
still a lot of people who I barely know, but
have added something in some way.
It seems the
more friends acquaintances you make, the
more the more really good people you find as
friends you can keep.
Thanks to
those who've been a big help in picking out
and hooking up the right gear.
When it comes
to buying affordable gear that performs well
and holds up to a beating, it helps to have
knowledgeable people on your side.
Maybe most of
all, I owe thanks to the DiLauro Service
Company customers that have kept my bills
paid through ups and downs, and the guys and
gals who have shown up and followed through
with work.
