What A Year!!

An all around whirlwind is all I can think of to describe 2008 for Das Vibenbass. The four tours up and down the west coast in the Gladiator, Bumbershoot, two jaunts to New York, McCaw Hall, Brookdale Lodge, Ashland vampires, Pauly, forgotten gear, stolen gear, Cava wine, the C extension, Duffy's, Maneater, a chewed up wallet, a sleeping sax player on a kitchen floor in Portland, and the epic recording of...Don't Forget Where The Sun Sets, at the incredible Town Hall.

As this year comes to an end, we embrace the friends we've been able to meet and come to love more with each journey, and as we set our sights on New York, we look forward to our adventures to come in 2009. Rest assured, we won't forget where the sun sets.

So fans, a big thank you for all of your support last year. We appreciate what you do for us, and love doing it for you. Lets keep the ball rolling in '09!!

Cheers!

Bockman.

Elliot gets his first Mix

Just completed a weekend of ridiculous mixing sessions with Conduit Records famed engineer Robb Davidson.  What a freakin bad ass rocker he is.  Such a team player to sit in a 10 x 10 room with Das for 12 hours a day.  Needless to say the mixes are sounding great.  As soon as a track gets closer to finished we'll post a sample on the myspace page. 

When the shit hits the fan.

Sometimes things don't exactly go the way you are intending...but then they turn out just fine. That was the case on Saturday night in Bellingham where complications befell upon the vibraphone. It was, lets say....Kaput!! This put Das into a position to perform without perhaps our most characteristic instrument. With the assistance of local stud John Meloy, we charted off into some old skool grooves of yore. I guess they weren't ancient, but it was pretty fun as it always is to jump into old material you haven't played in a while. Geoff was a delight to play with, as he stepped into bizarre rhythms and haunting melodies.

The initial approach to the nights music was to be pretty free...which for the most part it was, but when John and Josh team up...you can't avoid the crushing spaz-funk these two wield together. I was having a blast to say the least.

That being said...I still miss my vibes, and am looking forward to Saturday night at the Triple Door.

Time to strap on the helmet!!!

When you spend as much time together as the four of us do...you need breaks! Time to work on new material, time to be with your significant other, time to just not be together. That being said...I'm just about to go crazy with excitement for what this fall has to offer Das Vibenbass listeners...and of course the adventures ahead for us the musicians.

See you soon.

JC

Meet Elliot Volume 6

A single white rose could always be found hanging in the corner of his apartment.

It was everything.

Meet Elliot Volume 5

He loved the feel of it on his finger tips. The musty smell it brought with it. He loved looking at the road map in front of him. The next world was right there! He could see it..... He loved the rhythm of it. The sound would remind him of the trains he used to jump many years ago, with the constant beating of metal. The past could find its way right into the now, and the future was always just one stroke away. There were no mistakes. Just a new beginning. He could always taste the next idea brewing as he ripped the paper from it's grasp. Each bell he heard would send another dose somewhere deep inside his brain. And he would continue typing...ding...ding......ding...........ding.......

So long ago...

Meet Elliot Volume 4

Elliot loved the night time! He always felt the most alive in the depths of darkness. His creative mind always worked harder when he was looking out into the black. Whiffs of smoke up into the darkness, headlights changing the features of the scape, the hum of the city, the pungent smells, and the people. The people and the darkness were always more on the edge the deeper you went. But the pendulum would always swing back to the dawn.

The dawn brought even more. That's when the city started crashing into itself. People going to work, ants gathering food, getting breakfast, take out the trash, spiders building a web, drink coffee, run, yell...... To him, this all lead back to the night. "We all started there". Imagination is powerful.

He often would sit in the middle of the city, looking at the 5 stars he could see. Thinking of his family trips deep into the mountains, he missed the billions of stars he watched in the Milky Way. Delphinios was his favorite constellation. The moon would take hours of watching. And the rest of the world would just be sitting there beyond sight, never knowing...

There was always so much wonder in that darkness, and you never know what will come out on the other side. But something will be waiting...

Meet Elliot Volume 3

She was such an amazing woman! Her very presence in the room would give him chills ever since the first time he met her. This time came at a small theater down by the waterfront. She was apart of the company who was doing a small run in the room. As soon as he saw her, his eyes never strayed. She had taken him away from his crazy existence. Billy K had told him this show would change his life. And boy was he right!

She had never read his book, and had only heard his name in passing. This he loved. So many have been praising him for things he felt he didn't deserve. And now this could be real.

Her love of the world, people, life, and......everything was so fantastic to him... She loved to dance. Her movements were all so fluid and magical. Her conversations were exhilarating. He would tell her over and over again, "You are a magician to me". The clothes she wore would always show off her beautiful hips and back. Making him beg to see more. Her curly dark hair always hit her shoulders just how he loved. When she would lay next to him, he could just lay in her hair all day long smelling its beautiful scent. She pushed herself against him just how he liked. Kissed him with passion. She pushed him to places he never expected.

Dancing at the dinner theater. Walking the streets feeding the homeless. Talking sports with her father, then attending his funeral. Writing for the memorial. Meditating. Jogging. Camping on the beach. Jazz. Water........He was always scared of water. But she calmed his fears.

She was his love.

She changed his life...

Meet Elliot Volume 2

He was far more interested in... the way people viewed him. All he talked about, for quite some time, was the way the public viewed him in relation to his book. Elliot just loved the way humans would stereotype him, without any thought what so ever. So he would just talk endlessly about the beauty of baseball, music, history,....anything but the characters or story of his book. All he would say about his novel was that he "created some pretty F'ed up guys, and they relate to me, baseball, music, history,....".

The public wanted these "guys" to be real so very badly, but he would have nothing of it. Elliot spoke to the world, and the world wanted more. He touched so many without anything even close to that intention. He just wanted to disappear from their eyes. But those characters always had a enormous hold on the young Elliot. He just didn't want to admit it. They were all him. And apparently the world as well. The grip kept growing stronger.

But his life was sent in a different direction.....

New musical friends

What a weekend for Das!  Saturday night was absolutely fantastic.  We had the privilege of playing a raucous opening set for Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey at our homebase in Portland; the Goodfoot Lounge.  The night blew up with a rowdy crowd ready to get down to some wacked out instrumental sounds.  From load in/soundcheck the two bands just had a good feel to them.  Everything flowed so damn well from the setup to the compositions, that we all had a feeling things were going to go our way that night.  Sunday had the two groups heading north for a show at the Tractor in Seattle.  Again the music was from my perspective at the top of the game.  We even were graced with a stellar opening set from Stebmo who led off the evening perfectly with a solo showing of some downtempo grooves using drum machines and rhodes.  As the night ended I remember just feeling extremely satisfied with the whole event.  All the folks that made the Sunday night trek out from there cozy Seattle homes were treated to a great night.  Thanks again to Brian, Chris, Pete, and Josh of JFJO and Steve of Stebmo for giving everything they could musically to make the night one to remember.

~Justin

Meet Elliot volume 1

Elliot Prototype is an award winning author known all over the world. His novel, "Don't forget where the Sun sets", has been picked for the Circle of Excellence award, Gladiator's platinum medal, The Newell/Barbour border of review, Miulli's Palm award, among many others. To say the least, this novel was nothing short of amazing. And the critics wanted to find what was hiding inside this amazing writer. He entered the writing scene with such a storm, no one knew what to do with this mysterious character. Elliot would not attend any traditional sort of book signing and he would refuse interviews to all,.... accepting his favorite critic Billy K. So the world would be forced to sift through what Billy and Elliot talked about. And these conversations rarely had to do with the writing of Prototype. He was far more interested in.....

Kick start the weekend!

We started off a small little NW run of shows last night in Olympia, Wa that was just blistering! It is always amazing to me how amped up we all seem to get when we haven't played together in a while. Needless to say, it's a lot of fun! The show opened with a burnin' Shinjuku kucoop, Bob's Bounce, and Rhino Like Ninja...which was especially crafty! This seemed to be the theme of the evening with songs blazing out like wildfire! Other highlights included an epic Film Noir, and (I can't believe I'm saying it) a bad ass version of Impressions!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the show, and we'll see you in Portland tonight!

JC

Published author.....me?  Hell no but wait am I?  This blogging thing is somewhat pretentious to think anyone cares what I have to say but lets give it a shot anyways.  First topic of discussion....last night.....Geoff and I have begun our run of duo shows playing every Thursday night at Moxie in Seattle.  We have called the evening "Blank Canvases" and gone into each performance with, you guessed, no material.  Been a little frightening a couple times but we have persevered.  Its one of those things as a musician that seems to build character.  All you have to rely on is your instincts and faith that whatever you are creating in the moment will find some sort of resolution.  I have been interested in performing this style for awhile and was thrilled when Geoff decided to join me in the experiment.

Now we roll to Olympia.

~Justin