austinberries

Quote: Paul's well-documented admiration of the band and song references in KISS' music. what are the "song references in KISS' music"? nods to raspberries somewhere?

Quote: You can log on RIGHT NOW to see the complete list of features included with the Special Edition of "Raspberries Live On Sunset Strip". am i missing something? i dont see a 'complete list' of features, just the vh1 video

this is really cool, & i like the raspberry-colored crowd shot! btw, get this, no kidding - we just repainted our bedroom, & the name of the color is "raspberry jam" - ha!

Raspy you may have a very dated impression of Austin being a hippie-town (& it was in the 70's) - but it's not anymore; it's been flooded by the tens of thousands (& continues to be) by the most yuppie, gentrified, white-collar, not-even-close-to-hippie population for years now, so that element of the population has long since been over-run by explosive growth that said, it is THE most musically astute population i can imagine anywhere, incredibly musically literate & diverse, & you won't find a genre unrepresented (& unsupported) here. if u r a musician, it is absolutely mind-blowing i'm currently in touch w/ the Stubbs (a recommended Raspberries venue) rep about a gig there, & pie-in-the-sky would love for my power pop, very compatible band (Dennis Quaid's younger brother) to open for Raspberries there, so Eric, there's a feather in your ear. btw, EC you should check out our 2 tunes posted at the link below (these are before harmonies were added, mind you) & give me your armchair quarterback feedback! Austin will turn out for the Raspberries b/c we are a condensed population of intensely-dedicated live music lovers - when you arrive at the airport, you will see "Live Music Capital of the World" posted everywhere, & you will see & hear a live band playing in the airport itself (depending on time of day) - we even have (very popular) live music in a couple of our grocery stores! (Austin has more live music venues per capita than any other city in the world, hence the title, btw) can't speak for all these other far-flung towns being tossed about, but yeah, Austin will "get" the Raspberries more than any other Texas town (honorary cowboy hat included, & pick up some great boots while you're here!)

aggie, sorry but i love PYT, heard it just the other day - funky like a MO'FO'!

OMG! Tom Sawyer is easily THE most annoying song i will EVER know. in fact, Rush may be the most annoying band ever. even tho' they are a prog-rock band <groan>, they sing about/are socially conscious, which is cool. but how can you get to a decent message thru the annoying Geddy Lee vox, non-melodies, & extended wanker instrumental noodling? bands have come to despise what Neal Peart did for drumming/drummers - its like the "No Stairway to Heaven" sign in the guitar shop in Waynes World - "No Neal Pearts" when you take out an ad looking for a drummer in the classifieds! don't get me started on how much i despise this song... ;-) & for years i have been calling Pink Floyd the Most Overrated Band of the 70's (& maybe ever). i attribute this mostly to the undue praise & fanaticism over the mediocre-at-best/amateurish "Dark Side of the Moon" & "The Wall" albums - YAWN...

its prob already been covered before somewhere, but can eric, or someone, describe to me if there are any raspberries tunes that were recorded but never saw the light of day? maybe they were tunes that got squeezed off the album b/c of space or aesthetics or preferences, or they weren't fully happy w/ the performance captured. i guess i'd be mainly interested if any of them were eric's more so than the other guys, & if a version of any of these tunes are floating around out there somewhere (like on eric's or bernie's computer that he could upload!;-) would just be interesting to hear any, since their published library consisted of 4 albums (just enough to leave us hanging & calling for more 30+ years later)

Rich van Gogh - 'brand new key' is a gr8 song - sorry, you are disqualified! ;-)

man, some of the songs listed here as vomitorium material are just undeserving - 'burning love' by Elvis? hello? thats classic stuff - *great* song! eric cracked me up w/ mention of my favorite cheezefest by wayne newton - 'daddy dont you walk so fast'; i mean, c'mon EC, you gotta give props to a great melody & major hooks in the chorus! plus the sheer melodrama of the Newt delivering it for us in all his rapturous glory! gagfest? - i think not; seriously ripe cheezefest? - ok, sure, but a damn fine slice of it its funny how some of the very catchiest songs are so reviled by people - i mean 'freeze frame' is totally undeserving of such a brutal treatment. & i can never understand why people love to hate 'seasons in the sun' by terry jacks & 'pina colada song' by rupert holmes. on a footnote, & speaking of 'seasons in the sun', one of the funniest websites is the Gear Change Hall of Shame - a website dedicated to what the host considers unnecessary & offensive use of the ol' mid/end-of-song key change hat trick, which i've noticed Eric mainly stays away from - instead he just writes a bad-ass bridge & a chorus so hooked-out it doesn't need a key change!

link was fixed, go here

Eric - as it turns out, the previous contact i included in my last post ( C3 Presents ) ALSO books... yep, you guessed it, House of Blues in Dallas us Austin-types dont have much to do w/ the folks in Dallas ;-), but C3 are the same folks that book Stubbs here, which i also mentioned (y'all may have to do a couple shows there b/c of its capacity, but maybe not) they also book the big festivals i mentioned (Austin City Limits Fest & Lollapalooza), plus about half a dozen Harrah's Casinos in the midwest so be sure to get your rep on this pipeline if some shows are brewing for Raspberries

i give the album two thumbs sideways...

badfinger barb, you're not in austin, r u?? There is no shortage of venues in Austin. Antone's or maybe The Continental Club would seem to be the best bets.

are you kidding?!? glad you asked... #1 Antones (capacity 600) #2 La Zona Rosa (cap. 1200 they say, tho' actual performance area is prob more like 6-800) #3 Stubbs (cap. 1800 outside, prob about 200+ inside) #4 Continental Club (cap. 200) #5 Austin Music Hall (cap. 3000) #6 Threadgills (cap. prob @ 300 outside) #7 The Backyard/The Glenn (outdoors cap. 5000/few hundred) now, you do NOT want to be playing outdoors here during the summer (& TX summer goes up fully thru September & can still be very warm into the fall) i've played most of these venues, & you will appreciate their professionalism, audio egr's, green rooms, etc (tho' you know how green rooms can go) w/out a doubt, your #1 choice should be Antones. booking there is thru David Cotton 512.835.5997. you should really attempt to nail this one down if you come this way (its our House of Blues!). La Zona Rosa is great, perfect for you guys too, if not just a tad less high-profile than Antones. Stubbs is great, high profile, would love to see you guys indoor there, but its fairly tight (outdoors there may be too big & too damn hot!) Charles Attal Presents 512.385.3602 does bookings for several of these other venues (tho he has recently teamed up w/ C3 Presents 512.478.7211, who does Austin City Limits Festival, Lolapalooza (which they fully revived/revamped & plucked from its deathbed), & other events all their sites can be googled & found easily hope this helps - pass it on to your peeps. now get your asses down here & put me on the list at the door! ;-) (jk - i'd pay to see the Raspberries ANY day...)

thx for the info, Al - Ryko's site has been in need of revamping for a while, it's kind of baseline functional. in fact, can't even pull their site down right now as we speak, coincidentally or not looking forward to the gory details & hope the wait & pricetag has been offset by the perks (can u say "copy of the book 'tonight' "?). just be sure & top it off w/ a scratch & sniff so we can be transported back to that moment in time when 'go all the way' sonically blitzed our ears & rolled out a little genre called 'power pop', w/ about a bazillion would-be-heirs-to-the-throne since

paulie - i dont even know who the tampa bay devil rays are, but i do know that if there's an opp to drop a sports reference, youre on it like it 'came by cable'!

ha! this is funny... or how about: "oh, i wanna IM you so baaaaaaaad, yeah, i wanna IM you, oh oh baby oh, i wanna IM you oh yeah, yeah, i wanna IM you"

speaking of cool chord changes, i took a little 1+ hour road trip outside of austin here yesterday, & up on my ipod cued 'starting over' - something that caught my ear yesterday on that tune was the *brilliant* (& brief) modulation at the end of the song to bookend it. i mean, it was delicious, it was appropriate, thoughtful, creative, it was a dramatic left turn, yet completely melodically accessible for the non-musically astute. it really got my attention, so here's repeated props to mr. eric 'take me to the bridge' carmen - i was like, 'damn, that guy can write a bridge/modulation!' made me wonder if that particular slice was another ex. of eric drawing from his classical background playbook

ahh, there's Eric chiming in on this thread - Eric, drop some dirt on us - do you wanna put together some more Raspberries shows & hit the road & bring us the goods in person in relation to all this work & this project? c'mon, just say you do, you know you wanna, you know it feels soooooooo good, you know its the highest of highs (better than Drivin' Around in a Jag) & there ain't nothing like it & you know you wanna come to Austin, TX. c'mon Eric, say you want it - 1, 2, 3, FOUR!

elementary, my dear John-O!; or as i put it on the raspberriesonline board to Big Al: thanks Al; how about some gory details on the pkg's ear & eye-candy contents & perks previously alluded to for those of us who dug deep & plunked down for the big kahuna? i mean, we *will* get to scratch & sniff, & more, right?...

re: the thread i posted earlier about a gig i played last week had a broken link - you should be able to hear 2 of the Buddy Quaid Band power pop tunes on this page (we opened for his brother/actor Dennis' band - check it out here!

on the raspberriesonline.com site, who is the girl blissing out down in front of the stage during the bridge ("i need ya, c'mon... i love ya, c'mon..." etc) in the the Go All the Way/reunion video performance? is she someone on the boards here? that performance, her sheer ecstasy, & another really cool one thats posted of the song from 1973 which i hadn't seen (from Don Kirshner's rock concert maybe?), remind me of what a timeless & brilliant pop/rock classic Eric wrote that year, one that has the staying power up there w/ all the other classics from decade to decade - wow! no small feat, just sheer, melodic, blisterin' brilliance - Go All the Way!

since i know everyone here likes their music w/ hooks & melody (or you wouldn't be on the EC site!), check this page out , featuring two of our tunes; we're playing a big show here in Austin tomorrow night w/ the Dennis Quaid Band (i play w/ his brother) - let me know how you like it, 2 songs to listen to. if Eric comes by this message, let me know if you get a chance to put your ears on it - enjoy!

OUCH!!! can't you stipulate "off-limits to bad 80's hair bands" in the copyrights??? & awful, awful Axl... too funny

just finished reading a great book (which has a couple of mentions of Raspberries in it, btw) called "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth". comprehensive & insightful book, dissects the genre, a fun read, & hard to put down for anyone who likes their music w/ heaping spoonfuls of melody & harmony. heavy focus on the golden age of bubblegum (late 60's) but also draws tangents & traces the pre-fab band approach up through subsequent decades check it out, you can find it cheap/used online - you won't be disappointed: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0922915695/ref=nosim/bubblegumbook