A Christmas Letter

I'm getting loads of nice Christmas cards in the mail, filled with cute photos and warm wishes, and these great letters that in less than a page, summarize the very raison d'etre for all members of the family from which said letter comes.
My favorite part is that the letter always seems to be written by some third party, who just happens to have unlimited insight into the innermost thoughts and desires of each family member. Never is it written "I'm doing well" or "I'm very pleased", it's always disguised braggadocio: "Ryan is pretty much a genius in all things" or "No one is quite as good looking as Ryan", when it's obvious to the reader of the letter that Ryan wrote the whole thing to begin with.
Argh.
Here's my family letter:
He everyone! We're doing great here in the Tilby household. Brittany is teaching some lessons, learning Spanish, and getting a bike for Christmas.
Weston is almost two, thinks he's a bird (no, really), and learned he can get candy from Dad anytime he asks for it.
Ryan is pretty much a genius in all things, and probably the best looking guy ever. He is facing inner turmoil concerning the '08 presidential elections, and has briefly considered becoming a vegetarian this coming year. We're all so proud of his many accomplishments. Three cheers for Ryan!
With love,
The Tilby Family - Ryan, Brittany, and Weston

Funny vs. Not Funny

Recently I had a bit of a scare when it appeared that I had completely lost my sense of humor, due, apparently, to my age, which now rounds to thirty more easily than twenty-five.
You see, the band was taking an early morning flight to who-knows-where, and our flight attendant, bless her heart, thought she might lighten our spirits with song. You may have heard the singing-stewardess shtick before, and odds are you thought it was funny.
I didn’t.
Not at all.
Maybe it was the hour, maybe it was the fact that I couldn’t even get a full can of soda out of these people, maybe it was the fact that my boarding pass numbered me “B53”, (which is the subject of another journal entry, perhaps).
Needless to say, by the third verse of “Sweet Home, On-The-Runway”, several fellow flyers were rolling in the aisle, and I found myself not laughing. Not chuckling. Not smirking, bemused, entertained, and not humored.
Ryan Shupe let me know that it was my age showing. So I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this for a few weeks now, and making sort of a mental list of things that I think are funny, and things that I think are not. Fortunately for me, I think my sense of humor is mostly returning, but I need to test myself on it, I think. Here’s a list of things that come to mind as funny, and not funny, that I’ve been using to calibrate myself. See what you think:

Far Side Comics – Always funny.
The Family Circus – Never funny.
Dilbert – Always funny.
Peanuts – Almost never funny.
The Simpsons – Hilarious.
Full House – NOT FUNNY.
The Emperors New Groove – Funny.
Shrek 2 – Not so much.
So I Married an Axe Murderer – Awesomely funny.
Johnny English – Not funny.
Martha Stewart going to jail – Funny.
Gas prices going up – Not funny.
Slapstick Comedy – Not funny.
People who think Slapstick is funny – They’re funny.
My toddler misbehaving – Funny.
Other people’s toddlers misbehaving – Not funny.
The fact that the mean age of Green Day is 53 – Funny.
The fact that some mega country stars are like 13….. Not funny.

Well, that’s all that comes to mind at the moment. Maybe I’m older, less funny, and less able to appreciate the funnier things of life. Or, maybe singing flight attendants at six-o’clock in the morning just really isn’t funny. I’m guessing it’s the latter.

Someday...

Christmas Music

Musicians don't do very many things the "normal" way. We even get the Christmas music out earlier than Wal-Mart, which is really saying something.
Why, you ask? Well, for one, we gots to rehearse. We got shows coming up. You don't want to hear "Rudolph" from people who forget Comet or Cupid or Blizzard or whatever, right? Also, do you think Christmas records get recorded in early December, when the frost nips at your nose while turkeys simmer in holiday juices?
Nope.
Your favorite Chipmunk Christmas record was done by dudes in shorts and t-shirts sipping 7-Ups. In August. Maybe June. These things take time.
But that's how we like it. Yup, for as much as I gripe about my neighbors (seriously, christmas lights already?), It's nice to see something wonderful coming down the road, and what's more wonderful than Christmas?
And whether it's normal or not, who cares - we're musicians. And we're looking forward to it.

Night Snorkeling

It was a dark and stormy night, and by stormy I mean clear and warm with billions and billions of stars, but the dark part was pretty true, except for this way cool little flashlights we had strapped to our wrists which was the only way we could see (and by "we" and mean me, Will Davies [road manager-guy] and Jeremy Barron [Peter Breinholt's manager-guy {and ex-Hawaii-inhabitant}] as we made our way down to the churning surf which only made our entrance to the cold, unforgiving sea more difficult than it already was because of our flippers, masks, and snorkels (Will had 50lbs of scuba gear on), not that we minded, of course, because we were about to NIGHT SNORKEL which, you might think, doesn't sound that scary at all, other than it being night, hence the DARK in my afore-mentioned "dark and stormy" (and we've already covered the stormy part, right?), but obviously if you think that then you've never handed yourself over to the ocean at night, because it IS freaky, and by freaky, I mean things come out at night that most certainly aren't there in the day like, well, mega-mondo-killer eels that bite your hand and then swell up in the rock; effectively trapping you underwater as long as it feels like it, and lobsters, which, right, not that scary, but maybe if there was one that mutated by a nuclear power plant, then you'd be sorry, and pokey sea-urchin thingies, and last but not least, unbeknownst to me, turtles also swim around at night, which nearly caused me to wet my suit, if such a thing can be done, when I stumbled across a turtle as I rounded a rock and emitted a quaint little scream that left my lungs and traveled through my throat, my mouth, my mouth-piece, and out the little plastic tube that was my only link to the breathable atmosphere I had so haphazardly abandoned when I began this little night-quest, and the turtle, well, he seemed completely in indifferent to my hyper-ventilated screams as my brain sifted through its catalog of known-sea-creatures and their potential lethalness before finally settling on "turtle", a creature which my brain quickly reminded my body was NON-lethal, and my fear turned to wonder because I'd been wanting to see a turtle the whole trip; in fact, I had been holding Jeremy personally responsible for my turtle-witnessing-requirement, a job which I'm sure he was welcome to be relieved of when I saw the slow, gentle, gliding "Honu" grow tired of my pestering light beam and slip gently off into deeper waters where he must have sensed I would not follow.
Yup. It was cool. I liked it.

'Cause These Are Lazy Days...

So here's a lyric from a favorite tune of mine, off the Us3 album:

Well it's the lazy days, what? The lazy days
I'm sittin' back in my lounge chair stone cold maxin'
Thinkin' 'bout the next MC I'm gonna wax
In concert, goin' beserk, but not today
Today I'm cold chillin' right around my way
A dip-dipperty-doo-dah-a dipperty-day
Say partner would you run to the store and buy me a philly
Roll up the ism and get illy
Coolin' while I rule 'cos I went to school
I'm lampin' with my girl travel round the world
I'm ------------------- hay, the nubian way
So parlez parlez parlez 'cos it's a lazy day.

We're just hangin' out here in the Holiday Inn, which is under mega-renovation (i.e. no pool.......), waiting for the next gig. So far we've played the Oriental Theater (home to Kung Fu movies during the week, and Cuban-jazz bands on the weekends), and then the Denver Convention Center (Stampin' Up!!).

We've perfected the sport of Urban Frisbee, we've got a national park or two to see, the Denver mint (free money?), and I'd frankly like to see Transformers again, because, I mean, cool cars that turn into awesome robots that blow stuff up to protect earth from evil, what could possibly be cooler than that?

Three is a Magic Number

Three is a magic number. Maybe School-House Rock is long forgotten, but when it comes to the power of 3, I’m all about trios. It occurred to me the other day that a lot of my favorite groups of all time are trios. Jazz, trios, rock trios, folk trios, it doesn’t matter. I just think when you can get three people together who know what their job is and how to do it, the music just flows out, pure and unencumbered. Nothing to hide behind. So I went though my iPod and compiled a list of all the trios I’m a fan of. I’m also including a few trio’s with lead singer, ‘cause that counts too. Here it is (in iTunes alphabetical order):
• The Beastie Boys. Sorta counts.
• Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – Three Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (I LOVE this record).
• Chick Corea Akoustic Band
• Green Day (I can’t believe I own this….)
• Jimi Hendrix
• John Mayer Trio (Try!)
• Karate (New favorite of mine)
• Matisyahu (live at Stubbs)
• Medeski Martin and Wood
• Nickel Creek
• Oysterhead
• Pat Metheny Trio
• The Police (that show changed my life!!)
• Primus (A secret weakness of mine. Big fan.)
• Rush
• Rage Against the Machine. Another sorta trio.
• The Sam Payne Trio. Vintage……
• The Spin Doctors
• Vince Guaraldi Trio
Well, I’m sure some of you might argue with some of that. It looks like a lot more rock than I originally suspected. Maybe acoustic music has more people to make up for less amps. Check out some cool trios.

The Challenge of Life

So, as summer sets in, I'm wondering how to best use my time. I play a lot of music, which is a good thing, but it really cuts in on my mountain biking time, which is bad. Bear in mind that I'm speaking in generalities with this and not completely oblivious to "real" life obligations. But basically the balance is between biking and bass.
There are those that would roll their eyes and say "This is his biggest challenge?", and to those people I say: Yup. Pretty much. The hardest thing for me to do is spend my free time. With a lot of things, there's no choice but to do them or not: Write bills, take showers, put gas in the car. But with free time, well, that's what makes a man who he is.
And I choose both. Call me crazy. But that's the plan. I'm going to spend the summer doing as much biking AND music as I can. Whoa. I get all excited just thinking about it.

Play Your Part!

In the immortal words of K.C., “I’m worse at what I do best, and for this gift I feel blessed, Our little group has always been, And always will until the end.” He later goes on to say “Here we are now, Entertain us, I feel stupid and contagious, Here we are now, Entertain us, A mulatto, An albino, A mosquito, My burrito, Yea.” I guess what I’m saying is, that means something to me. It means a lot to me. There was a time when I thought it should mean something to the whole world, but that time has passed. You see, I’ve reached an age where for the first time in my life, there’s a new generation of competent, intelligent adults younger than me who have their own anthems of revolution, their own Black Albums, their own Mario Brothers, their own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (although I guess they’re coming back, so that doesn’t count). A part of me has always held to the notion that those things that changed my life were somehow the most influential things the world would ever know, and that time would prove them, and thusly my generation to be the last word in social evolution. D’oh. I think what really drove the point home was Ryan Shupe telling me that upon popping his treasured Dave Matthews Band CD into the player, the response elicited from his travel companion was not “righteous” or “sick” or “radical” or even “cool”, but instead “Old School”. Dave? Satellite? Crash? Ants? Say it ain’t so. Which brings me to this: We only change the world by doing one thing that leads to the next. I suppose my whole life has been one small change leading to the next, and I like where I’m at now, so why shouldn’t I view the world the same way? No, things are like they were in 1983 (Is John Mayer still cool?), but that’s OK. 1983 played it’s part, and now it’s time for 2007. I’m here now, and I’m happy and honored to be playing my part. May we all play our parts well, and may they always be funky and cool.

Hello Everybody!

Hi, my name is Ryan Tilby, and I play the bass. (This is where you all say “Hi, Ryan”) By way of introduction, my name’s Ryan (we’ve covered that), most folks call me Tilby, I’ve been playing with the guys since October, unless you count my stint as banjist ten years ago, which some people do, although I’m not really one of them, because I’ve been in a land far far away (St. George) for a while honing my skills at mountain biking and building up an immunity to 100 degree weather which has been rendered utterly useless since my move to Utah Valley. But enough about me. I’m extremely thankful for this chance to play with such good people FOR such good people (the best fans EVER!). I’m learning more every day, and having a great time. My thanks to Ryan, Craig, Roger, and Bart for the sick tutelage, and much respect to the Colin, Jeremy, and Wally – they’ve left some big shoes to fill. My goal was to get this journal entry in before the end of January, which I did not succeed in. I spent last night with Weston, my son, on his first birthday, which he spent barfing his face off. I guess it’s the flu. He’ll be fine. Much love, and I’ll see you at a show!