6

it's always good to recognized and, to some degree, fame and popularity is something all rock musicians strive for. after all, what is the purpose of being up on that stage (beside the obvious release of aggression) if not to proclaim "hey girls! give me attention!"? so when we finished our set at arbuckle's last night, i was somewhat shocked and extremely happy to hear one person say, "hey, are you guys 'american misery'?" i answered that we had been that band, but had since changed some players and renamed ourselves "the inkwell collective". he said that he loved the song we played, that it was his favorite from our album. i had no idea who he was, and neither did anyone else. how did he get our album?

arbuckle's is kind a fond du lac tradition for local bands. the walls are plastered with rock posters from led zepplin to nirvana to bob dylan and the stage has been home to such local luminaries as monovox, reveal, something phonic, and amarum. we had played there a few years ago as american misery (a short, catastrophic set for the "band open jam" night) and walked away with a sour taste in our mouths. there had been instrument problems, sound problems, and jon the drummer had gotten scolded for hitting the drums too hard.

last night, however, after sitting through the house band's cover set and some uninspiring bob marley songs by some white kid with an acoustic guitar, jon, scott and i took the stage with gusto. we plowed through a 4-song set of crowd pleasing noisy rock and roll:

magnets and mediums
medicate! medicate! medicate!
the golden years
ameriparanoia

it was actually a lot of fun, although i abstained from liquor and tobacco for the duration of the night. jon bashed the drumkit with abandon and scott had a flawless performance as "the tall bass player". we got lots of beery-breathed compliments when we were done; it's good to know there are people in fond du lac who appreciate original music.

so i have no idea where i'm playing next, but after last night i feel reenergized. in fact, this was a pretty good week for my self-esteem. i'm good enough, i'm smart enough, and people like me!

steev

5

instead of traveling all the way to madison only to be met with utter disappointment, i called ahead and found out the sidecar open mic had been cancelled. so i'll pick up that one later. . .

in the mean time, i called up my reserve plan and emily and i went to the new moon in oshkosh to play. i've played at open mics there before and i've played shows a few times before, but it's still like a different venue every time. could be because it's fueled by the ever-changing college crowd. last night was no exception as jessica and i drove up and met emily, jon, and jenny there. the place was packed, although the average age of the crowd couldn't have been more than 24. it's hard to explain, but i wasn't very nervous and by the time we had sat through the first few acts, i knew that we were probably going to shake things up a bit. not that the other musicians were bad (on the contrary, the players were all well-practiced and capable)--i just felt like we had a fair amount of nervous energy ready to burn when the time came to perform. or something.

so we got our microphones set up and emily tuned her cello. then we launched into a short but fun set of:

"jesus on lithium"
"don't try"
"medicate! medicate! medicate!"

unfortunately the sound wasn't the best for the cello for the first 1.5 songs. still, by the time "medicate" was over, the sound dude had things figured out and you could hear things pretty well. the kids seemed to enjoy it and i made a couple of contacts who were interested in hearing us again. and jon got some footage and photos for this site (will be posted soon, i hope).

tomorrow night we're playing the late open mic at arbuckle's in fond du lac. it's always a colorful venue, so friday's update should be good for a chuckle.

steev

3 & 4

anodyne was a refreshing change. although there was not much seating, it was well-lighted and had great performers. here was an open mic to be proud of! there was an emo guy, a mandolin guy, a slide guitarist, a blues/jam guy, even a girl sang! so it was diverse and it sounded good--the two key criteria for an open mic. it even looked like the singers and the audience were having fun. . .

my friend "matt brown" came and brought a small group with him, so there was a nice audience. my brother dan drove and took pictures (which you can find under "Proof Texts" in the left-hand column). i played:

"my use of metaphor"
"she wants her little boy back"
"berry lake"

the sound was excellent, i thought, and although i'm battling a slight cold, things came off well. when i was finished playing, we went from anodyne to starbucks (i'm not sure why we couldn't just stay at anodyne; furthermore the prospect of supporting corporate coffee does not sit well with me. i did not order anything to drink there). when we got to starbucks, my friend matt brown suggested that i take out my guitar and start playing. i chuckled to myself, but didn't think it would be appropriate to just play uninvited. so he walks up to the counter and asks the barrista if i can play, then walks over to me and says, "you're on!" then the overhead music switched off. so i sat down on the couch, got out my guitar and played the following short set:

"friend of a friend"
"jesus on lithium"
"enigmatic cousin ruth"
"medicate! medicate! medicate!"

there were some people sitting on the other side of the shop who clapped for me and made some bob dylan comments. i don't really think i sound anything like bob dylan, but maybe that was the only kind of acoustic music they knew? anyway, i killed two birds with one stone and i'm counting this as another "open mic," even though i was the only one playing (and there were no microphones).

so it was a nice evening, except that i got a $50 parking ticket for parking in the alley behind my brother's house.

also, jon and i were able to finish "hello, hospital" on saturday, so that will be available on the new cd sometime this summer. i also confirmed a recording date with my brother ben for the last weekend in april. the inkwell collective will be heading down to pell lake to record 10-12 songs.

tonight is band practice (hopefully we'll have some pictures posted here soon) and tomorrow night i'll be at the sidecar in madison. it turns out "the string section" has to work tomorrow night, so i'll be alone again. on thursday night, though, jon and scott and i will be at arbuckle's in fond du lac to perform some loud rock songs at the band open mic.

thanks for listening,
steev

2

two nights into the 20 open mics, and i already feel like giving up.

as i was driving home last night, sporadically slapping myself in the face to keep from falling asleep, i had some time to think about what open mics are really about. it's more complex than i imagined, and it turns out we don't even have a word to describe it. it goes beyond humiliation, to stand up there in front of a roomful of complete strangers, telling them things even your wife doesn't know, spitting out pointed metaphors you pray they can't decipher. but then, if it's a good night, something changes halfway through and you are high off the adrenaline and the attention you are getting from everyone in the room. i'd go so far as to say playing at open mics is a sadomasochistic act not unlike self-flagellation. i mean, why else should i drag myself up on a dim, sweaty little stage and play my beloved songs in front of a bunch of inappreciative narcissists? because really, we are all just scared out of our wits but we're also in love with ourselves and with our music. let's face it, anyone can go and play at an open mic; you don't have to be good or anything, you just have to have enough guts to get up and be the center of attention for 15 minutes.

i drop off my car at my brother's house and he drives us to the bremen cafe. we get there a little early; the bartender tells us the sign-up doesn't start until after 8, so we drive around the city for a while. my brother points out places of interest and i mull the idea of moving to the city where our kids would have the chance to attend those hip little schools where everyone speaks esperanto or learns trigonometry by the age of 6. we came back to the cafe at a little after 8 and i was surprised and happy to see my old friend jackie there (with her friend jim; hi jim!). we sat and chatted for a bit before i signed up at number 3 on the open mic list. it wasn't real busy in the cafe and there didn't seem to be many people with instruments sitting around. we asked the bartender when things get hoppin' and he said not until after 9, so i changed my number from 3 to 7, anticipating a bigger crowd by that time and more energy.

finally the open mic dude came up and played three songs--two pseudo-blues modern rock tunes of his own creation and a cover of some song that i've heard before, but the title escapes me, you know, one of those songs you hear at target or in the background of car commercials. then this one guy came up--www.barryweber.net or something--he was a professional protest singer with a lot of energy for footstompin'. don't get me wrong, i'm all for protest, and i disagree with most of the environmental and foreign policy decisions of the current administration, but i just don't get this whole idea that equates what's happening now with what happened during the civil rights movement. it seems like blasphemy to me. for christ's sake we're a bunch of rich white people! we've got nothing better or more pressing to write about than how the horrible republicans are changing the national culture for a few years? please don't insult the struggles that african-americans went through--the fire hoses, the klan, langston hughes forced out of a cafeteria in cleveland, emmett till's pale disfigured corpse. please don't come into the bremen cafe open mic like woody guthrie on MTV2, grinnin' and shakin' and beltin' out your pilfered songs.

anyway, i got up and played three songs:

she wants her little boy back
book of job
berry lake

then i sat down. it was a very low-key appearance, but i wouldn't mind coming back to the bremen cafe on a thursday night open mic. they also have a women-only open mic on tuesdays, which would probably be cool to see. the venue itself is kind of murky but there's local art on the walls, computers in the back, a well-stocked coffee/bar, and a friendly bartender. also the sound was pretty good. so go check it out sometime; they have bands and singer/songwriters there quite a bit (including three alumnus of the kewaskum summer reading program).

so next i'll be in madison at the sidecar cafe. come out and watch as i hope to entice the string section to accompany me.

steev

1

the 20 open mics project began with a whimper last night at the windhover center for the arts in fond du lac. i played some new songs ("berry lake" and "she wants her little boy back") for a largely lathargic crowd at the fondy acoustic musician's alliance open mic. for the past 6 or 7 years i have been associated with the fondy acoustic musician's alliance (FAMA) and their monthly open mics have been a source of both inspiration and frustration for me for the majority of that time. FAMA has been very kind to me, allowing various incarnations to perform at their yearly fund-raising weekend at the little farmer (a pleasant apple orchard north east of fond du lac where the chickens wear pants and where the official mascot is a legally-questionable representation of a smurf with a wheel barrow), greeting me with a smile as i show up with my trusty guitar, often encouraging me in my songwriting quest. but their monthly open mic/jams have had little to offer me as a protest-music influenced performer. most of the acts at the FAMA open mic stage are either white-boy blues performers or covers of seventies soft-rock ballads. it seems there are very few actual singer/songwriters out there but many, many singer/guitarists. don't get me wrong, it's not the people that upset me (although there are only so many times you can hear a cat stevens song not performed by cat stevens before you want to hang yourself with a microphone cable), rather, it's a general feeling of fear, hesitancy and gloom that pervades the place. of course i expect and anticipate beginners taking the stage, stumbling through lyrics, half-heartedly plucking the strings, voices quivering; but i also expect an open mic to be the breeding ground of the up-and-coming, a place for practicing songwriters to ply their trade, a place of energy and motion and new ideas.

anyway, if you are an acoustic performer or know of someone who is, you could hardly find a less-threatening place to play than the FAMA open-mic stage. they always give newcomers a warm reception and the stage itself is in a wonderful old building with a great sound system. it'll cost you $2 to come and sit down, but it's worth it most nights. there have been some great performers and groups that play on the FAMA open mic stage; i don't mean to make it sound like a cultural wasteland, i think it just needs an infusion of new blood (to use a well-worn phrase).

i also want to thank my 3-year-old son samwise who not only accompanied me to the open mic, but came up and sat with me onstage for the duration of my set. he also kept the crowd rapt with his animated explanation of how we light little lanterns and hang them from the beams on our front porch.

so tonight it's on to the bremen cafe in milwaukee (i.e. "the big city"). i'm a little nervous, but then again i don't really know what to expect, so the sense of mystery somewhat balances the uneasiness.

steev

wednesday morning means a new inkwell collective update. we went acoustic last night, i even sat on a stool for one song. jon used only 3 drums (!) and kara, emily, and jessica were happily able to hear themselves. scott was absent on bass as his wife just completed "having a baby." congrats to them, they now have two wonderful little children. so we went through our usual set, tossing in "ameriparanoia" for kicks (and it sounded surprisingly good) and omitting a few of the longer, slower tunes ("ghost story," "book of job"). i introduced "hello, hospital" to the collective and we went through it a few times. in all, it was a good practice, but we really missed the bass--something i never thought i'd miss. scott is a very creative and energetic player and always seems to find the right notes to fill in the spaces.

after kara left, emily, jon, jessica and i switched instruments (as the three of us lads often do after practice) and we played some songs as the following combo: emily on drums (her first time and she did great), jon on bass, jessica on guitar, and myself at the organ. we played "listening for echoes," "nerve," "the prodigy," and an inspirational cover of nirvana's "something in the way."

so tonight jon and i will be putting the finishing touches on "hello, hospital" and i hope to have a few more mp3s to download from this site soon--possibly some early demos of "book of job" and "berry lake" (which i intend to rerecord soon).

steev

thanks for the suggestions on places to play, i'm still working on finding some open mics and whatnot to finish my "20 nights" project, so keep sending suggestions. i've hit a few snags so far: first, this is going to take me a lot longer than 20 consecutive nights, which was the original plan. instead, this will probably last through the summer after the initial two weeks of energy. second, there is no way i'm playing linneman's on st. patrick's day. no indeed, i'll be home with my wife that night rather than at a bar with a bunch of drunken revellers.

i'm hard at work on some new songs. "hello, hospital" is nearly finished. jon and i plan on recording some live drums, bass, and guitar on wednesday night. i probably won't post that song; you'll have to come out to a show sometime this summer to buy the cd. . . anyway, in keeping with the theme of the mel gibson song, "hello, hospital" is kind of an ode to mike knott. for those of you who don't know of him, he was a part of the so-called "third wave" of post-jesus-hippie christian rock artists, most of whom came out of southern california. he started releasing albums in the early 80s (Shaded Pain) and continues to make music, although his output has slowed in recent years due to a debilitating bout with alcoholism. it seems as though he has devoted most of his time in the past two years to painting; you can view his artwork at his website (see column at left). right before he entered rehab, he released an album called "life of david". the final track on that cd was a sparse acoustic number called "hospital" in which he croaks repeatedly, "i think i need a hospital." of course, it turns out he did need one, and he got one. thus my lyrics: "goodbye simple life / hello hospital".

here is the tentative tracklist for my work-in-progress, as-yet-untitled cd. if you have any questions or suggestions, please e-mail.

thanks,
steev

1-berry lake
2-mel gibson
3-she wants her little boy back
4-the great lakes
5-what nehemiah said
6-the prodigy
7-did you find russia?
8-jesus on lithium
9-hello, hospital

on the left you will see a link to my latest solo recording, "mel gibson". it was sampled with sonic foundry, beats created in frooty loops, then vocals and guitar recorded and mixed with my trusty fostex MR8. click the link to hear the song and/or download it.

thanks to dan and spaceland collective for hosting the mp3.

steev

the inkwell collective had a fairly lackadaisical practice on tuesday. i was tired, having just gotten off a 10.5 hour day at the library which culminated in a performance of dr. seuss's book "on beyond zebra" for the roiling 5th graders at kewaskum elementary school.

we went through our set, but things just didn't reel right--levels were off, tuning was off (always a difficult prospect when faced with 5 different instruments), etc. the only good thing about the night was the hint that we may be playing a show at peabody's, a nice little bar in oshkosh, and actually getting paid to do it!

next sunday is the starting point for my "20 open mics" project and i hope to contact some smaller coffee houses this weekend to find out about actual gigs that can used to pad out the tour. anyway, it'll probably last through the summer and i will keep updating this site accordingly.

steev

i'm working on recording a bunch of new songs at home. i've been experimenting with some beat-generating software; at first i was just looking to make a drum loop to record to, but while working on "the great lakes," i got an idea for a new song mixing acoustic guitar with electronics. i know, i'm not the first. i've been musically inspired by havergal's album "lungs for the race" and also by mum's "finally we are no one" and of course by radiohead's "kid A"/"amnesiac". anyway, it's a new direction and i'll probably alternate between acoustic and acoustic/electronic songs for this next cd. at some point in the future, look to the links at left to download a song. . .

and just so you have an idea of what i've been up to, the following albums are available in quality cd-r format with a quality paper sleeve:

steev baker "nerve"
american misery "american misery"
american misery "to the starving nations of the world, i'm sorry"
the dust bowl flowers "dust bowl demos"
the dust bowl flowers "christmas EP"

shoot me an e-mail if you are interested in any of these.

here's what i've collected so far. it hasn't been easy, but i think i'm up to the challenge. i haven't been challenged enough in life and this will build character. please note that all times and dates are still tentative and there may be restrictions on who can go where to watch me play--21 and older, cover charges, excessive bees, etc.

Sunday March 14 -- Windhover Art Center (FAMA), Fond du Lac @ 7:30pm C
Monday March 15 -- Bremen Cafe, Milwaukee @ 8pm
Tuesday March 16 -- the Coffin Factory, Fond du Lac @ 8:30pm (Inkwell practice)
Wednesday March 17 -- Linneman's Riverwest Inn, Milwaukee @ 9pm
Thursday March 18 -- UW Madison Union, Madison @ 8:45pm
Saturday March 20 -- Anodyne, Milwaukee @ 8pm
Monday March 22 -- the Coffin Factory, Fond du Lac @ 8:30pm (Inkwell practice)
Tuesday March 23 -- The Sidecar (Cafe Montmarte), Madison @ 8pm
Thursday March 25 -- Arbuckle's, Fond du Lac (band open mic w/ Jon and Scott)

Sunday April 11 -- Windhover Art Center (FAMA), Fond du Lac @ 7:30pm C
Tuesday April 13 -- The New Moon Coffee Co., Oshkosh @ 7pm
Friday April 16 -- The Coffee House, Milwaukee @ 8pm C
Saturday April 17 -- Bubolz Nature Preserve (Green Apple Folk Society), Appleton @ 7:30pm

that looks like a lot of dates, but it's really only 11 different open mics. i'm counting band practice on here, although really that's cheating (but you are invited to come and see us anytime). i've got a long way to go yet, so keep sending in suggestions. some of these dates will feature special guests--kevin keshan of inanimate carbon rod will join me in madison, emily and/or kara can be coerced to lend their talents in oshkosh, the lads will no doubt be on hand at arbuckle's on march 25. we plan on being a big noisy rock band that night.

some night in april the inkwell collective will be the featured band at the french quarter in oshkosh. i'm also trying to book some actual shows throughout the months of march, april, and may at conkey's bookstore in appleton, st. somewhere cafe in west bend, the bridge in egg harbor and the filling station cafe in west bend. also we hope to get the algoma club in oshkosh for a may show with some other local bands--we're hoping for happy, the new kentucky quarter, and inanimate carbon rod. details will emerge with low tide.

steev

well, the inkwell collective had a good practice last night. we arrived to find the ceiling dripping a murky substance and an ingeniously rigged catch-and-drop system that funneled the drips into a large bucket. emily, kara, and i set up our equipment while jon and scott experimented with pressure differentials. by the time they were finished, the string section and i had already went through a short set of acoustic material. jessica arrived and the lads joined us for a rousing rendition of "hope w/out drugs." things have been getting louder since i acquired a footswitch for my amp, so there was a good deal of ear-ringing on "my use of metaphor" and the ineffable "passenger pigeon."

we're working on a new electric version of "the landscape" (available acoustically on my demo cd "nerve") that seems rather amorphous. we just can't seem to pin down a decent beginning, middle or end (crucial to a good song). we almost gave up altogether when kara suggested that my riff at the beginning sounded like john cougar melloncamp. we're also perfecting a new song--"they found a hand, they found an unburned bible"--which is a bit more "post-rock" than anything we've done previously.

the girls left at midnight and the lads and i went through some american misery material: "bottle," "hope is not company policy," "last known words," "ameriparanoia," and "to the starving nations of the world, i'm sorry." ending, as always, with "listening for echoes in a dark room." it seems like the old songs haven't lost any of their immediacy as a three-piece, although they are rather short on atmospherics without kevin's guitar trinkets and baubles.

so i've gotten a few open mic suggestions from milwaukee and madison and i have strung together a possible 5-day itinerary; only 15 more days left! i'm not sure when i'll be doing this--probably in april or may. sometime before school is out, anyway. so keep the suggestions coming and be sure to check out the links to the left (your left, not mine) which will be updated bi-daily.

steev

The Songwriter's Confession

i am lazy. very, very lazy. i mean, you wouldn't know it by looking at me. i'm the director of a library, i have a lovely wife and little family, i own my own "digital alarm clock." but you know, success can't be measured by material things. . . sometimes you need to get away from that and look in your heart and see what really matters. to my heart, blood matters. blood and oxygen. there's also a bunch of red and pink stuff in there that i don't know what it is; it's very moist, though. and squishy.

so i come home sometimes and i write songs. i play them in front of people now and then, but the problem is this: i've never really seen myself as a rock star or a performer in any way. i, like most people with english degrees, am afraid of people. even kids scare me. not toddlers, but like those junior high kids. . .i hate them! particularly those really cool kids who have luke skywalker hair and t-shirts from "the gap" or something. i always think they're going to beat me up.

it works like this: i'm driving home and i'll have to turn the radio off because there's this other song in my head. and it's a song that nobody has written, but it's there--lyrics, melody, drums, sometimes even the string section. then i turn the radio off and i dig around for a pen and something to write on. i used to have a little portable tape recorder, but i lost it.

when you write a song, what do you do with it? what is its purpose? i believe that songs should be heard by as many people as possible. and there's the whole punk ideal that you create a piece of art by yourself, you get it out to the people without the aid of corporate greed. and etc. so i play my songs to people in churches, bars, coffee shops, apple orchards, open mics. . .

i've been writing and performing my music now for nearly 10 years, but i've always been kind of alone. i'm not really a part of any "scene". i mean, i know some people from some bands, but i'm afraid of them. so i thought it would be fun to just get the heck ["heck" is just a substitute for "hell" ed.] out of town and play some open mics by myself in some big (or small) scary places like milwaukee, madison, oshkosh, etc. then i could write about each experience and put it here online and people could read it and i could make them laugh or cry or stare at the lines in their hands uncomfortably and think about what it means to be 27 and a lot freakin' better than, like, those "american idol" jerks, but you still haven't gotten signed to any labels, even those small, hip labels with the punk buttons, the tight vintage shirts, the screen-printed cardboard sleeved albums.

so think about it. i'll get back to you.

steev

Steev baker is a singer-songwriter from Wisconsin. He also plays guitar and sings with the Inkwell Collective, a musical group consisting of cello, viola, bass, organ, guitar, and a drummer.