Irony
Topic: Ukulele Hipster Kings gig
So my life all of a sudden gets hectic and interesting and I never have time to post anything here to ye old Live Journal.

The Ukulele Hipster Kings played a gig last Saturday at McCormack's Pub. Here was my schedule.

Saturday-deliver newspapers until 7 a m
Get to sleep.
Wake up around 6 p m
Go to gig
We start playing after midnite.
Get done at 1:05
Drive back to Powhatan (about an hour)
Deliver the mammoth 4-section Sunday paper 'til after 8 am.
Stay up and leave home at 10:30 to go to my family reunion.
Stay at the reunion until 4:30
Come home, finally go to sleep around 10 pm
Get up at 1 AM to deliver papers until 6 AM.
Stay up 'til about 10 AM, go to sleep.

How many hours of sleep was that?

The highlights of the gig were seeing lots of friends, making funny "bass face" faces. I begged Monty to ask the other band if we could play first, since I have a paper route and all. He wouldn't budge. Also, the usually surly soundman apparently liked us. This is the third or fourth band I've played at Swingers with. (well-McCormack's Pub used to be Swingers.) Citizen's Band was supposed play there too-the week they all quit the band the day before the gig.

At the family reunion someone brought a picture of my grandfather I'd never seen. And I was able to give my great-aunt Kas a picture I had taken of her "snowball bush" a few years ago. Did you know you can print digital photos @ Target on Kodak paper for 23 cents? I went to Kas' 80's birthday party a few months ago and she asked me about the picture.

My grandma had alot of sisters. She was 'Sis.' Her sisters were Dos, Boots, Kas, Frances, Anne, and E-Laine. 2 Brothers, too. Shelton and Marvin. I don't remember them-I was told Shelton killed himself and I don't ever remember meeting Marvin. Anne ran off and abandoned her daughter. My grandparents ended up raising her, and Shelton's son. Anyways-there was a lady at the reunion who was married to one of my great-grandfathers' brothers. Yikes.

I learned how to play "Match Game" on the bass.

I went to Nags Head for a couple of days. saw a truck painted as an American Flag. Ate at a place that had "Freedom Toast" in lieu of French Toast. I never realised that place was so hillbilly. I saw an Egrit. And lots of Pelicans. And Monty. He found out where I was staying and found me on the beach. So the next day I saw his truck by the side of the road and went to find him on the beach-I missed him and saw him getting in his truck, so I stood by the road hitchiking. I'm so FUNNY!

I got to drink some whiskey.

I bought a new Pioneer Tivo/DVD-R Burner combo, that burns the shows onto DVD @ 18X. I now have 5 DVD Burners. With rebates and coupons I got the dang thing for 439 dollars. It was 999 in the paper 2 months ago.

Does anyone want to buy my old Tivo or Phillips DVD Burner? I'm gonna sell 'em on ebay if nobody I know wants to buy 'em.

My substitute paper-carrier graduated from nursing college and bought a new car. I might have to find a new substitute. She called me tonight to tell me she loves track one on the Lee Harris 3 CD. That's the hit.

It's rained alot lately.

Over & Out.

Return of the UHK
Topic: Ukulele Hipster Kings gig
So earlier this week we were supposed to have Hollywood Squares practice. Monty shows up so I walk over to get set up for practice, and he tells me that Chris couldn't make practice, so we cancelled. Then he said Dave had called and asked if he wanted to open for Meanflower in Charlottesville with his Ukulele. This devolved (or evolved) into a UHK reunion show (although we never broke up-we just stopped playing).

So all of a sudden the entire week had to be shuffled around-practices cancelled to make way for three UHK practices. In between all of this I am also recording stuff for Harry Gore's next e.p.-we spent most of Wednsday night working on that. I'm also working with Doyle to get the Country Sunshine demo e.p. mixed. We've got some good mixes, but in a band you gotta run 'em by everybody, so I've recieved some notes on what else needs to be done. I've also booked studio time for next week with Kieran at Montana, so I sort of wanted the LH3 to practice a few times to smooth out the songs and pick what we wanted to record. As it stands, though, we haven't practiced in a month and will only practice once before I plunk down 5 bills on a day of recording. C'est La Vie. There's also an issue with my paper route-the DM wants to cut my route 30 percent to help create a new route. I don't want this to happen.

Last night Hunter and Monty met up here, Hunter and I rolled seperate from Monty, who was meeting P so they could ride together. Did I mention what we had planned?

Monty dressed like a giant carrot, Hunter as a pumpkin, and I wore a bunny suit.

I'm not even sure what we did last night, as I was very hot in the suit. I think we played good. Tom was kind enough to man the video camera for the show-I'll try to get a still from it on the website. Hunter and I watched the video on the way home laughing all the way. I called Monty on his cell phone and was laughing so hard he started laughing-that must have gone on for ten minutes.

After we played we hung out front and enjoyed the Meanflower show from Lewis' perspective. Hard to explain, but it was funny.

Adios!

August 2nd
Topic: Ukulele Hipster Kings gig
Turned out to be a busy day. Got two calls after I woke up bright and early at 2:00 PM-one from out-of-town friends passing through our fair city and one from someone I know who DJ's at a college station. Out-of-towners met me at the UHK show, college station DJ got me to sub for her.

We played the gig at 8:30, I was at the station by 9:30 spinning the big hits.

The UHK again
Topic: Ukulele Hipster Kings gig
The Ukulele Hipster Kings played Alley Katz again last night with Heath Haynes Pent Up House, and the hosts of the evening-The Best Kind. Things ran a teeny weeny bit long, so we cut our set short by two songs-which actually really fired me up and energised the show I think. I was able to do a couple of my silly dances and had a blast. Heath was amazing, Lewis and Company were great, Best Kind rocked the house-best I've heard them. It was quite a fu night, ad I took some pictures tht I'll upload to the http://leeharrisonline.tripod.com site under the photos section. Yay!

AC/DC plays the Lillith Fair
Topic: Ukulele Hipster Kings gig
well-it was the ukulele hipster kings with the best kind. no complaints, real fun night at alley katz. we played what we consider the best show of our "tour" even if monty did rush me along during the schtick-laden "i want to live in a bar." i hit almost every note on the bass, and upon reviewing the recording i made of the gig the in-between song banter (and during the song banter) monty and i did was pretty funny. getting onstage when you're a semi-frontman playing an instrument is totally different from just playing bass or just singing. playing and singing at the same time and trying to entertain takes alot out of me. i explained it to someone after the show as "it's like you're on the big hill on the rollercoaster for an hour." it goes by so fast and every moment is anxiety-ridden. actually i was able to relax a few times tonight, and mike the sound guy did a great job so we could hear each other and the audience could hear us.

it's hard to describe how different you sound when you get on a stage with a different PA and stuff-but it never sounds like what you're used to in the practice space. Often times the drummer can't hear the singing, the bass player can't hear the drums, etc. you just have to "use the force" and go on autopilot hoping everyone in the band knows the songs well enough.

you also have to remember there are people standing there watching you, so you can't pick your nose or spit. you have to remember to look at the audience and smile and laugh and "make it look easy" while you're doing seven things at once. you have to

1. listen to what monty is saying on his mic so you can bounce things off of him.
2. remember all the notes on the bass and play them in the right order without looking at your hands much.
3. remember the words and melodies to the songs you are singing lead or backup on.
4. remember the harmony notes you're supposed to sing and try to phrase them with the other person singing so they're understandable and listen for any melodic variations from the other singer and try to adapt to them.
5. dance around a little and move and shake your arm in the air sometimes.
6. remember to not pull your patch cord out of the bass by accidenatlly stepping on it.
7. talk to the audience and listen to the audience.

It's alot to keep up with, and you have no idea really if people are interested in what you're doing or even if you did a good job until after the show. there are bright lights shining in your face and you start sweating in the middle of a song and a little bead of sweat drops in your eye and you can't see all of a sudden. It's nerve wracking. you really want to convey to an audience that you appreciate them yelling, laughing, hooting, hollering, clapping-all that corny stuff about audience energy is true-the band does feed off the audience in the ritual of rock and it's ultimately exhilarating-one of two or three ways i can think of that i feel like i am fully awake and alive-all this other stuff is just the time in-between. writing and recording songs and having a great conversation are the other things that get me all worked up over life, and feeling it is a place i want to be.

UHK at Babe's
Topic: Ukulele Hipster Kings gig
It's kind of sad that when I have one thing to do all day-I don't do anything else. I woke up and watched tv-watched "Honky Tonk Man" with Clint Eastwood on CMT-what a bad movie. But Ray Price and Merle Travis have cameos. Oh, Porter Wagoner too.

Headed to Richmond, met Monty and Hunter at 6:45-went to Babe's, set up.

We started playing around 8:30. Monty made a four song mix CD to play before we went on-Hot Butter's "Popcorn," a Sugarhill Gang song, The Price is Right Theme, and Run DMC's "Rock Box."

We plowed through the set-at one point Monty claimed he almost fainted. He said that into the mic. What a wuss. Monty excercises all the time, does yoga and crap like that-yet he just wasn't up for playing Ukulele songs. Weird.

"Deadwood" was especially fun to play tonight, and during "I Want to Live in a Bar" I went off on a strange tangent involving Hank Williams, Jr. and the Internet that made zero sense. I wasn't at the top of my rant game tonight-oh well. Monty thanked me after we played for not going into a schtick I'd been working up at practice about Alter Boys and Priests. I Totally forgot-that would have been much funnier. Oh well!

The Best Kind, whom let us open for them, keep getting better. Good times had by all. After we played I walked over to the 7-11 to eat and buy beer. Walking out of the 7-11 I saw my bud Heath across the street and got booked to play a show next Saturday as a result. Excellent.

Headed over to Dave's and the topic of conversation was my hair (I got Monty to shave it) and the hundred song album. We also talked about how sexy Tom is.

That is the day in a nutshell, from a nut.

Same Old
Topic: Ukulele Hipster Kings gig
Played a show with the Ukulele Hipster Kings last night opening up for Pent-Up House. I screwed up a bit on the first few songs, but found the groove eventually and wepulled off a nice little show. Then Lewis and Co. tore the stage up with a great show (as usual). Other then that-same old same old.

UHK
Topic: Ukulele Hipster Kings gig
Okay-now to the Saturday night Ukulele Hipster King gig. We practiced before the gig in Oilville, and I messed up the entire time, but Monty declared we sounded "great." We loaded up the gear and headed to Chopstix-met the best Kind there and set everything up. People got there early, the place was packed. Monty handed us our uniforms (a Dickies one-piece, wierd see-through mak, cowboy hat) and we started the show. Here's a setlist.

1. Ladies and Gentlemen (intro)
2. I Still Miss Someone (Johnny Cash cover)
3. I Like to Drink (From 8 Songs about Drinking)
4. Guy Like Me (from lee Harris-Make It Up as you Go Along)
5. Tacos, Whiskey, Surfin' and Sex (8 Songs about Drinking)
6. Deadwood (from Lee Harris-Me and Monty's Guitar)
7. I Love Strippers (From My Charmed Life)
8. Rap Medley/White Lines (Grandmaster Melle Mel Cover)
9. I Want to Live in a Bar/Heroes speech/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer/Baba O'Reilly/100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall/Don't Believe the Hype/Ladies and Gentlemen (outro) (From 8 Songs about Drinking)

Then I chatted with Lewis and stuff, it was Monty's birthday, we went to Dave's house and there was a kitchen full of people hanging out. I talked Dave and Tom into singing "Coard of the County" and am encouraging them to put it in Meanflower's set. Then I made Dave sing lots of Paul Simon songs, drank some whiskey, danced, and I remember yodelling alot. Passed out after 5 AM, woke up at 10 AM, drove home, and spent the day as a worn out hungover old man.

Today I spent the entire day looking for one CD with no success. I need to get a job.